Starrs In Our Eyes

 

 Starrs in our Eyes

By Kris Spackman & Sil Perrone

With a Little Help From My Friends

July 1978

 

Sunday, February 19, 1978, was a day of dreams.  There was bright sunshine, beautiful blue skies and a euphoric, ecstatic haze around us all brought upon by the state of shock we were finding ourselves extras on the set of the Ringo special.  It was one of those days we prayed would never end.  We could’ve stayed on forever!

We’d found out in advance that the special was to go into production at NBC in late February.  And so, bright and early that fateful Sunday morning, the 4 of us:  Pattie, Sil, Leslie, and I went over to NBC to wait for Ringo, and we hoped, George, to drive in for rehearsal.  We spoke to the guard at the gate who said he wasn’t sure they’d be in, then sat down in the parking lot to wait.  Only minutes later, the guard came out of his little booth, strolled over to us, and casually announced, “I just talked to some of the dancers on the set; they said Ringo’s over at A&M Studios today.”  A&M?  My first thought was, “Then George can’t possibly be with him.”  But, we thought, it’s logical they may be pre-recording the soundtrack?  We thanked the guard, hoping he wasn’t just trying to get rid of us, jumped into Sil’s car, and took off.  It was a nerve-wracking drive, mixed with choruses of “I don’t believe it!” to “Do you think he’s really there?”  But at this point, anything was worth a try!

Well – we owe that guard a big bottle of champagne!  The famous A&M Studios are located behind and next to a Safeway Supermarket in Hollywood, with a fence between the two.  The fence is covered over with canvas, leaving only little peep-holes at the bottom.  Sil pulled to a stop near the fence and Pattie, Leslie, and I tumbled out and raced over, dropping to our knees to peek thru.  Silence.  Then from Pattie, a chocked “Omigod, it’s him!”  There, across the parking lot, was Ringo, standing and talking to a couple of people. He was surrounded by TV equipment and lights and we realized with a jolt that they were going to, or in the process of, filming for the special!

After just looking at him for a few minutes and feeling all those crazy things you feel with it’s been 2 whole years since you last saw one of them, I jumped up and said, “I’m going around and walked by the front gate.”

“I’ll go with you,” Sil said and off we dashed, trying to appear calm, cool, and collected as we approached the gate and peeked in.  He was still there, wearing black trousers, a white shirt, and black vest, with a red scarf knotted round his neck, looking as gorgeous and healthy, and as “Ringo” as ever!

“I’m going to go back and get those guys,” Sil said and moments later, we were all peering thru the gate.

As we almost expected, we were immediately approached by a young man wearing an A&M security T-shirt, and we braced ourselves for the inevitable, “Sorry, but you can’t stand here.”

But when it came out as “Would you like to be extras on the Ringo Starr show?” we all just stood there and gaped at him, with our mouths hanging open probably to our knees!  None of us could manage a word.  We must have just nodded somewhat coherently as he ushered us in, pointed to a doorway and said, “Go on into the soundstage over there; there’s coffee and donuts, and someone will talk to you about signing a release.  Don’t wander around and get in anyone’s way and you’ll be fine.”

Zombie-like, we obeyed, and mumbled over and over, “I don’t believe it!”  “I’m gonna die!” “This CAN” T be for real” And maintaining so much cool, I’ll never know how we did it!  The coffee and donut room was a big barnlike soundstage; other extras were there like ourselves, while technicians ran all over the place.  We had our coffee, while a very nice young lady, Shelley, had us sign release forms, and explained they would not be using us for a while, and she wasn’t sure herself, exactly what we’d be doing.  She said she was glad we were there because they’d been dying for people the day before, and pulling them in off the street.  We assured her we couldn’t be happier than to be there. Then she left us and we wandered back and forth, just watching and still feeling like four volcanoes about to explode!

 

Also inside the room was a set-up of TV monitors and Sony video machines.  People were beginning to gather round them, so we followed and found ourselves watching Ringo and John Ritter in the process of filming a scene from the show, the one in which John reads off all the crazy activities Ringo is scheduled for that day, and it was a real crack up to watch as they did several takes.  The errors were even funnier.  In one, Ringo knocked the clipboard from Ritter’s hand, one or the other would fluff a line, and they’d break up.  But Ringo was very serious about getting things exactly right, and we could tell he was working incredibly hard.  As the scene was played back on the monitors, John Ritter came in to watch with us, and accepted our compliments with delightfully shy grins and “thank yous,” hugging Leslie in the process.  He was such a dear.  We all fell in love!  (He is also one hell of a Beatle fan, and was almost as excited to be working with Ringo as we were.  He even told us he felt like he was “14 all over again.”)  Then, Ringo wandered thru, asking, in passing, how we liked it so far.  (Actually, he kinda snuck up on us; we were all so engrossed with the monitors, we didn’t even know he was there until he spoke!)

The next scene they did was when he walked into the studio to play “I’m the Greatest.”  That took several takes because he kept blowing “I’m the greatest, and you better believe it, baby!”  The music wasn’t coming thru to his liking and they stopped for several adjustments, including putting pillows in the bass drums.  While making adjustments to his drums, a muttered “These little fuckers won’t stay down!” broke us all up!

In the meantime, across the soundstage, another “change” was taking place.  A young actor by the name of Hank Jones was being made up to look like Ringo.  And I mean, it was from scratch on up!  We watched in wonder as he acquired, via the wonders of the make-up department, a nose, eyebrows, beard, mustache, and even a head of hair.  Pattie and Sil both took pictures as they progressed, and we were all quite amazed at the results!  (Remember the “Yellow Sub” dance scene?  That was Ringo as Ognir and Ognir (or Hank) as Ringo!)  In most of the scenes, Ringo played both parts and dubbed in his voice, but Hank had his bits as well.  He was there in parts of the recording studio, and at the concert scene at the end.  HE told us he’d been chosen for his build and height more than for any facial resemblance to Ringo.  And with the makeup job that was done on him, that was really all that was necessary.  Meantime, Pattie coached him on how to walk like Ringo.

The scene was the 2 of them in the studio was also done several times.  Ringo blew the word “boulevard” when asking Ognir about his cruising, then kept saying it over and over in a foreign accent as “Voule-vard.”  He also had a hard time with the “Nobody’ll know” line and kept saying it as “Nobody’ll care.”  But best of all was fluffed, “Just tell ‘em you’re on a break and they’ll leave you alone,” which, after several aborted takes, came out as “Just tell’em you’re on a fuckin’ break!”  We nearly died laughing!

From what we’d been told, they’d been filming since 7 in the morning, and they worked straight thru that day until nearly 2 without a break.  By 1, we were starving and at Shelley’s reassurance we wouldn’t miss anything, we dashed across the street to the Copper Penny, ate like maniacs, and came back in 30 minutes to find Pioneer chicken dinners being brought in for everyone!

Ringo had passed back and forth thru the soundstage several times between takes and conversations with the crew.  There were 2 motor homes being used as his and John Ritter’s dressing rooms and they had lunch, we assumed, inside.

After lunch, the crew began setting up outside in the parking lot/courtyard.  We still had no idea what we were going to be doing, and once again asked Shelley if she knew.   She finally found out that they weren’t satisfied with a scene done the day before with the fans converging on the limo as Ringo arrives at the studio (The opening scene in the special).  The director wanted to re-do it, and we were to be in a gang of fans chasing the car.  We found it pretty amusing.  Is there anything Ringo hates more than a scene like that?  We would never have the nerve to do that in “real life.”

A moment later, Ringo emerged from his trailer, now dressed as Ognir and there was Hank dressed as Ringo.  It was getting on in the afternoon and the sunlight was beginning to fade; so, the director was hurrying everyone along.  The scene they were doing was the one in which Ognir is struggling to open the newspaper boxes outside A&M and upend them.  It was an absolute delight to be able to stand just a few feet away from him and watch him do the take several times.  He was just soooo cute!  Sil and Pattie managed to take a couple of pictures while Leslie and I just stood by and just beamed.  Then they moved around to do the bit where “Ringo” invites Ognir in to see the studio; as Ognir-Ringo asked Ringo-Hank if he was going to do “Yesterday,” Ringo-Hank replied, “That’s not my song,” and Ognir-Ringo added jovially, “And Paul did such a fine job on it!”  We loved it!

As they finished the scene, I just couldn’t restrain myself another minute.  I went up to Ringo and said, “Oh Ringo, you’re just terrific!”  He smiled and put his arm around me:  “Thank you, darling.”  And I am still around to tell the tale!

