CHICAGO BEATLEFEST

Now, the never ending story about being a "fester".

by Cheryl Landwer

from Kansas.

 It's much cheaper to fly out of Kansas City (a three and a half hour drive from my house) than to fly out of Tulsa (an hour and a half drive). So, Friday night Christopher and I stayed at my sister's in Emporia, Kansas. By staying at Susan's we were only 2 hours away from the airport. Our plane was to depart at 7:51 AM on Saturday. We talked and visited too long! C. and I didn't go to bed until 1:00 AM. I didn't sleep a wink. I never sleep well unless I'm in my own little (king size water) bed. I was also paranoid the alarm clock wouldn't buzz.

  Anyway, C and I got up at 4:00 AM. Susan was up feeding her newborn daughter so we were able to say good-bye. We were on the road by 4:30 AM. C. slept for most of the drive. I don't have good night vision and I strained to watch for deer running across the highway. All I saw was one cat which I didn't hit, by the way. Phew!

 I slept while we flew. When we landed C. and I found the shuttle to the Hyatt with no problems, that was because we asked for directions right away. Ha! We checked into the hotel. We couldn't go to our rooms yet so we hauled our stuff to a great place to watch for the people we were to meet. I brought a neon orange sign which read, "gs?

 Cheryl B.?" These were people I'd met on line and had no idea what they looked like. After about 30 minutes a tall, thin man in a blue t-shirt showed. He looked around like he was trying to find someone. It was gs! He noticed our sign. After he bought his ticket he showed us some items he brought to sell so that he'd have money to buy goodies.

 The first thing he showed us was a Renco Georgie doll, I asked how much he wanted for it. He said, "$50.00". I said, "Sold!" The dolls sell for over $80.00 on e-bay. Later, I saw they were selling for $115.00 downstairs where the vendors were. I already had the Pauly doll and would like to have the entire set. Then gs (Greg) showed us the book, Ringo Starr: Straight Man or Joker. I had it on my want list also I bought it along with a book titled, Growing up with the Beatles. I gave him $16.00 for the pair. We continued to visit and wait for Cheryl B. for about 40 minutes. She never showed. We decided to eat. There was a food bar set up in the foyer. We ate cheese pizza. It was $4.00 a slice but the pieces were huge. The drinks were $2.00 for 16oz. Prices were rather steep. gs told C. and I how he met Michael Stipe (R.E.M.) when he was visiting Athens, Georgia REM's hometown. What a great story. I want to go! gs was a laid back and interesting person.

 The three of us went our own ways after lunch. C and I watched the tail end of, "MMT" on the movie screen in the ballroom. It's fun to watch B. movies with lots of people and on the big screen. Everyone sings along, screams whenever there is a close of their fav Beatle, and goes nuts after a solo. We stayed for the welcome. We also stayed in the b-room to hear Lou Harrison speak. She's always so much fun. She said her grandson was going to attend with her this year but he became ill. She said maybe next year he'd come. Lou said she doesn't talk about George when he was little but if her grandson had come we would know exactly what George was like as a child because her g-son is just like he was.

 Then, our room was ready so we went to drop off our stuff. The hotel was really cool there were four glass elevators in the center of the foyer. The foyer was an atrium- open with lots of plants. There were catwalks to the halls of rooms. We exited the elevator on the 10th floor and climbed half a flight of stairs. The room was nice with a pleasant enough view. It was close to $100.00 a night to stay there. Every time C. and I got off the elevator we had to read the signs to figure out which way to go. It was confusing all four directions look identical! I kept telling C. the hotel design looks like a M.C. Escher drawing. He agreed!

 We decided to go to the basement next. We went through the museum it's an entire room filled with nothing but Beatles merchandise from day one forward. It was unreal- Beatles talc, nylons, hairspray, fabric, record players, bongos, tickets, advertising posters, lunchboxes, etc. The thing that amazed me were the store displays. One display had 12 little coin purses. Not only did someone keep the cardboard display but it still had the 12 purses on it!

 We looked at the art gallery. All kinds of art made by festers. There was a contest and you could vote for yourfavorite. One person designed and built a Yellow Sub out of ConnNex (sp) blocks. It was motorized. The propeller was spinning. It was about 5 feet long. Another entry was a crib with Yellow Sub theme even a mobile of the Beatles hung over it. We didn't vote... too hard to choose!

 We peeked in the room where you can have your picture taken with Beatles cardboard cutouts. C. did this last time. It's unreal how lifelike the photos turn out. C. looked like he was looking over Pauly's shoulder as P. played the bass.

