Text size:

Putting Billy Joel in an LI state of mind

Glenn Gamboa | DROPS

July 13, 2008

Billy Joel performs during a concert June 19 at the opening of the Caesars Windsor in Windsor, Ontario.
(AP Photo)

Once Billy Joel completes his Shea Stadium shows this week, he's in the market for a new challenge.

After all, what could top being the only artist ever to complete "the hat trick" - playing Giants, Shea and Yankee stadiums? The only obvious possibility would be one of those massive, free Central Park shows with more than a million concertgoers, but Joel says his team has inquired and the city isn't allowing them any more. (The free Bon Jovi show at Central Park's Great Lawn was a ticketed concert and only 50,000 of those were made available.)

So what comes next? Well, Joel plans to take the rest of the summer off and he's heading to Australia and Asia in the fall. After that? "I've learned not to make plans," he says, laughing.

Maybe we should help him out. Wouldn't it be great if he could play some sort of massive concert on Long Island, giving him a chance to play his Island-referencing songs in their natural habitat just like his Manhattan-referencing songs?

Glenn Gamboa Bio | E-mail | Recent columns

Of course, there's a problem with a venue. Nassau Coliseum or Nikon at Jones Beach Theater only get him a crowd of about 20,000. Even a concert in the Nassau Coliseum parking lot only gets it up to 30,000.

I'd suggest a show at the Calverton Enterprise Park, which could support about 75,000 fans, but we all know how things turned out the last time concerts were proposed there. Suffolk County still has a bad reputation in the music industry after the massive concerts planned there in 2003 - featuring Radiohead and Bob Dylan - got canceled when county officials denied permits citing safety concerns.

Long Island musicians have long complained that there aren't enough places for them to play, forcing them to travel to the city or to seek out nonconventional concert venues, from restaurants to play areas.

But surely someone has a solution for Long Island's most famous musical son, right? Anyone?

Contact The Long Island Sound at glenn.gamboa@newsday.com or become

friends with ndmus at MySpace or imeem.