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’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
> 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
