Peter Rudge is to co-produce a documentary about the beginnings of the live touring business after announcing he is stepping aside from artist management.

The veteran manager, who starred in ILMC 32’s Breakfast Meeting, plans to pursue other music-centric projects, including a film centred around legendary Premier Talent Agency founder Frank Barsalona. Premier was the first agency to work exclusively with rock artists, with clients including the Yardbirds, Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty, U2 and Van Halen.

Rudge hails Barsalona, who died in 2012 aged 74 and is the only agent inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, as a “visionary” who “predicted rock’s potential beyond traditional record sales and into a new live space”.

“Industry leaders will explain how his legacy has impacted the live music industry of today for the better of the artists and the fans,” he tells IQ of the project. “It’s simply about how one man’s vision created railway tracks on which today’s live business still travels.”

Rudge began his 50-year career at Track Records working with Jimi Hendrix and Marc Bolan before going on to manage The Who with Bill Curbishley. He has since worked closely with and managed artists including the Rolling Stones, Madness, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Il Divo, Ball & Boe, Duran Duran and Roger Waters.

“After 55 years in the artist management trenches, I’ve decided to call time and devote my time to family, travel and other projects”

“After 55 years in the artist management trenches, I’ve decided to call time and devote my time to family, travel and other projects, as well as Wolves and the New York Giants, who both need my help far more than any artist does right now,” says Rudge, who has also represented the band James for over more than three decades.

“For the past 35 years James have been one of the anchors of my life and for that I am forever grateful,” he continues. “A shout out as well to my many partners over the years – particularly Colin Young, Simon Moran and John Giddings, whose friendship and expertise I have been able to lean on throughout my stewardship. To the members of James – Thanks guys, it’s been a privilege, because of you I never did have to get a job…”

Isle of Wight Festival chief Giddings was among those to pay tribute.

“Peter Rudge is one of the best managers I have ever known – he stands up for the artist in every situation and stands up to them if necessary. This is the true definition of management – managing and directing an artist’s career and protecting them from all of the pitfalls that come with fame,” says Giddings. “He has applied this for decades of success, from The Rolling Stones and The Who, right up to the #1 album and sell out arena tour for James this year.

“He helped create the modern day music industry, revolutionising the live arena in favour of the artist and we will miss a character of such strong ability and strength. He certainly taught me a thing or two (not least how to make a lunch last three hours!!) – thank you Peter.”

“Peter Rudge has guided our ship for over 35 years and is massively responsible for us thriving 42 years in this business”

SJM Concerts boss Moran adds: “It’s been a brilliant experience over the last 30 years working with Peter on James UK tours. The passion and enthusiasm for the group has never diminished, always planning forward for the next step. I’ve really appreciated the loyalty and being made to always feel a valued part of ‘Team James’. Peter’s great knowledge and intellect have been pivotal to the group’s continued success. I’ll very much look forward to keeping in touch with Peter as a good friend.”

James have been co-managed for the past two years by Tileyard Music MD Neil Hughes, who will continue to manage the band along with Charlotte Malecki at Tileyard.

“Peter Rudge has guided our ship for over 35 years and is massively responsible for us thriving 42 years in this business,” adds James frontman Tim Booth. “He’s a one off. Brilliant, passionate, the smartest man in the room, funny as fuck. He has worked with all the greats: The Stones, The Who ad infinitum. He gets the balance between business and protecting the band’s artistic integrity. He is our biggest fan and we are his. In short we love him, he’s family and our relationship doesn’t end here.”

Get more stories like this in your inbox by signing up for IQ Index, IQ’s free email digest of essential live music industry news.

Townsend Music, the leading direct-to-consumer (D2C) platform, has been providing its artist clients with a new revenue stream during the pandemic by capturing their livestreamed shows on record.

The platform, which hosts over 1,000 artist D2C stores, has been converting its clients’ livestream recordings into one-off, collectable vinyl to be sold exclusively through the stores.

In December, British rock band The Darkness delivered a livestreamed concert from Indigo at the O2, London, in conjunction with Townsend, Live Here Now, AEG and Dice.

The ticketed performance, which took place under the banner of ‘Streaming of A White Christmas’, was transformed into a brand new live album, presented as a deluxe triple ‘sparkle green’ heavy vinyl with booklets and a deluxe double CD for £40 and £20 respectively – generating not one, but two income streams for the band.

“These campaigns have been a huge success and they’ve provided the artists with decent revenue streams and strong data”

Similarly, Townsend packaged Embrace’s greatest hits concert, livestreamed from their own studio during the pandemic, into a triple-coloured vinyl dubbed ‘Best Of Live From The Cellar Of Dreams’ which was informed by a fan-powered setlist.

“These campaigns have been a huge success and really enjoyable to put together. They’ve provided the artists with decent revenue streams and strong data capture,” says Bruce McKenzie, sales director at Townsend Music.

