Irving Azoff to Leave Live Nation/Front Line Mgmt

[ZahZoo]

Irving Azoff to Leave Live Nation
By BEN SISARIO

Irving Azoff, the executive chairman of Live Nation Entertainment, the concert and ticketing giant, is leaving the company, Live Nation announced on Monday.

As part of his exit, Liberty Media, already one of Live Nation’s largest shareholders, will buy 1.7 million of Mr. Azoff’s shares, giving Liberty a 26.4 percent stake in Live Nation. According to recently filed corporate disclosure documents, Mr. Azoff controlled about 2.6 million shares in Live Nation, either directly or through a family trust.

Mr. Azoff, 65, has been one of the most powerful executives and artist managers in music for four decades, and Live Nation has been only his most recent endeavor. Along with Michael Rapino, who remains the company’s chief executive, Mr. Azoff helped organize the merger in early 2010 of Live Nation — then largely a concert promotions company — and Ticketmaster, which also included Mr. Azoff’s Front Line management business.

Live Nation will continue to own Front Line, but Mr. Azoff will take some of his longtime management clients with him, including the Eagles, Christina Aguilera, Van Halen and Steely Dan. Mr. Azoff said that leaving would relieve him of what he described as burdensome corporate duties, and let him work again in his preferred mode as an entrepreneur.

“It’s no secret that I haven’t been a fan of public companies for some time,” Mr. Azoff said by phone from Mexico, where he was spending the holidays. “I looked at my calendar for the beginning of next year and I was able to clear 90 days for things that went into dealing with a public company, which I can now devote to productive work.”

He cited “taxes and estate planning” as the reasons for leaving on the last day of the year.

Mr. Azoff will join the board of Starz, the cable television company also owned by Liberty Media. Mr. Azoff also serves on the boards of Clear Channel Communications and the media and entertainment company IMG.

Live Nation announced Mr. Azoff’s departure after the market closed on Monday, but news of it was first reported by Bloomberg News before the end of the trading day. Live Nation’s stock closed at $9.31, up about 3.7 percent for the day.

Live Nation did not announce who would be taking over as chairman in Mr. Azoff’s absence.

In addition to its holdings in Live Nation, Liberty has a major stake in Sirius XM Radio, and has spent the last several months in the process of taking that company over. But when asked whether he might take over from the recently departed Mel Karmazin as chief executive of Sirius, Mr. Azoff scoffed.

“I’m never going to work for a public company again,” he said. “Any public company.”

A version of this article appeared in print on 01/01/2013, on page B2 of the NewYork edition with the headline: Chairman Exits Live Nation; Liberty Media to Raise Stake.

http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.co...rnyt&seid=auto

[ELVIS]

This is a popular thread...

[DLR Bridge]

One post shy of my New Years Resolution thread. There's still time.

[ELVIS]

For what ??

[DLR Bridge]

To discuss how the fiscal cliff will affect Irving or... make a resolution. You pick.

[ZahZoo]

This is a popular thread...

No one is dancing and getting the homophobes all worked up I guess...

[Zing!]

Maybe we should discuss what Irving Azoff's New Years resolution is. Besides making boatloads of more money, that is.

[ELVIS]

Maybe you should read the article ??

[Zing!]

Maybe you should have a sense of humor Elbow.

[ELVIS]

Oh, I do...

[Terry]

I dunno...does anyone have a high level of interest about who is promoting/booking/representing Van Halen these days?

If it isn't Azoff, it'll be someone else...who gives a fuck long as the band plays...

[DLR Bridge]

I wouldn't say a high level. But a level. Doesn't Dave still have separate representation from the 3 Twins? Ultimately, whom ever ends up with the gig will be under the pressure of not fucking things up.

[SunisinuS]

Well whoever it is...I want the 2nd half of the Double Album debuted in Japan and then 2014's release starting to be promoted for #9.

[ELVIS]

No promotion is good promotion...

[ZahZoo]

I wouldn't say a high level. But a level. Doesn't Dave still have separate representation from the 3 Twins? Ultimately, whom ever ends up with the gig will be under the pressure of not fucking things up.

Yes, Dave is represented by Russell "The Diamond Dog" and the 3 Twins are now under management by Kody "The Official Brown Sound SpokesDog Tone Chaser"... errr Yapper Bone Chaser... I meant.

The pressures must be enormous... I can only assume Azoff has assigned a woman to oversee all this intense Van Halen activity. We all know most men will fuck things up especially when doing nothing at all...

If there's a plus in any of this... maybe we'll see some sort of activity due to the band's management being freed up from all his big corporate bullshit duties. Who knows Irving might get bored and decide to "manage" something and get all those lazy-assed musicians working for their dinner again...

[ELVIS]

Well, whatever the case, someone fucked up and I blame Irving...

[ZahZoo]

I can only hope you are referring to the headset mic and not the chaps and bikini briefs..?

[ELVIS]

I was implying something like maybe their trunks got on the wrong planes...

[TJMKID]

If there's a plus in any of this... maybe we'll see some sort of activity due to the band's management being freed up from all his big corporate bullshit duties. Who knows Irving might get bored and decide to "manage" something and get all those lazy-assed musicians working for their dinner again...

I would think Live Nation is the reason VH is not doing any one-off gigs lately. Some corporate asshole telling the band it's not "cost effective" to do a spontaneous gig somewhere.

I miss the old days --- where famous bands could just say "Hey mates, let's fucking play" and then head to a small dive somewhere and do a surprise gig for their fans. I don't see any reason why VH couldnt do this in LA at the Roxy or Whiskey and perhaps show off a new track they might be working on or an old demo from way back.

Get back to Dave's mantra of --- "I sing for my supper".

