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More NEW YORK CITY
To celebrate the end of the millennium, ABC News produced an
enormous 22-hour broadcast entitled "ABC2000" hosted by Peter Jennings.
Acoustix was honored to be invited to participate in this broacast.
Here is the story of how we came to be involved in the broadcast,
as well as some pictures from our time in New York City.
THE PRE-GAME
- by Joel T. Rutherford - December 8, 1999
Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, singers of all ages.
CHECK IT OUT!!!
Just when you think you know what's going on, it becomes painfully clear that you never really had a clue.
As you may recall, Acoustix recently visited New York City at the invitation of one Mr. Peter Jennings. We sang for / with him and helped him accept an award, etc etc etc .... see the website for details. While we were there, we sang for some ABC producer-type people ... I didn't really know WHO they were, just that they were execs of some sort. After hearing us sing, we were asked what we were doing for New Year's Eve (isn't there a song about that....???). We told them we had a gig booked in Santa Fe.
"Can you get out of it???"
"I beg your pardon?"
They told us the story of ABC's planned Millennium Broadcast - a 24 hour show hosted entirely by Peter Jennings from the ABC studios in New York following the "ringing in" of the new millenium from various interesting places around the globe. ABC correspondents will follow the events as they happen where they are, and then we move on to the next time zone.... you get the picture. And they were saying it would be great if we could be involved in that broadcast somehow. Well, yes it would, but we DO have a booking already. Oh well.
We returned to Dallas and didn't hear much of anything from ABC until last Thursday when the senior producer of the Millennium Broadcast calls Todd at work and gives us an official invite to appear on ABC's BIG SHOW!
Well holy smokes.
Now what? Todd calls me. Todd calls Jason. I call Jason. Todd calls Rick. Rick calls Jason. Jason calls me. Don't bother me, I'm eating supper. Eventually, Todd calls the fellow in Santa Fe that hired us and gently explains the situation to him. And he very graciously gives us his blessing for being involved in ABC's broadcast!!!! What a guy!! What a great guy!! Here's a plug for the Hilton Hotel in Santa Fe. If ever you're in town, stay there. They're nice people. While Todd was speaking with him, they made some tentative plans to hook up in the future and do the same kind of gig, just at a different time. Maybe a Valentines Day weekend package with Acoustix or something like that. Any takers???
So we're all set to do the NYC thing! Very cool. Everybody is happy!!!
So we'll be there for 4 days. And of course we'll be taking the lovely ladies along too!!!
Our actual involvement on the broadcast is a little unclear at this point... it seems that's how those TV people operate ... in generalities and vagueness. Anyhow, we have to be there on the 30th for rehearsals and tech stuff at the studio, and whatever else they need us for. Hey, maybe they'll need us to go promo the show on Rosie, or Letterman, or something like that. Yeah, maybe. And as far as I know, the actual show starts at 5am on December 31 and will run till 5am the following morning. Not sure when we're on yet, but I'll pass it along when I know.
Oh, and did I mention that the ABC 2000 show is gonna be aired in 63 countries around the world. Yeah. Just 63. No big deal.
Just us Acoustix dudes doing our part to spread the gospel of 4-part harmony around the entire cotton-picking world!!!!
Later folks.
Joel T. (the T is for singing on the TV) Rutherford
I LOVE IT WHEN A PLAN COMES TOGETHER...
The official ABC2000 Times Square Studios GUEST PASS.
You don't get anywhere without one of these babies.
January 2, 2000
Hey kids. Just got back from "the big apple". What a crazy holiday, and what a crazy time in NYC!! It was totally great! Standing in the middle of Times Square at midnight on New Year's Eve of the millenium was a TOTAL trip!! Geez, I can't begin to describe it.
Anyhow, I'm real tired right now, but I'll put together a blow-by-blow tomorrow of the whole experience. There's so much to the story that you don't know. I think you'll dig it. But right now, I'm just looking forward to sleeping in my own bed tonight... I'll talk to y'all tomorrow.
Joel T (the T is now officially for Typhoid) Rutherford
... I'll explain it all tomorrow
MAKE IT SO...
by Joel T. Rutherford - January 5, 2000
Well good evening from Dallas, Texas. Joel here with Acoustix.
I wanted to give you all a first-hand look at our recent trip to New York City to sing on ABC's Millennium Broadcast and New Year's Eve Celebration. Some of you have been asking about it, so here it is.
