I figured the occasion would be a good time to check back in and post some more of the original prints that made my book. I also have a few things that didn't, but that was often beyond my control. One thing I learned from working with a reasonably large publisher was that the budget and releases for photos are tough to deal with.
Even though it was difficult, I found some great shots on Flickr and spent a long time working with the photographers to get their pictures in the book. Klaus Hiltscher took a bunch of great photos from Mannheim on March 4, 1979. Above is one.
The other concert from which a lot of American Standard's art comes from is the opening show in Auckland on October 16, 1979. The year is obviously huge in the history of Cheap Trick. It is the year Budokan was officially released, they appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone, Dream Police was (eventually) released, and they ended it headlining at the Fabulous Forum in Inglewood with the show broadcast nationally on the radio.
You could argue that this was the moment, as Hunter Thompson said, where the wave crested and started to recede. If not 1979, then certainly the following year. The Auckland show, from which the shots above and below are from, were taken by Peter Tocher.
As Bun E. Carlos has confirmed, all three nights were incredibly loud. The reviews of the shows reflect that as well. In fact, that was the major complaint from critics and attendees during this period. The October shows in Australia that preceded these shows, along with the New Zealand shows were the closest that the band had to a break that year. They didn't tour in November and most of the following month, in between Dream Police shows. As I've said in every interview and podcast over the last few months, this was also the year where the cracks in the band really began to show. Tom was far more frustrated than the outside world knew, and he even came late to the Down Under shows while reportedly "taking care of a sick Dagmar."
This is a great shot of him on the mic in Mannheim. As I've also said, he, Rick and Robin didn't sit for interviews for the book. As I wrote in the introduction, I never expected them to and embraced that. I didn't write anything that wasn't confirmed or published elsewhere but can pretty definitively say that there won't be an official Cheap Trick book. Most of what people want to know about them can be band can be found or is already known by the hard core fans. When I am asked about Tom, I simply say that he was unhappy, had a model wife whispering in his ear, was partying too hard, and making life difficult for the other three guys. That's nothing new.
This ad from 1976 contains the famous Marshall Mintz shot with Rick wearing his Coke bottle sweater. Since I couldn't get the rights from his estate, I used the Barbara Weigand illustration from the Illinois Entertainer. I didn't know until recently that Ken Adamany helped book the Runaways at Haymaker's in August 27th of that year, as well as on the 28th, in Milwaukee and on the 29th in the Wisconsin Dells, respectively. I also didn't know that Marshall Berle, brother of Milton, was their manager. I haven't read Evelyn McConnell's book on the band, beyond the excerpt from Bun E. Carlos I used for my book. However, I didn't know that fact and don't think it was in the biopic that preceded the book.
There's a lot I'm still learning about Cheap Trick and still have plans to write a second volume.
It is tentatively titled Too Drunk To Quit: The Fall and Rise of Cheap Trick. This shot from Poplar Creek in Hoffman Estates, Iowa seems like it might be a fit for the cover. We'll see. Paul Natkin is obviously as well-known a Chicago rock photographer as there is. Anyway, please keep spreading the word about the book and leaving those reviews on Amazon since I think that's the best way to make sure I get to write a second book.
Anyway, Happy Bday to Robin and I hope everyone is doing OK out there.
RLW
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