Live Entertainment Performances
Idell & Seitel has been representing clients in all aspects of the presentation of live entertainment performances for music, film and sports for over 20 years. The firm’s experience in transactional live entertainment matters includes representation of presenters, promoters, venue owners, tour organizers, tour promoters, tour presenters, sponsors, artists and service providers, including but not limited to mergers, acquisitions and sale of live entertainment properties. Such transactional matters include venue agreements, tour joint ventures, tour agreements, production agreements, artist agreements and riders, vendor agreements, municipal entitlement issues, trademark, trade dress and other branding issues, copyright issues, alcoholic beverage control issues, ancillary exploitation such as DVD, CD and downloads, food and beverage contracts, merchandising contracts, union issues, performing rights issues, Internet issues involved with streaming, audio and video on demand and downloads, advertising, promotion and marketing issues, ticketing issues and concert postponement and cancellation issues.
Idell & Seitel’s litigation experience involving live entertainment performances is equally extensive including but not limited to litigation concerning contract disputes, venue leases, intellectual property disputes, disputes over venue agreements, defense of injuries and deaths at concerts, insurance disputes, rights clearance disputes, publicity issues, force majeure issues, promotion and advertising issues, municipal compliance, sound ordinances, environmental issues connected with sound, traffic and other impacts, disputes over artist agreements, co-promotion agreements and other related issues.
Examples of transactional and litigation experience includes the following:
1987: Litigation counsel to Bill Graham Presents in construction dispute and warranty contract dispute over the tent roof at the Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, California.
1988 to 1990: Litigation counsel in architectural malpractice suit involving sightlines at venue.
80s and 90s: Counsel for various ice skating tours and shows and sale of same, including Stars on Ice and Christmas on Ice.
1986 to 2005: Defense counsel for promoters and venues regarding personal injury litigation claims arising out of live entertainment performances in the Western United States, including litigation in California, Nevada and Oregon.
1986 to 2006: Counsel to Bill Graham Presents (now part of Live Nation) with representation of various facets of live entertainment events and tours as well as permanent venues such as Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, the Fillmore, the Warfield, various four wall deals, promotions at the Oakland Coliseum and numerous other venues in Nevada, Oregon, Washington and California, including representation for all phases of live entertainment issues.
1986 to 2005: Counsel for Fillmore, Warfield and other Bill Graham Presents’ venues including litigation to force the retrofitting of the Fillmore after the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake forced closure.
1987 to 1989: Litigation counsel for various parties in disputes arising out of the public assemblage and exploitation of the 50th Anniversary of the Opening of the Golden Gate Bridge, including but not limited to various City and County agreements.
Late 80s through the 90s: Counsel to New Orleans By the Bay at Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, California, a music and arts festival held over a three day period.
1990s: Counsel for nationwide tour of the gold medal winning U.S. Gymnastics team in 90's.
1990s: Litigation Counsel in various environmental matters arising out of amphitheatre and venue sound and traffic issues.
1991: Counsel for Bill Graham and later (after his death) the Estate of Bill Graham, in litigation concerning unauthorized use of photographs of Bill Graham in major national advertising campaign.
1998: Counsel for the concert presentation of the Amnesty International 50th Anniversary of the Declaration of Human Rights Concert in Bercy, Paris including negotiation of all artist agreements for the performance’s participants (Page and Plant, Bruce Springsteen, Radiohead, Tracy Chapman, Shania Twain, Peter Gabriel, Alanis Morissette, Axelle Red, Asian Dub Foundation, Youssou, N’Dour, and Orlando Poleo; including but not limited to all legal work for clearances of the DVD.
1998-2000: Representation of various ice skaters and gymnasts including litigation over publicity rights claim.
1998-1999: Counsel to promoter of Michael Flatley’s “Lord of the Dance” produced in Las Vegas at the Hotel New York New York, with a multi-year run; responsible for drafting of artist agreements, venue contract and related agreements.
1998-1999: Counsel to co-presenter of Roller Derby events throughout the U.S.
1998-2000: Counsel for Plaintiff seeking damages for force majeure event involving a fire to a venue on the tour.
1995 to 2000: Defense counsel for Americans with Disability Act (“ADA”) claims involving Bay Area venues.
1990s: Counsel for Bill Graham Presents in regards local promotion of numerous festivals including HORDE Tour, Grateful Dead, G-3 and others. Representation included branding, trademark issues and clearance issues.
2000: Counsel for Bill Graham Presents in litigation dispute over ownership of concert photographs.
2003: Counsel to co-promoter of Reggae on the River (Humboldt County), a 3-day Reggae Music Festival on co-promotion agreement.
2000 to 2004: Counsel to Bill Graham Presents, Inc. and Shoreline Amphitheatre Partners in multi-million dollar lease dispute involving the lease with the City of Mountain View to the Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, California, 1986 to present.
2002 to 2005: Counsel to MX Entertainment producer of DVD's of music events including Reggae on the River, Herbie Hancock, others including contract negotiation, drafting and rights clearance issues.
2002 to Present: Counsel to Bob Barsotti and Black Oak Ranch in Mendocino County for annual Earthdance Festival. (Earthdance Live, LLC)
2001 to Present: Counsel to Shorenstein Hays Nederlander Theatres in San Francisco for presentation of theatre, Broadway and music events. SHN operates the Curran and owns the Orpheum and Golden Gate Theatres in San Francisco and presents the San Francisco Best of Broadway Series.
1999 to Present: Counsel to AMF Entertainment LLC which presents various family entertainment ventures including production of Teatro ZinZanni in Las Vegas.
2004 to Present: Counsel to Another Planet Entertainment LLC which operates the Greek Theatre in Berkeley and promotes tours, shows, exhibits and festivals worldwide, including in 2007, the Treasure Island Music Festival and 2008’s inaugural Outside Lands Music and Art Festival in Golden Gate Park.
2008: Counsel to the Independent in San Francisco.
1998 to Present: Counsel to the San Francisco Symphony for numerous events and multi-media projects: "S & M" DVD (Symphony and Metallica), Sweeney Todd PBS Production, multi-year multi-media project, Keeping Score, (website, DVD, PBS production).
1999 to Present: Counsel to Dansun Productions which produces small scale amphitheatre performances in Coventry Grove in Kensington produce audio recordings and produced a film on the Heath Brothers (concert and documentary).
2007 to Present: Counsel to the San Francisco Opera on distribution of film productions of current opera selections including a variety of union issues.
2003 to Present: President of the Board and counsel to the California Film Institute which presents the Mill Valley Film Festival and owns and operates the Christopher B. Smith Rafael Film Center in San Rafael.
2007 to Present: Member of Board of Directors of Playground, a nonprofit incubator of playwrights.
Early 2000's to Present: Vice President of the Board of the Bill Graham Memorial Foundation which presents annual music events in January as well as the Bill Graham Justice Award.
2007: Counsel to Ghana Music Festival.
2002 to Present: Counsel to SLO Limited: VIP Ticketing Company which represents the Stones, Bob Dylan, George Michael, the ESPN X games, Genisis, Springsteen and others, sold to Ticketmaster in 2008.
2000 to Present: Representation of various entities on ticketing contracts with Ticketmaster.
