A FEW TOURING HIGHLIGHTS
Some of the highlights from my years in the business, attractions that were exclusively my projects, would be the new company of Hair (which we produced and played at the Moore Theatre for seventeen weeks), the dates I did with Janis Joplin in Seattle, Hawaii and Vancouver BC (all of which sold out and were a real challenge) In Seattle we played Janis in Sick's stadium with Pacific Gas & Electric and The Youngblood's on the bill. It was festival seating, no reserved seats, and an absolutely madhouse. I got a lot of exercise running back and forth between the street entrance ticket office and backstage, which must have been about a quarter mile. People were wacked out. I was one of the few sober persons in the stadium at the time. Another highlight was the night we brought Ike and Tina Turner to Vancouver BC and had a riot in the Coliseum. The Ike and Tina tour was my show, and a tough one. These people didn’t appreciate a young ego-centric honkey from Seattle. The show was a sellout. I’m sure we had fifty to sixty off duty policeman working the coliseums in order to forestall bedlam in all three towns. As I’ve said, a rocket ride, a lot of fun, never boring, a steep learning curve, a grand adventure and “sometimes over the top”.
DID YOU REALLY MEET THAT STAR?
People often ask me, “did you really meet this or that star?” Well, yeah. You often meet them at the airport with the limousines, sometimes shepherd them to their hotel or take them to the theatre for the sound and light check. Singers who weren’t touring with their own sound would often go to the venue on their way to the hotel to check on the sound balances and lighting.
Every artist had their own custom rider that specified the lighting requirements: how many and what kind of microphones, data regarding custom risers for the musicians, drummers and back-up singers. If they were touring with all of their gear they would rely on their roadies and production stage manager to get it all right, but the sound system was especially critical for artists like Linda Ronstadt or Gordon Lightfoot who sat on the big stage all by themselves with only their guitars to keep them company.
So, yes, we certainly met all of the artists that we presented. These people were at the top of their games and very professional. It’s important to remember that every gig, every concert, was just one more small time bite on the big canvas of everyone’s career, including mine. We toured around fifty attractions per year at NRC and after that, I scheduled almost fifty attractions in my new GAC Midwest territory. As I mentioned, people were buttoned down and professional but it was very difficult for anyone to remember the precise who’s, what’s and where’s from a year ago. For instance, in my own time as a band leader, I played over a thousand gigs. While working in the concert business, I was continuously overseeing events at the various theaters, arenas and coliseums on an ongoing basis. After a while it all gets to be mental mush, especially for artists who are spending a high percentage of their time on the road. So yes – those of us who played music and toured concert attractions met everybody. We were part of the fast-paced energy mix. Everything was moving at warp speed and expectations were high. After all these years I wish I had kept a journal. It is very difficult to remember day-to-day specifics that occurred sixty years ago.
