Rob Light

Told me he wanted to make Jeff Beck iconic.  He had a whole plan, which he delineated.

What struck me was this was the head of CAA, not MCA, or EMI, Sony or WB.  That’s what labels used to do, make stars.  They had a whole team, sharing the goal of pushing the act over the top, to multi-million sales, raining money all the while.  It was all about the record, now it’s all about the show.

Actually, Rob told me there would be a record at some point.  I asked WHAT FOR?  Don’t make records, make YouTube clips.  You want to drive people to the show.  The money is made at the show.  The live experience far outweighs the recorded one.  Actually, if there’s a perfect record, most people believe that’s all there is, the one record, constructed in the studio.  Live music breathes.

Not that Rob doesn’t know this, but he’s just part of the team.  Beholden to the act.  And, unfortunately, too many acts are mired in the past.  Every ancient act should have a contest on its homepage, for a new Webmaster, someone who’s proficient in the new world who can teach them what’s truly going on, with love.

Ticketmaster/Live Nation

Conventional wisdom is the merger goes through.

This is the number one topic of conversation amongst insiders, I got into it with both Rob and Harvey.  But I’m not buying it.

In an era where Barack Obama stands up for the little guy, protecting him from abuse by the heinous credit card companies, the antitrust majordomos are going to give this merger a pass, just salute and let it go through?  ARE YOU FUCKING NUTS?

I told Irving, he’s playing it all wrong.  You’ve got to fight, for your right to merge.  Asshole lawyers are saying based on their analysis, the merger is approved, telling their clients to lay low.  I’m an attorney, I understand this.  Legal cases are determined on the basis of stare decisis, on what came before.  But laying back and playing the odds based on what came before means you can’t see what’s new, what’s coming down the pike.  We’re entering an era of clarity, where the little man is protected.  Business no longer runs D.C., yet LN and TM are listening to the same fat cats of yore, the legal elite who were baffled by Hillary’s campaign defeat, who triangulated themselves to irrelevancy.

If Ticketmaster and Live Nation want this merger to be approved, they’re going to have to sell it, in the court of public opinion.  Reveal that Ticketmaster is a front for the acts.  Their only chance is if they employ transparency.  What kind of fucked up world do we live in where the banks get busted for being dishonest, Goldman Sachs leaving out a whole month in its quarterly report, yet the entertainment industry thinks it’s going to get a complete pass?

This is the same sore that’s festering in the entire music business. Thinking that by paying off radio and retail you can build a hit act.  Ticketmaster and Live Nation need to convince us why this merger is advantageous to them AND us. Get cracking boys.

Harvey Goldsmith

So many of the legendary record men were unapproachable.  But the promoters, they’ve got their feet on Earth. Harvey Goldsmith is approachable, he doesn’t have airs like Tommy Mottola, he’ll get right down in the pit with you.

Harvey emceed the concert.

I haven’t seen that since…  The days of Bill Graham?

Technically, Harvey was the manager, but promotion’s in his blood.  He came out on stage before any act.  Gave a precis of what was going to transpire.  This wasn’t industrial, this was a living, breathing event!

And speaking of living and breathing, the opening act, Davey Knowles, playing acoustically, reminded me of those old blues acts of the sixties, who graced the Fillmore stage.  Remember when you went to the gig TO GET TURNED ON TO NEW MUSIC?  Before the opening act was forgettable, oftentimes at odds musically with the headliner?

And then Harvey returned.  Throwing t-shirts into the audience for catchers to score themselves Panasonic cameras. You should have seen the smile on his face.  He was having FUN!  Remember when the money was secondary, when it was about the culture first and foremost, having a good time?  Harvey does!

As for the secondary market, Harvey required Ticketmaster buyers to show up with their credit cards.  He said he’d employed the same game at the O2.  He believes the secondary market is on the decline.  Loved his confidence in the matter.

Jeff Beck

When the show was over, I bullshat with Harvey and Tracey Ullman and a couple of businessmen, and then Harvey told us to meet him in the Winnebago, by the side of the building, in five to ten minutes.

The directions seemed a bit obtuse.  Brad Rosenberger and I got into a detailed conversation about artist development and the old music compared to the new and then in excess of fifteen minutes had gone by.

While Brad waited for his car, I went in search of the Winnebago, which Larry Vallon had hired once it was learned that the act had forgone its bus and had nowhere to hang, the dressing rooms in the El Rey being so tiny.

And clustered around the easily-found Winnebago were the usual hangers-on.  And just as I was ready to move on, Harvey emerged from the door and pulled me inside.  Where it was just the two of us, a duo from Eagle Vision and the man himself.

The Eagle Vision guys were impressed when they realized it was me.  One asked how I had time to write so much. But Beck was being perfunctory.  This is why I hate these introductions, you may know everything about the performer, but the act has no idea who YOU are.  Jeff’s shaking my hand, looking right through me, but as the Eagle Vision guys go on a bulb goes off inside Jeff’s head, his eyes light up and he tells me when he read what I wrote about him he was high for two days.

This I didn’t expect.

I told him how I decided he was the best when I saw him and Jimmy Page and Eric Clapton on stage at the A.R.M.S. show at the Forum back in ’83.  Jeff started protesting, saying how great Eric is.  I was wondering if this was because he’d recently toured with him, but what struck me most was the lack of airs, how Beck was trying to convince me as if he were at most an equal.  This is the guy with the bad reputation?

And then he starts explaining…

People approach me and say how they love something I wrote.  It feels so good, and being thrilled by their interest, I start telling them the story, of the inspiration and the execution.  I’ve tried to stop doing this, because everybody tunes out!

But now Jeff Beck’s doing the same thing with me.  He’s telling me the reason he was so good at the A.R.M.S. show was because he had his own band.  He’s telling me he can’t play without his own drummer, not on short notice.  It’s like the show happened yesterday!

And speaking of yesterday, when I tell him that Felice’s father wrote "Peter Gunn", he’s taken aback.  He puts his hand to his brow and falls back into the couch.  And starts telling me how the band worked it up!  Vinnie Colaiuta was playing the rhythm in Japan, he started in on the guitar, and before long, they had the whole freight train of a number fleshed out, and have kept playing it!

I told him I stole his take from Japan online.

And then I had to tell him how much I loved his solo in Moodswings’ "Skinthieves".  I figured he would have forgotten it, playing so many sessions.  But the mental rolodex clicked in and he started reminiscing, saying it was fifteen years ago, that they cut it in a bedroom.  Chrissie Hynde was hovering over him.  She was there, into a guy.  IT WAS LIKE ROCK AND ROLL HISTORY COME ALIVE!    

Rather than being perfunctory, it was a fan’s dream.  To be told the true, unknown stories of life experiences that were embedded in my brain and were now suddenly complete.

Jeff would have gone on all night, but Harvey had to introduce some of those hanging on the street, so I bowed out. With that tingle in my chest, that bounce in my step.

Watch video of Jeff and Rod at the El Rey here: Rod Stewart & Jeff Beck

Moodswings – Skinthieves here (Jeff’s solo begins at 2:10)

Jeff Beck & Tal Wilkenfeld – Cause We Ended As Lovers