Summerfest on Friday night. Summerfest again on Saturday. And today was spent on the lakefront, eating great food, jamming to music, hanging out with friends, laughing a lot and rubbing elbows with idols … Not a bad Sunday at all …
Though I would’ve loved to be up at Summerfest again tonight seeing Sister Hazel, Kates and I decided to forgo it and stay in town for our city’s annual Independence Day celebration and Nostalgia Fest, where none other than Barry Williams (aka Greg Brady) and Peter Noone’s Herman’s Hermits were appearing …
Now, I knew what to expect with Peter Noone, given my February experiences with him. But Barry Williams was adding a whole other dimension to the fun. Like just about every soul in America, I grew up watching The Brady Bunch and I‘ve become a huge fan. I’ll watch the Very Brady Christmas special every year it’s on. I remember faithfully watching the second generation Brady show (until they canceled it after like three or four episodes). I’ve got a couple more Brady specials on a VHS tape. And in high school, I even bought The Best of The Brady Bunch CD (and I’m not ashamed to admit that -- hey, it’s catchy music!) …In the same vein as classics like “Saved By the Bell” or “Friends,” you could go on and on about iconic Brady moments -- the groovy language; “Mom always said don’t play ball in the house,” the trips to the Grand Canyon and Hawaii, or “Marcia, Marcia, Marcia” -- and there was evidence of that in our conversations today as we talked about the episode where the Brady kids enter a singing competition as the Silver Platters to buy an anniversary gift for their parents …
With our company sponsoring portions of the event, Kates and I met a group of our friends and colleagues at the lakefront park just before 1 this afternoon to work our booth, promote the news and offer a load of freebies. I had created a Nostalgia Fest playlist on my iPod (music from The Brady Bunch, Herman’s Hermits and the Beatles) and we had that playing at our booth whenever a live act wasn’t playing on the main stage. All of us were dressed in our tie-dyed company T-shirts, and the weather couldn’t have been more beautiful …
We caught a little bit of The Britins, who we’d seen at Summerfest yesterday, and a not-so-spectacular Elvis tribute act before grabbing a couple barbecued chicken sandwiches from the Charcoal Grill stand. As we continued to man the booth, we watched the parade pass through downtown in the distance, continued our discussions about The Brady Bunch and even took photos of our group posing like the Brady kids during their singing performances …
We got our first glimpse of Williams, who had appeared in the parade as the grand marshal, when the parade chair cruised through the grounds with him on a golf cart and took him to a backstage trailer, where we were told he was getting some air-conditioning, eating and washing his hair …
Then a little before 4 this afternoon, it was our private time with Mr. Williams at our booth … Plain and simple, Williams was as patient, polite and personable as the Greg Brady we all grew up watching. He kindly asked about our work at the newspaper (his distinctive voice has hardly changed), signed whatever we handed to him -- CD covers, pictures, T-shirts -- and posed for picture after picture …From there, he took the stage for a brief Q&A session, which failed to yield any new glimpses or hot gossip into the Brady clan, and then Williams was off to a public autograph session, which our company was sponsoring …While the line for his signature grew fast and seemed to stretch for miles, you couldn’t help but wonder how he remained so calm and patient. As people asked repeatedly for pictures, he declined politely, saying he had to keep the line moving. Thus, we could understand Williams’ annoyance when a persnickety older man came along and insisted Williams take a picture with Miss Wisconsin. While the poor beauty queen stood there meekly, Williams sort of rolled his eyes, waved at those of us around him and said, “Set it up.” … We did and the man got his picture of Miss Wisconsin with Barry Williams …
* * *
By 5, the line to get Barry Williams’ autograph had dwindled to a handful of people, and Kates and I went off to take in some other parts of the festival. We got some good laughs watching a kids show (the emcee had gathered a rock band of small children on the stage and placed each of them at a different set of instruments, then he unleashed them on a rousing rendition of “Rubber Ducky,” with a small boy who was really hamming it up on the electric guitar …), we pet a huge boa constrictor at the reptile show, watched the trapeze act at the circus and took a walk on the beach to see the sand sculptures ….When we’d returned to our booth, the fondue party with Barry Williams was underway in the VIP tent. Once again cashing in on the perks of the job, Kates and I got in on it -- Cheese and crackers, little sausages, broccoli on a stick, desserts, Pepsi in vintage glass soda bottles and more posing with Barry Williams. What more could you ask for!?
