From wesley.chun@Eng Fri Oct 11 02:13:13 1996 Date: Thu, 10 Oct 1996 22:26:59 -0700 From: wesley.chun@Eng (Wesley J. Chun) To: app@roadkill.com Subject: San Francisco show revvvview Content-Length: 5645 Hi again, Sorry I didn't send this out last night, but after the last few days, I'm totally exhausted and my throat is almost gone from the screaming. There were many of us at the show, so watch out for more coverage! San Francisco was a rocker, no doubt about it. The story starts at around 4:30 Post Meridian, Pacific Daylight Time. Robyn (rking) and her husband Dan arrive at the venue, having taken the BART (San Francisco Bay Area's subway/train system). They were met soonafter- wards by John (jmfinney) and a few others. I arrived at about 4:50, dropping off my bag in line with the rest of the folks so I could go back and wait for my spouse. When I finally returned with her, the line grew to about 30-40 people, among them Tom "Da Hood" (thood). Nearing 6:30, the time of the opening of the will call box, Gail (gbuller) showed up with her son Paul. We also met Dan (dawill) in line too. We had to wait briefly for the band to give the guest list to the will call people so we could get our passes. Eventually, they got them, we took them, and waited a few more minutes till the doors opened at 7. When the time came, they searched all our bags for food, drinks, ca- meras, and recording devices. They made me stop by the side of the door, and either opened my bags or made me open them. They stuck their dirty hands into my bags for half a minute, and eventually let me in. Of course, they missed the can of Coke, two cameras (one was John's), Fuji apple, and my mom's cell phone. They would have missed the tape recorder if I had one. We all clamored down to "the pit," the standing room only area right up to the stage. We were all *at* the stage, which came up to my neck. Our hands were touching the stage and that's where you put your drinks if you had any. Naturally, there "small" speakers in front of us. These were the types that specialized in the middles and highs, with the larger ones off to the side handling the bass. They were bonafide earplug material. Unfortunately, I only had one pair between me and my spouse, so we took one each and stuck one in the ear closest to the speaker. We spent the next hour talking, buying t-shirts, going to the bathroom, getting free CD samplers from the local radio station (KFOG) booth as well as ticket holders to hang around your neck. 8:19. Showtime. Dr. Tarr and Professor Fether was a recognizable tune, and went well. Ian's first cut on the guitar set the stage for the rest of the night. With every new song and new solo, the cheers and respect for this incredible axewielder crescendo'd. Prime Time drove people nuts! During the break, people talked about how tight the group sounded, what is Freudiana and LadyHawke -- how do you get it, etc. Some people didn't like the way Neil handled the older tunes, but others said that he did a good job in covering the original tunes. The show resumed about 15 minutes later with all the OA music concluding with the emotional speech before Brother Up In Heaven. Unfortunately, I did *not* like the way they did it. They speeded up the song, and Neil sang it lacking the emotion and depth of the studio track. It was played like a blah-blah love song on the radio. The crowd cheered the encores in, and it was finally over. The show consisted of the same song set with one change. Psychobabble was moved from after EitS to before Sirius. Overall the performance was good. Personally, I preferred the Santa Rosa performance, but the crowd in SF was much more active. In tonight's show, Peter goofed on some of the lyrics and I caught Neil a bit flat in certain places. But no one noticed and no one cared. After the show is another story. As soon as the lights came back on, there were already over 40 people in the backstage line. *GEEZ!* We got in the back of the line, and they led the herd downstairs to the waiting room, which did *not* look like a safe place to be if/when the next earthquake hits. In fact, one of the trains above rummbled by and it almost *felt* like one. Alan came out, and was instantly mobbed. I watched, standing next to him in amazement. After awhile, he couldn't even hold his drink (and asked me to hold it for him -- I'm the new ball- boy!) After much signing, I said, "Here, have a drink and returned him his glass. Ian, Stuart, Neil, and Peter all eventually made it out and got to mingle with the crowd. We wanted to get all of them to sign the pictures you saw on the web page from last year in LA. Most of them recognized the photos, and were gracious enough to sign the scrapbook that my spouse made from the photos and stickers that she bought. I met with the MFSL people again, and helped Mix Magazine by taking a picture for them. Two pictures sent in to them will result in a free one year subscription for me!! :) I also helped