Booking Unknown Bands Can Pay Off

SAN DIEGO — Two months ago, when he was asked by Tracy Chapman’s agent to book the black folk singer into the Bacchanal, Jeff Gaulton almost said no.

“I really had to be talked into doing it,” said Gaulton, the Kearny Mesa nightclub’s co-owner. “At the time, her album was just getting onto radio play lists, and I thought it was too early for her to have much of a draw.”

But the agent persisted, and Gaulton finally agreed to a July 15 show.

“I did it mostly as a favor,” Gaulton said, “because the same agent had given us some pretty good acts in the past.”

Some favor. Since the date was confirmed the last week in May, the 24-year-old Chapman--with her bluesy voice and litany of introspective songs about racism, poverty, and violence against women--has become one of the surprise stars of the year. Her debut album, simply titled “Tracy Chapman,” rocketed into the Top 10 on the national charts. Her first video, “Fast Car,” was getting more TV air time than Spuds MacKenzie.

The 500 $15 tickets to the first of Chapman’s two concerts tonight at the Bacchanal went on sale June 3. Sixteen days later, they had all been sold. Gaulton immediately added a second show, and less than a week later, tickets to that performance were gone, too.

“Every so often, a new artist comes along who for some reason strikes a chord with the audience,” Gaulton said. “And he or she becomes a superstar, almost overnight.

“In Tracy Chapman’s case, the transition from unknown to superstar took less than two months. Fortunately for us, those two months came between the day we booked her and the day of the show. I tell you, it was a real surprise. The phones have been going crazy, and I only wish we had more tickets to sell.”

Also taken by surprise--and wishing they had more tickets to sell--are San Diego ticket brokers who buy tickets to pop concerts and then resale them at a profit.

“We had 40 or 50 tickets that we sold for $35 apiece, but we haven’t had any left for at least a couple of weeks,” said John Robinson, owner of Buck’s Ticket Service in Pacific Beach. “I’d love to get some more, because everyone’s looking for them.”

Gaulton would not say how much he’s paying Chapman for her two sold-out shows at the Bacchanal, but other local promoters estimate her payday at $4,000.

In return, the Bacchanal’s box-office take is $15,000.

“Tracy Chapman is the biggest steal we’ve ever made,” Gaulton said. “When we first booked the date, we paid what we believed to be a very fair price for a new artist. But now that she’s become so popular, what we got her for amounts to a real steal.”

“Steals” such as the one the Bacchanal made by booking Tracy Chapman right before her popularity soared are uncommon, but not unheard of. In early April, Avalon Attractions of Los Angeles scored a twin coup by booking two newcomers, soulster Terence Trent D’Arby and reggae singer Ziggy (son of the late Bob) Marley, into the California Theater.

“The buzz was there when we booked the shows, but neither act had really hit it big until a month later, when the actual dates came around,” said David Swift, Avalon’s San Diego representative. “Both shows sold out real fast, particularly Ziggy Marley’s. Had we known they were going to be as hot as they turned out to be, we would have booked them into a much larger facility, like (San Diego State University’s) Open Air Theater.”

In July, 1985, Kenny Weissberg, promoter of the annual “Concerts by the Bay” series at Humphrey’s on Shelter Island, booked a young singer named Whitney Houston for a headlining appearance the following month.

“I had heard of her, but barely, and I was basically doing this agency a favor because I had done so much stuff with them in the past,” Weissberg recalled. “Between the time I booked her and the time of the show, however, Whitney’s single, ‘Saving All My Love For You,’ went all the way to Number 1.

“And what had started out as a risk ended up as an easy sellout, the hottest ticket of the summer. I had paid her $11,000. Less than a year later, I dropped out of the bidding at $110,000. She wound up going from Humphrey’s straight to the Sports Arena.”

What was perhaps the biggest steal in San Diego concert history occurred nearly 10 years ago when former concert promoter Marc Berman paid Dire Straits $500 to perform at the 600-seat Roxy Theater in Pacific Beach.

“I booked the show four months in advance, when the band hadn’t even released its first album,” Berman said. “The agency had a lot of big acts, and I was pretty much forced to do the show as a favor. A month before the date, the album came out and all of a sudden, the group became real big, real fast. By the time we put the tickets on sale, their single, ‘Sultans of Swing,’ was at the top of the charts, and the show sold out in less than an hour.

“The amazing thing is that generally when something like this happens, the agent will either cancel the tour or ask the promoter to look for a bigger facility--and to give him more money. But in this case, the band honored its commitment, giving not just me, but every promoter in the country, a big break. And that says a lot for the band, especially in this sleazy business.”

Berman added that during the eight years he promoted pop concerts in San Diego--from 1975 to 1983--such booking bargains were rare.

“For every one time when this sort of thing happens, there are 50 times when it happens in reverse,” he said, “when you book a new band because the agent says they’re going to be big, and they end up doing terrible, causing you to lose money.

“The famous line I used to hear all the time from agents pitching new bands was, ‘They’re big in London,’ ” Berman said. “My favorite response was, ‘Forget San Diego. Why don’t you give me the London date?’ ”