Friday, October 27, 2006




Another walk down memory lane . . .

My post about the Clash, and the comments to it, got me thinking about some of the bands and shows I've seen over the years. Some of my favorite concerts from 1979 - 1982 were The Police. I saw them on their first tour of America in 1979 while they were promoting Outlandos d' amour, their first album, that included the hit song Roxanne. Rumor had it, they were touring the country in a Ford Econo line van. Sting may be living in mansions and recording 12th century lute music now, but at the time, they were an exciting new band with a heavy ska influence. They played the entire first album, and when they came out for an encore in bathrobes, they repeated songs they had already played. Sting quipped that now that they were in California, they were no longer pale Brits, they were tanned surfer boys.

In 1982, they had recorded a couple more successful albums, and were playing at the Sports Arena. Sting was an energetic performer - great voice and ska dancing while he played his bass. What I remember about Stewart Copeland is that he had written across 4 drums in electrical tape "fuck off you cunt".

The key to attending concerts at the Sports Arena is to get down the escalators to the floor level, where you are pretty free to move around, and to get to the stage for the encores. We were dancing up against the stage, when the guy behind me said - "if you don't stop dancing, I'm going to get a hard on". I turned around and said hello, and noticed who he was with - John Belushi. I looked at Belushi, or down at Belushi - he was really short - and he gave me a devilish smile, and sort of squatted down and did his super spy stealth movement . . . . which made me laugh. A couple of weeks later, he was dead from an overdose. And a couple of years later, the Police had broken up. But it was fun while it lasted . . .

8 Comments:

Blogger D.O.M. Dan said...

Great story. The closest I've been to seeing a celebrity at a concert was at a sound check. I knew a vendor who sold T-shirts and had a consession at the Coliseum. He needed help for the Springsteen concerts in 1985 (maybe '86). We had to be there way before to set up. Before the audience was let in Bruce did a sound check and we went all the way up to the front row to watch. He was much shorter than I expected, but it was totally cool to be that close.

1:27 PM  
Blogger PixieGaf said...

This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

11:14 PM  
Blogger PixieGaf said...

OMG John Belushi was hitting on you at a Police concert! That is too much. Hey wasn't he married at that time?

11:15 PM  
Blogger Diane said...

Nah - Belushi wasn't hitting on me - I think he was just being silly :-)

11:29 PM  
Blogger LA said...

I remember when I was a student at SDSU (early 80s), The Police played the Open Air Theater on campus. One of my friends worked for campus catering and tells the story that whatever silverware Sting used, the girls on the catering staff would pick up and later lick in private. Oh, and around the theater, other coeds were holding up signs that read "Fuck Me, Sting," I kid you not.

Way, way back in the day, Jim Everett hit on me at Bobby McGee's in the Marketplace. His great pick-up line? The DJ was spinning the B52's Rock Lobster, and he came up and put his elbow on my friend's head and looked at me and said, "wanna lobster?" Even though he was hot, I declined.

1:06 PM  
Blogger LA said...

p.s. I meant to say, GREAT Belushi story!

1:08 PM  
Blogger Diane said...

dan - very cool!

la - Jim Everett was totally hot, too bad he didn't have some better lines!

7:01 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I love The Police. Great story:)

11:26 AM  

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