Gary Perkins Dies

Perkins, who left the business decades ago and has spent years as a longshoreman, was strongly associated with industry execs like Sepp Donahower, Brian Murphy, Irving Azoff and Robert Bogdanovich.  He began his career at Pinnacle Dance Concerts, then at Pacific Presentations before forming Avalon.

Perkins and Donahower met in high school and continued their friendship throughout their college days at USC.  Meanwhile, Donahower, with the help of Perkins, formed Pinnacle and promoted shows by Pink Floyd, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jefferson Airplane, Cream, and Traffic, among others.

“When that company ended, Gary got an MBA from USC on a scholarship from Hughes Aircraft and was working at Hughes,” Donahower told Pollstar.  When Donahower created Pacific Presentations in 1970, he asked Perkins to join. “He had gotten the bug and jumped ship from Hughes and took the big plunge.”

The two formed the company alongside Robert Bogdanovich. Within three years, Pacific became one of the biggest promotion companies in North America, dominating markets like Los Angeles, Pittsburgh, Phoenix, Seattle and Vancouver, with plenty of markets in between. Along the way, Donahower brought in a young man from Seattle named Brian Murphy.

Perkins, Murphy and Bogdanovich left the company to form Avalon Attractions.  Perkins, having developed some personal issues, eventually left the company and the music business entirely.  Azoff took a position at Avalon and it was sold to SFX Entertainment in the mid-‘90s.

“He went through some tough times and even though we had business conflicts, we never had friendship problems,” Donahower said. “We’ve lifted each other out of the grave a couple of times.”

After leaving the music business, Perkins followed in his father’s footsteps and became a longshoreman – and an accomplished one, becoming a tophandler and crane operator.  He, Donahower and Bogdanovich had all come from the harbor area of the South Bay in Los Angeles.

Donahower said he and Perkins spoke the day before Perkins’ accident, inspired by Fleetwood Mac’s recent performances. The two men had brought the Peter Green version of the band to the U.S. in 1967 and had remained promoters and friends of the band for years to come.  The two men were also invited by Murphy to see the Rolling Stones last year – a fitting reunion considering they used to promote Rolling Stones shows at The Fabulous Forum.

Dedications are being added:

“I first met Gary in 1971 when I was working with Faces and he and Sepp started promoting our LA area shows. Dealing with these two was a refreshing change from the usual old school promotors, not only did they have all the skill and guile of the old school bunch they also had a modern and forward looking approach to the way the concerts were presented, at that time these were just about to two brightest people I had ever met plus they were about as much fun as anyone could handle in fact too much fun for those unable to keep up, ask anyone who showed up at the Friday afternoon “Parties” at the Melrose office! Both Gary and Sepp soon became close friends to me and have remained so until this day.” – Peter Buckland

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“You meet a lot of people along the way, Gary Perkins is one who stays for ever, his enthusiasm, and sunshine of “Hey man dont worry, itll be alright” could always get you through the issue”  Even if it was all B S  .  He  and Sepp were major parts in the building of ATI, I will never forget my friend!” – Jeff Franklin

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“In the 70’s, the concert business was young, exciting and full of great characters.  I was an agent with ICM and based out of NYC at the time.  Most of my clients were LA based and I was there a lot.  I don’t think I ever made a trip to LA without stopping at Pacific Presentations to visit Sepp and Gary.  As I recall, their offices were on Melrose Ave. Everybody stopped by whether it was Jonny Podell or Robert Plant. Gary and Sepp were not just great promoters, but even 8uugreater friends. ” – Chip Rachlin

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This is a very sad day, indeed.  Although I have not been in contact with Gary for several years, I have vivid memories of his dedication to promoting and his honorable friendship.  I was greatly saddened to learn of his passing this morning.  My heart sunk.  I was fortunate to enjoy a great working and personal relationship with Gary while also having an equally healthy friendship with his main competitor, Steve Wolf at Wolf & Rissmiller Concerts in Los Angeles.  As a young agent, Gary and Steve encouraged me to nurture a relationship with the other, knowing that relationships are the true foundation of our business.  There is no doubt that Gary helped to mold me into the businessman I am today. – Steve Jensen.

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Gary Perkins  was a true icon and innovator of the fledging concert business.  He was a relationship Olympian :agents. Managers ,artists all loved him. And those artists were iconic too: Hendrix, Pink Floyd ,Stones,Fleetwood Mac ,RodStewart /Faces,etc…… And many of those still selling a ton of tickets – Larry Vallon

I met Gary Perkins at the Swing Auditorium, San Bernardino CA 13th April 1973, myself and Colin Stone had been driving some shitty rent a truck for months on Fleetwood Mac’s “Penguin Album Tour”, as soon as we arrived, all beat up, we were greeted with “Hi we are from Pacific Presentations”…we have your passes and do you need any help….no we can unload ok…but those passes….someone had gone just that extra mile.

Gary Perkins…I owe you so much,
A Promoter of Life…xxx

John Courage