|
Godskitchen Buys Spundae....
|
View this Thread in Original format
| DaveT |
After months of rumors, looks like it turned out to be true...here's a couple of articles...
| quote: |
"Godskitchen Announces Spundae Worldwide Takeover!
02.18.2004
The last 3 years have seen Godskitchen secure their place as the UK’s biggest dance promoters. Their flagship venue AIR has reinvented itself physically and musically, their arena events reach over 250,000 people each year and Global Gathering has sold out for the last 3 years to 35,000 clubbers. So with the UK operation running smoothly the US plan has been put into action.
After months of negotiations in the US Godskitchen are pleased to announce their recent acquisition of North America’s largest dance events company Spundae Worldwide.
GK are whole-heartedly buying into the global dance scene with the acquisition of Spundae Worldwide. This venture is ground breaking and a first for any UK dance brand; giving Godskitchen unique and unrivalled access to the US dance market. By building upon an already established and nascent scene and by buying into a readymade fan base of dance fans Godskitchen have masterminded this deal so that they can deliver the best of the GK experience directly to their target audience. GK will become the premier brand for large-scale events; festivals and tours while Spundae will remain the base for the weekly events.
Spundae is easily America’s biggest electronic dance music promoter. The company was founded in San Francisco eleven years ago by Peter Beckers and Guiv Naimi, with Spundae Worldwide launched in 2001 with Brooks Pettus as the managing partner; Mr. Pettus will now adopt the role of CEO of GK North America. Founders of Spundae Peter Beckers and Guiv Naimi will over see the regional and national promotional activity of GK USA including events in San Fran, LA, Vegas, Houston, and Chicago.
Brooks Pettus Commented: “This deal is about leveraging a global base to forward Dance Music in North America. Godskicthen will thrive where other UK brands have failed because their approach to the scene is organic; it's from the street up rather then the brand down. It's the early stages of the dance scene here, once we can expand into broad media to support our well promoted events, GK North America may just give our UK partners a run for their money as the leading country in electronic dance music.”
Over the last 3 years Spundae has held events in 19 North American markets and has booked virtually every top DJ in the world. They have executed 15,000 person events on the famed Hollywood Boulevard in LA and produced arena scale events with Clear Channel in San Francisco. Godskitchen will continue with events of this scale and caliber, continuing to build on the incredible dance music base that Spundae has created in the States.
GK CEO Neil Moffitt commented: “We have spent 3 years getting to this point and we feel we have everything in place for it to be a great success. We have learnt a lot from others mistakes and adjusted our plans accordingly. We're not trying to re-invent the wheel; we realize the US market is already established. We want to enhance and polish what is already there using the foundation of Spundae and the success of Godskitchen over the past few years throughout Europe and the rest of the world. By marrying the two together and adapting it for a new market we believe we will have a fantastic product to deliver to the all important end user...the customer.”With over 500 dates in the US in 2004 Godskitchen's presence will most definitely be felt right across the vast country. The best production, talent and venues will make up part of this ultimate clubbing experience and be a milestone for UK clubs. GK will be producing monthly events in each of the core Spundae markets and half a dozen other territories as well as three or four arena scale events on major holiday weekends and 2 exceptional NYE events. This is the biggest venture for any UK club brand in the States and with the backing of some of the most respected names in US dance music 2004 is going to see Godskitchen conquer America."
|
and
| quote: |
THE BRITISH
ARE CLUBBING
by Dennis Romero
As recently as the late ’90s, the outside dance-music world viewed Los Angeles as a clubbing backwater, a place where industry suits ruled exclusive Sunset Strip watering holes and teenage raving dominated the sport of dancing ’til dawn. Little was left for fans who had experienced the human swap meet of the big clubs in New York, Miami, and San Francisco.
Today, L.A. finally has serious choices for Saturday-night clubbing. Last week, Spundae attempted to take the lead in local nightlife with news that London super-club Godskitchen, after nearly a year of negotiation, was buying it out for an undisclosed amount. Although other U.K. club brands – Ministry of Sound, Cream – failed to infiltrate the American market at the turn of the millennium, the folks at Spundae say it’s different this time.
