Inverness promoter's hope to help fill gap left by closure of Ironworks
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Celtic-rockers Skerryvore have announced they will play Inverness Leisure on December 8.
The date will kick off a weekend of live music from LCC Live, organisers of Live In The City.
LCC Live Event Services director Les Kidger said in the absence of venue the Ironworks, which closed last month, the company is keen to develop more live shows in the leisure centre.
Talking in the run-up to the Skerryvore announcement today, Mr Kidger said: “We are well-known for outdoor shows but we are keen to do more indoor stuff and we are working with the leisure centre and High Life Highland to do more shows.
“This December we will be doing three shows – and we may be doing some others earlier.”
Skerryvore will open the weekend of shows on the Friday.
And the promoter said he wanted to help see live music to be kept alive in the city.
“Now the Ironworks has closed, we’ve had a number of different artists approach us.
“We can only do so many shows at Inverness Leisure Centre and we’ve always done shows like The Proclaimers, Texas and The Beach Boys.
“With Skerryvore, they had played the Ironworks in Inverness before and now it has shut, basically, there was nowhere indoor.
“So we spoke to them for a long time about it and we thought ‘We can do this!’.
“What we are going to do is have three shows there that weekend – the other nights will be announced in the coming weeks.”
With dates announced with Rag ‘n’ Bone Man and Clean Bandit with Ella Henderson, LCC are announcing the Skerryvore December date quite early?
“Sometimes we leave it a little bit later to announce a show, but really for the first week in December we like to give people a bit of notice because, believe it or not, the hotels are already selling Christmas parties and people would already be thinking 'Are we going to go to a Christmas party or Skerryvore?'.”
Are there signs of the cost of living crisis in take-up of tickets for the shows LCC has already announced – are people holding back and is the promoter confident people will pay for things they want to see, despite the pressures on their cash?
“My answer is – yes and no," Mr Kidger said. "What we've seen so far this year across the UK where we have shows on sale, on some shows we are seeing demand outstrip tickets.
“With the bigger shows – not ours – the Beyonces and Coldplays, they are going to sell a lot of tickets. And over the last five or six months we have seen some massive shows with tickets going on sale for Madonna, Coldplay, Beyonce, all these people, and they are selling out. My short answer is that you see some selling exceptionally well.
“We were really lucky last year. Our shows were fantastic sellers. Amy Macdonald sold out, Texas sold out, Skipinnish sold out, all our bigger shows last year did very well.
“But Ed Sheeran announces a tour going to Glasgow last week and that hasn't sold out, so that tells you something. His tickets were £90-odd – we try and keep our ticket price as amenable as possible. I think people are more wary about where they are spending and I think people are spending closer to the event. Last year we were finding that.
"But we were lucky over in the Big Top events Texas and Skipinnish sold 5,000 each, Amy sold 8,000, which was amazing.
“So I think there is a want out there, but people are obviously taking their time. January, February March, people are going 'You know what, we need the money for other things'. But maybe April, May, June? We might see a little bit more. You just never know.
“The two big shows we have in Inverness this year are Rag 'n' Bone Man and Clean Bandit.
“We’d always tried for Rag 'n' Bone Man, and he is doing exceptionally well.
“Clean Bandit are amazing musicians and have sold millions of albums, but not so many people know Clean Bandit and that is why we came in and did Ella Henderson with them as well – two big-name artists on one bill.
“I think what we are always trying to do is appeal to as big a mass of people as we can.
“We don't have dance music, we don't have heavy rock or heavy metal – anything like that, because we can't get the numbers to fill the venues.
“And we are not getting the heritage artists coming through, people we have had in the past like Rod Stewart and Bryan Adams, who have huge back catalogues and huge followings, there is not a lot of those people coming through, so we just have to be selective. And it’s about who is willing to travel to the North of Scotland.
“I think it is a challenging time.”
Getting artists to travel and bring their shows to the North of Scotland can be a challenge in itself, according to the promoter.
“It's getting more and more difficult, especially with the cost of bringing them up. When you are talking about maybe two or three artics [with gear, instruments etc] on the road, that's thousands of pounds these days.
“I have huge pressure on the cost of hotels in Inverness. Rag'n'Bone Man will have something like 30 crew, that's a lot of hotel rooms. So I do think it is getting more difficult.
“But if you take someone like Clean Bandit – and Rag 'n' Bone Man – their only stops in Scotland are in Inverness, and I think that tells you something too.
“Also Scottish artists love to play Inverness and we can only hope people will come out and support them – and if they continue to, we can bring as many artists as possible.
“Unfortunately, this week we have seen a small festival cancel, and we don't like seeing that,” the promoter said, referring to the cancellation of the Isle Be Back 80s-themed festival planned for May at the Black Isle Showground.
"We've got to keep live music going,” Mr Kidger repeated. “Hopefully we can do that.
"It's also the cost of people going to see music in Glasgow or Aberdeen. I think it's 12 or 13 years ago since we brought Rod Stewart to the Caley Stadium and since then an array of people, we had Westlife at Cawdor and now Westlife sell out two nights at Wembley Stadium.
“If I’d said to you 20 years ago we would have had The Beach Boys come to Inverness and sell out …?” LCC’s director leaves the question hanging.
It is probably ‘No’!
He continues: “Noel Gallagher – Oasis! Bryan Adams - which was one I always wanted. We’ve had the Olly Murs’s and the JLSs, Status Quo, Madness – all these kind of people. I think we’ve been very lucky and fortunate to have these artists and we helped open up a vibrant live music scene.
“But obviously we are missing the indoor stuff and that is what we are trying to do with artists who have played the Ironworks, like Skerryvore.”
The loss of the Ironworks in the range of places live artists can play in the local area is going to continue to have a massive impact, despite Inverness Leisure being able to offer one alternative.
But should Inverness be thinking bigger …?
Is the next step for Inverness a bigger venue like an arena and what would be the possibilities of that? As a promoter, is that something Mr Kidger thinks Inverness should be looking towards?
“I get asked this question all the time,” he instantly replies. “And I think my first answer is, ‘If I were 10 years younger ...’
“When the Ironworks was originally mooted to close first, about five years ago, we kind of looked around and thought 'What could we do?'
“The first thing is financial. But the other thing is that you have two of the biggest arenas in the UK in Scotland – in Aberdeen and Glasgow. If you have some of the biggest artists coming into Glasgow to play 15-16,000 and then go on to Aberdeen, we could do smaller numbers ...
“I think if we had a venue of 15-16,000, that would be possible, with room for an exhibition space and everything else.
“It would have to be for everything – multi-purpose. Then, yes, there is the possibility.
“But then you are talking about the problem of millions of pounds’-worth of investment.
“Would we look at it as a company? Yes, but if I were 10 years younger!
“Nowadays I think it would take a brave person to do it.
“If it were a multiple-use venue that took in your company Highland News & Media's events – wedding fairs and exhibitions – plus live music and everything down to car boot sales, then yes, there is a possibility.
“And if you were going with multi-purpose, you could even go with an indoor football idea, you could maybe put a bit of sport into it.
“But I don't think LCC will be doing it!”
He finished: "We've got to keep live music going. Hopefully we can do that. Obviously we are missing the indoor stuff and that is what we are trying to do with artists who have played the Ironworks, like Skerryvore.”
