Sodexo Live! hires Rebecca Kane Burton as UK CEO
Venue services company Sodexo Live! has appointed former The O2 chief Rebecca Kane Burton as its new UK and Ireland CEO.
Kane Burton served a four and a half year stint as VP and GM of AEG’s 21,000-cap London arena before stepping down in 2016 to become chief executive of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s West End venue chain LW Theatres (formerly Really Useful Theatres), where she played a key role in the London Palladium’s Covid-safe socially distanced shows in 2020 as part of a UK government pilot scheme. She departed the company last year.
Prior to The O2, Kane Burton was MD of the 10,400-cap Alexandra Palace, also in London, and previously held a senior role at English Heritage.
“I am looking forward to driving our strategic ambition and accelerating growth in a market that has high development potential”
“I am excited to join Sodexo Live! as we head into a busy summer season of events,” says Kane Burton. “I am looking forward to driving our strategic ambition and accelerating growth in a market that has high development potential.
“Sodexo Live! has a talented team delivering excellence in all the services they deliver and I can’t wait to meet them and see their expertise first hand.”
Founded in Marseille, France, the Maryland, US-headquartered hospitality and catering giant now operates in more than 70 countries, partnering with stadiums, arenas, convention centres and museums, among other facilities. Clients include Hard Rock Stadium Miami, ACC Liverpool and Royal Ascot.
In addition to joining the firm’s UK and Ireland regional leadership committee, Kane Burton will also become a member of the Sodexo Live! global executive committee. The Sodexo Group created the Sodexo Live! brand last year to “unify and leverage its expertise” in the sports, events and hospitality sector.
“The UK is a key part of Sodexo Live! global growth strategy”
The company has also hired 15-year veteran Nicci Clarke from Punch Pubs & Co as marketing director.
“I am delighted to welcome Rebecca and Nicci to the UK and Ireland team,” adds Sodexo Live! worldwide CEO Nathalie Bellon-Szabo. “The UK is a key part of Sodexo Live! global growth strategy, the business is recovering well from the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and is starting to show signs of strong growth.
“We look forward to supporting Rebecca and her team as they deploy their expertise across major venues and events to provide the best service to our clients and customers.”
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Rebecca Kane Burton: “Socially distanced venues don’t work”
Beverley Knight’s landmark 23 July show at the London Palladium was a “blessed relief” for everyone involved – but it also showed that socially distanced concerts aren’t viable for the vast majority of music venues, according to Rebecca Kane Burton, CEO of West End venue chain LW Theatres.
British soul singer Knight played to a crowd of around 640 – some 30% of the Palladium’s normal capacity – as part of government-backed ‘pilot’ scheme designed to how venues might operate with social distancing ahead of the planned return of indoor shows on 1 August (now pushed back to at least the 15th). A second pilot event took place at another London venue, the the 1,250-capacity Clapham Grand, on 28 July, with Frank Turner playing to a 20% full room.
“The most horrible thing about the past 19 weeks has been not being able to open these doors,” Kane Burton, reflecting on the Palladium pilot event, tells IQ. “The excitement and thrill of working with my team again to put on that show was a blessed relief.”
Kane Burton (pictured) is full of praise for both Knight and the Palladium team, describing the former as the perfect performer given the circumstances.
“Not many people would be ballsy enough to get on stage with the room only 30% full,” she says, “but Beverley did it with gusto – she got everyone up on their feet dancing, which in turn made people feel like they were allowed to enjoy themselves.”
“The excitement and thrill of working with my team again was a blessed relief”
As for the LW/Palladium team, the message from Public Health England was that “they couldn’t find one flaw” in how the show – which featured temperature checks and a host of hygienic gadgetry – was organised.
However, while she says she considers the Palladium show a success, Kane Burton – like Ally Wolf from the Clapham Grand – is clear that it should not be used a blueprint for how live events may reopen safely in the UK.
For a start, both shows lost money – “Normally the ratio of staff to customers [at the Palladium] is 1:40,” explains Kane Burton, “but for Beverley Knight, it was 1:10; no promoter is going to pay for that” – and while Knight did her best, even the PHE officials present noticed the lack of atmosphere present with a sparse, mask-wearing audience.
“Socially distanced venues don’t work,” says Kane Burton. With a 70% empty venue, “you’re not allowed to have that moment of escapism” that comes with seeing a show at a packed venue, as the Knight gig showed, she adds.
“To get an atmosphere you need to fill the place to the rafters. That’s how you get a rocking Palladium, and that’s how you bring venues back to life.”
Knight agrees. “I would not encourage any performer to step inside an auditorium where they’re playing to 30% capacity,” she tells IQ. “Financial considerations aside, that energy that you need isn’t there.
“To get an atmosphere you need to fill the place to the rafters”
“And equally for the audience listening: they appreciated what we’re doing on stage but they didn’t feel ‘in’ the gig. The euphoria wasn’t there.”
Along with much of the UK live music industry, Kane Burton is now pushing the British government for a reopening date for non-socially distanced shows, as well as working with PHE to develop guidance for post-Covid-19 performing arts.
While the Beverley Knight show didn’t provide a roadmap for the future of live in the UK, it did signal to the rest of the concert business that venues are pushing hard to reopen when they’re allowed, concludes Kane Burton.
“We wanted to send a message to all promoters and agents that we, as a venue industry, are not resting on our laurels,” she says. “We’re here in the trenches, and everything we’re doing is about getting the industry back on track.”
“We need to get going again, because without live music, this country loses its soul,” she adds. “We can’t just sit here and do nothing.”
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Twickets partners with Andrew Lloyd-Webber’s Palladium
Via a new partnership with Twickets, Andrew Lloyd-Webber’s LW Theatres has became the first theatre operator in the UK to offer consumer friendly face-value ticket resale across its venues.
Tickets purchased via LW Theatres box offices can now be resold via Twickets’ website or mobile app for no more than the price originally paid, offering an alternative to traditional secondary ticketing sites.
LW Theatres, formerly Really Useful Theatres, operates seven London venues: Theatre Royal Drury Lane, Cambridge Theatre, Adelphi Theatre, Gillian Lynne Theatre, the Other Palace, Her Majesty’s Theatre and the 2,286-capacity London Palladium, which is popular live music venue.
Launched in 2015, Twickets has worked with artists including Adele, Stormzy, Ed Sheeran, Arctic Monkeys, Mumford and Sons and the 1975, and facilitated the ethical resale of more than half a million fans’ tickets. The LW partnership is its first official tie-in with a UK theatre group.
“Our goal is always to improve the ticket-buying experience, fill venues and keep customers happy”
Rebecca Kane Burton, CEO of LW Theatres, says: “We continue to strive to not only offer our customers an incredible experience, but also help them when things don’t go to plan. Providing a safe, secure and easy way to resell tickets is best practice and yet another step LW Theatres is taking to innovate and improve theatre-going.”
“The UK is in the midst of a market shift away from rip-off secondary ticketing platforms and towards capped consumer friendly resale services,” Twickets’ founder, Richard Davies, adds.
“I am proud Twickets is at the forefront of this change, and delighted we can extend our service to theatre-lovers via this groundbreaking partnership with LW Theatres. Our goal is always to improve the ticket-buying experience, fill venues and keep customers happy.”
In addition to its UK base, Twickets is active in Australia, Canada, Germany, New Zealand, the Republic of Ireland, Spain and the US.
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