Touring
The reunion tour rolls on: Oasis have announced a trio of shows to take place in Asia next year, the latest gigs added to their Live ‘25 reunion tour. The Gallagher brothers will head to Seoul, South Korea on Oct. 21. for a show at the Goyang Stadium before heading to Tokyo, Japan for a […]
Sam Fender has announced he’ll embark on a run of huge stadium shows in the U.K. next summer.
After selling out his U.K. and Ireland arena tour slated for December, the 30-year-old will next year perform at London Stadium (June 6) and Newcastle’s St. James Park (June 12 and 14). The former will mark Fender’s first stadium show outside of his home city, and the biggest headline show of his career thus far with a venue capacity of 75,000.
The new dates will also mark the third and fourth time the North Shields musician has performed at St James’ Park, meanwhile, having sold-out two nights there back in 2022. Fender first teased the dates yesterday (Nov. 20), sharing a clip to his Instagram account of a saxophone player performing in the media area of St James Park.
Support for all three shows will come from Mercury Prize-nominated singer CMAT, while Philadelphia rockers The War On Drugs – who produced Fender’s new single “People Watching” – will appear at the London date and night two of the Newcastle leg.
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Details of a special fan presale will be shared with those signed up to Fender’s newsletter, while remaining tickets will go live at 9.30 a.m (GMT) on Nov. 29. Further ticket sale information can be found via Fender’s official website.
Last week (Nov. 15), Fender confirmed news of his third LP People Watching (due Feb. 21 via Polydor Records) alongside sharing its eponymous lead single. The track is on course to debut inside of the Top 10 of the U.K.’s Official Singles Chart later today (Nov. 22).
Following his upcoming arena trek, Fender will then head to New York’s Webster Hall for a show on Feb. 11, before continuing the second leg of the tour in Europe through March 2025. The following month, he’ll return to North America for a further seven dates. He is also confirmed to appear at Germany’s Rock Werchter in early July, fuelling rumors that he may return to Glastonbury Festival in Somerset, south-west England, the week prior (June 25-29).
Fender released his second record, Seventeen Going Under, in 2021, which saw him top the U.K. Official Album Charts and put out a live album of his massive gig at London’s Finsbury Park. Earlier this year, he collaborated with Noah Kahan on joint single “Homesick.”
Sam Fender U.K 2025 tour dates:
June 6 – London, England @ London StadiumJune 12 – Newcastle, England @ St. James’ ParkJune 14 – Newcastle, England @ St. James’ Park
Young Thug might be home from jail, but he’s still facing a multi-million dollar legal battle with concert giant AEG over a touring partnership gone sour.
In new legal filings, attorneys for AEG say they’re pushing ahead with a civil lawsuit, first filed way back in 2020, accusing the rapper of violating a touring agreement. AEG says Thug owes more than $5 million under the deal — and that he’s now obligated to hand over some of his music to pay down the debt.
The lawsuit has been delayed by Thug’s years-long criminal drama, in which Atlanta prosecutors accused him of running a violent gang. But after the superstar pleaded guilty and was released from jail last month, AEG now says it wants its money.
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“Proceedings in this action have been hampered for more than two years by reason of Mr. Williams’ incarceration,” the company’s lawyers wrote in a Friday’s court filing. “So long as Mr. Williams does not violate the terms of his probation, his criminal proceedings should no longer affect the parties’ ability to complete discovery and motion practice, or to bring the case to trial.”
AEG sued Thug in December 2020, claiming he had breached a 2017 touring agreement that gave the company the exclusive right to promote his concerts. AEG alleged that Thug had “immediately failed and refused to honor” the deal after it had been signed, including by performing shows without the promoter’s involvement and pocketing the proceeds.
Under the terms of the deal, AEG claims Thug was paid a $5.3 million advance – a sum the company says was never paid back after he breached his deal. More significantly, AEG says that debt was secured with Thug’s copyrights to his songs as collateral – and that AEG can now claim an interest in the revenue generated by such intellectual property.
“Such copyrights constituted collateral that was subject to the security agreement,” the company wrote in its 2020 complaint. “AEG has the right, pursuant to [agreement], to require that [Thug’s publishing company] and Mr. Williams assemble such [copyrights] and turn them over to AEG.”
