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A QUARTER-CENTURY veteran of the music industry — Garth Brooks has an estimated net worth of $150 million, and has shifted some 128 million solo albums.
But for someone who otherwise appeared impressively on top of his brief in terms of managing his business and his brand at Thursday’s much-anticipated Nashville press conference, the 52-year-old singer displayed a curiously vague understanding of the controversy surrounding his planned Dublin concerts.
Despite, for instance, in-depth knowledge of problems with ticket sales in Limerick — Brooks’ awareness of the long-running controversy surrounding residents’ opposition to his Croke Park gigs was surprisingly simplistic.
A sample quote:
Ireland – I don’t have a clue…
…We’ve passed every one of the safety tests – up until two weeks ago there was nothing but love.
And then there came, ‘hey Garth, we’re okay with three of them’… I wish I could tell you I saw it coming, I never did.
The consistent line from the Brooks camp — both from the singer himself and his spokespeople — has been that Garth’s not willing to play any fewer than five gigs in Croke Park, and that the concerts can’t be shifted anywhere else.
The statements
With the exception of the live-streamed press conference, communication from the star himself has been limited since Dublin City Council’s initial ‘three not five’ decision…
There was, of course, the infamous statement where he said playing any fewer than five nights would be like “asking to choose one child or another”.
Then, earlier this week, we had the follow-up ‘when my ship comes in’ letter — when the singer sent an email to promoter Peter Aiken imploring him and the “powers that be” in Ireland to try and fix the situation before the concert equipment landed in Europe.
So what are we to make of the star’s media strategy since the debacle surrounding the apparently ill-fated gigs took over our front pages and social media streams a week-and-a-half ago?
Do we take his and Aiken’s approach at face value — or is there more going on under that stetson than we’re being led to believe?
We put the issues to the experts…
“His performance at the press conference was was strong in that there was the right sort of dramatic pause,” says Neil O’Gorman of Pembroke Communications — a ‘full-service’ PR agency based in Dublin.
He knew exactly what he was going to say, even though he wanted to give the impression it was off-the-cuff.
O’Gorman, who has worked for range of brands and firms over the last 15-years, says the singer appears to be “feeding a definite narrative from his point of view”.
He wants to clarify his position that he’s nothing but a champion of his fans… He’s played that card quite well.
“He’s made it very clear that in his own mind he wants to make sure all his fans are happy.”
That said, O’Gorman observes, the last ten days’ events have revealed there’s “multiple agendas at play”.
The whole thing has been very, very messy since the start. It’s ebbed and flowed and obviously there are huge business considerations.
Thursday’s developments were very interesting, he says (this, you’ll recall was the news cycle that began with talk of the White House getting involved, continued with Brooks’ press conference, and ended with Aiken dismissing the council’s matinee compromise).
“The day started off with the impression that people were all set for this to resolve itself… [But] Garth didn’t do the campaign here any favours with his press conference.
“It’s very hard to know now what happens next.
“The media seem to be running out of patience with it… It had seemed on Thursday that there were too many forces aligning here for this not to go ahead.
“That seems now not to be the case — and I’m not sure there’s much else that can happen.
It looks like it’s going to be series of gigs consigned to history.
Peter Aiken has consistently said in interviews that the set-up for the show has been specifically designed for Croke Park, and that the ‘comeback event’ is designed to be played out over five nights.
Can we take his position at face value?
According to a Dublin-based music publicist: “Absolutely you can.”
“Even on a smaller scale its a headache from a production point of view to cut back from five nights to three.
“Speaking from experience, if a band is playing Whelan’s and it’s sold out out and has to be moved to a bigger venue it’s a major thing.
“I’ve been talking about this to musicians in the last few days… It would be a nightmare to rearrange that and re-organise that crew.
“He isn’t doing a world tour, he isn’t going somewhere else, so it really would be an issue.
“They would have put in a production budget for the overall event, so it’s a huge, huge headache.
There’s “huge sympathy” for Aiken across the Irish music industry, the publicist says.
“They’re great to deal with, they’re really well regarded and they put on great shows.
“All they’ve done is stick to the facts and put their factual press releases.
“The question is — how was it allowed to get this far? Why didn’t Dublin City Council speak up earlier in the process? They must have known there’d be problems.
“It’s down to the licensing. Dublin City Council and the GAA allowed Aiken to sell 400,000 tickets, and literally two weeks before it was going to go ahead they literally said ‘you can have three’.
“It’s the system that’s at fault.”
So with so many developments over the past week, and so many voices in the debate — is there any way to even guess at what’s going on behind the scenes?
In the short-term, no, not really — that’s PR consultant Simon Palmer‘s assessment of the current state-of-affairs.
Of the various communications from Aiken and the Brooks camp “this is all orchestrated” he says.
None of this is off the cuff.
The ‘when my ship gets here’ statement — presented to the media as being a private email, which the singer later said could be released publicly — would have been pored over by a number of people and the wording carefully considered, Palmer says.
“It’s all to try and twist people’s impression of what’s going on.”
