In 1979, I sat out at Peaches Record Store all night to score Sammy Hagar and Boston tickets. I was first in line at the store on a night when the wind chill got down to -35 degrees. Sammy’s music had snared me a few years before when my neighbor Jerry gave me a ride in his Volkswagen to school. The car had transmission issues so every morning my neighbor and I pushed the car so he could pop the clutch to get the car started. Fortunately the Volkswagen had an 8-track player so it was in that beater that I heard the debut of Montrose and Hagar’s Red on the way to Collinsville High School.
Out at Peaches on that frigid winter day in early 1979, I outfitted myself with moon boots, multiple layers of clothing and a sleeping bag. By midnight dozens of people waited in the cold darkness. At morning light about one hundred kids were in line. As the moment got closer to the store opening, the crowd pressed me against the glass door. Nobody was out of control. We were all just anxious to get inside to buy the tickets. The tour featured Boston as a headliner with Hagar opening up the show. By 1979, Hagar’s popularity had surpassed the band Boston in St. Louis and so this concert was greatly anticipated by hoards of guys.
I scored 7th row and was thrilled. The energy of the show was unrelenting, particularly Hagar, who spent much of the time running from one end of the stage to the other. For Sammy’s set, the crowd just roared. I snuck my camera into the show and found that photography was almost impossible with dozens perched on the chairs bouncing on the rows. Months before, Hagar opened for Nugent and the atmosphere was identical. By late 1978, Hagar as an opening act in St. Louis had the audience standing on their chairs and rushing the stage. This just didn’t happen back in those days for opening acts. Most bands that opened had a hit or two under their belt. Hagar was a smash in St. Louis.
The following year Superjam ‘80 took place at Busch Stadium. Right before Journey’s set, I made my way to the field. I strolled to the far right of the stage and found that the security wall was so high that nobody wanted to be against it. So I walked in front of the massive stage and made my way backwards into the crowd. Throughout Journey’s set I was just a dozen feet from the center of the stage. Prior to when Sammy performed I made my way back to the upper deck. Way up in the highest tier where the breeze blew through the hot stadium, I witnessed Hagar driving his red Trans Am on the field and make his way to the stage. Midway through his set, I saw one of the spectators down in front of the stage jump up and hold onto the edge of the security wall I had walked in front of an hour before. As the man clutched the top of the 4 x 8 foot piece of plywood it separated and gave way. All of the sudden bodies began pouring through the gap flowing like a break in a levee.
A few years ago I spoke with Sammy and brought this up. It was a phenomenon that he hadn’t experienced anywhere else, with the exception of his hometown. He was incredulous at his popularity in the city and credited several people beside himself including Shelley Grafman at KSHE, Dick Richmond of the Post Dispatch and Wayne Meisenholder and David Burd, both record reps at Capitol Records. Yet he didn’t remember Superjam as the place he experienced the broken barrier. Sammy admitted his memory for such events wasn’t all that clear. But he spoke in detail of riding in the Trans Am and being up on stage in front of thousands of fans. I asked the question because of my curiosity of whether he was inspired by that experience when he wrote the lyric in “Heavy Metal” In it he sang, ‘we’ve got up front fanatics tearing down the barricades!” Sammy said in the interview that the lyric was from a number of places where people pulled down the security wall. I wondered my memory was from a dream. A while after that I came across a recording I had of Ken Suitter doing an interview of Sammy Hagar in 1982. At the time Sammy talked briefly about the insanity of that Superjam and mentioned the breach in the wall.
Sammy’s popularity really hit home for me in 1982. I was attending Northern Illinois University in Dekalb. Hagar scheduled a show at the Chick Evans Fieldhouse that year. The large gymnasium held about 5,000 people. My dormitory was across the street from the ticket window. So on the morning the tickets went on sale, I strolled over to the window about two hours before they went on sale. I was the only one there. By the time the ticket window opened, a few dozen had showed up. To my surprise, I walked home with two front row tickets. The show did eventually sell out but it was like I had gone to a foreign country from St. Louis. There I stood in front of Sammy taking photos with ease, not worried about shoved and snapped some of the best concert photography I had taken in those years.
Sorry it took a while to put the photos in. Here is a shot of Hagar in 1979 opening up for Boston. Typical of many St. Louis shots. People just didn’t sit still! Also A shot in Dekalb.
