In August, 1982 I was celebrating the end of summer and awaiting my impending start at Saint John’s University School of Law. While I remember snippets of seeing The Clash at Bonds NYC, this concert at Pier. 84 on the west side of Manhattan does not elicit any recollection at all. Despite adequate grades in my first semester of law school, my stint at Saint John’s was short lived and I endeavored to find my way post- Queens College with jobs at local banking institutions until the civil service gods looked kindly down upon me and law enforcement opportunities began to develop. I missed The Who with The Clash at Shea Stadium, and I believe I missed the opportunity to see U2 during this time, but there would be no more concerts for me in 1982 due to the demands of law school (however 1983 would start off with the return of Neil Young to the tri-state area).

I Fought the Law

Rock on!

GQ

The Forest Hills Tennis Stadium is an interesting outdoor venue in Queens where I have seen quite a number of great shows through the years; The Who, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, Robert Plant, Jethro Tull and, of course, Talking Heads, to name a few. The stadium had stopped having concerts for along time until a few ago when the stadium was updated and it hosts a limited amount of summer concerts with a 10 o’clock curfew due to the proximity to residential properties in the area. As with the other Genesis performances I have attended through the years, this one elicits no particular recollection. We will try again this December when “The Last Domino?” tour arrives for two nights at Madison Square Garden and the new Islanders arena located at Belmont Park.

Keep It Dark

Rock On!

GQ

The Ronnie James Dio version of Black Sabbath hit the Brendan Byrne Arena at the Meadowlands in New Jersey in August, 1982 with opener Johnny Van Zant Band. Ronnie James Dio would move on to front the band Dio; Johnny Van Zant would latrr tour with Lynyrd Skynyrd keeping their brand of southern rock alive for fans to enjoy for decades (Skynyrd’s “farewell tour” was interrupted by the pandemic and continues on to this day). I only went to the Brendan Byrne Arena on a few occasions, most notably a Neil Young & Crazy Horse tour which got me in video full frame during “F*!#in’ Up” and years later for an all star lineup with the Love for Levon concert. I also got to see the Black Sabbath line up with Dio at Radio City Music Hall as Heaven and Hell when there was a dispute over using the Black Sabbath name. Ronnie James Dio passed away a few years ago from stomach cancer but his legacy as one of the great heavy metal singers and lyricists lives on.

The Devil Cried

Rock on!

GQ

The Talking Heads tour that became the “Stop Making Sense” album, movie, and video arrived at Forest Hills Tennis Stadium on Saturday, August 21, 1982. My then girlfriend, and future bride, went to see the show at this historic venue set in the middle of a Queens neighborhood not too far from my wife’s parents’ Elmhurst apartment. The jam packed stadium was not built for a hard partying rock audience and the archaic bathroom facilities were struggling to handle the crowds. While we were sitting in our seats toward the upper right of the stage, I felt the need to hit the bathroom but did not want to miss the beginning of the Talking Heads set. I noticed that a steady stream of guys were walking to the very top of the aisle in the upper corner and clearly relieving themselves over the side one at a time. Nobody stopped them, or seemed to mind, so I decided that this would clearly be a more viable option than heading back down into the cavernous underbelly of the stadium to find a rest room that was likely packed. I made my way up to the top, unzipped while looking for any possibility of interruption, and began to urinate onto the leaves of a tree below. I was there for what seemed awhile, and for what turned out to be clearly too long. When finished, I pulled ip my zipper, turned to go back down the stairs, when I saw a security guard with freshly combed soaken wet head walking up toward me. Unbeknownst to me, this guard had been apparently standing underneath the tree that was beneath my steady stream, and he was not happy. Despite my protestations, he escorted me down the stairs and to the wrong side of the entrance; I had been tossed and my wife was none the wiser, waiting for me at the seat. There was no cell phone technology at the time, and no way to contact her; so I scrambled outside telling my tale of woe to anyone who would listen, until I found a security person who unbelievably let me back into the stadium (good luck trying that today). I made my way back in and the lights went down for the Talking Heads to hit the stage just as my rear end hit the seat. I vaguely remember David Byrne onstage dancing with a lamp and the ride home on Queens Boulevard is memorable for a stuffed animal being thrown out of the driver window during an argument with my wife.

