IMO it says a lot about the character of celebs to see how they treat us "nobodies" they meet in everyday life.
Greg -----Original Message----- From: Mercedes [mailto:mercedes-boun...@okiebenz.com] On Behalf Of Dan Penoff via Mercedes Sent: Saturday, July 04, 2020 5:08 PM To: Okie Benz Cc: Dan Penoff Subject: Re: [MBZ] Barry Manilow While it has been many years, in the summer in junior/senior years of high school and later before I was in tech school I used to drive a semi with a Landoll trailer carrying a 350kW generator set and cables to be used by the various tours as they went around the Midwest. A lot of the venues back in that time didn’t have adequate house power to run their whole show, so they would run the sound off house power and used our generator for lighting. I would often follow a given show for a week at a time, sometimes more, as they toured around the Midwest. We also had a standing gig with Market Square Area and the Clay Courts in Indianapolis for the same thing, so in some cases I would be doing it during the rest of the year locally, too. I was first in, last out. For a typical 8:00 pm show I had to be there no later than 8:00 am, sound check was usually around 2:00-3:00, then cool my heels until the show started. A lot of times we wouldn’t have everything struck at the prior venue until 2:00 - 3:00 am, which meant I might have to high tail it a couple hundred miles to the next venue, like maybe Louisville to Columbus or St. Louis, for example. Longer distances usually meant a travel day in between. Lots of sleeping in the truck. Some of the artists I toured with: Rush Fleetwood Mac Don Henley Stevie Nicks Kiss Foreigner Phil Collins Def Leppard Dire Straits AC/DC Journey REO Speedwagon Pat Benatar ZZ Top Heart Toto Kenny Loggins Steve Winwood I’m sure there were others, but these are the ones I recall. All I can say is that while it was fun, sort of, it made me realize what a crappy way to make a living it was. I had to carry a firearm because I always got paid in cash by the road manager before the end of the show, so I always had large sums of cash on me until the morning when I could deposit it if I could find the right bank where we were. I was not union, so at the union (IATSE) halls I had to have a union member “assigned” to me that made all the final connections and I pretty much just flipped the switch and made sure all was well. Once that was done I was free to hit the buffet if there was one for the crew. My recollections about artists are as such: Rush was the absolute best band to work for. They had a dedicated crew that toured exclusively with them, some of them having been with the band for some time. Food was excellent and they (Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson) were always very nice and came by before the show to thank everyone. Molson and cold shrimp were some of the regular things on the after show buffet, and they always had a “to-go” kit of food and goodies for everyone on the crew after things were broken down/struck. A good breakfast was out on the morning of the show, too, with lots of fresh fruit and good things to eat. Don Henley’s entourage was the worst. That was one of those “avert your eyes when the “artist” is moving through the wings and backstage.” A real douche. No buffet or food, a pile of order-out pizza and cooler full of generic soda was all they would put out, and it was rarely enough to feed everyone. Keep in mind that food is always provided by the venue/promoter and costs the act a minimal amount of money, if any, as it’s factored into the cost of the show and spelled out in the rider in advance. That’s the contract that says “no brown M&M’s.” So if a tour does a crappy job on food for the crew, it’s on the tour, not the venue. Understand that as a crew member you rarely see the talent. If you do, they’re moving through backstage from point A to point B with their entourage around them, so you often can’t even see them if you tried. The only ones I recall circulating backstage were Rush, ZZ Top and I think Kenny Loggins. They would often hang around and chat a little bit after the sound check. As I mentioned before, Rush would come around and thank everyone before the show. I really don’t recall a lot of details, as it was 40 years ago, but those are the ones that stand out. The rest were pretty decent because they recognized the value of keeping the help happy. It was still a crappy gig, but I got paid pretty well for the time, I think $200/day in cash. -D “Yeah, I’m with the band, baby” > On Jul 4, 2020, at 6:07 PM, Kaleb Striplin via Mercedes > <mercedes@okiebenz.com> wrote: > > I just heard a Barry Manilow song and it reminded me of a story. A friend of > mine's wife has this part time gig where when shows come to town they do the > back stage stuff with costumes. Anyway she was working a Barry Manilow > concert and apparently if they saw him coming none of them were allowed to > look at him. They had to look down or a different direction. What a jerk. > > > _______________________________________ > http://www.okiebenz.com > > To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ > > To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: > http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com > _______________________________________ http://www.okiebenz.com To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com _______________________________________ http://www.okiebenz.com To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com