Idolator: rocklahoma

Meanwhile, At Rocklahoma...

Maura Johnston — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 10:45:00 EDT

Alyson at Bring Back Glam! provides blow-by-blow coverage of this year's installment of the hard rock retrofest, which seemingly had it all: Storms! Confusion! Collapsing side stages! Jani Lane staying on pitch! And Kix reigning supreme as the best band of the weekend, although Chuck Eddy would have probably told you that outcome was a given. [Bring Back Glam]

General Admission Tickets Are For Suckers

Dan Gibson — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 10:30:00 EDT

If you've ever purchased tickets to one of the big summer festivals, I'm sure you've looked at the V.I.P. packages available and thought there's no way they're worth the generally insane prices. But for the readership of Forbes, they're really the only option.

Forbes is nice enough to detail how its readers can soak up the festival experience without experiencing the actual festival itself.

To get the most out of any festival, consider purchasing a VIP pass. Though they cost as much as three-times the regular admission, a VIP pass will guarantee a higher level of service. At Bonnaroo, where VIP admission is $1,169.50 for a pair, the special treatment includes preferred parking, seats closer to the concert stage, nicer shower and restroom facilities and VIP-only events. Regularly priced passes start at $209.50.

At other festivals, VIP treatment comes for a smaller price. Fans of '80s hair-band acts like Bret Michaels (lead singer of Poison), Warrant and Tesla can get VIP passes to the Rocklahoma festival (July 9-13) in Pryor, Okla., for $400. The pass entitles ticket-holders to up-close seats and meals and beverages.

With or without a VIP pass, many of these festivals offer cool extras. At Rocklahoma, $2,000 will get you an hours-long session with a festival musician. The evening ends with a 10-minute set before a roaring rock 'n' roll crowd. Mark Nuessle, president and general manager of Catch the Fever Music Festivals, which organizes the event, says the sessions haven't been advertised, but half of the slots are already sold.

All Points West organizer Ken Tessler says he may add additional components once the event date nears but is currently planning an interactive art exhibit and will host an eco-village where audience members can learn about environmental issues. At Pemberton, local outdoors companies will take concert-goers horseback riding, whitewater rafting and hiking for an additional price.

How can you pass up those bargains? Besides the fact that you might be the only person at Bonnaroo who takes a shower, those entry-level portable toilets are a drag, and the price difference is barely more than $800 a person. All Points West will likely not have the same celebrity be-seen quotient as its sister festival Coachella, but that eco-village sounds promising.

It's easy to understand the economics behind offering the V.I.P. ticket, since most are likely sold to corporate outfits who want to impress their clients and higher-ups, but it certainly gives people within that bubble a vastly different experience than one might get hanging out with the riff raff. Then again, can you really put a prize on a one-on-one experience with one of the members of Trixter?

Sensational Summertime Music Festivals [Forbes]

Rocklahoma Adds Fifth Day; Oklahoma Beer Distributors Very Psyched

Maura Johnston — Fri, 09 May 2008 13:00:00 EDT

Because of "overwhelming response from members of the rock community and their fan" (um, sic?), the hard-rock reunionfest Rocklahoma has swelled to a fifth day, news that's probably thrilling all the businesses within a 500-mile radius of the festival's home city, Pryor, Okla. The festival will now run July 9-13; a ton of hard-rock stalwarts, including Extreme, Cinderella, Tesla, and Sebastian Bach, have already been announced, leaving me to puzzle over just who, exactly, will be performing on that extra day. (Also, am I the only one who just realized that Living Colour was on the bill?) Full roster of acts, including the many second-stage bands, after the jump.

Thursday, July 10
BRET MICHAELS, SEBASTIAN BACH, DOKKEN, L.A. GUNS featuring Tracii Guns, ENUFF Z' NUFF, VAIN, HOUSE OF LORDS, JET BOY

Friday, July 11
TRIUMPH, EXTREME, LITA FORD, NIGHT RANGER, LIVING COLOUR, KINGDOM COME, ARMORED SAINT, XYZ

Saturday, July 12
CINDERELLA, WARRANT, KIX, LYNCH MOB, TRIXTER, BLACK N BLUE, TORA TORA, EVERY MOTHER'S NIGHTMARE, PRETTY BOY FLOYD

Sunday, July 13
QUEENSRŸCHE, TESLA, BEAUTIFUL CREATURES, ZEBRA, AXE, STEELHEART and two more acts tba.

The Retrospect Records stage includes the following bands: JESTER, SIDEKIXX, PAIR-A-DICE, FRONT RUNNER, TOMMY HAD A VISION, VALOR, GYPSY BLUE, WHITEFOXX, BLUE TIGER, WILD AUGUST, MESSANG, PAUL SHORTINO, MARIAH, WARRYOR, BAD CANDY, LORRAINE, NASTY NASTY, REAL STEEL, CUTTLASS, VYPER, MASS, BAD CANDY, ONEY, STRIKEFORCE, HERAZZ, RECKLESS, HEARTLESS, RON KEEL, WARRYOR and ALIBI.

