CONCERT BLAST!
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Written By Mike Arnold - Edited By Claire Watson
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A SNEAK PEAK FROM CHAPTER 1
ABOUT US
ROCK MUSIC FANS
I had always been a fan of rock music. I remember as a small child watching Elvis, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Dave Clark Five, and others on The Ed Sullivan show. As we began to grow older, our love for rock music also grew.
Brian was the one to spend his hard earned cash that he made from working at the local grocery store, purchasing the albums of the latest rock groups we’d never heard of. Rock groups like J Geils Band, Aerosmith, Humble Pie, Uriah Heep, ZZ Top, KISS, Angel, Queen, and many others. I remember asking Brian why in the world would he buy an album from a rock group named Queen? That’s when Brian placed the Queen album on his turn table and played “Keep Yourself Alive”. As I heard the music blast through the huge stereo speakers in his room, I remember saying, “I Love That Song! Why can’t they be called King?”
The Gang
Tom, his twin brother Jim, and his younger brother John lived with their “too cool” mother, Carol, in a large lake house on a private road with a swimming pool. When you have about 12 teens that hang out with each other, the place to be is where the pool was. Where the pool was is where the party was. And we definitely had the parties! We had all the teens, the loud music, the girls, and pickup basketball and football games, all at the same house every weekend. Every parent’s nightmare!
Several crazy teens would jump off the roof into the swimming pool below. Most of us danced and some drank alcohol. However, we made a pack to keep away from drugs. There were a few times when party visitors didn’t know how anti-drug we were. Some of them took the hint, while others learned the hard way. This was also the place I met my wife to be, Sandra Nelms. I couldn’t take my eyes off of that girl in the orange swim suit, the guys called her the orange fish. Now it’s more than 30 years later, I still adore her!
IN THE BEGINNING
STEP 7 – BECOMING MEDIA
In the beginning, our shows consisted of discussions and a couple of interviews. Once we began to review concerts on a regular basis, we wanted to look more official. After a short trip to Office Max, we had purchased the tools to do just that.
I created our own business cards with a software program I purchased for about $20. We would hand these cards out at the shows, but with no real marketing budget, we were pretty selective when handing out our supplies.
I also created a laminate design with “Concert Blast!” on it and a slogan, “Podcasting on Concert Experiences.” Using the Word Art feature in Microsoft Word for our design, the laminates worked quite well. It gave us the official media look we needed. Now looking back on it, I should have printed the word, “MEDIA” in big bold letters so people would know immediately we were there to perform a task and to get the attention from the artists and their crew. I don’t suggest anyone create these to get in concerts free. That really won’t work, since the attending media still has to be on a media or guest list. Tom and Brian suggested we get T-Shirts printed with “Concert Blast!” on them. It seemed that whenever we talked to fans they would look at our laminates to see what company we represented. A friend of mine, Ryan Stapleton, who liked listening to our shows wanted to get into the T-Shirt design and printing business. He gave us a really good deal on printing the shirts. He did a good job and as today, those shirts are still in use.