AP Q's up at The HMV Forum

18 Nov 09

AP Security has continued its event stewarding, security and safety work at The HMV Forum by taking care of arrangements for the recent Q Awards.

By Brian Sims

The annual Q Awards is one of the music industry’s most infamous events, renowned for its celebrity shenanigans.

This year, the often riotous occasion was held on 26 October at the Grosvenor House Hotel on London’s Park Lane. Sister event Q Awards – The Gigs was this year held at north London venue The HMV Forum (providing a six-day lead-in to the awards themselves with performances from top bands including Kasabian and the Lostprophets).

With a stellar line-up and attendance by a host of famous faces, The HMV Forum’s management needed to know that crowd safety would not be an issue. Full trust was placed in resident crowd safety company AP Security.

Where the pressure points are...

“We’ve been working with The HMV Forum for a couple of years now, so we know how things work, where the pressure points are and how to handle any situations that may arise,” said Wayne Grove, who’s in charge of the venue on behalf of AP Security.

“However, working on an event like this realises its own particular issues, so we plan carefully to make sure that everything is covered.”

AP’s normal working week covers two or three nights when The HMV Forum hosts gigs. Having six consecutive days to cover, increased crowd capacity, a free VIP bar for the promoters and sponsors, celebrity guests in attendance and big name bands means not only that extra staff are required, but also that those staff members need to be carefully selected.

“All our members of staff receive the appropriate professional training, but different people have different strengths,” added Grove. “It’s important that we recognise this and assign team members to the positions where they work best.”

Kasabian in the house

Grove continued: “Bands like Kasabian have a very lively following [Ed: I can vouch for that, having seen them at Glasgow SECC last week], so we needed to be prepared. We had some special requirements in place, including the provision of extra staff for the backstage area and artist changing rooms and more staff in the pit because there were photographers present.”

AP Security also helped out at the fans’ designated autograph signing area.

“It all went very well,” concluded Grove. “The venue knew it could have absolute confidence in us because, as well as handling its normal requirements, we’d already successfully covered the Kerrang Awards that were held at The HMV Forum back in August. We’ve had very positive feedback from both the sponsors and the venue itself, and we’re already looking forward to next year’s Awards.”

Gemma Shamah, the assistant general business manager at The HMV Forum, stated: “From our point of view, the week flew by with no problems or issues. Every band that was on the bill commended the security staff on how good they were. We really appreciated all of AP Security’s efforts.”