From Scott.Holder@fhwa.dot.gov Fri Oct 25 14:38:33 1996 Content-Identifier: 06EE032712CC4001 Content-Return: Allowed Conversion: Allowed Date: 25 Oct 1996 17:10:28 -0400 From: "Holder, Scott " To: app@roadkill.com (Return requested) (Receipt notification requested) Subject: St Louis Show Content-Length: 5705 Sorry this is late. We got home at 3:00am and I as just too wiped to type. That and we had to get the B&B ready for guests (we live in a historic district in a podunk town in central Missouri and run a 120 year old hotel, The Dauphine Hotel-call 573-897-4144 for details; thus endeth this commercial announcement) so I had to get some sleep. Night and day is the best way to describe the KC and SL shows. The venue was a concert hall, so the accoustics and sound were very sharp. Plus the entire crowd of about 1000-1200 was right up in the bands face. Peter Beckett showed up and at once remembered the hall and was immediately pumped up and it showed later. The crowd was also a bit more enthusiastic although I think everyone has a tendency to sit down and stay down. I think that has to do with our ge, not the music. Okay, the quiet slow songs do lend themselves to that treatment. Possible small spoiler 1 (but read it anyway). We were blessed in that Ian finally ripped a guitar solo. He went nuts during Primetime and the crowd realized they were getting a special treat. During intermission, the five of us (Sandra, me, Jon, Wesley, and Kirk) who probably have about 20 concerts between us all agreed that was the best solo we'd seen Ian do since AP began touring. Not exactly a large data base to pull from, but we convinced ourselves at least. The ironic thing is that after the show, Ian commented that the previous night in KC, he fellt he hadn't done a good job on Primetime. Oh that he screw things up more often! Small spoiler 2: Another song which improves in the live show is Psychobabble. During the bridge where the sirens sound on the album, Stuart, John, Ian, Gary, and Alan begin a sorta "Pink Floyd" effect in that various sounds, notes, and beats build to a shrieking crescendo. Ian does a great "David Gilmour circa 1970" effect with a slide on the guitar. It really does sound like the Floyd on my boots collection. the best thing at the SL show was watching almost everyone in the orchestra pit plug their ears at the same time when the bridge reaches it climax. I personally like having blood come out my ears. The after show festivities were rather interesteing. About 30 people hung around (twice as many as in KC). The downside in one sense is that, well, it's more people. The upside is that the entire band seems to come out. In KC, we talked to Alan, Ian, and Stuart. In SL, everyone game out including the ethereal John. Just to show you that my cynical doom and gloom comments about our efforts to help promote AP and OA are not just my warped concept of the bidness, I'll relate some things said by the River North bubba (or in his words "the record company weasel"). First off, Wesley was doing yoeman's work on this guy in terms of pointed questions (not hostile, just highlighting some of the company's "inadequacies" with AP). The record guy admitted that part of the problem was River North was a new outfit and was obviously not doing a great job juggling a number of things at once. At last he was honest for a weasel. Further, don't flagelate yourselves trying to get radio stations to do squat. Two items from SL. First, Alan and Ian went over to KSHE FM to do a little "on air" time for OA. Apparently last year they did the same thing and it went over real well. Also KSHE was one of the concert promoters. Weellll, apparently they get there and the people could not let them on unless they got permission of the omnipetent program manager, who, conviently, couldn't be reached. Keep in mind this is a classic rock station where you might actually here some APP from time to time. Sandra and I were listening on the radio and no interview (obviously) occured. I guess our musical lives were bettered by the umpteenth listening of Led Zps "Living, Loving, Women" and Supertramps "The Logical Song". Not to mention the two minutes the dj spent talking about some SL resteraunt's 1/2 pound cheeseburger with 10 strips of bacon. And any of you expect any given radio station to give us relative low life's the time of day? Secondly, a radio low life was with the record weasel and he had some interesting things to say. It seems that releasing a single off of OA at this point is pretty pointless. That's cuz record stations freeze their playlists between 1 November and the end of the year. I'm sure there's some warped logic