Laura Jansen

Added 06/09/2010 by ronni

Former Wembley director to head Acer Arena in Sydney

Decorated venues manager Paul Sergeant will be the new GM of Sydney's 21,000-capacity Acer Arena.

Australian venues operator AEG Ogden has moved swiftly by announcing Sergeant as the successor to David Humphreys, who earlier in the week was named GM of the new Perth Arena. The Western Australian arena will open in 2012 and will also be operated by AEG Ogden.

Sergeant, who in 2007 was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to the events industry, is already well known to the Australian industry having served as GM of the AEG Ogden-managed Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane between 2007 and 2009.

His CV includes stints as director of both Wembley Arena and Wembley Stadium in London, CEO of the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, and most recently, as CEO of a privately owned professional Rugby Club and its venue in Wales.

The U.K.-born executive will commence his new role early this month.

"Acer Arena is now regularly recognized in as one of the leading arenas in the world," comments AEG Ogden chairman and CEO Harvey Lister. "Most recently, the highly respected Billboard Magazine ranked Acer Arena number three internationally. It was important in replacing David that we found someone with extensive international knowledge and industry contacts to be able to take the venue to the next level. Paul Sergeant is precisely the right person to do that."

A joint-venture between Australian-based Ogden IFC and the Anschutz Entertainment Group of the U.S. AEG live entertainment group, AEG Ogden is the largest venue management firm in the Asia Pacific region. The Brisbane-based group's portfolio of 16 arenas, convention centers and stadia includes the Brisbane Entertainment Centre, the Newcastle Entertainment Centre, and convention centers in Brisbane, Cairns, Darwin and Kuala Lumpur.

Added 03/09/2010 by ronni

Bjork and Morricone win Polar Music Prize

Bjork and Ennio Morricone have received this year's Polar Music Prize in Sweden.

The Polar Music Prize was founded by ABBA's manager and lyricist Stig Anderson in 1989.

It covers all genres around the world, and has previously been awarded to Pink Floyd, B. B. King, Robert Moog, Bob Dylan, Elton John, Ravi Shankar and Joni Mitchell.

It's usually awarded to a pair of artists, one from the pop realm and one from the classical realm, to honour 'exceptional achievements' in music.

Bjork and Morricone accepted their awards, as is customary, from Sweden's King Carl XVI Gustaf in Stockholm.

Bjork is quoted as saying she was 'tickled' to be chosen for the award.

Added 02/09/2010 by ronni

Live Nation to provide concert listings on iTunes

Apple announced that it has partnered with Live Nation to present concert listings in the new ITunes 10.

Following up on comments made by Apple regarding concert information on iTunes, Michael Rapino, President and CEO of Live Nation Entertainment, Inc. stated: “We are thrilled to power the concert listings feature on iTunes and deliver this new and simple way for millions of iTunes users to purchase concert tickets at Livenation.com and Ticketmaster.com.

Our partnership with Apple is a key part of our strategy to empower fans with the greatest access to live entertainment.”