After nearly four years, such a case would typically have resulted in a trial or a settlement by now. But the lawsuit against Thug was put on indefinite hold in May 2022, when the rapper was arrested and charged in a sweeping racketeering indictment that claimed his YSL group was a violent gang that had wrought “havoc” on the Atlanta area for nearly a decade.
After sitting in jail for more than two years during the longest-running trial in Georgia history, Thug pleaded guilty last month and was sentenced to serve only probation — a stunning end to a legal saga that could have seen him face a lifetime prison sentence.
For AEG’s attorneys, however, the end of Thug’s criminal case is just the start of the re-booted civil lawsuit – and also a chance to proceed on new accusations that the rapper has attempted to hide his copyrights.
In a court filing this summer, AEG’s lawyers said they had recently learned that Thug had sold more than 400 copyrighted songs for more than $16 million to an unknown third-party in 2021 – meaning after AEG had already filed its lawsuit seeking access to some of those songs. As a result of the sale, AEG said it might file an updated version of the case claiming the sale was fraudulent.
Now, in Friday’s new court filings, AEG says that even after “extensive research,” it remains “unclear which specific entities now own interests in such copyrights.” The company says it has filed issued subpoenas to 15 different entities seeking more information, and is still waiting to hear back.
“Based on the documents to be produced by those entities, AEG will determine whether to proceed against some or all of the collateral in this action as against defendants, to seek leave of court to
include claims against new parties with regard to such collateral, or to take steps outside this lawsuit with regard to such collateral,” the company wrote.
In technical terms, Friday’s filing was an agreement between the two opposing sides to push back all deadlines in the case by six months. That will give Thug a necessary three months to “become reacclimated to life outside of prison” and connect with his lawyers so he can “participate meaningfully in the action.” It will also give AEG the necessary time to “determine whether and how to proceed with regard to the copyrights.”
Neither side immediately returned requests for comment on Wednesday.
Veteran artist manager Peter Rudge started his music career in 1968 when he took up a temporary £20.00 per week ($25.00) post at Track Records, the London-based independent label formed by The Who managers Kit Lambert and Chris Stamp that was also home to The Jimi Hendrix Experience and Marc Bolan. His original plan was to work at Track for three months while he waited to take the Civil Service entrance exam.
Instead, Rudge soon found himself traveling the world with The Who as their tour manager before going on to manage the group outright alongside Bill Curbishley, launching what would become a 55-year career in the business.
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In the 1970s, Rudge also worked closely with The Rolling Stones, overseeing the band’s huge global tours throughout the decade, and Lynyrd Skynyrd, which he managed from 1973 until the 1977 plane crash that killed several members of the group, including singer Ronnie Van Zant. Other artists he’s represented over the past five decades include Roger Waters, Madness, Duran Duran, Il Divo, Ball & Boe and English rock band James, his longest and closest client which he has managed since 1989.
Last month, Rudge announced he was retiring from artist management to work on other music projects, including co-producing a film documentary about pioneering music agent Frank Barsalona, who is widely credited with revolutionizing the rock concert business.
“I got into business labeled the youngest guy in business and now I’m labeled the oldest guy in the business,” says Rudge, speaking exclusively to Billboard. “I don’t really want to be that. I’ve got nothing left to prove.”
Here, Rudge shares some of the biggest lessons he’s learned from 55 years in “the artist management trenches,” along with some of his favorite stories about life on the road with the Stones, The Who and countless others — from dealing with the deaths of several members of Lynyrd Skynyrd in a 1977 plane crash to becoming a target of the Hells Angels. “I tend to talk a lot,” he says laughing. “My mouth is my instrument.”
“You’ve got to front up to so many egos.”
“Artists are an acquired taste. I love them. I’ve worked with them, but I have to be [like] Henry Kissinger because I’ve spent my entire life translating the artist vision, their wishes to the label, to the publisher, to the agent in two different languages. You could call it an art form but it’s what I was good at. I originally wanted to be a diplomat. But I always wanted to travel, and I loved music. It was the other passion I had besides football, and I saw the opportunity very early [to enter the music business] and I got sucked into it.”
