AEG Presents to manage Watford Colosseum
AEG Presents is to manage the 2,000-cap Watford Colosseum when it reopens in 2024 following an extensive multi-million pound refurbishment programme.
The appointment, which follows a procurement process run by Watford Borough Council, comes on the heels of AEG’s partnership with the City of Wolverhampton Council to revive The Halls Wolverhampton, which will re-open its doors on 1 June.
With many original art deco features, the 10,210 square foot Colosseum can accommodate 2,000 people standing or 1,392 people seated.
“We see great potential for this historic venue that has hosted a long list of big names over the years”
“We are delighted to bring live music and entertainment back to the stage at this much-loved venue in the heart of Watford,” says AEG Presents UK CEO Steve Homer. “As AEG Presents continues to expand its network of mid-sized venues around the world, we see great potential for this historic venue that has hosted a long list of big names over the years. From live music and dance to comedy, we’re excited to bring world-class artists back to Watford for the local community to enjoy.”
Watford Colosseum and The Halls Wolverhampton join AEG’s global network of more than 350 owned, operated and affiliated venues. In the UK, these include the Eventim Apollo London, Indigo at The O2 in London and the new live music venue at Olympia London set to open in 2024.
Last December, AEG Europe announced a handful of new appointments within AEG Presents UK as part of its growth and development plans across the venues and touring business. The company also hired Chris Wareing and Paris Harding from SJM, named Lucy Noble, previously of the Royal Albert Hall, as its inaugural artistic director and hired Georgie Donnelly as its first head of comedy .
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Promoter Lee Laborde moves to AEG Presents UK
AEG Presents UK has appointed ex-Live Nation veteran Lee Laborde to the position of SVP, promoting division.
The long-rumoured move will see Laborde head up AEG’s team of promoters and support the development of the long-term strategy for the division as the company continues to grow its venues and touring businesses.
Formerly at Live Nation for more than 15 years, Laborde has helped develop the likes of Dua Lipa, Twenty One Pilots, Imagine Dragons, Headie One, London Grammar, Nothing But Thieves, Daniel Caesar, Griff, Becky Hill and Gang Of Youths on the live stage.
“Lee is someone I have known for many years and simply put he is one of the best in the business – the roster of artists he works with are testament to that,” says AEG Presents UK CEO Steve Homer. “In 2022, our team delivered unprecedented success and his role will be instrumental in helping AEG Presents UK continue to grow and expand on this success even further.”
“To join AEG and get the opportunity to lead the promoting division in this newly-created role is beyond exciting”
Laborde adds: “I’ve been privileged to work with incredible artists at all stages of their musical journey. I started out as a music lover and that’s what still drives me. To join AEG and get the opportunity to lead the promoting division in this newly-created role is beyond exciting.”
The appointment is the latest in a string of announcements and investments from AEG Presents UK. The firm recently hired leading promoters Chris Wareing and Paris Harding from SJM Concerts to enhance its presence in the hip-hop and rap space; appointed Lucy Noble as its first ever artistic director and confirmed the reopening date of The Halls Wolverhampton, as well as naming Georgie Donnelly as its first head of comedy.
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AEG taps Chris Wareing and Paris Harding from SJM
AEG Presents UK has hired powerhouse promoters Chris Wareing and Paris Harding from SJM Concerts.
Wareing, who joins as SVP for global touring after 10 years with SJM, is a leading hip-hop, rap and R&B promoter who has worked with the likes of Stormzy, Dave, Travis Scott and Little Simz and founded the Gods of Rap tour.
In his new role, he will be responsible for expanding AEG’s hip-hop and rap presence globally. Wareing will work closely with Harding, who also joins the firm from SJM as a promoter. The duo are tasked with expanding upon the company’s existing offering as it continues its rapid growth trajectory and plans for development.
“Having worked alongside Chris for a number of years and admired his presence from afar, I couldn’t be more thrilled to have him join our team,” says AEG UK CEO Steve Homer. “He’ll be working closely with myself and my colleague Gary Gersh , [president of global touring and talent, AEG Presents] at an international level, to drive our footprint in these important genres forward. It’s rare to come across talent at the level he and Paris exhibit and I couldn’t think of a better way to close out a stellar year.”
