1 VIP-BOOKING.COM PREMIUM ›› VOL. 127 ›› AUGUST 2010 WWW.VIP-BOOKING.COM Like many of you – although I know a lot of you are workaholics and rarely take time off from your efforts of achieving live mu- sic industry domination (!) -. I have been on holiday, and were you able to see me you would I’m sure be impressed by my suntanned and relaxed good looks, but you’d have to make it quick – the pasty white chap with the harassed demeanour will be back in this seat soon! The holiday was great, I thoroughly recommend the joys of the Greek island of Ikarea, but not so the Athens Metro where some light fin- gered bastard lifted my wallet on the very first day! Oh, and while I’m having a moan - the seagulls, yes you remember Shitty and his crew, have been dive bombing people, and are now a recognised menace as far inland as London – I’m not making it up, it’s in the newspapers! I tried to warn them, but would they listen? – These screeching raptors live on rubbish and refuse and use newly washed cars as toilets, so this is an ideal world for them! (Calm down!- Ed.) Anyway, back to the wonderful world of live music; for years now many have warned that increasing ticket prices for big name artists would eventually backfire on the live sector, though it never quite hap- pened, now it seems that the chickens have come home to roost and the US live indus- try is struggling this year as a result of ever increasing ticket prices combining with the continued impact of the recession. As a result the giants of the concert industry are contemplating emptier pockets, their own, their investors and those of the ticket buyers. But they are not the victims of pick- pockets on crowded Metros, according to Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino a drop in ticket sales is hitting all segments of the market, “The bottom line across all busi- ness, whether it’s a club or an amphithea- tre, was fewer tickets per show - as you can tell from Ticketmaster’s industry number, for them to be down 15-16% across an in- dustry, that would tell you it would have to hit all segments of the industry.” Rapino also warned that the second half to 2010 could be slow. Cheaper tickets seem to be the order of the day for tat least the rest of the year. Watch this space The picture is not looking quite so bad in the UK, the recently released Adding Up The UK Music Industry 2009 report from PRS indicate that Live music revenues have increased 9.4% to £1.5bn including direct ticket sales, secondary ticketing and ‘on the night’ spend. However this increase has slowed from 2008’s outstanding growth of 13%.< Bruce Dickinson of Iron Maiden believes years of ticket price hikes are to blame for the number of major gig cancellations that have taken place this year, especially in the US live music market. He is reported as say- ing, “It’s a massive commitment to come to see a band. They [the fans] deserve not just a great show but they deserve a rea- sonable ticket price. Other people have inflated ticket prices to obscene levels 1 McGowan’s Musings: Allan McGowan The VIP-Booking European Live Entertainment Book Advertising in the VIP Book will make you visible to 10.000 business professionals all over Europe. You will find no better place to expose your company to the whole European Live Entertainment Industry. ›› RESERVE YOUR AD NOW ON WWW.VIP-BOOKING.COM VIP- News
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VIP-BOOKING.COM
PreMIuM ›› VOl. 127 ›› AuGuST 2010
www.VIP-BOOKING.COM
Like many of you – although I know a lot
of you are workaholics and rarely take time
off from your efforts of achieving live mu-
sic industry domination (!) -. I have been
on holiday, and were you able to see me
you would I’m sure be impressed by my
suntanned and relaxed good looks, but
you’d have to make it quick – the pasty
white chap with the harassed demeanour
will be back in this seat soon! The holiday
was great, I thoroughly recommend the
joys of the Greek island of Ikarea, but not
so the Athens Metro where some light fin-
gered bastard lifted my wallet on the very
first day!
Oh, and while I’m having a moan - the
seagulls, yes you remember Shitty and his
crew, have been dive bombing people,
and are now a recognised menace as far
inland as London – I’m not making it up,
it’s in the newspapers! I tried to warn them,
but would they listen? – These screeching
raptors live on rubbish and refuse and use
newly washed cars as toilets, so this is an
ideal world for them! (Calm down!- Ed.)