“It’s also been great to pay over some of the money to the band’s crew who are such an important part of the team who have been hit the hardest during lockdown.”

The company has also organised other exclusive D2C live albums using archive material from artists including Supergrass, James, Shed Seven and Bryan Ferry.

Get more stories like this in your inbox by signing up for IQ Index, IQ’s free email digest of essential live music industry news.

Hope & Glory Festivals Ltd, the company behind last month’s ill-fated Liverpool festival of the same name, has followed Fyre Festival LLC into liquidation, as 32 creditors seek to reclaim almost £900,000, among them Liverpool City Council.

The inaugural Hope & Glory, which took place in the first weekend of August, was called off on its second day amid reports of bottlenecking, queues and cancellations, blamed by promoter Lee O’Hanlon on production manager Richard Agar.

Ticket agencies Eventbrite and Skiddle ultimately had to refund festivalgoers themselves, with Skiddle director Ben Sebborn saying it “became clear that our customers would remain out of pocket unless we intervened”.

“Any lessons learned will be implemented for future events run by outside organisations”

Insolvency firm Butcher Woods tells the BBC 32 creditors are owed a total of £888,984, with Liverpool City Council seeking “recovery of costs associated with the clean-up operation”.

The council is holding its own inquiry into the organisation of the festival, the findings of which are expected imminently. According to a council spokesman, “any lessons learned will be implemented for future events run by outside organisations.”

Fyre Festival LLC, the promoter of 2017’s other big festival disaster (albeit on a much larger scale), was placed into liquidation by a New York bankruptcy judge last week.

Get more stories like this in your inbox by signing up for IQ Index, IQ’s free email digest of essential live music industry news.

The mayor of Liverpool, Joe Anderson, has promised an “urgent inquiry” into last weekend’s inaugural Hope & Glory festival, which was axed on its second day amid widespread overcrowding, bottlenecking, late running and cancelled sets and a bizarre Twitter rant from organisers.

Responding to a tweet from performing arts tech Colin Farley, Anderson says Liverpool City Council, the governing body for the UK city, will look urgently at “what went disastrously wrong here”, as promoter Hope & Glory Festivals Ltd blamed production manager Richard Agar for what it calls the “multitudinous failures” that led to the festival’s cancellation – and even going so far as to circulate Agar’s personal email address to angry ticketholders.

Hope & Glory, new for 2017, was scheduled for Saturday 5 and Sunday 6 August in St George’s Quarter, Liverpool city centre. The festival was marked by disruption from the outset, with festival director Lee O’Hanlon calling police in response to overcrowding on the site (although he tells IQ the festival was never over capacity) and reports of hour-long queues for concessions and toilets, while several performances, including Charlotte Church’s, were cancelled after stage times ran over by up to two hours.

In a statement released this afternoon, the 12,500-cap. festival “profusely apologise[d] to the public and artists” for the queues, bottlenecking and late running but blamed Agar for the site not being ready.

“Oh, sit down, Tim. Go back to your yoga”

“Mr Agar and the team he appointed to carry out the production sadly did not deliver the site as ready in time for 11am,” it reads. “We view this solely as a management issue as his team appeared to work exceedingly hard to address what they needed to.

“At 12.45, William Brown St [in St George’s Quarter] was still having build materials cleared from it. As a direct result the festival opened one hour and 50 minutes later than agreed and 50 minutes later than advertised. These had a massive impact on the queues that never recovered from them until much later in the day. We will continue to liaise with Mr Agar and his company and seek a resolution over these issues.”

In addition to blaming Agar for the late opening, the statement alleges he failed to construct several requested overflow entrances to the festival site.

“Despite the delay opening, it became apparent that the bridges that the festival had requested be built from William Brown Street into St John’s Gardens to ease congestion had not been built,” it continues. “We believe that these were the sole reason for the bottlenecking that occurred. We requested that these be delivered by Mr Agar’s production management as agreed, and they clearly were not.”

“Mr Agar and the team he appointed to carry out the production sadly did not deliver the site as ready in time for 11am”

Hope & Glory has directed festivalgoers to ticket agencies for refunds.

O’Hanlon’s account of a breakdown in communication between promoters, production company and local authorities might have been easier to swallow had the festival’s Twitter account not spent much of yesterday attacking artists and ticketholders.

The festival’s now-deleted Twitter account, @HopeAndGloryFes, began Sunday by announcing simply “No festival today”, before sparring with angry fans and telling James frontman Tim Booth to “go back to [his] yoga” after calling the festival “fucked up”.

https://twitter.com/HopeAndGloryFes/status/894261320064933893

O’Hanlon, who also runs communications/events agency tinyCOW, made headlines last year for a dispute with the Manx government over loss-making concerts by Tom Jones and the Jacksons.

Get more stories like this in your inbox by signing up for IQ Index, IQ’s free email digest of essential live music industry news.