“I admire the vision and work of the company and I’m looking forward to further driving their presence in the hip-hop and rap space”
Homer has overseen a revamp of AEG’s UK operations since taking sole charge of the company’s UK office at the start of the year following the departure of former co-CEO Toby Leighton-Pope, who has since resurfaced as MD of the newly formed TEG Europe.
“I’m excited to kick off the New Year with a new challenge booking globally with AEG,” adds Wareing. “I admire the vision and work of the company and I’m looking forward to further driving their presence in the hip-hop and rap space.”
Wareing and Harding’s appointments mark the latest step in AEG’s aggressive expansion plans. Just last week, it announced a handful of leadership appointments and recently named Lucy Noble, previously of the Royal Albert Hall, as its inaugural artistic director.
Last month, meanwhile, it hired Georgie Donnelly as its first head of comedy and previously confirmed the long-awaited reopening date of The Halls Wolverhampton.
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AEG Europe adds five new leaders to UK business
AEG Europe has announced a handful of new appointments within AEG Presents UK as part of its growth and development plans across the venues and touring business.
The company has promoted Jacqui Harris to the role of VP and general manager, responsible for all operational functions for the events, touring, marketing and ticketing teams.
In addition, Lucky Thompson is named senior director, events and operations, assuming overall leadership responsibility for the company’s cornerstone events division, which includes Summer Series, C2C, Eden Sessions and Just for Laughs, among others.
Elsewhere, Connie Shao becomes VP and general manager for international touring, tasked with managing the international touring division and operations of its tours and events.
“It’s an exciting time for our business as we break new ground and in turn, build out a people structure that powers the successful delivery of our growth plans”
Plus, Leonie Wakeman is appointed director of commercial operations, with a focus on identifying, developing and implementing new revenue opportunities, while Stuart Dorn is installed as group venue operations director, responsible for AEG Presents venues, such as Indigo at The O2, The Halls Wolverhampton, Eventim Apollo and Olympia London.
“It’s an exciting time for our business as we break new ground and in turn, build out a people structure that powers the successful delivery of our growth plans,” says AEG Presents UK CEO Steve Homer. “From our recently announced appointment of Lucy Noble as our inaugural artistic director, or our expanded footprint into the world of comedy, to our continued investment in venues like The Halls Wolverhampton or Olympia London… We’re heading into 2023 with strong momentum and I look forward to what’s to come.”
The company says the expansion will bring further opportunities across AEG Europe, with a number of open roles due to open in 2023.
PHOTO L-R: Jacqui Harris, Lucky Thompson, Connie Shao, Leonie Wakeman, Stuart Dorn
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UK promoters discuss impact of currency fluctuation
A number of UK promoters have spoken to IQ about the impact of currency fluctuation on international touring, as the pound sterling continues on a tumultuous trajectory.
The currency slumped to a two-week low against the dollar of $1.0954 on Tuesday morning (11 October), before rebounding less than 24 hours later. However, Goldman Sachs told Pound Sterling Live it expects the pound to continue to weaken due to “flawed fundamentals”.
Richard Buck, head of European touring and Middle East partnerships at TEG Europe, tells IQ that the declining rate is having “a significant impact on international touring”.
“Offers made in USD, if the currency is not pre-booked, may need to be adjusted or even pushed back,” he says. “Also for artists who are paid in pound sterling, it becomes less attractive to visit the market as their potential return can diminish by around 20% versus the original forecast.
“Anyone that is incurring costs in dollars and getting paid in sterling, in particular, is going to struggle”
“Any multi-territory deal that has been made in USD is now harder to sell into territories as the return is harder to achieve. However, those already sold into markets such as the Middle East where the primary artist currency is USD may benefit from the improved conversion.”
The pound fell to an all-time low of $1.03 last month in the wake of the government’s mini-budget, prompting AEG Presents UK chief Steve Homer to list the exchange rate as one of the promoter’s biggest concerns, while US artists including Animal Collective cancelled tours, in part, due to currency devaluation.
But as Kilimanjaro Live CEO Stuart Galbraith points out, dwindling currency is not an issue unique to the UK.
“The dollar is strong against most currencies in the world at the moment so it’s probably an issue in Europe generally,” he notes. “But anyone that is incurring costs in dollars and getting paid in sterling, in particular, is going to struggle.”
