Photograph by Bob Reuter, courtesy of Tom
The city’s recent decision to bring in an outside organization, Summer Rocks—an LLC associated with the high power players of the ICM talent agency—to host two national music festivals on the Gateway Mall for both Memorial Day and Labor Day weekends for the next 20 years has caused some concern and trepidation from a St. Louis music community. (The fact that it coincided with the St. Louis Blues Festival’s move to Chesterfield didn’t help matters much, either.)
In fact, the deal between ICM and the city has many musicians, producers, talent bookers, and promoters extremely upset. For many, there is a feeling that a large, corporate concern has usurped local promoters’ ability to organize concerts that might showcase St. Louis’ strong heritage of jazz, blues and soul artists. Vintage Vinyl head buyer John Henderson notes that the only exceptions in ICM’s noncompete clause are multiple-day festivals with a minimum $3.3 million per-day budget, and any festival that existed prior to this festival, regardless of budget.
Vintage Vinyl co-owner, Tom “Papa” Ray, host of KDHX soul, blues and R&B show Soul Selector, sees the deal as yet another lost opportunity. Because of his stature and experience—he has championed our city’s musical scene for 40 years—Ray is the go-to guy for understanding what this deal means for the St. Louis musical community. We recently sat down with him and got his thoughts on the issue. For our prior coverage of ICM, see William Powell’s March 12 post on the SLM Daily blog, “Is the Contract for Downtown St. Louis Music Festivals a Raw Deal?”
How does this deal fit into perceptions of what a downtown music festival should be?
You can’t fault ICM seeing an opportunity. If you want to fault anyone, let’s fault the political class in St. Louis, who have so little vision and so little advocacy for St. Louis’ legacy as a foundation music city.
Looking at it from their perspective—is it a bad deal for the city?
Monetarily, there’s no question that a for-profit festival, where a sizable ticket [price] is charged, be it a rock festival or a country music festival, will bring more money into the coffers of the city. But I would say this: St. Louis blew its chance as much as 20 years ago by refusing to nurture and be an advocate for an indigenous St. Louis heritage festival. The Blues Society put on several concerts at Laclede’s Landing, and if the city leaders and the city corporate leaders had been willing to invest their capital, their influence in supporting that who knows what we would have now. But they didn’t. And now it’s 2014.
So St. Louis has missed the boat?
It’s like kind of recurring story here in St. Louis, isn’t it?
Is there a way where local bands and musicians can get involved with these festivals?
Certainly for the rock/pop festival, and I think they may very well make an effort to do so. As far as St. Louis and a country music festival, it’s a non sequitur.
Do you think they should have done a blues festival instead, then?
[Pauses.] How many major country artists can you name from St. Louis?
It might draw people from rural areas and other parts of the region.
It will bring people into the city that otherwise would not step inside.
Do you think that the worst part of the deal is that the St. Louis music community got bypassed completely from the process?
They didn’t get bypassed. Nobody went to the damn table with the money.
Is it possible to have any sort of a compromise? Is the deal with ICM a done deal?
The horse has left the gate, as far as any chance for St. Louis to have a world-class, St. Louis-centric music festival, one that would be built on blues, soul, jazz and rock.
So something like JazzFest In New Orleans we could not do?
We will never have that. We can’t do that.
What do you think of the noncompete clause?
With the money that ICM is willing to commit, it’s understandable that they would want to have call. It also ties down that very desirable piece of property for their exclusive use for festivals on the two most desirable weekends of the year.
What do you think of the 20-year lease?
It seems a bit long.
What, if anything, can those who are upset with this deal do?
The indigenous music scene may not be enhanced by this, but it’s not going to stop it. I honestly think there is more room for St. Louis artists to shine on the Labor Day festival. There’s no reason that The Urge, and there’s no reason that other bands, Story of the Year, whoever, could not have a good significant booking at that festival. I happen to think, though, that if it had been a locally produced festival, whatever there was, the economic benefits to St. Louis ultimately would have been greater. And what’s the term, the multiplier effect?
So you think we really did miss a big opportunity for a good thing?
That opportunity was maybe missed in the early ’90s. That would have been good to say we’re really going to have ourselves a St. Louis Blues Festival, on the river, on the Mississippi, ours, blah blah blah…
Why do you think people are upset about this?
Why are people upset? Because it’s a reminder.
Does the announcement of this deal have anything to with the Blues Festival leaving downtown and moving to Chesterfield?
No. I think as soon as that happened ICM and their local representatives saw an opportunity.
Is there a silver lining in any of this?
I guess you could say that there’s a silver lining in the fact that the City of St. Louis, which is in dire need of revenue, is going to realize more revenue than they did from Blues Week.
Did they even talk to a representative group of the St. Louis music community? Did this get done without any consultation?
Well, they were consulting with the Aldermen. They accepted a proposal—a proposal, from what I can see, that was written by ICM’s lawyers, and there has been a little bit of tweaking on that. It’s another example of St. Louis not rising to the occasion.
It sounds like you’re more upset about the missed opportunity, then, rather than the fact that an outside company’s coming in to do the festival.
I can’t demonize ICM. To me, that would be the easy, emotional, gut reaction. Once more, if anyone wants to turn in the winds of criticism on anyone it should be turned on ourselves.
So there’s no turning back then?
Well, in 2034, I will be in my advanced dotage. I hope I am around to see what happens then.
