Harvey Goldsmith Blog
June 13.
13.Jun.2010 19:27
I have just watched the F1 race in Montreal. What a fantastic race. Well done McLaren and Lewis.
We returned home from New York on Friday on a Virgin Flight. What a difference between this flight and BA and the dreadful Terminal 5. A smooth flight ,great staff and a quick retrieval of luggage. Thank you Virgin.
The second leg of the US tour has been amazing.
The Boston opening show with Derek Truck's Band was the best I have seen Jeff play.
Onwards to Washington and Wolftrap where another blinding show was performed. However, some of you may have read of my scrap with the Wolftrap management over the charges for merchandising.
This will probably be the hardest touring summer in the US for years. Tickets are generally not selling. Why, because the ticket prices are too high, with box office charges ridiculous and the merchandise fee at some venues ludicrous. We are lucky selling better than most acts on the road.
Touring in the US especially needs a rethink. I keep saying that we have a duty of care to our audience. Well now the public are finally waking up and refusing to pay the high prices and crazy deals that are being charged. I had 4 calls from friends telling me that they were surprised that they had to pay for lawn tickets as they were normally given them.
Thank gooodness we were in a position to be able to sell our lawn tickets.
Then there were the Iridium shows in New York. Steve Van Zant is quoted as saying" it was the best show he had ever seen"
I agree, they were fantastic.
The shows were a Tribute to the late great Les Paul with Jeff performing with Imelda May and her band. This was music at its best. Guesting were Brian Setzer, Gary US Bonds and Trombone Shorty. Collectively they ripped through 2 sets of 50's and 60's Rock n Roll including Jeff and Imelda performing 10 of the great Les Paul and Mary Ford songs. The shows were filmed and will be shown on PBS in USA over Christmas with the DVD and Audio coming out next March.
I would like to thank, The Iridium, Gibson, Rhino and Eagle Rock for their support in making these historic shows happen.
Harvey
May 30.
30.May.2010 21:22
I have been so busy that I have not had time to update.
We finished the first leg of Jeff Beck's tour on a real high in New Orleans at the Festival. The show was fab and we were really lucky with the weather.After the show we went to a great partygiven by Laure and Marc,great food and fab. company.Marc took us to a club which opened at 2.00am and we watched Trombone Shorty play an amazing set with his band.
All good until we departed for London the next day.
The American Airlines check lady was appalling and inspite of asking her to tag the baggage to each of our boarding passes she screwed up. We had to fly via Miami which is one of the joke airports of the world. By the time we found our connection gate for BA to London I had a sinking feeling that all was not well.
Needless to say when we finally arrived in London on a very pleasant flight our baggage was still in Miami.
The Lost Baggage system at the dreadful Terminal 5 is a complete joke.
The staff told us that there was no way that our baggage would be on the next flight and told us to go home and they would deliver.
Well thats when the trouble started.
Our baggage did arrive on the next flight on Monday May3. My luggage arrived at my home at 7.30pm on Wed. 5 May, after numerous calls to Delhi ( the call centre for lost baggage).
The courier service for London was ,of course based in Birmingham.
My tour managers luggage was delivered to me ( Juliette lives in Bath!) and my luggage sat at a wharehouse for 2 days because no one at BA wouyld sign it over!!!
Last weekend Jeff, Joss Stone and I flew to Majorca to perform at Wettendass, a crazy German TV show. The show was live and a lot of fun. Particular mention goes to the 2 guys who sniffed their way through 15 sausages to determine which football team they belonged to.
On Tuesday we announced the reforming of the Faces. The band are playing brilliantly and will perform initially 2 shows, one at The Vintage Festival at Goodwood on August 13.
On Tuesday I am off to Boston to start the second leg of Jeff's tour. The highlight will be the Tribute to Les Paul shows at The Iridium Club in New York on 8 and 9 June.
Jeff will be performing with Imelda May and her Band and the shows will be filmed for TV and DVD.
