The Legends In Concert - Skydome, Toronto 1989-09-07

[Rhett Oracle]

The first oldies show at the Skydome a week after it opened (now called the Rogers Centre) was "Legends In Concert." It featured Bo Diddley, Ronnie Hawkins, Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons, Chubby Checker, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Chuck Berry. There's a review of it on Tumblr, by someone who didn't remember much else than the Chuck Berry story I'm about to tell. I don't really remember much myself about Bo Diddley and Ronnie Hawkins. But Chubby Checker came out with a hard rock band and played modernized, souped-up versions of his hits, and was very good. The Four Seasons took some time to mention their respect for Billy Joel, and they played the intro, a verse and a chorus of "Uptown Girl." We got to see "Oh What A Night" sung by its original singer, drummer Gerry Polci. Little Richard came on and was mesmerizing. Mirrored jacket and everything. Still entertaining as only he knew how. Even though the internet is unclear on whether Jerry Lee Lewis performed there, I'm sure I watched him play, and he stuck his right leg on the high end of the keys (one of his trademarks). And then Chuck Berry came on. As the Tumblr post says, the venue was so huge, we had to watch it on the huge screen. He'd made a deal with management. At some point, the screen went blue with white type, saying Mr. Berry had requested that his act not be televised. People did boo, loudly. For like ten minutes. This is where my story is different than the other person's. He had a miserable time there, but what I think I witnessed was that through sheer professionalism and the power to entertain, he won over that crowd before he was through. And the screen did come back on.

 

[Rhett Oracle]

My wife and I went to see The Steve Miller Band at The Pavilion, Tallahassee on July 20th 2016. This is one group that can replicate their records onstage. I like that the Minimoog parts of "Fly Like An Eagle" and "Jet Airliner" were programmed into a sampling keyboard, and played back with the touch of a key. I don't think they could have replicated those with modern synthesizers consistently every night. At our show, their bassist, Kenny Lee Lewis was not present, and the keyboard player was on two instruments for every song - one for the bass, and the other hand for all the organ and other parts. I can't find out any information on why Lewis didn't appear. This show is on the list of the very best I've seen. The opening group was The Tyler Denning Band. Their show was, unfortunately, unmemorable. The Pavilion concert venue has been closed since the start of lockdown, and nobody has been there since. It's just as well, as outdoor concerts in Florida summers, even after dusk, are still excruciatingly hot.