A friend is a huge fan of Vince Gill and so am I. Vince was on tour and came to Oakland Coliseum Arena. He was open to receiving guests before show. I have to admit that most of the artists who come out of MCA Nashville are gracious, courteous and humble. Is that just a Southern thing? We made our way to the back stage greet and meet “Green Room”. It was stocked with refreshments, couches, flowers, Nintendo video games, chairs, lamps and table tennis. There was food, candy and beverages a plenty. After a while Vince popped in with other band members and started mingling. He made the rounds meeting everyone, posed for photos, signed autographs and hung out. I got to spend a little more time with Vince when he said to me “hey are you hungry? I said “Oh yeah” He said follow me…we made our way over to a hospitality table which was set up with a Panini press. Vince said how about a grilled peanut butter and banana sandwich. So there I was having Vince Gill prepare these sandwiches, and tell me he was so happy that someone else wanted to eat with him.We talked about the traditions of before show and he said “ I like to eat before I hit the stage so I don’t have hunger pains and my stomach does’t growl.
Shirley Manson and Garbage
I got to know Shirley while working with Radio Active Records on her Angelfish album. We had some success with the track “Suffocate me”. The Album was produced by Tina Weymouth of the Talking Heads. The band came into San Francisco during a tour for their self titled debut Album. I took Shirley round to a few record stores for an impromptu greet and meet and luncheon with some managers. The following year Shirley ditched Angelfish and would front the band Garbage; which was a Butch Vig incarnation. The first Garbage album was done mostly in the studio with Butch playing all the instruments. The Band Garbage recorded a hit with “Stupid Girl” and were a darling at early commercial alternative radio. They decided to hit the road and brought along bassist Danny Shulman from some early Run DMC sessions. The band scheduled mostly Radio Winter Festivals and a handful of club dates. In San Francisco Shirley contacted me and made sure I was going to be at Slims for an intimate club date. She said “Bring all those people I met last time, so they can see my new band” To say the least the band nailed it! Shirley hung around and signed autographs for anyone who wanted one (she was a trooper) Both Butch and Shirley told me later that night Backstage, that they were not sure how the music was going to translate since they were using samples and Midi controllers. After much discussion we convinced them that they sounded amazing and not to worry. Shirley’s stage presence alone was intoxicating. The next day they performed for Live 105’s almost Christmas, and KOME ’s Almost Acoustic Christmas to much larger crowds but unfortunately only a 5 or 6 song set!
Tom Waits
It could be the luxury of living in the San Francisco Bay Area. If you live here , you know what I mean and you also know better than to take it for granted. This is the city where you can come and be anonymous without trying too hard. You can blend pretty easily.
I had taken my son Clayton to a San Francisco Giants home game at the then, New Ball Park at 4th & Townsend called Pac Bell Park. We had made our way to the promenade deck where we had lower reserved tickets. Before the game had started. I glanced over at a concession line and saw Tom Waits standing in line with on of his son’s Casey. Our boys were similar in age, so I took my son by the hand and walked over and introduced ourselves to them. Tom was healthy, happy and pleased to talk baseball, sunshine, hotdogs, and the new ball park. It was casual, as we waited in line, and I later asked him what material he was working on? In that sly, graveled Tom Waits voice, he said, “I always have a cat in the bag”. It turned out to be a great day all around!
Elton John at Shoreline Amphitheater
Elton John had recently signed a new deal to return to MCA Records and was heading out on a National tour called “Sleeping with the Past” It was standard in those days to bring Record Store buyers, managers, and owners to concerts in your respective markets. I had personally invited about 20, the other staffers invited 20 and our radio promoter invited about 20, so we had a whole mess of people together. I arranged a greet and meet with Elton who said he would meet everyone pre show. Upon arriving a bit early to Shoreline, I met with production and we did the Back Stage Pass computation, also I got a chance to meet Elton in his dressing room. His dressing room had been made to order by Bill Graham himself. Bill took great pride in making performers feel special. Bill had specially prepared Elton’s dressing room with 25 hand picked Hats from a Haberdashery in San Francisco, he lined them in columns on the wall. When I met Elton he was having fun trying on the different hats with different colors, feathers, braids, crests and boas. I asked him which one he was going to wear and he said; “ I think I’ll use quite a few of these tonight” True to his word, during the performance he changed wardrobes a few times, including the Hats!
Set list 8/20/89 Shoreline Amphitheater
Smoke filled intro to
Bennie and the Jets
Island girl
Harmony
Tiny Dancer
Sleeping with the Past
The Bitch is Back into Brown Sugar cover
I guess that’s why they call it the blues
Mona Lisa and Mad Hatters Pt.1 & Pt. 2
Funeral for a Friend/ Love lies bleeding
Sorry seems to be the Hardest word
Daniel
Candle in the wind
Sacrifice
Blue Eyes
Philadelphia Freedom,
Burn down the Mission
Levon
Stones throw from here
Sad Songs say so much
Don’t let the sun go down on me
I don’t want top go with you like that
Encore
Saturday Nights alright for fighting
Rocket man (I think it’s going to be a long time)