December 25, 2025 • 10 mins
Synthony owner and boxing promoter David Higgins joined Andrew Dickens to chat about Synthony's meteoric rise and next steps in the world of boxing.
Higgins was always put off by joining the world of music, until he discovered Synthony.
"With Synthony, I thought, wow, it's like Cirque du Soleil. It's a brand, I could trademark in 100 countries, which I did. I could then schedule dates and venues, at will and use local orchestras and young talent who are grateful for the opportunity and not be at the behest of global agencies and management," he told Dickens.
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Speaker 1 (00:09):
You're listening to a podcast from news Talk zed Be
Follow this and our wide range of podcasts now on iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
David Higgins is an ideas guy. So the man made
his name as a promoter of events and also boxes
and music. He's been with Joseph Parker for years now
and he's taken Joe to the top of the heavyweight world.
He now has another great idea which is taking over
not just New Zealand, but the whole world. And so
David Higgins joins me on the Summer Breakfast.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
Happy New Year, mate, Good morning Andrew, thank you for
having me.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Oh it's a pleasure mate. Looking back at last year
twenty twenty five, and I want to look at Joseph
Parker at first, a bit of a tumultuous year for
the man. Took a punt on a fight and lost,
and then that allegation of cocaine use. And you're his
mate as well as a promoter. Is he bearing up?
Speaker 3 (01:00):
Oh? Look he's he's had a rollercoaster of a career really,
you know, he didn't quite make the Olympics, all the
Commonwealth Games. He was thinking of them a builder in
west Auckland. But you know, serendipitously he wanted to turn pro.
We were looking for a young person who'd worked for
the long or to try through the seemingly impossible and
(01:21):
win the Heaverwrote world title in New Zealand. At the time,
that would be like setting out to win the Melbourne Cup,
and perhaps even more difficult than that. But we all
got together as a team and double down. Josis did
the training and the fighting and kept winning, and we
invested heavily and scheduled te regularly and left no stone unturned,
and he did just that. Josa Parker beat Andre Luiz
(01:43):
to win the heaver Ate world title in New Zealand
in twenty sixteen. And then you know, he sort of
had a hiatis where he wasn't at his best, and
instead of giving up, he made all he made changes
to the team and to the techniques and to his
approach and nutrition and conditioning. And then he had another
golden run right up to number one. And as you say,
(02:06):
he rolled the dice recently, swardly, and he took a loss.
In terms of the controversy, I'm not at liberty to
discuss it at the moment, but one hundred percent that
should be able to be discussed in coming weeks once
there's more clarity.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
Cook. I love the man and I loved how he
got better and better. I mean, I've never seen him
looking fitter than he did last year. But you have
to ask a question, is this the beginning of the
end of the road.
Speaker 3 (02:34):
I don't think so. They say a heavyweight boxer is
at their prime age thirty five. Then you look at
guys like George Foreman another clitch Goo fighting on to forty,
which Joseph won't. Joseph at thirty three is considered a
young heavyweight that's not quite at as prime yet and
he a bit of a veteran. If you look at
the names on his resume, Anthony, Josh Were, Gillian White
(02:55):
and you really Joe Joyce, director Zora he beat twice,
Yontay Wilder, Zilla Zang Bikoli, Demetrinko a tack him. I mean,
no one in the I don't think any other Heather
in the world has men big names on the resume,
so he knows what he's doing. In London recently, it
was a blip like he'd had that fight won on
(03:18):
the cards, and then he sort of was stunned at
the end. I think he might have come in a
bit little heavy and maybe he could have been give
him a standing account. On another day, he would have
won that fight and fight in music. So do we quit, No,
we don't. We've come back twice before. The media and
the fans are funny. You know, when you're on a
golden run, they'll talk you up like the next big thing,
(03:40):
and then you take a blip and they'll say, our
time to retire. But we're used to that. We're not
these unfinished business. This is coming from Joseph Parker, he said, David,
because I said, look, mat if you did want to retire,
I would fully support you this mortal life and been
punched in the head. He said, David, I'm not finished,
got a couple more years left and are going to
(04:01):
come back and give it even more efforts and dedication
and focus, and I want to win that will title
and unify.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
Where send him my best wishes. He's a lovely fellow.
