A 30-year delay in resuming his gap year has allowed Nottingham impresario George Akins to take a family-run venue and build a business that is now one of the UK’s most important independent live music groups. Looking back on a remarkable three decades, the DHP chief tells IQ about his strategy for growth and future plans for the company…

When your father is a titan of the business community, getting a job in the family firm might be inevitable, but for George Akins Jnr, his baptism of fire could not have been more badly timed.

“I was six weeks into a year-long break, in Australia, when my dad sacked everyone at Rock City,” recalls Akins. “So, when I made my regular call home, I was told, ‘You need to come back and run Rock City.’ A few days later, I caught a flight back… I thought I was only going to be there for a few months until things got sorted out. But 30 years later, here we are…”

One of Nottingham’s 20th century legends, Akins’ late father – George Akins Snr – built and operated an empire that included casinos, betting shops, amusement arcades, and an extensive property portfolio. “Rock City was a bit on the side for him, really,” says Akins, who at the age of 18 found himself in the position of being the venue’s boss. “I’d sort of been involved because I was into music, while music wasn’t really dad’s thing, so Rock City was not his core business.”

However, the teenager’s impact was immediate. Within a year, he had refurbished Rock City’s basement to create a 700-capacity space called The Rig. And his expansion of the business, year-on-year, has been pretty consistent ever since.

“It wasn’t really until maybe the late ‘90s that I started looking at proper expansion of the music side, because I’d also been doing sports bars. But at that point, it became clear to me that I needed to stick to what I was good at – the music-led stuff. So rather than identifying sites where I could sell alcohol, my mindset changed toward ‘How can I turn this into a music venue?’”

“Anton was the local indie promoter in Nottingham, working with acts like White Stripes and The Strokes”

George Akins Snr acquired the Rock City premises – then a variety club called Heart of the Midlands – in 1980. He co-founded Rock City with promoter Sammy Jackson, who had been running the Porterhouse in Retford, which was already established on the tour circuit.

“Sammy was there for about a year before Paul Mason was promoted and took over. But Paul was then poached by The Factory guys to run the Hacienda [in Manchester],” Akins tells IQ. “In the late 80s, Andy Copping ran things, and when I took over, he was still working for us as a consultant. Andy was great – someone I could call for support, and he was sort of my mentor for booking. I’d book the indie stuff, and he handled the rock stuff, right up until just before we opened the Rescue Rooms.”

Another key move in DHP’s growth was when Akins hired Anton Lockwood. “Anton was the local indie promoter in Nottingham, working with acts like White Stripes and The Strokes, so it was really important to bring him in the fold when we opened the Rescue Rooms. From then on, we started opening more places and doing more shows.”

Akins and his team had converted what was one of his sports bars into the Rescue Rooms, providing DHP with a springboard to work with acts at different stages of their career development.

Coincidentally, 2002 also marked the first time that the company promoted a show in an external venue, when they took System of a Down to Nottingham Arena.

Adding to the DHP Nottingham portfolio, dance music venue Stealth opened its doors in 2004, while the following year, Akins inked a deal with Heavenly Records to buy The Social, which would be renamed The Bodega Social Club.

“On Thekla’s opening night, we nearly sank”

Having four venues in his native Nottingham was close to saturation point for DHP’s boss. But rather than sit on his laurels, Akins’ ambition for growth saw the company looking at venues else- where in the UK to facilitate expansion.

“If I did anything else in Nottingham, it felt like it was going to be robbing Peter to pay Paul. We already had, at that stage, Rock City, Rescue Rooms, Stealth, and Bodega.”

All At Sea
The next path for expansion emerged in ship-shape fashion, in the form of Thekla – a boat in Bristol’s harbour, which was a legendary venue in the city. Adding to the task of fitting out a new live music venue, many others would have dismissed outright using a boat to stage gigs. “I was young, so everything was fucking possible,” laughs Akins. “It was all an adventure.”

He continues, “I’ve done everything imaginable in a venue: I’ve DJ’d, I’ve done the lights, I’ve done the cloakroom, I’ve even had a blast at sound engineering – I’ve never really been frightened of anything, so a boat didn’t faze me.”

That viewpoint was soon to change. “On Thekla’s opening night, we nearly sank,” he recalls. “The original owners had been pumping toilet waste into the harbour, and there was a hole where they pumped it out. Of course, when we put it into dry dock to do all the works, that hole was supposed to be sealed up. But it wasn’t. And we put water tanks on the roof, so as those tanks were filling up, the boat started listing, and when it hit the water line, it started filling up through the hole for the toilet waste.”

Despite that near disaster, the risky move turned out to be pivotal for DHP, expanding their remit and providing a catalyst for the company’s later expansion into London.

“I suppose I take after my dad in that way – my entrepreneurial attitude to things. I see opportunities, and I pounce on them”

Indeed, in 2024, DHP runs eight venues, having also taken on The Garage in London, and opened the adjacent The Grace, as well creating Oslo in a former Hackney railway building.

