Robbery suspect caught for Tijuana police
Bob McPhail 6:31 a.m., May 19
The three of us were seated in the audience at the Civic Theater in 1977, when a door to the left of the stage opened. A tall, blonde guy came out and walked up the aisle. Girls were screaming all around him, so pumped about seeing The Kinks and The Hollywood Stars, they were willing to scream about anything. I wondered what he was doing as he entered our row. When he leaned over to talk to me, my heart nearly stopped beating.
"A member of the band has requested your presence backstage..." he said.
The girls around us came unglued. Tammy, Diana and I looked at each other in a "Should we do it? Hell, yes!" kind of way.
We stood in unison and followed him back down the aisle. I was so flustered I could hardly stay on top of my eight-inch heels. I don't know why I was so shocked about getting to meet the band--it wasn't as if we hadn't planned the whole thing. We were dressed in custom-made evening gowns, opera-length gloves and had our hair dyed blue. While waiting in line everyone was staring at us. I heard one guy murmur to his friend, "Hey look at that."
His friend turned, looked me up and down and said, "Wow, she's beautiful."
I lived for that.
Having a sister like Diana wasn't easy. She was five-six with massive waves of long hair and powder-blue eyes. Wherever we went people stared at her and she was often asked to model. I was known as "the smart one" in the family. I got my share of good-looking men; but they were fewer and farther between and often too preppie for my taste.
Backstage, I saw black walls and a trash can full of ice and sodas. We followed the gorgeous blonde across the room where people in raggedy jeans bustled about; and in sharp contrast, men in colorful suits stood around holding guitars.
Soon, we entered a room with plain white walls and a makeup mirror. Terry and Michael, members of The Hollywood Stars, were just hanging out, talking about ordinary stuff. Apparently, Michael had been the one who summoned us. He'd met my sister at The Ice Palace in Escondido a few weeks earlier and had recognized her face in that night's crowd.
We were introduced to everyone in the band and when it was time to go onstage, Michael told us to hang around after the concert, which we did--gladly. They were the best-looking guys we'd ever seen--a species in short supply in Escondido at the time.
I remember my legs were shaking so badly, I could hardly walk back to my seat.
Finally, it was time. An announcer shouted their name, the curtains opened, and five hot and delicious guys appeared on stage amidst some flashing lights. They sang their latest song, "All the Kids on the Street" for all they were worth.
While The Kinks were onstage, I was fidgeting. Their music was great, of course. Do I even need to say it? But I was anxious to go to the party with the guys we had just met. Their band was no hopeless case either.
When the performance was over, the three of us went backstage to walk with them to the Westgate Hotel. You can't imagine what it was like to have a bunch of "stiff-upper-lip" types watch us walk through the elegant lobby. The old men heckled the "chorus girls" with platform shoes and long hair.
My sister, her friend and I were struck, but Marc just made a face and shrugged them off.
I wish I could say that we went to their suite for a night of wild sex and tossing furniture from the eighth-floor balcony, but actually the night was relatively tame. In fact, I told the guys that we were all sixteen and seventeen so that they'd consider us jail bait.
And contrary to what my mother later thought, the party was nothing more than a few "chorus girls" sitting around with ordinary girls and sipping drinks. I was on the bed across from Marc when he tried calling room service and found out the kitchen was closed.
Frantic, he asked if I knew about any nearby stores.
"Uh, no," I said. "I'm from Escondido. I can't think of a one."
The hotel couldn't supply us with any food, but booze was in ample supply. Each of us got our own bottle of champagne, and when I was next aware, a guy was shaking me awake.
Groggily, I opened my eyes to see a Jewish guy with brown, wiry hair and thick black glasses asking me how I got into his room.
"Probably the same way you got in," I said, lifting my head. "But I don't remember a damn thing."
He then flopped on the bed beside me and we started talking. He said he was the promoter for the bands. His name was Lee and he lived in L.A. When I told him I was a student, he asked what I was studying and I told him "psychology."
Around that time, I realized it must be pretty late. My mom would be pacing and sweating by the front-room window. When Lee said it was after three, I sprang from the bed, staggered to the phone and called home.
"You get out of there," my mom shouted. "Right now. What are you doing in a hotel room with the band?"
She didn't believe for a moment that nothing unsavory was going on. But honestly, these guys were so cute they didn't need us--they could have anybody!
Sadly, we told the guys that we had to leave and thanked them for everything. Then we went down to retrieve the car and took off down "A" Street. Almost immediately, we were pulled over by a cop.
I did my best to appear sober. I batted my eyelashes and smiled a lot. "What did I do wrong?" I asked in my sweetest voice.
"Well," he said. "You're driving the wrong way on a one way street."
