Brief: This report aims to fulfill the requirements of the Live Music Management Event Planning assignment, where we, as a group of students, were tasked with arranging, devising and planning a significant live music event to take place between Monday 9th February 2026 – Friday 20th March 2026. This assignment focuses on the planning and preparation needed to stage an event at a professional level.

Introduction: Our group of students (myself, Joseph, Pollyanna, Lilly, Paul and Avery), each with similar interests, chose to arrange a live stage event at a medium size, convenient venue in Leeds. We discussed a range of events and decided that a live music jazz and reggae evening would be suitable in order to attract a wide audience to the event, and make use of our skills and music interests to help provide the entertainment. The evening is to be a relaxed, enjoyable get together for the general public and students to attend.

Venue: We discussed various venues around Leeds including Society, Belgrave Music Hall and The Wardrobe as possible places to host the event. However, we visited and settled on The Attic because of several reasons including: (i) proximity to the Conservatoire (good for attracting Conservatoire students, carrying equipment over and ease of access for checks etc), (ii) availability of venue for a date matching the requirements, (iii) venue capacity (not too big, not too small), (iv) availability of grand piano (necessary to support most planned acts), (v) cost of hiring venue, which also includes an in-house sound engineer, and (vi) parking availability.

I originally emailed The Attic on 25th November, 2025, and our group visited in early December to understand the layout of the venue, the possibilities for stage organisation and to carry out risk assessments. At the time of the visit, the venue was hosting a song-writers night which allowed us to gauge the possibilities for hosting a show, the audience numbers, and the atmosphere. The venue has a 200 person capacity in the main room, which consists of a stage and a bar, plus open area which is configurable for either chairs, sofas or as an open area. Behind the stage, to the left, is the ‘green room’ which can be used as a back-stage space for artists and bands. There is also a small outside area. This venue cost was £180+PRS costs, including an engineer for the event. This was suitable for our needs so we booked to hold our event on Monday 9th March with them, following a discussion of costs.

Band Line-up: In order to run our event, we decided to make use of our contacts and friends to explore possible bands and artists to use for the show. Lilly and Pollyanna knew of Isaac Aylward, a third year BA Music student studying songwriting at Leeds Conservatoire. Isaac is a pianist and songwriter, and is happy to showcase his skills at the event, to open the show.

In addition, the group knew Simeon Lord, with his jazz band, The Nightingales, a jazz quintet. Simeon and his group are experienced players and agreed to be the headline act for the show. Simeon and his group met at the Conservatoire.

Finally, we decided to create a third band ourselves to make use of our skills within the group and to give ourselves some exposure. I, personally, am a recording artist known as Jah Glory. I write, compose and sing reggae music, but I don’t currently have a band. The group liked my music (I have around 20 songs released) and we agreed that I should contribute to performance. We are therefore currently looking for an established band to play alongside myself. However, as a contingency plan, our group is skilled in playing several instruments, and will be happy to play alongside me on stage. I will be second on stage after Isaac Aylward, but before the headliners, The Nightingales.

Therefore our band list consist of two outside bands and our own band.

Time-management

The venue restrictions are that access to set up the venue is from 4pm but it is not possible to carry out sound-checks until 5pm due to the proximity of work establishments. Also there is a curfew at 11pm during weekdays. Parking is on street paid parking until 6pm and then free. Working around these timelines, we decided to start the event at 8pm to allow us to set up, and for people to come after dinner, given that the venue does not supply catering. For the bands, we decided to give two bands a 30 minute stage set, plus the head-lining band, 40 minutes, with 10 minutes to change over, to minimize time without music for the audience. This therefore give the following timings:

Set up

• 4pm – arrive with amplifiers and drum kit and begin setting up stage
• 4:30pm – The Nightingales arrive to set up as they are the complex band with more stage presence. Sound check at 5pm.
• 5pm – Jah Glory arrives to set up. Sound check at 5:30pm.
• 5:30pm – Isaac Aylward arrives to set up. Sound check at 6pm.

Doors

• 8pm – Doors open
• 8:30 to 9pm – Isaac Aylward
• 9:10 to 9:40pm – Jah Glory
• 9:55 to 10:35pm – The Nightingales

Production – technical and logistical

Technical: The PA will be supplied in house along side the sound engineer. They will be responsible for ensuring health and safety matters are correctly observed, but the team will also oversee this. Lights will be in-house without any strobe lighting to ensure inclusivity. The stage is 5.5m by 2.5m wide. Stage plots for the bands are shown below. The grand piano, available at the venue, will be used to the back left of the stage by all bands. We plan to bring equipment from the Conservatoire and also the band’s own equipment on the night.

Logistical:

No barriers are required for security. Additional security is not required as the team will be monitoring the venue and it expected to be a relaxed event.

The Box office will be handled by the team, who will bring some petty cash to handle change for on-site ticket sales. The event will be advertised upfront, with ticket sales available before the event, in person or online.

There is a bar onsite selling drinks. The venue will keep drinks sales profits. Catering is not available however, if people are hungry, there are several food venues within a few minutes of the venue including the North Bar next door which sells pizzas, coffee and pastries.

A merchandising table area will be available for the bands to sell their merchandise if they like. We are asking bands to man the table and bring petty cash for change to handle spot sales if they want to use this facility.

Videos will be taken at the venue by ourselves for the purposes of our assignment. If artists would like copies of some of this, it will only be possible with relevant permissions from all parties filmed, including the venue.

Contingency plans

The main risks to the event handling are issues related to bands either being late or not turning up. In case bands pull out at the last minute, we will ask the remaining bands to expand their set time, and we will start later and play a DJ set upfront. In case two bands pull out, the team will discuss whether to postpone the event or keep the band, supplemented by a DJ set. In case of increment weather or other incident that means that the show cannot go ahead, we will look to reschedule the date, or refund tickets if needed. This may mean that if the event cannot be rescheduled, we may lose the costs associated with the venue hire.