Stand up for yourself and don’t be a pushover.
“The first time I met The Who face to face I was sitting in the Track [Records] office. I had a little desk in an anteroom outside Kit and Chris’ office. Pete Townshend draped his coat over me as if I was a coat stand and walked into the office without looking at me. I thought, ‘How do I deal with this?’ So, I threw it at him and said, ‘You’ve left something behind.’ And he just broke into a smile. You’re constantly tested in life, and I was never intimidated in that way. [James’ singer] Tim Booth says I’m always the loudest guy in the room, but you’ve got to take control. When an artist asks a question, they don’t want you to say, ‘I don’t have the answer.’ You’re there for a purpose and you can’t show a lot of weakness or vulnerability because that will get exploited and taken advantage of.
“We all know the manager is on the thin end of the legal contractual chain in this business. The manager is always the buffer [between the artist and record company, agent and promoter]. But if the record goes wrong or the tour loses a lot of money, it’s the manager who usually takes the bullet in the head. Most of my bands have fired me at one point or another. You’re not 55 years in the business and don’t get fired.”
Nothing compares to touring with The Rolling Stones in the 1970s.
“They got me in for the ‘72 tour. They never had a manager. Mick’s been the only manager of the Stones, to be honest. My brief was the ’72 tour but also you went across everything with Mick [Jagger]. He would come to you and say, ‘Pete, what do you think about this or that?’ He’d play everybody off against everybody — in a lovely way. I’ve got a massive amount of respect for Mick Jagger. We did the Exile on Main St. tour and that was successful, and I toured with them all through the Seventies. Marshall Chess was running the record company [Rolling Stones Records] and Mick would always use me to come in and I’d work with Atlantic Records. I did a little bit of everything, but my main thing was the tours, and we did some big shows.”
Always plan ahead.
“I used to have to get off the plane first, when it was on the runway, because we were always worried about getting busted [for drugs] and Keith [Richards] getting done in particular. I’d go to a pay phone and call the number of another pay phone in the city somewhere where the advance man was. I’d say, ‘Are we clear? Do you think the police are there? Is anyone in the hotel?’ And that was it — get off the plane, let’s go. It was like [British sitcom] Dad’s Army when you look back at it now. It was incredible but we were playing to 70,000 people every night.”
“The Stones are the exception to most of the rules.”
“1978 was my last [Stones] tour. I’d run my course with them, to be honest. Bill Graham took over. Then Michael Cohl. I was young and I probably screwed up. I should have been more responsible in terms of drink and things of that nature. You get caught up in that world. It’s a very intoxicating world. But they were phenomenal years… The Stones are the exception to most of the rules. They’ve got the best frontman who ever existed. And a guitarist who’s led every indulgent rock and roll fantasy life and who is going to outlive us all. For me, that’s the great rock and roll story — that Keith Richards is going to be the last man standing.”
“Live is the one authentic thing in the music business”
“You can basically manipulate everything else. I’d forgive a band a bad record. But when I saw them live, if I got them, I was with them forever. And I thought that about The Who. If The Who came along now, they’d probably be dropped after their second album. They were too inconsistent. They were too stubborn. They didn’t sell a lot of records. It was a very transitional stage and the thing that kept it all together was live. That connects the dots. So, I took that mantra into all the artists I’ve worked with… Lynyrd Skynyrd were a bar band. A bunch of scruffy kids from Jacksonville. No style. No image. But God could they play. And God was Ronnie Van Zant good live. And God did he connect with his audience. It was amazing. So that’s always fueled me. That’s always been where my passion lies and that’s what I took into [managing] the James guys. If a band is good live you’ve got some collateral to fall back on.”
Find a supportive financier to write the checks.
“I look back at [managing] The Who and we never cared about [promoting] the record. They just went and toured. And they were running at a huge loss, in some respects because [Pete] Townshend smashed up his guitars all the time. They beat up the equipment. They had no consideration for money and the reason that we were able to tour the U.S. and Europe out of cycle was because they found a bank manager in Ealing [London] who kept giving them overdrafts. He did it because he was a huge Who fan. Back in the day, we wouldn’t let the labels backstage. Jesus, they were a pain in the neck. I remember with the Stones there was a time when Ahmet [Ertegun, co-founder and legendary former president of Atlantic Records] never got a pass. It was a different time.”