Anyway, back to the wonderful world
of live music; for years now many have
warned that increasing ticket prices for big
name artists would eventually backfire on
the live sector, though it never quite hap-
pened, now it seems that the chickens have
come home to roost and the US live indus-
try is struggling this year as a result of ever
increasing ticket prices combining with
the continued impact of the recession. As
a result the giants of the concert industry
are contemplating emptier pockets, their
own, their investors and those of the ticket
buyers. But they are not the victims of pick-
pockets on crowded Metros, according to
Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino a drop in
ticket sales is hitting all segments of the
market, “The bottom line across all busi-
ness, whether it’s a club or an amphithea-
tre, was fewer tickets per show - as you can
tell from Ticketmaster’s industry number,
for them to be down 15-16% across an in-
dustry, that would tell you it would have
to hit all segments of the industry.” Rapino
also warned that the second half to 2010
could be slow. Cheaper tickets seem to be
the order of the day for tat least the rest of
the year. Watch this space
The picture is not looking quite so bad in
the UK, the recently released Adding Up
The UK Music Industry 2009 report from
PRS indicate that Live music revenues have
increased 9.4% to £1.5bn including direct
ticket sales, secondary ticketing and ‘on
the night’ spend. However this increase has
slowed from 2008’s outstanding growth of
13%.<
Bruce Dickinson of Iron Maiden believes
years of ticket price hikes are to blame for
the number of major gig cancellations that
have taken place this year, especially in the
US live music market. He is reported as say-
ing, “It’s a massive commitment to come
to see a band. They [the fans] deserve not
just a great show but they deserve a rea-
sonable ticket price. Other people have
inflated ticket prices to obscene levels
1
McGowan’s Musings:
Allan McGowan
The VIP-Booking european live entertainment BookAdvertising in the VIP Book will make you visible to 10.000 business
professionals all over europe. You will find no better place to expose your
company to the whole european live entertainment Industry.
VIP-News: What, briefly, is you background in the business, I know you’ve worked in various territories for some time now, was it always your intention to move around, or did it just work out that way?
Paul Cheetham: I’ve been involved in the
business for almost 20 years as a promoter,
agent and artist manager. I worked in Lon-
don for the Mean Fiddler before moving to
Scandinavia 11 years ago and working for
the EMA Telstar group that eventually be-
came Clear Channel. When it was bought
by Live Nation I left to set up my own man-
agement consultancy and worked as an
advisor for several Finnish artists, includ-
ing The Rasmus and The Crash. In summer
2009 I relocated fulltime to Berlin. After a
decade of Nordic darkness I was ready for a
change and Berlin is a city I have always felt
at home in. It’s a great place to be based for
geographical, economic and social reasons
so the move made a lot of sense.
VIP-News: Popkomm has a long, varied and illustrious history but particularly follow-ing last year’s cancellation this edition is in many ways an entirely new event. Although I know you have attended many previous editions as a delegate, this Popkomm is cer-
tainly new for you in your role as part of the team. What exactly is your role and how did you come to take it on?
Paul Cheetham: I was recommended to
Popkomm by the guys behind Berlin Fes-
tival, which is one of Popkomm’s partners
under the new Berlin Music Week umbrella.
I saw the offer to work on the event as an
opportunity to try to make a positive contri-
bution. The job involves all the aspects I en-
joy – live music, promoting, artist develop-
ment, and communicating with people all
over the world. Although I was aware there
would be obvious difficulties in bringing
the event back, I accepted this as the kind
of challenge I thrive on. Initially I took the
role of Festival Coordinator on a one-off ba-
sis to help organise the music segment of
Popkomm 2010. As things progressed, I got
more involved, and was able to introduce a
clearer, more defined direction for the fes-
tival to take, and became Festival Manager
with a view to overseeing the overall organ-
isation and development of the festival into
the near future.
VIP-News: Have you adopted a particular booking policy for acts appearing at Pop-komm, and as far as you know is this very different to the way things were arranged for past editions?
Paul Cheetham: We’ve taken a quite radical
approach to the music programme this year
in order to break the perception of what
Popkomm was in the past and to introduce
a concept of what it can be in the future.
As a visitor to previous Popkomm events, I
personally felt it was a sprawling jumble of
parties, gigs, fairs, conferences and events
all over the city which was always great fun
but ultimately difficult to achieve anything
from a business perspective. So now I want
to give the programme a definite epicentre
of usefulness and significance for the visit-
ing delegates, in order for them to do busi-
ness effectively and immediately.
First, the number of slots for Popkomm art-
ists is drastically reduced to only 60 places.
This gives us the possibility to introduce
firm criteria to raise the quality of artists, as
well as the opportunity to promote each
artist effectively.
Second, these are all showcasing artists
who are in the position of wanting to be
seen and heard in order to find partners
and opportunities to get to the next level in
this, and surrounding, markets.
