By Neale Gulley<br><a href="mailto:gulleyn@gnnewspaper.com">E-mail Neale</a>
What exactly led to Joan Jett’s agent’s decision to break contract with North Tonawanda’s Gateway Harbor Park venue is still unclear to city officials, promoters and others.
What is clear is that that the promoter for the city’s Saturday Concerts on the Canal, Metropolitan Talent Inc., booked her in February, and her agent pulled the plug here in May, at a time when the schedule and brochures for the event had already been printed and paid for.
Since then, Chris Ring of Metropolitan Talent has been working to try to resolve the matter or if possible, preserve the show.
It does not appear that will happen.
“Joan Jett pulled out on the date, which she cannot do,” Ring said. “We’ve tried to resolve it, but we are going to stand up, we are going to fight for it and say ‘if you book a show with us we want you to honor it.’ ”
Jett was offered $37,500 for the canal show, high when other bands’ prices are considered, often closer to $15,000.
Insiders say Jett is being paid roughly twice that amount by promoter Live Nation, which works for the Seneca Niagara Casino, where Jett will play Aug. 22 as part of a free series.
E-mails between Metro Talent and Jett’s promoters indicate they wanted $40,000 originally. The artist was booked this winter in Oswego for $46,000 and London, Ontario for $45,000.
“We booked her months and months ago,” Phil Pantana, director of public affairs for the Seneca Niagara Casino, said. “We had her booked before the promoters for (the Saturday concerts) booked her. She shouldn’t have signed it in the first place.”
A “proximity clause” in the casino contract means the artist cannot perform at competing venues within a short distance from the casino, including North Tonawanda and this apparently forms the basis for Jett’s agent to pull the plug.
That’s if the casino really did book her first.
Ring said he learned of the casino show April 22, and succeeded in having the casino remove the date from their Web site, citing Metro’s own proximity clause — not to announce shows at competing venues 90 days before or after the scheduled performance “without written consent,” he said.
According to ring, the date was removed at that time. Jett’s agent notified Ring in May of his intention to back out, just hours before the schedule was to be released to the public.
“At some point in that almost month and a half they started having a problem with the show, and we don’t know why.”
Ring said the company had a deal and as far as he’s concerned, claims that the casino had it first have never been proven. He said she was booked here Feb. 27. Information regarding contract details pertaining to the Niagara Falls show could not be produced by officials at the casino Thursday.
“That’s what they’re saying but nobody is showing us that documentation,” Ring said.
Live Nation is a significant competitor with Metro Talent.
The Aug. 26 date is expected to be filled, and Ring said the Celtic-rock band Jackdaw, of Buffalo, featuring the original drummer from the Goo Goo Dolls, George Tutuska, is available.
Jillian Fiorella, publicity manager for the casino, said at this point the issue appears to be between Jett’s agent and the two promoters — Metro and Live Nation.
“I spoke to a promoter yesterday and it was his understanding that our contract was signed first and returned first,” she said. We heard about it when the concert lineup was announced (in North Tonawanda). It appears that there was an oversight on (Jett’s agent’s) part in booking the two shows.
Addressing the feeling of some in the city that the move was a coup by the casino, which has the financial clout to pay the artist more and whose promoter is a competitor with Metro in Western New York, Fiorella said:
“I don’t think that is the gaming corporation’s sentiment. I know it’s typical that there is a radius clause and that is the case whether it’s a free show or not,” she said. “In this case it was in our contract.”
Contact reporter Neale Gulleyat 693-1000, ext. 114.
