1
00:00:00,720 --> 00:00:01,480
Speaker 1: Takin a Walk.

2
00:00:01,600 --> 00:00:04,640
Speaker 2: I go into the dressing room. Two things I see.

3
00:00:04,800 --> 00:00:06,800
Speaker 2: The first part is I see all these lobsters on

4
00:00:06,800 --> 00:00:10,000
Speaker 2: the floor. They thought they could race them They says they

5
00:00:10,000 --> 00:00:12,760
Speaker 2: were gonna have a race. You know, they're from with the Spartanburg,

6
00:00:13,720 --> 00:00:17,759
Speaker 2: South Carolina, right if Kand so they had all all options.

7
00:00:17,920 --> 00:00:19,720
Speaker 2: I said, they don't. They're not gonna move. Guys.

8
00:00:19,800 --> 00:00:21,759
Speaker 3: You know Hi, This is Buzz Knight and this is the

9
00:00:21,800 --> 00:00:24,840
Speaker 3: Takin a Walk podcast Music history on Foot, and on

10
00:00:24,880 --> 00:00:28,960
Speaker 3: this episode, the topic is major rock and roll concerts

11
00:00:29,000 --> 00:00:33,680
Speaker 3: in southern Maine from nineteen fifty five to nineteen seventy seven.

12
00:00:34,040 --> 00:00:37,320
Speaker 3: There's a tremendous new book out. It's called A Long,

13
00:00:37,400 --> 00:00:41,040
Speaker 3: Long Time Ago, And the author of this beautiful book

14
00:00:41,320 --> 00:00:45,240
Speaker 3: is Ford Reiche. Ford's going to be joined by legendary

15
00:00:45,400 --> 00:00:49,680
Speaker 3: music executive and a dear friend of mine, Andrew Govatsos

16
00:00:50,240 --> 00:00:54,160
Speaker 3: I'm taking a Walk. All right, gentlemen, Well why did

17
00:00:54,320 --> 00:00:58,880
Speaker 3: you sign into this virtual Taking a Walk edition? First

18
00:00:58,880 --> 00:01:02,000
Speaker 3: of all, my old friend and Andrew Gavatzos, tell the

19
00:01:02,080 --> 00:01:04,600
Speaker 3: audience who you are and why you're here.

20
00:01:05,440 --> 00:01:08,600
Speaker 2: Yeah, my name is Andrew Govatsos, and I started off

21
00:01:09,120 --> 00:01:12,720
Speaker 2: playing in a band up in Maine, and then eventually

22
00:01:12,800 --> 00:01:19,000
Speaker 2: became a concert promoter, did probably four or five hundred concerts,

23
00:01:19,440 --> 00:01:22,399
Speaker 2: and then eventually went to work for Hall and Oates

24
00:01:22,480 --> 00:01:25,399
Speaker 2: Daryl Hall and John Oates eighty four, five and six

25
00:01:26,080 --> 00:01:30,440
Speaker 2: and Warner Brothers twenty two years, Motown two more years,

26
00:01:30,480 --> 00:01:33,560
Speaker 2: and then I've been a consultant in the industry for

27
00:01:33,800 --> 00:01:38,560
Speaker 2: Columbia and other major labels for the last twelve and

28
00:01:38,880 --> 00:01:39,720
Speaker 2: still doing it.

29
00:01:40,319 --> 00:01:43,679
Speaker 4: And I would say Andrew is a legend in the business.

30
00:01:43,720 --> 00:01:48,080
Speaker 4: He's a dear friend. He's somebody who really is so

31
00:01:48,240 --> 00:01:51,400
Speaker 4: well respected in the industry among everybody.

32
00:01:51,720 --> 00:01:53,840
Speaker 1: And for those of you that might.

33
00:01:53,680 --> 00:01:57,640
Speaker 4: Remember a Taking a Walk podcast that we did with

34
00:01:57,760 --> 00:02:03,640
Speaker 4: Stephen Page of Bear Naked Ladies Fame, Andrew was brought

35
00:02:03,720 --> 00:02:08,040
Speaker 4: up in that episode without me even having to prompt

36
00:02:08,200 --> 00:02:12,520
Speaker 4: Stephen Page, which was so much fun and good friends

37
00:02:12,560 --> 00:02:16,560
Speaker 4: so deserved. So Ford, tell the audience who you are

38
00:02:16,639 --> 00:02:17,560
Speaker 4: and why you're here.

39
00:02:18,760 --> 00:02:23,440
Speaker 5: Thanks, Buzz. I'm Ford Reiche in Freeport, Maine, and I

40
00:02:23,680 --> 00:02:29,560
Speaker 5: had a career in business and until about twelve or

41
00:02:29,600 --> 00:02:32,880
Speaker 5: fifteen years ago, and then started committing myself to history,

42
00:02:32,880 --> 00:02:35,079
Speaker 5: which has always been a passion of mine. So I've

43
00:02:35,080 --> 00:02:37,960
Speaker 5: written a couple of history books, and the one that

44
00:02:38,040 --> 00:02:41,960
Speaker 5: has blessed me with this meeting with Buzz this morning

45
00:02:42,080 --> 00:02:47,920
Speaker 5: is a long, long time ago and it's about the

46
00:02:48,000 --> 00:02:50,720
Speaker 5: rock and roll concerts. It came through the state of Maine,

47
00:02:50,840 --> 00:02:52,919
Speaker 5: major rock and roll concerts. It came through the state

48
00:02:53,000 --> 00:02:56,280
Speaker 5: of Maine, particularly in the southern half in the fifties, sixties,

49
00:02:56,280 --> 00:02:56,960
Speaker 5: and seventies.

50
00:02:57,600 --> 00:03:01,560
Speaker 4: Well for the book is beautiful, and why don't we

51
00:03:01,680 --> 00:03:03,680
Speaker 4: tell people now how they can get it? And then

52
00:03:03,720 --> 00:03:05,600
Speaker 4: we'll tell them at the end how they can get

53
00:03:05,639 --> 00:03:07,480
Speaker 4: the book as well.

54
00:03:07,520 --> 00:03:12,840
Speaker 5: Thanks The book is thirty dollars. It's been out since Thanksgiving.

55
00:03:12,880 --> 00:03:16,960
Speaker 5: It's already won one one award, and it is available

56
00:03:17,080 --> 00:03:22,079
Speaker 5: on Amazon or on my personal website halfway rock dot com.

57
00:03:22,120 --> 00:03:25,000
Speaker 5: That's a lighthouse I owned here in the statedmain halfway

58
00:03:25,040 --> 00:03:28,119
Speaker 5: rock dot com, and if you're in Maine, it's available

59
00:03:28,160 --> 00:03:31,480
Speaker 5: at all the local bookstores. One hundred percent of the

60
00:03:31,480 --> 00:03:34,600
Speaker 5: proceeds Buzz is being donated to the Main Historical Society.

61
00:03:34,639 --> 00:03:38,800
Speaker 5: Main Historical Society is the third oldest historical society in America,

62
00:03:38,840 --> 00:03:40,839
Speaker 5: so I'm supporting them with all the proceeds.

63
00:03:40,960 --> 00:03:44,440
Speaker 4: So Ford obviously you're a lover of music, a lover

64
00:03:44,560 --> 00:03:49,000
Speaker 4: of history, but really talk about the motivation that got

65
00:03:49,040 --> 00:03:50,880
Speaker 4: you thinking about putting this book together.

66
00:03:51,560 --> 00:03:56,800
Speaker 5: Yeah, I grew up here. I grew up in the sixties.

67
00:03:57,080 --> 00:03:59,200
Speaker 5: I was in high school, got out of high school

68
00:03:59,200 --> 00:04:02,000
Speaker 5: locally here in May in nineteen seventy two. So I

69
00:04:02,240 --> 00:04:07,040
Speaker 5: was I was an adolescent during a major cultural shift,

70
00:04:07,440 --> 00:04:11,440
Speaker 5: which you and Andrews both both participated in as well.

71
00:04:12,000 --> 00:04:14,400
Speaker 5: And I remember some of the great old concerts and

72
00:04:14,400 --> 00:04:17,400
Speaker 5: some of the great old concert posters, great art. A

73
00:04:17,400 --> 00:04:19,719
Speaker 5: lot of it came out of San Francisco, a lot

74
00:04:19,720 --> 00:04:21,920
Speaker 5: of it was produced locally, and a lot of it

75
00:04:21,960 --> 00:04:24,120
Speaker 5: was produced by the bands as they traveled around. And

76
00:04:24,160 --> 00:04:27,280
Speaker 5: I thought, man, you know those particularly in the main

77
00:04:27,400 --> 00:04:32,400
Speaker 5: venues Lewiston, Old Orchard Beach, which was huge in the

78
00:04:32,440 --> 00:04:34,640
Speaker 5: Portland area. I thought I'd go into some of those

79
00:04:34,680 --> 00:04:37,280
Speaker 5: old venues that might still be operating, get into their

80
00:04:37,320 --> 00:04:40,320
Speaker 5: business offices, and find those posters. And I thought it

81
00:04:40,320 --> 00:04:42,680
Speaker 5: would be a nice coffee table book, just the art.

82
00:04:43,320 --> 00:04:45,320
Speaker 5: As I get in the got into those venues, I

83
00:04:45,400 --> 00:04:48,960
Speaker 5: realized they had nothing left. None of them even have

84
00:04:49,040 --> 00:04:53,919
Speaker 5: a list of their concerts. And so I realized that

85
00:04:53,960 --> 00:04:56,120
Speaker 5: the story was much greater than the posters. It was

86
00:04:56,160 --> 00:05:01,040
Speaker 5: actually the very unique circumstances that did brought big name

87
00:05:01,160 --> 00:05:03,599
Speaker 5: bands into a little place like the state of Maine.

88
00:05:04,520 --> 00:05:09,159
Speaker 5: And I discovered why. To this day, the state of

89
00:05:09,200 --> 00:05:11,280
Speaker 5: Maine is connected to the rest of the world by

90
00:05:11,279 --> 00:05:16,240
Speaker 5: only one highway, and it's the main Turnpike which leads

91
00:05:16,279 --> 00:05:19,440
Speaker 5: it leads to out of the southern part of the state.

92
00:05:20,240 --> 00:05:24,320
Speaker 5: And the main turnpike was connected from Kiddery at our

93
00:05:24,360 --> 00:05:26,839
Speaker 5: southern border to Lewiston in the central part of the

94
00:05:26,880 --> 00:05:31,480
Speaker 5: state in nineteen fifty five. And when that was put together,

95
00:05:31,600 --> 00:05:35,920
Speaker 5: it connected two hundred and fifty thousand people within one

96
00:05:35,920 --> 00:05:39,200
Speaker 5: hours driving distance of each other. And that included seven colleges,

97
00:05:39,240 --> 00:05:42,240
Speaker 5: so two hundred and fifty thousand people within an hour's drive.

98
00:05:42,279 --> 00:05:44,520
Speaker 5: That's the same size back in nineteen fifty five, as

99
00:05:44,600 --> 00:05:48,080
Speaker 5: Providence was so bands that were hitting the road to

100
00:05:48,160 --> 00:05:50,359
Speaker 5: do tours could look at southern Maine and say, you know,

101
00:05:50,400 --> 00:05:52,679
Speaker 5: we can get four or five thousand people under one roof,

102
00:05:54,040 --> 00:05:57,839
Speaker 5: so let's go there. So that's the story and the

103
00:05:57,839 --> 00:06:01,080
Speaker 5: book there one hundred. They were six hundred photographs and

104
00:06:01,080 --> 00:06:04,120
Speaker 5: images in the book of these main events of these

105
00:06:04,200 --> 00:06:05,720
Speaker 5: national performers.

106
00:06:05,839 --> 00:06:11,039
Speaker 4: So forward, How did you encounter my handsome friend, mister

107
00:06:11,080 --> 00:06:14,120
Speaker 4: Gavazzos to be part of this project?

108
00:06:14,640 --> 00:06:18,280
Speaker 5: Way too late, that's too late in the game. I

109
00:06:18,320 --> 00:06:20,760
Speaker 5: wish I had met him on day one. But the

110
00:06:20,800 --> 00:06:22,960
Speaker 5: way that this worked, because no one had ever written

111
00:06:23,000 --> 00:06:25,440
Speaker 5: about this in Nane before, and not even a newspaper

112
00:06:25,520 --> 00:06:31,039
Speaker 5: article about this, this extraordinary set of circumstances. I ended

113
00:06:31,120 --> 00:06:34,840
Speaker 5: up dealing with with folks who were here there, who

114
00:06:34,839 --> 00:06:37,520
Speaker 5: were in the thick of it at that time, local

115
00:06:37,560 --> 00:06:42,200
Speaker 5: am DJ's, local bands, high school you know, there were

116
00:06:42,279 --> 00:06:46,080
Speaker 5: high school performers back then who opened for these for

117
00:06:46,160 --> 00:06:48,880
Speaker 5: these acts that came through the record stores owners that

118
00:06:48,920 --> 00:06:52,279
Speaker 5: were selling the tickets and the concert promoters. And it

119
00:06:52,400 --> 00:06:54,240
Speaker 5: was just one person would lead me to it nowther

120
00:06:54,320 --> 00:06:56,200
Speaker 5: and they say, oh, this is great. I'll get you

121
00:06:56,240 --> 00:06:57,600
Speaker 5: in touch with so and so.

122
00:06:57,600 --> 00:06:57,680
Speaker 2: So.

123
00:06:57,760 --> 00:07:00,240
Speaker 5: It was all word of mouth, and everyone kept saying saying,

124
00:07:00,680 --> 00:07:03,600
Speaker 5: you've got you talked to Andrew Gravazzos by now, haven't you?

125
00:07:04,080 --> 00:07:07,680
Speaker 5: And I was not able to connect with him or

126
00:07:07,720 --> 00:07:10,240
Speaker 5: find him as the only person and someoneuld say what

127
00:07:10,560 --> 00:07:12,800
Speaker 5: I got interviewed for TV and someone said, what's your

128
00:07:12,800 --> 00:07:15,920
Speaker 5: what's your biggest What did you miss? And I said,

129
00:07:15,920 --> 00:07:18,760
Speaker 5: I think I missed one concert in the sixties that

130
00:07:18,800 --> 00:07:20,679
Speaker 5: I should have known about that's not in the book.