The PR specialist says developments closer to home have been particularly interesting in recent weeks — and points to apparently fluctuating points-of-view coming from the residents.
“What often happens in planning situations is you start your own group in support of a project in the area,” says Palmer, who has a background in planning.
“I’m not accusing anyone of anything here. But I think it’s no surprise that suddenly when their back is against the wall, suddenly there’s word from the ‘pro’ residents.
“It’s a very awkward situation,” he says, noting that the whole situation has played out with “the usual farce”.
“But you have to look behind the scenes,” at the motivations of each public statement, he says.
The truth lies somewhere in the middle.
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Great news especially with Brexit on the horizon. The US beef market is absolutely huge, and we produce a far superior product to their domestic offering.
Big kudos to Board Bia for sorting this out for Irish beef farmers.
@James Keane: Slightly of subject. Somebody should show this to all the people in the UK who voted for Brexit. Like we now are with the U.S. in respect of our beef. Outside the EU the UK will be subject to laws and regulations from within the EU if they want to export to the EU. So now the UK will be subject to the EU laws but without any say in making them or they just stop exporting to the EU. Clever people!
@Mary Murphy: You should get a job in the Department for the Bleedin Obvious. The people in the UK knew the consequences of brexit.
@Ian Walsh: Exactly, they knew they would get control of their borders, to stop them bloody immigrants (they won’t), they’d get back 350mill per week for the NHS (they won’t) and they get to stunt opportunities for future generations (actually, this one they will)
@James Keane: Especially in conjunction with Amazons take over of Whole Foods. I can see them trying to gain a larger market share for their high quality grocery store. Not to mention Amazon Prime grocery deliveries.
Grass feed beef is much healthier than grain fed beef for human consumption.
Grain fed beef contributes significantly to arterial and cardio vascular disease.
@Tony Daly: That’s because grass fed is high in omega 3, an anti inflammatory, also found in fish oils. Grain fed have a higher omega 6 which in excess is pro inflammatory.
Grain feeding is also inhumane as it damages the digestive tract of the animal that has not evolved to eat it. Even humans used to soak grains in an acid medium before grinding for flour as grains are seeds and have protective toxins in their raw form.
You can’t beat a lovely juicy medium to rare Irish steak cooked and prepared by a well trained chef.
Makes you wonder what’s in all those foreign cattle?!
@Mary McDonagh Faherty: Beef and Milk?
@Stephen Devlin: and angel dust
This shows how vital it is that we in ROI patrol the border with NI after Brexit. It’s in our interest to ensure our products are not contaminated with British products.
@Fred Jensen: Oh yeah? Remind us all how airtight the NI border was the last time there were border controls.
@Fred Jensen:
Build a wall!!! The DUP will pay for it.
And can we also have a choice?
And be able to sample a piece of American beef
Or is it one way traffic for the 90 % of Irish exported beef
@Thaddus T Sawballs: im sure Mr Trump would agree with you there.
@Thaddus T Sawballs: ifa seem scared shitless of South or North American Beef but are all aboard the gravy train to sell their own.
@Thaddus T Sawballs: go to McDonald’s they still have The Great Taste Of America burgers lol
@Thaddus T Sawballs: go to McDonald’s they still have The Great Taste Of America burgers lol
@Shawn O’Ceallaghan: it’s the me fein attitude
You have no choice but Irish beef
They feed you this bullscutter about Angus beef being the best beef?
Like you don’t have a say ,it’s the best because we say so now eat it and shut your mouth
They want to export to every country in the world
But under no circumstances let any foreign beef in here, all angel dust and hormones bullshit they trot out
@Thaddus T Sawballs. Why should EU farmers be forced to jump through all the hoops to produce traceable beef, when South American farmers can sell in the same market place while not coming close to the standards of EU beef farms? Double standards.
@Do the Bort man: if I could only get a bit of EU beef,
Where did you see any Spanish French of German beef in any shops here
@Thaddus T Sawballs: Thats like asking why can’t you get any German, Spanish or French snow in Greenland. We have more than enough here to meet our demand, imported beef from other EU countries would be more expensive for the consumer in Ireland, so they are at a disadvantage straight away.
Giving good quality beef to Americans is just a waste of good meat…everyone knows they would eat any old $hit.
Fantastic news for Irish farmers and only right because they put every effort into giving us healthy meat. Unlike the U.S. they wont find any steroids and crap that they love to feed animals over there to bulk them up.
Good news, however only very select farms will actually benefit from this. I’m not complaining though!
i wonder how much could the beef market be worth to ireland??
Pity the animal has to have a violent death. Must be very frightening for the animals.
@Niallers: its not a violent death.
@Do the Bort man: I don’t think they wait for them to die in their sleep.
@Niallers: it’s possible to die violently in your sleep.
@Do the Bort man: halal deaths can be quite violent for the animal when pre-stunning technique is not followed.
@Sean: correct halal can be barbaric, but it’s hardly ever used in Ireland.
feckless Eejit
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