PELHAM TURNS AWAY WIDESPREAD PANIC

Widespread Panic, the Georgia jam band whose fans follow it from city to
city, has worn out its welcome in Pelham, the city's mayor said.

The noise, the drugs and the stray fans who slept in the woods won't be
missed when the band takes its show to First Avenue South and 18th Street
in Birmingham's Warehouse District May 9-10, Pelham Mayor Bobby Hayes said.

Hayes said the band's following became too much to handle for Pelham's
police department, paramedics and cleanup crew.

Birmingham officials, on the other hand, had one thing to say: Bring them on.

The band had been playing at Pelham's Oak Mountain Amphitheater since 1990.
Last year's three concerts saw 200 people arrested in a massive crackdown
on drugs and underage drinking.

But the last straw for Pelham came with the death of two fans last year, a
24-year-old woman who hanged herself at a hotel after one of the concerts
and a 29-year-old woman who overdosed on Ecstasy. "Both died as a result of
narcotics," Hayes said. "We don't need that. We don't need it and we don't
want it."

So Hayes asked amphitheater manager Tony Ruffino to find the band another home.

"We talked to Mr. Ruffino and explained our position, and he agreed with
us," Hayes said.

Ruffino said the band needed a bigger venue. Hayes "asked me to find
another area that's big enough to house the band, and we did," Ruffino
said. "We're expecting a great crowd and a big place to play."

Ruffino wouldn't say whether the new location had a greater crowd capacity
than the amphitheater, only that it was a larger area.

That area happens to be one Birmingham Mayor Bernard Kincaid wants to
revitalize. "We want the downtown city center to be open to living and arts
and recreation," Kincaid said.

When it comes to drugs, the city will be prepared, he said.

"There will be no flouting of public safety laws. ... There will be no
looking the other way," Kincaid said.

Hayes said the three concerts last year drained the city's resources, from
police directing traffic around the amphitheater to medics scrambling to
revive fans overdosed on drugs.

"We didn't feel it was in the best interest of the City of Pelham for those
people to come in our city and act the way they act," Hayes said. "I don't
know that the group is that bad. I just know that the people that follow
them are not very respectful of personal property."

Widespread Panic last year released a statement supporting the police
crackdown at its Oak Mountain shows.

Many business owners in years past have complained to the city about
Widespread concert-goers, he said, including restaurant, service station
and hotel owners.

Hayes said some Widespread fans don't stay the night in hotels or
campgrounds, but instead "hide and sleep in the woods. We've had to just
run them out of there."

He said whatever revenue is lost in the band's move to Birmingham might be
offset, considering the increase in city services the concerts required.

Kincaid said he almost never waives fees for extra police protection. City
Stages receives free protection only because of the overall economic
benefit the show has to the city, he said.

Birmingham Police Chief Mike Coppage said he had not heard about the show,
but said the police and fire departments always plan for events before they
happen.

Longtime Widespread fan Jake Beaty of Montevallo said he thinks Pelham will
regret letting the band go. "They're going to be losing a lot of revenue
for it," he said. "I'll agree that there is a dark element to that entire
scene, but at the same time, 90 percent of the people out there are just
there to watch a concert and have a good time."