The RX-8

Q. Will the festival extend from 3 days to say 5 days?
No!
Q. Will it ever move to the
mainland?
No!
Q. Do you promote other
festivals or is the Isle of
Wight festival the only one
you promote?
I have never organised a
festival before this one (Isle
of Wight). This is the only
one I intend to do, I do it
purely for the enjoyment,
not for the money.
Q. Who are some of the big
names that Solo manage?
U2, Madonna, Rod Stewart,
The Corrs, Westlife, Rolling
Stones, David Bowie and so
on...
Q. When do you start planning the 2007 festival and have you got
acts in mind at this early stage?
I start planning now for 2007, my biggest worry is who on earth can
I get to top the Foo Fighters and Coldplay for next year, it’s
frightening...
Q. Will we ever see the likes of Elton John, Robbie Williams etc at
the IW Festival?
No, these are not festival acts. ,they are 'middle of the road', and
not the kind of artists that attract young people to a field - Elton
should play Osborne house.
Island Life - www.islandlifemagazine.net
MUSIC & ART
Q. Will you continue to bring over smaller acts to Ryde Theatre?
It all depends who takes over Ryde Theatre, as soon as the
management situation is resolved I will probably start to look at
bringing acts back to the theatre.
Q. What’s your biggest worry when organising and
running the festival for the 3 days?
Booking the acts and paying for them, because if you
have not got the money you are history. On one
particular year (2003) I lost $1million so the rest is
rubbish if you have not got the money. Also believe it or
not it’s the local residents I worry about the most. I pay
an awful lot of money both to the local council and the
Police (in fact the Police bill has tripled this year). I feel
that it is the Police’s responsibility to look after the
residents whilst the concert is taking place. I ensure
that everything within the confines of the concert are
run correctly, I just hope that this year the police spend
more of their time and effort looking after the local
residents, like stopping people urinating in their
gardens etc. If the local residents have the trouble they
had last year then it will seriously make me think about
next year, as I said earlier, I am doing this for fun, I
don’t need the money...and when it’s no longer fun,
well you can work that one out for yourself...
Q.What’s your favourite part of the festival?
I get a kick from watching the audience, the sheer look
of excitement on their faces. I love to stand in the
audience, you get a much better feel and the music
sounds much better than on stage.
Q. Name a few acts from past festivals that have
personally blown you away ?
The Who, David Bowie, REM, and Faithless to name a few.
Johnny Borrell
Photo:County Press
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