TOUR DESIGNER: If Pearl Jam’s plan to...
TOUR DESIGNER: If Pearl Jam’s plan to sidestep Ticketmaster and conventional concert venues on its upcoming tour sounds as if it took a lot of work, it did. Mike McGinley, a 43-year-old Los Angeles tour accountant and coordinator, spent much of last year consulting with promoters about staging concerts at remote outdoor sites.
Working out of his home office near the Sunset Strip, McGinley--who also works for Tom Petty and Sting--helped the Seattle band circumvent the mainstream concert circuit and hooked it up with Irvine-based ETM Entertainment Network, whose touch-tone computerized system will be used to sell tickets to the quintet’s 14-stop trek. The tour, which begins June 16 in Boise, Ida., includes a stop June 26 at the Del Mar Fairgrounds.
For the record:
12:00 a.m. April 16, 1995 FOR THE RECORD
Los Angeles Times Sunday April 16, 1995 Home Edition Calendar Page 65 Calendar Desk 6 inches; 187 words Type of Material: Correction
In the April 9 Pop Eye, an item on the issue of concert ticket distribution included a misspelling of Ticketmaster CEO Fredric D. Rosen’s first name.
Additionally, the item stated that Rosen declined to comment for the story. Rosen did not personally decline to comment. However, a Ticketmaster spokesman declined to comment on behalf of the agency and said that Rosen would not be available.
Regarding a meeting between Rosen and Pearl Jam manager Kelly Curtis to address the dispute between the band and the ticket agency, it took place in February (not last year), and Rosen did not invite Curtis to the meeting. It was arranged by a third party.
In a letter sent to The Times, Rosen also takes exception with the characterization in last week’s article that he attempted to “mediate the crisis” with Pearl Jam’s manager. Rosen states that the two sides “. . . exchanged our respective views and discussed various events.” Rosen also disagrees with the story’s assertion that the meeting concluded with both sides deciding “they could not work together.” Rosen says that was “never decided.”
However, Pearl Jam manager Curtis maintains that the two sides “agreed to disagree” on issues relating to the dispute.
Finally, the item misidentified the document that Pearl Jam has filed with the U.S. Justice Department. It is a legal memorandum.
Following a dispute last year over Ticketmaster’s service charges, Pearl Jam filed a civil complaint with the U.S. Justice Department accusing the giant firm of exercising a national monopoly over ticket distribution.
For more than a year, high level sources at Ticketmaster have privately blamed McGinley for instigating the firm’s falling out with Pearl Jam for his own commercial gain. Ticketmaster sources have frequently speculated that McGinley, with financial backing from Sony Corp. (which releases Pearl Jam’s music), is using the band’s crusade as a vehicle to enter the ticket distribution business.
Last week, sources inside Ticketmaster suggested that McGinley and Sony might have a financial stake in ETM.
The press-shy McGinley could not be reached for comment, but Sony denied the allegations, as did Pearl Jam manager Kelly Curtis and representatives for ETM.
Ticketmaster CEO Frederic D. Rosen, who also declined comment, attempted late last year to bury the hatchet with Pearl Jam by inviting the group’s manager, Kelly Curtis, to a secret meeting at an upscale Hollywood hotel. Sources said that Rosen attempted to mediate the crisis, but after two amicable hours of discussion, the two sides decided they could not work together.
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