We spoke with Toby Leighton-Pope, Managing Director of TEG Europe Live, about the group's plans for Newcastle's new Come Together Festival, his hopes to bring some of the biggest names in Music to the North East and how the new event came together.
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00:00I'm a concert promoter so I put gigs on up here a lot, so I'm up here I've got
00:03Brian Adams playing in May and I've got Busted versus McFly in September. I spent a week here
00:08last year with Girls Aloud, had the best time, you know that audience is amazing and someone showed
00:12me The Mall and I've driven past it but I've never walked on it and we walked across the whole thing
00:16I think it took like an hour, it's just ginormous and I sort of went, have you done concerts here
00:20before? And they just sort of said oh we did this little show and that little show. I said but
00:23you must really get a massive capacity here and so I met the Freeman who are just the friendliest
00:30coolest guys you've ever met, they're brilliant, what a great organisation of people and their
00:34ambition for what The Mall can be is just fantastic. So I just spoke to the council,
00:39figured out what we could get and the capacity we can get on The Mall if we just use a tiny
00:43sliver is bigger than any capacity in the UK, bigger than Hyde Park, bigger than any Greenfield
00:48site. I was told The Mall is bigger than biggest inner city mall in the country so I thought
00:53you know if you've got a place, it's not about where artists are, it's about where audiences
00:57are and there's not a better audience in Newcastle. In a world where small venues are
01:02shutting across every town and live scenes decreasing, you go out in Newcastle everything's
01:07vibrant, amazing university scene, amazing local scene, the football team sells out every weekend,
01:13people like to be entertained and like to do it together and so it's where come together comes
01:18from and so that's why I thought this is a place that's been under serviced. As much as I love the
01:24arena, I do a lot of shows there, sadly it can't fit certain kind of productions. I don't think
01:29Robbie's played the North East for 12 years, I think 10, 12 years, just because there's not a
01:33venue that he can play, he can't fit his production in. So you're getting these artists come through
01:39City Hall, I think Bruce Springsteen played City Hall, every artist has played at City Hall,
01:42it's amazing. So you get these artists coming through and then they just don't come back and
01:48you've got the most amazing captive audience here, why are they not coming back? So we looked at it
01:52and just thought let's go big, you know, let's go really big and so we landed Robbie Williams
01:57and Kings of Leon, two of the biggest touring acts out there right now. I think someone told
02:01me on this tour, current tour, Robbie's sold close to a million tickets across Europe,
02:06I think it's 750, 850 something, you know it's huge. Kings of Leon sold at Hyde Park last year,
02:12still releasing great music, one of the sort of, of their era, one of the best
02:16temporary rock bands out there and so start year one with those two, we're pretty chuffed,
02:21it's tough though, it's been hard, you know, it's hard just how much time people have, how much time
02:25they want to spend, you know, people normally play London, Manchester, Glasgow or London,
02:31I think Beyonce's just doing London this year, she doesn't want to do anything else,
02:34to try and prove the concept but I think with putting Robbie and Kings of Leon in there you
02:37kind of prove the concept year one and go this site is built for it and we're going to do some
02:41great filming and really get out there and try and repeat it this year, repeat it for next year.
02:46We were close to some really big acts this year, really big acts, just scheduling couldn't quite
02:50get them over the line, so we're going to go again next year. I suppose in my career I've,
02:55I spent 20 years working in Hyde Park, so I worked with Bruce Springsteen at Hyde Park,
03:00worked with Bon Jovi, worked with Kings of Leon, put Arcade Fire on and Killers and Stevie Wonder,
03:08so I've worked in that kind of model of going a multi-genre event, I don't want to do a hard rock
03:14event or a metal event or a dance event, I want everybody to come, so if Metallica want to come on
03:19a Saturday night and Kylie wants to come on a Friday night and Bruce Springsteen wants to come
03:23on a Sunday night, that's a great weekend for me, you know, so multi-genre event because I think if
03:28you look at anybody's, I was about to say age myself, CD UK, so if you're getting anybody
03:34streaming now, people, it's not very genre based, so although there are some great events in the UK
03:39that specify, especially it's in like genres of music, I want this to be as open, as multicultural
03:48as Newcastle can be and so therefore that's really why I looked at Hyde Park and went, hold on a second,
03:54they do 10 nights over three weeks, now my ambition is not quite to do 10, but I don't know why we
03:59couldn't do two weekends and two shows each weekend or could we do four shows or is there a cinema
04:05thing we could bring in or a family night or something, you know, interesting, so that's what I was
04:09really looking at, trying to do, trying to do the same thing, multi-genre, they're still not as diverse
04:15as I want to be, I'd love to get Sabrina Calmenter to play here and as I say, I'd love Iron Maidens to play here,
04:19so it's different genres, you know, and sort of reach out to the whole fan base, yeah, I mean, I've been
04:27lucky enough over the years to work with some amazing acts, as I say, having appeared in my life when I
04:31worked with Bruce Springsteen was amazing and as I say, working with the Girls Love Gang last year,
04:35I've run every show they've ever done and they're just such a great team to work with and a brilliant
04:39band and so yeah, there are sort of some bucket lists actually you'd love to, you'd love to get,
04:44you know, can we ever get ACDC to come to Newcastle, what a show that would be, mind-blowing, you know,
04:49I don't know, they, I don't know if they're going to tour finishes this year, I don't know if they're
04:53going to tour next year or when they'll tour again, so, you know, there's a lot of that, but no, there's
04:57definitely a bucket list of acts out there that I would love to work with, but it's, it's about
05:02delivering the content for what the North East deserves, I think. It's all to eat, it's all to drink,
05:06you know, I love, I've been to it, I've seen it, I've stayed at the hotel, lovely guys, lovely people
05:10run it, I just think we're slightly different and so we're aiming at, you know, we've got a capacity
05:16probably close to 70,000 in the, in the mall this year, I don't think we're in that high, but
05:21there are different kind of artists, so our special guest could be the headliner at
05:26Hardwick and that's great, we should all be able to live and eat, I definitely don't want to,
05:31I want to bring people up with us, not push people down and so that's why we're on a separate weekend,
05:36we're not competing, there's nothing going on the same weekend as us in the North East, we're trying
05:39to let these smaller grassroots festivals grow and breathe because that's important for the whole
05:44ecostructure. And just as a final thing, because I've taken up a bit of your time, just as a final
05:48thing, just a little sneaky little thing, obviously there's still some dates where the headlines
05:51haven't been announced yet, is there anything that you're able to see? Is there a timeline?
05:55Year one's hard, I, you know, I was so close to getting amazing acts this year and I've got two
06:01amazing ones, I don't know, I'm trying to get a third act, I don't know if I'll get over the line,
06:06we're running out of time, people's schedules, are they going to be in town or not, you know,
06:10I'd want that big American act maybe, something like that, so we're talking to people,
06:14I think year one, let's start here and then just grow it year two and year three, you know,
06:19it's tough, but I think what we've got is amazing, I think it'll be a great portfolio,
06:24we're still adding artists, we're still adding stages, we've got the Geordies in,
06:27Perrier, there's a How Can I Do A Festival at home, local booze up here and then it'll be
06:30slightly different, you know, we're going to have cocktail bars, beer bars, you know, two stages,
06:35VIP areas, super VIP areas or just great general admission area where you'll just be able to get
06:40great bit of local food and booze and a soft drink if you want, so I'm looking forward to it,
06:45I think it'll be a great.