Rocker who rolls with the punches

Concert promoter Phil Sprey has just lost $750,000 in a hard rock gamble, but he looks like he only lost $10 at the TAB. Are the smiles and jokes just some perverse coping mechanism?

The Dominion Post

Alice Cooper wore his preppy Kia Kaha shirt and talked golf and horror flicks with Oscar-winning director Peter Jackson.

Rock2Wgtn promoter Phil Sprey filled the hospitality lounge at Westpac Stadium with his family, and contractors such as Weta Workshop's Jackson and Richard Taylor whose special effects company made a dragon with a 20-metre wing- span.

While his guests mingled with the stars of the bogan-fest, Sprey says he stopped to absorb the sight of 25,000 fans enjoying one night of the only concert featuring the Trilogy of Evil: Cooper, Ozzy Osbourne and headliners Kiss.

Sprey claims he drew huge satisfaction from the spectacle, though a quick glance around the stadium told him he was watching hundreds of thousands of dollars drain away. The best guess till all the bills are paid is a $750,000 shortfall.

Sprey needed at least 54,000 spectators at the two-night gig to break even. He was hoping for 58,000, to make a sizeable profit, but he got just 50,000. Ticket prices swung between the heavily discounted rate of $75 for one day and more than $400 for both days. Too many sold at the cheaper rate, and not enough sold overall.

"It's just another day in the office," he said this week, as he used the modest profits made on recent Elton John and Bon Jovi concerts to pay his creditors.

"I don't suffer from stress. I don't believe in it."

Is he hiding a measure of rage and fear beneath this spookily laissez-faire veneer? Sprey admits his latest gig represents a financial failure, but says the reputation gained through working with big international names - such as stars of yesteryear Poison and Whitesnake, and exciting new spectacle Lordi – is an "investment" in the future.

"The phenomenon is bigger than the numbers of people who turned up on the night," Sprey says. "This was not wrong at Easter. It was absolutely the right thing to do at the right time."

Rather, he says the failure was the result of a myriad of smaller coincidences that conspired against him: Easter trading laws which gave the city an eerie emptiness, too few accommodation options for those wanting to visit the capital, the split in the leisure dollar with other concerts and events nationwide, higher than anticipated costs due to last-minute engineering needs for some of the special effects and an unexpected hike in freight charges.

Kiss alone cost more than $1 million to book, out of a total outlay of $5.5 million. Despite international promotion, Sprey says the numbers just weren't there. "It's the ultimate form of gambling".

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It would be a mistake to write Sprey off as a man so awash with cash a spare $750,000 would hardly be noticed.

He sold his house in Miramar last year and is renting in Island Bay. His wife, Benny, works at Paper Plus in Kilbrinie. They have three children; one at university, two at school.

All creditors will be paid, his company Capital:C will survive but Sprey will not draw a salary this year.

Sprey, 55, was the child of immigrants who died within days of each other when he was 11. His Dutch-French mother died after a protracted battle with bowel cancer. She had been bedridden for 18 months. Sprey found his Dutch-German father dead from a heart-attack on the morning of his mother's funeral.

Sprey and his younger sister Yvonne became the subjects of a bitter custody row between their aunt who had never had children and close family friends who the children knew very well. The aunt won custody but struggled with Sprey. "I became the problem, the issue."

He was shuttled between boarding schools and sadly grew distant from his sister, who would grow up to be a champion ironwoman. Sprey joined the air force and trained as a chef.

After three years, he left to work in the James Cook Hotel in Wellington, then managed the Copper Room and Beachcomber on Oriental Pde. One night the DJ didn't turn up. Sprey worked the turntables and "the apron never went back on after that".

He ran Moby Dicks disco in Courtenay Place, playing 45s for 128 hours straight in a record- breaking bid to raise money for the 1974 Commonwealth Games. He ran a private investigation firm, till someone tried to blow up his car, then became assistant manager at the Majestic Theatre. He managed the St James, then the Embassy, then took on the challenge of a poor performing theatre in Masterton. He turned the Regent around, moonlighted setting up the town's first sauna and massage parlour, and married the runner-up in Miss Golden Shears 1970-something Gayle Hunt.

He ran theatres in Manners Mall and Lower Hutt, during which time his first wife departed, then moved to Auckland with the woman who would become his second wife. He rose to general manager of the Kerridge Odean empire's entertainment and leisure divisions. He was Russell Crowe's boss when "Russell the Rock" worked as an MC at Pakatoa Island resort in the Hauraki Gulf.

Sir Robert Kerridge's death saw the family-owned company self-destruct. Sprey took the lessons he had learnt from the man who brought The Beatles to New Zealand, and, without a job and few prospects, set up a Tupperware-style franchise company selling computer software. His business partner ran off with all the money and a mail- order bride. It was then he set up Capital:C Concerts and the Worlds of Wellington Trust. His first touring act was an exhibition of Princess Diana's dresses; his most recent the Trilogy of Evil.

"I've always been a survivor, by extinct and by nature."

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Rather than opt out in search of a safer game, Sprey says his next concert is already in the planning. He won't offer any clues, but says he has plans for the same multi-act formula. His noted devotion to Wellington may have counted against him at Easter and he's not promising to take that risk again. The airport's short runway provides logistical problems when flying in international acts and their sometimes cumbersome luggage and props, such as Sir Elton's piano.

Westpac Stadium is fantastic, Sprey says, but other stadiums and venues nationwide are courting him with offers to hire their premises for about 10 per cent of the cost. "We are looking elsewhere." He has been negotiating to get Prince for about three years. He'd like Barbra Streisand, Madonna, Aerosmith, Eminem.

Today he wears a white shirt, jeans and black sports shoes. He has furious tufts of facial hair and a belly he regularly wraps his arms around. He acknowledges he looks and sounds very relaxed for a man who has just lost $750,000. He says if money starts to become a problem, he'll simply find another way to make a living. "I'm a survivor, I'm like Madonna. I can reincarnate into anything I like."

STADIUM ROCKERS

The Top 6 music crowds at Wellington's Westpac Stadium.

Robbie Williams
Nov 16, 2000
42,500

Rolling Stones
Apr 18, 2006
40,000

Elton John
Dec 6, 2006
35,000

Neil Diamond
Mar 5, 2005
32,184

Rock2Wgtn
Mar 22, 23, 2008
25,000 each day (over two days).

David Bowie
Feb 14, 2004
24,000