The Spectrum Concert Experience and inside tales featuring Photographer Stephen Hightower!

0:05 SPEAKER_03: Hey everybody, welcome back to the concert room. Inside the Philly Concert Experience. I'm your host, Bob Hill. Concert Room is a podcast section dedicated to all the great performances and performers who played on the stage at the legendary Philippi Spectrum Arena. The Spectrum held numerous events and concerts over its 40 plus years of existence, earning the nickname America Show Place. The Spectrum was a special place for music fans and bands. And in today's podcast session, I invited a special guest to talk about the Spectrum Concerts from the perspective of not only a fan who grew up during the heyday of concerts, but also a photographer artist who captured the spectrum in a different light and view from the average fan like myself.

0:52 SPEAKER_03: My guest is Stephen Hightower. And in addition to photographing and documenting venues with an artistic eye, he created a really great Spectrum Facebook group page that includes not just concert archives, but also all of the events held at the Spectrum over its 40-plus year history, such as Flyers Hockey and the Sixers basketball team. I'll include a link to his Spectrum group, and also in that group is a link to his Flickr account, which houses all of his great photos. And lastly, Steven has a really great insight to the closing events of the Spectrum, which he documented with his camera.

1:36 SPEAKER_03: And this ties in nicely with my last podcast that was dedicated to the closing of the spectrum. So let's get to it. Steven, welcome to the concert room. You did create a spectrum Facebook group called Remembering the Spectrum, and that encompasses all of the uh events held at the Spectrum, of course, hockey and basketball, other events besides concerts, and that group uh to me kind of helps confirm that the uh Spectrum is uh aptly named you know America Show Place. I wanted to ask you, when did you create that group, if you remember?

2:13 SPEAKER_00: Uh when did I coming out firing? Well it's it's it's not it's not a group. It's just uh it's just a page. It's just the it's just the Facebook page. Like so it like Yeah, I had a majority of the case. So that is different than a group. Yeah. Yeah, a group you actually have to like try to join and then you go in there and there's moderators and this and that. And the page, I pretty much just post different things. I mean, I try to get people to submit things or ask for their, you know, I'll post something of mine and then say, tell me your memories and then I'll make comments on the different things.

2:48 SPEAKER_00: But it's is the Facebook page that's called you know, the Philadelphia Spectrum, America Show. I mean, if you went on Facebook, you would think it was the Spectrum's Facebook page.

3:00 SPEAKER_03: Right, okay. Yep.

3:01 SPEAKER_00: But the spectrum doesn't exist anymore, so it's my Facebook page. Right. You know, in you know, it's like an homage to the I think I even have somewhere on there that it's just a little pictorial ode to the uh little arena on the hill. Oh, there you go.

3:17 SPEAKER_03: That's awesome.

3:18 SPEAKER_00: Because it always it was always on that little you had to climb the steps out front and then on the back, you had to climb the uh yeah, on both sides you had to climb the fence, but then on each end there was, you know, it was all it was all up on that little mound.

3:31 SPEAKER_03: Yep. Yeah, I I mean I looked at that and I thought, wow, this is great. You know, all these spectrum pages and stuff. Uh but I thought, you know what, I'm just gonna kind of start a Facebook group that uh is dedicated just to concerts because there's gotta be a lot of things out there. That was an important part of the uh you know, important part of the arena, obviously. You know, growing up.

3:57 SPEAKER_00: I think that's what catches everybody.

3:59 SPEAKER_03: That's what catches everybody because not the wrestling, it's not the monster trucks, it's not even I mean, flyers have their own thing, obviously, in the 70s that was legendary.

4:09 SPEAKER_00: But uh Yeah, the concerts, and you have your basketball people, and you have your wrestling people, but I mean everybody liked concerts, everybody went to shows, I mean different shows, but everybody went there for the concert experience.

4:27 SPEAKER_03: Yep. Well, speaking of which, let me ask you, what was your first concert? Because uh that kind of helps us set like a marker. You don't have to tell me.

4:39 SPEAKER_00: Yeah, my first concert, I mean, I can remember like it was yesterday, it was December 18th, 1983, which was right in the middle.

4:51 SPEAKER_01: Or not even the middle. I mean, it was at the birth of MTV.

4:56 SPEAKER_00: Pretty much. I mean, so I would be sitting there watching MTV and I would see this video come on by this guy named George Thurgood. Bad to the bone, and he's walking down the street carrying his guitar case, and his kids are following him, and he goes into the um pool hall, and there's Willie Moscone, and I mean he's playing pool, he opens his guitar case and he tastes it. I mean, he takes a pool stick out. I mean, it's just a I mean, it it was a bad to the bone video. Yeah, and I mean that I mean I was just hooked.

5:36 SPEAKER_00: If I wasn't 15, I was almost 15.

5:39 SPEAKER_03: Oh, nice.

5:40 SPEAKER_00: And I had never been to a concert, and I went with my dad, he took me and we sat pretty much whatever the section was that was right above section R. So it was it was off to the side a little bit, but out in front. So you could you had like a perfect bird's eye view looking like right down on everything. And first of all, the smell of the fog. Yeah, I was like, all right, this isn't good. This this might not be good. This is probably gonna be my last show.

6:16 SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you probably won't be allowed to go to a five.

6:18 SPEAKER_03: If you're sitting up high, yeah, man. It waves right above the floor section, like right above your head. But it waves. Yeah, I was like, I'm not gonna be allowed to go to another concert with this.

6:31 SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and and then like halfway through the show, we're all we're on the aisle. The aisle is right, I'm on the aisle seat, and the aisle, the steps are right to my right. And you gotta remember, I mean, the spectrum was pretty steep. Yes. Oh, there's still I mean it wasn't like it wasn't like I mean the center, the center now, you walk the center, I mean, you you're pretty far out. It's a pretty wide bowl. Yep. But at the spectrum, I mean, they were they were pretty that was a pretty steep incline.

7:02 SPEAKER_00: And this guy comes tumbling down the stairs. Oh, I believe it. Right next to me, and I'm like, oh, there goes the final straw. Thanks a lot, guy. Thanks a lot, dude. This is this is definitely I won't be back to another show. And and it was definitely the last show. Well, and I can't say that. It was the last Spectrum show my dad took me to, but we actually went to other Thurgood shows when he would play uh like a like a college in Delaware.

7:30 SPEAKER_03: Oh, of course.

7:30 SPEAKER_00: Or a smaller venue in Delaware, uh Delaware, we would go see different shows. Yeah. My first record was The Knack, get the Knack. Yeah, I have that with Mar Sharona.

7:41 SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I'm looking at it right now on my wall. I just picked up the city.

7:44 SPEAKER_00: My second record, my second record was ACDC Back in Black.

7:48 SPEAKER_03: Oh, nice.

7:50 SPEAKER_00: So I was I was big into you know ACDC and they're two different tastes right there.

7:56 SPEAKER_03: That's pretty good. Like the knack and then ACDC and everybody everything in between, right?

