Myrtle Beach looks for tax revenues

Pollstar reports that the promoters for Myrtle Beach’s Carolina Country Music Fest are asking city officials for $100,000 in accommodations tax revenue to advertise and promote its next festival this spring. The Sun News of Myrtle Beach says that festival representative Sheila Fletcher requested the money during a special Myrtle Beach City Council workshop Tuesday, saying that the festival has already sold 6,000 tickets for this year’s event, which will feature Tim McGraw, Keith Urban and Florida Georgia Line as headlining acts.

RIP

Dale Griffin, drummer for Mott The Hoople, has died aged 67. He was a founder member of the group, best known for classic tracks "Roll Away The Stone" and "All The Young Dudes". The band, who made eight albums during their five-and-a-half year existence, reformed to mark their 40th anniversary in 2009 - but Griffin was too ill with Alzheimer's to take part. Dale is survived by his long term partner Jean Smith.

Giorgio Gomelsky has died, aged 81. One of the prime architects of the British blues boom in the early sixties Giorgo owned the Crawdaddy club in London where the Rolling Stones were the house band and was key in their construction and early career, and having missed out managing the Stones, he moved on to manage the Yardbirds although he persuaded a young Eric Clapton to leave the band.

Glenn Frey, founding member and guitarist with US rock band The Eagles, has died aged 67 from complications related to rheumatoid arthritis, colitis and pneumonia. He sang lead vocals on many Eagles hits such as "Take It Easy", "Tequila Sunrise", "Already Gone", "Lyin' Eyes" and "Heartache Tonight." Frey, who also played keyboards and piano in The Eagles, wrote or co-wrote many of the group's best-known songs, including "Hotel California" and "Desperado" - both penned with bandmate Don Henley.

Dallas Taylor, drummer with Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, has died aged 66. He played at Woodstock, appeared on seven top-selling albums but died Sunday in a Los Angeles hospital. Having spent many years as an alcoholic, Taylor's health forced him to largely exit the music business following a liver transplant. He went on to become an addiction counsellor specializing in interventions and in reuniting alcoholics and addicts with their families and he continued to treat musicians and other celebrities with addiction problems. He is survived by his wife Patti McGovern-Taylor , and his son Dallas, daughters Sharlotte and Lisa, and five grandchildren. He had several earlier marriages.

Rene Angelil, the husband and former manager of Celine Dion, has aged 73. He had been battling throat cancer. Angelil managed Dion’s career for over three decades, famously remortgaging his house to fund the release of the singer’s debut album – ‘La Voix Du Bon Dieu’ – in 1981.

James Stewart 'Jimmy' Bain, the Scottish bassist most famous for playing with Rainbow and Dio with Ronnie James Dio, has died aged 68. Since 2013, Bain has been a member of LAST IN LINE, also featuring his fellow ex-DIO bandmates Vivian Campbell and Vinny Appice along with singer Andrew Freeman.

THE REVOLVING DOOR

At least 10 employees of Capitol Music Group (CMG) have been laid off, including executives across multiple departments. Among those let go were vp of promotion Howard Petruziello, vp of video promotion Wanda Coriano, marketing director Matt Kroepel, vp of sync and brand partnerships Alisann Blood, vp of publicity Juliana Plotkin and publicity manager Shane Wepprich. Additional staff was reportedly laid off from the New York office of CMG as the company continues to shift its resources and manpower to its Hollywood headquarters. 

Independent publisher and record label ABKCO, which controls catalogues from The Rolling Stones, Sam Cooke and more, has a new COO, Alisa Coleman, who steps up from her previous role as Senior EVP at the New York-based company.

Martin Bandier has signed a contract extension to remain as Chairman and CEO of Sony/ATV Music Publishing.

T in the Park has made a series of management appointments as part of a re-structure of the festival’s operational team. The festival's former police event commander Colin Brown has been named security manager, and former road police inspector Ian Martin will take on the role of traffic manager. APL Events have been appointed to look after site management, when the festival returns to Strathallan Castle from July 8-10.

