E3 Group

The Dora Bryan musical spectacular was held yesterday at Her Majesty’s Theatre London, and was a huge success. After weeks of hard work organising the celebrity performances and musical production numbers, the E3 team had spent many an hour trying to get things just right on the night and all the dedication really paid off. This was the first West End show produced by E3 Group and there were a lot of new experiences involved including an army of fans camped outside the theatre awaiting the arrival of the likes of Brian Conley, Anita Harris Rosemary Ashe, Sir Cliff Richard and of course, the lovely Dora herself.

The show opened with Zoë Tyler leading the cast in their rendition of a classic from one of Dora’s many musical turns, Hello Dolly, before E3 Group CEO David Hill began his duties as compère for the night. Comedian Johnny Casson, West End Star Rosemary Ashe and new face of musical theatre Mark Joseph then took to the stage, followed by a fabulous performance form Anita Harris. Steve Hewlett, comedy ventriloquist added some variety to the evening leaving the audience in hysterics with his array of vocal skills. The lovely Linda Lusardi then introduced her husband and singer Sam Kane whose performance was as powerful as his voice. Stars of Last of the Summer Wine, Jean Ferguson, Juliette Kaplin and Liz Frazer then reminisced about their time on set with Dora before Bryan Conley dazzled the audience with a true variety act. Singing, comedy and even fire swallowing comprised the show performed by one of the true kings of cabaret. The E3 dancers brought the first act down with the number Comedy Tonight from A Funny Thing Happened on the way to the Forum, one of Sondheim’s greatest shows.

The second act kicked off with Sir Cliff Richard performing an amazing, intimate solo set. Just Sir Cliff and his guitar filled the whole stage while he displayed that unquantifiable ability to get everyone singing along, no matter the situation. This was then followed by a sixties themed section recapturing the mood and feel of the decade which produced Dora’s iconic film A Taste of Honey. Dominic Halpin and The Honey B’s, a stylish combo, provided the music. Rita Tushingham appeared to reminisce on her staring role alongside Dora in the movie followed by the keyboardist Bobby Crush and comedienne Mia Carla. The students from GSA then dazzled the audience with their rendition of Coffee in a Carboard Cup, a performance worthy of any West End Stage. Dancing on Ice Judge Robin Cousins and electric comedy keys player Kev Orkian followed. Jill Martin then delivered a few anecdotes about her time working with Dora before the all star finale, Before the Parade Passes By, once again lead by Zoë Tyler, supported by the GSA students and the fantastic E3 dancers. Overall, the event was a fantastic success and a real demonstration of E3’s ability to adapt their skills to produce and manage any kind of event on the largest scale.

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Gareth Oliver certainly acheived our vote following his appearance on Monday night’s semi-final of Britain’s Got Talent. The comedy-ventriloquist has enjoyed a successful working partnership with E3 Group and he is also a personal friend of our CEO, David Hill. Gareth has always been a popular booking with our clients. In 2007 he completed a successful contract with us; entertaining guests on behalf of First Choice Holidays. We think he’s thoroughly deserving of the recognition he’s acheived on the show and the continuing success we know it will offer him.

He is clearly very popular with the general public too. Following his appearance on Monday night, our website has experienced record levels of visitors. Hundreds of people have been logging on and enquiring about his availability for private events. Gareth now has contractual obligations with ITV for a certain period, although our entertainment agents are happy to advise on his booking availability.

Tickets are still available for E3 Group’s one-off West End musical spectacular, celebrating the career of BAFTA and Olivier award winning actress, Dora Bryan OBE. The show will feature songs from musical favourites including Hello, Dolly, Showboat and 70 Girls 70 together with exclusive performances from Sir Cliff Richard, Brian Conley, Rosemary Ashe, Zoe Tyler and many others. The show will also feature a full supporting cast and a live orchestra.

Tickets start at £25 and are available through See Tickets on 0844 4124 657. Ticket sales will raise money for two charities close to Dora’s heart; the Variety Club Children’s Charity and the Alzheimer’s Society. A special £20-off discount is available on the top two ticket price bands for readers of this blog; call See Tickets and quote “Dora31″.

