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home » festivals » Leeds Festival » Leeds Festival 2011
Melvin Benn talks to eFestivalsLeeds & Reading boss interviewTuesday 2nd August 2011 At the press launch of this year's BBC Introducing Stage line-up for Leeds, and Reading festivals eFestivals got a chance to join in on a Q&A session with Melvin Benn, Managing Director of Festival Republic.
No, we're very much announced, whether any of the bands decide to rock up with each other and play remains to be seen but we are very much announced now. Festival Republic has launched Orlando Calling any plans for any new festivals closer to home? No real plans for additional festivals closer to home, the economic times are quite tough at the moment. I think that as Festival Republic I think I have got the best festivals that exist in the UK and I just want to make them better and better. Why do you think tickets for both events weren't snapped up straight away? I think we have got very difficult economic times, but I'm very pleased that Reading Festival has now sold out, Leeds is very close to selling out. How close would you say? I would say I have less than 2000 tickets left really, so I'd say I'm really, really pleased with the ticket sales. I think it shows the strength of the line up really. What is your personal favourite of the acts so far? Well this year I'd certainly say I can't wait to see Ed Sheeran again, very, very much looking forward to seeing Muse. But Jane's Addiction is an old favourite, and Perry Farrell, who leads Jane's Addiction is a very old friend and went on to create a festival which was a copy of Reading Festival at the time, Lollapalooza, and it's great to see Jane's Addiction back, I'll be very pleased to see them. I think being able to see Pulp at their final ever, ever UK performance close the Sunday night; I think it will be a party touched by sadness in a way, it really will be a fantastic night. Is there anybody you've never had at Reading/Leeds that you'd love to book? No. I'd say to be absolutely honest with you. We can always say it would be great to book The Beatles but I know I'm not gonna book The Beatles, I know we're not gonna book Led Zeppelin. Of the bands that are appropriate and relevant to Leeds and Reading Festival there has never been a band that's been around that haven't played that we would want to play. What's always the most difficult thing in booking acts? There is a lot of competition... There's a huge amount of competition with booking facts. The most difficult thing really is once you've established the headliners then working out the coherence of the bill leading up to the headliners. We've got a great team of people... Neil Pengelly that does all of the booking for Reading and Leeds, he's got as great ear and really understands how to put the most coherent music bill together in the world. Are the headliners for next year in the bag yet? any clues? One of them is in the bag for definite, the only clue is that they've got guitars. The band voted best live band in the world; Muse; are playing the Friday night, can you tell me if there'll be any surprises? They haven't told me yet that there will be any surprises. I do know that they are creating a bespoke show just for Reading and Leeds Festivals. It's not something that will be seen anywhere else in the world, it's a stage set that won't be seen ever again except in these two locations. And they are doing what Muse does, they are gonna make it very, very special for this audience. You are very proud of the involvement you have of bringing up and coming bands into this, what does this mean to you? Up and coming bands are integral to the festival. Of course the attention always goes on the headliners. For music fans, and I'm a music fan, there is as much interest in discovering new bands as there is watching the established bands. For me it's one of those joys to be honest with you. There's a young lad out at the moment that I saw for the first time about three months ago called Ed Sheeran. He played a really tiny gig for and about 120 people at that time nobody had heard of him, literally three months ago. Since then he's absolutely blown up! He played the main stage at Latitude on Saturday, very much of a result of playing this little gig… it's an absolute joy seeing someone that fresh, that young, coming through, bringing his own take on life and expressing it through his music. It will always be a joy to me, new music. One of the special things is discovering a new band before everyone else does. The Pigeon Detectives are playing the main stage here on the Sunday at Leeds and they started on the Unsigned Stage. Everything Everything were on the BBC Introducing Stage and they are now playing on the Festival Republic Stage. You see people like Florence And The Machine that have come through that system as well. Every young band wants to be the Muse of tomorrow and every young band has got that opportunity, and I wanna give them that. Tell us about the work that is done for local charities and societies around here. I have a philosophy that a festival needs to embrace its neighbours; it needs to be part of the culture and part of the community, and I do that wherever I am, whatever festival it is. Leeds Festival has two fantastic villages adjoining it; Bramham and Thorner and we've worked really hard with both of them. When you think Brahman Football Club organise the 5-a-side football here at the festival, and that's a massive challenge. There's all these lads and some girls who put their names down to play and the 5-a-side football becomes a 500-a-side football match! The local cricket club run one of the gates here, what they do is give the money I pay them they don't keep it to themselves they give it to the football club or the cricket club or they give it to the church or Victory Hall and that's the community participating in something that they enjoy. The other great thing, that people underestimate, is that there is a lot of really old people in these villages and for them, they get tickets, and they give them to their grandkids, who then come down for the weekend and visit them and go to the festival at the same time. It's the community playing a part really. It's a strong line-up this year. How does it come about, in particular the headliners, what is the process? It's a whole mixture of things. We're very close to the bands, to the managers, to the agents, so we live in a world where we get to know and they let us know that they might be touring or working next year and they would really like to play the festival or they'll be around at this sort of time so it starts off with that process. Leeds Festival, like Reading Festival, has become one of the great rock festivals in the world, so it's very much on people's agendas to play it, it's important for bands to play it, so they are very much letting us know that they are available and when they are around. At that point it's just a discussion about whether they play headline or play below headline, which days, what the fees will be etc. It's a long process, and it's a tough process, but it results in a great festival. Reading Festival started off as a jazz festival, turned into a rock festival, now it's just a broad mix of everything isn't it? At it's core it's still a rock festival. It started as a jazz festival… I never went to it as a jazz festival, I went to it as a rock festival in 1972 and it was fantastic, The Faces played! It was absolutely amazing. In many ways it hasn't changed much since, it's still the festival to go to, as has Leeds become, if you are a young person that absolutely adores cutting edge music. What do you do if someone pulls out the day before? The music industry's moved on an awful lot since the seventies I'm very pleased to say and it's very rare that bands do pull out actually. They've got much better management, much better organisation, much better tour management, so it's rare that it does happen. But when it does happen there's always a contingency, and other bands are always willing to step up a bit and play later and get that slightly bigger audience so it's not a difficult thing to overcome because there are always bands wanting to play. Reading Festival takes place on the bank holiday weekend, from Friday 26th to Sunday 28th August at Little Johns Farm, Richfield Avenue, Reading, Berkshire, with the sister event, Leeds Festival, taking place the same weekend at Bramham Park, Leeds, West Yorkshire. interview by Danielle Millea photos by Danielle Millea 
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