131
00:07:20,880 --> 00:07:24,160
Speaker 5: And I didn't meet Andrew Gavazzos. And then but how

132
00:07:24,240 --> 00:07:26,080
Speaker 5: was I guess you called me when you found out

133
00:07:26,080 --> 00:07:27,600
Speaker 5: I was when you finally found out I was looking

134
00:07:27,600 --> 00:07:28,720
Speaker 5: for you, right, Andrew.

135
00:07:29,160 --> 00:07:31,800
Speaker 2: Yes, Yeah, I called you. I was already up. I

136
00:07:31,880 --> 00:07:34,880
Speaker 2: was up at BLM up in Portland, and uh and

137
00:07:35,000 --> 00:07:38,720
Speaker 2: uh talking to her Biby and Uh. I figured you

138
00:07:38,760 --> 00:07:40,520
Speaker 2: were probably going to try to find me. And I

139
00:07:40,560 --> 00:07:42,640
Speaker 2: reached out to you because I bought two books. Yeah,

140
00:07:42,760 --> 00:07:45,600
Speaker 2: and uh, and I just thought it'd be great if

141
00:07:45,600 --> 00:07:49,120
Speaker 2: we got together. And after that, buzz, it was just like,

142
00:07:49,240 --> 00:07:52,160
Speaker 2: you know, we hit it off. We've been doing you know,

143
00:07:52,360 --> 00:07:55,960
Speaker 2: interviews throughout the state and maybe some other states also.

144
00:07:56,640 --> 00:07:57,080
Speaker 1: Uh.

145
00:07:57,120 --> 00:08:01,680
Speaker 2: But uh, the information that that that I didn't know

146
00:08:01,800 --> 00:08:04,240
Speaker 2: stuff that Ford had even and I'm in the business

147
00:08:04,480 --> 00:08:09,160
Speaker 2: even during those times like what he didn't say. For

148
00:08:09,240 --> 00:08:13,480
Speaker 2: it was the fifty when the Turnpike open up. That's

149
00:08:13,480 --> 00:08:15,360
Speaker 2: when rock and roll was kind of starting with Bill

150
00:08:15,400 --> 00:08:18,600
Speaker 2: Haley and the Comets. So it was this whole generation

151
00:08:18,760 --> 00:08:23,920
Speaker 2: of music moving in a certain way. The other thing

152
00:08:24,040 --> 00:08:27,360
Speaker 2: is if you're an artist, because now I work with

153
00:08:27,480 --> 00:08:30,520
Speaker 2: major managers and agents and stuff, you're an artist, you're

154
00:08:30,520 --> 00:08:34,080
Speaker 2: playing in Boston. In the old days, they would drive seven, eight, nine,

155
00:08:34,160 --> 00:08:37,400
Speaker 2: ten hours to the next gig, maybe even overnight just

156
00:08:37,440 --> 00:08:39,880
Speaker 2: for one gig. So now you can go two hours,

157
00:08:39,960 --> 00:08:44,079
Speaker 2: go north and play at the whatever seven or eight

158
00:08:44,120 --> 00:08:47,439
Speaker 2: colleges and some of these small venues which made it easier.

159
00:08:48,760 --> 00:08:52,440
Speaker 2: One thing I realized is artists were going they would

160
00:08:52,440 --> 00:08:59,920
Speaker 2: play Pittsburgh, maybe Chicago, all these major cities, Boston, New York,

161
00:09:00,480 --> 00:09:03,400
Speaker 2: and then Maine. They wouldn't. They wuldn't play Providence, they

162
00:09:03,400 --> 00:09:05,920
Speaker 2: weren't even play in Connecticut because it didn't make sense

163
00:09:05,920 --> 00:09:11,080
Speaker 2: for them sometimes money wise. But it's pretty amazing story

164
00:09:11,120 --> 00:09:12,880
Speaker 2: in of this book, you know.

165
00:09:13,080 --> 00:09:15,120
Speaker 5: And yeah, the string, the string of acts that came

166
00:09:15,160 --> 00:09:20,880
Speaker 5: through here is just just amazing. And Andrew Andrew figured

167
00:09:20,920 --> 00:09:23,160
Speaker 5: prominently in the book because it was really at a

168
00:09:23,160 --> 00:09:26,360
Speaker 5: turning point from nineteen fifty five. And I'll go up

169
00:09:26,400 --> 00:09:30,680
Speaker 5: to your comment Andrew about the nineteen fifty five It

170
00:09:30,800 --> 00:09:34,640
Speaker 5: was purely a coincidence, of course, that Maine got connected

171
00:09:34,720 --> 00:09:37,559
Speaker 5: so efficiently with the main turnpike in nineteen fifty five,

172
00:09:37,600 --> 00:09:42,880
Speaker 5: but it coincided with the virtual birth of rock and roll.

173
00:09:43,600 --> 00:09:46,480
Speaker 5: Bill Haley and the Comics is widely recognized as the

174
00:09:46,559 --> 00:09:50,240
Speaker 5: first rock and roll band. Their hit rock around the

175
00:09:50,240 --> 00:09:53,440
Speaker 5: Clock was the first rock and roll song ever to

176
00:09:53,520 --> 00:09:55,720
Speaker 5: hit the national every Go number one position on the

177
00:09:55,720 --> 00:10:00,400
Speaker 5: Billboard National List. And while they were number one with

178
00:10:00,559 --> 00:10:02,839
Speaker 5: that song, and a week after being on the Ed

179
00:10:02,920 --> 00:10:05,480
Speaker 5: Sullivan Show, they're playing at Old chad Beach and Maine.

180
00:10:05,480 --> 00:10:07,880
Speaker 5: I mean that speaks to the prominence of the main

181
00:10:07,960 --> 00:10:15,240
Speaker 5: venue Andrew Andrew figured prominently in my book because from

182
00:10:15,320 --> 00:10:20,800
Speaker 5: nineteen fifty five to nineteen seventy four, two decades, every

183
00:10:21,000 --> 00:10:25,360
Speaker 5: concert promoted in Maine was done by a volunteer who

184
00:10:25,440 --> 00:10:27,760
Speaker 5: was not looking to make a profit. They'd like to

185
00:10:27,760 --> 00:10:31,160
Speaker 5: break even. That didn't even always happen, and it was

186
00:10:31,200 --> 00:10:35,120
Speaker 5: their second job the content and I can list every

187
00:10:35,200 --> 00:10:39,320
Speaker 5: concert promoter. One was the shipping director on the loading

188
00:10:39,360 --> 00:10:42,560
Speaker 5: dock at the local Seers. Two of them were high

189
00:10:42,600 --> 00:10:48,760
Speaker 5: school teachers promoting consciences their second job. Another one with

190
00:10:48,040 --> 00:10:53,280
Speaker 5: the Fellows who opened the local headshop Erebus, which was

191
00:10:53,320 --> 00:10:56,520
Speaker 5: the first place to introduce everything for youth culture to

192
00:10:56,559 --> 00:11:01,839
Speaker 5: the state of Maine, drug pill paraphernalia, psychedelic posters and

193
00:11:01,920 --> 00:11:05,920
Speaker 5: sense bell Bottom's waterbeds and these concerts. That was their

194
00:11:06,040 --> 00:11:08,680
Speaker 5: second job. And then there were a bunch of concert

195
00:11:08,800 --> 00:11:12,560
Speaker 5: of college kids who were acting as concert promoters from

196
00:11:12,559 --> 00:11:16,480
Speaker 5: fifty five to seventy seventy four. That speaks to every

197
00:11:16,559 --> 00:11:18,680
Speaker 5: concert in Maine, and there were hundreds of them. And

198
00:11:18,720 --> 00:11:23,440
Speaker 5: then Andrew Garvazzo emerges bringing in slightly bigger acts than

199
00:11:23,520 --> 00:11:28,000
Speaker 5: we'd seen before, with frequency and doing it for a profit.

200
00:11:28,040 --> 00:11:30,280
Speaker 5: And Andrew, I will say, you're the only person in

201
00:11:30,320 --> 00:11:35,000
Speaker 5: my book who went on to national prominence from that

202
00:11:35,120 --> 00:11:39,040
Speaker 5: beginning here in the state of main so Ford.

203
00:11:39,200 --> 00:11:42,840
Speaker 4: You first, what was your first concert experience and is

204
00:11:42,920 --> 00:11:44,640
Speaker 4: it depicted in the book?

205
00:11:47,000 --> 00:11:47,400
Speaker 2: It is.

206
00:11:48,280 --> 00:11:51,880
Speaker 5: My first concert experience was the Young Bloods in nineteen

207
00:11:51,960 --> 00:11:56,160
Speaker 5: sixty nine. They showed up about my personal experience with that,

208
00:11:56,760 --> 00:11:59,679
Speaker 5: they've sold out at the local State theater fift The

209
00:11:59,760 --> 00:12:03,560
Speaker 5: venue seated fifteen hundred people. And you know Portland, Portland

210
00:12:03,600 --> 00:12:08,840
Speaker 5: has a bunch of suburban towns around it. I was there,

211
00:12:08,960 --> 00:12:11,720
Speaker 5: packed house. They showed up an hour and a half late.

212
00:12:13,480 --> 00:12:16,800
Speaker 5: I got home an hour and a half late. I

213
00:12:16,800 --> 00:12:19,520
Speaker 5: got grounded for two weeks couldn't drive the family car.

214
00:12:19,960 --> 00:12:23,360
Speaker 5: And the day I got ungrounded, the day I went

215
00:12:23,440 --> 00:12:26,000
Speaker 5: two miles, was so happy to be in the car.

216
00:12:26,080 --> 00:12:28,840
Speaker 5: I was going particularly fast. I drove off a bridge

217
00:12:29,480 --> 00:12:31,720
Speaker 5: and totaled the car in a river. So that that

218
00:12:31,880 --> 00:12:35,040
Speaker 5: was what I've always said, The young lads almost killed me.

219
00:12:37,400 --> 00:12:41,040
Speaker 2: Wow all the bands right, Wow, Andrew?

220
00:12:41,080 --> 00:12:44,680
Speaker 4: What was your first concert experience and is it depicted

221
00:12:44,720 --> 00:12:45,720
Speaker 4: in the book as well?

222
00:12:46,920 --> 00:12:49,000
Speaker 2: No, I don't think it's depicted in the book, but

223
00:12:49,040 --> 00:12:53,320
Speaker 2: I can tell you it's the Beatles Boston Garden because

224
00:12:53,320 --> 00:12:56,280
Speaker 2: it's funny. I got a picture picture, so sixty four,

225
00:12:56,600 --> 00:12:58,480
Speaker 2: because you know it took you like a month to

226
00:12:58,480 --> 00:13:01,640
Speaker 2: get pictures back from you know, when you would send

227
00:13:01,679 --> 00:13:04,280
Speaker 2: them in. But I believe it was sixty three. I

228
00:13:04,400 --> 00:13:09,760
Speaker 2: was eleven and my parents left me off. I remember

229
00:13:10,040 --> 00:13:13,959
Speaker 2: it's like it's like because the Madison Hotel, I mean, buzz,

230
00:13:14,000 --> 00:13:15,560
Speaker 2: you know that you know the area a little better

231
00:13:15,600 --> 00:13:18,640
Speaker 2: maybe than Ford. So the Madison Hotel was next to

232
00:13:18,679 --> 00:13:23,440
Speaker 2: the Boston Garden, and I remember my parents pulled me up.

233
00:13:23,600 --> 00:13:26,880
Speaker 2: I bought a beetle. I bought a beetle jacket. That

234
00:13:27,000 --> 00:13:29,560
Speaker 2: does you know the Nehru thing. I bought that, right,

235
00:13:29,600 --> 00:13:32,440
Speaker 2: which is crazy right. My parents allowed me to do it.

236
00:13:32,480 --> 00:13:35,199
Speaker 2: I'm only eleven, right, and they leave me off and

237
00:13:35,400 --> 00:13:39,640
Speaker 2: up of the window the Beatles waving to all of us,

238
00:13:39,679 --> 00:13:43,520
Speaker 2: like you know, it's crazy, right, and like parentslicked up,

239
00:13:43,600 --> 00:13:48,600
Speaker 2: left me off. And that was my first show. You know,

240
00:13:49,040 --> 00:13:52,440
Speaker 2: I see the photo I see and they're so far away.

241
00:13:52,480 --> 00:13:54,920
Speaker 2: There's like no sounds. I believe they used the sound

242
00:13:54,960 --> 00:13:59,200
Speaker 2: system in the venue probably right, the stuff that's hanging around.

243
00:14:00,440 --> 00:14:01,920
Speaker 2: But that was my first show.

244
00:14:02,760 --> 00:14:06,640
Speaker 5: He let me let me jump in here. The on

245
00:14:06,760 --> 00:14:09,400
Speaker 5: page sixty one in my book. I'm not sure if

246
00:14:09,400 --> 00:14:11,720
Speaker 5: you have ever noticed this on page sixty one in

247
00:14:11,760 --> 00:14:17,120
Speaker 5: the book with the March fourteen, nineteen sixty four Beatles

248
00:14:17,160 --> 00:14:19,880
Speaker 5: concert at Boston Garden, the one you're referring to, you

249
00:14:19,920 --> 00:14:23,400
Speaker 5: were their live It was front page news in Maine

250
00:14:23,440 --> 00:14:26,360
Speaker 5: because they did a simulcast at Portland City Hall.

251
00:14:27,000 --> 00:14:29,360
Speaker 2: That's right, that's right, Wow, that's right.

252
00:14:29,360 --> 00:14:30,760
Speaker 5: Same same concert.

253
00:14:31,040 --> 00:14:35,600
Speaker 1: That's amazing. So Ford and in the book, talk about

254
00:14:35,760 --> 00:14:36,200
Speaker 1: some of.

255
00:14:36,200 --> 00:14:43,640
Speaker 4: Your favorite not only posters, but you know, memories of shows.

