Pop culture has been adjusting to unsteady waters in more ways than one. A decade ago, Andy Levine was managing Sister Hazel, a hard-rock band from Florida with a loyal promo crew. The group decided to charter a boat to throw the street team a party, with the band playing a show on open waters — an event in which Levine immediately saw more potential. “It was so much fun,” Levine said, “I’ve spent the last 10 years figuring out how to take like-minded people on vacation.”
Today, Levine runs Sixthman, an Atlanta company that charters more than a dozen pop-culture cruises: complete multiday vacation packages centered on rock bands and cable channels. In addition to packages with acts such as Kiss, Barenaked Ladies, Lynyrd Skynyrd and Kid Rock, Sixthman also handles VH1’s Best Cruise Ever and, leaving port for the first time this coming December, the TCM (Turner Classic Movies) Classic Cruise, hosted by channel mainstays Robert Osborne and Ben Mankiewicz.
Levine built the business by booking other artists on boats, often as part of large packages. The big push came in 2005, when Canadian cult stars Barenaked Ladies (whose big alt-rock hit was 1998’s “One Week”) called him. “They said, ‘We like what you’re doing with Sister Hazel. Could you do that for us?’ I said, ‘I’ve been waiting for your phone call.’” Soon Levine was handling cruises for a number of other big rock acts: 311, Zac Brown Band and rock’s master merchandisers, Kiss.
But while Sixthman dominates the pop-culture cruise business, it is by no means alone. In February, the second annual Bruise Cruise, a floating garage-rock festival featuring the Dirtbombs, Vivian Girls, King Khan and the Shrines, and Thee Oh Sees, as well as cult stand-up comic Neil Hamburger, sets sail. And fitness guru Richard Simmons’ Cruise to Lose! (yes, there’s an exclamation mark) embarks on its 30th annual expedition in October. This year’s theme: “Hooray for Hollywood.”
“I was raised in New Orleans,” Simmons said. “We had four major, beautiful theaters on Canal Street. Movies were a part of my life. Unfortunately, too many people eat while they’re watching a movie, and there lies the problem.”
Still, Simmons knows his audience. His cruise couches its morning-to-night self-esteem seminars, workout sessions and healthy-cooking classes in pop kitsch. “We start our cruise from L.A.,” said Simmons, enthusiastically as always. “We have a party, and everyone has to dress up as their favorite Hollywood star. It’s like ‘Bonanza’ meets ‘The Partridge Family.’ We end up like a family. We hear many things that these people don’t share with their families. Everyone feels that unconditional love and that support.”
Simmons’ cruise costs a substantial amount: tickets begin at $1,245; penthouse suites go for $4,675. Other cruises charge less: the TCM Classic Cruise runs between $795 and $1,995 (plus $199 in taxes and fees). “For the amount of money that any kind of entertainment costs today, I suspect there will be more older people on the cruise than younger people,” said TCM host Robert Osborne. Nevertheless, Osborne is “constantly surprised” how young his channel’s audience skews. “I do think we’re an unusual entity on television right now,” he says. “People like the positive spirit of these old films.”
Those younger fans may be starting to make their presence felt in the ocean-vacation business. Whereas Sixthman’s and Simmons’ cruises take place on 2,000-passenger ocean liners, which ups their price, the more bohemian crowd targeted by the Bruise Cruise settles happily for a smaller ship: The first one, this past February, booked only 400, and it will carry 525 next year. Tickets are under $800.
Despite its hipster veneer, the Bruise Cruise’s origins are in mainstream rock. “My [dad] worked with Vince Neil,” said Bruise Cruise co-director Jonas Stein, who went on Neil’s Mötley Crüise a few years ago. “I had a blast,” Stein said. “I thought of how much more fun I would be having if my own type of rock ’n’ rollers were on the ship.”
Stein teamed up with booker Michelle Cable, who found the inaugural trip daunting: “Here we are, transporting eight indie rock bands and over 400 of their fans into foreign waters via a ship for three days. That involved a lot of energy [and] organization, and had us jumping through hoops along the entire way: work permits, U.S. and Bahamas customs, getting a demographic of people who aren’t the normal ‘cruiser’ to purchase a ticket months in advance. [It’s] the craziest and most ambitious endeavor I’ve taken on, but also the most rewarding.”
Two of the Dirtbombs’ members, bassist Ko Melina and drummer Ben Blackwell, went on the first Bruise Cruise, reporting excitedly back to the band’s leader, Mick Collins: “It’s so much fun! You have to go.” When Stein and Cable approached the band, Collins said yes instantly.