Gail take a few photos, and intro- duced her, her son, and John to Alan. Gail had the *bright* idea of having Alan sign a light bulb! John brought a copy of Eve and the Canadian coloured vinyl of ToMaI, which Alan signed as well. Down here, we also met up with Mr. Vasko again. (Thanks for the picture with Ian!!) I also ran into Chad (chad.cottle), seeing him at the venue for the first time. After a considerable amount of time and by the time most people had left, the band had to get back to the hotel. I regret I didn't get a chance to spend as much time with the band members as much as the night before, but it was an interesting experience nevertheless. Finally, we left the venue, got on the next BART train, and started the long ride home... Next stop, Kansas City on the 23rd! Wesley From jmfinney@ucdavis.edu Fri Oct 11 16:51:22 1996 Date: Fri, 11 Oct 1996 12:44:45 -0700 (PDT) To: app@roadkill.com From: John Finney Subject: Re: San Francisco show revvvview Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Length: 4128 >There were many of us at the show, so watch out for more coverage! My $0.02 is that I have never been to such a dynamic show! Absolutely electric, and Wesley's correct about Ian's first solo really lighting up the night! >We all clamored down to "the pit," the standing room only area right >up to the stage .... We spent the next hour talking, buying t-shirts, going to the >bathroom, getting free CD samplers from the local radio station (KFOG) >booth as well as ticket holders to hang around your neck. After knowing all the required info before-hand, I felt like the King of the World amidst my lieges! People were clamoring for the setlist, and were asking all kinds of questions: "What is 'Freudiana'? Do they have a new CD out? Which one is Alan?" etc..... We spent the better part of an hour dispensing knowledge and dispelling rumours, and of course performing quality control experiments on the local brewery offerings! Wesley also brought along copies of his discography for the proletariat to digest. >8:19. Showtime. Dr. Tarr and Professor Fether was a recognizable tune, >and went well. Ian's first cut on the guitar set the stage for the rest >of the night. With every new song and new solo, the cheers and respect >for this incredible axewielder crescendo'd. Prime Time drove people nuts! Agreed! Peter Beckett was stage left on the keyboards, with Ian standing next to him. At the opening sound of Ian's guitar lead to "Dr. Tarr...", The crowd went ballistic!! Beckett started laughing and Ian just smiled, walking forward to the edge of the stage as the intro built up. "Prime Time" was the chance for Bairnson to cut loose: near the end of the piece, he walked over to the far corner of the stage (away from the band and towards the furthest away fans) and ripped into a stinging lead; he kept his back to the band and his eyes closed, playing verse after verse of high-neck action leads, building faster and faster, forcing the band to keep playing until he was ready to quit! The band received a long ovation for that one! FUNNY STORY #1: Some local yahoo DJ introduced the band, saying, "Maybe you saw them when they came here last year." Ya, right! For about ten minutes, the band did not come out, and people began whistling and clapping for them. Finally, in desperation, I yelled, "PLAY BALL!!!!" at the top of my lungs. Just then, the lights went out and the spotlights came on! As the band walked out to pick up their instruments, the crowd began cheering. Bairnson scanned the edge of the stage, saw Wesley, did a double-take, and laughed. I yelled to Alan, "Hey Alan, Wesley's here!" Alan, putting on his guitar, heard me and looked down at the stage where we were standing. He recognized Wesley and mouthed his name, waving hello. The surrounding people looked at us as if we were Gods!! >The show resumed about 15 minutes later with all the OA music concluding >with the emotional speech before Brother Up In Heaven. Unfortunately, I >did *not* like the way they did it. They speeded up the song, and Neil >sang it lacking the emotion and depth of the studio track. It was played >like a blah-blah love song on the radio. The crowd cheered the encores >in, and it was finally over. FUNNY STORY #2: Just before BUIH, Bairnson tore up the place with "Cloudbreak", and received a very long ovation; every time he tried to introduce BUIH, the crowd would applaud even louder. His face reddened considerably, and he stepped away from the mike, saying, "God, now you're embarassing me!" Alan finally had to intervene, saying, "That's enough! It'll go straight to his head!" >The show consisted of the same song set with one change. Psychobabble >was moved from after EitS to before Sirius. Overall the performance was >good. Personally, I preferred the Santa Rosa performance, but the crowd >in SF was much more active. In tonight's show, Peter goofed on some of >the lyrics and I caught Neil a bit flat in certain places. But