That Would Be Something
(OOC: This OTL tune is similar to TTL's "Meet Ya On A Sunny Day, Mama" /OOC)
The audience for the Saturday, August 16th midnight showing of
Anfield at the old theater in Sunapee, New Hampshire were expecting musical equipment of who ever had signed up to be the play along band to be on stage off to the side of the big screen as usual. (Most of them still thought of it as Friday, the 15th.) The first midnight showing to have local musicians to play on stage had started to require them to sign up. This was because when they at first just let whoever do it, there might end up five acts set up and no room for audience members to come up and just sing and dance along. So they started requiring only one a show and a sign up in advance. It also made it easier to schedule the set up. The schedule was posted in the lobby and everyone knew who'd signed up that night and so the place was crowded beyond normal- people sitting in the aisles in fact. The band that had signed up was the Jam Band, the local band that had started the whole thing off.
By now Steven Tyler had joined the band and they'd added a second guitarist, Ray Tabano, and a drummer, Joey Kramer. The Jam Band was very popular in the region due to their stunt. But audience members could see the local stars sitting there in the front row. So why wasn't their equipment set up? One girl went up to Steven and asked him if they were playing or not. He smiled strangely and winked, "Wait and see."
The film started and then after the credits and opening music it panned over the crowd waiting for the concert last January. Then came the close up of Tanya and the audience joined in on her line, "IT WAS A DREAM, A DREAM. A DREAM. I STILL CAN'T BELIEVE IT."
The next scene was a view of the stage that Paul and the Anfield Band had played on, but empty. Then the members of the band would walk out and get ready, until finally Paul joined them. In the film the crowd would go crazy clapping, whooping, and screaming. In the theater that was the standard ritual too. But this time the film just stopped right before Paul was to walk out. A slide showed up on the screen instead. Two cartoon T-Rexs were biting each other, it wasn't clear if they were biting each other to fight or during sex. Around the figures were the world, "Sorry. Please Be Patient. We Are Having Technical Difficulties."
Suddenly the five kids in the Jam Band jumped out of their seats and ran up the side stairs of the stage and then off stage behind the curtain. A moment later the first song of the concert, "Get Back" started playing. But the film still wasn't there. Many in the audience thought it must be the Jam Band playing behind the screen, it sure didn't sound the same as the version in the film or released on vinyl. But it sound good.
Then the stage lights went on, the slide went away, and the screen began to lift.
Like many old theaters, this one had started as a vaudeville palace. A movie screen had been added later, which still could be raised for live shows.
The audience did see a band set up and playing. But it wasn't the Jam Band.
It was the Anfield Band.
Then Paul McCartney walked out with his bass to a microphone and began singing the words of "Get Back."
It was pandemonium in the Sunapee theater. But the sound system was better than the crowd's noise. After the song Paul asked them, "How are you doing?"
"WE'RE HAVING FUN!" They yelled in unison.
"Good! Our first scheduled show in our North American tour is tonight, or tomorrow night depending on how you look at it, in Manchester." Manchester, New Hampshire was the bigger city in central southern New Hampshire. "But we wanted to do this surprise, secret first performance here, where you guys made our film what it's become. Thank you."
Later after another song, Paul said, "You know it was a big deal scheduling this and keeping it secret. We want to thank the owner, management, and staff of the theater and the band that was scheduled to play. I'll tell you another secret. You may have noticed they'd signed up way in advance with lots of empty shows. You know why?
"Because they were in on it!
"We've been real glad to have them as our back stage guests tonight, but right now we want to give them the stage."
Out walked the members of the Jam Band. Paul stayed but roadies had unplugged his bass from the amp and plugged Tom's in. The other members of the Anfield Band had left. Paul turned to Steven and said, "What are you going to play, Steven? I hear you like to cover my friend John's song "'Get Together Right Now.'"
"No." Steven smiled out at the audience. "We've got one of our own."
"You've written your own song! What's it called?"
"I was inspired by what we all say from Tanya."
The audience yelled, "IT WAS A DREAM, A DREAM. A DREAM. I STILL CAN'T BELIEVE IT."
Steven said, "It's called 'Dream On.'"
Paul clapped him on the back and walked off stage. Then Steven sat at the keyboard and the Jam Band played their new song for the first time. By the time they got a recording contract and did a studio recording of it, two years would pass. It would be a hit. By then they'd changed their name to Aerosmith and Tabano had been replaced by Brad Whitford. This not only was a top ten hit, but it became their signature song.*
Afterwards as the audience was applauding, Paul walked back out. "You guys are great. I say we give you another song and I'd like to hear your version of John's song. What do you say?" He asked the audience.
"WE'RE HAVING FUN!"
"Then go for it!"
By then Steven was out in front just to sing.
(OOC: Well, I can't post TTL's version, right? So here's OTL's version by Aerosmith. Different lyrics. /OOC)
After the two song set, the Anfield Band joined Paul and they finished off their abridged concert, only an hour and a half like the film, instead of the normal two and a half hours. At the end he said "I just want everyone to know. This is the only one of these we're doing... this tour."
That night they were in Manchester. His show had a lot of material from his solo recordings and one new song that hadn't yet been released, a song describing his love of Maggie, "Meet Ya On A Sunny Day, Mama."
Maggie and baby Jackie were with Paul. Jackie was just a month old little guy. He usually was in a baby pack on Maggie, but sometimes, when he wasn't on stage, it was on Paul. They had a big bus they were going to use to travel from city to city for the shows. Paul had a concert scheduled in Albany, New York for Sunday, the 17th. But he made arrangements a few weeks before to change it from Sunday night to Monday night. It meant it cost him, as he had to put a second deposit down. But he was okay with that and the fans with tickets didn't mind that it was Monday night instead of Sunday night.
Paul had other things he wanted to do that Sunday.
After the Manchester show the band and support staff went to Albany. Paul, Maggie, and Jackie flew on a small chartered plane to Poughkeepsie. They arrived there in the early hours of the morning and checked into the same hotel that George, Pattie, Rich, and Maureen were all staying. They had a wonderful visit the next morning at breakfast. "I told you we might run into each other." He told George. "How could I miss your first solo show? I couldn't."
*In OTL Steven did first meet Joe and Tom in Sunapee in 1969 and he did write "Dream On" before he joined the band. So in TTL we just have the band perform it earlier and record it earlier than in OTL
