The Godfather of gigs returns to festivals

I first met Vince Power in 1998 at Camden’s Jazz Café. I was dating one of his waitresses and had arrived to meet her at the end of her shift. I had only been in London a year but already knew the reputation of this live music legend. Now, at 60 years old, he’s mellowed with age, helped no doubt by the £13 million he pocketed in 2005 after selling his stake in Mean Fiddler to Clear Channel Entertainment. But back in 1998, as I was summoned to his table in a scene straight out of Scorsese’s Goodfellas, he was a man to be feared and revered in equal measure.

That night he played the role of the protective Godfather, running an eye over this guy who’d turned up to relieve his table’s waitress of her duties. Since then, as a journalist, I’ve witnessed Power play many roles - the festival promoter, loving father, venue impresario and modest, almost shy businessman.

Following the £37.9 million takeover of Mean Fiddler, Power signed a three-year non-compete arrangement, which has seen him dedicate his time to building a venue portfolio. The Godfather of gigs now owns The Bloomsbury Ballroom, The Pigalle Club in Piccadilly, Power’s Acoustic Room in Kilburn and the 101 Bar Lounge on New Oxford Street. He also owns The Moose club behind Selfridges, The Camel in Victoria and several restaurants.

Next month, Power’s non-compete clause expires. Anyone that thinks this Irish workaholic will continue to simply tend his VPMG stable of venues should think again. The man who created the Reading and Phoenix festivals and influenced Creamfields, Tribal Gathering, Glastonbury and Homelands is back. His return venture to a much-changed festival scene will take place on 6 July at The Hop Farm in Tonbridge, Kent.

In the last three years, the festival scene has morphed into branded live music experiences. Power wants it to return to its roots. A Day at the Hop Farm, headlined by Neil Young will therefore be unbranded, free of registration and without VIP areas. “It counteracts the current brand saturated music scene and will make the festival goer the most important element of the event,” he said.

In a live music scene dominated by global conglomerates this brawling, gambling Irishman is driving back into town in his 1970 Buick Skylark and looking to shake things up. I still wouldn’t mess with him. Live Nation, AEG Live and the like should underestimate him at their peril. This could be a new dawn for a true London hero.
Tickets for Power’s return to the festival scene went on sale on 18 March through See Tickets. Additional artistes will be announced shortly.

Olympic Torch Relay route announced

The full route for the Olympic Torch Relay has been unveiled.
The Olympic Flame will be lit at Wembley Arena Square at 10.30am on 6 April. It will pass through ten London boroughs and reach a grand finale planned for the Greenwich Peninsula.
In the morning, torchbearers will carry the flame through a carnival staged at Ladbroke Grove and Notting Hill Gate. At mid-day it will appear on an open-top bus along Oxford Street. It will then pass the British Museum, Piccadilly Circus and Trafalgar Square.
At 1.30pm, the torch will arrive at the Southbank Centre. It will be welcomed by a choir, hip-hop and beatboxing acts along the front terraces of the Royal Festival Hall.
At 2.30pm on the steps of St Paul’s Cathedral, the Band of the Scots Guards will welcome the flame with fanfares and music.
The flame will then head on to Stratford via Whitechapel Road. It will reach Canary Wharf at 5pm to be greeted by carnival themed entertainment.
At 6pm, a grand finale featuring a performance by the Sugababes will take place at the O2 on the Greenwich Peninsula.
The Wembley and Greenwich events will be attended by 2000 people. Free tickets will be released in the week prior to the event.

London invests in the arts. But is it the quantity or the quality that's important?

Taking advantage of the Nordic Bar's any bottle of wine for £10 on a Monday night offer, the talk turned to the merits of the 2012 Olympic Games. A friend of mine expressed his concern that the capital's arts provision would suffer at the hands of sport. I took delight in reporting the next day that Ken Livingstone had announced a £1.4 million fund for organisations to develop new cultural projects across the capital.

