Staff photo by Kevin Jacobus^^Mike Morin, 7/19/2005.

With summer already gone, I’m pretty sure crickets put out more decibels than rock musicians this past year. Outdoor concerts were few and far between. Nashua had a nice run in the 1990s as Holman Stadium played host to an impressive roster of rock stars. Who saw home grown Aerosmith at Holman on September 3, 1973?

The 90s brought Peter, Paul and Mary, Elvis Costello, Allman Brothers, Whitney Houston, Huey Lewis and The News, Beach Boys, Bob Dylan, Bon Jovi and Tina Turner. I’ll bet you have Holman Stadium concert tickets in a scrap book, cigar box or picture frame somewhere.

I saw Elvis Presley in 1970 in Detroit but regrettably never got to watch the Beatles in person. Fellow DJ Cousin Brucie of 77WABC in New York was there for the pandemonium of bringing the Fab Four to a frantic Shea Stadium crowd in 1965. I spoke with 84-year old Bruce Morrow recently. He had just left after 15 years on SiriusXM satellite radio to return home to WABC in New York and told me about the insanity of the night he and Ed Sullivan brought the Beatles to the stage on August 15, 1965.

“I was in the bullpen waiting to go on with Ed Sullivan,” Bruce told me. “And John and Paul were with us and Ringo was there. John and Paul came over to me and said to me, ‘Cousin, is this going to be OK? This seems very scary.’ They looked at me and I said, ‘Guys, this is very safe.’ Of course that was a lie because I was more scared than they were,” Bruce confessed.

If Cousin Brucie was frightened, newspaper columnist-turned variety show host Ed Sullivan was petrified. Even though Sullivan introduced the Beatles to kids like me on TV in 1964, Bruce told me he wasn’t really that familiar with the pop stars. Then, uneasy Ed popped the question:

“Cousin Brucie, is this going to be all right? Is this safe?” Ed, too, looked to Bruce for some assurance, which he never got.

“I said to him, ‘I don’t think so. I think this is going to be dangerous.’ I wanted to jab him, he was so scared. He goes up another step, turns around again and says, ‘What do we do, Brucie? What do we do?’ I looked at him, and I looked at him square in the eye, and I said, ‘Ed, pray.'” Brucie added, “It was an amazing day.” He also recalls that the press was not very nice to the band.

Bruce was on the air the night I Want to Hold Your Hand was first played in America. He told me he was first to give it a spin under the watchful eye of an armed guard who delivered the 45rpm disc to the studio, which was locked inside an attaché case, handcuffed to the guy.

After this summer we could use Bon Jovi back at Holman for a few verses of Livin’ on a Prayer.

Contact Mike Morin at mike morinmedia@gmail.com or follow him on Twitter at @MikeMorinMedia. His column runs the first, third and fifth Sundays of the month.

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