I really can't explain how popular these guys are right now in the US, let alone anywhere else. This fact though is going to give me a problem, as we want to base ourselves in NYC for most of our east coast shows, and hotels start to become reluctant to have us stay with them as the fans descend on their front doors and camp outside.
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This scene in the snow was pretty random really, we just stopped on the freeway to take a few pictures. It was a chance to stretch the legs and at the same time get a different aspect to the boys on tour. Denis the photographer just snapped away and tried to get the boys to pose a little too. it reminded me at the time, and looking at the photos now, too, of the Beatles in the '60's. I was a big fan as a kid and bought Beatles Monthly avidly for a while. photos like these appeared all the time.
As I flew off on New Years Day to New York to catch up with Brooks and finish off the setting up of the first half of our US tour, the band themselves had a nice few cold days in France as they made quite a complicated and extended version of a video for New Moon on Monday. One of the things I had to do was get quotes and then hire a private plane for a certain amount of the tour here in the US. We decided to base ourselves in NYC for as long as possible and fly to the shows we could get to in an hour or hour and a half and return back to NYC after the show. Contrary to Andy's claim in his autobiog that we had a jet, I'm sorry to say we hired a beautiful converted Viscount turbo prop, with four rolls royce engines. Very safe and for our trips ideal. What was once a 70 seater passenger plane was a luxury 20-seater with air hostesses and two pilots, Rick Harper was our pilot and his co-pilot Ken Littlefield.
So gone was the Helmut Newton World tour pass as we glided into the USA and Coca Cola were our sponsors. Well, really it was the Coca Cola bottlers that were sponsoring as we met their business friends, owners and their kids around the country before each show. The band were brilliant and they got used to the constant photo, autograph and handshake/kisses requests.
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I've never done this before or after this tour but I thought it a good idea as I was creating the US tour itineraries. The fact was, our agent was still booking the bands shows as we started the tour. I think as the band was getting more and more coverage, more and more publicity, the deals he could do with the promoters were getting better and better. Anyway, the audience was 90 per cent girls, so there is a number (in brackets) at the bottom of each page that Brooks, my travel agent researched, and it is the age of consent in the state we were in at that date.
Arena would not look as good without this man's efforts from the on tour video crew.
On a day off we were invited by the FBI for a tour of their building in Washington. We spent a couple of hours there and got to use some handguns in the shooting gallery to test our aim....I have so many photos of this visit they are in a gallery on the next page.
We arrived in LA to play two shows at the Forum in the same week that the Los Angeles Raiders won the Superbowl. I suggested we get some of the team to make a public appearance and I've found some of the footage on YouTube of the band meeting the guys backstage as they come off at the end of the show, change into Raiders shirts and then go back on stage with three of the team. I've got to say it was one of the better ideas I have had on tour.
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On the 12th of March we had a day off in New York. We were told that Lisa Minelli, who was on Broadway at the time working, had a crush on the boys. It was her birthday so we decided to go see her after her show at the theatre and surprise her. She was lovely and kissed everybody as we drank a glass of champayne and celebrtated her birthday with her.
It was getting more and more difficult for Brooks my trusty travel agent to find hotels that would take us in New York City. We needed an underground car park to drive into and out of to avoid using the front doors of the hotel as the fans just crowded the street in front of the entrance and Police barricades had to be put in place to allow access in and out of the hotel for everyone else. You can imagine, after a while the hotels got a little fed up with this situation and so did we really.
These photos courtesy of Kim Callahan from NYC taken by her while we were in NYC March 1984
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Thank God I took at least a couple of pictures of the private plane we hired for a section of this tour. It was a difficult operation as a tour manager, having a small plane in winter on tour. We were based in NYC in the second half of the tour, flying to a show and then coming straight back to our base in NYC. That is if the weather allowed us to take off at midnight ........ This picture though taken I'm guessing maybe in Florida, as it looks like a lovely day !!!
Jim Callahan, at the back, Head of Security for part of this tour. Luckily he was available as he was one of the most experienced security guys that the music business had at this time. More about him on the next page.
I particularly like these two photos of the backing gang, Andy missing of course. The girls were so cool, I love you both to bits ..... and you Raph xxx
