All Things Live promotes Norway’s biggest-ever gig
All Things Live has smashed the attendance record for a concert on Norwegian soil, hosting 60,000 fans at a Rammstein show.
The event took place on Sunday 24 June at Bjerke Travbane in Oslo and was the first-ever concert held at the horse racing track.
The previous attendance record was set by All Things Live subsidiary Atomic Soul with Eminem’s 2018 performance at Oslo Sommertid festival.
The rapper drew around 55,000 fans to the capital’s Voldsløkka sports stadium after tickets sold out in just six minutes.
Commenting on the Rammstein show, All Things Live Norway promoter Mark Vaughan says: “Bjerke Travbane was a fantastic venue to present this massive show. It doesn’t come any bigger than Rammstein and both band and crew were extremely happy after the show.”
All Things Live Norway has secured an exclusive agreement with Bjerke Travbane going forward, which will be the largest capacity arena in Norway.
“We have worked and invested a lot to make this venue compatible for the biggest artists in the world, now we have proved it works and we are looking forward to bringing stadium artists to Norway going forwards!” says Peer Osmundsvaag, All Things Live Norway.
“We are looking forward to bringing stadium artists to Norway going forwards”
News of the record-breaking concert comes as All Things Live announces yet another acquisition.
The private-equity-backed live entertainment group has sealed the deal with Stageway, a leading Norwegian live entertainment group that deals in artist management, booking and promoting.
The Bergen-based group’s activities are conducted via three companies: Stageway Talent, Komon Stageway and Stageway Teater.
Stageway Talent provides booking and promotion services across genres for a roster of more than 30 artists; Komon-Stageway delivers turnkey event solutions for large corporate customers and Stageway Teater produces comedy shows and acts as a management service provider for renowned Norwegian comedy duo Ylvis, among others.
Arne Svare, co-founder and CEO of Stageway, says: “We are so pleased to announce that we are joining forces with All Things Live to accelerate our joint business in Norway, the Nordics and beyond in the coming years. We have been part of the bustling live entertainment industry for four decades and known and respected the team behind All Things Live for years. Together, we will strengthen our offering to artists and customers while delivering even greater experiences for the audience.”
Knut Meiner, chairman and senior consultant of Komon-Stageway, adds: “Everyone in our companies have worked hard to build a strong reputation in the Norwegian market. We are absolutely thrilled to become part of a partnership, which is well-respected and shares our aspiration to grow the business based on deep understanding of the local market and a clear focus on bringing great live entertainment and fantastic corporate events to more people.”
“Stageway is a great business with fantastic talent, strong growth prospects and a perfect fit with our existing operations”
The management team and organisation of Stageway will remain unchanged, and existing contracts and customer relationships will not be affected by All Things Live’s acquisition of Stageway Talent, Komon-Stageway and Stageway Teater. In connection with the transaction, the current owners of the three companies become partners and co-owners of All Things Live.
“Stageway is a great business with fantastic talent, strong growth prospects and a perfect fit with our existing operations in All Things Live Norway. We are very pleased to welcome the great people behind Stageway who will contribute greatly to the development of our partnership in Norway and internationally,” says Kim Worsøe, member of the executive board of All Things Live Group.
Completion of the transaction is subject to regulatory approval by the Norwegian Competition Authority. The parties have agreed not to disclose the purchase price.
All Things Live has been on an acquisition spree in the past fortnight, this week enhancing its presence in Belgium with the addition of management company Musickness.
Last week, All Things Live signalled its expansion into the Italian market with the acquisition of promoter and agency Radar Concerti and also recently announced the signing of international management firm Then We Take The World.
All Things Live was established in 2018 as “the new independent market leader in Nordic live entertainment” following Waterland Private Equity’s acquisition of six leading Scandinavian promoters and agencies.
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Asian promoters targeted by email scammers
Mirroring the rash of scams that targeted European and Latin American promoters in 2016–17, concert organisers in Asia have been warned to be on their guard after a surge in phishing emails from bogus ‘agents’.
The last few weeks have seen promoters, festivals and venues across Asia invited to offer for A-list talent, including Rihanna, Lady Gaga, Eminem and System of a Down, by scammers posing as their representatives.
Screenshots obtained by China Music Radar show emails purporting to be from Hannah Edds – assistant to Eminem’s agent, Steve Strange at X-ray Touring – and WME partner David Levy, from xraytouring.co and wmeentertainment.co, respectively (note the missing “m”s).
According to the site, the two emails originate from domains registered and hosted in Hong Kong.
