Founder of the Berkeley Music Group discusses plans to renovate and reopen the historic UC Theater.
TRANSCRIPT
Speaker 1:Method to the madness is next.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 3:[00:00:30] You're listening to myth to the madness at biweekly public affairs show on k l expert celebrating the bay area innovators. I'm Lisa Kiefer and today I'm interviewing David. May Eric, the man behind the vision to change the UC theater on university avenue into an elegant, multi-tiered all ages music venue in the heart of downtown Berkeley.
Speaker 4:[00:01:00] Welcome to the program, David. Thank you. We are interested in the UC theater project. What is the Berkeley Music Group? Before we start talking about your project?
Speaker 5:The Brooklyn Music Group, uh, is a nonprofit organization that was formed to renovate and run the UC theater as a music venue. And when did you form it? We formed it in 2012 I've been working on the project though few years longer than that, but uh, that's when we formed the nonprofit.
Speaker 4:[00:01:30] Okay. And just so that our listeners know, maybe they haven't seen the marquee on university avenue, but tell them what you're trying to do at the UC theater.
Speaker 5:Okay. Um, the UC theater is a, it's a, you know, beautiful theater that was built in 1917. It's been closed for the last 14 years. So a lot of people who are recent to a Berkeley are not really familiar with the history of it, but it was a great place to gather, uh, in Berkeley, uh, over the years up through 2001 it was really a good city center, [00:02:00] a place for people to come and, you know, see film and, and, and join in the community. I used to go see movies then. Yeah, I did too. I went, my, uh, my mother took me as a kid to see the 10 commandments and that was a long time ago. So what are we doing? Uh, we're renovating the theater and converting it into a 1400 seat music venue. So our, our mission is to deliver a diverse range of cultural entertainment. The core, uh, will be music. And the core of that music [00:02:30] will be bands that have outgrown slims, great American Music Hall, you know, the independent 10 15 new parish clubs of that size, you know, five, six, 700
Speaker 4:but they're not quite ready for the film or the Fox yet
Speaker 5:well were or the bands that you would see at the Fillmore, if you, the the best way to characterize our core music would be, uh, you know, the film we're in Berkeley, it's just we're a little larger than the Fillmore. Our capacity's 1400 general admission. So that's our core, our core programming, those [00:03:00] types of artists. And then in addition to that, we'll do a comedy, we'll do a speaker series, we'll do some film, and then we're, as part of our mission to do a diverse range of cultural entertainment. We're also going to do community programming. And that would be, you know, symphony, opera recital, some theater and your coral. Nothing for more than a couple of nights. But the important thing is to do is to provide that cultural diversity. And with those organizations, for the most part, they would be fundraising. We would w we [00:03:30] would put on these events to be fundraising events for those nonprofits, those nonprofits.
Speaker 5:Kind of a basic question here. What made you think that this area could support another music venue? Uh, well there's no venue of this size and type, um, in East Bay it doesn't exist. So there's a, you know, you've got, uh, the freight at four 40. Um, you've got Zellerbach at 2000, but it's all reserved. You got BCT where community theater at 3,600, all reserved. There is no Fillmore sized [00:04:00] venue in the East Bay doesn't exist. And this room was going to be very flexible in its design. We're going to, it'll be a full service restaurant and bar. We're moving all the theater seats. We're going to tear the main floor with tables and chairs. So it'll be tiered like the main floor of the Fox or the main floor of the Warfield. And the, uh, general admission, you know, 1400 capacity is only one configuration. We can do all seated tables and chairs and seed about eight or 900 people.
Speaker 5:We can do banquet [00:04:30] style seating and seat. About 600. We can do lecture style seating and seed about 11 or 1200. So the idea is to make the room very, very flexible. It's a, it, we see this as a, you know, a music venue serving the community. That's part of our, our nonprofit mission. The other main part of what we're doing is education and, um, the education program, the core of that is working with youth 17 to 25 to teach them the technical creative and business aspects of concert and event promotion, [00:05:00] have workshops and then kids graduate from that and have a, be part of a paid internship where they learn how to be a production manager or a lighting designer or a stage hand or a bar manager. And you know, a talking about that because isn't that how you got your start with the Bill Graham?
