I was about 13 years old. The special event took place at the Boy’s Club of Hillside, New Jersey.
The players were Fat Harvey (Lifland) Drums, Allen Kreutzer, Lead Guitar and myself, Gary Temkin ( Rhythm Guitar).
My father Murray Temkin drove me to the gig. We started after school at about 6:00 pm and as I remember it was a four hour gig.
We had about 15 songs which we had rehearsed and, as I believe, played each one.. maybe a few songs, twice.
At the end of the Knight, we all packed up and I met my dad outside where he had dropped me off earlier.
He asked, “How did it go?”. I told him it went just fine. The kids seemed to clap after most of the songs and I was truly thankful it was over. As I have mentioned in the past, I was really not cut out to be a live performer,
but a studio musician.
Well, just before my father drove off, he asked me if I got paid….. uh… what oh YES PAID!!……. I totally forgot to get my pay.
Harvey and Allen were waiting for their ride and laughed when I ran inside. Both of them had my money in hand, waiting for me to remember. Yessss! We, as a trio, earned a total of SIX BUCKS! Now you might think, Was it really worth six dollars for my father to use his gasoline to drive back and forth??
Just keep in mind that gasoline was about 30 cents a gallon… so a total of two gallons was about 60 cents at that time, so in my mind, this gig was well worth all the trouble!
Anyway, my first gig was a truly unforgettable experience!
I got my two dollars and was sooooo happy to have been paid for something which I would have done for ZERO!!!! My father, once again, reminded me “YOU NEED TO ALWAYS GET PAID”!!!! “OKAY SON?”
Well, I never forgot the importance of being paid for something that I had earned!!!!
Sure enough, the next time we were invited to do the same gig, we were offered TRIPLE PAY… a total of $18.00, yes six bucks apiece! You can be sure, I didn’t forget to collect that big a payment!!!!