Carling Live is a program of sponsorship and promotion of live music by Carling, who are the brewery most associated with live music in the UK. 2007 will be the 9th year that Carling has sponsored the Reading and Leeds Festivals. However Carling's music programme extends well beyond this.
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The summer of 2007 saw Carling launch its very own TV show; Carling's Festival Postcards, which was broadcasted on Channel 4 from 13 June. It followed Alex Houlsby, John Houghton, Stuart Hamilton and Kris Chater around the best of the summer's festivals. It featured 15 minute programmes on Channel 4, ‘out-takes’, blogs and pictures online on Channel4/4music.com and showed why everybody is so keen to spend their summer weekends with their mates, covered in mud listening to music.
In 2007 Carling launched a series of initiatives that invested in local talent. This regional focus gave people the opportunity to perform at their local Carling Academy through Carling's AAA DJ and Carling Supports.
Carlings AAA DJ competition gave local DJ's the opportunity to take the big step from bedroom spinner to main room rocker as four lucky finalists in Birmingham, Bristol and Newcastle played peak time slots at successful Carling Academy club nights Ramshackle and Revolution. The lucky winners from each region then went on to play the Carling VIP area at the Carling Weekend: Reading Festival 2007 to a crowd of celebrities, bands and industry experts.
Carling Supports saw hundreds of local bands submit demos in the hope of securing a slot in their local Carling Supports event. 4 lucky finalists in Birmingham, Bristol, Glasgow, Liverpool, and Newcastle were given an excellent opportunity to showcase their talents to a wider audience and a number of industry experts. The Winner from each region playing a supporting set at a future Carling Academy gig.
In 2002 Carling launched a series of "Homecoming" gigs which brought bands back to play at venues that had a big impact on their early careers. The Carling Homecoming gigs from 2002-2003 saw Jamiroquai return to Ealing's Broadway Boulevard; The Charlatans to Manchester University Debating Hall; Manic Street Preachers to St David's Hall Cardiff, outside of which they used to busk; Primal Scream to Garage in Glasgow; and The Beautiful South to Kingston upon Hull.
“Carling Live presents…” took off in 2002 with a gig by David Bowie as a series of one off shows with tickets again available to fans via the Carling website. Prior to 2006 the Carling name was part of the Apollo theatre names, it was discontinued when Carling ceased their sponsorship.
In 2004, acts included N*E*R*D and Velvet Revolver, while in 2003, there were Travis, AC/DC and Limp Bizkit.
Carling Live Sessions began in 2003 as a way for grassroots bands to gain a platform on which to become the superstars of the future. From 2003-2005 Carling Live Sessions saw performances from: The Killers, Razorlight, Kaiser Chiefs, BRMC, The Magic Numbers, The Subways and the Nine Black Alps
The Carling Live New Kings of Rock and Roll event took place in 2004 to present 12 bands that had make their presence felt during 2003. These bands included: Snow Patrol, Elbow and Jet.
The Carling New Kings event took place in 2006 and was filmed for Channel 4 and was hosted by the Carling Academy Islington showcasing the varied talents of: Graham Coxon, Kano and The Magic Numbers, all in one night.
2004 saw Carling Live 24 take place in London. This was first ever 24hr live music event that London had ever held, the highlights included the Franz Ferdinand's performance at the Carling Academy Islington, Feeder's only show of the year at the Hammersmith Apollo and Scissor Sisters at the Carling Academy Brixton. The afterparty was also held in Brixton.
In 2005, Carling Live 24 also held an event in Manchester, with an all-North West theme, showing headline bands. One such act saw Ian Brown taking the stage, at midnight, at the Manchester Apollo.
In 2006, Carling Live 24 only took place in London. The whole event was compered by hosts Dave Berry, Alex Zane, Steve Jones, Alex Houlsby, John Houghton, Stuart Hamilton and Mark McCutcheon. It was made into 9 TV shows covering 24 hours on Channel 4. It incorporated unusual locations such as: Boy Kill Boy performing on a boat on the River Thames and Dirty Pretty Things performing on the London Eye
The worlds biggest regular music festival has been supported by Carling from 1998–2006 and is the home of the Carling Stage, claimed to be the birthplace of much of the best new live music talent in the UK from the last decade. Artists including Keane, Coldplay and Blur have all appeared on the Carling stage. In 2005 the stage belonged to Arctic Monkeys. Matt Helders (drummer) commented: "When we played last year there was a bit of a buzz around us but we had no idea what would happen. Until then we’d only played to audiences of 300-800. Six thousand people came to the Carling tent. People said it was like when the Foo Fighters first played."
The festival saw the launch of a new beer promotion, called the Cold Beer Amnesty, during which festival goers exchanged their unopened cans of warm beer for ice cold ones. In 2006, the amnesty again took place at the:- Isle of Wight Festival, V Festival and the Carling Weekend, where over 100,000 cans were exchanged. The Cold Beer Amnesty won the Best Festival innovation award at the 2006 UK Festival Awards.
Carling sponsors the Academy Music Group and are headline sponsors at some of the main music venues in the UK. It is claimed that over three million people, annually visit the academy venues.
The Academy venues are located in London (Brixton, Camden, Islington and the Shepherds Bush Empire), Birmingham, Bristol, Glasgow, Liverpool and Newcastle.
Carling launched its music website in 2002 as a central on-line hub for information and entertainment, in relation to Carling's music activity. Acting as a one-stop shop, to find information and obtain tickets to their events the website rapidly grew in size adding entertainment in the form of live video footage, along with live reviews, music news and interview sections. As sponsorship deals with leading UK venues and festivals were added to Carling's ever-expanding roster, Carlinglive.com expanded to include a full venue guide section and gig guide allowing consumers to purchase tickets for gigs, tours and festivals over the whole of the UK.
Following a redesign in 2006, the ‘Live’ brand was dropped to allow the brand name to take centre-stage and Carling.com was born. The current website has equal focus on brandname, football and music. The website has been presented with some 2006 web awards: Revolution Award 2006 – Best Use of Search The Webby Awards 2006 – Honoree Member Marketing Direct Smart Awards 2006 – Best Direct Mail Pack Hitwise - Top 10 website for second consecutive quarter 2006
In 2003 Carling teamed up with London Underground to provide 30 Licensed Carling busking pitches throughout the underground network. There are currently 263 licensed buskers, providing more than 3000 hours of live music to commuters every month. Potential candidates are required to pass an audition before getting an entertainers license.