Post by Zombywoof on Jul 4, 2012 15:47:27 GMT -5
From June 22-24 I attended NEARfest in Bethlehem, PA where I was treated to 10 very special prog rock bands over a 3 day festival, culminating in UK on Sunday night. At about 1 am on Sunday morning (the 24th of June) a friend of mine, Kevin (one of the organizers of the festival) said something I'll never forget, "How would you like to meet Eddie Jobson?". At first, I was shocked. I've been an Eddie Jobson fan since I first saw Slipstream when I was very young (for awhile it was the only official live Tull document) and had since followed his work with UK, Zappa, and Curved Air.
Immediately I was taken from out of the hotel ballroom (I was staying in the same hotel as the artists and organizers of the festival) and who do I see, checking into the hotel, but Eddie Jobson himself! Kevin taps Eddie on the shoulder and says, "Eddie. I want you to meet a friend of mine. This is Ian, he's 19 and knows everything about you!". Like the blubbering fan I am, I started the conversation with "Eddie, so nice to meet you! You have the distinction of being with my two favorite artists, Frank Zappa and Jethro Tull, but I also enjoyed your work with Curved Air." Eddie's expression changed from pleasure to be meeting a fan, to a excitement, when he said, "You're into Curved Air?". I'd met plenty of prog royalty over the weekend (Peter Hammill, Gary Green, and Roger Dean to name a few) and something I learned early on is that you have to find a personal connection with artists in order to become friends with them, often times having nothing to do with their actual art. The next thing I know, Eddie is telling me about his son getting him the first Curved Air album for father's day on picture disc vinyl and telling me the story of how torn he was to be asked to join Curved Air at the same time it was breaking up!
Later, after the show, I found out via another NEARfest organizer that Eddie had been telling everyone that he'd met someone who was 19 and into Curved Air! At the autograph session after UK's set, Eddie was nice enough to get a photo with me and autograph my copy of UK's second album, "Danger Money". What a class act, all around, and a pleasure to be on first name basis with one of my heros by Monday morning when we left.
Eddie, me, and my friend, Billy
Immediately I was taken from out of the hotel ballroom (I was staying in the same hotel as the artists and organizers of the festival) and who do I see, checking into the hotel, but Eddie Jobson himself! Kevin taps Eddie on the shoulder and says, "Eddie. I want you to meet a friend of mine. This is Ian, he's 19 and knows everything about you!". Like the blubbering fan I am, I started the conversation with "Eddie, so nice to meet you! You have the distinction of being with my two favorite artists, Frank Zappa and Jethro Tull, but I also enjoyed your work with Curved Air." Eddie's expression changed from pleasure to be meeting a fan, to a excitement, when he said, "You're into Curved Air?". I'd met plenty of prog royalty over the weekend (Peter Hammill, Gary Green, and Roger Dean to name a few) and something I learned early on is that you have to find a personal connection with artists in order to become friends with them, often times having nothing to do with their actual art. The next thing I know, Eddie is telling me about his son getting him the first Curved Air album for father's day on picture disc vinyl and telling me the story of how torn he was to be asked to join Curved Air at the same time it was breaking up!
Later, after the show, I found out via another NEARfest organizer that Eddie had been telling everyone that he'd met someone who was 19 and into Curved Air! At the autograph session after UK's set, Eddie was nice enough to get a photo with me and autograph my copy of UK's second album, "Danger Money". What a class act, all around, and a pleasure to be on first name basis with one of my heros by Monday morning when we left.
Eddie, me, and my friend, Billy
Holy King Crimson!