It’s funny, but for the last few nights Jimmy Herring and I (well, most of the band actually) have been wearing out a dvd a friend passed along of Jeff Beck’s performance at Clapton’s ’07 Crossroads festival. And when I say wearing it out I mean it! We watch it every night, wishing that we had more footage of the man.

I have never passed up an opportunity to see Jeff Beck and I have seen him with a few different bands. His incredibly emotive playing always manages to get it’s SOUL around the sound of the different musicians sharing the stage. Because Beck has matured to the point where he is talking with his guitar. Without even thinking about WHAT to play pure thought seems to ring out of that Strat: beauty, sadness, humor, and even primitive grunts and squonks are all part of his vocabulary.

And we are amazed….some of the rocking tunes have been part of our musical lives: Led Boots, Blue Wind, Freeway Jam…but it’s the newer ones that really get us: Nadia, Angel Footsteps, Big Block, Behind The Veil, and like you mentioned, his emotional rendering of A Day In The Life. Heck, last time I saw him live he encored with a duet version of Somewhere Over The Rainbow and it damn near made me cry.

But the real reason I felt the need to respond to your blog was because of a point you often bring up: when you really FEEL what a musician is trying to say you feel compelled to tell EVERYBODY you know about it. Even if it is something as wonderfully simple as rediscovering an old flame like Jeff Beck.

My point being that last Sunday we played at The All Good Festival in West Virginia and there we were, asking EVERYBODY we saw if they had heard Jeff Beck lately. And if they hadn’t we told them that they damn sure needed to! Oh to have been a fly on the wall when Jimmy Herring asked Derek Trucks if he had heard Jeff Beck lately. I mean these are two of the greatest and most expressive modern day guitarists talking about how NO ONE has the range of expression that Beck does.

So it was really pretty funny when your email blast came through late Sunday night. Sometimes things just happen at the right time.

TRUTHfully,

Dave Schools

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Bob,

You asked for some help in coming up with an act who, after 3 albums, can sell arenas.

Well slot this name in! Michael Buble.

In the midst of a 3rd album, 75 arena sellouts in the US, 16 arena sellouts in Canada, 18 arena sellouts in Australia, and today he leaves for 9 sellouts in a UK/Ireland run, including 2 shows at the O2.

After the first 6 months of the year, he ranks 4th in global tickets sold and 5th in overall grosses. So it can be done.

Hope that helps to answer the question!

Bruce Allen

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I really resent your statement "The only thing the promoter is interested in is opening the fan’s wallet. How can he get more revenue. If you can’t charge for it, then they’re not interested in it." Next time when you rant about promoters please name them rather than making it appear that we all subscribe to a business model that can’t work unless all the independents are driven out of business.

If you checked you would see there are still some of us who care about our customers, who try to keep ticket prices down and who try to get people excited about live music. You seem to only mention LN or AEG, forgetting about Gregg & Sherri at Another Planet; John Scher & Ian Noble at Metropolitan; Adam, Ken, etc. at Nederlander, Mike, Darrin and company at Outback; Don Fox & Barry at Beaver; Stu Greene, Brad Garrett, Charlie Brusco and others who are still active participants in the live music business. It doesn’t help any of us when you forget that we are still here. Quit being part of our problem and be a part of the solution by remembering that we are still here.

Jerry Mickelson

Bob Lefsetz said:

You are doing it right, but I am painting with a broad brush to try to get the big boys to change.

Overcome them and the story will be different.

I appreciate what you are trying to do but when an act (or others that don’t really follow the business) reads your blog they don’t necessarily know that many independents are doing it right. Identifying that LN or whomever is interested only in the $ might help people understand there are other options than just LN because that’s all we read about in your blog. There’s so much about Rapino, Cohl, Leiweke and crew.

We can’t do this alone. We need people like you to help us overcome the flawed business model of LN. Write about it, talk about it but don’t put us in the same boat. Let people know there are alternatives that are better than selling a tour to one promoter. Springsteen, Metallica, REM, Matchbox Twenty, George Michael, John Mellencamp, Radiohead and many others still tour in the traditional manner with local promoters producing their shows. Others need to know that’s a better option where the $ are at least the same if not more and the bands keep control of their tour.

You know I find it interesting that Sillerman bought up successful promoters who had businesses that made money and then changed the financial model into buying tours rather than buying dates independently. So he took a sound business model that was profitable and turned it into a losing venture. The only way the LN model makes sense is if there is no competition, which is why the independent promoters needs you and others to support our business model that doesn’t believe in high ticket prices nor $10 beers,

Jerry Mickelson