| December 16th, 2005 07:21 PM |
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| MRD8 |
Thousands of Hours of Video Discovered.
By ETHAN SMITH
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
December 13, 2005; Page B1
Two and a half years ago, a Minneapolis entrepreneur named Bill
Sagan spent more than $5 million to buy a treasure trove of rock 'n'
roll memorabilia: millions of T-shirts, posters, handbills,
photographs, concert tickets and other items from the archives of
Bill Graham Presents, the legendary San Francisco rock promoter that
virtually invented the modern concert business in the mid 1960s.
But what neither Mr. Sagan nor the seller, Clear Channel
Communications Inc., realized at the time was that the archives
contained an even more valuable bonus: more than 5,000 live audio
and video recordings made between 1966 and 1999, featuring artists
varying from the Doors to Nirvana. The recordings were made at rock
concerts that the late Mr. Graham ran or promoted. They were
uncataloged and collecting dust when Mr. Sagan acquired the archive.
Today, the 55-year-old Mr. Sagan controls what may be the most
important collection of rock memorabilia and recordings ever
assembled in one business. Called Wolfgang's Vault -- from Mr.
Graham's given name, Wolfgang Grajonca -- the company has a staff of
14, projected sales this year of $3 million, and nearly 20 million
separate items in its San Francisco warehouse.
Having set up a business selling vintage rock T-shirts and concert
posters on the Web, Mr. Sagan is only now turning his attention to
the audio and video assets, where he faces a tremendous challenge.
He is in the early stages of complex negotiations with artists,
their representatives and record labels over the rights to sell the
recordings on discs and as downloads. In the meantime, Mr. Sagan
plans to begin "streaming" some of these recordings as Internet
radio feeds on his company's Web site, which involves little more
than paying royalties to organizations that represent songwriters.
The performances, many of which are professionally recorded and
extremely high quality, amount to a sweeping, unheard history of
rock during its seminal years and beyond. The archives include
performances by artists including Bob Dylan, Bob Marley, Pink Floyd,
the Who, Tom Petty, Stevie Wonder, the Mahavishnu Orchestra, Emmylou
Harris, Aretha Franklin and Tracy Chapman, all of whom played shows
put on by Mr. Graham. The are videotapes of early performances by
Crosby Stills Nash & Young and from 1978, the Sex Pistols' last show
for nearly 20 years, before their reunion in 1996.
Though some of the recordings have leaked as bootlegs over the
years, they contain some revealing moments that may surprise fans.
For example, a recording taken from Led Zeppelin's first U.S. tour,
in 1969 -- when the band was opening for Country Joe & the Fish --
finds lead singer Robert Plant displaying little of the rock-god
swagger that would eventually become his trademark. Instead, he
makes nervous small talk to the audience as guitarist Jimmy Page
changes a broken string.
"I don't know if [Mr. Sagan] really knew exactly how much rich
material he had," says Bill Thompson, the longtime manager of
Jefferson Airplane and Jefferson Starship, which played Bill Graham
events frequently during the heyday of the San Francisco rock scene
in the late 1960s and early 1970s. "This is a goldmine."
Mr. Graham's company mounted more than 35,000 concerts world-wide
between its inception in 1966 and its sale, earlier this decade, to
Clear Channel, which bought up a number of regional concert
promoters during that era. Mr. Sagan bought the archive from Clear
Channel, which had little interest in sifting through the thousands
of items that were jammed into the company's warehouse.
Mr. Sagan and his staff spent their first six months in business
doing nothing but organizing and cataloging the vast collection,
much of which had been thrown haphazardly in cardboard boxes, and
some of which had been damaged in a warehouse fire.
Today, on WolfgangsVault.com1, shoppers can find individual tickets
to the Yardbirds' July 25, 1967, show at the Fillmore West for $51
each (a $48 markup over the face value). Prints of photographer Joe
Sia's blurred shot of a police officer arresting Jim Morrison on
stage in New Haven, Conn., go for $550 to $750. Even the Rat Pack
gets the collectible treatment: A black faux-tuxedo T-shirt
commemorating a 1988 concert starring Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and
Sammy Davis Jr., costs $82.
But the music and video recordings are the most intriguing and
commercially promising. Mr. Graham's company made the recordings
partly for posterity's sake, and, in some cases, for a more base
motive: adjacent to the Fillmore West was a restaurant owned by Mr.
Graham. Rather than lose customers when concerts started next door,
Mr. Graham installed a closed-circuit video system that let diners
watch the show live -- and also captured it on videotape.
When, or even if, the general public will ever hear or see many of
these recordings is unclear, however.
The recordings were made legally; Mr. Sagan has a filing cabinet
filled with documentation to prove it. But selling them will require
various permissions and revenue-sharing deals -- not only with the
artists themselves, but often, too, with whatever record label they
were signed to at the time of the show, or its corporate successor.
In the case of dead performers, permission is required from their
families or other heirs.
Mr. Sagan's employees have already digitized more than 1,000 audio
recordings and sent them to engineers to have the sound quality
cleaned up. Now they are in the process of seeking clearances to
release the music. Mr. Sagan says he is in active discussions with
two major record labels, and believes he is close to a deal for at
least some music with one of them, although he declines to name
either.
"Is it easy?" he asks. "No. But in some cases they're excited as
hell they might be able to make some money of old bands."
Even with clearances, much of the material in the archives is simply
not up to snuff for commercial release. "I don't think a large
percentage of it will end up on CD, or in any monetized form," says
Gavin Haag, who oversees the company's music-licensing efforts. For
instance, he adds, there may never be an appetite for dozens of
separate concerts by acts like Eddie Money.
Mr. Thompson, the Jefferson Airplane manager, says he is in "early
discussions" with Wolfgang's Vault and Sony BMG Music Entertainment
to sell the dozens of live recordings made of his clients at Mr.
Graham's various venues. Sony BMG, a joint venture of Sony Corp. and
Bertelsmann AG, controls the rights to distribute the band's
recordings. Sony BMG and Wolfgang's Vault declined to comment on the
continuing licensing negotiations. |
| December 16th, 2005 09:03 PM |
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| keefjunkie |
holy shit... the one thing that stood out to me the most was new pro shot footage of floyd in their heyday their really isnt that much and i have almost all of it..
awsome |
| December 16th, 2005 09:09 PM |
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| justforyou |
That last Sex Pistols gig looks interesting! |
| December 16th, 2005 09:28 PM |
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| glencar |
Wow! Tracy Chapman gold! |
| December 17th, 2005 06:09 AM |
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| corgi37 |
Fuck all that! I want the Eddie Money gigs!
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| December 17th, 2005 08:06 AM |
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| stonedinaustralia |
quote:
justforyou wrote:
That last Sex Pistols gig looks interesting!
very much so
especially as there is no SC
ever get the feeling you've been cheated?? |
| December 17th, 2005 01:09 PM |
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| Jumacfly |
The Who 's footage??
Joey, where are you???  |
| December 17th, 2005 05:42 PM |
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| Joey |
quote:
Jumacfly wrote:
The Who 's footage??
Joey, where are you???
I just masturbated .....................it's true . |
| December 17th, 2005 06:33 PM |
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| Jumacfly |
quote:
Joey wrote:
I just masturbated .....................it's true .
while watchin Tommy or Paris  ??? |
| December 17th, 2005 06:46 PM |
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| keefjunkie |
quadrophenia |
| December 17th, 2005 08:46 PM |
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| stoneslib |
Bill G produced some Stones 1972 shows in Calif. and the shows had live video broadcast in the arenas. Can we say Winterland and San Diego on video?  |
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