Live promoters Communion Presents and FKP Scorpio UK have merged to form Communion ONE.
Prior to the merger, Communion Presents and FKP Scorpio have promoted and co-promoted artists including Ed Sheeran, Noah Kahan, Sam Fender, Lewis Capaldi, Phoebe Bridgers, Mitski, Tems, The War On Drugs and Laufey.
To mark their union today (March 25) as a new force in live music, Communion ONE managing directors Daniel Ealam, Mazin Tappuni and Scott O’Neill have spoken to Music Week. The companies have joined together following a successful co-promoting partnership, most recently on Noah Kahan’s sold-out arena shows.
“Bringing our two brilliant teams together and combining our shared experience, resources and perspectives, is the most natural thing in the world,” they said in a joint statement. “In doing so, we believe that Communion ONE is creating an even more compelling proposition for our existing and future clients. We’ve all had amazing success so far, but in many ways, we’re only just getting started.”
Communion ONE retains the established Communion live brand name, while the initials ‘ONE’ represent Scott O’Neill and Dan Ealam on the FKP side.
The new company will be producing a new three-night event series at Bristol’s 15,000 capacity Queen Square from 2025.
They will continue to book TVG Hospitality’s UK portfolio and its affiliates Lafayette, Omeara, The Social, and their new partnerships with Village Underground and EartH. The company also plans to expand its outdoor portfolio over the coming year.
Communion Presents and FKP Scorpio UK have also promoted artists including Michael Kiwanuka, Self Esteem, Maggie Rogers, Holly Humberstone, Ben Howard, Olivia Dean, Dermot Kennedy, Jamie xx, The Lumineers, Bastille, Maisie Peters, George Ezra, Gabriels, Hauser, Greentea Peng, Jungle, The Reytons, Kelela and Calum Scott.
There are upcoming shows from Mitski, Laufey and Olivia Dean, as well as OVO Arena Wembley dates for Vance Joy (October 2024) and Dean Lewis (February 2025).
Communion grew out of a club night at Notting Hill Arts Club in 2006 to become a London-focused promoter, branching out nationwide in the past five years. Sister companies Communion Records and Communion Publishing will continue to operate independently of the promoter.
FKP Scorpio’s London office was launched in late 2020 by Ealam and O’Neill, who were previously at DHP Family. FKP Scorpio is an international company with a European touring network, including offices in 11 European countries, and it operates multiple festivals. FKP Scorpio sold four million tickets across Europe in 2023.
The non-executive leadership team is formed by Communion Music’s managing director Jamie Emsell, Communion’s co-founders Kevin Jones and Ben Lovett, FKP Scorpio’s CEO and founder Folkert Koopmans, and promoter Carlo Scarampi as a partner.
Communion ONE’s 25-strong team also includes Carly Rockett in the position of head of operations, and Julie Morgan, Olly Goddard, Rich Cheetham, Mike Werbowy and Jack Dedman as heads of marketing, ticketing, production, finance and venue programming respectively. Sam Laurence’s promoter imprint Dollop also joins the newly unified company, with Eve Thomas and Hayley Moss completing the promoter team.
Here, Daniel Ealam, Mazin Tappuni and Scott O’Neill speak to Music Week about joining forces as one operation and their big ambitions for Communion ONE…
Why did you decide to join forces as Communion ONE, how do you complement each other?
Daniel Ealam: “Me and Scott have been huge fans of Maz and Communion for many, many years, and we've always had conversations about how, one day, we'd end up working together. I just came up with the idea because we were really enjoying working on a few artists together that we were co-promoting. I thought it would be a natural evolution really for both companies. We thought that putting the two companies together would be a really natural fit; we felt like we were all in a similar place. We all got together, we had a really nice chat and it felt like the idea had legs so we kept talking about it. Here we are, a few months on, and finally ready to unveil it.”
Mazin Tappuni: “We love collaborating as a company, we work with all the different promoters out there and have great relationships. But with Dan and Scott, it feels like we really talk the same language when it comes to serving the artists and having that artist-focused approach. Also, the way that we've worked with our staff and how important the teams are, it just felt like we were singing off the same hymn sheet. Dan and Scott know the Communion team really well because we've worked with a lot of artists in the past, and had huge success with Noah Kahan over the past year, and vice versa with [us working with the] FKP team – everyone gets on really well. It just feels like everyone thinks the same way. Getting the team together has been really easy and really natural. It just felt like the right thing to do from that first meeting.”
Getting the team together has been really easy and natural, it just felt like the right thing to do from that first meeting
Mazin Tappuni
The Noah Kahan shows must have felt perfectly timed as a big success leading into this announcement…
MT: “Yeah, definitely. It's been amazing to be able to work on Noah, he’s an amazing artist and it’s a great team. That really just cemented things for us, and there are lots of other acts we work together on. Sometimes when you work with certain promoters it can feel a little bit more difficult. Sometimes [co-promoting] can just be a division of labour, but it has always felt very collaborative when the two companies [Communion and FKP Scorpio] have worked together. Noah was a great example of how we have worked so well together.”
Who else have you worked together on as co-promoters leading up to this merger?
MT: “There's lots of acts. whether I work in London and these guys work in the regions, or we co-promote stuff. Matt Maltese, The Staves, Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats, Maisie Peters, The Backseat Lovers – they’re a great band. Also, it feels like the shared roster between both companies, and now the new company, is just incredible. Because of the shared roster, it really feels like we're going to be able to offer more opportunities for the artists that we work with, which is something that is just so important for us as promoters.”
