T in The Park organiser Geoff Ellis interview

eFestivals got to talk to T in The Park organiser Geoff Ellis exclusively about the announcement of Kasabian as headliner, line-up planning, the Homecoming Festival and even the possible return of the Connect Festival, but not as we know it.

Hi Geoff, congratulations on booking Kasabian as headliners.
Thank you.

How do you think the announcement will be received by T in the Park fans?
Well, if our polls are correct, I think there will be a loud cheer that would only be topped by Kasabian belting out some of their songs from the main stage. I think, certainly amongst british bands that they're the band that people want to see as much as anyone else. They're a perfect fit for the T in the Park crowd, and will go down tremendously well.

It was always our idea that as we were putting tickets on sale tomorrow, it would be great to announce one of the headliners at that point as well, rather than saving everything until February.

So, is that when we can expect another announcement?
Yes, well I'm not saying there won't be anything between now and February, but that's when we plan to do the main launch and the main on sale for tickets.

During a show at the SECC in Glasgow Kasabian singer Tom Meighan asked the crowd "who wants to see us at T in the Park next year?". Had you already booked them when he said it?
It was very close to us to us finalising everything, and because that had happened, we thought well if the cats out of the bag anyway. We were trying to work out exactly what he'd said after the gig, and ask exactly what he'd said, and work it out. The reaction was pretty full on. Those shows were great, their production was really good, they're talking about bringing a really good show to T in the Park and we're all looking forward to that.

Are there a lot of offers out there you've put out to other people?
Yeah, quite a few. Now is the time of year where you do quite a bit of the booking. Obviously you don't book the full line-up this early. you don't want someone who has gone off the boil by next July. There'll be plenty to book later. We weren't booking Florence And The Machine for instance at this time last year, she wasn't even on the scene. She really started to happen in the new year, and that's when we locked her in. The new up and coming bands you want to be booking them February or March time so that you're getting a band that's going to have a real buzz about them come july.

Can we expect any surprises on the line-up?
Yes, I think so. We don't have The Beatles re-forming or anything like that. But, with the T in the Park line-up, we always have usually have strength and depth, and variety . We're known for having big headliners, but also significant artists in the tents. We try not to fill the stages during the day with bands that only a hundred or so people are interested in.

We want to have the next Florence And The Machine in a tent or on stage at 2 o'clock again. You want to have good vibey people early on in the day as well, because that's what makes the festival special. the headliners are the headliners but people are there for a long time at the festival, it's who they are seeing at 3 o'clock and it's that band that they catch just as the sun's going down, and broadening their musical horizons.

Will the festival layout remain pretty much the same next year? Any changes to the stages?
No changes, there will be minor tweaks and improvings but pretty much the same layout, and we're not looking at getting rid of any stages or adding any new ones.

You helped put Homecoming together, any plans for more outdoor events in the future?
We're always looking at potential events for outdoors because that's our forte, I guess, putting on big events. They've got to be the right thing at the right time. We've taken a break with Connect as you know. We'd love to do connect at some point in the future. in the meantime it might be a different format that we do it in, for a couple of years. we're constantly looking at sites and ideas, be it urban, or rural for different events. Like homecoming, which was a great success in the end. It sold out. We had to downsize the size of the halls, but at the end of the day we got a great reaction. A week before the event I was saying this has been such hard work i don't want to do it again.

Then, by the end of the night, I was saying, right, let's get working on next year's event. I got a really nice email from Lloyd Cole saying how he didn't expect to enjoy it, because he doesn't like those kind of events. He said it was fantastic, he really loved it, and was presently surprised. I thought well if that's the case perhaps we should do something like that again. Maybe do it in a slightly different format. We live and breathe musically, and will keep looking at events whether indoor or outdoor.

So Connect definitely won't be returning next year?
Not in the format that it was, no but we may well be doing some smaller satellite type events, we're working on it at the moment. There could well be a Connect, but in the words of Spock, not as we know it.

Have you got any new outdoor shows planned for next year?
We've got a few irons in the fire. Not for next year though, next year's only a matter of weeks away, I can't believe how the time has gone. Our focus at the moment is delivering a great line-up for T in the Park. I don't think next year's the best year to be taking big risks on anything. Unfortunately there's not going to be all the bands going out next summer that there were this year. Bands like AC/DC, Take That, Bruce Springsteen, and The Eagles.

We had a fantastic summer this year, there aren't many artists that can play outdoors who are touring next year along with the festivals. The bigger stadium type bands that will be around will be doing festivals rather than their own shows. I think in Scotland the only outdoor show will be Pink, which we're not doing. I don't think there's any other artist planning to have outdoor shows next year. 2009 was unusually busy, and 2011 will be busy too.

Thanks for your time Geoff.
No problem bye.

Latest Updates