Online fans meet John Waite

Port Washington, WI
July 17, 1999
(VENUE: "Fish Day" festival)

CYNDI HACKEROTT'S STORY:

I went to the July 17 show in Port Washington with fellow online fans Elizabeth and Doreen. Port Washington is a nice little town along Lake Michigan, just a little bit north of Milwaukee. It had rained on and off most of the day, but there was no rain during the show. It was very foggy though--John even commented on the fog during the show. We got to the stage area in time to see about the last half of the opening act's set. The opening act was "The Toys," a band from Milwaukee that does cover songs. They were pretty good.

John took the stage right about 8:00. There were barriers a few feet from the front of the stage and security wouldn't let any audience members go past those barriers. Elizabeth, Doreen, and I were right up front, and Paul W. was right behind us. There were a lot of goofy drunk people at the show, dancing around and bumping into others. Slightly annoying, but typical of festival crowds.

Some guy or guys in the audience were yelling at John to take off his shirt during the show. John replied that he should get paid extra for that. I think at least two different women yelled, "I love you."

Despite the lack of an official Meet and Greet, I did manage to get to meet John after the show. John was very sweet and friendly and he signed some pictures taken when I had meet in him Providence, RI in Nov. 1997. --Cyndi Hackerott

DOREEN SWEDIK'S STORY:

Yep, I was there with fellow online fans Elizabeth and Cyndi and had the pleasure of meeting both Cyndi and Paul for the first time.

The weather was pretty nasty on the way up, but fortunately it didn't hit the festival area. We decided to scope out the scene down there for parking, etc. before heading to the hotel. As we did our "drive-by" Elizabeth spots John right out there on the street. "There's John!" I thought she was kidding, but I rubber-necked a look and sure enough, there he was!

The festival looked reasonably packed by the main stage, though once in the crowd you could tell you'd be able to stand wherever you wanted (since the majority of the crowd was tanked). The opening band was great, but they really had the crowd worked up with the brewskis. It resembled a frat party. At one point they were tossing loaves of bread into the audience (which, of course, found their way back on stage). Hence all the ingredients for a nice food fight were onhand.

When they finally cleared the stage, the bulk of the audience vacated too. I was worried that they might be too drunk to return for John and then thought maybe this was a good thing. But he did have a nice crowd there who were quite enthusiastic!

I did write down the set list. Click here for the scoop on that. It was a pretty decent atmosphere for a show, lakeside with a thick fog rolling in with a wild festival crowd. John even commented that it "felt like Altamont." <g>

John initially took the stage sporting sunglasses which didn't take long for him to shed along with that black suit coat. He seemed very relaxed and playful. At one point during what I think was a Babys number he did his best Austin Power's: "Am I making you 'orney?" LOL! He seemed really upbeat and appeared to be enjoying himself quite a bit. He also talked about wanting to order a pizza during the show. <g> He sounded wonderful, of course.

I was very pleased to hear favs like "Act Of Love," "Straight To Your Heart," and "Encircled." I was really grateful to hear "Show Me How To Love You." Always reminded me of something Otis Redding would do. The big surprise was "Roadhouse Blues" for an encore! I'm not a huge Doors fan, but this sounded awesome! Shane was in rare form that night too. I never saw him thrash around quite that much before.

OK, show is ended and I'm thinking it's time to head back to the hotel since no Meet & Greet was happening after the show. Fortunately we did get to spend a few moments with John who was as gracious as ever, in spite of being incredibly hungry! I didn't bring anything for John to sign, just basically wanted to say "hello." So when I explained this to John, he motioned to sign my shirt. When he noticed it was from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, he said, "Oh, I don't want to 'write' on *this*." But I told him to go right ahead and that he belonged in there anyway. So he obliged!

Thanks to Elizabeth, Cyndi and Paul for such a fun night! And of course, John!

--Doreen Swedik

PAUL WILTBERGER'S STORY:

I went to the Fish Day show in Port Washington, WS on July 17th. It was a really good show and my first time seeing John since Bad English played in Indianapolis at some old Movie Theater. The show had a good mix of songs in it and the band appeared to be enjoying themselves also. The drummer looks like Matthew Modine from Vision Quest.

Ticket price for the show was a whomping $3 American!! I actually paid more for parking: $4!!! When was the last time you paid that little for a show between parking and entertainment??

Cheers.....
--Paul Wiltberger

ELIZABETH KONOPKA'S STORY:

I traveled to the show from Illinois with fellow online fans Doreen from Ohio and Cyndi from Chicago. We drove thru rain part of the way up there and we were worried that it would be raining at the festival. Ah, but luck was on our sides and north of Milwaukee it was overcast, but not rainy.

Before checking in to our hotel, we drove down to "Fish Day" to check it out. What a quaint little harbor town. So, we are driving down one of the streets and both Cyndi and I say at the same time, "Look, there's John." There he was, standing on the street in front of a restaurant! It didn't look like anyone was recognizing him. I got a big kick out of spotting him. Reminded me of the first time I ever caught a glimpse of him in person. That was in 1989 and Ray and I were waiting outside the Vic Theater in Chicago to be let in for the Bad English show. A big limousine pulls up and Neal Schon is in it. He rolls down the window and some of the bolder fans go up to say "Hi." And then Ray says to me something like, "Wouldn't it be cool if we could see John like this?" And that instant, I turned to the street and said, "Well, there he is." Sure enough, John was in a van, waiting at a stoplight, right at that very moment! He had the famous Jesus jacket on and everything. I was so dumbfounded, I think I just stood there with my mouth hanging open. Heck, I never thought I would ever be able to meet him, so seeing him like that was a big thrill for me!

