Since folks know I’ve been around the rodeo, I sometimes get asked about the earliest shows I saw. So here’s a quick (but not all-inclusive) list of the earliest gigs I attended in NYC. Thanks to the #5 train that I boarded at the Gun Hill Rd stop in my native Bronx, I was able to immerse myself in a whole other magical world.

📍 Grand Funk Railroad with Humble Pie (including Peter Frampton) opening, 1970, Madison Square Garden. 

I was 14 and can actually remember that the sound was horrible—not surprising since it was the very early days of arena rock. Imagine listening to transistor radio amplified through a sound system.

📍 Delaney and Bonnie, Mott The Hoople, Mandrill, 1971, Fillmore East.

The show was supposed to be headlined by Free, but visa hassles prevented them from crossing the pond. I scored front row center seats and was officially baptized by rock & roll when Mott slammed into “Rock and Roll Queen.”

📍 Poco, 1971, Carnegie Hall (early show—they sold out two shows in one night).

I was energized by the band’s tight musicianship and high-flying vocal harmonies—with string master Rusty Young completely captivating me. A few weeks after the show, I bought a Sho-Bud pedal steel guitar at the old Manny’s on 48th St (damn, it was so hard to keep the instrument in tune).

📍 B.B King, Albert King, and Edgar Winter’s White Trash, 1971, Fillmore East.

This was the venue’s penultimate show before sadly shuttering in June. The bill was supposed to be headlined by Johnny Winter, but he was sent off to rehab I would later learn. Seeing B.B. and Albert on one bill—with opener Edgar Winter’s powerhouse band—was absolutely unforgettable.

📍 Joni Mitchell, Jackson Browne, 1972, Carnegie Hall. This was during her “Blue” era, and I can still hear Joni playing her dulcimer in my mind. Browne did a short, but earthshaking, opening set. I hung onto every word he sang—these were songs that I had never heard before since his debut album had just come out a month before.

📍 New York Dolls, October 1972, Mercer Arts Center (their debut album came out in July 1973). 

This show, opened by the infectious Ruby and the Rednecks (another local fave), was definitely “a line in the sand” moment for me. The Dolls were ragged-but-right, as they say, with sparkling glamor a-go-go. I remember them sounding like a messier J. Geils Band—delivered in women’s clothes—and liking it. I loved metal, country rock and prog, but glam rock was way more fun in a live setting. Being there was very intimidating since the hipper-than-thou downtown NYC audience was dressed to the nines and I was clearly an outsider (hopefully I didn’t wear my hippie farmer overalls). The ticket price? It was the best $3.00 I ever spent.

I was very happy to see former PR clients Wang Chung—Jack Hues and Nick Feldman—in fine form last night at Resorts World in Las Vegas on the “Things Can Only Get Better” ‘80s tour headlined by Howard Jones.

Back in the day, I milked the controversy surrounding the video for their 1986-1987 smash  “Everybody Have Fun “Tonight” for all it was worth. It all started when the BBC refused to air the video in the band’s native UK “after a medical adviser to its screening committee warned that the rapid flashing and strobe-like editing could trigger seizures in people with photosensitive epilepsy.”

Quickly taking advantage of this, I wrote a press release and landed key coverage on Good Morning America and in the Los Angeles Times.  Responding to the BBC’s claim that the video contained “too many frames per second,” Nick Feldman told the newspaper: “It’s absolutely ludicrous. I mean, they told Mozart his music had too many notes, and look what it did for his career.”

When legendary New York photographer Bob Gruen turns to you in the middle of a crowd and asks if he can take your picture, you smile and say, “Yes!”

I’m captured me here with former client Johnny Rotten/John Lydon—who today (January 31) celebrates his 70th birthday—at the infamous Hotel Chelsea in NYC. I rode there on the tour bus with John after the Sex Pistols’ show at Jones Beach in August 2003. 

Someone in NY (I forget whom) thought it would be clever to have an after-party in the basement space of the same hotel where Sid Vicious’ gal Nancy Spungen died from a stab wound in 1978.  I thought the party location idea was in poor taste. But then, I guess, “it’s only rock and roll.”

###

We couldn’t let January go by without sharing a fun story about RATT while working with them in 1991 (we’re now happily aligned again with Stephen Pearcy). 35 years ago this month, the band received a certificate of commendation from L.A. Mayor Tom Bradley.