This box this boxing business appears to be quite a
tough one, and you're in the middle of it, and
right at the top of it seems to be full
of sharks and dodgy players. What's it really like is it.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
Fun, Well, it's challenging and interesting. On the commercial business side,
a Fonterra are going to buy a fifty million dollar
acquisition in China, They'll get some consultant Slope Boston or
McKinsey to look at it. They'll quietly do due diligence
for a year, then they'll negotiate behind the scenes and
announced the deal. When boxing, When I make a deal
(04:42):
with say Eddie Hearn's for the Joshua fight, I'm making
what was a fifty million dollar intercontinental joint bench deal
on the front page of a newspaper, the terms and
negotia of the front page, and we're only three months
with a gun to your head with a guy who've
never worked within your life with I six BSS on
the foreign money laundering law, there's risks of cheating, of
(05:03):
fraud of all men are not being paid, you know,
the judges, the official manner of things. So it's it's
a crazy business to do that. You have to be
book smart and street smart. Street smart don't mean sometimes
you're dealing with angsters types and you're bluffing and threatening.
You have to be able to deal with that. But
book smart, that the actual contract has to be quality,
(05:25):
you know. It's like investment banking level contracts. You need
a bit of both. And so that does make it
very interesting. That's probably to keep me in it out
side of it. But by the way, this sharks in
every business, the unethical people. I guess what. In boxing,
there are good people and Joseph Parker is one of them.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
David, you are the brains behind Symphony, which has become
a New Zealand classic, a summer classic. The marriage of
a classical orchestra with dance and dance music and rock.
How did Symphony come about?
Speaker 3 (05:58):
Right? So if a friend of mine in the New
Zealand Pilot named David Elmsley and his wife founded it.
They saw a video on YouTube of Pete Tong and
the Heritage Orchestra at Royal Album Hall doing something similar.
They thought that's cool to try that in New Zealand,
so they ran it at Auckland Town Hall. They tried
to keep the costs under his end us in a
pilot's salary for risk management, and the first show in
(06:19):
town Hall sold out probably break evenish, but there was
a real bars that was unique and attracted an affluent
mature crowd who raved about it. Yeah, following they said,
schedule two of them at the town hall. At that stage,
they sadly were going separate ways. They wanted to sell
the event, so they contacted me and asked my advice. Hey,
(06:43):
I want to know how to sell, who to sell
an event to, and how to value it. And then
he said to me, you wouldn't be interested. It's too
small because at the time we're doing Jeff horn Manipac
our Sun Corporate Stadium, Parker Josh in the UK, the
enner Our Auckland Nines. But anyway, I sat down with him,
it was like dragons. Then I was fascinated by the
fact that it's a brand and it's not about personalities,
(07:04):
which I like because in music, if even thinks if
we've got the big name and you're gonna you've got
it made, it's the opposite. If you've got its Sharon,
you have absolutely no say is promoted. You can't choose
the n you can't choose the day, you can't even it.
Sharon will keep ninety eight percent of the profit. You're
not adding any value. And so I never went there music,
(07:24):
but with symphony, I thought, wow, it's like Sirk to Sleigh.
I could it's a brand, I could TRADEMARKT in one
hundred countries, which I did. I could then schedule dates
and venues at will and use local orchestras and young
talent who are grateful for the opportunity and not be
the behest of global agencies and management company. So we
(07:45):
ended up buying Symphony and we started growing it across
New Zealand, outdoor to Bowl of Brooklyn's, then to Spark,
now to the DeMay Manuka Fuel our sponsor have been
a massive part of it, helping us grow it to
a forty five thousand person event. And now we've gone.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
Global, Yes exactly. I followed Jeremy read More, the former
lead singer of Midnight Youth, on social media and this
last year I noticed he was playing really big arenas
in Europe with an orchestra, and I went, what the hey?
And that that is actually when I realized that Symphony
had gone into national You've gone global, So how big
was last year's tour?
Speaker 3 (08:18):
Well, we ended up talking about Thirsty Symphony events around
the world. Last year we did Formula one Las Vegas
Grand Prix on the Startgun on World TV. We opened
the one and only resort in Greece. Now the fans
or the public might be interested to know what brought
us about. It was the YouTube videos. So we started videoing,
(08:39):
spending quite a bit of money. Tens of thousands video
in the Auckland event to a very high quality, and
we chucked the videos up on YouTube and lo and behold,
people around the world promoted, see these videos and contact.
