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.