RECENT PRESS, CAPE COD TIMES SEPT 2007
Life is just a song for Tony Raine

Tony Raine combined the jobs of production manager and general manager at the Cape Cod Melody Tent, overseeing all aspects of the operations at the 2,300-seat venue.

Tony Bennett has just wrapped up the final song of his Sept. 2 concert at Cape Cod Melody Tent. Another Tony — Tony Raine — is waiting at the top of Aisle 7, the "star aisle," to escort the 81-year-old singer offstage to the hospitality building for a "meet and greet" with VIPs including Joan Kennedy and her son U.S. Rep. Patrick Kennedy, D-R.I.

In between ushering small groups into the cramped catering room behind the tent, Raine pops over to the theater to supervise his crew, which is striking the circular stage.

This night is more than just the final concert of the season. It is also Raine's last show at the Tent as general manager. After 14 seasons and more than 600 shows, Raine is ready to move on to other projects. He watches a crew member change the theater marquee on West Main Street, Hyannis, to "See You in 2008," but he isn't feeling sentimental about not being back next season.

"It's time," says Raine in his lilting British accent when asked why he's leaving a job he's loved. Raine thrived on the controlled chaos of running the 2,300-seat summer theater from April 1 to mid-September. "I liked waking up and knowing I'm in the music business," he says, despite the 80- to 90-hour workweeks during the height of the season. "You see the whole thing come together, and it's kind of satisfying. It's an adrenaline rush."

It was Raine's idea to tackle the two jobs of general manager (running the facility, including directing the 60-member staff) and production manager (overseeing the technical aspects of the show, setting up the stage and dealing with tour managers). His high energy and background in restaurant management and the production end of the music business made him well-suited for the dual roles.

"Tony chose to take it all on," says Vince Longo, chief operating officer and executive producer of South Shore Playhouse Associates, which owns the Melody Tent. "I was skeptical at first that someone could handle all that work. I like the way Tony took charge of things and his 'I can do it' attitude.'"

Longo acknowledges he'll be "hard-pressed" to find someone to fill Raine's boots. "There's only one Tony," he says.

"I'm a Leo," says Raine, who talks and walks at a fast clip and dresses in his usual uniform: jeans and a casual shirt. "I like the business of the business and always getting the stuff done."

But when he hit 50 two years ago, he began thinking it was time for the many interests he had put on hold for the past 14 years in the creative end of the music business.

Three hours before the Bennett show, he reflects on his reign at the Tent and projects he has in the works.

The walls of his nondescript office are filled with photos, among them, shots of Raine — a Vince Gill look-alike with his shaggy hair, a gold stud in his left ear — with Tom Jones, Raine with the Hollies, a 1964 black-and-white photo of Paul McCartney, and a picture of the cover of the Rolling Stones album "Beggars Banquet," signed by the band, a gift from his crew.

Raine spent little time behind his desk. Instead, he was a familiar sight prowling the grounds of the Tent, keeping his thumb on the pulse of operations.

"We put 100,000 people through here in 10 weeks," he says of the daunting schedule of up to 50 shows over 10 to 12 weeks.

What he'll miss most is working with his tight-knit stage crew, which ranged at various times from eight to 14.

"We have a great camaraderie," he says. "There's nothing like working with 21-year-old kids, listening to their music. I love those guys."

Raine is most proud of developing a competent crew through the years that is responsible for running the lights, unloading band equipment from trucks, and setting up and spinning the stage.

"I watched these kids come in without a clue," he says, then hit their stride by the 15th show of the season.

"Tony gives people a chance to learn how the music business works," says Jimmy Girard, the Tent's stage manager and audio engineer. Raine groomed him since Girard graduated from high school. They've worked together for eight seasons. "He's really interesting and cool to be around," Girard says. "When it's crunch time, he gets it done."

Passion for music The son of a drummer, Raine says music has been his passion since he was a kid growing up in Blackburn, a mill town in northern England. In the '60s, the pop scene started exploding in Great Britain, and American soul was catching on. The teenage Raine hitchhiked around the country to hundreds of concerts featuring the likes of Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin. Like a lot of his contemporaries, he was intent on leaving his economically oppressed working-class town for musical pastures.