Galbraith says that even though a large proportion of Kilimanjaro’s business is domestic, the promoter is still seeing the effects of the pound-to-dollar slump.
“Acts from America are telling us that they cannot afford to tour in Europe. We’ve certainly lost a couple of isolated shows in the last three or four months and we had a couple of tours that we were about to go on sale with but we’ve now been told the artist isn’t coming to the continent.
“Some acts will have put together budgets earlier on in the year when they were expecting they’d get a $1.30/40 for every pound. If they’re now redoing those budgets on an almost parity basis then you can absolutely understand why they’re not able to balance the books and go through with the tour.”
“It comes down to whether a US artist is able to use crew and suppliers that are UK and Europe based”
Galbraith says there are two possible short-term solutions for American artists. The first is to incur as many costs as possible in local currency and minimise the exposure to dollar expenditure, and the second is to reduce the scale of the show and do it on a more cost-effective basis, he says.
“It comes down to whether a US artist is able to use crew and suppliers that are UK and Europe based, instead of bringing staff and equipment from the US – which is all going to be paid for in dollars – and incurring transatlantic flights which are now extremely expensive in comparison to pre-covid times,” he says.
While Galbraith believes cost-cutting measures could be the solution to bringing US artists to the UK, Homer is concerned it’ll come down to UK promoters to offer bigger fees.
“We were almost on parity, which has not been something we’ve been familiar with for a long, long time. And it’s really biting in terms of artists touring over here – it becomes far more expensive for them to do it and it’ll be interesting to see how that impacts going forward. It’s creating a few anxious thoughts as to whether we can afford to offer American artists what they need to come over, so it might mean we’re missing a few that we would normally see.”
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Toby Leighton-Pope exits AEG Presents
AEG Presents UK co-CEO Toby Leighton-Pope has left the company, it has been announced.
The promoter, who joined AEG from rival Live Nation alongside fellow co-CEO Steve Homer in 2016, has departed “to pursue other interests”, according to a statement released by AEG Europe.
Leighton-Pope previously spent 15 years at Live Nation UK, latterly as senior vice-president, where he launched the Hard Rock Calling Festival in Hyde Park. He has worked with the likes of Paul McCartney, The Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen, Arcade Fire, Michael Buble and Katy Perry.
Steve Homer will continue to lead the division
“AEG Europe announce today that Toby Leighton-Pope, Co-CEO of AEG Presents UK, has left the company to pursue other interests,” says the statement.
“Toby joined AEG in 2016 when he was appointed joint CEO with Steve Homer. Steve Homer will continue to lead the division focusing on further growing the touring business and developing the roster of venues operated by AEG Presents UK. These include Wolverhampton Civic Halls and Olympia, London, both of which are undergoing multi-million-pound renovations and are set to open in 2022 and 2024 respectively.”
AEG will operate a 4,400-capacity live music venue within the Olympia complex and also recently agreed a 25-year deal with the City of Wolverhampton Council to run the Civic Halls.
AEG launched the All Points East festival in 2018 and attracted the likes of Adele, Taylor Swift, The Killers, Paul Simon, Bob Dylan and Neil Young to the firm’s flagship BST Hyde Park festival.
The company also opened a new Paris office in 2018, while upcoming tours feature acts such as Justin Bieber, Shawn Mendes and Blondie, as well as Ed Sheeran’s stadium dates in Scotland.
In November last year, Leighton-Pope was unveiled as the new co-chair of the UK’s Music Industry Trusts Award with YouTube head of music, EMEA Dan Chalmers after previous chair David Munns stepped down following 27 years in the role.
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Tales from Covid: Steve Homer, AEG Presents
Tales from Covid, IQ’s new series of Q&As with locked-down industry leaders, sees leading lights of the concert business explain how they are weathering the coronavirus crisis and offer their predictions for the months ahead.
Following the fourth interview, with Rock Werchter founder and Live Nation Belgium head Herman Schueremans, IQ chats to Steve Homer, co-CEO of AEG Presents UK, about barriers to recovery, long-term changes and the decision to cancel AEG’s festivals, as well as how the crisis has brought the UK live industry together…
IQ: What professional lessons have you learned so far from the Covid-19 outbreak?