8:02 SPEAKER_00: Bob, I send you the list of concerts I've been to. My taste of music is so ridiculous I can't even begin to make sense of how I I have no idea. Well, first of all, I was I was weaned and raised on country. So yeah, I've seen a million, I've seen a million country shows. I've seen almost as many country shows at this point now as I've seen the rock shows at the spectrum. Yeah.

8:27 SPEAKER_03: Oh, that's pretty cool. Well, my first concert was uh Van Halen in 80. I've talked about that before the World Invasion Tour. I think uh Women and Children first came out, and it was May of 80, so winding up uh sophomore year, I think. That was my first concert, and it was amazing. To me, it was amazing. I couldn't believe it. And after that, I had to go down and see every single show. I call it like what uh what we used to call the concert bug, you know. I just I mean, my friend uh had Bob Seeger tickets like a couple weeks later, and he couldn't go, and I'm like, I'll go.

9:12 SPEAKER_03: And that was a great concert, you know, Z Top, the Kinks. I mean, I was just the yes, I just every every show I just had a I had to go. I I caught the bug after that Van Halen. Yeah, when I sent you my bar. That was a high bar. I mean, the Van Halen show in 80 yeah was a very high.

9:30 SPEAKER_00: I can imagine that one. I remember when I saw them when they came around in support of their 1984 world tour when they like we talked about it last time with the eagle on the front shirt of the front of the shirt, the uh the eagle world tour.

9:43 SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and on the back it had the uh the hammer man the yeah with the uh the terminal setup stage setup with their 84 was awesome, yeah. That whole thing with the city in the background.

9:56 SPEAKER_00: That was my first Van Halen show. Yeah, and I was gl I was lucky to see because that would right after that is when Dave left.

10:02 SPEAKER_03: Right, exactly.

10:03 SPEAKER_00: Yeah.

10:04 SPEAKER_03: I'm a little older, so I mean Van Halen back in '78, probably, you know, was when I got into him. But I wanna when when I saw because they were always opening for bands, and then in 80 they went out on their world invasion tour by themselves, and you know, they're headlining at this point. That was my first show, and that was a really high bar after that. But all the concerts I saw after that met that bar. You know what I mean? It like I said, Seager, great, kinks, fun, classic, you know.

10:40 SPEAKER_00: Yeah, Seeger, Seeger, I had on my list on such a great show, and I wasn't even really I never got to see.

10:46 SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah. Well, it was just I got lucky because my friend couldn't go, and he's like, here's here's two tickets. I'm like, Yeah, I'll go. I know I'm not even into them. After that, I was like, Hell yeah, I'm into Bob Seeger. Great tunes all night, you know.

11:02 SPEAKER_02: But um Yeah, I would have loved to have seen him live.

11:06 SPEAKER_03: Well, let's talk about the concert experience because that's what we're doing. Um, where did you see the advertising of shows? Like what but so back then, how did you I don't remember see I remember how did you see them? Because this is before the uh you know, and this is before so newspaper, radio, uh for me it was inquire, it was uh spectrum.

11:29 SPEAKER_00: I would only hear them on the I wouldn't I would either see them in the uh the spectrum magazine because we had season tickets to the flyers in the early eighties. Right. Early eighties, mid-80s in that time range, and and even after that, we even when we didn't have the season tickets, we would still go to the games and I would pick up the action magazines. That's what it was. Yep. The action magazine would be the only place I would really see them in print. Other than that, it would have to come on the radio.

12:02 SPEAKER_00: Yeah. I can still remember one of the Thurgood spots for the tickets, like it was yesterday. It was like bad, bad to the bone, through and through, Thurgood, George Thurgood, and the Delaware destroyers come to the spectrum, and then they would like name the date and everything, and it was like going on sale, and then they would give the date, and it's like That's awesome, isn't it? So it I mean it's that's that's when I would hear it would be on the would be the radio spots. I remember that more than seeing it, but I do remember paging through the action magazine.

12:34 SPEAKER_03: Yeah, so the point is is that before the internet, so the listeners probably like, well, how did you see hundreds of shows back then without the internet? Because now everything's you know right on your feet. They're like, Oh yeah, it was all radio.

12:46 SPEAKER_00: It was it was I mean to me it was to me it was 100% radio. Right.

12:50 SPEAKER_03: We had to we had to, but the great thing about the spectrum, the tower, all these, you know, the main point when that was open, Ripley, all these satellite, you know, venues, you know, they would it it was like a conveyor belt. I mean, bands were just constantly coming through, especially the spectrum. Like every almost every week, like every month you might have five shows. And the cool thing is that you look in the inquire and it would list all five shows for that month. So you could just pick one out.

13:25 SPEAKER_03: That month's show for the spectrum would be like five shows, and you just kind of circle it, you know, plan on what the tickets are.

13:32 SPEAKER_00: Only the rare only the rare shows would I really have advanced uh knowledge. I guess knowledge of because uh we Did you ever go down to the I would say I would say ninety ninety some percent of the shows we went to we got our tickets through ticket brokers. Yeah. Right. So we would I mean, uh I could be listening to you know Pierre bro Pierre Robert doing the workforce box. And he would be and they would do like a block of this band because they're coming to town or they're in town or they're gonna be playing the spectrum tomorrow night, they're there tonight.

14:08 SPEAKER_00: I mean, I mean it would it would always be through the radio in one way, shape, or form. Whether they're whether they're coming next week and they play a spot of 'em or they play the advertisement, it was always Yeah, or a lot of times it was last minute for me because that's that's the only way we could really afford to go, because if you waited till the day or two before the show, or even the day of the show, that's when the agencies they know if they don't sell you the ticket, they're gonna be trying to give them to scalpers and risk getting, you know, nothing or even arrested.

14:47 SPEAKER_00: Right. So I mean we c you always had more leverage the longer you could wait. So I mean that's how that's how we saw so many shows, is because we went to the brokers.

14:56 SPEAKER_03: Uh you ever camp out for anything? I never camped out. Uh speaking of I never did. Never had to.

15:04 SPEAKER_00: We can't I'm not gonna remember who we camped out for, but we did it for the experience. And when I say wait, it was me and my brother. And we did it strictly for the experience. Okay, yep. And they get tickets. Remember for who? And it never did again because the tickets we got, even for being like third in line, were so horrible. I mean, it was infuriating because again, we were used to getting good seats just by going to the ticket brokers. Yeah, we went there, and again, I can't remember who it was for that we were lined up for, but the night of the show, the night we went there to get in line for the next morning, the dead was playing.

15:42 SPEAKER_03: Oh wow. Was this at the spectrum you were camping out?

15:45 SPEAKER_00: It was yeah, it was yeah, we yeah, we were we were we were lined up right at the you know, the uh the box office was down the steps, and you went around the statue and then came up the steps, and then they would start to line you up along the uh the black iron rail railing.

16:00 SPEAKER_03: There you go. Good memory.

16:02 SPEAKER_00: But but the uh the dead was in town playing, and so there was this whole vibe just around the outside of the show the whole night.

16:12 SPEAKER_04: Right.

