NOS Alive announces first headliner

NOS Alive is the latest of Europe’s top festivals to confirm The Cure as one of their headliners.  The Cure will headline the Main Stage at the Lisbon festival on Thursday 11th of July next.  The set is promised to be over 2 hours in length, no surprise from the veteran band, who have a reputation for playing extra long sets.

The Cure had stated their intention to headline about 20 festivals this summer and they have already announced for a number of shows, including Rock Werchter, Exit, Glasgow’s Summer Sessions and more.  They are also rumoured to be headlining Glastonbury.

NOS Alive is centrally located in Lisbon and can be the centre piece of a trip to one of Europe’s most vibrant cities.  Tickets for NOS Alive 2018 are priced €65/£59,80 for a day ticket and €149/£137,08 for the three-day pass.  With a capacity of about 50,000 per day, this festival normally boasts one of the best-line ups in Europe.

 

 

 

John Reynolds – An appreciation

Like many other music lovers, I was stopped in my tracks last night with the news of John Reynolds sudden passing.  At 52 he was a relatively young man with a great future still ahead of him.

Ireland’s concert-going community know the debt we owe to John Reynolds.  He changed everything.  The arrival of Electric Picnic in 2004 not only brought choice to festival goers, it also brought a whole new level of experience.  This was not just a music festival, but a music and arts festival.  Quite a few people at the time were scratching their head as to what that might mean.   It meant an entirely new way of running a festival.

While Reynolds would ultimately lose control of Electric Picnic, his legacy would continue in all Irish festivals.  The launch of All Together Now in 2018 was a clear attempt to recreate the initial atmosphere of Electric Picnic as a smaller, boutique festival.  Just as the Picnic had been formed as an alternative to the behemoth that was Oxegen, All Together Now was aimed at a section of the market that Reynolds believed had been left behind as Electric Picnic had expanded.  The first All Together Now was, according to punters, a huge success.

Body and Soul, which has grown into one  Ireland’s best festivals gained much of its fame from inclusion in the Electric Picnic line up.  It is hard to imagine that Body and Soul would have grown to what it is without Reynold’s influence.

This weekend coming will see the fourth running of Metropolis, another of Reynold’s innovations.  The show, which is being headlined by Villagers should be a tribute to a man who has given a huge amount to Irish audiences.

There is an Irish saying which is used in moments such as this, ‘ni bheidh a leitheid aris ann.’  It translates as, never will we see his like again.

Here is an RTE archive report in advance of the first Electric Picnic, including a brief segment with John Reynolds

 

Falling event numbers and crowds see lossses continue at Live Nation Gaiety

Accounts were recently published for 2017 by Live Nation Gaiety, one of the UK’s largest promoters.  Live Nation operates a large number of the UKs festivals, including Reading & Leeds, TRNSMT, Rize and Isle of Wight.

LN Gaiety, a joint venture between Live Nation and Denis Desmond has reported a consolidated loss after tax of £227,496.  The consolidated loss in 2016 was £2.9m.  Turnover at the company was down to £199.4m, down marginally on the year before.  However, things are far from gloomy at the behemoth, as the company was sitting on over £27m cash in the bank.  Net assets at the company were down 1.5 per cent to £40.1m.

The promoters ran 4,191 events in 2017, this was down from 4,728 events in 2016.  Despite a 11.4% drop in events, the total attendance for events was only marginally down, from 5.48m to 5.34m.

The Company had 630 staff in 2017, up from 618 in 2016.  Salaries in the year amounted to £18.1m, up from £17.5m the previous year.  A total of £527,850 of dividends were paid to “non-controlling interests” during the year, which was down from £3.2 million the year before.

 

 

 

Rock am Ring / Rock im Park announce headliners and more

German twin festivals, Rock am Ring and Rock im Park have announced a substantial chunk of their line up today.    Tool, Slipknot and Die Arzte will headline the festivals.  This closely mirrors the line up of Download, which was also announced today and which also included Tool and Slipknot.