Sir Cliff Richard has confirmed that he will be making a special guest performance in E3 Group’s one-off musical spectacular commemorating the career of BAFTA and Olivier award winning actress Dora Bryan. Cliff will appear alongside a host of other celebrities, many of whom will also be performing supported by a live orchestra and full-cast, including Brian Conley, June Whitfield, Amanda Barrie, Liza Goddard, Robin Cousins, Zoe Tyler, Linda Lusardi and Sam Kane.

Tickets for the show are now on sale through See Tickets on 0844 4124 657. The show will take place on 31st May 2009 at Her Majesty’s Theatre, London and ticket sales will raise money for the Variety Club Children’s Charity.

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Dora Bryan is one of the nation’s most beloved stars of stage and screen. As Aunt Ros Utterthwaite she endeared herself to fans of Last of the Summer Wine and picked up a BAFTA nomination for her role as Dolly in Absolutely Fabulous. Before these memorable roles, Dora picked up a BAFTA for her scene stealing performance in A Taste of Honey and an Olivier Award for her turn in Harold Pinter’s The Birthday Party. All these accolades lead to Dora receiving an OBE in the Queen’s honours list in 1996, recognising her stellar contribution to British film, television and theatre. Dora’s life has certainly been eventful and not exactly what you would call smooth sailing. This excellent article in the Daily Mail served to emphasise this while extolling what a true talent to be admired Dora really is. E3 Group entertainment agency CEO David Hill, who is also Dora’s manager and close personal friend, decided that at the very least, Dora deserved an evening of entertainment to celebrate all her achievements. And so Dora was born; a Gala Charity Show celebrating the career of Dora Bryan OBE. David Hill commented on the celebration, “It is a wonderful opportunity to pay tribute to a very special lady and an incredible British talent.”

The event will be held at The Really Useful Group’s Her Majesty’s Theatre, London on the 31st May 2009. Dora herself will be the guest of honour at the gala show which will bring together many of her friends and fans for an evening of entertainment and reminiscence on the career of this highly renowned BAFTA and Olivier award winning actress. The evening will consist of performances and speeches from many of the famous friends Dora has made throughout her career which has now spanned seven decades. The show will be ticketed in order to raise money for a charity very close to Dora’s heart, the Variety Club Children’s Charity, whose dedication to helping sick and disabled children through variety entertainment has inspired the evening. The Variety Club’s Chief Barker, Kenneth R. Mustoe commented on Dora. “Dora Bryan is a true legend of the entertainment industry and has been a supporter of The Variety Club for over 30 years. We are extremely honoured that she has nominated us as the charity of choice for her well deserved tribute evening. This gift will make a true difference in the lives of sick, disabled and disadvantaged children and young people across the UK.”

Tickets are available to purchase through See Tickets and ticket enquiries can be made on 0844 4124 657 or through www.seetickets.com. The full line up of the evening’s entertainment will be confirmed shortly. Please don’t hesitate to contact E3 Group for any information pertaining to the show.

For more information on the Variety Club Children’s Charity please visit www.varietyclub.org.uk

• RT @MrMilestone: @E3Group Oooo, you are close to 100 followers!! Spread the word! http://bit.ly/roDP #
• my time in sunny Spain is coming to an end. Boiling hot today so sad to be returning. Will upload the pics when i get back! #
• RT @ShentonStage: The Arts Council “only” lost £4m in yesterday’s budget cuts to the DCMS., instead of £14m. Shttp://bit.ly/6igux #
• Really liking this audioboo thing. Its like twitter, just audible! http://audioboo.fm/ #
• Heading over to the launch of our brand new Majorca office now. The trilogy is complete! #
• the overseas team through a fantastic graduation prom last night for all the hardworking overseas entertainers. slightly peaky today! #
• touched down in Majorca, preparing for the prom night celebrating the hard work of all our overseas entertainments managers. #
• some of the E3 team are headed out to the Majorca office today. a few tweets from sunny spain coming up! #
• Enjoying Susan Boyle’s version of Cry me a River. not the Justin Tmberlake one we’re talking Julie London circa 1955 http://twurl.nl/dw2bii #
• E3 Agent Ryan has just returned from a meeting with Louis Marrette, Britain’s Next Top Model’s new Judge! on http://twurl.l/al524p #

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So Alistair Darling has announced the 2009 budget to mixed reactions. Some say his economic projections for the coming years are ludicrous and that the Government is living in a “fantasy world”. Others are slightly more positive, but only as much as “it wasn’t as bad as we thought it was going to be”. While the budget will affect us all personally and impact on everyone’s lives in some way or other, I was more concerned with the impact the current economic climate would have on the arts budget. Arts are always first on the chopping block. It is as if entertainment and culture are luxuries that we can’t afford in difficult times. With the joy that London felt after it was announced we had secured the 2012 Olympic Games, many people in the arts and entertainments industry began to notice subtle relocations of funds from community arts projects to the ever growing Olympic pot. As soon as a funding gap emerges, the arts suffer and that is a false economy, especially in an economic downturn.