256
00:14:43,200 --> 00:14:43,960
Speaker 1: That are in there.

257
00:14:44,040 --> 00:14:47,000
Speaker 4: There's so many, obviously, but talk about some of your

258
00:14:47,000 --> 00:14:48,120
Speaker 4: real highlights.

259
00:14:48,400 --> 00:14:50,800
Speaker 5: I will I'll end with Queen, which kind of segues

260
00:14:50,840 --> 00:14:56,840
Speaker 5: into into the beginning of Andrew's career. But there were

261
00:14:56,960 --> 00:15:01,040
Speaker 5: there were tours that would go around the country. Sometimes

262
00:15:01,080 --> 00:15:05,080
Speaker 5: bands would Sometimes bands would travel alone. It was particular

263
00:15:05,120 --> 00:15:07,360
Speaker 5: if they were just starting out. For instance, the Beach Boys.

264
00:15:07,400 --> 00:15:10,040
Speaker 5: The third time the Beach Boys ever played east of

265
00:15:10,040 --> 00:15:14,280
Speaker 5: the Mississippi was an old orchard beach in May and

266
00:15:14,360 --> 00:15:16,680
Speaker 5: they would they would just travel around. It was just

267
00:15:16,680 --> 00:15:18,920
Speaker 5: just just the band, and they had a manager with them,

268
00:15:18,920 --> 00:15:20,840
Speaker 5: and they had a crappy old station wagon and a

269
00:15:21,920 --> 00:15:26,200
Speaker 5: small U haul trailer and Mike Love had a Jaguar

270
00:15:26,280 --> 00:15:28,720
Speaker 5: Sedan and he took the passenger seat out so someone

271
00:15:28,720 --> 00:15:31,800
Speaker 5: could sleep on the passenger side while they turned around. So,

272
00:15:31,840 --> 00:15:33,840
Speaker 5: you know, there was pretty humble beginnings for a lot

273
00:15:34,120 --> 00:15:36,520
Speaker 5: for a lot of these bands. And sometimes they would

274
00:15:36,600 --> 00:15:39,640
Speaker 5: start a tour and they would not have much notoriety,

275
00:15:39,680 --> 00:15:42,360
Speaker 5: and then they would have a hit song that would

276
00:15:42,440 --> 00:15:44,000
Speaker 5: really go to the top of the charts in the

277
00:15:44,040 --> 00:15:46,520
Speaker 5: middle of a tour and all of a sudden, their

278
00:15:46,560 --> 00:15:49,280
Speaker 5: careers come together while they're actually on the road. And

279
00:15:49,400 --> 00:15:51,360
Speaker 5: that happened a number of times. It happened with the

280
00:15:51,800 --> 00:15:56,360
Speaker 5: with the Supremes. In sixty four, Dick Clark of American

281
00:15:56,400 --> 00:15:59,560
Speaker 5: bandstand Fame, I had a tour that ran for seven

282
00:15:59,640 --> 00:16:02,640
Speaker 5: years called the Caravan of Stars, and they would go

283
00:16:02,680 --> 00:16:05,320
Speaker 5: on tour each year for seven years, for either two

284
00:16:05,400 --> 00:16:08,280
Speaker 5: or three months, and just just bang through the country

285
00:16:08,400 --> 00:16:13,680
Speaker 5: venue after venue, and Dick Clark had fifteen different acts,

286
00:16:14,000 --> 00:16:19,680
Speaker 5: major acts on one bus with him and his one

287
00:16:19,760 --> 00:16:22,960
Speaker 5: backup band called the Casuals spelled with a K, and

288
00:16:23,000 --> 00:16:25,120
Speaker 5: he jammed everybody in one bus and they went around

289
00:16:25,160 --> 00:16:28,040
Speaker 5: the country. And when they came to Maine, the Supremes

290
00:16:28,040 --> 00:16:30,240
Speaker 5: were an unknown. They were not even showing up in

291
00:16:30,280 --> 00:16:34,000
Speaker 5: the advertising. This is an early in the early summer

292
00:16:34,040 --> 00:16:37,360
Speaker 5: sixty four, and then the song where did Our Love Go?

293
00:16:38,120 --> 00:16:41,880
Speaker 5: Came out, and of course they rocketed to the They

294
00:16:41,960 --> 00:16:46,560
Speaker 5: rocketed to the forefront of that tour. So I enjoyed

295
00:16:46,560 --> 00:16:49,560
Speaker 5: some of those in discovering some of these acts that

296
00:16:49,680 --> 00:16:53,360
Speaker 5: they kind of matured on the road. There's another one

297
00:16:53,440 --> 00:16:56,440
Speaker 5: called Raven. Do you either remember a band named Raven

298
00:16:57,320 --> 00:17:01,040
Speaker 5: that was around nineteen sixty nine. Andrew, this was right

299
00:17:01,120 --> 00:17:04,640
Speaker 5: before you, right about the time that you were leasing

300
00:17:04,760 --> 00:17:09,040
Speaker 5: the Paris Cinema in Portland. Right before that, these guys

301
00:17:09,080 --> 00:17:12,080
Speaker 5: played there and Raven had Raven was on the national

302
00:17:12,160 --> 00:17:15,000
Speaker 5: tracks with one song and this did Again. This is

303
00:17:15,080 --> 00:17:17,920
Speaker 5: kids trying to conduct their own business affairs, and sometimes

304
00:17:17,920 --> 00:17:21,919
Speaker 5: it worked and sometimes it didn't. Raven was asked early

305
00:17:22,000 --> 00:17:24,040
Speaker 5: early in the year nineteen six nwenty if they wanted

306
00:17:24,080 --> 00:17:27,040
Speaker 5: to play at a three day outdoor rock and roll

307
00:17:27,119 --> 00:17:29,760
Speaker 5: concert that was going to be in Woodstock, Vermont. That

308
00:17:29,800 --> 00:17:32,719
Speaker 5: could have been a big opportunity. They declined.

309
00:17:33,640 --> 00:17:33,800
Speaker 2: Uh.

310
00:17:34,560 --> 00:17:37,000
Speaker 5: About a month later they were asked by George Harrison

311
00:17:37,080 --> 00:17:39,600
Speaker 5: if they wanted to record it at a new studio

312
00:17:39,720 --> 00:17:44,760
Speaker 5: in England, Apple Studios. They declined, And of course you've

313
00:17:44,760 --> 00:17:45,720
Speaker 5: never even heard of them.

314
00:17:46,320 --> 00:17:46,760
Speaker 1: They could have.

315
00:17:47,200 --> 00:17:50,200
Speaker 5: Who knows what their ascendancy could have been. Later that year,

316
00:17:50,200 --> 00:17:52,560
Speaker 5: they're playing at the State Theater in Portland, Maine. You know,

317
00:17:52,600 --> 00:17:55,840
Speaker 5: they just never really got off the ground. But one

318
00:17:55,880 --> 00:17:59,320
Speaker 5: of my one of one of the concerts that I

319
00:17:59,560 --> 00:18:02,679
Speaker 5: just got a kickout of, and it kind of played

320
00:18:02,680 --> 00:18:05,440
Speaker 5: into the dynamics of how the concert scene in main

321
00:18:05,560 --> 00:18:09,200
Speaker 5: Change was at a much later date nineteen seventy five.

322
00:18:09,920 --> 00:18:12,080
Speaker 5: In fact, you have the poster behind you, Andrew was

323
00:18:12,080 --> 00:18:16,240
Speaker 5: that seventh Queen's Concert was seventy five. Right, yeah, so

324
00:18:16,280 --> 00:18:18,760
Speaker 5: that was in Lewiston. Lewiston, Maine is the second biggest

325
00:18:18,760 --> 00:18:22,080
Speaker 5: population based in Maine. Andrew would run a string of

326
00:18:22,080 --> 00:18:27,160
Speaker 5: big concerts there. It was right before the Cumberland County

327
00:18:27,160 --> 00:18:30,479
Speaker 5: Civic Center which opened in Portland, which was the became

328
00:18:30,600 --> 00:18:34,760
Speaker 5: the Rock Palace for Northern New England. And the Queen

329
00:18:34,880 --> 00:18:37,359
Speaker 5: concert was in Lewiston, and there had been they had

330
00:18:37,359 --> 00:18:39,240
Speaker 5: been kind of a rough start up there. It's a

331
00:18:39,359 --> 00:18:42,560
Speaker 5: very traditional community. City council didn't like some of what

332
00:18:42,600 --> 00:18:47,720
Speaker 5: had happened. Andrew brought Queen Ann. There were a number

333
00:18:47,720 --> 00:18:51,520
Speaker 5: of arrests. Front page news like they characterized it as

334
00:18:51,520 --> 00:18:54,480
Speaker 5: a riot. The cop said to fish some kid out

335
00:18:54,520 --> 00:18:58,040
Speaker 5: of a basketball hoop. Two people were this was written

336
00:18:58,119 --> 00:19:00,200
Speaker 5: up in the paper. Two people were having set in

337
00:19:00,240 --> 00:19:04,000
Speaker 5: an all glass phone booth. And the city council I

338
00:19:04,040 --> 00:19:05,959
Speaker 5: guess they dragged you into city hall and said this

339
00:19:05,960 --> 00:19:07,920
Speaker 5: will never happen in Lewiston again.

340
00:19:08,000 --> 00:19:11,880
Speaker 2: Right yeah, well yeah, uh part of that. First of all,

341
00:19:11,920 --> 00:19:17,560
Speaker 2: the headline said the concert begins and ends in drunken riot. Okay,

342
00:19:17,840 --> 00:19:21,800
Speaker 2: that's what it said. But one thing, and I've talked

343
00:19:21,800 --> 00:19:24,000
Speaker 2: to photo of this, they weren't crazy about me. I'm

344
00:19:24,040 --> 00:19:26,320
Speaker 2: an outsider. I moved up there to be in a band,

345
00:19:26,400 --> 00:19:28,879
Speaker 2: had you know, long hair. Of course, as time went on,

346
00:19:29,000 --> 00:19:31,760
Speaker 2: became the concert promoter. But you know, they weren't used

347
00:19:31,760 --> 00:19:34,800
Speaker 2: to seeing people at these shows. They're smoking pot, you

348
00:19:34,800 --> 00:19:37,760
Speaker 2: know outside. You know, it's very like he says, very

349
00:19:37,760 --> 00:19:45,280
Speaker 2: conservative town, old school at that time, and a lot

350
00:19:45,320 --> 00:19:47,520
Speaker 2: of stuff was going on. I mean, the police didn't

351
00:19:47,600 --> 00:19:50,200
Speaker 2: like me. Uh you know, it's just like all of

352
00:19:50,240 --> 00:19:52,320
Speaker 2: a sudden, this guy's here. People are peeing out, you know,

353
00:19:52,359 --> 00:19:54,480
Speaker 2: one thing. They would go out and pee like in

354
00:19:54,520 --> 00:19:57,159
Speaker 2: somebody's lawn and stuff. And I'm sure a lot of

355
00:19:57,160 --> 00:19:59,160
Speaker 2: this went on these Both of these venues, by the way,

356
00:19:59,160 --> 00:20:01,760
Speaker 2: are in the center of Hound so there's no uh

357
00:20:02,280 --> 00:20:05,440
Speaker 2: you know, there's like this. It's not like a big

358
00:20:05,480 --> 00:20:10,040
Speaker 2: giant area in Land. Although the Central Main Youth Center,

359
00:20:10,080 --> 00:20:14,520
Speaker 2: which I ended up moving to after Queen because and

360
00:20:14,560 --> 00:20:18,320
Speaker 2: what what what Ford brought up was the city wanted

361
00:20:18,320 --> 00:20:21,480
Speaker 2: the band rock concerts, all right, So I said, you know,

362
00:20:21,800 --> 00:20:24,600
Speaker 2: at this point, now I've done I've done Fog. These

363
00:20:24,600 --> 00:20:27,040
Speaker 2: are acts that are really big at the time, actually

364
00:20:27,119 --> 00:20:31,359
Speaker 2: Fog had you know, I did five thousand people. I

365
00:20:31,359 --> 00:20:34,160
Speaker 2: mean I paid the band. I made more than the band.

366
00:20:35,160 --> 00:20:41,600
Speaker 2: It's easy, right, listen, no computers, no phones, No, I

367
00:20:41,680 --> 00:20:44,280
Speaker 2: mean there's you've found stuff out two or three days

368
00:20:44,320 --> 00:20:47,719
Speaker 2: later pretty much. I mean, if you're lucky. Right. So

369
00:20:48,160 --> 00:20:51,040
Speaker 2: I did Queen, I did the Fog had John Mayo,

370
00:20:51,280 --> 00:20:54,960
Speaker 2: B B. King pro called Harem and then Queen was

371
00:20:55,000 --> 00:20:59,399
Speaker 2: the big show. Uh. And I remember them driving in

372
00:20:59,480 --> 00:21:04,160
Speaker 2: by the way limousines, uh for coats. It was February.

373
00:21:04,200 --> 00:21:06,359
Speaker 2: It's like freezing. They're probably going like, what are we

374
00:21:06,400 --> 00:21:08,680
Speaker 2: doing there? But then when you realize you go back

375
00:21:08,760 --> 00:21:12,760
Speaker 2: by Ford's book, I learned this. They already think they

376
00:21:12,840 --> 00:21:16,040
Speaker 2: if I'm correct, for they already played the uh the

377
00:21:16,119 --> 00:21:19,480
Speaker 2: Portland what was it called the now the place they.

378
00:21:19,359 --> 00:21:21,440
Speaker 5: Had for a year, Yeah, a couple of years previously

379
00:21:21,520 --> 00:21:22,479
Speaker 5: they played at the Expo.

380
00:21:22,680 --> 00:21:24,960
Speaker 2: They opened to Monta Hoople or something like that.

381
00:21:25,680 --> 00:21:25,920
Speaker 6: Hoop.

