Did You Know?
Barbie was introduced at the New York Toy Fair on 9 March 1959; her real name is Barbie Millicent Roberts and her parents are Ruth and Elliot Handler. Barbie has four sisters: Skipper (1964), Stacie (1992), Kelly (1995) and Krissy (1995).
Ken, Barbie's boyfriend, debuted in 1961. Unfortunately, they split up on Valentine's Day 2004.
|
|
Submit your Concert Photos
Have a great picture from last year's Moondance Jam? Get a great action shot of your favorite performer on stage? Send them to us at photos@teaprod.com and you might see them featured as the headline image in the next newsletter. Please send appropriate photos only. You know what we mean. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Producing Your Event, Part 1: Buying Talent
 In the next several newsletters I will go over the various responsibilities and expectations you should have when assigning a person or hiring a production company to help you produce your event. When I started working with Bill Bieloh at Moondance Jam fifteen years ago, our event staff consisted of Bill, his wife Kathy and me. Items on our agenda included talent buying, advertising, ticket sales, staging, sound, lights, parking, camping, merchandise sales, sponsors, and vendors. I remember that as soon as ticket dates were set, Kathy would gear up for the onslaught of orders. She would mail all of the tickets out while Bill worked on sponsors and I took care of talent, staging and lighting. Today the festival is in its 18th year and has been named "the premiere Classic Rock festival" in the U.S. The staff is headed by 18 department heads operating and executing their part of the Moondance puzzle and keep everything running like the proverbial well-oiled machine. My point in all of this is, and I can not emphasize it enough, is that putting together an event or festival is much more than buying talent and finding a stage to host the artists. The advantage of hiring an experienced, full-service production company, like TEA Productions, is that they will be able to provide expertise in areas of event production - including those that you may not even think about. Buying talent:Besides understanding the needs of an event, buying festival talent is about relationships. In this way, it is not unlike other sectors of business. It is important for you to choose wisely when selecting the person or company who you will entrust with the purchasing of talent. for your event. A few questions to consider: Does the talent buyer have a longstanding reputation with major agencies and artist management companies? Does the talent buyer buy for more than one event? It is likely that a major agency will give the edge to the more experienced or more active buyer in the industry, someone that they know better and work with throughout the year. Seasonal events have become numerous and there has become a greater pressure for talent on the summer festival market because of these events and the static number of artists. There are not more artists created because there are more events, so having buying clout becomes more important. This is generally what happens with the buyer who is more active and has that longstanding reputation within the Entertainment Industry. Coming up in Part 2: Getting SponsorsPlease send us any questions you may have about producing your event and we will include them in the next segment. Or you can contact me directly at thibault@teaprod.com or
612.543.1384. Jack Thibault President T.E.A. Productions | Minneapolis MN | 612.543.1384 | thibault@teaprod.com
|
|
Alpine Valley sales strong despite economy
 Despite economy, pricey seats at Alpine Valley still selllingBy Tom Alesia | Wisconsin State Journal WEST TROY, Wis. - Bad economic news is music to no one's ears. But concert-goers have shown remarkable willingness this winter to pay top dollar for season tickets - up to $2,000 for six summer shows - at Alpine Valley Music Theatre, Wisconsin's biggest concert venue. Since the late 1990s, the southeastern Wisconsin facility has quietly held aside several hundred prime seats that Alpine Valley sells as VIP season tickets. This summer, the venue in East Troy, about 60 miles east of Madison, reserved more than 850 of its best seats, including all spots in the wide center section of its first 26 rows, and sold each separately as VIP season tickets. The eager response surprised Alpine Valley officials. Only about 40 of the VIP's lowest-priced offerings between $1,200 and $1,300 each remain. Michael Caulfield, director of premium seats at Alpine Valley, said those will be gone by the end of this month. "We're not part of a recession," Caulfield said, half-joking. Caulfield added that Alpine Valley's lineup - which includes the Dave Matthews Band (tickets for their July 18-19 shows go on sale at noon today) and Jimmy Buffett - is greatly enhanced by concerts from Coldplay and Phish. The latter band's reunion tour has sold out two shows, June 20 and 21, at Alpine Valley. The theater's capacity is 35,000, with 7,000 seats in its covered pavilion and space for 28,000 people on the venue's vast grassy hill. Alpine Valley also sold 33 four-seat packages, which feature wait staff service before and during each show, for $7,000. Gary Bongiovanni, editor of Pollstar, the concert industry's online and print publication, said venues nationwide are trying VIP packages. He called each of Alpine Valley's shows "high demand" concerts. What Alpine Valley's VIP season seats illustrate, too, is how difficult it is for the average single ticket buyer to get the best seats. Caulfield said he doesn't get many complaints because "people love to go out on the lawn at Alpine." Sixty percent of the season tickets are bought by individuals, Caulfield said, and businesses purchase the rest. The VIP tickets also have high resale value. Milwaukee-based broker The Ticket King has up to 100 seats being sold online for Phish and Coldplay at between $700 and $900 each in the VIP sections. "The difficulty with these packages is whether they end up in the hands of ticket brokers," Bongiovanni said. "If you're a ticket broker and you want to make sure you have great tickets to Phish, Jimmy Buffett and other prime shows, why wouldn't you buy these VIP packages because you know you can resell them. They're the best seats in the house." Compared to the ticket brokers' prices, Alpine Valley's season prices seem relatively small. Top-priced pavilion single tickets, though, for Phish and Coldplay sold for between $65 and $75 during the original public sale. But at $1,800 for a season ticket, Caulfield said, "It's not an astronomical ticket price."
