THE SAINT
02-13-2016, 03:13 AM
In 1988 Roth pulled one of the greatest promotional stunts ever for a new album release. He had a fake mountain built on top of the Tower Records on the Sunset Strip.
“Hoping the visual and verbal will cause people to listen to his new music and maybe understand the hidden meaning behind it all.”
DLR: Rock climbing is a perfect working metaphor for rock and roll and showbiz in that it’s either straight up or straight down. And so very often it’s all you can do to hang on and stay in one place (laughs).
https://twitter.com/VeryStrangelife/status/698418153160769537
https://twitter.com/VeryStrangelife/status/698418990394253312
https://twitter.com/VeryStrangelife/status/698419610719096832
Billboard Magazine
Delanoy (Bob Delanoy – Tower Records Manager – 1976-1985) recalls the David Lee Roth promotion for his Skyscraper album, which closed down Sunset Boulevard for about four hours Friday during rush hour, and changed the way West Hollywood regarded the store’s promotions.
“Roth had a gigantic display which encompassed the whole roof of the building, and he flew in on a helicopter” Delanoy remembers. He propelled down the side of the building onto a stage. After that, we were required to get permits and licenses.
(DLR – Crazy From the Heat)
Did a trick when we released the album, “Skyscraper.” We got a special consideration from tower Records on Sunset Boulevard. They let us build a twenty-eight foot mountain on top of the store. Same guys who built the Matterhorn for Disney. A major peak with six little platforms to stand on. So we could have little climberettes in bikinis with hard hats and little ice picks and a coil of rope on their shoulders, you know, kind of chipping at the mountain in slow motion. We knew that there were going to be a big syndicated radio confab right next door in Spago. We didn’t tell anybody, but we also hired the marching band from U.S.C. and positioned them about six blocks away, down near Barney’s Beanery. And we said, “Oh, we’re just going to play a little music in the parking lot, there will be a few people, we’ll unveil the mountain that says, “Skyscraper.”
Comes the right moment and – synchronize your watches, gentlemen-the band fires up, starts marching down Sunset Boulevard and traffic backs up, no shit, for three-and-a-half miles. The cops go nuts but they love it, ‘cause this is show biz, this is why we’re all in Hollywood anyway. As the band comes around the corner to the record store, I pop out of the top of the mountain and rappel upside down to one of the platforms, waving and yelling at the people, on the end of the rope. And the band played in the parking lot, pedestrians backed up for miles in every direction. Every nose was pressed against the window at Spago. I’ve never seen so many Oliver Peoples glasses reflected in one place. It was completely illegit, but in these kind of cases, it’s far better to ask for forgiveness than permission.
(On Larry King)
(A funny tidbit, Dave kept calling Larry, "Charlie.")
LK: Now you did what yesterday?
DLR: Well, we built ourselves a big rock candy mountain in the middle of Hollywood. And bring back a little showbiz. You know it’s time to celebrate a little bit. We’re out of the basement. We’re out of the studio. You know we’re getting ready to go on the road, so it’s a good reason to collect people in a parking lot and make noise.
LK: And this was at Tower Records?
DLR: Yes it was. We had the SC marching drum core, we built ourselves a 45 foot mountain up there and what’s a mountain without climberettes Charlie? So we had a live billboard is what we call it and there is live climbers on it even now throughout the weekend and 10,000 balloons and on and on and on. And people were out there until about 4 this morning. This is called, you know, a “Celebration!” and it’s just as creative and it’s just as dynamic and exciting as the singing and the dancing but the singing and the dancing just came out of the studio, so let’s celebrate it a little bit.
LK: And you didn’t jump off anything?
DLR: Oh no no no no no… You now, we used the ropes and we did some rope tricks up there, did the traverse across, the dangerous lean back and the audience is Ahhhhhhhhh you know? There were about 7 to 10,000 people there last night. Traffic was all stopped up and it was a pretty riot-ess affair.
“Hoping the visual and verbal will cause people to listen to his new music and maybe understand the hidden meaning behind it all.”
DLR: Rock climbing is a perfect working metaphor for rock and roll and showbiz in that it’s either straight up or straight down. And so very often it’s all you can do to hang on and stay in one place (laughs).
https://twitter.com/VeryStrangelife/status/698418153160769537
https://twitter.com/VeryStrangelife/status/698418990394253312
https://twitter.com/VeryStrangelife/status/698419610719096832
Billboard Magazine
Delanoy (Bob Delanoy – Tower Records Manager – 1976-1985) recalls the David Lee Roth promotion for his Skyscraper album, which closed down Sunset Boulevard for about four hours Friday during rush hour, and changed the way West Hollywood regarded the store’s promotions.
“Roth had a gigantic display which encompassed the whole roof of the building, and he flew in on a helicopter” Delanoy remembers. He propelled down the side of the building onto a stage. After that, we were required to get permits and licenses.
(DLR – Crazy From the Heat)
Did a trick when we released the album, “Skyscraper.” We got a special consideration from tower Records on Sunset Boulevard. They let us build a twenty-eight foot mountain on top of the store. Same guys who built the Matterhorn for Disney. A major peak with six little platforms to stand on. So we could have little climberettes in bikinis with hard hats and little ice picks and a coil of rope on their shoulders, you know, kind of chipping at the mountain in slow motion. We knew that there were going to be a big syndicated radio confab right next door in Spago. We didn’t tell anybody, but we also hired the marching band from U.S.C. and positioned them about six blocks away, down near Barney’s Beanery. And we said, “Oh, we’re just going to play a little music in the parking lot, there will be a few people, we’ll unveil the mountain that says, “Skyscraper.”
Comes the right moment and – synchronize your watches, gentlemen-the band fires up, starts marching down Sunset Boulevard and traffic backs up, no shit, for three-and-a-half miles. The cops go nuts but they love it, ‘cause this is show biz, this is why we’re all in Hollywood anyway. As the band comes around the corner to the record store, I pop out of the top of the mountain and rappel upside down to one of the platforms, waving and yelling at the people, on the end of the rope. And the band played in the parking lot, pedestrians backed up for miles in every direction. Every nose was pressed against the window at Spago. I’ve never seen so many Oliver Peoples glasses reflected in one place. It was completely illegit, but in these kind of cases, it’s far better to ask for forgiveness than permission.
(On Larry King)
(A funny tidbit, Dave kept calling Larry, "Charlie.")
LK: Now you did what yesterday?
DLR: Well, we built ourselves a big rock candy mountain in the middle of Hollywood. And bring back a little showbiz. You know it’s time to celebrate a little bit. We’re out of the basement. We’re out of the studio. You know we’re getting ready to go on the road, so it’s a good reason to collect people in a parking lot and make noise.
LK: And this was at Tower Records?
DLR: Yes it was. We had the SC marching drum core, we built ourselves a 45 foot mountain up there and what’s a mountain without climberettes Charlie? So we had a live billboard is what we call it and there is live climbers on it even now throughout the weekend and 10,000 balloons and on and on and on. And people were out there until about 4 this morning. This is called, you know, a “Celebration!” and it’s just as creative and it’s just as dynamic and exciting as the singing and the dancing but the singing and the dancing just came out of the studio, so let’s celebrate it a little bit.
LK: And you didn’t jump off anything?
DLR: Oh no no no no no… You now, we used the ropes and we did some rope tricks up there, did the traverse across, the dangerous lean back and the audience is Ahhhhhhhhh you know? There were about 7 to 10,000 people there last night. Traffic was all stopped up and it was a pretty riot-ess affair.