Re: Simon plays good show to tiny audience, & Thundercap Newman

[Alan McKendree <amck@thenetdr.com>]

>Date: Sun, 18 Mar 2001 14:43:10 -0000
>From: "L. Bird" <pkeets@hotmail.com>
>
>Whew.  I was thinking the situation might be something like that when I
>looked at the list of bands and venues and the times.

The time as such wasn't necessarily a problem...the preceding night 
(in a different venue) I saw Ike Turner, who was scheduled to start 
at midnight, actually started at 12:30, and played till 2:00 to an 
appreciative and packed house.

But he's a major name, and as the last act of the night he could play 
on past the 45-minute limit that's imposed on all the earlier acts in 
a showcase (gotta leave to make room for the next guy), and he was 
playing a major downtown venue.  The theatre Simon played was not 
only far from the frenzy (although, to be fair, it WAS within walking 
distance) but I'm told it was hard to tell from the outside that 
anything was even going on...there's no marquee, or special outside 
lighting.  And although he was the last act, the house was strict 
about enforcing the time cutoff.

In retrospect, I'm not sure what could have been done in advance to 
make this a better setting for Simon's show.  When the bands are 
notified of the scheduling, they have no way of knowing the pros and 
cons of their particular venue.  The theatre itself is very nice. 
More publicity would have helped, I suppose, but you have to have 
some name recognition already to help the publicity.

>Likely the benefit
>paid Simon's costs coming from the UK, which may have made this a nice
>visit, and not that much of a losing proposition.  Good thing, huh?  Guess
>he can at least put the show on his resume.

Right.  I'm glad he came, but I'm afraid it wasn't really worth the 
side trip for him.

>Did you make it to both, Alan?  Any news of the benefit show?

No, I didn't see Vail, but Simon said it was great.  The band Roger 
assembled played each other's songs, and they did The Way It Is which 
Simon said "went down a storm" -- i.e., great.  He said 2,500-3,000 
attended.  Quite a contrast between playing one's song on electric 
with an all-star backing band to 3,000, vs. playing it solo on 
acoustic to 25 a day later.


>Date: Sun, 18 Mar 2001 22:25:08 -0000
>From: "L. Bird" <pkeets@hotmail.com>
>Subject: Re:
>
>Okay, I got a reply back from Flash--very prompt, too, considering the
>thousand or so email messages he must be pawing through.  ;)  But I need it
>translated.  Does anybody know what triple c is?

I'm an anorak for knowing this, but FWIW on the back of Odds & Sods, 
the portion handwritten by Pete contains the phrase "3C, man, really 
3C.  Cool, calm, and collected."

Cheers,
-- 
Alan
"You inhuman bastard."
    --"Ramone Wilson"