THE ROLLING STONES- Twentieth Century

Written by Backstage Bruce

My first time- Bill Graham Presents, Candlestick Park 'Tattoo You' Tour '81

Mick signed the back. In the middle, he wrote "Hi!"

    In 1989, The Rolling Stones announced that they will be going on tour, for the first time in eight years, since the 'Tattoo You' Tour, starting in September. At the time, I was working at a hotel right next door to The Nassau Coliseum. We get a reservation for 40 rooms for the entire month of August. Immediately we knew something was up and within no time it was confirmed that The Rolling Stones were going to rent out the coliseum, for the entire month, to rehearse before the tour. That meant the crew will be staying with us the entire time. 

    I was working as a doorman the day the crew arrived. They met me first. I see them step off the bus. They were all wearing their credentials, backstage passes for access to get to work. I wanted one. I welcomed them and unload all the luggage. They all get checked in and settled. 

    We started seeing them around daily. They were away from their families so they were on the pay phones sometimes and they were always receiving mail and deliveries, so we got to know them by name. One day, one of the crew members, who was wearing his backstage pass, was at the luggage desk, checking on a package. While the bellman went to get it, I took that moment to chat him up. 

    I asked how the rehearsals were going and he told me that they will start up soon. The first week they constructed the stage inside the coliseum. I said I would like to see some of the rehearsals and I came right out and asked him if I could make a copy of his pass. He took it off his neck and handed it to me! I walked over to my buddy at the front desk, where the copy machine was, and handed it to him and told him to make two copies real quickly and he did. 

    I handed it back to the crew member, the bellman handed him his package and off he went. Now, at the hotel, they have a gym with a pool, downstairs, and they happen to sell outside memberships. That means they have a laminating machine right there in the gym for the membership cards. We realize we are going to need a third copy to bring another person into the fold. 

    So, front desk and I ran on down there and in no time, like magic, the three of us (front desk, gym and doorman) all had backstage passes to see The Rolling Stones during their rehearsals, which hadn't even started yet! I went and bought three-lifeguard whistles the next day so we would have that string, to wear around our necks, for our new passes. They looked so good.

    About two-days later, the rehearsals got underway, after the stage had been erected and the sound was checked. I lost count how many times I went. One day, I brought my 'Tattoo You' ticket stub and asked Mick to sign it and he did.  

My BSP for three weeks during rehearsals

Promo Poster for Steel Wheels Tour

    

    The tour kicked off August 31, 1989, Labor Day weekend at VETS Stadium in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. And I was there with my friend Doug Cooper.

Opening night, 'Steel Wheels', road cruise to Philly

    

    The show was fantastic, the stage was huge. One highlight of the evening is when they played '2000-Light Years From Home', from 'Their Satanic Majesties Request'. I did get to see them a few more times during The Steel Wheels tour when they returned to the NYC area, at the old Shea Stadium. The stage was so huge that obstruction lights needed to be installed, on top of it, for all the air traffic from the nearby LaGuardia Airport. It rained, Mick wore a long-yellow raincoat. They played 'Angie' which was awesome! They rarely play that so it was a real treat to hear.

Opening night, 'Voodoo Lounge', road cruise to D.C. 

    Five years later, 1994, Stones kick off another tour, 'Voodoo Lounge' and I'm all over that one too. We (Rich, Liam & I) went to R.F.K. stadium for opening night. That stadium's closed now. I ran into a buddy from work there, Mark Sullivan. That was crazy. It was another great show a fun time was had by every one. Saw them next, when they were in the area, at the Meadowlands, where the NY Giants play. 

Train cruise to Syracuse

    Three years later, 1997, Stones kicked off another tour, 'Bridges to Babylon', in Chicago, at Soldier's Field. We (Liam & I, this time) went. I can't locate that ticket stub right now, 24-years later, but I do remember going opening night. John Popper was the support act. We stayed at the same hotel as he did, Starwood, really nice, five stars. We were leaving the hotel the same time he was. We were waiting for a cab and he stepped on his bus and I wish, to this day, I would have asked if we could ride over with him, but I didn't. I sure would now-a-days.

