Chains Scam Stops Short

A scam involving a bogus Alice In Chains concert was halted May 4th thanks to a Vermont venue manager who followed her instincts when the offer sounded too good to be true.

Jordan Yousem of Core Entertainment, AIC’s management company, said he was alerted to the ruse by aliceinchains.com site manager Quick Community.

Yousem said Liz Lagrow of Backstage Restaurant in Essex Junction, Vt., e-mailed to check references on Michael Robertson, who claimed to be Alice In Chains’ manager. Robertson had contacted her, saying the band was interested in performing at the small venue May 24th following a gig at The Bowery Ballroom in New York City.

He then faxed a detailed contract — listing a Florida address and toll-free number as contact information — and two memos outlining his plan to buy promotion spots from a Clear Channel radio station.

“I received an inquiry from the company that manages our Web site stating a local club in New England had just been contacted about having Alice In Chains perform there,” Yousem told Pollstar. “I double-checked with [the band’s] agent to make sure that this person, Michael Robertson, did not in fact work for Creative Artists Agency. … I just wanted to make sure that he wasn’t with CAA before I burned this guy.”

Alice In Chains is co-managed by Core Entertainment’s Bill Siddons, so Yousem knew this was a scam.

“I asked her to contact her local F.B.I. and police department. There wasn’t much interest from either one of those parties on her end, so I contacted the Los Angeles F.B.I. office,” Yousem said. “They said unless there’s something on the order of $25,000 in the scam, they wouldn’t be able to do much.”

A copy of the unsigned contract dated May 2nd and related correspondence obtained by Pollstar shows a standard contract template with pertinent info typed in. The “act of God,” or force majeure, clause is tellingly misspelled “force manure.”

An Internet search shows the 800 number provided is either an alternate phone line for the physical referral department at Hardin Memorial Hospital in Elizabethtown, Ky., or the contact number for a Garth Brooks impersonator. Either way, all circuits are busy.

The bargain-basement fee was also a definite giveaway. The contract calls for a $1,500 deposit with a balance of another $1,500 due the day of the show. Ticket prices were to be set at $25 for a two-and-a-half hour show. Sound, lighting, stage requirements and other policies are covered followed by a statement guaranteeing “a sold-out performance prior to delivery of the balance due on the show.”

Yousem said the Backstage Restaurant was the only confirmed scam attempt he knows of. The F.B.I. agreed to log the incident into its national database in case similar complaints come in.

“As of right now, we don’t know that there’s actually been an exchange, that anyone has given him any money,” he said. “I haven’t contacted [Robertson] and I instructed Liz not to contact him.”

A similar scam involving a Lafayette, La., nightclub was scuttled in April. In that case, a phony artist rep contacted officials at the 250-capacity 307 Downtown and pitched a May 26th booking for a solo Axl Rose concert.

The scam artist also supplied a contract that was worded to sound legitimate. Venue management sent a deposit check as requested but put a stop payment on it after Rose’s camp got wind and alerted them.

– Tina Amendola