Features
The Tail Should Never Wag The Dog: How The UK Biz Is Navigating Culture & Commerce (Inaugural UK Focus)
There’s no denying the influence of the UK on world music culture. Volumes have been written about it, and will continue to be written. There’s countless books on Glastonbury alone; others delve into the history of iconic buildings like Brixton Academy, or Wembley Stadium; and that’s not even mentioning the myriad of band bios and autobiographies on artists hailing from the UK – and Ireland, of course. To comprehensively analyse this small island from a music perspective, you’ll need to consult a dedicated library. To understand its touring business, just read on.
When it comes to the business of touring, the UK is diverse. Moving between cities and territories, one notices huge differences. As Tom Schroeder, EVP & managing executive at Wasserman Music UK, summed it up, “the UK isn’t logistically simple from any standpoint.” UTA music agent Jules de Lattre confirmed, “there are notable differences between constituents of the UK, compounded by the fact that these differences vary from artist to artist. London, and the south of England, remains the biggest, and commercially dominant market.” According to Schroeder, this was changing: “We’ve seen some acts start to build more strongly in the north than the south. London has always been oversaturated, but I think it’s more about the north owning their own artists, and I love that.”
What is more, just because an artist used to do well in one territory, doesn’t mean they’ll always do. CAA’s Ben Coles recalled “an artist who played two UK tours over a five-year period, where Cardiff was the fastest show to sell out on the first tour, and one of the slowest on the next tour. So, you need to approach with caution in this post-COVID world. Scotland gets a lot more shows than Wales and Northern Ireland, but for my UK acts, I’m
consciously trying to get them to Cardiff, and Belfast to grow their fanbase in those regions. A good example of this is Becky Hill. We had Becky play an outdoor 5,000-cap show in Belfast last year which blew out, and we’ve followed that up with a headline show as part of Belsonic this summer, which is on track to sell over 15,000 tickets.”
The UK audience is happy to spend money on tickets, the following pages are proof of that. As is the leader on Pollstar‘s UK promoters chart, Live Nation. After a record 2023, “2024 is going to be another growth year,” according to Denis Desmond, chairman, Live Nation UK & Ireland, who said, “We’re selling more tickets than ever across all genres and venue types – the talent pipeline looks very strong.” Upcoming highlights include Hozier selling 45,000 tickets for his July 7 Finsbury Park performance three months in advance (promoted by Melvin Benn’s Festival Republic, Live Nation subsidiary, and Simon Moran’s SJM); Usher’s ongoing 10-show residency at The O2; and sell-out shows from Chris Stapleton, Morgan Wallen, and Lainey Wilson – “all demonstrating the huge potential of country music,” according to Desmond.
The live veteran finds it “particularly rewarding to see UK and Irish acts like Sleep Token, Fontaines DC, and most recently Artemas break through not just here but internationally – the future really is bright.” Festival-wise, he continued, “Download, TRNSMT, Isle of Wight, Reading and Leeds, Creamfields are all selling particularly well. Festivals continue to be a mainstay of our cultural landscape. They are institutions, many of which have a devoted and loyal fanbase, who we need to reward. Our festival teams work hard to improve, adapt, and enhance the experience year on year, with new stages with ground-breaking production like Chevron at Reading and Leeds Festivals this year, investing in boutique camping offerings, and more varied food and beverage, which reflects changing tastes, trends, and budgets.”
One trend, Desmond observes, “is the growth in regional summer shows. These can be in venues for as little as one weekend right through to the whole season. They bring live music to places that may not have an established venue. We’ve seen great success at unique spaces like Halifax Piece Hall, and Margate Dreamland, and our sites go right across the UK and Ireland from 5,000 right up to 30,000 capacity.”
Plenty of promoters and agents would welcome more performance spaces in the UK, seeing how difficult it is to get avails these days. WME’s Tony Goldring, during this year’s Pollstar Live!, pointed to Co-op Live in Manchester as helping the cause, and picked another English city that deserved a venue in his estimation: “Bristol, because it’s got such a great catchment area. There’s a number of markets with one arena [only], and if you route tours, and it’s not available, what do you do?,” he said during a panel on global touring. OVG (Pollstar‘s parent company), has been vocal about building another arena in London – already home to the busiest arena on Pollstar’s UK Arenas chart, The O2.
