Bob Rose and the 2024 Ocean City Music Pier Concerts
By Bill Kelly
Bob Rose has been producing and promoting concerts for more than 50 years, beginning as a teenager with the first folk festival in Bridgeton, his hometown, when folk music was in the popular mainstream. Today he’s still a hippie, wearing tie-dye T-shirts and taking pictures with all the great acts he’s brought in.
Rose does for Ocean City what Carmen and Nancy Marotta do for Somers Point – he promotes great live music. But unlike the free beach concerts in Somers Point, which are supported by the local business community, Rose does it the old-fashioned way: he sells tickets.
Years ago, when the recording industry was strong and ticket prices were reasonable, scalpers bought up all the good seats to the best shows and resold them for hundreds of dollars. Now with music distribution being almost exclusively online, the acts must tour and earn their money from live performances, getting the prices the scalpers used to get.
For the 2024 Summer Concert Series on the Ocean City Music Pier, tickets vary in price from below $50, to well above $100, depending on the act, the seat location and the number of tickets purchased. Tickets are available online at etix.com or at the Music Pier box office on the Boardwalk at Moorlyn Terrace.
The Ocean City Music Pier is a great venue for concerts, designed in the classic Spanish Revival tradition, extending out over the ocean offering great views mixed with the quiet sound of breakers below. It’s intimate enough that the audience can see and hear the performers on stage from anywhere in the room without giant video screens.
For the 2024 summer season, Rose has put together a strong lineup of some great headline acts mixed with some high quality tribute and cover bands that will appeal to people who missed the originals the first time around, and old fogies who will appreciate the nostalgia.
The Taylor Swift tribute – Let Taylor Sing, starts off the summer-long program June 24 and will certainly bring out the Swifties. The global megastar is actually a Jersey Shore girl, having spent many summers at her family’s vacation home in Avalon where she learned to play guitar and began performing in public at a local coffee shop which is still there.
Other scheduled cover acts include Killer Queen – A Tribute to Queen, July 1 and The Machine, covering the iconic music of Pink Floyd, Aug. 19.
Kenny G’s sweet sax and clarinet sounds will start off the headline acts June 25, which will also include Bob Marley’s Jamaican reggae band the Wailers, July 8. Get ready to move to “No Woman No Cry.”
John Lodge, bass player, singer and songwriter for The Moody Blues, will perform the album, “Days of Future Passed,” in its entirety including the hit, “Knights in White Satin,” plus a selection of classic hits on July 15. Another British band, 10cc (“The Things We Do For Love”) will be on the Music Pier stage on July 29.
The Beach Boys will come flying in from California for three shows over two nights Aug. 5-6, followed by Herman’s Hermits Starring Peter Noone Aug. 12, and Graham Nash, Aug. 26, the British element of Cosby, Stills, Nash and Young. With Lodge, 10cc, Herman’s Hermits, Nash, and The Machine playing the music of Pink Floyd, there’s a strong British invasion going on here.
Bob Rose has also brought the fabulous Hooters to the Cape May Convention Hall for two consecutive shows the past few years, and will do it again Aug. 24-25. I first saw the Philly-based Hooters at Reds in Margate when they got started.
Reds, down the street from Maloney’s and across the street from Lucy, was owned by Red Klotz, the owner and manager of the Washington Generals, the professional basketball team that lost every game to the Harlem Globetrotters. When Red’s son Glenn took over, he started booking new bands like The Hooters.
Then I saw The Hooters in Berlin in 1990 playing before 500,000 people at Roger Waters’ (Pink Floyd) concert at the Berlin Wall. While The Hooters are extremely popular in Europe where they play arenas, Cape May Convention Hall is somewhat like the Ocean City Music Pier and both shows always sell out, as do most of the Ocean City concerts, so if you want tickets you have to get them early.
OC MUSIC PIER CONCERTS
Let’s Sing Taylor – A Live Band Experience Celebrating Taylor Swift
5 p.m. Monday, June 24
7:30 p.m. Monday, June 24
Kenny G
7 p.m. Tuesday, June 25
Killer Queen – A Tribute to Queen
7 p.m. Monday, July 1
The Wailers
7 p.m. Monday, July 8
The Moody Blues’ John Lodge
7 p.m. Monday, July 15
10cc
The Ultimate Greatest Hits Tour 2024
7 p.m. Monday, July 29
The Beach Boys
6 p.m. Monday, Aug. 5
8:30 p.m. Monday, Aug. 5
6 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 6
8:30 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 6
Herman’s Hermits
Starring Peter Noone
7 p.m. Monday, Aug. 12
The Machine Performs Pink Floyd
7 p.m. Monday, Aug. 19
Graham Nash
More Evenings of Songs and Stories
7 p.m. Monday, Aug. 26
Tickets are available through etix.com. If you have questions regarding tickets, fees and shows, email BRE Presents at info@brepresents.com or call 856-429-6100.
The shows are presented by the City of Ocean City and the series is co-produced by BRE Presents and Rose Productions. All shows take place at the Ocean City Music Pier, Boardwalk and Moorlyn Terrace.