382
00:21:26,280 --> 00:21:29,320
Speaker 2: Yeah. So uh so after the show, I mean I

383
00:21:29,400 --> 00:21:31,280
Speaker 2: knew there was stuff and they they what they did,

384
00:21:31,880 --> 00:21:34,240
Speaker 2: buzz is they pushed all the stuff that the pictures

385
00:21:34,240 --> 00:21:35,840
Speaker 2: that they ran in the paper. They put all the

386
00:21:35,880 --> 00:21:37,960
Speaker 2: trash in the middle of it and took a photo

387
00:21:38,000 --> 00:21:40,639
Speaker 2: of that. And that's so they're trying to ban rock concerts. Well,

388
00:21:41,520 --> 00:21:46,119
Speaker 2: I ended up getting a lawyer and uh what I

389
00:21:46,200 --> 00:21:47,880
Speaker 2: What we said was, if you have to ban rock

390
00:21:47,920 --> 00:21:49,800
Speaker 2: concert you have to be in all public events. You

391
00:21:49,840 --> 00:21:52,280
Speaker 2: can't just band a rock concert. You have to you

392
00:21:52,320 --> 00:21:54,280
Speaker 2: have to be, you know, people at a football game,

393
00:21:54,520 --> 00:21:58,120
Speaker 2: people at you know, outside outings or whatever. So they

394
00:21:58,400 --> 00:22:01,080
Speaker 2: we worked out a deal. But then I moved from

395
00:22:01,160 --> 00:22:05,280
Speaker 2: there to the Central main U Center, which was owned

396
00:22:05,280 --> 00:22:09,120
Speaker 2: by the Church of Lewiston, and I put a deal

397
00:22:09,160 --> 00:22:12,800
Speaker 2: together with them, which was very interesting.

398
00:22:13,359 --> 00:22:15,920
Speaker 5: I recall the newspaper stories and there were loads of

399
00:22:15,960 --> 00:22:21,200
Speaker 5: them correctly about you and the Queen concert. They tried

400
00:22:21,240 --> 00:22:24,480
Speaker 5: to shut you down by throwing a bunch of fire

401
00:22:24,560 --> 00:22:27,919
Speaker 5: code fire safety issues and saying, even though it seats

402
00:22:27,960 --> 00:22:31,000
Speaker 5: five thousand, you can only put fifteen hundred people in there.

403
00:22:31,480 --> 00:22:34,360
Speaker 5: So you went, You went across town to the Franciscan

404
00:22:34,440 --> 00:22:37,600
Speaker 5: Fathers offered him ten percent of the gate, got a

405
00:22:37,760 --> 00:22:40,440
Speaker 5: bigger venue. Yeah, and you brought in Bruce Springsy, but

406
00:22:40,480 --> 00:22:42,439
Speaker 5: you had to lake Plywood down over the whole hockey

407
00:22:42,480 --> 00:22:43,840
Speaker 5: rinks for the seats, right.

408
00:22:44,320 --> 00:22:47,840
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, actually ten percent would have been too much,

409
00:22:48,040 --> 00:22:54,280
Speaker 2: but it wait so basically what happened was, so my

410
00:22:54,440 --> 00:22:58,680
Speaker 2: next show, they're on me now. They go, okay, we're

411
00:22:58,680 --> 00:23:01,480
Speaker 2: going to let concerts go. We're going to watch them.

412
00:23:01,800 --> 00:23:03,720
Speaker 2: You know this and that matter of fact, it's in

413
00:23:03,760 --> 00:23:07,480
Speaker 2: the pavement measure this is this is about concerts and

414
00:23:07,640 --> 00:23:10,439
Speaker 2: it's like front page stuff in Lewis Thon right, uh,

415
00:23:10,600 --> 00:23:12,960
Speaker 2: because they really wanted to stop them, right, And what

416
00:23:13,080 --> 00:23:16,399
Speaker 2: happened was my next show is Blackman turn Overdrive, right,

417
00:23:16,440 --> 00:23:18,760
Speaker 2: who at the time was huge. I mean bt O

418
00:23:18,960 --> 00:23:22,080
Speaker 2: was giant. You know, Buzz, you've been in this business

419
00:23:22,119 --> 00:23:25,560
Speaker 2: a long time. You know the shertain artists. You know

420
00:23:25,640 --> 00:23:28,280
Speaker 2: that we during a period of time where like the

421
00:23:28,320 --> 00:23:31,560
Speaker 2: biggest artists of that day of that year, you know,

422
00:23:31,640 --> 00:23:35,280
Speaker 2: and Block and turn Over Drive was so h They said, okay,

423
00:23:35,920 --> 00:23:37,719
Speaker 2: this is the new building now and we had giant

424
00:23:37,880 --> 00:23:40,119
Speaker 2: garage doors in the back to put to put the

425
00:23:40,160 --> 00:23:44,080
Speaker 2: trucks in, right, and they said, okay, well let's do

426
00:23:44,160 --> 00:23:46,800
Speaker 2: the show. You can only do five thousand people, but

427
00:23:46,880 --> 00:23:50,600
Speaker 2: you have to put plastic, like plastic over those I

428
00:23:50,600 --> 00:23:53,000
Speaker 2: mean I'm talking about giant would track the trailer all

429
00:23:53,040 --> 00:23:55,560
Speaker 2: over the all over the doors, so if there's a fire,

430
00:23:55,600 --> 00:23:58,960
Speaker 2: people could run through them, which think about that, how

431
00:23:59,000 --> 00:24:03,680
Speaker 2: crazy that is, because because as you know, these are

432
00:24:03,680 --> 00:24:07,359
Speaker 2: all ice areners, so going through it would be running

433
00:24:07,400 --> 00:24:11,200
Speaker 2: with a sound with a stage you know, stopped and

434
00:24:11,680 --> 00:24:14,000
Speaker 2: the ice boards. It was like only about eight or

435
00:24:14,040 --> 00:24:18,240
Speaker 2: ten feet, so imagine five thousand people. Well here's what happened.

436
00:24:18,600 --> 00:24:21,399
Speaker 2: I had a partner for this show, Don Fox, who

437
00:24:21,520 --> 00:24:24,199
Speaker 2: still exists and does all of Billy does all of

438
00:24:24,480 --> 00:24:28,359
Speaker 2: Michael Bublaze concerts still right, you'll see his name on stuff.

439
00:24:28,760 --> 00:24:30,359
Speaker 2: And I called him up. I told him what was

440
00:24:30,400 --> 00:24:33,000
Speaker 2: going on. He says, we can't do that. We got

441
00:24:33,000 --> 00:24:35,639
Speaker 2: to sell another thousand tickets because that's where our profit is.

442
00:24:36,119 --> 00:24:38,720
Speaker 2: I says, listen, they're on my back. He says, I'm

443
00:24:38,840 --> 00:24:41,119
Speaker 2: ordering a thousand tickets. You'll have it in a few days.

444
00:24:41,680 --> 00:24:43,439
Speaker 2: So now I'm like, oh, what am I going to do?

445
00:24:43,920 --> 00:24:46,840
Speaker 2: I sold all the tickets, so buzz I sold all

446
00:24:46,880 --> 00:24:51,720
Speaker 2: the tickets, right, So now that I'm thinking, I'm so screwed. Right, well,

447
00:24:53,480 --> 00:24:56,840
Speaker 2: I come up with this idea, which was pretty nasty,

448
00:24:57,080 --> 00:24:58,920
Speaker 2: but you know it was what we did then, right,

449
00:24:59,200 --> 00:25:00,720
Speaker 2: I says, I'm going to open up the doors. In

450
00:25:00,720 --> 00:25:02,679
Speaker 2: my mind, I'm working out with the people I work with.

451
00:25:02,920 --> 00:25:06,119
Speaker 2: I'm opening the doors up two hours early because the

452
00:25:06,119 --> 00:25:08,040
Speaker 2: cops were going to count them with those clickers, those

453
00:25:08,080 --> 00:25:11,720
Speaker 2: stinking little clickers, right, so they get there, they're so

454
00:25:11,880 --> 00:25:15,000
Speaker 2: pissed off. I can see them like now, running around

455
00:25:15,000 --> 00:25:18,000
Speaker 2: trying to click everybody. It was already three thousand people inside.

456
00:25:18,720 --> 00:25:21,880
Speaker 2: So I got away with that. That was a good one,

457
00:25:22,359 --> 00:25:25,320
Speaker 2: A funny story that I didn't know. And here I

458
00:25:25,359 --> 00:25:28,679
Speaker 2: am doing doing the Queen Show. Is Queen went to

459
00:25:28,720 --> 00:25:32,200
Speaker 2: a local radio station WP and O, maybe you could

460
00:25:32,400 --> 00:25:34,359
Speaker 2: talk about that a little more forward.

461
00:25:36,040 --> 00:25:39,239
Speaker 5: Dave Dean and again this is this was It was

462
00:25:39,280 --> 00:25:43,240
Speaker 5: such a joy meeting the people that I was led

463
00:25:43,280 --> 00:25:45,520
Speaker 5: to with this book. And someone said, you must have

464
00:25:45,800 --> 00:25:48,040
Speaker 5: Dave Deans still around. Call him and he was a

465
00:25:48,240 --> 00:25:52,360
Speaker 5: He was a very popular long term AMDJ in Lewiston.

466
00:25:52,440 --> 00:25:54,919
Speaker 5: And I called him and he said, he's. One of

467
00:25:54,920 --> 00:25:58,040
Speaker 5: the biggest thrills in my career was the day that

468
00:25:58,040 --> 00:26:00,280
Speaker 5: that Queen concert was going to happen. He said, the

469
00:26:00,320 --> 00:26:03,680
Speaker 5: whole town's excited because everyone's going to that concert. Everyone's

470
00:26:03,720 --> 00:26:07,200
Speaker 5: talking about it. And I looked outside my window from

471
00:26:07,200 --> 00:26:09,240
Speaker 5: the studio while I was on air, and a white

472
00:26:09,320 --> 00:26:12,800
Speaker 5: limousine pulled up and all these longhead guys and white

473
00:26:12,880 --> 00:26:15,160
Speaker 5: suits got out of it and they just came into

474
00:26:15,200 --> 00:26:18,160
Speaker 5: the studio and Freddie Mercury and the and the rest

475
00:26:18,160 --> 00:26:20,360
Speaker 5: of them commenteered the studio and just took it over

476
00:26:20,400 --> 00:26:23,879
Speaker 5: for a few minutes. And as you said, Andrew, they

477
00:26:23,880 --> 00:26:27,280
Speaker 5: didn't have any you don't email ahead for something like that.

478
00:26:27,320 --> 00:26:30,680
Speaker 2: They yeah, I'm doing that. I'm promoting the show and

479
00:26:30,720 --> 00:26:33,000
Speaker 2: I don't even know that's happening. That's how you know,

480
00:26:33,400 --> 00:26:34,200
Speaker 2: he says.

481
00:26:34,000 --> 00:26:34,600
Speaker 1: That's great.

482
00:26:35,080 --> 00:26:37,520
Speaker 2: You know, I think you actually, I think buzz. You

483
00:26:37,600 --> 00:26:40,919
Speaker 2: might have known the record guy like he became like

484
00:26:41,080 --> 00:26:44,800
Speaker 2: a natural guy at Electra. So who was that Kurt

485
00:26:44,920 --> 00:26:45,480
Speaker 2: neirldn't you?

486
00:26:45,880 --> 00:26:47,200
Speaker 1: Oh? I know that name for sure?

487
00:26:47,359 --> 00:26:48,200
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

488
00:26:48,640 --> 00:26:50,840
Speaker 6: We'll be right back with more of the Taking a

489
00:26:50,880 --> 00:26:58,840
Speaker 6: Walk podcast. Welcome back to the Taking a Walk Podcast.

490
00:26:59,359 --> 00:27:03,000
Speaker 4: So you into what my question was about the role

491
00:27:03,320 --> 00:27:06,720
Speaker 4: of radio, talk a little bit more about how radio

492
00:27:06,840 --> 00:27:09,720
Speaker 4: played into you know, this emerging scene.

493
00:27:10,560 --> 00:27:16,760
Speaker 5: I will it's mostly a story a buzz about AM radio.

494
00:27:18,280 --> 00:27:21,240
Speaker 5: When these bands were coming to town, they would first

495
00:27:21,280 --> 00:27:24,919
Speaker 5: make contact with the local AM station. Because you know,

496
00:27:25,240 --> 00:27:28,960
Speaker 5: this would be in the particularly the sixties. Everyone's listening

497
00:27:29,000 --> 00:27:32,800
Speaker 5: to AM radio back then. You know, in May they

498
00:27:32,800 --> 00:27:35,639
Speaker 5: were only three TV stations six, eight, and thirteen, but

499
00:27:35,960 --> 00:27:39,399
Speaker 5: every town had their own AM station. So the AM

500
00:27:39,560 --> 00:27:43,000
Speaker 5: DJs for weeks in advance would be hyping a concert.

501
00:27:43,080 --> 00:27:46,439
Speaker 5: You know, it's a synergistic relationship the bands. The bands

502
00:27:46,520 --> 00:27:49,800
Speaker 5: needed the AM DJs and the a M DJs needed

503
00:27:49,800 --> 00:27:52,040
Speaker 5: the band so they'd have something to talk about. And

504
00:27:52,119 --> 00:27:55,160
Speaker 5: so it was a very interactive role. And the amdjs

505
00:27:55,160 --> 00:27:59,600
Speaker 5: were on stage introducing these acts, and you know they

506
00:27:59,640 --> 00:28:03,400
Speaker 5: would be in studio when when the band came to town.

507
00:28:03,440 --> 00:28:05,639
Speaker 5: So it was a very very important relationship, and the

508
00:28:05,680 --> 00:28:08,520
Speaker 5: amdjs would be you know, because they had lincoln over

509
00:28:08,560 --> 00:28:11,240
Speaker 5: to the local radio, local record store where you'd go

510
00:28:11,280 --> 00:28:15,080
Speaker 5: to buy your paper tickets. That continued until up up

511
00:28:15,119 --> 00:28:18,080
Speaker 5: until the mid mid seventies when there was a complete

512
00:28:18,160 --> 00:28:22,040
Speaker 5: takeover early seventies, I guess, pre complete takeover by FM.