The Guardian has taken the view that the £4 million cut from the Arts Council is good news following predictions that were much worse than this eventual result. The Stage however has emphasised that this will have an impact on the Arts sector and reiterate my view that arts are more than “a luxury add-on” to be cast off in times of want. My worry is for the future of entertainment if this trend continues. Now those artists who find themselves out of pocket can look to supplement their income by working with a company like the E3 Group. Our corporate clients are always looking to hire talented singers, dancers and performers so options still exist. It is those just getting in to the industry at, to coin a sporting phrase, ‘grass roots levels’. Without the funding to community projects, arts schools and workshops, our resource of entertainers may dry up as time goes by. With less encouragement and support for young talent, we run the risk of impacting on all of the entertainment sectors we love. Fewer British artists sweeping music and film award ceremonies. Reducing queues at The X Factor and Britain’s got Talent auditions and fewer Star studded West End productions. The Government must stop ignoring all the evidence indicating just how important entertainment and live performance is to the British public and stop treating the Arts Council and community arts projects as cannon fodder in difficult economic times.

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There are a lot of entertainment agencies in the UK, many of which have a strong online presence. Try searching for “hire an entertainer” on Google, for example, and over 800,000 results are produced. So, if you’re looking to book live entertainment online, how do you go about making a decision regarding which agency to use?

There are a number of key things to consider. Firstly, it’s really important to establish whether or not the agency you are proposing to use is a member of the The Agents’ Association (Great Britain). This association is one of the largest trade organisations of its kind in the world and requires its member to adhere to a strict code of conduct and professional ethics. It’s therefore highly recommended that you check an entertainment agencies credentials on the Agent’s Association website before you go ahead and book with them.

Secondly, it’s important to check that your proposed entertainment agent uses contracts approved by the association. The legal contract between you, the hirer, and your agency, is the legal framework that protects you against the hazards of booking an act directly. A good entertainment agency will ensure that these contracts are signed by both parties, you the hirer and the artist you wish to hire, before confirming your booking. These approved contracts are absolutely crucial – many bookers have had their events ruined either through legally inferior contracting or by agreeing a deal directly with an act with no contract in place at all. This latter situation can be extremely costly and risky and we have heard of situations where event organisers have paid a fee to act up front only to lose it entirely, with no legal route to compensation due to the lack of a correct contract.

Thirdly, a good entertainment agency should be open and clear about fees and the fee negotiation side to the service. Live entertainment acts and celebrities do not always have set fees for their services. It’s the job of the entertainment agent to negotiate a fair price for both parties whilst also being clear about the nature of the deal. On-going, regular bookings (for example, a singer required once a week in a restaurant) usually results in what is called an Employment Agency contract. With this arrangement there is only one contract drawn up directly between the artist and the hirer. The entertainment agent will oversee this process, negotiate fees on both sides and accept a commission for placement of the artist (normally 15%). However, one-off events that require more resource and management from the agent (for example, booking a major pop star for an outdoor appearance) will now often result in what is called an Employment Business contract. When operating as an Employment Business, there are effectively two contracts involved – one between the business and the hirer, and one between the business and the artist. With these “buy-and-sell” deals, the contracts are entirely separate and the entertainment agency is liable to honour their agreement to pay the artist, even if the hirer cancels the booking. The benefit to the hirer when dealing with this type of contract is clear in the sense that the agent is contractually obliged to provide the artist or, in the event of illness or exceptional circumstances, provide a suitable replacement. However, the booking fee for Employment Business contracts is not as transparent as an Employment Agency one and an ethical agent should ensure that the commission they take on the former deal is fair and in keeping with the level of work required on a particular booking.

