It’s been a tough couple of years for live music in the U.K., but now AEG Presents UK CEO Steve Homer sees light at the end of the tunnel. “Last year, we had some big successes and some big losses,…
It’s been a tough couple of years for live music in the U.K., but now AEG Presents UK CEO Steve Homer sees light at the end of the tunnel.
“Those four people are going to change the face of AEG and the touring world,” Homer declares. “They’re people with major rosters, big contacts, many years of experience and they’re definitely going to change the narrative as far as we’re concerned. By Q4, when everyone has their feet under the table, we’re going to start putting stuff on sale that will be more high profile than we’ve done in the past.
Such venues could become even more important if London loses perhaps the most famous mid-sized venue of them all, with the O2 Academy Brixton facing closure after the death of two people following a crush at a gig by Nigerian singer Asake. Grassroots venues, having weathered the pandemic, are also under pressure and the Music Venue Trust has called for a cut of ticket sales at new arenas to be diverted to support the smaller venues. Homer says he’s in discussions with MVT about that proposal.
The Manchester event has grown from a 25,000-capacity, one-day event in 2010 to a 80,000-capacity, two-day behemoth, with weekend and Saturday tickets already sold out for the June 10-11 2023 event. “Everybody working in hospitality could do with greater support,” Kendal says. “Rising energy costs are pushing a lot of businesses to the brink. Club promoters do have a reputation for being lunatics and very bold in their planning, but even the boldest promoters are not desperate to rush out and open new venues in a climate like this.”
“When I came to the business a year ago and got to look under the hood, I said we should be better known in the U.K. than we are,” Kennedy tells Variety. “This year has been about getting the narrative out there that we are a substantial business. We’ve now bridged that gap and we should be seen as one of the top players at that table.”
The company has had U.K. success with a wide range of artists, from rapper Knucks to veteran singer-songwriter James Morrison, and Kennedy says he’s confident Believe is now ready to start breaking international stars. Of course, breaking artists has never been harder than in a world where over 100,000 tracks are uploaded to Spotify every day. Some in the major labels view companies such as TuneCore as contributing to that huge proliferation of music, but Kendal says the majors all sign artists from the platform.
In the meantime, as well as Believe’s global push for acquisitions, Kennedy says the U.K. company is also looking to go into the market and may form joint venture partnerships with new music companies. “That was hugely evident at [U.K. music conference/new music festival] The Great Escape this year,” she tells Variety in her first interview in the new role. “There were 30 Australian artists showcasing and the quality of the live performances was truly incredible. It was exciting to see these world class performances and then look around the room and see industry people from all over the world into the music. There’s a huge market here for Australian artists.
As documented in a Variety story earlier this year, the original U.K. Mushroom/Infectious company had a fearsome reputation for producing both artistic and executive talent, with the likes of Warner Music Group’s Max Lousada and Ed Sheeran’s manager Stuart Camp cutting their teeth at a label that helped launch Muse, Garbage, Coldplay and many others.
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