Bog also Blog-6th April.
07.Apr.2010 12:47
I am on the train travelling from Nagoya to Osaka in Japan. I have been on the road with Jeff Beck since March 17. It has been a fantastic ride.
Jeff has come into his own. He has a new band and a new record. I am pleased to say that both are thriving! The CD in Japan is no.1 in the International charts and no.9 in National top 10. A record for the oldest person ever to reach top ten in the charts in Japan. What it really means is ,if you have a passion for your music then you are timeless.
How many artists are on the road churning out the same old stuff, taking the money and not caring.
Yes the live business is thriving but many artists are being greedy, overcharging and not caring enough about their fans. However Jeff does care and so do AC /DC. Look how many tickets and records they are both selling ( AC/DC by a factor of ten of course).
Good music never fades away. We played two festivals in Australia. The West Coast Blues Festival , promoted by my friend Chuggy and the Byron Bay Festival produced by Peter Noble , a classic promoter character. Our promoter Michael Coppel joined Peter and I in some serious promoter repartee. Both were fantastic,carefully booked with a string of great artists. We renewed acquaintancies with Buddy Guy, John Mayall, Crowded House and saw some great new acts. I liked Gogol Bordello and the Evert Bros.
In Sydney I hooked up with my pals Gary and Daniel Weiss and they took us out on David Lowy’s boat round the harbour. Everyone on the boat played guitar and it was a lot of fun. It was very cloudy but nevertheless the sight of the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Opera House always amazes me. Sydney is a wonderful city. Our new friends at Warner Records who own Rhino took us to Cafe Oz overlooking the Bridge for dinner... what a delight.
David enjoyed it so much that the next day he flew us up to Brisbane so that he could see Jeff perform. We were very spoilt, not having to go to another airport with all that performance that they put you through.
After Osaka we will return to Tokyo for 3 more shows and then off to the West Coast to commence the USA tour.
I am crazily busy putting the finishing touches to the Final Event in Johannesburg for the World Cup.The show will take place at the Coca Cola Dome on July 9, because I don’t want to take the risk with the weather twice. Watch out for news on this show.
The opening event is on sale and is going to be very special especially for S. Africa.
Harvey
10.02.10.
10.Feb.2010 19:07
I went to Midem, it is the most important gathering for music and happens in Cannes each year. Its amazing how the shift has taken place from predominate record companies and publishers to tech companies and live.
Most artists live and technical applications now supercede their income from records. I am on the Midemnet Visionary Committee which advises which speakers to have at the conference. The new tech whiz kids were by far the most interesting.
There was however a very funny incident at a dinner on the first night, where the owner of Shazam and one of Blackberry’s senior techs, were battling with my Blackberry to install Shazam. They got it in the end, how lucky am I?
Jeff Beck and I hot footed to Los Angeles for the Grammy’s. He agreed to do a Tribute to Les Paul and performed a brilliant rendition of ‘How High The Moon’ with Imelda May singing, it was a real treat.
Jeff won his 5th Grammy, he was there but was never invited to collect it!
How weird are NARAS? We had a great time, particularly afterwards at the Warner Aftershow Party.
We returned to London and Jeff immediately started rehearsing with his fantastic new band. Narada Michael Walden on drums, Rhonda Smith on bass and Jason Rebello on keyboards. The shows with Eric Clapton are going to be very special. Half of Jeff’s performance will feature tracks from his forthcoming album, released the beginning of April.
Today Jeff started rehearsing with Eric for their set together. I am amazed how he has managed to do all these different things in such a short space of time. He has even had time to choose a new wardrobe. Can’t wait for his own tour, it will blow everyone away.
Yusuf came to see me last week and told me how much he enjoyed the shows he did in the UK. It is very rare that Artists do that. He is a very special person and hopefully we will see him back on stage sometime later in the year.
Jools Holland went on sale last week and his opening sales were double last years. How cool is that.
