Vintage music acts 'returning' to the new Arnolds Park Roof Garden in August

This August, James and his band -- who played at the Roof Garden at least five times between 1966 and 1974 -- will make their triumphant return to the Arnolds Park music venue. They'll be the first band to play the newly remade Roof Garden. 

"We're really looking forward to coming out there, this is really a hoot for me, playing the Roof Garden," James said during a telephone interview. 

Maddi Tesch, the administrator at the Iowa Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame in Arnolds Park -- formerly housed in the second Roof Garden -- said that back in the day, it made a lot of sense for big names like Tommy James and the Shondells to play a ballroom in small-town Iowa.  

"The interesting thing about the Roof Garden was it's kind of in the middle of all these tours that came through, so while they were on their way to Chicago or another bigger part of the Midwest, they stopped at the Roof Garden," Tesch said. She said Iowa owes much of its Rock 'n' Roll heritage to the many ballrooms like the Roof Garden that once dotted the state. 

James said his performances at the old Roof Garden were most likely in the middle of big-city tours when the band was at its peak: "When they'd book (tours), they'd have you stop here and stop here and stop here, on your way between usually two big cities.

"I certainly remember Arnolds Park, Iowa."

James and the band will play selections from their new album, "ALIVE," during the performance. 

Among the bands returning to the Roof Garden for its August concert series, Tommy James is far from holding any record for the most performances there: The Rumbles, playing Aug. 16, played the old Roof Garden around 50 times between 1955 and 1987. The Fabulous Flippers, who will appear alongside The Rumbles, took the Roof Garden stage roughly 17 times in the same time frame. Head East played at least 12 times. 

The new Roof Garden is a replica of the old Roof Garden where those groups played decades ago, and it's among the crowning achievements of the $19 million "Restore the Park Campaign" that began several years ago. 

The old Roof Garden ballroom, which hosted dances and music beginning in 1923, was taken down during a stretch of tough times at Arnolds Park in 1987. It was replaced with a second Roof Garden, an open-air venue that shared a name but had little else in common with the first Roof Garden. It was demolished last May. 

The third version of the Roof Garden brings it back home again, with an appearance similar to the old Roof Garden during its mid-20th century heyday, when everyone from the Yardbirds to the Byrds, and from Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs to Roy Orbison, played the ballroom. 

When it opens, the new Roof Garden will boast a lofty ceiling -- the exterior has the two-floor appearance of the original, but the space will be open-air, with Roof Garden memorabilia on display where the second floor would be. 

Most of the acts playing in August, or their predecessors in name (the Glenn Miller Orchestra is playing even though Glenn Miller went missing 74 years ago) played at the old Roof Garden several times during their peak of popularity.