It’s 4 July 2010 and we’ve arrived in London for a very special Crosby, Stills and Nash show at the Royal Albert Hall.
I’m with old friends Tim and Kevin and the Brucey Bonus is that the drummer is a friend of mine.
Joe Vitale co-wrote Rocky Mountain Way along with Joe Walsh and has a music CV to die for and thanks to the internet, emails and having had the privilege of meeting him a few times, I genuinely call him a friend.
Anyway, Joe has said we’re to come to the stage door at 4.00 pm where he will meet us.
And meet us he does, all friendly charm and kindness. He asks if we have tickets for the show, which of course we do, so he asks the question, ‘Would you like backstage passes?’ We try not to be too enthusiastic but we answer in the affirmative before Joe even has time to finish the question. He gives me signed a drum head and suddenly Stephen Stills arrives and then a doctor calls for David Crosby. This is all surreal. Joe has a sound check to do, we go to the pub.
The show, at a packed Albert Hall, is blinding. And we have these little sticky back plastic passes.
The lights come up and everyone leaves, except for us. We follow the signs to the very bowels of the auditorium where there is a room with a small bar.
There are a group of people we don’t know but then Joe Vitale arrives and we join in conversation about the show. The man is a veritable octopus behind the drums and so nice and humble. And then, Graham Nash arrives.
We met Graham a few years ago at the Hammersmith Apollo where Tim got him to sign a copy of The Hollies Greatest Hits. “Where did that come from?” Lovely, lovely man.
Joe summons Graham to talk and he does. He signs stuff. I say, “I won’t sell this on eBay.” He replies, “I don’t give a fuck what you do with it.” Then he walks up to Tim and says, “Hi – I’m Graham Nash!” Tim is a burbling fool by now.
David Crosby doesn’t do after shows but Stephen Still does and soon he arrives too. He looks much better than a few years ago, having recovered from prostate cancer, and he is warm and funny, albeit almost stone deaf! Stills had been a guest on Test Match Special and we talked about cricket. He happily admitted he didn’t understand a thing about it but loved his day!
Then we had to go. We said goodbye and thanks to Joe Vitale, Graham Nash and Stephen Stills and floated up the stairs, past the busy throng waiting for autographs. I was offered money for my pass!
Tim and I have been lucky before, bumping into Ray Davies at the Royal Festival Hall where Brian Wilson was playing Pet Sounds and realising James Dean Bradfield was sitting behind us!
And to this day, I cling to the adage that the bigger the star, the nicer the person. Okay, it’s not always true but it usually is.
And ‘Hi – I’m Graham Nash” was definitely one of the best lines I ever heard.
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I’m the Tim mentioned in this lovely post, and I’ve been thinking about this night a lot since my copy of CSNY 1974 dropped through my letterbox a couple of days ago, and has pretty much been in constant rotation on the Phonogram since then.
Firstly, what a true gentleman Joe Vitale is, I can remember outside the Hammersmith Odeon the previous time we had seen the band he stopped to chat to Rick as they arrived and took a photo which his son had mailed back to Rick by the time we got back home. And don’t get me started on the surreal moment that we pulled into the Car Park with Rick’s phone starting to ring – ‘Hi Rick, it’s Joe’……
I have loads of memories from the night, some of which Rick has alluded to, but not spelt out. We were chatting to Joe in the afternoon, all four of us (Me, Rick, Kev, Joe) when all of a sudden Steve Stills barges into the circle – ‘Man, I banged my knee getting off the bus, anyone else do that?’ Our jaws dropped even further than they already were. As he wandered off, I tried to call him back, not believing that I had just been standing next to Steve Stills. ‘Don’t bother’ Joe laughed ‘He hasn’t got his hearing aid in, he won’t hear you!’
Graham, well what can I say? The second time we’d ‘met’ (he said he remembered signing The Hollies Record for me at Hammersmith, maybe because it’s a rare-ish occurence, or maybe because he’s just a very nice guy) and I was at Hyde Park the week before when they were on the McCartney bill. Rick is right, I burbled for I have no idea how long. Interesting that in Graham’s book, he recalls meeting the Everly Brothers and talking to them after a show and them taking an interest in what he and Allan Clarke were trying to do. He says something along the lines that he had no idea when I talked to them for 2 minutes or 20 minutes, but ‘they took an interest, and that is something I have always tried to carry when I meet people.’ I have no idea whether I spoke to Graham for 2 minutes or 20. Job done, Graham, and thanks…..
As for Steven, well, I have a million questions for Steven – about Woodstock and THAT version of Suite : Judy Blue Eyes, the breakup of the Stills-Young Band, although had already told us stories about that, ‘Treetop Flyer’ which is one of my favourite songs of his, too many thing to mention…
But the atmosphere was so relaxed that going into interview mode seemed wildly inappropriate, which was why I guess we all ended up talking Test Match Special.
I have no idea if I’ll ever get a chance to thank those musicians in person again for the inspiration their work has given me – chances like that don’t come along too often, but what a night. I have my signed T Shirt and No Nukes Video Cover in a frame that I’m looking at now as I write this. What an incredible night we had….
Teach your children, people….Thanks to Ricky for bringing it all back so eloquently…
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