John Mellencamp – London 1988 May03

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John Mellencamp – London 1988

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So at the time I was a massive Mellencamp fan. Scarecrow and Lonesome Jubilee were, and still are, great records. So he comes to the UK for a one-off show and Polygram call and ask if they can have a window display at the Virgin London Oxford Street Megastore. Of course they can, and I naturally manage to snag a pair of tickets to the Hammy Odeon show. I worked hard on it, renting an amazing US jukebox, just like the one on the sleeve of The Lonsome Jubilee, and commissioning a great portrait of John M and a small one for each of his band members – again all based on the shots on the record cover. So the reason they wanted a window was because Mellancamp wanted to be sure that his UK record company were doing the promotional work they were expected to do. They used to call this “vanity displays”. Ha. Well I go to the show on the Saturday night with my pal and it was excellent. John M goes to see the display the next day, and on Monday morning Polygram call me. The display manager, Nigel, thanks me and says the window was fantastic.He has just one question – “Why were there four small images of the band, including John, and a huge one of the bass player?” I’d got the wrong guy. It wasn’t John M that I’d gotten the huge portrait of, it was the hired gun. O well. So much for being a “super-fan”