Every day I go to the office, there's a booking
inquiry from Bulgaria. Some billionaire wants us to do his
daughter's wedding. You know corporates, and eighty percent of them
(09:00):
are sort of tire kickers, but twenty percent are real.
And that's how the European tour came about. We ended
up doing fifteen or so dates around Europe. I should
say a lot of unsung heroes and Symphony obviously is
not just me. There's a whole team of people. Our CEO,
Craig Cottons worked hard on those international gigs. Nikki Raferthi
who runs the big Auckland event, is a big team.
(09:21):
But it's exciting, of course.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
So I presume you've you've written a score which you
can then present to orchicers around the world. You get
some singers like Jeremy Redmore and awhere you go.
Speaker 3 (09:33):
Yes, so we employ you know, a pretty much full
time contractor, Ryan Yurans, who writes like a modern day Mozart.
He takes electronic track, writes a score for us is ours.
We employ a full time DJ with a studio who
remasters electronic backing track, and it's like an IP. We've
trade mark the brand and so then we can partner
(09:55):
with people around the world, as you say, and then
we can hire local talent or Kiwi expats like Jeremy
who's been great, and mash it all up together in
any venue and you know it's panning out exactly we
see it out.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
I saw a video of Symphony and Vienna with with
Jeremy and the crowd was huge, The feeling was rapturous,
and I thought, goodness me, this is just amazing. And
the way you've just explained the model. You know, it's
cost effective, it's easy, it's easily branded. You give opportunities
to kiwis, but you can, you know, you can go anywhere.
I think it is a genius idea. You are a genius.
Speaker 3 (10:30):
Geez. That's a strong word.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
So anyway, this New Zealand season you're back with Faithless
at the Aukland, Maine with Symphony Big One though six
sixty at the New One New Zealand Stadium in christ Church.
So Symphony in summer in New Zealand carries on and
carries on taking over the world. Well done, mister Higgins,
and I thank you so much for joining me on
the Summer Breakfast awesome.
Speaker 3 (10:50):
Thank you, Andrew. Appreciate your time.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
For more from News Talks B listen live on air
or online, and keep our shows with you wherever you
go with our podcast on iHeartRadio
You're listening to a podcast from news Talk zed Be
Follow this and our wide range of podcasts now on iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
David Higgins is an ideas guy. So the man made
his name as a promoter of events and also boxes
and music. He's been with Joseph Parker for years now
and he's taken Joe to the top of the heavyweight world.
He now has another great idea which is taking over
not just New Zealand, but the whole world. And so
David Higgins joins me on the Summer Breakfast.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
Happy New Year, mate, Good morning Andrew, thank you for
having me.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Oh it's a pleasure mate. Looking back at last year
twenty twenty five, and I want to look at Joseph
Parker at first, a bit of a tumultuous year for
the man. Took a punt on a fight and lost,
and then that allegation of cocaine use. And you're his
mate as well as a promoter. Is he bearing up?
Speaker 3 (01:00):
Oh? Look he's he's had a rollercoaster of a career really,
you know, he didn't quite make the Olympics, all the
Commonwealth Games. He was thinking of them a builder in
west Auckland. But you know, serendipitously he wanted to turn pro.
We were looking for a young person who'd worked for
the long or to try through the seemingly impossible and
(01:21):
win the Heaverwrote world title in New Zealand. At the time,
that would be like setting out to win the Melbourne Cup,
and perhaps even more difficult than that. But we all
got together as a team and double down. Josis did
the training and the fighting and kept winning, and we
invested heavily and scheduled te regularly and left no stone unturned,
and he did just that. Josa Parker beat Andre Luiz
(01:43):
to win the heaver Ate world title in New Zealand
in twenty sixteen. And then you know, he sort of
had a hiatis where he wasn't at his best, and
instead of giving up, he made all he made changes
to the team and to the techniques and to his
approach and nutrition and conditioning. And then he had another
golden run right up to number one. And as you say,
(02:06):
he rolled the dice recently, swardly, and he took a loss.
