Executive Interview s

Page 32 2000-2001 Edition POLLSTAR

Handling the touring career ofone of the world’s most renownedlive performers requires a tremen-

dous amount of time and dedica-tion, as well as knowledge and skill.But add the year-round responsi-

bilities of an arena manager to thatalready hectic task and it’s easy towonder: What? Why? How?

In addition to leadingSlowhand’s touring caravan, Peteris assistant director of the 13,100-

capacity Idaho Center in Nampa,located about 20 miles from Boise.The arena, which opened in

February 1997, and its neighboring11,000-capacity amphitheatrehosted around 150 events last year,

including the well-known SnakeRiver Stampede Rodeo and concertsby a variety of major entertainers.

“I’m working here in the buildingand planning a world tour,” Petersaid of his concurrent roles. “I will

be heading out (on tour) and every-one here knows and understandsthat. I will be gone quite a lot

next year.”The connection between the two

jobs is logical. As a veteran touring

chief, Peter has examined numerousvenues across the world, noting theups and downs of each, what works

and what doesn’t. At the IdahoCenter, he incorporates those keyfeatures – such as cozy dressing

rooms, a hospitable staff and qual-ity meals – to create a positive expe-rience for road crews and artists.

In the handful of years he hasbeen with the Idaho Center, thearena and the Boise concert scene

have grown immensely. “We dida million people through the doorin a couple of years,” Peter said.

“Considering there’s a 5,000-seathockey arena and another 13,000-seat building in town, we haven’t

done too bad.”The London native’s journey

to the Northwest began many miles

and almost as many years agowhile working on Fleet Street,the heart of Britain’s newspaper

industry. “I got quite a cushy unionjob down there where basicallyI didn’t do too much,” he said with

a chuckle.“There were pubs and bars open

all night just for the workers. Well,

you can only sit and drink so much,so I decided – I used to get two- orthree-hour breaks – to go down to

the clubs in the West End and seesome music.”

His longtime passion for music

fueled his quest for live perfor-mances, which included catchingthe likes of the Rolling Stones or the

Yardbirds jamming away in somesmoky pub.

“I just got this love of music

from my father. I grew up listeningto the American Forces networkthat was beamed out of Germany,

so I got a love of American musicand the blues.”

During a night out at one of the

West End’s popular clubs, Peter meta drummer who offered him a jobas a roadie driving the band’s van.

As if it were some dreamy, fantasticcartoon, the lightbulb went offinside Peter’s head. “I thought, ‘Oh,

yeah, the rock ’n’ roll business.’”

With whom did you start

your career as a roadie?

He was a guy called Peter Jay.

He had some hits in England.

I sort of dropped out for the

summer and thought, “I could do

this for a summer, have some fun.”

So I became a roadie for Peter Jay

& the Jaywalkers – you know, we’re

talking about the ’60s.

How did that gig lead

to meeting the Moody Blues?

I was introduced to them from

an old, dear friend of mine whom

I grew up with. He’d been working

with the group and was leaving

to be with Denny Laine, the lead

singer. Denny eventually went on

to Paul McCartney’s Wings band

and actually, he was the lead singer

in the Moody Blues when they did

“Go Now.”

So my friend introduced me

to some of the band members and

I got very friendly with them. But

they had a roadie and I didn’t have

a job, so I was thinking, “I’m going

to have to go back to the printing

business.” One night they asked

me to do them a favor. They had

been offered a gig but their road

guy couldn’t do it. So I agreed and

took their equipment down to this

club and set it up.

The following day they went

into a studio and asked me to

take the equipment there. Justin

Hayward, the lead singer, said to

me, “Hey, would you like to stay

and watch the recording?” I de-

cided to stick around at the studio

and make cups of tea and sand-

wiches or whatever because their

road guy left. And that night, they

recorded “Nights In White Satin,”

and somewhere around three or

four o’clock, they offered me a job

as a roadie. That was 1967.

That was the start of a pretty

extensive career with the band.

We continued to tour up

until 1970, when I got a busted

vertebrae from picking up a

microphone onstage. I had guys

helping me then, but I used to set

the mics and run the soundboard.