 C. and I shopped for a while then we saw Lou was at her table. I was standing in line to see Lou when Gordon Waller, from Peter and Gordon showed up at his table. He was right in front of me. I brought a 45's from home, "World Without Love" I asked him to sign. He did. I'm glad he did because, "World Without Love" is what is known as a throw away Beatles song. One a Beatle wrote and gave away to another artist. Then we talked to Lou for a minute. C. took my pix sitting next to her. I really wanted the autographs but I felt weird like I was groveling and trying to be close to these people I didn't even know. Then I felt like they were cheapening and selling themselves at these tacky little tables. I hated it. I vowed never grovel for autographs again. You must remember by this point C. and I had gotten up driven to KC, flown to Chicago, met a new person, listen to a speaker, checked in, watched part of a movie, etc. I think I was just tired and it was only about 2:00 PM. We decided to shop a bit longer then go to our room for a nap. So, we'd be ready to the sound alike competition at 7:15 PM.

 I had difficulty sleeping. I only slept about an hour. Although I didn't sleep much I had a better outlook when I awoke. I woke C. and told him I wanted to see the Beatles Trivia Contest. He said he didn't. I left the little festing wimp in the room. Ha! At the Forum, it took a while to gather contestants and set up. I watched the contest for about 40 minute. It was set up like a real game show- buzzers and all. The questions weren't hard. The master of ceremonies read the lyrics of a group/solo song. The contestants were to supply the title of the song. The MC read the lyrics in such a way that it was difficult to connect them with the title. He paused in the wrong place, used a different rhythm etc. If the contestants could have read the lyrics themselves it would have been much easier. I left to go looking around. I went pass the laser karaoke room. I didn't spend any time there. C. and I did last time and really enjoyed watching the fans sing B. songs and make their own video. It would be fun to make one if you came with several friends and you all went crazy. I browsed a bit in the maketplace then went back to the room.

 I forced little Chriser to get up and ready. While he was waking up I took the ice bucket and went for ice. It seemed there was no ice to be found. People wearing B. t-shirt were wondering around with empty ice buckets. There were two machines on each floor. All of them as empty as our buckets. One man said, "I don't think these are ice buckets at all. I think they are bongos!" They were big and black and did look like bongos. Beatle people were riding up and down the elevator in search of the precious substance. One man yelled, "I heard there's ice on the third floor". Beatle people headed to the elevators with their buckets. One young guy said, "The ice chest in my room is full of ice." I said, "You should sell it." He looked at me in pretend horror and said, "No!". Another man said, "But this is B-fest it's all about money." We all kind of laughed but knew the sad truth, he was pretty much right. I didn't find ice on that quest. I did find some later.  

 A man in a B-shirt was holding a bucket coming from the direction of the ice machine. I asked, "Did you find some?". He said, "Yes, a little, but there were people in line and I didn't want to take too much". I looked in his bucket as he passed. He had four bottles of pop and twelve little ice cubes! When I reached the machine, I was ap"paul"ed to see four ice cubes melting on the floor! No one was in line behind me so I filled my bucket half way. I will always remember this B-fest as a quest for the precious substance ICE! It was a fun way and reason to interact with other festers and just like Pauly wanted we were, "helping each other out". Beatle people are so fun.

 Well, C and I finally quenched our thirsts and headed to the sound alike contest. The acts were so good. The guy who won sounded just like Pauly he played the piano and sang, "Beautiful Night". He was incredible! One act was a novelty take off of, "Taxman" called "Batman". It was pretty clever the singer was dressed as Batman and had changed the lyrics. He didn't sound like any of the Beatles and I leaned over to C. and said, "Doesn't sound a bit like Cagney". There was a little boy about 9 that played piano and sang a Pauly song. I was impressed he did so well in front of a couple thousand people. A large jam session ended the event. The fest was covered by, "Good Morning, America" and aired a few days later. This contest was what they were showing during part of the taping.

 The music is the best part of the B-fest. As much as we loved to shop and look around the live music was "the thing".

 C. and I went browsing again. He wanted to buy a Georgie shirt. He wanted one with a cool saying- not too interested in a picture. There were hundreds of styles at the marketplace but barely any of Georgie and none with sayings. It was unreal how many shirts there were. If someone didn't come in a B. t-shirt they left in one. If you saw someone in a shirt like yours you'd say, "Nice shirt" or "I like your shirt". C. didn't buy a shirt.

