Fort Hays State University - Reveille Yearbook (Hays, KS)

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Concert gopher goes for look Backstage Working backstage at the Kingdom Come con- cert was not all glamour and glitz. It seems people have a natural draw to the back- stage area. I found fans wandering around back- stage, Some went in and out of the coliseum to get a glimpse of the band mem- bers or watch the stage crew finish setting the stage, I caught a group of five high-school students tryi n g to sneak i n, an d th ey offered me $60 to let them look around backstage. Before the concert, I was never really certain which people were band mem- bers or people traveling with the band. Eight be- fore the show began, sev- eral ducked into their backstage dressing room to get ready for the con- cert. Other band members worked along side the stage crew, setting up the equipment. The drummer asked for help cleaning his drum set from the previous night ' s performance. Somehow flour had been tossed around stage, I had a variety of chores that day. I made a run for gray duct tape and guarded a trunk of King- dom Come T-shirts, I num- bered chairs, papered windows to the backstage area and roped off sections for seating. I had a chance to talk with different people in- cl u di ng li gh ti ng de si gn er s, road managers, agency representatives and even band members, “by Lisa Storer, guest writer HOMECOMING HEADLINE. Rick Steier, bass guitarist for Kingdom Come, plays to a crowd of 1,200 people during the group ' s first headline performance. A Hays band, Blind Date, opened the concert, (Photo by Laura Johnson, hand -colored by Todd Sutcliffe) 16 Campus Life

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DON ' T WORRY, BE HOPPY. A frog offers a popular theme for Homecoming parade watchers. (Photo by Carol Schryer) SING AND SHOUT- Blind Date lead singer J.D, Hart, Hays freshman, entertains for the Homecoming concert. Blind Date was the opening band for Kingdom Come. (Photo by Aaron Ferguson) A REAL SMASH UP. A Fort Hays State fan takes his after-game frustration out on a car supplied by the Tan Kappa Epsilon frater- nity, (Photo by Aaron Ferguson) GOING FOR THE GOLD. The Alpha Kappa Lam da fraternity depicts the outcome of the Homecoming game with its float in the pa- rade. (Photo by Todd Sutcliffe) Campus Life 15

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Bad press, low sales did not overrule Kingdom Come he o pening band , Blind Date, ceased playing. Sounds from the audience overpow- ered the sounds from the stage . A single guitar strum ended the sound check. Another scream- ing chord began the concert . Kingdom Come, the university’s fall Homecoming concert, filled the void of the previous year’s concertless Home- coming. Surrounded by criticism, the concert sold only 1,000 tickets and gave away ap- proximately 200, Shawn Burrell, Ellsworth sophomore, said. As concert committee chairman, Bur- rell said the only problem besides the low ticket sales was the crowd. “Lenny, the lead vocalist, told every- body to come up to the stage. Audience members rushed the stage. It caught our security off guard,” Burrell said. One student tried to catapult himself onto the stage, but Burrell said security handled itself well and removed the young man. He said the majority of the crowd was high school age. Many drank before the show, and security confiscated alcohol from concert goers. Before the concert, an editorial written by fall University Leader Editor Eric Hodson, Pratt senior, appeared in the newspaper. Hodson said Kingdom Come was a bad concert choice because the audience for that band was high school age. We took a survey, and with the infor- mation chose a band that would be in the Hays area on the open date for the amount of money we could afford, while also representing the type of band university students were asking for,” Burrell said. “The concert committee should have saved their money. I think they just took what they could get instead of thinking what the students at this university would go see,” Hodson said. Madeline Holler A STEADY BEAT, Danny Stag, drummer for Kingdom Come, keeps the heat during the university ' s homecoming concert. The heavy metal hand was welcomed by the university with a mixture of criticism and enthusiasm, (Photo by Laura Johnson) Kingdom Come 17