no one >noticed and no one cared. Ditto! The concert of a lifetime! I'll post the after-show comments later today! Have fun in LA!!! John Finney From gbuller@wheel.dcn.davis.ca.us Fri Oct 11 16:56:11 1996 Date: Fri, 11 Oct 1996 16:54:05 -0700 To: wesley.chun@Eng (Wesley J. Chun), app@roadkill.com From: gbuller@wheel.dcn.davis.ca.us (Gail Buller) Subject: Re: San Francisco show revvvview Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Length: 4400 Still On Air after Wednesday's SF show, but my fingers are at least working again, so thought I'd add some comments to Wesley's fine review. By the way I met Wesley for the first time that night & I'm sure I can speak for the masses when I say - he's a great guy, even more delightful in person than on this list, if that's possible! Meeting up with old & new friends like Robyn, Wesley, John F, my pals Kathy & Dave, was a big, no make that A BIG, part of this unforgettable evening. At 10:26 PM 10/10/96 -0700, Wesley J. Chun wrote: >San Francisco was a rocker, no doubt about it. Right. The Warfield Theater is just that, a beautiful old theater with a balcony & everything, in downtown San Francisco. It didn't appear to be sold out, but maybe almost. A good solid enthusiastic crowd. >We all clamored down to "the pit," the standing room only area right >up to the stage. We were all *at* the stage, which came up to my neck. >Our hands were touching the stage and that's where you put your drinks >if you had any. What a great place to watch the show - Ian's & his guitar were right in front of us, so close that if he'd had so much as a hangnail on those talented fingers, we'd have noticed. To see him do Cloudbreak, from so near, is an incredible experience - defies description - you'll just have to see it for yourselves. Wesley was kind enough to let Paul get in front of him, his nose & eyes peeking over the stage, for his favorite song "Fall Free" - & allowed him to occupy this coveted spot for the rest of the show. >The show resumed about 15 minutes later with all the OA music concluding >with the emotional speech before Brother Up In Heaven. A comment - "new" guys John Gilpin (bass) & Gary Sanctuary (keyboards) and to a certain extent Neil Lockwood (vocals) seemed to really come into their own on this part, playing their "own" music. They (and all the others as well) hit a real groove here. This portion of the show was perhaps the best of all. Gilpin in particular was really enjoying himself. > In tonight's show, Peter goofed on some of >the lyrics and I caught Neil a bit flat in certain places. But no one >noticed and no one cared. I didn't notice the lyrics goof (I thought it was me) but even if I had, nope, wouldn't have cared. >Gail had the *bright* idea of >having Alan sign a light bulb! This was fun - we got everyone to sign it (except Gilpin who disappeared) and they all thought it was cool & told us so. We learned we had to be real careful with it after Alan's signature (the first applied) smudged almost right away. We handled it carefully like the prize it is, & it still looks great! This weekend we'll be at the hardware stores looking for just the right fixture to display it. The guys also signed my Freudiana & OA, my friend Dave's IR LP, & my son's OA cassette. Ian, bless him, included the date on the cassette autograph. Excellent touch, wish I'd thought of it, thanks Ian, glad you did! We almost had to hunt for Stuart Elliot (drummer since the days of Pyramid), he almost seemed surprised that we wanted to talk to him. Such a nice guy - really, they all were. I made a point to thank them for touring, trying to let them know how much I/we appreciate being able to see them after loving the music all these years. Especially Beckett, pinch-vocalist last year and this year - without this kind of willingness to disrupt their lives for months on end, we'd be left with nothing but our headphones & imaginations, as before. >Finally, we left the venue, got on the next BART train, and started the >long ride home... Was it ever! Wesley & Faye headed in one direction on BART, while I, Paul, John F & his pal Russ headed in the other direction. On the train we met & had a nice time chatting with another concert-goer and list-member from Martinez - but I forgot his name - probably due to the excitement of the robbery we kinda sorta almost saw on the train!! "Victims report to the first car, witnesses to the 3rd car, the white zone is for loading & unloading only...." It was a great night for me, & an awe-filled experience for Paul, age 10. He got his first glimpses of Alan etal, BART, & handcuffs - all in one night!! What a trooper, he even managed to stay awake in school the following day. Regards to all, Gail PS - mail server was down almost all day! All dressed up & nowhere to post! From jmfinney@ucdavis.edu Sat Oct 12 14:47:09 1996 Date: Sat, 12 Oct 1996 14:15:13 -0700 (PDT) To: app@roadkill.com From: John Finney Subject: San Francisco show review II Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Length: 5455 Backstage: At the close of the show, we slapped on our sticky passes and went to meet at the designated point. To my surprise, there were about 30-40 people with similar passes lined up. As I stood there trying to find the end of the line, The Rudest Person On Earth (who was parked on a stool by the door) snarled out a litany of do's and dont's to me, my friend Russ, Gail and her son, Wesley and his wife, and a few others. On the way downstairs (technically "understage", as opposed to "backstage") to meet the group, we happily abused her. What fun! The large herd of people were definitely divided into two camps: the legion of adoring fans, who shuffled around nervously waiting for Alan; and the recording studio people, agents, local management people, crew personnel, and others, who were so busy posing and trying to ignore each other that they didn't notice how ridiculous they looked. Alan came out first and stood in a corner talking to someone. Actually, no one even noticed he had come out, since he was so casual and un-assuming (despite his above-average height!). We simply got up and walked over! Alan immediately recognized Wesley, and the introductions were in order. Alan signed my ToMaI limited edition yellow vinyl, after checking out the disc itself and groaning at his 20 year old picture inside! He also signed my vintage EVE album, and made us all feel quite comfortable and relaxed: all my nervousness and fear of babbling melted away as soon as we started talking! Ian also signed my albums, and was very gracious and equally relaxed. I told him that I was having trouble deciding which LPs to have signed, and that I was considering bringing Jon Anderson's solo album "Songs of Seven" (Bairnson played guitar on all tracks). He laughed and said, "So YOU'RE the one who bought that!" he went on to defend Jon Anderson, but slammed the record label -- a familiar sentiment?? I also got to talk with both singers, and got a nice picture of the two of them acting buddy-buddy. I praised Neil on his ability to perform a Lenny Zakatek-sung song with the same level of intensity and gut-wrenching. He seemed honestly and happily surprised! I told him that we all are picky about how our favourite songs are interpreted and performed, and that we discuss this stuff at length all the time. I think he really was surprised at the deep level of our discussions about all things APP/AP. I also congratulated Peter Beckett on not being the other Peter Beckett: he got a hearty laugh out of that, and Neil spit out his Heineken laughing!! Guess he hears that all the time. As we left for the BART station, Miss Rude America '96 yelled at us some more ("Wrong Door"!!), and we slammed her some more, laughing heartily the entire time, which made her angrier still! No one could spoil the moment. Laughing happy people everywhere! STRAIGHT FROM THE HORSES' MOUTHS: 1. Alan said that SD "was made in 45 minutes, simply played, taped, and shipped." I asked him if it was really that unlistenable: perhaps defending himself a little, he responded, "Wellllll.... not 'unlistenable', really, just not very good." 2. Ian said that "White Dawn" did not come from SD, but was written specifically for the World Liberty Concert. 3. I perceived lingering animosity over Freudiana. Ian said that it was written for the stage and NOT as an APP album. I told him that I thought it was the best piece of APP work, from beginning to end, that I had ever heard, and could they (at least legally) perform some of the songs in concert. Ian thought for a long time, then responded, "I suppose we COULD, if we really wanted to." Then as an afterthought, he half-mumbled, "But it's probably more trouble than it's worth." Alan later concurred, saying essentially that "That was Eric's thing that we helped him with." Becoming ever more bold, I protested, saying that it was indeed APP in everything but name. I finally got through to him when I used a stupid Ross Perot-sounding analogy, "If it looks like a dog and barks like a dog, you can call it anything you want. It's still a dog, though." He nodded, and said, "That's true; it actually IS all the same players." He seemed to be honestly considering the possibilities!! So if you hear "The Ring" or "I Am a Mirror" in concert, you'll know I got through to his better senses! :-) 4. "Wouldn't Want to Be Like You", a song I've been playing on guitar in the key of Am since I first heard it in '77, is actually played in Cm. I told him I noticed that while watching him, and he laughed. He said he wished he COULD play it in Am, but nobody can sing in that key! He asked me if I could transpose (yes!), then we simultaneously played the song in our heads, yelling out the transposed notes and laughing while playing air guitar. I think he had fun talking to another guitar player (hint, hint, fellow guitar players!!)! 