And Party Every Day: The Inside Story of Casablanca Records by Larry Harris, Curt Gooch, Jeff Suhs Read Free Book Online Page A

the elevator operator and the janitor, not to mention the accountant’s nephew. Of course, I was stuck with the bill and had to look like a good sport, but I felt used and abused. Neil was pleased with my expense report that month.
    When a group of WBCN staff made a special trip to New York to spend a few days, I arranged for us all to see National Lampoon’s Lemmings show (with Chevy Chase and John Belushi in their pre-Saturday Night Live days) at the Village Gate, a famous jazz club in Greenwich Village that often hosted small off-Broadway acts. Buddah had nothing to do with this show, but I thought everyone would enjoy it. Lemmings was a Woodstock parody (the festival in it was called “Woodchuck”) that mocked the hippie generation, and the Village Gate was so jammed that a number of us had to sit on the floor in front of the stage. Taking the staff to the show helped solidify my relationship with the station, but, to be truthful, it didn’t really seem to matter how close I was to them; they never played many of my records.
    One of Neil’s more lucrative ventures was a prestigious deal to distribute Charisma Records through Buddah. Charisma was founded by a former journalist named Tony Stratton-Smith, and it was home to several noteworthy artists, particularly Genesis, then fronted by Peter Gabriel, and the Monty Python comedy troupe. Neil had come to know Tony via our association with Nancy Lewis, who ran publicity for us and had been publicist for The Who. Python had yet to experience their big American breakthrough (that would come in 1974, with the theatrical release of Monty Python and the Holy Grail ), but their BBC show was a huge success in Britain. Similarly, Genesis had made a lot of noise in Europe but hadn’t yet found their footing in the states. The band is best known for their later pop stylings when Phil Collins was their front man, but back in the early 1970s, Genesis was a high-concept art-rock outfit whose epic and complex songs (frequently clocking in at over ten minutes) could not find a place on US radio. They had received a great reception in their native England, and Melody Maker, in particular, had been raving about their extravagant stage shows for years, so this was something of a pressure project for Buddah. Their first album for us was Nursery Cryme, and although some people, like Scott Muni at WNEW, played them in his English hour each week, we were having a hard time getting airplay as Peter Gabriel’s vocals were very hard to understand. I had to come up with a way to make everyone pay attention and realize this band had a great live show, and that their music, esoteric as it was, was still accessible and relevant.
    I met with Muni and discussed what could be done to get Genesis more exposure on the station. He had no real ideas, as he did not often push his on-air staff to play specific groups unless their music directly related to the station in some fashion. I came up with an idea: we would throw a Genesis concert for the WNEW audience and the small admission fee would go to charity. Buddah and Charisma would pick up the tab. I ran the idea past Neil and Tony Stratton-Smith, and they both agreed. The caveat was that I had to make the concert as high-profile as I could. The show was scheduled for December 13, 1972 at the Lincoln Center’s Philharmonic Hall in Manhattan. I sent out invitations to every noteworthy progressive FM program director in the country I could think of: Bernie Kimball from WCMF-FM in Rochester; Tom Starr from WOUR-FM in Utica; Mark Parenteau from WABX in Detroit; Jerry Stevens from WMMR-FM in Philly; even West Coasters like Mary Turner and Richard Kimball from KMET in LA. We put everyone up at the Americana Hotel.
    WNEW plugged the show like crazy, and on the night of the concert almost every DJ played Genesis constantly to increase excitement over the event, which, at three dollars a pop, had sold out easily. Genesis blew everyone away, with Gabriel in his