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Stuart Galbraith Talks Sold-Out Gorillaz Run At The O2
Joseph Okpako/WireImage – Gorillaz on their last visit to The O2 London.
The performance took place Dec. 5, 2017.
The Gorillaz are all set to perform two nights in a row at London’s O2, Aug. 10-11. The first performance is free, and open exclusively to staff of England’s National Health Service (NHS), while the second night is a regular commercial show at the arena, which will have a capacity of 17,000 on each night.
Both shows were sold out, when Pollstar reached out to promoter Stuart Galbraith, CEO of Kilimanjaro Live, on the eve of the free NHS concert.
“As circumstances have turned out, we’re the first shows back at the O2. If I’m honest, we would prefer not to be the first shows back, it would be much nicer if there had been many shows already over the last few weeks and months. What I mean is, I just wish that instead of having this conversation in August, we had been having it in May. But here we are, and we’re hugely excited to be back at work,” Galbraith said.
Paul Harries – Stuart Galbraith.
CEO of Kilimanjaro Live.
“Who would have thought on March 16, 2020, that we would be standing here talking about the first show at the O2 after what is now going to be 18 months. I mean, it’s just been an extraordinarily long period of time, and not one that we anticipated would be so long. And and also that we would have had to spend such a protracted period of time a) waiting and b) negotiating our return with government.” he continued.
Putting the Gorillaz show together brought home the reality of what it means for an entire sector to be virtually out of work for more than one-and-a-half years.
“The fact is, is that there have been a lot of people that have not done this for a long time. The O2 team, the Gorillaz team, and the Kilimanjaro team, have worked very, very hard indeed, to mount these shows,” Galbraith explained.
The two Gorillaz shows at the O2 were originally part of an extended European trek, much of which got cut short due to ongoing travel restrictions and cancellations, like in the case of Down The Rabbit Hole festival in The Netherlands. Their Aug. 14 performance at Boardmasters UK was still on at press time.
All ticket holders attending the O2 concerts will need to present a NHS COVID Pass on entry to gain access to the venue. The pass is a certificate that demonstrates that guests have either “completed a full course of vaccination at least 14 days ago, (…) received a negative PCR or lateral flow test result within 36 hours of the event,” or “have proof of natural immunity by way of a positive PCR test at least 180 days ago,” as The O2 lays out on its website.
Joseph Okpako/WireImage – The Gorillaz promised “a choice selection of featured artists” for their two shows.
Back in 2017 at The O2, Little Simz was one of them.
The entry protocols both from a public as well as backstage point of view will “take a few turns of the wheel to get used to as it were,” said Galbraith, “but I do think both the audience and the crew will adapt. I think that we’re going to see the requirement to show vaccination proof or a negative test become normal in many areas of life in the next few months and possibly couple of years. I think we’re right at the beginning of something new.”
Throughout the coronavirus crisis, many people working in live were forced to leave the business to find work elsewhere. Restaffing the sector will be a challenge. “A regular arena where they can provide work on a regular basis is going to be easier to staff than a one-off show. I certainly know that there are several festivals and outdoor shows this summer that are struggling with the supply chain, whether it be with toilet providers or, most particularly, security, which is becoming a major issue in some areas. A lot of those companies have lost so many staff, for the simple reason that they just couldn’t afford to sit around for 18 months waiting for the industry to get back up and running. Who can blame them?”
Crew will be essential in the coming months, when live gradually returns. The fact that the first two shows back at the O2 are sold out – bearing in mind that tonight’s NHS show is free – proves that a lot of people are waiting to start going out again.
It chimes with what Galbraith has been observing, especially with the younger demographic: “We have certainly seen younger audiences still buying tickets, and we’ve seen good levels of tickets sales. What’s most pleasing, not just in music, but also in theatre. Literally in the last three weeks, we’ve started to see rates of sales pick up. Now that the extreme worry about the Delta variant is receding, people are feeling much more confident about venturing out again.”
Galbraith thinks, “that we can we can help that customer confidence by adopting policies such as vaccination proof or negative tests. So that we then say to the audience, ‘look, everyone that’s in the building is virus free. You can come to our shows with confidence, we’re providing a safe environment, and we look forward to welcoming you back.”
2021 marks 20 years, since the Gorillaz released their self-titled debut album. Galbraith has worked with the band on and off since its beginnings. The first time he saw them live was at the Hummingbird in Birmingham, now known as the O2 Academy Birmingham. “Although I haven’t worked with them in recent years, it’s brilliant to be back involved again,” he said.
Galbraith’s team at Kilimanjaro Live has been very busy during the past 18 months, not least because their boss co-founded the UK’s first live industry body alongside Live Nation’s executive president of touring, international, Phil Bowdery, and ILMC head Greg Parmley. What is more, being part of DEAG, one of the only promoters in the world insured against a pandemic, a lot of people at Kilimanjaro Live have been working on insurance claims for over a year.
The company also turned its attention to things that could take place during lockdown and within COVID regulations, such as a few Christmas Light Trails, which turned out to be very successful, according to Galbraith, who “was amazed at how busy we could be without actually running any shows. I think there are many positives that will come out of it. We would prefer it not to have happened at all. As it has happened, I think we’ve weathered it as well as we could.”
Still, the two Gorillaz shows – with Jamie Hewlett visuals, guitarist Noodle, bassist Murdoc Niccals, drummer Russel, frontman 2D, joined by Damon Albarn, the full Gorillaz live band plus a choice selection of featured artists – mark a proper return to business.
“It’ll be wonderful to be getting back to what we’re meant to be doing,” said Galbraith, “which is providing brilliant, world-class entertainment and selling enough tickets to be able to make a profit and pay people’s salaries. To start to get to a point where we’re not having to worry about what the next week is going to bring. Have we got enough work, how are we going to make the books balance, can we afford to pay people?
“And I’m also looking forward to having more time spend on promoting rather than the politics of negotiating with government, setting up LIVE, which is now a brilliant organization that truly does represent the entire live business in most discussions with government. It’ll be great, though, to not have to worry about how and when we might get back, but actually just get on and do it.”
And he concluded, “if you’re going to print one sentence out of all of this discussion, it should be, ‘thank you to the teams at The O2, Gorillaz, Kilimanjaro and X-ray, that have worked so hard to make these shows happen, because there has been a huge amount of work, over and above normal, that has had to be put in to make these happen.”