Primary Talent have appointed Paul McQueen as one of its agents. McQueen was previously based in Glasgow and worked for Elastic Agency, but will be relocating to London to join Primary's team.

Warner/Chappell Music has announced that Chuck Gamble has been appointed Vice President, Catalogue Promotions.

Steve Waxman has been named a Vice President of Warner Music Canada by company President Steve Kane.

Caroline, Universal’s US-based label and artist services division, has promoted Matt Sawin to the position of SVP, Marketing & Commercial Development.

Nick Huggett, who signed Adele to XL back in 2006 and introduced her to manager Jonathan Dickins, is moving on to pastures new. According to Record of the Day, Huggett, who has been director of A&R at Island Records U.K. since 2009, is joining Miles Leonard’s Warner Music U.K. label Parlophone.

Universal’s VP, Digital Business Developmen, Pat Shah,  has joined Spotify as the streaming service’s Head Of Original Content Licensing. At UMG he worked on complex licensing transactions with Google Play, YouTube, Samsung, Tidal, and Vevo, among others.

Tom Connaughton, Head of Vevo’s Content and Programming department in the UK, will re-locate to New York to head up the video platform’s Global Content and Programming team.

SESAC, Inc. has announced that Alexander Wolf has been appointed President of SESAC International – the collection’s society’s ex-US unit based in London.

Sports marketing agency Synergy has appointed music, marketing and entertainment exec Arnon Woolfson to head up a new division specialising in creating entertainment strategies, partnerships and campaigns.

RFID cashless payment specialist Intellitix has made a series of new appointments as it expands its team.   Gavin Barnard, who has eight years experience in digital and live events, joins as UK director of partnerships, while new UK director of business development Gareth Deakin joins after four years as head of business development at Sony Music Entertainment. Isabelle Chevallier, Intellitix’s European head of business development, will oversee European sales. She brings 15 years of experience working within the European music scene and was previously general manager of business affairs and development at Sony Music Entertainment France.

Two of Twitter’s top executives — media head Katie Jacobs Stanton and product head Kevin Weil — are departing the company, according to sources close to the situation. Head of engineering Alex Roetter and Brian Schipper, head of HR are also leaving as is Jason Toff, who had been in charge at Vine, Twitter's video streaming service, who moves to Google.

Music piracy on the rise again

MBW reports that the amount of music downloaded on illegal piracy sites grew by 16.5% in the second half of 2015 compared to the year’s opening six months. That’s according to leading content protection and market analytics company MUSO, which tracked web activity on 576 sites which were ‘wholly dedicated to music piracy or contained significant music content’.

Across these sites, MUSO analysed over 2 billion visitor traffic hits globally. The research, exclusively provided to MBW, comes from MUSO’s ‘2015 Global Music Piracy Insights’ Study. Interestingly, the company found that music was particularly hit hard: the amount of online visitor traffic across piracy-enabling torrent sites covering all media types dropped by 20% throughout the course of 2015.

SFX raises $20 million

Following news of a default on a loan repayment and that the company was  "considering bankruptcy,debt restructuring and asset sales", SFX Entertainment's financial saga moved on with the announcement of new financing. The troubled EDM promoter revealed it has raised $20 million "for itself and certain of its operating subsidiaries, obtaining capital for its working and general corporate purposes." Those were the only details released. More information will be given in an SEC filing that had not been released by midday Friday.

More on Billboard here

Live Nation upgrades US concert security

Live Nation has announced that it has upgraded security at the all US concerts and events in the wake of the Bataclan terrorist attacks in Paris in November.

More than a dozen arenas have announced new security measures made at Live Nation's request which will include screening fans with metal detectors and limiting what type of bags fans can be brought into concerts and events: The specific requirements for all non NHL/NBA venues are as follows 

- Bags no larger than 13.62-inch by 15.25-inch are permitted and all backs should be clear or see-through

- Everyone must pass through a walk-through metal detector.

