GIG FLASHBACKS - A place to post comments and memories about past shows, whether
they happened yesterday or 50 years ago. We welcome input from artists, bands and fans to
relate "something funny that happened on stage," "behind the scenes," "to and from the
gig," "meeting a celeb,", etc.
We know that some of these stories can get a little sticky, so let's choose our
words carefully and tastefully.
Submit your Gig Flashback form below
for consideration.
Posted January 20, 2008
TERRY A GRAY
MACEDONIA, OH USA
tgray48941@aol.com
I ATTENDED A ROCK CONCERT IN PHILADELPHIA PA. IN 1958.
IT WAS A COMBINATION OF A PROFESSIONAL BASKETBALL GAME AND CONCERT.
I KNOW THAT JERRY LEE LEWIS AND I BELIEVE THE BIG BOPPER PERFORMED.
LOOKING FOR DATE, VENUE AND NAMES OF OTHER PERFORMERS.
Posted July 20, 2007
echomama
omaha, ne, usa
arknco@aol.com
Dick Dale walked up to our table almost causing me to faint, Scotty Moore signed an
autograph for my mother, enjoyed conversation and afterhours hors d' FOOD & drinks
w/Robert Bradley & band, enjoyed Local rockabilly, and so many other cool roots/blues/rock
bands at a venue called the music box ... the place was closed i heard due to
something like the tune of bands can make the green at a bigger scene so they would
slide into omaha on an off night which if not promoted correctly or conflicted
w/other events would result in sometimes low but enthusiastic attendance. Unfortunately,
enthusiasm couldn't save the music box, thanx for the experience.
Posted July 8, 2007
Colonel Robert Morris
Senatobia, MS. USA
goldenpen@bellsouth.net
We were sitting in Charlie Feather's bedroom listing to a tape of a song about Elvis.
The King had not been dead very long and songs were coming out of the woodwork.
But Charlie thought this one was different. The guy who brought the tape, and the girl he
wanted to sing it, said he wrote it himself. But we all looked at one another when he had
to listen to the tape and copy each and every word onto paper. You sometimes forget a
word or even a line, but the whole song???
Anyway, I don't remember the title of the song, but I do remember the gal who was gonna
sing it. She was right out of the 60's country scene. Though she could've fit right in with
the bouffant girl groups as well.
So the next day we're off to the studio. Charlie wanted a certain sound on the drums,
so he took a extra snare rattle, and had me drag it across the snare head and rim.
They hit it with heavy reverb and it had a eerie feel to it.
Now we get the gal in the booth, and she cannot keep a beat at all.
She really had no sense of timing or key. So Charlie and I took turns standing
outside of the booth giving her hand directions. Finally we got it done, and it
sounded pretty good.
In the sound booth listing to the tracks, this so call writer was all over the girl.
You would've thought he was a teenager on a first date. Well, she was not impressed
nor was she interested. She started coming on to me to get away from him, though I
suspected it was not love at first sight. Looking back it seemed very comical but at
the time it was crazy!
We left the next day on tour, and on the return trip Charlie informed us that the
guy wasn't the writer after all. (Big surprise that was.) I later heard the song on a
jukebox by a male singer. It wasn't that good and I never heard it again.
Posted July 1, 2007
Leon Mach
Portland, Oregon, USA
leon.mach@gbrx.com
It was 1961, I was 21 and a singer with my own bands (2), The Neat Beats and
later The Majestics ("Red Coats") playing the northwest in Oregon & Washington states.
My manager was Pat Mason. He sent me without my band on a 2 week NW tour with Gene
Vincent and another NW instrumental band. I was the fill-in singer for that band as a
warm up act before I would introduce Gene, nightly. I, with my suitcase met Gene at the
Interstate bridge on the Washington state border to Oregon. He pulls up in a hot, red
Chrysler, rolls the window down and said, "You drive?" I hopped behind the wheel and we
were off. Stayed in the same motels, ate in roadside cafes and
rocked our way through Oregon for two weeks. He told me about the accident which took the
life of Eddie Cochran in England and a few facts probably no one else knows. I thought,
"Imagine me, traveling around with ... Gene Vincent!!" Quite an experience for me, a young
singer working with the "Cat."
I could tell a dozen stories from that tour but will close with one. The final night Gene
drove me home about 2 am in Portland, Oregon. In my driveway I got my things out of the
car, we shook hands and he drove away ... with my brand new pair of shoes still in the trunk
that I had bought for the tour. Since then, One of my 45 RPM vinyl records, "You Hurt Me
So" is now a collectors' item and in multiple albums
around the world and it landed me in the Internet Rockabilly Hall Of Fame. Pretty good
huh, Gene? We all miss you, "Cat" and as for me, I will always carry a fond memory of
that time, on tour in 1961.
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