Cirque Du Soleil in London is brilliant and selling extremely well. We are going to Manchester and open on the 25th February. For those that live in the region, go and see Varekai, it’s a truly amazing show.
I will have more Blackberry tips shortly when I meet my man in Toronto.
Harvey
Jan.3 2010.
03.Jan.2010 12:12
2009 was an interesting year to say the least. For me it was much more travelling than anticipated and a change of direction.
Managing Jeff Beck has been exhilirating.
The best guitarist in the world has blossomed.Jeff was inducted into the Rock Hall Of Fame, was the star of the 25th. Anniversary concert and has now been nominated for a Grammy. He has just completed a fabulous first new studio album for over 6 years and is about to embark on a world tour to promote an album that he is very proud of.
Re starting Yusuf''s live work (formerly Cat Stevens) has also been a great experience.
His concert recently at The Royal Albert Hall was one of the best shows of the year.
Jools Holland and his Rythmn Orchestra continued to enthrall audiences across the UK.
Andrea Bocelli returned to the UK with 4 brilliant concerts and is well on the way to selling out his next autumns shows.
2010 is going to be equally exciting .
Thank goodness, we in the entertainment business can buck the world's financial difficulties and give the public some welcome relief with exciting live shows.
Music is in greater demand than ever before but our whole industry must get together and finally figure out how to monetise it in a fair and equitable way for the fans.
We as promoters and manangers must also have a duty of care to our audiencies by not ripping them off with excessive ticket price addons.
If the Ticketmaster/Live Nation deal is voted through I hope that they will see sense and not take advantage by using their new power to continue with unfair charges to tickets.
We need new blood in our industry and it is time for new artists, managers and promoters to shine through with a different way to give the public value and quality.
I am currnetly in Portugal and the sun has just shone through the clouds. Lets hope our great industry shines for all in 2010.
30th November '09.
30.Nov.2009 11:40
October and November have been extremely busy months.
Jeff Beck agreed to perform with Eric Clapton and his band at the Rock Hall Of Fame shows in New York at Madison Square Gardens on 29 and 30 October.
8 days before the show Eric was taken ill and went into hospital for a minor operation. On the evening of Saturday 24th I suddenly received a call from the producers asking if Jeff could put his band together and perform a set. Well it may sound easy but the band were all engaged on other projects and the crew were all over the place. Finally on Monday 26th I finally managed to get everyone together and we departed for New York on Tuesday 27th. A day and a half of frantic rehearsals followed, including adding Sting, Buddy Guy and Billy Gibbons as guests without a clue what they would play.
On Thursday 29th Jeff rushed from rehearsals to surprise Stevie Wonder by walking on stage and playing
‘Superstition’, a song that Stevie had originally written for Jeff many years ago.
It was a great moment and the audience thundered their applause.
The following night Jeff played his set, with the guests and it went down fantastically well... what a relief! It was so crazy that Larry Crowe our drum roady had to fill in for Vinnie as he could only get to New York on the morning of the first show. For those in US you can see the results that was aired on the HBO special last night.
Back in the UK Jeff went back to the studio and we commenced rehearsals with Yusuf for his short UK tour.
I missed the first show in Dublin due to a family bereavement. It was quite a crazy night with not all of the audience understanding the presentation. We regrouped and redesigned the show for the second concert in Birmingham, which was a triumph. Yusuf ‘s voice was in top form and everyone thoroughly enjoyed the show.
Back in the studio Jeff had a small accident last weekend and is unable to play for two weeks. Fortunately all looks good so we are aiming to finish his album in the next ten days. Personally, I am thrilled with the tracks. You are going to hear some stunning music. Watch out for the release dates in March next year.
Yusuf will be playing Liverpool on the 5th. December and then onto The Royal Albert Hall on the 8th.
Jools Holland’s tour is going very well. In particular the shows at The Royal Albert Hall were wonderful. Jools is the best at entertaining with his big band and guests this time are Dave Edmonds and of course the incredible Ruby Turner .
