London’s Twickenham Stadium is to step up its commitment to staging high-profile music events as it prepares to host Eminem later this year.
The rapper will play two nights at Twickenham in July and a similarly high-profile gig is set to be announced shortly, according to Music Week.
Richard Harris, Twickenham’s head of ticketing, said the venue is making a conscious decision to host more music shows as it seeks to stand out on the congested stadium London scene.
In an interview with Music Week, Harris said: “We are repositioning ourselves as a fantastic live music venue in the summer for London. It is definitely more of a focus for us.”
Harris said the Eminem double-header represented a “major coup” for Twickenham, which also staged two sold-out nights on U2’s Joshua Tree tour (pictured) last year. Rihanna, Beyoncé, Lady Gaga and The Rolling Stones are among the other high-profile acts to have performed at Twickenham over the years.
With the London Stadium and Wembley also on the scene, Twickenham is not the only venue in the capital vying for the top gigs.
Harris added: “We’ve got a much bigger concert window for people to choose from. It’s hard to compete in June, but they’ve got football tenants (West Ham United and Tottenham Hotspur, respectively) and we don’t. The rugby season ends end of May and doesn’t start up again until mid-September, so that’s quite a window we’re able to offer.
“From a pure music perspective we’re also less of a bowl, which means it’s a tighter experience for the artist. The feedback we had from (U2) last year was that it felt like a much more intimate gig, so that is another selling point.”
Twickenham primarily serves as the home of English rugby but the venue has also staged three NFL American football games since 2016. It will not host any NFL games this year, with Wembley to host two fixtures and one game pencilled in for Tottenham’s new stadium.
Image: Kuriboh500
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