Basically, I felt my days were done

after that; I’m finished. I got an

offer to become an agent in the

States, so I left the band. I thought

I couldn’t help them anymore.

I moved to America with my

wife in November of ’70, but the

job never materialized. The guy

who offered me the job was fired,

so it never panned out. I lived

in Chicago for about 10 months

while the Moodys tried to do a

tour in the spring of ’70, and it

didn’t quite work out. They missed

dates and the crew they had

replaced me with just didn’t work.

The band asked me if I would

come back to England. They had

set up Threshold Records and

asked if I would run the manage-

ment for the band. I would hire

a new crew and put the touring

division together, basically. So I

returned to England and ran the

touring division of Threshold

Records.

When they were finishing a

new album, our agent called me

and said this American company

wants to sit down and ask the

band to become their new agent/

promoter. This was the forerunner

of, let’s say, SFX. Concerts West

was a national tour promoter,

which in those days was absolutely

unheard of. So I jumped on a

plane to L.A. and met with Tom

Hulett and Jerry Weintraub.

Peter JacksonIdaho Center

As Eric Clapton’s full-time tour manager since

the mid-’80s, Peter Jackson is a busy man.

“Whenever he does a show,” Peter said, “I am there.”

s Executive Interview

POLLSTAR 2000-2001 Edition Page 33

When I met with them they

said, “Hey, we got this idea. We’d

like to do a national tour with

the Moody Blues and we’ll do an

85-15 deal.”

Up until then, the deals that

used to be done were, well, put

it this way, if you sold out, the

promoter made nearly as much

money as the band made. So this

was quite a new idea.

When these people offered the

deal, I said, “Well, we’ve had so

many problems with people and

contracts, we don’t sign contracts.

I’ll shake your hand and you got

a deal. We’ll do a tour. Yeah, 85-15,

fine.” And that’s what we did. This

was right about the same time Led

Zeppelin did the same thing with

Concerts West.

So that was it for the next three

or four years. The Moody Blues

would come over here for usually

three-week runs at a time, and

they would put the shows on sale

and just sell out immediately.

It was unbelievable.

What happened

when the Moody Blues

broke up during the ’70s?

Along the way I learned

complete tour managing, artist

management, everything. Basically

that’s what I did. I managed for

them, at most, probably three

years but in name only. I did

everything but I wasn’t called the

manager. That went until they

broke up, I think, in ’74.

Then I was asked by the

Moody’s English agent after the

band had broken up if I would

handle this brand new act for him,

Leo Sayer. There were two manag-

ers; one was the agent and one was

actually an old English rock ’n’ roll

performer named Adam Faith.

They asked me if I would commit

18 months to take Leo on the road

around the world and handle

everything for him. Once again,

I did everything but I wasn’t the

manager. I was the tour manager

and just ran everything for the guy

on the touring side.

When I came back, a couple

of the Moodys approached me to

handle their solo projects, which

I did. I handled a couple of solo

projects for Ray Thomas and

Justin Hayward. Then in about ’77,

I decided I had enough of England

once again, with the taxman telling

me, “Welcome to the super tax

bracket.” I said, “That’s it. I’m

going back to America.” So my

wife and I moved back in the

summer of ’77.

I then went to work for Con-

certs West in their Chicago office.

They were doing 600 or 700 shows

a year. You name it, we were the

tour promoter. I did the Eagles’

Long Run tour, after which they

broke up. We did Paul McCartney

& Wings, Neil Diamond, John

Denver, Bob Dylan, Frank Sinatra,

the Bee Gees’ Saturday Night Fever

tour. The list just goes on and on.

They also handled Eric Clapton.

In 1978, I was asked to do the

production end for his tour. He

was somebody I had seen in the

’60s with the Yardbirds and with

Cream. I had actually done some

Farewell Cream dates with the

Moody Blues opening on the

American tour. So I went out and

started working with him.

When did you make

the transition to working

with Eric full time?

I was still working for Concerts

West, doing just American tours

with Eric. We did a tour some-

where in the early ’80s. It was a

tough tour for Eric. He had some

ulcer problems and other medical

issues, and he had to take about 18

months off.

