Fact #170528
When:
Short story:
Jethro Tull begin a South American tour with a show at The Mineirinho, Belo Horizonte, Brazil, during which the band salutes Brazil's rich musical heritage with a rendition of the Astrud Gilberto classic Girl From Ipanema.Full article:
Jose Muniz (promoter) : I grew up listening to progressive and hard rock bands and I realized there was an entire generation like me that had never had the opportunity to see their idols live. Also the few existing international promoters at the time (Poladian, Marcos Lazaro) were fighting for the pop stars that were popular on the radios and would not pay attention to what was already considered “old stuff”. I saw a real opportunity to establish myself as an international promoter, decided to follow my instincts and start bringing the bands I grew up listening to.
Problems I encountered included the total lack of infrastructure, difficulty in getting attention from the agents, challenging economy with the sky-rocketing dollar and hyper-inflation and total discouragement from record companies that would not understand the reason to bring an artist selling only 10,000 copies of a catalog as opposed to a contemporary one with the potential to sell ten times more.
For some reason, British bands had a bigger impact on my generation therefore English agents seemed to be more open to the third world countries.
However, when I first decided to bring Jethro Tull to Brazil, it took me two months to reach out to Kenny Bell (World Service Agency) and to persuade him I was serious about promoting them in the country. Back then we had a telex machine in the office and I was obliged to import/smuggle a fax machine, a rare item at the time, to improve the communication with their production people. Tull's six dates tour in Brazil would require at least two weeks given the fact that it would take three days to hang the lights at the arena's ceiling. Also there was no Rock It Cargo and I had to clear customs myself after getting a permit turning my company into a importation broker. Finally to get monies out of the country, we had to rely on the black market and it was really risky.
Selling out all of Jethro Tull’s shows against all odds and receiving a letter from Ian Anderson himself meant a lot to me and made me feel confident that I was on the right track.
(Source : interview with Johnny Black for Audience magazine, 2013)
Tweet this Fact
Problems I encountered included the total lack of infrastructure, difficulty in getting attention from the agents, challenging economy with the sky-rocketing dollar and hyper-inflation and total discouragement from record companies that would not understand the reason to bring an artist selling only 10,000 copies of a catalog as opposed to a contemporary one with the potential to sell ten times more.
For some reason, British bands had a bigger impact on my generation therefore English agents seemed to be more open to the third world countries.
However, when I first decided to bring Jethro Tull to Brazil, it took me two months to reach out to Kenny Bell (World Service Agency) and to persuade him I was serious about promoting them in the country. Back then we had a telex machine in the office and I was obliged to import/smuggle a fax machine, a rare item at the time, to improve the communication with their production people. Tull's six dates tour in Brazil would require at least two weeks given the fact that it would take three days to hang the lights at the arena's ceiling. Also there was no Rock It Cargo and I had to clear customs myself after getting a permit turning my company into a importation broker. Finally to get monies out of the country, we had to rely on the black market and it was really risky.
Selling out all of Jethro Tull’s shows against all odds and receiving a letter from Ian Anderson himself meant a lot to me and made me feel confident that I was on the right track.
(Source : interview with Johnny Black for Audience magazine, 2013)