Backing up a step or two...
As you will probably all recall, we visited the big apple back in early November at the request of Mr. Peter Jennings. We helped him accept an award while we were there. And as a result of that trip, we were subsequently invited to re-visit NYC and to sing on the "ABC 2000" broadcast. There was talk about it while we were there (on November 3, 1999), but the actual invitation didn't come till December 2 (nearly a month later to the day, and less than a month before the actual broadcast date!!). Many of you will also be aware that we had already booked a gig for New Year's Eve in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Potentially a big problem. Well, we called the Santa Fe folks and explained the situation, and they very graciously agreed to release us from our obligations to them. So here's a plug for the Santa Fe Hilton hotel. Thanks folks.
Well we altered the flight reservations and re-altered the flight reservations until everything was as it needed to be. These ABC folks had a HUGE task putting this broadcast together. They had something like 300 live feeds from around the world to deal with, working out logistics, technical issues, travel issues for crew, etc etc etc. And we were getting a little anxious as the date approached because no one had told us what we were to sing on this broadcast, or how much, or anything ... and we all had plans to split up for the holidays with Todd in NC, Rick in OH, and me in Canada. It was getting down to the wire (like December 20) and we still hadn't received info on where we would be staying, how we would be getting there from the airport, what we would be singing, when we would be singing, how many times we would be singing ... etc etc etc. You get the idea. Well, we had a gig in Killeen, TX on the evening of Dec 20th, and as we were driving there in Todd's truck, we received a call from ABC!!! Finally! And we were all together at the same time at the same place!!! VERY rare! The lady at ABC was very nice and explained to us some of the obstacles she was having to deal with in putting this show together. They were all swamped and working lots of hours. She said it was like putting on 24 Olympics all in one night. But she was able to put our minds at ease with some basic info.
Over the next few days, we learned we were to sing between 11am and 2pm EST. This was later changed to 3:30pm, which actually ended up being around 3:50pm... which is when many of you ended up seeing us. We were also requested to learn the song "Two Brothers" to go with a Civil War segment that Peter was apparently putting together. Bammo! A task!!! Let's get on it. Call Greg Volk. Interrupt his holidays. Find some sheet music, find a tape, anything, and get it to Greg. Greg probably got the tape around the 23rd, and spent much of the 26th and 27th arranging the thing and then faxing it all over the continent to the 4 of us so we could look at it before assembling in NYC on the 30th to learn it.
Thanks Greg for taking the time out of your holidays. And thanks for being a genius.
Taking another small step back...
So in the week leading up to the VM shows in Dallas (December 17 and 18), Rick got pneumonia, and Jason got laryngitis along with a wicked cold. Bad news. Thankfully both were back in shape (for the most part) by the time the shows rolled around and both were able to function at near capacity. But who do you think picked up germs from both of them??? Yours truly. I started feeling a little under the weather on the 20th but fought it off until the eve of December 25th when this awful sickness raised its ugly head and officially kicked my butt. So I spent the next two days solid in a bed in my parents basement not able to move. Hot, cold, chest cough, hot, cold, sneezing, voice went bye-bye, hot, cold, etc. I got out of bed long enough on the 27th to get to a doctor and get some heavy-duty industrial-strength meds. Antibiotics and the lot. By the 28th, I'm feeling a little better, which is good because we have to begin our journey back to the US to get our sickly selves down to NYC. And here's another plug for someone who helped us out big-time along the way. My good buddy Chris Arnold and I spent most of the afternoon of the 28th (his Christmas holidays) making a learning CD of this new tune Greg had arranged so our time in NYC could be a little more productive as we try to learn this song. Chris runs Quick Start Vocal Productions and has the best setup I've seen for cranking out learning tapes and CD's.
Thanks a ton Chris for taking time out of your holidays. And thanks for reading music ALMOST as quickly as me!!!!!
