article

["L. Bird" <pkeets@hotmail.com>]

Here's a charming article from another list, charmingly translated from 
Italian courtesy of Agata.  I hope everyone here will enjoy it.  :)

keets

>AT THE ZARD'S COURT
                 by  Paolo Brogi
"The foul deed happened at the Shangri La, an Eur district's hotel in Rome. 
It hadn't been easy to slip in there the Who, with the crowd of english 
journalists who followed them. There was no place for all. We had to devise 
emergency solutions. I remember that Keith Moon, the drummer, asked to put 
one more bed, in his suite's parlour. He gave 200.000 lire ( about 95 $) to 
the concierge who set up the bed. At that time, the early Seventies, it was 
the equivalent of a first-rate salary. Imagine the concierge's face! Anyhow, 
in the end, we managed
to arrange everything. At least, I thought so. I came back the morning after 
and what did I see in the swimming-pool? A television set. I looked above. 
The window of Keith Moon's suite had the glass broken. I went up, I was a 
prey to worries, and I found him placid and telling me: "I absolutely had to 
throw it out of the window. There was not even a programme in english!"

>David Zard, 44 years old ( 20 dedicated to the organization of live 
>concerts and tours) is the right man to tell about the backstage rock 
>history. He's in the heat of the fray since 1967, when he landed from Libia 
>with a little publicity agent esperience on his hands. Since then he has 
>seen many wild things. The summer of 1987, with the David Bowie, Duran 
>Duran and Spandau Ballet tours success, has crowned him with laurels. Now 
>he's waiting for Madonna and, next October, Bob Dylan. Surrounded by phones 
>that ring continuously, Zard takes a break and recall. And the Who,in spite 
>of everything, are a page to dip into with affection. " I also had been 
>warned. Chris Stamp, their manager, the actor's brother, a typical english 
>gentleman who ownes a magnificent palace in Venezia phoned me. "Listen, 
>I've got very good businnes relations with Ciga", he told me, "So, don't 
>bring them neither at the Grand Hotel nor at the Excelsior". Anyhow, the 
>Who didn't only broke things. They were good-humoured, feast-loving and 
>blusterers. They fled in every direction. And they spread fragments. But 
>they always paid generously for damages."

from: EUROPEO, september 12th 1987

>I hope I translated it well and I hope also that you enjoyed to read. 
>200.000 lire are still nowadays a good tip!
Agata