HISTORY In the day of the local record store boutique, there was a prosperous icon in our downtown peddling the fruits of the bards. It was called Full Moon Records.
I remember being very young in the back seat of my parents car as we drove through downtown, across the Military Street drawbridge as the neon "Full Moon Records" sign ascended over the horizon. It seemed like a magical place that I needed to visit especially since my parents would never take me there because "The Element" hung out there dontcha know? They had a corner lot so they had their logo painted on the building too. I think they may have initially been in a smaller spot across the street closer to the water, but that is a vague, possibly incorrect, memory.
Eventually, business was good enough for the owners to expand their enterprise to the north end of town and open Blue Moon Records, it was strategically placed at the closest commercial intersection to the high school. I am fairly certain that well over half of my earned teenage income was spent at either of these 2 establishments.
CAMP OUT? Both of these locations served as a Ticketmaster outlets. Amazon.com WidgetsBefore the time of internet ticket sales, people had to camp out to be first in line for the big shows. That was fun, and we as teenagers usually had the front spots due to our lack of real jobs.
Pink Floyd tickets were going on sale soon, our group was prepared to be the first in line at both locations and BAM! we are hit with the great equalizer, the wristband lottery, sonova!
THE LOTTERY The wristband lottery was developed to prevent us from getting there first the night before, camping out and getting the best tickets. The day before the tickets went on sale, wristbands with unique serial numbers printed on them were handed out to prospective buyers; one wristband each! The next day when tickets officially went on sale, each location would pull a number from a hat, and the person with that numbered wristband would be first in line at that location and everyone else in serial order until the last number is reached and it would loop back around to 1.
I went to Blue Moon and got my wristband, but I forced them to put it on loosely by flexing my huge forearm and fanagling a little to get them to put it further up on my arm.
The next step of my evil plan was to drive to the south end of town and get a wrist band from Full Moon. I pushed that Blue Moon wrist band so far up my arm it was cutting off the circulation, pulled my tight, long-sleeved shirt down over it, and had them slap my second wristband on there, effectively doubling my chances at a good number.
TICKET DAY The day arrives, I drive to Blue Moon and am very dissapointed with my place in line, very close to the end. I know my number HAS to be better at Full Moon, so I get in my car, drive south, and remove my Blue Moon wristband. I park the car and there are tons of people in line. I start at the back of the line and start asking what their numbers are to find my place, they seem defensive and start asking me my number, I tell them, and they are like "No WAY!" So I don't don't really know if they are messing with me, or if I actually got a good spot in line, I start walking towards the front of the line, asking numbers along the way getting the same pissed off response from everyone, they all can't be in on the joke, so I must have a good spot. I walk to the very front of the line, and posted on the door is a piece of paper taped to the door with my wristband number on it. I was first in line!
The doors opened a little bit before the official ticket selling time. Denny was typing on the Ticketmaster dinosaur trying to be the first one to buy, he finally got though and 3, or 4, I don't remember tickets printed out... 4th row center, unbelievable. I think the ticket limit was 6 per person, so I bought an extra pair and sold it to the guy directly behind me for a small profit.
I brought the tickets to show my friends (before unbiquitous cell phones,) Vinny, Steve and I were all in shock and very excited.
THE SHOW Steve was always quite proud of his Atom Heart Mother t-shirt, he was certain that nobody but he had one in our little town. I think he was a little upset when we were hanging out in the parking lot he said "Look at them, they're ubberwar" referring to how many other people were wearing them. "Ubberwar" is still used today in some circles, it means "everywhere" if you haven't figured that out.
I only remember 3 of us going, but there may be been a 4th, if so, I apologize to you. We headed into the since razed Pontiac Silverdome, home to the Detroit Lions for decades and host to at least one Super Bowl (1984?). The hardcore fans of Pink Floyd seemed ancient to me, stinky, hairy guys, tripping on lsd. I think maybe some of them hadn't done lsd since the last tour, and were not handling it well, I remember stepping over dudes sitting on the floor with their eyes rolling back in their heads as I went to the bathroom.
While we were waiting for the show to start, the sound guys were taunting us, there were speakers installed all the way around the arena, and it seems like there were planes, or lawnmowers or something buzzing in a circle around us.
Most profound moment (my recollection): One of These Days The stage went relatively black, the bass player (not Roger) was slapping away in the shadows then a single spotlight shown down on David Gilmore and his slide guitar as the song crescendoed. A couple of big drum beats before the only lyrics in the song "One of these days, I'm going to cut you into little pieces" then the peak wall of sound along with 2 giant, terrifying, toothy boars, with headlights for eyes jump out from either side of the stage. As I was looking around me to check others' responses I remember being dissappointed because most of the people that are in the best seats didn't seem to belong there at all, like the tickets were given to them by a vendor of theirs or something, a bunch of pompous yuppies not even getting what was going on.
They went on to play Dark Side of the Moon in its entirety. I remember there being a huge scrolling marquee displaying the lyrics as some of the songs played.
I don't know when the chandalier showed up in the middle of the arena because it showed up behind us. It was like 20 ft high.
This tour was documented on the Pulse live album, vhs and dvd. I have the limited edition version of the CD which has an LED on the spine that pulses. It has 2 replaceable AA batteries. I'm sure buying the DVD will give you a much better picture than I ever could.
