The original sound of The Guess Who (below left) is largely the product of Burton Cummings (far left) and Randy Bachman (left), After the group disbanded, a “rogue” group (below) swiped the name and sued to prevent the men who wrote and sang the songs from using the name they made famous. The Hard Rock is bringing the “rogue” group in concert on the public’s dime.

A FOIL request made to the city of Niagara Falls for reports prepared by the Hard Rock Café Inc. to explain how they spent taxpayer money for their concert series has been denied.

The city’s response was simply: “Financial reports are confidential per Hard Rock and will not be released.”

By year’s end, the city will have paid Hard Rock $707,097 of public money since 2008 and apparently the billion dollar international corporation is not required to tell the public how any of that money was spent.

An agreement between the city and Hard Rock requires Hard Rock only to provide event promotion and coordination for between $15,000 to $50,000 per concert. Hard Rock is not required to invest any of its own money.

In addition to what the city pays to Hard Rock for the act and production costs, taxpayers pay additonal money for security, clean up and portable restrooms.

This year, the Hard Rock series will cost Niagara Falls taxpayers more than $200,000.
This summer, Hard Rock will stage six Saturday night, outdoor, “free” summer concerts on Old Falls St. near the Niagara Falls State Park. The concerts will take place on six Staurday nights in July and August, when the park and its environs are mobbed with people coming and going to see the real attraction: Niagara Falls.

Hard Rock has exclusive concession rights for the concerts and pick up plenty of extra concessions by holding the concerts on the busiest nights of the year instead of when the city could use a boost in business.

According to the contract, Hard Rock is not prohibited from making a profit off taxpayers by booking acts more cheaply than taxpayers pay Hard Rock to stage the act. Since the reports are “confidential” all the public knows is how much money Hard Rock gets for each concert.

One concert performer advertised for this season is a band called “The Guess Who.” The group, as the Niagara Falls Reporter revealed three weeks ago, is not comprised of the two main members of the original The Guess Who, Burton Cummings and Randy Bachman, who made the group world renowned.

Hard Rock hired what some are calling a “rogue” group that managed to acquire legal rights to the name “the Guess Who” after the original group disbanded and Bachman and Cummings were working on other musical projects.

Later, when Bachman and Cummings tried to use the name, the rogue group took them to court and successfully stopped them since they had filed for trademark rights previously.

Because international music law provides that anyone can perform any published song in public, this “rogue” group now makes their living performing the hit songs written by Bachman - Cummings and advertises using old Guess Who recordings of Cummings’ singing and Bachman playing guitar.

Concertgoers, thinking they are coming to a genuine Guess Who concert, will find essentially a tribute band who secured the rights to use the name.

Because the city deemed it confidential, it is not known how much Hard Rock is paying the rogue group.

Here is the list of concerts you will be forced to pay for this year if you are a property owner in Niagara Falls.
The list is followed by how much Hard Rock, a billion dollar international corporation owned by the Seminole Nation of Indians in Florida, will be getting paid by taxpayers of Niagara Falls, New York.
7/7 The (rogue) Guess Who: $30,000
7/14 Buffalo Philharmonic: $23,000
7/21 Sloan: (isn’t that a village in Cheektowaga ?) $15,000
7/28 Talas: $25,000
8/4 K. C. and the Sunshine Band (a 60 year old guy singing "Shake Your booty”): $42,000
8/11 Finger 11 (???): $15,000
The act for the $50,000 New Year’s Eve concert has not been named yet.

To the Editor,
Congratulations to reporter Shellene D. Reich on the excellent story, "Guess Who Is Really Not Coming to Hard Rock?" It's long past the time, I think, that the media reported accurately about the unfortunate fate of The Guess Who's name. Shellene has brought positive attention to your paper from people throughout the U.S. and Canada who appreciate The ("real") Guess Who, the group's "voice," Burton Cummings, and good journalism.
Maureen Lilla,
Plymouth, MA

To the Editor,
Thank you for your honest story about the Guess Who. I have sent copies of it to many other community newspapers where the “klone” band is playing. Wonderful work. I am a fan of Burton (Cummings) and am constantly dismayed by the 'rogue' band using Burton's photos and voice in their advertising.
Kevin D. Suter,
Toronto