THE TUBES

Part two of the interview with Lighting Tech & Stagehand Par Can. Any other venues you worked at stand out?

Madison Square Gardens – oh Lord above. I did the arena upstairs and downstairs was the Felt Forum. Both times the New York State Circus had cages in the building where they kept animals when they weren’t on the road. The smell…you could imagine!

The Manchester Belle Vue had a similar animal circus thing, I saw Peter Frampton and Parliament there and you got this faint whiff of dung. Like the person in front having really bad B.O.

Wembley Arena was easy enough to get in and out off but back in the day it had a reputation for rubber rigging. I remember putting Queen in there in 1980.

When the ‘fly swat’ lighting pods with follow spots went up and down they weren’t smooth like they should be, they bounced…up, up, up. Same when they came down…boing, boing, boing. Yeah that was rubber rigging.

Philadelphia Spectrum was bad, a lot of iconic venues you read about as a kid it’s disheartening when you find they are horrible places. It was always known as the RECTUM !

There was an arena that The Tubes were doing, might have been Minneapolis? No it was Duluth. Next door was a car museum and next to that was a freezer plant because the place was also an ice rink.

Now they used ammonia to pump under the ice rink to freeze it, it was a whole complex – America is all bigger and better apparently!

After the gig during load out warning lights started flashing, horns started screaming. Next thing everyone’s choking there had been an ammonia leak “Everybody out”.

Fire brigade made it safe but your eyes were burning, you’re choking, felt as if you were gonna throw up from your feet. Not gonna forget that one in a hurry.

I started at Newcastle City Hall in October 1977 and it was all the older guys who’d been there a while. Then slowly but surely, the Sheelz (South Shields) Mafia landed – Dave Ainsley, Dave Linney, Ian Rylance, Gary Lilley, Alan Armstrong and Kev Charlton who once tried on Phil Lynott’s leather pants and he couldn’t get them past his thighs.

Kev was thin himself in those days. We were rolling around in hysterics it was so funny. It showed how skinny Phil Lynott was.

Colin Rowell was the manager and it was rare for him to just leave us overnight to crack on with stuff – but he knew we’d get up to no good. Rush in 1979 comes to mind.

There was a big plastic bin full of ice cubes lying around so we took it up through the roof into the rigging points which looks onto the stage.

One of the lads was looking for us, Dave Ainsley, he was walking across Rush’s stage which was covered in a lovely white shag pile carpet, he shouted “Where are you” as the ice cubes went flying down on him… never thinking ice cubes from 45 feet up could have knocked out… or worse !

When Thin Lizzy played the City Hall me and Kev Charlton ‘acquired’ some pyro and at 6am went up in the old empty projection room on the roof.

We set alight to the pyro, a white mushroom cloud went up and started drifting towards John Dobson street. We ran downstairs when there was a bang on the stage door.

“Morning officer” we said “Never heard nothing we’ve just been asleep”. Somehow we got away with that one.

Another night Mr Plod visited again about 2am “What’s going on in there?” We’d been on the stage and turned on the City Hall organ thinking we were playing Phantom of the Opera.

***Looking down on the stage from the balcony to the ‘Biggest production in the City Hall’ Van Halen 17 June 1980.***

One night we found a small tunnel on the side wall panels near the seats. We all crawled along on our hands and knees to see where it went. We ended up in next door’s building – the City Baths.

So obviously we got our kit off and swam about – well what else would ya’ do? Unfortunately we must have triggered an alarm so we scurried back to the hall with our clothes under our arms!

The tunnel led to a number of turning points and they went on for a fair distance, some were blocked off by a fence. I’m sure they led all over the city. Once we ended up at a fenced off exit all the way in the Ouseburn Valley ! Took almost an hour to crawl each way !!

Back then it was great, so much fun. Nowadays after spending hours putting them together they don’t let the crews watch the show.

We didn’t do it because we were Meccano freaks, we did it because we were hanging around with the gear, the musicians, to see bands we would never dream of paying to see – Weather Report at Newcastle City Hall was one such band.

Me and Kev Charlton were sitting on the drum riser before soundcheck, Jaco Pastorius came in and sat at the drums. Thwack, thwack, leading with the left, leading with the right, giving it six nowt. We were astounded.

Then he gets up and another guy comes in on drums, believe it was Pete Henderson. Then Jaco Pastorius picks up a fretless bass and starts playing. The sounds they created were amazing. Kev and I were mesmerised.

We did follow spots for the comedian Billy Connolly and one joke had me and Kev laughing so much that we couldn’t keep the follow spot steady. Billy said “Geordies, pissed again”! The whole audience turned to look up at us.

What impact did the road have on your life today?

Until 1990 I never saw that career ending, I came back to the UK got married and had a beautiful daughter. But touring for months at a time isn’t compatible to a home life. So eventually got my hair cut and got a proper job – boy have I regretted that ever since.

How did it affect my life? It got me around a lot of the world several times, lived in America, and to this day I’ve still got an amazing amount of friends I met and worked with because of that time. Some of them, not many, are still on the road today.

Alikivi August 2023.

Link to 2017 interview –

BACKLINE – interview with former Stage Hand and Lighting Designer PAR CAN | ALIKIVI UK : NORTH EAST CULTURE (garyalikivi.com)

For music concerts staged in small clubs or huge enormodomes a crew have to load the gear in, set it up, operate it during the show, break it down and load it all back out again then onto the next venue. And if you’re on tour, repeat that for days, weeks or months.