FKP Scorpio launched as a big hitter in the UK, co-promoting the likes of Ed Sheeran, Sam Fender and Lewis Capaldi. How will this merger enhance that position in the market?
DE: “I mean, you just look at what the Communion guys have got going on. I don't think there are better A&Rs in live music in the industry, they are absolutely phenomenal at finding new artists and bringing them through. So I think that we're going to learn so much from the way those guys work, that's something that we’re super-excited about. Obviously, the guys look after TVG’s venues, so that’s a really exciting thing to be involved with as well. There's lots that we can teach those guys and lots that they can teach us, and that's a great thing. Scott started as a promoter in Manchester, I started as a promoter in Nottingham, Maz and Carlo started as promoters in London. So we’ve just got such a breadth of knowledge that we've built over all these years. I feel like we've got a lot of bases covered.
“We've concentrated a lot on trying to get outdoor sites, and that's something that we really want to build our portfolio on. We feel that with our combined rosters, that just gives us the opportunity to do really great things on multiple sites across the country as well. We can all enhance what each of us do. And then you throw in the best teams in the business together, and it’s a match made in heaven really.”
We've concentrated a lot on trying to get outdoor sites, and that's something that we really want to build our portfolio on
Dan Ealam
MT: “Just to second that, Communion have been really great at artist development, whether that's been on the label side or on the live side, Communion Presents, or even on the publishing side, and getting artists to a certain level. What we've not been great at has been the big outdoor shows. These guys have been working on this Queen Square show, which is a 15,000-capacity show in Bristol, which we're incredibly excited to programme and get our artists on that.
“Dan's done 12 Wembley stadiums with Ed Sheeran, he’s one of the most experienced stadium promoters in the country. A lot of the artists on our roster are getting to stadium level, whether that is [Sam] Fender, [Lewis] Capaldi or Noah [Kahan], or some of the other artists that are coming through. These guys are just great at doing greenfield sites and outdoor shows. Both companies in this new formation will benefit because, historically, one has been better at one thing and the other company has been better at another thing. It's just now just putting the teams together and being the best, and offering the best service that we can for the artists that we represent.
“We've been talking about this for so long. It feels like a bit of an emotional morning. We've all collectively and individually done quite a lot to get to this point. But at the same time, we're relatively young and it feels like we're just getting started. So looking forward, it's incredibly exciting to see what the next five, 10, 15 years are going to be for Communion ONE.”
What more can you say about the Bristol gig series in 2025?
SO’N: “It's 15,000-capacity in the centre of town. It's going to be world-leading, high-calibre artists. It’s three nights, exclusive shows. There's not been a show on that site for 20 years, which is not for the want of trying. It's the prime site in the heart of the city centre of Bristol. It's second to none really, in terms of location and access. Bristol Council have chosen us to work with them on this site after everyone trying for the last 20 years. With the size of it at 15,000-capacity, we’re talking about world-class, arena and stadium level artists.”
With the size of Queen Square at 15,000-capacity, we’re talking about world-class, arena and stadium level artists
Scott O’Neill
With FKP Scorpio’s European presence, how will that set-up give Communion One an international reach?
DE: “FKP is one of the biggest festival promoters in Europe. We have offices in 11 countries, including the UK, so we're certainly fighting on all fronts across Europe. It's already a very big concern and one of the biggest promoters in the world, and obviously we tap into that from the UK. Through that [network], we have been sending a lot of artists from the UK and the US across Europe, and getting artists on festivals in Europe through those connections as well. That will obviously continue going forward as well.”
Are there key areas for growth?
DE: “I think we just want to build the business in the way that we have been [so far]. It's usually been quite organic, doing things at the right time. For example, The Reytons wanted to do an outdoor show in their hometown this summer. They've had some great chart success over the last two years, and they approached us about doing that because we worked with them nationally. We're putting them on to 20,000 people in Rotherham in July.
“We've got this site in Bristol, which is going to be super-exciting for the company, 15,000 people a night in central Bristol. Bristol has been craving something like that for many years. We've done some big outdoor shows with Gerry Cinnamon, and stadium stuff with Ed. We just want to offer more of that as we go forward and as our rosters expand.”
MT: “We want to build out the promoter team. There's seven promoters now at Communion ONE, including two great female promoters that are coming through, Eve [Thomas] and Hayley [Moss], as well as Sam [Laurence] at Dollop. Carlo [Scarampi], who’s a partner in the business, is a great promoter as well. What I’ve done, and I know what Dan and Scott have done to date, is really think about building a great culture at the company and making sure that people enjoy the work that they're doing. We want to keep building out the promoter team, so it really feels like that door is open to promoters that want to come and work with us. It feels like we've got a really great opportunity here to build out that team and do more in the outdoor [concert] market.”
Would you bring back Citadel festival in London?
MT: “There are definitely discussions about outdoor shows. These guys have done some bits to date. So it's definitely something that is a focus of ours.”
Finally, what kind of volume of shows will you be working on this year?
“We got about 700-800 shows. In a calendar year, that's what we're looking at in terms of show volume. That's only going to increase as more promoters come through the door, and we're doing more in different markets and doing more across Europe. So yeah, it's going to get busy.”
PHOTO: (L-R) Managing directors Daniel Ealam, Mazin Tappuni and Scott O’Neill, and partner Carlo Scarampi
FOLLOW 
