| October 1st, 2005 10:53 AM |
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| FPM C10 |
Like The Rolling Stones themselves, this stage is
BIG AND BOLD
Saturday, October 01, 2005
BY BARRY FOX
Of The Patriot-News
It should come as no surprise that the self-proclaimed "world's greatest rock 'n' roll band" needs one of the planet's great stages to do their thing.
The Rolling Stones play Hersheypark Stadium tonight bringing with them more than 30,000 fans, big bucks' tickets and a stage that looks like it could serve as a NASA launch pad.
"It's a small city, we travel with it, erect it and dwarf stadiums with it," Dale Skjerseth, the Stones' production manager said yesterday afternoon as his crew put the finishing touches on the "Bigger Bang World Tour" stage, lighting and sound systems.
Seventy trucks, 35 carrying the steel structure and 35 carrying production equipment, are needed to transport the 90-foot high, 204-foot wide, 100-foot deep structure.
A 180-foot runway juts out of the main stage into the audience.
Two balconies, one 35 feet up, the other at the 50-foot mark, are for the so-called "on-stage" seating, where 232 people will stand throughout tonight's concert.
Hersheypark Stadium's regular stage has been shoved back into the Star Pavilion to make room for the Stones show and more seats.
Tim McWilliams of Concert Productions International, the tour's promoter, wouldn't put a dollar figure on what this all costs.
"It's a work in progress," he said. "There are a lot of elements that go into it."
Skjerseth said the band comes up with the concept for the stage and likes to "throw down the gauntlet to the rest of the industry."
Once on the road there are usually changes Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Ron Wood or Charlie Watts want, but on this tour "they haven't changed a thing," he said.
A crew of 265 people needs more than 30 hours to put all the pieces together. A second crew will soon begin work at the next tour stop, Monday at the MCI Center in Washington, D.C., setting up the arena version of the Stones' stage.
Twenty-eight hours after the lights come up at the end of tonight's show, Skjerseth and his crew will be a memory.
"You have to be ready for non-stop go," Skjerseth said. The crew recently worked 75 days with just one day off.
While the Stones rehearsed for the tour in Toronto, so did the crew.
Skjerseth said they spent five weeks in an airplane hangar with the indoor and outdoor stages side-by-side, tearing down and building both setups to get ready for life on the road.
Patience and consistency are the keys to keeping the machine running, he said. But with this many people and this much equipment, the unpredictable becomes the norm.
"It's like giving birth," Skjerseth said. "You don't know what you're gonna get sometimes."
IF YOU GO
WHAT: The Rolling Stones and Beck in concert WHEN: 7 p.m. tonight WHERE: Hersheypark Stadium TICKETS: A limited number are available for $99, $175 and $350. INFORMATION: 534-3911 or www.hersheypa.com TRAFFIC: Expect delays on roads leading to Hershey, especially on Route 743 in Conewago Twp., Lancaster County. That's where crews are replacing a pipe. Follow the detour signs.
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| October 1st, 2005 10:56 AM |
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| FPM C10 |
His rig keeps rollin’ with Stones’ gigs
Yoe trucker hauls gear for North American tour, which stops tonight in Hershey.
By MIKE CAGGESO
Daily Record/Sunday News
Saturday, October 1, 2005
Mark Miglicio, seen stands with his rig in his Yoe driveway in August, delivers stage equipment for the Rolling Stones’ ‘A Bigger Bang’ tour. For his work, Miglicio is given a free ticket to every concert and catered meals, in addition to his per diem.
For as old as Mick, Keith and Co. are, you have to give the Rolling Stones credit for how hard they work on stage during their “A Bigger Bang” tour.
But there are hundreds of roadies, managers, cooks and truck drivers working 24/7 hard days’ nights to put on a three-hour show, said Mark Miglicio, 46, a Yoe trucker who is hauling stage equipment for the Stones tour of North America.
The tour stops at Hersheypark Stadium tonight for a sold-out show.
“It takes three days — if not longer — to set up a show, and two days to tear it down,” said Miglicio, chatting Friday in a phone interview while roadies loaded his truck at Pittsburgh’s PNC Park.
“It’s an organized, but very frantic pace. I’d like to know who’s organizing it, because they are doing a great job.”
Miglicio’s rig is one of 70 trucks used to haul stage equipment for each show, he said. In addition, about a dozen extra buses are used for costumes and instruments.
