T in the Park founder Geoff Ellis on his love of Dundee, missing Balado and making business fun

The Courier

15 hours ago

Scottish music legend Geoff Ellis has a strong affinity with Dundee.
It was in the City of Discovery that DF Concerts first flourished, with Geoff putting on shows at Fat Sam's and Bar Chevrolet with founder Stuart Clumpas.
And Courier Country is where DF's T in the Park festival would expand into the world-renowned behemoth it became on the fields of Balado in Kinross.
So, it is fitting Geoff will take centre stage at this year's Courier Business Conference as keynote speaker.
This month's event takes place at Chris van der Kuyl's ground-breaking The Big Real at Water's Edge — a £9 million Hollywood-standard production studio.
The conference is once again held in partnership with Henderson Loggie, with the theme of powering Scotland's creative economy.
Geoff's company DF put on concerts in Dundee in the 80s, and he fondly recalls those early shows at Fatties and Chevy's — a 50s-style diner complete with an American muscle car built into its walls.
He said: 'I feel a connection with Dundee as well, because the company started there, up in Denhead of Gray. It's where Stuart Clumpas formed the business.'
'Somebody wiser than me once said, 'if you do something you enjoy for a living, you'll never work for a day in your life'.
'But I think the fun comes from you enjoying what you do.
'And there's aspects of what you do when you're running an entertainment business, or a creative business, that can be fun as well.
'Because you work with a team of people who, by nature, are fairly creative, fairly inspirational and then you all gel together and that helps make work — even the boring stuff — enjoyable.
'That's because you're working with a team of people who have a spark and an enthusiasm for what they're doing.
'Nobody who works in the company doesn't like live music and events — they all love it.
'So while there might be aspects of the job that are not exciting, like with any job you have to pay the bills, raise invoices, deal with admin… there's plenty of enjoyable aspects of it as well.'
T in the Park enjoyed its most successful years at Balado. It moved from Glasgow to the disused Kinross airfield in 1997, where it stayed until 2014.
In that time, everyone from Oasis to Beyonce came to the festival.
The festival was held for two years at Strathallan, in Perthshire, in 2015 and 2016, and was 'retired' by DF Concerts to make way for TRNSMT and Summer Sessions.
How people attend festivals has changed in recent years, Geoff points out, not helped by global events like the Covid-19 pandemic.
A shift in what people want from their music and gig experiences has contributed towards this too, he adds, as well as having to leave their beloved Balado site.
When asked if he missed putting on Scotland's largest festival, T in the Park, at Balado, Geoff said: 'Oh yes! I think we always will and we look back very fondly.
'The most successful years T in the Park had were at Balado.
'It was a great event. There's a great community in Kinross and Milnathort, who really supported the event from day one
'I mean, everything has its day and it's really regrettable we were forced to move from the site and it was never quite the same once we had moved.
'That's not to say we'd still be going had we stayed on the site, but it was a perfect festival site and we had many great years there.
'I think the days of having 10 or 12 stages is probably not what people want so much these days.
'Tastes have changed a little bit, they want to see more of their favourite artists and want longer sets.
'And people like being at an event in the city too. They like having somewhere to go afterwards now.'
Geoff agreed to be involved with The Courier's Business Conference after speaking with long-time friend Chris van der Kuyl.
He and Chris, one of the city's leading lights in games design through his involvement with Minecraft, had discussed working together for a while.
Geoff will share unique insights gathered from 40 years 'and counting' in the creative industry.
'Dundee is a great city, a creative city, with all of its design and history,' he said.
'And more recently, its gaming achievements, which obviously Chris has been at the forefront of.
'For me, I think it's important that you put something back in as well.
'I've been fortunate enough to have a career for a few decades and I'm not giving up any time soon.
'It's a privilege to work in the creative industries and we need to sell the creative industries to younger generations and help them be regarded as serious businesses.
'I think we're quite often viewed as people just having fun. When you see people like Chris, it's hard to deny he always seems to be having fun, but there is a serious business element to what we all do in the creative industries.
'Whether that's running a venue, being an author, a designer, or whether it's putting on concerts and festivals.'
Held on June 24, The Courier Business Conference 2025 brings together pioneers of gaming, music, fashion, design, media, and digital innovation to explore the future of one of Scotland's fastest-growing sectors.
Dundee games entrepreneur and Water's Edge owner Chris van der Kuyl will talk about the new virtual production facility and explain why it will draw businesses to the city.
As the co-owner of 4J Studios, which helped make Minecraft a global phenomenon, he will also give his views on the games and tech sector.
Jade Robertson, owner of Perthshire business Little Lies, which counts Taylor Swift among its customers, and Livehouse boss Angus Robb will also present to the captive audience on their experience as business leaders in Tayside.
The Courier's editor David Clegg will chair a panel discussion featuring local businesses on 'monetising creativity in Scotland'.
The conference runs from 8.15am to 2pm. Tickets are still available through the conference website www.thecourierbusinessconference.com