page 14
thursday, September 4, 1980
daily nebraskan
Insured concerts could end drought Kolnick
By Bob Crisler
The University of Nebraska has not
played host to a rock and roll performer
since April 19, 1978, when Jethro Tull
performed at the Bob Devaney Sports
Complex.
University Program Council Director,
Stu Kolnick, cites the principal reason for
the concert drought as harassment directed
at the audiences of The Electric Light
Orchestra and ZZ Top during the bands'
performances at Pershing Auditorium
several years ago. More than 50 patrons
were arrested at each show, mostly on
marijuana-related charges.
As a result, Lincoln quickly fell from its
position as a favored stop for rock
performers.
"Number one, the people didn't like it.
Number two, the promoters didn't like it,
so I guess they started looking for an alter
nate site," Kolnick said. "And since the
revenues's very good, Omaha manage
ment has been anxious to book rock
shows."
Big business
Rock concerts are big business, at times
profiting $35,000 for a single soldout
show. Sell-outs are not the order of the
day, however, and the local promoting
organization must guarantee the perform
ing group a set sum before they'll so much
as set foot in town. According to Kolnick,
Fleetwood Mac commanded a $50,000
guarantee for their August 21 appearance
at Omaha Civic Auditorium.
At the moment, UPC simply has no
money to back up a guarantee to a big
league rock performer, Kolnick said.
"We haven't done anything to prove
that if we had more money, things would
change. People haven't come in here want
ing to do shows," he said.
"What it boils down to is that we are in
no position to simply buy a concert, so
right now we are trying to coerce promo
ters to bring a show to Lincoln."
Promoter-insured
In such a situation, UPC would rent the
hall (likely the Sports Center), while the
promoter provided the guarantee and in
surance, and the two would share in the
gate receipts.
However, in a state preoccupied with
sports, such as Nebraska, time in the Sports
Center is not easy to come by, according
to Kolnick.
"It's a sports center. Athletics have first
priority," he said. '
Martin Wood, acting program coordina
tor for the UPC, goes further. They
(Sports Center staff) are completely athletic-oriented,
and their philosophy is that
that's what the Center was built for, and
that other activities should take a backseat
to sports.
Jim Ross, Sports Center director, dis
puted Wood's contentions.
"It depends on what the possibilities
of making a profit are. If it was John
Denver, we'd probably rent the building.
But if it was just an average rock band,
we'd be a lot more reserved with an
answer."
Others successful
Because Iowa State has a more lenient
policy toward non-athletic activities in
their arena, they were able to book The
Who last spring. Other Big Eight schools
have been similarly successful in recruiting
shows. Perhaps the most successful is
Colorado.
CU program council director Bob
Webster, has brought some of the most
luminary performers to the Boulder
campus often doing the show outdoors in
the football stadium. The Cu council co
sponsors, with Feyline (a regional product
ion company), the Colorado Sundays and
has presented shows featuring the Rolling
Stones and the Grateful Dead, among
others.
UNL Athletic Director Bob Devaney
takes a dim view of the possibility of
Memorial Stadium rock shows "because
these people just raise hell. I've never heard
of a college that has been satisfied with a
rock concert."
"I think people associate rock shows
with pot-smoking and taking drugs. It's a
case of a few spoiling it for the rest, but
I'M just not sure of how people would
react to a rock show in the stadium,"
Devaney said.
Logistical problems that would arise
in Lincoln have already been dealt with in
Boulder. The stadium Astroturf is tarped,
and the neighborhood surroundings the
stadium is provided with ample security
the night of the show, Webster said.
"We have a whole system worked out,
and we've got a real good relationship
worked out with both the people in
the neighborhood and the athletic
department," Webster said. "The athletic
department makes a pretty penny" from
the shows."
According to Webster, that pretty
penny works out to $60,000 for stadium
rental for a single days' activities, at no risk
to the stadium owner. "If the Astroturf
gets ripped up, then the promoter pays for
it."
Devaney said he wouldn't consider rent
ing the stadium for $60,000, but that a bid
of $100,000 "would be a different story."
Damages at the Colorado shows have
averaged approximately $2,000 a show,
but "we just call up Physical Plant and tell
them to go to work and to send the bill to
the promoters, said Webster.
Devaney was not aware of the standard
promoter-insured practices, saying again
that stadium insurance would create
"a different story."