Though he doesn’t have other behind-the-scenes concert experiences to compare the operation to, the amount of people and equipment needed to run each show is mesmerizing, he said.
“Ten towers of speakers, way back into the audience. Picture what that would look like,” he said, citing one example.
Miglicio said his portion of the work is fairly light compared to others. All he has to do is deliver his cargo to each venue, where stagehands unload and load his trailer before and after each show. For his work, Miglicio is given a free ticket to every concert and catered meals, in addition to his per diem.
Miglicio and his 18-wheeler left York County on Aug. 23 for Boston, where the Stones kicked off the tour at Fenway Park. From there, he swung up to Moncton, New Brunswick, where the Stones played to an estimated 75,000 people.
He said he has only seen four concerts in the tour so far, but all of them were excellent. After Pearl Jam opened the show in Pittsburgh, singer Eddie Vedder joined Jagger on stage to sing the Stones’ classic, “Wild Horses.”
“The crowd went nuts for that,” he said.
Tom Dasher, 49, of Dallastown drove to Pittsburgh on Wednesday to catch up with his buddy at the show. Miglicio had called Dasher on Monday, telling him to get his butt to Pittsburgh if he wanted to see the group for free. It was pretty much a no-brainer for Dasher, who had never seen a Stones concert before.
“All I can say is wow,” Dasher said.
“I’ve been going to concerts for 34 years, and I’ve never seen anything like it. The people going to the Hershey show are in for a treat.”
Originally, Miglicio was supposed to drive his freight to the show tonight in Hershey. A couple weeks ago, tour managers and truckers streamlined their schedules and destinations, making his next stop in Charlottesville, Va., instead. He said as they perform tonight, stage work already will be under way for Thursday’s show in Charlottesville.
After his truck is unloaded there, he will head back to York County on Monday to visit family and go to the dentist. He then shoots straight across the Midwest to Los Angeles. Because tour managers are still shuffling schedules, Miglicio said he isn’t sure when his gig will end.
Before the Stones tour, Miglicio hauled varied freight across the country as an independent trucker. The 19-year veteran behind 18-wheels doesn’t know what his next job will be when the tour wraps, but he knows it won’t be as banging as his current job.
“It’s just gonna be regular freight, and that’s gonna be hard to adjust to,” Miglicio said.
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| October 1st, 2005 11:00 AM |
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| FPM C10 |
ROLLING RETROSPECTIVE
4 decades ago, Stones rocked the Farm Show
Friday, September 30, 2005
BY BARRY FOX
Of The Patriot-News
It's a world of private planes, frenzied fans and exclusive events.
For the Rolling Stones, not much has changed in 40 years -- except for the scale.
More than 30,000 people will pack Hersheypark Stadium tomorrow night as the Stones' "Bigger Bang World Tour" pulls into Hershey. And they'll pay $60 to $255 apiece for the privilege. (The seven-month tour is expected to gross $100 million.)
It was a much different story the last time the Stones visited the midstate, on June 19, 1964. Fewer than 800 folks made the trek to the Farm Show, paying $1.50, $2.50 or $3.50 to see the band on its first U.S. tour.
"They were an interesting group of fellas," said Norman Rosen who, as a 25-year-old promoter, brought the Stones to Harrisburg.
He and his partners, including radio personality Buzz A. Long, originally booked the New Christie Minstrels, a folk act, to play the Farm Show.
"A friend called about this new English rock group that we had to see," Rosen said. "Nineteen sixty-four was the year of the Beatles, but they were out of the question because they were too expensive."
The Beatles asking price at the time was $50,000.
They canceled the New Christie Minstrels and signed a deal with General Artists Corp., paying a total of $4,000 for the Stones, Bobby Goldsboro, Patty & The Emblems (who replaced the Chiffons) and Bobby Comstock & The Counts for a Friday night show.
"That was a heck of a line-up," Rosen, of Susquehanna Twp., said.
He rented part of the Schleisner's building in Harrisburg to sell tickets; promoted the show on local radio and held a contest for a "lucky girl to win lunch with the Rolling Stones."
The day Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Brian Jones, Bill Wyman and Charlie Watts arrived, Rosen was hoping to have a Beatles-esque, screaming mass of teenagers greeting the band at the airport.