Also on the line up are Foals, Bastille, Alice in Chains, Slash,  The 1975 and Dropkick Murphys.The festival will take place from June 7 – 9, 2019.

Rock am Ring and Rock im Park, not unlike Leeds and Reading are twinned festivals, which run over the same weekend in Germany.  Rock am Ring takes place in the Nürburgring, Nürburg and Rock im Park takes place in Zeppelinfeld, Nuremberg.    Rock am Ring has been on the go since 1985, Rock im Park began life as Rock im Wien in 1993.  Each festival has a capacity of close to 88,000.

Over 60,000 tickets have already been sold in early bird, discounted packages.  Tickets are now on sale for €169 for a three day camping ticket.  Further ticket details can be found here. 

Download 2019 – The metal starts here!

Download, one of the most established heavy metal festivals in the World has released first details of the 2019 festival. Slipknot, Tool and Def Leppard are the headliners at this year’s event.

The sub headliners include Slash, Die Antwoord, Whitesnake, Rob Zombie and Trivium.  Also included are Amon Amarth, Carcass, Delain, Me First and the Gimme Gimmes, Opeth, Powertrip, Reel Big Fish, Skindred, Starset, Tesla, The Amity Affliction and Underoath.   Many more will be announced in the months ahead.

A crowd of over 110,000 make this one of the real monster festivals in Europe.  It has inherited the mantle of the lengendary Monsters of Rock Festival which ran at Donnington in the 80s and 90s.  Virtually every heavy metal icon has played at Donnington over the years.  2018 headliners included Guns and Roses, Avenged Sevenfold and Ozzy Osbourne.

Early bird tickets have sold out already.  Tickets go back on sale this Thursday 25th.

Download will take place in Donnington Park from June 14 to 16, 2019.

Florence added to Rock Werchter line up

Florence and the Machine look set for a busy Summer of festival outings next year, with Rock Werchter announcing that the band will be on the list for Saturday Night.  The festival takes place from June 27 -30, 2019.

Florence is a festival favourite, having twice been a winner at the UK Festival Awards.  Now promoting her fourth album, High as Hope, this will not be the last festival she gets announced for.

Florence joins The Cure, Pink, Mumford and Sons and Muse on what is looking like one of the standout line-ups of the Summer.  Florence will be playing on the Saturday night, along with Mumford and Sons.

Tickets for Rock Werchter go on sale this Friday.

Stonedeaf

A one day festival isn’t all that common, particularly not a stand alone one day event.  Stonedeaf is a bit cool.  It was founded by some veterans of Monsters of Rock and Donnington festivals.  They got together on a Facebook group and decided to put together a festival.  This is already one that I like the sound of.

Last year they attracted Skid Row, Quireboys, Anvil and Wolfsbane.  The initial line up for this years event was announced last night, with Glenn Hughes announced as headline act.  Hughes will perform songs from Deep Purple, with whom he played from 73-76.

He is joined on the line up by Diamond Heat, The Amorettes and Massive.  Another five bands will be added to the line up, with the gig taking place on August 24th.

Camping tickets are £60 and arena tickets are £50

Live Nation snags Camp Bestival – Rob da Bank still at helm

Reports abound that Rob da Bank is back at the helm of Camp Bestival after a deal with Live Nation and Creditor Richmond Group

It appears that Live Nation Gaiety and SJM have done a deal with Richmond Group who had bought the business out of administration last month.

 A Statement on the the Camp Bestival website said: “With the help of Live Nation Gaiety and SJM we will really be able to bring more of our creative vision to life with the support structure needed going forward.

A few things remain unresolved.  Today’s statement talks about Camp Bestival, there is still no mention about Bestival.

The other outstanding issue relates to competition.  The UK’s Competition watchdog had to approve Live Nation Gaiety’s take over of the Isle of Wight Festival in 2017.  It remains to be seen whether this deal will be subject to approval.