VMS bolsters promotions division with new hires

VMS Live, the venue management and booking consultancy run by ex-Academy Music Group/MAMA director Steve Forster, has made two appointments as it bulks up its promotions division.

Veteran promoter Isla Miskelly, who joins from Live Nation, will work alongside commercial director Carl Bathgate and promoter/booker Joff Hall, ensuring VMS “can gain access to the widest range of live music and club talent, as well as ‘experiential’ activity”, explains Forster. Prior to joining Live Nation, Miskelly – one of Music Week’s ‘30 Under 30’ 2016 –  she worked at DHP Family, and before that was a booker for Truck Festival in Oxfordshire.

Also joining VMS Live is Sarah Louise Jones, who moves from the 1,200-cap. William Aston Hall in Wrexham to become promotions assistant.

Forster explains that VMS – which offers a range of services, including venue management, development and refurbishment; event booking and production; sponsorship and brand partnerships; health and safety management; ticketing solutions; and advice on licensing – is in future increasing the number of shows it books in both indoor and outdoor venues.

“Bringing Isla on board gives us access to a new range of artists and contacts. We have some exciting plans to develop going into 2018 and we can’t wait to get stuck into it”

“For example, this year we have developed the Inner City Live concept in Birmingham and Hull, with a number of other locations asking to work with us for 2018,” he says.

Commenting on the new appointments, he tells IQ: “In the last 12 months our business as a whole has continued to develop, with the promotions side – both the shows we are promoting ourselves and those on behalf of our clients – having more than doubled in size over that period. While we are certainly a very small player in the greater scheme of things, what we are focusing on is different sorts of events and expanding into different territories.

“Bringing Isla on board gives us access to a new range of artists and contacts. We have some exciting plans to develop going into 2018, and, to be honest, we can’t wait to get stuck into it. [This year] has been a great year for us, but we are very much looking to the future with these new appointments.”

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