[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

RE: (TV) nomination/Recollections of TV audiences



I remember a relatively small and lethargic audience at the Thanksgiving 1981 Ritz show.  My girlfriend-at-the-time, K., and I I both wondered why Verlaine or his manager would schedule a show right before/during the biggest holiday travel period  of the entire year.

There was this one guy right in front of the stage---a David Thomas(Pere Ubu)-separated-at birth-twin.  He kept yelling out things right before the curtain went up (and in-between songs)--stuff like:  "Tom you're TOO smart; your music is TOO  intelligent for most people!" (meant as a complement, I guess in a way he had a point), and who kept screaming,  "Yonki Time!  Yonki Time!" (confession is good for the soul: I appreciate "Yonki Time" for its self-deprecating humor).  

I've always wanted to meet Verlaine if for nothing else to tell him how much I appreciate and love his work, but I always had this fear that if I did he'd turn out to be something of a misanthrope---a person who suffered fools (and fans?) badly----and that might really depress me.  

I remember about less than a week before the Thanksgiving 1981 Ritz show, K. was teaching film and photography at Hampshire College in Northampton, Mass, and Verlaine played a show at her college.  After the show, K. and I tried hanging around the outside doors of the college's cafeteria where Tom and the band had secluded themselves (presumably to take a break/smoke and wait for the band's equipment to be dismantled and loaded. 

The cafeteria door was guarded by three 'Big Men on Campus' (BMOC), who had something to do with booking the concert, but who I don't think really knew Tom's music.  Anyways--there were a bunch of students and maybe even a few townies who were desperately trying to get into the cafeteria to see Tom.  Every 30 seconds or so a roadie or some other sanctioned person would come out or in, and we'd all get a fleeting glimpse of Tom sitting at a table.  

Three or four of the kids tried to get by the BMOC and in to meet Tom.  They all individually kept telling the BMOC that they just absolutely had to see Tom ----or that they had to give him something---or that they had to deliver something to him that they had written.  One guy even begged them, and then demanded they allow him to give Tom these drugs, and that he knew that Tom wanted these drugs, and on and on and on.

I quickly left the area and as I was walking I recall thinking:  Yeah, I bet that's what it's usually been like for TV on the road:  everyone wants a piece of him; everyone wants something from him; everyone feels that by getting close to him maybe some of his 'uniqueness' will rub-off on them; or that they might receive or hear something magical from him. 

I was also at the April 26 (Sunday) Easter 1987 Ritz show (got fired from my job for skipping to NYC for Tom's show and not  working that weekend. That was a great show with a fantastic and very knowledgeable audience--a lot more couples compared to many of the Verlaine audiences I've observed through the years.
	
	Leo

-----Original Message-----
From: Nick Powell [mailto:nick@powelln.freeserve.co.uk]
Sent: Saturday, March 31, 2001 4:37 PM
To: tv@obbard.com
Subject: Re: (TV) nomination


It's just as well no one on this list tapes shows because with all the
shouting there's going to be the recordings would be ruined. Think I'll
shout for Shadappa Your Face.
n




--------------
To post: Mail tv@obbard.com
To unsubscribe: Mail majordomo@obbard.com with message "unsubscribe tv"