The Eagle has Landed!

So - my good friend Michael Ackerman spotted this on Craigslist, in Orange County (about an hour from here). It was an old A&M Records recording console, custom built in 1969/70. It took a lot of sleuthing to find anything about these, but information finally showed up. The photos of it in the ad were really poor quality - so I (and anyone else looking) couldn't tell much about it.

This is the console, as it sat in storage for a plumbing firm for 26 years...

I finally got better photos, but could not identify it in the few vintage A&M Studio photos that survive. As it turns out, it was used in a rarely-photographed room, called "Mix 2" where people would simply mix - and not record new parts. All the desks were built by HAECO - by their chief technicial engineer at the studios, Howard Holzer, a famous designer and engineer himself. These desks are excellent quality, built of various legendary components; Spectra Sonics, Electrodyne, API, Stephens, etc. Many famous records were done on these A&M desks - Almost all of Joni Mitchell's LPs, Herb Alpert, The Carpenters, Carole King's Tapestry, etc etc.



It took months and several trips to the O.C. warehouse, but we finally got the console up here to L.A. again, it's old hometown. (A&M is actually just up the street from my house). It took a sturdy trailer (we tried trucks and lift-gates - all too small) and a special winch to get it on and off...



The cool trumpet logo is for Herb Alpert, who was the "A" in A&M:


Colorful sucker - isn't it? From the mellow/yellow formica top, to the colored switches, and the custom-made plastic balls on the fader tops! One of the reasons I'm happiest to find it, is that almost ALL vintage consoles have been removed and repackaged from their original situation - the desk and frame are usually changed. This one is intact, including the "belly up to the bar" brass footrail underneath! (See top photo).


One of the few shots of these mixers is this one of The Carpenters sitting at one of the sister Haeco desks made for A&M. Smiling because it sounds SO good, I think! Or maybe because theirs has the colored-ball tops too!


I stored it for now in a space right near a friend's studio. They are gonna refurbish it and get it running. In return I will let them install it in their studio to use. (I have a GREAT mixer already to use - so this will be nice for them, and I can keep my eye on it while it gets used!)

Great view as a storm comes into Hollywood (hoping to make it big I bet)

Largo club doors - empty after the final show. Spent well over 10 years going here, off and on. Some great times, and some terrible ones. But memorable...

"DO NOT..." what?

Honesty is the best policy at "The Smelly Cheese Shop" in Australia...

More randoms...

I never get tired of this one...



I guess someone decided this is a better band name than "The Who" which is very old and tired now...



Their FIRST selling point sure does grab the customer!



New Years' Even with my very mature friend Paul, who had just heard that shaving cream could be ignited. And we threw firecrackers.



Finally!



Another effect of the slow phone camera - like the propeller in the posts below, this one is out the car window in London. Love it.



The guitar guy sometimes plays VERY hard for a man in his 60s!



And so does the keyboard player!



Wait, are these the dummies the display, or are they for sale, or is this "The Emperor's New Clothes"?

Traveling?

You could do worse than wait for your flight in the VIRGIN Atlantic lounge at Heathrow airport in London! I took these pics on the way home last winter...

Completely unrelated to that last post...

Saw this shop in Newcastle, Australia (a hellhole in some parts).

Hangin' with the homies...

Pics of people, places, things...

Not a bad view from a hotel room. Osaka, I think...
In Japan, they have shrines to many holy and revered things, such as Christina Aguilera.
Dadadadadadadadada..... Bailey?!


So - in Auckland NZ, we rehearsed in an abandoned warehouse. Well, seemed abandoned. But McCartney and Clapton found it useful this year as well, so I guess that qualifies as not "forgotten".
Our sound guy, Paul Ramsay, mixing rehearsal from the next room at his mixing board. I only mention mixing twice in that sentence, because there is a giant indiustrial MIXER behind him left over from the abandoned factory... coincidence? I think not.

More, you say...

Adelaide - of all our time in Australia (3 weeks) this was the place with the coolest sights and easiest to take. Not so full of Starbucks and Target, but more original local style and cool people. Go to Adelaide....

More from the files..

I just thought, I am way overdue to put some pics up on Tyrone Green. Here we go. Very minimal, but now inspired to do more soon...
SEGWAY or the Highway! Myself and bother-in-law Manuel and nephew Pete took a tour of downtown LA on segway scooters... amazing fun. Semi-dangerous and yet nothing untoward happened. Recommended for those with some self-awareness and physical control!

Onward and outward...

Out on tour in Australia. Time to kill, time to post! This is a shot of a small prop plabe we were in. VERY small. But the phone scanning speed is slower than the prop, so you get these amazing image results - incredible really...


This next place was in a hellhole of a town, called Newcastle, Australia. (Motto: Proudly Novocastrian!" Not too catchy...) This establishment had gone out of business, I wonder why...



Another great sign, outside a pub here.
In my thinking, this probably means to a lot of people "THAT is the place I want to go!" or it becomes the FIRST choice of strippers and drug dealers in the locale...



This is how my day today started - we worked and got in around 1:30 AM to the little Travelodge we are in. And have to wake up for lobby call to get on the bus at 4:40 AM! Ouch. Very hard. Then fly at 6am to another city, drive to venue, set up, wait for show, pack and get to next hotel around 11pm. Not all work, but not your typical life, is it?

Alright, I will....

On another trip home I shot this from the plane window: HERE shows where my apt. is... weird to find it from this wide a shot. Puts it all in perspective, and explains the parking issues.


It might NOT be so impressive now when you hear people say "We're playing the Hollywood Bowl!"






Kitchen table aftermath of Monica's sister's birthday in Oklahoma City; drinkers of ALL kinds.






The (in)famous Terminal 5 at London's Heathrow airport. They lost about 20,000 bags the first day it opened, just last year. Yikes. But this was even more chilling - the 6th floor up has GLASS floors going to the elevators. Psycho. I know many people (Hi Dad) who would never go near that.

They don't really have earthquakes there, either, but we Californians always think of places you would not want to be in one - Terminal 5, above OR below!

Mmmmm.... dessert at my fave restaurant - Andina in Portland.

WhiteWater rafting....

I was up in Canada for some shows. We had a day off and I got invited to go whitewater rafting the next day. My mind said "NO!" so I said "yes" (this is a new theory I am learning to try). Minds are overprotective watchdogs that worry when there is no need.

Or is there? We were in the mountains, beautifully covered in snow and ice, about 6 hours North of the US border, past Calgary. The rafting adventure was for "advanced" - so, as the 3 of us were all beginners - we felt bold enough to try. Hmmm....

We asked one ranger "what's the worst that's ever happened?" (minds again) The ranger said "someone sprained an ankle". But once in the raft, the same question to a new guide returned "Well, one guy fell out of the boat last year, lost his helmet and we found him drowned a while later. Maybe a headwound or heat attack or something." So.... one person's idea of 'worst' is "sprained ankle" OVER "dead on the bottom of a river"!

What it looks like there when calm (none of these are my photos). I was desperate to hang on or paddle.