aeg presents
Page: 3
Concert promoter Goldenvoice of AEG Presents has re-upped its partnership with the historic Santa Barbara Bowl, extended its booking contract through 2032, company officials tell Billboard.
Built in the 1930s under the federal Work Projects Administration as part of President Franklin Roosevelt‘s New Deal, the sandstone-kissed 4,500-seat open-air rock and roll coliseum has hosted concerts by the likes of Bob Marley, James Taylor, Stevie Wonder and more.
Since the early 1990s, the Bowl has been managed by the not-for-profit Santa Barbara Bowl Foundation and programed by long-time talent buyer Moss Jacobs. For most of the 1990s, Jacobs was aligned with concert promoter Goldenvoice, which held the booking contract until the 2001 purchase of Goldenvoice by AEG. Jacobs left Goldenvoice that year and joined Nederlander Concerts as a vp of booking, bringing the booking rights to the bowl with him. In 2016, he quit Nederlander and went back to Goldenvoice, where he works as a Goldenvoice senior vp. Following his 2016 exit, the foundation exercised a key man clause in its contract with Nederlander, allowing it to end its deal and hand booking rights back to Goldenvoice.
“The Santa Barbara Bowl Foundation has been a vital partner,” states Jacobs, “helping Goldenvoice to foster incredible talent at one of the finest outdoor venues in the world. The Foundation understands the significance of partnering with a substantial national organization to benefit this amazing local community. This contract will allow us to build on the foundation of past great events to improve the already amazing stature of the Santa Barbara Bowl.”
Santa Barbara Bowl Foundation executive director Rick Boller said he was “thrilled to sign this booking agreement with Goldenvoice for another decade.” Since taking over management of the facility, the foundation has helped raise over $43 million for capital improvements at the Bowl.
After nearly 60 years in the music business, there’s precious little Elton John hasn’t already achieved. The icon has sold millions of records, toured the globe countless times and even saw the biopic based on his life, Rocketman, win honors at the Academy Awards and Golden Globes. But this week he added another accolade to his extensive collection, and one that sets a mind-boggling record: his multiyear Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour became the highest-grossing tour of all time, and the only one to surpass $800 million in gross, passing Ed Sheeran’s Divide tour for the title.
John’s outing isn’t even over yet, and there’s still the possibility that this tour crosses even higher benchmarks before all is said and done. But it’s already a crowning achievement for Debra Rathwell, the executive vp of global touring and talent at AEG Presents, who promoted the trek. And the milestone earns her the title of Billboard’s Executive of the Week.
Here, Rathwell breaks down how the tour came together and became so successful, the strategy behind moving up from arenas to stadiums midway through, the challenges posed by the pandemic and the lessons learned from such a gigantic undertaking. “I’m not sure that there will ever be another artist like Elton John, or a tour quite like the FYBR Tour,” she says. “But for any artist aspiring to achieve this level of success, this tour is probably the best example of what comes out of hard work and a love of performing: get out there and share your music with your audience.”
This week, Elton John’s Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour became the highest-grossing tour in history, and the first-ever tour to gross $800 million. What key decision did you make to help make this happen?
This all started to come together six years ago, back in 2017, a full year before the first date of the Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour. Jay Marciano (AEG Presents chairman/CEO), Howard Rose (John’s longtime agent), Keith Bradley (John’s tour director), Donna DiBenedetto (AEG Presents vp), Barrie Marshall (Marshall Arts), Doris Dixon (Marshall Arts) and myself met in Las Vegas to begin the job of routing and shaping the first half of tour. At that time, Elton John was playing the final shows of The Million Dollar Piano residency at the Colosseum.
Once we had our plan together, Elton held a press conference in New York in January 2018 to officially announce his retirement from touring, but not before he had embarked on a final run of 350 shows over three years, beginning that September. He wanted to travel around the world to say farewell to his fans. We all knew right then that this would be the greatest tour of all time, and that it was our job to back up Elton and deliver the goods.
No single person can take credit for the monumental success of the FYBR tour — apart from Elton John, of course. But if I had to describe my small part of it over these past five years, it’s been kind of a “utility player” role. Depending on the day, or even minute, it’s coach, captain or just “the bossy girl with the clipboard” who keeps things on course.
Elton spent the first few years of this tour in arenas, before moving up to stadiums this past year. Why did you guys go that route?