Life During Wartime

Rock on!

GQ

It was not unusual for us to catch every possible Yes concert whenever they hit New York City and a Jon Anderson solo tour was no exception. A month to the day of the Convention Hall show in New Jersey we went to see Mr. Anderson again, this time at New York City’s Palladium theatre. A couple of years ago my wife and I went to San Diego for a wedding. As luck would have it, in addition to going to a Padres game and Seaworld (where she got one item off of her bucket list by swimming with the dolphins) we managed to attend a Jon Andersen concert while he was on tour in California supporting his latest project “1000 Hands”.

Makes Me Happy

Rock on!

GQ

In the summer of 1982, I had just recently graduated from Queens College with a degree in English and a minor in Economics with Saint John’s University School of Law waiting for me on the other side. On August 2nd, we went to the Dr. Pepper Concert Series at Pier 84 on the west side of Manhattan to catch a bit of an odd double bill with the rockabilly Stray Cats opening for progressive rock pioneers King Crimson. While I have no particular recollection of this night under the stars, I am sure it was a night to remember for some in the audience.

Rock This Town

GQ

Queen was one of the kings of the arena rock circuit in 1982. This time around the band played Madison Square Garden with Billy Squier opening.

Tie Your Mother Down

Rock on!

GQ

My wife has been a huge Chicago fan since she was a teenybopper so we went to see Chicago in the round at the Westbury Music Fair on a Saturday night in 1982. Peter Cetera was still in the band at this point (he left in July, 1985) which makes this concert particularly distinctive for me since there have been numerous Chicago concerts and personnel changes after his departure that I have experienced in person through the years. Chicago is a great and influential band that somehow does not get its appropriate due as unique trailblazers in the history of rock and roll. I just purchased the massive box set Chicago at Carnegie Hall Complete from Rhino Entertainment which should be landing at my door any minute now. The band rarely ever leaves the road, and the pandemic did slow them down for a spell, but they are back on tour this summer at a shed near you.

In the Country

Rock on!

GQ

Any trip to New Jersey from New York to see a concert in 1982 was truly only for the fanatical, but since we were huge Yes fans, a Jon Anderson solo show at Convention Hall was a worthy destination. I have literally no recollection of the trip or the show but I was there.

Ramalama

Rock on!

GQ

In the early 1980’s, long before the internet was a glimmer in young Al Gore’s eyes, some movie theatres’ would have midnight showings of a rock and roll movie mostly on the weekend. On Saturday, May 22, 1982 a group of us went to see the AC/DC movie “Let There Be Rock” at the RKO Keith movie theatre on Northern Boulevard and Main Street in Flushing, Queens. The RKO Keith was a magnificent old time single theatre, before multiplexes broke out all over the country, that I mostly remember seeing lines wrapped around the block when “The Godfather” was released. (If memory serves me, I think I may have even seen “The Warriors” movie there; a film Twisted Sister payed homage to with the tag line “Twisted Sister, coma out and play” but I digress). The now dilapidated theatre in terrible ill repair still stands but has not been used for anything in decades. As the story I had heard goes, the theatre is a landmark and as such is protected from renovation. Supposedly someone purchased it to make it a mall, but when that project was not approved by the powers that be, the new owner dumped hazardous materials inside making it uninhabitable; but as it remains a landmark it is in some sort of commercial property purgatory which has left it empty for many, many years. It is a terrible shame that this occurred as the theatre in its heyday was an architectural masterpiece. On a Saturday night in 1982, AC/DC can say they played there, and a host of long haired metal heads can proclaim to have seen the show.

If You Want Blood

Rock on!

GQ