1980 And Beyond

I'm sorry it's been so long since I've posted in this space. My goal was to upload all the photos from the book in HD.

This one was not and looks looks to be from 1979. You can see the Tampa Bay Times watermark, so I wonder if it was from the Florida Music fest in Orlando that April? I can't really see what's on the front of Rick's Hamer, but do see what looks like a Lego of himself on one of the buttons. I am sure all this was displayed at the Rick's Picks exhibit at the Burpee. I wasn't there but have tons of photos taken by others saved so I can check.

This photo, of course, did appear in my book. It's at the afterparty thrown by Dick Clark after the American Music Awards in January of 1980. I don't know who the photographer was but this printing of it is from Hit Parader. Rick is clearly enjoying himself. There are shots of Bun as well from the party. I alluded in the book to the fact that Tom almost didn't play that night. Dagmar delivered an ultimatum from/for him that he wanted to sing? They played "Ain't That A Shame," so I am not entirely sure if she wanted him to sing "I Know What I Want," which was his only solo song. There were a few close calls in 1980, where shows almost didn't go off. I believe things were coming to a head and I know that for the LA Coliseum show that year a bag of money was needed to sate the Peterssons. As Ken Adamany pointed out, you can see a microphone stand, unused, near Tom on the broadcast.

This shot, of course, was from the Garden on May 12, 1980. It was the band's only headlining date at the World's Most Famous Arena. Bill O'Leary was kind enough to let me use it for my book. Kathleen Hiraga also took some great pictures of the show and you can use the link to check them out. Notice Rick's "Roadie" pin. I recently sat through that entire movie. I didn't realize that "Gonna Raise Hell" appears in the film twice. The first time is when the action turns to the Whisky A Go Go. The second is when Alice Cooper plays the Garden. I also never noticed that the guy who gets Brad Hamilton fired in Fast Times plays Meat Loaf's best friend. I've recently seen a lot of the plans for Cheap Trick to be in film. Ken Adamany has a marked up Rock n' Roll High School script as well as a few pages of the proposed Cheap Trick Flick. From what I read they made the right call passing on the latter. There was even a Billboard mention of Ken setting up a California office for film projects involving the band in November of 1978.

Christopher Crowe, creator of the Cheap Trick logo, put them in an episode of The Watcher in 1995. Robin could give Tommy Wiseau of The Room a run for his money in terms of acting. I think the idea of the band on screen was better than them actually being in a film. Also from 1980...

Lynn Cullen is still a widely respected radio talk show host. When she left Wisconsin in 1980 for Pittsburgh, she recounted an incident with the band. Clearly, the guy who she is referring to is Rick. He did that "you were great last night" schtick a lot. Lastly is a second Bill O' Leary shot from Radio City. I knew I had to include one photo of Rick with multiple guitars and I chose this one. Obviously it looks a lot better in color.

I am seriously considering the follow up to American Standard and truly think there is true path to writing it. While I will certainly try to interview as many people as possible, I will take the same approach as I did before. I don't expect the band to participate. They have copies of this book and I severely doubt they've read it. I am not naive enough to expect them to discuss Tom's departure and return, their leaving Epic, or the parting of the ways with Ken. I understand why people buying a book on Cheap Trick would want them to be in it. But anyone who has a pre existing knowledge of them understands they choose not be interviewed for books.

I've also learned a lot about the pre-1980 period since the book was released. I also need to apologize for not properly citing that the Beatles riff in the live "Ain't That A Shame" is from "Please Please Me" and not "From Me To You." Someone pointed it out in their Amazon review and had every right to do so. I lived with the manuscript for so long and proofread it so many times that I never noticed it. Neither did anyone else who read it.

Since next week is the anniversary of the 1978 Japanese shows, I will be back here with a special long-form piece. I will also post the last few photos from the book.

Until then,

RLW