Page* Six
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
I hursday, September 7, 1977
Page Six THE MICHIGAN DAILY thursday, 5eptember 7, 1972
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By LORIN LABARDEE
Although camping out for
two or three nights to buy tic-
kets for a concert is a pheno-
menon commonly associated
with big city concerts, local con-
cert enthusiasts are often equal-
ly persistent. Witness, for ex-
ample, last fall when it was
announced that tickets for an
upcoming Jefferson Airplane
concert were to be sold in Ann
Arbor box offices.
By Saturday afternoon, al-
most two days before tickets
were to go on sale, the main
lobby of the Michigan Union
was jammed beyond capacity.
As eager concert goers contin-
ued to arrive, they overflowed
down the front steps into the
Union's basement. And when
tickets finally did go on sale,
the majority of those in the.
basement were too far back in
line to get tickets. Forty-eight
hours wasted.
Hoping to avoid a repetition
of such disappointment, frus-
tration and confusion, concert
promoters decided to make tic-
kets to the next concert, fea-
turing the Grateful Dead, ob-
tainable only by mail order.
This time the frenzy was less
noticeable, manifesting itself
in hastily scrawled letters and
hurried attempts to reach the
post office before the rush but
after the mail order deadline.
The organization of most lo-
cal concerts falls into the hands
of Daystar Productions, a pro-
motion agency contracted by
the University Activities Center
<UAC). Other groups brought
-to campus last year by Daystar
include Commander Cody,
Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf,
Delaney and Bonnie, Mountain,
Kris Kristofferson, and Ike and
Tina Turner. In addition to
these, other performers are
brought to Ann Arbor by var-
ious individual student organi-
zations, such as last year's Joan
Baez concert promoted by the
U-M Folklore Society.
Concert audiences are as var-
ied as the music they listen to.
At the Kristofferson concert,
the crowd was peaceful and se-
date. Dope was a rarity and
most listeners were satisfied to
just sit and take in the music.
Most of them were no-nonsense,
right-wing people with a smat-
tering of freaks here and there.
Contrast this scene with the
Rod Stewart concert when a
nearly-insane crowd on the are-
na floor formed a human wave.
of freaks chanting, clapping,
and lighting matches which
were held high to demonstrate
their pleasure w it h Stew-
art's performance. This spec-
tacle was best witnessed at the
end of the first encore when
the crowd demanded more.
The reader will be happy to
know that after hundreds of
mashed toes and burnt fingers
Stewart finally returned to
wow them with "Three Button
Hand-Me Down."
While the attitude of the
crowd is a significant part of a
concert's atmosphere, the set-
ting in which it's performed is
also an influence.
Hill Auditorium, small, old
and crampt, enforces strict
smoking regulations, be it mari-
juana, tobacco, or whatever else
you happen to stuff your pipe
with.
Crisler Arena, on the other
hand, is huge and can accom-
modate a big act that goads the
crowd into a head-smashing
frenzy. Crisler, also much new-
er than Hill, enjoys smoking
laws not nearly as rigid as those
in Hill. If you go to a concert
in Crisler don't bother bringing
dope, just breath hard.
With the continuing failure
of student organizations to put
on successful concerts, the Uni-
versity realized the need for an
Events Director. Peter Andrews,
currently of Daystar Produc-
tions, volunteered for the job.
After a short time, Andrews
decided that this relationship
to the University was too stif-
ling for his outside interests. He
now enjoys a contractual agree-
ment between Daystar and the
University's Activity Center
(UAC). and has become Ann
Arbor's major concert promo-
ter.
As a promoter under contract
with UAC, Andrews performs a
number of services to student
organizations who desire to put
on a concert. Problems often
faced include balancing costs
and potential profits, knowing-
- when certain groups draw big
audiences. and knowing which
groups are best received in a
given city. Other knowledge
which Andrews rates as essen-
tial to anyone putting on a con-
cert include determining ticket
prices, knowing which albums
sell and knowing how to bar-
gain w i t h groups' booking
agents.
Promoting concerts at a ma-
jor university presents a num-
ber of pai'ticular problems not
often faced by promoters in ma-
jor cities. Andrews says that
universities are prime money
targets for big name acts be-
cause universities can be had."
Andrews doesn't joke about
the hassles of readying a con-
cert for Ann Arbor people. Dur-
ing an interview last July, An-
drews received a call from a
man who wanted to finalize the
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deal for a Commander Cody
concert this fall. Only a few of
the problems discussed were:
ticket sales, gross profits, ac-
companying groups and basic
expenses which would have to
be met for the performance.