He went back to England where

he convalesced and recuperated,

put a new album together and

came back touring again. So it was

the first time he had been on the

road in a couple of years. It was a

whole new Eric. And at the end of

it, when we finished in America

after a long tour and he went back

to get ready to tour Europe and the

rest of the world, his manager,

Roger Forrester, had a heart attack.

Basically, Eric called me and

asked if I could come in and help,

and I did. Concerts West let me

take a leave of absence and I went

over to England with my son and

wife. We were there for a few

months and then did the rest of

the world tour. Eventually, Roger

offered me a job to go work for

him and go on the road with Eric

worldwide. That was around 1984.

How and when does

Nampa, Idaho, come into

the scheme of things?

I was living out in Los Angeles

when the Northridge earthquake

hit, and I decided I needed to get

out. I had a second son by then,

and it’s tough living around L.A.

I wanted to stay in the West. I’ve

lived in Chicago and Dallas. I love

Arizona but it’s just too hot in the

summer. I had some offers to go

there but I decided not to. I looked

up in the Seattle area because I’ve

got friends up there. God, it’s just

like England – wet.

Some friends of mine had

moved up here to Idaho, so we

came up and visited them. That

was it. We loved it. Forty-five

minutes and I’m skiing. In five

minutes I can be fly fishing on a

river for trophy-size trout – except

I’m too busy half the time.

It’s a great place to bring

children up, and it’s not as cold

as everybody thinks. Everybody

thinks of Idaho as being this igloo

in the wintertime but it’s not.

Actually, they call Boise and this

area the Banana Belt of Idaho.

So the decision was all about

the environment and nothing

to do with the Idaho Center?

I had been living here for a few

months before I even heard about

some facilities being built. One

was a small facility downtown and

one was this 13,000-seat facility

outside of town in a community

called Nampa, which is now the

second largest city in the state

of Idaho.

I called a couple of people I

knew, saying, “Do you know any

of these people who are building

this thing?” And one of the guys

made a call and contacted the

person who was in charge. I called

him and said, “Do you think

I could come and have a look

at your building that’s under

construction?” And the reply was

sort of, “Well, uh, what do you

want to look at it for?”

So I said, “Maybe one day I

might come play there. I’m a tour

manager.” And they said, “Well,

yeah, sure.”

PETER with Eric Clapton and George Harrison circa 1995.

Executive Interview s

Page 34 2000-2001 Edition POLLSTAR

Being a longtime tour manager

who knows the ins and outs

of many venues worldwide,

I’m sure you had a sharp eye

for what would and wouldn’t

work at the venue.

They hadn’t thought about a

lot of those things. “What are

you doing about the electrics?”

“Where’s that going to go to?”

“Well, no, you can’t do that.”

“What about the dressing rooms?”

“How will the performers get from

the dressing room to the stage?”

Just stuff like that.

So I started to give the head

of construction, Rod Orrison –

he’s now director of the facility –

all these pointers about what they

should be thinking about and

doing, because when all is said and

done, your big paydays are going

to be concerts.

I already had some previous

experience on that when they built

the Reunion Arena in Dallas.

Before Concerts West, I promoted

the first shows that went into

Reunion. And about six months

to a year before they had finished

construction on Reunion, we had

a meeting with the architects and

the city – this was Concerts West –

and there were all of these things

that were being pointed out there.

You know, “How does somebody

get from here to there?”

So Rod turned around and

said to me, “I’d love for you to

meet some other people who are

involved in this project. Would you

come back tomorrow and meet

these people?” I said, “Yeah, sure,

I’m not doing anything.” We had

a year off at the time with Eric.

I met with the architect, finance

director and chairman of the

North Nampa Renewal Agency

and they asked me if I would

be interested in working on the

project. So they hired me as a

consultant and that’s how I got

involved in this building.

There was the understanding

that when Eric goes on the road,

that’s where I’m going, so I will

have to take a leave of absence.

And they said, “Well, sure,

whatever you need to do. We’ll

take you when we can get you.”

How can you leave the

building without creating

problems?

Cutting deals is basically what

I do. I book the arena and cut the

deals. I can do it on the phone or

I can do it by e-mail. And people

get to know that if they need to fax

me or actually talk to me, I call my

assistant; she’s a jack of all trades,

Christy Vos. We literally hired her

to answer the phones and become

our receptionist. But I count her

as my secretary, my assistant. She

handles everything for me. I run

my Eric stuff here in the office,

too.

