From mmartin@porterville.k12.ca.us Sat Oct 12 20:15:57 1996 Date: Sat, 12 Oct 1996 19:52:49 -0700 From: Mike Martin To: app@roadkill.com Subject: Last night's show at the Greek - Long message - may contain spoilers Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Length: 6297 Well, Mitch said it correctly, the show was AWESOME. Here is a long message talking about it: 1. I had 2 baseballs signed by the entire group. One is for me, the other I am sending to Steve Martin with the intention of donating it for a prize in one of his contests. More about the baseballs later. 2. When I got home today, I read some posts regarding ear monitors. I noticed the ear monitors, too. There are 2 places where prerecorded tracks could have come from. First, Alan himself had a box in front of him that he pushed some buttons on before a song started, namely Old and Wise, and another I noticed but can't remember. Second, off to the audiences right (stage left) was a gentleman with a "stage mix" set up. Yes, the stage is mixed differently than what the audience hears. MANY groups do that now. 3. Neil and Peter were great! I would have never known they weren't part of the group for 20 years. My friends who were with me had no idea, either. To them, they were IT. My wife said during Wouldn't Want to Be Like You that she couldn't understand the words. She did acknowledge that I did (of course I did, I was singing along!). 4. The audience in an outdoor theatre like the Greek are hard to hear. yes, Icould hear the sound of the band, and yes, the people around me were yelling and screaming, but I couldn't hear the "whole" audience. So as far as their reaction, I could only go by the area around me. The audience was slow to respond at first. There were ALOT of empty seats. Someone could have gotten great seats the day of the event. My brother told me when he called that Thursday night there were seats in Section A Row L (16 rows from the front) still on sale. That in itself is disappointing. Its called Advertising. Call Maria. But after awhile, the audience was hot. There was one girl in the front row who liked to stand up and dance like an exotic dancer. The whole place was looking at her. During Prime Time, she was getting after it, and Ian actually came over to her side of the stage and was playing to her. He was looking right at her, she was dancing away, he was playing his solo with fire, she was dancing away, he was playing his heart out, she was STILL dancing away, and the crowd went wild. It was cool. Some guys behind us kept yelling "Raven! Raven!". I felt like turning around and saying "Hey, dudes, Wesley sent me the set list. They ain't playing it. Shut up", but my wife would have hit me with her Haagen Dazs bar. :) 5. After the show. I met Robyn and her hubby Dan, I met Ken, and some guys from the Avenue (but not the Net list), but I never met Mitch. I could not believe how many people were in that room. There must have been 100 people. It was packed. But I didn't care. Ian came in first. He was mugged. Me and my friend Larry, and Robyn and Dan just hung out and waited our turn. Finally, we got to him. I told him I was from the Internet list and his eyes lit up and we talked about it for a minute, nothing that had not been talked about already. He signed the baseballs and On Air for me, and I got a picture of the two of us. Robyn and Dan did the same. Ian is a class act all the way, from his style of play to his backstage demeanor. I cannot wait to speak to him again, both online and in person. Neil was next. Nice guy. I never saw him the whole night without a bottle of Heineken in his hand. Oh well, we all have our things. Neil signed the baseballs, and we talked about ELO2 for a minute, then he was mugged and we moved on. Then we found Stuart (the most unassuming of them all, he talked to list members almost the entire night. We were the only ones who recognized him, I think.), Gary Sanctuary (very young and spent the whole night on the couch with a young lady), and Peter. It was really cool meeting these guys and speaking to them. Alan finally came in and was mobbed. You'd have thought he was the president or something. It was incredible. We finally got our turn, got 2 pictures. Cool. I was not able to stay as long as the other list members, I had to get back to my friends. Next time, I'll stay until they drag me. 6. Kathy B. in San Diego, I gave Ian your message. His eyebrows raised, his mouth was open, and he said he can't wait. He asked if you had a backstage pass, and I said yes. You are in, babe. Go, girl. 7. The baseballs. This is the best story of them all, and one that I will tell for a long time: None of the band members had EVER signed a baseball before. They seemed to really get a kick out of it. They were also very pleased that I was donating one to the Avenue for a prize. Alan said, "Under the circumstances, shouldn't this be a basketball?" He was referring of course to Sirius (the Bulls song), and his mentioning Michael Jordan on stage. The last one to sign was John, the bassist, and I could not find him. Anywhere. Finally, I ran into Neil Lockwood, and I asked him where John was. He told me "He's hiding in the dressing room. Come with me" So I followed him INTO THE DRESSING ROOM. Whoa! When we walked in, there were about 4 guys in there, John and 3 roadies. Neil said, "Hey John, there's a guy here that wants you to sign some balls". John responed with, "I can't sign this guys balls!" and the whole place cracked up. John reached out and shook my hand, and I explained the situation, and he had a big smile on his face. He signed both baseballs, and truly seemed to enjoy it. I complimented his work, he said thanks, I said thanks again to Neil, and we walked back to the hospitality area. Way cool. 8. I have only one regret, like I said. I wish I could have stayed longer. My wife and her friend were sitting outside on a park bench for almost 2 hours, and it was a little cool. But they were happy for me. I'll make it up to my wife later. Maybe Hawaii or something. ;) Robyn, Dan, Ken, and you others, it was nice to finally meet you. It was a blast. Until next time, I will stay in this little Internet Box and try not to sound stupid. Take care.... Mike Martin With no sig file because I'm on a different machine.... From ksweiher@earthlink.net Tue Oct 15 00:34:16 1996 Date: Tue, 15 Oct 1996 00:03:01 -0700 From: Ken Weiher To: app@roadkill.com Subject: Ap at the Greek (WARNING--some spoilage!) Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Length: 2320 OK...now it's my turn! (finally have time to sit and write) The show in LA was great! Ian definitely stole the show...what a performance! I thought Peter Beckett was better than last year, and I enjoyed Neil lockwood, though I think I like Chris Thompson more. A few other minor nitpicks/disappointments: 1. Not enough instrumentals. Only 2? I really would have liked to heard at least one other...such as Where's The Walrus? or Apollo. 2. Too many repeats from last year. Not including the new songs from 'On Air', only 6 out of 18 songs were not performed last year. (5 of 17 if you count the medley as 1 song). I would have rather heard 'Damned If I Do' or 'The Cask of Amontillado' than the same 5 songs from EITS as lasy year. Oh well...at least they did them well. 3. No saxophone. 'Days Are Numbers' is one of my favorites, but it just wasn't the same without the sax...no reflection at all on Ian. But...I certainly can't blame Richard Cottle for spending the time with his family. After the show was fantastic...though a bit crowded. I would imagine that the LA show would have one of the larger gatherings backstage, with all the entertainment types. Ian was very nice and down-to-Earth...I could imagine talking to him for hours. (Unfortunately, I wasn't the only one who wanted to talk to him!) Stuart was very nice, and almost seemed surprised that I would want to talk to him! Alan was very pleasant, though I didn't have much time to talk to him...he had a LOT of demands upon his time! When I forst spoke to him (right after his baseball signing), he shook my hand, but before I could get his autograph, he announced he would do all the signing at the end. (bummer!) Later I caught up with him briefly, and mentioned that I had to be going soon, so he signed my 'On Air' booklet. (btw...my daughter, age 2 1/2, loves "Fall Free" and recognized the OA CD as being Alan parsons!) All in all, a great and very memorable night! It was great (and a bit lucky) to meet Mike and Robyn. And...I even snaked a copy of the DTS version of OA that the reps had! (Not for sale!) Now I just have to find a store with a DTS decoder to try it out! Thanks Alan, Ian, Stuart and the gang for a great show, and thanks Alan and Steve for the passes...it made a great night even better!!! KEN From SSSmith2@aol.com Tue Oct 15 08:25:17 1996 From: SSSmith2@aol.com Date: Tue, 15 Oct 1996 11:17:38 -0400 To: app-digest@topquark.roadkill.com Subject: APP Concert Content-Length: 3163 Hello again, eveyone... I just wanted to share with you my feelings about the concert experience. I went to both shows (once at the Greek, and the other at the Stateline). Both concerts were phenomenal. I was surprised that the croud at the stateline was louder and more roudy in their cheering than they were at the Greek in LA. Ironically, there were less people in the Stateline, but the volume of their cheers was at least 3 or 4X louder than how they were at the Greek. But also being that the Greek is an outdoor theater and the Dessert arena is not, that may have something to do with it. Ian Bairnson was just incredible. Every guitar solo no matter how easy or hard just made the croud go nuts. What started this cheering "dominoe effect" was the INCREDIBLE Prime Time solo he did. From that point forward there was no turning back. Peter Beckett and Neil Lockwood were also fantastic. Stuart and Alan were also in top form. Alan did seem much more relaxed this time than last year. To John Giblin's credit, I must say that he was very energetic and loved the notes he was playing - and he played them with great confidence and competence. I got to personally meet Stuart Elliott (who was laid back and a nice gentleman), Ian Bairnson (who is probably one of the NICEST people I will ever meet in my life). He was very talkative and friendly. He just loved to interact with his fans and was willing to talk to anybody. I could tell he was truly enjoying himself and it was a pleasure to meet him. I also got to meet Alan Parsons as well. Boy what a big man he is (6'5" I would guess). He was cordial and pleasant, but he seemed preoccupied. Not to the extent of being unfriendly, but more because he was busy because of everyone being around. At least I got to shake his hand, get an autograph, and also get my picture taken with him. As he signed the autograph he said "Please spread the word." I know he was not aware that I successfully converted 4 THE CURE fans into Alan Parsons fans. And if it wasn't for me, 8 people would NOT have gone to the Greek Theatre, and 8 people would NOT have gone to the stateline as well. So indirectly, I was responsible for 16 sales tickets for this band. The reason why I encourage his music is because I would really like to see this group become very successful (which they finally may because they are starting to tour), but also because I want my friends to be able to appreciate not only such wonderful clear sounding music, but beautifully composed songs as well. Alan's progression integrates a rock, new age music and sometimes classical style. This combination with talented musicians (esp. Ian Bairnson, Andrew Powell, Stuart Elliott and the vocalists) really shine on his records. I got autographs from Alan and Stuart, and got my picture with them and also with Ian Bairnson as well. I just wish I got to meet the vocalists, and I am also MAD at myself at the same time because in all the chaos, I completely forgot to get Ian's signature. The meeting time was just under one hour, but for me - it was an experience of a lifetime. Yours very truly, Sheldon Smith :-)