24OCT2012 SUMMER 2012

Summer is always the busiest time of year with our cruise line clients and this year was no exception indeed we have significantly increased the number of acts working for us at sea. We are always pleased to consider new acts either directly or via their agents or managers. Please use the "submit Your Act" link on our home page.

Some of our artistes arriving at airports in Egypt have been calling to say they have not been met by a port agent. When checking with the agents we have been told that they are definitely at the airport waiting… the problem? We discovered that the agents have been writing the names on their boards in Arabic! Unbelievable…

At Epic Towers we have recently completed the refurbishment of our offices and we are still at the stage of trying to find where we have put everything! Our thanks go to Greg, Adam and the team for working several all day/all night sessions so we were able to keep functioning whilst the work was completed.

Once again the showcase season is upon us and we will be out and about in the UK and Europe looking for new talent. We will also be attending “Keeping It Live” in Coventry, so if you are there please come up and say hello.

   

04JULY2012 MAY/JUNE NEWS

Busy times again here at Epic. The boss has been away a lot of the time travelling to the USA, China, Hong Kong and Macau. The Far East is a huge market for entertainment and as this region opens up, Epic intend to be prepared.

We have now added a great new show to our theatre/concert programme… please check out BAROK… where classic meets rock! www.barok-band.com. As well as theatre dates the show is available for corporate engagements etc.

Once again, Jack joined Giles Cooper, Executive Producer of the Royal Variety Show to judge the national final of Britain Does Variety at the Watford Palace Theatre. They were both highly impressed with the high standard of entertainment and a few of the acts have now been added to the Epic roster. Well done to Kerry and Dave and their great crew at BDV.

In June Epic also handled the production for a major event at Royal Ascot… “better than perfect” was the comment from the client!

Ali has been walking around with a permanent smile on her face… she has been spending a lot of her free time with a certain gentleman in Stevenage. Loren has nothing to report this month… she says she has given up on men!! Thankfully the rest of the team are all married!

   

03APR2012 MARCH NEWS

As ever, things have been hectic in the Epic world.  All our shows have been very busy with concerts and corporate engagements around the country and this is set to continue in the months ahead.  Jack and Trevor have both been travelling to more showcases looking at new talent.

We have also been busy on the cruising side of our business with acts and musicians performing on ships all over the world.  This month a couple of our acts found themselves embroiled in dramas at sea, La Musica were onboard the Costa Allegra which caught fire in the Indian Ocean;  they returned to the UK to be met by TV crews and have since appeared on several programmes… the silver lining?   More recently Colin Roy was performing on the Azamara Quest which suffered an engine room fire abruptly curtailing his cruise, Colin continued to entertain the passengers until they disembarked safely a couple of days later.   Thankfully neither of the acts were unduly distressed by their experiences and both are eager to get back to sea. Such incidents at sea are extremely rare, although there seems to have been a few of late and the press have have made the most of the stories.

On an administrative matter, we have just introduced e-contracts for all our engagements which enables artistes to sign electronically without having to post back hard copies… with the rising price of postage I am sure this will be a welcome development all round!

For those of you seeking a good night out in April, Alex Crow… mindreader and mentalist, will be presenting his full cabaret show from the 3rd April until the 5th May (Tuesday to Saturday) at The Brickhouse, London: http://www.thebrickhouse.co.uk/the-miracle-of-the-mind-illusion-or-delusion/  Do try and catch it!   

Finally… for those of you following the soap opera that is Ali and Loren's love lives…  Sadly neither of their dates led anywhere but it is rumoured that there are new targets in their sites!!

   

01MAR2012 JANUARY & FEBRUARY NEWS

2012 has kicked off well with a busy diary of shows around the UK and acts on cruise ships all over the world.

We have also been travelling to showcases up and down the country in our on going quest to find new acts. We also resumed our advertising campaign in this respect and we would ask applicants who have submitted publicity to us to please be patient whilst we give everyone serious consideration.