So that's done and Heather and I go from Kitchener to London that night. And from London to Detroit the following day. We get to the airport 4 hours early cuz everyone told us it would take a LONG time (like 2 hours) crossing the border because of serious border guard paranoia and nutcases trying to smuggle bombs into the US. It took us about 15 seconds. Geeeez. Well, 4 hours to kill at the airport and we hop a plane to Dallas. No problem. Get to Dallas and make our connection to the plane taking us to Newark, NJ. I'd explain why we didn't just fly to Newark from Detroit but it would take too long (and about $1300 extra each). Hook up with some friends in Dallas (Haynie and Paige) coming with us to NYC for New Years and get on the plane just in time for the 3.5 hour flight to Newark. We are met by our driver in NYC who will take the 4 of us to our hotel. Excellent. And by the time we all get into our hotel room and into bed, it's around 2:30am. No problem ... at least we're all here. The other 3 guys and their ladies had arrived earlier that day. Of course Jason and Rick had arrived in the early afternoon, both taking a full day off work, so they could be there for a "sound check" which was supposed to take place at 9pm, then was to take place mid-day sometime, then was to take place from 9-11pm , but which never really worked out in any kind of significantly useful way at all. Oh well, at least we're all here.
Footnote: Jason's brother, Joel, used to work for ABC as a producer, but now works for NBC, and actually works under that oh-so-famous barbershopper and AIC legend, John Miller. Well John, out of the goodness of his heart and his love for barbershop and desire to see us do well, released Joel to come with Jason and Rick to help make sure all technical things went well for us so that we could put our best foot forward.
Many thanks to John Miller for that. And thanks also to Joel for all your help.
December 30th
11:00am
Essex House, Jason's room (overlooking Central Park - how nice)
This is the first I've seen the other 3 guys since my arrival in NYC. And the daunting task of learning this new Volk piece lies before us. Hands up, anyone who has tried to sing a Volk arrangement before. Yeah, so you know what I'm talking about. Did you learn it in an afternoon? No? Didn't think so. After catching up with the guys and hearing about the waste of time that the sound check was last night, and that we have another sound check today at 6pm (right after Kenny G), we got down to the business of learning this new piece. We listened to it a few times again, then started singing. Turns out my voice is still relatively useless. Hmmm... not good. Can't phonate above a G natural. Really not good. While we're rehearsing, Gary Smith with ABC calls to let us know we should be ready with "Two Brothers", "Stars & Stripes", and "This Is The Moment" at any time during the broadcast - we could be asked to sing any of those songs. No problem ... just wish I could sing ANYTHING at this point in time. Oh, and by the way, don't bother coming down for your 6pm sound check, we have too much to do, and I'm sure you'll be fine. Ooooo-kay. No problem. So we continue rehearsing.
2:15 pm
Break. We escort the Acoustix ladies et al to the Russian Tea Room for their 2:30 lunch reservations. How nice for them to be waited on hand and foot in decadence as we down some NYC swill at a local diner. No sweat. We're here to work. And so we get back up to the room and continue to rehearse. I'd say we had the song really learned well by around 5pm or so. Now it just has to spin around in our brains and percolate so we can sing it from memory by tomorrow for millions of people around the world!!! No problem.
Break
Joel and Heather relaxing in the lounge at the Essex House before dinner.
8:00 pm
Acoustix and entourage (12 of us in total) head out on the town for a fancy dinner. Very nice supper at Bella Luna on the upper west side. We were hosted for much of our time in New York by Jason's brother, Joel, who knows his way around town quite well. Sang a few in the restaurant for some very appreciative Polish restauranteurs and fellow diners. My voice is slowly coming back. And a lovely time was had by all. Back to the hotel and in bed by midnight.
December 31 (the big day)
11:00am
Jason's room again
The official quartet warm-up. Geez, still not good for this cowboy, but better then yesterday. Hopefully things improve as the day wears on. Darn well better or ABC won't be inviting us back for too many more global broadcasts. So we run "Two Brothers" a few times. Seems to be fairly well memorized.
Outta there by 11:45 to go get in our suits, pack up our tuxes, and get down to
the lobby (the temple of our hobby) by 12:30pm.
Times Square as seen from the Green Room (it's not really green).
The people down on the street got there first, will be there the longest, and will be
the closest to "the ball" when it finally drops.
The studio where Mr. Jennings spent his 24 hours is behind the greenish glass
on the right edge of the picture.