Fourthly, it is always important to consider the rider you will be expected to provide for any act you book, celebrity or otherwise. Riders consist of everything from food and drink to the technical equipment needed for a live performance. A good entertainment agency will take you through rider requirements step by step, demystifying any technical jargon and making all costs involved as transparent as possible. A good entertainment agency will also have extensive contacts with sound, lighting and staging companies and will therefore be able to help you source any technical equipment you may not have anticipated needing when initially booking the act. If you choose the wrong agency, or book an act directly, the responsibility of facilitating the rider will be solely yours and if the equipment you provide is not exactly correct, you could run the risk of your chosen act refusing to perform.

Finally, and on a more general note, a good entertainment agency will be passionate about live entertainment! It’s the job of the agent to keep bang up to date with what’s going on in the entertainment business. This involves seeking out talented new performers through auditions, events and networking occasions. It also involves the agent forging crucial links with other talent management companies, enabling a direct route to both emerging and established celebrities, pop stars and entertainers. By forging these relationships with entertainers, celebrities and talent managers, the agent is in effect creating the bridge for potential hirers to book the act that will transform their live event into a memorable occasion.

E3 Group attended the RSVP exhibition at the Business design centre in Islington today. On show were companies and services from the full spectrum of the events industry. Before attending, our delegates feared that the shadow of the G20 protests would loom heavily over the event, making potential attendees reluctant to travel through London. Fortunately, the atmosphere at the event was exceptional, with people totally unfazed by the potential for disruption attending in their thousands. E3 Group attended the event to determine exactly what kind of impact the current economic climate was having on the industry in general and to listen to the experiences of our suppliers and potential business partners. Although everyone admitted to the belt-tightening that is becoming compulsory for all businesses at the moment, no matter the sector, we were pleased to here that it is not all doom and gloom for the events industry, in fact, far from it.

The current downturn has become a common ground for the sector to unite over. Partnerships were springing up left, right and centre as business who previously may have been content to go it alone, looked to form new relationships and strengthen the old. Entertainers were out in force in an environment which truly represented the vibrant and exciting culture this industry enjoys. Walking down a typical aisle at RSVP you could expect to be serenaded by a crooner, baffled by a close up magician and relaxed by some ambient, classical strings, all the while being dazzled by the array of exhibiting styles the different stands had to offer. E3 Group found the event to be thoroughly enjoyable and beneficial as a networking opportunity, as a chance to promote your services and as an opportunity to have personal contact with the people who keep the industry fresh, innovative and successful. For your chance to get a glimpse of the event, stay tuned to Channel 4’s Ten Years Younger, hosted by the lovely Myleene Klass, as they were filming at RSVP today. If you watch closely, you may even catch a glimpse of E3’s own Callum Gill and Ryan Curtis who were asked by Myleene to pass judgement on one of the contestants, and were only too glad to oblige!

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Twitter is a social networking phenomenon that has dominated the technology headlines for some months now. Initially, like most people I think, I was sceptical of the benefits that Twitter could bring and also quietly thinking that it was a flash-in-the-pan fad, here today gone tomorrow. I feel no embarrassment at accepting how wrong I was and also will now openly admit how much I enjoy using this remarkable little site. What has struck me recently though is the level of engagement the celebrity community contributes to Twitter. Fans feel connected to their favourite actors, singers and performers in a way rarely seen on the cluttered pages of Myspace and Facebook. Many of the celebrities we book here at E3 Artists are on Twitter, Jamie Oliver, Alan Carr, Russell Brand and Derren Brown are a few names of note, posting regular updates about where they are, what they are doing and anything that may have caught their eye that day.

There is a rather predictable dark side to this celebrity engagement; the fakers. Ordinary members of the public are impersonating well known celebrities, and something that fans consider even worse, celebrities are hiring “ghost twitterers” to post updates for them. This has become such a concern for Twitter fans that many feeds have sprung up dedicated to exposing the fakes and applauding the genuine. It seems to us here at E3 that getting someone else to tweet for you without explicitly explaining that this is what is happening doesn’t seem to serve any purpose. Eventually, you will be found out, as in the case of 50 cent, so if you don’t want to engage with your fans through this medium, why pretend? I doubt celebrities would hire tribute acts or impersonators to do their public appearances for them so ultimately, ghost twitterers risk hurting their celebrities reputation. There are so many celebrities engaging in the fantastic and lively community on Twitter, like those above, it seems impossible to compete as a faker. Follow the Authentic E3 Group Twitter feed here.

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