In terms of the controversy, I'm not at liberty to
discuss it at the moment, but one hundred percent that
should be able to be discussed in coming weeks once
there's more clarity.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
Cook. I love the man and I loved how he
got better and better. I mean, I've never seen him
looking fitter than he did last year. But you have
to ask a question, is this the beginning of the
end of the road.
Speaker 3 (02:34):
I don't think so. They say a heavyweight boxer is
at their prime age thirty five. Then you look at
guys like George Foreman another clitch Goo fighting on to forty,
which Joseph won't. Joseph at thirty three is considered a
young heavyweight that's not quite at as prime yet and
he a bit of a veteran. If you look at
the names on his resume, Anthony, Josh Were, Gillian White
(02:55):
and you really Joe Joyce, director Zora he beat twice,
Yontay Wilder, Zilla Zang Bikoli, Demetrinko a tack him. I mean,
no one in the I don't think any other Heather
in the world has men big names on the resume,
so he knows what he's doing. In London recently, it
was a blip like he'd had that fight won on
(03:18):
the cards, and then he sort of was stunned at
the end. I think he might have come in a
bit little heavy and maybe he could have been give
him a standing account. On another day, he would have
won that fight and fight in music. So do we quit, No,
we don't. We've come back twice before. The media and
the fans are funny. You know, when you're on a
golden run, they'll talk you up like the next big thing,
(03:40):
and then you take a blip and they'll say, our
time to retire. But we're used to that. We're not
these unfinished business. This is coming from Joseph Parker, he said, David,
because I said, look, mat if you did want to retire,
I would fully support you this mortal life and been
punched in the head. He said, David, I'm not finished,
got a couple more years left and are going to
(04:01):
come back and give it even more efforts and dedication
and focus, and I want to win that will title
and unify.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
Where send him my best wishes. He's a lovely fellow.
This box this boxing business appears to be quite a
tough one, and you're in the middle of it, and
right at the top of it seems to be full
of sharks and dodgy players. What's it really like is it.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
Fun, Well, it's challenging and interesting. On the commercial business side,
a Fonterra are going to buy a fifty million dollar
acquisition in China, They'll get some consultant Slope Boston or
McKinsey to look at it. They'll quietly do due diligence
for a year, then they'll negotiate behind the scenes and
announced the deal. When boxing, When I make a deal
(04:42):
with say Eddie Hearn's for the Joshua fight, I'm making
what was a fifty million dollar intercontinental joint bench deal
on the front page of a newspaper, the terms and
negotia of the front page, and we're only three months
with a gun to your head with a guy who've
never worked within your life with I six BSS on
the foreign money laundering law, there's risks of cheating, of
(05:03):
fraud of all men are not being paid, you know,
the judges, the official manner of things. So it's it's
a crazy business to do that. You have to be
book smart and street smart. Street smart don't mean sometimes
you're dealing with angsters types and you're bluffing and threatening.
You have to be able to deal with that. But
book smart, that the actual contract has to be quality,
(05:25):
you know. It's like investment banking level contracts. You need
a bit of both. And so that does make it
very interesting. That's probably to keep me in it out
side of it. But by the way, this sharks in
every business, the unethical people. I guess what. In boxing,
there are good people and Joseph Parker is one of them.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
David, you are the brains behind Symphony, which has become
a New Zealand classic, a summer classic. The marriage of
a classical orchestra with dance and dance music and rock.
How did Symphony come about?
Speaker 3 (05:58):
Right? So if a friend of mine in the New
Zealand Pilot named David Elmsley and his wife founded it.
They saw a video on YouTube of Pete Tong and
the Heritage Orchestra at Royal Album Hall doing something similar.
