Charlene Smith
As U2 “rattle and hum” their way through their second South African concert this weekend, a bitterly divided music industry argues for the crumbs from a financially squeezed R1-billion entertainment industry.
While Computicket managing director Jeff Carel says big acts like U2 bring in small takings (but large credibility for concert promoters), Howard Belling, the combative head of the Musicians Union of South Africa, harps on about exploitation by foreign s tars.
Carel says the music concert industry is worth between R120-million to R130-million a year and has remained fairly stagnant at that level for the past two to three years, mainly because of the weakness of the rand against the dollar.
There are other factors too: South Africans have become more blas, about international artists and count their cents more assiduously.
Carel says South Africa remains a popular inclusion in world tours, “particularly by acts that were opposed to apartheid, like U2, so financial interests are not always first on the list of their requirements”.
“The Cape Town leg of U2, as an example, sold 10 000 tickets short, which barely makes it break even. Sales in Johannesburg rose to just more than 85% even though the box office was open for seven months.”
Carel points out that many promoters do not make money from the act itself but from sponsorship by organisations such as Nedbank or Standard Bank who view concerts as a strong marketing tool and don’t necessarily expect to make money.
“Standard Bank has an arena, First National Bank owns a stadium, sponsorship is very important. But there will come a point where pure financial motives will drive events.”
Many concert-goers also complain about the overall quality of shows. This has an impact on post-concert sales of CDs and tapes.
Some record stores complain that the local acts preceding foreign stars fail because they are not of the same genre as the headline act. For example, a jazz ensemble may feature ahead of a rock group.
They blame promoters, who in turn blame the musicians union for forcing them to use local acts. The union shouts about exploitation. The truth is somewhere in between, but antagonisms do not make for better acts for the public.
Belling, whose union represents 1 500 members but has an influence exceeding its numbers, says: “The public likes whatever you give them. If we cut off foreign acts for a year, they would spend more on local products. I believe there is nothing in the ru le book to say we should not have an indigenous Zulu group before an act like U2.”
While Belling is high on ideology and low on marketing expertise, many promoters are also slapdash about the supporting act.
Colin Robb, marketing director of music store Musica, says: “Just Jinger is a good supporting act for U2, but Bayete has a different target audience to that of U2. Often a promoter just bungs in an act without giving any thought to who or what he is incl uding.
“More thought is put into supporting acts overseas. If a teen band is the main act, the opening act will be an up-and-coming teen band.”
Robb says that without such an approach, South African bands often play to audiences that have no interest in their music and this encourages negativity.
Richard Bruyns of music store Look & Listen agrees. He says there is almost no interest in the tapes or CDs of local artists accompanying foreign stars.
“Just Jinger and Henry Ate are the exceptions. Some of the groups that open for headline acts are embarrassing.”
However, he says the South African music-buying public is relatively unsophisticated: “They prefer older, middle-of-the-road music, and although sales of CDs improve ahead of a show, we sell up to 300% more after a show.
“The CD of Michael Learns Rock sold really well, but South Africans are almost alone in the world in liking that group so much. Bryan Adams, Roxette, the Rolling Stones and Michael Jackson, sold well, but mostly their older stuff. An exception was Skunk Anansie, they were very big in terms of sales.”
He does not think Bayete are inappropriate to open for U2: “They are a band that Mojo magazine awarded their World Music Album of the Month [award] to a while back.”
Hazel Feldman of Showtime Management said the rock promotion industry was more buoyant now than a year ago: “There are more venues and a greater variety of acts coming through. Promoters are looking for different names; it is too expensive to bring in ar tists of the calibre of Tina Turner and the Rolling Stones often.
“If you look at the success of Skunk Anansie with the rave crowd, it shows there are markets that are ignored but are potentially big.”
She says that new venues such as Vodaworld and the Dome will see an even greater variety of acts. Vanessa Mae appears soon at Vodaworld and Lord of the Dance is coming to the Dome.
“Anyone who thought we could just do shows in outdoor stadiums did not understand the business. Stadiums are very difficult and unbelievably expensive.”
She is critical of some of the views of the musicians union: “I agree that local artists need more exposure, but not when it dictates against the creativity of the show.
“I was under pressure with Vanessa Mae to have a supporting act, but it would not have made sense to have a pop band with her, so we have integrated eight South African musicians, who play violins, cellos and the double bass, into her act. There has to b e a more flexible, creative approach.”
But the bottom line is that the entertainment industry is in the doldrums. Carel says the theatrical community, in particular, is “battling and smaller shows really struggle to find their niche”.
He says, however, the cinema industry is buoyant and big concerts still do reasonably well, but he blames media “critical overkill” for destroying the potential of some shows.
But then again, promotional hype sometimes pops its own balloon. If you ask most Johannesburgers if there are still tickets for U2 they will say: “But those sold out months ago”.
In reality, you can still get a ticket even at this late hour.