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Sunday, April 17, 2011

Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere...

     So...we went to Philly, saw The Who. We were in the nose bleeds, way the hell up. But when those 4 guys hit the stage, we began to scream uncontrollably.  Why you might ask?  Well, for one, HE/THEY were now moving in 3D.  They were real moving beings.  Reason 2...we figured that the air HE was breathing down there on the stage would eventually circulate up to we we were. We would breath the same air...his air.  The next day was a blur...we somehow got on a train and got back to NYC.  We had survived seeing him in the flesh.  What would happen next?

      Two and a half months later, the second leg of the tour was announced.  And just our luck...NYC, Madison Square Garden. Our turf, our back yard.  But just seeing them from a distance wasn't going to be enough this we time. We had to meet them. But how? How could we narrow the space between them and us? How could we be different? We talked about it endlessly.  We needed Roger Harold Daltrey to know who we were.

      Not only did daddy pull through with outstanding tickets...he did one better.  He told us that when he had wanted to meet Benny Goodman (Jazz great) he wrote a letter and sent it as registered mail to the venue he was playing at.  It was brilliant! But would it work? We locked ourselves into my room and sat down to write the letter that would change our lives as we knew it forever:
Dear Roger...

     This letter was unbelievable...in hindsight of course. We wondered if he would get it, no less read it. We just read a copy of letter the other night and marveled at how incredibly bold and brazen we were. Although naive, and even innocent in a way, we were so determined our only agenda was to get ourselves under his radar.  Anyway, anyhow, anywhere...

      The countdown to the show was on.  When March 10th finally arrived, Keith Moon was ill and the concert was postponed until March 11th.  How could we wait another minute, let alone 24 hours?! March 11th, 1976...a night that went down in glow girl history.. At the risk of sounding dramatic, the entire evening was magical. Arriving at Madison Square Garden, we discovered our seats were in the orchestra. News that would please almost any other fan...if not for the fact that we were two rows behind the metal barrier.  As many of you know, the metal barrier was the division between the part of the orchestra in front of the stage and the seats much farther behind it.

     It was so loud we could barely hear each other speak, even though we were screaming.  Suddenly, the lights went out. The roar of the crowd was deafening.
When The Who finally hit the stage, so many things happened at once.  Everyone in front of us stood on their seats.  We couldn't see them! We couldn't see anything!  She looked at me and said, "We have to jump that fence!" "No!" I told her.  Everyone who tried to jump the fence in front of us was getting caught and being thrown out of the Garden.

     She looked me dead in the eye, grabbed my hand and said, "Let's go!"  So we did it. We jumped the fence.  Guards were grabbing people left and right. It was like being in a war zone.  We heard them throwing someone out of the venue, but it didn't matter...we kept pushing forward.  It was incredible...truly as if the red seas had parted.  The next thing we knew, we were in the front row, Pete's side, staring into to the eyes...of a BIG security guard.....

7 comments:

  1. ooh!
    getting better and better!

    not to be anal, but Rog's middle name is "Harry!"

    :-)

    (it's not short for Harold...I don't think, anywho!).

    Loving this.
    SO sad though, because I tried to get tix to see them when Moonie was still alive- '74, maybe? FAT CHANCE (via Ticketmaster).
    I cried for days....

    THEN, I had floor seats to see them in Providence in 1978 (I think it was spring of 79)...but Mayor Cianci (Buddy WHO?) CANCELLED it, the MOFO! My best friend and I protested with a bunch of other die hard fans. We blocked a road...that was kinda fin!
    I wrote the Mayor this really awesome, passionate letter. My friends found it and made fun of me, of course (at a party at my house).
    I never mailed the letter!
    I need to look for that!!
    :-)

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  2. March 11, 1976...I was 10 years old. I recall the tour, though (I really do). It was that summer or later that spring Keith threw a tv off the balcony of a hotel in Detroit. The article in the newspaper filled my eyes! I won't forget it, ever. I was thrilled!

    Now we wait, once more, to learn likely the security guard either let you through because you were glow girls or he treated you awful and RHD saw this and took care of receiving you back stage. Did I pull an oopsie here?

    oops,
    ginaB

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  3. Ooooohhhh....Well Gina, that would have been a great story- but it didn't happen that way! It was even better! It just doesn't happen that way at all- not in this case anyway. We promise if it was a story that was predictable in any way, we wouldn't have made it public. You're going to love it.

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  4. I saw the Who before they were really famous. It with my Connecticut summer camp of all things. 1967 I think. In a barn like structure in Oakdale, Conn. I know it was before Woodstock. Am loving this "series". I, however was "in love" with Jim Morrison.
    Bonnie

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  5. How Sally Simpson!

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