Story posted Thursday, October 29, 2009
$70,000 OKd To Fund Summer Concert Series
Elk Grove Village trustees voted to approve a $70,000 contract to bring some well known bands to the village's 2010 Summer Concert Series next July.
Herman's Hermits, The Ides of March, Rhythm Method, a Styx cover band, and Starship, known in their heyday as the Jefferson Airplane, will perform next year.
Concerts are scheduled for each of the four Tuesday evenings in July. Village officials said last year as many as 4,000 people attended the final show of the concert series.
The series will start out with Herman's Hermits on Tuesday, July 6. The legendary British invasion band led by Peter Noone played in their heyday in the same circles with the likes of the Beatles, Beach Boys and Rolling Stones.
On Tuesday, July 13 the Ides of March hit the stage in Elk Grove. The band's hit "Vehicle" was one of Warner Brother's fastest selling "number ones" in 1970. They would tour with the likes of Led Zeppelin the Allman Brothers and Jimi Hendrix.
Bandleader Jim Peterik later co-founded the band Survivor who had the hit "Eye of the Tiger" in the 1980's in the movie Rocky III.
On Tuesday, July 20 cover band Rhythm Method, who performed last year, takes the stage again singing the hits of bands like Styx, Journey and REO Speedwagon.
The current incarnation of Starship, also known as the Jefferson Starship and Jefferson Airplane, will wrap up the concert series on Tuesday, July 27. This version of Starship has Mickey Thomas as its leader and does not include Grace Slick's iconic voice as she left the band in the late 1980's.
Mayor Craig Johnson said in these economic hard times it is essential for the village to provide these types of free-to-the-public events as a way to bring the community together.
About $60,000 was last summer's concert series allocation in the annual budget. Johnson said the additional $10,000 would come from left over money in a defense fund used to fight O'Hare Airport expansion plans.
Shows could be canceled in the event of lightning or a hard driving rain.
The village dropped its opposition to the airport expansion earlier when a planned highway designed to serve the airport was routed in a way that did not take significant village land and when a new mayor was elected in neighboring Bensenville who chose to drop that community's opposition to O'Hare expansion.
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