Exclusive: Royal Albert Hall drops Raymond Gubbay Ltd
mainWe hear that the Royal Albert Hall yesterday informed Raymond Gubbay Ltd that they will not allocate them pre-Christmas dates from next year for the annual Christmas Festival which has been running for 25 years.
The Hall will be promoting its own Christmas events from 2018.
RGL has now lost more than half its annual dates at the iconic and profitable venue.
Raymond Gubbay, its founder, has issued the following statement: ‘I am very sad to hear that the Christmas Festival at the Royal Albert Hall which I started all those years ago will not continue beyond next Christmas. However, I sold the company which still bears my name and so I am not involved in any way with these events.’
When Ray Gubbay himself was running this hands on, you felt a real sense if commitment and dedication to both artists and audiences. True, it was very predictable programming but it clearly touched the spot. I remember him one time beaming from the Bull Run entrance to the stage whilst he watched the hall fill up for the third time that day and saying, “we’ve got the same again tomorrow”. When he packed it in, it was never quite the same, the sense of fun and excitement was replaced by corporate inscrutability. So I’m not really surprised by the news.
As well as Ray Gubbay, wasn’t there a guy called Bob Jolley who’d worked with him all the years and was always around at the shows. He suddenly vanished a few years ago, don’t know what happened. Maybe with the two of them going, things started to fall apart
If you track down Bob Jolley give him my regards – Dev Anand, Expotel mid 1980’s booked his hotels!
Hi Dev Bob Jolley, am still alive ! Hope you are well, we had some great times with you
Rufused to go to Gubbays concerts
Always vastly over priced.
When they appear in Birmingham it costs more to hear their concerts than it does for the CBSO concerts
As for standards, RG’s orchestra wouldn’t get in the top 50 compared to the likes of the CBSO
Keith872041@gmail.com