Monday lunchtime (March 10th)
We met up with Chris and Christine and as we were all chatting a face
that we kept seeing about the hotel reappeared. Were we being followed
??? No, it was Keith who was there for The Clash. No tickets, just the
hope of catching a glimpse of Mick Jones or any of the other Clash
members. He had met Mick Jones the previous day so his trip from
Florida was worth it for him. He had also met both Stewart and Andy and
had nice chats with both of them. Guests were arriving by the truckload
at the Astoria, both for the H o F and for a paper convention. Famous
faces popped up all over. Jer was well chuffed when Gwen Stefani walked
right by and beamed over his way. Jer and I were off to Oscar's again
for lunch so we invited Keith to join us. A couple of really great
coincidences ensued ....
Jer, Keith and I sat down to eat and then another familiar face sat two
tables away. This time it was Mick Jones. He recognized Keith from the
day before and came over to him to say hello--Keith was so happy about
that. How cool that Mick came over to say hello to Keith!! He
introduced us to Mick, who was charming. Mick introduced us all to two
guys who had been part of the road crew when The Clash used to tour.
Keith had lots of pics taken with all of them.
Next, the blonde lady who had asked me who I was upstairs at the
ballroom walked into Oscar's. I decided to go and see who she was,
since she had asked who I was. Turns out that she is the wife of the
late Steve Douglas, one of the sideman inductees. She was there with
her 80 year old mother and was in Oscar's to get some food to go. Lunch
hadn't arrived yet so I invited her to join us at our table and she did.
What a lovely lady. Jeanette is her name and she was going to be
accepting Steve's award, which Paul Schaffer was to present to her.
When I told her that Keith didn't have a ticket for any of the show she
immediately told him that she would get him into the rehearsals. At
this point in time The Police were scheduled to do their set then do a
finale tribute to The Clash: I Fought The Law with guests The Edge,
Elton John, Gwen S, Steve Tyler and Tom Morello (Rage Against the
Machine). Keith was delighted to have this opportunity--and couldn't
believe this turn of events. Jer and I headed up to get ready .....
passing Aerosmith in the lobby as they checked in.
The Police Rehearsals (March 10th 3-4 pm)
So Keith is inside the ballroom now, as are Chris and Christine (who
couldn't find us and just happened upon an unmanned entrance to the
ballroom). Wanda is there outside still. Sting stopped and said hello
to her while Jer and I were at lunch so she was happy. Fred managed to
get out of work early and joined us in the hallway. Kathy saw him and
yanked him inside and stuck him in front of the stage next to her.
Steve had also managed to get inside while looking for the rest of us !!
As it turns out, Andy Summers was given a hard time getting in for the
rehearsals as someone had inadvertantly left his name off the list. The
people at the desk didn't recognize him. Obviously that situation got
sorted out in the end.
Jer and I were outside and couldn't see but we heard everything crystal
clear. I was so happy that I had tears coming down my cheeks--I was
listening to The Police play live !!!!!! And in a few hours I would be
seeing them play live !!!!!!!!! We knew that they were going to be
playing Roxanne, Message and Every Breath. We got lots of wee jams in
addition during the rehearsals, including a the first part of When the
World is Running Down. They did Roxanne twice. Message only once ....
but it sounded close to perfect. As many times as I have seen Sting
play Every Breath live, it sounded so awesome to hear The Police play it
live, with Stewart's opening drumbeat.
Almost Time ... (March 10th 5 pm)
Getting on our gear was fun but stressful. We were excited and running
out of time. Our good friends Darla and Don from Manhattan stopped by
to send us off with some wine and make sure that our tux and gown looked
good. Jer looked super in his black tux, black shirt and silver tie ...
I wore a burnt velvet brown/black dress. It's almost 6 pm and time to
head down for cocktails...
2003 Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony (March 10th 6 pm)
Coctails
We get our red wristbands and table assignment and are then ushered into
the cocktail area. Loads of celebs there ... Andy Summers and family
(all of his kids are taller than him), John McEnroe, Darryl Hall, Tina
from Outlandos (in a lovely black dress with red accessories), Neil
Young, etc. People were mixing nicely and it was easy to talk to
everyone. I gave Andy my congratulations and he told me that he was
genuinely excited to be playing with Stewart and Sting again, that they
had rehearsed loads and that he was proud to be there. He seemed a
little tense, but who wouldn't be in his shoes.
At 7 pm the cocktail party was moved on into the Grand Ballroom. The
tables were all set and the guests were all arriving now. Sting arrived
with Trudie, Coco and Kate (no Joe anywhere in sight). Sting wore a a
very striking shirt and trousers combo, somewhat oriental looking. He
was carrying a cane so Jer asked him if he was having a problem with his
legs. Sting told us that he wasn't so Jer asked about why he was
carrying a cane. Sting replied, "It's not--it's my weapon," and
proceeded to show us a sword inside a black sheath that was disguised as
a walking cane. Great accessory to his outfit! We later found out from
Fred that Nasser (Cheb's darbouka player) had given this to Sting as a
gift some time ago. Trudie looked stunning in a lovely flowing short
black gown with a white jacket. She definitely won the award for the
most sparkles of anyone (diamonds, we assume).
Stewart arrived shortly thereafter with his wife and three of his kids.
He was the person I was most anxious to meet and as luck had it I met
him so many times through the course of that evening that it became a
joke in the end. He exudes such charisma and yet seems way more low key
to me than the Stewart that I had seen in the vid's, interviews, etc.
Of the three Police members, he was the only one in a formal black tux
(Andy had on a tux but with black trousers with red satin trim).
Stewart and family (including Miles and Ian) were at the same table as
Andy and his family -- which was three tables away from Sting's table.
Dinner
Dinner started a little late as there was so much socializing going on.
