June 14, 1986
STORYTIME!!!
I was so excited when it was announced that UFO would be playing at The Living Room in Providence on June 14, 1986. It would be a couple of weeks after I graduated high school. I was 17.
There were a number of obstacles.
First, I had to convince my parents, or my father really, to let me go. This was at a club. I had been to many concerts by this point, but none would be at a club, or this late at night.
Second, in Massachusetts, anyone under 18 could not drive after midnight. With it being so late, I can't remember exactly where my father stood on taking us. Before I got my license, my father would take us to Providence, and keep himself busy while me and my friends were in the Civic Center. We would always meet him at the same spot. I am so grateful for the many times he did this for me.
As luck would have it, a girl I worked with, who was a couple of years older than me, her husband was a big UFO fan. He was also 23. I had met him a few times. So I bought his ticket, and the plan was that he would drive my car home. So now I had convince my father to let some dude 6 years older than me, who he didn't know, to drive us home at 1:00 am.
I have NO IDEA how I pulled it off. I know my father respected and knew I had a real love of music. And I was a good kid. I made a promise to myself that day. No beers. No weed. And I held it.
We drove to downtown Providence in the afternoon. It was pretty early. Now there are many hotels in Providence. But right in the center, we decided to hang outside of The Biltmore. It was the nicest hotel in the city. Not sure why. Not sure how. But we did. Now this is going to sound unbelievable, but we couldn't have been out there more than 15-20 minutes, and out the front door walks fucking Phil Mogg!
He was cool. We chatted and he agreed to take a couple of pictures.
Two of my best friends are on the right, and the short guy with the glasses is the guy that drove us home. He's actually wearing a Mechanix tour shirt, which he would end up giving to me.
We probably hung around another hour or so. Bass player Paul Gray also came out and he freaking cool as hell.
A bit later on, the tour bus pulled up, and they all ran onto the bus. I did have a hotel postcard that went onto the bus, and someone handed it to me with all of their signatures, including Paul Raymond. Unfortunately, that has not survived. We followed the bus to the venue. They went in for soundcheck, and we went to grab a bite to eat. We were back so when the doors opened, we were first in line.
We got our spots right at the stage.
Even though it was really a bastardized version of UFO, it was still Phil Mogg, but having Paul Raymond meant a lot to me. Not only was he part of the Classic UFO lineup, but he is also instrumental on MSG.
It was a long day, but the payoff was UFO finally taking the stage. I smuggled my camera and two extra roles of film. Prettty sure they were 36 roles, and for many shows, I might get a handful of good shots per role. For this show, changing film twice during the show, I got so many great shots.
Apparently I would have a conversation with someone this night that would pay some UFO related dividends six years down the road....
Not including days with my kids, or days when I was a kid with my parents, June 14, 1986 would be a Top 5 Tim Only Day. The next day, after developing my pics, I simply could not believe the previous day went off as it did.
Topic: The UFO Discography And Listening Party Thread (Read 143095 times)