- Installation of camera systems with a command centre monitoring capability.

- Cultural training for staff with an emphasis on appropriate handling of ethnic & religious sensitivities.

- Pre-event inspections by bomb detection K9 units.

Most sports team home venues had already adopted these measures.

European Festival Awards 2015

The 2015 European Festival Awards ceremony at the EuroSonic convention in Groningen in the Netherlands took place last night. A gala dinner, hosted by Ben Challis and Gordon Masson, featured live performances from Dutch band Kovacs, Scotlands White and Carnival Youth from Latvia, and a special performance from the star sudded Natural Peace and Love Orchestra.  With over 800,000 votes cast by fans, the winners are:

Best New European Festival: Untold Festival (Romania)

Best Indoor Festival: Les Transardentes (Belgium)

The Green Opererations Award: Tollwood Festival (Germany)

Agent of the Year: Emma Banks (CAA)

Festival Anthem of the Year: Major Lazer with Lean On

Best Small European Festival: Happiness Festival (Germany)

Artists Favourite European Festival: Rock Werchter (Belgium)

The Health & Safety Innovation Award: Das Fest (Germany)

The Best Medium Sized European Festival: Telekom Volt (Hungary)

Promoter of the Year: Horstmann Unterbehmensgruppe (Germany)

Newcomer of the Year: Hozier

Best European Festival Line Up: Sziget (Hungary)

Best Headliner: The Prodigy

Best Major European Festival: Untold Festival (Romania)

Award for Excellence and Passion: Prof Chris Kemp (YES and MOM)

Lifetime Achievement Award: Jean Louis Brossard and Beatrice Mace

RIP

FAREWELL DAVID BOWIE. SONGWRITER. ACTOR. PERFORMER. ICON. STAR. ENIGMA. TALENT. INSPIRATION.

David Bowie's family have confirmed the death, aged 69, of the London-born superstar following an 18-month fight with cancer. Bowie released 25 studio LPs in his career. Many of them changed the face of rock'n'roll forever more.

David Bowie at Glastonbury 2000

RIP David Bowie. 1947-2016.

John "Brad" Bradbury, drummer with The Specials, has died at the age of 62. The ska group tweeted the news: "It is with deep regret that we say goodbye to our great friend, the world's greatest drummer, our beloved Brad. RIP." Bradbury joined The Specials in 1979, and continued with the The Special AKA, who had a top 10 hit with "Free Nelson Mandela". Bradbury took part in The Specials reunion tour in 2009. He also headed up a band called JB Allstars.

Natalie Cole, the multiple Grammy wining singer and daughter of Nat King Ciole  has died of heart failure aged 65. Natalie shot to stardom with her debut album, "Inseparable", in 1975. Subsequently she experienced the extremes of huge commercial success and debilitating periods of illness and drug addiction, and the predictable slump in her career as she battled addiction. However Cole overcame her demons and her greatest success came with her 1991 album, "Unforgettable... With Love", which paid tribute to her father with reworked versions of some of his best-known songs, including "That Sunday That Summer", "Too Young" and "Mona Lisa". In 2009 she enjoyed one of the biggest hit albums of her career with "Still Unforgettable", which won her the last of her nine Grammy Awards. The singer had recently cancelled a series of performances, including one on New Year's Eve. She is survived by her son from her first marriage, Robbie Yancy, a professional musician.

Robert Stigwood, who managed the Bee Gees at the height of their fame, produced and released Cream’s self-titled debut, and guided Eric Clapton’s successful solo career while producing musicals for the stage and screen, has died aged 81. Stigwood also produced the groundbreaking film of the Who’s rock opera "Tommy", and the iconic "Saturday Night Fever", which introduced disco music and a young John Travolta to audiences around the world, while propelling the Bee Gees to global stardom. The announcement of the Australian-born Stigwood's death was made on Facebook by Spencer Gibb, son of Bee Gees band member Robin Gibb.  “I would like to share the sad news with you all, that my godfather, and the longtime manager of my family, Robert Stigwood, has passed away,” Gibb wrote, describing Stigwood as a “creative genius with a very quick and dry wit” and saying “I would like to thank Robert for his kindness to me over the years as well as his mentorship to my family. `Stiggy’ you will be missed”. 

