MOJO
 
 
The Dutch booking and promotion company MOJO Concerts in Delft was founded in 1968 and is well known in the music business all over the world. 
R-E-Z thought it might be interesting to take a closer look behind the scenes. So, we talked to Rob Trommelen. 
He's the guy within the organisation who's responsible for all the heavy acts that come to The Netherlands to play.
Luckily, he was willing to give us an inside view on his job and the do's and the do not's in the rock and metal industry.
   
 
Hi Rob. Please tell us something about how you got here. What's your story?
Okay. I started out as a booker at a local youthcentre in Kaatsheuvel some 20 years ago. 
To me, this was such an interesting thing to do, that in the early 80's I started booking some bigger bands in the local theatre. 
For instance, I did the Earthquake festival with acts like Manowar, Exciter and Motörhead in 1986. 
The year before that I did Mama's Boys and the Pretty Maids. At that time, I realised that my future would be within the music business. I quit my daytime job and started my own booking agency called Background Agency. Vengeance was looking for a booker and most of these guys were from my hometown, so this was easy. 
This went pretty okay, so I booked some other bands as well like Horizon, Helloise and Gin On The Rocks. I also organised shows from Normaal at my hometown every year. Somewhere around '87 another Dutch booker called Harrie Smits left our country for Hamburg-Germany to become the manager from Helloween. 
He already did a lot of foreign acts and so I took over his booking and all his contacts. From that moment on, I also started doing tours with foreign bands. My first one was the Kreator and Voivod tour in 1987. 
The show at the Willem II in Den Bosch was the very first. I kept on working very hard and tried to expand my agency. At that time, the rock and metal genre became bigger and more important with acts such as Bon Jovi and Metallica. 
The market for heavy music was there. In Delft you had the MOJO company, the biggest promotor in our country, but they didn't know that much about heavy music. Because I was working very hard and kept on organising tours and shows, they noticed me and in 1990 I got a phonecall. I went to their office, we talked and eventually in 1993 my agency was integrated within MOJO. 
That's my story. MOJO needed someone who knew the heavy scene.


Where did you learn to become a succesful booker?
Well, there isn't a school or anything to learn this. You just have to do it and try to get better at it every year. It's all about the spirit and you have to speak different languages of course. Almost everyone I know within the scene started out the same way I did. I was a booker in the local club, another one was the manager of a local band et cetera.


But you've got to have somesort of a business instinct, don't you?
Sure, you have to be to become succesful. I have to be able to link my creative view with a business view. If I think a band is really cool, that doesn't mean they'll immediately play the Dynamo festival. They've got to have a bit extra to get booked. I just got a fax from Aerosmith who want to play here in The Netherlands. Well, I like this band a lot. 
But, I don't know yet whether I'll book them or not. We've got some financial people here at the office who will calculate the costs producing a show where I expect 10.000 people. 
Then they'll come up with a calculation and from there I'll start negociating with the management. 
That's the way it goes.


In the end, it's you who sais 'yes or no'?
Yes, most of the times I do. 
But, of course we've got different sections within MOJO which support these activities. I'll give you another example. There's this band from The States. 
They've got their record out and also want to promote this product in Europe. There are a lot of agents in London who represent these bands in Europe. 
These agents get a message from The States to book a tour in a specific period. Well, these agents all have got their own fields and start contacting all the individual promotors in the different countries. So, they'll contact me as well. 
Then they'll ask me what band X is worth in my country. It's my job to know the popularity of this band overhere. 
Can I do a Melkweg-Amsterdam, a 013-Tilburg, an AHOY'-Rotterdam or a Gelredome-Arnhem? 
These are venues from 1.000-30.000 people. 
Sometimes I know this right away and sometimes I have to check their album sales.

As soon as I've picked a venue, I have to come up with a ticketprice which is reasonable to me. 
This is based on the calculation from our financial staff. After all this is done, I'll send a fax to the agent from band X with the price I'm willing to pay for that particular show. 
Most of the times they want more money and then we'll start negociating. As soon as we've agreed a certain price, I'll inform all the different sections within our organisation. 
The staff ticketing will start the sale of the tickets, the people from the pr will start the publicity et cetera. If a presale doesn't go so well, we'll contact the record company and try to improve this together with our promoting staff. 
Then the tourmanager from band X contacts us to get extra information about the venue.

