Before you ask who is Peter Loxton, let me tell you that he and Tay-Tay both made the coveted US Billboard lists for 2024.

The 45-year-old Brisbane accountant flies under the radar as chief operating officer of Legends-ASM, right hand man to entertainment impresario Harvey Lister.

But last month Loxton was named one of the world’s touring power players, an accolade that followed his inclusion, two years’ consecutively, in Billboard magazine’s top 100 executives in the international music industry.

Swift was named the second greatest pop star of the 21st century (behind Beyonce) but enough about her … for now.

Loxton and I are dining at Tenya, a Japanese restaurant in the CBD building where he works, at 300 George Street.

We met at The Courier-Mail’s annual Future Brisbane summit in November and discovered a mutual interest in Japan, both having studied the language at the University of Queensland and worked in Japan.

Loxton goes as far as crediting that country with launching his career.

As the accountant for the Australian pavilion at World Expo 2005 in Nagoya, he went on to become commercial manager at Expo 2010 in Shanghai for the pavilions of Australia, USA, Brazil and New Zealand.

Convinced he could take his skills further, he subsequently cold-called Harvey Lister and business partner Rod Pilbeam at what was then AEG Ogden.

“The contract for the 2012 expo in Korea was up for grabs and I said to them, ‘I reckon we could get it’,” Loxton recalls.

“Being in the role I am now, I understand just how many people knock on the door, so I was fortunate to get a meeting.

“I said, ‘I’ve got the relationship with the client and the expertise, I just don’t have a balance sheet’, so we formed a partnership and won the contract.

“At the end they asked me, ‘do you want to keep flying all over the place for expos or do you want a real job?’.”

Loxton started in 2013 as business development manager at AEG Ogden (later ASM Global) and worked his way up.

He’s currently with Lister in Dallas, Texas, the headquarters of Legends, which in August paid more than $3.6bn for ASM Global, operator of more than 400 stadiums.

Loxton oversees the stadiums in Australia, New Zealand and the Middle East so, not surprisingly, has strong opinions about the 2032 Games.

“The Olympics stadium is the symbol of inaction,” he says.

“That’s what the new state government has to address, however, they’ve certainly parked themselves.

“I agree with the Lord Mayor (Adrian Schrinner), who said at Future Brisbane that we need two world-class stadiums.

“We already have a good one in Suncorp (which Legends-ASM runs) but my preference is to build a second one from scratch.

“The cost certainty of a new one is so much greater than a knock-down rebuild, as was proposed with The Gabba, because no one is going to give you a fixed price when they don’t know what problems they’ll find.”

Loxton is passionate about Brisbane Arena, a concept he has worked on with Lister for more than a decade.

In November, The Courier-Mail revealed the proposed venue – currently slated for $2.5bn of federal funding as part of the Commonwealth’s $3.45bn Games investment – would likely blow out by $500m, with the state forced to pick up the tab.

But Loxton remains adamant the arena, pegged for the council maintenance yards within Roma Street Parkland, is a necessity for the city, independent of using it for swimming or basketball during the Games.

“People talk about legacy, and the arena would deliver an extra 50 per cent capacity over the entertainment centre (Boondall).

“It would place us second in the country behind Sydney’s Qudos Bank Arena, which we operate, and entice more artists to come here.

“Boondall punches well above its weight and has served the city well but it could be turned into a community sports centre or kept as is for additional touring options.”

The outcome of the Crisafulli Government’s 100-day review of the Olympic and Paralympic Games will be keenly followed by Loxton.

“If you don’t want a new stadium, just call it an arena – yes, it’s expensive but the cost would be offset by revenue; it’s a no-brainer.”

Loxton says ticket prices have increased by four times the rate of inflation, directly off the back of streaming sites like Napster.

But he argues value for money has never been higher.

Re-enter Taylor Swift.

When Loxton and his wife, Paddington dermatologist Sara Tritton, took their kids Xavier, 11, and Madeleine, 9, to see Tay-Tay this year, the US superstar played for nearly four hours.

It was their first concert as a family but certainly not Loxton’s.

“I’m not trying to be modern or current but the best thing I’ve ever seen is Taylor Swift’s first tour here, the Red concert in 2013. I just knew she was going to be something the world has never seen.

“She’s the modern-day equivalent of The Beatles and, in my view, she’s far more pervasively influential because of the change in media, and she hasn’t alienated people the way The Beatles did.”

There are plenty of similarities between the two music sensations, Loxton points out – and he should know.

He lectures on The Beatles at the University of Liverpool in the UK.

How did a bloke from Brisbane get to tell young Liverpudlians about their city’s most famous export?

Growing up in Kenmore, Loxton and older sister Susie Hogan (now marketing and communications director for Christian Dior Couture in Sydney) would listen to their parents John and Jan Loxton’s favourite Beatles tunes.

The Brisbane Boys’ College student became obsessed with the band and the love affair has lasted – Loxton has seen Sir Paul McCartney in concert five times in the past three years.

At the end of 2021, while finishing his MBA at UQ, one of the facilitators put Loxton through a condensed version of Stanford University’s designing your life course.

One of the questions he had to answer was this: If money was not an issue and no one would laugh at you, what would you do?

Loxton didn’t hesitate. He would study for a master’s degree in The Beatles, available only at the University of Liverpool.

Inspired to make it happen, Loxton then reached out to the course professor – “I didn’t want her to think I was a total nutter” – but with the degree not yet available online, Loxton jumped at her offer of a guest lecturing position.

He now presents two to three times a year to the university’s school of music.

In Brisbane he also lectures at QUT in the faculty of business and law, with a pet subject being strategic music marketing and the synergy between The Beatles and Taylor Swift.

One of the most significant alignments between the two, he says, is the commitment to value for money.

“When The Beatles released The White Album in 1968 it was $US11.98, which in today’s money is $111, it was the first double album and they released it with portraits people could put on the wall,” he says.

“With Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967), they insisted on high-quality paper, and they printed all the lyrics, which was against another revenue stream of publishing, but they wanted it to be something people kept.”

Loxton likens this approach to that of Swift, whose 2024 album The Tortured Poets Department had 19 physical variants: nine CD, six vinyl and four cassette variants, with deluxe CDs and cassettes exclusive to Swift’s official website.

“She was the first artist in a very long time to sell two million physical copies, and the majority were vinyl – she’s gone back to what The Beatles did; she’s used that to her advantage,” he says.

Loxton says most established artists now make the bulk of their money through touring, with streaming services decimating the recorded music income “virtually overnight”.

“In 1999 music fell off a cliff, because of Napster, and since then ticket prices have outstripped inflation because artists knew they had to optimise their fan base and give them more,” he says.

“The Beatles used to play for 30 minutes, Paul McCartney is now 82 and plays for three hours, and Taylor Swift is nearly four hours – it’s about creating an enhanced customer experience.”

And Loxton, as judged by peer reviews for his Billboard magazine accolades, is well-placed to help superstar acts deliver exactly that.

Email Kylie Lang

RATING

Tenya Japanese restaurant

Brisbane Quarter

300 George Street, city.

Angus rib eye steak (200g) with dashi, spinach, chives and yakiniku sauce ($68): 8/10