Andrea Bocelli’s shows in Birmingham, Liverpool and Glasgow received amazing reviews. He has enjoyed the UK audiences so much and has agreed to return next Christmas. New dates will be announced shortly.
Tickets for Cirque du Soleil’s Varekai at The Royal Albert Hall are flying. It is a wonderful show and tickets will make great Christmas presents. We open on January 5th.
Its nuts in the office as we are working on the ATP Tennis at 02 and the FIFA World Club Cup in Abu Dhabi.
In addition I am putting the finishing touches to Jeff’s world tour which commences in March in Seoul. Then onto Hong Kong, Australia and USA. All this to promote his new album.
Eric Clapton has fully recovered and he and Jeff are discussing their shows together in Feb. Each will play their own set followed by a combined set with Jeff and Eric together. It will certainly be a highlight for 2010.
I am trying to catch up on some well earned sleep, which is proving to be difficult with so much going on..... so much for the recession!
Harvey
Blackberry Hot Tip 5.
12.Nov.2009 17:26
"Seriously, I can listen to music on my BlackBerry?!?”
I think in a previous post I may have mentioned some of the apps available for the music fan (i.e., slacker, Pandora, Nobex and now the brand new 7Digital music store) that are all available from BlackBerry App World; however, every BlackBerry has a fabulous built-in media player for music and video, but how does the average punter get their music on to their BlackBerry and then listen to it? Here’s an easy 4 step programme for every music and crackberry addict out there:
Step 1 – get a MicroSD Card
- one of the great features of your BlackBerry is that you can easily expand your memory instead of only having a finite amount of storage unlike some other less-smartphones. MicroSD cards come in numerous sizes now. I would recommend a card of at least 1 GB which will let you store a couple hundred standard 128 kbs MP3s; however, if you’re like me you’ll want more storage, so I have an 8 GB card that I got for about 15 quid. That’ll be enough storage so that you could play the tunes on your BlackBerry for a couple days non-stop and you’ll never hear the same song twice. If you’re really into it you could even have a (small) stack of cards that have different styles or themes of music. If that sounds fiddly, bigger capacity microSD cards are coming out every day (some BlackBerry phones even support 32 GB cards) and the prices keep dropping, so one decent sized MicroSD card should be enough for most people.
Step 2 – BlackBerry Media Sync for PC & Mac
- this easy to use software helps you easily transfer all the music on your Mac or PC to your BlackBerry – even from your iTunes or Windows Media Player collections – playlists and all. Don’t just take my word for it, get it here for free and try it yourself:
http://na.blackberry.com/eng/services/media/mediasync.jsp
Step 3 – BlackBerry Media Player
- on every BlackBerry there is an excellent media player that let’s you listen to music, watch videos, look at photos and even make voice notes. It is easily accessible from the desktop on your BlackBerry, just look for the “Media” icon. The music player is particularly great, because you can create custom playlists on the fly, listen to music in the background while you check email, browse the web or play BrickBreaker. While the speakers in the BlackBerry sound pretty f******g amazing compared to most mobile phones it is the stereo Bluetooth option that is it’s number one party trick. Proceed to Step 4…
Step 4 – Bluetooth Music Gateway
- this little device is truly amazing. It is so simple really, but it let’s you use the stereo Bluetooth connection in your BlackBerry to wireless listen to music in your home, office, car or anywhere you want to set one of these little boxes up. It is about the size of a condom package and only ½” tall (the gateway not the length of the condom!). Once your BlackBerry is paired to the gateway it will automatically connect every time you’re in range. This means I can use my BlackBerry at the dinner table to play what I want, change tracks, control the volume, etc. and then as soon as I walk out to my car it connects right away and I can go and sit in traffic on the M25 listening to my favourite music and sending emails instead of actually driving anywhere. Learn more about this nifty little device and how to get music and video on your BlackBerry here:
http://na.blackberry.com/eng/devices/features/multimedia/
http://blogs.blackberry.com/2009/05/wirelessly-extend-music-from-your-blackberry-to-your-car-stereo.html
One other BlackBerry top tip is that they recently launched their device manager software for Mac. So this means if you’re a Mac user, but use a BlackBerry you can now easily synch, backup and update your BlackBerry from a Mac computer. More info at: http://blackberry.com/mac
5th October '09.
