Cheap Trick 1977-My First Concert

The criteria for popularity at an all girls' high school in the Seventies went something like this:

long, shiny hair
flawless skin
20/20 vision
perfect teeth
up-to-date with fashion (even school uniforms could be modified)
ability to play sports or cheerlead
possession of a boyfriend

I had:

mousy brown, oily hair
Clearasil called them "blemishes"; I had "zits"
corrective coke-bottle glasses
two broken front teeth and braces
a mother who dressed me with a strict adherence to the standard for the school uniform, i.e. at least knee-length, v-necked, royal blue, polyester, side-zip tunic with white polyester, ribbed turtleneck
Zero aptitude for any sport and even less co-ordination for cheerleading (see here: Class Action)
Surprise, surprise! No boyfriend. Nada.

What I did have, was a keen brain and a good memory. Each week, I used to listen to the Top 40 Countdown on CKOC radio (out of Hamilton, Ontario) and painstakingly write down every song by number. I also jotted down lyrics of songs that I liked. I knew every line of Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody, could sing every note and even drew a picture of the band as they appeared on "The Midnight Special".
Music was my thing.

So, when a heavy rock band out of Rockford, Illinois appeared on the scene and got my attention, I was "all ears".

Cheap Trick was loud, irreverent and just the ticket for a Catholic-school girl with a reputation as a goody-goody who got top marks and was often favoured by the teacher in the classroom.

Cheap Trick was also the ideal fantasy band for an innocent, pubescent teen with no boyfriend. For you see, Cheap Trick had a couple of goofy performers in the shape of drummer, Bun. E. Carlos and Rick Nielssen (lead guitar and backing vocals), but it also had the likes of sexy, blond Robin Zander singing lead and playing rhythm guitar and very fine, shaggy-haired Tom Petersson on bass and backing him up.

When Cheap Trick was booked at Maple Leaf Gardens for a performance, I begged my parents on my hands and knees to let me go. Of course this meant a bit of a compromise; I would have to be driven door-t0-door since the concert was in the big, bad city of Toronto (about 30 minutes east of us).

I honestly don't remember who I went with - it must have been some girlfriend. I know we were in the nosebleed section and Robin Zander was about the size of Ken doll as he belted out songs like "Auf Wiedersehen", "Surrender", "Oh Caroline" etc., but it didn't matter to me, I was in a throng of like-minded music-lovers and for once, I was part of the in-crowd. In fact, I had kind of transcended the "in-crowd" because most of them had never heard of Cheap Trick and wouldn't do until the "Live at Budokan" album came out a couple of years later.

As for me, I escaped the Catholic school in Grade 12 - leaving behind some of the popular girls to eke out two more years in their royal blues, ga ga over Seventeen Magazines and waiting with bated breath for those dreamy dances where they imported the opposite sex from the Catholic boys' schools in the city.

Don't get me wrong; I have nothing against the time I spent at private school. I had some great times, made some good friends (at my own level of the hierarchy) and I did quite well on the learning end as well. I just really needed to make the break and find myself in the real world of boys and girls.

At the public high school, I had pen and ink drawings of the band inside my locker door. I played the "Cheap Trick Fan" to the hilt - sporting high-top runners, skin-tight jeans, a black velvet blazer over my dad's shirts and my prized possession: a Cheap Trick bowtie that a kid in Grade Nine bestowed upon me because I guess he had a crush on me. You see, the braces came off that year too and then I peroxided and crimped my newly grown hair and as someone said to me years later, "You were pretty neat! I always admired you!"

You just never know.

Kathleen Mortensen©2009



Here's a montage of some Cheap Trick. Man. That takes me back.