We here at Tone Deaf were recently lucky enough to steal an hour from Peter Noble. For those not familiar with the name, you’ll certainly be familiar with what he does for a living – he’s the promoter behind Byron Bay Bluesfest.
In our profile of the festival co-founder, we asked if Noble had the best job in Australian music. Whether or not may be up for debate, but as the mind behind one of Australia’s biggest events and a pivotal figure in the careers of countless artists, he’s certainly one of the most powerful.
But who is the most powerful figure in live music? Not just in Australia, but globally? If we were to look at live music like the Illuminati (which we should), who would be sitting in that slightly elevated chair above everyone else?
Well, if you ask Bono, Lady Gaga, Madonna, or countless other superstars, they’ll only say one name – Arthur Fogel. Now, you may be thinking to yourself, “Who the fuck is Arthur Fogel?” but that’s okay. In fact, it’s the title of a new documentary detailing the life of the most powerful man in live music.
As a recent profile in the Globe and Mail notes, Canadian native Fogel has helped run four of the five highest-grossing tours of all time, including U2’s famous 360° tour. Lady Gaga knows him as the man who saved her from bankruptcy.
However, while Gaga may describe Fogel as the “Oz” who made her dreams come true, his official title is the head of Live Nation’s global touring division. In short, he’s the one who cut the pop singer a $40-million cheque and sent her to tour the world’s biggest venues.
While most industry higher-ups are fretting about decreasing profits and struggling to shift units, in the post-download era, Fogel’s job has become even more important. Live shows have now become musicians’ sole source of reliable income.
“You once toured to promote albums, now you release albums to promote tours,” Fogel’s friend Guy Oseary, Madonna’s manager, says. This has made Fogel arguably the single most important figure in a beleaguered industry.
[include_post id=”442444″]
Fogel works out of an office decorated with photos of himself with his family, much like any other executive, except peppered throughout are snaps of him hanging with Madonna and U2. He eschews flashy clothing, keeping it “dark and plain”.
But Fogel has an undeniable velocity. After all, this is the man who once told legendary promoter Bill Graham — the guy who brought Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin to the masses — to go fuck himself, and recently enjoyed showing off to a fellow Canadian promoter who long ago refused to help Fogel.
You could maybe forgive Fogel for gloating, he wasn’t exactly destined for greatness. The headmaster of Ashbury College predicted that he would never amount to much and for a while the only notable credit on his resume was failed drummer.
Fogel finally got his start in touring by taking a job as a night manager at a Toronto venue before managing small bands and eventually finding himself at CPI, the firm led by Michael Cohl that booked acts into Canada for a time.
Fogel was at the forefront of CPI by the time it revolutionised the way tours are run. Instead of acts working with local promoters in each city, CPI began booking venues for the Rolling Stones’ international tours directly.
“Until Arthur came along, the industry was full of promoters who championed their own brand more than the artists they booked—they were large, public personalities like Graham,” says Ron Chapman, the filmmaker behind Who the F**K Is Arthur Fogel?.
“Fogel, meanwhile, is the biggest in the industry, has been for some time, and until recently he didn’t even have a Wikipedia page.” Of course, this probably doesn’t matter – all the right people know who Fogel is.
[include_post id=”442077″]
For many of them, he’s the reason they were able to have careers after the death of the album era. At the moment, Fogel is working on tours for U2, Madonna, and Rush, and he recently oversaw Sting and Paul Simon’s co-headline tour of Australia.
But Fogel isn’t concerned about the fact that so much of his success and income comes from artists that already well-established. “People have been moaning for a while that no artists who came up in the digital era will be able to fill the stadiums,” he says.
“It’s such shit,” he adds, name-checking the likes of Lady Gaga, Ed Sheeran, Adele, and Rihanna. “There’s an explosion of talent,” he insists. Clearly, Fogel doesn’t mince words and has no qualms about giving it straight to anyone.
When asked about what many would agree are the exorbitant prices sometimes charged for concert tickets (floor tickets near the stage for U2’s upcoming shows run nearly $10,000), Fogel replies, “You have to look at the expenses that go into the show.”
“The number of people employed, the stages… We don’t pull the prices from the air.” Besides, he adds, punters are willing to pay more if they know it’s going to be a great show, and he invests a lot into ensuring that it will be.
“With the expenses of touring, the stakes are so much higher,” he says, reminiscing about a disastrous Guns N’ Roses tour back in 2002. “I can’t say I’ve found myself in that situation since then, but you never want to get cocky.”
History’s Top Five Tours
1. U2, 360° (2009-’11)*
$736 million
2. Rolling Stones, A Bigger Bang (2005-’07)*
$558 million
3. Roger Waters, The Wall Live (2010-’13)
$459 million
4. AC/DC, Black Ice (2008-’10)*
$441 million
5. Madonna, Sticky & Sweet (2008-’09)*
$408 million
*Fogel-managed Live Nation tour