05.Oct.2009 15:35
It’s been a while since my last blog... and a lot has happened.
I managed to get a break in the summer ,which was glorious.
I returned to the office at beginning of September to a crazy month of shows.
The Tower Festival opened on Sept 10 with a really interesting evening performed by Nigel Kennedy and The Philharmonia Orchestra. The evening was a glorious mixture of Bach and Duke Ellington and was brilliantly received.
The Festival continued through as per the programme with each night considered a great success.
We had one rainy night which was miserable,but by giving all the audience free ponchos it turned out to be a great success. Must be the Dunkirk spirit!!
The Festival ended with the WOMAD weekend which was also a surprise. The WOMAD people said they had never seen this audience before and were delighted to convert new friends. We lived through zero upfront PR (I think the media wanted it to fail) and no help from organisations like Visit London etc.
Everyone who came to down to the Tower for the Festival had a great time and indeed all the artists want to perform again next year. So that is the best testament one could have.
Jeff Beck and Imelda May and her band played a blinding show at Indigo on 21st September. Jeff basically played tunes from his own record collection from the 50’s and 60’s. The audience had a ball and so did the band.
We have just finished Barry Humphries “Last Night Of The Proms “ tour in Liverpool. The audience really enjoyed both Sir Les and Dame Edna’s repartee. The tour was a spoof on The Last Night of the Proms, an annual event in London, with full orchestra and choir. The show got some strange reviews, but that was probably because they did not understand the show.
Andrea Bocelli kicked off his UK tour at the 02 to great acclaim. Unfortunately Andrea developed a cold and was unable to sing at the second show in Birmingham. It was a great shame as everything was set to go including Andrea who was at the venue. When the doctor came to examine him he told us in no uncertain terms that Andrea was not to sing that night. Fortunately we managed to replace the date for November 4 and I hope most of the audience will be able to make the replacement date. The voice is a finely tuned instrument and when a cold arrives artists just cannot perform.
Since the summer I have become involved with Yusuf (Cat Stevens). I am currently helping him with his live appearances.
Yusuf has written a musical called Moonshadow and we have decided to present a preview of this inside the concerts that will commence in Dublin on November 15. For those that can get a ticket (The Royal Albert Hall concert is already sold out) it’s going to be a treat. The concert will feature many of his hit songs. The set and lighting design is by Marc Brickman who has worked with Pink Floyd, Roger Waters and Barbara Streisand.
The Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck show at 02 on Feb 13 sold out so fast that a second show has been added on Feb 14.
Please read my gripe page this month.
31st July 2009.
31.Jul.2009 17:01
I hope you all enjoyed listening to my Desert Island Disc show on Radio 4.
I enjoyed recording it.
I hope some of you got the chance to listen to my Pop Svengalis series. It was a fascinating story of some of the great people behind the scenes in music.
Last week I went to the TED Conference at Oxford. What an interesting mix of people. Some of the talks were fascinating whilst others were very snooze worthy. Gordon Brown once out of Number 10 gave a fascinating talk on his views on how to deal with the environment and David Deutch enthralled us with his views on parallel universes. My only complaint was that the theatre was boiling hot and seriously uncomfortable, but I guess that goes for all old theatres in the UK.
Dame Edna, Sir Les and Carl Davis are rehearsing for their upcoming tour. Judging from the heaps of laughter outside the rehearsal room, this tour is going to be hilarious.
We are putting the final touches together for The Tower Festival in September, it is a really interesting collection of Artists and Shows in a fantastic environment.