The last few weeks have seen promoters, festivals and venues across Asia invited to offer for A-list talent by scammers
In May 2018, the UK’s Entertainment Agents’ Association issued a checklist for promoters following a spate of scams that saw fraudsters posing as agents for acts including System of a Down and Eminem, as well as Adele, Justin Timberlake, Beyoncé and Mark Knopfler.
“Please be very careful if you get mails that don’t quite look right,” said CAA’s Emma Banks, who represents System of a Down. “Follow the common-sense steps that the Agents’ Association have suggested and don’t send any money until you have double checked that the ‘agent’ is indeed who they say they are.
“Please get on the phone to the agents you are doing business with – everything on email makes these scams so much easier for people to instigate.”
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Eminem 2019 Rapture tour to break more records
Eminem’s upcoming show in Wellington, New Zealand, is expected to bring record numbers of visitors to the Kiwi capital, as well as breaking the attendance record for the city’s 34,500-seat Westpac Stadium.
The rapper’s TEG Dainty-promoted 2019 Rapture tour has already been one for the history books, as a record 80,708 fans attended the Eminem concert at Melbourne Cricket Ground on Sunday night.
A total of 45,000 fans will attend the one-off Eminem concert on Saturday 2 March in Westpac Stadium. According to stadium chief executive Shane Harmon, this will be the largest ever crowd to attend a single-day event in the stadium.
The venue organisers will have 1,500 staff members on hand at the concert, as well as installing additional food, drink and bathroom facilities.
“It’s going to be another huge weekend in the capital”
It is expected that 22,000 of these fans will be visitors, travelling from outside Wellington to attend the show. The previous record for single-day event visitors was set in 2017, when 20,000 British Lions rugby fans visited the city for a test match against the New Zealand All Blacks.
“It’s going to be another huge weekend in the capital,” says Wellington mayor, Justin Lester. “People will need to expect a bit of congestion on the streets and footpaths. Let’s welcome visitors and enjoy the occasion.”
Eminem has only played one New Zealand show before, at Western Springs Stadium (49,000-cap.) in Auckland, as part of his 2014 Rapture tour. The concert was the stadium’s fastest-selling show ever, attracting over 50,000 fans.
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Eminem breaks attendance record at the MCG
Eminem performed to a record-breaking 80,708 fans at Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) last night, surpassing the stadium’s attendance record, established by the 2009 Sound Relief concert (80,518) at the stadium.
The concert, part of the rapper’s TEG Dainty-promoted 2019 Rapture tour, attracted more fans than ever before to a live concert at the MCG, which has a total capacity of 100,024.
TEG Dainty president and chief executive, Paul Dainty, has now promoted three out of the four shows with top entertainment attendance records at the MCG, with the 2017 Guns N’ Roses tour (73,756) and the World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) Super Showdown in 2018 (70,309).
Dainty calls the attendance record an “outstanding achievement” for the rapper.
“Eminem is one of the greatest showmen in the world with a fiercely loyal Australian fan base that continues to grow with each tour,” comments Dainty. “He is no stranger to selling out stadium shows, but this new record is just phenomenal.”
“Eminem is one of the greatest showmen in the world with a fiercely loyal Australian fan base that continues to grow with each tour”
Eminem has sold a total of 300,000 tickets for the five stadium shows that make up his Australian Rapture tour. The tour kicked off in Brisbane on 20 February, then heading to Sydney and Melbourne. The Australian leg closes on Wednesday in Perth, before the rapper heads to Wellington, New Zealand.
In 2014, Eminem played four sell-out shows across Australia and New Zealand as part of his first Rapture tour. The rapper performed at Melbourne’s Etihad Stadium (51,335-cap.), Brisbane’s Suncorp Stadium (43,927-cap.), Sydney’s ANZ Stadium (53,649-cap.) and Auckland’s Western Springs Stadium (52,444-cap.)
The tour also consisted of two South African dates and a show at London’s Wembley stadium (90,000-cap.).
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Eminem at Oslo Sommertid is Norway’s biggest-ever show
Hip-hop superstar Eminem smashed Norway’s record books with the biggest concert the country has ever hosted, when Atomic Soul sold out all 55,000 tickets in just six minutes for his 30 June Oslo Sommertid festival show, alongside Pusha T, Royce da 5’9”, OnkiP and Klovner I Kamp.
The promoter used the opportunity to carry out a ‘consequence analysis’ of the event, the results of which should help them, and other event organisers, with licensing applications in the years ahead.
“As part of our daily chores, we have to navigate the political landscape for licensing, park rental and other council-based activities, so we wanted to get an independent analysis done on what a concert actually generates for the city in tourism income,” explains Atomic Soul founder, Peer Osmundsvaag.
