"You can't stop the Music (The Village People)"
It was about 1979 when the Village People came to Sydney to promote the opening night oftheir movie, 'You Can't Stop the Music'.
I found myself working for the lighting company that had the responsibilty of flood-lighting George Street... you know Hollywood style with lighting beams panning up and down and around the entrance of the Cinema. It was supposed to be six big lights on cherry pickers but as is normal in this business, things didn't go to plan...
The power source was completely inadequate and there wasn't enough bracketing for the lights in the towers so things were getting well behind schedule.
The sound guys also had their work cut out for them trying to meet the same deadlines with big speakers being erected on the awning of the Tivoli over the road.... sound checks were going well though with 'You Can't Stop The Music' getting a good work out.
Meanwhile, meand another bloke worked our rings off to get our floodlight going while the boss was screaming down the walkie talkie that the Village People were on the way.
We got things right and I got into the cherry picker and elevated it into the air...it was sunset and atremendous view of George Street fromup there, I'll never forget it... my partner turned on the light and it worked! The music was pumping out 'You Can't Stop The Music' and the crowd of over 1000 people was cheering in anticipation! TV Camera crews were there and celebrities were showing up.
But I looked around and saw that we were the only light in the sky... all the others were still on the ground grappling with gaffa tape and crappy extension cables.
The big flashy looking Stretch Limos showed up and out came the Village People in their glory... with only one cherry picker light working, it looked likewere going to have a less than impressive display...
...and........ as if on cue....... the loud pumping musicfrom across the road suddenly went dead.... 'You can't stop the music... nobody can stop the music...' crack...fizzzle... yep... what a lie....the music wasstopped dead in its tracks.
This brought roars of laughter from the gathering and here I was 30 metres in the air swinging a lone pathetic floodlight across the footpath as the Village People made a less than triumphant entrance into the cinema.
The bastard (Roger Foley of Ellis D Fogg Co.) who was cutting corners blamed everyone but himself and to this day, I never got paid for that job.