16:12 SPEAKER_00: Just the whole dead experience. And that's when the guy was walking around saying, you know, hits dose of shrooms, hits dose of shrooms, hits dose of shrooms, and then the one time he just like hits shrooms, hits all that don't yeah, don't you have any doses? And my brother got so mad at me, and I'm like, why? What's the worst that can happen?

16:34 SPEAKER_03: It's all chill down there with the dead, though. God, it was so much fun down there. But I wanted to get back and ask you the fake ticket, because that's my So what was up with that?

16:46 SPEAKER_00: No, it's I've I've heard people talk about the fake ticket that you had posted on that you you didn't know was fake. About I can't remember who posted the ticket, but somebody said, Yeah, that's a fake ticket. And he was he was kind of embarrassed to admit it, and he said it wasn't his highest point. And I'm thinking, like, should I be embarrassed? Should I feel bad about what I did? And I'm starting to feel bad about not feeling bad. To me, I thought it was like it's what I needed to do. But like I said, I we went to ticket agencies to get the tickets.

17:16 SPEAKER_00: And it was always the same one, and it was always the same guy we we dealt with. We were we were looking to see the uh I wanted to see the show. Van Halen, October 22nd, 1988.

17:33 SPEAKER_03: Okay.

17:35 SPEAKER_00: And uh section 103, which is Eddie's side.

17:38 SPEAKER_03: Yep.

17:40 SPEAKER_00: And what the what the I was looking for something if if I'm not gonna be within the first five rows, I'm not a tall guy.

17:50 SPEAKER_03: I'm I mean, I say you'll be standing on your seat all night, you know, if you're but even but so will everybody else.

17:57 SPEAKER_00: So will everybody else. The uh it was the October 22nd, 1988 show. Van Halen. And I had gone into the ticket agency and was asking this specific one. I was like, Wait, where was the agency?

18:09 SPEAKER_03: Because you didn't deal with them on the phone, you actually went in there physically? Like you went.

18:12 SPEAKER_00: I physically went in there. They were located uh at at the time I was dealing with them, I believe they were in, I believe it was Cinnaminson on Route 130. It was called it was called front row tickets. We got row six. And even if they had said row four or five, worth it. I'm like, I'm still, you know, once everybody gets up on the seats, that's still gonna be. I was like, I was like, what he goes, I goes, what else you got? He goes, I got row eleven. And I mean, I didn't even hesitate. I said, I'll take row eleven.

18:43 SPEAKER_00: He goes, You asked me what we had on the floor, you want to be as close as you can, but you're gonna take row eleven and not row six. I was like, Yeah, I'll take row eleven. And wait, did you know you were gonna be nefarious? Absolutely, yes, absolutely. I knew it, you say nefarious and it makes me feel bad.

19:05 SPEAKER_00: You say nefarious and it makes me feel like I should feel guilty, but yes, it was it was one of the tickets where it was a ticketron ticket. I was gonna say not a regular it was a ticketron ticket where the perimeter like the border was blue and the interior box was yellow, and then the little you know, row seat and uh aisle were uh row, row seat what am I missing? Oh section, section, row and seat were were yellow blocks. And so I took uh razor blade on its edge and gently scraped off the second one on the eleven and then I dabbed it with a yellow highlighter where I had scratched it, and then and then to compound it, I then creased the ticket, like I folded it right over that, which hid the which hit it even more.

19:59 SPEAKER_00: And I knew what I was going to do was I was going to be down around section R or someplace near the floor when the lights dropped. And as soon as the lights dropped, I know all they do is just quickly. I mean, they're dealing with jumpers, they're dealing with everything. I mean, so I had a ticket, I just needed to get onto the floor to my seat. I knew all they were going to do. They just got a flashlight in their flashlights go down. Yep. I was like, all they're gonna do is flash it on there, they're gonna see the section.

20:30 SPEAKER_00: Row one is gonna get me right up to row one, the stage, and that's that's where I stayed for the entire show.

20:38 SPEAKER_03: Yeah, but you didn't have a seat. So do you hang out? It was Van Halen.

20:42 SPEAKER_02: It was Van Halen. Yeah, it's all it's all making.

20:46 SPEAKER_00: There was there was once the lights dropped, there were no seats.

20:49 SPEAKER_03: Right. Everybody's in the spilling out in the uh aisles and stuff.

20:53 SPEAKER_00: Yeah, exactly. Everybody once once those lights dropped, and when it was Van Halen coming on or any big band, yeah, no. Anybody anybody who was even ten rows back automatically lurched five rows forward.

21:06 SPEAKER_03: Yeah. Yeah, I remember that. We saw Cinderella with uh I think Bon Jovi it was 86. Oh, that was a great show. Yeah, yeah.

21:17 SPEAKER_00: Is that where the one where Tom Kiefer's piano came down from the ceiling?

21:21 SPEAKER_03: Something like um that might have been later years. Oh I don't remember because they were just opening. Oh, okay. Um yeah, we rushed the uh stage for the Cinderella. We're just there to see them. We rushed the stage, and you're right. It is we got down. We snuck down, we were able to get past and uh jumped down the floor and just rushed, got up there, you know. It is, it's mayhem.

21:48 SPEAKER_00: Yeah, once the if I mean that's that's why that's why if you're with that's why if I was with a significant other, I wanted to be in in the seats on the on the Sides like around section R, you know.

22:02 SPEAKER_03: Yep. That's a and that worked. So it I could see that working because, like you said, when the lights go out, strobes are on strobes and you know announcing Van Halen barrels into their first song.

22:17 SPEAKER_00: It's like uh well you mentioned they always they always played a s they always were playing outspeaking, they were always playing music over the PA system, and then that would stop. Oh and the lights would go out. Yeah. And that's when everybody that's when everything would go crazy.

22:31 SPEAKER_03: Yeah, that was the best thing. Like inside the spectrum, that show night was just great. Yeah, as soon as you got in, you're like, wow, man, this is great.

22:42 SPEAKER_00: You got a mini concert of everybody else just over the PA system.

22:45 SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and you know what I noticed is that um so you'd have beach balls going on, people smoking, the fog would start lifting, and the music would be blaring over the PA. And what I noticed is is that the the uh music would get louder and louder a little bit. They'd turn it up just a little bit, but it got closer to showtime. So it got louder and louder.

23:10 SPEAKER_00: So it made more of an impact when they cut it.

23:12 SPEAKER_03: Well, it it's almost like they're just priming the PA, you know, they're just starting to put the levels up, um, and it's getting louder and louder, and then right in the middle. How great was that? Like right in the middle of a song, you're just chilling, watching the beach balls going, and then bam, lights go out. And then that roar, right? It's just deafening. You know, you're breaking my heart, Bob.

23:40 SPEAKER_02: You're breaking my heart. That's why I do this. That doesn't anymore, man. Nah, it doesn't. America's number one show place.

23:48 unknown: I know.

23:49 SPEAKER_03: I wanted to ask you about your photos, speaking of which, on Flickr, do you ever think about doing a photo book? Like putting them in because you have a unique perspective. I mean, looking at your photos.