A self-taught guitarist, Raine preferred working behind the scenes to performing. He showed a knack for music promotion early on by running the dance club in high school. "I was the nerdy audiovisual guy," he says, smiling. "I joined to meet girls." The club lacked money for records, so the inventive teen came up with the idea of raising money by putting on dances in the gym on rainy days. Soon he was working as a disc jockey at youth clubs in the area.

Raine attended Fleetwood Nautical College, where he studied radio and communications. After college, jobs weren't available, so he found work warehousing albums at a record store, then moved to London and tended bar. Raine met his American wife, Bonnie, in London in 1974.
At 19 Raine was "all about music," she says. "It's always been his driving force."

As he is now, he was full of energy and constantly in motion.

"Tony puts his heart and soul into everything he does," Bonnie Raine says.

They married a year later and then moved to the states. Raine worked as a waiter and bartender down South and out West, then returned to Wales, where he ran a pub for a year and a half.

The Raines moved to Boston in 1982. While he was working full time as a manager for a restaurant chain, he started a music-oriented travel service on the side, running package tours for Beatles fans to Liverpool and London.

In 1985 Raine was hired as the manager of bar operations at The Channel, a rock club in South Boston. He moved to Chatham in 1987 and got a job as general manager of the Wayside Inn, where he did a concert series featuring such '60s acts as Donovan, Richie Havens, John Sebastian and Roger McGuinn.

He began doing publicity for rock shows at the Tent the summer of 1994 and was hired as the facility manager. Three years later he was made general manager.

To make a living in the winter, Raine developed his niche as a music producer and promoter. He designed Web sites for musicians such as Ray Davies of the Kinks. He also promoted local shows and fundraisers, booked bands into Cape clubs, produced CDs for several Cape artists, and managed performers including the Beat Poets, Les Sampou, Fred Fried, Lisa Jason and Jimmy Keys. He gave some of those local performers a break by hiring them to appear as opening acts at the Tent.

Last winter Raine dabbled in the movie business, working as the assistant location manager on the independent film "Chatham," which was shot in the seaside town.

In 2005 Raine started Cape Cod Internet Radio with two partners to give exposure to local talent. To support the venture he developed Cape Treks, digital guided tours of some of the Cape's favorite drives, walks and bike routes, featuring local writers and musicians.

Describing himself as "creative" and "entrepreneurial," Raine has always been drawn to the production end of the music business.

"There's a lot of satisfaction taking an idea and doing it, whether it's a band or making a record."

New ventures

Raine has plenty of new irons in the fire for his after-Tent life.

In February he created the interactive "Just Like Nashville Cape & Islands Songwriting Contest," a quest to find the best new song from the Cape. Modeled after the famed Bluebird Cafe in Nashville, where fledgling songwriters can get their break by performing two original songs, Raine hosted a monthly open mike at O'Shea's Olde Inn in West Dennis. He amassed 120 songs by 60 songwriters. The songs were played on the Internet radio, and listeners got to vote for their favorites. Raine received more than 2,000 e-mail votes during the summer.

"It's built a community, and I got some great songs," Raine says.

The six top vote-getters will perform during the finals, and the winner will be announced Thursday night at O'Shea's. Raine will take the winner to the Bluebird Cafe in late October for a showcase gig and a song-writing workshop.

He's also returning to his roots of blending his love of travel with music.

Last fall he took a four-week tour of Nashville, Memphis and the Delta. That inspired his idea for a road trip for music lovers to the birthplaces of the blues, soul, R&B, rockabilly, country-western and bluegrass. The Whistling Dixie Tour will head out April through May to such destinations as Elvis Presley's childhood home in Tupelo, Miss.; Graceland and Sun Studios, both in Memphis; and, in Alabama, the Hank Williams Museum and the Alabama Music Hall of Fame. Tourgoers will travel like rock stars in a luxury bus. If the venture takes off, Raine hopes eventually to set up an office in Nashville.

"I like the city. I have a feel for it," he says. "Nashville is the third coast in the business. It's about song-writing and developing."

Raine is optimistic about the future. If his new ventures don't work out, he's not worried.

"I have a lot of funky ideas," he says cheerfully. "There will be another one."

The Bennett show is over, and the crowd has cleared out. Raine locks up and does a walk-through of the grounds. It's around midnight and, as on so many nights before, he is the last one to leave the theater. He heads out for a beer with his crew, for the last time.

Johanna Crosby can be reached at jcrosby@capecodonline.com.