 

After that, he disappeared once more into the trailer for another costume change.  It was then that Shelley came up and regretfully told us they wouldn’t have time to re-shoot the scene they wanted us for after all.  She apologized for hanging us up all day and we were quick to assure her we wouldn’t have missed it for the world!  We were just disappointed we hadn’t got in the scene.  The day’s shooting was still not finished.  We heard later they worked until nearly 3 in the morning that night!  But we were politely told we couldn’t hang around, though they did allow us to wait for him to emerge once more from the trailer.  And we left A&M with “Starrs in our eyes.”

 

But it wasn’t over yet.  The rest of the week was spent with us chasing all over L.A. looking for him on location, staking out NBC at 6am every morning because we heard that tickets were to be made available for the concert segment of the show, then at last minute they weren’t.  That resulted in our making a million panicked phone calls to everyone we knew with even the slightest connection to the record business of any kind in an attempt to get tickets anyway!  It was absolute insanity.

Then it was Tuesday night, February 21, going on 10pm.  After a fruitless night of cruising about town.  Pattie, Sil, Sue, and I decided we’d take one more ride down the Strip, and head on home.  On our way back, Sue and I took a quick look in the parking lot of the restaurant we heard that a certain favorite actor of ours frequents.   Over in the corner as we passed by, I thought and said aloud, “I think I saw a green car back there, you guys.”  AT this point, we were exhausted and discouraged, and Sil said, “Should we go back?”

Said Pattie, “Yeah, let’s.”  And so Sil executed one of her famous U-turns in the middle of Sunset Blvd!  WE returned to the restaurant and sure enough, there was Ringo’s car!  We were in a state of shock – what a chance in a million!  But that wasn’t all:  as we sat in an adjacent parking lot waiting for him to emerge, he was proceeded by another curly-haired guy that Sue and I had been dying to see:  Paul Michael Glaser!  We all went nuts as he turned to get into his car which was brought to the door by one of the valets.  I was absolutely delighted, and we were all freaked out: what in the world were the chances of anything like this ever happening?  Ringo and “Starsky” in the same place at the same time!

It was at least an hour before Ringo emerged, looking like he was thoroughly enjoying himself.  We just sat and watched, not wanting to intrude.  He was with Nancy, but they left in separate cars after chatting for a few minutes, and a very lengthy and cozy goodnight kiss!

And then it was 7am Sunday, February 26, and we were gathered outside NBC.  Our million phone calls and persistence paid off:  13 of us had tickets to get in to see Ringo do the concert bit that night at 8pm!  Yea, we were there at 7 in the morning, because our tickets were yellow, marked “first come, first serve, no guarantee basis” and would admit us after the holders of the “white privileged” tickets got in.  It was one wild and crazy day!  We picnicked, took our turns casing the place, got caught in a four-hour winter rainstorm, and chased everyone who arrived after us (the first of which didn’t show up until 1pm) to the end of the line.

By 7pm, our collective nerves were worn to a frazzle and we were all almost exhausted.  Huddled under blankets and umbrellas, we waited for the doors to be opened.  The tickets said the bearer should be there no later than 7:15. At the prescribed time, we and about 100 other people were escorted inside to a large soundstage.  Holders of the white tickets were seated on one side and yellow on the other.  We were told the rehearsals had gone over time, and it would be a bit before we’d be seated in the room where the stage was.  The next half hour or so passed with agonizing slowness.  But finally, row by row, the white holders were taken in.  We were the first of the yellow bunch, and we were all just deliriously crazy with joy when they finally admitted us.  We were seated at an angle to the stage, which was covered by a pyramid-like screen.  Across the room, we spotted John Ritter, who spotted us back and raised his clenched hands with a big grin as if he was really delighted, we’d gotten in.  The rest of the ticket holders were seated.

Then came the announcement: “And here he is, Ringo Starr!”  We held our breath, then let out a cheer as the screen was raised to reveal him seated at the drums on a raised, star-shaped platform.  He looked just gorgeous in a red jacket and white shirt, but he seemed pretty nervous.  The rest of the audience was the biggest bunch of duds, who just sat there.  We couldn’t believe it!  Here they were, seeing Ringo in a “concert” for the first time ever since Bangla Desh, and they just sat there!  Well, we more than made up for it.  He sang “Hard Times” and “Heart on my Sleeve,” while we clapped and bounced along, and gave a rousing cheer at the finish.  It was such a tremendous thrill.  One of those things you can’t even believe while you’re sitting there experiencing it.

He seemed to loosen up a bit and kept grinning in our direction, seeming to sense how for him we were and how very very much we were enjoying him.  Then he said, “Here’s one you haven’t heard in a long time and probably won’t hear again,” and went into “You’re Sixteen.”  Zonkers!

The director then talked to him over the loudspeaker, asking him to do it once more.  Ringo apologized for the repeat performance, saying that was the way it was on TV.  Little did he know we could’ve sat there forever.  We reacted to him almost every time he opened his mouth, and pretty soon he was throwing out “Milk bottle” and “brown shoe!”  At one point he leaned into the mike and said, looking our way, “that’s not my song.”  Pattie, Sil, Leslie, and I just freaked, because that’d been one of the lines he’d been repeating all day at A&M!  He had to have remembered us.

He introduced the rest of the bad including Dr. John, Keith Allison, and Vini, who was wearing a red jogging suit and boppin’ around in the background.  They began the set again and this time, he messed up a line and dropped a drumstick, which tickled us, then at the finish, the director said they’d need another take because of technical problems.

Ringo sat for a moment then suddenly they broke into “Act Naturally.”  I think we gave off a collective gasp of shock, then a collective cheer.  Following that, he asked if there were any requests.   We sat unable to think of a thing.  Then someone called out, “Photograph!” But Keith Allison sang instead.

As they prepared to re-do the original set again, he reminded us to “be surprised” when they introduced him.  As the saying goes, “the best is last” and he really was tremendously electrifying.  He sang and played beautifully, smiled, and made faces.  That was our sweet Ringo up there, and we loved it to death!

At the end, we went up to the stage in spite of the announcement and ushers asking everyone to leave.  While he was in the room, we weren’t going anywhere!  He walked around the stage for a few minutes, waved and smiled, and bid us goodnight before leaving.  For a few brief minutes, Sil managed to slip backstage and reported Nancy was back there (she’d also been in the audience) and gave him a great big kiss!

We went back out into the rainy night feeling so good, so happy, just high with that crazy feeling you get being around them.  The whole week had been one we’d never forget, one of the best ever!  We’ll always have Starrs in our eyes!

 

Ringo Starr in Holland

 Ringo Starr in Holland

By Fenno Wekman

With a Little Help From My Friends

October 1977

 

One day Erik Bakker of Beatles Unlimited magazine phoned me and told me that Ringo Starr was coming on October 1, 1976, to Holland to promote his last record.   Erik asked me if I would like to come along with B.U. and to take some photos of Ringo at Schiphol airport.  I said yes and he knew that Ringo would arrive at 17.30 PM.  From Polydor, I heard that Ringo was going to promote his new long-play record, Rotogravure.

On October 1^st Erik and I went to Schiphol at 17.00 PM.  I went into the tax-free shop of Schiphol and found Ringo with two girlfriends while he was waiting for his luggage.   I went towards Ringo and told him that I was a fan of The Beatles and asked him for his autograph.  He gave me his autograph on a promotional paper which I carried with me.  I had more promotional papers with me and I gave them all to Nancy, who is Ringo’s girlfriend at the moment. 

I talked with Ringo for some moments and after that, Ringo stood up and went into the arrival-hall where Erik was waiting.  HE offered Nancy a bunch of flowers and Ringo a bottle of Dutch gin, and also gave him the B.U. magazines.   Ringo thanked Erik and went to his car and drove to the Okura Hotel in Amsterdam.  We followed him.

When we arrived at the Okura Hotel some people were waiting for Ringo:  Henk of B.U., Jan and Raymond of The Beatles Work Group.  They all asked Ringo for his autograph and some other things. Then Ringo went into the hotel and we followed, meanwhile taking pictures of Ringo and Nancy.  They went upstairs. B.U. offered Ringo’s driver a drink and we asked him what Ringo was planning to do during his stay in Holland, but the driver knew nothing about his plans.  B.U. informed the others and me about Ringo’s plan though.  I went home but the B.U. staff stayed behind in the Okura hotel.  Erik asked if B.U. could get an interview with Ringo.  The answer was yes – but not now!  One of the reasons for this answer was that the name of the magazine was wrong.  The word “Beatles” was not allowed as part of the name of the mag.

