There’s Santa Claus – who brings joy to children all across the world one night a year, and then there’s another jolly man, who brings to music and joy to the Capital Region over the course of many evenings of the year.
Through concerts and shows that have created and sustained a live music scene for decades, Greg Bell has left his mark on Albany, Troy, Schenectady and Saratoga Springs, among other locales in Upstate New York.
Now, with a moe. show on December 27 at the Palace Theatre, he’ll close out* a career that has spanned 33 years and brought an incredible amount of music to the region.
NYS Music recently spoke with the artists that benefitted most from his early years promoting at Bogies and Valentine’s, ahead of his December 20 Halliday Ball, but naturally, we needed to have another conversation with Greg, having first spoken to him in 2012, and later in 2017. Heck, there was even a documentary – Grapplin’ Greg – produced by Mirth Films‘ Frankie Cavone and released in 2022.
Alas, things have changed for Bell, as he is now retired from teaching, and looks to slow down his live music promotion, so Greg and I had one more chat about his career as a promoter, what he’s seen, who he’s promoted, how he views the Albany and greater Capital Region music scenes, some advice he has taken and given, as well as a look at the numbers – his biggest shows, biggest artists, shows he has canceled and the most memorable of the thousands of shows he has promoted since the early 1990s.
Greg got his start in promoting by helping out a friend for a Mother Judge show at Victory Cafe, a few days before March 28, 1992, when Two Fools Presents held their first official show at the Masonic Hall on lower Madison Avenue featuring The Sharks, Hard Times, Mother Judge and Brian Kenny and Friends. By Spring 1993, when partner Jeff Guthrie stepped away, Bell decided to keep the name Guthrie/Bell Productions because it was established and sounded good, and “Greg Bell Presents” sounded too egotistical, as Greg himself put it (with a laugh).
But before diving in with Greg, the shows he has promoted would not be possible without the support and hard work of Marilyn Bell, his wife of nearly 40 years. A fixture at Greg’s local shows, Marilyn has designed many of the promotional posters and flyers fans have seen over the years, taking her graphic design background and bringing it to hundreds of posters over the course of Greg’s career.
The pair were married in 1987, having met when she was working at an ad agency in Albany. Originally from Ticonderoga, Marilyn attended Michigan State University (when Magic Johnson was still Earvin). She decided to take more classes in Albany following graduation, and at the time, graphic design was done without computers. As computers became a part of the trade, their introduction meant she had to figure it out and learn as she went, evolving as the technology was introduced. “What now takes 1 hour for one person to do, it use to take several people 1 week to do,” Marilyn recalled.
In time, she took her talents to the artists booked by Guthrie/Bell Productions, creating a flyer when bands didn’t supply their own art, creating original illustrations, designing the flyer and graphics. Things have changed a bit in that department, as touring bands typically have art templates available for local promoters to use, but needed, she’s ready to create something original for each show.
Peter Prince of Moon Boot Lover, in discussing the December 20 show, shared a heartfelt assessment of Marilyn’s presence behind the scenes as well as at shows. “Her contributions with her artwork and her personalized vision and her magic touch, she is just the very, very best and I can’t say enough, I love her. She always makes a point to say hello, how’s it going, how’s the family – that’s coming home for me, that’s family. Other promoters and people you run into, they’re asking me about shows, but not about my kids or our last conversation – she shows how much she cares by asking those very questions, especially when you play so many gigs and it’s a blur – she’s head and shoulders above most.”
Kirk Juhas of freebeerandchicken and Eastern Highs echoed this sentiment, saying “She’s one of our favorite people. It hurts when we go to a show and she’s not there, and we really want to catch up with her when we’re there.” Juhas noted that when Eastern Highs played their first show in 2015, “she came up and said she loved our sound, how we’ve grown and moved the sound forward – that’s why she’s amazing; she gave us the words we needed in a project to make new music.”
Now “75% retired,” Marilyn still does some light Etsy work and small logos, and readily shares “I love music, and boy I married the right person!”
But is he really retiring? “Yes and no” she offers. “He’ll do some more shows, but not the same pace. It’s hard to stop since it’s a big part of his identity, at a sprightly 72 years old.”
Included in this interview are some of the prints she likes the most – the most recent Bellstock, Ominous Seapods Year of the Dragon Tour, Day of the Deadbeats at Lark Hall, and the Max Creek Halloween at Fort William Henry, featuring skeletons of soldiers from the French and Indian War.
Greg and I have had numerous conversations about his history as a promoter and the details of promoting events at various points over the last 15 years, so in this interview I asked Greg to look back at his career and find the best, worst, and other memorable shows, events and artists that he has encountered.
