THE COMPETITION and Markets Authority (CMA) has cleared the proposed merger between venue management giants AEG Facilities and SMG.
Following the completion of the transaction, the Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG) subsidiary and SMG will each own 50 per cent of the combined entity, which will be named ASM Global (ASM).
"We are pleased that the proposed merger ... has received unconditional clearance from the UK Competition and Markets Authority," says AEG in a statement. "The...
Posted on: 26/09/2019 Categories: News from Live UK
MUSIC AND water sports festival Wheels and Fins (cap. 5,000) has been cancelled at the last-minute due to what the organisers describe as "financial constraints".
The event was due to take place in Joss Bay in Kent between 7–8 September, featuring artistes including Friendly Fires, Slaves and Mystery Jets.
"It is with absolute heart-breaking agony that due to financial constraints on our small independent festival, we have been forced into the devastating decision that Wheels...
Posted on: 26/09/2019 Categories: News from Live UK
PROMOTER AND venue operator The MJR Group has been bought by Australian promoter and leading ticketing company TEG, in a deal that will see MJR rebranded as TEG UK.
Bristol-headquartered MJR, which says it works on more than 2,000 shows per year across its portfolio – including events in Australia – will be incorporated into TEG's global operation, and be the vehicle for TEG to introduce its ticketing solutions to the UK.
The three MJR partners, group CEO Richard Buck,...
Posted on: 26/09/2019 Categories: News from Live UK
ONCE BRIEFLY the country's second-largest festival operator, radio station giant Global has divested its final event, Rewind.
The '80s-themed brand comprises three events, the original Rewind (cap. 40,000) in Henley-on-Thames, Rewind Scotland (30,000) in Perthshire and Rewind North (20,000) in Cheshire, although the latter was cancelled this year due to extreme weather.
Global, whose stations include Capital, LBC and Classic FM, acquired Rewind in October 2016 from David Heartfield's...
Posted on: 26/09/2019 Categories: News from Live UK
A US company involved in a unsuccessful bid to build an arena in Bristol (see issue 225) is revealed to be making a concerted effort to create a rival venue to the 21,000-capacity Manchester Arena.
Los Angeles-based Oak View Group (OVG), which also owns US live industry publication Pollstar, is hoping to build a 20,000-capacity arena in the Eithad Campus, the site of Manchester City football club's Eithad Stadium (cap. 63,000) in Eastlands.
Feasibility studies are already underway,...
Posted on: 29/08/2019 Categories: News from Live UK
London based Festicket has secured a contract to be exclusive UK and Europe ticket partner for America's 125,000-capacity Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival.
The event takes place over two weekends, 10-12 and 17-18 April 2020, in the southern California desert.
Festicket is offering booking support in eight languages and a range of options, with packages starting from £631 per night for weekend 1 tickets, camping and parking.
"We created Festicket to help people...
Posted on: 29/08/2019 Categories: News from Live UK
MORE THAN 250 creditors are owed in excess of £4.5 million by the former operator of the Preston Guildhall (cap. 2,034) and Charter Theatre (780) complex, following its collapse into administration in June.
Among the many suppliers, show productions and promoters owed money are music industry companies including Primary Talent International which is owed £20,550, Live Nation Entertainment (£10,000), and Triple A Entertainment Group (£78,000).
An act represented...
Posted on: 29/08/2019 Categories: News from Live UK
Cardiff is a step closer to gaining a 15,000-capacity arena after the local council revealed plans to go to tender for a developer to build and operate a venue in Cardiff Bay.
The council said planning consent could be achieved by 2020, with the arena potentially opening in December 2023.
Should that be achieved, it would mean the arrival of two new similarly sized arenas within months of each other and only 40 miles by road separating them.
Posted on: 29/08/2019 Categories: News from Live UK
Well, not quite yet. But the shockwaves from Channel 4's Dispatches: The Great Ticket Scandal in 2012 were the catalyst for industry figures to join campaigning Labour MP Sharon Hodgson, featured in the programme, to oppose industrial-scale and insider secondary ticketing, with the past few weeks and months witnessing a remarkable string of events.