“Cream and Ministry of Sound tried to come here, and they fell on their asses,” says Neil Thomas, who runs Spundae’s Hollywood night at Circus Disco. “They didn’t understand how different the American market is to Europe. European dance music is ingrained in society. It’s on the radio, on TV, and in the supermarket. I think Godskitchen is smart enough to realize they can’t come in and say, like the others, they’re going to take over. They’ve said they’re going to take the best people who know the market – that’s Spundae – and said, ‘Hey, we can offer you the resources and the sponsorship backing to take it to the next level and really start putting on large-scale events and developing venue ownership.’”
Clubs are key missing elements in the development of electronic dance music in America. While England and Europe have had a circuit of safe, clean, legitimate environments for dancing and performance, the United States’ main outlet has been @#$%-crazed raves. That’s fine if you’re 17, but not so good for industry showcases, tours, and record sales. Even as legit club nights have saved the day in L.A., Spundae is still a promoted night at someone else’s venue. Gods-kitchen wants to buy its own venues in America, as well as organize one or two large-scale (crowds of 10,000 or more) electronic music festivals in Southern California as soon as this summer, according to Thomas. The East Coast is also a target for such festivals.
“We would like to incorporate live dance acts in our concert events – Chemical Brothers, Basement Jaxx, Crystal Method, that level of artist,” he says.
The arrangement could also create the leveraging ability of a corporate merger. In this case, Godskitchen and Spundae could tie up superstar DJs for exclusive world tours at their events and push the artists to lower their fees.
“I can say to a DJ, ‘You’re going to play 20 dates in a year in all these different markets,’” says Thomas. “As we get better prices and develop loyalty, we have more control over where they play. Obviously, the fees the DJs are charging are going to be adjusted accordingly.”
Godskitchen holds super-club nights in Birmingham and Liverpool, England; sponsors DJ tours of the United States, Asia, and Australia; and this summer will host its fourth annual outdoor Global Gathering festival, with a capacity of 35,000. Godskitchen reportedly reaches 350,000 clubbers worldwide. Spundae, which began as a Sunday club night in San Francisco 11 years ago, organizes nights in that city, Hollywood, Las Vegas, Houston, and Chicago. Godskitchen will apparently keep the Spundae banner on those events, at least for the next year, Thomas says.
The acquisition should be a boost for Spundae. Rival party Giant became the belle of the local super-club ball after it took over Saturday nights at the city’s newest and shiniest big venue, Avalon Hollywood. (The Avalon Group has venues in Boston and New York and plans to open a club in Las Vegas as well.) Giant director Dave Dean actually launched the night that became Spundae Hollywood back in 2000, but when Circus owner Gene La Pietra ousted him a year later, Thomas and Spundae took over Saturday nights. Giant and Spundae have been rivals ever since, and every time one club announces a move, the other seems to strike back with an even bigger move. With Giant allied with Avalon and its growing chain of venues, and Spundae bought out by Godskitchen and its U.S. expansion plans, it’s shaping up to be an ambitious year in L.A. clubland.
“This deal is about leveraging a global base to forward dance music in North America,” stated Spundae partner/Godskitchen North America CEO Brooks Pettus. “Gods-kitchen North America may just give our U.K. partners a run for their money as the leading country in electronic dance music.”
There goes the neighborhood.
|
|
|
|
| slinkyhead |
i like the way Godskitchen is described as a "London superclub" :rolleyes:
good news for USTA not so for the europenas as there will less and less european djs playing in europe and inevitably dj fees will go up |
|
|
| DaveT |
| quote: | Originally posted by slinkyhead
i like the way Godskitchen is described as a "London superclub" :rolleyes:
good news for USTA not so for the europenas as there will less and less european djs playing in europe and inevitably dj fees will go up |
Yeah, a big error about the London superclub thing...oh well, no one is perfect...