Akins observes, “I suppose I take after my dad in that way – my entrepreneurial attitude to things. I see opportunities, and I pounce on them.”

Looking back on three decades of what he thought was going to be a temporary job, Akins says, “DHP’s timeline for growth has sort of been venues, venues, venues; then a bit of festivals; then sort of building concert promotions and expanding that nationally, as well.”

Indeed, DHP’s first festival was in 1997. “It was City in the Park, which was a reference to Rock City. The first year was Saw Doctors, where we did 9,000 tickets, and the second year was The Corrs, which did 30,000 people. But we couldn’t make money – the ticket prices were not enough to allow you to make money on the infrastructure and the artist costs. But it was an opportunity to build a relationship with Nottingham Council, so it was definitely worthwhile.

“Then I tried to do a rock event called Distortion, which had sort of spawned from another event called Extreme 2000 – a pop-punk festival I had in 2000. We had Less Than Jake in the first year, then Green Day in 2001, and neither of them made money, but I could see the sprouts of an idea. But when I tried to get The Offspring for 2002 and couldn’t, I realised there just weren’t enough acts in that scene to make that happen. So I shelved it for a few years until Nottingham City Council had ambitions to bring an international class festival to the city and were ready to bankroll it.”

The company’s festival stable now includes the likes of Splendour, Bearded Theory, Dot To Dot, Beat The Streets, Society Exists, and Foolhardy Folk Festivall, while Akins admits he’s looking at other existing events for DHP to acquire.

“The real problem post-pandemic is inflation and opening a venue from scratch”

“With festivals, unless you have incredibly deep pockets, it’s very hard to create something from scratch. And it’s now the same with venues. But there will be opportunities elsewhere to become involved in existing businesses, and that’s what I’m looking for,” he reveals.

“Our growth since the pandemic has really been the festival stuff. Venue wise, there have been some opportunities, but the real problem post-pandemic is inflation and opening a venue from scratch. We had a building in Birmingham that we seriously looked at, but the construction costs just became insane and wouldn’t make financial sense.”

In terms of DHP’s promoting credentials, Akins cites Anton Lockwood’s partnership with NME that saw him booking acts for the Club NME tours as an eye opener for the company. But he reveals that the late Dave Chumbley, as well as fellow agents Paul Boswell and Ian Huffam, had helped persuade DHP to expand to national touring. “They recognised that there was a need to see some competition to the status quo. So, through Dave Chumbley, we did a national tour with Dropkick Murphys where we ended up doing a Brixton Academy-sized tour across the country. Then I did Human League with Paul Boswell, and shortly afterwards, Turin Brakes with Ian Huffam.”

Acts like Lana Del Rey, Nick Cave, New Order, and Flaming Lips would follow, cementing DHP’s credentials as a full UK promoter.

When it comes to his strategy for growth, Akins once again channels his father’s outlook.

“My whole career has been about just seeing opportunities that fit with me. If I see an opportunity, I jump on it. It doesn’t always stick. For instance, we had a good run with artist management – we represented Dog Is Dead and another artist called Indiana – and it was pretty successful, but it was just too time and energy intensive; it really is a 24/7 job.”

“We can grow in so many different ways – as a concert promoter, as a festival operator, as a music venue operator”

Noting that he always has numerous projects on his mind, he adds, “DHP is just very good at doing all the elements. I think that’s what sets us apart from our competitors. We don’t only do gigs, leaving someone else to do the club nights – we’ve got to do the club nights ourselves; we’ve got to do the gigs ourselves; we’ve got to do the bars ourselves. We don’t outsource anything. Our speciality is all those elements.”

With the company payroll now covering 400 people, DHP has inevitably attracted the interest of some of the corporate behemoths. “The problem is, if you sell to them, you’ve got to work for them. And I’m unemployable. I’ve worked for myself essentially since I was 19 years old,” states Akins.

And as for future expansion, he concludes, “We can grow in so many different ways – as a concert promoter, as a festival operator, as a music venue operator – and I never really know which it’s going to be each year. But the plan is always music-related, recognising opportunities, and pouncing when we see them.

“It’s redbrick university towns that interest me. I’m not going to be opening venues in secondary university towns where there’s not the audience. It has to be redbrick towns where you know you’re gonna be able to promote a significant number of shows in the city.

“There are always opportunities bubbling. I’ve got probably three ideas running at the moment, but I’m not sure if all three might happen or none of them might happen. But in terms of the next five years, nothing’s off the table.”

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IQ 131, the latest issue of the international live music industry’s leading magazine, is available to read online now.

The November issue marks our first annual indie issue, celebrating the companies forging their own path in today’s live music business.

This edition launches the Indie Champions 2024 list (revealed tomorrow on IQ), examines the realities of running an indie company, and celebrates the anniversaries of Earth Agency and DHP’s George Akins.

Elsewhere, we bid farewell to the 10th edition of the International Festival Forum (IFF) and welcome you aboard the 37th instalment of the International Live Music Conference (aka ILM-Sea).

Meanwhile, this issue spotlights the live music business in Paris and Norway, and inspects the growing demand for festive family fun.