|
|
Sheryl Crow headlines at Moondance Jam '09
 Sheryl Crow is the first signed act of Moondance Jam 2009. Bolder and more free-spirited than ever, Sheryl Crow embarks on paths both deeply personal and grandly global on Detours
(Interscope/A&M Records). Filled with songs about having and
holding, changing and letting go, about beginnings, endings, and the
roads between them, Detours was inspired by "how I feel things
are going in the world and what's happened to me the last couple of
years," says the nine-time Grammy Award winning singer-songwriter.
Crow's
lyrical signposts range from the demise of a relationship, the adoption
of a child (baby Wyatt, who guests on "Lullaby For Wyatt"), a public
bout with breast cancer to the war in Iraq ("Peace Be Upon Us,"
featuring Arabic lyrics sung by Ahmed Al Hirmi), environmental disaster
("Gasoline" featuring Ben Harper), and the ravaged New Orleans of
Hurricane Katrina ("Love Is Free").
Marking her reunion with Bill Bottrell, who produced her sensational 1993 debut, Tuesday Night Music Club, Detours
wends its way across the pop musical landscape from the rockin' "Shine
Over Babylon" and acoustic folk "God Bless This Mess" to the plaintive
"Diamond Ring." An out-of-the-blue telephone call from Crow prompted a
reconciliation with Bottrell and brought him to the studio at her farm
near Nashville to produce her sixth studio album.
|
|
Featured Artist: L.A. Guns
"Nobody does Sleaze rock better than L.A. GUNS. It's been 20 years, and the fearsome foursome still have the power and energy of a hungry up & coming band. The band's latest album, Tales From The Strip, should be on any serious rock fan's top ten list."
- Mitch Lafon, www.BraveWords.com
L.A. Guns got their start on Los Angeles ' Sunset Strip more than 15 years ago. The band was formed in 1986 and signed with Polygram Records in 1987, recording their first album that summer. This first album, titled "L.A. Guns", went on to sell 750,000 copies and earned the band its first gold album award. Tours with AC/DC , Iron Maiden , and Def Leppard followed.
A compilation of the videos made from this first album also earned the band a gold video award. L.A. Guns went into the studio to record their second album, "Cocked and Loaded", in the spring of 1989. It was a hit right away with the release of "Rip and Tear" as the first single and video. "Never Enough" and "The Ballad of Jayne" followed, pushing album sales over 1,000,000 and earning the band its first platinum record award. The video compilation from this album earned the band its second gold video award.
A successful world tour followed. The band's third album, "Hollywood Vampires", was recorded in the fall of 1990. With the release of "Kiss My Love Goodbye" as the first single and video, and another successful world tour, the album went on to sell 700,000 copies and earned the band its third gold album award.
After a 2003 world tour to support "Waking the Dead", their 12th album, L.A. Guns went into the studio during the summer of 2004 to record "Rips the Covers Off" with producer Andy Johns. This was a collection of 70's rock songs that the band grew up listening to. Once again, the band went on a full world tour to support the new CD. I
n January of 2005, L.A. Guns began work on "Tales from the Strip" with Andy Johns again producing. The "Tales" CD was released August 2005. Reviews were great with many saying it was some of the best music out today. LAG hooked up with WASP for a late summer, early fall tour. In early 2006, LAG did some local L.A. shows and recorded them for a new live CD. This new live CD, "Loud and Dangerous", was released late August 2006 with the band again supporting it with a world tour.
In Early 2007 long time bassist Adam Hamilton decided to do songwriting and producing fulltime. The guys quickly acquired Hollywood Veteran Scott Griffin on Bass. Scott fit the band perfectly and the boys have been tearing it up across the world like it was 1989 all over again.
The band is currently celebrating the 20th Anniversary of Cocked and Loaded by playing the album in it's entirety.
|
|
|
|
|