* * *
Soon Barry left the party and the sun began to set, painting a vanilla sky over the lake. Our group was invited to try finishing off whatever was left of the VIP food (and we happily did so) as a tight-sounding ‘70s band took the stage. In the meantime, we tried to resist giving into the plunging lakefront temps as long as we could (none of us wanted to cover up our brilliant-looking tie-dyes) before pulling on the sweatshirts and fleeces …
Then, our old friend Peter Noone took the stage at 7:30 p.m. Very little of his show was new to Kates and I since seeing him in February -- Noone followed almost an identical script to the February show mixing all of his Herman’s Hermits hits -- Listen People, No Milk Today, Dandy, Can’t You Hear My Heartbeat, Silhouettes -- between bits of comedy (He was handing out food tickets to his bandmates while singing one of the songs). He did his “Start Me Up” spoof on Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones, but it also seemed like he had more time to play with this time around, going on a few more tangents and doing several covers that he didn’t perform at his February show, including “Jezebel,” “Love Potion No. 9” and “Daydream Believer.”
And, hey, the show even had a little bit of controversy mixed in … The background is this: The festival and concert was free, but the festival organizers added a sweetener for people who wanted to get a little closer to Peter Noone and Barry Williams by selling VIP tickets for about $125. Those tickets got you into the aforementioned fondue party with Barry Williams and then a seat among the 20 rows of white lawn chairs that sat directly in front of the stage … BUT, when the concert started, nearly two-thirds of the VIP section sat vacant as a crowd of hundreds sat on their own blankets and lawn chairs behind the roped-off VIP area. So, obviously not wanting to look at a sea of empty seats, Peter Noone threw out an invitation a couple songs into his concert for the people “in the cheap seats” to come up and fill the VIP seats. The festival organizer promptly went to the front of the stage, appearing to deter Noone, but by then it was too late. Fans were pouring into the seats and Noone leaned into his mic to tell the organizer, “Don’t worry, I’ll pay for it, I’ll pay for it …” It was both scary and hilarious …… After all, Kates and I learned our lesson on VIP seating a long time ago. Several years ago in Kansas City we got VIP tickets for a Barenaked Ladies concert. The sponsor advertised all the goodies -- great seating, no waiting for beer or bathrooms, yada yada, yada … But it ended up being one of the worst concert experiences of my life. The VIP seating was located behind a chain link fence to the right of the stage and half of the band's instruments and equipment obstructed our view. Sure, there were no lines for beer and bathrooms, but you still had to pay $6 for the beer and we’re still talking port-a-potties … That was the first and last time we’ll do VIP seating, and every concert I’ve attended since then I can’t keep from noticing the VIP seating is never in an ideal location, and there’s always a handful of people without VIP tickets who manage to squeak their way into the VIP seating … It’s just not worth it …
Back to the concert … Noone eventually got to my sentimental fave, “I’m Into Something Good,” and followed that with the acoustic version of “Mrs. Brown You’ve Got a Lovely Daughter,” again just like we heard it in February. Then he did the long, drawn-out crowd interactive on “Henry the VIII” and wrapped up his show with “Kind of a Hush.”
… And that was our cue to get back over to the autograph table for Noone autographs. Along with my Brady Bunch CD cover, I’d brought my record cover for “Henry the VIII” and my 45 record of “Something Good.” … Once Noone arrived, my colleagues and I filtered through the line, greeting him, getting pictures and autographs before the rest of the public could get in line. Noone gladly signed both of my mementos before we shook hands, posed for a picture and chatted briefly …I was in glory.
Back at our news booth, we took down our tent, packed away our equipment and said our good-byes after what had been an incredibly memorable day …
As Kates and I walked along the harbor and back through the quiet downtown to our car, I told her “Remind me of this weekend, whenever I complain about my job …”
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