THE REVOLVING DOOR

Henning Tögel 

German indie-promoter The Moderne Welt closing operations, two years on from passing of founder, Henning Tögel. The parent company Moderne Welt Musikproduktions- und Vermarktungsgesellschaft will remain active to manage, among other things, the Henning Tögel foundation which fosters creative talent of all sorts.

Self-service ticketing platform Eventbrite has announced Joel Crouch as its first ever GM for UK and Ireland.  

Piero Giramonti and Jacqueline Saturn have been named General Managers of Caroline – the Independent Services division of Capitol Music Group (CMG) in the US. The news comes four months after reports emerged that Caroline President Dominic Pandiscia was to leave the UMG-owned organisation.

A2IM, the American Association of Independent Music, has appointed Richard James Burgess as its new CEO. Burgess moves over from his position as Chairman of the A2IM board.

Maria Eagle has been appointed Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport following Labour leader Jememy Corbyn's re-shuffle. She was previously Shadow Secretary for Defence.

Kobalt has replaced Diarmuid Quinn, the recently-departed GM of the firm’s Label Services division in the US with the promotion of Ron Cerrito into the GM position, effective immediately. Cerrito moves up from his position as SVP/Promotion/Rock Formats at KLS. Quinn, who was named Kobalt Label Service's president, North America in 2013, had announced he'll be stepping down from that role at the turn of the year.

Independent publisher Imagem Music has promoted Leo Chantzaras from Senior A&R Manager to Senior International A&R Manager.

Nic Jones, has been named Chief Revenue Officer at Vevo based in San Francisco – stepping up from his previous role as EVP of International.

Two senior promoters at the UK operation of Live Nation have left the organisation. Steve Homer and Toby Leighton-Pope are believed to have exited the company last week.

The Chairman of the UK’s Concert Promoters Association, Stuart Littlewood, has stepped down after 15 years in the role. Littlewood was previously treasurer of the CPA for 12 years, bringing his total tenure to 25 years. Phil Bowdery, President Of Touring International at Live Nation, will take over from Littlewood following an election at the CPA.


Ian Hogarth, founder of fast-growing ticketing firm Songkick, has become its Chairman. Matt Jones, whose Crowdsurge merged with SK last year, is now sole CEO.

Simon Presswell has been appointed CEO of Eventim UK. Presswell was previously MD of Eventim rival Ticketmaster UK, before leaving last year.

Spotify has confirmed the appointment of George Ergatoudis in the newly-created position of Head of Content Programming for the UK. Ergatoudis joins Spotify from the BBC where he was most recently Head of Music for BBC Radio 1 and 1Xtra.

Ashley Newton has officially been named President of Universal’s Capitol Music Group – reporting into his one-time Columbia boss Steve Barnett.

Hackford Jones, the London-based entertainment PR agency founded in 2003 by Simon Jones and Jonathan Hackford, and who represent One Direction, Little Mix. comedian Jack Whitehall and TV duo Ant & Dec is being wound down as the co-owners go their separate ways.

Swift tops Pollstar's Worldwide Tour earners for 2015

Taylor Swift, AC/DC, One Direction, U2 and Foo Fighters make up the top five positions on Pollstar’s Top 20 Worldwide tours for 2015.  The Rolling Stones, Madonna, Paul McCartney, Garth Brooks and Ed Sheeran are also among the major earners.

Swift was the top touring artist in the world with gross ticket sales in excess of $250 million as she played to nearly 2.3 million fans.  The Top 20 Worldwide Tours alone grossed more than $2.2 billion and sold over 24 million tickets at an average ticket price of $91.74.  That represents $200 million and over 4 million tickets more than in 2014.

