Crazy Janey and her mission man were back in the alley tradin’ hands
‘long came Wild Billy with his friend G-man all duded up for Saturday night
Well Billy slammed on his coaster brakes and said anybody wanna go on up to Greasy Lake
It’s about a mile down on the dark side of route eighty-eight I got a bottle of rose so let’s try it
We’ll pick up Hazy Davy and Killer Joe and I’ll take you all out to where the gypsy angels go
They’re built like light and they dance like spirits in the night …

Bruce Springsteen . Spirits In The Night

New Jersey September 1974. I had just started my first semester as a photography major at Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) in wonderful New York, New York … just like I pictured it … skyscrapers and everything. I was living in an apartment with my sister Diane in Rahway, NJ and commuting every day to the fashion district of NYC. Walk a few blocks. Hop a train at the Rahway station … four stops later … Linden, Elizabeth, Newark … arriving at New York Penn Station. It was an amazing time of learning and spreading my newly found seventeen-year-old wings to fly.

I almost forgot about this show. Shows what a little digging in my slide archives and a little Internet searching will do. The show was REM opening for The English Beat at Fountain Casino, Aberdeen, NJ in 1983. I saw the slides before me and I knew I was there, I also had some vague recollection that REM ‘might’ have played but all these years later it was a bit foggy.

As I was scanning the first batch of 12 slides, images of Dave Wakeling, check. Images of Rankin Roger, check. Even one of the keyboard player. All well and good. So while these are scanning I’m racking my brain to figure out where this show was at. I Googled “English Beat shows 1983″ got hits but no real detail. Then I figured I’d try “REM English Beat 1983 NJ.” Bingo! Sometimes you just have to admire how some people out there record every detail of bands they love. The hit came from an REM fan page listing show dates for REM in 1983. REM opening for The English Beat at Fountain Casino, Aberdeen, NJ, April 24, 1983. Amazing!

These are live shots I took of Junior Smoots And The Disturbers at the Harbor Inn in Brielle, NJ. The photos were taken one night in August of 1982. I would imagine it was the Harbor Inn. If anyone knows differently leave a comment below. Or just leave a comment for the hell of it.