Theme Thursday--Concert Going

I was already in college when I started going to concerts. During my high school years things like concert tickets just weren't in the budget, and even later such things were few and far between. But I have a couple really fond concert memories from those years.

The first concert I ever went to was Julian Lennon.  A friend of mine, who like myself was mad about the Beatles and anyone associated with them, and who like myself had actually bought and enjoyed the Valotte album, got the tickets and got us to and from the concert. Unfortunately they nabbed my camera at the entrance, and this was long before the everyone has a cellphone and its a camera too era, so I have no pictures of the show.  But I remember having a wonderful time.  (Many years later the same friend got me to Radio City Music Hall to see John Mellencamp, a double thrill, both the concert and the venue.)

Most of the shows I went to in college were performers who came to the University. One was the touring company of Beatlemania, which was technically a show rather than a concert, but since the show depicted the Beatles in concert, it was a kind of fine line.  The performers did a decent job of faking it, and the multimedia slide show that went with it was really well done.

My favorite concert I went to at the U was Don McLean.  He performed solo except for another guitarist, and he did all his best songs.  I bought seats as soon as they went on sale and got really good seats only a few rows back in the auditorium, so you could see the fingering on the guitars. I enjoyed it a lot.

But my favorite concert story involves seeing Buffy Sainte-Marie.  I hadn't intended to go to the show, but my future husband, a music major, had gotten to take a master class in composition with her, and wanted me to go to the concert since he couldn't. "And try to get her autograph for me if you can too" he said.  Ms. Sainte-Marie was performing for the benefit of a local Native American group, and then announced before the show that programs were for sale for 2.00 each and she would autograph them after the concert.  This meant I just had to buy 2 programs, one for me and one for the music major.  When I went after the show to get her autograph, I had her sign mine first which she did, then explained that my boyfriend had been in her composition class, but wasn't able to come to the concert. Right away her eyes light up, "Oh what's his name" she asks, then signing the program to him with "Wonderfully good wishes" and music notes. 

That's when I learned that musicians stick together.