The Starcastle show! |
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ROSfest
I was approached by John Jowitt (bass player and good friend) in late March about the possibility about playing with the band in the coming April. I was intrigued by the prospect as I'd heard of the band but didn't really know any of their history. After to a few emails back and forth I soon had a better knowledge of their history which included selling over 1 million records and touring alongside bands such as Styx and REO Speedwagon. It all sounded intriguing....
The material had some great keyboard parts and there was also the scope to write other parts and put my own identity which seemed like the best of both worlds and so I was soon on-board!
The only problem with this was that the other guys wouldn't actually get to hear any of my ideas until the day before the show by which time it would be really difficult to start changing stuff! I spent a few weeks rehearsing at home and then took the painful trip to Philadelphia, via Amsterdam and Detroit!
I awoke early next morning and as no-one else seemed to be around I decided to order room service and was amazed by the size of the portions that were delivered! After stuffing my self stupid I met up with Al and we spent some time hanging out and getting to know each other.
The next morning I arrived at the rehearsal room to see if the correct keyboards had been delivered only to find that they weren't due to arrive until about 2 o'clock! This made the amount of rehearsal time with the correct set up limited to about 8 hours. The positive was that we would still have a long extended sound check the following day before the show started (or so I thought.....) The keyboards arrived and they were superb - an 88 note Korg Triton Extreme, A Korg CX3 organ and a Moog Voyager. Rehearsals carried on with the new keyboard set up making all the difference.
We arrived at the venue in the afternoon ready to set up but due to a delay with the lighting company we weren't able to get on stage to set up until after 5!! This was a major problem as the doors were due to open at 7 with the first band on at 7.30. Frankly - that wasn't going to happen.....
We finally prepared to go on stage at about midnight - 3 hours late! All due to the delays from the lighting company. Still at least everything was ok now...... We decided to have a bit of fun just before we went on (my idea....which the guys all went for). I thought that seeing as Starcastle hadn't played live since about 1978 & that probably most of the people who were coming to see them didn't know what they looked like anymore..... So we went round to the front of the theatre and queued up with the crowds waiting to get in. When we got in we kind of hung around in the foyer and as people started to mill around we got quite a few strange looks as people thought 'isn't that....nah...they wouldn't be out here...' The chimes went off to signify that the band were preparing to come on stage and so everybody made their way to their seats to watch us appear on stage. There was a bit of a shock for a lot of people when we appeared behind them in the theatre and made our way down the isle towards the stage. People were standing up and applauding. We knew this was going to be a really special evening for everyone.
Luckily at that moment the Police arrived and three officers got up on stage and led the guy away to the local police station! It was the first time I've had that happen on stage!
Before I knew it, it was 2 o'clock in the morning and the encore was over. We finished to a standing ovation and then I spent the next few hours signing autographs and chatting.
Sunday arrived and the long arduous journey via Detroit and Amsterdam beckoned... 24 hours later, I was back home with my body clock in tatters but with a smile on my face. It was a great experience to have played with the guys and hopefully we'll all continue to work together. Oliver Wakeman - August 2007 Photos courtesy of Stephanie Sollow, Stan Siarkiewicz & Michael E. Perez |
Well it's been about a couple of months since I returned from my US trip which included playing at the ROSfest with the classic 70's band Starcastle and so I thought it was time I wrote an update about the show.
I was sent the material and thought it was great. The set was to be a mix of the newer material as well as a fair selection of songs from their 70's catalogue.
I spent a lot of time sending and receiving emails from Al Lewis (vocals) and Steve Tassler (drums) working out which keyboard parts needed to stay the same and which I could amend. 
So 23 hours after leaving my home on the Cotswolds in the UK I arrived at my hotel and fell into an exhausted sleep.
We set off for our first rehearsal which really was me meeting the other members of the band playing few a few of the songs whilst trying to sort out my body clock! This was made slightly harder by not having the correct keyboards to rehearse with. After a few hours we decided to call it a night and after a great meal at a fantastic diner headed back to the hotel for bed.
We finished the evening after having gone through the set a couple of times and we headed off back to the hotel to prepare for the show the following day.
We finally got set up and found there was no time to rehearse the set - just a quick sound check and a play through a couple of songs and then off to allow the other two bands to set up.
We started with Red Season and after a few songs we all really relaxed into it. The band was sounding great and the audience were really enjoying it. Everything was going really well until about midway through the set we started to hear a lot of shouting coming from behind us. We tried to ignore it but it got worse and worse and it turned out to the lighting guy who was sat behind the band on stage doing the light show. Unfortunately he was a little worse for wear from drink and was hurling abuse at the band and as the crew tried to remove him he got worse. We carried on playing 'Babylon', extending it a bit with Al and I exchanging furtive glances as if to say 'Not really sure what to do here.......'
Following on from that the stage crew came up and started to work out how to do the lights and we carried on with a huge sign of relief as the police officers received a standing ovation from the crowd!
The next day I spent hanging out with some friends and meeting fans at the festival. It was a great day and in the evening I went along to the meet and greet where I met up with lots of friends from the UK who had travelled over as well.