For several years prior to the first arena show in Allentown, Penn. (Sept. 18, 2018), Howard Rose had booked shows in smaller secondary markets, which created demand in the major markets. That demand, combined with the news of the retirement, created demand for multiple shows in those markets. We repeated this strategy several times during the tour. But we also made sure to return to many of the same smaller secondary markets; it was important for Elton John to bid a final farewell to as many of his fans as possible.
It was always the plan that the final lap of the FYBR tour would be in stadiums. This was important to Elton and mapped out in the planning stages. Getting them organized and on sale during COVID turned out to be our biggest challenge.
Given the demand of an iconic performer’s final tour, how did you approach setting this up differently than you would have any other tour?
The tour was divided into two parts that we internally referred to as “Round One (179 shows)” and “Round Two (153 shows).” Round One kicked off with that Allentown show and ran all the way through to Sydney on March 7, 2020. Of course, we had no idea that the world would be shutting down four days after we wrapped Round One. And we certainly never imagined that Round Two wouldn’t be wrapped until summer 2023.
The tour also encompassed the pandemic. How did that affect your plans, and how did it force you to adapt once you got back on the road?
When we resumed touring in January 2022, we had very strict COVID protocols in place for all members of the touring team and local venue staff. With some minor adjustments in the routing, we were able to reschedule shows. Unfortunately, we had to cancel the two sold-out shows in Montreal and the two sold-out shows in Toronto due to government COVID restrictions. We also had to cancel some entire territories altogether; we always intended to bring the FYBR tour to Asia and South America, but two years of COVID delays and the rescheduling that followed made that impossible.
We also made the decision that the ticket prices for the stadium shows would be pretty similar to the arena shows — we were in a situation where rescheduled arena shows were on sale at the same time we were putting stadium shows on sale.
How has touring changed overall given the events of the past few years? And how has this tour itself evolved across the years that it’s been going?
The interesting thing to watch was that as the FYBR tour continued, the audience got younger. Elton John broadened his fan base over the life of the tour. Rocketman and his biography Me: Elton John were big moments for us. And The Lockdown Sessions album released in October 2021 was of course one more thing that connected him with a new generation.
The public demand for tickets increased exponentially as the tour was coming to an end. It actually got quite frenzied as the final shows approached in every market. We were all so excited that we were able to sell out three Dodger Stadium shows in Los Angeles, culminating with the livestream of the concert on Disney+.
What have you learned from this long-running Elton tour that you can apply to the rest of your clients?
First and foremost, the initial messaging and announcement of a tour is so important. It really is critical to its success. And the messaging that Elton John conveyed to his fans at that press conference all the way back in 2018 was front and center at all times.
Also, this tour really drove home the importance of having a strong team around you. I have loved every minute being a part of this team. It has been the greatest pleasure of my professional career to be involved with Sir Elton John, David Furnish, Luke Lloyd Davies and all of the wonderful people at Rocket Entertainment. Keith Bradley is the finest tour director and this tour would not have made it around the world for five years, in its many shapes and forms, without him. Many cherished hours were spent with Howard Rose and our touring partners Marshall Arts (Barrie Marshall and Doris Dixon) for the U.K. and Europe and Michael Chugg and Frontier for all of the shows in Australia and New Zealand.
Plus there’s our AEG Team: Andrew Sharp and John Merritt who have been traveling around the world for these past five years — apart from when they couldn’t — and Donna DiBenedetto, my promoting partner who keeps things organized. And of course, Jay Marciano’s leadership and experience has been invaluable. It’s just an incredible group of people from top to bottom.
I’m not sure that there will ever be another artist like Elton John or a tour quite like the FYBR Tour. But for any artist aspiring to achieve this level of success, this tour is probably the best example of what comes out of hard work and a love of performing: get out there and share your music with your audience.
To sum up: Start each tour with a clear message and intention, and a collaborative mentality is imperative. A successful tour requires lots of teamwork on the part of the agency, management, promoter and artist. Think big, and think worldwide. And always be patient. When I first meet with the extraordinarily talented artists with whom I get to work, I often joke that I will negotiate the rights to their 20th Anniversary Tour right then and there. But it’s not really a joke. That’s how much I believe in them.
AEG Presents, a global leader in concert promotion and artist development, on Thursday (Dec. 8) announced an official strategic partnership with K-pop touring and marketing company Powerhouse.
The two live music companies, which have worked together on many successful K-pop artists over the past 13 years, will collaborate on all aspects of the live K-pop business including touring, production, marketing and media across every level.