It has been a eventful few months in the fight against industrial-scale secondary ticketing, with events that will change the shape of the...
Posted on: 27/09/2018 Categories: News from Live UK
Promoter Glasswerk has added the 1,150-capacity Grand Central Hall in Liverpool to the portfolio of venues it programmes.
The Art Deco-style hall reopened in May following a major renovation, which now sees it include a food bazaar, two bars, and a hotel.
"I went to look at the refurb and was inspired," says Glasswerk head promoter Mat Ong. "I think acoustic vibed shows will look spectacular there but general indie and rock will work too."
Among shows Ong has booked for the venue...
Posted on: 27/09/2018 Categories: News from Live UK
Controversial resale website Viagogo has snubbed MPs for a second time, after failing to attend a Digital Culture Media and Sport (DCMS) Select Committee hearing into ticketing on 5 September.
In a letter to committee chair Damian Collins late the night before, Viagogo cited a potential conflict between Competition & Markets Authority (CMA) court action against the company, and its intention to sue promoter Stuart Galbraith and his company Kilimanjaro Live.
The CMA has issued...
Posted on: 27/09/2018 Categories: News from Live UK
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Posted on: 14/09/2017 Categories: News from Live UK
THE COMPANY behind the disastrous Hope and Glory festival (cap. 12,500) has put itself into liquidation with £888,984 owing to creditors.
The Liverpool festival, run by Hope and Glory Festival Ltd (HGF), descended into chaos with lengthy queues, overcrowding and delayed performances, resulting in the second day of the inaugural event being cancelled.
Posted on: 14/09/2017 Categories: News from Live UK
HAVING AGREED terms with live music industry bodies, performance royalty collection body PRS For Music has lodged an application for approval to alter its live tariff.
It is almost two years since a consultation process into increasing the organisation's Light and Popular (LP) tariff came to an end.
Posted on: 14/09/2017 Categories: News from Live UK
THE MUSIC Manager's Forum has joined forces with the LIVE UK Summit to help create conference panels aimed at the role of artiste managers in the live music sector.
MMF associated anti-ticket abuse campaign group FanFair Alliance has also joined the event and will host a panel called What Price Ethics?, exploring ways that artistes, promoters and venue operators can protect themselves from secondary ticketing.
IRISH ENTREPRENEUR Denis Desmond – the most influential investor in live music across the UK and Ireland – has exclusively confirmed to LIVE UK his appointment as non-executive chairman of Live Nation Entertainment (LNE) in the UK, tasked with getting LNE's promoting division in better shape.
The move follows speculation for some months that Festival Republic MD Melvin Benn has also been parachuted in to LNE's head office to take control of the festivals business. Festival...
Posted on: 28/10/2015 Categories: News from Live UK
THE GOVERNMENT has rejected suggestions that delays to its review of the secondary ticketing sector are due to pressure from US-based corporations behind websites such as StubHub, GET ME IN! and Seatwave, who could be most affected by reforms.
Labour MP Sharon Hodgson, who chairs the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Ticket Abuse, says the Government should not "bow to pressure from vested interests" over its legal duty to hold the review, as promised as part of the amendment to...
Posted on: 28/10/2015 Categories: News from Live UK
SCOTTISH CULTURE secretary Fiona Hyslop has defended Government hand-outs to T in the Park (cap. 85,000) by suggesting the event could have moved out of Scotland without additional support.
Hyslop approved payment of £150,000 to organiser DF Concerts (see LIVE UK, issue 187), paid after the event which took place on 10-12 July. Weekend tickets cost £205, meaning the funding was the equivalent to around 870 sales.
On 29 September, Hyslop was forced to explain to a Scottish...
