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Access Atlanta > Blog > Archives > 2007 > June > 01 > Entry
Show in park offers double the pleasure
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
When word spread this week about the Sept. 8 Dave Matthews Band benefit concert to raise funds for the multimillion-dollar expansion of Piedmont Park, we found ourselves smiling.
Sure, a big chunk of today’s music fans will happily plunk down $45 for general admission tickets and $250 for VIP passes to see the Dave Matthews Band in what promises to be the jam band’s largest concert on its 2007 summer tour.
Park officials tell us as many as 50,000 attendees are expected. But it’s the inclusion of the concert’s opening act, the Allman Brothers Band, that will make the occasion truly historic for Atlanta music fans.
After all, Piedmont Park was the venue for the Macon-birthed band’s first, um, well, impromptu concert way back in 1969.
It’s been the longtime wish of vocalist Gregg Allman to return to the legendary band’s grassy roots.
“I’d love to do one more gig at Piedmont Park,” Allman told us wistfully in 2001.
“We ran an extension cord to somebody’s apartment nearby and just played,” the Savannah resident recalled in the interview. “It would be so great to do that again for our fans in Atlanta.”
In 2001, Allman admitted that trying to re-create the past on a patch of green dominated by eco-friendly watchdog groups and politicians would be difficult.
Said Allman at the time: “We tried it a few years ago, and the city fathers wanted a million-dollar cash bond from us in case anything got tore up.
“Things have changed just a little bit, man. Maybe somewhere there’s a politician out there who’s also an Allman fan.”
And it looks like Allman finally found one in the unlikely guise of Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin. Said herzzoner in a press statement sent to Buzz Central this week: “With this concert, we can help to expand 53 acres of additional parkland, something that is essential to our future quality of life.”
For info: www.piedmontpark.org.
‘Payne’ stars at mall
The stars of “Tyler Perry’s House of Payne” sitcom will be greeting fans at Stonecrest Mall from 1 to 3 p.m. Saturday.
Cast members, including Allen Payne, Lance Gross, LaVan Davis, China Anne McClain and Larramie “Doc” Shaw will be on hand to sign autographs and oversee a Hula-Hoop contest, mom karaoke contest, a bubble gum-blowing contest and a dad dance-off. We’re told the fun will take place on the lower level near Sears.
The sitcom will premiere on TBS at 9 p.m. Wednesday.
Scouts honor Cathy
On Friday night, the Boy Scouts of America were setting up camp downtown at the Hyatt Regency in order to honor Chick-fil-A founder S. Truett Cathy with the organization’s coveted Silver Buffalo Award at Scouting’s national annual meeting.
The award is the BSA’s highest commendation for service to youth and has been awarded annually since 1925.
In selecting the businessman for the award, the BSA cited Cathy’s WinShape Foundation, a nonprofit that awards up to 30 scholarships annually to Berry College in Rome and his Leadership Scholarship Program that has has awarded over $22 million in scholarships to over 20,000 employees over the last three-plus decades.
(From our perspective, Cathy should be given an award just for coming up with that whole dill pickle chips on a chicken sandwich thing …)
We’re told that Cathy’s latest award will join other honors, including the Norman Vincent and Ruth Stafford Peale Humanitarian Award and the Horatio Alger Award, on his mantel at home.
Stork report
It’s a girl!
Continuing this week’s nonstop births featuring Atlanta radio-related dads comes word that 790 The Zone personality Steak Shapiro (below) and wife Kimberly are welcoming new daughter, Nola James. We’re told that the couple’s affinity for New Orleans inspired their second child’s name.
Celebrity birthdays
Saturday: Actress Sally Kellerman is 70. Actor Stacy Keach is 66. Singer William Guest with Gladys Knight and the Pips is 66. Drummer Charlie Watts of the Rolling Stones is 66. Actor Jerry Mathers (“Leave It to Beaver”) is 59. Actor Dennis Haysbert (right, “24”) is 53. Comedian Wayne Brady is 35. Keyboardist Tim Rice-Oxley of Keane is 31. Drummer Fabrizio Moretti of the Strokes is 27.
Sunday: Actor Tony Curtis is 82. Game-show host Chuck Barris (“The Gong Show”) is 78. Keyboardist Billy Powell of Lynyrd Skynyrd is 55. Newsman Anderson Cooper is 40. Country singer Jamie O’Neal is 39. Actress Lalaine (“Lizzie McGuire”) is 20.
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