Less-popular cultural events are
supported at CU by the large profits from
the rock events, much as baseball and
womens sports live off the football pro
gram at UNL.
The CU council sponsors the largest
university film collection in the nation,
with three theaters on campus, Webster
said. All of this takes place on a program
that receives no money in student fees,
yet handles a half-million dollars a year,
mostly in rock concert-derived profits.
Despite the generally negative atmos
phere in Lincoln, Kolnick retains some
optimism for the future.
"I'd like to see a couple of shows in
the spring and a couple in the fall. There
are a lot of people in Lincoln who like to
see a good show now and then, and I am
hopeful we can bring them one." .
Still, Devaney is doubtful.
"I'd like to treat it on an individual
basis, but generally, I'm against the idea,"
he said. "I'm not against providing enter
tainment on campus for the students, but
I'm not sure that this is the best way to go
about it."
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Photo by Mark Billingsfey
Jethro Tull was the last rock performance brought to Lincoln by UPC in April 1978.
Ian Anderson reflects the mood of local concert goers frustrated by the local concert
drought.
And you thought the 70 -s "me" generation was bad
By Brian McManus
I was watching the Donahue show the other day. Why
not? I had time between classes, and sometimes the show
gets some entertainingly belligerent housewives on it.
That day, however, he had a very concerned sociolo
gist on, who was explaining to all the housewives and
college students cutting classes that the 1970's was the
Me" generation. The 60s had been the Rebellious
Generation, but during the 70's, people became more con
cerned with their own personal lives therefore tagged
the "Me" generation.
I was surprised old Phil didn't come charging down the
aisle (as he does so often), to ask this woman how she
could have the audacity to put such a broad classification
on an entire decade.
know1 what "to expect, not what's already happened to
them.
Therefore, I talked with several leading social scientists
and compiled some theroies about what the 80's genera
tion has in store for it. Here are a few ideas about what
the "Me" generation will become:
Hie "Being Ihere Generation- With the increase of
television watching and the decrease in television quality,
there will be several strange repercussions felt in oyr
society.
For example, maternity wards will notice that the most
popular names given to babies born in the 1980's will be
Lenny and Squiggy.
The Cowboy Generation the Urban Cowboy trend,
with its cowboy hats and mechanical bulls, is just a be
ginning. After Ronnie Reagan is elected this fall, we will
f return to a Golden Age. As he has promised, life will
li II IT1 O 1 become simpler before his second term is over, every
I lUIIIWI one will be riding horses and carrying six-shooters.
This went far beyond stereotyping a race, an age group,
even an economic strata - this woman had stereotyped
the entire civilization of a decade.
What's worse, she told us about a decade that was
over and done with. What good is that? People want to
The Radical Accountant Generation - Jerry Rubin,
ex-yippie radical leader of the sixties, is now working
for an investment firm in Wall Street. People have inter
preted this to mean that he has sold out and joined the
"other side.
Not so. It's all part of a larger plot. The 60's hippies have
all cut their hair and gone underground in the past decade,
tt Snfr6 J"" Why? so that by
the mid-80 s, their hands wifl totally be at the controls.
Once theyVe accomplished this, theyU purposely start
making bad business decisions so widespread that there
wifl be a huge economic collapse. Their plan is to over
throw the Establishment from within .
c Pn. "By: b Mv Face R" Generation - Phyllis
bchlafly and her troups turn out to be absolutely right.
The .working woman causes the total breakdown of the
tamiiy structure. This, causes an entire generation of child
ren to become rapists and heroin addicts. So. in 1989
we tare to put them all -to sleep,- like so many rabid
S' utry " m tirne wth our women chained
in the kitchen where they belong.
The End of the Game Generation - After one too
many Donahue shows, people wifl suddenly become fed
up with pompous authors giving cute names and classifi
cations to cultural groups, age groups, and even decades.
Carrying placards saying, "I'm OK - You're OK -We
re All OK, except for those Damned Sociologist
Authors:, the frustrated masses will rise and rebel.
hiiHT reon again authors will soon grow to include
hatred against all coflege educated people, and by 1990
there wfll be a full-scale revolution.
rJh ITi P2S ?i fmishing your cducatkn, it would
probably be a good idea to go out and buy yourself a gun.