What if you're not willing to pay the ridicilous price for a new band, but at the same time you expect them to become huge soon?
Well, we do invest in new bands sometimes. If the manager from Guns 'n' Roses comes up with a new band, I'll call the Melkweg-Amsterdam and try getting them to play there. 
This requires a personal contribution, yes. New bands won't sell 1.000 tickets, so then I'll make a deal with the record label, the venue and MOJO. We'll share the costs. This is our service to the bands and the fans.


Rob, how do you look at all the extra safety measures, like non-crowd surfing, as a result of the Roskilde tragedy?
MOJO decided to demand certain safety aspects within our own way of organising shows. 
We looked very closely at our own way of working throughout the years, but also checked the other organising companies in the world. 
Now we've got these extra safety barriers in front of the stage, extra spotlights if necessary in case of an emergency and the non-crowd surfing measure. 
We decided to forbid the crowdsurfing even before the Roskilde tragedy took place, by the way. 
We want the people to have a feeling of safety when they visit a MOJO show. This is an axtra showcost, as we call this, You won't have to pay for this as a visitor, like in the ticketprice or anything. 
Let's be clear on this: safety overrules money.


Can you really say this the way you do now? As a company MOJO has to make money, don't they? 
Well, there has to be a certain balance, that's correct. In the end, we have to make money. Just like every other company. 
But, safety first! 
I mean, these barriers don't cost that much. What we consider a huge investment is what we have to spend on security people. 
At a festival such as Lowlands, we pay a fortune to have these 400-500 people protecting the visitors, the musicians and all the equipment.


We'd like to ask you something about the Dynamo festival. Why was it so hard to find a proper field? Can't you use the one from Lowlands? 
That's a very difficult thing. There's this entertainment thing called Six Flags (rollercoasters) and also the major of the city can't realize the amount of help we need with 50.000 visitors more than once a year. 
Biddinghuizen is just a small city, so the entire region has to contribute with extra police officers et cetera. 
That's why we can't organise DOA overthere, too bad. 
In general, majors got frightened from stories such as the one about Roskilde and don't dare to take a risk in their town anymore. 
And, we also have to take the environment in consideration more and more. 
In Weert they have the Bospop festival and we were very close getting the DOA event there as well. 
But, 1,5 kilometres away from the field, thousands of birds have their special spot in May and so we could not organise the DOA festival that month. 
Plus, it's still harder to organise a 3-days metalfestival with a campsite than a Tina Turner show. 
That's a fact.


Can you tell us something about the ticketprices? Will they keep on getting higher or is there a maximum price at some point? 
Well, I don't think so. You can't tell that to the people we know in The States. 
We do business with them and they do not know a maximum price, haha. It's a fact that tickets have become pretty expensive, I know. 
To us, the Dollar isn't cheap and that's one of the factors. Plus, tickets in The Netherlands have always been a lot cheaper than in the rest of Europe because we've got only 1 organisation and that's MOJO. 
For instance, in Germany you have 6 companies like MOJO. If a band asks too much money for a particular booking company, they'll try another and in the end there's almost always a company that books this band at that high price. Well, this means higher costs and therefore higher ticketprices. 
It's that simple. Because MOJO is the only one overhere, we've always been able to get most of the bands cheaper and therefore a lower ticketprice. 
Nowadays, and this may sound silly….the higher the price of the ticket, the more we sell. I mean, Bon Jovi was Fl.75,- and Deep Purple with orchestra even Fl.85,-, but both shows were sold out. 
We've just received the results from a yearly questioning by Ticket Service and just like every year it shows that people do not think the tickets are too expensive. People are willing to pay these amounts of money to see a show, that's it. 
Especially in this period of economical prosperity.


What will you do when the economy collapses? Lower the prices? 
We always want the prices to be as low as possible. This means less risks for us, it's as simple as that. If an artist is very expensive, we have to guarantee more and therefore take more risks. If it's cheaper, we can skip these risks and lower the prices.


Rob, would you tell us something about how you get the bands together for a festival like DOA?
I seperate creative booking and booking businesswise. What bands are interesting and what do they cost? For the creative side of the story I have a programming staff. 
A few people from Eindhoven, metalheads. I meet with them every two weeks and they give me advice. They visit a lot of shows, just like I do. From there, I'll book the bands. It always depends on what's touring Europe in May, sure. You can't always get what you want. 
 Pinkpop presented Limp Bizkit as being the winner in somekind of a poll, but that's bullshit.


