We semi-recently did two shows with Rob Kapilow and his series, What Makes it Great? I’ll write here about the show titled, Beethoven’s First Symphony, the other show was about the Beatles, as I have no photos of that one!

Kapilow performed at The Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts 

https://ccpa.cerritos.gov

Rob has been returning to the Cerritos Center for thirty something years, three or four times a year. So it’s easy to say that he has been here more than any other performer in our history. And that’s great because he is a pleasure to work with, and is also a very talented musician, conductor, author and performer.

From Rob’s website https://robkapilow.com/

“Rob Kapilow “gets audiences in tune with Classical music at a deeper and more immediate level than many of them thought possible,” hails the Los Angeles Times. In a three-part format. Kapilow dissects a musical composition. The pieces are performed, and a lively Q&A concludes the evening. “You hang on to every word and note,” says The New York Times.”

Essentially he takes a piece of music, breaks it down, explaining each part of the composition in language that anyone can understand and tells the audience what makes it great. He also gives the audience background about the composer/ musicians who wrote the piece so that the audience gets a good idea about when, where and why the music came into the world. His show is always fascinating and I never fail to learn something about the history of music.

The Beethoven’s First Symphony show was of course interesting, informative and something to hear. Rob played along with the Fullerton College Symphony.

https://music.fullcoll.edu/index.php

The Fullerton College Musicians often accompany Rob, and they are extremely talented. The school has, over the years provided many musicians for this endeavor and all the many generations of students have been exceptional musicians.

Some quick video from rehearsal.

The other show we did with Rob Kapilow was about the Beatles. I didn’t really have time to write about this show as I was busy preparing for a corporate event which followed the morning after. So sorry!

Here you can find his books through this search link: Rob Kapilow’s Books.

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I think when I retire, it will be safe to say that this will be the act with which I have worked longer and more days in my career. 

I’ll leave you now with a short video which I shot backstage as the mariachi bands played in the green room together after they arrived and before soundcheck. And some photos from tonight and the past.

Above mariachi bands Sol de Mexico and Mariachi Reyna De Los Angeles rehearse backstage.

And below,

And a memory from the past. One night working the MerryAchi Christmas show I had to clear some mics and cable for the dancers, but they went on too fast! I call this video The Mariachi Stomp. 

That guy getting stomped on by the dancers would be me. I had to run out and clear a cable and mic stand! Don’t get in their way!

Photos and video from past shows below.

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Guitarist Terry Sylvester of The Hollies told me the story of how it accidentally became their biggest hit during sound check tonight.

“A DJ in Germany was playing the A side of the record we recorded, it was late and he was feeling lazy- so instead of getting up out of his chair to grab the next record to play, he just flipped over the record on the turntable and played its B side. And the song on the B side was “Long Cool Woman.””

“Long Cool Woman” wasn’t like our other songs, it didn’t have the three part harmonies we were known for. We figured that our fans wouldn’t be interested in it. So we used it as a B side song, nobody expected anyone to pay any attention to it at all. But as soon as that first guitar part started playing, the red lights on the DJ’s telephone switchboard started lighting up! People started calling in like crazy, and the next thing you know we were on a world tour with a number one hit song.”

Also, tonight The Lovin’ Spoonful played. Rob Bonfiglio, the guitar player (also, Carnie Wilson’s husband), has been here many times with various bands. Rob last played here with Al Jardine and the Pet Shop Band, who I wrote about in a previous post.

I was glad to get to see Carnie, who I missed at the Al Jardine show because I was so busy. But she has always been a sweet person who is always friendly to me. So I quickly ran backstage to say hello, and had a short chat before going back to work on stage.

Talking to Jeff Allen Ross, the keyboard player (and vocalist) of the Hollies and Lovin’ Spoonful, we found out that we are practically neighbors. So we talked, naturally, about our shared home turf.

Closing the evening was Gary Lewis and the Playboys.

So all in all a good day on the stage. Filled with interesting conversations and talented musicians. Pretty much why I decided to dedicate most of my life to this business in the first place.

Photos and video below.

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He was sitting stage left in the wings struggling to put his feet up on a rolling cart, so I offered to get him an apple box, to which he declined. But this started a conversation. I asked if he still lived up in central California. He lives in the Big Sur area. I told him that I had taken a drive up highway 1 many years ago before the road closed, but the next time I took that drive I discovered the road was washed out when I came to it’s end and had to drive a small road back to the 101. He reminded me that it was Naciamento road, which joins the 101 at fort Hunter Liggett. Exactly as I then remembered. He said that although it’s not to bad if you’re on vacation – as the drive is still nice, but as a resident, the two plus hours drive is tough for residents to get into the city in both directions, north and south. “It’s not always as easy as one thinks living in paradise,” he said. I told him as I was keeping an eye on real estate on the big island in Hawaii, and I always thought about that when looking for houses because of floods and lava. One must choose wisely. And, also the story of when I lived in the hills here in LA that a tree crushed my house and my car. I lost most everything. Paradise at work.We talked about travel, as I want to go to Thailand in a couple of years when I retire. I was surprised that he had never been there on any tours. He said, ” I made it as far as Singapore, but never Thailand.” So I said, ” I guess you still have things to do and places to visit in your life!”We talked about New Zealand and Australia, where he said they had a lot of fans, Australia in particular, and he loved to visit. But then I needed to go back to work, as there was a small audio problem on stage, and he had to go back out to play for sound check. I had received a graphic from the company which they wanted to display on screen the day before the show, but it was square and didn’t fill the 16×9 screen so I did a bit of work to fill it out for them. I displayed it for Al on the screen, and he liked it, so we decided to use it for the show. I’m glad about that, and will give it to them to take on the road. I always love when I get a chance to talk with the performers, especially when I have worked with them over the years, like Al. Also “Weird Al” Yankovic showed up at the end of the evening and I got to meet him. which was cool! So another good evening at work.

