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Free Cheap Trick Concert Moved From Central Park

Re-creation of band's breakthrough Budokan performance relocated for safety concerns.

NEW YORK -- Citing safety concerns and overwhelming demand, the city has canceled Cheap Trick's planned public debut of the tour re-creating their classic Live At Budokan album, an event that was scheduled for Saturday night (April 18) in Central Park.

The free concert, which is still scheduled for that evening, has been moved by its sponsor, cable music network VH1, to the Roseland ballroom, an indoor venue in midtown.

News of the concert -- which will tour 30 cities through the spring -- resulted in a flood of phone calls inquiring about the event to the Parks Department, where officials said they began to fear that there wasn't sufficient security to handle the expected turnout, according to Cary Baker of Baker Northrup Media Group, Cheap Trick's publicity firm. While there were no major incidents, more than a quarter of a million spectators showed up in August for a free concert at Central Park by country sensation Garth Brooks.

"The Live At Budokan re-creation will now be an indoor event," Baker said. Unfortunately, Baker said he expects that a lot of people will be turned away due to insufficient space. "Doors open at 4 p.m., and we expect a huge crowd," he added. "The bright side of the relocation is that rain is forecast in New York City for [Saturday]."

VH1 has since rescheduled the first-come, first-served event for the Roseland, with a capacity of 3,200, as compared to the 2,300 seats at Central Park's band shell. The event could not be moved in time to larger sections of the park to accommodate the increasing interest in the concert.

"If we had a couple of months, we would have been able to do it," said Ed Skyler, Parks Department spokesman. "There wasn't enough time. The demand far exceeded the maximum."

The Tories, an L.A.-based power-pop band, will open the show at 6 p.m., to be followed by veteran pop-rocker Todd Rundgren at 8 p.m. Cheap Trick will take the stage at 9 p.m.

The concert tour, which will include a date at the Roxy in L.A. on April 27, is planned to promote the release -- for the first time -- of the entire 1978 Budokan concert, scheduled for April 28 (the 20th anniversary of the original vinyl album) on two enhanced CDs by Sony/Legacy. The Budokan show in Japan and the live album that it spawned the next year gave Cheap Trick their first major worldwide exposure and led to several hit singles, including "I Want You To Want Me" (RealAudio excerpt) and "Surrender" (RealAudio excerpt).

Cheap Trick will also re-create their breakthrough Budokan show at the Metro in Chicago on April 30, to be followed May 1-3 with re-creations of their first three albums, one per evening in order of their release. Their initial albums were 1977's Cheap Trick, 1977's In Color and 1978's Heaven Tonight.

On the same day as the new Budokan release, the Web-based site Real Networks will air a live cybercast of the Budokan concert in front of an invited audience from the Fillmore in San Francisco.

Cheap Trick were to run through a rehearsal of the show at an undisclosed Atlantic City, N.J., venue Friday night (April 17), Baker said. He added that the band will soon be in the studio working on new material with "young producers."

Also later this year, Sony/Legacy will re-release the entire Cheap Trick catalogue on CD, with the first three albums due this summer.

Bun E. Carlos, Cheap Trick's indefatigable drummer, will oversee the reissues.

"Carlos is the most like a rock critic and record collector of all the bandmembers," Baker added. "He's a good choice for a well-done reissue series."

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