 

I already booked them 4 months ago. If they're here and willing to play, then you can start trying to get them.
A really huge act comes to our country, like Metallica or AC/DC. 
How does that work? 
I simply receive a fax which sais "Metallica wants to do festivals". 
That's it. 
But acts like them or AC/DC ask so much money, I can't do them too often in a small country like ours. 
With a potential from 20.000 visitors, I couldn't book AC/DC for their recent stadium tour, for instance. I wanted to do them, but then he ticketprice would have been something like Fl.150,- which is way too much. 
It's all about the money. 
Ten years ago, things were way different than nowadays. The good thing about the fact that the scene turned into a business, is that people like me can make a living out of it. 
Because of this, I was able to quit my shitty job and do what I really like. Metallica brought 55 people with them at the DOA show, 
But, if I had that kind of money, I would do the same. They want to control the entire thing. These are not the people who can walk down the street as easily as you and I can. 
Things changed a lot. Ten years ago, bands could tour North-America and Europe, that was that. 
Nowadays, all the world's a stage. Australia, South-America and Japan et cetera. Back then, 3 months of touring was a lot. The Netherlands have become a very small factor in this entire circus. It has become less personal. 10 years ago ,We booked Biohazard for 8 shows in our country, now it's just one and they're gone to another country.


Don't you think that's a shame? 
Yeah, but it's my job and I still love the heavy music. I went to Judas Priest in 1981 at the Jaap Edenhal-Amsterdam. I know what I'm talking about. Take the DOA festival for example. 
I have a certain budget and within these limits, I try to get the best line-up possible. 
That's still a challenge. I keep on looking for new bands which is a challenge as well. If we find one, we try and get them to a higher level together with their manager, agent and recordlabel.


You also stopped booking a bunch of Dutch bands…
That's correct. 
You have to make certain choices. I can't work for 80 hours a week, that's too much. 
I did the Gorefest booking and also quit that. It's just not good to work that many hours. I have to able to fully concentrate on what I'm here for. 
We kept a.o.Within Temptation and Green Lizard and this turned out to have been a right decision. 
You can't deliver the same quality to 15 bands, that's impossible. I can book 50 bands at the DOA and 500 other bands don't like that. 
I'm sorry, but that's life. It's all about making choices.


What are the consequences from the new tax regulations since January 1st for a company like MOJO? It's not so bad for us as it seemed to be. Huge acts have their own accountant, they contact the Dutch taxes and don't have to pay anything. But, huge acts have a budget to do this. 
It's a different story as far as the smaller shows are concerned. These bands have become more expensive for the clubs, because the tax rates went up from appr 10 % to 20 %. Together with the Dutch government, we try and work out somesort of a new regulation, in which to a certain degree bands don't have to pay taxes. 
It's also in our interest to have a healthy clubscene. Plus, I still like to visit clubs like the 013. But, there are less shows in the clubs and that's too bad. I already explained to you why this is. I always try to get more shows from a band which is hot, it's also good for the clubs themselves. 

Tell us something about what your average week at the MOJO office looks like… 
Well, this job has to be your life, otherwise you can't do it properly. I work 4 days at the office, Monday to Thursday. On Friday I work at home. I go to a few shows a week, not as many anymore as I used to do. 
Normally, I work from 12.00-19.00 hours here at MOJO. A lot of meetings every day. Sometimes I have to go abroad to shop, like visiting all the agents in London for the DOA festival. 
This is very important, actually meeting these people and talking with them. To know the right people is very important in this business. This is what I've worked for the past 20 years. Every once in a while you must go to London and have a drink with them. 
It's a dirty job, but someone has got to do it, haha. 

Rob, thank you very much for your time. What are your hopes and dreams for the future? 
Well, as far as DOA is concerned, I hope that we'll be able to stay at the new location in Lichtenvoorde. 
I want the DOA to have such an international image, that we can do the festival anywhere we like. Wouldn't it be great, DOA in Barcelona? 
This is one of my dreams, doing DOA in several cities in the world at the same time in the same weekend. In Barcelona, somewhere in England and Lichtenvoorde for instance. 
Another dream already came true, I booked Metallica. 
I saw them back in 1983 at the Paradiso-Amsterdam and I always wanted to book them once in my life. 
Another hope is a Kyuss reunion, I'd really like to do that. I already shook hands with all my idols from when I was young, like Biff from Saxon, Bruce from Maiden and Halford from Priest. 
When I started doing the DOA festival, I got a lot of shit from people in the scene, who thought that I would turn it into a commercial event. 
That's bullshit, really. Just take a look at the bands I had in 1998. That line-up was simply great and I'm still proud of it. People actually threatened me in the DOA guestbook, it's so childish.
 I did and still do this job with all my heart, trust me.


(Johan Godschalk & Marcia Gransbergen)

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