The Walking Wounded

Live Nation UK chief exec Paul Latham reckons the foot injuries he suffered when attempting The Long Walk for charity will result in him spending “two or three weeks” in a wheelchair.

Along with LN UK COO John Probyn, Irish promoter Denis Desmond and London agent Carl Leighton-Pope, he attempted a five-day, 145-mile hike from the Download Festival site at Donington Park to London’s Hyde Park.

Although sponsorship money is still coming in, the four of them have already raised close to £100,000 ($157,000) for charity. The cash will be split between Cancer Research and the various children’s charities that Desmond and Leighton-Pope support.

Latham’s involvement ended early on the second day, when his feet were cut up so badly that he needed medical attention.

They’d needed surgical treatment at the end of the first day, and Latham admits he “foolishly” tried to soldier on for the second day.

“I didn’t last two miles before blood was squelching in my trainers so I got out at the next opportunity,” he said.
“My electric wheelchair has done its job to get me to the office,” he told Pollstar June 18, as he became the first LN exec to get a parking space that’s actually inside the company’s London building.

Probyn was forced to take a break on the fourth day when one of his ankles refused to carry on.

That left Desmond and Leighton-Pope as the only two of the four original walkers still on their feet, although Probyn was back on the road for the fifth day.

Joining in at various times to keep the numbers up were Festival Republic chief Melvin Benn, LN president of European concerts John Reid and Phil Bowdery, the company’s European president of touring. Benn has some experience in these matters, and two years ago led a dozen of his staff on a 270-mile cycling trip across East Africa to raise money for Kenyan orphans.

After the walk, Leighton-Pope suggested that next year’s charity effort could see the four original walkers doing “a five-day wine tasting in France.”

Latham and Probyn were walking for Cancer Research and can be sponsored at justgiving.com/tlw

Desmond walked for the Christina Noble Children’s Foundation and can be sponsored at www.cncf.org

Leighton-Pope walked for Honeypot, which is also a children’s charity, and he can be sponsored at www.justgiving.com/CarlLP