POP MUSIC : Bacchanal’s Manager Says Club’s Glory Days to Return

For years, the Bacchanal in Kearny Mesa has been San Diego’s leading concert nightclub, with five or six shows every week by big-name pop, rock, and country acts.

These days, however, things are looking pretty grim at the spacious 750-seat venue. The club is often dark for three or four consecutive nights, and the level of talent has gone down considerably in recent months. On the June calendar, for example, there’s not a single familiar name, just a bunch of unknowns, including Big Dipper, Poi Dog Pondering, Something Happens and Wedding Present.

It’s a temporary thing, promises Ross Cummings, the Bacchanal’s general manager. Last January, longtime in-house booker Jeff Gaulton left to join local concert promoting firm Bill Silva Presents.

Cummings feels that the policies of Gaulton’s replacement as booking manager led to the decline at the club. One of the policies of that booking manager, who is no longer with the club, was to charge outside promoters a $2,500 a night fee for rental of the Bacchanal.

That drove away some promoters, Cummings said. One of them was Gaulton, who after his departure continued to book occasional Bacchanal shows under the Bill Silva Presents banner, promptly decided to give up rather than pay up.

“The entire time I was working at the Bacchanal, we never charged outside promoters rent,” Gaulton said. “We took the bar, they got the door, and everybody walked away happy. There’s not that much money to be made at a club show, and the rental fee, from a financial standpoint, simply made it impossible for us to continue.”

Cummings said he’s anxious to lure back Gaulton and other outside promoters, so he recently dropped the rental fee.

“It was a bad idea,” he said.

But if the fee has, in fact, been dropped, Gaulton said, it’s news to him.

“We’ve repeatedly asked them to reevaluate that figure, and they said they would,” Gaulton said. “But we have yet to hear back from them, so, at this point, I have no plans for doing any more Bacchanal shows.”

On May 27, local concert promoter Harlan Schiffman threw a benefit concert at Iguanas in Tijuana for Scott Ireland, the lead singer-guitarist of San Diego power trio the Pulltoys, who had broken his neck during an April 29 video shoot.

The benefit raised more than $1,000 to help cover Ireland’s medical expenses. Most of the money came in through at-the-door ticket sales and was promptly turned over to the ailing musician. But the balance, $156, came in through advance ticket sales, and Ireland still hasn’t received the money.

Since then, Schiffman said, he’s repeatedly called Iguanas owner Robert Noble for a check, to no avail. With each call came a promise to remit payment, but, as of last Friday, no payment had been received.

In response to a Times’ inquiry, Noble said, “Tell Harlan to call me. I’m not familiar with what’s happening.”

Schiffman called Noble again.

“He told me he’ll give me the money Wednesday (today),” he said. “But I’m not holding my breath.”

LINER NOTES: The 1990 Del Mar Fair grandstand concert series continues this week with 7:30 p.m. shows by Donny Osmond tonight; Dionne Warwick on Thursday; Expose on Friday; Johnny Rivers on Saturday; Poco on Sunday; Kool and the Gang on Monday; and Willie Nelson on Tuesday. Also on tap is a Thursday afternoon (2:30 p.m.) concert by the Harry James Orchestra. Admission is free to anyone who buys a ticket to the fair. . . .

Burning Bridges is throwing a record-release party Saturday night at Winston’s Beach Club in Ocean Beach to promote its new six-song EP, which has just come out on Antim Records, a tiny independent label based in Los Angeles. Opening the show will be fellow local worldbeaters Limbo Slam. . . .

Twenty-two years ago this week, San Diego’s own Gary Puckett and the Union Gap hit the national Top 40 charts with what was to become their third million-selling single, “Lady Willpower.” . . .

Tickets go on sale Saturday at 10 a.m. for the second show by Depeche Mode, July 29 at the San Diego Sports Arena. The first show, July 28, sold out a little more than an hour after tickets went on sale June 9. . . .

This week’s concerts: the Cowboy Junkies with Townes Van Zandt, tonight at the California Theater downtown; the Crazy 8s, tonight at the Belly Up Tavern in Solana Beach; Cher, Thursday at the Sports Arena; Midnight Oil with Hunters and Collectors, Thursday at San Diego State University’s Open Air Theater; “The Percussion Showdown,” featuring Pete Escovedo, Sheila E. and Tito Puente, Friday at the Sports Arena; Sleepy LaBeef with the Forbidden Pigs, Friday at the Belly Up Tavern; Pato Banton, Friday at the La Paloma Theater in Encinitas and Saturday at the SOMA dance hall downtown; Ben Vereen, Saturday at the Poway Center for the Performing Arts; Clarence Carter with Denise LaSalle, Sunday at Smokey’s in Mission Valley; Leon Redbone, Sunday at the Belly Up Tavern; and the Gipsy Kings, Monday at the Open Air Theater.