Author: Mike Stampalia
Page: 5
By Mike Stampalia. 40 years ago: Eric Clapton @ Saratoga Performing Arts Center This was the Clapton everybody had heard before and expected, the wronged and downtrodden, content to let these melancholy melodies flow through and shiver his slender posture as if he were a public lightning rod on unrequited love and sorrow. After […]
(Image: The Pointer Sisters @ SPAC, 6/24/85 – photo by Bruce Squiers for the Saratogian) By Mike Stampalia. 40 years ago: The Pointer Sisters @ Saratoga Performing Arts Center The Pointer Sisters, Ruth, Anita and June told a Saratoga Performing Arts Center of 8,000 they’d been up partying all night with Phil Collins, the […]
(image: Phil Collins entertains 27,000 fans at SPAC, 6/23/85 – photo by the Saratogian) By Mike Stampalia. 40 years ago: Phil Collins @ Saratoga Performing Arts Center Collins’ voice was great all along, especially in “Against All Odds,” the movie soundtrack he wrote that was hacked to death during the Oscars. The singer who performed […]
By Mike Stampalia. 50 years ago: Benny Goodman @ Saratoga Performing Arts Center With his band dressed in burgundy outfits, Goodman marked his appearance on stage dressed in white and immediately drew applause. The warm welcome of the sudience lasted the whole performance through and before Goodman could make his opening remarks one woman in […]
(Featured Image: Dan Fogelberg @ Tanglewood, 6/21/1985 – photo by Mark Mitchell for the Berkshire Eagle) By Mike Stampalia. 50 years ago: Ramsey Lewis @ Saratoga Performing Arts Center 40 years ago: Dan Fogelberg / Chris Hillman Band @ Tanglewood He sings lots of personal love songs and borders on being overly sentimental, but […]
(Featured image: A violent storm shuts down Alive at Five, 6/24/2024 – photo by Timothy Reidy) By Mike Stampalia. 50 years ago: Herbie Mann / Joe Farrell @ Saratoga Performing Arts Center After a standing ovation and the first of two encores, the spectators began piling into the orchestra pit, forming a conga line and […]
10 years ago: Train / The Fray / Matt Nathanson @ Saratoga Performing Arts Center His shrill, but full, falsettos were exceptional–a level of singing rarely seen on recordings, and virtually never seen live. When Train played Aerosmith’s “Dream On” during their encore, Monahan’s singing was chill-inducing. The audience was left to decide for themselves […]
40 years ago (1985): Bryan Adams / Fiona @ Saratoga Performing Arts Center Adams had a crowd of 18,234 young fans all to himself. He didn’t let them go until he’d delivered all of his hits and a full dose of songs from “Reckless,” his current LP, in a performance that stretched into five encores […]
By Mike Stampalia 50 years ago (1975): Lynyrd Skynyrd / Wet Willie / Atlantis @ Saratoga Performing Arts Center The group came back for an encore and, with some help from Wet Willie’s Jimmy Hall, did Jimmy Rogers’ 1920 song “T for Texas,” a song that seemed to be 50 years ahead of its time. […]
The Town of Bethlehem reliably puts on one of the best (and biggest!) Memorial Day parades in the area. Terrific weather and a great turnout for this year’s edition. Photography by Mike Stampalia. More from Mike Stampalia …
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