SH: The importance of maintaining communication with your team is vital to not only the business, but also the mental wellbeing of the staff. Using Teams and Zoom has been a revelation, and we are looking at lots of ways of supporting people through this crisis.
Since the start of the lockdown here in the UK, it is encouraging to see agents, promoters and managers have seen this as an opportunity to increase the level of communication. It’s a shared problem and there is a real desire to work together to get through this and come out the other side, all still in business. It has shown the live sector is made up of real people who genuinely care about live music.
When do you think the recovery might start, and how is AEG Presents preparing for it?
We have been looking at Q4 2020 but, as has been the case from the start, you have to keep monitoring and considering the position. The live industry appears to be the last to see any return to what we have considered to be normal.
The Presents team have been working hard to maintain information to customers, agents, artists and venues, so that as the government brings us out of lockdown we are ready to move forward. But from what has happened so far, we are moving with caution and not over committing to one strategy.
How do you feel about the British government response to the situation?
Hindsight is great. It’s easy to say now we should have gone into lockdown earlier and we would not be in the situation we find ourselves. New Zealand and Germany reacted quicker and are showing how it limited the impact, but, as I said, hindsight is a wonderful thing.
It’s the most difficult situation any of us has ever gone through. I feel we are getting the information from the government in a timely fashion and the logic behind it makes sense.
“The lockdown has shown us how important interaction is with our fellow humans – and where better to experience interaction than at a live show?”
Many major UK summer events have yet cancelled, and the government has yet to make a clear statement on how long any event ban would last, unlike in much of Europe. Given these circumstances, how did AEG Presents come to the decision to cancel BST Hyde Park and All Points East?
The UK events seem to be cancelling or postponing in a chronological order, so in some ways it doesn’t give the general public a doomsday scenario to face with the whole summer still in front of them.
As for AEG festivals, the set up, particularly for BST, have such long lead-in times it was only right to inform the artists and customers as soon as was practically possible.
According to DEAG’s Peter Schwenkow, “the open-air season is destroyed”. Would you agree with him?
As of today, it’s certainly looking that way for this summer.
As I’ve said, we are working hard towards the return but with the understanding things are continually subject to change. Social distancing being in place will have such a massive impact on this industry, of course. I know venues and events are modelling how to operate at reduced capacities.
What other challenges do you think the industry may face getting back up to speed?
The first question is, ‘When will that be?’. The longer we go on without operating, the bigger the strain on the companies within the industry and the suppliers we all rely on.
The live audience has a vast age range, and we currently believe the younger audience will come back quicker, with an older audience potentially not returning in numbers until there is a vaccine.
It’s about being able to react to the changes – what will the new normal be when we return? We are all speculating, but even the most experienced heads in the industry have never experienced the like of this.
What changes might we see long term?
The industry has, in the main, consolidated into key players over the past ten years, and this pandemic might change all this – we may see more independent companies emerging. Hopefully venues will be able to survive the lockdown, as it’s vital to have somewhere to play when we can get audiences back.
If anything, the lockdown has shown us how important interaction is with our fellow humans – and where better to experience interaction than at a live show? We have a future.
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Homer’s Odyssey: The Steve Homer story so far
Spend more than a minute or two in the company of Steve Homer, the affable, talkative co-CEO of AEG Presents in the UK, and one thing becomes clear: the man loves live music. Thirty years after he promoted his first show, Homer’s enthusiasm for the live experience is as infectious as ever.
“He’s a music fan,” says other co-CEO Toby Leighton-Pope, Homer’s partner in crime for the best part of 20 years. “If he doesn’t have a show on, he’ll find one to go and see. We’ll go away to LA on a business trip for a week, and after two days of lunches and dinners he’ll take off and go and see a band – he’s left many a business meal or important meeting to go see a show.”
“My dad, he’s 80 now, and I remember him saying to me a few years ago, ‘You’re never going to get a proper job, are you?’” adds Homer. “And I said, ‘correct.’ He just sees it as my hobby, my passion – and it is.”
Perhaps it’s that love for the art form that’s been the key to Homer’s success over the past three decades. Or maybe it’s his well-deserved reputation as a “perfect gentleman,” in the words of agent Tobbe Lorentz, or his willingness to turn his hand to everything from the Darkness to Tinie Tempah, building lifelong relationships along the way.
