18 Saturday Aug 2018
TICKETS TORN IN HALF:August 18,1973: MAHAVISHNU ORCHESTRA/Wet Willie/JOHN HAMMOND opened, love his album SOURCE POINT but no WetWillie from what I wrote in my notebook. Another strange bill but MAHAVISHNU (second time) is again amazing.
12 Sunday Aug 2018
TICKETS TORN IN HALF:August 11,1980-THE RAMONES(4)@Wollman Rink in Central Park This is becoming a summer tradition.The first four albums were a blast but this END OF THE CENTURY shit is not too good. But I was adapting to MARKY (MARC BELL from DUST and VOID OIDS) RAMONE on drums.(Getty Images has some great photos from that evening.For the life of me I have no recollection nor notes on an opening act.
06 Monday Aug 2018
TICKETS TORN IN HALF:August 6,1979-THE RAMONES / SYLVAIN SYLVAIN and THE CRIMINALS@ Wollman Rink in Central Park. This is our third outing to see the legendary RAMONES. We took our son Michael, all of one years old, in his stroller to this show.Why not? His mother was six months pregnant when I took her to see The Ramones/The Runaways show, and the baby kicked for days after that.Tonight, in his stroller he danced up a storm. The Ramones with new drummer Marc Bell from the band DUST onboard played about 30 songs, I lost count early in the set. This was the intro to ROAD TO RUIN material, all good stuff. And Sylvain (NY DOLLS fame) as an opener was a treat.
03 Friday Aug 2018
TICKETS TORN IN HALF: August 3,1970-JETHRO TULL @WOLLMAN Rink
Jethro Tull and Haystacks Balboa at Central Park was another one of those bills were the head act brings along a lesser known label mate to open the show. This lesser known act included Leslie West’s brother on guitar (HB) and they stunk. Then, Jethro Tull was introducing some new songs, one being MY GOD. Overall, Tull was musically good but lyrically not my cup of tea any longer and most of the crowd was unfamiliar with the new stuff. Musically, it was a tough night. However, TULL was destined for bigger things and real soon. And I got a MY GOD bootleg outside the venue, for free. But, that’s another story altogether.
30 Monday Jul 2018
TICKETS TORN IN HALF July 30, 1975: POCO/KINDERHOOK CREEK @ Central Park It rained heavily before the show and if you have ever been in the orchestra pit of WOLLMAN SKATING RINK after a heavy rain you know that your shoes will be in a few inches of water as the drainage was non-existent.To make matters worse we drank too much wine before the show while awaiting to hear if it was postponed which it wasn’t. Me, dancing like FRED ASTAIRE sliding across the edges of a fountain I fell ass first into said fountain. Soaked from head to toe with a severally sore butt. The three compatriots for the evening, my bride Niki, my brother Kevin Patrick and our friend Kim all roared with laughter. Good thing Kim was carrying my smokes.Yet later Kim somehow lost his sneakers during the show as they floated away so he went home barefooted. This was POCO without RICHIE FURAY, a fun night but musically I missed RICHIE.
23 Monday Jul 2018
Posted in Uncategorized, Wollman Rink in Central Park
TICKETS TORN IN HALF: July 23,1976 Judy Collins@ CENTRAL PARK A friend told me that John Platania (Caledonia Soul Orchestra) was playing guitar in Judy’s band so this I had to see, lo and behold John was there and fabulous, too.
22 Sunday Jul 2018
TICKETS TORN IN HALF July 22, 1980: DEVO @ Central Park. This was bizarre to put it mildly but oh, so much fun. WHIP IT, Girl You Want, S.I.B.,Satisfaction,Mongoloid and more, all for 5 bucks and my bride was 6 months pregnant with our second child. After one time you knew we would be back.
18 Wednesday Jul 2018
TICKETS TORN IN HALF July 17, 1975: MARSHALL TUCKER/GRINDER SWITCH @ Central Park (no notes) I have the ticket stub but no recollection or notation in my journal as to what they played so it must have been “one of those night”.
09 Monday Jul 2018
TICKETS TORN IN HALF July 9 1976: The Patti Smith Group @ Central Park Some of my friends hated, yes hated, any thought of seeing The Patti Smith Group at this point in time. But not me or my brother. Even when he was in the hospital getting chemo, he slipped out to attend a PSG show. Tonight was pre cancer for my brother, and we were rocking and so was The PSG who had Central Park rocking, opening with LET’S TWIST AGAIN,followed by Kimberly, Redondo Beach, Free Money (one of my favs), Poppies, Pissing In The River, Ask The Angels, Pumping My Heart, Ain’t It Strange, Radio Ethiopia/ RnR Nigger, Gloria, Land and encore of My Generation and What a night, oh,what a great night it was, one for the books.What a great way to finish out our Bi-Centennial weekend.
03 Tuesday Jul 2018
TICKETS TORN IN HALF JULY 3, 1976: Todd Rundgren (4th time) (UTOPIA) / CHEECH AND CHONG/HALL AND OATES @ Central Park. It was the day before, actually late afternoon before the BIG EVENT, The Bi-Centennial, 1776-1976, the 200th Birthday of our independence and we were celebrating in style. NYC was an epicenter for the event. Huge flags draped across the access bridges to Manhattan. The LI RailRoad was extending hours and trains. People were attired in the Red, White, and Blue, and some on the uptown subway were dressed like UNCLE SAM, one guy even wearing stilts. The harbors were filled with tall ships and naval vessels. Uniforms abound. So our event was TODD RUNDGREN, a family favorite since 1968 with NAZZ and now Todd was doing his UTOPIA stuff full time now as well as producing HALL and OATES at the same time so H&O stepped in with UTOPIA for a few numbers. The band closed (encore) with THE MOVE’S “Do Ya”. Speaking of numbers ,CHEECH AND CHONG did a full comedy routine which had us in hysterics.All for $2.00
