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The Omni Coliseum Articles
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The Omni Coliseum Articles
Memorabilia, music and memories The first concert:
Cat Stevens: Oct. 30, 1972The last concert:
Metallica: April 23, 1997Top-grossing concert:
The Eagles: $1,105,063 (Feb. '95)Top-grossing run:
The Eagles: $3,058,445 (three shows)
'The Madison Square Garden of the South'
By Russ DeVault, The Atlanta Journal-ConstitutionPop concerts -- like Elton John's in 1986 -- made the Omni "the Madison Square Garden of the South." Who can forget "Piano Man" Billy Joel's arrival in an ambulance (not to duck fans, but because he had bronchitis and was determined that his show go on)? Who'll forget seeing Axl Rose of Guns N' Roses leave in a police paddy wagon? (He was fighting and the show didn't go on.) Who wasn't amazed to see the usually low-key Lionel Richie "Dancin' on the Ceilin' '' during the tour named for that album?
Or, if you're health care consultant Margaret Stewart of Atlanta, how do you forget meeting rock legends Robert Plant and Jimmy Page? As Stewart, 43, recalls:
"In 1977, I was a student at Emory and they hired me as an information hostess. I wore a uniform -- a brown skirt, beige top and brown vest with a little name tag -- and I would stand at a little booth to help people. One day these scruffy-looking guys came down and asked me where to get something to eat. I asked them if they were in a band. They said yes, they were Led Zeppelin. Then they asked me to come up to their room after the show and party. I didn't."
Those and other memories may have been incidental, but pop-music concerts were viewed as a staple when the Omni was built 25 years ago. "An arena can't survive on one or even two sports teams," developer Tom Cousins says. "Concerts were a key part of the economics of making it work financially."
The 17,500-seat arena, built for $17 million, was designed as a home for the NBA Hawks, soon followed to Atlanta by the NHL Flames. "Pistol Pete" Maravich, a scoring machine in floppy socks, spawned dreams of an NBA championship banner for the "The House That Pete Built," while the Flames' eager acceptance prompted an NBC-TV sportscaster in 1973 to call the team "the success story of the season . . . maybe the success story of all time."
Back to reality. The Hawks are still trying to get past the second round of the NBA playoffs and the Flames won their Stanley Cup title in 1980, nine years after leaving Atlanta for Calgary. But while mediocrity became a watchword for the sports teams, pop concerts -- more than 800 of them -- justified the Omni's billing as "the Madison Square Garden of the South."
No matter. Its time has run out, and the final events Thursday -- the free "Family Festival" and ticketed "World Figure Skating Champions" -- signal the end of its 25-year-run.
Demolition is scheduled to begin next month; implosion is set for July. Even a calculating businessman like Cousins, whose Omni concert experience is limited to a little bit of Frank Sinatra, Elvis and country act Alabama -- calls the closing "poignant.'' "So many shows are rock 'n' roll, and I'm too old for that," says the 65-year-old.
For several generations of pop-music fans, though, the Omni has been a provider of acts on their way up (Alan Jackson opened for Randy Travis in 1991), at the top (Frank Sinatra in 1972), on the way down (David Lee Roth solo in 1988) and out of their heads (Aerosmith prior to 1988, when they sobered up). "Atlanta was in dire need of something like that," says Bob Kent, who presided as CEO as the Omni put Atlanta squarely on the rock 'n' roll map.
Now, however, arenas compete fiercely with amphitheaters for concerts, while the number of acts capable of selling enough tickets to play arenas wanes. That's why Bob Williams, current president of the Omni, promises that the new facility, opening in 1999, will be built with concerts and concertgoers' comfort in mind.
"We're challenging ourselves to create the next breakthrough arena, much like Baltimore's Camden Yards set the standard for new baseball stadiums," Williams says. "But there's a lot of memories in this building." (He's seen more than 700 Omni concerts and met his wife at an Electric Light Orchestra show in 1981.)
Some concert photographs and other memorabilia will be incorporated into a Wall of Memories in the new building. Other memories will remain with their owners. "A lot of blood, sweat and tears went into that building," Cousins says, "and there were a lot of roadblocks along the way. But it's served its purpose well.
Memorabilia, music and memories
JUST COMB IT
"Gino Vanelli wouldn't go on because he couldn't get his hair right, and I went back there after about an hour. He was drawing a brush feverishly through his hair and said that he couldn't get his damn hair right. I told him, 'To hell with the hair -- just go on.' He finally did -- two hours late -- and I couldn't tell that his hair looked any different, but it had cost me about $10,000 [in overtime]."
--Alex Cooley, promoterTWO COOL CATS
"Jimmy Carter was governor, about 1973, and he came to a Bob Dylan concert. Everyone knew he was there in the audience, and there was a buzz over the whole place. It added a real electric air to it. It was typical Carter -- he sat there quiet and low key.
-- Charles Crawford, caterer, BuckheadFULL HOUSE BLUFF
"I remember a Frank Sinatra show when his management said he wouldn't go on unless he had a full house, and we hadn't sold the seats behind the stage [because of poor sight lines). So what we did was cover the top and bottom of the section with black cloth and left three rows open that we filled with real Sinatra fans. He went on and when he'd turn to sing to the people behind the stage they'd keep the lights on the three rows with people and Sinatra was happy, figuring he had a full house.
-- J. Lee Friedman, promoterA COLD KISS. . .
"I saw Elvis 11 times, and I finally got a chance to meet him the last time he was here. He was quite obese at the time and he was eating ice and he apologized after he kissed me because it was such a cold kiss. I didn't mind."
-- Rachel Stiles, chief of ushers/staff. . . AND A HOT ONE
"I remember the night that Ted Turner and Jane Fonda came to one of the Grateful Dead concerts and I was among the people who met them. We put Troy [her son] in the photographer's area right in front of the stage -- not a place you can get to even if you are Jane Fonda -- and afterward she said, 'Thank you,' and gave me an appropriate little kiss. Nothing unusual, except Jane Fonda's 'little kiss' is strong stuff and it left me so dazed I actually called my wife, saying, 'Guess who kissed me?' "
-- Dennis McNally, Grateful Dead historianHOW GREAT HE WAS
"It was the early 1970s -- the first and only time I saw Elvis. At the very end of the show, they turned out all the house lights and shot a beam of white light down on him. He was dressed all in white, and was singing "How Great Thou Art." When he finished, there was total silence that was chilling. You could have heard a pin drop. I was astounded. Everyone was frozen. Then they applauded wildly for probably three minutes. It was like a spiritual experience."
-- Phillip Kells Rimmer, owner of Kells and Guernsey Hair Salon, BuckheadCompiled by Russ DeVault, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
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