My first concert was at the Providence Civic Center to go see Huey Lewis and the News with my friends Meredith and Jayne. I thought Dolores was there too but I don’t seem to mention her in the entry below, so I guess that’s one of those tricks memory plays on you? We were all obsessed with Huey, and although our seats were so far back that Huey appeared as a pinprick in the far distance, we had a great time. I was 16 years old. <\/p>\n
About 10 years later, I was living in Chicago, and one day my friend Ann Marie called me out of the blue, saying, excitedly, “I am coming to pick you up right now. We’re going to be in a Huey Lewis video.” Excuse me? Apparently, she had heard on her car radio that Huey Lewis was filming a bunch of videos in town for his Four Chords and Several Years Ago<\/i> album, and they were looking for extras. Apparently, the video was going to be an American Bandstand-inspired environment, with people dancing on the floor, and scaffolding all around the band. Filmed in black and white, we were told to show up in 60s garb (or a close approximation of it). We arrived at the studio to pandemonium, lines stretching out the door, people in bouffants and little 60s-era dresses. We ended up knowing someone who was working the door, a PA or something, who saw us in line, and shuffled us past the waiting throngs. Ann Marie and I were part of the group chosen to have our hair done professionally, so we sat in makeshift hairdressing chairs as stylists teased our hair and pouffed it out. It was a long day. Huey Lewis performed the songs live (in my recollection, he did almost a full concert for us – including some of his earliest hits), and we all had to dance and gyrate for the entire day. Ann and I were placed on a scaffold above the band over to Huey’s left-hand side. Recently, I found one of the videos from that day (I had never seen it before), and although I have squinted at the scaffolding right above Huey to his left for telltale signs of my striped shirt or Ann’s white shirt, I can’t see us. <\/p>\n
Here’s the video. <\/p>\n