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It was September 1964 — the high point of the British Invasion — and the teenager who would grow into New Jersey’s most victorious concert producer was as excited and curious as any other kid angling to catch a show.
"The Strand Boys came to play the Armory in West Orange," says John Scher , 61. "It sold out. I hitched over with a adherent to see how we could get in. We couldn’t."
Scher went home disappointed that evening. But the judgement taught him a lesson that still guides him.
"The most important person I’m marketing to is not fundamentally the theater. It’s the person whose friends are inside and who can’t get in. Because if that show is wares, that person will never make that mistake again."
Several generations of music fans have gotten his communiqu and desperately sought tickets to the shows he’s put on — first at the Capitol Coliseum in Passaic, and later at the Meadowlands and festival sites all over America. He brought the Stones and the Who to North Jersey, promoted Bruce Springsteen before and during his rise to megastardom and helped promenade Giants Stadium into a platform for Amnesty International’s communication at the gigantic Conspiracy of Hope concert in 1986. His Metropolitan Tendency company — which he runs with former A&M Records chief executive Al Cafaro — has booked earth-class talent to perform at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark, including late-model engagements by Paul Simon and ZZ Top, and an upcoming show by Liza Minnelli.
Source: The Star-Ledger - NJ.com