The scene was a familiar one: a huge open-air event, staged by a local music promoter, packed to the brim with tens of thousands of devotees in anticipation of the rare visit of a global icon.

Only this time it wasn’t Green Day or Coldplay taking centre stage at Glasgow’s Bellahouston Park, but the Pope on his first state visit to the UK.

The common thread was DF Concerts, the part Live Nation-Gaiety-owned Scottish promoting giant and the company selected ...