Oct 14, 1996: Justin's solo album The View From the Hill released.

Nov 29, 1996: Tahoe-- I have no idea what I did this time, but apparently I took pictures because I remember showing them to people at the Portland Brewpub. One time I rode the elevators in Tahoe, and John Lodge got on with me! WOW that man gives off energy like a lightening rod! (While Justin just gives off cool silver-grey calmness, totally different vibes). After John egressed (all I could think to do was crunch ice in my drink, which I did…… no telling what he thought of that!) I collapsed in the corner of the lift, gasping. The guys with the clothes rack who were in the elevator with us cracked up "Which one was that?" "The bass player" I mumbled, getting a grip on my comedy act. Another time I rode the lift with Amanda, and she is very funny indeed.

Dec 8, 1996: Brew Pub, Portland--Wow this show sticks out in my mind.

This story should start out "it was a dark and stormy night" and it was. That winter was miserable in Portland, rainy wet cold dank….. I spent some spare time the week prior scouting the area out, and for a while we all thought he was going to be playing at another brew pub out in a remote location, THAT got straightened out finally, after I made a fool of myself on various newsgroups. Then I think I was the first person there that morning, in the cold the dank the wet, and the barely light morning. I plopped my lawn chair down next to the front door, and took off to park my car.

By the time I got back, people were moving my chair!!!!!!!!!! ARGH!!!!!! I hopped up and down, yelled (I hate it when people do that) but they had a reason, something about saving a parking place (I forgot what) and then I made very good friends with them. They weren't fanatics in the fan club: they were just folks who liked the Moody Blues, and had heard about the show on the radio the day before. They turned out to be lovely people; we spent an entire day that rainy afternoon, in this sports bar, drinking beer, and playing Hearts.

You have to understand, this was an ALL DAY THING. It was a free show, and you had to show up when the place opened, and then you sat there all day guarding your seat until Justin did his thing. The place was crammed with Moody fans, all day. We staked out a table. I don’t remember eating anything, but I do remember the beer, and seeing a little bumble bee in the bottom of the glass, and thinking that was the cutest thing…….. Portland has some great brew pubs, all locally brewed. The rain came down in rivers on the windows and it was a wonderful day spent in the company of Moody people.

Justin arrived and I happened to be outside with the smokers getting some air, I remember yelling "welcome Justin" and he walked by me without a reaction, the snooty thing. Ah well, he hates rainy weather so perhaps he is excused. Never mind that many others were yelling at him too. He was ushered in somewhere in back, and we heard that some group of either handicapped or abused women had been able to get backstage for signings, meetings etc. One came out in tears, staring at her signature like she couldn‘t believe it was happening. The Beatles (John Lennon specifically) made a comment about this sort of thing once in an interview. Apparently during their heyday this would happen to them too, a LOT to the point that when there were "back stage crashers" in their dressing rooms, no matter what the reason, they would just say "Cripples, Brian!" to their manager, or stage manager. And they would hide until the fans were cleared out. Or they dodged for their vans early and LEFT.

I know all that sounds mean and cruel, but the Moodies AND the Beatles have done a lot of work with charity (most performers do), and (old stage hand that I am) I totally respect a performer’s privacy off stage and back stage. Justin is a good guy, to put up with these sorts of things, indeed. Even if he was a little snooty out front.

Well the place began to fill up about sunset (early in Portland) and Tad Bartel showed up, and wolfed a Billy Burger. (the place had wacky names on their food, Billy Burger was a pretty good feed, I had that myself, and sobered up a bit). Tad was waving some contract thing involving surround sound. I never sorted it all out, but Tad was into professional recording, and re-mastering the Moody "core seven" was just getting going at the time. I don’t know what became of it, but Tad has dropped out of the Moody thing too. And Justin has released all the SACDs and 5.1, "hybrids" etc. as of 2007, some 10 years later now. Contact Tad for further information, but he was not real chipper, it wasn’t going good for him apparently.

Before Justin did his show, a very interesting young man (who frankly played the guitar as good if not better than Justin) came out and did some really wonderful old songs, terminating with "Irene Good-night". (Sadly I think I was the only one in the room who knew the song and was singing along with him at the end: he was just as nice to see as Justin).