24:01 SPEAKER_00: Well, yeah, what yeah, well, I wanted to, without getting too much into the story of how I got into where I got into, when I got into, I had agreed not to do anything for 10 years. I was like, I was like, I don't really care about that. I was like, I, you know, I'm I'm fine with that. But as I started to see the stuff that was coming out from the spectrum, it was all uh insider stuff, but like we were talking about before, the pictures, it would be like, you know, this is when the Who played the spectrum, and it would just be them in the back corridor.

24:34 SPEAKER_00: It's like that could be any corridor, and you know, it or it's a picture of the band on the stage, and it's like, well, that could be any stage. It's like it doesn't really all of my I wanted every picture I took to really encapsulate anything anybody could remember about the spectrum. And most of the pictures I took, like whether it be from the last stroll, which was the uh event that they just let people into, yeah. Basically just walk around.

25:00 SPEAKER_03: Yeah.

25:00 SPEAKER_00: Or if it was the last call where they gave the tickets away for I don't remember what the price was, but it was like whatever the tickets cost when they first opened, it might have been like four dollars and seventy-four cents or something. Okay. It was it was a really low price. I mean, they basically gave the price away.

25:16 SPEAKER_03: But what about your book? I mean, did you ever think, like I said, are you gonna do something with these photos? Uh, because they are out on Flickr. It's they're great. Um, but yeah, I mean, yeah, you you do have a really unique eye, and anybody, like you said, who's ever been grew up going to the concerts of the spectrum will recognize all the angles, you know, um standing in line, you know, at the at the gates in the front, right? That brings back a lot of memories.

25:49 SPEAKER_00: I've thought about I do I do different types of projec projects, uh, whether they be just art pieces or or or the photographs themselves in different sizes.

26:03 SPEAKER_04: Yeah.

26:04 SPEAKER_00: Or even a photo book. I try to do it I I I don't have the type of uh I'm not set up to where I can actually just go and have a book published the way it would meet my standards. Gotcha. Because I mean there it's an expensive thing. Right. So anything I do when it comes to the spectrum.

26:28 SPEAKER_03: It is, yeah, and it's a committed.

26:31 SPEAKER_00: I've done it with multiple buildings that have been demolished. Whether they just be like uh arts and crafts error uh architecture and hospitals, and I make it how about a website?

26:48 SPEAKER_03: Do you have a maybe put up a website with all your uh photos on it, you know? I'm putting you to work, Steven. We need to see these photos. They are great. Um that's a compliment to you because they are great.

27:02 SPEAKER_00: It's hard. I just wanted to complain that's a compliment. If I put them out there, one thing they have to be is authentic and protect limited run.

27:12 SPEAKER_03: Right, and protect it. You gotta mark it.

27:15 SPEAKER_00: Otherwise, they're otherwise they're not gonna well anything out there on Flickr is such a small resolution. Oh, right. Nobody could really pull it down and do anything with it. Right.

27:27 SPEAKER_03: Oh, okay. I got you.

27:29 SPEAKER_00: Now, the stuff there's there's a couple I posted in your group where I didn't really worry about that. Like the one of the uh the one out front of the Mr. Schneider party on uh the January 18th of 2018, 16th? January of 2011. 11. Uh that when he had his uh the Earth, Wind and Fire party. Right. The searchlights, and it's got the Zamboni out there, and it's the entrance where like the limos would pull up and the people would go out and go in right down underneath. And that I put that up there and I didn't really take into consideration like theft of the image.

28:10 SPEAKER_00: Right. But other than that, I try not to put anything out there too much publicly unless it is dumbed down so far. It's not worth seeing that you really couldn't pull the image and do anything with it. Right. That makes sense. It's good. Because it would be so grainy, because I like to I like it to I like to keep it protected, but uh I would say I would say mass production, no, only because of cost. There would be a significant cost involved. I mean books are ridiculously expensive to make. Yeah, they are.

28:42 SPEAKER_00: And and it would have to be I mean, it would have to be a book that I wanted to make if I was gonna make it.

28:47 SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and there might be a a narrow I wouldn't say narrow audience, but you know, we're we're talking about a specific thing, you know, the spectrum. Yeah, exactly. Because it would be like, oh, here's all my concert photos from around the country in the second. Exactly. That's different.

29:05 SPEAKER_00: Yeah, because the pictures would be all be of the building. That's true.

29:11 SPEAKER_03: It's like all right, well, I'm thinking about it when it comes to the spectrum. I'm like, you know, it's I definitely would buy it. But you you're right. I mean, it's uh they're just great photos. So speaking of which, you just mentioned the final events and everything else. You so you were down there when they were uh demolishing it, right? So you have photos of that.

29:35 SPEAKER_00: Uh diff yeah, different at different times. Right. Not not the whole time, just different times.

29:40 SPEAKER_03: Yeah, well, it took a while, you know, and that that's uh kind of heartbreaking to say, you know, just the the skeleton of it and and uh the inside photos are just uh I kind of hate looking at them with the seats all crushed up and you know.

29:55 SPEAKER_00: Um but let's Yeah, that I didn't do that if it didn't if it didn't have to do with art, I didn't go in and take any of the I I've seen them pictures, but I don't want to see them pictures. Yeah, same here. Everything I have now that has to do with any type of the demolition is all done from an artistic eye.

30:16 SPEAKER_03: Right. And your pictures show that, which is really cool. Um but let's talk about the final events because you mentioned the last stroll event. Um what was the first final event? Because I didn't attend any of these. Honestly, I did not attend any final concerts, final stroll, um the ticket uh thing you just mentioned, where they were discounted. Last call, I didn't attend any of that. Um so what was first last call or was it the the stroll event?

30:58 SPEAKER_00: I would I would say the first what I would consider the first real closing event would be when when Bruce played his uh four shows.

31:08 SPEAKER_03: Okay. Like ten days before before Pearl Jam.

31:13 SPEAKER_00: I think uh I think the final date was the uh around the 20th? Yeah, the tw I think the final date was the 20th. Yeah. Maybe maybe like the 13th and 14th, and then 19th and 20th, something like that. But I mean I might be off on the exact dates, but yeah, you're right.

31:34 SPEAKER_03: I think this last date was October 20th.

31:38 SPEAKER_00: See, I I I have to play devil's advocate because I appreciate everything that was done for me as a Spectrum fan in the way they closed it down. Right. And so I don't really know why they picked Pearl Jam. I'm not a Pearl Jam, like I'm not a Pearl Jam fan, so I don't really know the story, but they they sold the place out I think four times. And they really put on a show four times, and they really did a good job at you know closing her down the right way as far as you know, heavy, you know, rock shows, big shows.

32:22 SPEAKER_03: Right.

32:24 SPEAKER_00: And like I said, the I could I could find other people that would have made more sense than Pearl Jams, but I have to take the positives of Pearl Jams and say at that time maybe they were one of the biggest names and say who was where in their career and really big. You know, they're when I when it came to when it came to other people, they might have had a better connection, but were they really at the level as Pearl Jam was?

