I just wanted to announce that we will be presenting Randy Newman at the Bijou on October 14. A couple of other shows are pending.

There are many reasons why we haven't been presenting shows at the Bijou recently. One is that the last couple of shows we tried at the Bijou sold very poorly. Another is the relative lack of available dates - due to the theatre's commitment to theatrical productions. And it's true that there were some philosophical disagreements on some issues - but no really big deal and certainly no major scandal. Also, we've been very busy on other exciting projects and have been producing fewer concerts in general due to those commitments.

The Bijou is a great venue - one of my personal favorites of all time. Over the years, since 1980, I've been invovled in presenting hundreds of shows there. We're looking forward to doing more and we hope that people will attend. If they do, we'll do even more.

As for having a monopoly on shows in downtown Knoxville - like, who would want one? I've heard this time and time again over the years. It's pretty silly. There's nothing to keep anyone who wants to from promoting a show (except for maybe money and know-how). At the Tennessee Theatre, we happily rent the venue to other promoters, and, to the best of knowledge, every other venue in town is available to them as well.
We do try to build and maintain positive relationships with artists so that when they come to town, they choose to work with us. If they don't want to, they're certainly free to make their own decisions. Established artists want to work with people that they have confidence in and we try to be those people.
There are good reasons why you don't see a lot of people lining up to promote shows, but it ain't because we have a monopoly.