We have conquered Europe, now it's North Americas' turn
1983 Supertramp North America
An unbelievable tour of Europe ends but we have just about enough time to do our laundry before I fly out to New York on my way to the first show of another two months across America and Canada.
And here is the New York invitation to our proud sponsor, Sparkomatic's aftershow party. We were playing the Meadowland Arena over in New Jersey, a 20 minute ride in good traffic from our base in NYC.
This tour was the first I have done with a tour sponsor, and it was the way big tours were to go, with pre-show meet and greets behind the stage in the green rooms of the arenas we played. Sparkomatic was and still is a manufacturer of car stereo systems.
I'm not sure the band really enjoyed the meet and greets too much, but they went every night, and shook some folks hands, signed autographs and posed for pictures. It's still like that now.
Not too sure we stayed very long. We had a gig the next day in Pittsburgh so we had to leave the hotel at 10 in the morning. On the other hand, what's 5 hours sleep now and again.
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This photo with Roger pinning something on our Montreal promoter's chest. Donald K. Donald was one of the earliest promoters for the band in their career. He was a huge fan too, and the thing I remember about this three night stint at the Forum in Montreal was the aftershow backstage party. OMG, I have truly never seen so much lobster in my life. I was like a pig in sh** there was a huge long table and dish after dish of lobster, prawns, a seafood paradise. So I dug in big time.
Heeeeere's Bob, what a drummer, I mean it, just sensational xxx Quite a nice bloke too, over a quiet beer or two :) xxx
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Here is Sue, in the office as usual, but it's a facinating look at 1983. There is the typewriter, the passes to the right of the picture and the most important item there is the phone. We did everything on the phone, and in Sue's hands - the notebook, the one item all information went in to. The '83 Production Office, not exactly high tech but we got shit done!!!
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Let me introduce you to one of the extra musicians on this world tour, Mr Fred Mandel. I've located a video of some of his previous work on stage with Alice Cooper, and I have to tell you he wore far less make up on tour with Supertramp. That's not to say he didn't sneak some on when were weren't looking. What a lovely man he is though. Wherever you are Fred it was always a pleasure xxx
Most of these photos were taken at the Toroto CNE shows. They were amazing audiences and I believe 40,000 at each show. The show was also filmed, and on a couple of photos I have placed in the gallery above, you can catch the cameraman on stage.
This tour for me was a lot more relaxing and less stressful than Europe. It did help personally that our tour accountant, 'The Goon' was not on this leg of the tour. He was a lovely bloke but I had nearly quit at the end of Europe because, although he was just trying to establish the true nature of all the costs of the tour, it just became obvious that the way he was going about it meant we just couldn't work together. As luck would have it, he had another gig to go off to..........
I do believe it was a big bag of doughnuts that got our appetites going into overdrive at this airport somewhere.
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Putting up the screen was always a gamble, but on this tour there were only two or three venues outdoors, so it got a little easier for the crew.
These guys to the left were the heroes of the tour, driving thousands of miles and getting the equipment to every venue on time and in one piece.
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At the end of the tour I was given this lovely framed golden ticket and personalised plaque. It was a nice touch by Mrs D who, if I'm right, also bought me a great leather jacket to go with a fabulous bonus. All my hard work had paid off and I was extremely proud to have completed it and with such a great bunch of girls and boys.
Finally, a few months later when I got home at the end of the year, this letter from Charly Prevost arrived. Charlie had been part of the Tramp management team for ages but by this tour had flown the roost and started his own marketing company and been hired to help the tour. It's always really great to be thanked for a good job done, and I think, its even nicer to have a letter, if only to appreciate the fact that someone has bothered to spend a little time to write it.
The tour was finished off with a couple of parties, one of which remains a favorite as I was staying with Rick and Sue at their house and they had one for the whole crew in their garden. I got to stay in the poolside cottage in the garden, which also housed Rick's studio. I was there for around two weeks as we put the finishing touches to the tour with two shows in LA and a huge one down the freeway at Irvine Meadows.
I decided to take it slow getting to Sydney in Australia for my next gig with Duran Duran. Hawaii and Fiji were two places I had (a) never been to and (b) on route from Los Angeles and possible to stop over.
Eric Carr, one of the team Delicate lived in Hawaii and invited me to stay with him for a weekend. I thank him again for showing me around the island, which island it was I can't recall, it must have been something to do with the Maui Wowee we smoked!!
These two images above were taken by me, it's a spot on the coast where the winds all the year round are so strong you can virtually lie into the wind and not fall over.
In my haze I then boarded a plane to Fiji and had a fab time for a week, sleeping most of the time on the beach, before again boarding another plane to Sydney.