32:57 SPEAKER_03: Right. So I understand that Pearl Jam asked to close the spectrum, and they were granted that. Um, because they did close, and I'm not sure if it was it was maybe the sh uh Chicago Stadium, and I don't know, maybe it was the Bulls Stadium, they're basketball fans, they grew up watching, you know, the Sixers. So their tie-in to the spectrum was only through, I think, professional basketball. They grew up NBA fans, and they grew up in the heyday of the NBA, like we did, you know, with the Bulls and the Pistons and the and the uh you know the Sixers, obviously.

33:41 SPEAKER_03: Um, so when you think of when they think of the spectrum, I think Pearl Jam thought of like the Sixers, whereas we, in fact, and we're talking about it, is you know, concerts along with hockey and basketball, etc. Right. But, you know, the concerts were just such like we talked about in the beginning, such a big part of our life. Um, if you weren't a basketball fan, you didn't go down and see the Sixers. If you're not a hockey fan, you don't you weren't following the Flyers. But we always went down, but they had those.

34:19 SPEAKER_00: But the question, yeah, just close it out with the motors. Right. Well, that's what the last that's what the last call was. Right, okay. The last call was a bill. I think there was there was at least four different people on there.

34:32 SPEAKER_03: And that should have been the final event. That's what I guess that's what I'm trying to trying to say. Like that should have been I'm gonna disagree hard there, Bob.

34:41 SPEAKER_00: Okay. Oh I uh that's right. Well, you already talked about that strip.

34:45 SPEAKER_03: Yeah, okay.

34:46 SPEAKER_00: Well, we'll put it.

34:50 SPEAKER_02: Um I mean help. Can you get the company love the company spectrum? Oh, Thurgood would have freaking loved the spectrum. He would have killed it.

34:59 SPEAKER_00: I remember hearing spots put him on Halloween, close it out. Come on. Yeah, I remember some of his radio spots. He would always talk about the Philadelphia air conditioned spectrum. Oh, that's oh, nice. I mean, because he's playing otherwise, he's playing like college gyms and stuff. But he talked about the Philadelphia. I mean, I can still hear him saying it, the Philadelphia air conditioned spectrum. I never heard it refer to that. I love that.

35:24 SPEAKER_03: Yeah, that's awesome. I mean, I can and he gets it to be as happy. Everybody has their own memories, even the even the performers have their own memories of the spectrum, and that's awesome. I love that.

35:34 SPEAKER_00: But uh but as far as the closing events, yeah, the concerts would start with Springsteen, I think in the mid-teens, like maybe 13th or 14th, and then end on the 20th of October. Yeah. Before that, they had two sporting events where the Flyers each the Flyers played a final game there. I think against the Hurricanes, and the Sixers played a final game there. Right. I can't tell you who they played, I don't know. Yeah. But uh so there was there was a final basketball game played there, a final NHL game played there, and Bruce played those four shows in mid-October.

36:13 SPEAKER_00: Uh a few days after that. See, I don't remember what kind of nights they were, what kind of night October 20th was. But I want to say that the last call at the spectrum, and I'm only gone by because I had my daughter with me and her little friend came. So I'm thinking it was a Friday night. It wasn't a school night. Uh yeah, I'm thinking it was a Friday night at the last call, and I'm thinking I'm thinking that was a Friday night, let's just say the twenty third twenty-thirdish. Okay. And then the then the final stroll at the spectrum when they just basically said, we're just gonna open up the door to the spectrum and let you guys in, and we'll have some people on hand, you know, Bernie Prant was there.

37:03 SPEAKER_00: Different people were on hand, and they basically just let you stroll around the place and opened it up. I made some videos of what I wanted to remember about the place. I had people banging on the uh you know how when you would go up over the entrance to the uh sections, they would have those like steel floors that you would sit on.

37:28 SPEAKER_03: Yes.

37:30 SPEAKER_00: Only the sections that were above the entrance had a black railing, and and it was almost like you had a four-person club box above each section where they came up, because that was what made the entrance. Yeah, I think you could go you could go up and pretty much I I have pictures of that.

37:51 SPEAKER_03: Like right above the entrance, like your screen.

37:54 SPEAKER_00: Yeah, right exactly, right above every entrance.

37:56 SPEAKER_03: Yeah, so Steven sitting like I my friend and I scalped tickets to Deep Purple 85, Perfect Strangers Tour, on a whim. We just went down there, we got tickets, and we ended up sitting in in that. It was unbelievable. Couldn't believe it. Well, those were right above the section. Like right above the exit.

38:19 SPEAKER_00: Those those things were above every second level entrance and every high five third level entrance. And that is what when you would hear the Flyers game, the whole building would just start to shake. Right. It would be people stomping on them. Oh, right. And I mean, when I say when I say the building shook, I'm not exaggerating. The building literally shook. Right. And it would be people stomping on those steel sections of seat, that strip of uh maybe four seats. That and at the back of each section of the second level, every other section had I guess it was like a like uh an air conditioning unit.

39:11 SPEAKER_00: And it had the sections painted on there.

39:13 SPEAKER_04: Oh, okay.

39:14 SPEAKER_00: But they it was it was like it was like banging on a hollow I mean, just picture a hollow metal radiator cover. Sweet. So between banging on them and stomping on those steel seats, that is what made the spectrum rock. Awesome. I mean, when it really started rocking and it got loud and you had and you could feel it shaking, that's what it was. It was people banging on those air units and stomping on those steel uh I didn't even know that.

39:51 SPEAKER_03: That's great.

39:52 SPEAKER_00: The steel sections of uh seats right above each uh entrance.

39:58 SPEAKER_03: Yeah, that's awesome. I didn't even know that. That's and that makes sense, you know. I mean I got pictures.

40:06 SPEAKER_00: You got pictures of the floor? Oh, I specifically took the pictures of those little sections that's awesome. For that, I took pictures of the air conditioning units. Oh my god, that's a good thing. And like I said, at the at the last call, I actually had somebody go up there. It was like a group of, I think it was two girls and a guy. And bang on the took a video. Exactly. I had them bang on it. Come on, that's awesome. They did the dun dun dun dun dun and then they said let's go flyers. Yeah, exactly.

40:36 SPEAKER_00: That's embedded in our brain. I was like, I was like, I need that one time. I was like, I just need to hear you bang on it. I need to hear you go and then scream, let's go flyers. And they did it for me.

40:48 SPEAKER_03: That's great. I love that. I'd have to see that video. Is that on the Flickr? Like the videos?

40:54 SPEAKER_00: Uh that no, but that Flickr doesn't support videos. Okay. I don't know if I have it on my uh YouTube or not. That might be a video I have on YouTube.

41:03 SPEAKER_03: Okay. Well, you but I'm not positive. So Last Stroll, was that the event where you can take things, or was that like chairs?

41:12 SPEAKER_00: That came even later. That came that came even later when they let people, and at that point they were literally breaking the place apart.

41:20 SPEAKER_03: Okay, so last stroll walking around.

