They were incredible, especially at $5 a ticket. But the real topper was his concert in ‘70 at the old VCU gym. The concert went on and on, no one would leave and the band kept on playing. Then the VCU police cut off the power and the lights.

Bruce pulled out his acoustic quitar and started playing Buffalo Springfield’s “For What It’s Worth.”

The band was more or less the house band there and it was hard to get a seat whenever they performed. I was a proud younger brother and got there early every gig so I could get a seat.

I was 18 — we were able to drink beer at 18 then — and the band was really rocking.

I turned to watch the adoring crowd applaud after a song and saw Bruce toward the back of the room. He was by himself and, yes, he had the same old jeans on. Many in the crowd did not recognize him, but I did.

I walked up to him and asked if I could buy him a beer. Shyly he said, “thanks man.” It was break time for the band and there were two seats available in the back of the room.

We sat and chatted about his band, where he was playing next, his band members and a lot of other things; many that were relative to his relationship with Richmond.

I didn’t want to hog his time so I started to wrap the conversation. In retrospect, it’s nuts; I am talking with Bruce Springsteen and we are both 18 years old.

I heard Springsteen in Budapest, Hungary, when he was on the Human Rights Tour in 1988, held in the Nepstadion, the soccer stadium that holds 80,000 people.  It was the only rock concert of my life, but it was a great one, beginning around 8:30 and not ending until around 3:00 a.m. 

The Boss wouldn’t stop. They turned on the lights.  He brought everyone else, Sting, Peter Gabriel among others, back onto the stage and just kept cranking. 

I went partly because our best Hungarian friend, doing his last bit of military duty, was a nut about American pop music, particularly Springsteen. 

Two unforgettable moments.  Having been in the middle of the field for hours, and hearing at least six languages within earshot that I had no idea what they were, Bruce as the headliner, finally came on around midnight and opened with “Born in the U.S.A.“ and EVERYBODY sang along in English.  Hungary was still under the Russians.  It was a proud-to-be-an-American moment that I cherish. 

At some point, he came to the mic like a relectant 3rd-grader giving a book report for the first time.  Said a few things in halting Hungarian (with a New Jersey accent) and the place exploded.  He could have been President of the country at that moment. 

All of the power went off, but the drummer, Vini Lopez continued the beat as the stage crew rantically began to look for another power source. Heavy extension cords were placed across the crowed gym floor and women with skirts and dresses began to sit and cover the direction of cords which led out of a side door to the alley.

The legend has it that a Vepco linesman was in the audience and assisted the crew in finding a power source up an adjacent power pole in the alley.

Meanwhile, Vini continues to play a drum solo and is threatened by the VCU police to cease playing or be arrested for disorderly conduct( he was later on). After a 25-minute interlude, the power comes back on, Bruce picks up his guitar and continues where the band left off with “Twenty More Miles.” After about three or four more songs and long after midnight, the officials located the power source and once [again] cut the power.

Tickets were $2.50.

While Bruce was still with Steel Mill, Natural Wildlife played with them at Randolph Macon College ,in Ashland, at their gymnasium for a Saturday concert. While the musicians and roadies set up the light show (slide projectors, 16 mm movie projector, overhead projectors) to be shown on a white cloth screen behind the bands, the scaffolding which held the equipment up above thecrowd had to be moved farther back from theband because the pictures were too small on the screen.

The basketball stadium floor was covered with sheets of plywood to protect the wooden surface. The scaffolding snagged the edge of the plywood and sent the scaffolding
platform over on it’s side. All of the light show equipment fell to the floor. Only one slide projector was still working that night. I was one of the scaffolding movers and had to jump out of the way when it collapsed.

Bruce, meanwhile, was sitting on the bleachers beside my wife, playing his acoustic guitar. I went over to him and talked with him about what could be done for the show that night. By the way, his acoustic guitar had a stick on plastic label that said “A GUITAR”, where the brand name would usually be.

Another place where we played music together was the Bearded Brothers Club on Broad Street, near the Science Museum. He would come down from New Jersey on Thursday
nights and jam with Natural Wildlife until the early morning. He sat beside my dad and told him how his dad didn’t like him playing loud music in their house and he was surprised to see my dad watching us play.

I invited him to come to my house for dinner, and had to pick him up around VCU and take him to my apartment (3100 Stuart Ave, Apt.5) for a steak dinner. He does not like green peas, so he left them on his plate. We played albums from my collection and he told me about a great musician that I was sure to like (Neil Young) since I already has some Buffalo Springfield albums. He liked my stereo cabinet, an old oak wardrobe with shelves and orange burlap lining.

The Barracudas were playing at the Hullabaloo Club in Richmond one night and our bass player was outside with a friend, who aked him who “that rough looking bunch of
guys” were that were coming in the door. He told him that it was Bruce and several of the E Street band members who were forming their group and looking for places to play.
They had Miami Steve play his first job with them at the Hullabaloo Club soon after that night.

I talked to Bruce several times when they played at the Back Door Club on Grace Street and asked him if he knew any singers that were looking for a job, possibly singing with another group I started playing with, called Studio B, because we were recording a lot at Eastern Recording Studio, just off Rt.360 in the Southside of Richmond. He gave me Southside Johnny from his band and Johnny and I wrote a lot of songs together and recoded several of them at Eastern. I still have those tapes and still perform a couple of the songs I wrote.

I try to keep in touch with some of the musicians from back then who played with Bruce’s bands or my bands. Some of them are in the River City Blues Society, of which I am a member, Robbin Thompson, Velpo Robertson, and a bunch of others are still playing around town. I currently play with the Backstage Pass Band and The Barracudas. Check out their Web sites,backstagepassband.us and barracudasband.com for our photos and information. I’m Mike Parker and I’m still looking forward to asking him to play “Sweet,Sweet Melinda” one more time for me like he always did back then.
Mike Parker