WWW.VIP-BOOKING.COM VIP- News›› ›› PREMIUM VOL. 89 FEBRUARY 2007 Benicassim McGowan’s Musings: – Fib Heineken So here we are on the second Newsletter Announce Acts of the year, which is about the time we all Allan McGowan [email protected] get, or have just got over the flu, or heavy colds, or just plain northern winter blues! The first round of artists have been Anyone else out there with the same com- confirmed for the thirteenth annual plaints? I suppose all of you in the South year of Spain’s Benicassim Festival. are thinking ‘well, if you want to avoid the sun for a couple of months that’s up to you, From the US, old hands Iggy & the we’re OK!’. Well you may be right, thoughts Stooges will join UK acts Arctic Mon- of relocation do go through my mind, but keys, The Human League and The Berlin in the snow last weekend had its Magic Numbers. From Sweden The charms, and a Film Festival, and Brighton’s Allan McGowan Hives, and funk band !!!, will line up OK I suppose – you see, optimism already, with Brazil’s Cansei de Ser Sexy These spring must be on the way! eight names form part of a line-up that For a long time I wondered what happened is just now beginning to take shape We may be looking forward to a new sea- to Al Gore, after being denied what many – watch this space! son, but the touring schedules for 2007 re- would claim to be his rightful democratic mind me of those scenes in old black and appointment to the US presidency after white films that use flickering newspaper some questionable Miami shenanigans, he headlines to indicate that the storyline is appeared to retreat from public life, only going back in time. We may just as well to re-emerge as a champion for the future be in 1977 with major tours coming up for of our planet. In this edition we report on The Who, Genesis, The Police, and perhaps his plans for a series of major concerts to Roxy Music, also in the US David Lee Roth heighten awareness of the enormous en- is to reunite with Van Halen and a one off vironmental problems facing us all. Now, Rage Against the Machine reformation has what would have happened differently if helped sell out California’s Coachella Festi- he had become President... Somewhere in val. The bills being announced for the ma- a parallel universe, somebody knows. jor European Festivals are peppered with, shall we say long established, names, such Right, whilst you’re mulling that over, I’ll as, Iggy & The Stooges, Human League, communicate with my colleague Herr Man- The Beastie Boys, Pearl Jam and Metallica. fred Tari to check that his contribution to Still, who am I to knock the inestimable this issue is prepared, and yes, as he has just value of years in the business! replied in the affirmative, here is the News! The Hives performs at Benicassim 07 The VIP-Booking European Live Entertainment Book Advertising in the VIP Book will make you visible to 10.000 business professionals all over Europe. You will find no better place to expose your company to the whole European Live Entertainment Industry. ›› RESERVE YOUR AD NOW ON WWW.VIP-BOOKING.COM 1 VIP-BOOKING.COM VIP- News - Februar y 2007 A Request from Steve Harley Allan McGowan [email protected] Steve Harley has previously contributed I’d never beg.....!). I want to raise all the an artist’s point of view to VIP-News. Apart funds I can to help this cause, and to do from his recording, performance and radio so I will attempt to cycle 350 miles across work he is an Ambassador for the Mines the barren, inhospitable terrain of Death Advisory Group, an organisation well Valley on the Nevada/California border. worth supporting. We are happy to pass Listen, you can’t even get a mobile phone on this message from Steve and encourage signal there; a week without contact with your contributions and donations! any of you - imagine. Just how inhospita- ble can it get! No mobile - that’s primitive, Hello, dear boy/girl/friend/acquaintance/ practically penal. Think of my suffering..... business associate/Family. and maybe then you’ll support me. I will Please help me to help save a village. I’m ride, as in Cambodia, on the back of a tan- off to Death Valley soon to raise awareness dem, pilot-ed by my old friend Tom Dickin- of the landmine problems still suffered in son. Tom is a retired Detective Chief Super countless villages of the far east. (Fraud Squad) and still as fit as a flea, so I warn you, we’re going to cover every mile I’ve been in the thick of it, in Cambodia a our ageing extremities can manage. May- few