http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2UZChXb83Lw&NR=1

(Originally published on February 28, 2011)

MY VERY FIRST PUBLICITY JOB

It’s 1956, and we’re in York, a picturesque city in the north of England, at a nearly empty Rialto Cinema on a Sunday afternoon.
We’re at the sound check of a new band, which plays Bill Haley covers. As the band rehearse, a tailor fusses about, making the final alternations on the identical powder blue suits he has made for the musicians. This is an important gig, because the band will make a surprise appearance tonight at the first showing of a Glenn Ford movie called Blackboard Jungle. 

(Originally published on February 28, 2011)

SCOTLAND’S BIGGEST BAND COMES TO WINNIPEG. ANOTHER TRUE BACKSTAGE STORY

All is not well backstage at the Winnipeg Folk Festival. It is 1987, and the festival’s new artistic director, Rosalie Goldstein — a tough. short, red-haired woman — is discussing the programming with an equally feisty woman who manages the Scottish band Run Rig, which is making its Canadian debut at the festival.

“What’s this?” says the Scottish woman, waving the festival programme in Goldstein’s face. “What’s this workshop thing on Sunday?” “A workshop,” responds Goldstein equably. “It’s like a little concert, but with other musicians sharing the stage.”