Speaker 5:I, I started with bill. I started with bill and I was uh, I was a Berkeley high school student. I was 16 years old. Um, I was an intern. I got paid $10 cash at, uh, at Burke [00:05:30] community theater. I got paid $10 cash to work to build ground presents, shows that came in to uh, the bird community theater. I would unload the truck and set the stage and usher the show and tear down the stage. And you remember what you first show us? I do. My first show, um, my first show was a great experience and my first show, you know, we've done the load in and I'm standing, this show hasn't started yet. I'm standing outside the dressing room and there's two artists sitting, sitting facing each other and folding chairs inside the dressing [00:06:00] room. They both have guitars and they're, they're very friendly with each other and they're, uh, they're talking back and forth about music and they're, they're playing in their guitars and they're kind of harmonizing with each other.
Speaker 5:And the guy looks at me and says, Hey kid, come on in here. So I go into the dressing room and I'm standing against the back wall, you know, just, you know, six, eight feet from both the artists. And when I'm watching is James Taylor riffing with Carol King. And that was my first show. So that was very, that was very exciting. That is what the education [00:06:30] program, you know, I started as an intern when I was 16 and I left Bill Graham presents 35 years later as their chief operating officer. So for me it was a transformative experience and we're trying to bring a little bit of that back to what we're doing at the UC theater so that where there's a lot of kids that want to be behind the mic, um, and it's very tough to make it behind the Mike. So the idea here is to help create, um, a, an educational environment, a training environment that [00:07:00] will help you work around that
Speaker 4:Mike, but you're also going to provide a regular jobs to the Berkeley community. Uh, it seems like there would be a lot of opportunities there as well.
Speaker 5:Oh yes. So we'll, we'll, we'll create over 150 full and part time jobs once we open and uh, our construction, uh, we'll create, you know, 75 a hundred construction jobs as well.
Speaker 4:So you sound like this is a done deal. Is it actually a done deal or where are you in the process? Do you have enough money? Is [00:07:30] it actually, I know you had your, your groundbreaking ceremony. What's left to do?
Speaker 5:Yeah, this is a done deal. It's always been a done deal in my mind. Um, as we move forward, it's a, it's a force of will of the community of our board. Um, this is a passion project for a lot of people. We have a lot of project champions. Um, and we are a, we are in our, what we call our turn on the lights capital campaign and that's to help raise the money to do the renovation of the theater. We still have a couple of million left to go [00:08:00] to raise. We have, we will, uh, we've, by the time this airs we would have started construction and um, and we're looking at opening in the fall. So,
Speaker 4:so you feel confident that you're going to get the additional couple of million?
Speaker 5:Yes, we have a, we have a bridge loan in place. It'll help us manage our cashflow. But yes, I'm, I'm confident but never take anything for granted. So all those people out there listening who are interested in supporting us, we certainly would appreciate your support or [00:08:30] an introduction to, you know, possible to people who have, who have an interest in this kind of project, have a history of history, of philanthropic giving. Those tend to be the ones that support us the most and introductions and, and spreading the word about this project, uh, would be much better.
Speaker 4:Seems like pretty good timing with the new film archives coming in, the new art museum and there's really an art community developing here in Berkeley. It is exciting when you look at what the
Speaker 5:Fox did for Oakland, probably restaurants and other businesses are going to come in around [00:09:00] the theater. I tip my hat to Jerry Brown for the transformation that happened in uptown Oakland because what he did was he rezoned that area to for 10,000 units and created in having those people move in to uptown Oakland created that nightlife scene. It created the people to come. It created the there and the Fox, you know, they did a brilliant job. It took a long time. It took, well, Fox was, was empty for 35 years. Uh, but the renovation was, I mean, it's a gorgeous building and the, the, [00:09:30] uh, another planet or attainment is doing a great job running it. It's just, you know, that, but that whole area is just completely been transformed. Similar thing happened in downtown Berkeley about 18, 24 months ago where they re they changed the zoning and there's going to be, you know, about over the next three to five years, 2,500 to 3000 new residential units coming to downtown Berkeley.
