Ok, this may well be long, so get a coffee and er.here goes.
Debs and I flew up to New York on Saturday, we had booked a room in the
Waldorf Towers for the Saturday, Sunday and Monday night. Normally Debs
and I would never stay at such a place, but we felt it important to have
a base in the hotel that would give some of the others (Fred, Andrea,
Steve etc) a reason to be in the hotel in the first place as they didn't
have tickets. When we left home, we were not actually aware of any of
our group that had managed to secure tickets other than ourselves, but
were aware that our usual merry band of hopefuls would arrive en masse
and do their best to get into the show.
As my beliefs about luck and effort seem to be a bone of contention for
many of you, I wanted to add that Chris, Christine, Fred, Andrea, Steve
and Keith all made their way to the Venue without tickets and just did
what they could to try and find a way.. to make it happen. gee, I wonder
how they got on.
On Saturday, Debs and I wondered around the Astoria, watching them set
up the venue and trying to figure out ways for some of our friends to
get in. Saturday proved to be a false calm, as we seemed to be able to
go wherever we wanted, and no one seemed to care if we walked around in
the venue or chatted with the various helpfuls.
On Saturday night, a whole load of us got together in our hotel room to
drink some wine, bloody mary's and plot a way for all to get into the
venue. In attendance were Fred, Andrea, Steve, Wanda, Gert and then
Chris and Christine (two people from the mailing list that I had never
met before, but decided to get in their car and drive the 10 hours from
Toronto, Canada to New York and try their luck, power to them). Lovely
people, really glad they made it along to New York. We all explored the
hotel, shared plans, shared room keys, ate Pizza and then went to sleep.
When we disbanded for the night, there was a sense of optimism that was
soon to be shattered and humiliated.
Sunday we met a few others, saw a few celebs checking into the hotel,
saw Miles, Saw Gwen and really just had a nice day casing the
establishment.
Monday morning, Debs and I went exploring again to find that there was
now the equivalent of the Secret service (and their silly earpieces)
standing guarding every door, and window within viewing distance of the
venue. We called Fred at work to tell him that the plans had changed and
that things were not looking so easy.
Monday early afternoon, we were listening to the rehearsals, Fred,
Steve, Keith, Chris and Christine all managed to get into the rehearsals
to watch the police play Message, Roxanne, When the world is running
down and EBYT if I remember correctly. Elvis Costello also played
Alison, Pump it up, Olivers Army and a few other treats.
We (Debs, Me and Keith) then went for lunch at Oscars. During lunch
Keith (who we had just met, Clash fan, not Police fan) was telling us
that he had come up from Florida without a ticket in the hope that he
could get in. During lunch, he had three important visitors. The first
was Mick Jones from the Clash who came over to have a photo with Keith
(Keith was extremely excited), then another member of the Clash's
entourage for more photos, then more significantly was Jeanette who Deb
has just met. Jeanette's late husband was being inducted posthumously,
his name was Steve Douglas, he was a sax player (played on de doo ron
ron). Well half way through lunch the topic came to Keith's lack of
ticket, and Jeanette just got up out of her chair, walked out of the
room, came back ten minutes later with a wristband for Keith to get into
the venue.
Ok, for those keeping score, all 5 of the fans that we knew from our
travels that arrived at the Waldorf without a ticket, made it into the
rehearsals to watch the police play, this another reminder of what can
happen if you put your mind to it.
Monday afternoon, Debs and I went back to our room to get into our tuxs
and gowns (you figure out who's in what) and made our way down to the
venue for the 6pm cocktail party. On our way into the lounge, we saw
Chris and Christine who had taken it upon themselves to rent tuxs and
gowns (despite still not having tickets) and were schmoozing and trying
their luck. It was mobbed, people everywhere including Andy, Miles, One
of the guys from Hall and Oates (not the one that looks like Cheech
Marin), John Mccnroe, Steven Tyler, Elton, Mick Jones from the Clash etc
and many others were all wondering about. At 7pm we headed into the
venue where dinner was to be served.
Food was a nice Salad, rack of lamb, and then dessert, (Debs is the food
freak, so later she can share the details of this sort of thing)
anyways, at 8pm or so, the fun began..
First up were 3-4 people giving self serving speeches about how they
saved mankind and the rock 'n roll industry, and eventually the merged
into a nice version of you've lost that loving feeling by the now
archaic Righteous Brothers. Then Billy Joel made a nice speech about the
Righteous brothers, and said it was his pleasure to induct them into the
hall of fame.
