Rock and Romance, 80s Cruise, and my other 2024 music adventures

[Honolulu Blue]

4 hours ago, NinS said:

It is funny that the Paul Abdul Polaroid would have been retro in her heyday! But I think it's still a fun and unique twist on the usual meet and greet option.

 

Speaking of news about cruises: https://www.thrillist.com/travel/nation/music-festivals-on-cruise-ships

 

4 hours ago, NinS said:

And here's one that does mention TEC: https://www.chron.com/gulf-coast/article/galveston-music-cruise-ships-18588969.php

 

Yeah, Polaroid pictures had their heyday in the late 70s and early 80s and slowly fizzled as film cameras became better and film processing became more available to the masses. 35mm film was most common. Digital wasn't a thing in the late 80s or early 90s.

 

Thanks for both of those links. The two country cruises out of Galveston that were mentioned in the latter link are partial charters, unlike our favorites. That's great for those that are with the charter, not so great for the rest if the passengers who have no access to all the cool shows. ☹️

[NinS]

When you look at the partial charter schedules they're only programming 2-3 hours a day so they don't tie up venues that the rest of the ship wants to use. I think it would be a big come down from the kind of programming we're used to on the full charters.

[Honolulu Blue]

9 minutes ago, NinS said:

When you look at the partial charter schedules they're only programming 2-3 hours a day so they don't tie up venues that the rest of the ship wants to use. I think it would be a big come down from the kind of programming we're used to on the full charters.

True and true. Good points. 👍

[Honolulu Blue]

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame announced their newest inductees last night.  Not in any order, but Cher, Kool and the Gang, Foreigner, and Dionne Warwick made the cut - among others.

 

I saw the former lead singer for Foreigner, Lou Gramm, on The 80s Cruise last year.  And I saw the band itself on the 70s Rock and Romance Cruise this year.

 

 

 

Kool and the Gang I saw on the 2022 and 2023 editions of the UDC.  They're scheduled for the 2025 edition.  This photo is from last year:

 

 

Cara Lee did a convincing job of looking like and sounding like Cher on the UDC last year:

 

 

One of Dionne's biggest hits, "Then Came You", was with The Spinners.  They did this song without her in 2022 on the UDC.  They'll probably do the same in 2025, also on the UDC.

 

[Honolulu Blue]

FYI - StarVista Live's YouTube site has posted full All Access Passes (interviews) with several of its artists from Rock & Romance and Flower Power.  The videos include Randy Bachman (twice, for both R&R and FP), Bad Company, Dave Mason, Generation Radio, and WAR.  I'll have to remember to catch up with them when I get time.

[Honolulu Blue]

It's a rainy Sunday here in Michigan.  I'm two weeks off from my latest music cruise adventure.  The next one is in several months, though I do have a concert in about four weeks.

 

Let's hand out some silly, meaningless awards around here with pictures.

 

BEST CONCERT BY CRUISE

 

TEC honorable mentions - Stephen Pearcy, Debbie Gibson

Winner - SHEENA EASTON.  This surprised me too.  I didn't expect her to hit me as hard as she did.  And she didn't even play her GOOD songs - not many of them, anyway.

 

 

R&R honorable mentions - Pablo Cruise, Bella Donna, Lez Zeppelin, Ambrosia & Friends

Winner - GENERATION RADIO.  I did say that the more Chicago they played, the better I would like it.  They played lots of Chicago, so I liked the show a lot.  They even played "Along Comes a Woman", which is my favorite Chicago tune.  And that wasn't even the best song they played.  I'll get to that one shortly.

 

 

McDonald LaBelle Cruise winner - Well, I only attended two concerts here.  No surprise who I picked as the better of the two.

 

 

BEST SONG PLAYED LIVE BY CRUISE

 

TEC honorable mentions - "Telefone" (Sheena), "Lay It Down" (Stephen Pearcy), "Teacher, Teacher" (38 Special)

TEC winner - "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic".  80s era tribute band Jessie's Girl did this one.  It's a nice surprise; they didn't do this on the show I saw last year.  It was a good version, though the Stinger and the boys in blue can/would do it better.

 

 

R&R honorable mentions - "Love Will Find a Way" (Pablo Cruise), "Waiting for a Girl Like You" (Foreigner), "Baby Come Back" (Peter Beckett with Ambrosia)

Winner - "Danger Zone" (Generation Radio).  I didn't expect them to play this one.  Well played sirs.  Forgive me for not using another picture of the Radio stars; let's do Pablo Cruise this time.

 

 

McDonald LaBelle Cruise winner - "Sweet Freedom".  Yes he played it.  I wasn't sure he was going to.  Let's show the entire band this time; he had quite a few people around to make him sound good.

 

 

SONGS THAT I LIKE MORE NOW THAT I'VE HEARD THEM PERFORMED LIVE

 

TEC - "Over the Wall" (Debbie Gibson).  Cute song near the end of the "Electric Youth" album.  She played it second at this concert.

 

 

R&R - "Kashmir".  Lez Zeppelin did the honors.  A 10 1/2 minute song that captivated me throughout.  Do I really need to say more?

 

 

BEST SURPRISES (NOT CONCERT RELATED)

 

TEC - Who knew Ray Parker, Jr. liked us so much until he told us?  Also, he mentioned my podunk little town in one of his stories.

 

 

R&R - Who knew I'd like the tribute artists (like Bella Donna) very nearly as much as the bigger names?

 

 

McDonald LaBelle - Who knew that George Wallace deemed me worthy to take a selfie with him?  Sorry this isn't it. 😞

 

 

Also, I didn't find Nassau to be the horrible place that some cruisers had mentioned it would be.  The port area seemed quite nice to me.  I wouldn't mind coming back sometime.

 

 

OK, enough silliness for one day.  Thanks for indulging me. 🙂

 

 

[Honolulu Blue]

The 80s Cruise released the highlight video of their cruise a few weeks ago.  The jump cuts from video to video were mostly very fast, so I can't be absolutely sure that they didn't sneak me in there.  But I didn't get a confirmed sighting of me.

 

There were a couple of close calls.  There was a closeup of Stephen Pearcy signing a copy of his autobiography.  But it wasn't my book - the ink color was different.  And during Sheena's concert, the camera was behind me, and I can almost tell where I was standing with camera in hand... but it was dark, and I didn't see enough details to confirm my presence.

 

Oh, and former VJs Mark, Julie, and Alan did a little speech about next year's cruise.  I think it was during the late concert, because I don't remember it and I didn't see myself.

 

It's about 4 minutes long.  Have fun!

 

 

Edited Wednesday at 06:28 PM by Honolulu Blue