Copper


A 1960s Thanksgiving at the Fillmore East

Issue 197True-Life Rock Tales

Halloween had just passed and now it was turning cold. I went to a second-hand antique clothing store and bought a West Point cadet’s winter coat for $15. It was...

The Cable Doctor Makes More House Calls

Issue 194True-Life Rock Tales

James Lipton, the host of the TV series Inside the Actors Studio was one of the clients I had the longest, from the nineties up until his passing in 2020. Just like...

The Cable Doctor’s House Calls

Issue 193True-Life Rock Tales

Richard Gere’s New York office hired me to set up a universal remote control for his VCR. His apartment was on University Place near Tenth Street. This was in the early...

The Cable Doctor Calls On Miloš Forman

Issue 191True-Life Rock Tales

“You’re the doctor,” Miloš said, and I appreciated his deference. We were in his apartment on the 30th floor in the Essex House, situated on Manhattan’s Central Park South. I was...

Miles and Miles, Part Two

Issue 180True-Life Rock Tales

My thinking was that since I made it from NY to Chicago on Wednesday then I could make it to Denver on Thursday. Only a thousand or so miles, slightly...

In the Room With Miles

Issue 179True-Life Rock Tales

In the early ’70s I was doing a stint at Elektra Records when Jac Holzman, the president, asked me to accompany him to a small event for Miles Davis. This...

Press Events and Junkets: Some Work, Some Play

Issue 176True-Life Rock Tales

How does a manufacturer get their new product noticed? What kind of event would draw the most attention, and what is the most effective way to make a new product...

Floating Over CES

Issue 170True-Life Rock Tales

It was explained to me that Penthouse magazine would not be using manufacturer’s product shots, because they did not want “Technomania’s” content to look like any other magazines. (The story of how they...

More CES History, and Technomania

Issue 168True-Life Rock Tales

In my early years of attending CES in the 1990s, I would take the redeye home from Las Vegas. That would prevent the loss of a full day flying back...

Going to the Consumer Electronics Show: The Ear...

Issue 166True-Life Rock Tales

The Cable Doctor Show started modestly as a live TV call-in question and answer show on tech and installation issues. Of the three TV programs I’ve hosted, this one was my longest-running...

Public Access TV, Part Two: Ken Gets Pranked

Issue 163True-Life Rock Tales

As time progressed, I added two more public access television shows to my resume. (See my previous article, “Public Access TV: A Perfect Soapbox” in Issue 160.) My newest show, Speak Out launched in...

Public-Access TV: A Perfect Soapbox

Issue 160True-Life Rock Tales

I was not thinking about much; mostly I was just channel surfing, at home watching television, half paying attention at midnight on a Sunday night. I was in bed but...

The Ups and Downs of Touring

Issue 158True-Life Rock Tales

As the spring of 1971 turned into summer we continued along with Superstar’s bus and truck tour. (see “Calling the Lubbock Lights” in Issue 156 for the previous installment about the Superstar, The Original Touring...

Calling the Lubbock Lights

Issue 156True-Life Rock Tales

We flew into Texas knowing we were in for a tough time of it. We were looking at a no-frills bus and truck tour. It was going to be hectic,...

Tour Happenings

Issue 154True-Life Rock Tales

Landing in Baton Rouge, Louisiana was a curious relief. It had been a weird, stressful day of flying. Our initial flight to St. Louis had been delayed, and subsequently, it...

Dangerfield’s

Issue 152True-Life Rock Tales

Jim Kellem, a talent agent from CMA (Creative Management Associates) and my good buddy, invites me to join him at Patsy’s, where he is having a business dinner with Phil...

The Hippies and the Freep, Part One

Issue 149True-Life Rock Tales

The Los Angeles Free Press, AKA “The Freep,” was started by Art Kunkin, a former organizer of the Socialist Workers Party. The first issue was published in May 1964, and that...

Summer Jam at Watkins Glen, Part Two

Issue 147TRUE-LIFE ROCK TALES

In Part One (Issue 146) Ken talked about his journey to Summer Jam at Watkins Glen, which took place on July 28, 1973, and his experiences at the festival, which featured the...

