Monday, April 19, 2010

Twofer Tuesday + 1

Live Aid June 13,1985 JFK Stadium. It was an experience of the HOLY SHIT kind! My friend and I were such a mess. One of the smartest things I did was tell my friend to LOOK exactly were we are parked. LOOK...look at the entrance...it says C gate. Ok, Christine we are at C gate. If we get seperated during the show.....well, have fun, then meet me at the truck. Where was the truck Chris??? ummm, by the gate. No, Not quite right, what gate Chris??? D!! NOOO Chris, Gate C. Gate C, like C for Christine. We're at your gate Chris!! And this is only if we get discombobulated and cant find each other and after the shows over. "But that wont happen. Promise. PROMISE ME RIGHT CHRIS?!?!?!?" "Yeah, yeah, yeah, we'll be ok. You have the car keys, I'll be there waiting." Yes I do have the car keys. I sewed them into my ribcage so they wouldnt be lost. My father would KILL me if we came home without his truck.

My friend and I got tix the week before and we're drving down to Philly - Veterans Stadium, ass early that bright shinny June morning. We only had a coupld of bucks on us ($10?). Wearing t-shirts, shorts (and I mean short shorts) (in fact I might have been wearing my rugby shorts for some reason unbenownst to me.) Confession time. We were near drinking age. ummm lets see, summer of 85 would have put me ummm, yup, underage. 6 measly little months until I turned 21. pffffft. My friend was a year younger than me and she was not haveing any, Not Having Any adult beverages.

We get inside JFK stadium at 7:00am. The whole floor is open (mmmhm I told ya so). Some people milling around, laying blankets down setting up their little areas, picnics chairs whatnots. We had seats up in the stadium bleacher area. I think we even knew some people near our origional seats! Eh, we'll find them eventually. Afterall, they are at the SEATS!

So we drag our little cooler with 2 waters and two cupcakes in it along with us. My goodness, its hott already! It had to be 86degrees with a humidity up around 96%. It was only 7:30am. Oh this was gonna be a pressure cooker. So we're getting prepped. Layed our blankie down and set our shoes on the corners and just waited. Chris last 2 minutes wating. "I wanna go see if anyone is at our seats yet." umm, ok. come back though!! "Of course I will silly!" And she was gone. Once I realized she was gone I also realized she had all our "party favors" and our $10.00. Looking around I had the blanket, the cooler with some water and cupcakes in it and our shoes on th corners of the basket. hmmmmm, she definately got the good end of this deal. $$ & party favors. What to do, What to do.

Start making friends with your nabors, thats what!! There were some really nice people sitting on either side and in front of me. Some young like us and some older in their 40's and some 30 somethings too. Chris showed up about 45 minutes later bouncing and telling stories of her adventure. She met some friends we knew from High School up near our seats and she partied a little with them then decided she needed the restroom. She then grabbed my arm and said..."if you gotta go to the potty, DO.It.Now.!!! It was getting more unusable by the hour.

I bid my farewell and ran to find the skank house potty. All the while yelling to Chris....Dont Leave That Spot!!

On my way back, the amount of people that had filed into the stadium was 10fold. Holy mackeral, where the hell did all these people come from!!! Ok so now where I thought the blanket, Chris, water, cooler, cupcakes, partyfavors and $$ were no where to be found. Ok, regroup! I did a sweeping circle around where I thought she'd be and finally did find her. I was so far off in the begining. Weird. She was now good friends with my new friends the nabors and the first acts were starting to take the stage.

The music went all day long!!! When they were changing the stage out for the band at JFK, Wembly stadium would be rockin and we were seing it live on huge screens.

