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FEATURE

A special focus on where the mobile music sector is heading in 2012

TWO-WEEK IRISH FEST COMING • PHOENIX REBORN • ‘POP FARM’ DETAILED

Vince & the new Power generation

LIVE n BY TIM INGHAM

Hop Farm founder Vince Power has lifted the lid on a spate of new festivals planned for this year – including a 16-day Irish-themed extravaganza timed to coincide with the Olympics.

The ‘Irish Village’ event is due to take place in Grange Park, London, with a 5,000capacity marquee at its centre.

It will carry the ‘Feis’ name that ex-Mean Fiddler boss Power used for two popular events last year in Finsbury Park, where Van Morrison and Bob Dylan played live.

“It will be Irish and I guess what you’d call Irish-ish music,” Power told Music Week, adding that the event was subject to licence but he was confident it would go ahead.

“[We expect] customers from Germany, Australia and obviously a lot of Americans and Irish. We had 42,000 at Feis last year, and we think we’ll do the same over the course of this – maybe more.”

Meanwhile, Power confirmed a site for his reborn Phoenix Festival: Boughton House, Northamptonshire. The event will hold at least 35,000 attendees – and may still happen in 2012.

“We’ve got a brilliant bill lined up, but we’ve just lost one headliner,” Power revealed. “I’ve got to decide [whether or not to do it this year]. When you do something of this size it involves millions in production and artist fees. That doesn’t frighten me but if you sell 10,000 tickets short, it’s a big loss.”

Power confirmed that he hoped to host some of the acts who played Phoenix Festivals in the 1990s – including the Sex Pistols and Neil Young – but David Bowie had been ruled out.

“This year, we’d look at the same time Glastonbury used to happen, which would be June 24. If I don’t get three really solid headliners, chances are that we won’t do it [in 2012]. But it will definitely happen at some point.”

Pop Farm – a sister event to Power’s successful Kent event Hop Farm – will also be going ahead this year.

“I want to make it one-day events,” Power revealed. “We’re working to do the first one this year at Eridge Park at Tunbridge Wells in Kent. We’re putting the bill together now. I think that kind of music will do well.”

A classical music festival is also plotted, alongside Power’s usual involvement with Hop Farm and Benicassim in Spain.

The exec confirmed that his PLC, Music Festivals, is currently considering acquisition targets abroad.

‘EMI BUY IS GOOD NEWS’

Universal Music UK has broken its silence on the company’s proposed acquisition of EMI.

In a new interview (see page 12), chairman and CEO David Joseph responded to concerns over the buyout’s impact.

“Artists do not make decisions based on market share,” he said. “They choose home and culture. I don’t think there’s an issue: market share doesn’t equal market power. In one of Lucian [Grainge]’s first chats with me he said a great A&R person should be able to sign any artist on a park bench with belief, trust and a chequebook. We still live by those rules.”

Speaking ahead of Tuesday’s Brit Awards – whose committee he chairs – Joseph added: “Over the last five years at EMI, A&R investment has halved... the EMI name will 100% live on, and we plan to invest in [its] labels.

“More record deals, more music – that fundamentally means more money for the industry.”

Music mourns ‘beautiful and iconic’ Whitney Houston

The sad news of Whitney Houston’s death is having a significant impact on music charts around the world, as some of her closest industry associates pay emotional tribute to the iconic singer.

In the UK alone, 27 of her recordings were registering among the week’s 200 top singles as Music Week went to press, led by I Will Always Love You at No.10. The Official Charts

Company also reported Whitney: The Greatest Hits had landed at No.6 on the album midweeks.

Meanwhile, Houston’s ballad from The Bodyguard led the iTunes chart in the US, and was joined in the Top 20 by I Wanna Dance With Somebody, Greatest Love Of All and One Moment In Time.

I Will Always Love You also topped iTunes in France, and was two in Canada and Spain, four in

Australia and 10 in Germany.

Heartfelt tributes to Houston were paid at the Grammy Awards, which took place in Los Angeles on Sunday.

Sony Music chief creative officer Clive Davis, who signed Houston in 1983 while running Arista, said he was “devastated”, noting: “Whitney was a beautiful person and she had a talent beyond compare.”

Epic Records chairman and

CEO LA Reid, who co-wrote and co-produced the album I’m Your Baby Tonight, said the 48-year-old was “the greatest voice of them all”.

In a statement, Sony Music said she was “an icon and a oncein-a-lifetime talent who inspired a generation of singers and brought joy to millions of fans around the world”.

A funeral is expected to be held on Friday in Newark.