Johnny Rivers Show - Aug 3, 2002
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When Johnny Rivers stepped out from behind the curtains and onto the stage of the Youkey Theatre in Lakeland this past Saturday night, the crowd roared in anticipation of the musical onslaught to come. Rivers has been the owner of a popular voice in the music world since the early 1960’s, with a string of hits that could well be the envy of today’s boy-bands and diva’s in training. From the Midnight Special, to Mountain of Love, and on through a bout of Rockin’ Pneumonia and the Boogie Woogie Flu, Rivers and his straightforward three piece backing band ran through the classics of his career with carefully controlled abandon. By the end of the evening the audience was on their feet demanding an encore from Rivers and his hard driving blues band. They got it, too. What the audience probably didn’t know on that wonderfully tuneful Saturday night, was that the whole evening had been orchestrated from front to back as the first ever outing of a new company that specializes in musical promotion. What’s more, the company is family owned, and entirely staffed by women. Maybe it really is a woman’s world. Nike certainly seems to think so. Kim Chambers, who handles public relations duties for Flashback Promotions, Inc. was surprised herself to realize the day after the show that, as she put it, “It’s all women doing this.” Although Chambers is quick to add that the estrogen rich business partnership hasn’t affected the respect they were shown as the long process of booking and promoting a rock ‘n roll show progressed. “We had more cooperation with the men we were working with than anything.” Chambers admits. The executive staff of the Winter Haven based company includes Nancy Chambers as the producer, daughter in-law Kim in public relations, and sister Peggy Newton who holds down what are gleefully referred to as stage Mom duties, which include wardrobe and gastronomic fare for the performers. Nancy’s daughters are also involved in the company. Trudi handles a variety of tasks as the assistant producer, while Nina is in charge of concessions. The two generations of able women began discussing the possibility of launching a company to fill the void in musical promotions in Polk county last year. And while the sounds of their first concert promotion success have barely dissipated into the summer night air, the company is already hard at work with plans to bring in more shows featuring artists whose reputations precede them. It’s a long process sometimes, with the original contracts for the Johnny Rivers show being signed in February, a full six months before the show itself took place. The company is just as busy promoting smaller, local and regional bands who will be playing at a variety of small but worthy venues in the area. Their next showcase is a 1960’s garage band reunion show featuring native Polk county talent at the Lake Mirror Center in Lakeland, scheduled for August 31. The Rogues, who received a standing ovation from an appreciative audience as they opened the show for Johnny Rivers, and have been rocking Polk county since 1964, will be the host band for Flashback Promotions second outing. While producer, Nancy Chambers comes from a music industry background, her daughter in-law, Kim is relatively new to the wild and wooly ways of rock ‘n roll. She has spent the majority of her career toiling away in more traditional corporate surroundings where egos are more regularly checked and outlandish behavior is frowned upon. As for the transition, and by way of comparing her old more rigid world to her new less structured surroundings Kim marvels, “To me, the musicians are a little more laid back.” And looking back on her first time out as a promoter, she glows about the headliner her company chose to work with, saying of Rivers, “He was wonderful.” If the old adage is true, that the family that plays together, stays together, then the future is very bright indeed for the Chambers/Newton crew. As an added benefit, it seems that Polk county may be seeing a string of exciting new musical productions, at least some increase in tourist dollars and maybe even a resurgence of pride over our own, home grown talent pool. If it happens, and these women are determined that it will, the night life and entertainment possibilities in the area may undergo a wonderful change for the better. Girl Power indeed. The Spice Girls may
have been on to something. © 2002, Jamie Beckett |
