Pop Goes the Plan to Take Over Amphitheater

On the pop and rock music front, operators of Costa Mesa’s Pacific Amphitheatre failed in their efforts to do away with profit-draining competition from the rival Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre.

Officials of the Pacific, owned by the East Coast-based Nederlander Organization, made a bid in March to acquire a controlling interest in their longtime competitor in Irvine. Fierce bidding wars for top pop and rock concert acts drove up the cost of business and caused losses that amphitheater officials said totaled more than $2 million in 1989.

But the U.S. Justice Department filed an antitrust suit in July to block the Pacific’s plan, saying that the merger would have created an illegal monoply in the Orange County concert business.

Shortly after that, any remaining merger hopes were squelched when Robert Geddes, a minority shareholder in the Irvine facility, teamed with Irving Azoff, a veteran record industry executive, to buy “a substantial interest” in Irvine Meadows, officials said. Hence, the competition will go on.

Pacific operators were more heartened by the outcome of a longstanding lawsuit over noise, in which an Orange County Superior Court judge set sound limits that Pacific officials maintain are liberal enough to be met without any need to clamp down on bands.

On a smaller scale, the dynamic of the marketplace had a varying affect on the commercial arena.

Peppers Golden Bear opened in August in Huntington Beach, in the tradition of the fabled Golden Bear, which served as a major showcase for new musical talent in the 1960s and 1970s. Despite the fanfare and the nostalgia, the new incarnation--a natty, $4-million nightclub-restaurant serving as the cornerstone of the $45-million Pierside Pavilion--has thus far failed to mount a serious challenge to its namesake’s legacy or even to the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano.

On the downside, Sunset Pub in Sunset Beach closed in mid-December, and the going-away party lasted 11 days. The funky venue, known for blues and R&B;, lost its lease when the property owners decided to turn it into a restaurant. Hamptons, a Santa Ana concert hall that took over the old Harlequin Dinner Theatre, also folded.