5. I told Ian how badly we were slamming Maria from River North. He laughed and explained the whole scenario of how they just quit working for AP once they got the finished songs in hand. He said a River North schmoozer was around the first night, but he got abused so badly he brought the record label's lawyer with him the next few nights, then quit coming entirely. Ian's comment: "We really kicked their asses all over the place!" Fun, fun, fun!!! Will send pictures for someone to post as soon as they are developed!! John Finney, Certifed Airborne Projectile From rking@RedBrick.COM Mon Oct 14 13:28:15 1996 Date: Mon, 14 Oct 1996 12:59:43 -0700 From: Robyn King-Nitschke To: app@roadkill.com Subject: Warfield Show Review (long) Cc: rking@RedBrick.COM Content-Length: 6880 Hi, Here's my review of the Warfield show, written last Thursday right before I left to go to the Greek show. --Robyn ---------------------------------------------------- BEFORE THE SHOW We arrived at the Warfield about 4:30, courtesy of BART, which, just as promised, dropped us off only a couple blocks from the theatre. The Warfield is conveniently located next to a seriously sleazy-looking nude dance parlor (The FINEST Live Nude Girls in San Francisco--hey, if you have to spend time near a place like this, at least it's comforting to know that they're the FINEST...) You know you're in the '90s when the sleazy nude revues have their own web page (www.crazyhorse.com--it said so right on their marquee...) Anyway, we were first in line, but not by much. Another guy showed up a few minutes after we did, and soon after that we were joined by John Finney and Wesley (who immediately left again to go find his wife). We spent the next couple hours chatting about AP and fending off the overly-friendly street people who were collecting money for various charities, selling "street beat" newspapers ($1.00 each) and just being as relentlessly cheerful as they could possibly be, in hopes of getting a handout. Let me tell you, Market Street in San Francisco is a great place to do some people watching. I gave a dollar to the first guy, who claimed to be collecting for a homeless program at his church (and had some pretty official- looking documents) but quickly learned that I'd better not do this again or soon I wouldn't have enough left for dinner! (I tend to be a bit of a softie about this, but I toughened up pretty quickly, especially after the scary guy started muttering about killing us, shooting us with his gun (I was pretty sure he didn't have one, and he was so unsteady on his feet that he couldn't have hit us if he had), and other assorted cheery thoughts. Just ignore them, and they'll go away...I hope...I was just glad there were a *lot* of us there...) So we waited a while longer, and Gail showed up with her son (but no saxophone!), as did "thood," whom I met briefly, but by this time the line was pretty long. Dan (my husband) and Wesley's wife exchanged anecdotes about being married to AP nuts--hey, it's tough being married to a fan! (And Dan gets to do this all over again next month, when Rush comes to town!) BTW, Dan's "Elvis is Dead: Deal With It!" T-shirt was a big hit. Eventually, after finding out that I wasn't on the list for passes (I didn't expect to be, but I was hoping...) we were let in. The group all made a mass pilgrimage toward the stage, and I quickly secured a spot right near the center, on Ian's side, along with Dan, Wesley, his wife, John, and the rest. The Warfield is a beautiful old theatre; I'd never been there before, so I was impressed by it--it even had balconies, like an opera house (though no one was in them). I got a real sense of history from the place, thinking about all the acts that have played there (like the Grateful Dead). I think at least one of the concert scenes in the movie "The Doors" was filmed there. So anyway, we all stand around waiting for the show to start, and got a chance to talk to some other fans, tell them about the mailing list, dazzle them with our massive AP knowledge :), etc. Most of them had not even heard the new album yet! Way to go, River North! Maybe if the fans actually *knew* about the album, they might *buy* it, huh? :( Met a guy who was really into AP and was interested to find out there was a mailing list. I gave him the address, and he said he would sign up (he also said he'd be at the Greek show too). Maybe I found a new recruit! Oh, and I got offered a "smoke." I felt rather flattered, since I've never been offered a smoke by a stranger at a concert before, but I politely declined. Even if I was into that sort of thing (which I'm not), I think the clouds coming from that side of the stage would have been sufficient. They were lighting up before the lights even went out. :) Obviously "Just Say No" wasn't going over big at the Warfield. :) THE SHOW Ah, the show. What can I say that hasn't already been said by someone else? It was utterly, absolutely fantastic. I'm not sure I can describe the feeling of leaning on the stage (earplugs