Of course, Greg Bell is synonymous with Valentine’s (formerly located on New Scotland Ave near Albany Medical Center), he only started shows there after Bogies closed in the early 1990s. Prior to closing, the two venues would be having shows with each other at the same time, so Howard Glassman and Greg would meet weekly to make sure they didn’t compete with each other. Glassman bartended at Valentine’s prior to buying the venue in the early 1990s, then started booking shows at there, while Greg branched out to Savannah’s and Red Square (later Parish Public House, and now Ophelia’s on Broadway).
Promoting every jam band that came around in 92-94 – Ominous Seapods, Yolk, Schleigho, Disco Biscuits, Conehead Buddha – they were all starting out at the time and Greg got known as the jam band guy in Albany, all playing at Valentine’s.
For a period of time, with two floors, the venue was quick to blow up with Greg promoting shows, as 400-450 people a night would be present, sometimes with a show upstairs and downstairs in the same evening. Add in promotions that simply don’t exist today ($10 all you can drink) but were the norm back then, folks showed up for shows with bands that were rising in the scene, and the experimentation from bands took off.
Pete Mason: How many shows would you estimate you have booked in your career?
Greg Bell: Around 75-100 shows a year on average. (Roughly 3000 shows). Early on with Jeff Guthrie, we would have 10-12 shows a week in Albany, Schenectady, Troy and Saratoga Springs. We were booking shows all the time, not acting as promoters just yet, but just bookers, for Valentine’s, Pauly’s Hotel, Iko’s, Savannah’s, Revolution Hall, Positively 4th Street, Upstate Concert Hall, and some small rooms whose names have been lost to memory.
PM: What’s one piece of advice you gave a band that you wish they did?
GB: One thing is they don’t listen to me about reading the audience – you have to start the show rocking if needed. Some artists feel like they can do it right, but they ignore advice to open with an upbeat tune, and instead do ballads just to bust balls.
PM: What’s a piece of advice you have been given but ignored?
GB: Get out of this line of work, but I didn’t listen to that. (laughs)
PM: How many tickets do you estimate you have sold to your shows, lifetime?
GB: There is no way of telling an exact figure. Some shows are 50, festivals are hundreds or thousands. Shows at the Washington Avenue Armory are a few thousand, The Palace Theatre is 2800. That right there is thousand upon thousands of tickets. I can’t even imagine how many tickets it’s been. Even with an average of 50 per show at 3000 shows, that’s 150,000. A quarter million, if not more. The Armory shows are 3-4,000 each, Palace 2,000-2,800, The Egg 900, Revolution Hall 100-800. I wish I had a dollar for each one of those shows now.
PM: What is your biggest show to date?
GB: Phil and Friends at Glens Falls Civic Center (a co-promote with Creative Concerts) in November 2007, with Trey Anastasio joining in for one of his first public performances following his arrest in Whitehall. There were also two separate shows, Pretty Lights and Bassnectar (with EOTO), both at the Washington Avenue Armory (where Greg also promoted shows for moe., Phil Lesh and Friends, Matisyahu, and Gym Class Heroes/The Roots).
PM: What was your smallest show, either turnout wise or an intimate show with limited seating?
GB: The first moe. shows, downstairs at Valentine’s. $5 a head, 3 people paid – $15 at the door, gross.
moe. played downstairs in an ‘audition’ to see if they could play upstairs. They were there within the next 4 months, opening up for Dr. Jah and the Love Prophets – that’s who everyone opened up for in the beginning when they came to town. They were one of the few hippie bands in the area that wasn’t a Grateful Dead cover band. I later met Moon Boot Lover and Conehead Buddha through Dr. Jah, who had the young hippie crowd coming out. As the others got bigger than Jah and took off, Jah would open for them in time.
PM: What are your favorite venues to work with?
GB: Every venue I’ve worked at has pluses and minuses, I like them all equally. If I had to pick a favorite, it would be Valentine’s, where I learned to book shows. I miss Rev Hall, Savannah’s, and I still do shows at the rest, so it’s hard to pick a favorite, I have no complaints or preferences. The places that helped my career the most were Valentine’s, Rev Hall and Cohoes Music Hall.
PM: How many shows would you estimate you have cancelled in the last 33 years?
GB: Maybe 5 or 6, not factoring in Covid. All 5 or 6 were due to lack of ticket sales. If I was going to lose money on a show, I’d at least be able to enjoy a show while losing money. I prefer the show to happen.
PM: Who are the bands you wanted to work with, but were never able to?