On the Tri-Label Group stage has: ASPHALT VALENTINE, AZRAEL'S BANE, BONESHAKER, COCKPIT, DANGEROUS INC., DEATHRIDERS (NEIL TURBIN), DIRTY PENNY, DRIVE A, EXIT 27, GODS OF KANSAS, GYPSY PISTOLEROS, KARNEVIL (DARIO LORINA), KRUCIBLE (featuring Lance King), LIPSTICK MAGAZINE, MINDFLOW, ODIN, ORDER OF NINE, POWND, SACRED DAWN, SEX DPT., SHADOWSIDE, SWEET F.A., THE JAKALS, TEXAS HIPPIE COALITION, WARMACHINE.

Rocklahoma 2008 - Fifth Day Added To Festival [Brave Words And Bloody Knuckles]

Bret Michaels And His Sweaty Bandanas To Headline Rocklahoma

Maura Johnston — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 17:40:49 EST

The initial lineup for Rocklahoma, the festival of Headbanger's Ball darlings of yore taking place in Pryor, Okla., this July 10-13, was just announced at a press conference helmed by radio host and personal Mike Piazza fan Eddie Trunk, who called the bands playing the festival "a new generation's classic rock" who are currently handing the baton to bands currently making their way up the ranks (cough, cough). I listened to the whole press conference—from fakeout involving a pre-conference spin of Faith No More's "Epic" to the revelation that Black N' Blue is reuniting because the lead singer needs a gig to the "WE NEED BIG BANDS" proclamations from those gathered in the press conference's attached chat room—so I could bring you the lineup as it stands now. It's after the jump. (Don't say I don't care.)

Bret Michaels
Warrant
Cinderella
Tesla
Extreme
Armored Saint
Night Ranger
Triumph
Trixter
Zebra
Vain
Kix
Tora Tora
Beautiful Creatures
L.A. Guns featuring Tracii Guns
Enuff Z'Nuff
Jetboy
House Of Lords
Pretty Boy Floyd
Every Mother's Nightmare
Black N' Blue
Triumph
XYZ
Lynch Mob
Harlow

Two Touring Versions Of L.A. Guns May Be More Than Enough For The Courts

Maura Johnston — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 13:00:43 EST

It's probably appropriate that the Los Angeles Times ran a piece on the many disputes over who "owns" the names of yesteryears' hard-rock favorites in the hours before the Rocklahoma lineup announcement, what with that festival's lineup likely being studded with many of the argued-over names. Not only does the piece have an amazing quote on why these debates usually wind up in court, courtesy of Faster Pussycat's Taime Downe ("It's my company. Someone from Starbucks is not going to go out and form another company called Starbucks."), it has more on the origins of the L.A. Guns vs. L.A. Guns battle that's resulting in two versions of the band touring—and engaging in a price war!—right now:

Guitarist Tracii Guns, who formed the band in 1982 and was the original "Guns" in Guns N' Roses, says his crew is the real deal since it includes one of the band's earliest singers, Paul Black. "Phil and Steve were not even the original members of the band," Tracii wrote in an online post after declining to be interviewed for this article. "Now they . . . say that I am not the 'real' version of L.A. Guns?"

The standoff persists because Guns and Riley each own 50% of the L.A. Guns name. Riley discovered in the mid-'90s that their manager had never secured the rights to "L.A. Guns." With the other founding members gone, Guns and Riley trademarked the name together.

But Riley says the guitarist forfeited the name when he left the band in 2002 to work with Mötley Crüe bassist Nikki Sixx. At the time, L.A. Guns was close to securing a tour with Alice Cooper, but still supporting lesser acts such as Warrant and Firehouse, which irked Guns. The band urged him to stay.

"We said, 'We got bills and families, we have to take jobs like this,' " recalls Riley, whose son is now 16. "He looked us right in the eye and said, 'I don't [care] about you or your families.'

"He shot us down completely."

While I can understand why Tracii Guns would have shot down Riley—after all, the "Guns" is in his name (not to mention that of Guns N' Roses, another band that's currently having name "issues" thanks to some legal wrangling)—part of me wonders of he shouldn't have been forced to forfeit at least part of the rights to it for cutting bait with L.A. Guns and trying to break back into mainstream consciousness with Brides Of Destruction, the Nikki Sixx project that put out an album to almost no fanfare a few years back. I mean, did any of you hear that thing? Yecch. And he stuck with it for three years.

