L.A. A ‘TOUGH MARKET’ : ARTISTS HOLD KEY TO BENEFIT SUCCESS

Despite all the talk about a new spirit of social consciousness in the pop community, the key to a benefit concert sellout still seems to depend more on the drawing power of the acts than the cause.

Even though many rock fans may have no idea what Amnesty International is about, thousands around the country will be making out checks this week to the human rights organization and keeping their fingers crossed that there will be enough tickets left for their mail orders to be filled.

The local reason: a June 6 concert at the 18,000-seat Forum headed by U2 and Sting, each of whom could probably sell out the 90,000-seat Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. (The show is part of a six-city concert tour that will climax June 15 at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J.).

By contrast, everyone knows about the Statue of Liberty restoration campaign--but ticket sales were described as “weak” for a Statue of Liberty-related, fund-raising event sponsored chiefly by the Eastman Kodak Co. on Sunday at the Los Angeles Sports Arena.

Titled the 1986 Kodak Liberty Ride Festival, the daylong event is scheduled to take place in 102 cities. It includes a noncompetitive bicycle ride, a free lunch and, primarily, a closed-circuit telecast of a concert at the Superdome in New Orleans featuring Huey Lewis & the News and Hall & Oates.

In addition, local activities in Exposition Park will include a torch-lighting ceremony at the Coliseum, a fashion show, a display of antique bicycles and performances from the Jellyroll Jazz Band, the Kings (a soft-rock group) and a barbershop quartet. Tickets are available for $23 each at Ticketron outlets throughout Southern California.

Brian Murphy, whose concert promotion firm Avalon Attractions is working on the local Amnesty International concert, stressed the importance of big-name acts in selling tickets.

“There are a lot of benefits to which the causes are good, but without the artists’ support (on stage), people won’t buy tickets,” he said. “What makes a benefit succeed is the major support from these artists.”

Added David Hinkley, director of Amnesty International’s Western region: “We’re celebrating Amnesty’s 25th anniversary with this (concert tour) and letting people know about our existence. We have an opportunity at this point to reach a larger audience than we ever had before, and by the end of this year we hope every rock ‘n’ roll fan in America will know the name of Amnesty International.”

U2 and Sting will be joined at the Forum by Bryan Adams, Joan Baez, Jackson Browne, Peter Gabriel, the Neville Brothers and Lou Reed. Reserved seats, available by mail order only, are priced at $36 each with a limit of four per order. Certified checks or money orders should be made out to Ticketmaster and mailed to: Ticketmaster/Amnesty Concerts, Box 76838, Los Angeles 90005. Included in the order should be a self-addressed, stamped envelope and a daytime phone number. Orders must be postmarked by next Tuesday.

Betty Solfisburg of Ketchum/Bohle Public Relations, the firm handling national promotion for the Liberty Ride event, acknowledged that ticket sales have been “low.” Dianna Falcon, the local festival coordinator, confirmed that “less than 50%” of the tickets have been sold.

“Los Angeles is a tough marketplace because people here are used to seeing things live,” Solfisburg said this week. But Tom Levy, a spokesman for Kodak, stressed that there may be a last-minute upswing. “Most of the tickets for these things are usually sold over the last few days,” he said. “We don’t have any accurate ticket sales because it’s such a large-scale event and the venues are spread out over the country.”