Next up was a few small inductees (Jeanettes husband etc) and then up
came Elvis Costello. Elvis played Pump it up and then was given a .er
..colourful induction speech by Elton John. The speech was long,
hilarious and touched on everything from porno music to stage names and
swearing. Elvis then played Peace love and understanding.
After this, Neil Young came up and ranted against the impending war, and
his love of Mo Ostin who was given the lifetime achievement award
Then we got The Edge (from U2), he gave the induction speech for The
Clash, it was a nice intro, but not nearly as good as the other
speeches. The Clash didn't play and after leaving the stage.
AC/DC came on and tore the place apart, they played Highway to hell, and
were fantastic. Steve Tyler from Aerosmith then came on and gave what
might have been the best speech in the history of anything that has ever
been spoken of, and inducted AC/DC. After the hilarious, personal and
insightful speech, AC/DC went on the stage again and played Shook me all
night long with Tyler joining on vocals, and like the first track really
was something else. Now, many of you who know me, know that I love the
police more than life, but I must confess that AC/DC stole the show.
After AC/DC, it was time for Gwen Stefani to come onstage and induct the
Police. She gave a nice speech, but despite the fact that I like her,
and maybe even fancy her a wee bit, she was out of her league in speech
making. She showed photos of her and Sting when she was 13 and um. she
was a little portly if you ask me. That said, I wouldn't kick her out of
bed to kiss Fred (despite Andreas protestations)
The band then came on the stage, Sting said, it has been 18 years and we
aren't going to say a lot, but specifically singled out Miles, and said
that it couldn't have happened without him (This especially nice due to
the recent breakup of their working relationship, he then said some nice
words about Kim Turner (who is really not well at the moment) and then
said they just want to play. They played Roxanne first, it was the
police version until the middle where it became the Sting version with
the Roxan O etc. that you know and sleep through. They then played
Message in a bottle, this was a good version and was probably the best
police track of the night. During Message, I looked down to see Chris
and Christine (who despite coming with no ticket were in watching the
show in their fancy shmancy clothes. They (The Police, not Chris and
Christine) then played Every Breath you take, which while nice to hear
was not played at all well. Sting was consistent as usual and played and
sang well, Stewart was amazing, and really stood out, but Andy despite
his obvious talent seemed to be in another world. If I am not mistaken,
he seemed to prefer playing a concoction of Mother and Behind my camel
all the way through EBYT and it did NOT work for him. Sting played the
starburst Fender as usual, and Stewarts drums were similar to the TAMA's
that he normally plays except for the fact that they.that they were
Metallic Green, Even the Octobans were green..Eeeuuurgh
We then went to the after show party attended by more or less all of the
performers, except Sting, and we had a great time. After many hours of
heavy drinking, Fred, Andrea, Debs and I along with Ian Copeland (Stings
agent and Stewarts Bro) took a Limo ride around the city and ended up
singing and er..drinking in an old pub of Ian's. Ian (for those of you
who don't know) is probably one of the nicest people you could ever
meet, from a fans perspective; he went way beyond what could ever have
been expected of him, told some great stories, seemed to love hugging us
all and really just was utterly lovely. After about 4 hours of partying
(5.30am), we retreated back to our hotels and called it a night. A nice
wee story for you. Ian had overheard Deb telling me about how much of a
huge Stewart fan she was, he walked up, grabbed her hand, more or less
pushed everyone (including Miles) out of the way, marched up to Stewart
and said "Stu, this is my friend Debs, she would love to say hello."
Very nice geature indeed.
In summary, Every single one of our merry band of hopefuls that arrived
without tickets, managed to see the Police play, they managed to meet
Sting, Andy Stewart, along with a whole host of other wonderful people,
spent a night being silly with Ian Copeland in a Limo, and met some
excellent new friends. The new friends for me (Chris, Christine and
Keith) will now come on tours with the rest of us, and will undoubtedly
become great friends.
What a great trip it was, I am sure I have forgotten loads to tell, but
I just got off the plane and am back at home and my brain is not
working, but as Debs is more into the gossipy side of things, she may
well fill the holes in her report later
Love to all
Jer
Other tidbits, each seat in the venue had a nice book on it about the
HOF and included a cd full of the music of the inductees.
