One year ago, Grace Simmons and Burnell Holland, then-president and vice-president of the Undergraduate Government of Boston College (UGBC) and both BC '05, failed to draw a performer for the fall concert. Many duos who ran for president and vice president of the UGBC last spring, including Luke Howe, current president of the UGBC and CSOM '06, and Ben Nauman, vice president of the UGBC and A&S '06, criticized the two for this failure.
Unfortunately, as the semester marches on, it appears that it will be another year without a fall concert.
Placing blame is not as easy as many of last year's candidates made it sound. Simmons and Holland had only one date to offer prospective artists, and Howe and Nauman now realize the difficulty that created.
"Last spring when we were running for UGBC, we criticized Grace and Burnell for their inability to get a show in the fall. I don't think we understood what went into it," said Nauman. "They were given one date last year from Conte to try and get a show, and we said 'Oh, you should have gotten more dates from Conte.' Well, you just can't."
This year, Prescott White, executive director of programming for the UGBC and CSOM '06, started out with three open dates at Conte Forum that the athletics department had offered. Even so, he had an extreme amount of difficulty booking an act. He talked about the various factors, including the restrictions of the artists' dates and artists' hesitance to do fall shows, which made booking a worthwhile show difficult, if not impossible.
White took these dates to Clear Channel, which handles the concert's booking, in search of prospective artists. The first offer he found was rapper Ludacris. Ludacris recently made national news after city officials did not allow him to perform a show for East Tennessee State College at the town's Civic Center, citing security concerns. Last month, BC decided that Ludacris was not in line with Jesuit values and decided not to allow him to perform here. The saga was chronicled in a recent issue of The Observer.
While disappointed, Howe, Nauman, and White harbor no bitterness. White even said he was thankful in the end, because, for the exorbitant amount of money a performer gets, he would not have liked a mediocre show. "I was angry at first, because he was going to be a huge name that would come to BC. We were all set to go," White said. "Then Clear Channel sent me and couple of other kids to his concert, and to be honest I wasn't that impressed with it." For the $90,000 fee Ludacris demanded, White said that there was nothing to regret.
Moreover, Howe said that the concerns of the administration and some students were valid. "We don't want the students to be at a concert and be offended. I think that would be the worst possible situation," he said.
With Ludacris out of the mix, White said he tried again to talk to Clear Channel about a performer. First, White almost drew Kanye West to campus. West, whose latest album has sold over 2 millions copies, is more in line with a Jesuit ideal - his most famous song is titled "Jesus Walks," in which he speaks out against discrimination in race and sexuality. He was also on the cover of Time Magazine with a headline proclaiming him "Hip Hop's Class Act." West, however, fell through. "Kanye West gave us only November 3," said Nauman. "It would have been last week, it would have been a great concert - but there was a women's hockey game."
Finally, White pursued the hip-hop group the Black Eyed Peas, whose single "My Humps" is currently No. 3 on Billboard's Top 100. They offered Nov. 12, a date crowded with practices for men's hockey and other sports teams. With this, White has, for the most part, stopped pursuing artists.
White also noted the current trend among popular artists to rest during the fall months. "The main problem with booking a fall act, across the board now for colleges, is that acts now tour mainly during the summer," he said. "All the acts that we would be interested in, the main acts, tour during the summer because that's when their crowds are not in school and can go to their concerts."
When asked about the possibility of still having a fall concert, Howe was mildly optimistic. "If all of a sudden Conte opened up ... and we could hook an artist, or hook a comedian for the event, sure, it's a possibility. We're ready, as UGBC, we're ready and prepared. It was part of our mission - we wanted to have a big fall show.
"But if it doesn't work out, then we'll definitely focus on having a huge show in the spring," he said.
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