"They put a crimp in our plans when they called that Thursday and said they would be taking their bus and staying in Hershey," Rosen said.
So, he rented four single-engine planes, at a cost of $24 each, and flew the Stones from Hershey to Harrisburg.
"I remember Charlie Watts was sick when he got off the plane," Rosen said. "It was a beautiful warm, sunny day and a lot of kids were at the airport."
That evening he spent three hours with the lads at their hotel, the old Cocoa Inn on the square in Hershey, drinking soda and chatting.
"They were in awe of everything going on around them," Rosen said. "We talked about everything but they had their minds on girls a lot of the time."
The contest winner got her lunch with the band at the old Penn Harris Hotel in Harrisburg. It cost Rosen $42 to feed 15 people.
"There were a lot of people outside and I remember the girl had on a beautiful dress with white gloves," he said. "She was 14 or 15 and we were a little nervous about what they might say to her; they were bad boys."
All went well at the lunch and at a record store appearance at Caplan's in downtown Harrisburg.
No one was there," said Lynn Stitt, a seventh-grader at the time. "They were very disgusted. I met Mick Jagger and got his autograph and Brian Jones'. Then we took the bus home and got ready for the concert."
Stitt and her friend, Kathy Whitebread, baby-sat for 50 cents an hour to earn the money for their Stones' tickets. Stitt said she remembers the Farm Show as "no frills, there were folding chairs and that's about it."
Looking back, Whitebread said, "The tickets were so stinkin' cheap but they seemed expensive then. We went for the most expensive to be up close but it didn't matter because nobody was there."
Stitt, who is now a nurse and runs a cat hospice at her Piketown home, said the crowd was small because "at that time they didn't have the appeal of the Beatles. They were 'dirty,' 'bad boys' that people said wouldn't last."
But, despite the small crowd the show was impressive.
"Even though they were young fellas they'd been performing in Europe and they were seasoned musicians," Rosen said. "When they were onstage you knew they were headed for glory. They gave a great show and I was impressed with their professionalism."
The indignities continued the next day when The Evening News referred to "Mike Jagger" and described the Stones as "five shaggy Britons" who "like their hair long and their lyrics loud."
That night at the Farm Show was the first and last time Rosen, Stitt and Whitebread saw the Stones, and none of them has plans to be at the Hershey show.
Rosen, who now divides his time among several businesses, began and ended his career as a rock promoter with the Stones, but he has no regrets.
"I did it because it sounded like an exciting thing to do, and it was," he said. "And, I was there when they were born."
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| October 1st, 2005 11:03 AM |
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| FPM C10 |
Stones keep on rolling
Senior citizen rockers evolve into '60s super group
Sunday, September 25, 2005
BY BARRY FOX
Of The Patriot-News
With all due respect, the Rolling Stones are freaks.
Cancer, drugs, personal dramas and/or age could have done them in years ago, but here they are in their 43rd year with a new album and a new sense of purpose.
Many years past their prime, their current "Bigger Bang" world tour, which comes to Hersheypark Stadium Saturday, with its exorbitant ticket prices would appear to be doomed to failure, but is sold out in nearly every city it visits.
Their new "A Bigger Bang" disc, as critics have done for years, is being hailed as their best work in decades.
"They've made a career out of never doing what they're supposed to do, and won," said Jon Mertz, a nearly lifelong Stones fan. "Now they're breaking the laws of nature putting on this spectacle at their ages. I'm not a sports fan, but it's like the Yankees have always been your team and Babe Ruth is still playing."
Mertz, 48, who has seen the Stones on every tour since 1975, will be taking his 14-year-old son to his first in Hershey, a personal marker of the band's longevity.
"It's inexplicable that this rite of passage is still going on," he said.
Defying convention and logic has become a way of life for the Stones whose youngest member is 58-year-old Ron Wood. Drummer Charlie Watts is 64, Mick Jagger is 62 and Keith Richards is 61.
"It's really a phenomenon," said Billboard magazine's Melinda Newman, who recently wrote a cover story on the band. "They just keep on keeping on."
Throughout their career the Stones' album sales have been sporadic, but in concert is where they made their fame.
There is a very wide chasm between the ticket-buying audience and the record-buying audience that is baffling," Newman said.
Through the years the Stones have refused to sell a tour as their last, but their age and health (Watts is recovered from throat cancer and Wood was recently in rehab) make the end more of a possibility now.
