Turner Hall - Echo and the Bunnymen Concert

Last night, Thursday, September 15, 2016, was the Eve of a Full Celtic Moon, by Celtic tradition, a Vine Moon, shining brightly on the iconic venue, Turner Hall, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where Echo and the Bunnymen were playing a concert. We'd hoped to have more of our friends and family there, but early on we only bought a handful of tickets, then, the concert sold out. Yes, this band from the '80s is still relevant. Our gifted cover photographer, Larry Zamba, was in the house along with our publisher, and our dear friend, Kelly, who will play our character, Mrs. Casimir, when we produce our book trailer.

When Lori and I learned of the concert date a couple of months ago we could hardly believe our good fortune. In a magical example of Life Imitating Art, Echo and the Bunnymen, a central character in our novel, Hazel Moon, was performing at a music festival on the Eve of a Hazel Moon. By what magic did the actual band show up on an actual Eve of a Full Celtic Moon in the real world Lori and I live in? But that morsel of mystifying magic is just the beginning.

Lori chose a black leather dress and fishnet stockings. The dress was a gift 30 years earlier from the actual man who inspired the Cash Reynolds character in our novel. This guy was a gambler and whenever he won big he'd share his good fortune with his friends and family. The fishnets turned out to be the actual ones Lori wore for the Hazel Moon cover shot (see below).

On the drive to Turner Hall Lori was reminiscing about the past times she'd seen the band live. Thirty years ago, in 1983, The Bunnymen played a concert near our hometown, Racine, Wisconsin, at the Uptown Theater in Milwaukee. Lori wanted to go, expecting to run into Kent Parco, the mysterious bass player of Take Me, but without someone to go with her Lori ended up not going. Kent was there and later on at the show last night she ran into several people who had been to that Uptown concert!

Kent and Lori soon became an item and by the time she did see The Bunnymen live in concert, she was married to Kent and the concert took place in Chicago around the year 2002. Kent, a fine musician in his own right, a bass player with the local band, Take Me, had taken to The Bunnymen and their music inspired the song lyrics and style for his band. When Lori got married, the wedding band played a Bunnymen tune, "Do It Clean" which the band played last night! Some years later, when Kent died, which followed the passing of our brother, Mark, Lori and I began conceiving of a story, a novel where we could honor their memories and Hazel Moon was born.

For Lori the night was filled with nostalgia, fond memories of the good days with Kent and cherishing his connection to Echo and the Bunnymen. Last night Lori mentioned how wrong she was about Ian, the lead singer. Before she actually saw the band Lori had the impression that Ian was a nerd of sorts, in a good way, but last night she was blown away by his superstar status, charisma on stage, and his vocal musicianship. 

Being a singer herself, she noticed he had four choices of things to drink to sooth his throat. She also noticed that he'd protected his voice early on, but as he warmed up his voice got stronger and impressively stronger. Lori even suspected he'd cut way back on his smoking, once a feature of his brand and only noticed him taking a couple of drags on a cig during the concert. Last fall we'd taken a spontaneous road trip to Detroit, to the Fillmore, for an Echo concert. Lori remembered that Ian, imitating the artists' voices quite well, covered both Frank Sinatra and Elvis songs and we got the feeling he thought of himself as being quite the crooner! The writer in us pitched some ideas about a new novel focusing on The Bunnymen exploring the idea that Ian leaves the band to pursue a new kind of singing career.

Before the concert we'd actually connected with the band via email, told them about our book, got on the guest list, and even was given a small table from which to promote Hazel Moon. We absolutely believe it would be a win-win for the band to get behind our marketing efforts. During the concert Lori and I went up close to the stage and noticed a whole passel of younger female fans. There music is that good, classic, and now timeless and our book could help build their fan base among this new generation.

After the show, we managed to interest a number of fans in our book and even though we weren't supposed to, sold a copy to a guy who had not only been at that first Bunnymen concert in Milwaukee 30 years ago, but who just happened to be longtime buds with my guy, Jeff. We got a strong feeling that our novel would be a big hit with The Bunnyman fans...and there are thousands and thousands of them!! Let's hope the marketing seeds sown that night will take root!!!

All in all, we were encouraged and intend to keep putting ourselves and our wonderful novel, Hazel Moon, out there!

PS PIC

We were thrilled to have gotten enough attention from the band that they put us on their guest list for the concert. Here's the ticket envelope with Lori's name on it!!!