From the MCRFB NEWS archive: 1964
BRITISH ACTS INTEREST WANE IN U.S.; CAUSING PROMOTERS FINANCIAL DRAIN
HOLLYWOOD — Concert promoters are taking a second look at the British bands as financial reports indicate that the romance between the long-haired lads and their adolescent admirers may be cooling — at least at the box office.
Ironically, America’s Top 40 radio stations are playing the British groups with dominating force, indicating that what happens in the concert arena has no relation to what makes a station’s playlist.
In a recent Las Vegas gig, the Dave Clark Five drew around 3,000 teens in the 8,000 seat Convention Center for an $8,000 gross, causing the Thunderbird Hotel and Vegas’ radio station KENO to suffer an unexpected loss. The same group had grossed $10,000 in Minneapolis but local promoter Ray Colihan lost $4,000 on the date. He paid the British band $25,000 for two dates, one in Des Moines. It was also reported that Colihan lost a larger sum promoting a concert with the Rolling Stones earlier this year.
The Rolling Stones cost one Chicago promoter by the name of Ed Pazdur $5,000 when they bombed in Cleveland earlier in November. The group had been booked in the 11,000 seat Public Auditorium with a $44,000 top gross potential.
The Rolling Stones show was in trouble when city fathers took exception to the news that young girls had withdrawn their savings from a bank and flown to England to visit the Beatles. Cleveland’s mayor Ralph Locher decreed that rock and roll contributed nothing to the city, casting the Rolling Stones show in a bad light. Pazdur has the Dave Clark Five booked for Thursday, December 17.
Other reports have reflected the same mood elsewhere. A British rock show in Ottawa, Ontario, fell on it’s face when the unit only drew 1,957 paid admissions in the 6,000 seat YMCA Auditorium. The bands headlining the show were Billy J. Kramer & The Dakotas, along with Gerry & The Pacemakers on the billing as well.
It is known that American publishers and now the promoters are concerned over the slipping box office appeal of certain British acts who are presently touring the concert circuit here.
As one publisher had stated, “This situation ought to be brought out into the open so that the disc jockeys would be fully appraised as to what’s happening. They’re playing the British records like they’re the only ones selling. But these same acts are bombing in person.” END
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(Information and news source: Billboard; December 12, 1964)