41:23 SPEAKER_00: The last stroll you were pretty much in the building as it stood just the night before at a concert. Gotcha. Right. Yep. And you could just walk around, you could just stroll around the spectrum. Yeah. And if you had, I mean, I could go different places, but they even let people go to some other places like via a tour.

41:46 SPEAKER_03: Like maybe down to the uh offices and stuff.

41:50 SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I'm not positive. I'm not positive if they let everybody go down to the box.

41:53 SPEAKER_03: Were you able to go to the press box?

41:56 SPEAKER_00: I was, yeah, I was in the yeah.

41:58 SPEAKER_03: Yeah, that's it.

41:59 SPEAKER_00: Anybody can go in the press box and the owner's box. I just don't remember exactly. I don't believe they let the public go into the executive office areas. Gotcha. Like where you like the picture I posted on your group, yeah, where it has the Grateful Dead on the wall. Right. It's like in it's in the it's in the offices and that big picture of the Grateful Dead on the wall. Yeah. Like the whole wall is a picture of the Grateful Dead.

42:26 SPEAKER_03: Right. Oh my god.

42:27 SPEAKER_00: Playing the spectrum.

42:29 SPEAKER_03: You know what? That's why that place was so special. It was like small and intimate. It was like a a room. You know?

42:39 SPEAKER_02: Exactly. It was a big room. And the acoustics. Yeah, acoustics were great.

42:45 SPEAKER_00: I mean, think about it. That was another thing she argued with me about in your group, was trying to tell me that nobody ever said it had great acoustics. And I was like, you gotta be kidding me. That's what am I and I'm supposed to do.

42:58 unknown: Yeah.

42:59 SPEAKER_03: For either prosperity, for demos, or more importantly, for live albums. I mean, that's uh think about all the King Biscuit Flower Hour shows that were simulcast at the Spectrum, you know, like Humble Pie and uh The Who 73. You know, they were simulcast for King Biscuit Flower. They could have done that in any. I wish I saw.

43:24 SPEAKER_02: I wish I saw the Who. Uh yeah, I do too. The Who's one of the bands I wish I saw. I never saw that.

43:29 SPEAKER_03: A lot of regrets. I look at like pictures, like people post, and I'm like, how come I didn't like where was I? I wish I went to concerts, but how did I So you never s you've never seen the Who? I never saw The Who. No, I never saw the Who.

43:46 SPEAKER_00: Um I wonder if they would be one of the certain bands. I was always used to hearing live stuff. And you could tell it was live. Yeah. It it it didn't even always sound like it n normally sounded on the record. Yeah. Because it was live. Yep. I remember when I went to the uh the Yes show in 1984. It was oh I remember clearly as the day they had balloons, Spark Omatic Car Sound presented by Spark OMatic Car Sound, and the t-shirts they were selling said presented by Spark Amatic Car Sound. I'm pretty sure the ticket says presented by Spark Omatic Car Sound.

44:20 SPEAKER_03: Yep. Underrated by Sparkovatic.

44:23 SPEAKER_00: That show. I mean I sat there with my mouth open the whole show thinking like I could be listening to the record right now. Yeah. They sounded so incredibly perfect. Everything sounded exactly like the record. And I had never experienced that before.

44:45 SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I saw them on the I think a year before on the 992. I can never get the numbers right. What was that album? Yeah, it was it was called 9021 Live. What nine oh is that the is that what we're talking about?

44:58 SPEAKER_00: The record is 90215, but they called the tour 9021 Live. Okay, there you go. Thank you. That's the same one. Yeah, that's the show. That's the that's the show sponsored by Car Spark American Carson.

45:08 SPEAKER_03: They're amazing, you know. And they were I think Trevor Raven.

45:14 SPEAKER_03: I've never seen Rush. I saw them three times, but they're the the type of band that played note for note, tone for tone, on the beat. That's awesome. On the beat, on the metric. That's awesome. Absolutely live. If you listen to a live and you pull up the record, it is the exact on the on the on the exact meter.

45:37 SPEAKER_00: Is it live or is it memoract? Yeah, exactly.

45:42 SPEAKER_03: Well, getting back to these final things, just to wrap up real quick, the so the f the stroll, then you had what was after the um final stroll? The demolition, like the items.

45:57 SPEAKER_02: After the final stroll, you can go in and get items, right? After the final stroll was when Pearl Jam rolled in.

46:04 SPEAKER_03: Right.

46:05 SPEAKER_02: Yeah. So now we're at the end of October.

46:08 SPEAKER_00: The last call would have been like the 23rd. Let's just say it was a Friday night. Let's just say let's just say it was let's just say the 23rd was a Friday night. And then they had the that was the last call with the Hooters and Hall of News. Right. Then they did the next the very next morning is when you could go there and just walk around. They called that the last the last stroll.

46:30 SPEAKER_03: Oh, cool.

46:31 SPEAKER_00: So when was the last call at the spectrum? That was the concert where they gave the tickets away for basically whatever they first sold tickets for back in 1967. Right. And then the next day is when they had open to the public. You could just go in there and stroll around. They called that the last stroll.

46:51 SPEAKER_03: Okay. And then you can when they didn't.

46:56 SPEAKER_00: You just walked around. You just walked around. You took pictures if you wanted to. You know, like I said, they had some personalities on hand. They had uh uh some people there from different radio stations. Right. They had uh like I said, Bernie Prompt was there.

47:12 SPEAKER_03: Did you take any of the uh you you you had chairs, right? If I remember, you put them up on the site. Were you selling them? Was that you?

47:20 SPEAKER_00: I did sell I I have sold a few of my chairs.

47:22 SPEAKER_03: I I only have about how many chairs did you did you grab?

47:26 SPEAKER_00: Like at the I would say well I didn't get them uh I didn't get them from the where you're thinking of.

47:32 SPEAKER_03: Okay.

47:32 SPEAKER_00: I didn't I I didn't go to the I didn't go to that thing where you could go there where and basically because I was thinking to myself, I mean there were things looking back now. There were even things that I thought about taking during the demolition, and I was thinking like, what would I do with it? Right, where would I put it, and how would I even carry it? Or display it. So I mean even even the section R, even the section R picture that I took of the old plexiglass R sign laying down in the rubble when I was getting the bricks, yeah, I could have easily picked that up and taken it, but I didn't.

48:09 SPEAKER_00: Okay. And it's just because it's like it was it was bigger than you think because it hung above a section. Right.

48:16 SPEAKER_03: Yeah.

48:16 SPEAKER_00: And it's like it it w it's not like I was going there days with like uh U-Hauls. You know, it was it was only it was only me. You know. So I didn't get that, but uh I didn't I didn't go to that event. I would say I got a couple chairs, nine chairs in total, and I probably have about four or five left.

48:42 SPEAKER_03: Were these the newer ones that they're not the cloth, right?

48:46 SPEAKER_00: So they were uh one of the ones I have is the cloth that has the weird the weird top back, yeah. Where it's like a little bit more pinched. Yep. But all the other ones like the other the other eight were the the more of the vinyl type of seat that I really that I really grew up with and was was used to. Yeah.

