Black Eyed Peas Too Good To Sing Live For Deutsche Bank
Last week, Deutsche Bank held a party for a few hundred clients at a resort in England. The event was catered by celebrity chef Heston Blumenthal, who created "hundreds of gin and tonic meringues, cooked in front of guests in liquid nitrogen," included spa treatments and unlimited rounds of golf and was deemed an "exquisite experience" for all attendees. Having said that, there were some behind the scenes issues when it came to the evening's entertainment, the mistakes of which any firm planning a conference/weekend/what have you in the future should take note. Initially, Deutsche Bank, for some reason, had hoped to wow clients with a performance by the Black Eyed Peas. Unfortunately, the Germans were apparently unaware of the fact that this supergroup of artistic purists believe they're in a position to play hard ball.
Organisers had initially contacted one of the world’s biggest bands, The Black Eyed Peas, asking them to perform instead. ‘They had offered even more money to The Black Eyed Peas to appear,’ a source revealed. ‘Unfortunately the group’s management said they refused to perform live for the bankers, even for that kind of money, and would only lip-sync to their hits.
While the Peas undoubtedly do believe they're too good to strain their vocal chords and memorize lines for a group of financial services employees, what was clearly lost in translation was that the band has a tiering system and that this is how they negotiate. Deutsche was supposed to come back to the table and offer more, at which time Fergie would have explained to them that the bronze level (£1,000,0000) gets you a methed out Fergie (you supply the meth) plus 10 minutes of lip-syching, silver (£5,000,0000) gets you 30 minutes of lip-syching and attitude and gold gets (£10,000,0000) you an actual live performance. DB organizers did not know this, though, and simply told the Peas to piss off, as they could do better. Potential nip-slip better.
Deutsche Bank wanted to have a live act though and went with Janet Jackson instead...Miss Jackson, 45, performed hits such as Control, Rock With You and The Best Things In Life Are Free during her brief set – which cost Deutsche Bank a staggering £11,111 a minute. A stage and huge marquee were put up for the star’s performance, at a cost of £150,000.
[Daily Mail via BI]