Slap my hand... i'm meant to be keeping this blog up to date!!!

So, I started writing the blog as part of the new Cuffe & Taylor strategy for keeping our new website fresh with lots of links across the Internet, and now look at me, almost 2 weeks since my last post... I am now going to make an effort to keep this up to date... promise.

This coupled with my colleagues, Rachel Sharples and her blog www.rachelsharps.blogspot.co.uk and Susan Burns www.susansincontrol.blogspot.co.uk who are keeping their blogs fresh and up to date... so the race is on to be office Blog Supremo!

In my defence I've had a lot on...

Last Tuesday I returned from a trip to LA and was very lucky to be taken out to Claridges in London and had a great meal at Gordon Ramsey's

I love Claridges, we went there last year when we were finalists in the UK Event Awards (for which we got a Highly Commended awards for Lytham Proms!). The hotel is very elegant, yet it doesn't feel stuffy or arrogant .... if you want that kind of atmosphere, go to The Savoy in London, fresh from its renovation it oozes snobbery and bad service (thats a whole other story!)

Anyway, back to Gordon Ramsey's at Claridges... the menu was so nice, decisions, decisions. Having just returned from LA I thought that I would try and stick to a healthy eating regime... well that went out the window.

Here's what I ate...

Pressed foie gras, confit of rabbit and smoked duck with green beans, pickled shimeji and summer truffle

~

Fillet of beef Wellington with prosciutto, Somerset field mushrooms and pommé dauphinoise

~

Cold Valrhona chocolate fondant with poached cherry flambé

Plus they gave us lots of tasting bits between (despite making a conscious decision not to go for the tasting menu!)

Service was ok, and quite modest (and I nearly got my glass of champagne sent flying by the waiter), but all in all a good meal.

I believe that often the lunchtime sitting is on Lastminute.com, so a bargain to be had at certain times of year!

On Wednesday I then ventured to the Showmans Show in Newbury, via what felt like Trains, Planes and Automobiles... finally arriving and doing a whilstle stop tour.

The Showmans Show is great for outdoor events organisers, although I am feeling less need to spend more than half a day there, as most of the suppliers we know well now. In the early days when we were setting up, it really was a great one-stop-shop for everything to do with outdoor events.

I left my colleagues to head to Manchester to see Idina Menzel in concert. She was just simply amazing, and really showed the Manchester audience, why she is a powerhouse of American Musical Theatre. A special mention must go to Bethany Heywood from Manchester, she actually got up to sing 'Take Me For What I Am' from the Musical Rent (of which Idina played the original Broadway Maureen and also the film role)... simply a great moment... take a look at the video... it was a great moment of the night, and something I am sure will spur Bethany on. It was interesting that Idina picked Bethany as all her friends were pointing to her to get up, but Bethany just slouched in her seat... the LESSON here is get up and put yourself forward!!!

So Thursday was back in the office, and a trip back to Manchester for meetings, and Friday... well that was Wigan Mayoral Ball (we were invited by WLCT who manage Haigh Hall where we stage Haigh Hall Live) ... read Susan's Blog for the full story (along with her costume drama).

I was pleased to have a relatively quite weekend, with the exception of Farmageddon... that was hilarious and very scary!!! I won't give too much away, but you MUST visit this place at least once in your lifetime!!!

So from now on I promise to update my BLOG more often
I promise to update my BLOG more often
I promise to update my BLOG more often
I promise to update my BLOG more often
I promise to update my BLOG more often
I promise to update my BLOG more often

P

Manners cost nothing!

I'm taking a trip this week to LA to see a very good friend, and the necessary evil of this is air travel! As I'm going to the Showmans Show on my return trip I booked the flights out of Manchester and returning into Heathrow.

I am travelling out on United Airlines, and so far, apart from missing my connection (which was nothing to do with United, but US Immigration queues being sooooo long) I'm quite impressed. I've travelled to the US, a lot over the years, and apart from Virgin Atlantic's Upper Class product (which is supper - and hence the picture of a Virgin 747 at Manchester) I'd say that United Airlines is one of the best transatlantic flights I've done... So this brings me to the point of the post... Manners cost nothing!

The crew on UA101 were simply brilliant, they interacted just the right amount with passengers, and they genuinely seemed to want to help.

It got me thinking to our approach to customers at events. I am proud to say that customer satisfaction is one of our key points. I actually met a women at a wedding on Saturday night who had been to one of my events... She actually had a complaint!!! (I always hate being collared when I'm out about something)... Anyway - the point of her conversation was not the complaint, but how professionally one of the Cuffe & Taylor team dealt with it, and responded. She actually said she didn't expect a response!

