i sat in on a quiet riot rehearsal one time. the studio was on first street in burbank, across from killeens music. kevin was being the typical egomaniac that he's known to be, barking orders and generally scolding everyone in the band for not playing to his expectations.
surprisingly, randy would readily agree to kevins every demand. randy drew and rudy quietly ran through the material.
along the way, randy looked over at me and our eyes met. he spent the rest of practice making stupid faces at kevin when he wasn't looking and then shooting me a wink or a mischievous smile.
it was then that i realized that randy was playing as he pleased, deliberately ignoring everything that kevin had told him to do.
On many occasions Randy tried to turn me on to the guitar, I was pretty young, but eventually, because of him, I started getting into the music my older brothers were listening to - Alice Cooper, Fleetwood Mac, Mountain, Zeppelin, Bowie, Supertramp, etc. and then I really got into KISS. Unfortunately for me, this was long after he had given up on teaching me to play. When he used to give my brothers and their friends lessons he would, for some strange reason, always start by teaching them "Dust in the Wind" by Kansas - of all bands! I remember is him getting frustrated with me on a few occasions trying to teach me the "D" chord, I wish I had been more into it at the time...I'll try to gather a few stories from my brothers and their friends someday.
Next time I have time I'll describe the show at the Palamino Club in North Hollywood in the summer of 1979, I believe. It was about four blocks from my house and most of the family and neighborhood went. One of my fondest memories at a QR show...
Randy Magic wrote:
Next time I have time I'll describe the show at the Palamino Club in North Hollywood in the summer of 1979, I believe.
Gary
the palomino was a country-western venue in north hollywood. is it still there gary? anyways randy put meradith and i on the guest list. i thought it was kind of a weird place for a glam band to play. predictably the place was full of crusty redneck cowboys and kids. q.r. did a rendition of 'happy trails' and really played up the western theme wearing little kids cowboy hats. so i'm in the mens' room standing at a urinal when this old cowboy announces to nobody in particular " didja get a load of that singer? what a faggot!" the kid one urinal over replies " oh pardon me sir, i thought you were his dad!"
Yes, the Palamino was a "world famous" Honky Tonk bar and is featured in several movies, including the Clint Eastwood film "Every Which Way But Loose" The club closed sometime in the mid-1990's and is now run-down Mexican Night Club. Too funny.
The Palamino show was probably one of the best times I ever had at a QR show, EVERYONE was there. Because it was only four blocks away most of guys in the the neighborhood went, lots of the old Burbank crowd was there, and everyone just loved the fact the QR was playing in the Valley again - especially so close to everyone (they played the Country Club in Reseda, but was not very close to the east side of the Valley).
Randy and the band had put a bunch of folks on the guest list, more than usual, and I remember it being somekind of an issue - several of us were under 18 and on normal nights it was a 21 and over Honky Tonk bar. Everyone got in. A few of us had walked over there from home REALLY early and hung out as the band unloaded and set-up their gear. We hung out until the side door closed for the various sound checking, lights, and such. We walked back home and had dinner, then turned around and went back for the show.
The sun was still up, but setting as we were going in. You enter the club and then have to make an immediate left and follow the bar in order to get to the area where the stage and tables were, then, if you turned right at the corner of the bar you would be able to go by the "backstage" entrance, which was really just a very small room behind the bar and kitchen at the end of a small dark hallway - there was barely room for the band, let alone all of the friends/family that were visiting before the show, and between sets. If you continued past the "backstage" entrance you could go to the outside patio area where everyone was smoking - yes, cigarettes too. We had two tables for our immediate family and friends, and then there were groups of others that had their own tables. It was really fun visiting with everyone before the show, and between sets, there were so many familiar faces. Our tables were the ones nearest the entrance to the "backstage" entrance and Randy stopped to hang out quite a few times. In fact, I remember talking to him while something was going on on the stage, I cannot recall if it was the opening band, or if it was a Drew or Rudy solo, but I clearly remember screaming in his ear because it was so loud. There were two QR sets.