513
00:28:22,400 --> 00:28:26,240
Speaker 5: But this an interesting story. You being from the Boston area,

514
00:28:26,240 --> 00:28:30,520
Speaker 5: you probably know WBCN. Sure, well, you know they they

515
00:28:31,280 --> 00:28:35,120
Speaker 5: in nineteen sixty seven they made radio history when they

516
00:28:35,119 --> 00:28:39,680
Speaker 5: became the first free form FM rock and roll station.

517
00:28:41,120 --> 00:28:44,360
Speaker 5: Prior to that, FM radio had been for old folks

518
00:28:44,360 --> 00:28:46,360
Speaker 5: who go old fuddy udies who are listening to stereo,

519
00:28:46,560 --> 00:28:51,480
Speaker 5: you know, to symphonic music. Nineteen sixty seven was WBCN.

520
00:28:51,560 --> 00:28:54,640
Speaker 5: It was the first, but the third was in Portland, Maine,

521
00:28:54,880 --> 00:28:57,280
Speaker 5: and it was it was a local, a local here

522
00:28:57,320 --> 00:29:00,160
Speaker 5: who had gone to school in Boston, had experienced did

523
00:29:00,240 --> 00:29:04,160
Speaker 5: and he convinced a local country station here in Portland

524
00:29:04,560 --> 00:29:07,640
Speaker 5: from from midnight to six am to let him do

525
00:29:08,240 --> 00:29:10,560
Speaker 5: pre form rock and roll, and he played whatever he wanted,

526
00:29:10,800 --> 00:29:13,560
Speaker 5: you know, full albums at a time. It only lasted

527
00:29:13,600 --> 00:29:17,080
Speaker 5: a year because the station manager said, dirty hippies don't

528
00:29:17,120 --> 00:29:20,520
Speaker 5: spend money, so no one will give us any advertising.

529
00:29:21,560 --> 00:29:25,800
Speaker 2: So it's interesting. So with me, it's like the perfect storm.

530
00:29:26,080 --> 00:29:32,000
Speaker 2: BLM forms in nineteen seventy three, right, and that's when

531
00:29:32,040 --> 00:29:34,880
Speaker 2: I started doing shows. Matter of fact, I'm the first advertiser.

532
00:29:35,200 --> 00:29:39,560
Speaker 2: I believe it was three dollars for thirty maybe six

533
00:29:39,640 --> 00:29:42,360
Speaker 2: dollars for a sixty. It's funny we talk about it

534
00:29:42,400 --> 00:29:45,080
Speaker 2: now because we're going on. My relationship with the station

535
00:29:45,360 --> 00:29:48,400
Speaker 2: still exists as we're going on fifty one or two years, right.

536
00:29:48,800 --> 00:29:50,800
Speaker 2: So it was, and by the way, you're right for

537
00:29:50,880 --> 00:29:53,920
Speaker 2: it. It was when they started, I believe it was still

538
00:29:53,960 --> 00:29:57,080
Speaker 2: classical or something during the day, and they rocked at night.

539
00:29:57,120 --> 00:30:00,840
Speaker 2: And that quickly changed when the new owners came in,

540
00:30:01,920 --> 00:30:07,040
Speaker 2: Bob Fuller and JJ Jeffries. All of a sudden, artists

541
00:30:07,080 --> 00:30:10,400
Speaker 2: are going big artists that people know about are going

542
00:30:10,440 --> 00:30:15,080
Speaker 2: to Lewiston right right, and there's a radio station that's

543
00:30:15,120 --> 00:30:17,560
Speaker 2: playing them. And it's this hole. Let's face it, the

544
00:30:17,600 --> 00:30:20,800
Speaker 2: whole generation, it's still was still in the woodstock generation,

545
00:30:21,000 --> 00:30:24,200
Speaker 2: moving up a little higher, you know, drugs, whatever, you know.

546
00:30:24,240 --> 00:30:27,040
Speaker 2: It's just this whole vibe of a feeling. Of course,

547
00:30:27,040 --> 00:30:29,840
Speaker 2: the Vietnam War gets is done. I mean, so it's

548
00:30:29,880 --> 00:30:33,360
Speaker 2: this feeling of it was actually a great time, great

549
00:30:33,400 --> 00:30:35,600
Speaker 2: great time for me. I had a lot of fun.

550
00:30:36,480 --> 00:30:39,760
Speaker 5: Andrew, I think another part of the perfect storm, another

551
00:30:39,840 --> 00:30:42,760
Speaker 5: dimension to the perfect storm that you referred to for

552
00:30:42,880 --> 00:30:48,160
Speaker 5: your career, was the construction of the Cumbley County Civic Center.

553
00:30:48,600 --> 00:30:51,120
Speaker 2: Yeah. So I started to get fed up with Lewiston

554
00:30:51,560 --> 00:30:54,160
Speaker 2: only let me listen, great town. When I say Louis,

555
00:30:54,160 --> 00:30:56,600
Speaker 2: I mean doing shows there. And now I see a

556
00:30:56,600 --> 00:30:59,600
Speaker 2: new venue that's coming. I've read about it, I've talked

557
00:30:59,600 --> 00:31:03,960
Speaker 2: to the people about it, and I had one other

558
00:31:04,000 --> 00:31:07,640
Speaker 2: partner I had Alex Cooley, who I did a lot

559
00:31:07,680 --> 00:31:10,600
Speaker 2: of stuff with, so we came up with this idea,

560
00:31:10,680 --> 00:31:13,800
Speaker 2: let's open up the venue all right with zz Top.

561
00:31:14,480 --> 00:31:16,960
Speaker 2: Well the problem is the venue wasn't going to be

562
00:31:17,000 --> 00:31:20,840
Speaker 2: done for another week, all right. So we actually booked

563
00:31:21,040 --> 00:31:24,360
Speaker 2: zz Top with a group called The Blend, which I managed,

564
00:31:24,400 --> 00:31:27,880
Speaker 2: which was signed to MCA, and a week before the

565
00:31:27,920 --> 00:31:31,640
Speaker 2: actual legitimate opening we did. We opened it up with

566
00:31:31,720 --> 00:31:34,920
Speaker 2: zz Top and the Blend to wear the seats in

567
00:31:34,960 --> 00:31:37,560
Speaker 2: the back the back of the bowl. The back of

568
00:31:37,560 --> 00:31:40,720
Speaker 2: the bowl had the bolts sticking up. There were no chairs,

569
00:31:41,520 --> 00:31:43,640
Speaker 2: so there was no chairs in the back of the band,

570
00:31:43,680 --> 00:31:46,040
Speaker 2: like from all the way back. So you know, as

571
00:31:46,080 --> 00:31:49,880
Speaker 2: you know it's lacking security. Then I mean things weren't

572
00:31:49,880 --> 00:31:54,000
Speaker 2: like they are now, you know. So it was pretty amazing.

573
00:31:54,720 --> 00:31:56,640
Speaker 2: One I thought you were going to bring up Ford

574
00:31:57,160 --> 00:31:59,640
Speaker 2: is one great story about when I'm still in Lewison

575
00:31:59,680 --> 00:32:04,120
Speaker 2: with Springsteen, which is and I think, buzz you know this,

576
00:32:04,400 --> 00:32:06,800
Speaker 2: There was a time when he was being sued by

577
00:32:06,800 --> 00:32:10,760
Speaker 2: his manager. He couldn't he couldn't perform like a major city.

578
00:32:10,880 --> 00:32:14,080
Speaker 2: So like for some reason they must have said in court,

579
00:32:14,120 --> 00:32:16,560
Speaker 2: to make a living, you can play these markets, which

580
00:32:16,640 --> 00:32:19,160
Speaker 2: was you know, part of New England, I think Halifax,

581
00:32:19,200 --> 00:32:22,640
Speaker 2: maybe some places up the midwest, and we were lucky

582
00:32:22,680 --> 00:32:27,360
Speaker 2: to get him. And I remember, like yesterday he got

583
00:32:27,400 --> 00:32:30,600
Speaker 2: there and he had like a like a I don't

584
00:32:30,640 --> 00:32:32,640
Speaker 2: even know, fifty or one hundred foot court if it

585
00:32:32,720 --> 00:32:36,000
Speaker 2: seemed like that. During soundcheck he walked out and by

586
00:32:36,040 --> 00:32:37,840
Speaker 2: the way, he's still not blowing up. I don't even

587
00:32:37,880 --> 00:32:40,920
Speaker 2: know if we actually sold out that show. Okay. I

588
00:32:40,960 --> 00:32:43,200
Speaker 2: was just blown away because one of the was the

589
00:32:43,240 --> 00:32:45,160
Speaker 2: first time. By the way, the stage that we had

590
00:32:45,200 --> 00:32:48,160
Speaker 2: at this venue. We're back in Lewison, the Central Main

591
00:32:48,240 --> 00:32:50,320
Speaker 2: U Center right now. They call it the Gale or

592
00:32:50,320 --> 00:32:53,600
Speaker 2: something right in my Craig Wood. Yeah, the stage was

593
00:32:53,680 --> 00:32:56,680
Speaker 2: literally scaffing, like when you paint your house. In other words,

594
00:32:56,680 --> 00:32:58,640
Speaker 2: you put scaffing along the side of the house. So

595
00:32:58,680 --> 00:33:02,400
Speaker 2: that's what we had. Scaff on top of scaffolding was

596
00:33:03,120 --> 00:33:06,280
Speaker 2: twelve foot or maybe even sixteen foot full by fours.

597
00:33:06,320 --> 00:33:10,920
Speaker 2: That one on that on top of that a roller blading.

598
00:33:11,440 --> 00:33:13,360
Speaker 2: At one time I thought it was a basketball court,

599
00:33:13,400 --> 00:33:16,520
Speaker 2: but it was a roller blading one of like hardwood

600
00:33:16,600 --> 00:33:19,680
Speaker 2: all put together all you know, shimmy, you know, if

601
00:33:19,680 --> 00:33:21,480
Speaker 2: you looked on the need to go. Oh my word,

602
00:33:21,760 --> 00:33:24,120
Speaker 2: but Bruce was the first time that anybody asked for

603
00:33:24,280 --> 00:33:27,240
Speaker 2: stairs out front or just you know, so we Mickey

604
00:33:27,320 --> 00:33:31,080
Speaker 2: Mouse some stairs so he could It's really I mean,

605
00:33:31,120 --> 00:33:34,520
Speaker 2: I was really wary because his plan was to walk,

606
00:33:35,120 --> 00:33:38,040
Speaker 2: you know, through the people, through the crowd. And what

607
00:33:38,120 --> 00:33:40,480
Speaker 2: blew me away that night was. First of all, I

608
00:33:40,520 --> 00:33:42,480
Speaker 2: was a huge fan already, but blew me away is

609
00:33:42,520 --> 00:33:45,320
Speaker 2: the people came from all over New England. You know,

610
00:33:45,360 --> 00:33:47,240
Speaker 2: he maybe further away because he wasn't doing a lot

611
00:33:47,240 --> 00:33:50,200
Speaker 2: of shows, right, he went through and instead of like

612
00:33:50,320 --> 00:33:52,720
Speaker 2: hugging him and touching him, they just were like such

613
00:33:52,760 --> 00:33:55,080
Speaker 2: at awe him walking through. I can see it because

614
00:33:55,120 --> 00:33:57,960
Speaker 2: I'm up at the press box watching looking down and

615
00:33:58,000 --> 00:34:01,440
Speaker 2: he's walking through this crowd. This this islot we already

616
00:34:01,440 --> 00:34:03,480
Speaker 2: had planned because it was the first time we had

617
00:34:03,520 --> 00:34:06,400
Speaker 2: seats too, which was really weird. We just and uh

618
00:34:06,680 --> 00:34:10,480
Speaker 2: and Ford talked about it earlier. There was ice. We

619
00:34:10,520 --> 00:34:13,080
Speaker 2: always had ice underneath if there was a show during

620
00:34:13,080 --> 00:34:16,600
Speaker 2: the winter, and well we bid was put plywood over it,

621
00:34:16,680 --> 00:34:19,799
Speaker 2: and so it was it was always cold, always cold, right,

622
00:34:20,239 --> 00:34:21,799
Speaker 2: But the kids they give a crap, But it was

623
00:34:21,920 --> 00:34:26,280
Speaker 2: just Uh, that's one of those amazing nights. You weren't

624
00:34:26,280 --> 00:34:27,160
Speaker 2: there for it, right.

625
00:34:27,800 --> 00:34:28,399
Speaker 5: I was not there.

626
00:34:29,239 --> 00:34:30,360
Speaker 1: Wow, what a picture.

627
00:34:30,920 --> 00:34:34,480
Speaker 4: So talk about the current state of some of the

628
00:34:34,600 --> 00:34:38,120
Speaker 4: venues that are in the book. There obviously are some

629
00:34:38,200 --> 00:34:41,040
Speaker 4: of them that have been preserved and are still living on.

630
00:34:41,239 --> 00:34:44,399
Speaker 2: Right, Portland is a I got to tell you as

631
00:34:44,440 --> 00:34:48,520
Speaker 2: a vibrant music city. Vibrant I mean when I I

632
00:34:48,520 --> 00:34:50,040
Speaker 2: mean I went to Main for a reason to play

633
00:34:50,040 --> 00:34:52,440
Speaker 2: in a band. Because when you're in Boston, New York City,

634
00:34:53,000 --> 00:34:55,000
Speaker 2: any of these it's pay to play. If you're a

635
00:34:55,040 --> 00:34:57,920
Speaker 2: local band, you have to pay to play. In other words,

636
00:34:58,040 --> 00:34:59,839
Speaker 2: they they gave you tickets, you got to sell them.