Third, we are building a festival location
around Tempelhof airport and the vi-
brant Kreuzberg neighbourhood of Me-
hringdamm and Bergmannstraße that is
new, intriguing, and with endless room
for development. We have some untested
venues and it will be a challenge to fill them,
but I’m confident that over the next couple
of years these venues and this location will
give Popkomm the strong new identity it
needs to have.
Other major differences this year are that
Popkomm is tied closely with Berlin Festi-
val as our live music partner, incorporating
some of our artists on to the Berlin Festival
programme, as well as everything being
promoted under the umbrella of Berlin Mu-
sic Week, which aims to bring together the
diverse energies within Berlin and is a very
positive direction.
VIP-News: Are you dealing mainly with agencies, managements, artists or export offices, or is it a mixture? - Are Sonicbids in-volved at all? How are the acts selected?
Paul Cheetham: There is lots of talk with
the music export offices and similar organi-
sations, as they are particularly important
to the structure of Popkomm. But overall
it has been a complete mixture. Sonicbids
is an official partner this year and we also Paul Cheetham
4
VIP-BOOKING.COM
VIP- News - A u g u s t 2 0 1 0
selected artists through the Sonicbids
system, as practically all events do. I have
involved the local showcase partners in se-
lecting the final line-up for their events, so
VISIONS magazine, Karrera Klub, Nordic By
Nature, for example, were all given a short-
list of appropriate acts for them to choose
their final line-ups from. That helps in terms
of promoting each event.
VIP-News: Will the festival be aiming at at-tracting punters as well as professionals, and if so are you booking established acts as attractions, alongside newer ‘export ready’ talent?
Paul Cheetham: The showcases will start
at the airport venues in the afternoon and
extend into the evening using some of the
other venues in the area and will be targeted
at both delegates and members of the pub-
lic. Delegates are, of course, able to access
any showcase event and we are allowing
anyone who has purchased a Berlin Festival
ticket to get into the Popkomm showcases
for no additional charge, otherwise there
will be a 2-day combi-ticket available for an
advance price of only 10 euros, all subject
to venue capacity. We want to help people
discover these new artists in this new loca-
tion and have created an easy environment
in which to do that.
Essentially, though, we want the showcase
festival to be about generating business for
all those participating. Ideally, every artist
will go away with real results to show for
their efforts and we need to involve the
delegates as much as possible to be able to
achieve that.
When it comes to bigger, more established
acts then it made sense for us to let Berlin
Festival take the lead and not get in the
way of them building the strongest line-up
available and for us to benefit by becoming
a sort of feeder event for their festival. We
arranged an excellent situation where we
are able to include eight Popkomm artists
on the Berlin Festival line-up, which has
received very positive feedback. Working
with Berlin Festival has been a highlight
and I’m looking forward to continuing that
relationship in future as I see a lot of pos-
sibilities to grow Popkomm alongside it in
the way people would appreciate.
VIP-News: Are you finding this work very different to your previous experience?
Paul Cheetham: The job perhaps involves
more lines of communication than any-
thing I’ve done before so information has
been flying at all angles. Popkomm is a big
name and attracts massive interest from all
over the world so getting on top of all that
has been overwhelming at times and I must
develop an effective system to handle the
increased workload. Otherwise, the work
involves all the things I have experience in.
VIP-News: What do you think a successful appearance at this event can do for the ca-reer of a new, or even established, act, and do you think Popkomm and other showcase
The facts are horrifying and inescapable; 21 fatalities and more than
500 people injured at Loveparade in Duisburg, Germany, one of the
biggest tragedies in the history of live entertainment events.
The July 24 event on is understandably still attracting extensive
media attention as the latest reactions and new information about
the tragedy are examined. The disaster is still moving minds and
moods in an incomparable manner. Shortly after the event the
main question was how did this happen and who was responsible
for this tragedy. With are no clear answers to these questions yet
the situation still appears to be something of a witch-hunt. There
have been many politicians, officials, even promoters, normal citi-
zens, bloggers and journalists that have put forward their opinions
of what happened.
Some of those directly involved fear legal consequences and have
more or less stopped saying anything, as they know that it is likely
that every statement could lead to accusations against them.
There is no lack of people making accusations and apportioning
blame for what happened. There are many self appointed prosecu-
tors and sometimes it seems that majority of these are not aware
of their lack of feeling for the friends and relatives of those killed
and injured.
Shortly after those directly involved with the running of the event,
Lopavent, the police, the fire brigade and the local authorities in
Duisburg started to accuse each other. One of the very few facts
that has become evident is that the entrance situation on the site
wasn’t properly managed. The audience were intended to enter
the site via one tunnel and a ramp, while a second ramp just a few
meters away supposed to be used as an emergency exit was obvi-
ously closed and these factors, in combination with communica-
tion failures created a death trap for those trying to enter the site.
