Tuesday, June 04, 2013

Paul McGuiness pays for The Alarm's encore

Among the life-changing concerts I have seen, I would have to include:


Stories on both these here and of course U2 shows up!
But so does a show by The Alarm!

photo
Same show, actually, those last two...and I have always felt  bad for Marshall Crenshaw (I know..who?) who shared the bill.

In a way, I could add Clannad/Moya Brennan to that same concert (Four life-changing concerts in one!!).  Amazing..even though it was the prerecorded outro  (No wonder Bono himself almost drove off the road when he.first heard this music)-- it was my first exposure to them...and as Keltic Ken and Moya know (audio interview here) life-changing as well.




 Here's my online review of that day, 6.27.83.

· I am still living off this concert, submitted by dave wainscott


Cliche and common as it is, I must say it:

This concert changed my life.

As Bono says about their foundation in Christianity, I say about this concert: "This stuff I picked up back then, I am still living off of."

Twenty some years later, there is something about the memory and experience of this night that affects me emotionally spiritually...probably every day!

i can remember almost every song, but nothing so clear as the fist few minutes when my brother and i realized: a)We thought the Alarm, who had just opened for U2, was the best concert we had seen.
As amazing as they were, U2 was a whole nother level and league.

I am aware Bono may have been extra passionate this night, as he apparently had walked the streets of New Haven earlier in the day, apologizing to folks for the previous NH concert, where he had a blowup on stage.

It seemed so short...maybe because there were two opening bands and they had to quit; maybe because any U2 concert in this era would be too short.

It wasn't quite sold out.

But the band was.

I have hardly ever celebrated as much as when they came on stage;never grieved asmuch as when Bono said "Good Night"

Already? 


But thanks to Taloussa for spotting this new article on The Alarm's website with new info
about several stops of The Alarm's tour with U2 (do read the Red Rocks entry, and the June 1 Brookly entry).  But this one caught my attention:

June 27th, 1983: The Alarm, The Coliseum, New Haven, CT
“This was the gig where we opened the show to be followed by Marshall Crenshaw… We went down so well in our set that Paul McGuiness (U2′s manager), told us to go back on for an encore and paid the union fine that was incurred by us running ‘overtime’. I don’t think Marshall Crenshaw knew what he was letting himself in for going on between The Alarm and U2.”-Mike Peters of The Alarm, LINK
Alll these decades later, I find out it's Paul McGuiness' fault that show felt so short?(:
I love how the band...and manager...choose, and then champion and cheerlead for their  opening acts.

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