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The Beatles-Pittsburgh Civic Arena 9/14/1964
Tim Tormey and I were able to get the Beatles to play Pittsburgh during their 1st US tour in 1964. We had a little trouble coming up with the $5000 deposit to book the show until my dad surprised me with a check.
My dad an immigrant from Italy supporting the 9 of us with a blue collar job at Westinghouse Electric, had leveraged his house and got the money from the Westinghouse Credit Union. The show easily sold out at $5.90 per ticket, and I got my dad's money back to him ASAP. He never asked me for anything more, but later in life I paid off their house, bought them cars, and even repaid the $5000 a second time. Of all the events I'll done in my life, I probably hear about this one the most. "Hey you brought the Beatles to Pittsburgh"- and I could not have done it without my dad.
- Pat Dicesare
I had originally them booked for March 22, 1969. This was right after that episode in Miami where Morrison had exposed himself on stage. I was given an ultimatum by Mayor Barr that if Jim Morrison took his clothes off on stage - I was going to jail with Morrison. After getting pressured from all angles, I decided to cancel the show. Luckily, I was kind of friends with the manager, Bill Siddons, and he was able to get me my deposit back. I was also close with Charlie Strong at the Arena , who also let me off the hook. I didn't have to pay them their guarantee. I was not able, of course, to recover the money I had spent on advertising and I had to refund tickets. Once the smoke cleared I was able to book The Doors for another date the following year. Jim Morrison did not cause any problems besides some minor comments he made about the police. They actually made the show into a live album and had to credit me since my voice is recorded at the end of the show.
- Pat DiCesare
Alice Cooper 1972
Alice Cooper (aka Vincent Furnier) and I got stuck together in his Hilton Hotel room in downtown Pittsburgh during a flood on a summer day back in 1972. I had him performing at Three Rivers Stadium that night. Our conversation fell far from what you would think considering his stage persona at that time. He was a really down to earth guy. We mostly discussed the stock market and the political times. I quite enjoyed him. Eventually he did play a very successful show, breaking the attendance record for a rock concert in Pittsburgh set earlier that summer by my Three Dog Night show at Three Rivers.
- Pat DiCesare
ZZ-Top and Aerosmith - Three Rivers Stadium - 6/12/1976
This show seems to have become infamous for being one of the most raucous events in Pittsburgh history. I think this is because people assume that clashing fan bases for these two bands had to cause trouble. It was well known back then that this was a rather odd combination, yet every promoter wanted to get this show. We used our connection with Jack Hook and Tim Tormey at Dick Clark Productions to make sure that this show did not skip Pittsburgh. The truth is that if you bring 50,000 kids together for a rock concert back then you were bound to get into some trouble. I guess this one was a little worse than usual. A few things about this show that stick out in my mind as being unusual. One is that somehow a fan managed to get to the power switch and completely killed the power in the middle of the Aerosmith set. The other memory is turkey roll. I remember getting a call that there was a problem in the dressing room. When I arrived, Aerosmith had totally destroyed the dressing room. David Krebbs, Aerosmith's manager along with Steve Lieber, said, "What's the deal with the turkey roll?" I of course had no idea what they were talking about. It turned out that the rider said absolutely no turkey roll. Apparently, our caterer somehow misinterpreted that to mean, We want turkey roll. Aerosmith sure let us know about it.
- Pat DiCesare