 We went upstairs to find a good sing along. We found one about fifteen people were singing along. The "band" had 13 members. They were flat rocking! What a ball. We spent so much time singing along we missed most of Liverpool's concert. When C and I made it to the ballroom Gordon Waller was singing as Liverpool played. His voice was all racked up (a temporary condition) and he apologized. He still sounded great, his voice has a lot of strength. Then Laurence Juber of Wings joined them. This man was incredible! He played, "Rain" on his guitar. It sounded like a music box. It was the most beautiful thing I'd ever heard. A hush fell over the crowd of about three thousand. It was really cool. I want to see if, "Rain" is on his new CD, "Altered Reality". I was never a Wings fan.

 I think I have 3 of their 45's which I found at an antique store for .60 a piece four years ago. Laurence sure is dreamy. C and I had to go nite-nite we could fest no longer. *yawn* It was 1:30 AM. At this point I decided we would have been better off paying more for our tickets and leaving from Tulsa. At least we would have slept better on Friday night. I had a couple night caps after the concert and then and only then did I sleep peacefully.

 I awoke to the sound of the telephone. It was my Uncle Carl. He was letting us know that Cousin Jay was still going to meet us in the lobby. Imagine, my Cousin Jay (about 36 years old) has lived in Chicago all of his life and never been festing! We had 1 1/2 hours until we needed to meet Jay. I wrote everybody's postcards and packed as C. snoozed. Then we checked out and met Jay in the lobby. We dumped all of our stuff in his car because we didn't want to haul it around all day.

 We went to the ballroom and listened to Lou Harrison again. We never tire listening to Lou. Next, there was an auction. Martin Lewis was the auctioneer he was very entertaining. He'd say things like, "... do I hear 1964, the year the B. came to the US, do I hear 1967 the year Sgt. Pepper came out on and on he went. This particular time he was collecting bids on a photo with all four autographs. It went for around $2,200.00. It was pretty funny how he 3 and 4 dollared his way up using important dates. Needless to say, we didn't bid on anything.  

 After the auction was Astrid Kirchherr! C and I were so excited. She was so sweet and down to earth. When she referred to the B. she called them Georgie, Pauly etc. just like I do!! She said she has been married many, many times, but she will never marry again because she realized her only true love is and will always be Stu. After she spoke C. J. and I went for $4.00 pizza and a $2.00 drink. Then I did what I vowed I'd never do....I groveled for Astrid's autograph!

I bought a postcard of her most famous photograph. The one where all five B. are in front of the train car. I stood in line with my little postcard. The others in line were holding posters of Astrid's self portrait, which she was selling for $20.00. I approached her table with my cheapy $1.00 postcard. I told her how happy we were she came to Chicago. She said, "I love Chicago". I thanked her for signing the card. The man, a helper, sitting, next to her said in a German accent, "It's my job to roll (the posters) and put on a rubber band. How will I roll this (referring to the postcard)?" Astrid, the German man and I cracked up. How embarrassing! Not only was I a groveler but a cheap groveler! Ahh! I do want to have an autographed self portrait poster of Astrid. See, right there...a reason to attend B-fest next year! (If she attends.)

 Cousin Jay enjoyed the museum and all the ancient B. artifacts. He knew far more about them than I realized. We checked out the John Lennon art room. John's art is so amazing. He uses so few lines to communicate his point.

  We went to the maketplace in the basement one last time. C. ended up buying a John t-shirt. It had one of Astrid's photographs on it. (Since it was the last day some vendors reduced prices on items. Remember that tip if you attend.)

 Hold on people I'm almost finished!

 The three of us attended the Battle of the Beatle Bands! This is one of the major highlights of the fest. We listened to the first 7 bands. There were 25 in the competition. They were all excellent! Even Cousin Jay loved them. We didn't want to leave but we were to meet his parents for dinner. We were already 3 hours late! Finally we couldn't put it off any longer. Cousin Jay said he'd pull the car around. C and I were to meet him after two songs. We decided to leave after one so Jay wouldn't have to wait. When we got in the car I said, "Oh, Jay the last band 2 Pockets and the Trash Can was wonderful". He said, "What'd they play?" I said, "Tell Me Why". He said, "Don't say that! It's my favorite B. song!" (C and I noticed several members of the 13 person sing along band from the night before particiapated in the competition.)

 Well, that's all of the exciting B. related happenings we experienced in Chicago. Do you want me to tell you the not so exciting happenings? Just kidding!

Note: C and I were there 1 and 3/4 days. We DIDN'T see and do everything. It really does take 2 1/2 days to take it all in.

all u need is <3 ///o-o\\\

Cheryl

Lou Harrison and Cheryl.

Chicago Beatlefest´99