Wednesday, March 05, 2008

Some of my Rock 'n' Roll Moments...Part II

- I ran into Giant Sand on the corner of Spring and Broadway after seeing them the night before at The Knitting Factory. They asked me where a good place for beans and rice was and I directed them one block south. That place is now gone.

- Michael Stipe "invited" me to see his band (I can't remember it's name) at The Garden. I declined.

- I photographically documented some friends of mine recording their second album at Smart Studios in Madison, WI. One night Butch Vig and I had a few beers and he told me he was looking for a female lead singer for his new project called Garbage, or something.

- Peter Murphy lit my cigarette and asked me what I thought about this whole "releasing music over the Internet thing." I will never forget him lighting my cigarette. A perfect English gentleman.

- At a Neubauten show, some kids kept looking at me and then finally one of them came up to me and asked me if I was Steve Albini.

- At a Shellac show, I was scared to talk to Steve Albini. Even though I did. He was abrasive.

- I filmed Eugene Chadbourne (Shockabilly) in a cameo as a Television Evangelist for a film I was making in 1988. I'll never forget him pulling out a wad of hundred dollar bills he had in his pocket from the gig he played the night before and ad-libbing, "God loves money!"

- One of my many Art Directors, Tony Reonegro, at the time, designed the backstage passes for the Grateful Dead. I went to a show at The Garden with him and since he was all hooked up, he asked me if I wanted to meet the band. I said, "no."

- I kissed Patti Smith's hand. She asked me what my name was. I told her. She said, "Thank you, James." And smiled.

- I saw Iggy at an in-store appearance at Tower Records. I hung in the back. On his way out he was flailing and jumping all around, Iggy-style. I said, "Hey Iggy!" and he stopped. Then I said, "You chaned my life." And he took my hands and said "What's your name?" I told him. He said, while still holding my hands, "James, thanks a lot, I really mean it." Then he started jumping around again and was gone.

More to come...



Sundae, yet again. She IS rock 'n' Roll.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Few more R&R moments...Bjork and Einar came to our dressing room and drank all of our booze...they were a good lot, My Bloody Valtine folks and Jesus and Mary Chain Folks visited us our Town and Country gig in London, Tanya Donnelly was my guide when I first arrived to London, Had drinks with Lawrence from FELT and the wolfgang press guys after a gig in london. Marc Riley (from the Fall) was our publicist in England and drove us to many interviews = )

theFstopshere said...

a few years back, i played guitar in a joan jett tribute act. we opened for Super Diamond (THE premiere Neil Diamond tribute act!!) for a sold-out show at The Showbox in Seattle, WA.
I'll never forget the sight of all those gay men and their gal-pals standing on chairs and tables singing "sweet Caroline" along with the band.
completely surreal and yet, they totally rocked.
(yea... search youtube for Jett City and you can see us fumble through "light of day" and Bikini Kill's "Rebel Girl".
thanks for letting me share....

dfklldoind said...

Great Great story's James..thanks for sharing. Looking forward to hearing more.

bt