Hamden’s Spaceland Ballroom forced to change name Conflict with Los Angeles’ promoter spurs switch

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HAMDEN >> The Spaceland Ballroom, which for nearly a year has played an important role as southern Connecticut’s mid-sized music venue, is being forced to change its name as a result of a dispute with a Los Angeles promoter that claims to own the name “Spaceland.”

Effective immediately, The Spaceland Ballroom will be known as The Ballroom at The Outer Space, said owner Steve Rodgers.

Rodgers also owns the The Outer Space, a smaller craft-beer music bar that adjoins the ballroom, and The Space, an alcohol-free, all-ages club across the parking lot of the industrial park they all are located in at 295 Treadwell St.

The change comes a few months after Rodgers received a cease-and-desist letter from a lawyer for Spaceland Productions, based in Los Angeles, which also books shows as “Spaceland Presents.”

Spaceland Productions is an offshoot of a venue called Spaceland, an alternative rock/indie rock nightclub in the LA’s Silver Lake section between 1995 and 2011.

“‘Spaceland Presents,’ a Los Angeles, CA concert promotion company, sent us a cease-and-desist order for the use of their trademarked name ‘Spaceland,’” Rodgers said Thursday in a press release.

“Having trademarked the name in the 1990s, it legally belongs to them,” he said.

Asked about the issue in a phone call while he was tending bar for about 20 people in the midst of a Thursday’s snowstorm, Rodgers said, “I started getting cease-and-esist orders six months ago, and I thought they would go away. But they didn’t.”

He tried to talk to the people from Spaceland Productions “but they don’t even want to talk,” Rodgers said.

“They must have seen us as enough of a threat — 3,000 miles away” to press the demand.

The letter, and subsequent letters, from attorney John E. Hope, said that Spaceland Productions is the registered owner of the “Spaceland” trademark and the name also is the company’s trade name.

Using the name Spaceland Ballroom “is an infringement of my client’s sole right” to use the “Spaceland” name, Hope wrote to Rodgers.

Rodgers — a musician, respected by the musicians who play at his venues, and the longtime front man for Mighty Purple — said he has a friend who is a lawyer who also is a musician who sometimes plays there. The lawyer looked into the issue and said that if Rodgers fought it, “there was a good chance that we would lose,” he said.

“Instead of going through that rigamarole, I’m sort of humbly bowing out,” Rodgers said. “I think (Spaceland Ballroom) is a great name. But it doesn’t define who we are. ... Life goes on.”

Spaceland Productions’ spokeswoman, Charra Cook, explained th situation in an email late Thursday.

“The name Spaceland is trademarked,” Cook wrote. “Trademark law makes it unlawful for a business to use a trademark in connection with a good or service if that use is confusingly similar to another business’s use of a trademark. Spaceland Productions and Spaceland Ballroom fall into that category because both companies work in live music entertainment.”

Rodgers acknowledged that “‘The Ballroom at The Outer Space’ is kind of wordy,” but said that given that the venue attached to The Outer Space, it’s less confusing than some other names he might have chosen.

“Our passion is to bring great music to the state of Connecticut, help build the local music scene and provide a welcoming environment for bands, music fans and beer lovers alike,” he said.

“In just under one year The Ballroom has hosted over 100 diverse shows, many of them in conjunction with our concert partners such as Manic Productions, Guitartown Presents, NEKO productions, A.I.M Productions and more,” Rodgers said.

“We are working feverishly on an amazing lineup for the spring and summer season,” he said. “We would like to sincerely thank you all for your support in the development of our venues over the course of 11 amazing years. We are looking forward to the successful years to come, not only for our venues and frequent concert goers but also for the artists who continue to perform here and those to come.”

Mark Nussbaum of Manic Productions, which often books shows into The Ballroom, said he believes Spaceland Productions learned of Spaceland Ballroom when Manic Productions book a band into The Ballroom that also was being booked in Los Angeles by Spaceland Productions.

Natalie Tuttle, Spaceland Ballroom’s booking agent, said she believes it was a show by Bosnian Rainbows, a rock band from El Paso, Texas, that consists of former members of The Mars Volta.

“It’s been super frustrating,” she said. “I understand that we are using the same name, but we are literally 3,000 miles away from you.”

Tuttle said the new name might end up more streamlined than it might seem.

“At the end of the day, we want people just to refer to it as just ‘The Ballroom,’ she said. “We talked about doing ‘The Outer Space Ballroom,’ but Steve decided that he’d rather be The Ballroom at The Outer Space” because it the most clear about the relationship between the venues.

Tuttle said she will be deleting the Spaceland Ballroom Facebook page at noon Friday. She urged anyone who had “liked” the ballroom page to do the same with The Outer Space page if they haven’t done so already.