CAA’s Paul Franklin on the resurgence of reunion tours
CAA’s Paul Franklin has spoken to IQ about the roaring trade of reunion tours, amid a resurgence of 00s and 90s acts returning to the road.
In the past couple of years, acts including S Club, Girls Aloud, N’Dubz, McFly, Sugababes and Busted have reunited on the stage and in the studio, in many cases achieving greater success than in their heyday.
“We are in a place where the ticket buyer wants to be entertained and with a greatest hits or anniversary tour, you know what you are getting in terms of a setlist which is always an attractive proposition and immediately helps create the demand,” says Franklin.
The CAA agent has represented English pop-punk band Busted for 20 years, “since they came into my office as teenagers jumping around singing Year 3000 and What I Go to School For”.
Formed in 2000, the trio (comprising Charlie Simpson, James Bourne and Matt Willis) achieved four UK Number 1 singles, won two Brit Awards and sold out multiple arena tours before parting ways in 2005.
“The ticket buyer wants to be entertained and with a greatest hits or anniversary tour, you know what you are getting”
In 2014, Bourne and Willis joined forces with fellow noughties pop-punk band McFly to create the supergroup McBusted. Despite the absence of Simpson, McBusted was a “huge success,” selling 50 arenas and stadiums and a headline show at BST Hyde Park.
“It seemed something different and special if we could explain the concept and strategically market, which we did,” says Franklin.
In 2015, all three members of Busted reunited for a third album and a tour but they found their feet in 2023 with a 20th Anniversary & Greatest Hits tour spanning 26 arenas in the UK and Ireland and selling 200,000 tickets.
That year, the band also achieved their first-ever Number 1 album with Greatest Hits 2.0 – a collaborative album of re-recorded songs from Busted’s first two albums.
Finding the “golden impact moment” to announce the anniversary tour and go on sale was a crucial part of the strategy that ensured the success of the tour, according to Franklin.
“Busted are as energised as I’ve ever seen them and we look forward to the next 20 years!”
“With Busted we lined up three major TVs, two major radio moments and the perfect interview exclusives with a day of press which maximised the excitement and the need to buy early,” he says.
“The artwork [for the tour] also had to represent a fun evening and clear messaging of what the show entailed so no stone was left unturned.”
Following on from last year’s successful reunion, the next 12 months will see Busted release another album, visit new territories worldwide, return to festivals and headline 20 outdoor shows.
“The band are as energised as I’ve ever seen them and we look forward to the next 20 years!” adds Franklin.
Sugababes are another act on Franklin’s diverse roster – which includes Yungblud, Demi Lovato, James Bay, Mariah Carey and Corrine Bailey Rae – that have reunited and are enjoying new heights in their career.
“Sugababes’ reunion is not about nostalgia – it’s about taking the next step in their career”
“Sugababes’ reunion is not about nostalgia – it’s about taking the next step in their career,” says Franklin, who has looked after the English girl group (est. 1998) since “the early days”.
The pop/R&B group, which has undergone a handful of personnel changes, has six UK Number 1 singles and five UK Top 10 albums under their belt.
Having disbanded in 2011, Sugababes’ original three members – Mutya Buena, Keisha Buchanan and Siobhán Donaghy – reformed in 2019 to a rapturous reception.
“I wanted to create something different this time and to make sure they remained cool and relevant as they always had been but wanted to take this to a new level and beyond this time… to prove how important the band were to so many people,” explains Franklin. “It was all about positioning and for the band to continue to receive the respect they deserved.”
The trio marked their return to the stage in 2022 with a headline performance at London’s Mighty Hoopla festival, followed by an underplay at the 2,000-capacity Avalon tent at Glastonbury.
“[We are] continuing to build Sugababes into one of the most relevant artists in the UK and beyond”
More than 10,000 fans showed up for the group’s hotly anticipated set, prompting Glastonbury organisers to close off the field surrounding the tent and turn away punters.
“It garnered enormous press and set us up for a UK tour [later that year],” says Franklin. “From there, the idea was to continue playing shows that weren’t perceived as the obvious Sugababes plays to prove they had a rightful place on any festival with any audience. This was an enormous success, playing to the biggest audiences of the weekend at Tramlines, Victorious, Neighbourhood, Wilderness and Isle of Wight to name a few.”
The group’s 2022 festival summer laid the ground for their first tour in nine years, a 17-date UK headlining tour that sold 50,000 tickets.
Continuing on that upward trajectory, Sugababes performed a one-off show at The O2 (cap. 20,000) in London in 2023, marking their biggest-ever headline show.
“It was a defining moment at the end of a very successful year-long campaign,” according to Franklin.
However, there was still time for two priority plays before the year was out. “Firstly Boiler Room which had one of their highest applications for a show ever and then we sold out Drumsheds in December to 15,000 people to make sure we didn’t leave the electronic music community behind.”
As for this year? Franklin says: “There will be new music in 2024 and this will be the next step in continuing to build Sugababes into one of the most relevant artists in the UK and beyond.”
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Artists offer fans AAA digital passes
Aitch, Hot Chip, Sugababes, The Wombats, Sigala and Kaiser Chiefs are among the first artists to offer fans Access-All-Areas (AAA) digital passes.
Launched by multi-channel D2F platform Planet, the resource allows artists to create customised experiences for content, tickets and merchandise.
The free AAA pass sits within fans’ phone wallet and notifies them whenever their favourite artists have something they’d either like fans to see, hear, or ask their opinion of. Ticket sales go directly from artists to fans, saving on additional fees.
“We want to make it easier for fans to get access to their favourite artists”
“Music defines some of the most memorable moments in our lives,” says Planet’s James Morrison. “We want to make it easier for fans to get access to their favourite artists and in turn enable artists to reward them more often for the part they play in creating these memories.
“The thing with social media is that it treats all fans the same, and the artists we are working with recognise that in many cases this relationship runs deeper than a like or follow but the algorithms have removed any sense of belonging.”
Sugababes utilised the app last week for the pre-sale window of their headline show at London’s The O2 in September 2023, while Aitch recently offered fans an exclusive early look at tour setlists and rehearsal videos ahead of his UK & Ireland tour.
Elsewhere, pop band New Rules met up with some fans on a recent trip to the US via their digital artist pass, and received almost instant feedback to new songs as soon as the shows had finished.
Soft launched back in late 2021, Planet has previously securing funding from TVG’s Ben Lovett and ie:music ventures.
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