Tartan Heart 2008

[Paul ™]

Great article and sums up Scottish festivals this year.

DF have the ball and don't want the little boys to play anymore.

Wickerman organisers said the same a few weeks ago, it's what's going to happen from now on am afraid.

Smaller Scottish festivals have struggled this year to get decent acts compared to previous years, it's blatentley obvious by the line up's this year compared to last year.

Now DF Concerts are ran by (ok well owned by a majority %age by Live Nation, it won't get any better next year and so on..

Robert Hicks, Joe Gibbs, Ricky McGowan, Sid Ambrose and the other festival promoters who haven't made it this year (yes Isle of Skye, Outsider and Indian Summer this means you) should all fight against the corporate monster that is Live Nation as this will kill the festival scene in Scotland.

It's all very good for Mr Mackie to say it is 'fair enough' but he doesn't run any festivals and often co-promotes gigs with DF and is unlikely to dispute what Geoff Ellis says.

Tis a sad thing, last year I went to 7 Scottish festivals and always support small festivals. This year I got tickets for one Scottish festival this year, and looks like more people will head south to the smaller ones to get a decent line up.

Atmosphere and experience at Scottish festivals will probably always win over any other 'foreign' festivals, but without the big name acts to back this up. the Scottish festivals will soon dwindle.

The festival bubble that has seen festivals become popular over the past 3-4 years is bursting, and already seen too many casualties fall at this hurdle.. I mean even Glastonbury ain't sold out yet.. who would have thought it 4 weeks ago when we were all frantically trying to get tickets!

The pound in your pocket can be spent making small festivals survive in the long run, but people will always go for the big name acts... TITP and Connect (yes it shall now be known as T at the Castle) will survive and only you can make the difference

[smack]

^^^

Yup, read that this morning and have been ranting about it all day. Think it could explain a lot. I would like to see no exclusivity clauses but am in touch enough with the business world (which is what it really boils down to) to see the reasoning, and have enough interest in the music world to know it happens. BUT, while I expected it of say the 3 bands top of the running order each night, I didn't realise EVERYONE on DFs bills was subject to it.

What gets me is that TITP may have been started as a purely commercial event back in the day and good luck to it (I've been to 7 of them myself) but the subsequent Scottish festival scene grew largely in a kinda organic/flukey way. The festivals that established themselves were very different to TITP (in lots of different ways) then Connect (or the Hydro Board gig as I prefer to call it) came along and had no background, no ethos, no direction (beyond being a very focussed money making venture - although some may cite the "Boutique" aspect - yeah, whatever), and it looks like they're going to take no prisoners.

And that's business. Question is, why do these bands put themselves in the handcuffs? That's a whole different debate.

S

x

[Paul ™]

And that's business. Question is, why do these bands put themselves in the handcuffs? That's a whole different debate.

[smack]

Hi Susan

Yeah it all comes down to the agents and what money they can make for their bands, and heaven forbid if anyone slags an act of theirs or whoever happens to promote their band.

I can say pretty much what I like now about DF since I no longer work for them, but in the 6 months that I did do some work for them.. I heard enough

[music_nutter]

Very interesting article in Scotland on Sunday today............

http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/lates...-the.4049171.jp

Festivals in battle of the bands

One night only: exclusivity deals are the norm for promoters, which means fans at smaller festivals may miss out on seeing top acts Photograph: Getty Images

Date: 04 May 2008

By Jeremy Watson

IT IS usually the bands who are squabbling, but the scramble to secure a slice of Scotland's booming rock festival business has sparked an angry row between up and coming festivals and the well established, hugely successful T in the Park.

Promoters of the smaller events have complained that T in the Park is signing deals with bands which prevent them playing any other outdoor festivals that summer.

Geoff Ellis, the promoter of T in the Park – which in its 15th year will boast REM, Kaiser Chiefs, Kings of Leon, Amy Winehouse and KT Tunstall – denied he was trying to put other events out of business.

Exclusivity deals are the norm and the best way for festivals to maintain their success, added Ellis, who runs DF Concerts and also promotes HydroConnect in August at Inveraray, featuring Franz Ferdinand.

Squaring up against Ellis is Joe Gibbs, who promotes August's Tartan Heart Festival at Belladrum, near Inverness, and has signed up Scouting for Girls, The Waterboys and Idlewild. He is backed by Robert Hicks, who has lured Fatboy Slim, The View and Razorlight to next month's RockNess on the shores of the famous loch.

