QUICKFIRE: Maintaining the gold standard.

Ahead of being honoured at tonight's (Monday) Accenture-sponsored Music Industry Trusts' dinner, legendary concert promoter Harvey Goldsmith reflects on charity, bankruptcy and Bob Geldof

You recently took a tour of the Brits School for Performing Arts, and gave a lecture to the young students. What kind of impression did they make on you?

It's a very vibrant place. You can feel it, there's a lot of energy here, which is how it should be. You've got a special kind of person who can do this kind of course and get through it. They're very eager. After giving them a thumbnail of what goes on in the industry, they had dozens of questions.

You've done a lot of charity work in your time and you are being recognised with this award. Is it rewarding to go to the school and see some of the practical benefits of your work?

Of course. I've always said that I've spent most of my time taking out of this business and it's quite easy to put something back in, so if you can, why not? I hope that out of the Trusts' choice of me being their honouree, they'll raise a bucket-load of money, half of which is going to the Brits School and half of which is going to Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy.

How do you feel that the industry has changed over the 40 or so years that you've been a promoter?

A lot. When I first started there wasn't really a business, we created it as we went and it was a lot more about the creative process, ideas, and trying things out. Today it's all about business and money, and I think the business itself has lost a bit of its creative edge, which is unfortunate. There's so much more new talent coming out, which is really exciting, but the promoting side of it is consolidated down and now you have these huge big companies competing with each other. It's very hard to be an independent now.