I should have been a rock star- Woodstock in Kiefer

Kiefer’s Woodstock


I just finished watching the movie “Taking Woodstock.” IT was a much better film than I expected… sort of low key and poignant. The 2009 movie was made about the strange turn of events that brought that historic concert in 1969 to a small summer vacation and arts village.
Elliot Tiber, the youngest elected president of the village board finds a chance to give a concert without a home both land and a permit that turned into something much bigger than he had ever anticipated.
The movie brought me back to 1980 and a time when I, along with my cousin Rob, got the idea that we too might be able to get into music promotion, hang out with bands, and make a few bucks along the way. Rob actually came up with the idea and naive as we were, we plunged into it with great intentions and very little else.

The road to our first promotion was probably decided as much by lust as it was by brains. Rob had seen a band at a club that he really liked. The name of the group was “Black Label.” Today there is a national recording artist “The Black Label Society,” but this is not them in their fledgling years. Rob talked me into going to see them practice and try to enlist them in the idea that we had put together.
The band was fronted by a female lead singer. She was tall, blonde with a husky voice and moved sensuously around the stage as she sang. I am sure that Rob saw the same thing in her that I did. Now, the rest of the band was good too… the sound was tight and made a great backdrop for her stage presence. I listened. I agreed with Rob and we made our pitch as far as a idea we had for hiring them to put on what we thought might be the beginning of a new business.

We figured… hell… lots of people put on shows. All we needed was a place, electricity, security and insurance. IT was summer, so we decided to put our venture outdoors. We knew we would be starting small, but wanted to be a s successful as possible in our first attempt.
Rob and I decided on renting the Kiefer city park. It had electricity, and with a couple of ball diamonds there made a great place to set up for a nice early summer concert and dance. Our venture would be called “Dance on the Diamond.” I don’t remember which of us came up with the name, but it made sense and we hoped it would be at least catchy enough to draw a crowd.

We met with the city to make plans for rental and rules. It was a shoo in since Rob’s sister, and my cousin Waynelle was a part of the board. They let us have the park for nearly nothing provided we have insurance, security and do a clean up. Then we set out to get the rest of the promotion and management in line.

Of course, our new enterprise had to have a business name. It had to identify us on the literature, posters, tickets and of course, the item no business can live without.. the rubber stamp. We decided on ESAD/PIDDLE. Piddle was an easy one for me as the Prince of Piddle. My Dad was the true king of Piddle, but I was waiting in line to take the throne someday. Rob’s tag line was something a little less easy to tell our parents. ESAD stood for Eat Shit And Die.

So, Eat Shit And Die and Piddle went to work getting the dancers to a small Kiefer Oklahoma ballpark to sit, groove and dance to the music of our Black Label goddess.

We lined up the insurance. It only cost us $75 for that evening. We hired a security guard to keep an eye on undesirables and make sure only paying people got in. We got some family members to sell tickets… lined up a flatbed to be brought to the ball park to set the band on….laid electric cords for the band … etc
Rob and I traveled all over the area.. Hitting all the small towns locally, hanging our poster in stores, gas stations, and groceries. We got more and more nervous as the date for the “Dance on the Diamond” drew near. I was worried that no one would show and our attempt at the music business would be a complete bust and we would lose lots of money.

Finally, the day arrived. We set up for ticket sales at the entrance. We had a few guys, friends, who helped the band set up and would be there for the cleanup. We had iced down some beer to drink while we did our clean up.

A few people began to trickle in. A couple of cars came with several people… paying customers who paid, got their ticket and hands stamped with ESAD/PIDDLE in bright red ink. The crowd was small, but waiting as the band took the stage in the early evening of an Oklahoma June. The air was hot, but pleasant for Oklahoma. I was sweating, but then I always sweat. But I think then it was not so much due to the physical labor I had done that day as it was due to the nervousness I felt about the whole enterprise.

The band came on and played. The small crowd of people sat on blankets and lawn chairs, appreciative of the music as I was of the singer as she glided across the stage. I can still remember her growling at the front of the stage as she sang Bob Seger’s “Her Strut.” “The Boys Respect her But They Love To Watch Her Strut.” Yes, that night I appreciated that song by Seger like I never had before.
The night went with very little interruption besides the 4 teen guys who tried to slip in by smearing red ink on their hands. Our alert security guard caught them and chased them away. That provided the only small excitement away from the stage. Luckily they weren’t a very disruptive force since our guard probably couldn’t have handled too much.


Finally, the band sang their last song. The small group of listeners applauded and picked up blackest and chairs and headed home. Despite my post show fantasies, the band, along with the “Black label” goddess packed up their gear, took their money and disappeared.

I was left with Rob and several others to pick up trash, put away equipment and make sure everything at the diamond was in the same shape as before the show. It took us a short time and then we all sat on the trailer and dug the beer from the cooler. Sitting there, Rob gave me the news that we were not losers in the business end. Even though we put on a “Dance at the Diamond” where no one actually danced, we did not lose money.
After paying rent, insurance, security, the band and buying beer, we had a profit of at least 4 dollars!

Four dollars.

What the hell? It was a nice night. We had some beer. We listened to some rockin’ music and watched a great looking girl sing to us. We may not have made a splash in the rock promotion world, but we did learn some things along the way. And, it was a beautiful night in Kiefer, Oklahoma as the ball field lights went out. We were young and it was summer time.


We never tried to do another one. We left that to the other guys. After all, if people were going to promote shows, they would need spectators. We were much better at that.