Event Management 101 with Billy and Elton

This weekend’s much anticipated Billy Joel, Elton John Face 2 Face concert included a great lesson in PR crisis tactics. PR crises run the gamut from a looming expose of an executive on 60 minutes to a pop superstar dying on the day of your major news announcement to the wrong dinner being served at a gala event.

Saturday’s concert crisis was on the low end of the crisis scale. Billy Joel and Elton John emerged from underneath the stage and began the show on their individual pianos. The crowd was excited, singing along and enjoying the music. On the big screen we all saw Elton John yelling across his piano, four letter words apparent on his lips. Turns out, the pedals on his piano were not working – admittedly a pretty major issue for a piano player – but surely a tour like this had a number of back-up pianos. John stormed off stage leaving Joel to riff a series of patriotic songs (he’s in DC after all) on his working piano. John returned to a still non-working piano. While he was complaining, Joel ripped off his jacket crawled under the piano and called for a screwdriver. Upon emerging he offers John his piano. Then Joel makes the call to just start his set and rallies his band from back and under the stage. He put on an amazing set without missing a beat.

While watching this go down I could not help but think of all of the mini crises I have overseen in my time in PR and how I’ve always dealt with them with the attitude of, “the show must go on.” Some issues are so small that by avoiding panic no one is alerted to the problem. Other, bigger issues are best handled with an acknowledgement of the issue and a gracious detour to plan B, which is exactly how Bill Joel handled the situation on Saturday. Already a fan, I deepened my appreciation of him as a performer watching his calm handling of the unexpected and putting on a fabulous show.
-Piper Conrad

(Photo Courtesy of The Washington Post Photo)