Entertainment restaurant to take over the old Soulshine Pizza location and will open in August
CLEARWATER, Fla., — RockHouse Live International, the exciting new hybrid live and virtual entertainment-themed restaurant and venue concept by veteran entertainment execs Zach Bair and Jock Weaver, announced today that the company is opening a new location in Oxford, Mississippi, home of the University of Mississippi and the Ole Miss football team.
The new location, just a block from the town square, boasts an area of over 4,800 square feet and a large patio spanning the side of the building. The building is located at 308 South Lamar, the former home of Soulshine Pizza, which is being completely remodeled for RockHouse Live Oxford.
As with the RockHouse Live Clearwater Beach flagship location, which was launched a mere 60 days ago and is outperforming expectations, RockHouse Live Oxford will feature extensive indoor and outdoor seating, a large stage, custom lighting and sound, and will feature nightly entertainment and live music, including local, regional and national artists.
“Even though our primary focus for our expansion is waterfront/beachfront/tourist areas, Oxford is a natural spot for a RockHouse Live,” said Bair, who grew up in college towns. “It is an awesome town with a big university, full of fun-loving people who strongly support their teams and sports, and who love great music and entertainment.”
“We will tackle both – RockHouse Live Oxford will be completely lit up with plenty of big-screen TVs, as well as with awesome bands and fun things to do like karaoke. It will be THE place to hang out in Oxford!”
Weaver said, “We are excited to have secured this iconic location, on South Lamar, right off the square, in Oxford, Mississippi. We view Oxford as the ‘Capital of the Mid-South.’ The University of Mississippi is a magnet that attracts the brightest and best of college students, with an entrepreneurial environment incubates success, an artistic community that supports the best of music, literature, and art; and with a pro-business environment that is unparalleled.”
“And of course, there is the attraction of Ole Miss athletics that experience the phenomenon of an annual pilgrimage of loyal fans celebrating this amazing college town. RockHouse Live will be the location where these scholars, entrepreneurs, artists, musicians, athletes, alumni, and local residents, congregate to Eat, Drink, and Rock!”
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RockHouse Live Oxford is expected to be open by mid-August, well ahead of the first Ole Miss home game against Austin Peay State University, on September 11th.
As with all RockHouse Live locations, RockHouse Live Oxford will feature integrated technology from VNUE, Inc. (OTC: VNUE), of which Bair is CEO. VNUE has a 4.99% stake in RockHouse Live International.
Bair and Weaver continue to expect that the concept will grow rapidly and the pair has already identified more locations of interest.
About RockHouse Live™
RockHouse Live is a first-of-its kind hybrid live & virtual entertainment-themed restaurant, venue and bar concept, offering the culture of rock ‘n’ roll with live music, entertainment, great food, awesome drinks, and “instant live” recording.
Founded by music technology entrepreneur Zach Bair in 2006 in Dallas, Texas, and incubated for several years in Memphis, Tennessee, Bair was joined by former Hard Rock Café International president Jock Weaver to roll the concept out globally. The Flagship RockHouse Live location was launched at the beginning of April 2021, in beautiful Clearwater Beach, FL.
All RockHouse Live locations will feature technology from VNUE, Inc., including VNUE’s Soundstr music recognition technology (www.soundstr.com), to improve music licensing and to get artists paid, and set.fm (www.set.fm), the innovative “instant live” platform that allows artists to be professionally recorded and content made available to fans immediately after shows.
Locations will also feature proprietary streaming and production technology, so that fans may experience concerts in other RockHouse locations and around the world.
Principals
Zack Bair
Zach Bair is the founder and originator of the RockHouse Live brand, which he originally conceptualized in Dallas, in 2005, and opened in 2006. He serves as president and CEO of VNUE, Inc., and of DiscLive Network/RockHouse Live Media Productions, Inc., and is lifelong tech and music entrepreneur, as well as a musician, and a recognized expert and speaker in new media and revenue streams in the music business.
He is an accomplished audio and video producer, and is a voting member of the Recording Academy (the Grammys). He is the founder and former CEO and chairman of Immediatek, Inc. (IMKI), a high-tech company he took public, and prior to that, founder and former CEO/CTO of Voyence, which raised over $12m in venture capital during it’s first round, and went on to sell to EMC Corp. He serves as managing member of RockHouse Live International.
Bair is widely known for implementing and commercializing the “instant media” business model, acquiring pioneer DiscLive, and engaging The Pixies on the first tour that grossed more than $500K in revenue in just a few weeks. Bair spearheaded acquisitions which included Moving Records, a competitor, as well as numerous other companies and technologies.
Bair and his board of directors sold Immediatek to Mark Cuban, of “Shark Tank” fame, after achieving multiple successes in the immediate live and technology space, and Bair retained the right to continue the DiscLive model.
Bair aligned RockHouse Live Media Productions with EMI Music, under the Abbey Road Live name, and upon Universal’s acquisition of EMI, Bair rebranded the live operation “DiscLive Network,” to emphasize his team’s identy of pioneering the space, the brand strength and the trust of the DiscLive brand.
Bair has produced live content for such artists as Slash, Peter Frampton, REO Speedwagon, Seether, Blondie, DEVO, Simple Minds, Rob Thomas, and many others, in the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Europe, the UK and Japan.
Jock Weaver
Well-known entrepreneur Jock Weaver founded and serves as chairman of Heritage Trust Company, a private equity firm that provides advisory services to growing businesses, and can efficiently access debt and equity capital. Mr. Weaver is the youngest person in history to list a company on the London Stock Exchange and the American Stock Exchange. He has over 35 years’ business experience in mergers, acquisitions, and the development of growth companies on an international basis. He serves and executive advisor to Zach Bair, at VNUE, Inc., and is Bair’s Partner in RockHouse Live.
Mr. Weaver served as president of Hard Rock Cafe International, an English public company that had operations in London, New York, Dallas, Stockholm, Tokyo, Reykjavik, Cancun, Boston, and Washington, D.C., and whose securities traded on the London Stock Exchange and the American Stock Exchange. Weaver has a long and well established history of asset acquisition, value enhancement, and monetization: In addition to building Hard Rock Café into the world’s largest experiential music themed restaurant company, he also founded TBA Entertainment, enhanced values, grew it to one of the nation’s larger producers of live events and experiential marketing programs, and ultimately sold it to a group led by Whitney Capital; he acquired The Village at Breckenridge in Breckenridge Colorado, enhanced values, and sold it to Vail Resorts which went on to become the world’s largest ski company; he acquired Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre, enhanced values, and sold it to a group that ultimately became a part of Live Nation the world’s largest venue owner and operator.
Mr. Weaver serves as chairman of Heritage Plantation Company, a private, family-owned land holding company established in 1826. Mr. Weaver also serves as chairman of Heritage Plantation Foundation, a private not-for-profit charitable trust. Mr. Weaver graduated from the University of Tennessee’s College of Business with a major in banking and finance, and he served as senior vice president, First National Bank, Jackson, Tennessee, managing commercial lending operations for the West Tennessee regional bank.