Managing artists can sometimes be a hairy business.
“The Hells Angels came after me because I was the first guy to take over [managing The Rolling Stones] after Altamont [Free Concert]. I remember once they came into the office. Big Vinny [Vincent Girolamo] was 300 pounds. He had a nose ring. Jagger was there and he went and hid in the back bathroom. They hung me out of the window, 5th floor, 57th Street, by my ankle. I went to someone and said, ‘The Angels are after me. What can I do?’ And they said, ‘You’ve got to tell the FBI,’ which I did. The FBI said, ‘We’ll wire you up’ because the Angels wanted money to pay off legal fees. I remember a great quote the FBI played me back later on the tape where one of the [Hells Angels] said, ‘We like to cook young guys like you. We like to boil you.’ It was intimidating, but I bullshitted my way out of it.
“In the end, I was put in touch with [someone in] one of the, shall we say, New York families who was the father of a promoter that we used — a really high-level ranking guy. They sent someone down and said, ‘Leave him alone.’ And I never heard from [the Hells Angels] again, except in Europe we used to get them coming along but our guys used to handle it quite well. The guy that helped me out on that, the father of the promoter, was found three years later in the Hudson [River] without his head.”
“The only real gift you can give an artist is truth and objectivity.”
“There are moments where you have to be prepared to be fired or disagree and say, ‘Look, you’re wrong.’ I’m your eyes and your ears. I’m your radar. No one tells you the truth. They tell me the truth when you walk out of the room. Have you ever heard anyone in a room tell you anything other than, ‘That’s a great record?’ No, you haven’t. Have you ever come off stage and had anyone tell you, ‘That was a shit show?’ No, they haven’t.’ You’ve got to have someone who is telling you that. With James we had that relationship. We built it up over a long time and it’s based on trust. Some artists can accept it, and others can’t.”
“This business is all about relationships.”
“You’re going to see everybody on the way down that you saw on the way up. So don’t burn bridges and don’t beat people up when you’re in the position to. I could have been accused over the years of being a bastard. And, yes, I was at times. I was probably alcohol or drug fueled back in the ‘70s but so was everybody. I did jump on [former CBS Records chief executive] Walter Yetnikoff’s desk once and point my finger at him but that was the way you did things back then. I wouldn’t do it now. I feel now you don’t mug someone. You pick their pockets.”
Management can be a thankless job.
“I’m 78 now. I want to travel on my own terms because [artist] management — it’s not your life. It’s not your agenda. You’re constantly having to manage other people’s lives. You very rarely get an artist who will ever call you up and say, ‘Pete, how’s the family?’ It’s usually: ‘I know it’s Sunday morning but how do I get a cab?’ I’ve always said, you can negotiate a $5 million publishing contract for an artist but if the car you send them to go to the signing is late, you’re a bad manager. And you have to have that in the back of your head all the time. It’s insane.”
“You sacrifice a lot in this business.”
“I want to do other projects, but I want them to have a beginning and an end. I don’t want it seven days a week, 52 weeks a year. You sacrifice a lot in this business. I was on the road nonstop when my two kids were growing up. I hardly saw them. I’ve been separated because of that dysfunctionality of living half the time in America, half the time in England…It is exhausting. You wake up every morning to questions and it is Groundhog Day after a while. There’s really nothing you haven’t seen before. I think you get a little cynical and that’s not healthy in our business.”
Dysfunction isn’t always a bad thing.
“Bands that love each other break up out of boredom after three albums. When I promoted a Pink Floyd show they didn’t even want their trailers backstage in sight of each other. With Mick and Keith, I was involved in an album when they were never in the studio together at the same time. James are the most dysfunctional bunch of guys I’ve ever met. But when these bands get on stage, when they cross that white line, something special happens that I’ve always been in awe of.”