“We are extremely proud to have put on the largest event in Norwegian history”
That report, carried out by renowned economist Samfundsøkonomisk analyse, reveals that Eminem’s visit to the capital city generated additional tourism income of 80million kr (€8.2m), through the likes of hotel-room bookings, restaurant business and local transportation, and supported the equivalent of 100 full-time annual jobs.
“We were really surprised by the results of the analysis, but hopefully we can use this report as a tool when it comes to convincing the local authorities about the benefits that live music events can have to the economy and local businesses,” continues Osmundsvaag.
“We are extremely proud to have put on the largest event in Norwegian history and we’re looking forward to doing an even better job in 2019.”
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Huge summer shows are music to Twickenham’s ears
London’s Twickenham Stadium is gearing up for its biggest-ever summer of live music, as the home of England Rugby stakes its claim as a must-visit concert venue for some of the world’s biggest acts.
The Rolling Stones’ announcement earlier this week that the UK leg of its No Filter tour would include a stop at Twickenham is testament to the stadium, owned by the Rugby Football Union (RFU) and which has a concert capacity of 55,000, fast becoming a major contender in the hotly-contested London stadium concert market.
Alongside the 19 June Stones gig, Twickenham will this July host two dates by Eminem – and RFU head of ticketing, music and new events Richard Harris reveals the venue is already in negotiations with artists touring in the next few years.
“This year we’ve filled up all our available slots,” he tells IQ, “but we’re already in talks for 2019 and even 2020.”
While Harris says Twickenham Stadium is still “very much focused on being a world-class rugby venue – that’s our bread and butter, our core business”, as well as serving as a London venue for the increasingly popular NFL American football league, stadium bosses have “ambitions” to grow its music programming after putting a temporary hold on concerts while the stadium prepared for the 2015 Rugby World Cup. Music returned to Twickenham last July when U2 played two nights at the stadium as part of their Joshua Tree tour.
“I joined RFU in January 2016 as head of ticketing,” he explains, “and in 2017 I also took on the new events business. Our new chief exec, Steve Brown, is a huge music fan, and it was his vision to get music back in the stadium.”
The Rolling Stones haven’t played in the UK since 2013, and haven’t visited Twickenham since 2006 – what, then, was the process of securing that all-important 2018 date, IQ wonders?
“We’re focused on what we have: a brilliant venue for music”
“I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t a hard one to get to London,” Harris explains. “The band weren’t even certain they were going to tour, but we went over to see them in Paris on a speculative trip in October last year and met up with [Sensible Events’] Andrew Zweck and AEG and said it would be great if the Stones could come ‘home’ to Twickenham. After all, they started out in Richmond…”
Initially, however, the Twickenham team were introduced by an unlikely figure, says Harris: the stadium’s head groundsman Keith, who met a key contact for the band while he was “giving a lecture in Devon about how to grow grass!”
Both Eminem’s Revival tour and the Stones’ No Filter are notably skipping Wembley Stadium – historically the go-to venue for stadium shows in London, but which has scaled back its live music programming slightly following the departure of former biz dev chief Jim Frayling. It does, however, still have both Ed Sheeran and Taylor Swift this summer – is Harris conscious of competing with Wembley (as well as newer rival London Stadium, in Stratford) to secure shows, or is the market strong enough to accommodate everyone?
“It’s definitely a big enough market,” he says. “I used to work at Wembley, so I know the appeal. But we’re focused on what we have: a brilliant venue for music.
“The acoustics are great, the crowd are closer and the stands are steeper, so there’s a better connection with the audience…
“We’re in really good shape, and we’re really excited about the future.”
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Eminem to play first Danish show at Roskilde 2018
The European leg of Eminem’s comeback Revival tour, announced today, will include a stop at Roskilde Festival – the American rap superstar’s first-ever show in Denmark.
Eminem will headline Roskilde on Wednesday 4 July – the US’s Independence Day – with other European shows including Norway’s Oslo Sommertime Festival, Switzerland’s Frauenfeld Open Air, arena dates in Stockholm, Milan, Hanover and the Netherlands and two nights at London’s Twickenham Stadium (80,000-seat) on 14 and 15 July.
“Eminem is one of the biggest artists of his generation, and we are absolutely thrilled to finally get him to Denmark,” says Anders Wahrén, Roskilde’s head of programming. “We have wanted him at Roskilde Festival for so many years, and I must admit I almost shed a tear of joy when I got the confirmation.
“Eminem’s importance can’t be overstated. More than anyone else, he has brought hip hop to new audiences. His Reading show last year served as proof that he can conquer a festival crowd, and we can’t wait to see him on our iconic Orange stage.”
Eminem (pictured) joins around 175 acts playing Roskilde Festival 2018, including headliners Bruno Mars, Gorillaz and David Byrne.
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