December 8, 1982
The Mason Jar
Henrietta (Rochester), New York, U.S.A.

It was a cold and snowy night at the Mason Jar in Rochester, New York. Admission was four dollars!

The bar was in Henrietta, N.Y., but Rochester would be accurate. The band of course with Bob Jackson and Mike Gibbins all pulled up in a huge rented motor van (with just their guitars and little amps and drum kit). I met Tommy and Mike; they were skinny beyond belief. Of course I was star struck, being a Badfinger fan from day one. My high school friend Bill was doing the sound. I was 24 years old at the time. Tommy was very big on harmonizing. It seems his higher harmonies were present for the entire performance. Tommy & Mike slipped away and went to a party with the opening band (The Insiders are friends of mine). The manager got really worried about what had happened. I tried to get some info from one of the Insiders recently. Walt said that Tommy was questioned and said something like...he didn't care for the Dave Clark 5, but Mike Smith (lead singer) was a cool guy.

When I spoke with Reed, he'd relayed a story about Joey Molland being in the audience at an earlier concert. This rings true, as it seems that Joey indeed attended the December 6th show in Newark, Delaware. As I talked to Reed, he relayed the story of two nights earlier. From what I remember, he told me that Joey Molland was invited on stage to play with the band. Joey then got up on-stage and played all the wrong chords and sabotaged the performance. If that weren't enough, Joey shook up a beer and sprayed it all over the members of the band (an old Badfinger trick I've heard). Reed was so angry, he was about to strangle Joey for spraying beer onto his rare Firebird guitar...Reed was clearly not happy with Joey's little hoax of a couple of nights before!

Joe Pellegrino

© Copyright 2001-2004 Tom Brennan's Badfinger Library (TBBL). All Rights Reserved.
Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission is prohibited.
All trademarks used on TBBL are the property of their respective owners.