The Show:
In order to get from the "backstage" area to the stage you had to actually WALK THROUGH the crowd! Yep. Randy had to come out, guitar in hand, make a left and walk along the bar - between the standing crowd, and the people sitting at the bar, then walk past the corner of the bar to the far wall, make a right and walk behind the board, and then onto the VERY small stage. The stage was probably 12 inches off of the ground - way different than the other QR shows I had gone to which had stages at least 3-4 feet high in most cases. So, unless you were very tall, standing in front of the stage on the dance floor, or standing on the furniture (me), all you could see was a bunch of heads and the band from their waist on up. When they turned on the fake smoke during the show most of the crowd standing on the dance floor were engulfed! Lol. The band did standard sets with Drew, Rudy, and Randy all having their spotlight solo's. Randy sat down on Drew's drum riser like he usually did at some points, and you could not see him playing unless you were actually standing right there! They did play Killer Girls, Slick Black Cadillac, and a few others off QRII, as I think it had been recently released at the time. There was one show I asked Randy to play West Coast Try-Outs (aka Back to the Coast) and he did, though I can't remember if was this show, or not. This was definitely an Incredible show, and I had an Incredible time. I just wish my memory was better to offer more details about the specific songs played, solos, antics on stage, etc. - I had forgotten about Cowbot hats, for example.
After the show there was a HUGE dirtball fight in the parking lot that was INSANE. It was a dirt parking lot that had a few big car-size puddles that made it really muddy. Everyone got beaned, but I cannot remember how it started. The Palamino Club staff were PISSED because we nailed alot of cars in the process - we were chased out of there. Randy told me he had heard about it by some staff at the club, or maybe the QR manager, I can't recall. Too funny. Good times.
I called a few other people that were there, and, if I am reminded of anything else from this show worth mentioning I'll post it here.
Then there was the time Randy and QR played Jan's 18th birthday party in my grandparents living room, but that's another story for another time.
Hope you all enjoyed the read, sorry so long.
Gary
"be honest. you're afraid of the guitar aren't you?"
"afraid of the guitar?"
"yeah. i can tell. you're scared of it."
"well, to be honest..i guess i am. i never thought of it that way."
"ha ha. i knew it. listen, you have to own it and make it your own."
at this point he launches into some rude squeals and bends to make his point.
"see how different it sounds when you control the guitar and not the other way around?"
frank wrote:"be honest. you're afraid of the guitar aren't you?"
"afraid of the guitar?"
"yeah. i can tell. you're scared of it."
"well, to be honest..i guess i am. i never thought of it that way."
"ha ha. i knew it. listen, you have to own it and make it your own."
at this point he launches into some rude squeals and bends to make his point.
"see how different it sounds when you control the guitar and not the other way around?"
frank wrote:"be honest. you're afraid of the guitar aren't you?"
"afraid of the guitar?"
"yeah. i can tell. you're scared of it."
"well, to be honest..i guess i am. i never thought of it that way."
"ha ha. i knew it. listen, you have to own it and make it your own."
at this point he launches into some rude squeals and bends to make his point.
"see how different it sounds when you control the guitar and not the other way around?"
okay here's one i've never seen before in print. stupid trivia stuff i know but when randy was executing a particularly difficult passage (solos included) he would purse his lips and move his mouth like a rabbit. that's how i knew he was giving it his all.
frank wrote:he had this fender harvard amp. it was real old, like from the fifties. the tolex (tweed?) had been stripped off and the bare wood had been varnished. it looked pretty cool and boy could he make it scream. sometimes the volume got away from him and the neighbors were always coming over to complain. one time he's playing away and suddenly he stops. a couple of seconds later we hear the front door pounding. he gets up to answer the door and i can hear a man just reading him the riot act. up one side and down the other. afterwards, he comes back and quietly sits down.
"well, he wasn't very nice!" at that moment he struck me as a six year old who had just been chastised.
Hey frank, I was reading up on fender harvards and it seemed they were only built with a power output of 10 watts, was this true?
Whatever the answer, do you recall just how loud randy played? I mean, to get neighbors to come over and complain, he must've been playing pretty loud, was it a little 10 watt harvard for sure?