We are bidding “au revoir” to Will Hazell, a long standing cast member in The Eastcoast Boys who after four years is moving on for the time being. We say hello to Matthew Marwick who will be taking his place; some of you may know the name as Matthew has been a cover for our shows in the past.

Ben Beechey has also completed his season with The Masters of The House and we are very pleased to welcome Alan Vicary to the cast. Alan has incredible credits including Les Miserables, Phantom of The Opera, Carousel, The Sound of Music, Mary Poppins and Kiss Me Kate… amongst many others. We wish Ben the best of luck for the future.

We would also like to congratulate our friend and associate Robin Cahill, who has left our US associates, Don Casino to take up the enviable position as Talent Manager for Disney. Jack has visited Robin in her new domain in Orlando and found that she seems to have very quickly already embraced the Disney brand and ethos, however there was no signs as yet of her mouse ears appearing… We look forward to developing our business with The Disney Organisation in the future.

From an office perspective, both Ali and Loren have stated the new year having had new “dates” so watch this space!!

   

06DEC2011 DECEMBER NEWS

As we approach the end of a busy year, we thought that in our last latest news piece, we’d give a quick round up of what’s been happening here at Epic during 2011

Our team have been very busy travelling internationally with trips to Miami, Orlando, Mallorca, Frankfurt, Helsinki, Stockholm and Tallin and also closer to home to Coventry, Exmouth, Plymouth, Paington, Blackpool etc. We have been visiting existing clients, exploring new business opportunities as well as continuing our quest to source new artistes. We have also spent quite a lot of time onboard ship travelling with artistes and undertaking familiarisation trips.

In May we welcomed two new members of staff, Ali Hall and Loren Goldsworthy (how we ever managed without them, we’ll never know!). Cheryl Applebaum has also increased her time in the office to help manage our growing administration.

June saw our biggest ever showcase take place at the Lakeside Country Club – a massive feat for the whole team – thanks go to all the acts who took part as well as our clients for attending, many of whom travelled across the world to be there.

Our website is continually being upgraded with new additions and functions for both clients and acts, please feel free to let us know if you think we can improve on anything.

Finally, a MASSIVE thank you to all our ‘artistes’ who continue to perform around the globe, bringing their professionalism to every occasion.

We wish you all an enjoyable festive season, a very happy new year and here’s looking forward to a busy 2012.

   

22AUG2011 SEPTEMBER NEWS

Jack, Trevor and Cheryl spent the first couple of weeks back in the USA visiting many of our existing clients as well as discussing new opportunities with NCL and The Carnival Organisation... Watch this space!

We also moved forward on our plans to create short term tour opportunities for British artistes in the UK... Progress is inevitably quite slow but we are hopeful that we can eventually make this happen.

Here in the UK all our theatre shows have continued to be busy with the "Sold Out" notices out at many venues.

   

22AUG2011 AUGUST NEWS

This month will see the gradual introduction of our new office management software which we have had specially written for us by Steven Hayes and his colleagues at Nu-Web.  An ambitious project which will see many processes automated, eventually including diaries, contracts, payments, etc.  Please bear with us as some ‘teething problems” will be inevitable.

We have a busy diary with summer shows and events all over the country… let’s hope the weather holds for all our alfresco concerts!  We also have a record summer for cruising with double the number of artistes and acts booked this year over the same period last year.

   

31JUL2011 JULY NEWS

Cheryl and Jack spent most of July in the USA visiting our cruise line clients and establishing our new office in Florida.  Whilst they were out there they were privileged to be invited by Charles Calello (original 4 Season member & arranger) to sit in on a recording session he was producing for Deana Martin (Dean Martin’s daughter) at the legendary Astoria Hit Factory Studios in Miami.  Having seen the Maestro at work conducting a wonderful orchestra, the Applebaums were treated to a private dinner by Deana Martin and her husband John… a unique opportunity to see unpublished family video of Deana in performance and at play with her father, Dean Martin;  certainly a memorable day!

