Harvey Gets On His Soapbox

“We live in a communist society that Lenin and Karl Marx would never have dreamt of,” world-famous promoter Harvey Goldsmith told The Guardian.

“There is no realm on this planet where you have to fill in so many forms or have so many demagogues looking over you. Get rid of all the bureaucrats. Let them get a real job,” he continued.

In an interview published on the opening day of the ILMC March 10, the controversial impresario referred to current Lord Mayor of London Ken Livingstone as a “disgrace” and hinted that one day he may make an independent stand for the post.

“At this moment I’ve got enough to do in my life that I’m enjoying, so I don’t want to stick my neck out in any other way,” he explained. “I might do in the future though. I don’t think I’m ready for it just now.”

Responding to the way his company has been taken over by a couple of corporates and a half-dozen independents in the list of the U.K.’s biggest grossing promoters, he said, “I’m minuscule. But I’m the only one that anyone has heard of.”

On the mayor’s role, he said, “I believe that the mayor of London should be independent. They’re not there to represent one party but the views of Londoners.”

Apparently interested in getting involved in the organisation of the 2012 Olympics, he said last year’s Live 8 in Hyde Park is a “dazzling advertisement of what London is capable of.”

On the changes and the increasing corporatization in the live music business, he said he’d never sell up to one of his larger competitors.

But when pressed on the point, he reportedly said, “I’m always open to a deal.”

– John Gammon