THROUGH THE HAZE…#48

With Half Shell Productions now reality it was time to find the right show for the right price and get our company off on the right foot. The show was great, the rest, well…

We now officially had a company name, financing, and a suitable venue in the 1,400 seat Mt. Baker Theatre to proceed as a viable concert promotion corporation. Now the fun began—finding the right artist to launch our arrival.

Dave Galbreath’s successful promotions of Buffett, The Amazing Rhythm Aces and John Prine affirmed Bellingham audiences were willing and hungry to support major level live entertainment. The fact almost every major touring act worked in the Seattle as well as Vancouver markets Logistically made Bellingham a perfect ‘tweener’ between major metropolitan gigs, a fact which we felt could work in our favor.

We agreed to field offers but only with performers we felt confident would fit our market. Our goal was not built upon striking it rich, but rather to break even, along with establishing ourselves as a ‘player’, capable of providing quality entertainment that would result in promoting further events. This would require working shrewdly every step of the way: identifying talent which would resonate well with fans of our market, maximizing the use of allotted advertising dollars per show and, most importantly, offering first class sound and light production each event to guarantee the best shows possible. My role was to be obtaining talent, production, and coordination of advertising while my two partners, JP and Tim, would take care of all financial aspects each show required. Ultimate goal—To earn recognition as a reputable and promoters of quality productions. Shoot to break even and keep moving forward successfully, earning artist and industry respect. With this variation of a mission statement in mind, Half Shell Productions officially became a player.

I began spending many hours on the phone for over a month trying to establish a working relationship with promoters looking to broker shows with mid-market talent with the financial burden placed on Half Shell’s shoulders.

My first call went out to JW of Macon’s Paragon Agency; an experienced agent I had spent time with during my week in Macon in the summer of ’76, in regard to the possibility of landing the Marshall Tucker Band on their next round of dates on the west coast.

I was presumptuous in believing our relationship would swing the door wide open for opportunities with the likes of Tucker, Skynyrd or perhaps Charlie Daniels, and quickly learned the difference between camaraderie and business was much more complicated than anticipated.

JW did not discourage my intentions but politely explained their working relationship in the Northwest territory was exclusively committed to giants Concerts West, Albatross and Double Tee. Those majors had supported Paragon’s artists in their fledgling stages therefore earned first shot at Paragon’s talent roster. JW’s suggestion was to contact regional promoters, connect with one of their brokers in charge of placing secondary into available and, if we handled our opportunities skillfully, more talent would come our way.

Before I followed his sage advice I reached out to Ruffalo & Cavallo, agency who handled Little Feat, my ultimate dream show. Their response to my call was ‘thanks, but no thanks,’ told me they appreciated my call and wished me good luck trying to find a foothold in the market.

Long story short, after much diligence I found a hungry secondary agent, we’ll call Monte, who was willing to work with us. Already familiar with Bellingham’s logistics he reached out to me two to three times a week but the acts he pitched never fit our game plan for the fourteen hundred seat Mt. Baker.

This went on for about a month. The harder he tried to sell me acts of mediocre interest the more I began to feel as if I was dealing with a used car salesman.

Finally, one day in early June of ’78, he finally offered us a show worthy of consideration—a double fill which would feature Jesse Winchester and the Norton Buffalo Stampede.

Monty pitched Winchester as a Canadian-born and bred Jimmy Buffett whose life story and song writing prowess had currently caught the attention of major press, fellow artists and fans alike.

In the past two years he had written the popular Brand-New Tennessee Waltz, Nothing but a Breeze, Rhumba Man (a major radio hit for Nicolette Larson), and Defying Gravity, made popular by Emmylou Harris.

This talent left all three of us with the gut feeling this was a show worthy to pursue. Winchester’s music stylings resonated nicely with Bellingham’s predominantly hippie/ country/ granola-based concert going crowd who had shown up in large numbers to support Buffett, John Prine and those Amazing Rhythm Aces.

Add this to the fact, Winchester had just been the subject of a very favorable major article in Rolling Stone, which wholeheartedly gave his latest Warners release, Nothing But a Breeze two thumbs up.