On Sunday evening Ringo went to The Hague to visit the Hollie’s concert.  I knew that, and phoned a friend of mine named Jos of The Beatles Work Group and asked him if he wanted to go with me to the Congrewgebouw where the Hollies’ concert was held that evening.  We went there, to the artists’ rooms.  When we arrived there, a guard was standing in front of the door and told us we were not allowed to go in.  But after 15 minutes of talking to him we persuaded him to let us in.  We had to wait for about 15 minutes for Ringo, then he arrived with Nancy.  Jos asked for an autograph and gave Ringo a huge colour picture of Paul McCartney which I took at the Wings concert in Rotterdam.    Ringo liked the picture but he couldn’t take it with him, so he asked us to bring it to his hotel.  I asked Nancy about an interview and she said it would be all right.  To take this interview, we needed a tape recorder, but the only one we knew who had one was Erik in Amsterdam in the Okura Hotel.  I phoned Erik to ask him if we could borrow the tape recorder, but he wasn’t there.  That was a great disappointment for me, but there was nothing I could do about it.  We sat for about two hours with Ringo and he was singing old Beatles songs (like Octopus’ Garden) and had a lot of drinks.   After that Ringo went into the hall where the Hollies would sing.  When he saw the Hollies, he shouted a lot of funny things to them like “we want the air that you breathe!”

During the concert, Jos and I sat right behind Ringo and when the concert was over, we went back to the artists’ room and went to the bar where we had another drink.  I was sitting there for about 10 minutes when Ringo’s friend Hillery Gerrard came towards me and asked what my opinion was about the Dutch record company.  He talked with the manager of Polydor-International and told him that he wanted him to help us with the promotion of Ringo’s records, so this man gave his word that he would do so.  Hillery gave us a sort of sheriff’s star, the same Ringo was wearing.

 

In the meantime, Jos went home because he had to work in the morning.  I stayed behind.  When Ringo went to the Bel Air Hotel in The Hague, I went with him.  I the hotel I talked with Nancy, Hillery and Ringo for about 15 minutes.  Ringo gave me a drink and said to me that he would like to see me the next day and that I could go home to sleep and develop the film I made that evening and that’s just what a did.

The next morning, I took the train to Hilversum where Ringo was going to give an interview for the Dutch Radio between 12.00 and 12.30 pm.  I had to wait for about 20 minutes and then Ringo arrived.  So did Erik.  I was wearing a star so all the people who worked for the radio station thought that I had come there together with Ringo.  I said nothing about it because everyone would let me follow him.  The radio programme was live and the disc jockey was Joost den Draaier.  He welcomed Ringo and friends and started the interview, and I started filming and taking pictures.

After the radio programme Ringo went to a press conference in Bussum.  Erik gave me a lift to the Okura hotel.  We went to the lounge waiting for Ringo.  I was writing a letter to Paul McCartney because Ringo had promised me he’d give it to Paul with the colour photo from Rotterdam.  After 30 minutes Erik said to me that he would phone Henk, fellow editor of B.U.  As he went to the phone booth, Ringo suddenly came back into the lounge.   I went to him and reminded him that he had promised to give an interview to Beatles Unlimited mag.  Ringo asked if the name had already been changed.  I told him yes and he agreed to give the interview to Unlimited.  Nancy told me their room number, so Erik and I followed.  We went into the room where Ringo was waiting for us.  While Erik started the interview, I continued my letter to Paul.  Erik was very angry with me because he couldn’t understand that I was writing a little to Paul in the same room where Ringo was.  My task was to take pictures and he couldn’t understand why I wasn’t doing so. 

 After the interview, I went home, and the next day Ringo did a TV program which was his last in Holland.  Unlimited was there of course.  After the interview, I went home.  The promotion activities of Ringo for his new album had almost ended.  He only visited on Tuesday evening the only Dutch talk show and had his talk again.  When the talk show started with the opening tune, Ringo played the drums in the orchestra.  Besides the promotion talk, a promo film of one of the songs (made for Germany) was shown.  Unlimited was also present and took many pictures and films.  But their activities also stopped because Ringo went holidaying. 

Ringo stayed another week in Holland to rest from the very tiring weeks he had promoting his album all over Europe.  His children visited him one day.  After this week, Ringo went away very silently and nobody noticed him again.

 

Full House & Letting Go

 

Paul McCartney and Wings – Full House & Letting Go

Hammersmith Odeon, 18^th September 1975 – 8pm

By Margaret Drayton

With a Little Help From My Friends

October 1975

 

The house lights go down.  The opening strains of “Venus and Mars” come across the expectant audience – slightly off there, Linda, but it doesn’t matter, the curtain’s rising and we’ll be seeing Macca any second.  Suddenly there he is!  He looks really incredible dressed in black trousers kimono style jacket and red t-shirt.  I sit with eyes glued on his face – and from five rows from the back that’s no mean feat!  From “Venus and Mars” the band breaks into “Rock Show” followed by “Jet”- the audience is really rocking with them.   Someone calls out “What about John Lennon?” and one of the band (I couldn’t make out which one, unfortunately) replies “What about him?”  Paul introduces Denny as singing the next number and then realizes that it’s “Let Me Roll It” and Denny’s not singing lead until the next one, “Spirits of Ancient Egypt.”  Those two songs over in the right order and sung by the right people.  Paul switches to piano and plays the introduction to “Little Woman Love.”  Denny does something wrong and Paul stops playing and says, “No, no, I’m not having that” rather crossly.   My heart is in my mouth as I think they’re going to have a row – the tension mounts.  Paul plays the intro again and the bad patch passes as they swing into “Little Woman Love / C Moon” medley with no further hitches.  I’ve no idea what Denny did wrong but it must have been something drastic for Paul to react the way he did.  Then it’s that lovely song “Maybe I’m Amazed” which he sings beautifully followed by “Lady Madonna” – the applause gets really loud for this one.  Unfortunately, Linda spoils it by singing flat but who cares – it’s so great to see Paul performing a Beatle song.  As if to confirm that he’s proud of his past he then does “The Long and Winding Road” – swoon!  Jimmy is introduced as singing the next number “Medicine Jar” which he does really well proving what a good voice he’s got and how well he can play that guitar.  With Paul out of the spotlight, I noticed for the first time that Joe is a really good drummer.

 

Next, there’s a lot of moving around the stage as they line up the chairs for the acoustic session -
Picasso’s Last Words (Drink to Me)”, “Richard Cory” sung by Denny almost as well as the version by Simon and Garfunkel.  “Bluebird” where Paul asks if we know what a rhythm box is and says “Bine of you do!”  The fourth song is “I’ve Just Seen a Face” which Paul describes as being “skiffley.”   As if that song wasn’t enough, Paul is left alone on stage to sing “Blackbird” and “Yesterday.”  It’s too much.  You barely notice what a fantastic guitarist he is, he looks so lovely just sitting there singing.

The band comes back and Paul dedicates “You Gave Me the Answer” to Jack Buchanan as he sits and the piano ready to sing.  Linda yells “What about Fred?” referring to the previous concert where it was dedicated to Fred Astaire.  (Paul changed it because the audience in the concert before that hadn’t heard of Jack Buchanan).  This time he obviously expects us to know of Jack as he asks us if we’ve all heard of him and on receiving the reply “yes” breaks into the song.  Denny introduces “Magneto and Titanium Man” as friends of his and they sing the song against a back-projection showing the three characters which is very effective.  Denny then does that old standby, “Go Now” and the band performs “Live and Let Die” with flashing lights.  “Call Me Back Again” and “My Love” followed.  Somewhere in this sequence Paul gets mixed up with which instrument he’s meant to be playing.  There are so many instrument changes it’s a wonder they remember them at all – this time he straps on his guitar, takes it off, and heads for the piano.  Denny yells “I knew he’d do that.”  Another time Linda got up from the piano as Paul headed for it and they bumped into each other.  HE just moved her out of the way without appearing to say anything to her – in fact, he ignored her for most of the concert, the only other time they were together being when they provided the backing vocals for “Go Now.”  “Listen To What The Man Said” starts and we go down to the front to get a closer look.  Linda, who had been relatively unobtrusive until now (in fact she’s been so bored with the whole thing that she’s been forgetting to come in with the backing vocals several times), starts showing off.  She dances around and points at the audience (well, she only plays one-handed keyboards!) and generally looks ugh.  I turn my attention to Paul and stand transfixed as he announces the new song “Letting Go.”  He follows this with “Band on the Run” which is accompanied by a film showing the cover of the LP being photographed.  Then comes “Junior’s Farm” – my eyes never leave his face.  He looks so gorgeous that I’m now really taking in the music or the audience going wild around me.  I’m just standing there staring at him.  Suddenly my friend Kathy nudges me in the ribs and points at Denny and Linda who are over to the left of the stage right in front of us.  He pulls away from kissing her and runs his hands all up and down her back – ahem!  I’m shocked at how blatant they were – right in front of the audience where everyone can see and probably did, and there’s Paul singing his heart out on her right unaware of what’s going on.

The band leaves the stage and after minutes of applause and cheering, etc returns and do “Hi Hi Hi.”  Again they leave but the audience isn’t having it so back they come to do “Soilie” – how about releasing that one as a single, Paul?   The audience screams for more but that’s the end.  I’ve never known two hours to go so quickly.