Gibbs, who started Belladrum on his family estate five years ago, said: "It's been a long hard struggle because you are up against corporate giants, particularly DF, who put exclusion clauses on the tiniest bands and artists, and tell them they can't play our event.

"In the end, it is audiences and artists who will lose out if the small independents like Belladrum disappear."

Gibbs said he had held talks with 30 acts this year who said they were unable to play Belladrum because DF Concerts would not allow it. "If they were right up the top of the bill, it's understandable, but for smaller acts it's crazy. They range from high-profile acts down to small Scottish breaking acts who want a wider platform and have been denied it."

DF launched Connect in the grounds of Inveraray Castle last year with the help of a three-year £230,000 start-up grant from public funds. "With T in the Park in July and Connect in August, bands are being taken off the market for the whole of the summer," Gibbs said. "That has further put the screw on the smaller independents."

As well as RockNess, Hicks runs the smaller Loopallu festival in Ullapool. He said: "When it comes to acts low down on the bill that haven't even been announced when tickets have been sold out, then it is doing the bands and the gig-going public a disservice."

Ellis, when asked if it was his intention to put other festivals out of business, replied: "Absolutely not. We invested loads of money into T in the Park in the early days and that has created a marketplace for all these other festivals to exist.

"I'm not trying to stop them happening, but when I book a line-up and spend a lot of money, our audience spend their money on a great line-up.

Other promoters would be annoyed if they announced an act and then I booked it a week later. It would harm their ticket sales."

Ellis insisted agreements that prevented bands from playing other festivals, sometimes for up to a year, were an industry norm. "That's standard," he said.

Mark Mackie, who runs Regular Music, which promotes concerts mainly in the major Scottish cities, said such agreements were "fair enough" in relation to headline and breakthrough acts.

"Geoff isn't doing it to scupper other promoters," he said. "He's just protecting his own business."

[ben_cosmia]

Sounds like an excuse about the poor line up to me. Aye granted, Geoff and co have a monopoly on the big names, but despite all that, Wizard and Wickerman have both managed to come up with really decent acts - where's Bella's excuse???? There isn't one - blame the bigger festivals instead of taking responsibility for bad choices.

[Kowalski]

yup. madness arenet playing for df. neither are supergrass, go! team, rufus etc. plenty more top acts they could have got.

[ben_cosmia]

You don't know that for certain. Some of the above might still end up at Connect.

[Kowalski]

true, but theres still better and bigger headliners they could have booked than scouting for girls and the waterboys.

[stevieg72]

How are scouting for girls playing both t and belladrum then?

[Paul ™]

How are scouting for girls playing both t and belladrum then?

[ben_cosmia]

How are scouting for girls playing both t and belladrum then?

[Red Day]

Definitely.

I don't think the DF exclusivity thing helps, but there are plenty of other acts they could have got.

[Red Day]

Completely o/t anyone going to Levellers in Perth on the 24th ?

[stevieg72]

It doesn't affect 100% of the bands at each festival

(although i wish it did affect SFG )

[Kowalski]

Great i will expect bsp charlatans et al in the next few days then

[irons]

Completely o/t anyone going to Levellers in Perth on the 24th ?

[Red Day]

Thought they were great on Saturday and fancy seeing them again if I can find someone to head down with me.

Oh for them to be at Bella but sadly not

[stevieg72]

I'm there if BSP are playing.

[Paul ™]

I'm there if BSP are playing.

[perthperson]

More bands added - Cold War Kids, Twilight Sad and Frightened Rabbit. I am happy.

[rollergirl]

From the Bella Newsletter

DRESS-UP FRIDAY - & SATURDAY

Last year’s dressing-up was such a success, we’re encouraging you to come back again as rabbits, comic book super heroes, hell’s grannies, transvestites, whirling dervishes, goblins, fairies, domestic appliances, screen icons, nursery rhymes, lowlife and angels, and even Phil Cunningham – anything, in fact, other than your normal self (unless that happens to be any of the above).

A new, improved Invernetian Masked Ball for will be staged – more soon on that – and the usual talent-spotting for best costume etc. So put it on!

[Solero]

More bands added - Cold War Kids, Twilight Sad and Frightened Rabbit. I am happy.

[saraha]

thank god....we are saved - a few bands worth checking out

[pissheadtrev]

Think Cold War Kids is a great addition, i would give them the headlining slot above the waterboys or SFG anyday!

A few more surprise additions like that and we might end up with a great alternative line-up, irrespective of headliners