Live Culture show cancelled

Live Culture, the major pro-audio trade show scheduled for Wembley Stadium from April 29th to May 1st next year has finally been cancelled, following weeks of speculation and rumour.

The show, organised by Clive Morton’s Norgaard Media, has been officially scrapped, alongside the Guitar Nation event scheduled for Wembley from November 26th-27th, with Morton blaming adverse trading conditions.

"The organisers had worked hard to secure this event but like many companies in the MI industry today it has suffered due to the current climate," he said.

Meanwhile Graham Butterworth (Morton’s former partner in magazine publishing and show organisation) who had been hired to sell stand space for Guitar Nation, claims that he has not been paid by Norgaard media and left the company at the end of June. Mark Cunningham, the leading pro audio journalist who left Mondiale Publishing to work with Morton on Live Culture, also says he has not been paid by Norgaard.

MI Pro understands that up to 15 MI companies who had paid deposits for Morton’s earlier guitar show – scheduled for Birmingham’s NEC in May this year – who had been promised that their deposits would be carried over by Norgaard for the Wembley Guitar Nation event, are unlikely to have those deposits returned.

Another potential victim is the international Guitar Idol talent show, which had its final scheduled for Guitar Nation.

"We have used our best endeavours to launch Guitar Nation November at Wembley but at this stage we see no other way but to cancel the showSit is really tough out there and production problems were stacking up with the venue," Morton says.

Despite his assurances in April’s MI Pro that Norgaard had substantial investment and was planning further events, MI Pro understands that the company is not currently planning any events and that Morton himself is, as he put it, "Looking for a job."

"The whole business model of exhibitions and media is changing rapidly and speaking to lots of large organisersS they don¹t know where we are going right now." Morton adds "It¹s a shame that it has come to this and a decision that for all involved has not been easy."