I gasped and clutched my chest as if I was utterly shocked to have done such a thing. Then the officer leaned toward me to sniff my breath. That's when I started to pray and do a lot of fast talking. I acted as if I were a hick from Valley Center who'd never been in the big city before.
I must have been convincing, 'cause he let me go. I nearly fell over with relief. Diana and Tammy were wide-eyed as I made a U-turn to get going in the right direction.
But Diana and I had not seen the last of the Hollywood Stars. A few weeks later, Michael invited us to visit him in Hollywood. He bought us lunch at a vegetarian restaurant and then we went to his place to watch old movies on the television.
When the band came to Escondido a few months after that, Ruben said he was bored. So I invited him and a crew neighbor I'll call N. (not his real initial) to go sailing with my family. I couldn't believe they actually agreed to go, and I couldn't believe they'd never been on a boat before. They both looked scared and when the boat suddenly hit something hard, they grabbed onto whatever was nearby to keep from falling on the floor.
I had to laugh. When I went to investigate, I saw the the boat had run aground in between two fishing poles that had been stuck in the sand. Dad said he didn't mean to do it. I didn't believe him. If you ask me, he did it on purpose 'cause he didn't like guys with long hair being around his daughters.
That night, the Hollywood Stars performed their last set. As the evening quickly drew to a close, I told Terry that I wanted to say good-bye to N.
"Sure," he said and then mentioned something about N.'s girlfriend. I don't remember the details because I didn't hear the words over the sound of my heart flopping onto the ground. That weekend, N. had neglected to mention he had a girlfriend.
When he finally came out to the parking lot, I can't say I was thrilled to see him. I said good-bye with a certain amount of awkwardness. N. didn't seem to notice. He pulled me close to him, shoved his tongue down my throat and left.
Comments
Jay Allen Sanford Feb. 1, 2012 @ 4:49 a.m.
I remember liking their first album when it was still a hot item at Arcade Records - Circus Magazine cited them as up 'n' comers, but then again Circus was convinced that Angel and Starz were gonna be bigger than Kiss (when in reality they never rose higher than, say, April Wine) --
Ruth Newell Feb. 1, 2012 @ 7 a.m.
And you say that the Kinks opened for them, though? Wow.
SurfPuppy619 Feb. 1, 2012 @ 9:05 p.m.
I saw the J Giles Band perform at the San Francisco Civic Center in 1980/81?? and they had a pretty cool band open for them that at the time had only one hit, a song called "New Years Day" and they rocked the place. U2 of course went on to become a super band-but it is always cool to think of when they opened for J Giles.
tomjohnston Feb. 2, 2012 @ 6:18 a.m.
Surpuppy619, it was 1982. We saw JGiles and U2 at the LA Sports Arena and I believe they played the Civic a couple of days later. Took me a while to find it, but the stub is Sat.3-27-82. I think they had just played the SD sports arena the night before. I don't remember if NYD was a hit for U2 at the time, though. I had to double check this, but it wasn't released as a single until New Year's Day 1983. We're both huge U2 fans and they may have played some songs that ended up on War, but the album wasn't out at the time. October had just come out a couple of months before. I don't think they really started playing much off of War until later in the year. That was their first tour as a headliner and we saw then when they played the LA sports Arena again June of '83.
SurfPuppy619 Feb. 2, 2012 @ 10:32 a.m.
I guess it was 82 then. I KNOW the song was New Years Day, but the timing of it's release is in conflict, but I did find this on Wikipedia;
"New Year's Day" is U2's fifth most frequently performed live song, with The Edge switching back and forth between piano and guitar during the song. It has been a standard on every U2 tour since its debut on 1 December 1982 at the first show of the War Tour's Pre-Tour. During the 1980s.
I cannot recall any other U2 hit before NYD and remember this song as being on the radio and recognized it in the concert. But after 30 years who knows what was really played.
SurfPuppy619 Feb. 2, 2012 @ 10:33 a.m.
I have the ticket stubb from all my events/shows/concerts too, need to find it.
tomjohnston Feb. 2, 2012 @ 11:16 a.m.
surfpuppy619, I won't argue with you whether or not you heard NYD. That said, let me point out a couple of things. As you noted, NYD made it's debut on the pre War tour on 1 December 1982. That was after the series of shows in which they opened for JGiles. The preWar tour was strctly European dates; U2 didn't hit the states until the middle of the War tour in 198. We saw them at the US Festival which I believe was the opening show for the western portion of the US tour. According to what I just read, the next show after the US Festival was 6-1-83 at the Civic in SFO. I'm thinking maybe that's when you heard NYD because it had been out for months, ans also because hadn't been performed yet when they played in 1982 with JGiles. Their 2 "biggest" songs out before the War tour were probably Gloria and Fire, at least imho. BTW, according to wiki, "I Will Follow" is the only song that U2 has performed on every tour since their first album and is the most frequently performed song with over 800 performances.
