The FINANCIAL — “Last year our main sponsors were TBC Bank, Iberia Business Group, Magti and Volkswagen. Unfortunately this year all of them have refused to finance us because of the global recession,” Kakha Kandelaki, Marketing Manager of Eastern Promotion, told The FINANCIAL.
Eastern Promotion, which in the past has promoted such notable and highly acclaimed musicians as Ray Charles, James Brown, George Benson, Al Jarreau, Bobby McFerrin, Joe Zawinul, Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, Garry Barton, Jamiroquai, Shakira, Joe Cocker and others in the Caucasus, is facing the difficulty of attracting sponsors in order to arrange its Jazz Festival in Tbilisi in October. “Last year our main sponsors were TBC Bank, Iberia Business Group, Magti and Volkswagen. Unfortunately this year all of them have refused to finance us because of the global recession,” Kakha Kandelaki, Marketing Manager of Eastern Promotion, told The FINANCIAL.
Kandelaki reviewed the history of Eastern Promotion in the Caucasus region and explains why promotion has not gained popularity in Georgia as its own branch of business.
Q. The first Rock and Jazz Festival in the Soviet period took place in Tbilisi in 1978. Your first guest was Ray Charles, was it hard to persuade such a worldwide musical giant to visit Tbilisi?
A. Thousands of people welcomed him on the runway when he arrived. The managers of the singer were confused. Ray was lucky not to see it all. We never believed that he would actually extend his tour to Tbilisi until we saw him coming out of the plane.
Financially we were always suffering losses. We never asked for the support of our government, like many other musicians have done. It was not considered a great idea to invite James Brown or Ray Charles to Georgia taking into account the reality that the vast majority of the Georgian public preferred listening to Russian pop singers Leonid Agutin and Oleg Gazmanov instead. From the very beginning our customers looked at our festivals sceptically. They thought it impossible for such festivals to take place in Tbilisi. Others just assumed that the invited singers must have been unpopular in their own countries already, thus visiting such an out-of-the-way spot to perform. However as time passed the number of viewers started increasing. We managed to gain a certain segment of the population’s trust and loyalty. At first, in 1995 we invited Ray Charles.
The world-famous stars who visited our country introduced Georgia, in turn, to the world. We have created a fertile background of our country by our work. Currently there is no problem in inviting any music maestro to our country. No one asks who the president of your country is when they hear who has already visited it. Nowadays, artists are not even waiting for our invitation, rather they ask in advance if we would like to invite them to participate in jazz festival tours.
Q. Eastern Promotion took on a lease of Tbilisi Philharmonic hall. Your ambitious plans involve making it the leading music hall in Eastern Europe. How much have you invested in the reconstruction works?
A. After the reconstruction of the Philharmonic hall it will be as acoustically grandiose as the concert hall of Rolls Royce. It will be the highest technically equipped hall in the whole of Eastern Europe. We are keeping in contact with the top musicians that we know. Last week George Benson and Henry Hancock offered to visit Georgia. Hancock is arranging a performance with classical pianist Lang Lang, they are arranging a duet. Because of the crisis and the current state of reconstruction of the Philharmonic hall we have had to postpone till next year.
However after its reconstruction works the Philharmonic hall will be able to accommodate 2,300 people. The working process will be finished in September. From October it will be open for guests. The wide range of concerts held in the Philharmonic hall will make it possible to satisfy the demands of all customers’ tastes. As for Georgian musicians, I think that they have to start working hard on the creation of performing programmes. For the restoration of the Philharmonic Palace we took a USD 7 million credit line from the bank. The outside part of the Philharmonic is already rented by international open café chain Elvis.
Q. The region of the Caucasus is not popular for arranging concerts of such large scales. Are you negotiating with the representatives of the Caucasus region so as to accordingly spend less in the future?
A. Even when great singers are going to visit Baku, Azerbaijan, their managers ask us about the present cultural situation in the given country. We recommended Elton John and Julio Iglesias to visit Baku. With the help of Eastern Promotion Baku hosted El Jero, Tania Maria, Hancock and others. The popularization of the whole of the Caucasus region is definitely in our interests. Geographically it’s a bit complicated to arrive in the region just for the sake of visiting one country. If arranging concerts in other countries of our region, it will also reduce prices for us. In the case of Jamiriquay, eight countries divided the total cost of his tour. Otherwise the price for a ticket to his concert would have been USD 3,000 rather than USD 200. The same went for Cocker. In order to arrange the visits of such singers, we have to work and negotiate for a year or more. Or to find a magnate able to shoulder all of the expenses, as was the case with pop singer Shakira. The founder of the Hayat Hotel chain spent USD 4.5 million on that. 28% of the total sum went to taxes.