I wish the same could be said for the next two hours.  We stood outside the stage door waiting and waiting and finally after two and a half hours he comes.  His sports car was parked right by the door and Kathy and I were standing on the nearside by the boot.  Paul came around to see Linda into the car when another car came past nearly knocking Kathy down.  Paul saw what was happening and raised his left arm shouting “Hold on a minute!”  The car safely passed, he saw Linda into the car and started to head for the boot to walk around to go to the driver’s seat.  Kathy grabbed him and kissed him on the neck and when she let go, I grabbed him and hugged him.  He didn’t seem to mind this treatment (fortunately!) and continued around the car.  I asked him for his autograph and he said, “Yes, love, come round to the other side.”  As I went to follow him, Kathy said, “Great show Paul!” and he turned and said “Thanks, love.”  A security guard tried to stop me from going round the other side of the car but I told him that Paul had said that I could and backed my words by shoving him out of the way!  By now I was right behind Paul and he had his back to me.  I got hold of his left shoulder and gently turn him round, holding out my autograph book.  I tried to put my pen into his right hand and when he finally held the pen in his left hand, he couldn’t get it to write.  There followed a ridiculous conversation about my pen Paul: “; this pen doesn’t work.  Does this pen work?”  Me: “you haven’t got it out,” repeated several times and I was talking about the pen nib!  He was a bit drunk; after the party but when he cottoned on to what I was saying he pressed the pen and I got his autograph at last!  He got into the car after I thanked him and he must have said something to Linda because she turned and smiled out the back window which of course I was peering in.  We ran down to the gates and waved as he drove off at high speed and then it was all over.  We were so high we left completely forgetting that Ringo was still at the party and if we’d waited, we might have met him too.  Still, I’d waited 12 years to meet Paul and I’d finally touched him, and all I could think of was that he couldn’t have been nicer. 

George Harrison tour stories part 3

 This is the last part of the story of the fans that were going to various George Harrison concerts during his North American Tour in 1974.    This time they are at Madison Square Garden.  This was written by Pat Simmons.

And then there was New York….

Mysteriously enough, Kris, Marla, Deb and I had all come down with malaria that Friday (December 20^th) and were unable to go to work.   Beautiful blue skies awaited us in New York City and Mary Ann had volunteered to pick us up and take us into Manhattan.  The temperatures were well into the 40s and it looked like it was going to be an all-around beautiful weekend.  We just regretted that Joy wasn’t able to afford to come with us.  We just barely, by the time we’d landed and met Tempy and four Mary Ann’s car, had enough time to go to our hotel (Park Lane – and no, he didn’t stay there.  He stayed next door at the Plaza), dump our rubbish and bop over to the Plaza to try to see George depart for the concert.  We waited right up until ten minutes to four (the show started at 4:00).  We had seen Billy, Tom, Willie, and just about everyone else leaves, but not George.  We figured out later he must’ve bopped out the side door.  We all crammed into taxis (along with Jean and Cyn from Minnesota) and proceeded toward Madison Square Garden averaging about two miles an hour most of the way.  The crowds not only with the concert but with last minute Christmas shoppers were just unreal, considering NYC is usually a rat race anyway.  Not to mention that by the time we approached Madison Square.  It was also the beginning of rush hour with people leaving work!  The group in the other taxi gave up about ten blocks from Madison Square and ran the rest of the way.  They were smarter than we were.  We finally got there and were seated about halfway through the second song.  We were in the lower balcony about halfway back.  You could see beautifully (especially thanks to Mary Ann’s binoculars!) but if you own an Instamatic camera, forget it.  It seemed hard to believe that just 3 ½ years ago Bangla Desh had happened in that very place.  This time George was wearing plaid trousers and white shirt, looking as good as ever, but also looking very tired, about to fall over.  It’s been a LONG tour.  He changed the order of songs somewhat, doing “In My Life” as the 3^rd song in the first half instead of in the second half.  During that song, instead of singing “I love you more” he sang “Olivia more” which really blew our minds – pass THAT one on to Gloria Stavers, folks!   He introduced that song by saying, “The net song is about some old friends of ours.”  And during “Sue You Sue Me Blues” he sang, “Bring your lawyer, don’t bring Klein.”  And when Billy sang “Will it Go Round in Circles” he said, “I got no melody…gonna sing it to my George.”   George introduced Ravi by saying “I would like to introduce to you the man without whom my life would be a misery and very boring.”  Lakshmi had her Apple watch on – one of the watches Ringo sells – is that right?  Anyway, it seemed funny to see her wear it.  At one point George said that he, in his other NYC shows, had been getting knocked because during the Indian section people were shouting “ice cream!  Ice cream!” And he said, “So would the people selling ice creams please shout “ice cream” a little quieter?”  That cracked everybody up.  (They didn’t shout “ice cream” any softer by the way).  That was weird seeing people bop around the aisles selling ice cream and pop (pardon me, you New York people, SODA) during George’s concert!  IT was like being at a football game.  George said before introducing “Zoom Zoom Zoom,”  “I’d just like to say that as we’re finishing this tour, what there appears to be is a battle against people’s concept of what we’re supposed to be, and this plays a big part in the battle of concept.  So, the easiest way to enjoy anything in your life is not to try to pre-judge it.  And we’d like to continue with a piece of music called “Zoom Zoom Zoom.”  When George finished introducing the Indian musicians, Ravi stepped up to the microphone and finished the intros saying, “and the fifth one, George Shankar!”  It didn’t get much response.  And during “Dispute and Violence” during each beat, George would do things like kicking his leg or slide forward or lift his guitar – that man can’t keep still even during the Indian music part.  Shame on him.  When George introduced Jim Horn and all of them, he added, “You name it, they’ll blow it.”  He once in a while would look behind him as though remember he had an audience behind him and would say, “Forgive me.  I tend to forget about you.” 

He changed the order of the songs in the 2^nd half too.  He introduced “Tom Cat” by saying “It’s a pleasure to be playing in Tommy Scott’s band.”  During “Dark Horse” he was having amplifier trouble – kept giving off a high-pitched squeak.  He kept looking around and thought things, “somebody do something!”  Eventually, somebody did, because it was all right after that.  There was an extra-long version of “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” with a long, long guitar duet between George and Robben.  He received tremendous applause afterwards, to which he said “Thank you.  Thank you.  God bless you all.”   During “Nothing From Nothing” George kept pitching in little comments, like Billy would sing “Nothing from nothing mean nothing, ain’t that right?” and George would say “Yeah, that’s right.”  Oh, when Tom did “Tom Cat,” he came up behind the unsuspecting George, who had his back to him and stood next to him.  When George finally realized someone was behind him, he turned around, grinned, put his arm around him, and proceeded to do the Harrison soft shoe!  And during the encore, he tried again to get the audience to participate saying that they’d be the back up band and the audience should be the singers.  “The Lord lives within all of us – we are a reflection of each other.  The sooner we discover ourselves within our hearts, the sooner we’ll have united nations, because it’s the same sap that runs thru the maple tree – whatever you like.  The message is to see God – it’s so hard, but it’s so easy.  And I’d just like to tell you that this band is a gas!  It didn’t take them long, did it?”  It brought the usual response, which wasn’t much, but oh well, we had fun anyway.   Just watching him on stage was worth the price of the ticket.

Between that show and the second, which would be the very last one of the tour, Cyn, Mary Ann and I went to scrounge up din-din at a coffee shop underneath Madison Square (*you’d have to see that place to believe it.  It’s fantastic!) Afterward, we ran into some scalpers who had 2nd-row seats for sale, which we promptly bought.  IT turned out that they were 2^nd row lower balcony about ¾ of the way back.  WE met up with everyone else.  Tempy and Deb had managed to get front row seats from a scalper!  Marla had one about ½ way back, the main floor, which she traded with me so that I could be on the main floor instead of the balcony.  Before the show started, while sitting there, I had itchy feet, so I bopped down to where the first half started to talk to Tempy and Deb.  Somehow, I managed to double-talk my way into the first half of the main floor.  There was an empty seat next to Deb and I managed to keep it until about halfway through the second or third song when the owner of the seat finally showed and the little man in the red coat kindly ushered me out.  I thought for a while he was planning on throwing me the rest of the way out.  I was scared to death.  Before being escorted away, dear Deb shoved her ticket at me so that I wouldn’t get thrown out altogether, and mumbled “come back during intermission and I’ll trade seats with you.”  I must have the nicest friends in the whole world or at least the most unselfish, which seems to be a rare trait in the “Beatle fans” today – generally, it seems “everyone for herself” which is rather sad.  Anyway, I wormed my way down an aisle to lose the ever-following little man in the red coat, and then wormed my way back.  Never having made a practice of this, I continued to be scared to death.  Eventually, I found an empty seat in the first section, about a third of the way back, and the seat was toward the middle where the usher couldn’t reach me, so I wormed my way in there and plonked myself down.  Still was a beautiful seat.  I noticed a couple of empty seats ahead of me a couple rows and only wished I could get the attention of Mar, Kris, Mary Ann, Cyn, and everybody else who were still back there in our super-gyp scalper seats.