Posted on: 28/10/2015 Categories: News from Live UK
PROMOTER AND venue operator DHP Family put so much work into its ultimately-failed bid to acquire MAMA & Company venues via AEG Live's intended acquisition of the company (see LIVE UK issue 187), that it missed out on other deals, claims DHP MD George Akins.
Speaking to LIVE UK, Akins explained how he thought his company had clinched a deal which would see AEG Live take over MAMA's festivals, with its venue portfolio, which include London's The Forum (cap. 2,350) and Jazz Café...
Posted on: 28/10/2015 Categories: News from Live UK
SHEFFIELD ARENA (cap. 13,000) will terminate its management contract with Live Nation Entertainment (LNE) next March, after almost 20 years with the company and its predecessors.
Operation of the venue will be taken over on 1 April by Sheffield International Venues (SIV), a subsidiary of Sheffield City Trust (SCT), which owns the building and was set up by the council to run its venues, such as the City Hall (2,340).
The council believes the move will cut costs and increase employment.
Posted on: 28/10/2015 Categories: News from Live UK
IT IS not known how many people had bought tickets for the troubled High Definition (HD) Festival before it collapsed three weeks prior to its intended dates, but many expressed their anger and frustration on Facebook.
The 5-6 September event was due to take place at The Hop Farm in Paddock Wood, Kent, itself a site that has seen previous festivals get into financial difficulty, with Vince Power's last Hop Farm Music Festival (cap. 10,000) cancelled at short notice in May 2013.
HD...
Posted on: 21/09/2015 Categories: News from Live UK
IRELAND-BASED live music impresario Denis Desmond has broken his silence on the take-over of MAMA & Company by LN-Gaeity exclusively to LIVE UK.
LN-Gaeity is the joint venture formed by his Gaiety Investments company and Live Nation Entertainment, and owns Reading (cap. 90,000), Leeds (80,000) and Latitude (35,000) festivals promoter Festival Republic.
He suggests a deal is close for Academy Music Group (AMG), which is 51 per cent owned by LN-Gaeity, to adopt the newly acquired...
Posted on: 21/09/2015 Categories: News from Live UK
IMG ARTS and Entertainment has acquired PWR Events, the company which ousted IMG from running Hampton Court Palace Festival (cap. 3,000) in October 2010.
The deal will see IMG adopt PWR's portfolio of events which include Winter Wonderland in London's Hyde Park, Taste of London at Regents Park and the Natural History Museum Ice Rink. PWR's management team will continue to run the events under the IMG operation.
VENUE OPERATOR VMS Live has added The Duchess (cap. 400) in York, Birmingham's Alfie Bird & The Oobleck (350) and Aberystwyth Student Union (400) to its portfolio of managed live music venues.
They join Manchester Academy (2,525, 900, 55, 450), the University of East Anglia Student Union's Nick Rayns LCR (1,550) and The Waterfront (700) in Norwich, Warwick's The Copper Rooms (900) and William Aston Hall (1,200) and Catrin Finch (250) – both in Wrexham. VMS also has a deal to...
Posted on: 21/09/2015 Categories: News from Live UK
SHOPPING SITE Amazon has expanded its ticketing operation into the festival and concert markets and is not charging a booking fee.
It sells through its UK-based Amazon Local service, which lists deals in 34 regions across the country.
Posted on: 21/09/2015 Categories: News from Live UK
MULTI-NATIONAL booking operation The Agency Group (TAG), founded by Neil Warnock more than 30 years ago, has been bought by Hollywood-based United Talent Agency (UTA).
TAG worldwide CEO Warnock has been appointed UTA's head of worldwide music for a combined roster than includes UTA's Kanye West and Mariah Carey, and TAG's Muse, David Gilmour, The Black Keys and Paramour.
Posted on: 21/09/2015 Categories: News from Live UK
Industry Observers are wondering why Live Nation Entertainment (LNE) would want to outbid AEG Live to acquire MAMA & Company at the 11th hour, as exclusively revealed in our sister publication Audience (issue 186).