Well, that's my rant about manners... Started actually because on my flight from Washington to LA I made an enquiry at the United Airlines gate agent as to the location of my bag (that should have been on the previous flight) only to get a full, snobbish and arrogant reply, all the time whilst she was staring at her computer screen (remember it wasn't my fault I missed the flight)... It seems I wasn't the only one on the receiving end of such bad attitude, I heard her say to another passenger...'why would we sort your bags out - you changed your flight!'

So as I say... 'Manners cost nothing!'

Classical Brit Awards 2012

Russell Watson - Lytham Proms 2013 Headliner
performing at the Classical Brit Awards

Last night saw the Classical Brit Awards 2012 (and I believe highlights will be on ITV this Sunday night - after Downtown) ...
Shame our Speke Hall star Russell Watson, who we've also just booked for Lytham Proms 2013 didn't win, but what an honour to be even nominated!!!

I think everyone will be pleased to see Gareth Malone and the Military Wives walk away with an award, what an amazing achievement.

Gareth Malone winning the Brit Award

I would love to add the Military Wives to the line up... I'm sure that they will be a lot easier to get onto the stage than the 300 members of the Lytham Community Choir that were the support act for Alfie Boe this year!

With a wealth of classical talent in the UK it would be great to see the UK embrace the classics more, and produce some more home-grown talent... plus, we need to keep booking up and coming classical stars for the Lytham Proms!!!

 

 

THE WINNERS....

Female Artist

Nicola Benedetti
Italia
Decca

Male Artist

Vasily Petrenko
Shostakovich/Symphony No. 1 & 3
Shostakovich/Symphony No. 6 & 12
Shostakovich/Symphony No. 2 & 15
Naxos
Rachmaninov/Piano Concertos 1 & 4
Avie
Rachmaninov/Symphony No. 3
EMI Classics

MasterCard's Breakthrough Artist Of The Year Award

Miloš Karadaglić
Latino
Deutsche Grammophon

Composer

John Williams
War Horse/The Adventures Of TinTin
Sony Classical

Classic BRITs Single Of The Year in association with iTunes

Military Wives/Gareth Malone
Wherever You Are
Decca

Critics' Award

Benjamin Grosvenor
Chopin/Liszt/Ravel
Decca

Classic FM Album Of The Year in association with MasterCard

André Rieu
And The Waltz Goes On
Decca

International Artist Of The Year in association with Raymond Weil

Andrea Bocelli

Lifetime Achievement

John Williams

Booking a festival line up...

Finally... when the artist is contracted... the stage is set!!!

It's that time of year when I'm constantly calling and emailing the agents to get my festival headliners confirmed. As we've formed a bit of a niche at Lytham Proms with the classical/crossover I find this the easiest night to programme. The classical artists tend to like their programme's confirmed way in advance, and part of their usual stable summer touring process is the outdoor 'proms' markets.

I'm currently working on programming for Lytham Proms, Haigh Hall Live and Speke Hall Concerts... plus some other bits for some other promoters...

Next up is sorting our 'pop' artists. This tends to be where things get a little more complicated. Often this is when the big 'record labels' start to get involved, and sometimes the people sitting behind a desk in London really don't see the value of their acts performing 'up north'. Fortunately I have a good relationship with most of the agents, and usually it is out of their hands as a bigger team are looking after the artists. Often one day I have no one on the table, and the next they are like buses... everyone wants to do it!

Finally programming Indie/Rock is the hardest genre. This is where little old me has to compete with the massive summer festivals... often the really great headliners are tied into exclusivity deals with the major festivals. Hey, don't get me wrong... I love to see a great headliner at Glastonbury, but it is really hard sometimes for the smaller festival organisers (even if we are willing to pay) to get to the front of the queue!

This was Katherine Jenkins dressing room at Lytham Proms 2011
We surprised her with Sky TV so she could watch Wales play
an important Rugby Match

Finally, the fun part, is actually getting the contract and then reading the riders... seeing what the headliners like to have to relax to before the concert... getting outrageous demands really is a thing of the past... plus we're in the middle of a field... so some things just aren't possible... but some requests are unusual to say they least, and we get funny looks going into shops asking for obscure items... but usually by this stage by programming job is done.

I'm constantly on the look out for new artists to perform at our event, and really surprised at the amount of artists who are really great that don't quite make the break (and the odd ones that aren't as good and do make the break!)

So Emily Eavis... if you're listening to this one... perhaps you can add a sub-clause to your contracts... that they have to play my 'Up North' event too.