Episode 69 That Great Business Show brings you one hour of insights about the past, present and future of Ireland's music industry, from legendary veteran promoter Pat Egan, the man who brought acts including Queen, Elton John, Bob Marley and of course Billy Connolly to Ireland.These great insights are brought to you, as always, courtesy of our sponsor, De Facto, the world's best shaving oil. www.DeFactoShave.com To start with, ever modest, he says he's not a legend and that the word is overused.Given the sometimes meagre returns (and he's had a couple of disasters that he discusses) he agreed that music promotion could be seen as a form of gambling.He talks about the enormous appetite there is in Ireland for live music events. He discusses the Garth Brooks phenomenon and his concert promoter in Ireland, Peter Aien. That leads into complaining about some of Ireland's best known country & western artists, including Daniel O'Donnell, Margo He says it's very hard to make money from big events now because artists are taking up to 100% of ticket sales. Mid-sized acts, attracting 1,500 people, find it almost impossible to make money.Then he discusses Live Nation, who own/manage or have an involvement in thousands of venues, including all the major Irish venues, plus they own Ticketmaster that sell the tickets for those venues, and they manage 500 major acts who appear in those venues. He is effectively locked out of the bigger venues he implies. A California based law suit, launched this week, makes claims of monopolistic behaviour against the Live Nation.Down, but never out, not being able to access some of his favourite venues like the Olympia or the Gaiety Theatres meant that he has recently struck a deal with University College Dublin to run up to 100 nights of gigs in the magnificent O'Reilly Hall in UCD. His mentor was Oliver Barry, who was also his silent partner.His biggest financial disaster was courtesy of Julio Iglesias whose concert bombed and cost Pat £185,000 of a loss. Ouch.Pat has some interesting views on the future of radio and its importance in promoting new talent.Another woulda/coulda/shoulda moment was when he had the chance to sign U2and he talks about Larry Mullen offering to play for free to support the Stranglers at the Top Hat venue on Dublin's southside. His 'hire in a heartbeat', Garret Delaney and Caroline O'Neill, both who have worked with Pat for years and who helped make it all possible.Find all episodes at www.ThatGreatBusinessShow.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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