Gideon Gottfried
Gideon Gottfried examines the business and infrastructure of live entertainment across the U.K. and Europe for Pollstar, focusing on how tours, venues, conferences and new formats shape the concert industry rather than on reviews or fan coverage.
Live entertainment business and European markets
Gottfried’s core beat is the economic and strategic side of live music in U.K. and European markets, where he tracks companies, deals and market trends for Pollstar. He covers financial performance in detail, including articles on DEAG’s strong third-quarter results that highlight revenue growth and the acceleration of business in the period between July and September. His market pieces extend beyond single companies: he writes country-level focus features such as Pollstar’s Switzerland Focus, which examines the diversity of that entertainment market and its rankings within the wider European landscape.
This business-grounded reporting gives communications teams visibility into how promoters, ticketing firms and diversified entertainment groups position themselves and report to stakeholders.
His work also includes coverage of industry honorees and influential executives, connecting company performance with leadership and strategy. In Pollstar’s Impact International: UK/Euro 2024, he profiles honorees such as Detlef Kornett, showing how individual decision-makers shape the region’s live entertainment ecosystem. Gottfried contributes to Pollstar’s Impact50 coverage, writing about figures like Frank Riley of High Road Touring and co-founder of NITO, embedding biographical detail within the wider context of agency and touring politics.
This blend of corporate reporting and executive profiling distinguishes his coverage from more general music news that focuses solely on artists.
Tour announcements and artist runs
Alongside corporate and market reporting, Gottfried regularly handles tour announcement coverage, detailing routing, scale and timing for major acts.
He writes on rock band Biffy Clyro’s UK/Euro tour, setting out initial European dates and providing clarity on where and when the band will be on the road. His tour news spans genres and formats, including comedy: his piece on Sebastian Maniscalco’s six-city U.S. run lays out the cities and schedule that anchor the comedian’s live strategy. In these stories he sticks to clear logistics and business context - cities, venues, time frames - rather than promotional language, making them useful reference points for understanding an artist’s live footprint.
His tour coverage is not limited to one territory, and he draws connections between UK/European activity and global touring cycles. Older tour pieces from his archive show him cataloging initial European dates and subsequent additions for touring acts, reflecting how campaigns build over time and expand across markets. Whether the subject is a rock band, comedian or other live act, Gottfried’s attention to routing and market selection helps map how artists and their teams deploy live shows as part of their broader business plans.
Venues, formats and technology in live
Gottfried reports closely on venues and stadiums, especially where they intersect with new commercial partnerships and operational models. His coverage of the partnership between Oak View Group and Stoke City FC on food and beverage at the club’s home stadium breaks down how F&B operations are being reshaped in a major sports venue, reflecting Pollstar’s interest in arenas and stadiums as live entertainment infrastructure. These stories show how venue deals affect the fan experience and the commercial environment in which tours operate.
He also follows emerging formats and technologies changing how live entertainment is delivered.
In a Q&A with Semmel Concerts’ Christoph Scholz and Finn Regenhold, he explores non-concert formats as one of the most exciting developments in live, using interviews to surface how experiential and hybrid events are evolving in Europe. His article on a Swedish tech startup launching an on-demand concert streaming service outlines the product and its place in a growing ecosystem of digital concert experiences, linking traditional touring with remote, streamed formats. This strand of his work gives his beat a forward-looking dimension, covering not just current shows but the infrastructure and innovation that could redefine the sector.
Conferences, profiles and industry recognition
Industry conferences and professional gatherings are another recurring focus in Gottfried’s coverage, where he documents how the business side of live music meets and exchanges ideas. His ILMC 31 Buzzing With Business story details how London becomes the hub of the international live music industry when the International Live Music Conference takes over the Royal Garden Hotel, emphasizing networking, deal-making and the global nature of the event.
Similarly, his Primavera Pro 2025 Unveils Full Program piece sets out the conference schedule, including sessions on the changing value of music and dedicated networking spaces at the CCCB and Parc del Fòrum during the main festival, giving a clear picture of the gathering’s role in the professional calendar.
Gottfried also contributes to Pollstar’s thematic packages and hubs that celebrate or take stock of major cultural milestones. In the “Can’t Stop Won’t Stop Forever Ever: 50 Years Of Hip-Hop” hub, he provides coverage tied to Pollstar Day programming, situating live performances and discussions within the broader 50-year history of hip-hop. He is listed among the editors and writers behind Pollstar’s 2020 coverage, reflecting his role in shaping the masthead’s annual assessments of the concert business. Across these projects, he consistently centers the professionals, structures and events that sustain live music, which is the through-line that sets his work apart from more artist-centric music journalism.
4 more music journalists.
Abigail Kellett
Abigail Kellett is a news reporter at the Halifax Courier who stands out for visually led coverage that shows how culture, nightlife and local life play out on the ground. She documents gigs, festivals and major live shows at venues such as The Piece Hall through curated photo sets that capture atmosphere, crowd and setting as much as performers, and she uses extensive image galleries to tap reader nostalgia for nights out in Halifax town centre. Her beat spans arts, entertainment, going out, heritage, books and literary events, along with community life, people stories, local challenges, milestones, transport, regeneration, lifestyle and food. She reports through photographs, checklist-style features, reader-driven lists and roundups of most-read stories, turning announcements, programmes, author events, festivals, shop lists and everyday characters into stories about place, shared memory and how people spend their time.
Adam Lyon
Adam Lyon is a digital audience and content editor whose news beat sits at the intersection of Ayrshire’s cultural life, business environment and public affairs. He works for the Ayr Advertiser and as Digital Audience & Content Editor for Newsquest in the west of Scotland across multiple weekly titles. He covers Ayrshire news with a strong thread of music and local culture alongside business, courts and public affairs. He reports on music when it has a clear community or national hook, treating songs as news events rather than reviews. His business work explains how local firms and retail policy shape town centres. His court coverage uses round-ups of sheriff court cases to show patterns and outcomes. He also fronts video previews and is active in a football supporters trust community.
Adam Maidment
Adam Maidment is a senior What’s On and LGBTQ+ reporter whose work links big-name gigs, new venues and cultural flashpoints to everyday fan culture and inclusion. He covers music, nightlife and the wider cultural scene for the Manchester Evening News, focusing on how concerts, openings and immersive events land with real people and communities. His beat spans live music, arenas and stadiums, new restaurant and bar openings, food reviews, exhibitions, street art and nightlife infrastructure, with a particular focus on LGBTQ+ audiences and neighbourhoods. He reports on venue ambitions and problems, cultural institutions and equality issues, and franchise-led experiences, using straightforward, on-the-ground reporting and clear description. Drawing on a background in community reporting, he looks for underrepresented perspectives and uses social media, analytics and local sourcing to find stories where culture, identity and place meet.
Alex Rigotti
Alex Rigotti is a freelance music and culture editor and journalist who joins fast-turnaround music news with detailed reporting on artists, fandom and politics. They report breaking stories and live music updates for NME and Paste Magazine, covering pop, rock, club music, underground scenes and cultural debates around art and identity. Their live-music beat includes setlists, tours, festival appearances, cancellations, ticketing, venues and onstage collaborations. They previously served as a contributing editor for NME’s Radar section, supporting coverage of emerging artists and new scenes. Rigotti also writes features on rap lyrics and criminalisation, Eurovision and politics, queer feminist bodybuilding, astrotherapy and contemporary art. Their reporting is direct and specific, using clear quotes, concrete details and artists’ own words to explain what happened and how music fits into wider cultural and industry trends.