The HITS Interview: Denis Desmond

Legendary concert promoter Denis Desmond caught the music bug after seeing The Bee Gees in Cork City, Ireland in 1968, and he's never looked back.

The Live Nation chairman for the U.K. and Ireland began his 50-plus-year career working with such iconic Irish acts as Rory Gallagher, Thin Lizzy and U2, and his passion for developing and growing artists, festivals and the live sector has never wavered. Under Desmond's leadership, 2024 went down as the best year in history for live music in the U.K. and Ireland, and 2025 is on pace to eclipse it.

The luck of the Irish has to run out at some point, though, as evidenced in Desmond chatting with HITS.

Everyone says Live Nation President/CEO Michael Rapino is a great guy. What's he really like?

He is a great guy. And he's a visionary. Live entertainment has become a proper business because of what Rapino and Live Nation have achieved over the last 15-18 years. The business is on solid financial footing now and from our point of view, it has replaced the recording industry as the main income stream for artists.

When you look at the good old days when I started, artists basically toured to support and sell their records. The album was $20, and the concert ticket was $5. It has very much changed; the music is just about free and the concert ticket is 100 dollars.

In addition to live becoming the income source for the majority of artists, it's also become the way in which we break artists. The live industry invests in artists and takes them from club level to theater level, to multiple nights at theaters, to arenas, to putting them on festivals. Live music, steered by Rapino and Live Nation, has become the backbone of the industry.

We are going to sell a lot of tickets this year across the U.K. and Ireland: 20 million, which is quite phenomenal. I’m very proud of that and of the teams in the U.K. and Irish offices. It’s exponential growth. It was only 10 or 11 years ago when we sold five million tickets.

How did you get started in the live business?

I’ve always been interested in music. I got involved as a local agent and booked bands in Cork City. I got to know Joe O’Herlihy, who would become the sound engineer for U2. I did some work with Joe and a local band called Sleepy Hollow. We made a record, printed up 1,000 copies. I was studying engineering at college at the time and booking bands on weekends. Suddenly, we moved into a whole other world. We set up a PA company together. I graduated into doing shows with The Stranglers, Dr. Feelgood, bands like that.

My partner at the time was Eamonn McCann; he did logistics on the ground and I booked the acts. Thin Lizzy was playing Belfast and Dublin with Jim Aiken but Phil Lynott wanted to tour Ireland, and we said we could do it. There was no circuit then. But we did it, it was a success, and as a result, Phil said, "You’re our promoter moving forward."

We did Slane Castle in 1981, the very first rock concert there. That marked the beginning of Slane, headlined by Thin Lizzy with U2, Hazel O’Connor, The Bureau, Rose Tattoo, Sweet Savage, and we sold 20,000 tickets—huge sales at the time.

As a result of that, I went full time. I also met my wife Caroline Downey, who manages Hozier, at that show. It changed my life.

Soon, we started doing more festivals. We developed the Féile festival in Ireland, which was very successful. I then met up with Stuart Clumpas and we set up T in the Park in Scotland, from there we decided to look at the rest of the U.K. We teamed up with Simon Moran and SJM and Bob Angus’ Metropolis and we set up V Festival—a lasting partnership that still exists to this day in AMG. We grew together in the business over the years and it’s been great.

Have those long-term relationships played a key role in your rise in the live business?

When we were building our business, we were developing strong relationships with agents more so than managers. John Jackson, Rod MacSween, Emma Banks, Ian Flooks, Marlene Tsuchii, Chris Dalston—we were all coming up together.

We were all in the business in its infancy. I say it all the time: The business is 60 years young. There's been entertainment for much longer of course, but there's only really been a live business for 60 years.

What's a typical day for you?

I start early. It's a lot of meetings with staff members, working out strategy. Who are we chasing? What's the development growth? How do we see an artist career progressing?

I’m a great believer in communication. So there's quite a number of meetings. I like structure. I like that on a Tuesday or Wednesday, there are set calls with 40-50 team members. I believe that people should have as much information as possible as to what is going on, and who's working on what. So everyone is aware of what the people on the team are doing, both positives and negatives. It’s important to be aware of the negatives. What is our business and what are the issues? How can we better serve our audience? How can we make the experience better for the artist and the audience.

We are doing a lot to improve the festival experience at the moment. We had great success with Download, Creamfields and Reading this year, and we continued to invest to improve audience experience, particularly in festival campsites.

I’ve got to hand it to Rapino. He invested $10 million in flushing Porta Potties. Did I think I would ever be discussing toilets? I sure as hell didn’t. But it’s important and it got a huge reaction.

The toilets are important! You rarely hear about what goes on behind the scenes at these giant festivals.

It’s massive: the production, the production managers, the site managers, the marketing teams, the accounts teams. It's a massive industry that makes the shows happen on time. If you look at the construction of a building or any other big project there are always delays. Our business runs on time.

We just had huge success with Electric Picnic festival in Laois, Ireland. It's run by my eldest son Zach and Melvin Benn, 80,000 people. They went on sale with next year’s festival the following Wednesday and sold 80,000 weekend tickets in 90 minutes with no lineup. That’s in Ireland, which has a population of six million.

Right now, the demand for live music is huge. Look at what Oasis just did in Europe and the States. It’s quite phenomenal.

Left, Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino; right, Oasis packs 'em in (Big Brother Recordings)

What tentpole events are you looking at in 2026? Is there anything that compares to an Oasis or Taylor Swift?

They're around and I’m sworn to secrecy. I was on a call earlier and we were talking stadium availability for 2028! There are several acts planning tours looking at multiple nights at stadiums.

Right now, Coldplay is running in the U.K. You had the Oasis run obviously, but in between that, you had Post Malone playing stadiums. Pre-COVID, people were concerned about who were the future headliners. But after things opened up, there was all these new artists out there. A huge number of female talent. When you look at Gracie Abrams, Sabrina Carpenter, Chappell Roan and the new acts coming up, it’s phenomenal.

Parents going with their children, in some cases their grandchildren.

I’ve got to hand it to Rapino. He invested $10 million in flushing Porta Potties. Did I think I would ever be discussing toilets? I sure as hell didn’t. But it’s important and it got a huge reaction.

I saw the generational thing firsthand at AC/DC this year. Three generations rocking out.

That's me down the front playing air guitar. You meet people at these shows. I have some friends who recently went to see Metallica in Philadelphia. They met some other Metallica fans and they bonded. Now those people from Philly are coming to see Metallica in Dublin next June, which is already sold out. That camaraderie happens at concerts. These shows bring people together.

You’ve got to see it live, feel that bass pump. If you are going to see Oasis, you are getting 2 hours and 10 minutes of bangers, it’s lasting memories.

What's the best piece of advice you've ever received?

Don't be afraid of failure and learn from your mistakes. My father said that to me. Never give up and don't be a busy fool. Think things through and work out a plan. And, if it doesn’t work, figure out another plan.

I am a good promoter and I'm really good at selling tickets and good at marketing, and I think most importantly, I love what I'm doing. We all got into this business because we got a buzz out it. When you're at a gig, and you're looking at thousands of people who are having a good time, it's a really special feeling to say, "I've contributed to that." Fuck me yeah, this is good. That's what it's all about.