There’ll be many lows…
“The saddest point of my life, the worst, was the Lynyrd Skynyrd plane crash one week before they were going to headline Madison Square Garden [in 1977]. Bands south of the Mason–Dixon line didn’t get to play places like New York then and we were about to play it. That was a longstanding mission. I loved that band. I loved Ronnie Van Zant. That did break me.”
And many highs.
“The highs? There’s been so many. I’ve worked with some magnificent artists and some of the Roger Waters, Lynyrd Skynyrd or Duran Duran shows [were special]. James at Rock in Rio this summer was quite a moment for me. But nothing tops some of the Stones stuff. You know, Jagger leading a 200 people conga line down the LA Forum doing ‘Sympathy For The Devil’ [in 1975] was unbelievable. There’s been so many of those moments with so many bands. I have to say the last James tour when they sold out [London’s] The O2 [arena] and the Manchester Co-op Live — that gave me immense satisfaction and pride. It was the wonderful culmination of a 35-year journey.”
The Oasis reunion rolls on. Following the recent roll-out of tour dates being across the U.K. and Ireland, North America, South America and Australia, there is now hope on the horizon for Britpop fans in Asia.
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On Tuesday night (Nov. 19), the band’s official Instagram account shared images of billboards that have popped up in Tokyo, Japan and Seoul, South Korea, which appear to be teasing a major announcement on Friday (Nov. 22). Check out images of the billboards below.
Featuring a black and white photo brothers Liam and Noel Gallagher, the electronic messages replicate the campaign that has been used in recent months to announce shows in other regions across the globe. Oasis last performed in Japan and South Korea in spring 2009, including gigs in Nagoya and Osaka, as well as a night at Seoul’s Olympic Gymnastics Arena. The shows will likely take place around the band’s forthcoming Australia dates, which are slated for November 2025.
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The Oasis Live ‘25 tour has 38 shows booked so far, and will commence on July 4 at Principality Stadium in Cardiff, Wales. The band is slated to tour through fall 2025, with the run currently slated to wrap up with Nov. 22-23 stops at Estádio Morum BIS in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
The band have not released any material since 2008’s Dig Out Your Soul. At present, Oasis have not officially confirmed that a new record is coming, or revealed a release date for what would be their eighth studio LP. In September, Liam replied to a fan’s question about whether there will be fresh music, responding “Yep it’s already finished,” without offering any additional details. Earlier this week (Nov. 16), however, Liam revoked these claims, telling fans “it was a laugh.”
Oasis endured a hostile split in 2009, after years of headlines related to the Gallagher siblings’ fierce rivalry. Principal songwriter, guitarist and occasional lead singer Noel quit the band after a backstage fight with vocalist Liam at a show in Paris that year. The brothers, now 57 and 51, haven’t performed live together since then, though they have continued to play Oasis songs during their solo gigs and with their side projects.
All the shows announced so far on the Oasis Live ‘25 tour have sold out. Cast and The Verve’s Richard Ashcroft will open in the U.K. and Ireland, and Cage the Elephant will support the reformed band for the North American leg. Special guests for the rest of the dates are yet to be revealed.
Pam Matthews will retire from her role as executive director at the International Entertainment Buyer’s Association (IEBA) in the first quarter of next year after 11 years at the helm of the talent buying and booking organization. Matthews modernized the group’s annual conference in Nashville, transforming the once sleepy get-together into a must-attend annual conference […]
When one door closes, another opens. Or rather, when one Post Malone tour finishes, another much bigger one announces.
Through closing night on Oct. 27, Post grossed $63 million and sold 470,000 tickets on the F-1 Trillion Tour, according to figures reported to Billboard Boxscore. And on Tuesday morning (Nov. 19), he announced The Big Ass Stadium Tour, which kicks off on April 29.
The move from amphitheaters to stadiums is a big one. The average capacity of Post’s fall shows was 18,786 seats, and the football stadiums on his 2025 route generally exceed 50,000. But all the F-1 Trillion Tour shows sold out – including two sprinkled-in stadiums in Boston and Nashville – and it appears he’s left some meat on the bone.