Who owns a band name? [LA Times, via Matablog]
L.A. Guns - Never Enough [YouTube]

Rocklahoma—the Oklahoma hard-rock ...

Maura Johnston — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 15:10:44 EST

Rocklahoma—the Oklahoma hard-rock fest taking place July 10-13, which I am totally attending this year come hell, high water, or my lack of a driver's license—is announcing its 2008 lineup at an Eddie Trunk-helmed press conference Tuesday in Los Angeles. Confirmed so far: Bret Michaels, Tora Tora, Warrant (with Jani Lane), Vixen, and the version of LA Guns that doesn't have its best-known lead singer Phil Lewis, but does have guitarist/namesake Tracii Guns. If only Kelly Nickels would come back to music and rejoin one of the bands so I could figure out which side to take in this conflict! [Blabbermouth]

Allyson at Bring Back Glam reports from Rocklahoma: ...

mjohnston — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 09:36:26 EDT

Allyson at Bring Back Glam reports from Rocklahoma: "While waiting, I heard 'Headed for a Heartbreak' and [Winger] closed with 'Seventeen.' Kip changed one of the verses to 'She's only 35.' The crowd seemed pleased." Also: Vince Neil, clearly fresh off a product-sampling binge, thought he was in Montana. [Bring Back Glam]

"News On 6 anchor Omar Villafranca reports ...

mjohnston — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 10:05:06 EDT

"News On 6 anchor Omar Villafranca reports it's like an 80s flashback. Just a few bands taking the stage include Poison, Dokken, Twisted Sister, and Vince Neil of Motley Crew, and organizers are expecting more than 60,000 people to show up." Well, at least they didn't name-check Enuff Z'Nuff. [KOTV]

Hard Rock Festival Ready To Raise The Horns In Oklahoma

mjohnston — Thu, 10 May 2007 17:02:23 EDT

This July, Rocklahoma—a three-day music festival featuring Poison, Ratt, and at least one version of L.A. Guns—will take place in a field in northwestern Oklahoma. Tickets have been selling at a brisk rate, and the promoters are claiming that the festival is on track to attract Coachella-level numbers:

Rocklahoma is happening in Oklahoma, but it was announced at a press conference in Los Angeles. Since then, Rogers said tickets have been sold to people in 15 countries, four Canadian provinces and all 50 states.

"We expect 50,000 to 60,000 people each day," Rogers said. "Every hotel room is booked in a 50- to 70-mile radius. People are thinking about renting their houses.

"This isn't a four-state area thing. This is worldwide. The numbers just keep going daily."
Rogers said some of the bands in the line up hope their career will be restarted with this exposure. "This is different than Country Fever where the acts come in and out. The bands will be staying here," Rogers said.

Rogers said the festival will be broadcast on world-wide pay for view television and the VH-1 music channel.

Pay-per-view—just like the Moscow Music Peace Festival! We can't wait to try and watch it like we did that festival, with the picture scrambled to hell and the music sputtering out every so often. (Hey, at least we'll be in air conditioning.)

Heavy metal festival expects 50,000 per day [Midwest City Sun, via Blabbermouth]

The Pitchfork Music Festival Might Have Some Serious Competition For Our Summer-Festival Dollars

mjohnston — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 18:40:27 EDT

The nearly-full docket of summer rock festivals has added another date to its calendar with Rocklahoma, a three-day music festival in the middle of Oklahoma taking place the same weekend as Pitchfork's outdoor fest. The rumored (and, somehow, Hinder-free) lineup, courtesy of Hard Rock Hideout:

POISON, RATT (featuring original lead singer Stephen Pearcy), VINCE NEIL and Y&T are among the acts that are expected to appear at Rocklahoma, a three-day outdoor '80s hard rock festival, set to take place July 13-15, in Pryor, OK at the Pryor Festival Grounds. The following is a partial list of bands that are **rumored*** to be taking part in the event:

BANG TANGO
BULLET BOYS
DOKKEN
FASTER PUSSYCAT (feat. Brent Muscat)
FIREHOUSE
L.A. GUNS (feat. Tracii Guns)
POISON
QUIET RIOT
RATT
SLAUGHTER
TESLA
VINCE NEIL
WARRANT
Y&T

While that lineup (minus Firehouse) does look like it could go toe-to-toe with any episode of Headbanger's Ball in our VHS collection, we have to say that we'd be a lot more likely to attend if the bookers, somehow, convinced both versions of L.A. Guns to play in some sort of Guns-off, with the winner decided by the crowd. Mainly because we honestly have no idea who we'd vote for—do you give it to the Guns-led camp for authenticity's sake, or the Lewis-led version as thanks for keeping it real during the Brides Of Destruction days? Clearly, a "Rip And Tear"-off is the only thing that can solve this dilemma.

Rocklahoma [Hard Rock Hideout]