HISTORY
In the day of the local record store boutique, there was a prosperous icon in our downtown peddling the fruits of the bards. It was called Full Moon Records.
I remember being very young in the back seat of my parents car as we drove through downtown, across the Military Street drawbridge as the neon "Full Moon Records" sign ascended over the horizon. It seemed like a magical place that I needed to visit especially since my parents would never take me there because "The Element" hung out there dontcha know? They had a corner lot so they had their logo painted on the building too. I think they may have initially been in a smaller spot across the street closer to the water, but that is a vague, possibly incorrect, memory.
Eventually, business was good enough for the owners to expand their enterprise to the north end of town and open Blue Moon Records, it was strategically placed at the closest commercial intersection to the high school. I am fairly certain that well over half of my earned teenage income was spent at either of these 2 establishments.
CAMP OUT?
Both of these locations served as a Ticketmaster outlets. Amazon.com WidgetsBefore the time of internet ticket sales, people had to camp out to be first in line for the big shows. That was fun, and we as teenagers usually had the front spots due to our lack of real jobs.
Pink Floyd tickets were going on sale soon, our group was prepared to be the first in line at both locations and BAM! we are hit with the great equalizer, the wristband lottery, sonova!
THE LOTTERY
The wristband lottery was developed to prevent us from getting there first the night before, camping out and getting the best tickets. The day before the tickets went on sale, wristbands with unique serial numbers printed on them were handed out to prospective buyers; one wristband each! The next day when tickets officially went on sale, each location would pull a number from a hat, and the person with that numbered wristband would be first in line at that location and everyone else in serial order until the last number is reached and it would loop back around to 1.
I went to Blue Moon and got my wristband, but I forced them to put it on loosely by flexing my huge forearm and fanagling a little to get them to put it further up on my arm.
The next step of my evil plan was to drive to the south end of town and get a wrist band from Full Moon. I pushed that Blue Moon wrist band so far up my arm it was cutting off the circulation, pulled my tight, long-sleeved shirt down over it, and had them slap my second wristband on there, effectively doubling my chances at a good number.
TICKET DAY
The day arrives, I drive to Blue Moon and am very dissapointed with my place in line, very close to the end. I know my number HAS to be better at Full Moon, so I get in my car, drive south, and remove my Blue Moon wristband. I park the car and there are tons of people in line. I start at the back of the line and start asking what their numbers are to find my place, they seem defensive and start asking me my number, I tell them, and they are like "No WAY!" So I don't don't really know if they are messing with me, or if I actually got a good spot in line, I start walking towards the front of the line, asking numbers along the way getting the same pissed off response from everyone, they all can't be in on the joke, so I must have a good spot. I walk to the very front of the line, and posted on the door is a piece of paper taped to the door with my wristband number on it. I was first in line!
The doors opened a little bit before the official ticket selling time. Denny was typing on the Ticketmaster dinosaur trying to be the first one to buy, he finally got though and 3, or 4, I don't remember tickets printed out... 4th row center, unbelievable. I think the ticket limit was 6 per person, so I bought an extra pair and sold it to the guy directly behind me for a small profit.
I brought the tickets to show my friends (before unbiquitous cell phones,) Vinny, Steve and I were all in shock and very excited.
THE SHOW
Steve was always quite proud of his Atom Heart Mother t-shirt, he was certain that nobody but he had one in our little town. I think he was a little upset when we were hanging out in the parking lot he said "Look at them, they're ubberwar" referring to how many other people were wearing them. "Ubberwar" is still used today in some circles, it means "everywhere" if you haven't figured that out.
I only remember 3 of us going, but there may be been a 4th, if so, I apologize to you. We headed into the since razed Pontiac Silverdome, home to the Detroit Lions for decades and host to at least one Super Bowl (1984?). The hardcore fans of Pink Floyd seemed ancient to me, stinky, hairy guys, tripping on lsd. I think maybe some of them hadn't done lsd since the last tour, and were not handling it well, I remember stepping over dudes sitting on the floor with their eyes rolling back in their heads as I went to the bathroom.
While we were waiting for the show to start, the sound guys were taunting us, there were speakers installed all the way around the arena, and it seems like there were planes, or lawnmowers or something buzzing in a circle around us.
Most profound moment (my recollection): One of These Days
The stage went relatively black, the bass player (not Roger) was slapping away in the shadows then a single spotlight shown down on David Gilmore and his slide guitar as the song crescendoed. A couple of big drum beats before the only lyrics in the song "One of these days, I'm going to cut you into little pieces" then the peak wall of sound along with 2 giant, terrifying, toothy boars, with headlights for eyes jump out from either side of the stage. As I was looking around me to check others' responses I remember being dissappointed because most of the people that are in the best seats didn't seem to belong there at all, like the tickets were given to them by a vendor of theirs or something, a bunch of pompous yuppies not even getting what was going on.
They went on to play Dark Side of the Moon in its entirety. I remember there being a huge scrolling marquee displaying the lyrics as some of the songs played.
I don't know when the chandalier showed up in the middle of the arena because it showed up behind us. It was like 20 ft high.
This tour was documented on the Pulse live album, vhs and dvd. I have the limited edition version of the CD which has an LED on the spine that pulses. It has 2 replaceable AA batteries. I'm sure buying the DVD will give you a much better picture than I ever could.