Oct. 14, 1972: Booking agency J. R. Productions
Let’s look behind the scenes and meet one of
the guys who set up all those tours for
Oct. 14, 1972
Show-Rock Groups Are in Demand
“IT’S BETTER FOR rock groups
than show groups,” John Sansone says during a letup in the telephone calls
earlier this week. “Most rock club owners don’t see the acts first.”
He turns on the TV and the videotape player and there’s
United Sound bouncing onto the 12-inch screen to do “Aimless Lady.”
Do they have two video machines, then, one for him, one for
his younger brother, Frank, who’s out checking on bookings somewhere around
Things have been booming like this for John’s three-year-old
J. R. Productions since mid-1971 when he joined forces with Dynamic
Entertainment, a booking agency out of
Actually, just their club divisions merged, because John
still books bands into high school dances, civic events and small rock clubs
locally.
But now, for groups good enough to cut it, there’s a touring
route which goes from Long Island to the
John, who’s 25, got into booking almost by accident. He was
pledging Phi Kappa Psi fraternity at UB and the brothers ordered him to get a
band for a dance.
* * *
HE LINED up
The Sterlings, who proved such a hit that other fraternities came after him
wanting to know how to get a hold of this group.
With a fraternity brother, Pete Longo, he booked bands all
around campus. As for off-campus spots, John was just too busy. Besides going
to school, he had to work for his father’s Columbia Food Market in
After he graduated in 1969, he began working with two of
the city’s more successful groups – Barbara St. Clair & The Pin-Kooshins
and The Lonely Souls. He also took a job teaching grade school in
“It was a problem keeping my head together,” he recalls. “I’d
face 30 kids every day and then come in here to face 30 musicians.
“My other problem was lack of sleep. I’d teach until 3:30,
work in the office until 10, then go out and see bar owners until 2 a.m.”
So he quit the classroom in early 1971 and since then has
turned down two teaching offers. At this point he also brought in his brother
Frank, who was working on a newspaper delivery truck.
* * *
FRANK NOW
travels a lot, checking to see whether club owners are satisfied, lining up new
bands, snagging new accounts between here and
“I’m also fortunate,” John says, “to have a very
understanding wife who puts up with my going out almost every night. Except
Saturdays. That’s our night together. If something else comes up on a Saturday,
I say no.
“It’s a rough schedule. I may wind up going to
In between, he or his secretary Carol Johnston are fielding
calls for local gigs as well. And from local groups who need a booking agent.
“I won’t book a band unless I see them,” John says, “and if I
can’t make it to something, I tell them to keep bugging me.”
Straight rock bands, groups which just get up and play, are
harder to get jobs for these days, he observes. The faltering economy and kids
drinking less have thinned out the number of rock clubs.
* * *
“THERE’S STILL
a market for just a plain rock group,” he explains, “but there’s better
opportunities for a show-rock group. People aren’t just going out to hear music
now. They want to be entertained too. And the club owners want somebody who’s
gonna reach out and grab people.”
He mentions that even Keystone 90s in
One such band, United Sound, helped Sansone get into the kind
of bookings which led to the merger with Dynamic Entertainment. Another, Déjà Vu,
gave him a one-two punch.
“Once I’d cracked a room,” he says, “I could follow it up.
That’s where you make your profit, it’s the return engagements or the follow-up
groups.”
Another trend is toward singer-guitarists doing
“contemporary” songs.
“The best I’ve seen is Sonny Turner of the old Platters,”
John says. “He’s out at the Three Coins this week and when he does one of the
old songs it’s just like you remember from the records.”
Locally there are performers like Acee-Acee, Frank Mayo,
former Pin-Kooshins guitarist John Mahoney, now playing at the Dover Castle in
Evans Plaza, and Bob Bakert.
Bakert, once half of the folk duo Gold, stops into the office
to inquire about a tape and says he gave up folk for commercial playing last
winter so he could keep earning a living through music.
* * *
THESE DAYS
he’s working steadily, writing songs and hoping to record so he can perform
more of his own material. “Before I switched over,” he says, “I was
hitch-hiking to jobs. I had a car, but I couldn’t afford to put gas in it.”
John sees himself as a mediator between the club owner and
musician. And his job is to match the right talent with the club’s clientele.
* * *
“I ALSO get
into a lot of things a manager doesn’t,” he says, “even though I’m really just
supposed to be a booking agent. I try to guide my groups, advise them how to
better themselves, inject personality into the group.”
Easiest to work with, he maintains, are musicians who have no
outside commitments to school or day jobs and can concentrate on their
performances. It’s also easier for them to get out and tour.
“The road groups,” John says, “they’re devoted. That’s how
they make their living. When a
* * * * *
IN THE PHOTO:
John Sansone, on the phone.
* * * * *
FOOTNOTE: J. R. Productions is still booking bands and
John’s brother Frank is running things from his home in
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