Post played a swift 25-show run in September and October, which is significantly less than the 39 shows on last year’s If Y’all Weren’t Here, I’d Be Crying Tour ($81 million; 802,000 tickets), which immediately followed the 63-date Twelve Carat Tour ($138.6 million; 1.1 million tickets) that stretched from 2022 into 2023. Post is a proven road warrior, and his brief fall trek simply whetted his base’s appetite.
Plus, his fanbase is expanding, as Post further transitions from hip-hop to pop to country. His fall tour – and presumably his upcoming one – is in support of F-1 Trillion, a country album that hosted more than a dozen of the genre’s cross-generational superstars, from Dolly Parton to Tim McGraw to Lainey Wilson.
The pivot was successful, as F-1 Trillion topped the Billboard 200 with 250,000 equivalent album units earned in its first week, more than doubling each of his previous two studio LPs. And while 2023’s Austin didn’t land a top 10 single on the Billboard Hot 100, this year’s “I Had Some Help,” featuring Morgan Wallen, spent its first six weeks at No. 1 and remains in the top 10 half a year later (as of the Nov. 23-dated chart). If he was selling out arenas and amphitheaters off less successful albums and starved his audience of a robust 2024 tour on the back of a comeback, the stage is well set for next year’s stadium trek.
And if he needs some help, he has it in the form of special guest Jelly Roll. Featured on F-1 Trillion’s “Losers,” he’s on his own fall tour navigating arenas and amphitheaters across the United States. Through Nov. 17, the Beautifully Broken Tour has earned $71.9 million and sold 615,000 tickets. Five shows are left on the schedule, wrapping up on Nov. 26 at Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena.
Quite notably, Jelly Roll’s 2024 tour has out-grossed and outsold Post’s own trek, positioning him as more than just an opening act as both artists prepare to play the biggest stages of their careers. But total volume does not tell the whole story: While Post has perhaps intentionally kept his routing sparse, Jelly hasn’t held back, as the latter’s show count is more than double the former’s. On a per-show level, Post is the stronger earner ($2.5 million vs. $1.4 million) and the bigger seller (18,786 vs. 12,291).
The initial announcement for The Big Ass Stadium Tour includes 25 dates, matching the length of Post’s fall tour. But while Post played to 470,000 fans in 2024, next year’s run will bring him to well over 1 million. It will all-but-certainly play as his highest-earning tour, flirting with a $200 million gross.
Dating back to Post Malone’s first show reported to Boxscore, a 2016 performance at Emo’s in Austin, Texas ($16,449; 660 tickets), he has grossed $415.6 million and sold 3.9 million tickets across 254 shows.
Kehlani fans, rejoice. The R&B artist has announced a string of live shows to take place in early 2025, marking her first U.K. and European shows since 2022. The seven-date run will kick off at Amsterdam’s AFAS Live on Jan. 21, before the 29-year-old makes their way through Belgium, Austria, Germany, France and the U.K. […]
Presumably, a lot of artists want their shows to be as environmentally friendly as possible. But with many factors contributing to a sustainable performance — from power sources to food vendors to fan transportation — it’s challenging for an artist to put on a truly green event without involving the many partners it takes to put on a show.
Now, a new initiative from U.K. live music advocacy group LIVE (Live Music Industry Venues and Entertainment) aims to help.
Together with representatives from AEG, Live Nation, Wasserman, WME, CAA, UTA and other major players in the touring industry, including U.K. promoter Kilimanjaro Live, LIVE has written a collection of “green clauses” — suggested language that can be written into contracts between artists and agents, agents and promoters, and other agreements in order to produce sustainability-minded shows from the ground up.
These green clauses offer recommendations for creating energy efficiency; waste reduction; water conservation; prioritizing plant-based, local and sustainable food; encouraging attendees to travel to the show using lower carbon emission transport; offering sustainable and ethical merch; and much more.
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The project comes from LIVE’s working group, LIVE Green, which is led by Carol Scott — the principal sustainability advocate at global event producer TAIT — along with LIVE Green’s impact consultant Ross Patel. The suggested contractual language was launched on the LIVE Green website in October, and Patel tells Billboard that “there is absolutely a commitment to adopt them” within the industry, adding that “in some cases, those conversations are already happening.”
