WHOoPLA: Chapters 31 & 32

Chapter Thirty One: They Buckle.

Lee Arnold had been so busy sending out all these media messages in a bottle he’d nearly forgotten to think about if or when the band would call again. Beyond that he was struggling to manage the six headed serpent that included his boss Ralph Barnes, The Animal, the media, LPX, his own ad agency (David Joseph) and now he was dangerously on the radar of the station owner Bill Lynett. So when he picked up the phone and found it was Who manager Bill Curbishley, it was a surprising relief. Curbishley:

“Ohhhhh Kaaaaay. You proved it to me.”

Before that morning Curbishley had only known that a guy in Milwaukee had sent a telegram saying he was going to bring much greater attention to The Who’s tour. He didn’t know how or what “that guy” was going to do. He likely didn’t expect to even have to address it ever again because of the outlandish nature of the original promise. But immediately upon his Washington DC arrival the questions had started. There was a DJ out on a ledge in Milwaukee who was making an appeal,

“Was the band going to play Milwaukee?”

He told Arnold he had seen Rosanne St. Aubin’s Entertainment Tonight feature before the band’s first show as part of the pre-show coverage and acknowledged that Arnold had done just what he had said he would do. He also said that the idea had resonated with the band. He said Roger Daltrey, in particular, had also seen the coverage and was now sympathetic to the cause.

Now they both set about trying to work out the details of the deal. Arnold would be negotiating with management (Curbishley) and McElrath with the booking agents.

As most concert schedules are, The Who’s tour was packed so tightly that there were no available dates to squeeze in a show. There were dates when the band wasn’t playing, but those were days needed for set-up and transportation, etc. So Curbishley’s first offer was a compromise that would satisfy the cities need to see a show but also be economically efficient. He offered to do a closed circuit video broadcast of the upcoming Chicago Rosemont Horizon Shows at a theater in Milwaukee. He thought it was a great idea, he loved it.

Incredulous, Arnold grabbed his head,

“That’s exactly the worst thing you could do!”

Arnold explained to Curbishley that the entire appeal had been that Milwaukee was NOT a little sister to Chicago and wanted to be considered a premier rock n roll town in it’s own right. It just was not an option to simulcast a Chicago show. Curbishley nonetheless asked Arnold to take some time to consider the offer.

With good news for The Animal, Arnold broke the ice and let Tim know the negotiations were under way. He was careful not to oversell his progress. He told Tim what he thought was just enough to keep him going but not too much to generate expectations of a quick resolution. To no avail. The Animal took it as a sign that he was soon to be done and began to look forward to his descent. He was still taking interview calls from all over odd parts of the earth but was definitely starting to get sick of his own rap.

“Tomorrow would be just fine with me,” he thought.

The next day, Saturday September 25th, The Who played in the rickety old 1920’s JFK Stadium in Philadelphia, PA before a crowd of 90,000. Santana opened and was well received but The Clash was pummeled with all kinds of thrown debris including an apple that hit Joe Strummer squarely in the forehead. A fan account of The Who’s portion of the show:

“The enormous PA system was covered by a huge cloth “W” on one side, and an equally large “O” on the other. The stage itself was under a 70 foot wide “H”…Pete slipped and fell during Punk Meets the Godfather, knocking his Telecaster out of tune. He got up and tossed it to someone out of my line of sight. He strapped on another and carried on. Someone set a small fire in the photographer’s pit, but it was quickly extinguished. Roger was hit by a roll of toilet paper, which he promptly picked up and threw back. Moments later, he looked at who it bounced off of and said “sorry”. At one point Pete asked the crowd to move back. “A lot of very good looking girls are getting crushed,” he said. After Magic Bus, Roger said “Thank you Philly we’ve had some pretty good gigs here.”

Pete banged his guitar several times on the stage at the conclusion of “See Me, Feel Me” and then proceeded to toss it over the amps but the big surprise was at the conclusion of “Won’t Get Fooled Again”. Pete kept prolonging the ending and finally John unplugged his bass and tossed it up in the air and let it come crashing down on the stage as he walked off.”

They played Rich Stadium in Buffalo the next night, Sunday, as the Brewers lost the final two games of their home stand to the Baltimore Orioles.

