When: May 25, 1986
Where: Wolfgang’s, San Francisco
What: Photos, interview, autographs, questionnaire
And: Robbie Grey of Modern English — known best (then and now) for the ubiquitous “I Melt With You” — was super sweet and chatty. Looking back, I think he thought I was young and cute in an amusing sort of way. (See the other Modern English pages for his questionnaire and a photo.)
And for more from this artist…
One Response
(May 25, 2016 – In honor of the 30th Anniversary of this concert.)
I was there!
Wow — was that really 30 years ago?!!
The Saturday night before the concert at Wolfgang’s, I finished my late shift at the Wax Museum complex in Fisherman’s Wharf, took the #49 Van Ness Muni bus down to Mission and South Van Ness, and walked the 3 large South of Market blocks to hang out at the DNA Lounge, as I often did after working late nights.
As it happened, that night I had one of the most exciting experiences of my life — I ended up hanging out with Modern English there at the DNA Lounge! I will always be grateful to my beautiful friend Eric, one of the doormen, who stopped me as I was leaving (too shy to approach them) and pointed me back into the bar: “Go say hello. You love them!”
I introduced myself to the band, and after gushing about how much they meant to me, I chatted with Robbie for a while. I was very androgynous back then — some would say strikingly so – and maybe Robbie was intrigued after I had introduced myself as “Hector”. We all stood near the edge of the dance floor for a bit, checking out the scene, and then headed to the bar. Always the nice guy, Robbie asked if I wanted to get on the band’s guest list for their concert the next night. He was tickled to find that several friends and I already had bought tickets — weeks in advance, in fact. I kept my intrusion into their club night to a respectful half an hour, and then walked home on Cloud 9, all the way uphill to Hayes and Divisadero. That night, the normally long walk seemed to take only moments.
The next night at Wolfgang’s, as the band got ready to play “I Melt With You”, Robbie leaned out toward me where I stood with my friends in front of the stage, and said, “This song goes out to my friend, Hector.” He reached for my hand and shook it, and then rocked into the song. Several young women around me rushed me to try to grab my glove off the hand I had touched Robbie with! My friends pulled me back and we all danced our hearts out to my favorite song.
Thank you Robbie and Modern English for one of the most treasured memories of my life…
And thank you, Nancy, for this blog and for keeping that night alive on the web!
–Héctor