It is still not known what went wrong in the communication chain,
neither is it clear who was in charge of logistical decisions before
and during the event. So far only Carsten Walter, a psychologist
acting as the crowd manager in charge, admitted responsibility
and told the news magazine Spiegel, that it took him 45 minutes to
get hold of a decision maker at the relevant police unit.
Walter, together with a subordinate police offer, was sitting in an
office container on the ramp near to the place where the people
died. From the container Walter apparently tried to direct the flow
of people entering the tunnel before progressing to the event lo-
cation via the ramp. The police officer simply had no walkie-talkie
with him, as communication between the crowd manager and the
police at the tunnel entrance was supposed to be being conducted
via cell phones. But as more and more people arrived at the site,
the cell phone network collapsed.
But this seemed to be only one aspect in a row of various fac-
tors that combined to lead to the tragedy. The location for the
Loveparade, a former freight yard just next to the central station
in Duisburg covers about 300.000 square meters. After very early
announcements that approximately 1.4 million visitors were ex-
pected to visit Loveparade, three weeks after the event the mayor
of Duisburg Adolf Sauerland told the news magazine Spiegel, that
the actual number had been much lower. In the current statement
he said that he had been asked by Lopavent to announce the 1.4
million visitor figure for marketing reasons.
Several politicians demanded that Sauerland should resign, but
the mayor claims he would like to complete internal investigations
before taking steps concerning his own position. He has been
sharply criticized for this approach. Other sources says that he is
not resigning to avoid defaulting on a law that would mean the
loss of his pension entitlements if he were to step down from his
post as mayor.
Rainer Schaller, the owner of McFit, a chain of gym studios, bought
the Loveparade brand in 2006 from the former promoter Planet-
com in Berlin, then founded Lopavent to be the company that then
promoted the event. In 2007 the event was moved from Berlin to
Essen in the Ruhr district in West Germany. McFit became the main
sponsor for a Loveparade projected to have a production budget
of around 3 million Euros. The move to Essen was linked to the
RUHR2010, the name for the European capital for culture 2010 in
the Ruhr district. The original plan foresaw that five cities within
the Ruhr district would become Loveparade hosts. The 2008 edi-
tion took place in Dortmund, while in 2009 the city of Bochum
cancelled the event due to safety concerns. Dieter Gorny, head of
the German IFPI branch and also one of four creative directors for
the RUHR2010 was one of the leading proponents in brining the
Loveparade to the Ruhr district.
Currently official investigations are still ongoing. Although many
details have been reported in the media, the entire picture is still
not not clear. But several politicians are already demanding new
regulations for health & safety laws for public events.
As a result, it is to be expected that the German live music industry
will directly or indirectly, soon or later, be affected by the follow up
of the Loveparade tragedy.
loveparade 2010 – dimensions of a disasterManfred Tari [email protected]
Loveparade 2010
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VIP-BOOKING.COM
VIP- News - A u g u s t 2 0 1 0
Conference registrationsThe conference registrations for EuroSonic Noorderslag are now available. The early bird registration is available till 18th of June 2010.
Artist submissionsShowcase applications are available through www.eurosonicnoorderslag.nl and www.sonicbids.com.Deadline for application is 1st of September 2010
www.euroSonic-noorderSlag.nl
The 2011 ediTion is my 25Th birThdAy! Are you Coming To my pArTy?
The European music conference and showcase festival
euroSonicnoorderSlag
25th Anniversary edition - focus on The netherlands
GRONINGENTHE NETHERLANDS
GRONINGENTHE NETHERLANDS
The European Border Breaker Awards&The European Festival Awards
In response to various requests VIP-News will in future include occasional European Market Fea-tures. Here is the first – we hope you find it interesting and useful.Please let us know if there are territories that you’d particularly like to see covered.
Market Features
Antoni Rousseau
11
VIP-BOOKING.COM
11
VIP- News - A u g u s t 2 0 1 0
Montana in the Swiss Alps. More than 80
artists play on three live stages and two
clubs with DJs playing all night. The main
club at the top of the slopes is 2,200 me-
ters high with a view of the highest moun-
tains of Europe.
