Student Government Association officers say administration’s reversal may cost Pep future concerts too.
By Crystal Luong – News Assistant
& JJ Bowman – News Editor
After coming so close to sealing a deal for a popular concert tour, Student Government Association officials this week had to say good-bye to seven bands.
The Ataris and Sum 41 tours, aligned to play jointly at Alumni Park on April 11, will no longer perform because the Office of Student Affairs deemed Sum 41’s lyrics and persona inappropriate.
Bands on the Ataris tour included Ataris, Julianna Theory, Further Seems Forever and Yellowcard. In addition to Sum 41, No Use for a Name and Starting Line were also scheduled to play at Pepperdine.
According to SGA president Ben Elliott, the Office of Student Affairs gave the green light late last week for Concert Committee Chair Jimmy Hutcheson to offer $40,000 for the seven bands.
Checks on the lyrics of each band had been completed prior to the approval to make the offer, Elliott said. However, a second set of random lyrical checks was made after the bands accepted the offer.
Dean of Student Affairs Dr. Mark Davis said he permitted SGA to make an offer to the bands after he was told the lyrics were “appropriate for the Pepperdine community.”
When a staff member presented him with some lyrics and Rolling Stone articles about Sum 41, however, he had to hold the decision. No contract had been signed at the time.
Hutcheson said he was frustrated with the decision.
“We’re trying to bring in quality programming to give students entertainment,” he said. “When we don’t have the resources and administration to be confident in decisions, students will have to go elsewhere to find things to do.”
The concert would have had the capacity for an audience of approximately 7,000.
“Basically, communication broke down between SGA and Student Affairs,” Elliott said.
On Monday morning, Hutcheson was informed the offer needed to be revoked. Booking agents were forced to re-rout their tours.
One SGA official said booking agents, record labels and the bands are all upset at the university.
Davis expressed regret about Hutcheson’s position with the booking agents.
“Jimmy has done an outstanding job working on the concert,” he said. “I deeply regret that he was placed in the awkward position of having to go back to the agent with concerns after already making an offer to bring Sum 41 to campus.”
In the process of booking acts to come to Pepperdine, there are two stages — the written offer and the signed contract. Because the deal was still in the offering stage, Pepperdine will not face a financial obligation to the acts and agents.
The random lyrical checks brought up objections to the content of three Sum 41 songs, including the Billboard hit, “Fat Lip.” The song includes one mild cuss word, a reference to abortion and some to alcohol. Other songs include other terms derogatory to women, but no where near the level of Grammy-award winning artist Eminem, or other popular rock groups.
Sources said Sum 41 was willing to remove the songs from the playlist, but Student Affairs decided the band did not present an image that represents the mission of Pepperdine as a whole. Davis said it was clear that a compromise could not be reached.
Hutcheson said he is still disappointed with the decision.
“If Pepperdine won’t allow us to see and hear what we consider appropriate on campus, then how can they expect us to be leaders in the real world where we are exposed to all this?” he said.
Promotion and sponsorship strategies for the concert began when the prospects of holding it materialized. Among the media contacted were MTV, KROQ-FM 106.7 and the L.A. Weekly.
“We were excited about being able to promote to all of L.A. County,” David Brooks, concerts committee director of promotions and marketing, said. “We’re missing out on some great opportunities to get out of the bubble Pepperdine makes for promoting.”
A total of 65 members of the concerts committee were ready to launch preparations for the concert.
Instead, the relationship of the university and future booking agencies were strained.
“Generally, other concerts could be affected. Big groups don’t want to play here if they think we’re going to flake out,” Hutcheson said. “(SGA and concerts committee) don’t want to hound on the past, we’re ready to move forward and represent the students, but there are some changes in procedure that need to be made.”
Davis, Elliott and Hutcheson all agreed that a clearer set of guidelines would help avoid a repeat of the situation.
Davis said he believes this incident won’t strain future concert attempts.
“I’m confident that the concert committee can find another band that is a better fit for the Pepperdine community,” he said
SGA is currently working to get Third Eye Blind to perform on campus in late March. Their hits include “Semi-Charmed Life” and “How’s it Gonna Be?”
February 20, 2003
