This was the second concert that I attended. I ended up going with the first girl I had a crush on, even though she was 4 years older than me. Her name was Cheryl, and she kind of took me under her wing and exposed me to some bands and music I probably may have never found out about otherwise. Cheryl was assistant manager at a record store in Chicago, and she ended up getting 4 tickets comped to her from Chrysalis Records, who was U.F.O.'s record label at the time, so she ended up taking her boyfriend John (whose younger brother Leonard is still a good friend of mine to this day), her sister Kathy, and, of course, me.

John ended up driving us to the Ampitheater, which was on the West side of Chicago, and those Chicagoans who read this know what a screwed-up neighborhood that is. So, we got out of the car in the parking lot and sure enough there were some crazy local bums asking for money to watch the car. This, to this day, is still an urban legend that people choose to believe in: If someone wants something in your car on the West side of Chicago, more likely than not you will come back with one of your car windows busted. You could have a squad of Special Forces watching it, and your 8-track player will still gets stolen. So, of course John laughed at them and we were on our way to the show.

So, as we were walking to the show through the parking lot, my tender young mind was exposed to the type of tailgate party a concert crowd throws: Instead of cooking food, they were baking themselves. Alcohol is, of course, a mandatory ingredient for tailgating parties of any kind. There were people in the parking lot with coolers of beer selling a cans to minors for $1, guys selling bootleg T-shirts for $5, and of course the drug dealers. It was definitely an enterprising crowd.

We got into the Ampitheater, and Cheryl had gotten some really great seats on the main floor. We had like, 20th row dead center. We all sat down and got situated when I notice Cheryl and John talking. Then John handed me $20 to go get 3 Cokes for the of them anything else I wanted. Not realizing I was getting sent on the "cottonmouth errand," I was thinking "Cool! $20. I had no idea those 3 were just getting rid of me so they could get high.

Before I went to get the food and drinks, I decided I have to go to the bathroom. There was a huge line there and I was in it 10 minutes before I even got into the john. When I finally got in there, it smelled like a whirlpool of urine, with guys pissing in the sink as well as selling and doing drugs of all sorts. I went into a stall, did my business, and as I was leaving, some guy asked me if I want to buy some acid. Of course I walked by without a response (I was scared) when he said something like, "Ahh, you probably don't even have hair on your balls." (He was kind of right, it was just starting to appear. And, so far as drugs went, if you remember my last column, I was a total innocent.)

So I got in line for food, which was really small compared to the beer lines I had noticed, and bought 4 Cokes and 4 pretzels for $16. I got back to my seat without spilling anything (major accomplishment) and John asked why I had gotten pretzels for everyone. I thought he was going to be pissed, but for some reason, he didn't mind. The three of them tore into the pretzels like they hadn't eaten in a week. Funny, I hadn't thought they were that hungry.

Finally, the lights went down and Judas Priest went on the stage. They were touring for their "Hell Bent for Leather" release and I had never heard of them before. As a matter of fact, I was looking at them, thinking, "These guys look like bikers" because they were all dressed in black leather. However, when I heard their 2 guitarists (Glen Tipton & K.K. Downing), play, I was like "WOW!" They were granted, like, 45 minutes to play, but about halfway through John sent me to go on another munchie run. I couldn't understand why they were so hungry, but I went anyway--it was no big deal because everyone was in the staging/concert area, so I could go up there and get the grub and get back within 5 minutes-just in time for Rob Halford riding a Harley Davidson motorcycle onto the stage for their encore song, "Hell Bent for Leather." Mind you, this was years before Rob came out of the closet, but you'd think we would have seen the signs back then.

The in-house lights went on and the roadies started tearing down the stage for U.F.O.'s set. Now the thing is, when I saw Yes. they were the only band. so I was actually kind of amazed at the road crews and the way they worked. They had Judas Priests' equipment off and U.F.O.'s up all in a half hour, which was pretty damn impressive as far as I was concerned.

Finally the lights went down and U.F.O. came onto the stage. I was real familiar with them and I was blown away watching Michael Schenker playing his Gibson Flying V. They had really great lighting, fog machines, and pyrotechnic devices too. All in all, it remains to this day a great concert in my mind, and I have seen a few since then. In fact, that concert I attended was recorded and released as U.F.O.'s "Strangers in the Night" who many rock aficionados regard as one of the greatest live performances recorded. Alas, Michael Schenker ended up leaving U.F.O. shortly after that tour finished to start a marginal solo career. Loser.

We ended up leaving the show (John's car was fine, BTW) and went home. As for Cheryl, I ended up going to 2 more concerts with her for consecutive Yes releases "Tormato" ('78) and "Drama"('80). I really dodn't want to do my next 2 columns on Yes shows, though, because it wasn't until 1980 that I started smoking pot and was liking it. Needless to say, my next concert review shall have a somewhat different perspective: Ozzy Osbourne and The Blizzard of Ozz, with Def Leppard as opening act.

Until then…ROCK ON !

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