Frank Kane’s notebook: Rolling Stones satisfy for two hours, and leave the rest for applause

No matter how much the Rolling Stones made from their Abu Dhabi gig, it was worth every penny; plus a chat with Alastair Campbell's minder and a regret about the Goldman Sachs elevator.

“I was just blown away” was the reaction of one blues-snobby friend of mine who had never seen The Rolling Stones live before the concert on Yas Island last week, and I didn’t find anybody who didn’t agree that the gig (as I believe the proper term is) was one of the best they had ever seen.

I actually thought it was better than the one I saw in London’s Hyde Park last summer. With an audience estimated at 30,000, compared with the 170,000 in the park, you could see more and hear better. An altogether more intimate experience.

But how will the accountants to Jagger, Richards, Wood and Watts rate it? The Stones have been notable both for recognising the earnings potential of live tours, and for the professionalism of their financial arrangements. What will the bean counters think of 14 On Fire in Abu Dhabi?

On back-of-the-envelope calculations, it was quite a good one-nighter for the band (also the proper term, I think). I paid Dh495 for general admission, but there were ticket packages going for more than Dh4,000. If you assume an average of Dh1,500, that gives revenue from ticket sales alone of Dh45 million.

Add on the extras and it bumps it up quite a bit. Beverages were priced at an eye-watering Dh60 a go. If just half the audience had just one drink each (a conservative estimate, from where I stood), that’s nearly another Dh1m. The queues for merchandise, which rivalled those for the restrooms, were testimony to the Stones’ brand power. If one third of the gigglers (not sure about that term) bought one item, priced around Dh200, that’s a further Dh2m.

So the Stones would have pulled in something in the region Dh50m of revenue from the event, before their costs. That sum is not going to break any records, but not bad for a night’s work. And worth every fil.

***

I met up with Tim Allan the other day, and a pleasure it was.

Tim was press adviser to Tony Blair in his days as prime minister, and we always had a good relationship, even when it wasn’t going particularly well for Mr Blair. Tim told it as straight as any spin doctor could, and always with a sense of humour that suggested he knew it was all a big game anyway.

He has since gone on to build a multimillion-dollar business via Portland, a communications company providing advice to the great and good (and sometimes the not-so-good) around the world. He probably hasn’t coined it to the extent of Mr Blair himself, but has done well, and good luck to him.

Over coffee at Jumeirah Emirates Towers he told me he was in Dubai to look at opportunities in the Gulf, which he agreed were very good, and also to “mind” Alastair Campbell, Mr Blair’s strategy director, who was on a speaking engagement at the Sharjah communications conference taking place just up the road.

“He’s on stage for 90 minutes,” explained Tim, “and he was worried how he could possibly speak for that long. I told him he should only talk for 30 minutes, and leave the rest for applause.”

***

I see the author of the great tweet/blog Goldman Sachs Elevator Gossip has been outed, and found to have never worked for Goldman at all.

What a disappointment. All those little epigrams seemed so characteristic of the GS big swingers that the author must have been permanently riding the executive lifts in New York.

I really think there is a market for this kind of thing in the UAE, and intend to take up station in the lifts in DIFC and (when it opens) the new Global Market in the capital. Watch this space.

Follow us on Twitter @Ind_Insights