Expense items for a concert
such as this are numerous in-
cluding hall rental, ticket print-
ing, advertising, public address
systems and the employment of
the Psychedelic Rangers to con-
trol the crowds and fire mar-
shalls.
The estimated total cost for
all expenses is $3,500.
Each year, people concerned
with promoting concertshmeet at
a conference where they are
offered package deals for big
name groups. University peo-
ple. according to Andrews,tare
given the impression that they
are getting big 'name prices,
when the truth is usually the
opposite. Since most univer-
sity people have had little ex-
perience in booking concerts,
they usually follow the advice
of booking agents and pay top
dollar prices -for acts.
An additional problem com-
mon to universities is competi-
tion with nearby large cities.
Big concerts in large cities,
Andrews explains, take so much
money out of the market with
high ticket prices that no other
concert can hope to sell out
during the same time.
For example, Rod Stewart
and the Faces appeared in Ann
Arbor last July one week before
the Rolling Stones concert in
Detroit. While the Stewart con-
cert sold only 6/7ths of Crisler
Arena, the last Detroit Stewart
concert sold out Cobo Hall.
Detroit presents further prob-
lems to the Ann Arbor music
scene because Bob Bageris, ma-
jor Detroit promoter, has first
choice over all big name groups
within an area which includes
Ann Arbor. If someone, such as
Andrews, wants to feature a big
name act on campus, that per-
son must agree to pay Bageris a
certain percentage of the pro-
fits in order to obtain the act.
Groups themselves present
major problems to those who
promote concerts. In Andrews'
in terms of different forms of
music being artistically accept-
ed."
In this regard, he has joined
with John Sinclair, chairman of
the Rainbow People's Party (R-
"Ann Arbor will soon be
one of the top cities in the
nation in terms of different
forms of music being aftis-
tically accepted."
-Peter Andrews
Daystar Productions
national acceptance or type of to include -jazz. The festival is
music. tentatively scheduled for some-
"Ann Arbor will soon be one time in the first part of Sep
of the top cities in the nation
tember.
The last Ann Arbor Blues
Festival, sponsored by Canter-
bury House, lost somewhere in
the neighborhood of $30,000.
Andrews is confident that this
year's festival will at the very
least break even and very pos-
sibly render a profit.
During the course of the in-
terview, with Andrews, a num-
ber of acts were mentioned.
Some of these included: Yes,
Procol Harum, Stevie Wonder,
Jefferson Airplane, Hot Tuna,
Grateful Dead and Cat Stevens.
Andrews cautioned that. very
little of the concert schedule
for the fall and winter terms
has been "firmed," but that
these names are definitely be-
ing considered for concert dates
sometime during the coming
school year.
Both Andrews and Sinclair
have also emphasized that the
big concert is not the only form
of musical entertainment.
The Community Parks Pro-
gram is a vital part of the move
to get away from the big rock
acts. The Parks Program, ac-
cordi to Andrews, is import-
ant bdcause it offers unknown
groups exposure to the Univer-
siay program.
An additional advantage .of
the Parks Program is that it
helps promote understanding
between the young and the old
in the city.
The concerts, held in public
parks let older city residents
see that rock concerts are not
always "wild drug orgies." The
concerts also allow the city to
become actively involved in the
youth of the city by providing
a place for them to enjoy a
Sunday afternoon.
Andrews also feels that there
is a need to bring dancing back
to concerts and plans to elimi-
nate Crisler floor seats to make
it a dance floor.
Anyone who attempted to get
tickets to last year's Jefferson
Airplane concert will be relieved
to hear that there are plans to
provide better facilities for box
office ticket sales in the Michi-
gan Union. Hopefully, there will
be no more camping out over
night in wait, for tickets, only
to be told that the concert has
been sold out.
41
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words, these are "the big white
rock and roll acts" - the most
prominent types of acts today.
The general music audience,
according to Andrews, has been
conditioned to believe that the
only good concerts are those
featuring prime, big name
groups. Andrews rates this
trend towards huge shows as
"anti-music."
Andrews says he wants to
change this attitude in Ann
Arbor. It is his intention to re-
turn the emphasis to enjoying
the artist and appreciating good
music regardless of the group's
PP), to form the Rainbow Cor-
poration.
The ultimate goal of-Rainbow
Corporation is to put on non-
profit concerts featuring re-
spected artists who can be ap-
preciated without the frenzy
often accompanying concerts in
Crisler Arena and Hill Audi-
torium. 1
The best example of this re-
form effort is the revival of the
annual Ann Arbor Blues Fes-
tival. Andrews explains °that
Rainbow Corporation has tak-
en on the job of putting on the
Blues Festival and expanding it
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