It’s sort of a big joke. I was just

at the IAAM’s Arena Managers

Conference in Denver and appar-

ently I was the topic in one car:

“How the hell does he do it?” Well,

I just go up into my room and get

onto my computer – I’m no com-

puter whiz by a long way – and

there’s all my stuff from different

promoters around the world, the

office in London, whatever. I just

answer the e-mails. I think 10

years ago, five years ago, I couldn’t

do it.

How many tours

have you been on since

joining the Idaho Center?

Around three. Sometimes

they’ll be short ones. I mean,

one of the first ones was a long

one. But nowadays, I’m reachable

over the phone, e-mail, faxes.

People can reach me anywhere

in the world and they do.

Earlier this year, I was down in

Samoa, which is virtually on the

dateline in the South Pacific, and

once I found a good electrical

outlet – that was the only problem

– I got onto AOL just as easy as

I get onto AOL here or anywhere.

And I was on the Web picking

up my messages and e-mailing

them back.

Modern technology

is key to your operation,

but I’ll bet your staff at

the Idaho Center is top-notch.

We created a staff – myself and

Rod Orrison – and even today,

not one of our staff members has

ever worked in any other arena.

Two guys actually worked in a

2,500-seat gymnasium; it wasn’t

an arena by any means. So they’re

in my operations side of it. But we

basically taught our staff from the

ground up.

That sounds like more

of a challenge than a benefit.

Why did you go that route?

I don’t think we could afford

to get an experienced staff. That

was the necessity. My box office

managers, for example, they were

the most experienced people of all

of us. They had run a ticket com-

pany called Select-A-Seat, which

was Boise State University’s ticket

company. Actually between the

two of them, they built Select-A-

Seat here, which is what this town

knows as our ticket company.

So they were experienced –

I wouldn’t try to teach somebody

about the box office anyway – but

everybody else was new. Like my

marketing director now, Cyndi

Lenz, when we found her, I think

she was making something like

$6.50 an hour selling tickets in the

box office. We saw the potential

immediately and said sorry to

the box office, “That’s going to be

our new event coordinator.” So

I taught her the job and from

there, she’s now in marketing.

That’s what we’ve done. We’ve

gone out and hired people we felt

were dedicated and could work

with people. It was hard. We taught

everybody, and basically that’s why

we’ve been successful.

That’s just one of the for

instances of how we built this

staff. We’ve given people a belief

in themselves that they can do

things. If you find the right person,

they can learn anything if they’re

willing to learn. Put the time and

effort in and it’s amazing what you

can do.

In addition to your staff,

what else is important to

efficiently and effectively

operate a successful venue?

With my background in music,

I know that when these road crews

come in here, this is their home for

a day. Sometimes some of them

THE IDAHO CENTER commemorates its debut concert, which featured the Moody Blues,in May 1997. L-R: Former Nampa Mayor Winston Goering; the group’s JustinHayward, Ray Thomas, Graeme Edge and John Lodge; and Peter Jackson.

s Executive Interview

POLLSTAR 2000-2001 Edition Page 35

don’t see a hotel in a week. And

they’re going to get off of that

bus and they’re going to be a bit

bleary-eyed; they’re going to be

tired. They’re going to be walking

into this building with an attitude.

You’ve got to make them a

home. You’ve got to give them

a nice breakfast. Don’t just throw

some plate of food in front of

them, something that was cooked

yesterday. We give them good

food. We treat them right. We bend

over backwards to help these

people.

Our catering company is a

local company and we had lots of

discussions before we ever hired

them. I basically said to them,

“We’ve got to give quality service

at a reasonable price.” That’s for

the public, as well, and everywhere

else in the arena. And the chef they

hired, Jeff Mather, he’s great. He

was trained as a gourmet chef.

He’ll cook the hot dogs and the

hamburgers – the normal fare –

but when it comes to bands

coming in, that’s when he excels.

He’s a rock ’n’ roll nut himself;

he has his radio blaring in his

kitchen full blast. And I said to

him, “Don’t ever stop doing

what you’re doing. Don’t cut the

portions. Just give it the love and

care and attention you’re doing

there and we’ll be fine.”

