The Adventures of Bobblehead Bill

[Bill L]

A couple of years ago my wife bought a bobblehead of me that I have left at The Venue where I work. I try to get pics with some of the acts that come through. I've managed to create a pretty cool collection. Sometimes it's me taking the pics and other times it (and myself) end(s) up in the background. S please indulge me while I share some of them with y'all. As you might imagine there are plenty of stories to go along with all of them. Starting with a pic of it before it got destroyed by living at a concert venue for roughly 3 years. I'm in the process of buying another (or 2) for the time when it finally falls apart.

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And some pics from various gigs:

Al Stewart of Year of the Cat fame

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Ritchie Blackmore (Deep Purple and Rainbow) and Candace Knight from Blackmore's Night (English folk music music)

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Crystal Gail (Don't It Make my Brown Eyes Blue)

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Jill Sobule. She was a singer songwriter and had a hit with I Kissed A Girl back in the early 90's (Not the Katy Perry song, btw.) She was opening for The Fixx. She died in a house fire in Minnesota about 10 days after this gig. I had what I believe is the shortest soundcheck ever. Here is the entirety of it. Including her "new" song Sound Guys Are Idiots after I had remarked that sound guys are, in fact, idiots. You can hear laughing towards the end.

2025-04-18 Jill Sobule Soundcheck.mp3

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Hank Azaria, the actor, came through with his band that does a tribute to Bruce Springsteen (they donate the money to various charities). I'm not a Springsteen fan at all but this was a great, fun show. He did a bunch of the voices he's known for (Simpsons) and was just a lot of fun.

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We also Keifer Sutherland come through. This was days after his father had passed away and we thought he was going to cancel. He didn't and it was a great show. Very nice, laid back dude.

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This was a couple of years ago on Lita Ford's birthday. Her FoH guy was driving me crazy all day because he was old school and didn't really know how to use a digital board. Hde was attempting to tell me he was going to cancel the show, after doors had opened, because his reverb (which is only used on one song) wasn't where he wanted it on the desk. I had to set up the opening band, soundcheck, run their monitors and then run there FoH all in about 30 mins. Then strike the openers gear and then run monitors for Lita. Thankfully she and the band were awesome and very thankful for the way the whole day went down. As a side note, this was the first time I heard a Kemper sound great. Her guitar tech told me it took him months of tweaking to get it where she was comfortable on stage.

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and a pic of me and the bobblehead in the background

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And one from monitor world (which is where I usually live during shows.

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Here's Shawn Colvin and KT Tunstall. They were great. There was a lot of tension as the FoH guy was screwing up their monitors during the show (he hadn't figured out the desk he was using) so they asked me to run monitors. I managed to get a pic on the bus before they rolled out.

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And I end this first post with this one. Roger McQuinn of Buffalo Springfield and The Byrds fame. Very nice dude. He signed one of guitars, gave me some autographed CDs, let me play his guitars and was just a very nice dude.

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[rayc]

COOL.

[WhiskeyJack]

Dude!

WHERE IS BOB MOULD?!

Still cool as hell. The sound check of the missus was pretty awesome except for when she clicked on that one dirt pedal. Sounds lke something @vomitHatSteve would do as a prank to his audience.

Thanks for sharing man. What a rad job.

[Bill L]

Dude!

WHERE IS BOB MOULD?!

Still cool as hell. The sound check of the missus was pretty awesome except for when she clicked on that one dirt pedal. Sounds lke something @vomitHatSteve would do as a prank to his audience.

Thanks for sharing man. What a rad job.

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These?

I'm very thankful. I still can't believe I get to do what I do.

[WhiskeyJack]

HELLYEA!

[Lt. Bob]

awesome pics!

Thanks for sharing and share more when you can .... VERY cool!

[vomitHatSteve]

That's cool! Nice collection of folks with the guy

Dude!

WHERE IS BOB MOULD?!

Still cool as hell. The sound check of the missus was pretty awesome except for when she clicked on that one dirt pedal. Sounds lke something @vomitHatSteve would do as a prank to his audience.

Thanks for sharing man. What a rad job.

Hey! It wouldn't be a prank when I did it. It would be deadly serious.

That's an awful lot of distortion for an acoustic.

[Bill L]

Some more pics

Acoustic Alchemy. I knew who they were but never really listened to them. It was a fun show and they're coming back next week.

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Al DiMeola. This gig was a pain in the ass. The band was great but he was a total ass clown.

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His rig.

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Belly. These guys had a hit on the Twister soundtrack. I'd never heard of them even though they are from RI.

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Big Head Todd and The Monsters. I've worked 3 or 4 shows with these guys. Always a good time.