Speaker 5:And that's really gonna help transform things. But you had asked earlier, you know, why, you know, what makes us think that this building can be supported by the community. And that is, again, [00:10:00] there is no venue of this size and type in the East Bay. It just doesn't exist. And so what happens now is that, uh, if you're, if you have to wait to see a band at the Fox, you'll now see them earlier in their career because we're half the size of the Fox. So they'll be able to play the East Bay that much earlier in their career. Bands are used to seeing it. The Greek, we're one six the size of the Greek theater, so would be able to see those type of vans much earlier in their careers. And more importantly, we're going to give lot of local artists additional place [00:10:30] in the East Bay and take local artists who are on their way up and maybe put a couple together and they co-head line or actually see them headline.
Speaker 5:Our venue as well will feature not only local artists, but national touring artists. So tons of connections. You've worked over 30 years in the Bill Graham Organization. So let's talk a little bit about your history as the chief operating officer. Bill Graham presents, well, actually before that I ran the nightclub division of Bill Graham presents for many years. So you know, back in that day it was, you know, the old Waldorf and the punchline [00:11:00] and wolf gangs. I also ran, uh, the Fillmore and the Warfield and a shoreline amphitheater and a conquer pavilion. So those were all venues that, that the company owned and operated or leased and a that I oversaw the operations of. I developed some of them. I did the renovation of the Fillmore, getting us back into the film or in the 80s, and then, and then post earthquake renovation, um, the transformation of the Warfield when we tear in the main floor, [00:11:30] uh, and made it more versatile with, with table seating and a full service bar.
Speaker 5:So the punchlines, those were all projects that I developed an amphitheater up in Marysville is another project. I also worked on one up in Seattle. Fillmore in Denver is another one in my project. So I have some experience with venues, uh, in developing them and also in operating them. And it's that passion that I bring to the UC theater project. Yeah, enough experience. It's great. In the 30 years experience with Bill Graham, are [00:12:00] there any great bill Graham stories that you could pass along to him? There was one that I told the other night. This was, uh, w this was back in when, when bill was operating at Winterland and, um, there was a, uh, artist that was just on the rise very fast. His name was Bruce Springsteen and Bruce, first time he played the market play, the paramount theater, but as he was only playing reserved seat venues and bill got on the phone with, with Bruce and his manager and said, you know, you've [00:12:30] got to play Winterland.
Speaker 5:And they said, well, no, it's general admission. We don't play general admission venues one day. I'm curious, what was the deal with that? Um, that's a good question. I think that they felt it was just a more, you know, a more upscale environment and that was the, the image maybe they worried about um, crowd control issues and uh, the safety of people, you know, at general admission shows, maybe they had a bad experience. So bill explained, talked about the energy that happens in a general mission show where the audience is, [00:13:00] you know, close to the stage, pressed up to the stage and you can really, you really feel that energy and you can really, the performances are much better by the artists when they're, when they have that general admission standing room right in front of the stage environment because the artist and the audience feed off of each other.
Speaker 5:You can see this at the Fillmore as well. It's another great place to see a show. So bill finally talked Bruce into playing Winterland and so Bruce comes to Winterland, it's a sold out show and um, it's everything [00:13:30] that bill said it would be and more. It was an amazing experience for Bruce and so much so that early in the show, he was just so excited and so connected with the audience that he walked to the edge of the stage and dove into the audience, kind of fell into the audience and they passed him around four, five, three minutes, four minutes, brought him back on stage. He did it again. They passed him around and it was just, it was so, it was such a bonding experience [00:14:00] between the artist and the audience. It was just spectacular. You know, he loved that show and bill was right and, and Bruce acknowledged it.
Speaker 5:And so, uh, it was either the next night or a few nights later, uh, the jail got j Geils band is headlining Winterland and, uh, Peter Wolf hears about, you know, the experience that Bruce had. So he's coming out on stage and he's performing and at the right moment he thinks, okay, I'm going to dive in the audience and have them pass me around. And so he leans in the audience and he falls to the ground. Nobody [00:14:30] catches him. It was, it was, it was a tough, maybe they passed him for a little bit, but he ended up on the ground, which was unfortunate, but you know, so it doesn't work for every artist. Um, it doesn't work. That was probably the beginning of all that crowd. It was crowd. It was a big thing of crowd surfing as far as artists were concerned.