I am even told by the weathermen that September is set to be dry and warm! So if you are in town and want to take in a bit of history and culture come to the Tower Festival. It starts on the 10th September www.towerfestival.com.
I went with Jeff Beck to Canada and in addition to the Montreal Jazz Festival we played at the Festivals in Ottawa and Quebec. Next stop was back to Europe where Jeff played a number of classic European Festivals. Montreux was great fun and an amazing audience. Prince arrived in town and the whole city went mad. Touring finished on the 25th July.
Jeff, Tal and Vinnie then went straight to Abbey Road Studios to record with Herbie Hancock. The session was very long but hopefully 2 great tracks have come out of it for Herbie’s new album.
This week we have announced that Jeff will play a one off show with Imelda May and her band at IndigO2 at The O2, the date is 21st September. In addition Jeff and Jason Rebello will host a Masterclass at the BME at The O2 at 3pm on the 21st September. There are only 60 places available for the Masterclass, so if you want to go get your Amex card out and apply immediately.
This week my dear friend Counsellor Ian Wilder passed away. He was an extraordinary character and a real eccentric who in his own way made London a lot better for Londoners. He helped clean up the West End and pushed really hard to make parking regulations more workable. On a personal note he was extraordinary character, clever and funny. He helped a number of Artists out of the financial mess they were in. finally the image of him playing Mr Tambourine Man on his guitar to Bob Dylan will stay in my memory forever, particularly the look of disdain on Bob Dylan’s face. The worst part of this is that I am going to have to travel through Terminal 5 to get to his funeral.
Have a good Summer
Harvey
7th July ‘09.
07.Jul.2009 11:47
On Saturday 4 July Jeff Beck performed at the Royal Albert Hall. It was a fantastic concert as only can be done at the RAH.
Jeff was joined by Imelda May who sang a beautiful ballad, Lilac Wine.
Then David Gilmour joined to play a new arrangement of Jerusalem.
Finally David sang Hi Ho Silver Lining with Jeff singing the middle verse and Imelda as backing singer.
What a great end to a fab show.
Sunday was a busy day for me.
Radio 4 ran my Desert Island Discs programme at 11.15am. My Pop Svengalis radio show on Smooth Radio ran at 1.00pm. Then I was on my way to Canada for what I had hoped would be an uneventful flight.Well they have done it again.
Terminal 5 probably the most badly designed and inefficient new terminal ever built!
I arrived by train and had to walk about half a mile with my luggage to meet up with Jeff Beck and band at the right check in desk. We duly checked, albeit with a number of bags as we were off to Montreal, Ottawa and Quebec to play three festivals in 5 days. Isn’t that what new Terminals are supposed to handle.... not BA and certainly not Terminal 5.
Of course they lost two important pieces of luggage necessary for our shows tonight.
This is the second time in 10 days that luggage has not made the flight. Could we find BA when we discovered that the bags were missing... no way.
Whilst at the dreaded Terminal 5 we tried to find the lounge.3 BA staff sent us to three different places before we finally located the lounge. We wanted to watch the Tennis finals. Then it took twenty minutes to find the plane. Down three escalators, then to a lift which took us down two levels to get on a train. Then on three escalators to finally get to walk to the gate. What a joke. A moron could design the terminal better! And then of course the missing bags. As of now they have not shown up. I do hope that the concerts do not suffer because of BA.
Their ground staff are terrible.
However I have to say the flight was excellent with a fab crew.
Peter got food poisoning from the food on the plane... but we should not let that stand in our way.
We are now in Montreal at the Jazz Festival.The Festival have created the first Guitar Hero award and have just presented it to Jeff.What lovely people. A fantastic atmosphere with music on every corner.
We have really should have a festival like this in London. Most of the events are free and hundreds of musicians have a chance to perform. The city are totally supportive and make it work. No idiotic beurocracy,HSE and PC people trying to stop it, just a great mood, lots of stages, lots of people all enjoying great music.
Now off to sound check with three important pieces of equipment somewhere in the BA ether.....
Harvey