Here is the set list for Philly:

Bernard Watson - "All I Really Want to Do", "Interview" (JFK 13:51);

Joan Baez (introduced by Jack Nicholson) - "Amazing Grace"/"We Are the World" (JFK 14:02);

The Hooters - "And We Danced", "All You Zombies" (JFK 14:12);

The Four Tops - "Shake Me, Wake Me (When It's Over)", "Bernadette", "It's The Same song", "Reach Out I'll Be There", "I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch)" (JFK 14:33);

Billy Ocean - "Caribbean Queen", "Loverboy" (JFK 14:45);

Black Sabbath (introduced by Chevy Chase) - "Children of the Grave", "Iron Man", "Paranoid" (JFK 14:52);

Run-D.M.C. - "Jam Master Jay", "King Of Rock" (JFK 15:1

Rick Springfield - "Love Somebody", "State Of The Heart", "Human Touch" (JFK 15:30);

REO Speedwagon - "Can't Fight This Feeling", "Roll With The Changes" (JFK 15:47);

Crosby, Stills and Nash - "Southern Cross", "Teach Your Children", "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes" (JFK 16:15);

Judas Priest - "Living After Midnight", "The Green Manalishi (With The Two-Pronged Crown)", "You've Got Another Thing Comin'" (JFK 16:26);

Bryan Adams (introduced by Jack Nicholson) - "Kids Wanna Rock", "Summer of '69", "Tears Are Not Enough", "Cuts Like a Knife" (JFK 17:02);

The Beach Boys (introduced by Marilyn McCoo) - "California Girls", "Help Me, Rhonda", "Wouldn't It Be Nice", "Good Vibrations", "Surfin' USA" (JFK 17:40);

George Thorogood and the Destroyers - "Who Do You Love" (with Bo Diddley), "The Sky Is Crying", "Madison Blues" (with Albert Collins) (JFK 18:26);

Simple Minds - "Ghost Dancing", "Don't You (Forget About Me)", "Promised You a Miracle" (JFK 19:07);

The Pretenders - "Time The Avenger", "Message of Love", "Stop Your Sobbing", "Back on the Chain Gang", "Middle of the Road" (JFK 19:41);

Santana and Pat Metheny - "Brotherhood", "Primera Invasion", "Open Invitation", "By The Pool"/"Right Now" (JFK 20:21);

Ashford & Simpson - "Solid", "Reach Out and Touch (Somebody's Hand)" (with Teddy Pendergrass) (JFK 20:57);

Madonna (introduced by Bette Midler) - "Holiday", "Into the Groove", "Love Makes The World Go Round" (JFK 21:27);

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers (introduced by Don Johnson)- "American Girl", "The Waiting", "Rebels", "Refugee" (JFK 22:14);

Kenny Loggins - "Footloose" (JFK 22:30);

The Cars - "You Might Think", "Drive", "Just What I Needed", "Heartbeat City" (JFK 22:49);

Neil Young - "Sugar Mountain", "The Needle and the Damage Done", "Helpless", "Nothing Is Perfect", "Powderfinger" (JFK 23:07);

Power Station - "Murderess", "Get It On" (JFK 23:43);

Thompson Twins - "Hold Me Now", "Revolution" (with Madonna, Steve Stevens and Nile Rodgers) (JFK 00:21);

Eric Clapton (with Phil Collins) - "White Room", "She's Waiting", "Layla" (JFK 00:39); Phil Collins (having taken Concorde from UK to USA) - "Against All Odds (Take a Look at Me Now)", "In the Air Tonight" (JFK 01:04);

Led Zeppelin (with Tony Thompson, Paul Martinez, and Phil Collins) - "Rock and Roll", "Whole Lotta Love", "Stairway to Heaven" (JFK 01:10);

Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young - "Only Love Can Break Your Heart", "Daylight Again"/"Find the Cost of Freedom" (JFK 01:40);

Duran Duran - "A View to a Kill", "Union of the Snake", "Save a Prayer", "The Reflex" (JFK 01:45);

Patti LaBelle - "New Attitude", "Imagine", "Forever Young", "Stir It Up", "Over The Rainbow", "Why Can't I Get It Over" (JFK 02:20);

