The Post recently published an exposé on the tour by pop music critic J. Freedom DuLac – a story about an attorney with a dream to be a concert tour promoter. But much like the dreams of attorneys who want to become restaurateurs, and like so many other first-time promoters, the dream became a financial nightmare.
Washington lawyer Patrick Hand wanted the country to take another look at the Electric Prunes – a band some consider the forefathers of psychedelic rock. In a press release announcing the tour, Hand said the Prunes are “the best rock band in the world right now. The Electric Prunes are the only band from the 1960s who are putting out better music now than then.”
He also landed Love, which is synonymous with leader Arthur Lee, who died in 2006. Hand also got Sky Saxon and The Seeds to come along for the California ’66 Revue tour.
But the Prunes backed out because of logistical and financial agreements a week before the tour started, according to the Post. That was followed by the death of Saxon. Former Moby Grape guitarist Jerry Miller was to take Saxon’s place, but that fell apart at the last second.
Hand wanted to revise Miller’s contract, he told the Post, but “he didn’t want to do that, so I bought him out. In essence, I paid him not to play because it saves me money.”
Which means the August tour was Love, minus Lee. A visit to Chicago had 55 people in a 473-capacity room. The tour finale at the 500-capacity Birchmere in Alexandria, Va., was canceled. Plenty of venues dropped out along the way. DuLac attended the Milwaukee, Wisc., show, which had “fewer than 50 people in the room, including bartenders, waitresses, the sound guy, the door guy and the musicians.”
It got to the point where nobody got comps, with even Hand’s wife, Katie Griffin Hand, paying the $12 cost to get in. Although Hand said he has not lost money that he can’t afford to lose, it went away at a pretty good clip. Wife Katie chuckled at the situation.
“Every 10 days, I’d say: ‘Listen, honey: I’m so glad the tour’s going well,’” she told the Post. “‘Can we have the money talk now?’”
Click here to read the complete Washington Post article.