Kellner presides over PPF Group, a privately held international financial group which was founded during the wild privatizations in Russia in the 1990s. Apparently, the gig is slated for Prague Castle sometime next week.
An anonymous source in the PPF Group told the Czech news agency ČTK about Sting’s engagement to entertain Kellner and his employees at Prague Castle on December 16, and a company spokesman, Alexej Bechtin, has not denied the report.
Such corporate gigs aren’t all that uncommon though they come at a very high price and artists typically try to keep them on the down-low. For example, in 2007, Van Halen played a private concert for employees of Canuck firm Research in Motion.
Even more outrageous was the 2005 bat mitzvah for Elizabeth Brooks, daughter of multimillionaire Long Island defense contractor David H. Brooks, which saw no less a talent roster than 50 Cent, Tom Petty, Aerosmith, Eagles Don Henley and Joe Walsh, Fleetwood Mac's Stevie Nicks and others give command performances at New York’s Rainbow Room.
The alleged cost of Brooks’ "Mitzvahpalooza" was $10 million, including the price of corporate jets to ferry the performers to and from, though I confess the lineup sounds more like something that would appeal to the Dad than a tween girl. See, the rich really aren’t like you and me.
Anyhoo, in other Sting news, the NME reports that the former Police singer/bassist is currently co-writing a musical based around the lives of ordinary, workaday people in his home town of Newcastle. The show, titled The Last Ship, will feature music and lyrics from Sting and a book by Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winning writer Brian Yorkey.