49:07 SPEAKER_03: Easier to clean.

49:09 SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I was only allowed I was only allowed to get one of the uh the cloth covered ones.

49:14 SPEAKER_03: Yeah, hang on to that. That's uh that's good stuff, man.

49:18 SPEAKER_00: Yeah, they can I mean different people sell them. They can be had.

49:22 SPEAKER_03: Yeah, absolutely.

49:24 SPEAKER_00: They want ridiculous prices. I know. They want ridiculous prices for them, but they can be had. That poster I sold on your website, the guy paid me such a ridiculous price. I was actually trying to tell him I was like, dude, you're so far above the because I told him I told people just to send me bids. I said, dude, you're so far above the other bid, or you don't have to pay that. He's like, no. It's worth it. It's a good, it's good, I want it. And he, I mean, he basically insisted on paying me.

49:52 SPEAKER_00: That's awesome, dude. All right, double, double what I would have given him, given it to him for. But I mean, and if you look at what posters do, I mean, posters are collectible. Right. And this was a this was a very, you know, it was the Leroy Neiman celebration poster. I mean, so it was a very famous poster, and it was it wasn't like paper, it was one of those cardboard papers. Yeah, nice. I mean, so it was a good quality piece, but still it was just weird to be talking to the guy saying, listen, you don't have to pay that much.

50:23 SPEAKER_00: He's like, No, I want to pay that much. I'm like, all right. Hey, I'm only gonna argue with 70 times where it's just your money.

50:32 SPEAKER_03: Ah, there you go. Well, the other thing you mentioned art is the lost art is the the posters. You know, that's a whole different thing. I love the art of the the concert posters. Um, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. The best ones, I'm not a big deadhead or dead guy. I like you know, I like a couple songs. I appreciate what they did and how many times and how much how much they love the spectrum and quote it there. Um and the whole culture around that. But uh their posters and that art is and their backspace stage passes.

51:11 SPEAKER_03: It's just it's phenomenal. You ever see their their stuff like those? The dead, yeah. There it's just so awesome. Um you know, they're the I see the Bears a lot. Yeah, well the Bears, but if you just pull up The Grateful Dead, Philadelphia Spectrum images, you know, you'll just see all those great advertising posters for like a specific show. It's colorful, it's just it's unique. And you know, they would transfer that on to like their backstage passes. It's just really cool. But um, yeah, that's kind of a lost art, you know, the advertising for concerts.

51:51 SPEAKER_03: So I think we can wrap it up. Do you have anything else you want to perspective, you know, that snucking in sneaking in cameras and and and things like that?

52:01 SPEAKER_00: Well, when you look at these when you look at these things I took of the Pearl Jam show, I mean that was the first time. I mean, other other than the the Bon Jovi incident when I thought I could have a camera because it didn't say I couldn't. Other than that, I had never taken a big professional camera in any place, except that I knew that I was gonna be allowed to take it in for this one show. Yeah. Right. And I went in there specifically just to and again, I shot the building more so than I shot Pearl Jam.

52:35 SPEAKER_00: Right. I mean, did I get some nice shots at Pearl Jam? Yeah. Did I care? No. I mean, because basically it was just I've got to be a little bit more.

52:50 SPEAKER_03: But they're not putting it's not Van Halen, it's not like with those great concerts in the 80s where there's a you know a big show.

52:59 SPEAKER_00: But if you look at my great, by the way. If you look at them, they're it's like, wait a second, here you're dead center, here you're off to the right. I know. Here you're on the total opposite side of the arena. Right, here you're dead, here you're on the first level, here you're on the second level. They're great shots, man. They are great shots. Exactly. I was there, I was that place is everywhere.

53:20 SPEAKER_03: That place is packing rocking. I mean, you can just see it as riders.

53:24 SPEAKER_00: It's and how many places have that like and and that one I have a picture up there, and it's designed to show how at the end, everybody from the third level and everybody from the second level, and everybody from the floor and the first level all were going up and down the same steps and converging onto that one concourse. Right. Oh yeah. Every seat converged at once onto one concourse. So I have a picture, I have a picture of like the ant lines on the stairways, and then I have that picture of the crowd where it's just the crowd jam-packed.

54:11 SPEAKER_00: When you look at these things I took of the Pearl Jam show, I mean, that was the first time. I mean, other other than the Bon Jovi incident when I thought I could have a camera because it didn't say I couldn't. Right. Other than that, I had never taken a big professional camera in any place, except that I knew that I was going to be allowed to take it in for this one show. Yeah. Right. And I went in there specifically just to, and again, I shot the building more so than I shot Pearl Jam. Right. I mean, did I get some nice shots of Pearl Jam?

54:46 SPEAKER_00: Yeah. But if you look at my Pearl Jam pictures. They're great, by the way. If you look at them, they're it's like, wait a second. Here you're dead center, here you're off to the right. I know. Here you're on the total opposite side of the arena. Right. Here you're dead. Here you're on the first level, here you're on the second level. They're great shots, man. They are great shots. Exactly. I was there I was everywhere.

55:07 SPEAKER_03: That place is packing rocking.

55:09 SPEAKER_00: I mean, you could just see it as good as it's and how many places have that like and and that one I have a picture up there, and it's designed to show how at the end everybody from the third level and everybody from the second level and everybody from the floor and the first level all were going up and down the same steps and converging onto that one concourse. Right. Oh yeah. Every seat converged at once onto one concourse. So I have a picture, I have a picture of like the ant lines on the stairways, and then I have that picture of the crowd where it's just the crowd jam-packed.

55:56 SPEAKER_00: What's that blog site called? Uh yeah. And it yeah, it looks like a rack for the road cases, and then the open end where they would always go in and out through. Yeah. Yeah, that's the blog I wrote when they closed when they closed it down.

56:11 SPEAKER_03: Okay.

56:12 SPEAKER_00: And then I attached that blog to my spectrum page and I said you were there and your stories deserved to be heard.

56:19 SPEAKER_03: I think that's a good one. I think that's when I asked. I saw that and I just did a lot of digging because what I do is if I see a picture out there, I don't want to just throw it up to my um Facebook group without um you know know who it is, give credit to the photographer and this and that. And then I started digging deeper, and that's how I found your name. And then I thought, okay, I'm gonna contact them, see if he wants to Yeah, but that is me.

56:50 SPEAKER_00: That's Step High Blog. Yep. Well that was Step High blog, is me.

56:57 SPEAKER_03: That was actually taken I wanted to share that, but I thought I'm not gonna share that until I know like who took it and you know the promise.

57:06 SPEAKER_00: That was actually taken during my party over the the party's over tour. I did a tour and I called it the party's over. And it's when it's when all the rigging, like you'll see when you when you do get onto the flicker, yeah, you'll see rigging just laying on the seats. You'll see light, like the big can lights just laying on the in the steps. Uh confetti all over the place from like when Pearl Jam closed it down and dropped all the confetti.

57:40 SPEAKER_03: Nice.