Back home in the UK, it was a busy month for the rest of the team with many theatre, corporate and private events.  We also said goodbye to Amanda Goldthorpe-Hall both as a member of our office team and as a performer… we wish her well for the future.

   

30JUN2011 JUNE NEWS

Activity in June was focused on our annual showcase event.  We presented over 60 acts over two long days and evenings at the Lakeside Country Club.   The event was well attended by bookers from most cruise lines and representatives from many major leisure operators, other entertainment agencies as well as many corporate and private clients.  Particular thanks must go to those clients who travel from abroad…. all the artistes who participated and our staff, musicians and crew. 

Despite a few technical issues, the event was a resounding success and the client reactions to date have been very positive towards most of the participants.   Somehow our team also found time for a busy programme of entertainment events including thetare shows on nights during and immediately after our showcase… exhausting, sums it up!

   

31MAY2011 MAY NEWS

May saw two new faces join the Epic team.  Ali Hall is Jack’s new p.a. and has come to us from a background in the entertainment agency and production business.  Loren Goldsworthy will be assisting with administration and promotions in respect of our theatre and concerts.  We welcome them both.

   

02FEB2011 Busy Month For Epic

January has been an unusually busy month for us all at Epic with a record number of acts away cruising all over the world.   




Our 2011 theatre and concert season also kicked off this month with The Masters of The House at The Brewhouse  in Taunton... another full house, a great show but tinged with a little sadness for us as it was the last performance by John Langley a veteran of many years as a valued performer in this show.  We wish John every success for the future and hope to see him return as a guest from time to time.    The cast of Masters of the House had arrived back from a very successful New Year cruise performing onboard P&O's Ventura, just in time to prepare for their appearance in Taunton.

Our management team have also been out and about in January visiting locations as diverse as London, Wrexham, Blackpool and Miami (no surprise that the boss picked up the Miami trip!).  As a result we have added several new acts to our roster and you can read more about them in our Artistes Directory.

Two new acts worthy of a special mention are Elisba Abbott, a very talented and entertaining flautist undoubtedly destined to be an international star.  Matt Edwards is a fresh young comedy talent also with the potential for huge success ahead of him.  Look out for more news of these and all our other great acts.

Finally a word of welcome to Philip Goodeve-Docker our new comedy consultant who will be working with Jack Applebaum to source and develop more comedy acts for our cruise line clients.

   

05JAN2011 Our New Website Is Now Live

Our new website is now 'live" and in the coming weeks we will be launching a comprehensive range of online services including a searchable artiste directory, separate log-in facilities for Artistes to maintain their own publicity and dairies and for Clients to search detailed information about our acts and access their availability data in real time.... 24/7!  Our terms and conditions and other useful information will also be available online.  We will be contacting all of our artistes, existing and potential clients to set up personal log-in and password protocols very soon.





We welcome your feedback on our new site together with any recommendations or suggestions for improvement.

Happy New Year

At this time of year we would like to thank to all our clients, artistes, suppliers and industry colleagues for helping to make 2010 such a great year for us with a record number of live theatre shows and concerts and a doubling of our cruise line entertainment business.  We are now looking forward to achieving substantial further growth in 2011 right across our operations however we will be planning the year ahead with a greater degree of caution in the UK market as the economic outlook in regional theatre remains uncertain.   We are planning  to maintain and hopefully grow the number of performances including an number of exciting new shows for 2011 however our in-house press and promotions team will be seeking even closer collaboration with local venue marketing personnel to ensure that we achieve the best possible audience numbers.

We are also increasing our roster of managed and represented cruising acts not only in the UK but also in Spain, Italy, France, Scandinavia as well as in the USA and Australasia.  We are focussed on accelerating our strategy to provide the most comprehensive specialist entertainment service to cruise line clients, worldwide.