637
00:34:59,880 --> 00:35:02,239
Speaker 2: That that's how you get paid. Right, going to Main,

638
00:35:02,320 --> 00:35:05,600
Speaker 2: I realized that, Wow, there was this company in Lewis

639
00:35:05,680 --> 00:35:09,360
Speaker 2: and I'm kind of arcing around Eddie Bushy u EA

640
00:35:09,360 --> 00:35:12,800
Speaker 2: B Studio. So you can make a living well years

641
00:35:12,800 --> 00:35:15,040
Speaker 2: go by, years go by, the music scene is still

642
00:35:15,160 --> 00:35:19,480
Speaker 2: super vibrant in Portland. Where there's so there's the State Theater,

643
00:35:19,560 --> 00:35:24,960
Speaker 2: there's area, there's the Civic Center, there's multiple small places,

644
00:35:25,320 --> 00:35:27,719
Speaker 2: there's a lot, there's and as you know, buzz being

645
00:35:27,760 --> 00:35:30,600
Speaker 2: in the radio business, Portland per Capita had the most

646
00:35:30,840 --> 00:35:35,000
Speaker 2: radio stations. Uh then a lot of cities in the

647
00:35:35,040 --> 00:35:39,360
Speaker 2: country for a long long time and probably still do so.

648
00:35:40,239 --> 00:35:42,920
Speaker 2: Vibran wise, music wise, artists have come out of there

649
00:35:43,000 --> 00:35:46,160
Speaker 2: recorded albums have done very well. So in the Civic

650
00:35:46,200 --> 00:35:48,239
Speaker 2: Center have got readone a little. They fixed it up

651
00:35:48,280 --> 00:35:50,200
Speaker 2: a bit because I think when they were building it

652
00:35:50,280 --> 00:35:52,120
Speaker 2: they were doing it with like, you know, duct tape,

653
00:35:52,160 --> 00:35:54,680
Speaker 2: and you know, you know, I just think they had

654
00:35:54,719 --> 00:35:57,480
Speaker 2: to go back in and fix it up. But uh oh,

655
00:35:57,520 --> 00:36:02,760
Speaker 2: there's Meryl, which is a great venue, but no very vibrant.

656
00:36:02,840 --> 00:36:04,359
Speaker 2: Thompson's point, there.

657
00:36:04,320 --> 00:36:07,959
Speaker 5: Was an interesting point in time with the Civic Center.

658
00:36:08,239 --> 00:36:11,480
Speaker 5: It changed all the other venues, and then the and

659
00:36:11,600 --> 00:36:14,120
Speaker 5: then the other cities changed the Civic Center. And I'll

660
00:36:14,120 --> 00:36:18,760
Speaker 5: tell you how, based on my research, there were fifteen

661
00:36:19,360 --> 00:36:22,120
Speaker 5: major venues in southern Maine. If by major I mean

662
00:36:22,360 --> 00:36:25,160
Speaker 5: over one thousand and up to sixty five hundred prior

663
00:36:25,200 --> 00:36:28,359
Speaker 5: to the Civic Center fifteen. When the Civic Center opened

664
00:36:28,400 --> 00:36:31,960
Speaker 5: in nineteen seventy seven, it cut down to two. And

665
00:36:32,120 --> 00:36:35,440
Speaker 5: the Civic Center just you know, everything came to the

666
00:36:35,480 --> 00:36:38,359
Speaker 5: Civic Center, more, more concerts than ever. The year before

667
00:36:38,400 --> 00:36:40,800
Speaker 5: the Civic Center opened, there were only fifteen concerts in

668
00:36:40,880 --> 00:36:44,200
Speaker 5: southern Maine seventy seven when it opened, it triple but

669
00:36:44,320 --> 00:36:47,600
Speaker 5: that was short lived because other cities in New England

670
00:36:47,800 --> 00:36:51,480
Speaker 5: saw this rock palace thing, the civic If the Civic

671
00:36:51,520 --> 00:36:54,399
Speaker 5: Center could could see ninety five hundred people, they could

672
00:36:54,400 --> 00:36:57,920
Speaker 5: do better in Hardford and Albany and all these other cities.

673
00:36:58,080 --> 00:37:03,640
Speaker 5: And so it sided with electronic ticketing and national concert

674
00:37:03,760 --> 00:37:08,560
Speaker 5: promoters more corporate in my perception, and they started taking

675
00:37:08,680 --> 00:37:12,960
Speaker 5: control of the tours, and promoters would say, we'll buy

676
00:37:13,000 --> 00:37:15,640
Speaker 5: out the whole tour, and then they go to venues

677
00:37:15,719 --> 00:37:18,640
Speaker 5: and negotiate, and because you know, a couple of three

678
00:37:18,680 --> 00:37:21,000
Speaker 5: or four years after the Civic Center was built, it

679
00:37:21,160 --> 00:37:24,359
Speaker 5: wasn't the only game in town anymore, and promoters would

680
00:37:24,360 --> 00:37:25,960
Speaker 5: beat up on the Civic Center and say, we're not

681
00:37:26,040 --> 00:37:29,000
Speaker 5: coming at all because you can't see fifteen thousand people,

682
00:37:29,120 --> 00:37:31,040
Speaker 5: or if we do come, you have to give us

683
00:37:31,080 --> 00:37:32,680
Speaker 5: so much the gate that you're going to starve.

684
00:37:32,800 --> 00:37:35,080
Speaker 2: Is that how it played out, That's exactly how it

685
00:37:35,120 --> 00:37:38,640
Speaker 2: played out. Yes, yeah, it became a thing where companies

686
00:37:38,680 --> 00:37:41,480
Speaker 2: were buying the whole tours and why go to Portland

687
00:37:41,560 --> 00:37:44,719
Speaker 2: if the place is small? And expensive, you know at

688
00:37:44,760 --> 00:37:47,239
Speaker 2: the time, you know, or for like you said, they

689
00:37:47,239 --> 00:37:50,520
Speaker 2: would rather want to get a deal. My thoughts are

690
00:37:50,560 --> 00:37:52,759
Speaker 2: also but and we've talked about this for it is

691
00:37:53,239 --> 00:37:55,600
Speaker 2: a buzzy. It was a place where you would go.

692
00:37:56,040 --> 00:37:58,200
Speaker 2: So now, because you know, I worked with Hollan Oates

693
00:37:58,239 --> 00:38:00,879
Speaker 2: and I remember starting the second leg of that tour.

694
00:38:00,960 --> 00:38:03,800
Speaker 2: We're out in like a college in Oklahoma somewhere, because

695
00:38:04,080 --> 00:38:06,520
Speaker 2: that's where you start your tours, or you build your tours,

696
00:38:06,560 --> 00:38:09,560
Speaker 2: these small little places get you know, get the rough

697
00:38:09,600 --> 00:38:12,960
Speaker 2: stuff out, you know, production all this stuff. Well, Portland

698
00:38:13,080 --> 00:38:15,920
Speaker 2: it became this is after the book. So everybody always

699
00:38:15,920 --> 00:38:18,000
Speaker 2: asks me because I talk about the book why seventy

700
00:38:18,040 --> 00:38:22,080
Speaker 2: seven And it's exactly what Ford said. It's when you know,

701
00:38:22,200 --> 00:38:24,880
Speaker 2: it kind of like killed all those other venues. Now,

702
00:38:24,920 --> 00:38:28,200
Speaker 2: there was other shows going to Augusta or Lewiston, but

703
00:38:28,719 --> 00:38:32,239
Speaker 2: very few, you know, just because if if there was

704
00:38:32,280 --> 00:38:35,759
Speaker 2: a hockey game going on in Portland or another show,

705
00:38:35,800 --> 00:38:39,839
Speaker 2: they would go somewhere else. But that's pretty much how

706
00:38:39,920 --> 00:38:43,080
Speaker 2: it went there, which was very interesting.

707
00:38:43,200 --> 00:38:46,560
Speaker 5: Because the Civic Center closed down all those venues that

708
00:38:46,680 --> 00:38:49,680
Speaker 5: were seating four or five thousand people two or three

709
00:38:49,719 --> 00:38:50,279
Speaker 5: years later.

710
00:38:51,640 --> 00:38:52,160
Speaker 6: It realy.

711
00:38:52,400 --> 00:38:55,440
Speaker 5: A number of small places opened up, five hundred to

712
00:38:55,560 --> 00:38:57,960
Speaker 5: one thousand. You know, there's a new crop of them,

713
00:38:58,080 --> 00:39:01,880
Speaker 5: Rauls and and the Loft and so forth that brought

714
00:39:01,920 --> 00:39:04,760
Speaker 5: in bands that were kind of on their second, second

715
00:39:04,760 --> 00:39:05,520
Speaker 5: part of their career.

716
00:39:06,600 --> 00:39:08,839
Speaker 2: The great tal you're about these shows buzz like I'm

717
00:39:08,840 --> 00:39:11,120
Speaker 2: looking at I'm looking at the queen. Hold on here,

718
00:39:11,719 --> 00:39:15,320
Speaker 2: the queen is five point fifty in advance, but listen,

719
00:39:15,760 --> 00:39:17,600
Speaker 2: we're going to get you for fifty more cents the

720
00:39:17,719 --> 00:39:19,280
Speaker 2: day of the show six dollars.

721
00:39:19,600 --> 00:39:20,279
Speaker 1: Unbelievable.

722
00:39:21,080 --> 00:39:23,200
Speaker 5: Jimi Hendrix was two dollars and fifty cents.

723
00:39:23,760 --> 00:39:24,000
Speaker 6: Wow.

724
00:39:24,239 --> 00:39:24,399
Speaker 1: Yeah.

725
00:39:25,200 --> 00:39:27,719
Speaker 2: And by the way, Hendrix played the Armory in Lewiston

726
00:39:28,320 --> 00:39:30,400
Speaker 2: because of Bates call it. Bates put the show on,

727
00:39:30,840 --> 00:39:33,200
Speaker 2: which is unbelievable. And I think that Hendrix was on

728
00:39:33,320 --> 00:39:35,960
Speaker 2: that stage. I was walking around, you know, just a

729
00:39:36,000 --> 00:39:37,239
Speaker 2: few years earlier.

730
00:39:37,520 --> 00:39:41,600
Speaker 5: These concerts, These college kids that produced so many concerts

731
00:39:41,840 --> 00:39:45,160
Speaker 5: was an interesting and interesting eerror and an interesting set

732
00:39:45,200 --> 00:39:46,840
Speaker 5: of mechanics. Did you have a second for me to

733
00:39:46,880 --> 00:39:50,680
Speaker 5: talk about that? Buzz? Of course, every major college in

734
00:39:50,719 --> 00:39:52,920
Speaker 5: the country must have been doing the exact same thing.

735
00:39:53,040 --> 00:39:58,480
Speaker 5: My orientation is limited to Maine, but around nineteen seventy

736
00:39:58,880 --> 00:40:02,719
Speaker 5: one to seventy fi or really until Andrews started, uh,

737
00:40:03,000 --> 00:40:05,960
Speaker 5: the only concerts in Maine were put on by colleges.

738
00:40:06,520 --> 00:40:10,560
Speaker 5: Boden had a wonderful string of concerts. Simon and Garfunkel

739
00:40:10,640 --> 00:40:15,640
Speaker 5: and Bonnie Ray. They Boden probably put on thirty five

740
00:40:16,200 --> 00:40:19,760
Speaker 5: major concerts in the same era. In the early seventies,

741
00:40:20,160 --> 00:40:23,480
Speaker 5: University of Southern Maine was doing the same thing, and

742
00:40:23,600 --> 00:40:27,160
Speaker 5: they they brought in you know, icon, Teina Turner and

743
00:40:27,239 --> 00:40:30,400
Speaker 5: America and the Eagles. And the thing I love about

744
00:40:30,480 --> 00:40:33,800
Speaker 5: these concerts is it was just kids, you know, they

745
00:40:34,080 --> 00:40:37,200
Speaker 5: had they didn't have an advisor, They didn't have anyone,

746
00:40:37,800 --> 00:40:39,440
Speaker 5: you know, someone About the time that a kid got

747
00:40:39,480 --> 00:40:41,960
Speaker 5: good at putting on a college concert, he or she

748
00:40:42,080 --> 00:40:45,759
Speaker 5: would graduate and she turned it back over underclassmen. They

749
00:40:45,920 --> 00:40:48,840
Speaker 5: had a They didn't have to make a profit or

750
00:40:48,880 --> 00:40:52,239
Speaker 5: even break even because the college, the colleges would give

751
00:40:52,280 --> 00:40:56,160
Speaker 5: them a budget, but they gave them no no supervision

752
00:40:56,200 --> 00:40:58,480
Speaker 5: at all, and they'd give them an auditorium or a

753
00:40:58,560 --> 00:41:02,120
Speaker 5: gymnasium where they had a free venue. They had free

754
00:41:02,560 --> 00:41:06,000
Speaker 5: friends to be you know, run the gate and security

755
00:41:06,040 --> 00:41:09,160
Speaker 5: and everything else. You know, as kids did bring in

756
00:41:09,239 --> 00:41:11,640
Speaker 5: these concerts. They they'd skip class so they could go

757
00:41:11,760 --> 00:41:15,480
Speaker 5: to the airport and pick up pick up John Prime

758
00:41:16,080 --> 00:41:18,200
Speaker 5: or or I contain a turner. You know, it was

759
00:41:18,320 --> 00:41:21,319
Speaker 5: really a cool thing. They got into jams because they

760
00:41:21,440 --> 00:41:24,320
Speaker 5: just didn't have any business savvy or they didn't have

761
00:41:24,360 --> 00:41:26,680
Speaker 5: any experience, and you know not you know, they're dealing with,

762
00:41:26,800 --> 00:41:28,879
Speaker 5: you know, a ton of money. If you sell five

763
00:41:28,960 --> 00:41:31,000
Speaker 5: thousand tickets and four dollars a piece, you got a

764
00:41:31,080 --> 00:41:33,320
Speaker 5: ton of that's a ton of cash you have to handle.

765
00:41:33,840 --> 00:41:35,800
Speaker 5: And you know they'd get you know, they'd get a

766
00:41:36,000 --> 00:41:39,919
Speaker 5: whole bunch of counterfeit tickets. They'd get screwed that way,

767
00:41:40,400 --> 00:41:42,480
Speaker 5: or the bands had changed the price. They wouldn't go

768
00:41:42,560 --> 00:41:45,800
Speaker 5: on stage if they didn't pay them more money. And

769
00:41:45,880 --> 00:41:49,560
Speaker 5: they had these riders, you know, the performance contracts would

770
00:41:49,640 --> 00:41:52,239
Speaker 5: have riders in them, which I guess you probably know

771
00:41:52,400 --> 00:41:54,560
Speaker 5: some of the crazy stuff that bands would put into

772
00:41:54,600 --> 00:42:00,480
Speaker 5: their riders. But Aerosmith came their rider. Require did they

773
00:42:00,680 --> 00:42:05,600
Speaker 5: have a thanks a full Thanksgiving feast before the concert?

