Editor's note

The theme of co-operation has been uppermost in my mind of late, while the major record companies continue the mergers square dance with their 'toes and froes. dos -y dos, and take which partners - we don't know!'- other people have been getting together with good intent. It was a joy to see Yusef aka Cat Stevens return (briefly?) to the stage to perform with Peter Gabriel in Johannesburg for the Nelson Mandela Aids benefit, congratulations go to all involved in the remarkable event.

I spent the weekend in Cologne at PopPlus Europe which brought together representatives of some of the national music export offices to explain how they go about things, and how they could better work together and help the efforts of Jean Francois Michel of The European Music Office in his dealings with Brussels. Some good ideas were put forward and we shall report on the progress in the next couple of issues.

Also in the light of co-operation between promoters, not always seen, a line worth reproducing from the mail outs of Brighton's Gilded Palace of Sin - 'Just afore we fly, you should know that there are more splendid shows from other good, like-minded folk, happening around and about in the coming days. We are doing our best to alleviate that trawl around the mall': A splendid approach!

 

Christer Lundblad of Export Music Sweden gave Vip News his first thoughts on last week's joint venture with the British Council called Access All Areas held at Mondo in Stockholm. "The event was a big success. We hade some 220 delegates for the panel discussions and seminars and almost 1 000 during the evenings/nights with 22 acts performing on two stages during two nights.

Among them British acts M.A.S.S., Coin-Op and Futurehead. Among the Swedish acts were Bad Cash Quartet, Melody Club, José Gonzalez, David & the Citizens, The Concretes, Whyte Seeds and many more. Malcolm McLaren gave a presentation on his new project Chip Music and Tony Parsons talked about his career as a journalist and novelist. We are extremely pleased with the outcome and will start discussing with the British Council how to take this further within the near future."

 

The Glastonbury Festival has been approved for next year, from June 25 to 27 Michael Eavis, festival organiser and owner of its dairy farm site received permission after Mendip District Council voted ten to one to approve the licence for the event after receiving assurances that security concerns were adequately addressed.

The erection Licence granted allows for the equivalent number of tickets as this year's festival to be made available. Glastonbury's future would appear to have been saved by the so-called 'superfence'. The festival looked on the verge of closing three years ago after a 'break-in' by an estimated 250,000 people caused chaos on the site, and brought great distress to Mr Eavis's neighbours

 

The Consequences of The Arnoud Gerritse Decision

Tax is an unpleasant fact of life which the great majority of us would rather went away, unfortunately for us, as individuals and companies it won't. Withholding tax particularly has a great impact on the incomes of the majority of those involved in the touring and concert business from promoter to artist and all stops in-between, we are therefore best to keep some sort of an eye on what is going on.

Fortunately we have Dick Molenaar and Harald Grams, those tireless champions of the touring music industry in its battles with the variance and peculiarities of the application of tax laws throughout Europe to help us out with this. They have again come through with an update on the withholding tax situation in the wake of the celebrated Arnoud Gerritse case. Most of you will I am sure have heard something about this, Gerritse is a Dutch drummer who, having been refused the deduction of his travel expenses, fought for the return or off-set of monies that had been withheld after an engagement in Germany. .

 

The German Export Music Office is finally on its way to being born. Germans are always supposed to do business very properly and thoroughly. It appears that more than 10 years after France and behind Sweden, Finland, Norway, Denmark , Netherlands, Switzerland (by only a couple of years), Germany is closer than ever to heeding the wake up call for a federal export office for music.

But who would have thought that it would be the masterminds of the project, who revealing the news, are to be disappointed. The German Music Council, which intends to become a shareholder of the prospective PLC company to run this office, put out a press release that caused a bit of a buzz. On November 26 The Deutsche Musikrat (DRM) aka the German Music Council reached an agreement that the organisation will get a 10% stake in the common project and revealed the name for the office.

 

CDue to a severe attack of gremlins in the up-dated and now corrected ILMC e-news distribution system many of you will have received the following information more times than you needed or cared to! - However for those of you not on that ILMC listing the following is information worth having!

The dates for next year's 16th International Live Music Conference (ILMC) were announced on Friday November 21, as with the previous 15 editions the ILMC will be themed, this year Martin Hopewell and his Olympian organisers advise us to, 'Get Set For The Games', the Press Release reads:

 

Although we at Vip-Booking and Vip News devote ourselves mainly to the thrills and spills of the live music industry we are of course always aware that this sector of the music industry does not, and cannot operate in isolation from the other areas of the business. The synergy between the record business and live performance is obvious and necessary, and professionals in both sectors must be aware of what is going on in parallel when planning their business.