12:30pm
Two Lincoln Town Cars (of the 30 that ABC had on standby all day long) pick up 8 of us to be shuttled to the corner of 45th and 5th Avenue where we are met by official ABC2000 staff. We are escorted to "Figaro's" (a little italian restaurant on 45th) where we receive our ABC2000 ID's. We are then escorted to the other side of 6th Ave ... of course we are whisked right by tons of indignant-looking people that have been standing there for a good long time wanting to get down to Times Square which is already plenty full .... where we hop on golf carts and are shuttled down to the ABC Times Square studios. Zip zip zip and we're inside ... or should I say beep beep beep... they had metal detectors there at the entrance. Did I mention that security was tight ???? There were 8,000 cops on hand in and around Times Square all day keeping their eye on the festivities. This was a good thing. So we are up and in and taken to the green room where we wait. From the green room, we have a bird's eye view of the folks who got to Times Square first. They have already been there for many hours and have all day to go. We are on the second floor of the building, about 100 feet from the stack of buildings with "the BALL" on top of it. Pretty cool man. So we hang there for a while, sing our tune a couple of times. Someone comes to take us to "hair and make-up".
"What would you like done to your hair, sir?"
"I don't think you could move my hair if you tried ... thanks anyways."
So now we're made up and waiting our turn back in the green room. As we listen to conversations around the room, we can tell that some people have been there waiting for many hours (much longer than we have been) and have been pushed back and pushed back and pushed back. With Yeltsin resigning and all, the broadcast was running quite a bit behind.
Going over "Two Brothers" one last time just to be sure.
2:30pm
The stage manager from the Subway Studio downstairs comes to get us. We'll do a sound check and then hang out till it's time for the real thing. The sound check goes very badly for me personally. Very little control, the pitch was wavering on its own, and the high notes were not there. It seemed to be a little worse than earlier in the day. Hmmm. Let's start drinking some water. And still, no one has told us what we are to be singing. Well, we discuss it amongst ourselves and decide that if we are never told what they would like, that we would just sing "This Is The Moment". That is the most appropriate song for the occasion. So we do a lot of this routine....
"Places!!! Places!!! OK, never mind, they've gone to a commercial".
That happens a few times. Not good for the heart condition. We watch 3:30pm come and go, hoping that our loyal fans will keep watching a bit past the appointed time as it seems to be fairly close. And finally at around 3:50pm we are given the "Places!!!" command again. It appears as though this one is for real!! And about 20 seconds before we sing, Carrie Cook bursts through the door of the studio...
"This Is The Moment!!! They want This Is The Moment!!!!"
No problem .... we were gonna do that anyways. At least they gave us some warning!! Like 15 seconds.
Peter is introducing us, and we get the wave to start.
And we're singing, and my voice is actually OK! It's functioning fairly close to normal. Most excellent!!!
We can see exactly what is being broadcast on the 3 wall-size screens behind the cameras. And it looks like they faded us out after the bass solo in the middle but we're not 100% sure, and no one has the nerve to actually stop singing, so we sing the song to the end. And it was quite lovely, if I do say so myself!!!
Bammo. And there you have it. All done.
The 2 minutes AFTER our 2 minutes ... big smiles all the way around.
Note the handful of policemen in riot gear through the window on the right.
The ACOUSTIX family ...
Todd & Jennifer, Rick & Tiffany, Joel & Heather, Jason & Laura.
Back up to the green room. And we get the word that we're done. We're free to go. I guess we're only doing that one slot then! Kind of bummed that we didn't get to do Greg's custom arrangement of "Two Brothers". Oh well... Whatever. No problem... whatever you need. But there is a party later on in the Subway Studio downstairs that we just sang in, and we're invited to come back for that. Excellent. So we can be right there when the bomb ... uh... the ball drops!!! Cool.
So we're golf-carted back to Figaro's, and escorted back to 5th Ave, and Lincoln Town Carred back to the Essex House where we meet Jason's brother, Joel, again. And he has a video of what we just did. So we watch and critique and high-five each other and all that stuff.
So now we have a few hours for supper and some down time before the cars come get us again for the party.
So Heather and I, along with our Texas friends Haynie and Paige, head out for another nice dinner at a fancy italian restaurant. Filet Mignon sounds about right for the meal after the big global broadcast. And it was.
Haynie and Paige ... not too concerned about Y2K.
