ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the effect of this interlocking corporate ownership on the everyday activity of live music business. The Apollo Circuit had been established in 1973 by Paul Gregg, an ex-employee of Associated British Cinemas (ABC) who started buying decaying urban venues for himself, restoring them as flexible entertainment spaces for music, theatre and films; over the next 25 years, Gregg expanded his interests into ticketing, promotion and agency. In 1984, Stuart Galbraith joined the promotion company Midland Concert Promotions (MCP) straight from Leeds University, where he had been entertainments officer. Bob Angus began his live music career in the late 1970s as entertainment officer at Surrey University and set up his own promotions company, Metropolis, in 1985. In 2009 the company employed 13 promoters in its London office, three or four of whom “did nothing else but go to pubs” because “that’s where acts are”. Digital technology also had an impact. Local promoters’ local knowledge became less significant.