in the unreal world of radio that drives such a decision but I'll probably not understand it. So we won't see any action on that until the new year. Unfortunately for me and Sandra, SL was the second and last leg of the fan's midwest madness tour. The indomitable Parsonmiacs, Jon, Wes, and Kirk, right now are probably taking a nap after their 12 hour all nite drive to Detroit. I envied the fact they were gonna hit two more shows but I shore didn't envy the drive. But as they put it, "who needs sleep anyway". I'll reiterate what everyone else who's had the fortune of meeting members of the band and crew has said: they are truly nice people who are very appreciative of the fans. This extends to everyone I met. Talk to the crew if you get the chance, possibly during intermission, to get another perspectiv on touring or if you are interested in many of the technical aspects of putting on a show. One final news note and take this with a big grain of salt since a million and one things can happen between now and then. AP is planning to come back to the US in 1998. Next year will see tours in Europe and South America. I'm sure the great info/fan guru Steve Martin will keep us informed. Now I just gotta figure how I can make one more show THIS YEAR. Scott From MKMADONNA@aol.com Fri Nov 1 11:40:35 1996 From: MKMADONNA@aol.com Date: Fri, 1 Nov 1996 14:34:48 -0500 To: app@roadkill.com Subject: The October 24 St. Louis Alan Parsons Concert Content-Length: 3197 Hi All - Been getting a lot of very interesting E-mail recently, via our subscription, and have been reading of different folks' stories of meeting Alan Parsons and the band. Thought we'd add our story to the mix. First of all, Alan did not get the kind of advance publicity that he should have had here. Oh, there was a newspaper blurb here and there and even a photo or two buried in the back of the local entertainment pages. However, that did not stop Alan from almost completely selling out the American Theatre in St. Louis the night of the show. I can only guess that it was because there are so many great and devoted Alan Parsons fans out there spreading the word on the Internet and such. Anyway, the show was superb and St. Louis really demonstrated to Alan and the band how much we love them. He appeared to be overwhelmed with the response he got and he mentioned several times, between songs, that it really was good to be back in St. Louis. We, as an audience, went nuts and cheered and clapped everytime he said this. It's not easy for a band to sound as good live as they do in a studio (The Eagles are the only other group that comes to mind as I write this), but Alan and the other singers and musicians not only sounded great, but they made it look easy as well. Because we subscribe to "The Avenue", the official newsletter of the Alan Parsons Fan Club, my wife, Karen, and I were offered after show passes. It was a dream come true for us. We'd been privileged to go back stage after Alan's first appearance in St. Louis in August of 1995; we didn't have those passes then, but due to the fact that I helped to promote the show (I do a part-time radio show called "The Brain Sandwich") on their first go-round, we are able to get back stage due to the kindness of Nigel Buckham, a man who worked for their tour management and was traveling with them at that time. I did promote the show this year on "The Brain Sandwich" as well. It was a lot of fun to meet the guys and they were very nice to us. Unfortunately, we didn't have a camera then to preserve the moment, but we did this year! Karen presented Alan with a St. Louis Blues t-shirt (it had a blue musical note on it); Alan was so touched that he gave her a hug. She still talks about that moment with a twinkle in her eye. We got word from Steve Martin, of "The Avenue", that Alan wore the shirt after the Kalamazoo, Michigan show during his "meet and greet" session. A favor: If anyone snapped a shot of Alan in this t-shirt, please contact us via E-mail. We will be glad to pay for an extra print of this photo. She'd like to add that picture to our scrapbook. Alan and the guys were just as open and friendly as we remembered them to be from our first contact with them. We took the balance of our Alan Parsons CD inserts and had Alan and the band sign them. We've got them all signed except for the "Sound Check" CD that Alan and another gentlemen put together. All in all, it was a night to remember, and I feel confident that Alan will want to come to St. Louis again on his next tour. As always, we will be there. Michael & Karen Madonna Arnold (22 miles South of St. Louis), MO From MKMADONNA@aol.com Tue Nov 5 19:42:59 