On this tour, however, fans and journalists agree the Stones are as good as ever, theorizing that Watts' cancer might have been a catalyst to reinvigorate them.
Marilou Regan, a former Philadelphia Inquirer reporter who has written more than 100 articles on the Stones and co-authored the book "Love You Live, Rolling Stones: Fanfare from the Common Fan," attended her 112th Stones show this month.
"After following them for this long you get a cynical viewpoint, a 'You're going to have to show me' kind of thing, and they showed me," she said. "Their shows are absolutely amazingly the same. I listen to them, and I'm 12 again."
That's now a significant part of the Stones allure, an older fan base (who can afford the expensive tickets) seeking a bit of nostalgia but expecting much more than a greatest hits show.
Mike Rushlander, a college counselor by day and "Ron Wood" in the tribute band, Jumpin' Jack Flash, by night, sees the Stones as "the last connection 21st-century culture has with a genuine '60s cultural phenomenon ... they are the last vestige of that."
An interesting viewpoint but what does all that Stones significance get you for your $175 concert ticket?
"The whole aura of sex, drugs, rock 'n' roll cliche makes for great reading when you're 16 years old; now it's about the music," said Skippy Shay, a Philadelphia photographer and co-creator of www.stickyfingersjournal.com, an online Stones newsletter. "This is the best they've been since 1978. They've been relying on horns and backup singers and one of the biggest complaints from fans is that they wanted the five piece rock 'n' roll band back ... This tour there is a lot of guitars, really in your face. They are really playing hard, they are not messing around."
Jagger's swagger, Richards' and Wood's interplay, Watts' steady hand and conveying a joy in their work has made many Stones' loyalists.
Bill Janovitz, the longtime vocalist of the Boston band, Buffalo Tom, and the author of the book "Exile on Main Street," about the famed Stones' album, saw the band last month in Fenway Park.
"To see these guys giving their all making millions and millions, obviously they have a big incentive, but that takes a lot of energy," he said. "To see Jagger, who's the same age as my father, running around and still be able to give such a soulful performance on such a grand scale is impressive."
"Obviously, the Stones have achieved the status culturally and musically that they could do anything," Rushlander said. "But they are still in it in a genuine way."
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| October 1st, 2005 11:10 AM |
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| jb |
ANother non-sell out for Pennsylania.....Hershey, Pitt, Wachovia 1 and 2, still don't add up to the 80k in 81 or 89....Penn is not a Stones tgown as they have 2 republican Senators(albeit Spector, a Jew, is more moderate). |
| October 1st, 2005 11:22 AM |
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| Martha |
You idiots are gonna have a fookin' BLAST today. I'm calling you Flea! |
| October 1st, 2005 11:31 AM |
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| jb |
quote:
Martha wrote:
You idiots are gonna have a fookin' BLAST today. I'm calling you Flea!
Hi Marhta, hope all is well...My testucular scare was very nerve racking......the C10 is a defunt group , like Terri Schiavo, needed the tube pulled manyyears ago. |
| October 1st, 2005 12:10 PM |
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| FPM C10 |
The C10, all four of us, will kick your John Deere hat-wearing ass.
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| October 1st, 2005 12:13 PM |
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| jb |
quote:
FPM C10 wrote:
The C10, all four of us, will kick your John Deere hat-wearing ass.
I shall be in DC and give a birdie to the White House in your honor....you shall be greeted. |
| October 1st, 2005 12:33 PM |
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| Mel Belli |
What's the status of Stones summit in D.C.? Where, what time? |
| October 1st, 2005 12:53 PM |
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| the good |
quote:
jb wrote:
ANother non-sell out for Pennsylania.....Hershey, Pitt, Wachovia 1 and 2, still don't add up to the 80k in 81 or 89....Penn is not a Stones tgown as they have 2 republican Senators(albeit Spector, a Jew, is more moderate).
JB, PA has always been Stones country, and the tour has sold very well. Just try and smile sometimes  |
| October 1st, 2005 01:19 PM |
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| jb |
quote:
the good wrote:
JB, PA has always been Stones country, and the tour has sold very well. Just try and smile sometimes
I was listening to the 81 Philly boot-simply great. Enjoy the show...you're right..I don't have cancer and should be happy. I shall greet all in DC at the Shidoobee festival. |
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