By Steve Newton
Nowadays it’s hard to believe that record labels ever had money to blow on promotions, but back in the ’80s it happened once in a while.
Forty years ago last week–on March 21, 1984, to be exact–PolyGram Records rented a bus to haul a bunch of rock critics and media peeps from Vancouver to Seattle to see the Scorpions at the Seattle Coliseum. I remember we were allowed to bring a “plus one”, so I got my old musician buddy from Chilliwack, Scotty, to tag along.
It was quite the “shmooz”, in the parlance of the times. As well as free beer on the cross-border trek the record reps handed out high-quality grey Scorpions sweatshirts that you could hang your personalized laminate invites off of.
The show was great and the Seattle fans went nuts; that city was hard-rock crazy at the time. Of course, this was at the height of the Scorps’ popularity. As the followup to their choice 1982 Blackout album they’d just released Love at First Sting, which boasted the deathless metal anthem “Rock You Like a Hurricane”.
Mötley Crüe was scheduled to play the same venue the following night on their Shout at the Devil Tour, and I remember a couple of band members were backstage, running around like little kids at a birthday party. A couple of them scooted past me–I think Tommy Lee was chasing Nikki Sixx, but they all looked the same to me–so I called out “Alright Nikki!”
Next thing you know Tommy Lee stomped back and stood right in front of me and whined, like a petulant child: “I’m Tommy! I hate it when they call me Nikki!”
I thought that was hilarious, and it stuck with me ever since.
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