Sliding doors

I rarely do prep for holidays. Finbar and Claire will understand. Two days in Philadelphia seemed about right. We had libertybell/cheesesteak/rockysteps kind of locked in.

Claire had a selection of cemeteries to visit.

But I have one moment in my life that is indelibly linked to Philly. A night in 1985 when I watched Michael des Barres, stand-in singer for the newly-formed Power Station, take to the stage at John F Kennedy Stadium for the US part of Live Aid (Wikipedia it, kids – it was “quite the thing”).
See: Duran Duran had recently gone on hiatus, but the two halves had both had hits as new “supergroups”. I loved DD. I loved Arcadia. But I * loved* the Power Station. Their first album still makes me feel like all music should have stopped then. Robert Palmer decided not to tour. They recruited MdB. Pre-internet, this was all news. So out they come. They strike up “Murderess”. Taylors Andy and John are there looking so cool. Tony Thompson (yes, out of Chic) is shiny and sharp (he’s gonna play with Led Zep later but don’t let’s discuss that).
There is no Palmer. The smooth singing, sharp dressed frontman isn’t there. Instead. Instead.
Look: I’ve already pressed record/play on the VHS. I will watch this performance perhaps 170 times in the next twenty years that I own a plugged-in Video player. (I still own a player. It’s just not really plugged in).
MdB bounces out
(Who the hell is this?!?!)
He grabs the microphone
(What’s he doing?!?)
He puts the microphone to his lips
(Surely not)
“good evening Philiadelphia: how you doing?”
I AM IN!!
This sort-of actor has come out tonight to play the role of Mr Robert Palmer and, critically, he does not give a hoot that the audience doesn’t know who he is.
Does not give a hoot.
And he is good. He is good enough. He isn’t RP. But he is good enough. And his smile says that he’s entirely entitled to a TV audience of 500 trillion.
MdB has a great time singing two songs (I think they do Get it On as well). And that’s it.
The band splits.
He isn’t involved in the reunion in 1996.
He is still alive (thanks Wikipedia).
Fast forward to September 24th 2024. 39 years later. I am in Philly for the first time in my life.
There is no Hall And Oates Museum (they played with the Temptation duo of Ruffin/kendrick later that night in 85).
I figure that we have time to kill. We should go to the John F Kennedy Stadium.
I could stand outside it. Imagine the crowd on that hot hot July afternoon. Madonna had sung backing vocals for the Thompson Twins. Phil Collins had done the same two songs he’d done in London hours earlier (because we used to have really fast planes).
And Michael des Barres had shown me that you didn’t have to be a musician to front up in front of a crowd and sing songs you hadn’t written. Or recorded. You just had to shake your ass and believe that you had permission to have fun and that was enough.
It’s such a sliding doors moment in my life. I’ve never written about it before. Sorry.
Anyway. I was gonna suggest we went there today.
They knocked it down in September 1992.