Concert Producer Ready to Take On Avalon, Silva : * Music: Cardiff resident thinks San Diego could benefit from a third major promoter.

The announcement last week of an agreement giving Los Angeles-based Avalon Attractions primary booking rights at the Sports Arena produced only one immediate result: an understandably clenched-jawed response from Bill Silva Presents--Avalon’s major rival for local big-venue shows.

While other ramifications of that development might not become clear for several months, the situation boldly underscored the fact that San Diego has been a two-promoter town for some time.

But while Avalon and locally based Silva were playing king of the mountain, Michael Goldman was setting up shop on the North County coast and intently watching the fracas from the sidelines. Goldman, a top promoter in Northern California until he took a hiatus from the business four years ago, is making San Diego his home. If he has his way, there soon will be a third major player in the local concert market.

Goldman, 46, opened an office a month ago for his company, Music Futures, in Encinitas. In an interview earlier this week, he recounted past successes and explained his retreat from concert promotion, as well as the much-publicized tragedy partly responsible for drawing him back into it. But he gave particular emphasis to the reasons why he believes he can carve a unique niche in the San Diego music scene.

“We’ve got history all over our walls,” Goldman said, proudly pointing to an array of concert posters for shows he’d produced during the ‘80s, featuring such artists as Crosby, Stills and Nash, The Band, and the Grateful Dead. “But we’ve got music in our veins. After all these years, I still think of myself as a fan, first and foremost, and then as a promoter. That’s one reason why we strive to produce concerts with an extra dimension.”

Goldman, who moved to this area a year ago, has been attending concerts at many of the county’s venues. He says he has a “gut feeling” not only that San Diego is on the verge of having a burgeoning music scene but that there’s room here for another promoter, especially one of Goldman’s perspective.

“We hope to do shows here on the theater level, on the arena level, even stadium shows,” he continued. “But outdoor shows in wide-open spaces are our specialty. We do a whole day, with five or six acts playing from noon to 6 p.m., all for a ticket somewhere in the $12 to $15 range. We have food, comedy, an air show between acts--whatever seems to fit the show’s theme. And instead of the typical stadium food, we’ll have everything from sushi to shish kebab. I get my greatest enjoyment out of creating a concert environment. Our company slogan is: ‘Not Just Another Concert.’ ”

While he speaks with the confidence of one who has enjoyed great success, the soft-spoken Goldman doesn’t come across like the typical big-stakes music broker. He mentions specific triumphs not boastfully, but with the almost reverent air of one humbled by good fortune. He avoids dwelling on the aspects of money or power, saving his greatest enthusiasm for the artists and the music that obviously remain important to him today.

“It was a love of music that got me into this business,” Goldman explained. “In 1980, I was living in a small town in Northern California called Nevada City, and I became a big fan of this local band called Backwoods Jazz. They needed a manager, and even though I had a business degree, I didn’t think I knew enough about the music industry to do that. I soon discovered that certain basic business principles apply no matter what field you’re in. Now, I realize that in some ways I was destined to do this for a living.”

After managing various regional acts, Goldman started Music Futures and developed a series of shows and theme events in local auditoriums and theaters. In 1983, he started producing the big outdoor events, beginning with a show called the Sierra Sun Music Festival, at the Nevada County Fairgrounds, in the foothills just outside Sacramento. That show featured The Band in its only performance after the release of their farewell-concert film, “The Last Waltz,” directed by Martin Scorsese.

The fairgrounds bill also included the Jerry Garcia Band and Etta James. Garcia was so impressed with the event that three months later his better-known, full-time band, The Grateful Dead, headlined the second Sierra Sun festival.

“That first Dead show put us on the map, as far as agents and promoters across the country were concerned,” Goldman remembered, “but it also brought some unwanted controversy. Residents near the festival site made the usual complaints about traffic congestion and people trespassing on private property. Some people wanted to prevent us from doing any more shows there; for a while it was front-page news. But it turned out to be a blessing in disguise, because, even though we eventually won, the situation forced us to look for a different venue for the next Dead show.”

Goldman discovered a ski area called Boreal Ridge, in Donner Summit, Calif. The site was twice as large as the fairgrounds, and more or less dormant during the summer months. At an elevation of 7,200 feet, it was the highest point in the Sierras between Sacramento and Reno. In 1985, Goldman produced a Grateful Dead show there, promoting it--tongue firmly in cheek--as “The Highest Grateful Dead Concert in the World.” The concert drew 20,000 people and earned a paragraph in Time magazine.

Goldman’s achievements in the region brought him acclaim, professional stature and prosperity, but it also put him on a collision course with Bill Graham, who by then was the most prominent concert promoter in the country, and a man even other industry heavies took pains not to cross.

Although he was headquartered in the Bay Area, Graham considered all of Northern California his personal fiefdom. He resented Goldman’s intrusion, and was especially angry that Music Futures was doing shows with the Dead, who had been one of Graham’s pet projects since the earliest days of the Haight-Asbury era. Now, flushed with success, Goldman was setting his sights on an exclusive agreement with a brand-new venue in Sacramento called the Arco Arena.

Goldman’s chutzpah forced a showdown with Graham, who had built and was operating a summertime venue at the state fairgrounds in Sacramento called the Cal Expo Amphitheatre. Everyone--the media, music-industry observers, and even Goldman himself--considered the Nevada City entrepreneur a decided underdog. But after three months of negotiations, and to unanimous amazement, Goldman was awarded a one-year contract to produce concerts at the Arco, beating out not only Graham, but, ironically, Avalon Attractions.

“We opened the Arco with a theater-in-the-round show featuring Kenny Rogers,” Goldman recalled with no trace of gloating. “It sold out all 11,000 seats in 18 hours, and, I think, remains the fastest-selling show in Sacramento history. Then we brought in Hank Williams Jr., a package jazz show with Dave Brubeck, Stan Getz and Dizzy Gillespie, and other shows.”

But Goldman was not impervious, not even to Graham. Specifically, Music Futures had difficulty landing major rock acts for the Arco.

“By that time, Graham was really beside himself,” Goldman said.

Somehow, Goldman prospered in spite of Graham.

In 1986, Goldman moved his base of operations from Nevada City to San Francisco. But in 1988, he pulled out of the business.

“Partly, I was tired of fighting the obstacles that Graham kept throwing at me,” Goldman said. “But by then, I also had become interested in flying, and I got an offer to work in aviation. For the next three years, I worked as a private pilot and did marketing and promotions for an air charter company. But I never lost my interest in music.”

Graham’s death in a helicopter crash near Vallejo last October left a void in Northern California concert promotion that didn’t go unnoticed by Goldman, who by then was residing in Cardiff.

“I moved here for the same reason a lot of people do--the lifestyle, the weather. I certainly didn’t move here to reopen my company,” Goldman said. “But after being here for several months, and feeling committed to the area, I started thinking about it, and it just seems like a good time to re-establish Music Futures with the contacts and background that I have. Since opening our doors on January 1, we’ve been simultaneously working on a half-dozen shows, any one of which could become our first local concert. And with Graham not around to personally block our moves, we’re also trying to book shows in Central and Northern California.”

Goldman admits that he’ll probably lose some battles with Silva and Avalon because they’re established here. But he believes his relationships with certain artists will enable him to win some, too.

“The idea is to find a local niche and fill it. I know firsthand that this is a tough, cutthroat business. But I believe the saying, ‘Above all, do what you love.’ And I love this business. As many shows as I’ve done, the day-of-show is still a rush for me. There’s something about seeing the trucks roll in, and the crew starts unloading, the stage rigging starts going up--there’s nothing like it. I can’t wait.”