Day 53

According to a well-respected and highly-cited Internet source, the Gammage Memorial Auditorium (above) is "considered to be the last public commission" of renowned architect Frank Lloyd Wright and opened in 1964 on the campus of Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona.  It is almost exclusively used for plays, operas, lectures and classical music performances.

On June 12, 1985, me and five of my closest friends (girl-boy-girl-boy-girl) were in the lower balcony (or "Grand Tier") where we damn near shook the Gammage down to the ground.  I distinctly remember the ushers running around shining their flashlights at different places on the walls where you could clearly see plaster falling and cracks forming as the capacity crowd of just over 3,000 throbbed.  After opening act Belouis Some left the stage after a 25 minute set of uninspired modern pop that some people felt lacked imagination, the lights came up for nearly half an hour before going down again.  Then the B-52's "Planet Claire" faded in and played through until it's final note when the giant curtains covering the stage dropped and Frankie Goes To Hollywood ripped into "Born To Run" and we stayed on our feet, often pogoing for the next 75 minutes as the building crumbled around us.

  

• Would you believe that their debut album was the only B-52's album of their three I didn't own at this point?  I had their two EPs and considered myself a huge fan but I didn't buy their first album until six years after it was issued, obviously prompted by hearing "Planet Claire" at the Frankie Goes To Hollywood concert.
• From the looks of the albums purchased on this day, I'm pretty sure that the Wherehouse was running one of their frequent sales.  In this case, the first four albums pictured above and listed below were on sale 4 for $10.  The cleverly illustrated Greatest Hits album from Alice Cooper replaced a dubbed off the radio tape I had.
• The copy of Led Zeppelin's first album I had was a hand me down copy with a couple of scratches so on this day, I upgraded to a new copy.
• I owned a Dr. Hook 45 ("Only Sixteen") and two albums I had gotten in a discount package deal from RCA Music Service (Pleasure & Pain and Live), so I bought their Greatest Hits album to fill in the holes in my collection.
• As I was a big fan of their previous album, All Four One, I snatched up Little Robbers without hesitation.  Ended up really liking it though not as much as All Four One.  Martha Davis's voice is a smoky thing of beauty.
• The same cannot be said of the hiccuping and squeaking that characterizes Dale Bozzio's "singing".  While I really enjoyed Missing Persons first album Spring Session M, this sophomore effort is lacking.

The B-52's - The B-52's (1979)
Alice Cooper's Greatest Hits - Alice Cooper (1974)
Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin (1969)
Greatest Hits - Dr. Hook (1980)
Little Robbers - The Motels (1983)
Rhyme & Reason - Missing Persons (1984)

None of these albums are on the Vinyl Wall.