Certainly with the News we try to keep our readers informed as widely as possible. The UK record industry has a similar service called Record of the Day and we have for some time discussed cooperation with our colleagues there, with the aim of sharing information and access for the hopeful benefit of the growing number of users of both services.

Record of the Day exposes only the best forthcoming and unsigned music to key people in the industry.

 

Duran Duran are to receive the 2004 Outstanding Achievement Award at next year's Brit Awards. The event will take place on February 17 at Earls Court where the band who were the pop sensation of the Eighties and nineties and have recently made a surprisingly well received comeback will perform a medley of their hits.

The first 'Brits Are Coming' show was filmed on Thursday November 26 at the Clapham Grand featuring performances from Muse, Sugababes and Big Brovaz. The show will be one of a series broadcast in the run-up to the BRIT Awards next February (see www.brits.co.uk for more info)

 

The Youth Department of the City Council of Bilbao (Basque Country, Spain) has once again instituted a new edition of the 'City of Bilbao' Pop-Rock contest. This is the 15th consecutive year of the music competition, which has become the most highly credited in Spain and aims to be a reference point for European newcomers in the country's music scene.

Registration, which is open to European bands ends December 31st 2003. There are 3 music categories: Pop-Rock, Metal and New Tendencies. Prizes total 34000 euros. Last year there were over 1250 competitors and more than 10000 people attended the 24 programmed concerts.

Further information :Phone: +34.944.151.306 (5 p.m. to 8 p.m.). Fax: +34.944.155.919 -mail: bilborock@ayto.bilbao.net Web site www.bilbao.net/bilborock

 

David Bowie is the first artist confirmed and announced for Roskilde 2004. As in previous years the ticket sale started on December 1. As an encouragement to buy early the festival offers a free T-shirt to the first 2000 ticket purchasers. This marketing measure is only available for tickets purchased in Scandinavia. The dates for Roskilde 2004 are July 1 to 4.

 

The Wiesen Festival & Concerts GmbH are launching a new festival in Austria. According to a press release the festival is entitled Areodrome and will be held at the Neustaedter airfield near Vienna. The dates for the show are June 10 & 11. Ewald Tatar, managing director of the company intends " Nothing more or less, than to establish one of the biggest festivals in Europe that will not be afraid to stand comparison with festivals like Roskilde, Sziget, Rock Am Ring or Rock Im Park"

For the first edition of the festival the promoter has booked headliners Red Hot Chilli Peppers (June 10) and Metallica (June 11). The plan is to present 23 acts and to attract 120.000 visitors for the event The show will be promoted in Germany, Croatia, Slovenia, Czech Republic and Hungary and is according to the promoter, one of the first shows that refers to the new 'Heart Of Europe' now created by the 4 new EU members in the region.

 

With very good timing certain parties in Cologne have announced that they are taking the chance to promote a project supposed to fill the gap left by Popkomm when the convention moved to Berlin. The Messe Berlin, the new Popkomm organizers will reveal their concept this week on December 3 at a press conference in Berlin. On December 5 in Cologne at the Culture Economy Congress of Northrhine Westphalia, the opponents intend to reveal their ideas for a new music congress in 2004.

Concrete details have not yet been revealed, apart from the date of August 15, 2004, or thereabouts. Popkomm will take place on September 29 to October 1.

At the moment a team headed by concert business professionals Norbert Oberhaus and Ralph Christoph are developing a festival concept named C/O Pop. The live event is mainly dedicated to electro and dance music. As well as C/O Pop some former Popkomm decision makers have written a treatment for a congress program that would replace the former Popkomm congress.

 

Veteran German band The Scorpions have forced Scorpio Concerts to change the name. Folkert Koopmans, managing director of the concert agency finally accepted a settlement due to a law suit with the soft metal band Scorpio and have to rename the company, from the start of 2004 they will be known as FKP Scorpio Konzertproduktionen GmbH. FKP stands for 'Folkert Koopmans Presents'. According to Koopmans, he tried for two years to agree an out of court solution with the representatives of the band, but the band showed no interest in any compromise.

Koopmans commented: "I believe the Scorpions' fans are capable of distinguishing between the band and us, but Mr. Schenker seems to disagree." Scorpio (The agency) was founded in 1990 and over 10 years no significant confusion about the similar names ever occurred. While the Scorpions are absent from the charts, the band seem to focus on law suits. Scorpio Concerts noted that the band even sued their home town ice hockey team, the Hanover Scorpions.