I even had an extra scalper ticket for a seat up in peanut heaven which I hadn’t been able to sell at all.  People had approached me asking me to give it to them for free, which I wasn’t about to do, so it became a souvenir, an expensive one, but a souvenir.  Anyhow, I sat there in the middle of that section, terrified I would get chucked.  After a while, I got over that feeling and was finally able to enjoy the concert.

You could just feel the tension in the air because everyone, absolutely everyone it seemed was expecting Lennon to show.  But he never did.  I was really disappointed.  So were a lot of people.  We heard later that Lennon had been backstage but had decided not to join George onstage because he didn’t like the way George changed the lyrics to “In My Life” and George wouldn’t sing them the way they were supposed to be sung, so that was that.  John couldn’t have been overly mad at him though because he did show up at George’s after-tour party later that evening.

I forgot to mention that this show was a bit late in starting and guess how the extra time was filled in?  By a group of people singing Christmas carols.  And George wore this time the overalls and a yellow shirt and red tennis shoes!  He opened the show saying “Good evening, New York, take 3!”  He introduced “In My Life” this time “I’d like to do a song written by two old friends and one and a half new friends.  You figure out which is the half! (ooooh!) however we all live and learn, and the Lord bless us all.”  He again ended the song by saying, “God bless John, Paul, Ringo, and all the other x’s.”  The intro to “Sue You Sue Me Blues” – “I’d like to do a song off the Living in a Material World album which was born and bred in New York City.”  Introduction to the Indian musicians: “We’d like to enlarge the band or orchestra or whatever you want to call it and hopefully bring new preconceived ideas as to what the Lord should and should not do in our lives.  It’ll take a minute or two to plug Bushy Barkley pickups in, and hopefully, you may enjoy it depending on the kind of concept you like (Bushy Barkley pickups – what is that?).  When, one time, George went up to the mike to speak, at first it wouldn’t work and he looked panic-stricken.  He tapped at it, going “Hullo, hullo, hullo.”    Before one of the Indian songs, he mentioned “Shankar Family and Friends” album “on the Dark Horse label at your local deals now – plug, plug, plug again!”  This is called “Dispute and Violence” and you know all about that in New York!  Introducing the rest of the band: “Ace lunatic on percussion, Emil Richards!”  After introducing Robben, he announced that he was only 18!  And Jim Keltner threw his drumstick in the air, and as usual, he missed!   He introduced himself as Carl Marx.   The introduction to Maya Love was the topper when he said, “Not to be confused with My Love.”  Before “Tom Cat,” his amp broke once again and this time it really took them a while to fix it.  The band started up some background music while George inquired, “Well, anybody got any jokes?  No?  Well…”  During the Indian part, George introduced “Na Da Dani” by saying “It’s Swahili or Benga!”  Also during “I Am Missing you”; George and Kumar sang real loud and very off key trying to out-do each other and Lakshmi sounded very much like Yoko.  The two in a duet would’ve been far out.  But Yoko didn’t show up either!  Tempy did thinks she saw Julian to the side of the amps at one point.   Oh, it really took a while for that amp to get fixed and finally George plucked s trying and said “ahhh!” and the show was underway again. 

Anyway, George once said “I must tell you, since 1971, New York is much more patient and that’s a nice sign.  Thank you.”  During the encore, he tried again to get people to participate by asking them to blow the rafters off the place.  We didn’t do as bad as we thought, but in the very end George said, “See you in another 8 years.”  That was one bummer about this tour – he seemed to be totally intolerant of those who wouldn’t accept his religious beliefs, tried to shove it down your throat whether you wanted it or not, and was very sarcastic at times.  That kind of business turned me off, but it was hard staying mad at him, watching him bop around the stage and singing in what was left of his voice – a hoarse voice just ain’t too bad at times.  No sir.

During the intermission, I had bopped up front to talk with Tempy and Deb at which time Deb said “I’m switching seats with you.”  Just another little sample of how unselfish some people can be.  Turned out she was sure glad she did switch with me because after the show, while standing on Tempy’s coat, I felt this vise-like grip on my arm and there was Deb, dragging me off the chair saying “you aren’t gonna BELIEVE this…”  Turns out that just after intermission, when the house lights had gone off again, who should sit down in front of her, directly in front of her yet but Paul accompanied by Linda!  I wish you could have seen this poor kid – she was so excited.  It was her very first time ever seeing any of them close up, particularly Paul, who happens to be her fave-rave.   I was so glad it had happened to her – to someone who certainly deserved it, and to someone who had never had any kind of luck in seeing them before.  But I’ll let Debbie tell about that bit later on in this newsletter – I don’t think she’s recovered since!  Nothing, absolutely nothing, is ever quite like the first time seeing one of them close-up.

Very much elated, we bopped down the stairs of Madison Square, while I sang a rousing chorus of ’Give me Air, Give me Air…”  We were just unable to believe that the tour was over and that we wouldn’t be bopping off somewhere next weekend.  Even if Rolling Stone and the critics hadn’t liked the concerts, each one had a special meaning.

We had heard that there would be an after-tour party at a place called the Hippopotamus and we took a cab there in an effort to crash.  That bombed-out – would you believe TV nearly wasn’t let in and they didn’t let Robben in and was he mad!  We saw George arrive and when Lennon arrived, that was the REAL topper.  I heard Tempy say, “Lennon!” and I said “Lennon?”  And there he came bopping up from behind us with May Pang, grinning away, grinning even more when someone screamed.  I would’ve thought he would’ve been annoyed, but he didn’t seem to be.  When he came out he held up his arms and said “Keep cool, keep cool!”  (I did get a photo of him but it’s really blurry…blah).  Lennon was so cute.  George came out and looked very, very stoned with a blank, dull look in his eyes – it was frightening.  He was being assisted to his car.  His dad came out accompanied by a groupie!  His hair really is long.  And he used to complain about the length of his son’s hair?  Looks like George has brainwashed him into the Krishna bit because he wears those buttons and symbols all over his coat too and we hear Peter, George’s brother, who also accompanied him on part of the tour is very much into that too.  One of the best parts of the whole weekend had to be when Alla came out, you know the pudgy little bongo player in Bangla Desh and he was plowed!  Two people were helping him walk up and down the street to get some air.  He was that tanked – not realizing his problem was one too many.  I thought he was sick and walked up and asked him if he was all right.  He just grinned back and said “I’m all right.  I’m all right” and I caught a whiff of his breath and almost passed out.  That struck me so funny.  I thought their religion said they weren’t supposed to drink.  Come to think of it we never did see Ravi leave.  Anyway, that was THE perfect ending to a most perfect day. 

The next day we bopped over to the Stanhope where Paul was staying and after having a drink in the hotel’s pub in an effort to thaw out a bit, we whiled away the time fussing over every dog that trotted past.  We always seem to attract the dogs!  Mary Ann had waited with us at the Hippo but had caught the flu and couldn’t go with us to the Stanhope.  I was really sad about that.  I really wanted her to see Paul.  She had been one of the ones who’d never seen any of them either, until seeing George and John at the Hippo.  Anyhow, after about six hours of waiting, Paul and Linda finally bopped out and somehow when you see him, the waiting is always worth it and you suddenly forget that you were frozen solid just a minute ago.  They were dressed to kill, on their way to see the Sgt. Pepper play.  When he first came in, Paul’s mouth dropped open in mock astonishment and he exclaimed, “are all of you waiting for me?”  What a ham, but he was as gorgeous as ever.  There were even some older people hanging around waiting for him, wanting autographs.  Though he’d hate that, but the really loved the attention and was quite enjoying himself.  They were out there for about 10 minutes.  Don’t know how Paul could stand the cold win.  He just had a suitcoat on, no other coat, and it must have been in the 20s by then.

Sunday we spent hanging around the Plaza, having learned that George was supposed to leave that day, but after hours and hours of waiting in the freezing cold, we finally learned that he’d cut out at 6 that morning.  Leave it to George to think of something sneaky like that.  We hit the Stanhope briefly but decided we really didn’t have the time to wait because we did have to fly home and go to work the next day.  Just when we caught a cab in front of the Plaza, Kris, Mary Ann and I had gone precisely one block when we saw Jeff Raven out in front of the building and two limos slither up, so we shoved a dollar at the cab driver and wailed over, only to see Tom Scott leave. To think we paid a buck to go one block to see Tom Scott … then again, he ain't half bad!

