Backstage Spotlight™
Concert Promoter Gina Zamparelli
Gina Zamparelli has worked in the live concert
industry for 23 years and was the first woman in the Los Angeles market to produce
concerts with national-level artists. Shows she produced at the legendary Perkins Palace
are still talked about in rock circles, including a Guns ‘n’ Roses show credited
amongst GNR fans as being the one that put that band on the map. Gina is active in
historic preservation and has been a theater financial consultant for 13 theaters around
the US. She heads Friends of the Raymond Theatre, a non-profit group dedicated to saving
the former vaudeville theater (built in 1921) that was known in the 80’s &
90’s as the concert venue Perkins Palace (which Gina’s company managed for more
than a decade). Once her preservation work with the Raymond Theatre comes to a close, she
will start producing concerts in LA once again.
MBADC: What’s the most unusual problem you ever had with a show, and how did
you solve it?
GZ: While managing the Raymond Theatre (Perkins Palace), my most
usual problem had to be a show produced by another concert production company. The show
was sold out and the audience was in their seats. The band refused to go on, unless I
consented to allow them to exit the stage after their set, by jack hammering a hole in the
theater wall. I thought they had to be kidding. The band was dead serious. After an hour
and half of reasoning with them, they relented. The show was an hour and a half late, and
I refused to allow them to play till 20 more security guards arrived to line the walls of
the venue and front of the stage. I remember standing with the security guards, ready to
tackle the jackhammer myself …just in case…
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