Zigler Productions – Dallas, Texas
History Page 3

For some reason Jimmy Wallace found Zigler Productions an interesting upstart Production Company and approached us along with extending the offer of his PA system to headline our anticipated Wintergarden show to co-star Shreveport, Louisiana’s own LUCKY (AKA: Creme Soda) a fun bunch of rockers founded by the brothers Ronnie and Randy Smith. Lucky had a strong following and a long pedigree of regional club performances and we were to learn much from this outfit as well. In a moment of negotiation in recording studio Jimmy Wallace proudly told an on looker, “These guys have balls!” describing some of the shows Zigler Productions already had under our belts. I think he really appreciated our view toward promoting bands with original music in defiance of the club circuit limitations so often encountered by artists of the era. To hear a compliment like that from someone like him was humbling and motivating at the same time.

The Wintergarden show with the Jimmy Wallace Band and Lucky was June 11, 1983 and was the one that opened the door for Zigler Productions to a larger world. Zigler Productions approached Beaver Productions Mikel Leff to lease his venue the Wintergarden featured on several of the old “King Biscuit Flower Hour” radio show performances and the host of such touring acts as: Marshall Tucker Band, ZZ Top, Missing Persons, Alice Cooper to name just a few. Beaver Productions was also the driving force of the Canadian early 80’s and MTV sensation Lover Boy. Mikel Leff for whatever reason found our little apparent criminal enterprise to his amusement agreed to lease Zigler Productions this magnificent facility. We added FREE BEER to the bill and got to work on our largest effort to date. The PA system we brought in that day from Southwest Sound was as large as a Showco like arena set up any national act to play that hall would have set up. I can remember walking with Mikel Leff from his office on his way to catch a flight the day of set up and upon seeing our stage set going up asked, “Holy Shit who the hell are you guys?” It was a perfect showcase for both Lucky and the Jimmy Wallace Band and little did we know our little production company’s notorious tale was being penned by Don Waitt, editor of Performance Magazine to be published in the July 22, 1983 edition entitled, “ Young Promoters Key to Future of Touring”

(Click on Article to Read)

The Wintergarden show was a success and a complete disaster all at the same time and the post show party took place in front of my house with our rented white AVIS refrigerated truck running all night with 28 kegs of cold beer along with a couple hundred friends to help drink it; later found passed out in the neighbors yards and on top of their cars. Don Waitt really found our exploits interesting and thanks to him and his magazine article we were introduced to the music world outside of Dallas. He was to later call me a few months after the article was in circulation and informed me he was contacted by the Godfather of all promoters Bill Graham asking who in the world we were and how much he enjoyed the article being focused on promoters instead of the normal focuses on the bands. The story of obtaining the beer is an adventure all unto itself and due to the sensitive nature of how it was obtained the guilty must remain anonymous. This would sadly be the finial association with original co-founder of Zigler Productions our dear friend Mark Flores who turned over his part to my partner Mark Gilmore a man that couldn’t have been a better fit and someone that was a ball to be around. Our first ventures with radio stations began with the Windergarden show and a radio spot we had recorded with KZEW 98 FM and our beautiful marketing representative Nancy Brazil who could have sold us air time all day. We had the pleasure of meeting the legendary “Morning Zoo” on air personality John Lebella and established a friendship with on air personality Charles Mixon. I would find out in recent years in an email conversation with Charles Mixon that the beloved John Lebella had been killed in a freak automobile accident. John Labella treated us like we were important when introduced to him and I’ll never forget his kindness. The Wintergarden show was an education for us and thanks to Mikel Leff we learned to no longer fear the police department, you hire them as security!!

As luck would have it our Performance Magazine article was being read by Adams & Levine, Inc. Artist Representatives based in New Jersey who at the time were representing a West Coast outfit by the name of Metallica and New Castle, England’s Raven. We wanted Heavy Metal and damned if we didn’t get a full dose of it with this next adventure. Adams & Levine were steady booking tour dates for what was billed as the “Kill em All for One” tour. This was in support of Metallica’s first release on Megaforce Records entitled “Kill em All” and Raven’s Neat Records release “All for One”. After reading the Performance Magazine article we were contacted to book a leg of the tour to swing through Texas in the summer of 1983. Being all balls and no brains we accepted the offer and dove head first into what would become our greatest accomplishment and claim to fame but regretfully our least attended show. Unfortunately our inexperience outside our backyard as well as very little knowledge of either band at the time wasn’t the best of starts. We received little in the way of promotional materials from Adams & Levine on either band but did the best we could based on what we had done in previous ventures. All we got was a few “Kill em All” empty album sleeves, no music to support the effort. We were quite young as were the boys from Metallica but Raven had been around in Europe for a while and so we were the focus of British humor from the Gallagher brothers of Raven most of set up day. The now legendary Zigler Productions Raven and Metallica show took place August 22, 1983 at Harvey Hall in Tyler, Texas