Chapter Thirty Two: The Deal.

Monday the 27th of September, 1982 started with the debut of the new morning show, “Reitman & Mueller” on WKTI.

Lee Arnold continued his discussion with Curbishley. Roger Daltrey had made it clear to Curbishley that he had to find a date for a show saying he was even willing to rent a flatbed semi trailer and “Sing on the streets” if no date was available. But instead Curbishley had a December 6th date in St. Louis that had yet to be announced that he would consider blowing off for a Milwaukee show. That serious talk had Arnold just plain freakin’ out. Pumped. He kept repeating to himself,

“Gotta make this happen, Gotta make this happen, Gotta make this happen…”

Over the course of another couple days they went back and forth about the date because the St. Louis promoter didn’t want to give it up. At least that’s what Curbishley told Arnold. (Arnold had heard that David Joseph, QFM’s own ad agency, was pushing the promoter of the St. Louis show not to give up the date.) Next the band told Arnold that they would give up the St. Louis date for Milwaukee and said they would take the 6th as an off day and play Milwaukee on December 7th instead.

So, on that assumption, they proceeded to work on the money details.

For McElrath, it would be the only occasion in his long concert promotion life that he would find himself in this kind of catbird seat. Mc Elrath:

“It was like ready, shoot, aim.”

The Who’s business agents had now been told by the band that this was a show that had to be done. Thus, the sheer momentum and pressure that had been created by Arnold and The Animal took away the “power” end of the band’s negotiation and left them unable to dictate things in the manner that is typical of big acts. Now, not only did they play nice, they were in the dubious position of having to take whatever they could get.

The Milwaukee Mecca Arena held 11,300 people when filled to the gills for a concert. At $16. per seat the potential gross total was around $180,000. From that the union workers had to be paid and there was a standard promoters fee to be taken also. McElrath recalls The Who as wanting a guarantee in the neighborhood of $300-400,000. in the earlier negotiations, now they were likely going to accept a deal that was in the neighborhood of $100,000 less. He was, and to this day still is, astonished at the turnaround in attitude.

Part of the credit for the seemingly abrupt change came from a freak political offspring of Tim’s crawl out onto the ledge.

It was completely fortuitous for Lee Arnold that the sponsor for the Who’s tour was Schlitz. It was,

“Schlitz Rocks America!”

Stroh’s owned Schlitz and, as mentioned earlier, had taken “The Beer That Made Milwaukee Famous” to Detroit practically in the dark of the night. Milwaukee hated Schlitz. Remmick Stroh had seen the network coverage of the ledge stunt in several different ways and called Arnold with an offer to help underwrite some of the concerts anticipated losses. While the exact amount and details of what Stroh’s pitched in remains a mystery because it was negotiated between the band and Stroh’s, it’s value was easily over $100,000 when you include the after show parties and promotional premiums. Also, as sponsor, Remmick Stroh’s want for the band to play Milwaukee was part of the “leverage” needed to get the band to accept a below market, and possibly barely break even, fee. It can be said with great confidence that for all Arnold’s and The Animal’s efforts, without Stroh’s, the show may not have happened.

But, even with the contribution Stroh’s was making, the band still wanted QFM to pitch in too. After about a weeks worth of haggling, it all came down to $40,000. It was a standard tour business practice to demand money from radio stations in exchange for the rights to have exclusive ownership or to “Present” the show. One Texas deal went for $1.4 million and another had gone for $975,000 as they would also buy all the tickets for the show to give away and/or sell as they wish guaranteeing the band’s take while cutting out competitors’ participation.

For Lee Arnold, the specific money demand was a major break thru because now Arnold knew for sure that they wanted to do it. With all his positive karma up to that point, he never really felt they were “in it.” Now, the specific money demand left there no question. They were no longer “entertaining the idea”, they really wanted to do it.

“It’s done!” he thought, “It’s done! All I have to do now is come up with forty grand!”

His celebration and self congratulations didn’t last long as he began to realize that “All he has to do…” was get Bill Lynett, the man who he viewed as the “cheapest man in the whole world”, to cough up $40,000.

~ by Scott on December 1, 2007.