AC/DC came back and did the biggest tour in the band's history while Foo Fighters and Ed Sheeran made the Top 10 for the first time with record outings of their own. Although The Rolling Stones are placed 10th on the chart, the band had the highest average ticket – $174.50.  Second is Paul McCartney’s $155.76 followed by Madonna (127.55), Fleetwood Mac ($125.61), Elton John ($124.49) and U2 ($118.35).  Luke Bryan’s $55.48 average ticket price was the lowest on the chart. 

SFX suffers more setbacks as it defaults on Spotify deal and TMWRK team leaves

SFX , the troubled dance event company, has defaulted on its content agreement with Spotify, and will be refunding the $10 million licensing advance in installments by July 2016. Spotify can recoup its advance because the contract called for SFX boss Robert Sillerman to purchase $15 million in preferred stock by October 17th. Sillerman's failure to make this payment caused SFX to default on a $30 million credit agreement with Barclays Bank and other unnamed lenders, who could at any time declare all funds due immediately. SFX's share price was $0.193 as the year ended - it has fallen 33.4 percent since December 24th 2015 and is 96.3 percent below its 52-week high of $5.25.

SFX has also  parted ways with the company behind artist management firm TMWRK. SFX purchased TMWRK, home of Diplo and many other EDM artists, in 2014. Now TMWRK has agreed to pay $3.6 million to leave SFX, which will abandon the business and write down the value of its investment. 

More on Billboard here

Travi$ Scott sentenced after causing stampede

The rapper Travi$ Scott, accused of starting a stampede at Lollapalooza this summer, has pleaded guilty to reckless conduct charges. Scott, whose legal name is Jaques Webster, encouraged fans to climb over barricades during his concert. A 15-year-old girl was trampled. A judge ordered Scott to be under court supervision for one year.

RIP

Stump, with Mick Lynch on the left

We are very sorry to hear of the death of Mick Lynch – the charismatic former frontman of quirky indie band beloved of John Peel, Stump. The band rose to underground prominence with 'Quirk Out' which highlighted Mick’s onstage charisma and natural charm. A simply lovely man from Cork.

Lemmy (R) at Glastonbury 2015 (Nick Cordes)

Ian “Lemmy” Kilmister, founding member and singer in the British heavy metal band Motörhead, has died at the age of 70 shortly after learning he had been diagnosed with cancer. The band announced on their Facebook page that Lemmy learned of the disease on Boxing Day, and was at home when he died and said “There is no easy way to say this … our mighty, noble friend Lemmy passed away today after a short battle with an extremely aggressive cancer. He had learned of the disease on 26 December, and was at home, sitting in front of his favourite video game from The Rainbow which had recently made it’s way down the street, with his family." They asked fans to have a drink or two and play Lemmy's music LOUD in his honour.

PRS for Music and Soundcloud - war is over

PRS for Music has written to its membership informing them that it has settled the recently launched legal action against the online music platform, which is widely used by PRS members. The licence covers the use of PRS for Music repertoire from SoundCloud’s launch, and extends to. cover SoundCloud in its plans to introduce subscription and advertising supported platforms across Europe in 2016.  Robert Ashcroft, Chief Executive of PRS for Music said: “On behalf of our members, I am pleased that we have been able to reach a settlement with SoundCloud without extended legal proceedings. This ends over five years of discussions on the licensing requirements for the platform, resulting in a licence under which our members are fairly rewarded for the use of their music." adding "The safe harbours in current legislation still present ambiguity, and obstruct the efficient licensing of online services, but our agreement with SoundCloud is a step in the right direction towards a more level playing field for the online marketplace." The letter from Karen Buse, Executive Director, Membership and International, reads:  I wrote to you earlier this year to explain our action against the online music streaming service SoundCloud. After five years of unsuccessful licensing negotiations, we believed that we had no alternative but to start legal proceedings against them. However, we have since, through intense discussion and negotiation, managed to reach an agreement. The agreement covers the use of repertoire controlled by PRS for Music since the service launched and is an important step in our quest to achieve a level playing field in the licensing of online services so that songwriters, composers and their music publishers can be paid properly for the use of their music online. We believe this agreement to be the best outcome because it sets us on the path towards receiving proper reporting from SoundCloud of their use of your repertoire, enables royalties to be paid and also avoids the cost of legal proceedings. Receiving enough accurate data on music uploaded to the platform remains a challenge but SoundCloud have committed to working with us to improve the quality of their reporting over time. We are conscious of the value that many of you derive from using SoundCloud and are pleased to have reached this landmark agreement. Whilst it is only one step along the road to a fully functioning online market, it is an important one. I would like to thank SoundCloud for breaking with the past and agreeing to work with us; a move which we feel is in not only your, but all rightsholders’, interests. We expect you have questions about what this means for you. To help answer these, we’ve put together some frequently asked questions which can be viewed here.