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The load-in went smoothly. The band and crew arrived in a bus with a large trailer. They are traveling light for this tour as they have a series of fly days. I believe they were recently in Europe and in the morning they will fly to Hawaii. So they are traveling with limited gear, making everyone’s day easy. The crew, including Johnny, their monitor engineer, with whom I worked with most has been professional and super easy going, making for a good day.

I took a few photos from stage, so without further adieu, here they are.

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I always enjoy working with Lance Burton. It was his sixth time visiting the Cerritos Canter for the Performing Arts. Last time he came I asked him if he had signed our balls .(Ping Pong Balls that is!) He couldn’t remember, so we went in the office to check. He did, many years ago– two balls in fact. But he really wanted to see the collection anyways. He said he had heard about it but had never seen it. So I took him to look at the collection. The technical staff only has performers WE like sign the ping pong balls. All performers sign a tile for the lobby.

Lance was fascinated by the many famous people we have collected over the years, he took a lot of photos of the whole collection and especially people he knew or liked. We swapped stories about some of the performers. He especially was moved when he saw Louie Anderson had signed a ball, as they were good friends. I told him the story about when Louie came to visit. 

Louie was such a nice guy. Everybody loved him. He took the time to meet everyone, including the ushers, who he did a little comedy routine for before the doors opened. After the show he asked me if I would be interested in making some video content for a comedy/magic show that he was planning to do with a friend. I gave him my number and was looking forward to working with him. But he unfortunately passed away soon after and the tour didn’t happen.

That’s when Lance told me that he was the magician who was going to go on tour with Louie! What a small world.

Lance Burton, his crew and the friends who he tours with are all some of the most down to earth people who have ever come to work on our stage. All super friendly. He certainly does not have to tour to make money after playing in Vegas for thirty years, but him and his friends just love what they do, so they keep going out on the road.

I gave Lance a copy of my book, Stagehand: A Backstage Pass to my Life Stories, and was hoping to get a photo with him and the book while he was in his magician costume, but he gets in and out of costume only seconds before going on stage and out of it as soon as he leaves the stage! So the timing was bad and I didn’t want him to have to pose in his street clothes– oh well. Either way I am glad he will read my book! At the end of the night as we finished packing the trailer, the crew all took photos with me– but on their phones, I didn’t get any!

On to Robert Cray. I don’t have a lot to say about him. He, his band and his crew are all wonderful and hassle free to work with. The day was easy and fun. Their music is awesome! If you don’t know who he is, just know that he is one of the most accomplished blues guitarist in the world. And his band is great. Go Google his name and take a listen to some of his music, I guarantee that you will not be disappointed. I’ll leave you with some photos from throughout the day.

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Their website: https://www.gtlorocks.com/

Tonight we will be presenting the band UB40, but as I am only working the load-in I will not be writing about the presentation unless something unusual happens before I leave.

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But tonight my story is not about the bands and crews so much as it is a personal story. If you read my book Stagehand: A Backstage Pass to my Life Stories, you would have read about my time spent with my friends at the mall, whom I like to refer to as ‘The Old Guy’s Club”. A group of older Vietnam war veterans. One of them who I consider one of my best buddies, Cecil, is a fifty year martial arts champion and Sensei.

When I told him that I was working with the Temptations he said to me, “Really? Otis was one of my students and a good friend! Make sure to say that Sensei says hello.” (For those who don’t know Otis Williams is the last surviving original,  and founding member of the Temptations)

So of course, since I love Cecil, when Otis arrived, I went to the dressing room and gave him Cecil’s greeting. He was very happy to hear from Cecil and asked, “Do you have his number?” Which I do. So I called Cecil and put him on speaker phone. Cecil had forgotten all about our conversation and was very surprised! I ended up giving Otis Cecil‘s contact information so they could catch up later, as it has been a few years since they have talked to each other. It warms my heart to have been able to hook up two old time friends after them being out of contact for so long. (It’s not easy to get a hold of famous performers, so it may have been hard for Cecil to contact Otis.)

I’ll include some photos below.

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In the middle slot for the night was KT Tunstall. KT has been through our venue before. She’s a talented musician. Playing guitar and singing. She also plays percussion. She’s a looper. Making music by starting different rhythms using percussion and guitar lines, and running them through looping pedals to create soundscapes that form songs. A pretty cool type of music which I happen to like. She also brought along her cute little dog to sound check. 

The opening band tonight I had never heard of before, but they are a pretty rocking band. They’re called Vertical Horizon . Tight with good songs. I enjoyed listening to their set.

All the musicians and their crews were nice people today and the day went better than expected, although it is a long one and we are back tomorrow for 90’s Mixtape Live.

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Next up, and opening the show was Tommy Tutone. He played acoustic guitar with his band-mate Greg. You may or may not remember who Tommy is but I’m absolutely sure you will remember his 1981 song “Jenny”, which peaked at #4 on the Billboard Hot 100. Still don’t remember. Well here’s her phone number: 867-5309.

Tommy wanted to walk out into the audience during the show and then head out to the lobby to sign autographs near the merch table, so I gave him a short tour of the facility and introduced him to the usher staff (Penguins as I like to call them). While we were out there chatting he told me “I’m almost never recognized out in public, unlike some other musicians.” to which I said, “That’s probably for the best, you can live a normal life, but you still have one of the most recognized songs of all times. You’re famous enough for me to get a photo with!” He was a really nice guy and you can see the photo above.

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