“I couldn’t hear a word of any of the songs,” he confessed. “Girls were too loud screaming through the entire concert.”
Still, who else can claim THE BEATLES as their first-ever concert?
David Petreman, it turns out – at Comiskey Park in Chicago, Aug. 20, 1965.
“It was absolutely crazy,” recalled Petreman, a Wright State University professor. “We waited and waited, and finally here comes a helicopter over the left-center field wall to deliver The Beatles to the stage which was at about second base. The 37,000-plus fans just started screaming. You could barely hear what song they were playing. And there was no let-up for the entire 12-song set. My ears rang for three days after the concert — and not from the music. It was a wild and wonderful experience.”
My recent column about the magic of first concerts prompted many readers to share their memories, and I couldn’t believe all the legendary acts among those first concert experiences. In fact, I‘m feeling more and more embarrassed at having ‘fessed up about teenybopper Bobby Sherman as my first concert.
It's small wonder that Stuart Rose has such a strong affinity for live music. His first concert was The Band – yes, that band. "It was fun and I went with a bunch of other college students," recalled Rose, then an undergraduate at Emory University in Atlanta.
Perhaps that inspired the REX chairman to purchase the naming rights, through his foundation, for the venue officially named the “Stuart & Mimi Rose Music Center at The Heights.”
Live music, Rose observed, “is like seeing the Mona Lisa in person rather than a photograph. It’s different and more meaningful if you see the real thing.”
Huber Heights, he said, “is doing a great job with it. The chance they took is paying off for them and the community.”
His favorite concert so far featured the sultry sounds of Boz Scaggs just last week. And Debbie Harry celebrated her 70th birthday there when Blondie opened for Melissa Etheridge — both sets proving that age and gender prove no barriers to rocking out. “It’s a hard business, but Blondie was out there belting away,” Rose said.
Ted McGuire of Centerville will never forget the night in 1972 when his father drove him and his younger brothers to a Black Sabbath concert at Hara Arena. "We will never forget that night because that's when we first smelled pot, and we were a little scared," he recalled.
McGuire wasn’t too put off, however – he and three of his brothers have been playing music together for more than 25 years.
Skip Conner of Dayton, a bassist and part-time musician, also caught his first show at Hara Arena in 1972 – Three Dog Night. "It was general seating but what I didn't know was that when the lights went down, you were supposed to grab your folding chair and run for the front," he said. "So while everyone was stampeding by me, there I sat scared to death. I caught up with them and then saw my favorite band at that time. Since then I'm glad there's no general seating, especially at my age, but I love to go to concerts. As a matter of fact, the bassist for the classic Three Dog Night, Joe Schermie, was a big influence on my playing."
Ralph Alsace of Troy has enjoyed taking his kids to see his musical heroes: "I grew up in Buffalo and Kiss was my first show in 1977, when I was 14. It was non-stop shows after that. Almost 20 years to the day that I went to that concert, I took my 9-year-old son to see them again while my wife worried at home."
Last year Alsace took his two teenaged daughters to see Bruce Springsteen in Cincinnati and “scratched that off my bucket list. I truly believe that music brings us all closer together and its a little more special when it’s shared with your loved ones.”
Five years ago, Steve Roselle of Belmont took his 75-year-old mother to see his all-time favorite, Rod Stewart. "She loved it!" he said. Roselle has seen Stewart in concert nearly 30 times, beginning with The World Series of Rock in Cleveland in 1974. Opening acts included Areosmith and Blue Oyster Cult.
“Electric would be an understatement,” Roselle said. “Rod Stewart put on a first class show and very professional. I fell in love with live music right then.”
I began to despair. Wasn’t there anybody out there, anybody, whose first concert wasn’t a world-class act?
Then came another e-mail, and I would like to give a shout-out to Nan Christensen of Dayton. These days, she gets her music fix working at The Rose Center.
But her first concert? You guessed it: “Bobby Sherman at Memorial Hall also in 1970. I was in 8th grade at Mary Help of Christians School in Fairborn. And I have to admit that I still have the Scrapbook Album that I bought as a souvenir and occasionally listen to it.”
Thank you, Nan. I feel so much better now. Who needs The Beatles when you have Bobby Sherman?
What was your best concert ever? Let’s continue the conversation about live music. Share your story of your favorite live concert by contacting this columnist at maryjomccarty@gmail.com.
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