Yours sincerely, Karen Buse Executive Director, Membership and International PRS for Music

Will Live Nation pick up SFX?

It seems SFX's money-lenders are  hoping that Live Nation will acquire the flagging EDM powerhouse. The debt pile of around $300 million is now nearly ten times the market cap valuation of the company after it's share price collapsed and SFX recently confirmed it had asked its bankers to investigate a possible restructuring of its debts with talk that Cream founder James Barton - currently a Live Nation executive - was in talks to join the company. It is thought that Live Nation was among the companies to express an interest in SFX's assets when the latter's directors were accepting bids earlier this year although Reuters say Live Nation might just cehrry pick off SFX's most successful festival brands and buy them individually instead - although ab SFX buy would make it a dominant force in the dance music sector. 

Adele fights back against the ticket touts

Last week Sir Elton John branded ticket resale websites “disgraceful” for selling tickets to his gigs at inflated prices, joining other big name such as Mumford & Sons, Prince and Coldplay, who have all recently attacked the resale “rip-off”. Adele is now taking much publicised action to fight off the touts on her latest dates. The Observer has also revealed that Justin Bieber fans wanting tickets for his October 2016 London O2 dates are being asked on Get Me In to hand over as much as £1,825 for seats with a face value of just £50. That figure includes a £285 cut taken by Get Me In.

The Observer has monitored the main sites in the UK (Seatwave, Viagogo, Get Me In and StubHub) and has found all four carry listings that appeared to be in breach of the Consumer Rights Act 2015, which requires anyone who resells an event ticket via a secondary market website to provide details of the seat row and number, as well as the face value and information about any restrictions amid fresh claims that many sites are flouting the law and supporting “industrial-scale touting”.  A spokesman for Viagogo told the Observer: “We make the sellers’ obligations regarding the listing of certain ticket information very clear at several points on our website. However it is possible that the seller doesn’t always have confirmation of the row and seat number at the time of listing.” Ticketmaster, which owns Get Me In and Seatwave, said the sites “work with those selling tickets on our sites to ensure that they understand their obligations to comply with their legal duties, including the requirement to list all available ticket details”. It added: “However, we are also concerned that some sellers may not list all the information, for fear of potential cancellation or blacklisting by event organisers.”

MBW reported that Adele's offical policy is that “The resale of tickets will not be tolerated” and in the pre-sale tickets to the star’s 36-date 2016 European tour this has been largely successful for the 57,000 tickets sold for 14-date UK and Ireland leg of the tour by independent ticketing operator SongKick. Just over 1,000 of these tickets had been listed for re-sale on sites such as Stubhub, Viagogo, GetMeIn! and Seatwave – so approximately 1.9% of the ‘first wave’ of Adele tickets ended up on secondary ticketing sites – much lower than the  average arena gig which sees closer to 20% on er-sale sites. Adele's management inisted on pre-registration and also monitored sales for suspicious activity from some 18,000 'likely or known touts'. Adele’s manager, Jonathan Dickins at September, told MBW “Until a law is passed in the UK that outlaws ticket resale profiteering you cannot stop it completely”. In the USA Adele went with a ticketless method for her now sold out North American tour, which means that fans who did manage to purchase tickets will not receive physical tickets. Instead, they will have to present their credit card and ID when they arrive at the venue on the day of their gig, and they will then be granted entry - if it matches. However demand for tickets is enourmous:  according to Billboard, over 10 million fans went online to try and buy one of the 750,000 tickets available, with four million New Yorkers reportedly online at the same time, with fan's furious with Tickemaster's failing online system.