Either way, like Odysseus – the hero of the poem by his 8th-century-BC namesake – Homer’s story is an epic one (albeit with more Dolly Parton and fewer shipwrecks). And it begins in a market town in the Black Country, sometime in the early 1960s…
“He’s a music fan. If he doesn’t have a show on, he’ll find one to go and see”
Big on campus
Born in Stourbridge in the West Midlands, Homer caught the live music bug at his first show: The Clash at Wolverhampton Civic Hall on 16 December 1978, just a few weeks after his 15th birthday. His first brush with the industry, meanwhile, came five years later, when he went to Leicester University to study physics with astronomy (later, sensibly, transferring to a combined studies degree).
Homer, like many of his peers, served on Leicester’s entertainment committee, and after graduating in 1986 went to work at Staffordshire’s Keele University, which was recruiting for a professional (ie non-student) entertainments manager. But it was at another university that he cut his promoting teeth.
“The University of Sheffield wanted someone to come in and shape their commercial services department,” he explains. “There were three venues there, as opposed to one at Keele. The idea was to make Sheffield one of the biggest-earning university campuses in the country.”
And Homer delivered. By the early ’90s Sheffield’s entertainment business was making well over £1 million (€1.1m) profit annually, while Homer and team were running more than 60 shows a year.
By the early ’90s Sheffield’s entertainment business was making well over £1m profit annually
The old school
As a university ents manager in the early 90s, Homer was in good company: other now-household names in similar roles at the time included Middlesex Polytechnic’s Geoff Ellis (DF Concerts); the University of Warwick’s Chris York and Manchester’s Rob Ballantine (both SJM); Newcastle University’s Daryl Robinson (AMG/Mama); and the University of London’s Paul Hutton (Metropolis/Crosstown Concerts).
It was also his first contact with many bookers he works with to this day, as X-ray agent Adam Saunders recalls: “Steve and I first worked together when he was at Keele University, and then following that at Sheffield. We built a great working relationship through those early years, and we carried on working closely together through his years at the Mean Fiddler, too.
“We both had some incredibly pivotal years with the Darkness and the huge success through the Permission to Land album touring campaign. Steve had by that point moved to SFX (as Live Nation then was) and a second run on that tour featured multiple nights in all the UK arenas. We even included a tour warm-up show in the ‘intimate’ Brixton Academy. Great times…”
As a university ents manager in the early 90s, Homer was in good company
London calling
Homer remained at Sheffield until 1998, by which time he’d “run [his] course” at the university amid an unwelcome evolution in his responsibilities.
“Sheffield was a great place for gigs, but I’d moved further and further in that time from booking shows to the running of the commercial services side: helping to make the bars turn over more money, working with security services, and so on, Homer says. “But my main desire was that I wanted to work on live music.”
Homer joined the Mean Fiddler Music Group, Vince Power’s venue and festival empire, that year, after having turned down a job at one of the company’s venues two years prior. “I’d previously spoken to Vince Power about a job that came up at the Clapham Grand [south London],” he continues. “But I had real security within Sheffield, and people like Paul Hutton and Simon Moran advised me against it because at that time it was so off the beaten track.
“But I left it on good terms with Vince, and I phoned him up in mid-98 to say I wanted to move to London and asked if there was anything at Mean Fiddler. I came down and he offered me the job of running Mean Fiddler’s touring department.”
“I remember my dad saying to me a few years ago, ‘You’re never going to get a proper job, are you?’ And I said, ‘correct’”
After an “okay but not great” start promoting around 30 shows that autumn, including long-time Power clients Dr John and Republica, Homer fast put his own stamp on Mean Fiddler, famously promoting early shows by Eminem and Queens of the Stone Age while imbuing its touring division with the focus on talent development that had characterised his career to date.
He also began to book acts for Mean Fiddler’s Homeland and Reading Festivals, working closely with current Festival Republic MD Melvin Benn, as well as artists including Kylie Minogue, Carl Cox and Moloko for the Renaissance club in Ibiza.
At Mean Fiddler, Homer says, he learnt for the first time “that it really matters which company you work for. […] Some agencies loved Mean Fiddler but many others didn’t. It was the first time in my career that I’d been seen as part of that corporate umbrella.”