LN-Gaiety (LN-G) Holdings, a joint venture between LNE and Denis Desmond's Gaiety Investments, announced it had completed the acquisition of MAMA on 4 August.
Posted on: 01/09/2015 Categories: News from Live UK
Circle Tickets, the sham website which sold fake tickets to Ed Sheeran, AC/DC and Taylor Swift shows at Wembley Stadium (cap. 80,000) and Manchester Arena (20,000), tricked more than 3,500 people in eight months, LIVE UK understands (see issue 186).
PayPal and Ireland's Omnipay were used by Circle to process card payments between November last year and June.
Posted on: 01/09/2015 Categories: News from Live UK
Music and art street festival Portabello Live sold more than 2,000 tickets for its debut in May, says organiser Micky P, with wristbands allowing access to performances in venues such as Mau Mau (cap. 200) in London's Notting Hill district.
Artistes appearing included The Egg, The Steve Dior Band and Human In Bloom.
Posted on: 01/09/2015 Categories: News from Live UK
DF Concerts, organisers of T in the Park (cap. 85,000), has defended public funding it received from the Scottish Government, in the face of criticism from politicians and community groups.
The latest payment, £150,000 through the Scottish Government's State Aid budget, was allocated on 2 July. The Scottish Government has since confirmed the event has been given a further £223,000 in public funds since 2012.
Nottingham's 10,000-capacity Capital FM Arena is to be renamed the Motorpoint Arena Nottingham from January, after the car retailer signed a five-year naming deal with the venue's owner, Nottingham Ice Centre.
The Motorpoint brand is already stamped on arenas in Cardiff (7,500) and Sheffield (13,674).
Posted on: 01/09/2015 Categories: News from Live UK
Ticket booking fees and even touting cited PERFORMANCE ROYALTY collection body PRS For Music has launched a consultation into raising its Light and Popular (LP) tariff and seeks a share of event organisers' revenue from ticket booking fees, food and drink receipts and even the money some promoters make from touting their own tickets. It also flags up sponsorship revenue, additional charges for camping at festivals, merchandising and car parking fees as sectors in which PRS should receive a share.
Posted on: 21/05/2015 Categories: News from Live UK
LMF LEISURE, organiser of last year's Leicester Music Festival, has gone into voluntary liquidation. The liquidator for LMF filed documents with Companies House last month and its directors claim there are no outstanding debts.
Posted on: 21/05/2015 Categories: News from Live UK
GLASGOW VENUE The Arches (cap. 800) has received a stay of execution after police ordered closure over drink and drugs issues. Police Scotland requested a closure order last month after recording 26 drug and alcohol-related incidents at the club on a single Saturday.
Posted on: 21/05/2015 Categories: News from Live UK
FESTIVAL OPERATOR, Vision Nine, has secured £5 million in funding to create new events, tours and shows. The money will also support existing festivals Boardmasters (cap. 30,000) in Newquay and Freeze (10,000) in London, as well as to expand internationally.
Posted on: 21/05/2015 Categories: News from Live UK
SHEFFIELD'S 13,600-capacity Motorpoint Arena is seeking a new naming rights partner, as its five-year deal with the cars sales company nears an end. Its search is endorsed by the outgoing sponsor which says the deal helped to boost its sales.
Posted on: 21/05/2015 Categories: News from Live UK
IRON MAIDEN manager Rod Smallwood has hit out at the "plague" of secondary ticketing excesses and called support for the campaign to bring greater transparency to the sector.
Smallwood has appealed to fans of the band to write to their local MPs, asking them to support the proposals of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Ticket Abuse.
READ MORE
Posted on: 24/02/2015 Categories: News from Live UK
THE GOVERNMENT'S Planning Practice Guidance on Noise Guidance has been amended to include specific mention of the need to recognise live music venues within planning development.
The relevant section now reads, "The potential effect of a new residential development being located close to an existing business that gives rise to noise should be carefully considered. This is because existing noise levels from the business even if intermittent [for example, a live music venue] may be regarded...