In the UK, Sharon Hodgson MP had said the new changes to the law “are being utterly flouted by the major platforms, and the government needs to wake up to this scandal, which is affecting people all around the country and damaging our creative industries”. The number of tickets on sale for inflated prices shows the need for tough new laws to crack down on rip-off ticket sales, said Hodgson. She spoke out after Adele fans warned they were struggling to buy tickets for the singer’s tour, the first for four years, which follows the release of her new album, 25. Hodgson is Co-chair of the all-party parliamentary group (APPG) on ticket abuse.

http://www.theguardian.com/money/2015/dec/19/ticket-resale-sites-new-scrutiny-touting-seatwave-viagogo

http://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/team-adele-wage-war-on-ticket-touts-and-so-far-its-working/

http://www.unrealitytv.co.uk/showbiz/adele-puts-a-stop-to-ticket-touts-with-ticketless-gigs-in-us-oh-dear/

Cowell faces US trip claim

Simon Cowell is being sued by a woman who fell over wires during a making of America’s Got Talent. D’Arcy Gurr was attending the taping of America’s Got Talent when she says she tripped over wires, claiming the studio was overcrowded, which made it more dangerous to navigate. The incident happened as the show was being filmed at the Los Angeles County Fair. Gurr is suing NBC, prodicers of the show and the fairground, along with Simon Cowell for US $5 milllion.  Cowell is also an executive producer of the programme, 

http://metro.co.uk/2015/12/17/simon-cowell-is-being-sued-for-5million-after-woman-tripped-over-wires-at-americas-got-talent-taping-5570608/

AC/DC first concert for London's Olympic Stadium

AC/DC will be the first band to perform a major concert at the former Olympic Stadium in London’s Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. The concert, scheduled for the 4th June, will be the first major event in the Stadium after the transformation works are finished. The Stadium has been undergoing work since 2013 to turn it into a year-round, multi-use venue. The work includes installing the largest roof of its kind in the world, a community track, innovative retractable seating, spectator and hospitality facilities and external landscaping.

http://www.accessaa.co.uk/acdc-to-perform-first-major-concert-at-former-olympic-stadium/

Auckland's Echo cancelled

The Promoters of the cancelled Auckland Echo Festival have gone into liquidation as fans wait for ticket refunds. Echo Festival, which had big-name international acts like Jamie XX, Disclosure and The Flaming Lips on the bill, was to be held on January 11th and 12th at Vector Arena and its surrounds. It replaced the three-day McLaren Valley Music and Arts Festival, which was forced to move after promoters failed to get resource consent for its original Bay of Plenty venue. 

And after the 2016 edition wa cancelled, Australia's  popular Soundwave music festival will not be going ahead in 2017, after its boss broke the news on social media. Arash “AJ” Maddah made the sudden announcement on Twitter, saying there will be “definitely no” 2017 edition of the Soundwave festival. In an official statement sent to TMN overnight (17.12.15), Soundwave Festival's ticket agent Eventopia has said AJ Maddah is responsible for ticket refunds saying "We regret to inform customers of the cancellation of Soundwave Festival 2016 due to poor ticket sales, as advised by the Promoter this afternoon."

More here and here.

Integro Doodson snap up RTIB

Robertson Taylor and its sister firms within Entertainment Insurance Partners (EIP) has been sold to Integro Insurance Brokers, the New York-based competitor, in a deal for an undisclosed sum. The management team at EIP, led by chief executive John Silcock, will move with the company to its new owners.