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Concerts 101
Concerts 101: Yesterday, TODAY, and Tomorrow?? – The title of the panel could mean just about anything, but Barbara Hubbard made it cohesive.
The panel definitely was a starting course in the business (Concert 101), she asked panelists on how they got started in the business (Yesterday), talked about current developments (TODAY) and asked the panelists where they thought the business was heading.
Heck, at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces, and she’d recruit students to help bring 30 shows to the campus each semester.
As for the diversity – artist manager, record company exec, agent, accountant, venue manager and insurance agent – the panel provided the basic ingredients of the music biz, with a common thread among the panelists: Jason Aldean.
A few backgrounds: Clarence Spalding, manager of Aldean (and, the night of the panel, winner of Pollstar’s Manager of the Year award), started by booking entertainment at the University of Kentucky before managing a nightclub.
He went on to tour manage Exile (“I Want To Kiss You All Over) in 1978.
From there it was working at management companies for 20 years in Nashville, including Bob Titley’s, which managed
Spalding Entertainment owes a lot to Buddy Lee’s Kevin.
Neal got Aldean to sign with Spalding. The company now manages Aldean, Rascal Flatts, Kix Brooks and Terry Clarke
Neal’s father was in radio, then a manager, then an agent, and Neal got into the business after he quit his college’s golf team.
When his dad retired – and by selling it to William Morris, launching WME’s Nashville presence – took on one of his dad’s clients, Johnny Rodriguez, for $75 a week.
The current president of the company, Neal has been with Buddy Lee for 25 years.
Michael Marion’s background began with a love of the Beatles when he was in the third grade. The class decided to start a club and Marion was vice president.
He eventually did the college radio station thing at Misissippi State before booking concerts there.
“One of my goals was to book a show before Barbara Hubbard did, and I booked
The panel definitely was a starting course in the business (Concert 101), she asked panelists on how they got started in the business (Yesterday), talked about current developments (TODAY) and asked the panelists where they thought the business was heading.
Heck, before her.”
His experience eventually led to a career as an agent, then the uphill battle of booking an managing an arena in North Little Rock, Ark.
As for the present day, the panel included some entertaining exchanges, including one between Spalding and Sigler, whose record company includes Aldean as a client.
“Whenever you work a record, are you passionate about it?” Spalding asked. “Yes.’
“Bullshit.”
Spalding was making a point, but not the first one that probably comes to mind.
“I’m not even passionate about all my artists’ records,” Spalding said. “I’m not making fun of John. I think they have the toughest job in the world. My artist recorded something they think is fantastic, and hands it over to John and say, ‘Go get this played.’ Not because you think it’s great or Clarence Spalding thinks it’s great, but the artist thinks it’s great. That’s the sign of a great promotion person – they can believe. I can’t. I’d be the worst. I’d walk into the radio station and go, “Give me a break. Play this piece of crap, would ya?’
“Sometimes my artists will call me and say ‘We’ve got a promotion problem’ and I want to say, ‘No, we’ve got a song problem.’”
Mary Ann McCready touched upon a present problem that was even worse in the past: artists with poor financial planning. There is no real answer to it – but the message was to be aware that artists will rarely come to seek help. They want to give “Uncle Louie” a new house and that’s final.
As for the future, Spalding landed the audience’s attention with his answer, which was basically that it was about keeping on keeping on, but he has two full-time social media personnel who cover all of his artists on platforms like Facebook, Twitter … At which point the audience erupted in applause.
“Twitter fans, all around!” a panelist joked.
The Q&A pulled it together.
One of a half-dozen questions came from the manager of a 350-capacity club that was bleeding cash and could not compete – charging $20 for parking and $9 beers are untenable, but customer-friendly prices take a big hit on the venue..
The answer was simple, on paper: plead to the agent.
Many understand the concerns of those rooms and may have been in the same shoes at one point.