![]() ![]() In the end, though she wants a packed house for the show, Ferguson says she and her classmates will have different ways of measuring its success. “I told them about the event, and they were all excited about being part of it, mainly because so many of them were already fans,” Ferguson says. The bands will perform three Petty songs apiece, as well as two originals songs. So we did some investigating into venues in Greenville, and we liked Tipsy Music Pub because it’s an up-and-coming scene, and they have a wonderful atmosphere.” “When it came to managing the talent and communicating with them, that was entirely up to the team working on the show. “We were expected to go out and research the local talent and decide who to talk to,” she says. But Ferguson says that wasn’t the case at all. One might think that, given the connections he developed over two decades on the Greenville music scene, Jeter played a hand in arranging the venue and the bands. “It seemed like the right way to motivate and inspire people through music.” “There have been so many natural disasters this year, so we wanted this to be an opportunity to raise money to support the people who are still recovering from them,” Ferguson says. “He’s such a great rock icon, and it was very sad for such an influence on the world to pass away,” Ferguson says, “That’s why we decided to focus on doing a tribute to him.”Įven better, the class added more wrinkles to the tribute show: $2 from every ticket sold will go toward hurricane relief for those in need in places like Texas and Puerto Rico. Ultimately, the class chose Petty not just because of his death but also because of the long shadow he cast over rock music. We also wanted to make it something that people could connect with and support.” “You have to run through and form quite a few ideas until you find one that you think will appeal to an audience in the Greenville-Spartanburg area. “You have a bunch of different ideas at first, and we didn’t start out with a Tom Petty tribute show,” Ferguson says. ![]() The semester begins with a brainstorming process, where the students try to figure out what kind of show they want to put on. It’s not about getting a grade you’re beginning to build a career.” “You’re not just learning about how the music business is run you’re having to go out, make connections, and apply what you’re learning. “This class offers the opportunity to music business students at Converse College to really start applying themselves in the real world,” says Shannon Ferguson, one of Jeter’s students. The show is called “Free Fallin’ For Petty.” This year, a group of bands, including the West End String Band, The Substitutes, and Stone Ground, will be paying tribute to a rock legend who passed away earlier this year: Tom Petty. This year, the class has moved their show off-campus to the Tipsy Music Pub (formerly Mac Arnold’s Blues Restaurant) in the Village of West Greenville, and the concept is much bigger than one band. Last year, they brought the electronic pop band SHAED to the Rainey Amphitheater on the Converse campus. The students’ final exam is to book, coordinate, and promote a concert to the ticket-buying public, handling all of the logistics involved themselves.įor a class that usually tops out at three to five students, that’s no easy task, but they’ve managed to pull it off with aplomb. After all, he ran one of Greenville’s premier live music venues for 20 years or so, in two different locations.īut this isn’t just an on-paper class there’s plenty of real-world experience involved. It’s designed for students who want to work behind the scenes in promoting, booking, and other aspects of the concert industry, and Jeter is in many ways the perfect person to teach it. For the past few years, former Handlebar owner John Jeter has been teaching a course at Converse College in Spartanburg called introduction to music business.
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