But he loves it, and we’ve had so

many bands that have come down-

stairs and given him a round of

applause for his food, signing stuff

for him. We’ve had a couple of big

names turn around and ask him

for recipes.

How was the local concert

scene like before you arrived

and the Idaho Center opened?

It was not a strong concert

scene at all. You had the Boise State

University Pavilion, the school

building. They would do some

concerts, but it was not a strong

scene. You didn’t have a lot of

super names coming in. You’d get

one or two. There were also some

clubs in town that got some acts.

Then two brothers came here,

Paul and Creston Thornton. Their

company is called Bravo Enter-

tainment. They had grown up in

Sun Valley here in Idaho and Cali-

fornia, where they were student

concert directors at two universi-

ties. When they wanted to be pro-

moters, they came back up here.

One day, Creston came out to

have a look at the building and

we started to talk about shows and

events. I sort of chopped him off at

the ankles, then sort of moved him

up to the shins and then the knees

just by firing things back at him.

And he kept coming back up with

the right answers as far as I was

concerned. And I turned around

and said, “The Moody Blues are

going to open the building for me.

I could promote it myself, but

I’m going to have so many other

problems getting this building

ready. You can promote it.”

That’s how our relationship

started. They had promoted some

small events before then but that

was the first arena-size event they

had ever promoted. We started to

do the events and they became the

local promoter.

We’ve created that partnership

and have come along together.

We’ve created a market. I know a

lot of agents and a lot of managers

that say, “What’s Boise all about?

What happened?” Well, we created

a market where there wasn’t really

a viable market. We are now on

the map.

Last weekend, we had two

shows; we had Neil Young on

Friday night and on Thursday

night we had Def Leppard. Both

shows did extremely well. We have

Red Hot Chili Peppers and Stone

Temple Pilots, and then we’ve

got a Pearl Jam date coming in

November.

I was just talking to a big

out-of-town promoter about a

really big show, somebody who

had never been in this market

before. And that’s what happens.

People call me and say, “Hey, could

this work?” They bring acts in

that would never have thought of

coming to Boise.

Of course, Eric came in and

played for me. That was funny.

It was a wonderful and great event.

He walked onstage and sort of

said to the crowd, “Well, you know,

I just came here because I’m a

friend of Peter’s.”

We’ve had the big acts all

come in. We are part of the major

touring scene. We’ve developed

this market.

When did the Idaho Center’s

amphitheatre open?

That was two years ago. We just

finished our second season. We

built an outdoor amphitheatre

right next door to the arena. Along

the way, I told everyone, “There

isn’t an amphitheatre between the

Gorge and Portland, and Salt Lake

City and Denver. If we build one,

I think we can do some shows.”

When we developed our second

parking lot, we literally got the

road graders to scoop up the

excess soil and bring it around to

sculpt our amphitheatre. Then we

built a stage, we put a roof on and

it’s totally open. There’s no roof

over the crowd or anything. And it

stays light out here in the summer

until 9:30 or 10 o’clock.

The bands love it. Shania Twain

opened it up. Her production

people were concerned the day

before the show that it would not

work and that they had to move

it inside. And I said, “Look, we’re

not going to move it inside. It’s the

opening of the amphitheatre; we’re

sold out. Believe me, I think she’ll

like it.”

Well, she saw it and she was a

bit nervous because it was her first

amphitheatre, but at the end of it,

she loved it and kept on playing.

We went well past our curfew but

I don’t think anybody that night

complained because it was the

opening event.

Do you plan to move

to a bigger building someday?

I doubt it. I already have the

offers, but I definitely couldn’t

operate like I do now in a major

market. Without a doubt, there

would be too much to deal with.

For the moment, though, I’m

enjoying it. It’s a lot of work. I

would be finished here and toward

midnight or something I’d get a

call from a Japanese promoter

or somebody from the other side

of the world.

But then that’s what I do. *

A FEW OF AUSTRALIA’S FINEST chat with Peter at the CIC 2000 in Las Vegas. L-R:Gareth James of Melbourne & Olympic Parks Trust, Peter, promoter Garry VanEgmond and Ogden IFC’s Rod Pilbeam.