Michal Leach (My Daughter) 10/14/04   My First Concert          I was seven years old when I went to my first Rock and Roll concert. I was very excited because I got to stay up late. The name of the band was Toilet Boys and the drummer, Eddy, had put our names on the guest list. My dad knew all of the band members because he had taken many pictures of them for their album covers. My mom had given me earplugs in case it got too loud for me.          When we got to the club, Continental, our hands were stamped after they made sure that our names were on the list. And the bouncer than told my dad jokingly that I couldn’t drink. Another band was just finishing up as we were making our way towards the stage. That was really hard to do because it was really crowded and I was so little that it seemed like the whole state of Texas was there.          We were right in front of the stage when the band went on stage. When they started playing I put on my earplugs because I thought it was going to be too loud but after a few minutes I took them out. It wasn’t that loud because I stood right in front of the singer. The club was loud and alive with music and people and it was really amazing. On stage the band was doing some really freaky things; like the guitar player had fire coming out at the end of his guitar and he was also blowing fire out of his mouth, using the end of his guitar to light it. He blew it so big that the ceiling caught fire but the people at the club were prepared and put out the fire with fire extinguishers right away. Everybody in the club was coughing a bit but the band kept on playing. They had never stopped.          I got home at almost two o’clock in the morning and this is my memory of my first Rock and Roll concert.

The Led Zeppelin Story

The Led Zeppelin Story  I found out my wrist was fractured four days before the concert. November 1975, Zeppelin was playing a Monday and a Friday show, I had tickets for Monday. Sitting in the doctors office after my x-ray the doc says "Son, we're gonna' have to immobilize that arm for three months". Cast over my fingers and all the way up to my shoulder. I thought about it for a minute then held my arm up in front of my face like I was holding my camera, then held it like that for two hours while they put the cast on me. Verdict: I can hold my camera, but can't really use my cast arm for much else.  Monday six a.m., it's raining (Seattle) and I'm getting my gear ready to go. Skip school, check. Camera and all the film I could buy with after school job money, check. Grab a plastic milk box from behind the Dairy Queen on the way to the bus stop, check. Get to the Coliseum about eight a.m., twenty or so people have spent the night under the eaves of the building to stay out of the rain but no one is on line cause it's out in the rain. Walk up to the tape line that marks the beginning of the line and plop down my milk box and have a seat. I can hear people moaning and groaning because now they have to get up and go stand in the rain because of "that fuckin' guy". Ended up being friends with many of the people that I met on line that day. Hardcore line sitters are a tight group and I saw them at many shows that I attended after that day. Rained until lunchtime stayed grey the rest of the day. As it got later, the crowd got more and more anxious. Six p.m. the doors open, I run up to the first cop I see "what's in the bag" he says. Before I can answer, the crowd gives a shove and I'm ten feet inside the building already. Start running like hell for the stage, trip, tuck in my camera, land on my cast (which cracks), come up still running, did'nt miss a step. Get to the railing in front of the stage, park myself stage left in front of some equipment (someone must be standing there). After what seems like hours the lights go down. Get my camera ready, guess at the focus and f-stop "ladies and gentlemen led zeppelin", pow, the lights go up and there is Jimmy Page arms folded, bowing to the crowd and looking directly into my camera. Click. Awesome night, awesome show, pretty sure they played for at least two hours. Played most of Physical Graffitti and plenty of older stuff. Some of the crowd even started blocking for me so I could take shots without getting crushed. Rating: 10 out of 10