The fund has been established by the London Development Agency and will be delivered by the Arts Council England. According to the publicity boys at City Hall, this is just the beginning. More funding will be made available to support cultural projects in the run up to 2012. By blogging this, lets see if that promise is fulfilled over the coming years.

The fund was announced at the same time as a cultural audit that compares London's cultural environment with four other major world cities. Amongst the findings, the audit states that London has 184 museums compared with 157 in Paris or 91 in New York. And 55 major theatres compared with 39 in New York and 19 in Shanghai. New York has more major concert halls than London (12 and 9 respectively), but London stages more music performances each year than New York (32,292 against 22,204). London stages 200 festivals each year and has 400 venues offering music.

The audit has been rubbished by one of Ken Livingstone's most outspoken opponents, journalist Andrew Gilligan in today's Evening Standard. In amongst the rhetoric and accusations of suspect number crunching, Gilligan makes a valid point. It should be the quality of London's attractions and not the quantity that makes this city a world beater. For a copy of the audit, download it here and make your own mind up.

The brands of Beijing

Promotions and Incentives magazine asked me to analyze brand activity around this summer's Beijing Olympics. The International Olympic Committee tightened up the Olympic Charter after Athens in 2004 and the only sponsorship with exclusive worldwide marketing rights to both Winter and Summer Games, lies with the TOP (The Olympic Partner Programme) Partners. So will we see a repeat of the ambush brand marketing which, in the past has caused simmering tensions between the likes of Nike and Adidas? Or will China's human rights record put brands off attempts to align themselves with the Chinese Olympic rings and lead TOP Partners to rethink their official Olympic marketing strategies?

For the published article visit:
Brand Republic's Promotions and Incentives site
For a brief look at the promotional marketing we can expect from TOP Partners during the Beijing games, see below:

TOP Partner brand activity:
Omega
The luxury watch brand is the official timekeeper for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. To commemorate, it has released limited edition versions of its Constellation watches. The men’s version has the Olympic rings attached to the second hand. The women’s version has blue and yellow sapphires, a black diamond, an emerald and a ruby representing the colours of the Olympics as hour markers.
Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola is working with the official pin licensee in China to produce Coca-Cola branded Olympic pins from the same consignment of steel as used in the construction of the Beijing National Stadium. “We are supporting the pursuit of Green Olympics,” says Coca-Cola Olympic project group general manager David Brooks.
Visa
Visa is the exclusive payment card for the Games and is helping China speed up its process of building a world-class payment infrastructure.
ATOS
The international IT services company received Olympic support for its Integration Test Lab in Beijing. The facility will test all the key IT infrastructure and software applications that will be used during the Games.
Johnson & Johnson
Official health care products sponsor for the Olympics since 2006. It will be following up its Sport for Good Health campaign and in-store promotions on Compeed and Neutrogena products are anticipated but not confirmed.
Panasonic
Panasonic banners and advertising will be seen everywhere during the Games. The HD technology provider promises to “bring the excitement of the Olympic Games to life.”
Samsung
Samsung is launching three new mobile phone models around the Games and plans on enabling consumers to benefit from customized SMS and business information across different applications.
Kodak
The 2008 Olympics will be Kodak’s final Games as official imaging sponsor. It will provide an imaging centre for journalists, a clinic for diagnostic imaging of athlete injuries and accreditation badges.
LENOVO
The Chinese supplier will launch 2008 Games branded computers.
GE
General Electric is expecting to sell about 357 million euros worth of electricity-producing turbines, lighting systems and other equipment for the new Olympic venues.
McDonalds
Happy meal on pack promotions and in-store point of sale is expected.

Breaking News: Boy A

Today is World Book Day.
Congratulations to Jonathan Trigell - Boy A has been voted 2008's book most worthy of discussion.
For a debut novel, the deserved plaudits just keep on coming. Thanks to all who voted. See the results for the World Book Day's Books to Talk About here.