    John Popper wailed on the harmonica, that was really great to see. I remember seeing both Bill Wyman backstage and Billy Corgan, he is a Chicago boy. Saw The Stones a few more times during this tour including Syracuse University and my hometown, NYC, all three nights. 

I'm home, front row The Garden

Next night, Mick different outfit, me still front row. They kept throwing their bras on stage after all these years. 

    Houston was a fun stop on the tour, I went to both of those shows. The hospitality in Texas was very gracious. 

Houston, TX. Mick is looking right at me. 

    

    It was now time to join The Stones oversees. They were playing in Amsterdam for five-nights in a row and were recording for a live album. I flew across the Atlantic for that and stopped in for a few shows. I had a VIP backstage pass waiting for me when I stepped off the plane. I felt like the King of The Netherlands. 

My tickets for Holland are written in Dutch and my BSP

    

    So after following them around for a while, they released the live album 'No Security' and kicked off another tour to support it, their fourth tour in ten years. And I was there for opening night for that one too. 

Opening night, 'No Security', flight cruise to San Fran

    Bryan Adams ('Run To You', 'Everything I  Do, I Do For You') opened, he was great. That night Jerry Hall was in the audience and The Stones performed 'Some Girls'. That was the very first time I had ever heard it live. There is a line "Some girls take all my money." Speculation was made that Mick may have been alluding to their recent divorce settlement. I went with friends, Liz & George. R.I.P. George, this was one great memory. 

    I would get to see them a few more times this tour when they returned to New York, again at The Garden, my front yard. This town's in tatters. All this fun was last millennium. 

    I had to curtail my activities for a wee bit, I was in a bicycle accident in Central Park. (I missed out on both the 'Forty Licks' and the '50 and Counting' tours)  I did see them again in 2005, at The Garden, during the 'Bigger Bang' tour. I'm all better now, back in the game, riding bikes, recently saw them during the 'No Filter' tour 2019 at MetLife Stadium, my back yard. The show was absolute perfection. They looked and sounded great after all these years. The Wombats, from Australia, opened, the whole show was quite enjoyable, very entertaining. 

    I, like millions of fans, were making plans to see them, on the second leg, of their 'No Filter' tour across North America, in 2020. We can only hope, everything gets back to some sort of normalcy soon and The Stones announce their next tour. Fingers crossed. 

The collection: backstage passes, ticket stubs and guitar picks.  

N.Y. Yankees, The Beach Boys & Fireworks

Written by Backstage Bruce

    Fourth of July 1989, planned this one out for a while. Got a copy of the schedule and ordered the ticket months in advance because this was going to be a sell out. 

The House that Ruth Built

       Our seats were unbelievable! First row, first section behind field level. The game did sell out. It was a perfect, summer day and we got so lucky as our seats were in the shade, just like we hoped. The Bronx sun can get brutal if you're sitting in it directly for a few hours. The Yankees won, they defeated the Detroit Tigers. The '80's Yankees, Don Mattingly, Deion Sanders, Steve Sax, Dave Righetti, Rickey Henderson, Rich Gossage, Jesse Barfield, Al Leiter, et al... It was a very defensive game, 1-0. The victory started the festivities off right.

 

     The players left the field and the show began. The DJ, from the radio station K-ROCK, took the field and he brought about 40-girl dancers. They came out and lined the base lines, with 20 on each side, they all wore blue, K-ROCK T-shirts and danced while the DJ spun the tunes. All this was going on as the stage was being wheeled into place, in the outfield, behind second base. The stage hands had assembled the stage earlier so it just had to be rolled into place. K-ROCK T-shirts were being fired into the crowd from the launcher on the field, I got one. The warm up act was done, The DJ took all the dancers and they left the field.

