Liverpool Summer Pops Festival facts:

Fans have come from far and wide including New Zealand, Australia, USA, Canada, Norway, Brazil, Denmark, Netherlands, Spain and Ireland. Almost a million music fans have already flocked to the Summer Pops Festival over the last eight years.

Last year Chas Cole and his team at CMP Entertainment made 18,935 phone calls to 185 different companies, suppliers and media. Dealt with 102 agents in 11 countries and sent 2,070 letters and 54,275 e-mails.

Sound and lighting crew consumed 386 ‘local’ kebabs.

Favourite excuses for damaged or lost tickets include one man who ironed The Australian Pink Floyd Show ticket after putting it in washing machine by accident and presented the box office staff with a blackened ticket (we have the ticket framed in our Summer Pops office). Another man dropped his in a chip pan. Over the years amusing riders have included boyband Mcfly asking for red wine and a cheeseboard.

Bryan Adams asking for marble cake and lemon cake. His French chef also went to the local Odd Bins in Allerton to source quality wine. He held a vegan bbq backstage after the show and also had eight wardrobes. Jools Holland asked for 12 postcards with stamps on. ZZ Top asked for three separate dressing rooms. Def Leppard brought in their own gym. Duran Duran asked for sushi and champagne. Meatloaf asked for oxygen and a dry cleaners.

Amy Winehouse’s rider included 2 packets Marlborough lights, vodka, 2 bottles Jack Daniels, 1 bottle of champagne and flutes, No Styrofoam cups as they are bad for the environment. She also asked for the location of the nearest pool hall and gym. Amy and husband Blake were also spotted in the local KFC before show.

Pink asked for wholemeal pitta bread, humous and almonds. She told us her favourite Beatles song is ‘Hey Jude’ because it’s her mother’s name. Her wardrobe was so big it wouldn’t fit in the dressing room, the wardrobe used belonged to Cher. Jamie Morrison asked for organic food, no GM food and for 2 sinks and his pre show ritual involved breathing exercises.

When The Pretenders played first Liverpool show in over a decade, Chrissie asked for leather chair to be removed from dressing room and to be informed if any fast food chains are advertised at venue. She was also seen backstage in killer high heeled boots (not leather).

Russell Brand spent 10 minutes before his show psyching himself up in the toilet. Diana Ross brought her own chef. Silver dog bowl and dog lead were returned to Heidi Range, Sugababes mum the day after the show.

Local bands have included The Zutons, Atomic Kitten, Sugababes (Heidi) , The Farm, China Crisis, Charlie Lansborough, Henry Priestman, Girls Aloud (Nicola), Mel C, The Real People, Jade Gallagher, Talk Abouts, Amsterdam, The Bo Weevils, The Aeroplanes, The Maybes Ian Mcnabb, Laura Critchley, Gerry Marsden, The Quarrymen, The Undertakers, The Merseybeats, John Power, The Original Fourmost, Connie Lush, Edgar Jones, Billy Butler, Mike Pender, Ricky Tomlinson, Cy Tucker.

One in four Summer Pops visitors came from other parts of the North West outside Merseyside.

Of those residing outside Liverpool, one in seven stayed, on average, 1.5 nights, with three in four staying in a City hotel. Summer Pops generated income of almost £5 million for the City – 80% of which was brought in from outside the City boundaries. The average spend per visitor was just under £60. Over half the concert-goers had attended previous Summer Pops festivals, particularly in the last couple of years. One in five intend to attend other concerts during the 2009 festival. The Liverpool tourist information office reported Beatles Day as their second most busiest day ever. The Liverpool Summer Pops Festival will return to it’s home at the 10,000 seater Echo Arena in Liverpool’s Kings Dock. A number of fringe events will also take place at various venues across the City.

CMP Entertainment, were first associated with the Summer Pops in 2001 at the behest of Liverpool City Council, when CMP booked artists of the calibre of Bob Dylan, Ray Charles and Shirley Bassey. Over the subsequent years, artists from every genre – rock, jazz, folk and pop – all played the event, which became an integral part of the European summer musical calendar.

During CMP Entertainment’s tenure of the event, the familiar Green and Yellow Big Top played host to over a hundred big name artists and provided a platform for Liverpool to re-instate its rightful place as a venue for the biggest names to perform; something that had been sadly missing from the City’s musical skyline for many years.

In 2005, The Summer Pops moved from its home on the Kings Dock to make way for the construction of the new Liverpool Echo Arena and Convention Centre, and CMP’s Chas Cole says this will probably be the event’s greatest legacy.