1996 From: MKMADONNA@aol.com Date: Tue, 5 Nov 1996 22:36:31 -0500 To: app@roadkill.com Subject: Tales of Parsons (& Imagination!) Content-Length: 9317 Hi all - My wife, Karen, and I have been subscribers for nearly a week now. I've been singularly impressed with the messages we've been receiving from fellow Alan Parsons fans. I've already filed a report on the October 24th St. Louis Concert, which, as I re-read it, is probably not as informative as it could have been. I beg your indulgence as I post this addendum and then tell the story of how we became AP fans. Ok, let's first deal with the fact that the show received little advance publicity. This seems to be the general consensus as I read the daily postings from fellow fans. Alan first performed in St. Louis in August of 1995. We knew in advance he was coming because there were notices and ads in local newspapers featuring a photo from the inside of the "The Very Best Live" CD insert. Also, there was an intriguing radio ad campaign in which the announcer promises that, "Finally, the man of mystery will step out from behind the curtain", ala "The Wizard of Oz". Anyway, the point is that publicity was much better last year than this go 'round. I'm going to have to echo what several of you have said in your postings recently concerning all AP fans having to spread the word ourselves via flyers and such. This will be a bit easier for me to do because I do a part-time radio show and squeeze in AP cuts when I can. I had to write a couple of letters to Arista Records begging for a handful of past Project albums (which they eventually sent), but they never did send "Try Anything Once" upon its release. I just happened to come across it while Christmas Shopping and immediately snatched it up. "The Very Best Live" and "On Air" were not forthcoming from their respective record companies, so I've resigned myself to being on my own when it comes to AP albums. Speaking of which: has anyone out there heard any cuts from "On Air" on the radio? Nothing here. Not one radio station I know of locally has played anything from it. Don't know if the company didn't send out promotional copies to stations or what, but if so, no one is playing anything from it. I will be spotlighting "On Air" over the next several weeks even though my show's focus is live and recorded humor (example: I have a version of dogs barking "Bolero"; it's called, of course, "B(ark)olero"). Now for some more back stage insights from the October 24th show. Ian, whom I spent the most time talking to, told me that most of the band live within one hour of "Parsonics", the studio that they record in. It's located in London. I mentioned to Ian that we'd seen a video of the concert they did in Chile last year; he sort of rolled his eyes, groaned and said words to the effect, "The sound quality of that show was so bad". I asked him if there were any chance that we would soon see a professionally done "Live in Concert" full-length video and he replied that he doubted it since the audience demands that Alan be on stage and not running the sound board. Alan is a perfectionist when it comes to sound quality and would need to re-master/enhance the sound to his level of satisfaction. I'd posed this question to Andrew Powell in Aug '95 during our back stage jaunt and he said he would approach Alan about it. Andrew further mentioned that no one that he knew of had filmed one of their shows. Of course, this was before the Chile concert, which some of you may have seen on video. Someone mentioned on these postings that they found Stuart to be a humorous man. I share this view. He made several funny comments and seemed surprised when we asked him to sign our CD inserts. Maybe he doesn't get asked for autographs a lot. He's a major talent and we complimented him. He appeared embarassed that we praised him. Peter Beckett was wonderful, not only as a performer, but as a warm, down to earth guy. When we first met him in Aug '95, he was just starting out and had yet to be used to the concert stage. I think we made him feel better immediately when we said that he'd done all the songs (including the ones that Eric Woolfson had made hits) justice. He beamed. When we saw him again this year, he was even better than we'd remembered and this time appeared completely relaxed. Way to go, Peter! Then: The Man Himself. Well, what can I say about Alan that hasn't been said already? He definitely knows that St. Louis loves him; we gave him another round of wild applause when he come out (from his dressing room?) to join the backstage crowd. He grinned at us and took a modest bow. He was immediately surrounded by most of the