774
00:42:06,239 --> 00:42:08,400
Speaker 5: When you deal with college kids, I guess they probably

775
00:42:08,440 --> 00:42:10,360
Speaker 5: got what they deserved. The bands got what they deserve.

776
00:42:10,440 --> 00:42:12,120
Speaker 5: The college kids didn't know any better. They thought a

777
00:42:12,200 --> 00:42:15,360
Speaker 5: Thanksgiving feast was a bag of fried chicken from Kentucky

778
00:42:15,440 --> 00:42:19,399
Speaker 5: Fried Chicken, and so it was. It was all that route,

779
00:42:19,400 --> 00:42:20,480
Speaker 5: you know, that whole routine.

780
00:42:20,560 --> 00:42:20,680
Speaker 1: You know.

781
00:42:20,719 --> 00:42:24,080
Speaker 5: Alice Cooper wouldn't Alice Cooper banned the whole band showed

782
00:42:24,160 --> 00:42:28,319
Speaker 5: up at the Portland Airport. Their contract riotor was white

783
00:42:28,360 --> 00:42:32,480
Speaker 5: limousines in nineteen seventy two. There were no white limousines

784
00:42:32,520 --> 00:42:35,520
Speaker 5: in Mane in nineteen seventy two, so they showed up

785
00:42:35,520 --> 00:42:37,560
Speaker 5: with a black limousine was waiting for men. Alice Cooper

786
00:42:37,560 --> 00:42:39,480
Speaker 5: wouldn't get in the band, and the college kid jumped

787
00:42:39,480 --> 00:42:41,680
Speaker 5: out of class. He heard there's a problem, gotten his

788
00:42:41,800 --> 00:42:45,000
Speaker 5: shipbox nineteen sixty five blue Ford Fai Lane and went

789
00:42:45,040 --> 00:42:47,359
Speaker 5: to the airport and said, you're going in that black

790
00:42:47,440 --> 00:42:49,840
Speaker 5: limousine or you're going in my Ford Fai lane, but

791
00:42:49,920 --> 00:42:53,000
Speaker 5: there are no white limousines for you, by the way,

792
00:42:53,680 --> 00:42:54,720
Speaker 5: Buzz two stories.

793
00:42:54,760 --> 00:42:58,319
Speaker 2: One is first of all colleges. And it's still the case.

794
00:42:58,440 --> 00:43:01,440
Speaker 2: They paid at least thirty percent and more for the

795
00:43:01,600 --> 00:43:04,600
Speaker 2: artists because and a lot of times when uh, these

796
00:43:04,719 --> 00:43:10,360
Speaker 2: artists play colleges now it's not publicized other than the school.

797
00:43:10,640 --> 00:43:12,560
Speaker 2: You know, because it's they got to do the other

798
00:43:12,640 --> 00:43:14,200
Speaker 2: parts of the market. Well, you know, if you have

799
00:43:14,360 --> 00:43:17,560
Speaker 2: like Nation, A g whatever, Uh, tell them the story

800
00:43:17,560 --> 00:43:18,960
Speaker 2: about Hendrix and Lewiston.

801
00:43:19,239 --> 00:43:21,600
Speaker 5: Yeah, I will, I will, But but first I'll say

802
00:43:21,640 --> 00:43:24,800
Speaker 5: to these colleges, you know, because they didn't when I

803
00:43:24,920 --> 00:43:27,440
Speaker 5: had I had a real obstacle in my research because

804
00:43:27,480 --> 00:43:31,000
Speaker 5: no one's written about this before. There were no venues

805
00:43:31,080 --> 00:43:33,800
Speaker 5: that had any records, and so I was piecing together

806
00:43:34,960 --> 00:43:39,040
Speaker 5: these concerts by going through newspapers or even even with

807
00:43:39,360 --> 00:43:45,479
Speaker 5: all the college newspapers. But these colleges were they didn't

808
00:43:45,520 --> 00:43:47,840
Speaker 5: advertise off campus because they were going to fill the

809
00:43:47,880 --> 00:43:51,040
Speaker 5: auditorium without advertising in the community. So there's nothing in

810
00:43:51,120 --> 00:43:54,800
Speaker 5: the local newspapers. Frequently there was even nothing in the

811
00:43:55,239 --> 00:43:58,359
Speaker 5: in the college newspapers because it was just word of mouth.

812
00:43:59,239 --> 00:44:03,400
Speaker 5: Bates College brought Jimmy Hendricks to to Lewiston, and that

813
00:44:03,640 --> 00:44:06,359
Speaker 5: was a that was much a much bigger event than

814
00:44:06,520 --> 00:44:09,160
Speaker 5: just Bates College because Bates was a very small school

815
00:44:09,200 --> 00:44:09,839
Speaker 5: as it is now.

816
00:44:10,719 --> 00:44:14,280
Speaker 2: But they were in sixty nine, right or sixty sixty eight.

817
00:44:15,000 --> 00:44:19,680
Speaker 5: March fourteenth and sixty eight, and Jimmy Hendrix was was coming,

818
00:44:19,760 --> 00:44:23,520
Speaker 5: so they they sold over five thousand tickets for that

819
00:44:23,680 --> 00:44:26,480
Speaker 5: at the Lewiston Armory. Uh, it was going to be

820
00:44:26,600 --> 00:44:30,920
Speaker 5: a big deal. And Jimmy Hendrix and a band called

821
00:44:31,040 --> 00:44:34,160
Speaker 5: the Soft Machine, which was a big deal in Europe,

822
00:44:35,640 --> 00:44:38,439
Speaker 5: had a cult following. They'd been playing in Canada, must

823
00:44:38,440 --> 00:44:41,600
Speaker 5: have been Montreal or probably Montreal, and they're coming back

824
00:44:41,640 --> 00:44:45,920
Speaker 5: through the Canadian border to then play Lewiston next h

825
00:44:46,239 --> 00:44:49,759
Speaker 5: and Soft Machine had drugs and they and they got

826
00:44:49,920 --> 00:44:52,720
Speaker 5: they got arrested or got in trouble at the border,

827
00:44:52,760 --> 00:44:56,959
Speaker 5: couldn't come in. So Jimmy Hendrix loses his backup band,

828
00:44:57,280 --> 00:45:01,800
Speaker 5: and Soft Machine had three of the stacked amp sets

829
00:45:02,000 --> 00:45:04,759
Speaker 5: the Jimmy Hendrix need. Jimmy Hendricks had six what were

830
00:45:04,800 --> 00:45:05,280
Speaker 5: those big.

831
00:45:05,200 --> 00:45:07,680
Speaker 2: Amps called the Marshalls Marshall and they.

832
00:45:07,560 --> 00:45:10,560
Speaker 5: Were they were six feet tall, and he had he

833
00:45:10,600 --> 00:45:13,280
Speaker 5: had six, six of those that would go on stage,

834
00:45:14,000 --> 00:45:16,080
Speaker 5: and Jimmy Hendricks showed up with only three of them.

835
00:45:16,160 --> 00:45:19,600
Speaker 5: The other three are back in Canada, so uh, no

836
00:45:19,800 --> 00:45:23,760
Speaker 5: backup band. Half the amps are missing. And the local

837
00:45:24,040 --> 00:45:27,920
Speaker 5: the local band manager Eddie Bouchet who you referred to,

838
00:45:28,440 --> 00:45:31,160
Speaker 5: and Lewis and said, well, I can get your backup band.

839
00:45:32,239 --> 00:45:34,200
Speaker 5: So he got a bunch of a bunch of high

840
00:45:34,200 --> 00:45:39,360
Speaker 5: school kids, Terry and the Telstars, and Terry and the Telstars,

841
00:45:39,400 --> 00:45:42,840
Speaker 5: and they were probably fifteen years old, opened for Jimmy Hendrix.

842
00:45:43,480 --> 00:45:45,640
Speaker 5: And then Jimmy Hendrix is on stage. I had a

843
00:45:45,719 --> 00:45:48,399
Speaker 5: picture of him on stage with three of the three

844
00:45:48,440 --> 00:45:52,080
Speaker 5: of the big amp sets, and then he filled out

845
00:45:52,120 --> 00:45:56,120
Speaker 5: the rest of his equipment with little Fender Fender Showman

846
00:45:56,160 --> 00:45:59,720
Speaker 5: amps from from from Terry and the Telstars on stage.

847
00:46:00,239 --> 00:46:01,600
Speaker 5: They just pieced it together. They said it was a

848
00:46:01,719 --> 00:46:06,520
Speaker 5: terrible sounding, terrible sounding performance by probably the biggest name

849
00:46:06,600 --> 00:46:07,520
Speaker 5: that's played in Maine.

850
00:46:07,920 --> 00:46:10,160
Speaker 2: Then he asked a fight with not him but management

851
00:46:10,239 --> 00:46:11,880
Speaker 2: five thousand more again.

852
00:46:12,000 --> 00:46:15,960
Speaker 5: You know, Jimmy Hendrix. Jimmy Hendrix was such a had

853
00:46:16,040 --> 00:46:18,960
Speaker 5: become such a big name on the road that his

854
00:46:19,080 --> 00:46:21,680
Speaker 5: manager was saying, we would never be playing Lewiston, Maine.

855
00:46:21,719 --> 00:46:23,839
Speaker 5: We shouldn't have booked this. Things have changed. We wanted

856
00:46:24,080 --> 00:46:27,839
Speaker 5: and he wanted twenty five dollars more and they had

857
00:46:27,880 --> 00:46:30,160
Speaker 5: to pay it, even though there had been so many

858
00:46:30,160 --> 00:46:31,520
Speaker 5: complications with the performance.

859
00:46:32,360 --> 00:46:34,440
Speaker 1: Wow, I got to tell you a funny story.

860
00:46:34,480 --> 00:46:36,719
Speaker 4: I was telling you before we started that I had

861
00:46:36,760 --> 00:46:40,920
Speaker 4: a brief career while I was in college at the

862
00:46:41,040 --> 00:46:44,880
Speaker 4: University of Dayton working on the radio there, but I

863
00:46:45,000 --> 00:46:48,400
Speaker 4: was also the entertainment director for a brief period.

864
00:46:48,480 --> 00:46:49,920
Speaker 1: Did a terrible job of it.

865
00:46:50,480 --> 00:46:55,560
Speaker 4: But I reconnected with my friend Jim McNamara, who I

866
00:46:55,640 --> 00:46:57,680
Speaker 4: went to college with, about a year.

867
00:46:57,640 --> 00:47:01,960
Speaker 1: Ago, and he said, hey, you remember that time when you.

868
00:47:02,080 --> 00:47:06,320
Speaker 4: Booked the artist Larry Coriel at the University of Dayton,

869
00:47:06,400 --> 00:47:06,640
Speaker 4: And I.

870
00:47:06,719 --> 00:47:08,160
Speaker 1: Said, yeah, actually I do.

871
00:47:08,880 --> 00:47:11,600
Speaker 7: And he said, do you remember that you invited him

872
00:47:11,640 --> 00:47:13,959
Speaker 7: over the house and he came over to our house

873
00:47:14,040 --> 00:47:17,279
Speaker 7: and partied with us. And I had forgotten that, and

874
00:47:17,880 --> 00:47:20,279
Speaker 7: Larry Coriel spent a.

875
00:47:20,360 --> 00:47:23,759
Speaker 5: Long night with us. I guess the band's routine you

876
00:47:24,320 --> 00:47:27,120
Speaker 5: both would know better than the band's routinely would would

877
00:47:27,200 --> 00:47:33,520
Speaker 5: hit the town one way or the other after their performance, right, Oh,

878
00:47:33,719 --> 00:47:38,480
Speaker 5: for sure. The concert promoters who gave me so much

879
00:47:38,520 --> 00:47:42,320
Speaker 5: information for this book because they're my age now, but

880
00:47:43,120 --> 00:47:46,719
Speaker 5: they were saying after that incident with Alice Cooper being difficult,

881
00:47:46,840 --> 00:47:49,399
Speaker 5: the band refused to get in the limousine. Turned out

882
00:47:49,440 --> 00:47:52,320
Speaker 5: they became friends over the course of that day and

883
00:47:52,560 --> 00:47:58,120
Speaker 5: after after the concert, Alice Cooper invited these kids back

884
00:47:58,280 --> 00:48:02,440
Speaker 5: to their crap the hotel room in a crappy hotel,

885
00:48:02,719 --> 00:48:05,520
Speaker 5: holiday in it in Westbrook, Maine to party with him

886
00:48:05,560 --> 00:48:07,759
Speaker 5: for the night and Alice and Alice Cooper said, we

887
00:48:07,840 --> 00:48:10,279
Speaker 5: got to order out pizza. And these guys said, you

888
00:48:10,320 --> 00:48:11,600
Speaker 5: can't order out pizza.

889
00:48:11,640 --> 00:48:12,440
Speaker 1: They don't bring it to you.

890
00:48:13,080 --> 00:48:15,080
Speaker 5: And he said, he said, you just give me the

891
00:48:15,120 --> 00:48:18,239
Speaker 5: phone number. And Alice Cooper called the local the local

892
00:48:18,280 --> 00:48:22,880
Speaker 5: pizza place and ordered and said, now here's our address.

893
00:48:22,920 --> 00:48:23,440
Speaker 1: Bring it to us.

894
00:48:23,440 --> 00:48:25,439
Speaker 5: And they said we don't deliver. And Alice Cooper said,

895
00:48:25,760 --> 00:48:28,400
Speaker 5: for a hundred bucks, you do, and the pizza showed up.

896
00:48:29,520 --> 00:48:31,960
Speaker 1: I love it. I love it all right. I want

897
00:48:32,000 --> 00:48:34,000
Speaker 1: to close with something for both of you.