SurfPuppy619 Feb. 2, 2012 @ 3:09 p.m.
If U-2 opened for J Giels in 83 then that was the time I saw them, if not and it was earlier in 82 when I saw them then maybe I heard "I Will Follow". Like I said, it has been close to 3 decades, I thought it was NYD and thought that was their first US hit but I will Follow was their first charted hit in the USA.
SurfPuppy619 Feb. 4, 2012 @ 3:51 p.m.
U2 ROCKED the SF Civic, a smaller venue whihc had open floors and no seats, very cool place.
tomjohnston Feb. 6, 2012 @ 9:43 a.m.
I'm sure we probably saw some shows there but I don't remember for sure. Most of the time we went to the Fillmore West or the Avalon or Winterland, usually to see the Dead. The Fillmore West actually had a full size basketball court set up inside it!
tomjohnston Feb. 6, 2012 @ 9:37 a.m.
It's nice that you support surfpuppy619, mindy. I'm sure he appreciates it. But it's not a question of belief, it's a question of the facts. All I'm doing is trying to refresh surfpuppy619,s memory. The fact is that U2 opened for JGiles in mid 1982 and NYD made it's concert debut 1-12-82 and was noy played live in the US untilApril '83 at the earliest on the rd leg od the War tour and not at the SF Civic until 6-1-83. So neither one of us could have heard it on the JGiles tour.
tomjohnston Feb. 6, 2012 @ 11:54 a.m.
should be NYD made it's concert debut 1-12-83 not 1-12-82. my bad.
SurfPuppy619 Feb. 6, 2012 @ 5:11 p.m.
All I know is U2 had a major hit, just one, when I saw them, and they rocked it bigtime. J Giels was awesome also, but U2 has gone on to heights never seen by J Geils!
tomjohnston Feb. 6, 2012 @ 10:47 p.m.
surfpuppy619, Not many have gone to their heights. depending on which source you use, they have sold between 150 &200 million albums. Not in the top 10 all time but still an incredible amount considering they've only released 13 albums in 30 yrs.
SurfPuppy619 Feb. 7, 2012 @ 1 a.m.
I need to find my ticket stub from that conceret-it may have been I will Follow they sang-I knew the song from the radio and it was the only tune that U2 had that was on the radio. They have had so many hits since it is unreal. And they are still performing, 30 plus years later, so they really have been a great rock band...
SurfPuppy619 Feb. 4, 2012 @ 3:50 p.m.
I am in lover with Fergie!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
SurfPuppy619 Feb. 4, 2012 @ 6:02 p.m.
No, I missed the peeing the pants pic-link?
SurfPuppy619 Feb. 5, 2012 @ midnight
http://www.spinner.com/2009/11/10/fergie-pees-her-pants-on-stage/
Yikes!
nan shartel Feb. 7, 2012 @ 8:57 p.m.
is there anyone who isn't in love with Fergie ???
i'm crazy about Florence and the Machine...her being a Redhead helps..hahahahahahahahahahaha
Florence + The Machine - Cosmic Love
quillpena Feb. 1, 2012 @ 7:08 p.m.
In spite of the provocative title, a sweet story.
nan shartel Feb. 2, 2012 @ 7:09 a.m.
i liked it a lot!!
tomjohnston Feb. 7, 2012 @ 9:33 a.m.
In reply to surfpuppy619 @ 1 a.m., Feb 7, 2012 Again not casting aspersions on your recollections, surfpuppy619. As I said, we saw them with JGiles, but I had to look up when NYD came out because while I didn't remember it, Like you said, who can be sure after 30 yrs. But apart from wiki, there a a whole slew of websites devoted to U2, which I guess should come as no great surprise. What did surprise me was how in depth and detailed some of them are. There are a bunch that lists of every tour in great detail. Dates, times, venues, set lists, you name it and you can probably find info on it. Pretty amazing. I think the reason for their longevity is 3 fold. First, when they play, they play for a long time. I think every show we've seen in the last 15 yrs has been at least 2 hours and most probably closer to 2 1/2. That's what fans love about Springsteen. He plays for a loooong time. Second, they tour for a long time. I think every tour they've done in the last 20 yrs has been over a hundred shows. It doesn't sound like a lot but consider the 360 tour. From setup thru the show to finishing load out could take almost a week. The 360 tour was 110 shows with 7 legs stretched over 25 months. They sold 7.5 million tickets and the tour grossed $750 million. I mean who else does that. but I think the biggest reason for their longavity is they don't try and cram an album and tour down everyone's throat every year. 10 tours and 12 studio albums in 30 yrs. The fans don't get too burned and neither does the band.
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