      The Beach Boys took the stage and the thousands of people went wild. They played over 40 songs, including: 'California Girls', 'Sloop John B.', 'Be True To Your School', 'Dance, Dance, Dance', 'God Only Knows', 'Don't Worry Baby', 'Surfing U.S.A.', 'Help Me Rhonda', 'I Get Around', 'Wouldn't It Be Nice', just etc... It was great. Almost everyone was dancing throughout the stadium. They started a conga line! It was the largest conga line I have ever witnessed in my life, there were thousands of people in it.

     The line was so big that it could only travel so far, like maybe about 100 feet and then everyone would have to turn around and go back in the opposite direction. People had such a good time, everyone was smiling. The band played their current number one hit 'Kokomo' from the 'Cocktail' soundtrack. The Beach Boys had number one hits in the '60's, the '70's and now the '80's.

    During this performance, the actor, John Stamos sat in on drums. He was fantastic! And the Yankees second baseman, Steve Sax -National League Rookie Player Of The Year, 1982, L.A. Dodgers- would join in on guitar for a few songs, the dude's got chops, riffing a few licks, who knew? The fireworks couldn't start until after sunset so we got a really, nice, long concert, two hours plus. Everyone was in complete bliss.

     We ate hot dogs and drank beer all day long and watched baseball and a Beach Boys concert what a great way to spend Fourth Of July, the show came to an end. The band took their bow to an appreciative audience. They departed, the stage was wheeled away, the sun set.

     It was now time for the fireworks and they were spectacular. Presented by the Grucci Brothers who always do a amazing job with the latest designs with the greatest patterns. There were fireworks in every color imaginable. The kids really loved them, you could hear them ooohhing and aaahhing with each one they saw light up the sky. The show lasted about an hour and when it was done, so were we! 

    Anyone who hadn't already left was wiped out. Nine hours inside Yankee Stadium, eating, drinking beer and dancing. Exhaustion was starting to set in. Everybody was walking real slow as they made their way toward the exits. 

Each and every one of them had so much 'Fun, Fun, Fun'.
I got another 'Wouldn't it be nice' if this were an annual event?
Wait, wait, one more- The entire day was filled with 'Good Vibrations'. 

BON JOVI- The Meadowlands, Giants Stadium

Written by Backstage Bruce

and guests. They have arrived. 

  Bon Jovi's first European tour was in 1984. They were the support act for KISS. I was fortunate enough to catch the show on October 31st, in Germany. I went with two buddies, one of them knew music extremely well and was adamant that we arrive on time to see the opening band, so we were. I am glad we did. Everybody knew their name by the end of the show. 

    They were excited to be in Europe and it showed. Their energy level was up and their stage presence was on-point. The rockin' music was raw. KISS on the other hand was doing the no make-up and no pyrotechnics thing and nobody really wanted to see KISS like that. Bon Jovi definitely rocked harder than KISS that Halloween night. 

   In no time at all they would be rockstars worldwide. That happened a little over a year later when they released 'Slippery When Wet' in 1986. It contained a handful of smash hits: 'Livin' On A Prayer', 'Wanted Dead or Alive', 'You Give Love A Bad Name', 'Never Say Goodbye', etc... 

    They released their fourth album 'New Jersey' two years after that and just solidified their place in rock history. That album had as many, if not more hits that the previous one: 'I'll Be There For You', 'Lay Your Hands On Me', 'Bad Medicine', 'Born To Be My Baby', etc...  

The early days with the original line up

    The band embarked on a massively successful world tour, entitled 'New Jersey Syndicate Tour' from 1988 to 1990.  On March 10th, 1988, the tour stopped in at Nassau Coliseum. It was completely sold-out. 

    

    I get there day of and it was a pretty normal day. I set up breakfast, lunch, the dressing rooms, the sound board, everything is pretty much ordinary. The only thing I do remember was that we received a call from Debbie Gibson's people. She was coming over with a few friends. She does live down the street basically. I had to quickly set up a hospitality suite for them, super simple, under twenty-one, all soft drinks and snacks. 

