Giddings Fed Up With Bidding War Stories

The only thing John Giddings knows about rumors of Live Nation and AEG getting in a bidding war for the next Rolling Stones tour is that he’s fed up with them. And he’d like to get his hands on the journalist who started it.

“I’m getting really annoyed because constantly I have promoters ringing me up from all over the world and asking me what’s happening, and I have to continually explain that nothing’s happening,” the Solo Agency chief told Pollstar, in what sounded like an appeal for the calls to stop.

“I think the story started in The Sun. I rest my case,” he added.

The Sun ran a story saying the band hadn’t given up touring, followed by Bloomberg newswire running an unsubstantiated piece – quoting “a person who declined to be identified” – about Live Nation and global rival AEG getting into the bidding war.

That piece seems to have given the story the legs that have taken it all over the world.