Speaker 3:We're listening to myth to the madness, a biweekly public affairs show on k a l e x Berkeley Celebrating Bay [00:15:00] area innovators. I'm Lisa Keifer. And today I'm interviewing David Mayberry, the founder of the Brooklyn Music Group and the vision behind the UC theater project. So you met [inaudible]
Speaker 5:Bill Graham as a young boy. I did. And he kinda took you under his wing it sounds like. And it was a bill was a bill, was a great teacher. He was very intense. It was a great, it was [00:15:30] a fantastic learning experience. My Life at Bill Graham presents was a wonderful experience. I would refer to it as a wonderful, dysfunctional family. He had us all believing that it was our business and we'd work 16 hours a day and come back and do it again and again and again and love every minute of it. It was a great environment to work and it was a lot was expected of you and, um, you had to work very hard. You, you know, you work all day and then you get to, and then you work all night. Um, uh, but it was [00:16:00] just a really, you know, he created a great environment to work in and the level of professionalism and his [inaudible] and his in the detail that he brought his eye for detail in terms of creating the best customer experience was apparent at every show and something that all of us who work there really benefited learning to see the world through his eyes in terms of always giving the best customer experience and the best artist experience as well.
Speaker 5:Those were two things that he held in very high premium. Are you going to have [00:16:30] posters of every concert like they do at the Fillmore and w we will do posters. I don't know if we'll do them for every show. The Fillmore does it for every sold out show. Uh, and they sell out most of their shows. Shows up, have posters. We will do posters. Yes. Not, I mean it's the, the Fillmore legacy is, you know, the Bill Graham legacy of posters is just, uh, amazing. But you know, we'd like to have, we'd like to create some of that [inaudible] of the legacy. Have you thought about who your first big concert is going to be? Are you close to that yet? No, [00:17:00] we can't start booking shows or holding any dates until we pass a few construction milestones. The main one is pouring the concrete to tear the main floor.
Speaker 5:So once we do that, we'll see who's available and who's touring. And we'll go from there. How did you come to the idea of the UC theater? You know, when did you think, oh, I wanna put a venue in there. Well, I was introduced, I got a call from Michael Kaplan. He's the economic development director for the city of Berkeley. And uh, at the time [00:17:30] I was doing a green real estate project and mixed use condominium project in Berkeley. And um, that's how I, I came to know him and meet him and, but he knew of w knew of my past working at pilgrim presents and he said, hey, the owners of the UFC theater just had a tenant fall out. They had Kimball's jazz club coming in and they've just dropped out. Would you mind meeting with them and you know, give them some ideas on what they might do with the theater.
Speaker 5:So I said, sure, I'd be happy to meet with them. So it was a favor to Michael and I meet, uh, the owners, [00:18:00] um, uh, Eagle and new evolve. And we walk inside the theater. The minute I walk in, I take a look at the theater. I'm thinking to myself, I know exactly what to do at this theater. I mean, I didn't say anything at the moment. And then I followed up with him and said, I think this would be a great music venue. And then I set about organizing a group of people to, to, uh, develop. And first time around, or initially we started as a for profit. And, um, our, our funding came from a Warren Hellman and Roger McNamee [00:18:30] and a gentleman named John Powell. They put together a bridge loan. Uh, they'll let me go out and get the project and title. My partners were the folks that run slims in, uh, great American Music Hall.
Speaker 5:But when Warren passed away, it really changed the dynamic. And, uh, I sat down with a number of the investors, what one, one key investor in particular, and talked about how much, how our mission has always been to create something for the community and that that would probably be better served for us being a nonprofit organization. And that was the, that was the, [00:19:00] the crossroads where I decided that yes, I wanted, we wanted to become a nonprofit because it allows us to add the education component. Being a nonprofit, we have a fiduciary responsibility to the community as a for profit. We have a fiduciary responsibility to our investors to give the highest return. Given that we always wanted a music venue, it was community minded. This allows us to expand the diversity of the energy, the music, the artists, and the, the programming that we do.