 

Born 1985 (or 1986) as an informal organisation representing the interests of independent promoters and agencies, The Network finally converted in September 2003 into The Network Europe (TNE). At the joint meeting in Barcelona a board was elected which includes Tapio Korjus from Rockadillo/Finland, Kristoffer Endresen of Bureau Storm/Norway; Marc Lambelet of Black Lamb/Switzerland, and Corrado Gioia of Hard Staff/Italy.

As times are changing and the variety of prominent members grows (e.g. Willem Venema - Mojo/Doubleyou Concerts), TNE has announced its' first General Assembly at the Noorderslag Convention on January 8-10. in Groningen, Netherlands. TNE is also currently seeking new members. New and old members of the pan European live business organisation benefit from reduced attendance fees to the Noorderslag Seminar (deadline December 15) or the Norwegian fair By:larm on February 12- 15.

 

In the 3rd quarter (Q3) of 2003 DEAG achieved a turnover of 74.8 million Euros, a gain of 22% compared to consolidated figures in the same period last year In Q3-2002 the turnover was 61.3 million Euros.

The Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortisation (EBITDA) in Q3-2003 before clean up costs was 4.3 million Euro, after clean up costs 3,3 million. The Earnings before Interests and Taxes is (EBIT) before was 1.2 million Euro, after only just 0.5 million Euro.

Within the first nine months of 2003, the expenses for clean up costs were indicated at 1.1 million Euros. Marketing expenses of about 1 million Euros for Q4-2003 were not considered. The top gainer within the concert conglomerate according to the company is the Artist & Tour department. Furthermore DEAG reported strong pre-sales of 1.2 million tickets for Peter Maffays Tabaluga, Udo Jürgens, Eros Ramazzotti, Fleetwood Mac, André Rieu and the already sold out Elton John tour in the UK. The board renewed their forecast to achieve an EBITDA result of 8 million Euros and EBIT of about 5 million.

 

Clear Channel (CCU.NSE): 40.88 USD in Vip News November 19. 2003, now 43.02 USD

CTS Eventim (EVD.FSE): From 7.40 Euro up to 8.35, which is not so far away from the price target of 9,00 Euro expected by Analyst Harald Heider of DZ Bank in Frankfurt .

DEAG (ERM.FSE) Q3 results for the company were announced on November 25 and seemed to cause some scepticism for investors. 2.75 Euro had been reported in the last issue, currently moved down to 2.42.

Mean Fiddler (MEF.ISE) No news for investors revealed by MEF in the meantime. Nevertheless the share showed a tiny going up from 21.00 Pence to 21.75.

 

Since 1993, we have booked more than 3000 shows for national and mainly international artists in Switzerland and Europe. Cult Concerts Agency and Black Lamb Productions have now become one of the main Swiss booking agencies for festivals and tours. Our clients include The Metropop Festival, Sound Arena, Baregg Festival, AVO Session, Open Air Gampel, Outside Zürich Festival, Bex Rock Festival, Balélec, Out-in-the-Green festival, Open Air St. Gallen, Paléo Festival, Gurtenfestival, X-Tra Limmathaus, Kaserne Basel, Fri-Son, Bierhübeli, AlpenRock House and many others.

The Tours and off-dates :
We act as local promoters for international acts performing in Switzerland, either on the promoters requests or on agent¹s request. Our job is to look for artists for the clubs/venues/promoters/special events/festivals or to look for places to play for the Artists on tour.

We also are exclusive booking agents for several Swiss and International acts.

The Festivals, corporate and special events:
We have exclusive deals with some of the most important festivals in Switzerland as well as with a growing number of corporate events. What we do for them varies from case to case: it goes from the making of the programme to the coordination of the overall organisation, Production Management, Artist Relations, Backstage management (dressing rooms & catering), Artist Transports, Press Office, Security, etc.

Management & publishing:
We are managing and taking care of the publishing of some artists

Future developments:
We intend to consolidate our position on the Swiss market in terms of festivals and corporate bookings as well as developping our booking activities for Swiss and International acts in Europe.

 

Christopher Entertainment is a Danish owned management, promotor and booking agency, established in 1986.
Christopher Entertainment has over the years presented some of the world's finest artists such as: Whitney Houston, Tina Turner, Santana, Boyzone, The Corrs etc.

As a booking agency Christopher Entertainment has delivered artists to major festivals such as: The Roskilde Festival, The Midtfyns Festival, The Langeland Festival, The Skanderborg Festival, The Jelling Musicfestival etc.
Christopher Entertainment is management for mostly Danish artists: Stig Rossen, Gudrun, Jacob Andersen etc and we represent Andrew Strong and Barrage in Scandinavia.
For more info please see www.christopher.dk

 

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