in place--Dan convinced me to bring them, and was I glad!), staring enraptured up at the people who have been the soundtrack of my life from the time I was 12 or so. I went to the LA concert last year (and I'll be going again this Friday), but I'm not sure it will be able to compare to the sheer intimacy of being pushed up against the stage by the crowd, watching every movement of Ian's hands on his guitar, every glance Alan made out to the crowd, every smile from Peter Beckett and Neil Lockwood. Screaming and singing and clapping and drumming on the stage to every song, from "Dr. Tarr and Professor Fether" all the way through to "Games People Play." Being *sure* that Ian smiled at me, or Alan noticed me clapping my head off. Watching the expressions on their faces as they fed off the crowd's energy. Ian's shy smile as the crowd exploded after his guitar solo, to the point where Alan had to joke, "Stop it--it'll go to his head!" The poignancy of Ian and Peter on stage alone with "Brother Up In Heaven," Ian silently mouthing the words as Peter sang them. The wonderful energy of "Fall Free," and the calm of "Days are Numbers." Stuart's orange baseball cap glowing in the black lights. The crush of the crowd at the end, when the band came up to the front to greet the fans. The tingle of electricity when Alan took my hands for a second on his way by, and when Ian did the same a few seconds later. These are images that will stay with me, that I want to remember about the show. When it was over, I felt drained and exhilarated all at once, like I wanted to do it all over again. I never wanted it to end. AFTER THE SHOW The band left the stage. The lights came up. We were back from the land of music and intensity, back in the world of beer bottles on the floor and Warfield employees swooping in to clean up the trash, shooing us out of "the pit" so they could do their jobs and get out of there. Everyone drifted off toward where people with passes were supposed to wait, and we decided not to wait and see if Wesley could swing a couple from The Man, since we had to get up early the next day and already had passes for LA anyway. We left everyone else standing in line to get backstage (hope they all had a great time...I'm looking forward to their reviews!) and headed off toward BART and home. Even the ineptitude of BART, which couldn't seem to run a train in the correct direction, didn't take anything away from the experience. Well, that's my review. It was definitely an experience to remember. If LA is half as good, I'll be happy. :) --Robyn From wesley.chun@Eng Sun Oct 13 18:00:13 1996 Date: Sun, 13 Oct 1996 17:14:11 -0700 From: wesley.chun@Eng (Wesley J. Chun) To: app@roadkill.com Subject: Other San Francisco tidbits Content-Length: 3314 Hi again, With the severe lack of sleep and overwhelming amount of news and gossip that's drifted through my system, and maybe I'm nearing middle age or something.... But I keep forgetting things!! Here are corrections/additions to all my show reviews: 1. Clear plastic divider > From wesc@pacific Wed Oct 9 11:07:33 1996 > > One more piece of trivia... the decision to use the clear > plastic CD holder/divider because you can see the artwork > on the rear cover, which distracts you from the front cover. Here, I failed to mention that this only applies to the European release from Aracde/CNR. Another D'Oh moment! 2. Andrew Powell I asked why he wasn't on the tour this year. As it turns out, he decided not to come because touring was a grueling and tiring experience, one which he didn't quite want to repeat this year. 3. Richard "Trix" Cottle Most of you have noted that there is no saxophonist on the tour this year, and I remember Alan saying this last year, that Richard wanted to take more time off for his family and other projects, no pun intended. This was too bad since they skipped all the sax solo at the end of Old And Wise, and the sax solos in the Ammonia Avenue pieces. 4. Waiting in line in San Francisco I don't know *how* I forgot to mention what an experience it was waiting in line on San Francisco's Market Street for entrance to the venue. There are a lot of homeless, poor, and mentally dis- abled people, and it was "interesting" to interact with these people. I'll let John or Robyn give more specific details if they want to. :) 5. Ian Bairnson In my SF review, I wrote this: >Ian's first cut on the guitar set the stage for the rest >of the night. With every new song and new solo, the >cheers and respect for this incredible axewielder crescendo'd. I totally downplayed the crowd's reaction to Ian all night. After the first piece, Dr. Tarr, Ian virtually *owned* the crowd. The other attendees on this list can confirm this with me. Every single guitar solo within each of the other songs were met by cheers and more applause as soon as he started the solo section. Finally, it was too much to bear. The standing ovations led to long series of applause that seemed like they