The wording on the certificate was absolutely classic, as noted by Patrick Goldstein in his Los Angeles Times article, titled “RATT TRAP.” It ends with a brilliantly funny Pearcy quote. Link to the story below. 👇

Here’s what Goldstein wrote:

“L.A. Mayor Tom Bradley recently paid tribute to Ratt for the hard-rock group’s involvement in several anti-drunk driving organizations and voter education programs. But did the band get a key to the city? A free pass to City Council meetings? An honorary badge from police chief Darryl Gates? No way. The group got an offer it couldn’t refuse. In a certificate of commendation signed by Mayor Bradley, the band was so honored: ‘Recognizing the usual habit of Ratt’s rodent namesake, the group has an open invitation to receive a tour of our hundreds of miles of Los Angeles sewers anytime.’ According to Bill Chandler, Bradley’s publicity exec, the city does occasionally offer similarly oddball commendations. ‘We once had a Funniest Nut Day in honor of Planter’s Peanuts,” he said. “But we did want to praise Ratt’s involvement in several worthy causes.’ As for Ratt, group leader Stephen Pearcy sounded excited about taking Mayor Bradley up on his offer. ‘I’m anxious to take the tour. Trust me, I’ve slept in worst places.’”

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-01-13-ca-178-story.html

###

One of the best things about being David Bowie’s publicist for 21 years was the trust his team had in me. Whenever I would suggest musicians and celebrities to be invited to his shows and meet him backstage, they always greenlit my ideas. Of course I always got to meet those special people when I set up the photo (a very nice perk of the job), usually snapped by the great guys Kevin Mazur and Lester Cohen.

Back in December 2003, Bowie performed at Madison Square Garden on his “Reality” tour for what turned out to be his last concert there. Since I was a big fan of Interpol, I invited them to the show—and it was wonderful to see their eyes absolutely light up when I met them at their seats and led them backstage to meet the master. ⚡️ Also there that magical night was David Byrne, Jude Law, and Lenny Kravitz.

Back in November 1994, Sandra Bernhard (a client at Levine Schneider PR) headlined the prestigious Pantages Theater in Hollywood. My friend and former associate Tresa Redburn and I wanted to make the show extra buzz-worthy, so we invited John Doe of X and Perry Farrell of Jane’s Addiction, knowing that a photo of them with Sandra would be “gold.”

And what an honor it was to set up the photo backstage that night, showing three of the most original voices ever to emerge from Los Angeles—all in one frame. 🖼️ ⚡️

The following year, X would become clients of MSO in its first year of operation (for the band’s 1995 live acoustic  “Unclogged” album), while Jane’s were a client at both Levine Schneider (1990’s “Ritual de lo Habitual” album) and MSO (for their final studio album in 2011, “The Great Escape Artist”).

Woke up today and felt like spinning Korn. I noticed (at one of the streaming platforms) that a 20th anniversary edition of their “See You On The Other Side” album was released last Friday. It triggered many terrific memories of working with the guys.

At MSO PR (the pre-SRO PR company), Marcee Rondan, Kristine Ashton-Magnuson, and I organized a graveside press conference (playing off the album’s title) at Hollywood Forever Cemetery, for which the band arrived fittingly in a hearse.

At the celebrity-studded party at the cemetery later that night, Axl Rose made his first public appearance in many years, which helped garner the event an extra bump of publicity.

I remember walking up to Axl and saying, “Hi Mr. Rose, I’m the publicist for the band and they know you are here. May I take you back to meet them, and if you are OK with it, we have a photographer on hand who would like to take a few photos of you with the guys?”

Axl was very gracious. I think by addressing him as “Mr. Rose,” he felt he was being treated with the right amount of respect. He wound up posing for many photos including this one with KORN’s Munky. 📸 by Getty Images.

Mitch

Green Day released their sixth album ‘Warning’ album 25 years ago this month. Here they are in Mitch Schneider’s Mack Daddy Caddy during the album’s sessions in Hollywood for that album. Mitch is driving and the photographer is in the front seat,  shooting the band for a Guitar World feature that my associate Amanda Cagan and I set. This framed photograph hangs proudly in Mitch’s office. It’s a magical “capture” that zeroes in on the different personalities of Billie Joe Armstrong, Mike Dirnt, and Tre Cool.