Putting the Fat in the Fire on the Hooters Discussion Board

For the past two summers (2003 and 2004) the Hooters have reunited to play a tour of Germany where apparently they still enjoy superstar status and as such have enough drawing power to make such a tour highly profitable. Unfortunately, even with the long history of local support they've gotten from fans in their hometown of Philadelphia, they have been unwilling to play any dates here either at the beginning or end of either German tour. Eric Bazilian has been quoted on the message board as saying that the band really does want to play in Philly but that due to the high cost of venues and promoters and so forth that it has been "economically unfeasible." The first summer it was somewhat amusing to read the accolades posting to the message board from the German fans, and it was likewise interesting to hear Jonatha Brooke discuss her experience as opening act for the 2003 tour. By summer 2004 however, the accounts of the two and a half hour shows where they played "everything" became more annoying than enjoyable to read, especially in light of their seeming snub of their hometown. Eric's appearance at Jonatha's opening show at the new World Cafe Live venue inspired me to raise this question with someone at WXPN who would know, and what I learned was somewhat disheartening and formed the basis for this post to the Hooters discussion board.

From: "William Kates" <wkates@hotmail.com>
To: <Melodica@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Wednesday, October 27, 2004 10:37 AM
Subject: Why Only Germany Gets to Hear the Hooters

I don't want to quote a source without permission, but I have it on good authority that WXPN (the U of P radio station) has made many attempts to book the Hooters to play in Philadelphia over the last few years, and even though Eric and Rob are both Penn alumni and members of the station, the major stumbling block seems to be an incredibly high price asked by the Hooters' management. I'm told that the price was somewhere in the neighborhood of $200,000.00 for their (brief) reunion performance at Pierre Robert's WMMR Anniversary concert at the Spectrum a few years ago. As someone who clings to the notion that the Hooters were (are) committed to the music at least as much as to the commerce, and as someone who knows that the many Cabaret shows back in the day could not have generated that kind of money but certainly seemed to compensate with a great musical experience for both audience and band, I totally don't understand this state of affairs. I would really like to hear Eric and Rob address this issue specifically, if anyone on this board has access to direct this question their way. Cheers (I think). - William Kates

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