Bastille-ing the show

Bastille are one of a handful of British acts to reach European arena-level on their second album. Rhian Jones finds out from those involved what it's taken to get there

By Rhian Jones on 20 Jan 2017

image © Gregory Nolan

To go from the 100-cap. Hoxton Hall to two sold-out dates at The O2 Arena in London in the space of two albums and four years is a mighty feat, and one which Bastille and team have achieved in a market whose attention has never been harder to sustain long-term. After hitting №1 for the second time with their Wild World album in September, in October the band embarked on a 56-date tour that will continue into 2017, visiting arenas and theatres around Europe and the US.

Kilimanjaro promoter Carlo Scarampi has been working with the band since that first Hoxton show, and has promoted the Wild, Wild World tour’s London, Bournemouth, Plymouth, Cardiff and Birmingham dates. “The band’s live business has gone crazy in a really good way,” he tells IQ. “After that first sold-out Hoxton show, we sold out the second one, then Scala, and it steamrolled from there. When their debut album came out in 2013, that’s when they really started to hit the ground running.”

“The band’s live business has gone crazy in a really good way”

Live Nation’s Roel Vergauwen, who is promoting the Sportpaleis (19,000-cap.) date in Antwerp this year, attributes the band’s live success partially to smart decisions made by agency Coda. “Coda likes to build careers for the long-term. They don’t overplay, they make the right choices, and do it step by step,” he says.

Over nearly six years, Bastille have played more than 460 shows. Since 2014, they have done a summer festival season, three months of lower-bowl, half-house arenas in North America and Canada, a run of festivals and small shows in Asia, South America, New Zealand and Australia, a second festival season and then back to the States. This summer they played Glastonbury, Bestival and Lollapalooza Chicago, among other shows, and the Wild, Wild World tour is their first headline tour for two and a half years.

Read the rest of this feature in issue 69 of IQ Magazine.

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