T in the Park two decades of success

As sponsorship supremo at Tennent’s Lager T In The Park’s founding partner George Kyle has seen the festival grow to become one of the most celebrated events on the UK’s music calendar.

The pint-size pop star took one look at Geoff Ellis, shook her head and told him: “Don’t worry, I’ll look after you.”

When Kylie Minogue offers to be your bodyguard, it’d be rude to refuse.

Despite his reservations, he realised her mind was made up and there was little point in arguing.

And so fans were treated to one of the most unusual sights in T In The Park’s extraordinary 20-year history a 5ft Australian pop princess guarding the towering frame of a 6ft 2ins Manchester-born rock promoter.

“Kylie was on the bill at the second T In The Park in 1995,” explains Geoff. “At the time, we had a tent where, either before or after their performance, the acts would sign autographs. Kylie had made up her mind that she was going to do that too. But she was so famous that everyone wanted to see her and I was worried that it would be unsafe.

“It was too late to get extra security and her manager didn’t want to tell her she couldn’t do it. So I volunteered. I had broken my leg playing football a few weeks earlier, so I hobbled into her dressing room.

“She was looking fantastic in a little white dress but I took a deep breath and told her that we recommended she didn’t go to the autograph tent. But she just put her arm around me and told me it’d be fine she’d be my minder. We must have looked a crazy pair as we headed down together.”

As chief executive of DF Concerts, Geoff is the man with ultimate responsibility for the success of T In The Park. Aided by a small but loyal team of promoters and event managers, he’s masterminded the festival’s rise from humble beginnings to an entertainment phenomenon that’s globally respected.

“It was a huge risk at first,” he recalls. “When we first started, people said no one would attend an outdoor festival in Scotland because of the weather.

“In our first year, we lost money because we’d budgeted for 25,000 fans and only 17,000 turned up. But the atmosphere was brilliant. Oasis played and said it was their best-ever gig. I can remember thinking, as we finished on that first Sunday night in 1994, ‘Yes, this has gone well, we should do it again’.”

Geoff, who began his career by promoting bands such as The Stone Roses at London’s Middlesex Polytechnic, now lives in Glasgow with his family. But he admits he’s still thrilled by the prospect of his annual trip to Balado, which over the weekend of T In The Park becomes Scotland’s fifth-largest city. Organising private jets as he had to do for American star Nicki Minaj last year and seeing helicopters on stand-by is now second nature.

A big footie fan himself, he’s had no problem agreeing to arrange stage-side televisions so football-mad musicians like Muse and Kasabian can keep tabs on key matches between songs. But Geoff admits, there have been a few times he’s been stumped. When Robbie Williams suffered microphone problems, he walked offstage and gave the technician just three minutes to fix it or he wouldn’t return.

“Fortunately,” says Geoff, “I saw our guy give the thumbs-up after two so that was a crisis averted.” Geoff rates US chart-topper Beyonce who played T in 2011 as one of the all-time greats. “She was a dream to work with and amazing on stage.”

And he reckons T’s 20th anniversary is going to be the party to beat this summer. “We’ve put together an unbeatable bill,” he grins. “I’m really proud of it.”