CGT Update: December 8, 1997

CGT Update from Paul Richards: December 8, 1997

Hello all,

The CGT has had a very busy November. Bert and Hideyo flew here to Salt Lake City on Nov. 10th and departed on Nov. 24th. On Nov. 13th we performed again as openers for John McLaughlin's new band at Kingsbury Hall, University of Utah.

Before the show, we were getting our stuff ready to move onstage. McLaughlin was walking off stage and spotted my guitar in its case and came to check it out. I said hello to him, but was completely ignored. This is the second time he seemed to be much more interested in my guitar than me or anything I had to say.

During our opening set, McLaughlin stood in the wings of the stage and listened to a fair amount of our set (making me very nervous). We played quite well and received a standing ovation from the audience of nearly 2000. McLaughlin's band was again a real pleasure to hear. I stood on the side of the stage with my wife for a while and just focused in on Dennis Chambers drumming.... WOW!!!! The crowd was again brought to their feet by a grand finale with a McLaughlin and Chambers hypersonic duo.

After the show when I was saying good bye to everyone back stage, McLaughlin came over to me, shook my hand and offered good luck with our music.

We played several more shows on our own in Utah during the proceeding week. One show in particular was very difficult and worth mentioning here. On Nov 21st. we played a show at Reed Auditorium, University of Utah, Salt Lake City. Just about everything that could go wrong did. The sound man showed up late and apparently did not really know how to set up or run the equipment. It was a half hour before show time and we still had no sound check. The lighting man had also shown up late and set up some strange lighting behind us, evidently he was even more clueless than the sound man. The sound man could not get the monitors running, so we finally said "okay we will do the show with no monitors". Then we discovered the PA was not running in stereo. It was nearly show time and there were three opening acts (only one of which was approved by the CGT) that needed to plug in and sound check as well. So then we said " Okay, no monitors!, no stereo!, no sound check!.... fine. let's play!." 20 minutes past show time, the audience which was patiently waiting in the over crowded lobby was let into the auditorium and the show began soon after.

The first two openers were arranged by the promoter. Both were women folk type singers. The first strummed her guitar and sang and the second played piano and sang. They both played about 20 minute sets. Then came our friend Stan Funicelli, classical guitarist, composer and CGT arranger extraordinare. Before Stan went on, we jokingly told the lighting guy that Stan needed a lot of fog for his set... and boy did he get it! It was probably the first ever contemporary classical guitar performance that was complete with disco lighting and heavy fog machine!!! Never the less, Stan played well!

Finally the CGT hits the stage... The power blows to the main amplifiers on our second number. I stood up, thinking about what we should do... should I tell some jokes?... no, I don't remember any!... I look to the sound guy... he is having a major freak out trying to figure out what to do. I look back at Bert and Hideyo and then announce to the audience.. "ACOUSTIC SET!" The three of us walked to the front of the stage and played 3 pieces acoustically... the audience went wild! (hmmm.. maybe we should have the power go out on all our gigs). We then took a break until the sound man could restore power. We hit the stage again about 10 minutes later. The rest of the show, the sound man was jerking our levels up and down. Every time we would play loud he would turn us down, every time we played soft he turned us up. I had the strange feeling that now I know exactly how my dog feels everytime she gets jerked around on the end of her short leash. The lighting man was doing some sort of disco lighting effects that made it almost impossible to see anything on stage and was blinding the people in the first three rows. I was getting more and more furious as the show went on. The only thing that calmed me down was when I saw the faces of the people after the show when we were signing our CDs and realized the show was probably not nearly as bad as I had perceived it to be.

While the CGT was all together in Utah we recorded a few more new things for our new album. I will let you wait until the new CD comes out to find out what we did. Bert is in England now mixing with David Singleton. The album should be completed by the end of December for official release sometime in March or April 98. It seems like it is taking forever!!!

While we are taking a break, I have been working part time at a guitar shop selling and doing minor repairs guitar repairs. Recently a man came into the shop and after looking at me curiously for some time said " I just came from a pawn shop where I saw a used CD in the budget bin with your picture on it". I wondered if having CDs in budget bins in pawn shops is a sign of success..... after all, I have bought some of my favorite albums in budget bins!!!

That's all for now, take care,

Paul Richards

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