St. Gallen (in the German sector) was down
on last year’s attendance this year, but still
averaged 24,000 people on each of the
four days. Christof Huber says, “We had
good weather, but we were up against
other events like Sonisphere, which was
only a week before, and the World Cup had
some effect. Also we had been instructed
to introduce a new limit on the amount of
drink that people could bring on site and
that led to a certain group of people trying
to veto the festival! Our other smaller 2 day
event, Summer Days at Arbon by the Lake
of Constance, August 27-29, will sell out,
10,000 people will attend each day.”
»All 3 of our festivals againsold out in advance in 2010«
- Andy Locher
The Open Air Frauenfeld Hip-Hop event
did particularly well this year. Andy Locher
of Frauenfeld organisers Pleasure Produc-
tions says, “We were always very much
focused on festivals and with the Openair
Frauenfeld becoming the biggest Swiss
festival seen from the capacity of 50,000
visitors, and also becoming the biggest
European Hiphop-festival, we are more
than happy. We are also more than satis-
fied with our 2 other festivals, Heitere Ope-
nair Zofingen and Openair Lumnezia– all 3
of our festivals again sold out in advance
in 2010.”
The Paleo-Festival in Nyon on Lake Geneva
is regarded as one of the best festivals in
Europe. The festival sells the majority of its
tickets in Switzerland and France. About
4400 volunteers, mainly from Nyon and
neighbouring towns, work within the pro-
duction of the event. The managing direc-
tor of this very exceptional festival, Daniel
Rossellat even became the mayor of Nyon.
This year’s event took place on 20 - 25 July,
and yields some interesting facts and fig-
ures: Budget: CHF 22,200,000, 230,000
spectators, 1532 artists and technicians, 6
stages, 195 concerts and shows attended
by 525 accreditated press representatives.
The Paleo team combined to answer some
VIP questions about the current state of
the market: “There are perhaps too many
festivals in Switzerland, however things Andy Locher
within TemptationTerritory: WorldwidePeriod: March 2011 and onwardsAgency: X-Ray TouringAgent: Paul BoltonPhone: +44 (0) 20 7749 3500E-mail: [email protected]: www.xraytouring.com
We are very excited to begin announcing the line up of acts
performing over the three days in Norwich. There will be
gigs each night at Norwich Arts Centre and at various ven-
ues across the city. Bands confirmed include:
Here We Go Magic
Dinosaur Pile-Up
Serena Maneesh
The Kabeedies
Sennen
The Miserable Rich
The Lost Levels
Sargasso Trio
Bearsuit
Fever Fever
Pumajaw
These Ghosts
notiCe board ››
Another new service in the improved and redesigned VIP-News is the Notice-board, which is available for all readers. Reader’s messages will be posted on the Notice-board as a free service, passing on announcements, job postings, buy-ing and selling notices, inquiries or alike. Announcements should be emailed to [email protected]
VIP- News - A u g u s t 2 0 0 5
18
VIP- News - A u g u s t 2 0 1 0
Norwich Sound & Vision Music Festival16 - 18 September 2010
In this section we offer members of VIP-Booking.com some space to present their company to VIP-News readers. If you would also like to present your company please contact Peter Briggs at [email protected]
MeMber presentation ››
In this section we offer members of VIP-Booking.com some space to present their company to VIP-News readers. If you would also like to present your company please contact Peter Briggs at [email protected]
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About Our Company
VIP-Booking’s core product is the Internet’s oldest and largest data-base for the European Live Entertainment Industry www.vip-book-ing.com developed as a tool for industry professionals. Since it’s launch in the year 2000, we have consistently offered our subscrib-ers the very best in database services and now boast subscribers in over 30 countries.
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König-Pilsener-AreNA- SMG entertainment deutschland GmbH
The König-Pilsener-ARENA is a multi-functional venue, offering a
superb setting for a variety of sports events, theatrical presenta-
tions, ice-skating and concerts. Flexible configurations provide
room for audiences ranging from 800 to 13,000 who enjoy family
shows such as Disney on Ice, sports including handball matches,
musicals like Grease, and concerts from rock and pop icons and
orchestras alike.
Since its opening in 1996, the Kõnig-Pilsener-ARENA has earned a
reputation as one of the most sophisticated venues in Europe, of-
fering excellent operational facilities and an unforgettable experi-
ence for all its visitors. The König-Pilsener-ARENA meets the latest
standards in engineering, architecture and security.
Its central location, at the heart of one of Europe’s largest con-
urbations, the Ruhr area, means the Arena is easily accessible by
road, rail and air for the 15 million people living within an hour’s
drive-time. The arena offers great accessibility with 12 motorway
junctions, more than 10,000 free parking spaces, bus and tram ter-