When singers of such scale and popularity visit Georgia, this positively advertises our country. Up until now it has not been hard to attract sponsors for festivals. We have managed to bring up a generation that really appreciates good music.
Q. The Black Sea Jazz Festival will start in July, in Batumi. Could you tell us more about it?
A. At the end of October we plan to arrange a jazz festival in Tbilisi. But before that the Batumi Black Sea Jazz festival will be held. For us it is very important to have a stable political and economical situation because then people will generally be more motivated, and financially able, to visit concerts. It will be cheaper for our customers to visit a concert in their homeland without having to pay extra money for journeying to another country just to see a musician’s performance. At our jazz festival in Adjara, we plan to hold a concert with musicians playing music of lighter taste. As for Tbilisi, it will be more of an intellectual team of musicians, so for people of more refined, acquired musical tastes.
For our customers we use a kind of bait. We try to attract people by providing more popular musicians. Such festivals are more typical for seaside cities and we want to start a tradition of the Black Sea Jazz festival. Last year 1,200 rooms of the local hotels of Batumi were occupied during the festival. Even the US ambassador to Georgia could not get a place at a hotel there. In Batumi’s case, there was a big problem connected with flights.
We are aiming to open the season earlier in Adjara with our festival. That’s why we have arranged it for the middle of July. The Black Sea Jazz Festival will have Katie Melua doing the opening performance.
Q. Currently Georgian show-biz had abated. What is the reason for it?
A. Azerbaijani and Armenian musicians are dealing with foreign partners to create their own groups abroad. Even the customers of the above-mentioned countries are not making any progress with such festivals. We are facing a big problem concerning which Georgian singer to invite to play before the performance of Marcus Miller, because the level should not be different. The most suitable is Big Band and Dinny Virsaladze, but you can’t always invite the same faces as they become boring for the public. Abroad, musicians are working hard in order to create successful programmes. While in Georgia musicians are asking the Government to provide a salary for them. Do you think that Bob Dylan or Paul MacCartny have government salaries? We never thought to ask the Government for their financial support. If we had waited for the support of our government we would never have managed to arrange any concerts.
Q. The organizers of Tbilisi Open Air have an aggressive plan to arrange the visits of international musicians to Georgia. Why is the promotion not popular in Georgia from a business point of view?
A. Creating new promoting teams will develop competition in the sphere, which we welcome. Regarding Tbilisi Open Air, I would say that it was a well planned venture. I think that from time to time it is a good idea. However too many free concerts deteriorate the value of this business. When customers get the opportunity to listen to musicians at free concerts, they later stop paying money for them. I don’t even welcome the system of invitations. The managers of Tbilisi Open Air are well prepared. It was their first step but they’ll continue developing and will reach success. Other promoters are more one handed. They’ll find a sponsor for organizing one night who will later disappear. There is a no more stable promoting company than Eastern Promotion. We have managed to create a very successful background for future promoters. They won’t have to think about how to attract international stars. It’s hard to find great maestros who have not been to Georgia. To create a promoter’s business you need experience, education and finances. It is connected with high risks. From the very beginning you have to worry about not seeing too many losses. Accordingly, we did not have any competitors. Even during the tender of the Philharmonic hall we were the only ones who filled the requisition.
We have had to turn down lots of interesting musicians who have offered to visit Tbilisi for our jazz festival as our sponsors have refrained from financing us because of the crisis. Besides this, the most important thing is the total environment. People should have a stimulus to come to the concert.
Q. The Russo-Georgian war interrupted preparations for the visit of Paul McCartney. What was the aim of the singer’s visit to Georgia?
A. Last year a concert of Paul McCartney had been planned for September 18. The whole management team of Paul McCartney visited Georgia on August 7. It was planned that a special DVD with McCartney in Tbilisi was going to be created. His management chose Freedom Square because of its special views. Barry Marshal is the worldwide promoter of Elton John, Tina Turner, Paul McCartney, Pink and others, and he came to Georgia himself. The visit of Barry Marshal was good for us. In Europe there are five or six persons who control the show business worldwide. In Tel Aviv, we Georgians arrived and helped McCartney’s managers to manage the preparations for the concert. However unfortunately due to the ensuing terrible circumstances it was not to be.
Written By Madona Gasanova
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