9:00 pm
We're supposed to be met by 3 Lincoln Town Cars this time (Haynie and Paige are coming to the party too) to get us back to 45th and 5th, but so many of the streets in and around Times Square are closed now as we approach midnight that the cars can't even get to us. So we hustle on down to the Plaza Hotel fountain to the newly-appointed meeting place and eventually we all find our drivers. Another stop in at "Figaro's" so Haynie and Paige can get their ID's, and we're off to Times Square. This time when we are escorted across 6th Ave, there are even more people trying to get past the police barricades than before. Everyone wants to get down into Times Square, and NOT everyone is allowed. So these rather unfortunate people are looking VERY unimpressed that we are getting taken through, and actually start booing us!! How nice. Just a little New York City welcome for us, I suppose. Once inside the Subway Studio, we get comfortable, watch the broadcast on the big screens, watch all the people outside through the glass, and generally have a merry old time. There is a group of street performers in the studio as well called "Spank" (I'm reserving comment on the name) that are to sing some time before midnight. That didn't quite happen.
Midnight
December 31, 1999
Times Square, NYC - the ONLY place to be...
And as midnight rolls around we all find ourselves outside right smack in the middle of Times Square watching the ball drop, freezing our buns off, and having absolutely the best time of our lives. It was more than incredible to be there, Times Square in New York City for New Year's Eve of the millennium. A blizzard of confetti flying through the air, music blaring, people screaming and dancing and hugging and laughing. It was just awesome. Indescribable.
Back inside, warming up, hanging out, having a good ol' time, and all of a sudden we all realize that there's still a broadcast going on as the stage manager starts screaming "Places!!!" for Spank .... well, one of their guys is in the Men's Room!!! Thankfully, he gets back JUST in time for them to do their spot at around 12:30am. Nothing like live television. After that, we just were hanging out and singing for each other. They sang a few. Then we sang a few. Then the two groups started jamming with each other on a couple of songs. And as it turned out, the producers upstairs were listening in on the jam session and liked what they heard. And that is how Acoustix and Spank ended up singing together at around 2:30am EST improvising a version of "The Lion Sleeps Tonight".... craziness. A good time was had by all though. And Peter actually came downstairs to the Subway Studio to intro our little jam session, making references to barbershop and woodshedding and the whole routine. It was pretty cool. And I believe that was the only time all day that Peter did anything outside of his studio upstairs. Nifty.
Singing some songs in the early morning hours of a new millennium.
SPANK, with guest bass vocalist Joel T!!!
Uh, that's a bag of popcorn in Joel's right hand ... a man's gotta eat.
4:00am
"The party's over, it's time to call it a day ...."
Definitely. We're all pooped. The broadcast is over, and everyone is very pleased. We ran upstairs to listen in on a couple of congratulatory speeches made by some ABC network brass, and Peter, et al. A quick handshake and a couple of photos with "the man" and we're on our way. Back to the hotel and in bed by around 5:00 am.
The next day, we had tickets to go see Fantasia 2000 (thanks to Joel January) at 2:30pm, then dinner reservations at Ruby Foo's (this fancy, crazy, trendy Japanese restaurant where I had the distinct pleasure of observing Todd ingest raw fish .... yeah) around 5:00. A nice relaxing day. Then some of the crew went back to Joel's, while Heather and I went to try and catch a show with Haynie and Paige. Deciding we would probably fall asleep in the middle of a show, we opted for another walk through Times Square (still a mess), then heading back to the hotel neighbourhood, a carriage ride through central park, desert at Mickey Mantle's restaurant, and heading to bed around 11pm.
The next day was completely gobbled up by travel, and here we are back at home, safe and sound and all in one piece!
Well, obviously, this was a great trip, and a great experience, and will not soon be forgotten.
Many thanks to all those who diligently watched the broadcast trying to catch us. We think it was a great moment for Acoustix, and for barbershop, and for showing the entire world a little piece of what 4-part harmony can sound like. And for any out there who are still "put out" by the fact that we were cut off mid-song, please remember that we got just as much air-time as any of the acts that were performing in the subway studio. I think our air-time was around 2 minutes. The only people that got more time (and it was marginally more) were the BIG NAME acts like Billy Joel and Faith Hill and the like. And rightfully so too! And the most any of those folks got to do was one song anyways. As a matter of fact, even Barbra Streisand only got a minute or so into "The Way We Were" before she was cut off. I think we actually got MORE time than Barbra Streisand!!! So fear not. We are VERY pleased getting 2 full minutes when Billy Joel gets 4. If you want to get in touch with ABC regarding our appearance, please do so only to thank them. No negative sentiments, please.
Thanks for all your support, and we are looking forward to a great 2000!!!!
Sincerely,
Joel T. Rutherford
(and now you know why the T is for Typhoid)
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