Off to the Stanhope for about a half-hour where we finally split up, all going to our appointed airports to catch flights for home.  It was sad, breaking up the group!  Still, McCartney’s coming soon (so he says!).    We talked to Jeff a bit at the Plaza when we saw him, and when we mentioned that line George said at the last show, “See you in another 8 years,” he seemed very surprised and said that George had been saying he was very pleased with the way the tour went.  So to the people, especially the Clevelanders, that never got to see him, it seems he’ll be back again before long, and this time, maybe he’ll learn and tour in the summer.  It’s so weird being back to the “normal routine.”  Being at those concerts gave you a feeling you can’t explain in words…but you will find out when he comes back!

 

 

Following the Dark Horse Tour - part 2

The last time we read about the group of friends following George Harrison on the Dark Horse Tour.  In part 1, they saw him in Chicago and were on their way to see him in Cleveland when a snow storm came through and the Cleveland concert was canceled.   That is where the story picks up and they get a wild idea to see George in Detroit.   This part of the story was written by Pat Simmons. 

We went to drown our sorrows at McDonald's and then trudged on home, ending up amusing ourselves by looking thru photo albums and scrapbooks, listening to the Chicago concert tapes we had made, and realizing how fortunate we were to have seen George at all.  Then we were posing for insane pictures, singing obscene spontaneous songs, and just generally getting slap-happy in trying to cheer ourselves up.  Stephanie and the rest of the Cincinnati gang left for home later the next afternoon, Tuesday and Tempy left for Boston and I left for work.  I met Kris for lunch that day to cry over our Cokes – why Cleveland?  We kept moping.  It had finally stopped snowing (after 3 days of blinding blizzards) and the road had been salted and plowed and the airports finally opened the day after the concerts had been scheduled.  If only the concerts had been on December 3^rd instead of the 2^nd.  We got to wondering if Detroit’s road were cleared up like Cleveland’s now and if so, wouldn’t we just be stupid enough o drive up there, despite the show being on a weeknight and both of us having to get up at an ungodly hour for work the next day, to try to get scalper tickets, if the concerts there weren’t canceled.  Kris called the Olympia Stadium in Detroit later that afternoon and found out the shows were on one at 5:30 which we’d never made, and one at 10pm.  10PM???  Would we really be that sick?  I called the Cleveland Auto Club to find out how many miles it was to Detroit and learned it was only 177.  That’s only a 3-hour drive maybe.  Kris obtained directions to the Stadium by calling there for information.  By 6:00, armed with Howard Johnson’s popcorn and potato chips for supper, she and I and Joy and Deb were on our way to Detroit, never having been there before, hoping we had the right directions, realizing we’d only be getting there about an hour or less before the 10:00 show was to start, having no tickets and praying we’d be able to find scalpers, knowing we’d be up the entire night and Kris and I not only having to show up for full-time jobs the next morning but also both of us having to work part-time jobs that night, all with no sleep and only 3 nights ago, I’d had another night with no sleep and not more than 4 or 5 hours each night ever since Thanksgiving!  We only regretted that the Cincinnati girl and Tempy and Brenda had already left and couldn’t be insane along with us.

When we got there, we found the Olympia to be in a VERY bad area and there seemed to be no such thing as a parking space, so I invented one, on a side street practically in the middle of a snowdrift.  We found a scalper with 11^th row seats, learned that the first show had started over an hour late because George had still been stranded in Chicago and figured out show probably wouldn’t’ start until nearly midnight, so heaven only knew when we’d be getting home!  It was about a half hour after we arrived when people started to pour out of the stadium after the first show, and we waited over a half hour more for the doors to open to let us in, and over another half hour before everyone found their seats and sat down.  The crowd was very loud and rowdy and I was wondering how this concert was going to go – I’d heard of Ravi nearly getting booed off stage in some cities, which needless to say really upsets George, and I was praying that after all this, things would go well.  While waiting for everyone to sit down and while choking on that horrible smell of pot and feeling slightly ill as a result we artistically went about drawing up a sign signifying “CLEVELAND” thanks to some artistic talent and a magic marker, for which we were sure George would be most thrilled when and if he would see it.  Some guys in the row ahead of us were just incredulous we’d come all this way and that we’d also been in Chicago.  One of them had coincidentally been in Tulsa on business while George was there and he’d attended that concert and said that Leon Russel had joined George on stage and sang with him!  Anyway, these just were most impressed we’d come so far with no tickets and took such a chance, especially learning we’d have to go to work the next day as well and we received a round of applause from them for a moment.  That was most swift.

Finally the concert began.  George came on stage and said, “Good evening Detroit – take two!” and as usual George seemed a bit reserved at first, as if waiting for the audience’s reaction to him.  Billy Preston has seemed to outshine him in getting the audience enthused and participating in the concert and I think his feelings must be a little bruised that he can’t generate the excitement Billy can.  Once the audience is going, once Billy has gotten in a participating mood and enthusiastic and on their feet, then George is fantastic and seems to love the concert and generates just as much enthusiasm as Billy, but the audience has to respond to him before he seems to want to warm up the audience.  Tonight we was wearing light blue blue jeans and a white shirt.  He and Billy did the can-can again during “Outta Space” which George seems to really love.  George explained that Ravi was sick and back in Chicago, and he seemed at a loss without him.  Ravi’s sister had to direct the Indian musicians in place of Ravi and she was really nervous over how she would be accepted, it seemed, but everyone gave her a resounding burst of applause when George put his arm around her and said how she didn’t want to be doing this, but with Ravi sick, she had to.  The applause seemed to make her feel a little better and each number was patiently listened to by the audience and applauded to.  George was off to the side, beating a tambourine against his thigh, singing along and having himself a great time off in his own little corner as he looked on.  He thanked the audience profusely afterwards, saying he was glad we liked it.  His voice was even more horse tonight even though he hadn’t done a concert for four days, and now he was coughing.  He hadn’t done that in previous concerts.  He really sounded awful.   One time he had problems with the strap on his guitar again and had to put on foot up on a platform and balance the guitar on his knee so he could play it.  During one of Billy’s songs George and Billy continuously pulled faces at each other while George harmonized (or tried to with what was left of his voice) and they kept cracking up – George was changing the lyrics a bit but I don’t’ remember exactly what he was singing.  It sure was funny at the time!  The audience got more and more enthusiastic and were on their feet on top of their chairs clapping and in a permanent standing ovation from after Billy Preston’s songs – who seemed very surprised and pleased at the fantastic reception each of his songs got – and the enthusiasm never died down until the end of the concert.  George was enthused and excited by the audience and put everything he had into the last 5 songs – Maya Love, Give me Love (that one got a fantastic reception), Dark Horse, What is Life (really got the audience going – shouting for more) and of course the encore, My Sweet Lord.  He seemed to happy the way people were so enthused and involved. Well that is until he got them to try to shout the various names of the Lord during My Sweet Lord, which always seems to go over like a lead balloon, though he assures everyone he’s not swearing when he chants “Om Christ” and he said “call he Lord anything.  It doesn’t matter.  I don’t give a shit what you call him.  It’s not important.”  Oh, after In My Life he said “God blues Joh, Paul, Ringo and the ex-ex-exes.”  And during What is Life, the house lights came on and we stood up on our chairs, Joy and I, and held the Cleveland sign up and he looked directly at it, did a double take, a quick grin and said into the microphone “Yeah, sorry about that!”  And just as he went offstage for the last time, pulling Billy and Willie together in a quick hug, the audience was cheering so loud and demanding more and more, that he came on the speakers instead of Indian music as he usually has it and everyone began to pack up and leave, unable to believe it was all over.  It was really about the most exciting of the concerts I saw.

Somehow we stumbled down the street (the sidewalks were still covered with snow), managed to find the car and were on our way back home again, finally arriving at my house at quarter of 7AM, one half hour before I usually get up to go to work.  I just had time to change, take Kris to the rapid transit so she could go to work (she has to be at her job an hour before I do) and go to Joyce’s with Deb to eat breakfast and try to wake up enough to be able to function all day at work.  How I made it through that day until 9:30 that night after going to my part time job in the evening, I’ll never know.  But somehow, George makes it all worth it and you know that if I had to do it all over again, I sure would!

 

Following the Dark Horse Tour - Part 1

Tonight I am starting a three-part story about a group of fans that were able to go to several stops on George Harrison's 1974 Dark Horse tour.   As usual, it was more than just seeing George, but also the adventure that occurs that makes these stories so interesting. 

Written by Brenda Lo

With a Little Help From My Friends

December 1974

 

Well, by the time this gets into the newsletter, a month or more will have passed since the Chicago shows of Mr. Harrison.  But ohh, will the memories always be there! 

