We Had Fun and Nobody Died: Adventures of a Milwaukee Music Promoter

The entertaining and inspiring story of a stubbornly independent promoter and club owner

This irreverent biography provides a rare window into the music industry from a promoter’s perspective. From a young age, Peter Jest was determined to make a career in live music, and despite naysayers and obstacles, he did just that, bringing national acts to his college campus at UW-Milwaukee, booking thousands of concerts across Wisconsin and the Midwest, and opening Shank Hall, the beloved Milwaukee venue named after a club in the cult film This Is Spinal Tap.

This funny, nostalgia-inducing book details the lasting friendships Jest established over the years with John Prine, Arlo Guthrie, and Milwaukee’s own Violent Femmes, among others. It also shines a light into the seldom-seen world of music promotion, as Jest attempts to manage a turbulent band on the road, negotiates with agents, deals with fires (both real and metaphorical), struggles through a pandemic, and takes pleasure in presenting music of all kinds--from world-famous acts to up-and-coming local bands. In addition to photos of celebrated musicians, the book includes concert posters, tickets, and backstage passes documenting decades of rock, folk, and alternative shows that helped put Milwaukee on the live music map.

As the music industry has become dominated by profit-driven corporations, We Had Fun and Nobody Died chronicles the career of a one-of-a-kind independent promoter whose hardheadedness and love of music have helped him keep it real and make it in the music business for more than forty years.

Amy T. Waldman is an award-winning writer and editor whose feature articles, reviews, profiles, and essays have appeared in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the Shepherd Express, Milwaukee Magazine, The Wisconsin Jewish Chronicle, Publishers Weekly, People, the Forward, and Reader’s Digest. She was also a reporter and lifestyle editor for the Marshfield News Herald where she wrote Fresh Sounds, a biweekly record review column. She is a reference librarian at the Milwaukee Public Library.
Peter Jest has promoted music in Wisconsin and the Midwest for more than forty years and is the owner of the Milwaukee music venue Shank Hall. This is his first book.
David Luhrssen is the author of many books on film and music, including The Vietnam War on Film and The Encyclopedia of Classic Rock, and coauthor of Milwaukee Rock and Roll, 1950-2000 and Brick Through the Window: An Oral History of Punk Rock and New Wave in Milwaukee. He is managing editor and film critic of Milwaukee’s weekly newspaper, the Shepherd Express.