The idea is for DJ fees to GO DOWN (PvD costs $30,000 for US bookings I hear!!)....because if you can guarantee a DJ so many bookings, etc, then you get like a package deal...read the articles, it explains :)
Dave |
|
|
| Boomer187 |
does this mean markus is still gonna be at the armin show....
some people say I have a one track mind....I dunno where they get it. |
|
|
| Diehard_clubber |
Is a very interesting move on Gods part, hope it works well out there.
( Not too well tho so they decide not to bother back here ;) ) |
|
|
| slinkyhead |
| quote: | Originally posted by DaveT
Yeah, a big error about the London superclub thing...oh well, no one is perfect...
The idea is for DJ fees to GO DOWN (PvD costs $30,000 for US bookings I hear!!)....because if you can guarantee a DJ so many bookings, etc, then you get like a package deal...read the articles, it explains :)
Dave |
so then itd be cheap for GK but not others, bit of a monopoly. But fair play to GK bit or risk but they could do very well out of it.
500 dates a year, that is alot |
|
|
| DaveT |
| quote: | Originally posted by Boomer187
does this mean markus is still gonna be at the armin show....
some people say I have a one track mind....I dunno where they get it. |
Boomer, AvB in SF on April 2 and AvB in LA on April 3 are Godskitchen vs. Spundae dates...I got the initial info about Armin playing out here on those dates from Godskitchen and Arturo has been saying that Markus will playing with Armin on those dates, so I would say Markus will still be out here...
I am not sure if Markus is 100% confirmed yet, but Markus did say he would be out here in April just last night during the GDJB.
Can't wait :) |
|
|
| DaveT |
| quote: | Originally posted by slinkyhead
so then itd be cheap for GK but not others, bit of a monopoly. But fair play to GK bit or risk but they could do very well out of it.
500 dates a year, that is alot |
Well, let's see...Spundae is now or is about to do weeklys in a total of six cities (SF *its home*, LA, Vegas, Chicago, Houston, and Cleveland) . 6 cities x 52 weeks = 312 dates right there.
Not to mention they are bound to expand into more cities, do special tours (PS2 Dual Play Tour for example), and have tons of special nights/events (SF gets a special Anniversary party, Memorial Day party, and Labor Day party ever year, and LA gets Day One...not to mention special yacht parties, non-Spundae night parties thrown by spundae, etc.).....this is all not mentioning the special events they thrown in non-Spundae cities like Miami and Seattle.
Spundae is massive dude...they've blown up over the past few years...now they just need to find/build better venues!!!
Best thing about Spundae, they have awesome owners (well, founders I guess I should say)...really cool guys. A lot of major promoter owners are stuck up.
Dave |
|
|
| digitalbreach |
| quote: | Originally posted by DaveT
Spundae is massive dude...they've blown up over the past few years...now they just need to find/build better venues!!!
Best thing about Spundae, they have awesome owners (well, founders I guess I should say)...really cool guys. A lot of major promoter owners are stuck up.
Dave |
Spundae is pretty much blowing up here in Houston. Which just recently started late last year.
I like the whole building better venues part of it. Venues with massive sound systems would be the way to go. :D |
|
|
| dj2kTA |
| quote: | Originally posted by DaveT
Spundae is massive dude...they've blown up over the past few years...now they just need to find/build better venues!!!
Best thing about Spundae, they have awesome owners (well, founders I guess I should say)...really cool guys. A lot of major promoter owners are stuck up.
Dave |
Spundae's Chicago home, Vision, is great. I'm sure theyll stick with it there. Cant comment on other cities though.
I hope the diversity of Spundae's lineup in Chicago will remain. Their monthly lineups have all sorts of artists from different genres. Definitely a nice thing to have from just one promoter, in addition to whatever the others are doing also.
Overall I think/hope it will be a good combo. |
|
|
| BeerNut |
| quote: | Originally posted by digitalbreach
Spundae is pretty much blowing up here in Houston. Which just recently started late last year.
I like the whole building better venues part of it. Venues with massive sound systems would be the way to go. :D |
actually spundae used to have a night at hyperia ;) |
|
|
| mndeg |
i was on the spundae forums and someone on the chicago forums called james holden techno
wtf? |
|
|
|
|