I couldn’t even imagine me at a “Beatle” concert, but when I finally realized I’d be seeing FOUR of George’s it was like a dream come true! (just for the record Paul is my fave!)

The day came to finally fly out to Chicago, about a 3-hour plane ride and we touched down in Chicago at O’Hare.  Plans were that about 25 of us would be staying at the Holiday Inn down on Lakeshore Drive by Lake Michigan.  Most of us had sent in our reservation to Barb so that was all set.

I got an airport bus right out of O’Hare which would be taking me right down to the Inn.  And on the way out of the terminal on the bus, I saw a mucky green airplane which I later discovered was George’s!  And by that time it was too late.  Oh well.

Being a stranger in town I finally got to my destination at the Inn.  I was a bit tired and wanted to get to my room, so I stood in line for two hours to get my room (I flew in alone) and when I finally got to the desk, they said there was no reservations under my name or Barb’s.  So, upset as I was, I put my suitcase down by a door in the lobby and waited.  There were so many people running around.  I didn’t have a clue if any of them were there for the concert or not.  After about 15 minutes a girl came in the door and I noticed a Yellow Submarine pin on her coat so I asked if she was there for the concerts and she said yeah.  I was so relieved!  Key was with the Cincinnati people (Barb, Sue and Stephanie) so we all stood around in the lobby and I had told them what the desk had told me about reservations, so we all stood confused and then Kathy and Chris came in and along about 5 Barb trudges in and gets our reservations all straightened out so we all got our rooms.

A few hours later some more kids from the Chicago area showed up and most of us were standing around in the lobby and someone said something about Ravi and the gang staying at our hotel. No sooner said than done, and I looked over by the elevators and there stood Mr. Shankar himself!   About that time alarms and bells started going off because an elevator had gotten stuck.

Well, Bonnie and I decided we wanted to get Ravi’s autograph, and about that time he stepped into the elevator and the door closed (we had found out he was in room 916 earlier).   So, Bonnie and I in desperation ran up 9 flights of stairs to try and catch him.  Bonnie was about 3 flights ahead of me and when I finally got to the 9^th floor, she came around the corner from the elevator and said “I got it.”  So, I walked around to the elevator and there he stood, so I got his autograph and we started talking to him about the tour and an elevator opened and we all got in (Ravi too) and headed for the lobby.  Ravi was very nice to us and when I told him I’d come from Oregon just for the concerts, he smiled and goes “Really?”  He seemed pleased.  Also said how long it had taken George to learn to play the sitar and stuff.

 

We got back to the lobby and Ravi got out (as we did) and went around to the front desk for something.  (Meanwhile, they had gotten the elevator unstuck and were taking a guy out on a stretcher).  Then he went back to the elevator and we were still standing there, so we rode back up with him and talked some more.  He was probably glad to get rid of us even if he was being nice to us!  I really don’t think Ravi could be mad at anyone.

 

Anyway, later on that night, well, into the evening, we were so sure that George was staying there too, so some of us waited in the lobby for a while.  There were some members from the band and road crew hanging around in the lobby too.  A guy from the India group were there, so I went over to him and talked to him for a while. His name was TV.  He really enjoyed talking to us and he was really great.  And of course, there were some guys from the crew wearing “Dark Horse” shirts and that’s how we knew they were part of the tour.

Long about 12:30am members of the band were still arriving, and we were so confident George would be along too.  So, this tall dude with blond hair looks at us all and goes “George Harrison is NOT staying at this hotel.  Will you kindly leave!”  HE had a British accent and we just stood there.  How the Hell could we leave when that’s where we were staying!  We had just as much right to be there as he did!  That was one thing we were all floored about.  Of all the Holiday Inns and other hotels in Chicago, Ravi and friends picked the one we did!  It wasn’t planned or anything because we didn’t know Ravi was there until we had our reservations!

Well most of us finally decided to go n up to our rooms, giving up hope for George’s arrival.  So about 1:00am the people from Cleveland arrived – Pat, Joy, Tempy, Maria, Deb and Deb’s sister Patti.  They were all beat after the seven hour drive and Pat had worked that day, so we called it a night and hit the sack.

 

The next day, Saturday November 30 was THE day!  I had managed to get a scalper ticket for the 3^rd row about 4 feet from George!  I had three cameras – an Instamatic, 35 mm, and a movie camera.  They were playing some new George songs before the concert over the amps and then the lights dimmed and they played “Lumberjack,” a funny little song.  So after that a guy walks out with a funny little hat on and sunglasses over the hat, with a scarf, obviously being the quiet lad, Mr. Harrison! The crowd roared as the rest of the band came out, and they started out with an instrumental.  I was so surprised that I wasn’t in hysteria since it was my first concert and second sitting of one of them.  I just kind of stared for a few minutes, pinching myself to make sure it wasn’t a dream, and then I started taking pics.  One time when I had my movie camera going, he looked into it as if to say “what the Hell’s she doing with so many cameras – and a movie one to boot!”  That look almost killed me!

I had gotten to be friends with a chap next to me, and he could never get a pic of George looking to his camera.  So, he kept holding his camera way up into the air so George would look over at him.  Well, George DID look over at him, and when he saw what this guy was doing, he held HIS hand up and looked at me and laughed. Of course, THAT sent me straight through the ceiling.  Wow!  I’ll never forget it!

Well – after about 45 minutes or so the Indian part came and George stayed on the stage the entire time Ravi played.  During the 2^nd show he was off to the side booging to the music and having a good time and he intruded the Indian musicians by saying “We’ll enlarge a bit and add 16 members to the band – well really there’s only 14 but I’m a liar.”   You can really get into the Indian music if you’re right in front where you can observe what is going on.  But if you are way up in the balcony and can’t see a bloody thing, you just kind of go to sleep.  I know because that’s where I got planted in the 2^nd show.  And the Indian music was rocked up a bit with electric guitars and the whole bit.  It really wasn’t too bad.

And I dunno how the rest of the concerts were, but when Billy Preston (or William Everett Preston as George called him!) came on, he really got the crowd rocking.  And that cute little dance George and Billy did!  Fantastic!  (I got it on my movie film!) It was so great!  And the end of Billy’s number, George smiles and goes, “That Billy – he’s a gas!”  It was so good.

In the first show, they started to play “Sue Me Sue You Blues” and George raked his fingers really hard over his guitar strings and one of the strings broke. He threw his hands up in the air and goes” Hold it! Hold it! “Then the music died out.  “I just snapped a string here.”  He then looks around for another guitar and shrugs – “Oh well, guess I’ll play without one string.”  So, he did!  And you couldn’t really tell. He also snapped a string at the evening show, plus nearly dropped a guitar once.  He didn’t have a strap on secretly enough and he caught his guitar just before it hit the floor and he had trouble keeping that strap onto the guitar throughout the rest of the concert.  Also, that scarf he was wearing, he said Emil knitted it for him, and he kept getting the scarf tangled up with his guitar strap.  He wasn’t too coordinated, but Yeah George!

And to sum the concerts up, about the only bitch most people had was all the songs, lyrics were changed around.  Such as “Something in the way she moves it,” “While my guitar gently smiles” and in the song “In my Life” he goes “I love God more.”   “My Sweet Lord” and “What is Life” were pretty good.  He also sang “Dark Horse” and “Maya Love” – great songs!  He also said after “In my Life” “God Bless Paul, John and Ringo and the ex-ex-ex’s” In the beginning of the second show he said, “Good evening, Chicago – and it’s windy, just like they said it was! 

I might add in the first show he had a t-shirt on that was promoting “Walls & Bridges” - it had John’s eyes (From the LP) across the front of it, and then “Walls & Bridges” around the sleeves.  It was really cute.  They also of course sold tour books at $2 a shot, all money from them going to the Appalachian Regional Hospital – that’s one thing about George – he’s always trying to help and aid the ones who don’t have it so good and show need help.  I’ll always admire that about him – his concern and thoughtfulness of others.

And for all f you who didn’t notice at the concert and otherwise, George does wear an earring in his right ear!  But as I was saying about the program – it has some NICE photos of George in it.  And then the rest of the members of the band.  And just for the record, outside of the concert hall, Krishna people were giving out Indian cake, or something like that.  No way was I going to eat any of it, but some of the other girls that had the courage to eat it said it was pretty good.