To minimise risks of disruption on the night, we are asking bands to ensure they have replacement strings or instruments as necessary in case needed.

Finance

The venue holds 200 people, but we have 20 blocked for ourselves and band members, leaving 180 potential ticket sales. Based on a ticket price of £6.50 (so as not to make it too expensive for audiences to pay, but having the potential to cover some of our overheads), then this gives a maximum ticket sales of £1,170.

Outgoing costs include £180 for the venue, £30 for the piano hire and PRS costs are approximately £50 (ie £260 total outgoings for venue hire). We hope to spend just £20 on promotional activities, and hope to give the bands £240 (ie £80 each for three bands), with £20 of contingency funds (eg snacks). This means a total cost of £540 (total outgoings), with a maximum profit margin of £630 (see table below).

If half of the tickets are sold (ie 120 tickets) then the income from ticket sales reduces to £585. Outgoings are £540, so we would have a profit margin of £45.

If only a third of the tickets are sold (ie 60 tickets), then the income from tickets sales reduces to £390. Given our outgoings are £540, this means we would be £180 in arrears. To manage this cost deficit, we would need to cover this cost ourselves ie £30 each between 6 team members.

If no tickets are sold, the maximum we would owe is £90 each between team members. We do not envisage this scenario.

Marketing and publicity

To reflect the relaxed atmosphere that we hope to achieve, we are calling our event, ‘Smoother Sounds’ (as per ad below).

We have dedicated artist representatives as follows:

• General promoter – Joseph Gallon
• The Nightingales – Simeon Lord
• Jah Glory – Alister Tucker
• Isaac Aylward – Isaac Aylward

We plan to market our event using our personal connections as well as social media. We have agreed to spend £20 on advertising for instagram/facebook etc where we plan to share our add, and also add a QR code which will have links to ticket sales. We will advertise widely the Conservatoire amongst our fellow students, also putting up posters. In addition, we hope to visit similar events and distribute fliers to likely audiences around Leeds. Personally, I hope to visit reggae venues in Leeds for this purpose and Open Mic Nights to advertise myself and the events. Finally, the venue, The Attic, will advertise our event on their social media pages/email lists eg facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theatticleeds1/?locale=en_GB

Artist Biographies

The Nightingales

The Nightingales is a jazz quintet sprung into being by the established bandleader Simeon Lord. The musicians met at the local conservatoire, all with a desire to explore earlier works within the jazz idiom.

Jazz Saxophonist Simeon Lord comes from a childhood rich with the music of many genres. He is heavily influenced by saxophonist Michael Brecker. Simeon always ties together his performances with personal anecdotes from his life, one where he has moved around much, yearned to help others and continues to make very poor Dad-jokes!

Simeon attended the Royal College of Music’s Junior Department before moving to Leeds where he is studying at the Conservatoire. Past performances include playing at the Royal Albert Hall and the 606 Club, with more recent endeavours round venues in Leeds (The Attic, Casa, Northern Guitars, Belgrave Music Hall and Headrow House).

Various individuals have played with the group, though it consistently features Daniel Harrod on piano, an established player on the Leeds Jazz scene and Simeon’s choice pianist having played together at the Royal Albert Hall and 606 Club, as well as Katherine Loftus whose gorgeous vocal tone is reminiscent of jazz in the 1920s.

Jah Glory

Jah Glory writes, sings and creates Roots Reggae music and hails from Georgetown, Guyana. His style takes on board the traditional reggae vibe adding a unique voice to create uplifting and catchy songs with a new, clear lyrical content. His first single, ‘Injured Earth’ was played regularly on the radio in Guyana since 2010 in the early morning inspirational hour and this was followed by ‘Don’t call me after 9’ playing between 8 and 9am. Both songs were officially released in 2014, inspiring the Open University to commission ‘You Can Do it!’ to promote Amerindian community best-practice in the rainforests in the fight against climate change. ‘Jail Dem!’, a song against corruption, created a strong underground following since its release prompted the Guyana Government to ban all of his songs on the local airwaves. Since then, Jah Glory worked with Iauwata Amaha Selassie, the renowned instrumentalist on several songs. His latest release (Jan 2025) is ‘Agent of Love’. He also enjoys free-styling, for which he has a natural talent, and has built up a good local following in Newcastle upon Tyne, where he currently resides. His music is available on on streaming platforms eg spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/3ApgMoGeF8AeUEtYrJ61pYhttps://open.spotify.com/artist/3ApgMoGeF8AeUEtYrJ61pY

Isaac Aylward

Based in Leeds, Isaac is a pianist and songwriter with lyrics conjured from the ‘everyday’. Born in 2004 in Bedfordshire, he is mainly self-taught. He’s currently studying at Leeds Conservatoire. He’s played at the Wardrobe, in Leeds, during the 2025 LCSU Showcase. He also joined ‘Metora Cliffs’, who feature colourful prog, keytars, big riffs and catchy hooks, and will be heading to the heats of ‘Metal 2 The Masses’ this year, competing to play at the metal festival, Bloodstock. https://epkbuilder.com/site/isaac-aylward

Artist HD Photographs

The Nightingales, Jah Glory and Isaac Aylward.

Risk Assessment

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Additional Material

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Reference List

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PRS for Music – https://www.prsformusic.com

The Attic – https://www.launchpad-music.com/supported-projects/theattic

Isaac Aylward – https://epkbuilder.com/site/isaac-aylward

Jah Glory – https://open.spotify.com/artist/3ApgMoGeF8AeUEtYrJ61pYhttps://open.spotify.com/artist/3ApgMoGeF8AeUEtYrJ61pY