Buffalo Rising Online

Mar 2nd 2007, 2:30pm By Anna Miller

He’s a music industry promotional manager who worked with countless stars – from the Beatles and the Rolling Stones to Bob Dylan and Eric Clapton. He’s launched the careers of some of the biggest names in the music industry, and was voted by the entertainment industry the top promoter in Billboard magazine. And now, Pete Bennett is coming to Buffalo.

Bennett will be in Buffalo this spring in search of the next big rock group he can promote, utilizing his many connections, to national stardom. The chosen band will be featured on The Pete Bennett Show, which is designed to showcase the inner workings of the music industry.

He’s been to Buffalo before – Bennett launched the career of supermodel Beverly Johnson, started Harvey Weinstein in the business when he was just a student at UB, and brought both The Who and The Grateful Dead to The Aud. And now Bennett said he knows our city has a reserve musical talent just waiting to be tapped. A venture through any of our local venues should only prove him right.

“I like Buffalo and its people, I have a lot of friends there,” Bennett said. “I feel this is going to be a great area to pick up groups because of the live music scene you’ve got. I see what goes on locally – everyone’s promoting and no one’s going anywhere. If they really have the talent, I want to help a Buffalo group go somewhere.”

Paul Petock, the show’s producer, said they are looking for a group to wow Bennett, a group he can without hesitation promote to his colleagues in the industry – and, after all these years, it’s easy to believe that he’s got quite an arsenal built up.

Petock himself is a Buffalo native who at one point worked with several local bands, but never saw any with enough promotional kick to get off the ground on the national level. Now that he does have the connections, Petock said this show is his chance to come full circle and help Bennett launch a Buffalo band to superstardom.

“It’s like the completion of the circle,” Petock said. “Buffalo inspired me because it’s where I grew up and the whole music scene had a profound effect on my life. Hopefully now we can give someone a break. It would be the feather in the cap of all involved to find a group we can promote.”

Petock said they hope they can find a local band strong enough to be the main focus of the show – if they do find that band, he said, the show will include Bennett approaching his record label cohorts and making a deal. “We want to market the band to a major label,” he said. “And we will as long as we’ve got the Pete magic behind it and he truly believes in them, they can be stars.”

The show will also feature a live filmed performance of the chosen band at a local venue, to be announced. In addition to the show, Bennett will host a classic rock show featuring The New Rascals and Terry Sylvester of The Hollies on May 25th and 26th at the Riviera Theater in North Tonawanda.

For more information, check out http://www.petebennettshow.com

Interested bands should send any material they’ve got (CDs or DVDs) to: The Pete Bennett Show at Channel One Media 2000 NE 42nd Ave. Number 177 Portland, OR 97213.