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Live Nation’s Olympics stages to be called BT London Live, Blur to headline closing show, Hyde Park stage’s future assured

By | Published on Tuesday 21 February 2012

BT London Live

Live Nation has confirmed that its Olympics activity will operate under the banner BT London Live, with the phone firm presumably covering most of the costs. As previously reported, the live music conglom will operate stages in Victoria Park, Hyde Park and Trafalgar Square during the London games.

These will mainly offer free access to large screens covering key Olympic events plus other assorted low-key entertainment and sporty shenanigans, though there will also be two big concerts at the start and end of the games. The closing show on the 12 Aug will be headlined by Blur with The Specials and New Order also set to play a night dubbed ‘Best Of British’. Tickets at £55 go on sale on Friday. The line-up for the opening show on 27 Jul is still to be announced.

Confirmation about Live Nation’s Olympic stages follows a decision made by Westminster Council last week about the live firm’s ongoing summer presence in Hyde Park, where it traditionally stages a season of concerts and festivals. There had been fears the company’s operations there could be severely hindered after complaints about noise levels by local residents, but an agreement was reached that will see the number of shows overall reduced, capacity curtailed, new safety and clean up provisions introduced and measures taken to monitor low-level bass sound. However, proposals to cut overall sound levels – which Live Nation said would make staging concerts in the park unfeasible – were rejected.

Welcoming last week’s council decision, Live Nation’s COO John Probyn told reporters: “Live Nation is delighted with the outcome of the meeting. This is good news for the thousands of Londoners and visitors from overseas enjoying all concerts we have in place and also the London 2012 events in Hyde Park this summer. We have listened to the concerns of the residents and will continue to do so while working closely with Westminster council and The Royal Parks”.



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