Posted on: 24/02/2015 Categories: News from Live UK
THREE ARRESTS were made after police raided a suspected counterfeiting factory suspected of producing and selling fake merchandise.
The gang are believed to have made a profit of up to £100,000 selling clothing bearing the names of artistes such as Nirvana, Justin Bieber and One Direction, all of which are protected under trademark licenses.
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Posted on: 24/02/2015 Categories: News from Live UK
CHILDREN'S CHARITY War Child has reactivated its series of intimate fund-raising shows featuring major artistes – Passport Back to the Bars, organised in conjunction with the Music Manager's Forum and telecoms giant O2, during February Posted on: 24/02/2015 Categories: News from Live UK
It is 10 years since the charity's original Passport Back To The Bars shows for victims of the Iraq war, which featured The Cure, David Gray, Elbow, Pet Shop Boys, Supergrass and Amy Winehouse.
READ...
THE FALLOUT surrounding the cancellation of the All Tomorrow's Parties (ATP) organised Jabberwocky Festival continues, with the company remaining in dispute with a ticket company and PR firm.
Posted on: 26/09/2014 Categories: News from Live UK
LIVE NATION Entertainment-owned Ticketmaster (TM) has secured a multi-year deal to become the official ticketing services supplier for The SSE Hydro (cap. 13,000) in Glasgow, as well as providing a secondary ticketing facility via its resale website Get Me In!.
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Posted on: 26/09/2014 Categories: News from Live UK
THE COCKPIT (cap. 350) in Leeds has closed down after 20 years due to the condition of the building.
The city centre venue, which was run by promoter Futuresound, was a touring stop for many a future festival headliner, such as Coldplay, Muse, the White Stripes, The Killers, Paramore, The Libertines and Kasabian. It had been closed since July for "essential maintenance".
Read more
Posted on: 26/09/2014 Categories: News from Live UK
GUILFEST'S OPERATING company is going into liquidation for the second time in three years, following lower than expected ticket sales for its revived 2014 edition.
Posted on: 26/09/2014 Categories: News from Live UK
FLASHBACK FESTIVAL (cap. 5,000) at Hylands Park in Chelmsford was cancelled after its promoter said the site was too muddy to stage the event.
Posted on: 26/09/2014 Categories: News from Live UK
Council could sell NEC Group and arenas
Prince waltzes in for Ballroom shows
Shadow Minister wants ticket sellers identified
Council agrees Clapham Common Calling
Posted on: 02/03/2014 Categories: News from Live UK
Management at new Glasgow arena The SSE Hydro (cap. 13,000) remain "very confident" it will open as scheduled later this month, despite it suffering fire damage during construction.
A blaze broke out at the £125 million building in June, leading to fears its opening would have to be postponed.
Posted on: 08/10/2013 Categories: News from Live UK
A fraudster who conned music fans in a multi-million-pound online ticket scam has had his jail term extended, after failing to repay any of his ill-gotten gains.
Alan Scott from Essex was one of three men convicted of taking a total of £5 million from music and sports fans, but failing to supply a large number of tickets or refunds.
Posted on: 08/10/2013 Categories: News from Live UK
AEG facilities has been officially cleared to manage London's Wembley Arena (cap. 12,500) by the Competition Commission (CC),
The 15-year agreement with the venue's owner Quintain Estates and Development was referred to the CC by the Office of Fair Trading in March, as it would give AEG control of three of the four largest indoor venues in the capital. The company also owns The O2 (17,000) and co-owns Hammersmith's Eventim Apollo (5,039).
Posted on: 08/10/2013 Categories: News from Live UK
JESSIE J's management company is releasing an undisclosed number of tickets through StubHub, selling them at face value and promising fans that it is not a ploy to increase revenue for the artiste.
However, the eBay-owned ticket marketplace charges buyers 15 per cent in booking fees, as opposed to approximately 11 per cent charged by the tour's primary agency Ticketmaster.
Posted on: 08/10/2013 Categories: News from Live UK