There was no press in ther ballroom--only the inductees, their families
and the other inviteees. Jer and I were seated at a table with the Hall
of Fame bigwigs. They were all an absolute hoot and we couldn't have
asked to be with a more fun group. The table that looked the most
star-studded was the one to the left of Sting's ... Elton John, David
Furnish, Steve Tyler, Gwen Stefani, Billy Joel and The Edge--all of them
at the same table!! Gwen looked stunning in a 50's-esque outfit,
somewhat like something that the sexy Sandy from Grease would wear.
At each table setting there was a menu, a program and a CD with songs of
all inductees. Dinner consisted of a salad with goat cheese and
raspberry vinaigrette, rack of lamb and then brownie millefeuille with
coffee, cookies and truffles. The wine flowed throughout the evening.
The Show
The Mayor of New York opened the cermeony, followed by some speakers
from the H o F Museum. Then Billy Joel inducted The Righteous Brothers.
Not as thrilling speech nor a particularly memorable perfomance of
You've Lost That Loving Feeling but enjoyable nonetheless. Our new pal
Jeanette gave a lovely speech for her late husband, Steve Douglas. She
especially wanted to thank Phil Spector on his behalf (the only person
who mentioned Spector). Paul Schaffer is a good friend of hers so it
was nice for her that he inducted her late husband.
The rest of the evening was electric .... beginning with Elton's
induction of Elvis costello. Elton cussed a whole bunch which surprised
me. He was hilarious. I grew up on the British rock music of the late
70's and early 80's so the rest of the evening was right up my alley.
Elvis C whomped out a great rendition of Pump It Up and really got the
audience rocking. Sting appeared to really enjoy his performance.
There was apparently much tension going on between Elvis and members of
his band, but it was not detrimental in any way to the cohesive
performance that they gave. The museum people with us were rocking out
to Elvis' music, as were many throughout the ballroom. He commanded a
standing ovation after he performed Peace Love and Understanding.
Neil Young and Paul Simon did a nice intro for Mo Ostin and Paul Simon's
performance of Still Crazy After All These Years seemed to be a crowd
pleaser.
Now it's the turn of The Clash. Yes!!! Bono was supposed to have
inducted them but apparently he had some health concerns and had to back
out of this and other commitments this week. Instead, The Edge was
there to do the guys proud alongside Tom Morello. I felt that he
dissed The Police ever so slightly by going on about how The Clash were
undisputedly the best band to emerge during that era bar none. I was
unaware of the comments that Joe Strummer supposedly made against Sting
during the heyday of the Clash. Regardless, The Clash were without
doubt one of the most influential bands of their time. Mick Jones
acknowledged the influence of the Sex Pistols on them (a band curiously
missing from the H o F's list of inductees). Mick was really nervous
about his speech and told me so afterwards. He also told us that
originally they were to have reformed for the event. If only Joe were
still here ....
The next performance was AC/DC and this proved to be the best surprise
of the evening for me. They totally shook the place after the amazing
speech by Steve Tyler with Highway To Hell and then again in You Shook
Me All Night Long for which Tyler joined them. They are a bunch of
raving lunatics and they are damn good fun!! Stewart really seemed to
enjoy them, up until the point at which he went backstage to get ready
for The Police's performance.
Before the guys came out onstage, a video showing some of the highlights
of their career was shown (as had been done for each artist
briefly--just that the one for The Police was longer). The suspense
among the crowd was intense, the excitement level definitely elevated.
Gwen did them proud. I loved her induction speech and am curious to see
what everyone else thinks about it after they hear it. Her sheer
ecstasty at being the one who got to induct The Police was touching.
She seemed to be saying everything I was thinking. Truly adores the
band --and not merely because she has had the chance to meet them and
perform with Sting recently. She is a genuine fan, just like all of us
on this list. Then the guys spoke ever so briefly ... and then the
moment of their reunion was here.
Stewart took his tux off and sat down as Andy started the opening
chords of Roxanne. Andy's guitar echoed throughout and Sting's voice
resonated. He sounded not too different from how he did back in the
Police days. I wish that they had done the Police version of Roxanne
and not the Sting (solo) version, but I still loved it. The audience
were all up on their feet for Message In A Bottle, which was the clear
highlight for me. Stewart beat through the skin of his snare but kept
on going strong during Every Breath You Take. The entire audience was
singing and loving it. All too soon it was over and we were all
clapping. Ian filmed the entire thing on his camcorder and it turned
out really well. I am counting on VH1 showing the entire performance in
their 2hr summary of this event. In truth, I cannot imagine how they
couldn't, as brilliant as it was. Yes, there were errors, and no it
wasn't the same as back in '83, but it was exactly the reunion I had
hoped for.
No, the finale tribute to The Clash didn't happen. When I asked Andy
about it afterwards he replied that it was becasue "Sting didn't want to
do it," in rather a dour tone. I really can't say why it didn't happen,
but that's that.
After the show was over everyone mingled in the ballroom for quite a
while. We were invited to a BMI party by Jeanette so we headed up to
our room to drop off our goodies from the ceremony. Yet again we run
into .... Stewart. He laughed about it--as did we. We saw him again
inside the party. Who else should be in there but none other than Chris
and Christine, Fred and Andrea, Keith (our Clash friend), all of the
Copeland brothers, Andy Summers, Paul Simon, Rob Thomas, Paul Simonon,
Mick Jones, etc. etc. No Sting or Gwen though. It was at this very
party that we started chatting with Ian ... for hours. What a fabulous
guy. I hope that he is safe and sound back in LA by now after having
kept us all up all night !!!
We checked out the next morning, along with half of the people at the
ceremony. What memories we will carry forever of that trip to New York.
So many of our ffriends and fellow fans that should have been there
couldn't, but they were all there in spirit
