Robbie Williams pulls crowds where Beverley Knight fails in Help for Heroes gig7

Fundraising | Niki May Young | 11 Aug 2010

Two months after a fundraising concert in aid of Help for Heroes was cancelled due to poor ticket sales, a new concert raising funds for the charity featuring Robbie Williams has sold half its tickets in the first week.

Beverley Knight was to headline the Concert for Heroes at Southend-on-Sea in June, which also featured The Illegal Eagles, X Factor singer Andy Abrahams and The Real Thing, but the gig, organised by independent supporters of the charity failed to attract enough interest and all ticket sales were refunded.

In contrast, the new Heroes Concert has already sold half of its 60,000 tickets within the first week, has generated support from household names Bruce Forsyth, Michael Macintyre, Peter Kay and Jack Dee as presenters, and will be broadcast on the BBC. The Live Nation-organised event is now set to take place at Twickenham Stadium on 12 September and will act as “a statement of appreciation from the UK's entertainment community to our brave young service men and women,” said the organisers.

The sentiment will be felt at the event with special guests to include service personnel and the public are being asked to add to their support by purchasing one of 1,000 tickets via a dedicated ticket line to treat a member of the Armed Forces to the concert.

A spokesperson for Help for Heroes advised that every penny from ticket sales less the cost of running the concert would go to the charity and so their profits would depend both on the final ticket sales and the ability of the organisers to extract favours from service providers. With tickets selling from between £55 and £80, however, the charity stands to benefit from a sizable donation.

Joining headliner Robbie Williams will be X Factor winner Alexandra Burke, pop princess Pixie Lott, Plan B and The Saturdays.

Directory: Help for Heroes

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Rarry Revan
Ranter
Rantingrules
16 Aug 2010

Ha ha, does anyone believe that:

a) People outside of the charity sector read this website? and

b) If Beverly read this blog she would be offended? After decades in the music industry she probably has thick skin when it comes to critics.

Save your sympathy for a worthy cause.

Rarry

[Reply]

Kio
16 Aug 2010

What a cruel headline. Beverly Knight is an amazing artist, far better than Robbie Williams will ever be and I'm surprised and very disappointed that Civil Society would choose to write an article with such an unpleasant tone.

[Reply]

Simon
16 Aug 2010

In fairness, even though Beverley Knight is clearly better than Robbie Williams and infinitely more talented, the fact is she can't sell the same number of tickets as him.

To my knowledge she has never had a number one album in the UK while I think every album Robbie has done has gone to number one.

I prefer Beverley Knight, but I think it's accurate to say that she would fail to bring in the crowds that Robbie would.

[Reply]

Karen Drury
12 Aug 2010

Why on earth choose such an inflammatory headline? It surely doesn't matter that you can't get quotes from the people involved, when your headline already indicates a very unkind intention.

[Reply]

Niki May Young
website editor
Civil Society Media
11 Aug 2010

Dear Temi and Adrian,

Thanks for your comments. While certainly not intending to offend I can see that it could upset Beverley should she read it and I just wanted to point out that wasn't the intention. I applaud the efforts of everyone trying to make a difference in their own way and that extends to both Beverley and the concert organisers who would have been very disappointed the concert could not go on I am sure.
The article was written to point out the contrasting results for the two concerts with the hope of highlighting a positive and inspirational approach to hosting events. Unfortunately the organisers of the Heroes Concert and the Concert for Heroes were not available to comment on this before publication and so it ended up being a straight news article. It should be pointed out however that PR company The Outside Organisation was involved in both concerts.

[Reply]

Temi
11 Aug 2010

This article is a bit harsh! No Beverly Knight isn't as popular as Robbie Williams (despite her superior talent) but the headline implies that she almost didn't try hard enough or that she wasn't doing a good deed.

Quite baffled that Civil Society would take this attitude to any attempt at fundraising.

[Reply]

Adrian
11 Aug 2010
Response to [ Temi]

I completely agree with Temi! The article implies Beverley Knight doesn't have the power to sell tickets, whereas it was down to the organisation behind it. Credit it to the 'independent supporters of the charity' for a solid effort, but obviously having a well-heeled event company like Live Nation behind the planning will certainly have more ready access to suitable contacts and resources.

I wish the concert- and Beverley Knight- every success!

[Reply]

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