    Any excitement throughout the day was happening in the front of the house, the stage being set up and a catwalk being erected throughout the entire coliseum. It was phenomenal. To this day after seeing hundreds of shows, I have never seen any other band erect a catwalk inside a coliseum. 

    The concert started promptly at 8:00 p.m. They performed a great mix from their first four albums. Jon Bon Jovi on vocals, Richie Sambora on guitar, Alec John Such on bass, Tico Torres on drums and David Bryan on keyboards all blended so well harmonically together it sounded fantastic. During the song 'Wanted Dead Or Alive', all the lights dimmed, stage and house, to the point the entire place was dark. At once they all turned on, timed perfectly with the loud music, it felt like an explosion of cascading lights. It was great. 

    Jon Bon Jovi climbed onto the catwalk with his big, bushy hair, wearing that same black leather jacket with the fringes that he wore in the videos. He started strutting the catwalk while singing. The audience lost their collective minds. Here the people who were sitting kind of far back (the nose bleeds) are now only 10-feet away from him. They're taking pictures and cheering him on. It was really cool, this catwalk gave thousands of fans an opportunity to have an intimate moment, however brief. The audience went absolute wild. They all left satisfied. 

Donnington Castle, UK, 1987

    

    Three months later the tour would be back in the area, this time at Giants Stadium, East Rutherford, N.J. This is it! They are from New Jersey, their latest album is entitled 'New Jersey' and tonight they are headlining the stadium in New Jersey. 

    How many times were the five of them here as a little boy to see a Giants or Jets football game? Or as a teenager to see a concert? Well tonight it's their turn. Rolling Stone magazine's back cover "The Homecoming, Bon Jovi, The Meadowlands, June 11th, 1989. Welcome Home!" They named the show "The Homecoming".

    I love working at The Meadowlands because it is a stadium and everything is spaced so far apart. I get to drive around in a golf cart a lot of the time. It is so sweet. There are eight spiral ramps that just went on forever. We would rip that up, get into golf cart races and try to pop wheelies. That is definitely one of my fondest memories of the old Giants Stadium/ Meadowlands. 

 
    We would fill up coolers full of beverages and ice and then put them on the golf cart to run out to the people working in the mixing board area. We would always be three of us, one to drive, one to ride passenger and one to ride in back with the coolers. If one person tried to drive a few coolers of beverages to the center of the stadium, they would just get mobbed and have all their beverages taken. 

    Everything was further away at the stadium: the dressing rooms, the VIP areas, the buses and I loved it. There was only a few stadium shows a year so I cherished every second of it, being outside in the summertime. The stage and the catwalk were being erected again. This time they were mammoth, much bigger than inside a coliseum. They were built to size inside a stadium. 

    The amount of crew members to construct it in one day was massive and we fed them all. The audience was going to love it. And they did. They loved having the chance to see him so up-close. He would take his time on the catwalk, he randomly  stopped here and there to play to the audience, which sent them into a frenzy. The show was sounding terrific again. The bands has so many hits to choose from. 

    There were a lot of celebrities floating around backstage, one in particular, that I remember seeing was the late, great comedian Sam Kinison. He was friends with the band. He was in their music video 'Bad Medicine'. And Jon Bon Jovi was one of the featured celebrities in Sam Kinison's music video 'Wild Thing'.  

    'BAD MEDICINE' music video with Sam Kinison

    I could hear the entire concert while driving around in the golf cart. Now that the show has gotten underway my task was to stock the buses. I load up my golf cart with ice, beer, beverages, snacks, hot pizzas and drive out to meet my contact person to unlock the buses.

    There were three buses, it took me about five minutes per bus to load up. Going on Bon Jovi's tour buses was really freakin' cool, nice memory. I stashed three beers, that were meant for the buses, for myself. Now that they were all stocked up my job was done until later. It was now time to chug the beers then get back inside and watch the rest of the homecoming.