57:41 SPEAKER_00: So that that picture there is actually taken from that series that I that I titled the uh The Party's Over. Because I didn't at the time I I didn't plan on going. Like I said, I didn't think that there was gonna be anything that I could take, like whenever like see what you can take, carry out. You can carry out whatever you can carry out. I'm like, what the hell am I gonna be able to carry out that I even want that I don't already have? I mean, because I I knew I was gonna get the bricks and I and I knew I had already had most of the seats.

58:14 SPEAKER_00: I was like, when I went in there, I was like, I climbed and you should have seen what I had. I don't know if I posted any of these pictures, but I have them. You should have seen I had a traverse to get up there because there was nothing that I could there was like no like where I shot where all the bricks were laying and stuff was laying, and the section R sign was laying, that one rim was there, but it was covered with all kinds of demolition debris. Yeah, right. There was no section under me.

58:45 SPEAKER_00: It was just the skeletal risers that were like as wide as like a foot. Oh yeah. I mean, so it was ridiculous. I had to go up there, throw the bricks down. Oh my god, that's awesome. I mean, it was it was it was hard to do. Yeah, I mean, I almost I mean I can't say I I had I definitely had permission and they knew what I was going to do, but they didn't know the extent that I was gonna do.

59:14 SPEAKER_03: Right.

59:15 SPEAKER_00: And I don't know that they would have wanted me to do what I did. Right. Mean meaning climbing up a demolished riser. I don't think they would have wanted me to go up there and start, you know, right. Demolis I mean they wouldn't the last thing they would have wanted is for me to be in there and get hurt.

59:37 unknown: Right.

59:38 SPEAKER_00: But I just wanted to touch on, you know, the the the closing of the spectrum. And I know and the truth of the matter was we as fans were really fortunate to be given the uh the extra well, I mean, once the core state center opened, we still had another good dozen years of events that were still happening in the spectrum. And a chance to you know, and a chance to see it go out and say goodbye and everything. And not everybody, I mean, whether it be a building that is lost in a natural disaster, uh, it could be a historic building lost in a natural disaster, or a fire, uh, or just or just simply, hey, we're closing it down, we're knocking it down, and that's it.

1:00:25 SPEAKER_00: You can come outside and stand and take pictures and all you want, but that's about the extent of it. But I mean, to think that we were given the consideration of a group of guys, you know, Mr. Snyder and Ike, and the Remember the Spectrum team that they had assembled, and they put together that last Flyers game there, and they and they had that last Sixers game there. And then they did the last uh call at the Spectrum with Todd Rundgren and the Hooters and Holland Hoots, and they charged, I mean, an absurd, I mean, it was like four bucks a ticket.

1:00:58 SPEAKER_00: If I mean it was four bucks, seven bucks. I mean, it was basically a giveaway, and you got to go in there and again experience those local hometown guys at the spectrum, and then the next day they let you in there for the final stroll at no cost. You didn't have to pay to park. You just went there, you walked around the place, there was personalities on hand, and then they and then eventually they let you take the the carry away event they had. Right. And then they had the whole Remember the Spectrum site set up where you could actually buy memorabilia and pieces of history.

1:01:32 SPEAKER_00: That's right. And but before that, and so before that, they did have the four shows where they closed it down with Pearl Jam. And it it might not have been everybody's first choice, but they were a big band in their own genre at the time, and a band that the spectrum deserved to have play it out in that fashion. Like, okay, we just had the Hooters, we just had Todd Rundgren, we had Bruce a few weeks before, but now let's have a band who's like really big right now and it's gonna draw a crowd and is really gonna rock the place the way it used to rock.

1:02:08 SPEAKER_00: And that's what Pearl Jam did. And again, I went there, I mean, I had a choice between the shows I was going to go to because I was only allowed to take a camera into one of them. And I said, well, then it's gonna be the first show because that's the one that has the backdrop. Right. And I wanted to have my pictures document the spectrum the way I remembered going to concerts, which nine times out of ten had that end stage with the black curtain. Right. So I chose that show, and again, I went everywhere, all around the building, taking the different pictures from this band's point.

1:02:42 SPEAKER_00: You're photos, and it was amazing. And it just I just tried to capture not just the band. A lot of the times, if you didn't know it was Pearl Jam, you would just know it was a concert. Right. But you knew it was at the spectrum. And that's all I wanted to do was to get that get those pictures to preserve what I remember. Because again, you don't always get that chance. Sometimes you just lose things overnight. You I mean you hear the place burn down in a fire and it's gone forever.

1:03:10 SPEAKER_03: Yeah, well, listen, on behalf of all of us, we appreciate you doing that because it that's that's amazing. We could talk about it all the time on a podcast, but without and not even videos, but you know, photos is um you know, that lasts forever. So I mean we appreciate it. And speaking of which, check this out. So I was on your site today, um, Philadelphia Spectrum. Oh, yeah. Okay. So your link works with the with the flicker, and and I just scrolled through all practically all of your pictures.

1:03:48 SPEAKER_03: So it that works. And that's I was like, wow, man, you got a great you got a really great eye. And these it just brought back so many memories looking at the seats and the different angles, and yeah, and that's all I wanted to do. So that link, that link on your your Philadelphia Spectrum Facebook uh page, um, you know, it works. I clicked on it, so I didn't have to go out to Flickr or anything, I didn't have to do any login or anything like that, but that link works and and all your pictures, yeah.

1:04:26 SPEAKER_03: I probably spent about a half hour today uh just scrolling through and just clicking on them. And that link definitely works, and I'm gonna put that in the show notes, like at the end of our podcast. Uh, you know, some people can click on that, and I'll just copy that link and paste it uh because I know that works.

1:04:46 SPEAKER_02: All right. That's it. It was just it was it was a new place.

1:04:52 SPEAKER_03: Yeah, man. All right, listen, I'm gonna wrap up. Remember the spectrum.

1:04:56 SPEAKER_02: I appreciate you, Bob.

1:04:57 SPEAKER_03: Yeah, as always, appreciate your time, and uh I'll talk to you real soon, man.

1:05:03 SPEAKER_00: All right, likewise, you take care, Bob.

1:05:06 SPEAKER_03: Okay, and uh that was really a nice conversation. I hope you found it fascinating and informative. And uh I have to agree with Steven near the end there um when he uh notated that we uh we were really lucky to have been able to celebrate the end of our treasured arena with events after it was announced uh you know that was closing. Um so you know, instead of just subtly closing the building, uh we were afforded plenty of opportunities to attend spectrum specific events, uh, of course, concerts by national and local acts, grabbed some uh memorabilia at the arena and online, so really good for the owners for that.

1:05:50 SPEAKER_03: And uh also giving us all those great memories over uh 40 plus years. Um definitely earned the nickname of Eric Showplace. So I want to thank Stephen Hightower again for taking the time, and again, I will include his info in the show notes and be sure to click on his Flickr account to view his wonderful group of Spectral Photos, and also go over to his Spectr Facebook page and follow, and be sure to hit the follow button here on the podcast out of the body.