Along with the clauses, LIVE Green has created a resource hub with information on how to execute sustainability practices and reduce carbon emissions at shows. These free guidelines primarily reflect the needs and capabilities of projects in the U.K. and North America, although Patel says the hub maintains a high level of relevancy for most event organizers, touring artists and their teams globally.
Here, Patel talks about the goals of the clauses, how sustainability-minded tours by major artists have helped lay the groundwork and why, in his words, “doing something is always going to be better than doing nothing.”
What were the conversations like in putting these clauses together, particularly given that you were working with global entities like Live Nation, AEG and the big agencies?
To a large degree, there wasn’t any disagreement in the primary content of what we were asking for, in terms of key things that need to be addressed, such as energy, power, water, food and transport. Those aspects were not really commented on. The red lining was to get clauses more in line with the tone of [each company’s] existing contract templates. They have to build them into contracts they already use, so a lot of it was just trying to make it fit.
What was the process like, with so many participants whose needs and wants are related, but also specific?
There was one sticking point we managed to resolve, which was the purpose of what this template was being designed for. It’s to provide something for anyone to have access to and to adopt and adapt as they see fit. In the end, we opted for an all-parties, best-endeavors wording, because that’s the thing that is going to be the most relevant to the most people.
What were the sticking points?
Of course, if you’re an agent, you’re going to want to see something that’s in favor of the artist. If you’re a promoter or venue, you’re going to want something more in favor of the venue or promotions company. As a working group, and certainly from LIVE Green’s perspective, we felt an all-parties and best-endeavors approach was the best way to start, with getting something out in the industry that wasn’t going to be a shock to the major corporates. We want them to participate in this, so that when someone now sees this in a contract, or when they now speak to each other to figure out how they want [a contract to look], there’s a starting point that isn’t in favor of either side.
That makes sense.
The next practical step is, let’s say Live Nation and WME — because they do so much business together — they will have templates they’ve already agreed on and negotiated. There’s a baseline that they’re happy with. They do that all the time, with lots of different clauses. This just happens to be one that is focused on sustainability that wasn’t in contracts before.
How useful have sustainably-minded tours by artists like Billie Eilish and Coldplay been in creating examples for what you’re doing?
It feels like the industry is ready for this because we have case studies of big booking agents, big promoters and big artists actioning what we’re now sharing with everyone else. They might have been just one-offs, but they’re operating. [It demonstrates] that it’s an option.
If a venue hosts a Coldplay show, and that contract states the venue must do certain things for sustainability, then the following week, that venue has another artist who also has these clauses in their contracts, the hope is that those adjustments will eventually become permanent.
Now, more often than not, larger venues tend to make the adjustment for the show, then revert to whatever their previous installation was. With a more consistent request of these changes, inevitably it will make sense for them to keep these things in place.
So this small group of artists who are showing shows can be done this way are important, in terms of being a proof of concept?
Exactly. There’s more and more examples of [these things working]. Hopefully this will put us in a position where the impetus is on everyone to help deliver these things. Some people will be further along than others. Some artists might already have contracts that far surpass what we’ve introduced. Some promoters or venues might already have their own sustainability criteria that’s far more developed than what we’re asking artists to sign up to.
The point is that we’re hoping to expedite the conversation. Where someone might be further along, they can share what’s being done. There is now almost a contractual recognition to get them to where the other person is, to bring everybody up.
Ross Patel
Courtesy of Ross Patel
To what extent do you think people feel more inclined to participate given that they’re already living with the realities of climate change?
There’s a number of reasons, and that’s definitely one. I don’t think anyone can deny — well, there are still people that seem to be able to deny climate change somehow — but I think the majority of people have witnessed and experienced the impacts of climate change. Certainly, from an industry perspective, there is an ever-increasing and urgent need to acknowledge and address this and act, because we’re seeing how it’s affecting tours. We’re seeing the very real impacts of flooding, droughts, travel issues. We are losing business as an industry due to climate change.