Newcastle born Par Can was a former stagehand at Newcastle City Hall, on The Tubes touring crew, worked for Bette Midler, Queen, The Cure, and American rock giants Van Halen with ‘the largest production ever in the City Hall’.

Sit back, relax and enjoy the show with Par Can who looks back at his time on the crew.

I guess like every local Geordie kid in the seventies I was football obsessed. Then I heard Alice Cooper’s Caught in a Dream, I’m Eighteen and other tracks from Love it to Death.

Then I started buying music paper Sounds every Wednesday, that’s where I first saw pictures of Alice Cooper – wow what the hell is this?

The Kard Bar in town sold hippie oil, pop and rock posters. With my friends we used to go on Saturday and spend our pocket money.

My parents were fine with my bedroom being covered in Alice Cooper posters, including the ceiling. It was when I put up a picture of the New York Dolls that they got worried!

I can’t say music means everything these days – but it did back then. I used to hang around the stage door at Newcastle City Hall and one day, it was a Mott the Hoople gig, helped a roadie with a piano (interview with Par Can 20 Nov 2017 link below).

I got more involved in music and hanging around the City Hall, so my mother had a word with City Hall Manager Bob Brown.

Then one day in October 1977 I turned up at 9am to work. My first ever stage crew gig paid me £7. The band on that night were Wishbone Ash. Next day was Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet band.

I blagged my way into working for a lighting company in London run by The Tubes manager, after that I ended up following the band on their first ever UK tour.

Did any venues stand out when on tour around the UK & USA?

Newcastle City Hall is always gonna be the venue it’s where I saw every band I wanted to see growing up, except Led Zeppelin.

But I suppose the only thing that stops Newcastle being the venue is the loading in and out. It was bad back when we did it. It isn’t much better now they have extended the stage door. Why someone doesn’t make that whole load in/out more efficient is beyond me.

There is a beautiful theatre in America, the Orpheum Theatre in Boston, to me that was like the City Hall. The only problem with that one is that the trucks had to reverse down an alley to get to the front door.

If you can imagine two blocks of buildings with the Orpheum literally being the sort of stop gap at the end of the alley. It wasn’t wide enough for two trucks so you had to reverse one at a time.

To load in you had to go through the front doors, through the foyer, turn left into the theatre and then down the space between the seats and onto a ramp leading to the stage. A bad one to load in and a pain in the arse to load out at midnight.

However, it will always be one of my absolute fave halls, ALWAYS a great atmosphere… just like the old lady or even the old Glasgow Apollo.

***Par Can on stage at the Glasgow Apollo.***

Edinburgh Odeon when that was still open was a lovely place. Trucks loaded in across a backyard then straight onto the stage.

The ceiling of the Odeon was studded with little bits of mirror that looked like star constellations and it had recesses in the walls with statues – a really beautiful theatre. Only 1800 capacity and perfect for The Tubes.

It had a stage door phone which was a direct line to the pub opposite; The Bucleuch Arms. You would send your order and 10 minutes later, barmaids would be carrying trays of drinks to the stage door.

Birmingham Odeon was a good one although the trucks had to reverse down a sloping alley, not ideal but the theatre itself was fabulous.

Load in was through a door onto quite a big stage. Around 2500 capacity, but another one they went and shut down.

Manchester Apollo was an easy load in load out, didn’t much care for that place, although it was right next door to a lovely pub called The Apsley Cottage.

The Tubes did a series of smaller shows towards the end of ‘81 and one of them was called Uncle Sams in Nantasket Beach in Hull Massachusettes.

The two trucks were parked back to back in front of this three storeyed cube building, the bus was on the opposite side of the street.

We got out the bus went through the doors and oh my God it was like the stairway to nowhere ! It seemed to go on and on. Every piece of gear had to go up this concrete staircase of around 100-150 steps.

The show finishes 11pm you’re tired after a long day and you’ve got to load the gear out – how the hell nobody fell down those stairs carrying amp racks and the sound desk.

Glad I was a lampie – although that was bad enough. There are lots of venues that are horrible but that Uncle Sams has got to be the worst… on second thoughts, Mr C’s Rock Palace in Lowell MA was a REAL toilet… urgh !!

One of the best was the Kabuki Theatre, San Francisco, it was directly opposite the Winterland Ballroom. The joy was it had a revolving stage.

The Tubes did two shows there in September ‘83, MTV filmed both nights. You can watch it on You Tube. You catch me when I had my long blonde hair then, wandering along the stage. Near the intro a phone rings and manager Chopper Borges shouts out “Par Can”! “What” I reply in Geordie.

The revolving stage was perfect for The Tubes. They would be on stage with backs towards the audience, combing hair putting on make-up, then Kenny Ortega the choreographer would shout ‘showtime, showtime’ and the band would line up in their business suits.

The stage would revolve and there is all the gear, as they walked onto the static lip at the front of the stage. What an amazing start to the show…any show!

At the end the stage would revolve and you would see the band starting to get undressed and a curtain would pull across the entire front of the stage. Marvellous.

Read part two packed with more stories from Par Can.

Alikivi September 2023.

Link to 2017 post –

BACKLINE – interview with former Stage Hand and Lighting Designer PAR CAN | ALIKIVI UK : NORTH EAST CULTURE (garyalikivi.com)

ALIKIVI : NORTH EAST UK CULTURE

LIGHT ‘EM UP with former Lighting Tech & Stagehand Par Can 2/2

LIGHT ‘EM UP with former Stagehand & Lighting Tech, Par Can 1/2