Where It All Started
Journey Past and Present 2002
Journey Past and Present 2002
"Hello Michelle, this is Officer Roth from Northern Station. I was just calling to let you know that we will be waving the fee for the barricades - another event is happening the next day and will be absorbing the costs."
That was the message on my voice mail Friday afternoon. An unbelievable stroke of luck -- a fee we hadn't anticipated at the outset had been miraculously eliminated. We were down to the wire and one more obstacle was out of the way. Now, if we just knew where the plaque was.
It was a week before the Bammies Walk of Fame installation and all of the major hurdles had been cleared. The permits obtained, fees paid, all the parties contacted and responses received, now we just needed a call from Don Rich to tell us the plaque was ready to go. How we had gotten to this point was truly mind-boggling. This was just a little idea that popped up over lunch one day in January 2002.
Darla, Cheryl, Leslie, and I were sitting around planning our second annual fan gathering for that coming summer and were brainstorming ideas about what we could do that would be "cool." Cheryl had suggested a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, but the cost was prohibitive. I suggested the Bammies Walk of Fame -- it was a San Francisco thing and would be great to do for the band. The key was finding out HOW to get it done.
Cheryl took the lead and started making the calls to various agencies in San Francisco to see how they had been done in the past. This led her to Nick Elsner at the Department of Public Works, with out whom none of this would have gotten off the ground. Nick had been involved with the previous 7 plaques. Better yet, Nick was a huge music fan and loved our idea and put Cheryl in touch with people at the California Music Awards who were now responsible for the plaques! After much discussion with the California Music Awards organizers, it was determined that installing a plaque in 2002 was not going to be feasible -- the time needed to get everything done wasn't going to be enough. So we started looking ahead to 2003 and turning it in to a 30th anniversary celebration. (Sometimes fate works in strange ways.)
Once we got the California Music Awards involved, we were able to reach Dennis Erokan - the founder of BAM Magazine and the Bammies (and the associated Walk of Fame.) After a few phone calls and a meeting with Cheryl, we managed to get Dennis to agree to come to the Journey show at Konocti Harbor where we were holding Journey Past and Present 2002 that August. The original plan was to have Dennis announce the Bammies Walk of Fame at our luncheon -- something small and simple. As we quickly learned, small and simple isn't the normal modus operandi. Dennis contacted Journey's management and now instead of announcing the Walk of Fame at our luncheon in front of 45 people, the announcement was going to be made from the stage during the concert! 5,000 people were going to be a part of this moment! It also meant that Darla, Cheryl, Leslie, Mary Ann, and I had to figure a way to get out of the JPP luncheon and make our way to sound check in time to meet with Dennis and Journey management with out any one knowing where we were going or why.
Once the plan was in place, all we had to do was wait for the concert. No one outside the JPP organizing committee and the band (and their crew) knew what was going to happen after the band finished playing "Liberty." Cheryl, Leslie, and Mary Ann were sitting in the third row on Neal's side of the stage, while Darla and I were in the fourth row on the other side in front of Jon. We knew that Dennis would be coming out by Neal, and about mid-way through "Liberty" Darla and I snuck out from our seats and headed over to where the other girls were sitting. When the song ended, Darla and I were crouched in the aisle next to Cheryl and had to convince the usher that we were supposed to be there and would be heading back to our own seats in less than 3 minutes. Dennis walked briskly out on stage and introduced himself and made the announcement -- Journey will be receiving a plaque on the Bammies Walk of Fame in 2003! The roar from the crowd was deafening and at that moment we all felt that we had really accomplished something. We pulled it off. We didn't realize that it was only the beginning.
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