At the Arena: The nice, the rude, the outrageous
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I am often asked "Who was your favorite act?" or "What was your best show?" Or "Who was the nicest act?
In the early days, artists appreciated anything I would do for them. They were grateful. If I was able to get their record played, they remembered that forever and were loyal to me. After a while, unfortunately, that changed. Most of what sticks in my mind are all of the greedy and selfish behaviors that our rock heroes exhibited over the years.
The Beatles were without a doubt the most celebrated and well known of all the concerts we promoted. I never cared too much for the Stones. The first time the Stones came to town was around the same time as the Beatles, but they did poorly in comparison. The next time they came, I assured them that they would do well. I went to WDVE -- which promoted almost all of my concerts -- to ask them to hype the show. It sold out to more than 14,000 -- the largest crowd I ever had up to then.
Bob Harper, program director of DVE and a good friend of mine, was backstage with all of his station's disc jockeys, who introduce the acts. They were proud that their station did such a good job promoting the Stones.
It was intermission and I was at the box office when the phone rang. John Woods, the box office manager, answered the phone. "That was Mick Jagger," he said. "He wants to see you in his dressing room."
That was never a good sign. Anytime an artist wants to see you in the dressing room, expect a problem.
When I reached the dressing room, Mick asked, "Who are all those people behind the stage?"
"They are the disc jockeys from WDVE. They are doing the emceeing for the show."
"Well I don't want anyone back stage, and I don't want anybody emceeing the show. Get rid of them now!"
"But Mick," I told him, "You don't understand. They are with the show. Their station did a great job promoting you and presenting the show. It is in your contract that they can announce you."
"Either you get rid of them or I won't go on," he said.
Bob Harper was not too happy with this news. "We have a deal. You can't do this to me. You go back and tell him that," he said.
First Published May 30, 2010 12:00 am
