Monday 27 April 2009

"The Biggest Balls In London"


It was almost like the clocks had been turned back a decade this morning as I listened to Capital FM at 8am to hear the first artists being announced for their big summer music show.

OK – so it’s not 'Party in the Park', probably for 2 reasons. First, the name is too associated with a cheesier image of a bygone Capital that they’re not keen to revisit. And second... it’s not in a park!

So Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium will be the setting for the ‘Summertime Ball’ which name wise, is consistent with their Christmas themed ‘Jingle Bell Ball’.

A couple of thoughts...

The artist line-up announced today looks really good so far; right in the centre of the CHR sound that Capital is all about. Leona Lewis, Akon, Kelly Clarkson, Calvin Harris and The Saturdays are the first of what will no doubt be a great show, with “many more to be announced”... so they told us this morning!

The sequence after 8am today was done really well... mainly because it was pre-recorded to ensure Johnny stayed on message!! (It sounded a bit too pre-recorded for my linking, but hey... it was tight, so who’s complaining!) And they’d teased it hard all weekend long, so they couldn’t really afford to screw it up.

The price of tickets was conspicuous by its absence on-air (unless it was really hidden away and I missed it). I checked to see how much they were... and £45 for the cheapest seemed a little steep for me, and I daresay it’s quite a big chunk of money for younger target listeners aged 18-29, particularly when everyone’s watching their pennies. If you and your 3 mates wanted to go... that’s £180 to raise between the 4 of you! However I guess that’s the going rate these days. (The more expensive tickets are £70 by the way).

At least “Help A London Child”, the very worthwhile Capital ‘in house’ charity gets some of the proceeds, with £100,000 pledged.

However, these size concerts are rarely a profit generating exercise, as the cost of putting them on is enormous. (Although the sponsorship from Barclaycard will no doubt be worth a few quid!) Capital will probably view it as a nice big marketing exercise... and that’s the line of budget it will fall under in the big spreadsheet!

The gig’s on Sunday June 7th... so be warned Capital listeners... you’ll hear of little else until then!!
But it looks really good so far... and nice to see a radio station do something BIG at a time when everyone in UK radio is talking about cutbacks.

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