That’s something I think people are seeing on a terrifyingly regular basis, and therefore it’s at the top of the agenda. With the increased buoyancy of the live industry [after the pandemic], people have more to contribute, because it is a cost implication. It’s one that needs to be factored in as part of doing business. I wish we could have been in this position to do something earlier, but we’re here now, so let’s just move the dial as quickly as we possibly can.
How are advancements in technology helping the cause?
We now have proven, stable technology that allows you to run festival stages and live events on battery cells and don’t require diesel generators. We did have those three or five years ago. Hopefully through proven technological advances within the industry, we can not only introduce the audience to that which excites them and gives them a feeling of positivity and safety and hopefulness, but we can move those case studies and proof of concepts into policy and make these things contractually obligated. We can’t do that specific thing yet, but that is what I would like to see down the line. But that will be very much market dependent, artist dependent, event dependent.
How enforceable are these clauses as the templates stand? What will be the tipping point for getting these things into contracts as a legal obligation?
That will have to be in line with policy. We could, for example, write that if an event doesn’t provide fuel cells, then the contract is null and void. But is that a reality for that show, in that market, on that tour? Possibly, or possibly it just isn’t. There has to be a degree of people acknowledging what’s being asked of them in specific areas, and then, more importantly, using the resource hub that LIVE Green has developed.
But using best endeavors means you’re looking at what’s in the clauses and doing anything you possibly can to respond to what’s in them. Doing something is always going to be better than doing nothing.
Given the incoming administration in the U.S. and its anticipated loosening of environmental regulations, do you feel or fear there will be decreased momentum around this project and projects such as these?
My personal feeling is that the initiative will have a greater degree of support from the industry because of the election. Of course, any climate-related agenda now will be challenging to uphold, but the creative industries still have an opportunity to influence and drive audience behavior change through positive messaging and innovative climate solution implementation. There may not be a policy demand or regulation in place for a particular action, but that doesn’t and shouldn’t stop us from progressing anyway. It’s what the consumer, fans and wider industry want!
Australian ticketing company Ticketek was offline Monday (Nov. 18), causing a major outage across the platform while drawing concerns from fans of bands like Twenty One Pilots that the outage could affect upcoming shows this week.
On social media, ticket holders for a Twenty One Pilots concert at Rod Laver Arena on Tuesday (Nov. 19) are increasingly voicing their concerns that the ticketing company won’t be back online in time for the show. Officials with Melbourne & Olympic Parks Trust, which manages the arena, did not respond to questions from Billboard.
@Ticketek_AU @LiveNationAU when will the ticketek app and website be working again? i have a twenty one pilots show tomorrow and can’t access my tickets and i need to add them to my apple wallet!— val (@kilIersqueen) November 18, 2024
@Ticketek_AU website and app are still down. I want to buy presale tix for @KasabianHQ at @Enmore_Theatre How can I make the purchase if the site is down?— Mick Gee (@boomshanka1976) November 18, 2024
On Monday, visitors to Ticketek’s main web page discovered a message reading, “The Ticketek website is currently undergoing maintenance. We apologize that the update is taking longer than anticipated.”
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The cause of the outage is unknown, although a memo circulating online that appears to have been issued by a venue using Ticketek claims the company had voluntarily taken its network offline to “investigate some unusual cyber activity and, as a precautionary measure, the Ticketek Australia and New Zealand Websites and Apps have been temporarily offline today.”
The note adds, “Ticketek are working to reinstate access as soon as possible and apologise for any inconvenience caused. Ticketek are working hard to reinstate the site in the coming few hours.”
Ticketek’s pages in the United Kingdom, Singapore, the Philippines and Malaysia remained operational during Monday’s outage.
Billboard reached out to representatives from Ticketek but did not receive a response.
Ticketek is one of the largest ticketing companies in Australia and falls under the umbrella of Australian promoter Paul Dainty‘s company TEG, which today is majority-owned by Silver Lake and was recapitalized in February in a deal with KKR Credit Markets and the Singapore government-owned investment firm Temasek. TEG’s portfolio also includes TEG Sport, TEG Experiences, TEG Dainty, SXSW Sydney, Qudos Bank Arena, Softix, TicketCharge, TicketWorld and Ovation.