898
00:48:35,080 --> 00:48:38,920
Speaker 4: There is a new Spinal Tap that is being created,

899
00:48:39,000 --> 00:48:43,000
Speaker 4: a new retake of it, and I can't wait for it.

900
00:48:43,680 --> 00:48:45,080
Speaker 1: I'm going to ask you forward.

901
00:48:45,239 --> 00:48:50,440
Speaker 4: First, do you recall a Spinal Tap moment that you

902
00:48:50,520 --> 00:48:53,480
Speaker 4: know could have been the worst concert, the one that

903
00:48:53,560 --> 00:48:57,520
Speaker 4: went awry, whatever, But in tribute to Spinal Tap, what

904
00:48:57,640 --> 00:49:01,479
Speaker 4: do you remember that kind of can surface within the book?

905
00:49:02,160 --> 00:49:05,040
Speaker 5: Oh man, that's a that's a tough one. I thought

906
00:49:05,040 --> 00:49:07,160
Speaker 5: you were going to ask my favorite mode was Spinal Tap,

907
00:49:07,239 --> 00:49:09,960
Speaker 5: which absolutely would be the amps that turned to eleven.

908
00:49:12,360 --> 00:49:15,640
Speaker 5: And I also, I think that's a very bold, very

909
00:49:15,760 --> 00:49:18,680
Speaker 5: bold move to try to improve on the original Spinal Tap.

910
00:49:19,640 --> 00:49:23,480
Speaker 5: The just in terms of the chaos of Spinal Tap,

911
00:49:23,560 --> 00:49:26,520
Speaker 5: of course, showed up throughout a lot of the bands

912
00:49:26,560 --> 00:49:29,439
Speaker 5: that came to Maine. I Cantina Turner came to Maine

913
00:49:30,600 --> 00:49:36,000
Speaker 5: in sixty nineteen nineteen seventy, I think, and they showed

914
00:49:36,080 --> 00:49:38,360
Speaker 5: up and two members of their band were missing. And

915
00:49:38,440 --> 00:49:40,879
Speaker 5: they didn't even know it, you know, because they came

916
00:49:40,960 --> 00:49:45,239
Speaker 5: in such an entourage, gear and people showing up in

917
00:49:45,320 --> 00:49:47,920
Speaker 5: different vehicles and different parts of the day. And as

918
00:49:47,960 --> 00:49:50,359
Speaker 5: they were assembling to go on stage, they realized two

919
00:49:50,400 --> 00:49:52,239
Speaker 5: members are missing, and they made some phone calls and

920
00:49:52,320 --> 00:49:54,960
Speaker 5: they were in prison. They had been been thrown in

921
00:49:55,040 --> 00:49:57,480
Speaker 5: the can back in New York City the night before.

922
00:49:58,000 --> 00:49:59,680
Speaker 5: So they had some They had two roadies go on

923
00:49:59,760 --> 00:50:01,120
Speaker 5: stay to fill out the band.

924
00:50:04,680 --> 00:50:06,480
Speaker 1: Andrew, I know you yeah, I.

925
00:50:06,560 --> 00:50:08,920
Speaker 2: Mean, we could write a book just in these to

926
00:50:09,040 --> 00:50:15,080
Speaker 2: be honest with you. Uh, well, first of all, I've walked,

927
00:50:15,200 --> 00:50:20,120
Speaker 2: I've walked the artists through kitchens by mistake like spinally,

928
00:50:20,120 --> 00:50:23,160
Speaker 2: you know, like you know. And then oh also I

929
00:50:23,239 --> 00:50:25,880
Speaker 2: remember artists writing down where they were you know, so

930
00:50:26,000 --> 00:50:29,200
Speaker 2: they don't say, you know, hello Cleveland when they're in Chicago. Right.

931
00:50:29,840 --> 00:50:32,720
Speaker 2: But one of the funniest things is at the Central

932
00:50:32,760 --> 00:50:36,239
Speaker 2: Main Youth Center and it's uh, it's kind of a

933
00:50:36,280 --> 00:50:38,320
Speaker 2: spinal tap moment. And this would be perfect because the

934
00:50:38,400 --> 00:50:41,560
Speaker 2: guys that are English supposedly in spinal right. And you know,

935
00:50:42,239 --> 00:50:44,160
Speaker 2: so I had to do with lobsters. So when I

936
00:50:44,239 --> 00:50:46,160
Speaker 2: sold out a show, a couple of things would happen.

937
00:50:46,480 --> 00:50:49,160
Speaker 2: I would have t shirts made to commemorate the date,

938
00:50:49,520 --> 00:50:51,319
Speaker 2: you know, with the name of the thing, blah blah blah,

939
00:50:51,480 --> 00:50:53,239
Speaker 2: you know the day, and you know, give them to

940
00:50:53,280 --> 00:50:55,279
Speaker 2: the crew, give them to my crew, and also get

941
00:50:55,320 --> 00:50:59,040
Speaker 2: them lobsters. So with Marshall Tucker, I got them a

942
00:50:59,080 --> 00:51:01,359
Speaker 2: bunch of lobsters was in there. In there we were

943
00:51:01,360 --> 00:51:02,880
Speaker 2: going to cook them, show them how we cook them

944
00:51:02,920 --> 00:51:06,239
Speaker 2: and stuff. So I go into the dressing room. Two

945
00:51:06,360 --> 00:51:08,480
Speaker 2: things I see. The first part is I see all

946
00:51:08,520 --> 00:51:11,720
Speaker 2: these lobsters on the floor. They thought they did Grayson.

947
00:51:12,000 --> 00:51:13,359
Speaker 2: They says they were gonna have great. You know, they

948
00:51:13,440 --> 00:51:18,239
Speaker 2: from different with the Spartanburg, South Carolina, right, the fu'mint right,

949
00:51:18,840 --> 00:51:20,920
Speaker 2: and so they had all the options. I said. They don't.

950
00:51:20,920 --> 00:51:24,000
Speaker 2: They're not gonna move guys. You know. The other thing

951
00:51:24,080 --> 00:51:25,880
Speaker 2: I mentioned I don't even know if I told this

952
00:51:26,040 --> 00:51:29,560
Speaker 2: to to Ford, was uh, there was probably well I

953
00:51:29,680 --> 00:51:32,879
Speaker 2: saw listen, there was there's there's a whole other book

954
00:51:32,920 --> 00:51:34,800
Speaker 2: on drugs and all the stuff back stage and stuff.

955
00:51:34,800 --> 00:51:37,600
Speaker 2: But I remembered Marshall Tucker and uh, you know when

956
00:51:37,640 --> 00:51:40,480
Speaker 2: you have a one of these right, uh, you know,

957
00:51:40,719 --> 00:51:44,200
Speaker 2: like filled with cocaine, like you know, usually everybody had

958
00:51:44,239 --> 00:51:46,360
Speaker 2: like a little mouth. They had that like and I

959
00:51:46,520 --> 00:51:48,800
Speaker 2: was like, all right, I guess this is you know,

960
00:51:49,480 --> 00:51:52,200
Speaker 2: they're having some fun here. But uh, yeah, there was

961
00:51:52,280 --> 00:51:54,239
Speaker 2: a lot of stuff though. I mean you could go

962
00:51:54,360 --> 00:51:56,520
Speaker 2: back to me opening the doors earlier. I mean that

963
00:51:56,520 --> 00:51:59,080
Speaker 2: would be you know, at the show. Oh I got

964
00:51:59,120 --> 00:52:01,440
Speaker 2: a really good one. So this is a little afterwards.

965
00:52:01,800 --> 00:52:04,839
Speaker 2: This is van Halen. Van Halen already came through. Now

966
00:52:04,880 --> 00:52:09,400
Speaker 2: we're past seventy seven. Van Halen came through the shows

967
00:52:09,440 --> 00:52:12,560
Speaker 2: I did. They came through with Black Sabbath. There's an opener,

968
00:52:12,600 --> 00:52:13,680
Speaker 2: which is crazy show.

969
00:52:13,800 --> 00:52:13,920
Speaker 6: Right.

970
00:52:14,440 --> 00:52:17,280
Speaker 2: Then they came through on their own. They wanted instead

971
00:52:17,280 --> 00:52:19,360
Speaker 2: of doing the whole Civic Center in Portland's coming to

972
00:52:19,440 --> 00:52:21,719
Speaker 2: County Civic Center they said, we want to put a

973
00:52:21,800 --> 00:52:24,200
Speaker 2: curtain up and just do five thousand people. And I

974
00:52:24,320 --> 00:52:26,200
Speaker 2: was like, you know, I thought that was you know,

975
00:52:26,400 --> 00:52:29,160
Speaker 2: I'll do whatever they want. But I had a promoter.

976
00:52:29,320 --> 00:52:31,719
Speaker 2: I had a partner, Larry Vaughan in New York. He said,

977
00:52:31,760 --> 00:52:33,279
Speaker 2: don't get the curtain. He said, what do you mean,

978
00:52:33,320 --> 00:52:35,760
Speaker 2: don't get the curtain. We're going to see there's no curtain.

979
00:52:35,760 --> 00:52:37,800
Speaker 2: It's a giant curtain that goes to the sides and

980
00:52:37,880 --> 00:52:40,640
Speaker 2: cut out the plate. So I remember it was Ed

981
00:52:40,760 --> 00:52:44,040
Speaker 2: Leffler was the manager. You remember Ed, Yeah, sure, the

982
00:52:44,160 --> 00:52:46,960
Speaker 2: tour manager. They sat me down and there was like

983
00:52:47,080 --> 00:52:51,719
Speaker 2: they grilled me, like where is the curtain? You know.

984
00:52:52,280 --> 00:52:53,920
Speaker 2: We had to come up with some Mickey Mouse sing

985
00:52:54,080 --> 00:52:56,440
Speaker 2: that day, but it was kind of a spinal tap thing.

986
00:52:56,560 --> 00:53:00,359
Speaker 2: But I think the Lobsters is probably my favorite. Uh

987
00:53:01,080 --> 00:53:02,120
Speaker 2: there's so many right.

988
00:53:02,480 --> 00:53:04,600
Speaker 1: What a visual? My god? I love it.

989
00:53:04,680 --> 00:53:06,640
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, there saw them as you know, Marshall. I

990
00:53:06,680 --> 00:53:09,800
Speaker 2: mean in those days, I realized doing Southern Rock and

991
00:53:09,920 --> 00:53:12,520
Speaker 2: Maine that was a you were going to sell out,

992
00:53:12,640 --> 00:53:15,560
Speaker 2: you know. I mean I probably did Charlie Daniels five

993
00:53:15,640 --> 00:53:20,680
Speaker 2: or six times, Grindest Rich, the Outlaws, Atlanta rhythm section

994
00:53:21,760 --> 00:53:25,520
Speaker 2: thirty eight special right, Marshall Tucker. Of course, all the

995
00:53:25,640 --> 00:53:28,760
Speaker 2: all of them, Yeah, all the ones that were you know, grindes.

996
00:53:28,760 --> 00:53:30,600
Speaker 2: Switch showed up to every show. It seemed like I

997
00:53:30,640 --> 00:53:31,320
Speaker 2: don't know why.

998
00:53:31,280 --> 00:53:36,680
Speaker 1: But you know, yeah, Oh my god, this has been amazing. Guys.

999
00:53:36,880 --> 00:53:39,160
Speaker 4: I've just loved every second of it. Ford give the

1000
00:53:39,280 --> 00:53:42,320
Speaker 4: book one more plug on where people can get it.

1001
00:53:42,600 --> 00:53:45,880
Speaker 4: And a long long time ago and you did get

1002
00:53:45,960 --> 00:53:49,360
Speaker 4: Don McClain, he gave you permission to use that.

1003
00:53:49,560 --> 00:53:51,239
Speaker 1: I see, yeah, he did.

1004
00:53:51,960 --> 00:53:52,279
Speaker 2: He did.

1005
00:53:52,520 --> 00:53:55,480
Speaker 5: I a long long time because the first two lines

1006
00:53:55,520 --> 00:53:57,680
Speaker 5: of American Pie a long long time ago. I can

1007
00:53:58,160 --> 00:54:00,200
Speaker 5: remember how the music used to make me smile. The

1008
00:54:01,280 --> 00:54:03,000
Speaker 5: I sent him a note, told him what I was doing,

1009
00:54:03,080 --> 00:54:07,200
Speaker 5: said it was one hundred percent for nonprofit, and he

1010
00:54:07,680 --> 00:54:09,800
Speaker 5: was kind enough to let me use it as a title.

1011
00:54:10,160 --> 00:54:13,480
Speaker 1: That's awesome. So tell folks how to get the book again.

1012
00:54:13,960 --> 00:54:17,000
Speaker 5: The book I'm Sorry is available on Amazon is thirty dollars.

1013
00:54:17,080 --> 00:54:19,960
Speaker 5: One hundred percent of the proceeds goes to Main Historical Society,

1014
00:54:20,600 --> 00:54:24,160
Speaker 5: Amazon or my personal website is halfway rock dot com

1015
00:54:25,160 --> 00:54:27,000
Speaker 5: and at the local bookstores here in Maine.

1016
00:54:27,520 --> 00:54:28,319
Speaker 1: Amazing time.

1017
00:54:28,520 --> 00:54:31,040
Speaker 4: Andrews so good to see you forward so great to

1018
00:54:31,160 --> 00:54:34,600
Speaker 4: meet you, and thanks for taking us on a walk

1019
00:54:34,640 --> 00:54:35,680
Speaker 4: through music history.

1020
00:54:35,960 --> 00:54:37,640
Speaker 5: Thanks so much for doing it, Buzz, thank you.

1021
00:54:38,600 --> 00:54:41,040
Speaker 6: Thanks for listening to this episode of the Taking a

1022
00:54:41,080 --> 00:54:44,920
Speaker 6: Walk podcast. Share this and other episodes with your friends

1023
00:54:45,080 --> 00:54:48,560
Speaker 6: and follow us so you never miss an episode. Taking

1024
00:54:48,600 --> 00:54:52,440
Speaker 6: a Walk is available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,

1025
00:54:52,719 --> 00:54:54,920
Speaker 6: and wherever you get your podcasts.