Speaker 5:It allows us to do, you know, the orchestra, the symphony, the, the [00:19:30] speaker series. Um, it allows us to work. We want to work with nonprofits to help them with their fundraising. That's part of our mission as well, to put on events that would be fundraising events for them. Are there any other nonprofit music venues in the East Bay freight and salvage? They have, they do music education. They teach you how to play an instrument. Um, we're doing the business side of, we're doing the, the, uh, concert promotion, you know, business education side, business and technical side. [00:20:00] We're not teaching, um, we're not working with musicians to improve their skills and musician. So the nonprofit allows us to do this. Really, diversity of music allows us to also to subsidize certain shows that might, in other words, pay more for talent and lower the ticket price on some artists that we want to expose that are underserved, but you know, that are in their genre, you know, well known and at the top of their game, so to speak, it allows us to have [00:20:30] this education program, you know, being a nonprofit organization and, um, and, and it allows us to work with nonprofits to help them with their fundraising.
Speaker 5:So the other, the other part of our mission is we believe that a nonprofit needs to have sustainable revenue streams. So once we're open, you know, 80% of our revenue will be earned. And 20% contributed. But so that's what funds education, you know, that's what helps to fund our music programming. That's what helps to fund subsidy. You know, working with nonprofits dealt me fundraising. [00:21:00] We really, we really think that that sustainable aspect is a really special quality to what we're doing. But conversely, um, our capital campaign or turn on the lights as all contributed revenue. So right now is when we're in the greatest need for support is as we know, as, as we embark as we start construction. And then as we finish construction, how would people support you? You, they can go to our website, www, the, the UC theater r a, so the UC theater.org [00:21:30] and there's a lot of information on how to support us there.
Speaker 5:They can make a donation on the website as well or they, uh, they can find, they can contact me through the website or, uh, Debbie Vanduzen who's on our staff. Even if p, if you think you're interested in supporting us, I'd love to give you a tour of our plans for the theater and talk to you about what we're doing. But yes, the websites are great. Hosting on a tour there. And honestly I was so surprised at them from the outside on the street. You would never know. It was as beautiful and big as it is. You guys [00:22:00] about 15,000 square feet. And again, our capacity will be 1400 which is 200 higher than the Fillmore to give you a frame of reference. Yeah. Fillmore's 1200 illegal and we're 1400 so it's a, it's a big room and it's going to have great sight lines. The sound in there is going to be exceptional for many reasons.
Speaker 5:But the key reason is the sound system that we'll have with Meyer sound Meyer sound a Helen and John Meyer had been involved in this project almost since day one. Very, very generous. They're not only, [00:22:30] uh, you know, providing us with a sound system. What they're also, their staff has been working very closely with us on working on all aspects of the acoustic performance of that sound system. So the sound that you'll experience when you go into, uh, the UC theater will be equal to anything that you've heard before. It'll be as good as anything. When do you expect that this will all be complete? We will open in the fall of this year. This year. [00:23:00] Yeah. That's so exciting. Yeah, it is very exciting. Is there a way to get, like to be a member or a subscriber to, well, you can go to [inaudible] just to get information. You go to our website and sign up for email and um, and then those who, you know, uh, we're very good at keeping in touch with those who are, uh, who have donated to us.
Speaker 5:Um, and uh, and, and those who are thinking of donating, we're very good at communicating with them. For me, this is a passion project. I've been working on it for six years and you know, [00:23:30] I work, you know, 60, 70 hours a week, 80 hours a week. And you live in Berkeley, right? I live in what I call outer Berkeley. Um, I was born and raised in Berkeley. I grew up on Shattuck Avenue above live oak park, but I live in Orenda. I'm trying to talk to my wife into moving back, but I, I spend most of my time in Berkeley. What drives me here is that the, this is a grand old theater that will become an, a spectacular new music venue and it will be a place for people to gather in the community. It'll give the community an opportunity [00:24:00] to see really a diverse range of artists, of just cultural activity.