Other high-profile Mean Fiddler-era signings included pop-punk band Bowling for Soup – who Homer saw at South by Southwest and brought over for Reading and the new Leeds Festival – and All Seeing I, the Sheffield supergroup featuring Jarvis Cocker and Phil Oakey who scored a hit in 1999 with ‘Walk Like a Panther’.
Homer’s tenure at Mean Fiddler lasted just two years, and he admits that he didn’t leave the company on “great terms” with Power, who had been “very supportive” of his career to that point and perhaps felt cheated when his rising star was lured away.
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Laura Davidson joins new AEG European festivals team
Longtime Goldenvoice UK promoter Laura Davidson has joined AEG Presents’ new European festival division, established earlier this month under CEO Jim King.
Davidson joined AEG-owned Goldenvoice in 2014 alongside former Metropolis colleague Oscar Tuttiett. She was most recently Goldenvoice UK’s VP of live music.
As part of the new European festival unit, she will serve as head of artist bookings, responsible for all bookings for All Points East (APE) in Victoria Park, London. She will also support King across all existing AEG festivals, as well as future projects.
“Laura will be an integral part of the team”
“Laura will be an integral part of the team and I couldn’t be happier that she has joined us,” comments King. “She is one of the most passionate music fans that I have ever met and has proven herself to be expertly skilled in the role of originating and curating incredible festival line-ups.”
Davidson adds: “I’m excited to be joining this new division at AEG. I was very proud to have been part of the team that launched a brand-new festival with All Points East. I’m looking forward to an even better 2020 in Victoria Park, as well as working with Jim across all of AEG’s festivals.”
In addition to APE, the European festival division oversees British Summer Time Hyde Park in London and Rock en Seine in Paris.
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BST Hyde Park receives AIE gold status
AEG Presents’ British Summer Time (BST) Hyde Park has been awarded gold status for Attitude is Everything’s charter of best practice, recognising the event’s commitment to inclusivity for deaf and disabled people.
Since 2013, AEG Presents has partnered with Attitude is Everything, a charity working to improve access to live music for deaf and disabled people. The charter of best practice exceeds the legal obligations set out in the equality act, presenting measures to achieve a truly equal service for disabled customers.
In 2017, the UK Live Music Group officially recognised the charter as an industry standard.
“We’ve been working with AEG and BST Hyde Park for over five years and have been impressed by how the festival have developed their access over this time,” says Paul Hawkins, Attitude is Everything’s festivals and volunteering manager.
“Accessibility works best when it something that all staff members engage in, from a senior level to frontline staff, and this is certainly the case with Barclaycard presents British Summer Time Hyde Park.
“AEG have been a fantastic company to work with and we are confident that, even with the gold award, they will continue to raise the bar for access to ensure all customers have the best experience possible at the shows,” adds Hawkins.
“Accessibility works best when it something that all staff members engage in, from a senior level to frontline staff, and this is certainly the case with BST Hyde Park”
The news comes following the event’s double win at the charity’s Outstanding Attitude Awards in March, picking up awards in the ‘customer service’ and ‘ticketing without barriers – venue/event’ categories. The event also received commendation for updates to its disabled-access provision.
Initiatives at BST Hyde Park include three accessible viewing areas over two stages and roaming drinks vendors at the Great Oak stage and Barclaycard stage. A friend or family member can gain access to the areas with an interchangeable, free personal assistant pass.
British sign language (BSL) interpreters cover every act on the Great Oak stage and accessible toilets are present at every toilet block. All pre-event information is available in audio and easy read versions and there is a dedicated access customer service team available all year via email and phone.
The introduction of guided tours will help those requiring additional assistance for navigating the site.
“Making sure our events are open to all is a top priority of ours, and we believe it truly sets us apart from our competitors,” comments AEG Presents’ senior event manager, Jenny Hamada. “Recognition from Attitude is Everything, who we’ve worked with for many years, is a heartening sign that these efforts are making a real difference.”
Headliners for this year’s BST Hyde Park include Celine Dion (5 July), Stevie Wonder (6 July), Barbra Streisand (7 July) and Florence and the Machine (13 July).
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