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Situated in the heart of
the world’s most exciting city, a night at the Garden draws an
audience of celebrities, record industry bigwigs, and the nation’s
top press people, not to mention thousands of some of the biggest
music fans in the country.
Last fall, a rock and roll band from
Northeastern Pennsylvania saw a dream come true when it played not
one, but three nights at Madison Square Garden.
Dakota, touring the country as the
opening act for Queen, is that band, and the Garden date
marked the grand finale of a national tour that took them to such
cities as Baton Rouge, Montreal, Toronto, Philadelphia, Houston, and
Atlanta, always playing before sold out crowds.
“The Queen tour was just so sudden,” laughed
Bill Kelly. “We knew we were being considered, but then we got a
phone call on a Tuesday morning saying that Queen wanted us in
Louisiana for Wednesday night’s show.”
The fact that Dakota was chosen for the tour
rather than any of the hundreds of other bands vying for the
opportunity is, in part, due to a timely push from Mike Stahl.
Stahl, a resident of Dallas, PA, was working as
sound engineer for the Queen tour. Upon hearing that Queen was
looking for an opening act, he submitted tapes of Dakota for
consideration, and the members of Queen liked what they heard.
In early August, Dakota was signed onto the
Queen tour for one week.
“Right from the start, things went well,” said
Bill Kelly. “We were getting encores and some standing ovations
which must’ve impressed the Queen personnel.”
Queen obviously was impressed because Dakota
was asked to stay on right through to the end of the tour, which
included those big three days at the Garden.
It’s a cool September night in New York City as
the crowds flock into Madison Square Garden. Scalpers furtively
peddle tickets to the sold-out show; trying to avoid the cranky
policemen who are busy enough trying to keep the crowds of people
moving along.
Street corners are filled with vendors selling
Queen T-shirts and pins while pushcart operators are doing a brisk
business with their hot pretzels and beef shish kabobs.
Inside the backstage dressing rooms at the
Garden, the members of Dakota are walking around nervously,
occasionally nibbling from the buffet that’s been laid out for them.
“We went to Queen’s tour party last night,”
laughed Kelly. “It was an utterly fantastic time, right down to the
strippers. Very decadent.”
“Naturally, we loved it,” added Jerry Hludzik.
As the band members get dressed and take turns
primping before the mirrors, the dressing room is constantly invaded
by a steady stream of people…security guards, friends of the band,
Garden personnel, and assorted well-wishers coming and going.
“These past few days in New York have been
insane,” said Kelly. “Working here at the Garden, meeting with
record company people, management people…things have been crazy.”
“And then, yesterday, we were interviewed by
one of those teen fan magazines,” he continued. “That was really a
lot of fun and an ego boost, you know, being asked your favorite
food and all that.”
Are you getting any feedback from the
members of Queen about your music?
“We’ve often seen them off-stage watching us
during our set, and they’ve tried to help us with our music, going
over our song list with us and things like that,” answered Bill
Kelly.
“In fact, the other night, Brian May (bass
player for Queen), watched practically our entire set, and when we
spotted him, he smiled and gave the thumbs-up sign. Afterwards, he
pumped our hands as we came offstage, and said to me in that very
English accent of his, ‘phenomenal, phenomenal!’”
As the band finishes dressing and gets ready
for showtime, wives and girlfriends are admitted into the dressing
room. Bill Kelly huddles into a corner talking with his wife, Susan,
while Tony Romano proudly introduces his fiancée around the room.
Jerry Hludzik, whose wife Barbara wasn’t in
town for the show, sips a Heineken and answers a question about what
it feels like to play the Garden.
“It feels so good to be here,” he smiles. “But,
then again, I always knew we’d make it sometime.”
Bill Kelly is asked how it feels to be
performing at the Garden.
“Well,” he laughed, “as Brian May would
say…simply phenomenal.”
Suddenly Dakota’s road manager Bill Stevenson
comes into the room announcing showtime, and the band is hustled
through the back corridors of the Garden to the side of the stage in
the now darkened arena.
A brief introduction and the band is quickly
onstage amid flashing cameras, criss-crossing spotlights, and an
applauding, anxious crowd.
Dakota launches into material from their
current album and the psyched-up sold-out crowd immediately responds
favorably to the music.
Cheers and applause are generated as Kelly and
Hludzik rip through their twin-lead guitar solos and (along with
bassist Bill McHale) slide on their knees to the edge of the stage a
la Bruce Springsteen, while bathed in bright, white spotlights.
Dakota is keyed up; Tony Romano is sweating
profusely as he attacks his drums; the usually somber-faced Jeff
Mitchell on keyboards is smiling now, and Bill Kelly’s brief
between-song patter is screamed at the crowd and full of nervous
energy.
Sensing the band’s excitement, this tough New
York crowd picks up on it, and as Dakota’s forty-minute set ends,
the audience – fists in the air – is cheering, and much of the arena
is on its feet.
“That was a typical crowd reaction on the whole
tour,” Bill Kelly told us.
“You saw those people dancing and cheering and
shaking our hands. But, before we went out there, they couldn’t have
cared less who we were.”
“We could have gotten booed off stage, or they
could’ve screamed for Queen all set, but the listened to us, and
they liked us, and we proved ourselves to that crowd,” smiled Kelly.
A few months after the Garden date, we asked
both Bill Kelly and Jerry Hludzik to reflect on the show and what it
meant.
“Really, it was the entire Queen tour that
helped us,” said Jerry Hludzik. “The tour gave us credibility and
got our names known throughout the industry.”
“Plus, we did the tour in grand style…getting
respect from both the audiences we played to and the people we
worked with. We were hired on for a week and lasted the whole tour,
and I feel this tour proved a lot about the talents, the energy, and
the potential of this band.”
We got in touch with Bill Kelly at his home at
Harvey’s Lake, where he talked about the Garden appearance and its
effect on the band’s image locally.
“The Garden shows really were a vindication for
us,” said Kelly.
“I said before that we always felt playing the
Garden was within reach for us. We just knew that, but a lot of
people thought we were talking though our hat.”
“But, now that we’ve appeared at the Garden,”
continued Kelly, “this should prove to many skeptics in this area
that the dream Jerry and I had when we began this whole venture was
not just an idle daydream.”
But the fulfillment of one dream invariably
leads to more and bigger dreams.
A major label LP and the Queen tour in 1980 are
just a step up the ladder for Dakota, who feel this year will bring
yet bigger accomplishments.
“Watch us in 1981,” smiled Bill Kelly. “We’ll
be having a lot of surprises for everyone.”
Whatever surprises Bill Kelly has in mind, the
simple fact remains that Dakota’s three nights at the Garden will
forever be one of the most important achievements in their career.
Perhaps the prestige of having performed at
Madison Square Garden is just beginning to sink in for Dakota after
all these months.
Lately, Bill McHale has taken to occasionally
wearing a T-shirt onstage which proudly reads, “I Played at
the Garden.”
Bragging?
Perhaps. But, there are a few hundred thousand
other musicians around this country who would kill for the
opportunity to wear a shirt with that same slogan.
So, congratulations, Bill, and wear that shirt
in good health!
Chisak is a free-lance writer covering the Wilkes-Barre musical
scene. |
