Friday, September 26, 2008

The Point 2.0

Say goodbye to the mile-long queues, lousy sound and scowling bouncers. The renamed and refurbished Point Depot looks like a Metallica video and feels like the Coliseum. Brian Boyd visits Dublin's almost-complete 02 venue.

GO BACK to a world before iTunes or digital music. Back then, about 70 per cent of a band's income came from CD sales. Now, with album sales in freefall, that figure is down to 30 per cent. Bands need to hoist themselves out of their Jacuzzis, squeeze back into their spandex trousers and hit the road, for simple financial reasons.

And the demand is there from the public. These days, everyone loves a live gig. The ranks of the traditionally youthful gig-going audience have been swelled by the baby-boomer generation, who no longer stop going to rock gigs when they hit 40. All age groups still want their teenage kicks, whether it be a Daniel O'Donnell or an Arcade Fire gig.

Live music is also growing in popularity because it is a communal experience. In a fragmented modern world, where a "social life" has been replaced by hours wittering away on Facebook and MySpace, the right-here-right-now live show (which can never be replicated on YouTube) has almost become a tribal gathering, with real sweat, real shouts, real screams.

And with ticket prices up around 500 per cent in 15 years, there is an onus now on bands to give us some crash and wallop - and bang for our buck.

So Dublin is getting a new gig venue.

THE ROMANS

What did the Romans ever do for us? For a start, they showed us how to stage the perfect rock concert. When the Roman Empire was swinging and emperors had to deliver important talks about sacking and pillaging, they found that - in the absence of any form of amplification - the best way to address a large group of people was to herd them into an amphitheatre-shaped space so there'd be a natural echo and resonance.

It's called "acoustics" now. For live rock music, the amphitheatre configuration is yer only man. This ancient concept is at the centre of plans for the 02.

When The Point closed in 2007, the concert promoters Live Nation and property developer Harry Crosbie (joint owners of the new venue) pumped €80 million into the refurbishment of a building that started life back in 1878 as a train depot.

They looked at trends in the music industry and saw that the live music market was big and getting bigger year-on-year. The idea from day one was to construct a venue where the positioning of everything (seats, bars, toilets) was to be subservient to the demands of producing the best possible sound from the stage. The brief fitted on the back of an envelope: construct the latest, most up-to-datest live music venue in Europe. The venue would be single purpose. No sports. No nothing. Just music. Loud and live.

THE SIZE

Remember the old Point? That trek down the quays, the mile-long queue to get in, the 50 deep at the bar, the lousy sound, the 50 deep at the bar, the scowling security men, the 50 deep at the bar, the two taxis for 6,000 people at the end of the show.

Having researched and visited some of the world's most famous music venues, Crosbie and Live Nation first decided to flip the main stage around from north-facing to west-facing. Then the amphitheatre style seating was put in.

Because of the "fan shape", the farthest seat from the stage is only 60 metres away. They put in five levels, threw in a few lifts and extra escalators and did something about the old festival-style toilets. Whereas the old venue could hold a maximum of 6,000 people, the new 02 has a 9,300 seating capacity and with some of those seats taken out, it has a 14,000 standing capacity.

The bands who play the venue can request whether they want their audience seated or standing. The first band to play the 02, Kings of Leon (9pm, Friday 19th December) have requested standing but strangely Coldplay (December 21st and 22nd) have asked for seating. Previously, many of the big-name acts who played The Point could stage only three-quarters of their production at the venue. The sound, light and stage presentation of their shows were designed to entertain more than 10,000 people but the kit simply didn't fit into the old venue. These "20-truck shows" (as they are known) will now fit with room to spare.

THE LOOK

When you enter the venue, the first striking difference is how much of the old brickwork was uncovered during the refurbishment. Weirdly, this spanking new venue now looks older than The Point used to. Bricks and pillars from the old building have been repositioned, and the effect is a far more spacious venue with a more economical use of space than the old Victorian warehouse-style Point.

As you leave the ante area and move into the stage area, it all gets very industrial looking, with acres of stainless steel and endless lengths of sturdy-looking metal. It all looks a bit like a Metallica video.

The wow factor comes when you enter the sparse auditorium. Every seat has a clear sight line to the stage. Everything is configured to attract the eye to the stage. And no matter where you are sitting, you are only 30 seconds away from the nearest lavatory, bar and exit.

THE NAME

In the hypercompetitive world of live music, promoters are quite willing to sell the naming rights for any new venue for huge buckets of money. Football clubs do the same with their stadiums (Arsenal's Emirates ground, for example).

Handily enough, telecommunications company 02 was already ploughing much of its marketing spend into music venues around Europe (most notably the multi-award winning 02 in London and the shiny, new O2 Arena in Berlin). Hence, ye olde Point Depot is now to be known as The O2.

There has been speculation that tickets for gigs will be available to existing 02 customers only. Not quite. 02 customers will be informed of gigs first and 15 per cent of tickets will be available three days in advance of general availability to O2 customers.

