Does someone know what's going on in this wonderful State ? Have you got some pics of The Stadiums with the stage built up ? How should be the weather down there ?

with thanks to Dave Kohl on Undercover for providing the link:

[www.austin360.com]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2006-10-19 23:44 by barking paul.

Smoothing a path for the Stones

Concert planners put residents' satisfaction at top of list in quest to get band into Zilker
By Michael Corcoran
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Thursday, October 19, 2006

When "the world's greatest rock 'n' roll band" plays "the live music capital of the world" for the first time Sunday night at Zilker Park, it'll be a historic occasion. But when Charlie Jones of Capital Sports & Entertainment was asked by Rolling Stones co-promoters Live Nation if he could deliver Zilker, where Capital Sports puts on the Austin City Limits Music Festival, the first calls he made were not to the mayor or city manager or even the Austin Parks and Recreation director.

First, he got Debby Kalk and Jeff Jack on the line.

Without Debby and Jeff on board, there'd be no Mick and Keith at Zilker. The two are presidents of the Barton Hills and Zilker neighborhood associations, respectively.

"Charlie Jones summoned me to lunch one day," said Kalk, who hasn't lost her Chicago accent after 28 years in Austin. "I told him I was too busy, and he said he'd send a car. That's when I knew this wasn't going to be a casual chat."

As representatives of the neighborhoods bordering Zilker Park signed off on the first ACL Fest in early 2002, some expressed concern that they were opening the door for more concerts, which pose problems with noise, traffic and park wear. They were assured by Capital Sports and the parks department that the festival would be the only privately operated musical event at Zilker each year. The Christmas-themed Trail of Lights and the Fourth of July fireworks concert, the two other big annual events at the park, are organized by the city.

But at lunch at the Shoreline Grill in late June, Jones reminded Kalk and Jack that he mentioned a possible exception in 2002.

"When they said they didn't want us coming back with another concert we wanted to do," Jones recalled, "I said, 'Well, there is one concert that if we have a chance to work on, I'm going to have to come talk to you about.' "

He didn't have to say the name of the group; the Rolling Stones, who remain a top concert draw 42 years after their first U.S. tour, are the ultimate rock band booking.

At the time, Jones had no business thinking that he would one day co-produce a Stones concert, but a guy can dream, and this one was about to come true four years later. Still, Jones said he was careful not to disturb the good will that the ACL fest had built with the neighborhoods and parks department.

"I told (the neighborhood group representatives) that if they unanimously opposed the Stones playing Zilker, I'd go to the tour people and tell them it wasn't going to happen," said Jones, who emphasized that Capital Sports and its partner, Charles Attal Presents, are not promoting the Stones concert but serving as a liaison between the tour and the city and helping with production. "We have long-term interests." in Zilker Park

City Manager Toby Futrell, a self-proclaimed "child of the '60s," leapt out of her seat in excitement when Jones and parks department Director Warren Struss told her that the Stones wanted to play Austin on their "A Bigger Bang" tour.

"I haven't heard about any major opposition to the Stones show from the neighborhoods," she said this week. "We're not trying to crack the agreement (that ACL fest would be the only major concert event at Zilker). This is something special. I think the city should have an office of reasonable exceptions, where common sense prevails."

Kalk was more guarded when she heard the concert was a good possibility.

"My initial reaction was, 'The Rolling Stones? That sounds a bit dramatic for little ol' Zilker. We'd be setting a scary precedent.' " Maybe next year it would be the Who at Zilker. Or U2.

In meetings with Jones and Struss, the neighborhood groups pressed for the Stones to make a huge contribution to the parks department. The figure eventually settled on with the Stones tour brass was 10 percent of the ticket gross, with a ceiling of $300,000. Even though the show has not sold out — about 40,000 of the 50,000 available seats had been sold by Wednesday — the Stones should do at least $4 million at the box office, the highest-grossing single-day concert ever in Austin.

"We wanted to set the bar so high that no other band would be able to match it," Jack said. The $300,000 total, half of which will be pumped back to Zilker for turf management, irrigation and re-leveling of the soccer fields, is the largest usage fee ever collected by the parks department. The ACL fest pays about $200,000 each year to the department, Struss said.

Because of the success of the ACL fest, which was named Festival of the Year last year by concert trade publication Pollstar, Zilker was becoming as well-known nationally for its rock concerts as for its swimming hole. This is not an image that the neighborhood groups, which were instrumental in lowering capacity at the three-day festival from 75,000 a day to 65,000, are interested in cultivating.

A focus of the affected areas, which include Rollingwood and the Bouldin Creek neighborhood, is on preserving Zilker's identity as an Austin jewel, a beautiful city park framed by the downtown skyline. It's there for soccer, not rockers. For three days out of the year, the groups are willing to put up with the chaos of a music festival, and Capital Sports takes care of them, providing neighborhood associations with free ACL fest passes that they can sell to raise funds. But the rest of the time, the loudest thing Zilker's neighbors want to hear is the shriek of a kid jumping into Barton Springs for the first time.

"I thought we had all agreed that there would be no other concerts at Zilker besides ACL," said Jack, an architect. "But on the other hand, this is the Rolling Stones we're talking about. My neighborhood is full of aging South Austin hippies who grew up on the Stones. I'm one myself. How can you turn that one down?"

Although Struss wouldn't say that protests from the neighborhoods would have quashed the concert, he said, "It would have been very, very difficult to have this show without their support. Our tendency is to err on the side of the neighborhoods."

Although the Stones played their second-ever U.S. show in San Antonio in June 1964, the closest they've come to playing Austin was in 1994, when an Oct. 16 date was announced for Royal-Memorial Stadium at the University of Texas. But even before tickets went on sale, the show moved to San Antonio's Alamodome. Although it was rumored that the change occurred because the tour was sponsored by Budweiser and alcohol sales were prohibited at Memorial Stadium at the time, Erwin Center Director John Graham shot down that theory in 1994. Tickets for earlier shows had not sold as well as expected on that "Voodoo Lounge" tour, he told the American-Statesman, so it made more sense to play the 50,000-capacity Alamodome in a proven Stones market than the 80,000-capacity Memorial Stadium.

In 2002, the Stones bypassed the Erwin Center, which had an offer in, to help christen the SBC Center in San Antonio.

But 2006 is Austin's year. Finally.

"We're really, really cautious about setting a precedent here for other promoters," Jack said. "But I think we all understand this is a once-in-a-lifetime thing."

Yes, because it's warmer and more relaxed. The climate is better for old knuckles with arthritis. They're going to be on fire on stage. Cant wait to see this! I think they'll probably include some country-inspired tunes, too!

Thanks, Erik. The Stones will rock Austin.

enjoy the show in austin, it's a GA one wish i was there...

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