Fresno Famous

Tom Walzem (inventor of Rock of the Tower) and myself have been talking about Rock of the Tower's future. The conversation is pretty much summed up in the letter he penned below.

I wanted to post this letter on Fresno Famous and encourage the FF readership to get involved in keeping this event alive.

Rock of the Tower has had two very strong years and holds the possibility of many more.

PLEASE send this along to anyone else you think might be interested or who might be interested in sharing their talents to get this job done.

I'm thinking, that some of our new alternative newspapers/art institutions/ college-public-communtiy radio stations/ performance festivals might wish to take this under their wing (in fact, representatives from all of these categories played a big part in making Rock of the Tower happen for the last two years.)

Finding the bands isn't the hard part. Fresno is blessed with lots of terrific musicians---it's setting up the infra-structure to make this event work, and carry it into the future that is the challenge.

Please post back and share any thoughts you may have.
I figure we'll put this all-call out, and then have a meeting of interested parties in a bit less than a month. And with a proposed CD to produce, we really should start the ball rolling. If you wish to be contacted as things develop, you can email me at :

whispermaphone@hotmail.com

Looking forward to hearing from you,

Blake
-------------here's Tom's letter:

Rock of the Tower #3 has been put on hold--probably until next year. Why?

While the Rock Of the Tower has been a great success for all of the participants both years, originally the show was a fund raiser Tower District Marketing Committee. This is what got us into the historic Tower Theater in the first place. But each year we did something that would make a true capitalist cry... we gave the profits to the bands and gave away free CD's and T-shirts to attract more people.
Needless to say the TDMC gracefully declined to co-sponsor the event this year. This would be an appropriate time to thank Bill Kuebler, and the crew at the Tower for two great shows, and a LOT of hard work!

SHOULD THE ROCK OF THE TOWER END HERE?

We hope not, We want Rock of the Tower to live up to our Grand Dream, and to do it for some years to come.

What is the Grand Dream?
To promote local, original music in a high-profile show in a beautiful local landmark in such a way as to encourage cooperation within and recognition of our rich local music community.

Why is local original music so important?
In a way, you can judge a the health of a music scene by the number of bands or musicians playing music that they wrote themselves. Fresno is rich in original music. Fresno just doesn't know that Fresno is rich in original music.

How do we ensure that this venture doesn't just fizzle out?
We need bodies and brains, people passionate about music. Folks to round up sponsors. Organizers to get the details, designers and cheerleaders to get out the word!

THE BIG IDEA:
The concept for Rock of the Tower #3 is to produce a CD compilation unique to this event---have each band record a special track available only on this unique CD, and then to do a blow-out show as a culminating celebration of this collaboration. It's an ambitious idea that will get some attention, and we hope fill the Tower theater and make some profit for the bands.

It's an amazing feeling to pull of an event of this magnitude... it's a feeling we'd like to share.