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Colin Rowell Stage and Production Manager Newcastle City Hall  How did you get to be stage manager at Newcastle City Hall? At college in the early '70s I ended up running a coffee stall in the Haymarket, booking bands and promoting concerts. At the Mayfair I had Fleetwood Mac on when 'Albatross' was in the charts. At the City Hall I had Sweet on with their hit 'Blockbuster'. Another time was two days at the City Hall with Chickenshack, Savoy Brown and Tyrannosaurus Rex. The compere was John Peel. I also done some follow spot lights and other jobs around the hall. I knew the place well and got on with all the visiting promoters who said I done a good job. I knew Bob Brown the City Hall manager so when the opportunity came up to take over the stage management he said 'Col you know your way around will you look after the place ?' So yeah I started hiring crew, getting equipment in, making sure sound checks were on time and just generally ran the venue. I was there for several years so the bands I saw and the stories I could tell you, we'll be here forever. So I'll keep them for my book (laughs). Can you pick a few out, maybe a nightmare job? There's a few but maybe one that was a nightmare for others. It involves Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow. They were on a UK tour and stopped for their gig at Newcastle City Hall. The singer Graham Bonnet came up to me and said 'You don't know any good hairdressers around here do you Colin?' I said 'Funnily enough my sister in law has a shop just down the road 5 mins away from the hall'. She said 'Send him down and we'll get him in. He went, got the cut, and everything was hunky dory…until after the show. At 4am in the dressing room you've got Paul Loasby from Harvey Goldsmiths office, me, Ritchie Blackmore and the drummer Cozy Powell going mad cancelling the world tour because Graham Bonnet had his hair cut (laughs). Another Blackmore story was we used to have to take the doors off the City Hall to get the rainbow in from their stage set, it was so big. The rumour was that on their way to America they threw it in the ocean. I was curious about this so Ritchie called me up and said 'There is good news and bad news. The good news is that the rainbow still exists and I'm giving it to you as a gift. The bad news is, it's in America under your name and costing you storage (laughs)'. Alikivi - September 1, 2019  |