The planned Irish Rolling Stones concert has run aground even though a court case over the tendering for it in the Phoenix Park is still being heard. What's going on, asks Brian Boyd
Back in the days when rock bands were paid by the size of their audience, Led Zeppelin played a massive outdoor show at Knebworth in the UK. The promoter of the show paid the band's manager, the infamous Peter Grant, a certain sum based on his estimate of how many people had come through the turnstiles. Grant wasn't happy with the promoter's calculations. He knew some aerial photographs had been taken of the site during the show so he sent these photos over to the US space agency Nasa, which blew them up to show almost every individual at the show. Grant and his team then did a head count which showed many more people than accounted for had attended the show. Grant went back to the promoter demanding more money . . . or else.
The hard lesson learnt from the 1979 Knebworth incident was that music promoters - the people who stage and organise the shows - shouldn't mess with the artist. The music industry is not a pleasant place - in the past it was associated with racketeering, criminality and legally proven connections with organised crime (vide the allegations surrounding Frank Sinatra and his links with the Mafia). One of the best exposé books written about the industry is Frederic Dannen's Hit Men (Power Brokers and Fast Money Inside The Music Business). As the industry has grown and come under increased regulation, such shady practices have given way to a sleakly professional business model - the industry is now populated more by MBA types than dodgy sub-criminal types.
However, there is now more money than ever swilling around the industry; popular music remains the highest leisure spend of a significant proportion of the population.
If you consider that an average concert ticket price for a big name band can cost more than six times the price of the same band's current CD, you can see the massive amounts of money generated by live shows. Not to mention, the concomitant massive losses if the stadium doesn't fill up.
It's a measure of how much money a successful rock tour can make that the business magazine Forbes recently devoted a front cover to the subject. They found that The Rolling Stones and U2 were the biggest earners during 2005, but they also noted how Elton John generated $66 million (€55 million) in 2005 by touring, despite not releasing an album. "With the Rolling Stones, the fact that the group doesn't sell much music is irrelevant" the magazine noted.
"Their big money came almost entirely from touring".
In the US alone last year, The Stones sold $162 million (€134 million) worth of tickets - making their tour the most successful of all time. U2 were in second place, earning $138 million (€114 million) in ticket sales from their US and Canada shows. This money does not go directly to the bands. With touring income, there is a complex financial relationship between the band, the band's booking agents and the local promoters who stage the individual shows in each country on the tour.
The two biggest tour promoters in this country - MCD and Aiken Promotions - were in the news this week over a court case involving the right to stage a Rolling Stones concert in Dublin's Phoenix Park on August 18th next. The two companies account for the majority of the big live shows in the country. It is estimated that MCD is responsible for the staging of about 65 per cent of all live music events in the country.
The rest is taken up by Aiken and the smaller promoters. One of the most notable among these is the well-regarded John Reynolds of POD Promotions. Reynolds has now entered into a partnership agreement with Aiken for certain events.
MCD is run by Denis Desmond, who also has interests in venue ownership (the Gaiety, the Olympia and the Ambassador) and the Abrakebabra fast-food chain. Aiken Promotions is headed by the likeable Belfast-born Peter Aiken (the company was founded by his father, Jim).
LAST YEAR, THE Office of Public Works (OPW), which is in charge of staging events in the Phoenix Park - advertised for tenders for the staging of "public entertainment" events in the park. Aiken Promotions submitted a tender for a Rolling Stones concert for 120,000 people in the park, but rival promoters MCD then sued the OPW claiming there were irregularities in the tendering process. MCD said in court it had also offered more money for the show than Aiken. MCD are at pains to point out that by legally challenging the OPW in the courts they were not trying to injunct the proposed Aiken-promoted Rolling Stones show.
In a hearing at the High Court last Monday, the OPW said that Aiken Promotions are now not going ahead with the proposed Stones concert.
The band are now due to play a show in Spain on the same day they were supposed to play Phoenix Park. MCD is continuing with its action against the OPW over the tendering process. MCD will not comment on what aspect of the tendering process it is challenging.
To the casual observer - and Rolling Stones fans - it could well appear that MCD have stopped or have had some hand in stopping Aiken promoting the show. MCD strenuously denies this - and their legal action was taken against the OPW, not Aiken Promotions.
To give some idea of the intense professional rivalry between the two companies, it's worth noting that no source approached for comment on this issue would speak on the record. One reliable independent source, who has no formal connection with either MCD or Aiken, says, "There are a lot of bizarre and outlandish theories being bandied around about what really happened here. With respect to existing Irish libel laws, I'll refrain from repeating them. However if Aiken had succeded in putting on the show it would have been a considerable slap in the face for MCD.
"This is because MCD have promoted most of the previous Rolling Stones shows in Ireland. Apart from the fact that a Stones gig will generate a very healthy profit for whichever promoter has the show, the fact that Aiken would have lured The Stones away from MCD would have been a considerable coup for the company."
If Aiken had secured this show, it might have given them more confidence in prising away from MCD other big-name, profit-securing acts such as Coldplay and Neil Diamond. The latter act - still one of the biggest live draws this country has ever known - was promoted by Aiken until two years ago when MCD bid and won the right to stage Diamond's last Irish tour. Poaching The Stones away from MCD would have looked like sweet revenge for Aiken.
But why did Aiken Promotions pull out of the Rolling Stones gig last week when it was still unclear who would prevail in the MCD/OPW court case? A privately run company is not going to openly discuss how and why they make such decisions. The rumours that surround the on/off Stones show have all been sparked by references to the very competitive rivalry between MCD and Aiken - but they remain unsubstantiated rumours.
The two promoters will do battle again this summer in a series of boutique-style music festivals. Two years ago John Reynolds/Aiken launched the inaugural Electric Picnic festival which was held in Stradbally House in Co Laois over the first weekend in September.
The term boutique refers to the fact that this was no ordinary rock music festival. For the second festival last year, only 25,000 tickets were sold thus ensuring no endless queuing for everything; the musical acts booked appealed mainly to a more mature thirtysomething audience and the facilities for an outdoor festival were bordering on the luxurious. The event has been a runaway success for Reynolds/Aiken and this year's Electric Picnic will now run for three days instead of last year's two - and there will be 5,000 more tickets made available.
MCD RECENTLY ANNOUNCED its own boutique-style festival, called Hi:Fi, to be held on August 5th and 6th. Similar to Electric Picnic, the Hi:Fi festival will take place in the grounds of a stately Midlands home - Belvedere House in Co Westmeath. The numbers will also be limited to about 25,000. This, however, is standard practice in the industry. Throughout Europe and the US over the last few years, there has been a marked shift towards the boutique-style festival. It was only a matter of time before MCD entered the boutique market.
As the bigger player, MCD has upped the stakes by entering into a partnership with the massive US company Clear Channel. (Clear Channel live events now go under the name Live Nation). It was this alliance which facilitated Denis Desmond purchasing a 35 per cent stake in Vince Power's Mean Fiddler group a year ago. Power, an Irishman who was a very significant music promoter in the UK was once a rival in Ireland to MCD. Desmond also has interests in music radio stations (Phantom FM) and in record companies (Setanta Records).
As this week's events have shown, the going can get a little rough in the music promotions industry. Despite some media attempts to characterise the rivalry between Aiken and MCD as that of a personal battle between Denis Desmond and Peter Aiken, the two (while not friends) would have the same type of relationship that is enjoyed/endured by any two competitive heads of rival companies.
The fact remains that everyone's a loser here: MCD for not getting the show in the first place; Aiken for getting the show but then pulling it; the OPW for losing out on a big pay day - and the 120,000 music fans who can't get no satisfaction.