years ago (many of you helped my be we’ll cover the lot! cause then) and I’ve seen it, close up, in full body armour. They need the landmines Please take a look at the link below, and cleared. Clearance will allow them, hun- consider supporting me on my great ad- dreds of thousands of decent, innocent venture, for the sake of the poor hordes people, the dignity of simple employment; living in peril and poverty thanks to the they need power lines fixed, water wells millions of little, invisible Khmer Rouge repaired and much training to stimulate “leaving presents”. their pitiful economies. They need agricul- I take my responsibility as a Mines Advi- tural land made safe so farmers can grow sory Group (MAG) Ambassador seriously, crops again; survivors need their dignity as you knew I would. It’s a privilege and an and children need schools; fishermen need honour. to fish from the river banks again and shep- herds are desperate to tend their sheep in https://secure.silkmoth.net/mag/spon- COLOPHON ›› safe meadows.They need the landmines sorship_harley.asp cleared. VIP-News is published by: Your donation will go straight to the MAG VIP-Booking 26 York Street I did it before, so I can do it again: that is, “Death Valley” sponsorship account. And London W1U 6pZ ask you for your support (you must know you will be making a lot of people very hap- py, no matter what amount you donate. Managing Director: Ronni Didriksen My own website www.steveharley.com [email protected] includes a 2,000-word piece I wrote on the Cambodia trek for the Mail On Sunday mag- General Manager: Peter Briggs azine, which will give you a feel of the actual [email protected] problems faced in much of south-east Asia. Writer and editorial: Allan McGowan http://www.magclearsmines.org/page. [email protected] php?s=1&p=5090 Writer: Manfred Tari THEY NEED THE LANDMINES CLEARED - [email protected] urgently. Your donation will go towards training local men and women (many For advertising enquiries pls. contact Peter Briggs [email protected] themselves limbless from landmine ex- or +44 870 755 0092 plosions) to become de-miners. Please help me to help save a village. Lay-out: Pekaye Graphics, Phuket – Thailand With the usual good thoughts, as ever, [email protected] Steve Steve Harley 2 VIP-BOOKING.COM VIP- News - Februar y 2007 ILMC 19 Allan McGowan [email protected] Well if spring is on the way then it must delegates that have added to the ILMC New additions to ILMC 19 will be an exten- be time for ILMC, and yes, look, here it is numbers are from these new areas of op- sion of the showcase programme, with already in view, again at the Royal Garden portunity. hosted events taking place on the two Hotel, Kensington, London, March 9-11. nights prior to the event, Wednesday March This is the 19th edition of this now truly As usual the ILMC will be themed, this 7 and Thursday the 8th and on the open- venerable event, and considering that at- year the Royal Garden Hotel will take on ing Friday night. It will also be interesting tendants have to be recommended in or- the aspects of a 1930’s ‘Speakeasy’, and all to see how the two Conference themes der to register, the continuing growth of things gangster and mafia will apply to the are applied by the players in the first ever the Conference is both a pleasant surprise social events and the conference guide. In ‘World Texas Hold ‘em Poker Tourney’. The to the organisers, and a telling indication contrast to the ‘jokey’ graft and corruption casino will also feature blackjack and rou- of the condition of the international live in- side of the Conference the overall serious lette tables with all proceeds going to this dustry. With a couple of weeks to go regis- theme of ILMC 19 is to be ‘transparency’; year’s Nikos Fund charity, Oxfam. tration is at an all time high, and a cap may it seems that more and more of the del- have to be put upon proceedings in order egates have made the point that as a now For more information see: www.ilmc.com to maintain elbow room in the Conference mature and truly professional industry, meeting rooms and bars. more honesty and openness should be applied to dealings at all levels in order One telling indication of the progress that to bring more clarity to the business. This the ILMC has monitored, and it’s fair to say, point of view will be brought to bear on contributed to, over the years, is the sub-ti- the whole raft of subjects covered in the tle to this year’s regular ‘Emerging Markets’ wide-ranging Agenda.