Robert Plant Birthday Party at Schertz Residence in Dallas, TX
"Phil (Collins) asked me if it would be okay if his friend Robert came to the party because he was in Dallas and it was his birthday. Robert, of course, was Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin. The party was a lot of fun, we had a big birthday cake for Robert with a lot of birthday candles on top which when lit proceeded to spread into one big fire on top of the cake. Craig Schertz jumped into action an
Robert Plant, Lunar in the background.
"I’m glad people can enjoy these pictures. Boy that was a crazy night. Fire extinguisher put out the birthday cake. The Police turned up at the door and all night Darla Thompson was calling Robert ‘Peter Plant’ Took 3 days to clean up our house lol" !!
-Karen (Schertz) Chellew Wilson
Best Concert I Ever Saw
"After all these years of touring I’m often times asked "what was the best concert I ever witnessed?" Well back to Showco with Royboy (Roy Snyder) it was The Who. Pat Ferrel was on monitors, Roy was FOH and I had the stage and flying the PA. We were in Arizona at U of A and they had one hell of a dust storm that knocked the power out, needless to say the crowd went crazy and started throwing things on the stage. The concert promoters and their crew had megaphones and were telling the crowd to sit down and be patient, the show would go on. Soon, out on stage comes Pete Townshend with a large coat and hat on, sweeping the stage up. This went on for a while and then power came back on, and Roy’s head phone light came on and said “no set list just go for it “ and out they came. You name an English band and a couple of American ones and they played it. It was one very memorable night and I can assure you that the 8000 or so fans that stayed saw the best show they had ever seen."
- Patrick (Catfish) O'Rourke
URIAH HEEP FANS
"While running monitors for Uriah Heep, I couldn't figure out how to get these drugged-out males from sitting on the corner of the mixing riser. Security was always bad. Eating a greasy burger at 3am in a truck stop, I looked over and there they were, the cattle prods. A light went off. Only used it 4-5 times. It worked, quite a buzzkill for those males. I think I put it on my expense report...lol"
- Bill 'Doc' Gans
Mike Kidson tells a story about my father, DK.
"I Can Do It!"
"Donny was and amazing fella and hilarious... He picked Bison and I up from the airport once and had hired a big Cadillac with the big fins on the back and he said "welcome boys, I've got a bit of class for you to travel in". It was like the car from Blues Brothers, to which Donny then lit a cigarette using the car cigarette lighter and threw the lighter out of the car window.
I was howling and saying jeez Donny, what about the lighter? Donny replied "I've always wanted to do that, just like from the Blues Brothers film and now I have rented the same car, I can do it!".
-Mike Kidson 2024
Favorite Music Moments in Pictures by: Bob Hickey
Here is one of the ten Clair CBA 32 folding consoles. I mixed James Taylor on this board at the first Rock n Rio. We kicked everybody's ass so bad that first night, the headliner, George Benson insisted he open for James on night two. They made an LP from that first night's show.
Before the show, I remembered something Buford Jones had told me about mixing someone, I think Jackson Brown at the first Farm Aid. He told me he sat at the mixer while waiting his turn, and imagined/remembered each player's sound and set the board accordingly.
So that's what I did. l peered over the engineer's shoulder who was mixing at that time and looked at the input gain setting on his lead vocalist. Then I ask him: "Does he have a loud voice?"
I sat at my, soon to be rocking CBA 32 and closed everything out. Hell yea I set all my input gains just a little hotter than his board. Next, I lightly "stuck" my color Avery Dots to important knobs on the board & racks. Now it was time to use creative visualization for each player/instrument in James' band. Pretty dang good night in the world I'd say.
Pictures of FOH with no crowd were taken on the last day early morning.
Elevator Ride
Anyone that was on The Commodores Tour know how long the days were. About three or four of us got onto the elevator headed for some rest. About time the doors were closing this big ole "paw" held them back. One by one these huge guys started coming in not sure but if it was Notre Dame or Ohio State, but they were large! Bear in mind we probably were only about 150lbs. Anyway, they pushed right in and forced us up against the front wall! Well I had enough and every time they would push a floor number and it would start to move, I would hit the stop button, would then look at them and the weight sign and I would say "we must be too heavy" and one would leave. This went on until only a couple were left and then they caught on and everyone had a good laugh and headed off to our rooms. I often wonder what they said when the two that stayed told them what we had done.
- Patrick (Catfish) O'Rourke
Pyro
At one time during my career at Showco I was the transportation manager. When Rich wanted a change, my job would sometimes change. Rich was the one that brought me to Showco. Robin walked into my office and said "pack your bags, you’re needed on another tour". This one was Rufus and Chaka Kahn. So off I go! This time was with the light crew, never did find out why, but there I go; and yes my old buddy Roy Boy was doing sound.
Someone had the bright idea to put me in Pryo with the lights, never have I ever! Showco had these little burst things that you filled with powder and an electrical charge pushed a button and boom it made sparkling glitter. Well after about the forth or fifth show Roy comes into the loading room and asked me to cut them in half because I was melting the backup singers wigs! Heck I thought they were just wearing a different one every night!
- Patrick (Catfish) O'Rourke