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Random thoughts from his grown fans, on finally meeting an untouchable man. |
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How do we begin, wow, such a monumental time in our lives. We could under estimate it since we were so young. But damn! It was big, and still when we can really sit silently and capture the memory of those moments, it would only be a sense of maturity that would distract us from remembering the depths of our feelings. After all, whether it is strange or not, these were our first strong feeling of love or infatuation or who cares it was intense. It was much more then the crush you get on a boy in school. Even with out Les by our sides, we had experienced emotions that few had at our age. I believe that is what brings a lot of us roller fans together. We, that remember these precious moments, remember just how precious they are.
Our first time seeing Les and the Rollers was June 1st, 1977. There was no date more important to us. They were performing at the Berkeley Community Theatre in California. It was the Fab 4 then. Ian had departed. We were heart broken. (First experience of loss). We got the best tickets in the house, front row center. We could not have been more excited the first moments of walking to our seats we were in a complete daze. Then was the artificial smoke and some where in the fog you could see glimpses of Les singing, moving around life size chest pieces. Its a game was the song. It was surreal, but we slowly recognized the voice, the face and the distinctive movements only Les could perform. Yes it was real.
By the time our crying faces could comprehend our wildest dreams we were being flooded by a storm of other roller fans. The first 3 rows were made up of folding chairs, set up in front of the regular chairs. The crowd rushed forward and those folding chairs were quickly demolished. Suddenly our glory spot was a territory to fight for. Girls were screaming and we were being crushed. All was hysterical. We had to fight to keep our eyes peeled on Les. Most of our energy was spent on fighting and surviving. Then Les looked directly in our eyes. It was too much, we screamed, cried and almost fainted.
We lived off of those memories for a long time, fighting for every detail or moment we could recapture, if even for one second. The tingly magical dreamy feeling we can still relive today.
So youd think nearly 20 years would make a difference. We werent pre-teens anymore. We were grown, mature, professional women (sort of) who had reached and passed their 30th birthdays. But not so, once finding out that Les was going to be performing in our area we reverted back to the same hysterical fans we had always been. There were 2 concerts, one in Monterey and the other in San Ramon California.
When we got together the day of June 18th, 1996, it might as well have been 1977. We listened to Less voice the whole ride down to Monterey from San Francisco, squealing every 10 minutes in our excitement. The first concert in the Monterey club, we became acquainted with the club owner, who after we convinced we were the number one fans, made sure we had front row seats. again. Yeaa! Then out came Les in a Sgt. Pepper jacket and bangs. There we were in front of Les again with the same adorable crooked smile and sexy voice. In our excitement we thought one of the band members was Ian, but then wait a minute, dreadlocks and perhaps in his 20s. No it was not. We were up dancing and having a great time singing along. Then Diane thought it would be fun to go on the stage in memory of past crazy concerts, was all in fun, until a security guard came and gave her the boot. Just like in the old days. How fun. Or embarrassing.
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