The JamBase Podcast: Concert Promoter Peter Shapiro

By Group JamBase Aug 18, 2022 • 9:13 am PDT

Episode 137 of The JamBase Podcast, a spouse of the Osiris Media Community, features an interview with impresario Peter Shapiro. JamBase’s Scott Bernstein stopped by Shapiro’s business office at Relix HQ in New York Metropolis recently for a chat about the concert promoter/Relix publisher/filmmaker and venue operator’s new guide, The Music Under no circumstances Stops: What Putting On 10,000 Demonstrates Has Taught Me About Lifetime, Liberty And The Pursuit Of Magic, and much far more.

Peter’s everyday living was improved immediately after attending a Grateful Lifeless show at Rosemont Horizon in 1993. He left the exhibit encouraged to transform his enthusiasm for live songs into a profession. The Northwestern film university student invested a month the adhering to summer on tour with the Grateful Dead to develop the documentary And Miles To Go Prior to I Slumber. In 1996, Shapiro bought the legendary New York City club Wetlands Protect from founder Larry Bloch. Shapiro owned Wetlands until finally it shut in 2001.

Upcoming/present-day ventures incorporated owning and functioning The Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, New York as perfectly as Brooklyn Bowl venues in New York City, Las Vegas, Philadelphia and Nashville, serving as the publisher of Relix, producing films these kinds of as U2 3D and arranging the LOCKN’ festival. Peter is a single of the greatest independent concert promoters in reside new music record who, as the title of his reserve points out, has introduced in excess of ten thousand demonstrates.

The Audio By no means Stops, out now by means of Hachette Textbooks, was co-composed with longtime collaborator Dean Budnick. Dean assisted Peter place on the Jammys celebrations in the ’00s and now is co-editor-in-chief at Relix.

One of Shapiro’s most renowned and prosperous initiatives was Fare Thee Nicely, a celebration of the Grateful Dead’s 50th anniversary held in 2015 at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California and Soldier Field in Chicago. The guide begins with a chapter about Fare Thee Perfectly and the rainbow that appeared higher than Levi’s Stadium at the first display. Peter wrote honestly and articulately in chronological order (pursuing the Fare Thee Well chapter) with regards to his remarkable job. The reserve is jam-packed with interesting anecdotes and within tales.

Bernstein and Shapiro talked about why the time was right for the impresario to create the reserve to start out their chat. Peter in depth the critical purpose Budnick performed in its development and how the pair came up with the tome’s structure of telling stories by the lens of 50 diverse concerts. When COVID strike, the stay audio market veteran had a lot of time on his fingers and actually dove into the undertaking.

Shapiro was direct and frank in conversing about his occupation with Bernstein. Peter recalled the hard method of launching Brooklyn Bowl Las Vegas. He instructed Scotty about how the location almost went bankrupt and the story of a chat with a close friend who is one particular of Sin City’s greatest dance club operators that despatched him into a tailspin on opening evening as The Roots took the phase.

Contrary to quite a few of his contemporaries, Peter Shapiro is not on social media. He defined why he stays away from private accounts on the distinct platforms. Having said that, Shapiro even now retains up with are living tunes information so much so that he contacted Bernstein minutes right after JamBase revealed Scotty’s report from LOCKN’ in 2015 that was 99% beneficial but had one paragraph about the bad problem of the loos. The pair recalled Shapiro resolving the circumstance in hours of the article’s publication.

The Audio Never ever Stops is also an outstanding tutorial for individuals who are fascinated in coming into the live music enterprise or placing on occasions of their have as Shapiro shares many of the classes he acquired in excess of the decades. He spoke with Bernstein on the importance of working with school as time to test various ventures. Other subject areas strike on had been the numerous generations of jam acts, hanging with users of the Grateful Useless, the vital role good temperature performed in the achievements of ‘Fare Thee Well’ and the economics powering guest appearances.

Hear Episode 137 of The JamBase Podcast by means of all big podcast products and services such as Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Stitcher and Google Podcast.