GB: I turned down Billy Strings, Ani Difranco, Lake Street Dive and Cake. I didn’t think they would be worth the money and I fucked up on those. 2020 was the best start to a year ever, and the music industry never really bounced back.
PM: How many bands/artists have you worked with?
GB: 4,000 bands over 33 years, factoring in multiple bands on a lineup, plus a history of working with bands for years.
PM: What is a show you promoted that you wish you could relive over and over?
GB: Probably the first time I had moe. sell out the Palace in 2000, and Phil Lesh showing up at The Hollow to sit in with Midnight North in October 2021, just towards the end of Covid, the crowd was wearing masks.
PM: What is a show you promoted where you wish you could go back and redo it – maybe it was a dud or something could have been improved?
GB: Bellstock 3 (1996) I wish I could have redone. 35 bands were on the list to play, but we had torrential rain for 22 hours straight. It was coming down so hard, no one could play all day Saturday or that night.
PM: Are there any shows you wished you didn’t promote?
GB: I can’t remember the name of the band, some pop band from England, they were on EQX, took a chance and wanted to do something different. The band wanted to soundcheck at 1pm, and they did that until 830pm, and doors were at 8pm. Eventually, the opener went on for 20 minutes, then the headliners came on for 30 minutes and they were done. I thought they were taking a setbreak. They said, “that’s all the songs we know.” It was a horrible show – the band had an attitude, the music was bad, could have done the whole show a second time. It was a pop audience that just wanted to hear the radio hit, so there were no complaints from fans.
(Jeff Morad of WEQX helped to uncover the band in question: “I had to dig into my notes and it looks like, based on the timeline, that was probably The Regrettes. They were teenagers at that point and did not have many gigs under their belts. They did go on to perform at Coachella, Lolla, Riot Fest, Summerfest and New Orleans Jazz Fest, yet again proving that Greg Bell is always ahead of the curve in booking up and coming acts. I’m guessing they dialed in their soundcheck haha.)
GB: There was also Kings of Leon who didn’t want an opener, went on earlier than they had to, played for an hour, and then were done. The show was over before a lot of people arrived to get tickets, having started at 9pm, they were off at 10:10pm.
PM: Who are the bands that you booked well before they got big?
GB: There are probably more than this, but this is a pretty good list. At the time, these artists were completely unknown before they were brought here. A lot of bands who went from clubs and ended up at The Palace, and some who took off too fast to bring to a bigger venue.
Leftover Salmon, Guster, Soulive, Ekostik Hookah, Fishbone, plenty of jam bands that started out or came through the area. Jeff Buckley (played Valentine’s 2x), Matisyahu (played Savannah’s 2x, then sold out Revolution Hall), Gogol Bordello (Revolution Hall 2x), moe. (numerous times at Valentine’s and The Palace), Wood Brothers (downstairs at Valentine’s – Greg got the show thanks to working with Medeski Martin Wood), Umphrey’s McGee (Revolution Hall), Grace Potter (Revolution Hall – both as an opener and a headliner 2x, before taking off), Keller Williams (Savannah’s), Disco Biscuits (Valentine’s and Savannahs), Bassnectar (Red Square and The Hollow), and The Revivalists (The Hollow).
PM: So, who is the next you? An Albany promoter?
GB: There is no next me. I’ve been in this position where I didn’t have to do it for the money – job, retirement, Social Security. If I had to do this for a living, I could never have gone 33 years. I don’t make a lot of money on this, I take a lot of chances on a lot of bands, and I know I’m going to lose money on some shows, while others are worried because it’s their job. This is a hobby for me, and while it’s a business, I’ve never had to worry about not paying my mortgage because a show lost money. There is no one out there who can do this where they need money to live on. I did it for fun, I didn’t have an intention of becoming a promoter, it just snowballed.
One packed night at Valentine’s, I said to Dave Geoghegan, “I wish this was my real job,” and he said “Dude, this is your real job.” I like putting on shows with friends and people having fun. If this was my job, I would have quit 30 years ago. It was because I liked bringing people together and having a good time. Some are more concerned with money coming in or they don’t treat bands the same way. I’m a fan before I’m a promoter. I know tons of people in this business, working in offices, who ask how you got into this, and I say, “I love live music.”
Sometimes bands don’t meet the promoter at shows – I’m one of the people that goes to every show when they load in, and the end when they load out, because I want to be there. Most promoters never see shows, it’s only a business to them. If I went that route, I would have quit early.
Even now, I don’t want to retire, I’m just too old to keep this pace up.
* while Greg still has a few shows on the books for 2026, the frequency of shows promoted by Guthrie/Bell Productions will be limited looking ahead. See what you’ll find in 2026 here.
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