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And another

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Another local guy, Billy Gillman. Had a hit when he was real young. Became a finalist on The Voice (or another one of those shows). We do 2 or 3 gigs a year with him. Great dude, great voice and always fun.

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A photographer friend of mine catching the bobblehead in action.

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John Cafferty (and The Beaver Brown Band). Another local guy. If you've seen the movie Eddie and the Cruisers then you've heard these guys. On The Dark Side being one of their hits.

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Dar Williams. I'd heard of her but never listened to her.

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Duane Betts, Dickie Betts (Allman Brothers) son. These guys were a lot of fun. Saw them again at a festival back in early September.

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Another

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And another

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Eric Gales. Plays lefty with the strings upside down.

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His guitars

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His dog, Princess

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Traci Guns. He was the Guns in Guns and Roses. Slash replaced him.

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My view of the show

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Yvonne Elliman. She was Mary Magdalen in Jesus Christ Superstar. We had members of the cast come through for a viewing of the movie. They came by again and had a full band show. She was just an awesome person to hang out with. Ted Neily was also there (he played Jesus). I'll upload a pic with him soon. As a side note, the tour manager for Ted is also the tour manager for Metallica. He invited me to their 2 shows at Gillette Stadium back in May but I already had gigs. Hopefully next time as I've yet to see Metallica in person. I'm not a fan but it would totally be worth going to see.

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[Greg_L]

Wow good stuff!

I remember Belly very well. Tonya Donnelly was part of the early days of some really big bands...Throwing Muses and The Breeders....before they became huge.

[Lt. Bob]

Ted Neely ...... saw him doing Jesus live in a very good traveling Jesus Christ Superstar.
Prolly one of the last for him ...... must have been 60 at the time or older and he was incredible ...... he'd open his mouth and those stratospheric high notes would just pour out ...... looked like it was effortless.
And I absolutely love theovie .... have it on DVD and watch it from time to time.
I have a couple of his solo albums.
That's very cool mang!

I'm also a BIG SpongeBob fan ..... very cool pants!

These are awesome sir ..... if you have enough it's a coffee table book.

[Bill L]

Wow good stuff!

I remember Belly very well. Tonya Donnelly was part of the early days of some really big bands...Throwing Muses and The Breeders....before they became huge.

We just had Throwing Muses come through last weekend.

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They were a lot of fun. And we have Gail (from Belly) coming through in June playing with Gang of Four. And tomorrow night is Lita Ford again. I'm looking forward to seeing her again.

[Greg_L]

They were a lot of fun. And we have Gail (from Belly) coming through in June playing with Gang of Four. And tomorrow night is Lita Ford again. I'm looking forward to seeing her again.

I played with a guy (he's a drummer) that provided backline amps from his own stash for Lita Ford about 15 years ago as a last minute fix for the original guy that flaked out.

He still talks about it to this day. "Lita Ford used my amp!"

[Bill L]

I forgot to mention that we had Peter Wolf (J Giels Band) the week before. The guy is 80 years old, weighs about 60 pounds and ran around the stage for 2 hours. It was a great gig and he sounded pretty good, all things considered.

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He's a big time germaphobe so he wouldn't touch the bobblehead but he was really fun to work with.

[vomitHatSteve]

I get that. If I was asked to hold a trinket that had been handled by dozens of other musicians every day for years, I'd want some sanitizer right after!

[Bill L]

I get that. If I was asked to hold a trinket that had been handled by dozens of other musicians every day for years, I'd want some sanitizer right after!

Solid point right there.

[Greg_L]

That's why I always have my own vocal mic.

[rayc]

I just trawled through the thread again...some cool stuff.

[vomitHatSteve]

That's why I always have my own vocal mic.

I love having something that half a dozen other people have been spitting on all night right up against my mouth!

[Greg_L]

I love having something that half a dozen other people have been spitting on all night right up against my mouth!

When I was a younger lad I didn't even think about it. Then about 20 years ago I was at a gig and I walked up to the mic for soundcheck and oh my god it smelled so bad. I could smell it before I even got right up on it. This is sort of my anti-soundman origin story. I had words with the guy, he basically told me I was being a pussy, I told him to fuck off and get a different mic or clean the one I was using. Neither happened and I just went with no mic at that gig - no big deal I only did a few backups anyway. I don't know where that soundguy is now but I hope he's dead and I hope it was very slow and painful. And now I always have a 58 in my bag.

[vomitHatSteve]

My favorite grumpy misanthrope sound guy is dead, so there's always hope for yours too.

RIP Frank and the Rutledge