Actor Miles Chapin was in the studio last night beginning the recording for the book for Audible.com where it will soon be available for mp3 download. Miles is a fan of the record, will not be imitating my Buffalo accent, and is also friends with Pat Irwin (Raybeats – lately he's appeared with the B-52s). Pat was a member of the great 8-Eyed Spy with Jim Sclavunos – the drummer I recruited to back Alex in October 1981. Another member of the band was the late George Scott and it was only because she thought I looked like George a bit that booking agent Ruth Polsky agreed to set up Alex's ill-fated tour. Got that? At any rate...it is a semi-small world.
I Me Mine
- B. E.
- Buffalo, New York, United States
- I'm a writer, consultant, and jazz concert producer (most recently, for the Art of Jazz Series at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery) living outside Buffalo, New York. I started out in college in the early 1970s producing concerts while attending Hobart College in Geneva, NY. Those were the days when you could book Springsteen for a couple of thousand dollars. After college I reconnected with a high school friend, the wildly talented Pete LaBonne (more on him in future blogposts) and we formed the Blue Reimondos, the first new wave / punk / alternative / call it whatever band in the Buffalo area. We weren't together that long but we spent a lot of time listening to Big Star. One fateful night in Austin TX in 1979 Peter crossed paths with Alex Chilton and thus the seeds for the book were sown. Using my concert producing experience and Peter's brief contact, we called up Alex in Memphis and offered him $300 and the proverbial ticket for an aeroplane to fly up from Memphis and play a gig with us (the picture above is from that show - I'm on the right) to play a gig with us backing him up at the legendary McVan's Rock Castle in Buffalo. That was just the beginning...
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