Mama takes the fiddle while the Fiddler becomes festive

Some horse trading in the live music market in the UK: Mama has bought the Mean Fiddler, rights to the trading name and its venue portfolio to add to the Barfly business. It plans to reopen The Mean Fiddler, and also bring the Garage out of mothballs.

Meanwhile, since the Mean Fiddler promotions company has flogged off its name, it's having to rebrand itself. Henceforward, then, the LiveNation promotional arm will be called Festival Republic. But since it was probably thought up by the same branding experts who came up with LiveNation, what do you expect?

Festival Republic will also continue to opereate the Astoria venues - although since the Astoria is due to be demolished to make way for Crossrail, that might just be until the Compulsory Purchase Order drops through the letterbox.