[Zing!]

Did =VH= do a one-off Tiger Woods corporate gig on the 2012 tour like they did for the 07/08? That had to have been a hefty payday for an hour and a half of work.

[DONNIEP]

Didn't they do a corporate gig in Florida?

[Zing!]

That rings a bell. I know Jimmy Buffett lines his pockets with spending money during the winter months playing 'Private Event' type shows for corporations like Wells Fargo, etc. It might not be common knowledge if he didn't generally list these on his website. Still, is there any chance of Van Halen playing a private gig without someone leaking the news?

[DLR Bridge]

Ok, I'll leak this because I know you're a good guy Zing. I've privately hired VH to play my daughters 4th birthday in my backyard this coming July. We have an above ground pool, so bring your franken striped trunks.

[ZahZoo]

Didn't they do a corporate gig in Florida?

Yep, May 16, 2012 for SAP at the Orange County Convention center.

[Little Texan]

Still, is there any chance of Van Halen playing a private gig without someone leaking the news?

I hear that one, Jeff Spicoli, hired them to play his 50th birthday party, recently.

[Zing!]

Ok, I'll leak this because I know you're a good guy Zing. I've privately hired VH to play my daughters 4th birthday in my backyard this coming July. We have an above ground pool, so bring your franken striped trunks.

Have EVH flip-flops, will travel!

[ZahZoo]

I was implying something like maybe their trunks got on the wrong planes...

I'd have to say her "trunks" made it to the right place!!

[DLR Bridge]

This is a popular thread...

It may not be going anywhere, but it's picking up steam.

[ZahZoo]

Every thread's a party around here... good, bad and/or ugly...

[TJMKID]

Did =VH= do a one-off Tiger Woods corporate gig on the 2012 tour like they did for the 07/08? That had to have been a hefty payday for an hour and a half of work.

Yeah I'm sure VH made some nice coin playing that Florida convention show. Probably banked at least $500,000 from that gig.

But what about playing music just for the fun of it? Fuck the corporate attitude --- EVH calls up Dave to make sure he's not dicking around in Japan with the monks, and tells his lazy brother and son to meet him down at the Whiskey on a certain night for a 2-hour gig. Put the word out through the normal Twitter/Facebook channels and plenty of fans will show up and pay $100 for admission. Voila --- everybody wins!

Best part is that it's free publicity once the cell phone videos start propagating through the Interwebs. Nice way to get fans stoked for any 2013 shows stateside or overseas.

Just make sure no Asian fucker grabs too much face time on the smartphone vids!

[Va Beach VH Fan]

EVH calls up Dave to make sure he's not dicking around in Japan with the monks, and tells his lazy brother and son to meet him down at the Whiskey on a certain night for a 2-hour gig. Put the word out through the normal Twitter/Facebook channels and plenty of fans will show up and pay $100 for admission. Voila --- everybody wins!

Actually they did just that during the Bette era....

[DONNIEP]

Actually they did just that during the Bette era....

That video sucked donkey balls...what a fucking disgrace.

[Va Beach VH Fan]

That video sucked donkey balls...what a fucking disgrace.

Well, I never said if it was good or not....

The parts with the crowd outside were pretty cool....

[DONNIEP]

The part with the crowd was good, for sure. It's that fat scraggly dude screeching on stage that kills it.

[TJMKID]

Actually they did just that during the Bette era....

Wasn't that a promo gig for the "Live: RHRN" videotape and double-live CD they released around that time? Typical corporate maneuver for a McHaggis-led band.

Just go out and fucking play for the joy of putting smiles on faces. Get the juices flowing again --- and I dont mean what's coming out of Ed's surgically reduced colon!

[Va Beach VH Fan]

Wasn't that a promo gig for the "Live: RHRN" videotape and double-live CD they released around that time? Typical corporate maneuver for a McHaggis-led band.

Just go out and fucking play for the joy of putting smiles on faces. Get the juices flowing again --- and I dont mean what's coming out of Ed's surgically reduced colon!

No, I just watched a bit of it again until I threw up all over my monitor watching Bette....

It was an 15th anniversary show of the band at the Whisky....

I also noticed in that video that at the time the lot across the street from the Whisky was empty....

I took this pic in February the day of the Forum gig, there's a white building there now, probably some expensive real estate....

[DONNIEP]

Yeah, I checked it out again too. Big mistake. It's just a complete disgrace.

[TJMKID]

Officially, it was a one-off gig to celebrate the 15th anniversary of the signing of the band to Warner Bros.

However, I'm sure McHaggis wouldnt agree to it unless it was used as a promo video to help sell more copies of the "Live: RHRN" double CD and VHS tape. No way he's agreeing to celebrate something that Dave was a part of and not him!

"Live: RHRN" came out on Feb. 23, 1993 --- and the Whiskey video was on MTV around the same time (you can see the timestamp at 2:45 in the video):

No, I just watched a bit of it again until I threw up all over my monitor watching Bette....

It was an 15th anniversary show of the band at the Whisky....

I also noticed in that video that at the time the lot across the street from the Whisky was empty....

I took this pic in February the day of the Forum gig, there's a white building there now, probably some expensive real estate....

[jhale667]

No, I just watched a bit of it again until I threw up all over my monitor watching Bette....

It was an 15th anniversary show of the band at the Whisky....

I also noticed in that video that at the time the lot across the street from the Whisky was empty....

I took this pic in February the day of the Forum gig, there's a white building there now, probably some expensive real estate....

On Sunset - "probably"? More like astronomic.

[DONNIEP]

It just doesn't look the same during the day. Then again it wasn't what I was expecting - guess I was waiting for Dave to jump out