Speaker 5:And it's all representative of Berkeley. It's representative Berkeley, but it's, you know, it's gonna help along with the Berkeley Rep and the Aurora theater and the freight and salvage and the a jazz school now California Academy of Jazz. They are the anchors of the arts and entertainment district. And now we will expand that district when we opened and, and the museum will expand as they moved to downtown as their [00:24:30] construction, as they moved to downtown Berkeley. So we're really going to be a fantastic regional hub. What, what we're interested in doing is following up on some of, you know, some of bills. What I learned at bell represents, which is what we want to do is deliver a great customer experience, a great artist experience. And uh, we want to, you know, we want to be able to include the community in what we're doing and, and uh, you know, that's why education is there and that's why we're working with not the name because when you see you see theater, you think University of California [00:25:00] must own this.
Speaker 5:The only thing that we're considering at this, the UC theater name is I think a name that, you know, we that should continue. However, there is some, there was some interest in, there is some interest and we are interested in finding somebody for naming rights. But the naming rights would be something, it would be like the a John F. Kennedy musical at the UC theater. In other words, we would not change the name. We not changed the marquee, but those naming rights are available. If somebody is interested [00:25:30] in that. It's been the UC theater since 1917 and whatever, whatever we might do as some kind of, you know, naming rights, which would include the UC theater name in it. Are you a musician? I played bass when I was 13 I played for 18 months from, you know, the ages of 13 to 14 and my crowning achievement was Louie Louie.
Speaker 5:And that was the Louie Louie contest in the 1980s here. I can't, no, I was, I was a lousy musicians at Berkeley high. When you started, [00:26:00] when you started working for Bill Graham? I was 16 year old, you know that my internship was at Berkeley high class of 72 Berkeley high. And then on the cal. So you, when you grew up in Berkeley and what did you study at UC Berkeley? I studied uh, psychology and while I was going to a school at cal, I worked, I worked for Bill Graham presents as well. So that's how I, I paid for my way through, by the age of 18, I was a working at Winterland. By the age of 19, [00:26:30] I was running what he called his blue coats, which was his crowd control security. By the age of 21 I had 700 people working for me that we would schedule it various, you know, Bill Graham presents shows and they offered me a job while I at cal to come work full time and I turned it down thinking that I should finish my education and they offered it a second time and I just, I didn't feel there'd be another, there would be a third time.
Speaker 5:So I said yes and I left. We're still a quarter or two to go at cal, but um, it was, for me, it was a great experience.
Speaker 4:It [00:27:00] seems like that 1400 seat venue would be the perfect opportunity to get older veteran rock stars or whatever. Sean rhe to come and do a small show, maybe an acoustic show at, you know, at the end of their career. Maybe they're, you know, not wanting to do these big concerts anymore, or are you thinking about doing something like [inaudible]?
Speaker 5:Well, I think there's a great opportunity for a lot of artists to what they would call underplay the market. So we'll get artists on their way up and artists who are, you know, are moving [00:27:30] in another direction. But there's, there's enormous opportunity, uh, to, uh, and we will seek artists who would underplay the market and play this room. You know, may even do multiple nights, somebody who can, you know, play a call scene. But, but we'd play here for a couple of nights and maybe those are, you know, fundraisers.
Speaker 4:Yes. And you could probably have some pretty high ticket prices for something like that.
Speaker 5:Well, a lot of the shit, most of the shows will be market rate. Um, but you know, we will also subsidize shows. But the, the idea of, you know, having artists in under play for a, [00:28:00] one of my, one of my goals, one of my dreams would be to take a pool of artists and take a pool of nonprofit organizations and marry the passions of both with each other so the artists can do fundraising at the UC theater for these, for nonprofits that they care about. So that's something that, that's, that's part of what we'd like to get done there as well. I just appreciate the opportunity to come to cal.
Speaker 4:Did you listen to Calix when you were at cal?
Speaker 5:I did. It's such a great eclectic mix of, of music, of [00:28:30] opinion. It's, you know, it's just, it's a great station. Thank you.
Speaker 4:Cute. Well thank you for being on the program.
Speaker 1:My pleasure.
Speaker 2:[inaudible]
Speaker 3:[00:29:00] you've been listening to method to the madness, a biweekly public fair show on k a l x Berkeley Celebrating Bay area innovators.
Speaker 1:If you have questions or comments about the show or do that hallux website, I met him to the madness and drop us a knowledge. You'll also find the link to previous outcomes.
Speaker 4:[00:29:30] Tune in again in two weeks. At the same time, have a great weekend.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
