Rock n Roll

Atomic Rooster was the first big band I worked for... I started off by noting where they were going to play next and be there early enough to hang out outside the loading doors and when the crew, if they had one, arrived I'd hustle to help for a backstage pass.

At this time they were on of the biggest bands in London and were known for their "Wall of Sound".  Which was made up of triple stacked HiWatt cabinets and they were the first band to actually have a real PA system.  It was literally a wall of WEM speakers and amplifiers each side of the stage making the proverbial wall!

Sorry to say that Vincent Crane the leader and one of the best and meanest organ players I have ever heard passed away a long time back but will still be remembered for his work.

Emerson, Lake & Palmer, also known as ELP, were an English progressive rock, supergroup, power trio formed in London in 1970. The group consisted of keyboardist Keith Emerson, singer and guitarist Greg Lake, and drummer and percussionist Carl Palmer. They were one of the most popular and commercially successful progressive rock bands in the 1970s.

ELP's sound was dominated by the Hammond organ, Moog synthesizer, and piano of flamboyant virtuoso Emerson and heavily influenced by classical music as well as jazz and hard and symphonic rock.  Lake ensured that each album contained at least one simple, accessible acoustic ballad, many of which received heavy radio airplay.  Lake also produced the band's first five albums.

I did their "Brain Salad Surgery" tour as assistant to Nick Rose, inventor of the drum synthesizer, I actually build from Nicks design and soldered every component of the original synthesizer.  I was also hired to oversee the power for the stage equipment, which the sound company ended up doing so I helped out with the monolithic all steel drum riser & pagoda.  I was also the only person who could get the grand piano pickups to align properly each day so they didn't rattle on the strings.  read more...

This ends my British time as a "roadie" which has been in chronological order. (1968-1973)

From here on out the order is alphabetical as I would tour with a band multiple times over the years.  So to put in chronological order would be repetitive, not to mention boring.

Please remember this is just a reference to the banks I worked with, to read what actually happened on each of these tours you will have to read my story pages on this site to get the dirt and fun stuff.

This begins the Alphabetical order of bands I worked for after I moved to America. (1973-1981)

I was fortunate or unfortunate enough to be the lighting designer/director for the very first tour of the US with ELO.  Frist you have to know that back in the 70's there was no budget for lighting or even a thought for it.  I had no rehearsals or even a list of possible songs to design from.  We just used to wing it back then... more on that someplace else.

ELO was a tough band to work for because they were always bickering and arguing amongst themselves, which made it hard to communicate with anyone and to know  who to listen to. 

I do remember that the keyboard player had a really bad bout of the flu for most of the tour.

To make matters worse most of the tour, which was small theaters of about 2500 seats, was cancelled due to poor ticket sales.

This little known Dutch band had a huge hit in 1974 called Radar Love in the US from their album Moontan.

This was to be my first solo tour as lighting designer/director.  It was to be my awakening to real lighting and what could be down with just a few lights.  Remember back in the early 70's lighting was a poor last place finish to anything needed to tour with.  So our budgets were tiny.  If I remember correctly I was not only the Lighting designer/Director on a lighting crew of ONE, but I think I also drove the truck!  A thankless job but I had fun and the band was a really good bunch of guys and made me feel welcome during the tour.

Check out their web site as they are celebrating their 50th anniversary and still touring and putting out albums.

This was the first tour I did for Sundance Lighting with Jim Moody, who owned the company.  It was Linda's big breaking album "Heart Like A Wheel" which went to #1 on the charts while we were on the road, I will never forget that night, Jim had the carpenter, stage hand, make up 8ft tall heart painted in red and covered in glitter.

When Linda started to sing that song it was lowered down behind her and the audience went nuts... she finished the song and broke down then turned down and lost it completely for a few second.  What a night.

This was my big break with Jim to as he let me do the lighting for the opening act on the tour Tom Snow, a solo singer guitar player.  I really enjoyed that tour.

I had the time of my life with these kids, and I do mean kids.  The youngest was 15 and the oldest was 19 at the time.  They were Scotland's sweetheart band... I was their lighting designer/director and set/stage manager.  Their manager, Tam, was a leaf out of Brian Epstein's book... he new how to promote and get FREE press and air time... he would book the band into a 25oo seat theatre knowing that he could sell well over 5000 tickets... well you get the point... read more...