They thought that's cool to try that in New Zealand,
so they ran it at Auckland Town Hall. They tried
to keep the costs under his end us in a
pilot's salary for risk management, and the first show in
(06:19):
town Hall sold out probably break evenish, but there was
a real bars that was unique and attracted an affluent
mature crowd who raved about it. Yeah, following they said,
schedule two of them at the town hall. At that stage,
they sadly were going separate ways. They wanted to sell
the event, so they contacted me and asked my advice. Hey,
(06:43):
I want to know how to sell, who to sell
an event to, and how to value it. And then
he said to me, you wouldn't be interested. It's too
small because at the time we're doing Jeff horn Manipac
our Sun Corporate Stadium, Parker Josh in the UK, the
enner Our Auckland Nines. But anyway, I sat down with him,
it was like dragons. Then I was fascinated by the
fact that it's a brand and it's not about personalities,
(07:04):
which I like because in music, if even thinks if
we've got the big name and you're gonna you've got
it made, it's the opposite. If you've got its Sharon,
you have absolutely no say is promoted. You can't choose
the n you can't choose the day, you can't even it.
Sharon will keep ninety eight percent of the profit. You're
not adding any value. And so I never went there music,
(07:24):
but with symphony, I thought, wow, it's like Sirk to Sleigh.
I could it's a brand, I could TRADEMARKT in one
hundred countries, which I did. I could then schedule dates
and venues at will and use local orchestras and young
talent who are grateful for the opportunity and not be
the behest of global agencies and management company. So we
(07:45):
ended up buying Symphony and we started growing it across
New Zealand, outdoor to Bowl of Brooklyn's, then to Spark,
now to the DeMay Manuka Fuel our sponsor have been
a massive part of it, helping us grow it to
a forty five thousand person event. And now we've gone.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
Global, Yes exactly. I followed Jeremy read More, the former
lead singer of Midnight Youth, on social media and this
last year I noticed he was playing really big arenas
in Europe with an orchestra, and I went, what the hey?
And that that is actually when I realized that Symphony
had gone into national You've gone global, So how big
was last year's tour?
Speaker 3 (08:18):
Well, we ended up talking about Thirsty Symphony events around
the world. Last year we did Formula one Las Vegas
Grand Prix on the Startgun on World TV. We opened
the one and only resort in Greece. Now the fans
or the public might be interested to know what brought
us about. It was the YouTube videos. So we started videoing,
(08:39):
spending quite a bit of money. Tens of thousands video
in the Auckland event to a very high quality, and
we chucked the videos up on YouTube and lo and behold,
people around the world promoted, see these videos and contact.
Every day I go to the office, there's a booking
inquiry from Bulgaria. Some billionaire wants us to do his
daughter's wedding. You know corporates, and eighty percent of them
(09:00):
are sort of tire kickers, but twenty percent are real.
And that's how the European tour came about. We ended
up doing fifteen or so dates around Europe. I should
say a lot of unsung heroes and Symphony obviously is
not just me. There's a whole team of people. Our CEO,
Craig Cottons worked hard on those international gigs. Nikki Raferthi
who runs the big Auckland event, is a big team.
(09:21):
But it's exciting, of course.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
So I presume you've you've written a score which you
can then present to orchicers around the world. You get
some singers like Jeremy Redmore and awhere you go.
Speaker 3 (09:33):
Yes, so we employ you know, a pretty much full
time contractor, Ryan Yurans, who writes like a modern day Mozart.
He takes electronic track, writes a score for us is ours.
We employ a full time DJ with a studio who
remasters electronic backing track, and it's like an IP. We've
trade mark the brand and so then we can partner
(09:55):
with people around the world, as you say, and then
we can hire local talent or Kiwi expats like Jeremy
who's been great, and mash it all up together in
any venue and you know it's panning out exactly we
see it out.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
I saw a video of Symphony and Vienna with with
Jeremy and the crowd was huge, The feeling was rapturous,
and I thought, goodness me, this is just amazing. And
the way you've just explained the model. You know, it's
cost effective, it's easy, it's easily branded. You give opportunities
to kiwis, but you can, you know, you can go anywhere.
I think it is a genius idea. You are a genius.
Speaker 3 (10:30):
Geez. That's a strong word.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
So anyway, this New Zealand season you're back with Faithless
at the Aukland, Maine with Symphony Big One though six
sixty at the New One New Zealand Stadium in christ Church.
So Symphony in summer in New Zealand carries on and
carries on taking over the world. Well done, mister Higgins,
and I thank you so much for joining me on
the Summer Breakfast awesome.
Speaker 3 (10:50):
Thank you, Andrew. Appreciate your time.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
For more from News Talks B listen live on air
or online, and keep our shows with you wherever you
go with our podcast on iHeartRadio
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