Real quick a bit about the other fans in the room. At this time in the Moody fan club (I think I knew everyone back then, on the West Coast anyway) there were a couple of gals named Wendy and Margie. Dr. Wendy was (yes) a medical doctor from Portland, and she showed up at a lot of Tahoe shows, dragging her son who was a few years older than mine. Wendy managed to never crack a smile that I could tell (either a very angry, or very sad woman). Margie was her sidekick, and she showed up once at a Gorge show in full stage make up (which is very scary when not under full stage lights). They were EVERYWHERE for a while, and got all the front rows seats, pushed to the head of all lines, etc. They had ensconced themselves right under Justin’s feet at the bar this day, and only moved to pee from what I can remember (I got up and roamed around, there were some very funny things in the pub, pictures of Bogart painted on the wall, and bumper stickers like "Beer…so much more than a breakfast drink").

Later waiting in line for signatures, I spotted Wendyandmargie dabbing their noses with make-up, to look good for Justin. They were absolutely fascinating. I wonder what happened to them, haven’t seen them for ages!

Denise Dersheid showed up too, and squiggled in next to me. Pretty soon the Brew Pub was packed, and they closed the doors. A few lost and late souls actually stood outside, watching the show!

Then Justin came out, bumped his head on the low balcony he was standing on, and gave us a wonderful performance. We were so looped by this time he probably could have recited the phone book and we would have cheered. I KNOW for sure that he did "It's Up to You" then "Land of Make Believe" and then "Blue Guitar" in that order. I wrote it down. It was a very very weird moment, because Denise actually said "Play Blue Guitar" quietly, right as Wendy and Margie were simultaneously requesting it under Justin's feet (he was on a high balcony). And we were nowhere near each other. There was some psychic vibration going around the room apparently. Anyway when he started BG, Wendy and Margie squealed and clutched hands like schoolgirls. You could tell it was "just for them". I didn’t see puddles on the ground, don't know why not!

I don't know what he opened with, but he did (somewhere in the night) "Driftwood", "Forever Autumn" "Wildest Dreams" (I think he did that in open tuning, which was different), and he closed with "Raised on Love". He probably did something very close to the show in Seattle [the next night] , because I talked with Nida about it afterward and the line up was very close …. He DIDN’T do "Broken Dream" though.

He also did signings afterwards, and was there several hours, just talking with a long long line of people. (Justin has been really good about signing things for people; truly he is thoughtful to his fans). I had found (of all things), a JRR Tolkien book Mr. Bliss which was a hilarious children’s book with mugger Teddy Bears in it; so I had this in a bag for Justin all neatly wrapped (I was still in that "gotta give a gift" phase of the fan thing). Justin was very sweet when I finally got up there. There were two body guards (it was a bit like going to see Santa, honestly, and I never did like Santa when I was a child, so I was having serious flash backs. Santa as a blonde rock god, dressed in black, what a weird thought!). "If I pass out, just mop me up off the floor, boys" I said to them. "It’s ok, we’ll catch you" they said, kindly.

Anyway it was my turn, and I walked up, plopped the bag on the table, "Here" I said brightly. "Oh?" Justin said equally brightly, peeping in the bag. I wasn’t making eye contact at all, one of those Native American things I do under pressure. God I hate my reactions. Anyway someone (Martin Wyatt?) scooped the book away (hopefully Justin passed it on to Paul, it was really a very funny book) and I fumbled around with a poster, and gold pen for Justin to sign of The View From the Hill. Justin couldn’t get the pen to work, so he daubed it on the corner. And I have this unique poster now, not only with the signature, but with the daubing…. That makes it pretty special to me. As I staggered away, Justin smiled kindly, called me back and gave me back the pen! Do you suppose he gets a lot of that sort of thing from fans? He must, and must sorta get used to it. Pitiful in a way, aren‘t I?

I stayed for a while, watching the rest of the line (some repeated, not too many) and talked with Tad (and his wife Debbie? I think she was here?), who really are very nice folks. They were up from Eugene, and I think they were driving back home that night. I think it took three hours for all those folks to get through the line. I know Justin sold a lot of CDs that afternoon, and the Brew Pub sold a lot of beer, so it was good business all around. No major flaps either that I knew about. My only regret was that I didn’t record the show, my gear was screwed up somehow (hadn’t gotten more batteries after Tahoe the week prior) and I would liked to have recorded the other young man too, especially "Irene Goodnight" that was very special. No other recordings surfaced either, so Margie and Wendy were very stingy, or they slipped up too.