[bomp] Bill Graham's Mutha-lode

[Sknoof@xxxxxxx]

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.

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