It's not about personal taste

This week we've had someone with us who polarises opinion.  They did so before their performance, and they have done after.  I'm talking about Peter Andre.

 

I remember about 6 months ago I had a lengthy conversation with the Promoter who was wanting to send Pete out on a nationwide tour.  Aside from the usual details about the show itself, we tried to judge the mood of the public.  Team Pete v Team Katie and all that.

 

We eventually agreed that we had a show we were happy with, and we put it on sale.

 

At this point, let me declare that I'm neither Team Pete or Team Katie.  That sort of celebrity hype is of no interest to me personally.  And that sentiment runs through everything I programme for the Pavilions.  It's never about personal taste.

 

My remit and desire is to provide a diverse range of events that over a reasonable period of time will provide something for everyone.  I'd like to take this opportunity to highlight that the Pavilions, with it's charitable status and cultural objectives, is unique in being able to do this. This approach means that we can bring to Plymouth acts like the Japanese Kodo Drummers, as we did a few weeks ago.  Or Treorchy Male Choir.  Or Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra.

 

Peter isn't my cup of tea, but I appreciate that he is admired (and not) by many.  I am glad to have been able to provide the people of Plymouth the opportunity of whether or not to go to his concert.

We're still going Bonkers with Dizzee

This evening (Tuesday), the phones suddenly went mad with fans of Dizzee Rascal, who's at the Pavilions tomorrow night.  They'd heard that his gig is cancelled.

 

Any other day, we'd have been able to respond to this straight away, but today we were doing things a little differently.  The Events team started the day with Health & Safety stuff like Fire Alarm drills, and  finished it with an off site business planning session.  So when the guys back at base rang us at 8pm and told us the phones were going beserk, we didn't have the answers.

 

A quick internet search via a mobile phone revealed Dizzee had cancelled tonight's gig due to a throat infection.  However, upon further scrutiny, that was a story from a couple of years ago!  I eventually got hold of the number for Dizzee's representative, who is on the road with him.  Tonight, they're in Brighton.  When I explained what we'd heard, she told us that some troublemaker made a rogue posting to Facebook this morning.  From that the rumour grew to Twitter.  And then to radio stations. 

 

It's not true.  Dizzee Rascal will play Plymouth tomorrow evening.  But we've experienced the power of social networking, in the negative message that spread today,  followed tonight by Dizzee's personal message on his Twitter site putting the record straight.