THE SPORT

With €80 million already pumped into the 02 and substantial running costs to take into consideration, Live Nation and Crosbie faced difficult decisions about the nature and purpose of the venue. They studied big US arenas such as the Staples Centre in Los Angeles. Many of these were predicated on the multi-purpose usage model. Some governments gives generous grants to venues that host sporting events (because sport is good for you apparently), so most major US gig venues are primarily basketball or baseball venues which do nixers as concert sites.

The 02 owners knew they could make substantial money by hosting sport at the 02 during the day. However, they were unwilling to sacrifice their acoustics-friendly amphitheatre or to host any event that would compromise the venue's "purpose built for music" status. Even popular stage musicals such as Mamma Mia! will be shunted off to the 2,000-seater Grand Canal Theatre across the Liffey, not yet built but also being run by Crosbie and Live Nation.

THE ACTS

So far only three shows have been confirmed for the 02 in 2008: Kings of Leon, Counting Crows and Coldplay, all in December. In 2009, we can expect The Mighty Boosh, New Kids on the Block, Keane, Kenny Rogers, Cirque du Soleil and Boyzone, to name a few. Live Nation can't announce many of the other big-name acts who have already been booked in, as bands usually reserve the right to announce their own tour itineraries. Expect the 02 to be in use for around 150 nights each year - with a projected audience figure of two million a year.

DAS BERLINER

Move over to the O2 Arena in Berlin for a moment. It's constructed like a super-size Hilton Hotel and represents one of the most pleasurable and easy-going gig experiences there is. All around the second tier of the building are permanent corporate boxes (licensed out to Coca Cola, Heineken and Lufthansa, to name a few). Isolated by sound-proof windows from the roar of the crowd, customers are served haute cuisine food and allowed to choose from a choice of fine wines. When the band come on, the sound-proof windows are pulled back and you take your Pullman-style seat outside and have your glass refilled at regular intervals by a small army of attendants.

Needless to say, it is one of the most dispiriting experiences you could ever have at a gig. You feel like you're sitting in a rich person's sterile home watching a High Definition music DVD. And the people on the ground floor seem to be having the time of their lives.

The 02 has turned down a small fortune by refusing to have corporate boxes. If you want a prawn sandwich, head elsewhere. Its reasons are many: the boxes would disturb sight lines and they would substantially interfere with the natural acoustics of an amphitheatre venue. Boxes are very un-rock'n'roll in that big companies buy them up as "trophies" to impress their clients. The people who populate them, as a general rule, aren't music aficionados and because a corporate box night out is a social event, they all drink too much and talk VERY LOUDLY ALL THE TIME.

It's a truism that those who haven't paid for their tickets are those with the least interest in the band. Also, artists really, really hate corporate boxes - for all the reasons above.

THE ANGELS

Over to the multi-awarding O2 venue in London: when you get off the direct Tube link, there are men in yellow jackets telling you which door to go into, where the bars are, where you can get some food - they even give you the stage times (essential to know if you want to avoid the support act). One of these men even carried my laptop for me on the way out of a gig (but I did have drinks in both hands, to be fair).

After the show they tell you the Tube times, where to change to make your connection and you're practically swapping phone numbers and inviting him over to Dublin before you know it.

The 02 here will have similar "02 angels" (as they're officially called) roaming around outside and inside the venue. You won't be queuing at the wrong entrance for an hour; they'll tell you where to go and how to get there.

Once inside, there will be a series of concierge desks. So if you do happen to be accompanied by a lactose-intolerant, teetotal claustrophobic who's hungry, thirsty and scared, you'll be informed of all your options and given a map with big red marks on it. There are plenty of bars (14), food outlets and the all-important merchandising stalls, if you have any money left in your pocket at all.

THE LUAS

Sometime in the middle of 2010, the Luas will pull up outside. The journey time from the tram to venue should be around 10 seconds. Also due to open in 2010 is Phase Two, a shopping centre to be sited opposite the music venue. And a big hotel too.

Really, we won't know ourselves

• Kings of Leon play the 02 on December 19th. Counting Crows are on December 20th and Coldplay are on December 21st and 22nd

The Point has left the building

How stupidly excited we were when Huey Lewis And The News opened the venue in 1988. Today, we wouldn't cross the road to see them.

There were the awful MTV awards held there, the bizarre spectacle of Beyoncé Knowles in floods of tears at the end of her show "because she loved the Irish people so much".

There was tragedy at a Smashing Pumpkins gig in 1996 when a fan was crushed to death.

There were all those U2-are-breaking-up rumours when at the end of a five-night run in 1989 Bono told the crowd the band were "going away to dream it all up again".

There was Liam Gallagher referring to Dublin as "the second greatest fookin' city in the world".

And all those live DVDs recorded there: David Gray, Bowie, REM, Springsteen.

Still, it won't be missed.

© 2008 The Irish Times

This article appears in the print edition of the Irish Times