folks who had passes. Karen and I held back until the crowd died down and then approached him. Forgot to give him one of my (radio) business cards, but had a pleasant chat with him nonetheless as he signed the eight CD inserts that I brought with me. After a bit we could see that "white line fever" and their exhaustive concert performance had taken their toll, so we left them with our best wishes and took our leave. I imagine that it wasn't too long after that that they boarded the tour bus and almost immediately went to bed as they headed out to their next gig in Detroit. Ok, that fills in the gaps of our concert report. Before I begin the story of how we got turned onto the APP, here's a bit of obscure Project trivia: In her book, "You'll Never Eat Lunch In This Town Again" (which, according to a reviewer, should have been called "The Hollywood Chainsaw Massacre"), Julia Phillips indicates that some Alan Parsons Project music was submitted to her for consideration by Arista President Clive Davis for the soundtrack of a movie she co-produced called "Close Encounters of the Third Kind". She wasn't very receptive to the music, but, hey, she had a tremendous drug habit in those days and wasn't particularly bright then. See page 372 of the paperback edition. On to my first APP discovery. The first APP album I ever heard was "Tales of Mystery and Imagination". I was in the Army (circa 1980) at the time. Some guy in my barracks had it. Went down to his room to play cards (and get plastered) one weekend night and he had the album playing in the background. It caught my attention immediately. I bowed out of the card game, put the beer back in the refrigerator, sat down next to the stereo speaker and proceeded to have my mind blown by this album. I listened to it about six more times that night. I couldn't find "Tales" on cassette there at the stereo store, so I wrote home and had my brother find it and send it. I wore the tape out before I came home for the last time in 1982. Immediately went out and bought it again. Like many people, I figured the album was a one-shot deal so I didn't really watch out for or anticipate any other AP Project record. It wasn't until early 1983, when I was in California in the Coast Guard (the job situation at home was non-existent at the time, so I was forced to re-enlist, but it damn wasn't going to be in the Army!), that I found myself rooming with a guy, Kevin Barnett, who had "Tales" on tape, plus every other album up to, as I recall, "Ammonia Avenue". Note: although I rarely play cards anymore and don't drink at all, I still continue to listen to "Tales" (the 1987 re-issue with the Orson Welles narration) with the same fascination I initially experienced in 1980. I'd heard the song "Eye In The Sky" on commercial radio quite a lot before my time in California, but had no idea (because DJ's weren't saying who did the record, a tradition, sadly, that continues today) that it was the APP. Kevin played these tapes a lot, and as I sat there listening with him, I gained a whole new appreciation for the band. Of course I had to run out and get all those tapes, too. I was writing to a girl (she lived near St. Louis) while I was still in Petaluma, California (it's nice to have pen pals when one is away from home). She was a friend of someone I'd gone to college with and decided to link us together, if only via the postal service. Time ("flowing like a river") passed, it was on to my next duty station which, as luck would have it, was St. Louis. Keeping a promise I made to look her up when I got back, we hit it off immediately when I discovered that she, too, love the APP and had just bought their album "Ammonia Avenue". It was the first Project album she'd ever seen. Things happened and soon we were engaged. We married after a two month courtship. That was 12 1/2 years ago. No kids, but, hey, we've got the Alan Parsons Project - what else do we need? So "Ammonia Avenue" is "our" album, the one we fell in love listening over and over to. Karen loves the other albums, too and bought most of the ones she could find on vinyl (anyone remember vinyl?). Well, that's our story. It's only gotten better as time as gone by. I think the only AP-related dream I have yet to fulfill is to see them all live again and this time I hope to be able to personally present Alan with what I think will be one of the greatest things a fan has ever given him. A rare, antique hardbound version of the Poe collection, "Tales of Mystery and Imagination". Haven't located a publishing date, but it looks as if it came out in the early part of this century. Wish me luck. Take Care, Everyone. Mike & Karen Madonna