“In the course of last two decades, K-pop has grown to be one of the most popular genres in the global music industry.,” says C.S. Hah, Powerhouse chief executive and president. “The K-pop market has proven its depth and width to be more matured than ever, and I hope our launch of this formal partnership with AEG Presents can help K-pop grow to reach new horizons across the regions.”
AEG Presents and Powerhouse started their successful relationship in 2010, producing the SM Town concert at Staples Center, regarded as the first blast of K-pop in the U.S. and selling out 12,500 tickets in a matter of minutes. Since then, the two companies have collaborated on historic K-pop tours including two for BTS — the 2017 Wings arena tour in North America and the group’s Love Yourself arena world tour the following year — as well as MONSTA X’s massive 2018 The Connect world tour.
“C.S. Hah and Powerhouse have a track record that speaks for itself,” commented Gary Gersh, AEG Presents president of global touring and talent. “Powerhouse has tapped into what’s becoming an ever-expanding international market for K-Pop, and we are thrilled to build upon an already strong foundation between the two companies.”
Added Adam Wilkes, president and CEO, AEG Asia Pacific: “Powerhouse and AEG Presents have a great history together, and our collaboration has only become more extensive as the barriers continue to evaporate between global music markets. This feels like a logical progression in our ongoing partnership.”
Over the last five months, Powerhouse and AEG Presents have produced and promoted four massive tours for some of the most popular K-pop groups: BLACKPINK, Tomorrow X Together, ENHYPEN and ATEEZ. This year, BLACKPINK sold out 14 North American arenas, plus an additional 10 in the U.K. and Europe. Tomorrow X Together performed eight sold-out shows in two months. ENHYPEN sold out seven arenas in October 2022, and ATEEZ sold out 11 arenas on their North American tour which ended earlier this month. All four of those artists expect to tour the rest of the world in 2023.
AEG Presents UK has appointed Chris Wareing to senior vp of global touring and hired Paris Harding as a promoter, the company announced on Thursday (Dec. 8).
Wareing — a leading hip-hop, rap and R&B promoter as well as the founder of the annual Gods of Rap tour — joins AEG with the view of expanding the company’s hip-hop and rap presence across the globe. Wareing joins AEG from SJM Concerts, where he served for the last 10 years as a promoter. Harding brings with him a wealth of skills and experience in the rap space and also served as a promoter at SJM Concerts.
“Having worked alongside Chris for a number of years and admired his presence from afar, I couldn’t be more thrilled to have him join our team,” said AEG Presents UK CEO Steve Homer in a statement announcing the hires. “He’ll be working closely with myself and my colleague Gary Gersh [president of global touring and talent, AEG Presents] at an international level, to drive our footprint in these important genres forward. It’s rare to come across talent at the level he and Paris exhibit and I couldn’t think of a better way to close out a stellar year.”
In his own statement, Wareing added, “I’m excited to kick off the New Year with a new challenge booking globally with AEG. I admire the vision and work of the company and I’m looking forward to further driving their presence in the hip hop and rap space.”
AEG Presents company The Bowery Presents announced today the acquisition and opening of Racket, its newest New York City venue. Opening in 2023, Racket takes over the old Highline Ballroom space on West 16th Street — right next to the Western Beef and across the street from the bustling Chelsea Market.
The general admission spot will be The Bowery Presents’ most intimate venue on the island and will serve as an important linchpin in the company’s ecosystem of artist development. The company has a well-documented history of working closely with artists as they ascend from intimate venues to sold out arenas and stadiums.
“We are excited to welcome Racket to The Bowery Presents family. Racket is very much the sister venue to Music Hall of Williamsburg: a fundamental building block for us in Manhattan, and an important addition to Bowery’s commitment to both artist development and amazing experiences for our fans and partners,” says the Bowery Presents founder John Moore and his partner Jim Glancy in a joint statement.
In addition to filling a much-needed gap in terms of capacity and location in the area’s live music scene, Racket will further expand Bowery’s venue ownership and booking footprint across NYC, joining Music Hall of Williamsburg (650 capacity), Webster Hall (1,350 capacity), Brooklyn Steel (1,800 capacity), Terminal 5 (3,000 capacity), and Forest Hills Stadium (13,000 capacity). The company also books and promotes hundreds of concerts in theaters, parks, and arenas in the region. Like all Bowery venues, Racket will be available for private events.
Racket’s opening lineup will be announced in the coming weeks.