Summer Jam at Watkins Glen

Issue 146TRUE-LIFE ROCK TALES

For a variety of reasons, we left in the late evening of July 27th, 1973. The trip to Watkins Glen Grand Prix Raceway was about 265 miles. It was going...

Whistling While You Work

Issue 145TRUE-LIFE ROCK TALES

As I step off my elevator, I hear music coming from my end of the hallway. It’s really loud and I soon realize that it is coming from my apartment....

The Psychedelic Supermarket

Issue 144True-Life Rock Tales

In issue 141, Issue 142 and Issue 143 Ken wrote about his late 1960s relocation from New York to California. The story continues here. At this point I was over...

The Music Revolution

Issue 143TRUE-LIFE ROCK TALES

In issue 141 and Issue 142 Ken wrote about his late 1960s relocation from New York to California. The story continues here. Monday just before noon I park my bike at 8709 Santa Monica...

The Alternative Coast (Back in the World, Part ...

Issue 142TRUE-LIFE ROCK TALES

Ken’s article, “Back in the World,” about events in 1966 that led up to this story, ran in Issue 141. In a few minutes Pete Johnson arrived at the downtown...

Back in the World

Issue 141TRUE-LIFE ROCK TALES

It was the late summer of 1966, and I was still a teenager when the Army rotated me back into the world (stateside), specifically, the Whitehall Street Induction Center at...

The Ramones, Early On

Issue 140TRUE-LIFE ROCK TALES

It was a conference call from Linda Stein and Danny Fields in 1976. They told me they managed the Ramones and had a UK tour coming up. They offer me...

Between Tours

Issue 139TRUE-LIFE ROCK TALES

I am sitting in Trax, a music biz hangout club that is a few steps below street level. Trax was a pretty good-sized space located in a pre-War building on...

Elektra – My Record Company Gig

Issue 138TRUE-LIFE ROCK TALES

We were starting to level off and the pilot said, “okay, take over.” “Really?” I asked. “Yup, sure; I will show you what to do,” he says. “First, keep the...

Superstar: The Long Tour

Issue 137TRUE-LIFE ROCK TALES

Beginning in 1972, I was involved in the production of Superstar, The Original American Touring Company (OATC). It was a touring version of the hit album Jesus Christ Superstar (see my article in Issue 118). Superstar was...

The Newport / JVC Jazz Festival and “Technomania”

Issue 136TRUE-LIFE ROCK TALES

It was 1996 when Bob Guccione was watching The Cable Doctor Show when he purportedly said, “I like that guy; let’s hire him to do tech stuff for Penthouse.” Penthouse editor Peter Block...

Roye Albrighton: Nektar’s Diamond in the Rough

Issue 133TRUE-LIFE ROCK TALES

  [Editor’s Note: Ken previously wrote about progressive rock group Nektar in Issue 115 and Issue 116.] By Nektar’s second American tour in 1975-76, Roye Albrighton (lead guitar player and singer) had stopped...

Hitchhiking with Alice Cooper

Issue 132TRUE-LIFE ROCK TALES

It was late 1968 when my friend, the late Barry Byrens, said to me, “Linc,” (he loved calling me that), “you need to get rid of that motorcycle and get...

The Two San Jose Festivals, 1969

Issue 150True-Life Rock Tales

It turns out that there were two festivals in San Jose, California on Memorial Day weekend in 1969. They both happened within one mile of each other. Neither festival was...

A Time in Peter Tosh’s Jamaica

Issue 131TRUE-LIFE ROCK TALES

In speaking with Eppy, he mentioned that he was promoting a concert in Jamaica with the headliner Peter Tosh. A bunch of disc jockeys from Long Island’s FM station WBAI...

Jefferson Airplane's Scheduled Stop

Issue 130TRUE-LIFE ROCK TALES

I had been back in New York for a few months when my sister Ellen called and asked if I wanted to go with her to see Jefferson Airplane at...