OK, so, anyways, back to Port Washington. Doreen, Cyndi and I went and checked into our hotel room, freshened up, had a late lunch/early dinner and then went to the festival. Didn't look like there was much to do at the festival other than listen to live music, eat fried fish, and drink Miller beer. (Well, this was Wisconsin, what did I expect, right? ;-) Only the first of those three interested me.

At that time, the band on before John was performing on the main stage. They were The Toys, a 7 piece synth-rock party band. They did covers of all those great 80s synth-pop hits like "Come On Eileen" and "Safety Dance." The crowd was really getting into them, with lots of singing along and dancing. It was a fun show, I really enjoyed it. It was a treat to sit thru an opening act that good.

OK, so, Doreen and Cindy and I spent our time during the opening act making our way up to the front of the stage. We wanted to stake out good positions up front for when JW came on. Well, we needn't have exerted all that effort. Once the opening act left the stage, the entire crowd cleared out (to hit the beer tents, I suppose <g>) and we were left up front by ourselves!

Among the roadies setting up for John's show was John's guitarist Shane Fontayne, setting up his own equipment. I had met Shane before, so I took that opportunity to go up and talk to him again. I told him how much I liked his new short hairdo and he commented on how my hair was shorter now, too. So, yes, Shane and I are standing there talking hair. LOL!

OK, on to the show. Here's a shocker...John came out wearing JEANS! I don't think I've *ever* seen John perform wearing jeans. He also had on sunglasses, and oversized white long sleeved shirt, and a long (to the knees) suit jacket.

The first song in John's set was "Missing You." Very smart of John to put this one first. There really wasn't much of a crowd around when John started, but I think hearing this one turned a lot of people on to him. You know, the "Hey, I LOVE this song! Oh, yeah, I remember who John Waite is now, let's go see him" syndrome. The crowd was much fuller after the first three songs.

There were a lot of high points for me in this show. You all know how John has problems remembering the lyrics sometimes? Well, this show, he didn't have any problems at all...he nailed all the songs right on! Way to go, John! And I didn't see a cheat sheet in sight, tho he did keep rolling his long white sleeves up and down, up and down throughout the set. LOL! I thought that John must have the lyrics written on his sleeves, and every turn of the cuff brought forth the lyrics to another song. So, when I met him after the show, I joked with him about that, and I made sure to check his sleeves for crib notes. Nope, they were clean! I told John I thought for sure he had the lyrics written down on them. His response, "No. I've tried that before and it didn't work." LOL!

The show was not very intimate as there was a big barrier set up about 4 or 5 feet away from the stage that kept us from getting right up close. The crowd was a bit odd for this show. Lots of drunk guys yelling stuff, like the two behind me that kept yelling "FORGET ME NOT!" I wonder if they were the same guys with long hair who kept headbanging thru the entire show. What was up with that? I got hit with their swinging hair more than once, blech. And then there was this *guy* in the middle who kept yelling "TAKE OFF YOUR SHIRT!!" at John. John did not oblige. He instead made some cute comment about not being paid enough to do that.

When John came out for his encore, he was popping some food into his mouth. It looked like popcorn. Well, he takes one of the pieces, flips it behind his back and kicks it with his heel. It launches into the crowd, and I CAUGHT IT, LOL! It was a piece of raw cauliflower. So, <drum roll please> I'm thrilled to announce that JOHN WAITE'S OWN PERSONAL CAULIFLOWER WILL BE THE NEXT EXCITING GIVEAWAY ON NET WAITE! (Hee hee, just kidding. I threw it away after the show.)

OK, so, after the show, we all went looking for the Meet and Greet. After all, it had been posted online that one would be held after the show. Well, turns out that there actually was no formal Meet and Greet happening. :-( But a little extra effort paid off and my pals and I did get to talk to John after the show.

I have a few JW autographs in my own personal collection and that's plenty for me, so I now just spend my "autograph time" with John getting him to sign stuff for me to giveaway to you guys! :-) I had like 6 things with me that night, so the next Net Waite giveaway is going to be good! (Uh, despite the lack of cauliflower. ;-)

I had just a brief time to chat with John. We talked about the sleeve thing as I mentioned above. John asked me how my husband was (John met Ray in Vegas in April) and I thought that was very thoughtful of him.

God bless John...he was supposed to hurry so that he could go attend a 10 p.m. dinner, but he still took enough time with each of us to chat, sign autographs, and pose for pictures. Before he left, I got one more pic with him. But after we took it, I realized that I had left on my glasses. (I always wear contacts except that I ripped a lens 3 weeks previous and I had to wear glasses while I wait for replacement lenses to come in.) So, I said, "Oh, wait..can we take another? I forget to take my glasses off!"

--Elizabeth Konopka

Do you have a "I met John" picture and/or story that you would like to share with Net Waite?  If so, e-mail me!

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