would never end. Finally, Alan couldn't take it any more, and blurted something like this out loud, "Okay, that's enough! Stop it, or it'll go to his head!!" The applause finally died down amid a see of laughter from the audience. John's review reminded me of this hilarious incident! Okay, that's all I could drain from the far recesses of my foggy gray matter. Wesley ------------------------------------------------------------------------ "A computer never does what you want... only what you tell it." ******** Wesley J. Chun ********* eMail: wesc@eng.sun.com * SunSoft Solaris Network Prods * Phone: (415) 786-7017 * 2550 Garcia Ave, MS MPK17-203 * Voice: (415) 786-5800 * Mountain View, CA 94043-1100 * FAX : (415) 786-6137 ********************************* Admin: (415) 786-7216 Monster APP Discography and Archive: http://beta.ece.ucsb.edu/~wesc/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ From jmfinney@ucdavis.edu Tue Oct 15 09:01:18 1996 Date: Tue, 15 Oct 1996 08:48:28 -0700 (PDT) To: app@roadkill.com From: John Finney Subject: One-upping Kathy B. :-) Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Length: 1679 Kathy B said: > >>Apparently the security crew there thought I was with the band so I had all >>access backstage during and after the show. I didn't take advantage of it, >>however, I didn't want to intrude on their privacy. I talked with Peter >>Beckett's girlfriend for awhile. She was really sweet. Apparently Peter is >>from my neck of the woods, he used to play with a local band at my hangout >>in the early 80's, we had some fun reminiscing about those days. But we >>didn't remember each other from then...we both chalked it up to too much >>alcohol consumption at the time. Peter Beckett and I had a nice long chat in SF while everyone was mobbing Alan and Ian. He is, compared to Neil, very un-assuming; people seemed only to recognize him when he was standing next to Neil. Seems that he, like Ian, has relatives in So. Cal., and apparently spent a good amount of time there in the last decade. It makes sense, since that's where all the record executives and recording studios are!?! Anyway, Neil is originally from Belfast, Northern Ireland. I'm from the comparatively safe city of Clondarf, Dublin (in the Republic), although I left when I was 11. Needless to say, we had much to discuss, although I stayed away from local politics. I was also embarrassed about not knowing of Neil's participation in ELO II. We spent some time talking about old British bands and laughing a lot: he mentioned he was doing a project with a number of people, one of them being Pete Haycock (of Climax Blues Band fame). I said, "Christ, is he still alive?" Neil laughed loudly, saying, "I'll tell him you asked that!" Everybody else, send it your concert report!! John Finney From jerryt@safetystorage.com Tue Oct 15 14:04:03 1996 From: "Jerry Tyler" To: app-digest@topquark.roadkill.com, SSSmith2@aol.com Date: Tue, 15 Oct 1996 13:40:33 -0800 Subject: Re: APP Concert Content-Length: 2024 Sheldon: I just joined the mailing list today, so I hope you don't mind if I use your original message as a "trial" to see if I am doing this right. I went to the AP concert in San Francisco on the 9th, and I just want to add my "dittos" to your comments. The band sounds fantastic, and the crowd response was tremendous. Very encouraging. Re: Alan -- "preoccupied" is exactly the work I would have used. My sense was that he was very concerned with the number of people wanting to see him, and making sure that no one left disappointed. Which speaks very well of him. Re: Ian -- I totally agree with you, he could not have been nicer. A real gentleman. I had a real nice conversation with him regarding "Brother Up in Heaven". He seemed genuinely pleased to hear how much people appreciate that song. Re: Stuart -- again, I agree with you. I asked him when the band was going to let him sing again (after "Take the Money and Run") and he seemed very pleased that I would ask that question. I meant to ask him about "Year of the Cat" and anyone memories he has of those sessions, but I forgot . Good work on getting Cure fans to go to the concert. I am trying to spread the word to friends and co-workers regarding "On Air" which is fantastic, IMHO. They're probably getting tired of hearing me talk about it. I took a program that I got from The Avenue to the show, and was lucky enough to get it signed by all of the band members except for John Giblin. Going to frame it, and put it in my music room. Last comment -- like you, meeting the band and Alan was truly an experience of a lifetime. To be honest, I was a little nervous heading into the evening -- what if these people who I have admired so much for years should turn out to be jerks? What if I say something incredibly stupid? Well, they are definitely some of the nicest people I have ever met, and, hopefully, I didn't say anything dumb (at least, I don't remember doing it). Bye for now. Jerry Tyler