Hall & Oates (with G. E. Smith of Saturday Night Live fame on guitar) - "Out of Touch", "Maneater", "Get Ready" (with Eddie Kendricks), "Ain't Too Proud to Beg" (with David Ruffin), "The Way You Do the Things You Do", "My Girl" (with Eddie Kendricks and David Ruffin) (JFK 02:50);

Mick Jagger (with Hall & Oates / Eddie Kendricks / David Ruffin) - "Lonely At The Top", "Just Another Night", "Miss You", "State of Shock"/"It's Only Rock 'n Roll (But I Like It)" (with Tina Turner) (JFK 03:15);

Finale at JFK Stadium:
a) Bob Dylan, Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood - "Ballad of Hollis Brown", "When the Ship Comes In", Blowin' in the Wind" (JFK 03:39),
b) USA for Africa (led by Lionel Richie) - "We Are the World" (JFK 3:55)

NOW Please make a mental note of all the bands but in particular two of the morning crowd....
Ozzy Osbourne blew us away at oh around 10:00am. =0 and just a few minutes later around 10:30am I'm listening to Rob Halford and Judas Priest tearing it up. It was so surreal.

Nothing like a little Judas Priest with your Wheeties.


How bout a little Ozzy with your morning paper....ummmmmm
I Am Ironman! Love it!!


I had a lot of favorites that day but hands down was the "reuniun" of Led Zeppelin. Or at least as good as it could get. They rocked the house and blew us away!!! It was a dream come true for me to see the remaining members on stage doin their thing.
Led Zeppelin - Stairway to Heaven


Proof. I dont know how I held on to this ticket all day but I'm glad I did.


Needless to say, I did lose Chris that day. Sometime right after The Pretenders were on stage. She went somewhere and never came back. I still had a blast. Met a bunch of cool people and saw a great show. If your looking at the videos, we or at least I was parked about 30 feet back from the center stage most of the day. Good times for sure.

Christine, true to her word, was standing by my truck when I finally made my way outside after the show was over. We hugged and laughed and told our stories about our lone adventures during the day. It was 11pm and it had been a lonnnnnng day! But sooooo worth it.

6 comments:

Linnnn said...

You were 30 feet back from pure history in the making! I am in awe, totally. Having stage managed live concerts in the past, it would've blown my mind to not only see the performances, but also the stage flips between bands. They can be pretty persnickety, so the logistics and the politics of those change overs would've been fascinating! Thank you for your stories, Mizz P. You are a natural born storyteller.

Ann T. said...

Dear peedee,
Totally awesome! I wish I had been there!

Led Zep rules. I love them loud. And I love the dirty songs best, plus when the levee breaks, momma you got to move, oh yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah (insert air guitar here)

And Linnnn is right--Born Storyteller.

Thanks for the memories!
Ann T.

Old NFO said...

Sigh... Being on active duty we only got to 'read' about the concerts like that, and attend very few of them... We used to go to Winterland and Shoreline in CA and I was at the 1991 Graham tribute concert called "Laughter, Love and Music" in Golden Gate Park. One funny note- Shoreline backed up to NAS Moffett Field, and we had the keys to the gate, so we could just drive over and park backstage... :-)

Unknown said...

Whats funny Linnnn, we didnt "know" it was gonna be history. lol And stage manager sounds cool!! And thanks. ;)

It was a good time Ann! And your a sassy wench arent you! lmao!!

And I'll take the title storyteller. I dont write for anything more than getting the info out of my head. Dont consider myself a "writer" really. =) Now, YOU two know how to write!

See NFO, once again, this illistrates the sacrifices our armed forces members make on a regular basis. Then and now. I'm glad you saw a few and nice touch with the back stage gig!

Old NFO said...

Yeah, although we 'did' surprise Jimmy Buffet smoking a joint when we pulled up... :-)

Unknown said...

HA! oh Jimmy, so busted! Well, I kinda picked him for a parrot, oops I mean pothead! lol