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Norton Buffalo had gained national notoriety as the harmonica player for both Steve Miller and Bonnie Raitt—most recently performing the much talked about killer harp solo on Raitt’s hit, Runaway on Midnight Special as well as on her Sweet Forgiveness album. He was now pursuing a solo career with his initial release, Lovin’ in the Valley of the Moon, a diverse and impressive debut effort. Although relatively unknown, we felt he fir perfectly for opening act status.

Confident we were on the right path, and with sound and lights provided by the headliner, contracts were signed. It was time to start checking off all procedures necessary to get the show off the ground in the two months we had to work with.

Basic costs involved the rental of the Mt. Baker; paying an overly priced union mandated electrician who did absolutely nothing but be on hand; printing tickets, posters then setting up the usual proactive outlets to support pre-sales.

Advertising wise we went on the cheap, choosing to spend our ad dollars for three weeks in the local Bellingham Herald newspaper along with space on the college newspaper, instead of wasting funds with very unhip local FM KISM, whose focus was primarily on artists such as Journey and Tommy Tutone and did not include any airplay for either of our featured artists.

When all pre-show investments were tallied up we would need to sell a thousand seats at six dollars per ticket—the standard locals had come to expect, to break even.

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With the show less than a week away we become Nervous Neds, as ticket sales stood close to only 700 presales. We were hoping for at least 800 prior to the final weekend and not have to rely on a ton of day of show walk ups to break even. We were counting for that final push from a pre-show event profile which had been promised to us by the Herald in their AROUND TOWN Friday A & E section.

Unfortunately, even after being provided pictures and bios of both Winchester and Buffalo, all that made the page was a disappointing one column Who, What, When, Where, Why style blurb, sans photos, to promote our event. We would now have to count on walk-ups to keep the show from ending up as a loss, but now priority shifted to focusing on all aspects of the show’s production.

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Monday, Oct. 9^th, 1978: Day of show

Norton Buffalo’s entourage arrived around noon and, with a ton of time to kill, Norton was itching for a tour around town. He had been on the tour bus for nearly eight hours and was itching to do a walkabout to pick up on Bellingham’s vibe.

As his crew began set up for their four pm soundcheck, he and I began by making a brief drop in at Cellophane Square, where Norton spent a good half hour scouring the store’s large volume of used vinyl. Next, we grabbed a bite to eat, and his amiable personality began to emerge as he began spinning tales regarding his years playing with Steve Miller. He suggested we next stop by Budget Tapes & Records, our primary ticket outlet, to check in on sales. When we were told they have unfortunately peaked, he rolled up his sleeves and hit the floor to, where, in his own words, started shaking babies and kissing hands, chatting up the store’s customers in an effort to stir up last minute enthusiasm. I did not keep an official tally but, in less than an hour his congenial manner resulted in at least ten tickets and a dozen copies of his album leaving the store. Before we made our way back to the Baker, Buffalo invited all three employees and boss Dave to hang out post-show backstage.

Yours truly alongside Norton Buffalo, day of show drop in at Budget Tapes & Records in Bellingham.

From a first-time production perspective, the evening’s show went spectacularly well. The 840 fans gathered that night had a great time, applauded from start to finish, and left the theatre newfound fans of both performers.

Both Norton and Jesse took the time to thank us and told us they were impressed with our professionalism and promised to pass the word on about Half Shell to their agency and fellow artists.

As good as I should have felt, the fact our total gate fell short—close to a grand in the re—left me frustrated and embarrassed.

If JP and Tim felt the same, they certainly did a better job of not wearing it on their sleeves. I was invited back to JP’s where members of both bands were going to stop by and slug down a beer or five, but I decided to head home.

Before we departed, we decided to have lunch two days later. Let the disappointment and adrenaline subside. If we were to go forth, the deck would have to be reshuffled, and our strategy tweaked.

JP walked me to my car, pulled a ball of gooey-looking Ghani hash from his pocket and handed it to me with a smile. “Go home, turn on some Monty Python and, as Bob Marley would tell your sorry ass,

But I got to
Pick myself up
Dust myself off
Start all over, again…’

Si?” I nodded and put his gift into my coat pocket.

He gave me a hug, smiled once again, then added, “See ya in a couple of days. We gotta get the ball rolling for our next Half Shell Production.” I finally managed a smile as I slid the key into the ignition.

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