Promote This:
The Adler Effect
http://www.laweekly.com/2009-09-10/music/the-adler-effect/
On the eve of the Sunset Strip Music Festival, Lou Adler and his son
Nic talk about the concert business
By Randall Roberts
September 09, 2009
The Adler posse knows a thing or two about the concert business. Lou
Adler, the patriarch, is responsible for some of the great American
cultural touchstones of the past 40 years, and a few of these moments
are showcased on the wall of his home office in Malibu. There's the
movie poster for The Rocky Horror Picture Show, a film he introduced
to America as an executive producer. Next to it is a framed poster
for Cheech & Chong's Up in Smoke, another production deal he
spearheaded. He oversaw the production of Carole King's Tapestry, one
of the best-selling albums of all time. And then there's the poster
for the D.A. Pennebaker rock documentary Monterey Pop. The film
captured the first-ever open-air American rock festival, the Monterey
Pop Music Festival; Adler the elder organized the festival along with
John Phillips of the Mamas and the Papas; legendary Beatles publicist
Derek Taylor; and producer Alan Pariser. Among the 32 acts performing
over the three days: the Grateful Dead, Jimi Hendrix, the Who, Simon
& Garfunkel, Janis Joplin, Otis Redding (backed by Booker T. and the
MGs!) and Ravi Shankar.
Lou Adler also opened Sunset Strip rock club the Roxy with the
backing of Elmer Valentine and David Geffen. It's this business that
Lou's son Nic Adler is in charge of. Adler the younger has been an
integral force in turning the tide on the Strip, which, after the
high times of the hair-metal years, had fallen behind the Eastside
and Hollywood clubs in drawing the attention of the musical masses.
One piece of the puzzle Nic has been working on for the past year is
the fledgling Sunset Strip Music Festival, which occurs this weekend
and features some 50 bands playing stages both on Sunset Boulevard
and in the many clubs that dot the neighborhood. West Coast Sound
recently sat down at the Adlers' Malibu compound overlooking the
Pacific and talked with Lou and Nic about Monterey Pop, the Sunset
Strip Music Festival, and how the times have changed.
West Coast Sound: Lou, how did you get the word out about the
Monterey Pop Festival in the weeks leading up to it?
Lou Adler: We advertised in Billboard and Cashbox, which were really
big as far as publications went at the time. Each ran a free
full-page ad for us. FM radio was just starting, especially in the
San Francisco area, so we contacted FM stations. That was pretty much
it. We had P.R. Derek Taylor was the head of that. Because it was the
first festival, and because it included the names that were going to
be there, every publication that did anything about rock covered it.
The atmosphere has changed now with the sheer volume of festivals.
Nic Adler: True, but I hear a lot of the same things for the Sunset
Strip Music Festival that I'm hearing from my dad. The Internet is
just finding itself as far as how to promote shows. We have print
ads, and we have radio, but it's not as important as it used to be.
So as things were happening and FM radio was finding itself in my
dad's time, we're going through a similar thing. And at the same
time, there are so many festivals and so many concerts. I think just
this past weekend there must have been at least 150,000 [attendees]
at concerts and festivals. For us, the way to get our message out has
been to find new ways to do it, whether it's through the Internet or
social media. It is a new time. And it is a new festival, and we're
trying to explain to people that, yes, the actual Sunset Strip will
be closed, and it is a festival that's more than you're used to [on]
the Sunset Strip.
Lou: In comparison to the time when we did Monterey there were just
three or four clubs in L.A.: the Whisky, the Troubadour, the Roxy,
and one other I'm forgetting.
And what about programming the festival?
Lou: Well, we had three days to program, and it was the same way we
booked the acts. We had headliners for the nights (the Mamas and the
Papas, Simon & Garfunkel, and it was supposed to be the Beach Boys
but ended up being Otis Redding) and then we tried to fill it in
not with the same music but with different genres. We were trying to
expose what rock & roll was really about at that time. It encompassed
different kinds of artists, from Simon & Garfunkel and Otis Redding
to the Grateful Dead and the Group With No Name. That helped us, too.
We didn't have to stay with a particular kind of music. We just
exposed all the different music. I think it's a very difficult thing,
what Nic's doing, as far as getting a lineup for one day.
Nic: The Sunset Strip, on any given night, you've got a hard-rock
band at the Whisky, you have a pop band at the Roxy, you have a
hip-hop act at the Key Club, you have a singer-songwriter happening
at the Kat Club. And that was something we wanted to bring into the
festival. When you look at the lineup, it all has some rock in its
DNA, whether it's Korn or Shwayze or Pepper or Fishbone or the
Donnas. What we've done is, if you're a reggae fan, we're making sure
that you can hit one stage at a certain time and see that reggae
band, and then have enough time to run over to the Roxy to catch that
other band, then run to the Whisky to catch another band, then get
back to the main stage to see another band. We've tried to do it all
in one day, where you get some movement and you're not having to stay
at one stage. You have a little bit of that South by Southwest thing,
where you might leave in the middle of the last song by a band so you
can catch another band somewhere else.
--
The Sunset Strip Music Festival occurs on Saturday, September 12 at
various locations along the Sunset Strip.
.
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