Wrestling With Rock and Roll

Issue 129TRUE-LIFE ROCK TALES

In 1984 Ian Lloyd of the band Stories calls me and says, “I have an offer to do a concert in San Juan. Do you want to handle it?” (I...

The Stranglers Come Stateside

Issue 128TRUE-LIFE ROCK TALES

I met them as they came off the plane at JFK in New York. About three weeks after the Stranglers’ UK 1981 tour ended (see my article in Issue 111) the...

The End of a Hollywood Era

Issue 127TRUE-LIFE ROCK TALES

In early summer 1969 I was living in Laurel Canyon when the sublet on the cabin I was renting ran out. I had been out of the Army for two...

Johnny "Guitar" Watson: A Real Mother for Ya

Issue 126TRUE-LIFE ROCK TALES

In 1980 I find myself working on another bus tour in Europe. Jim Kellem of CMA (Creative Management Associates, later ICM Partners) calls and says that an acquaintance of his...

Split Enz: True Colours, Part Two

Issue 125TRUE-LIFE ROCK TALES

In Issue 124 Ken wrote about the beginning of the Split Enz 1980 US/Canada tour, encounters with Iggy Pop and Cynthia Plaster Caster and more. The story continues here. On November...

Split Enz: True Colours, Part One

Issue 124TRUE-LIFE ROCK TALES

We drove our three rental cars up to the lobby entrance of the Sunset Marquis at 1200 North Alta Loma and started to unload our luggage and stuff. A few...

Renaissance: Songs for All Seasons

Issue 123TRUE-LIFE ROCK TALES

“Wrong Way Wicks,” Annie Haslam says to me. I had just joined the Renaissance tour in the fall of 1974 that was already in progress. I was the replacement road...

Little Esther: Long Days With the Diva

Issue 122TRUE-LIFE ROCK TALES

It’s 1977 and we are waiting on Doheny Drive in Beverly Hills for talent manager Irene Pinn when her partner Jim Kellem (one of the two Jims who I worked...

One Step Beyond and Going With the Go-Go's

Issue 121TRUE-LIFE ROCK TALES

The two Vietnamese gals that were hanging out backstage asked me what I had in my briefcase. Contracts, travel itineraries, touring papers, that kinda stuff, I answer. “Oh, so you...

Brother Louie

Issue 120TRUE-LIFE ROCK TALES

“We quit!” Those are not the words I want to hear at six o’clock in the morning. Especially from these two roadies. I had already been warned that they might...

The Forty Thieves

Issue 119TRUE-LIFE ROCK TALES

I’m sitting with my sister Ellen at an outdoor coffee shop on the ocean in Venice Beach, California, and we’re talking about our dad. Hard to be exact; it had...

Peace Parade, the Protest, and J.C. Superstar

Issue 118TRUE-LIFE ROCK TALES

In Issue 117 Ken talked about his involvement with the LA and Broadway productions of Hair and how it led to the spinoff Peace Parade musical show…and romance. The story continues here in the years...

An Outgrowth of Hair

Issue 117TRUE-LIFE ROCK TALES

The first time I met performer Susan Morse was in the spring of 1969 at the Psychedelic Supermarket head shop on Las Palmas Blvd. We were looking at the cool...

Images of the Past: On the Road with Nektar

Issue 116TRUE-LIFE ROCK TALES

Things work out, I’m happy, I have the job as road manager for Nektar, a British progressive rock band, as told in Issue 115. First concert is in Fort Wayne, Indiana....

Nektar: Remember the Future

Issue 115TRUE-LIFE ROCK TALES

Richard Halem from Creative Management Associates calls and asks me for help. He has a group flying into JFK tomorrow and he wants me to escort them and their equipment...

More Time with War: Lasting Impact

Issue 114TRUE-LIFE ROCK TALES

I am watching Midnight Blue on leased-access cable channel J. It is Saturday morning just past midnight and I am enjoying a shot of tequila in my apartment on 3rd Avenue in the...