Promoter Hopes to Buy Rights and Relocate Bogart’s : Pop music: The prospective owner, who still faces some hurdles, would keep the name of the recently closed club and its commitment to alternative bands.

A veteran promoter of the Los Angeles and Long Beach grass-roots music scene hopes to acquire the recently closed Bogart’s, to find a new location for it and to keep alive the respected club’s name and its tradition of booking alternative music.

The promoter, Mike Giangreco, and Bogart’s owner Richard Greco, who closed the club earlier this week, said Thursday that they have discussed a deal in which Giangreco would acquire the club’s sound system and other equipment, its liquor license and the rights to its name.

Greco and Giangreco said in separate interviews that they are close to agreement on financial terms. But Greco cautioned that the prospective buyer has hurdles to overcome before a deal can go through.

“The main thing is his finding himself a good lease” in a new location, Greco said. (The current location, the Marina Pacifica Mall, is slated for sale and renovation). “I can’t sell a liquor license to somebody who doesn’t have a location. You’ve got to get the entertainment license, too, and that can be a headache. It’s going to be complicated and take time. Hopefully it will work out.”

“There is no way it would happen for at least two months,” said Giangreco, “(even) moving full-tilt.”

Bogart’s, located about a mile from the Orange County line, had been the hub of the Long Beach and Orange County alternative music scene since 1987, when Greco switched from a mainly Top 40 format to full-time original music. With its closing, the area loses its most active and stable venue for rising local bands and adventurous, out-of-the-mainstream touring acts.

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Facing eventual displacement himself because of the planned mall deal, Greco said he decided to close the club now rather than continue into 1994 because Bogart’s was barely breaking even financially and because a new career in the construction business that he began in May has been taking most of his time.

He said that under an agreement he reached with the mall’s current owner, Bank of America, he must move out by Monday--which has made it impossible to schedule the farewell bash he would have liked for the club.

“It won’t be here, and it won’t be with me, but I’d love to see (Bogart’s) continue,” Greco said. “I really want to work with (Giangreco). He’s a guy I know and trust, and I think he can do a good job.”

Giangreco said he has been promoting shows since 1986 in Los Angeles, featuring mainly local talent. He currently books two acoustic-oriented clubs, Highland Grounds in Hollywood and the Cock and Bull in Santa Monica. He said he also promotes six to 12 concerts each month at two rock clubs in Hollywood, the Roxy and the Whisky. He is well-acquainted with operations at Bogart’s: Since 1988, he has put on shows once or twice a week in the Bohemian Cafe, a small adjoining lounge under the same roof as Bogart’s main concert room.

Because Greco’s liquor license is valid only in Los Angeles County, Giangreco will not consider relocating in Orange County. But “hopefully it will be in Long Beach, or somewhere very close to Long Beach,” he said.

“In Long Beach, I would be able to keep the national acts coming in. If I bring them up to (Hollywood) under the Bogart’s name, I’m competing with Avalon (a major concert company) and the rest.”

Indeed, Greco said one of Bogart’s biggest problems over the years was that it already was too close to Los Angeles, where promoters often insisted that touring bands not play Bogart’s as well for fear of splitting the market.

Still, “I’d like to keep it down here, where the tradition (of the Bogart’s name) is most effective,” Giangreco said. I want to keep it as close to what it was as possible.”

He said he hopes to find a building that will hold 300 to 350 people, about the same capacity as Bogart’s, although he said a capacity from 200 to 600 would be acceptable.

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He said he has done a good deal of thinking about how to make Bogart’s more successful--and that he had come up with cost-saving proposals as the business struggled the past two years, “but Richard’s heart wasn’t in it. He wanted to let everything roll as it was. He’s a new father, and he has the construction (business). You change your perspective.

“If it widened its range, it would have a few more customers,” Giangreco continued, outlining his ideas for resurrecting Bogart’s. “We’d certainly keep the alternative (rock), but I’d go a little (further) in a couple of directions--the acoustic, unplugged direction, and on the other side to hard rock. I’m not a heavy metal or hard rock fan, but it makes a difference in (being able to keep) the club open to do the kinds of shows you want to do.”

Giangreco said he has already asked Stephen Zepeda, Bogart’s concert booker, to continue in that capacity if the club does reopen. “Steve is a valuable asset to any music business. His wealth of knowledge, and his sense of the scene isn’t something that should be put on the back burner. More than working for me, (I would want him) working with me.”

“It’s possible,” Zepeda said Thursday. “Right now, I’m just trying to get over the shock of (the club) closing. I’m trying to keep all my options open. I’m hoping to take a little time off and figure it out. I haven’t had a good vacation in a while.”

Looking back on nearly 4 1/2 years as the club’s booker and promoter, Zepeda took satisfaction in having brought such now-famous names as Nirvana, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Faith No More, Stone Temple Pilots and Primus to Bogart’s when they were still in the rock underground.

He also pointed to local bands that used Bogart’s as a home club while developing into strong attractions. “The Cadillac Tramps were the most outstanding example,” Zepeda said. “I’m very proud that I was able to see them sell out two nights (in a row) here several times.”

Greco said the market is big enough for bands to play their clubs and Bogart’s. “Most of the adults 21 and over (the minimum age for Bogart’s) aren’t likely to drive up to Hollywood. The kids are going to drive up, and they’re not allowed in here.”

Still, Zepeda said, “Goldenvoice (the area’s oldest and foremost alternative rock promoter) has been protective of the L.A. market, (and Bogart’s) may have lost bands because of it. But (Goldenvoice’s promoters) are just using their good business sense. If we lost out, it’s because they have more power in Southern California than we do.

“I hate to say this, but I’ve always felt the music business is very dog-eat-dog, and I’m surprised we’ve been able to hang in as long as we have (and attract) the caliber of entertainment we’ve been able to get here. How can I not be proud of that?”