Our
Manager
(1980)
We had a falling out with our manager (Mr. Lionel D. L---s), because did not pay us for one of our gigs. We played for the 30'th birthday party of a woman from Arroyo Grande. Lionel claimed that guy who hired us only paid half the money because he was not happy with our performance
Leslie: I do remember this being one of my favorite shows. That was one hell of a party. The publisher of the Arroyo Grande paper threw it for his wife, right? We had to learn some "60's tunes, man" for the crowd, like "Somebody to Love." The guy had a "This is Your Life" for his wife, and the members of the band SHE was in as a young woman showed up. We let them use our equipment and do a couple of numbers, I remember - she was actually a pretty good singer. She was so happy and so drunk and the publisher was really pleased with us.
Chuck: I think they did white room ("White Rabbit") or some other Airplanes tune, and she did a great Grace Slick. Lionel told us afterwards that the guy was not happy and had refused to pay the second half of our payment. I called him up to tell him how sorry I was that he wasn't happy, and he said, of course, that they were VERY happy with us and that he had paid Lionel that night! I remember marching down to his office with Pat, maybe Marc and Tim, and I was SOOO pissed I was shaking.
Tim: Lionel paid us once when we first started working with him, and then never after that. We won in small claims court but he skipped town soon after.
Pat: I recall that you <Chuck> and Tim and Marc went down to visit him, and that you guys called me on the phone to tell me what happened. I also recall that we sued him in small claims court and won, but could never collect. I have an interesting Lionel D. L---s footnote. Around 1986 I ran into him in SF at a music technology convention. He was pestering Herbie Hancock's stage guy. I told him that I was still unhappy that he never paid us. He told me that he had gone though some rough times. I basically let it drop and told him that I hoped things improve for him. A few weeks later I ran into him again, at a Jefferson Starship concert at the soccer field in Golden Gate Park. I said hi, and that was it. Well a few weeks later I ran into him a third time. This time it was with Tim at a burger place in Mountain View. Pretty weird that our orbits crossed so often.