“On the one hand, it’s odd,” Collins said of a vacation cruise targeted at an audience not known for having the means to spend extravagantly. “But on the other hand, it’s [odder] that it hasn’t happened before now. I have no aversion to being on the water. There’s always Dramamine.”
Today, Levine runs Sixthman, an Atlanta company that charters more than a dozen pop-culture cruises: complete multiday vacation packages centered on rock bands and cable channels. In addition to packages with acts such as Kiss, Barenaked Ladies, Lynyrd Skynyrd and Kid Rock, Sixthman also handles VH1’s Best Cruise Ever and, leaving port for the first time this coming December, the TCM (Turner Classic Movies) Classic Cruise, hosted by channel mainstays Robert Osborne and Ben Mankiewicz.
Levine built the business by booking other artists on boats, often as part of large packages. The big push came in 2005, when Canadian cult stars Barenaked Ladies (whose big alt-rock hit was 1998’s “One Week”) called him. “They said, ‘We like what you’re doing with Sister Hazel. Could you do that for us?’ I said, ‘I’ve been waiting for your phone call.’” Soon Levine was handling cruises for a number of other big rock acts: 311, Zac Brown Band and rock’s master merchandisers, Kiss.
But while Sixthman dominates the pop-culture cruise business, it is by no means alone. In February, the second annual Bruise Cruise, a floating garage-rock festival featuring the Dirtbombs, Vivian Girls, King Khan and the Shrines, and Thee Oh Sees, as well as cult stand-up comic Neil Hamburger, sets sail. And fitness guru Richard Simmons’ Cruise to Lose! (yes, there’s an exclamation mark) embarks on its 30th annual expedition in October. This year’s theme: “Hooray for Hollywood.”
“I was raised in New Orleans,” Simmons said. “We had four major, beautiful theaters on Canal Street. Movies were a part of my life. Unfortunately, too many people eat while they’re watching a movie, and there lies the problem.”
Still, Simmons knows his audience. His cruise couches its morning-to-night self-esteem seminars, workout sessions and healthy-cooking classes in pop kitsch. “We start our cruise from L.A.,” said Simmons, enthusiastically as always. “We have a party, and everyone has to dress up as their favorite Hollywood star. It’s like ‘Bonanza’ meets ‘The Partridge Family.’ We end up like a family. We hear many things that these people don’t share with their families. Everyone feels that unconditional love and that support.”
Simmons’ cruise costs a substantial amount: tickets begin at $1,245; penthouse suites go for $4,675. Other cruises charge less: the TCM Classic Cruise runs between $795 and $1,995 (plus $199 in taxes and fees). “For the amount of money that any kind of entertainment costs today, I suspect there will be more older people on the cruise than younger people,” said TCM host Robert Osborne. Nevertheless, Osborne is “constantly surprised” how young his channel’s audience skews. “I do think we’re an unusual entity on television right now,” he says. “People like the positive spirit of these old films.”
Those younger fans may be starting to make their presence felt in the ocean-vacation business. Whereas Sixthman’s and Simmons’ cruises take place on 2,000-passenger ocean liners, which ups their price, the more bohemian crowd targeted by the Bruise Cruise settles happily for a smaller ship: The first one, this past February, booked only 400, and it will carry 525 next year. Tickets are under $800.
Despite its hipster veneer, the Bruise Cruise’s origins are in mainstream rock. “My [dad] worked with Vince Neil,” said Bruise Cruise co-director Jonas Stein, who went on Neil’s Mötley Crüise a few years ago. “I had a blast,” Stein said. “I thought of how much more fun I would be having if my own type of rock ’n’ rollers were on the ship.”
Stein teamed up with booker Michelle Cable, who found the inaugural trip daunting: “Here we are, transporting eight indie rock bands and over 400 of their fans into foreign waters via a ship for three days. That involved a lot of energy [and] organization, and had us jumping through hoops along the entire way: work permits, U.S. and Bahamas customs, getting a demographic of people who aren’t the normal ‘cruiser’ to purchase a ticket months in advance. [It’s] the craziest and most ambitious endeavor I’ve taken on, but also the most rewarding.”
Two of the Dirtbombs’ members, bassist Ko Melina and drummer Ben Blackwell, went on the first Bruise Cruise, reporting excitedly back to the band’s leader, Mick Collins: “It’s so much fun! You have to go.” When Stein and Cable approached the band, Collins said yes instantly.
“On the one hand, it’s odd,” Collins said of a vacation cruise targeted at an audience not known for having the means to spend extravagantly. “But on the other hand, it’s [odder] that it hasn’t happened before now. I have no aversion to being on the water. There’s always Dramamine.”