So after the concerts, we went back to the Holiday Inn and went to our rooms.  And about 15 minutes later, I was sitting on the can and a girl from outside the door goes “Where’s Brenda?  Where’s Brenda””  “A guy from the tour wants to talk to Brenda!”  I scrambled right out and went out in the hall, where everyone was standing around this guy.  So I walked up to him and someone goes, “He wants that pin of George you were wearing at the concert – the one that flashes on and off.” I said I hadn’t been wearing a pin, just a George shirt.  He’d mistaken me for someone else, but we all got to rapping with this guy, and his name was Jeff Raven and he did publicity for the tour and made the hotel arrangements.  He was telling us how George has a museum in his house in England, and that he collects old Beatles things and he wanted that button that flashed on and off.  So since we couldn’t give him that, everyone scrambled to their rooms and dug up something Beatle, ranging from a George coat hanger to a portrait of George.  So, Jeff said that we’d all been so nice to him, he was going to invite us all up to his room so we could preview George’s new album (which wasn’t out at the time).  So about 20 of us went up to his room and sat and listened to the new LP.  It has about 8 songs on it, but they are long ones.  And despite George’s hoarse voice, it’s pretty good.  About 1:30AM, we all split and thanked him. 

After that, most of us went to our rooms, rapped a while and then went to bed because some of us had to get up early and head for Cleveland.  So the next morning me, Tempy, Barb, Richie, Deb and Patti got up around 8:00 and went down and had breakfast.  The restaurant was always swamped for breakfast, so by the time we were done eating, the rest of the gang were just getting seats to eat. 

Around 11:30 (Sunday) the kids that were going back home to Cleveland and the Cincinnati kids and me that were headed for the Cleveland concerts had to get on the road.  We all met in the lobby and got a group picture of everyone that’d met there for the concerts.  After that, I noticed TV standing in the lobby watching us, so I went over and said goodbye to him and told him I’d see him in Cleveland at the concerts and he seemed really surprised I’d be at the Cleveland shows!  Then I made him pose for a pic and he smiled greatly as I snapped the photo.  And a sad goodbye as we headed to Cleveland.  There were three carloads of us altogether – Pat, Joyce, Kris and Marla were in Pat’s car and Deb, her sister, Tempy and me in another, and then the Cincinnati kids in their car – but they didn’t leave Chicago until a few hours after we did.

Well, after stopping at a truck stop in Gary, Indiana (blah- the food was rotten – yuck!) and eating we went on and the further east we got, the worse the weather got.  It was snowing like mad almost all the way to Cleveland.   We left Chicago at noon and pulled into Cleveland at 11:30 that night – over 11 hours on the road when it normally takes 6 hours to drive! So we pulled into Pat’s house and were all hungry and cold.  Her mom was good enough to fix spaghetti for us!  So we all ate spaghetti and watched an Elvis movie, “Speedway” (not Red Rose). 

Then we wondered if George would cancel out his Cleveland gigs because of the bad weather. So Monday morning (December 2) it was still snowing and a lot of airports had been shut down, including Chicago.  So Pat called Jeff Raven in Chicago and told him there was no way they could make it to Cleveland for the concerts because the roads were so bad and the weather was zilch for flying. So Raven said George definitely would NOT cancel, and they would fly to Columbus and go up to Cleveland by bus from there.  We were all worried and concerned about George’s safety trying to fly and drive, but there was nothing we could do but keep our toes and fingers and legs crossed.  So we headed off to the Coliseum around 2pm.  Halfway there, they announced over the air that George had canceled both of his Cleveland gigs.  We were relieved that they weren’t going to try to fly in and even if they had driven, there was no way they would have made it in time for the show and his equipment was already there.  But at the time we were relieved about the cancellation we felt sad because of so many Cleveland kids who were really counting on his shows and who were not fortunate enough to be able to get to Chicago or anywhere else for a concert. 

 

The Beatles in Detroit 1966

 The Beatles in Detroit 1966

By Dorothy Suriano

With a Little Help From my Friends

July 1975

It’s been nine years since that fantastic day of August 13, 1966. My next door neighbor was Robin Seymour who was a disc jockey for CKLW radio station.  Now Robin had told me if there was any concert I wanted to see and anybody I wanted to meet, to ask him and he’d see what he could do.  I knew then that this was my chance.  After all, wasn’t it just two years ago that his daughter Jenny had gone backstage and had her picture taken on Paul’s lap?

I asked Robin if it would be possible if he could get me tickets to the concert.  The day Robin got the tickets he explained why he had gotten three (I had asked for two).  He planned on going with us.  I couldn’t believe it.  That would mean that Kim Stevens and I would be going backstage with Robin.  At the age of 13, I thought that I was going to die of a heart attack.  Then it happened two days before the concert.  Robin broke his leg at the Roostertail where he was MCing a show.  That dashed our hopes of going backstage and meeting the Fab Four.   Kim and I hadn’t seen the tickets and didn’t know where we’d be sitting.  And we also had an extra ticket.

 

August 13, 1966.  WE had decided to take my brother Mike along to the concert. Robin had given us the tickets that morning.  Kim’s dad took us to the Olympia stadium and we were on our way.  We got there early and we couldn’t believe the crowds.  It was fantastic!

As soon as we got out of the car a Police Wagon was coming up the street on McGraw with about a dozen girls chasing it.  Kim and I dashed off leaving my brother behind.  WE just knew the Beatles were in it.  Well, we were wrong.  They opened the doors and four cops were sitting there laughing at all of us. 

Next Kim and I proceeded to buy our Beatle pins and banners.  I bought a pin that said “I love Paul” and Kim bought one for John.  We sat on the curb waiting for The Beatles to arrive.  And then suddenly, it happened.  A police escort was coming up McGraw and a black limo was right behind them and also a bus.

The crowd all moved to where they thought they could get a better look.  The noise was deafening.  Kim, Mike and I stayed right where we were.  After all, they had to pass right by us.  I was about to get my first look at a live Beatle.

The limo rolled by us and in it were Brian and George.  I stood there not believing my eyes.  He was so beautiful.  He smiled and waved to us and Kim and I got spastic.  Now, John, Paul, and Ringo were not in the limo so they had to be on the bus.  Kim and I stared at that bus trying to make out who the people were.  We were frantic.  AS the back of the bus went by, Kim and I at the same time spotted the other three.  I then pointed to the back of the bus and started screaming that they were there.  Ringo doubled his fist and me and Paul smiled and waved and John was looking off in the distance.

After all the excitement we then marched up to Olympia’s doors to be let in.  We glanced at the tickets and I saw that they said ground level, so we found the nearest usher and asked him to guide us to our seats.  (We had never been to a concert before and it was truly an experience).

The usher looked at our tickets and smiled.  He then took us to our seats.  My God, they were front row tickets!

We were positioned right in front of Paul’s microphone.  Kim and I climbed all over each other.  Mike was getting embarrassed.  He hadn’t wanted to come anyway.  The concert started.

We sat very still while the other acts were on.  We vowed that we would not scream and carry on when the guys came on.  We then had to wait during an intermission.  Everybody was getting tense.  You could feel it in the air.  Then the lights started to dim and the excitement increased.  Four figures ran up on the stage, grabbed guitars and the lights flashed on.

There they were!! A scout of screams filled the air.  Kim and I were on top of our chairs in an instant screaming our hearts out (so much for our vows).  Their suits were beautiful.  They had on grey bell-bottomed suits with pink pinstripes running through them and pink shirts to match.

Things were being thrown from everywhere:  rings, stuffed animals, everything.  I don’t remember much of the beginning.  I was trying to get my camera to work but after the first song, I gave up and threw the camera down.  Paul noticed and laughed.  Then with sympatric eyes said, “What’s wrong love?”  I died.  I simply died.  Paul had noticed me.  He actually talked to me.

Paul then announced that they were going to attempt a song.  I’ll use his own words.  He said, “The next song we’ll try to do is a song we usually have an orchestra to back us, but today we only have this cheap band, so bear with us.”  The song was “Yesterday.”  It had gotten a little quieter for this particular song, but not me!

In the middle of the song  I started jumping up and down on my chair and at the top of my voice screaming out “Paul!”  I also pointed to my “I love Paul” button as my voice screamed.  He looked down, saw what I was pointing to and smiled the biggest smile I’ve ever seen, and nodded his head.  John looked towards our group and shouted “shurrup!” only to get more screams.  Ringo was then featured singing “I wanna be your man”.  My brother in the meantime was throwing jelly beans at them.  He hit George on the arm with one and one stuck to his guitar.  George brushed them off and gave my little brother dirty looks.

The last song was “Long Tall Sally.”  By this time, I was crying, slumped in my chair exhausted. 

They then put down their instruments and the chase began.  I had always dreamed of something like this- me chasing the Beatles.  The crowd was blocked by the police.  They had formed a line to let The Beatles pass through.  We must have been close to the dressing room.  I was pressed up against a policeman.  The Beatles were coming through.  I felt sorry for the cops for now I knew how they felt.  I remember as the Beatles came through one of them (I thought it was John but Mike said it was Paul) said, “Christ, let’s keep moving.”  

I will never forget as long as I live the terror on their faces as they tried getting to their dressing rooms.  I will also never forget as long as I shall live that day for it is branded into my brain forever.