Well...

It's been a few days since the Mike Smith Benefit show
at BB Kings in NY, but I've recovered enough to write
a bit about the experience.

I nabbed VIP tickets, so I knew my seats would be
good.  Really looked forward to this show.  I made a
night of it with my wife, as she needed a nice night
out in the city for her own anti-stress needs.  We had
dinner at Felidia's.  Kind of cool when Tony Bennett
walked in half way through our dinner and sat down
next to out table.  Of course, this guy is 130 years
old, and he had a knockout 24 yr old blonde with him. 
I doubt it was his daughter the way she was rubbing
all over him all night.  Either that or they are a
really really close family.

After dinner, we headed back to the hotel to change
for the show.  Doors were supposed to open at 10:45
with the show starting at 11 pm.  We decided to walk
the 5 blocks from the hotel to BB Kings (trying to
lose the dinner weight we just added).  About a block
before BB Kings, we saw this line of about 800 snaking
it's way towards us.  My heart dropped (as it was like
100 degrees in the city).  I asked a BB King worker
who was helping with he line if we had to wait in this
queue since we had VIP ticks...he said yes we did. 
Not good enough for me.  We walked to the front of the
line and asked the workers manning the doors at the
front.  We were told no, we should be in the line to
the left of the club for VIP's.  This line was approx.
18 people long.  Much better!   Well, the 10:45
opening came and went.  At approx. 11:30, we were
still waiting outside when we heard that the first
show (7:30 start) actually started an hour late at
8:30.  We also heard that the headliners (The Zombies)
had not arrived yet!!  At approx. 11:45, a limo pulled
up and out popped Blunstone and Argent and their band,
followed by their equipment.  What had happenned was
that they were on the runway in Toronto at 4 pm when
that Air France jet crashed, effectively closing down
the airport.  Paul Shaffer called David Letterman
asking for his help.  Letterman, on his own expense,
chartered a private jet out of a small airport in
North Jersey, and sent it to Hamilton, Ontario
airport.  He also sent a limo to Toronto airport to
pick up the Zombies and drive them to Hamilton.  So,
after all of that, The Zombies made it very late, but
only played 3 songs because of the delay.  

We finally entered the club at around 12:45, a full
two hours after the advertised entry time.  A number
of people actually got their money back and left
during this time.  Hey...it was for a good cause and I
wasn;t going to work the next day...I would have
waited another hour!  The show didn;t start until 1:30
a.m., but heck...this is New York baby...let's go all
night!!  

The show began with a 5 minute documentary on the Dave
Clark 5 on two screens set up on either sides of the
stage.  Oh yeah, by the way, our table seats were up
front against the stage 5 feet off center.  Great
seats!!  With food and dring service!  Excellent!

As soon as the documentary finished...Paul Shaffer
came out and apologized for the delay and told the
story of the Zombie trevails.  Then he introduced The
Fab Faux (featuring Will Lee of Letterman's band). 
I've heard so much about these guys, but have never
seen them live.  Bang on Beatles trib band!  They
opened with "Within You, Without You" followed by
great spot on versions of latter day Beatles songs
like "I Am The Walrus"..and finished with a rousing
"All You Need is Love".

They were followed by Billy J. Kramer (backed by the
house band featuring Paul Shaffer, Anton Fig etc...).
He did "Bad to Me" of course and a few other hits of
his...voice still sounds great.

After Kramer came Denny Laine.  He opened with "Go
Now"...which was outstanding.  Each artist also
performed a Dave Clark song....and Denny's version of
"Any Way You Want It" was awesome!  

After Denny Laine came Peter and Gordon...first time
together on stage in 37 years.  The sounded fabulous!
"World Without Love" and "Woman" were incredible. 
Their version of the DC 5's "Because" was beautiful!

The Zombies closed the show with 7 or 8 songs, of
course, featuring "Time of the Season", "Tell Her No",
"She's Not There" and the obligatory nod to ARgent
with "Hold Your Head Up".

The end of the night gathering of all artists on stage
was pretty cool.  It was a kind of sloppy, but fun
tribute to the DC5 with "Bits and Pieces" followed by
"Glad All Over" with each artist taking a verse line
in each song.  Shaffer tried his best to conduct who
would sing when...but it was mostly a free for all. 
But very cool to see.  

The show ended around 4:15 a.m.   My wife, what a
trooper.  She's NEVER in her life been awake past 3
a.m.   She hung in there and enjoyed the show
immensely.  The after show meet and greet was okay. 
Everyone, including the artists, were exhausted, so it
definitely was not a jovial time.  I took my wifes
picture as she sat between Peter and Gordon.  Not many
people will have a picture like that!  I spoke with
Denny Laine briefly.  Got autographs on a DC5
album....and then we made our tired way back to the
hotel by 5 a.m.  Whew....

It was an incredibly fun night.  Even with all of the
scheduling problems and the Zombies problems...it
really didn;t matter to me.  It was worth it to be
there.

Clear Channel Entertainment...known to be real
bastards, became good guys for the night.  The second
show I was at was filmed by Clear Channel in High
Definition for a DVD release and HD broadcast.  Clear
Channel, according to Paul Shaffer, is footing the
$100,000 bill for the HD filming and DVD release, so I
have to give them props for doing that!

So, when the DVD comes out....look for me down front!

Going back to sleep now!

Mark Hershberger