Northeast Ohio is buzzing with the return of the Rock Hall inductions to Cleveland, and with good reason. I’ve covered this event since the very first ceremony back in 1986 and many of the artists have made it clear how much they love visiting this area. I got the impression that the only folks who griped about coming to Cleveland were New York-based record executives, the old guys with young dates wearing little black dresses who would rather take a limo ride than getting in a plane for an hour ride to the city.
Nailing It
Trent Reznor returns to his one-time home to be honored for his work with Nine Inch Nails. Few realize that the first NIN tracks were recorded at Right Track Studio at East 22nd and Payne Avenue. Reznor traded work as a handyman and engineer for time in the studio where he mostly played all of the instruments on the initial recordings.
NIN also did a small hall show at the Empire Concert Club near the stadium and at one point Reznor threw a huge cloud of white powder over the audience. Famed local artist Derek Hess was at that show and the cloud was itching powder. It was a long ride home for a lot of people. On the topic of other early appearances, folks in this area could have seen two of this year’s inductees play on the same bill, and only a couple of hundred did.
And Others…
Marc Bolan and T. Rex had taken over the European airwaves. “T.Rexstacy” rivaled Beatlemania; even Ringo Starr joined up to film a documentary about the band. In late 1971 the album “Electric Warrior” got a good amount of airplay, and there were two sold-out shows at Parma’s Yorktown Theater. That’s right, the Yorktown, but the reviews were tepid at best. It was the final days of the tour, Bolan was not catching on like overseas and he wanted to get home.
That next summer the band’s album “The Slider” was released and T.Rex went on a fall tour that brought the band to the Allen Theatre. The singles from the album stiffed, and despite visits to local radio, an embarrassingly small crowd showed up for the concert. Bolan was visibly miffed and dropped plenty of f-bombs during the show. The opening act were fellow inductees The Doobie Brothers in their Cleveland debut. Bolan would return to this area a couple of tours later to pack the Agora, but by this time he had discovered carbohydrates and the excesses of the rock star life. He died in a car crash a short time later. Part of that Agora show ended up in a live album compilation which is now a prized collector’s item.
Boomer Trivia: Last issue I mentioned the “Lost in Space” TV series. The Robinson’s robot was described as a Class M3 Model B9, and they simply called it the “robot,” but in the episode titled “Time Merchant,” it was revealed it had another name. You had to look close, but on its packing crate back on Earth, you saw the name Gunter, which stood for General Utility Non-Theorizing Environmental Robot. For next time, name the chart-topping local band that got its name from The Little Rascals comedies.
Mike Olszewski is a veteran award-winning radio, TV and priunt journalist and college instructor. Contact him at [email protected].
