Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, December 31, 1993 TAG: 9401050172
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MARK MORRISON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Take the week of March 29. The Damn Yankees were here on Tuesday. Conway Twitty came Friday, and Vince Gill followed on Sunday. Or take the week of April 12. Toad the Wet Sprocket was Wednesday. Guns N' Roses came Thursday. Bob Dylan was Friday.
All totaled, there were 32 concerts of note that came our way in 1993, making it the busiest concert year in recent memory. Perhaps ever.
That's about $650 worth of concerts, if you bought a ticket to each.
"If it's not the busiest year on record, it's at least the busiest year since I've been here," said Mark Collins, assistant manager at the Roanoke Civic Center. He goes back 13 years.
"There were shows on top of shows," said Carey Harveycutter, manager of the Salem Civic Center. He agreed that 1993 was the busiest year he could remember, other than when the Salem venue first opened and was still a novelty in the Roanoke Valley. That goes back 25 years.
At times, from a business standpoint at least, the year was perhaps too busy.
Harveycutter said Vince Gill in Roanoke coming two nights after Conway Twitty in Salem probably hurt attendance at the Twitty concert. He drew only 3,359, down from 6,613 in 1992, while Gill drew 8,477.
Similarly, in October, Tanya Tucker was probably hurt by the competition 10 days later in November from Reba McEntire. Tucker drew 2,654 in Salem, while McEntire drew 7,933 in Roanoke.
Then there were the back-to-back shows that probably didn't hurt each other.
Alternative rockers Primus, who played Radford University on Halloween, for example, likely did not draw from the same crowd that came out for Roberta Flack with the Roanoke Symphony Orchestra in Salem the night before.
Or Aerosmith followed by Lorrie Morgan three nights later. Again, not much crossover there.
Even with the heavy concert schedule, however, few of the shows lost money, Harveycutter and Collins said.
Country continued to be particularly strong.
Many of the year's biggest concerts were country. Brooks & Dunn, Reba McEntire, Billy Ray Cyrus, Alan Jackson, Vince Gill, Travis Tritt and Alabama all did big business, while rock acts like Damn Yankees, Toad the Wet Sprocket and former Eagles Glenn Frey and Joe Walsh were disappointments.
The year's biggest concert, of course, was Guns N' Roses, who played to 11,000 at the Roanoke Civic Center in April. It was noteworthy for several reasons.
Roanoke is considered a secondary concert market that most of the big music acts like Guns N' Roses - considered the top band in hard rock - normally skip over.
There just aren't the seats here, Collins explained. The big acts aren't going to play here to 11,000 when they can play in Greensboro or Charlotte or dozens of other primary markets that can handle 25,000 people.
However, big acts make exceptions on occasion when they need a fill-in date between big markets. That's what happened with Guns N' Roses.
Collins said Victory Stadium could hold 25,000 for concerts, but it really isn't a practical option because it is so old and outdated and has inadequate parking for a crowd that large. Its parking lot has only 400 spaces.
The Guns N' Roses concert also was noteworthy for lead singer Axl Rose's tardiness. He apparently doesn't like to arrive on stage before about midnight - and he made no exceptions for Roanoke.
"I've had a [expletive]-up night," was the only explanation he offered.
The long wait was difficult on fans, particularly those packed against the stage. More than a dozen people suffering from heat exhaustion had to be carried away before Axl ever arrived, via climate-controlled stretch limousine.
The concert was perhaps most noteworthy, however, for an incident that reportedly occurred backstage involving a young woman who charged that two of the band's roadies forcefully fondled her breasts and rubbed them with ice while several band members looked on.
The incident sparked a public debate about concert clothing and backstage security. The woman was wearing provocative clothing, and civic center officials said there is only so much they can do to control what happens backstage at concerts.
Criminal charges stemming from the incident have never been filed, although the case is still open. The woman was supposed to meet with Roanoke investigators in June, but missed the meeting.
A second meeting was never arranged.
The woman said last week that she thought maybe the charges had been dropped because she had not heard from any investigators since June. "If they still want to pursue it, I will," she said.
Meanwhile, there are no plans for Guns N' Roses to make a return visit here.
In fact, after a hectic 1993, the concert outlook for the coming year is bleak. Currently, there are no concerts on the horizon during what is typically the busiest time of year, January through April.
There are some rumors: Garth Brooks, ZZ Top, Alan Jackson, AC/DC, maybe Travis Tritt, but nothing definite.
It could be a slow year. Maybe too slow.
Keywords:
YEAR 1993
by CNB