41 years ago tomorrow, January 20, 1975, the Linda Ronstadt/Livingston Taylor show, a rather horrid day at the Allen. These people did not have their act together at all. Ronstadt's road manager was an absolute jackass, who tried to prevent me from entering the theatre. I came in through the stage door that afternoon, (a door I had literally been through hundreds of times) and some bozo is there telling me I can't come in, as I started to go past him, I get knocked down the stairs, I went after this clown, a brief scuffle ensued, which was quickly broken up by a couple stagehands (we always had something of a contentious relationship with IATSE 27, but in this case the enemy's enemy was your friend). I find out this clown was Ronstadt's road manager and was making wild accusations that one or more of the stagehands had stolen guitars, he was demanding to be allowed to search their cars out on Dodge Court. Later he found out that the guitars in question were still at the hotel. I seem to recall they were giving Tom K some kind of crap as well, but I'm a bit hazy on what their problem with him was. The performance that night was beyond awful, one would think these people had never played in front of a crowd before, constant tuning up and inane patter between songs, they didn't seem to know what they were going to play next. Allen audiences who were always a bit on the critical side, responded to Ronstadt's insipid patter by yelling "SHUT UP AND PLAY." Livingston Taylor was pretty much a hack as well. The theatre was less than half full that night,a night that seemed like it would never end. We were all glad to say good riddance to these clowns. Brel at the State was dark that month, so this was the only thing going on. In fact there was a bit of a winter lull, the next show at the Allen would be Patti LaBelle on February 16, they were absolute dynamite!
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