For this edition’s columns, Natasha Gregory (Mother Artists) examines the different ways in which people gauge success and Rob Sealy (Openstage) encourages artists to utilise data in order to make sure fans are not left disappointed during ticket on-sales.

A selection of magazine content will appear online in the next four weeks but to ensure your fix of essential live music industry features, opinion and analysis, click here to subscribe to IQ – or check out what you’re missing out on with the limited preview below:

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DHP Family MD George Akins tells IQ the company is exploring fresh opportunities in the venue market after business returned to pre-pandemic levels.

The independent UK venue operator and promoter racked up estimated turnover of £31-32 million (€35-36m) for 2022 –in line with its previous best year of 2017 and well up on the Covid-hit years of 2020 and 2021, when revenues hit £9m and £21m, respectively.

The Nottingham-headquartered firm attributes much of the upswing to the strong performance of its native venues, including Bodega and the legendary Rock City.

“The venue business has come back strong, especially the club nights, and the shows are coming through,” says Akins. “I’ve got a tour rescheduled from the pandemic all the way to July next year, so it’s still backed up, but we’re able to find avails now.

“Sales are good regionally. London was really tough up until very recently – it was under selling – and Manchester was ahead of it a lot of the time, but London has has recovered now and we’ve started to see shows selling what they should be. Generally, I think there’s been a hangover of work from home that affected London considerably, but a lot more people are back in the office now and people are going out again. It’s definitely more vibrant.”

“We’re looking at venue opportunities. We’re not in a mad hurry, but we’ve identified something we like the look of”

Other DHP venues include London’s Oslo, The Grace and The Garage, the latter of which turns 30 this year, Bristol’s Thekla and Nottingham’s Rescue Rooms and Stealth. But further additions could be on the cards.

“We’re looking at venue opportunities,” confirms Akins. “We’re not in a mad hurry, but we’ve identified something we like the look of and we hope to do something this year. If that comes off then that will be interesting, but we’ll grow on solid foundations like we’ve always done. We’re not firing out 10 venues in a year just because we want to grow, we want to last 40 to 50 years and want everything we do to have longevity in.

“We believe in building blocks and that might take longer than if you’re working for a venture capitalist or for someone who’s put their money in and wants [quick] results. We don’t need to do that. We’re an independent family business; we don’t have any debt and our reputation has survived through these trying times.

“Being independent is tough when the finances are tough, but we’re in a fortunate position because we have good assets, good building blocks, and everything we do has incredible grounding. We made money through the pandemic and hit the ground running when we came out of it.”

“There are always concerns about how you can raise ticket prices when people have so many bills to pay”

Nevertheless, Akins acknowledges concerns over the knock-on effect of the cost of living crisis on the live business.

“There are recession fears on the horizon, of course, and there are always concerns about how you can raise ticket prices when people have so many bills to pay,” he says. “But inflation is ridiculous for artists – the cost of running PAs, lights and production has gone up so much and the effects of that have to transfer through to ticket price.

“Most venues are adding energy uplifts for their hires, so it’s been incredibly worrying to see how much more we’re going to have to charge for tickets. The hot tickets will always sell but you’ve got to be careful with the acts that tour annually – if you’ve seen them last year you might not want to see them next year and save some money – but we’ll have to see how that transpires.

“The slowdown is not apparent at the moment, but there’s a bit of trepidation and I think there’s going to be a real slowdown in buying tickets at some point this year.”

DHP bought into 15,000-cap alternative independent festival Bearded Theory in early 2022 and work in partnership with festival founders Richard Bryan and Stephen Blount on the event, which returns to Catton Hall, Derbyshire from 25-28 May with headliners Interpol and Primal Scream.

“We’d wanted a camping festival for some time and we were excited to get involved”

“We’d wanted a camping festival for some time and we were excited to get involved,” says Akins. “We’ve booked two-thirds of the lineup for this year now and have announced our first bunch of headliners, and it’s looking great. I’m really excited about that.”

DHP’s festival portfolio also includes multi-city new music festival Dot To Dot and 25,000-cap Nottingham festival Splendour, which reverted from one to two days in 2022 for the first time since its 2008 debut, with the two-day format set to stay.

Meanwhile, its charity festival Beat the Streets, set up in response to the growing number of rough sleepers, has donated £320,000 to housing association Framework since launching in 2018 and was honoured at last year’s UK Festival Awards. Beat the Streets returns to multiple venues in Nottingham on 29 January.

Elsewhere, the firm has upcoming tours with The Flaming Lips, Dropkick Murphys, Belle & Sebastian, Belinda Carlisle and Electric Callboy, among others, and has been busy nurturing a new crop of promoters.

“You’ve got Ben Ryles, who is based in Manchester and is booking Bearded Theory and is also promoting nationally,” adds Akins. “You’ve got Conrad [Rogan], Scott [Kennedy] and Josh [Ward] developing their rosters down in London, and then Anton [Lockwood] and me, the old stalwarts, doing what we do. It feels like we’re back to where we were and it’s exciting.”

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