 
|
|||||||||
              
|
Fans say Stones still rocking, rolling
Friday, March 12, 1999 By Scott Mervis, Weekend Editor, Post-Gazette
The Rolling Stones concert last night brought out local personalities who aren't even big Stones fans - like the mayor.
"I liked it so much four years ago at the stadium," said Mayor Murphy, "that I thought this would be a good one to see."
WTAE news anchor Sally Wiggin doesn't make the rock scene much these days, but she came out - if only for the history. Wiggin was not a first-timer at a Stones concert. She had seen the band back in 1975 in Memphis.
"We got there at 2 o'clock in the afternoon and they wouldn't let you take coolers in and they ran out of concessions. It was about 90 degrees. I remember standing in line for like an hour to get a drink out of a sink," she said.
Wiggin last night had a comfortable seat in the blue section.
"It was more raw energy then," she said. "It's a lot slicker now, but it's such a part of history."
Dom DiSilvio, former owner of the Decade nightclub in Oakland, looked around and said, "I'm glad to see I'm not the oldest one here."
Though he has hosted such luminaries as Bruce Springsteen, U-2 and Aerosmith, DiSilvio said the Stones are among the few to never make the Decade scene.
"I can't lie and say we had them there," he said. "I just came tonight as a fan."
Rich Engler, of concert promoter DiCesare-Engler, didn't have figures but said that last night's show was the highest-grossing event in Civic Arena history.
"Tickets were high-priced, but reasonably-priced in perspective with the NBA and hockey," he said.
Engler had seen the Stones here in 1972.
"Back then, they were awesome. Like a true, gutsy, raw rock 'n' roll band. They were the bad boys of rock," he said.
And now?
"They're still cool."
|
||||||||