If markets like the English capital, or Manchester, can support two arenas, there may be others that could support at least one. Live Nation is “on the way to delivering the new Cardiff Arena,” Desmond explained, “Cardiff is a great city, with a long history of music, and we’re really happy that we get to play a part in the city and wider region’s live music offering.”
Setting up a temporary structure can be an alternative, which Scottish promoter Regular Music proves with its newest event, Summer Nights On The Southside: a 6,500-capacity big top tent on Glasgow’s Queen’s Park, hosting a weekend of concerts with The Charlatans, The Waterboys, and a full day of bands curated by Glasgow’s own Mogwai, June 28-30.
Or just rent a castle, as Regular Music does in the Scottish capital Edinburgh, where this year’s Edinburgh Castle Concerts feature Madness, Paul Weller, The National, Manic Street Preachers & Suede, and others. “It’s a really good summer,” said Regular Music CEO Mark Mackie. “All we need now is for the weather to hold up. We had a similar number of open air shows last year, and it rained on just about everyone. In 2022, again, we had about ’24 open air shows, and it didn’t rain on any of them. May we have a summer like ’22. We sold the tickets, we just need the sun to shine.”
Judging by Regular Music’s ticket sales, which were headed for 100,000 at press time, last year’s rainy summer didn’t put people off. Nor did the shaky economy. Mackie, at least, is unfazed: “I’ve been doing this for fourty years, nothing has changed. Costs are costs. Ticket prices are ticket prices. And if you can’t make them add up, that’s your fault. End of story. Yes, we’ve all got increasing costs. But at the same time, ticket prices are more expensive than they were 10, 20 or 30 years ago. I will defend those prices by saying that fans are getting a much better product. There’s more money spent on production. You can’t do open air shows of more than 5,000 capacity without big screens. We even have big screens in our 6,000-capacity tent, because people expect it. Costs have always been there since the beginning of time, you just have to budget properly. But don’t take it out on the fan. If you charge too much, if you’re too greedy, then you’ll get your fingers burnt.”
And, touching on the growing demand for VIP experiences at concerts, he emphasized that these offers had to be done in the right way. “Real fans should always have the opportunity to buy tickets at a decent price, because the further you keep the real fans from the stage, the less fun it is for the artists. They don’t want to be seeing a bunch of suits in front of them that are the only ones that can afford to see them. At the end of the day, it’s their choice. They can insist that the real fans have got an enclosure in the front of the stage. It’s fine to have different areas for fancy VIP bars, and finger buffets. People might have spent that in a restaurant outside of the venue anyway. You’re just bringing that business inside. So, I’m not all against it, just cautious,” said Mackie, before adding, “This might be a fad. Five years from now, people may come away from a VIP experience, and think, ‘Was it really worth the extra £450 to get a plastic laminate, and a free program; or to line up for the 32nd meet-and-greet photograph, and be pushed out the other side?’ The dust will settle on that. It should not be the tail that wags the dog. And I don’t believe that it’ll ever be the tail that wags the dog. Let’s hope not. If it does come to that, we’re all in trouble.”
See: NASS & Nozstock Highlight The Pressure On UK Festivals
There are reasons for concern, maybe not at the top end of the business, maybe not for established events and artists, but at grassroots level, where the future of this business is made. From the artists to the crew to the tour managers, agents, and promoters – “everybody learns their craft at smaller venues to begin with, and then they come through,” Jon Collins, CEO of UK trade body LIVE, said. He explained that it has become so expensive to open doors for a gig night in the current economy, that any artist performing in those spaces needs to be able to move enough tickets to get (close) to capacity, severely reducing the clubs’ ability to give up-and-coming talent a stage. “You can see grassroots venues shifting towards a more conservative music policy out of necessity, that might mean more DJ-led sessions, or more cover bands,” Collins said.
The independent festival sector is struggling, too. 21 festivals had announced postponements, cancellations or complete closure in 2024 at the time of writing. “Supply chain costs have gone up, and continue to go up, by over 30%-50% on average,” John Rostron, CEO of the UK’s Association of Independent Festivals explained. “They don’t want to pass that all on to customers, so they’ve raised ticket prices by 20% or so since COVID, and then looked at what can be cut to cover the rest. The rise in artist fees has added to the need to cut too, so often the first thing to go is a stage, and all the artists with it.
“Festivals always have way more on offer than people can see, and they often over deliver, so the customer doesn’t notice any difference but it’s interesting how hard the independents find it to do this. They are creative people who really want to go above and beyond.”