80’s All-Star Party | Benefit Concert

Last weekend some of the biggest artists of the ’80s got together for a benefit concert at the Fred Kavli Theatre in the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza. Boys Don’t Cry, Terri Nunn & Berlin, Garry Beers from INXS, Fee Waybill from the Tubes, Martha Davis & The Motels, Roy Hay from Culture Club, and Deon Estus from Wham performed some of their biggest hits. Original MTV VJ Martha Quinn, DJ Richard Blade, and actress Jane Seymour hosted the event.

I initially heard about the concert because of the INXS connection – I have friends who hear about everything – and they pass it on! And seeing bassist Garry Beers onstage again was great. He was clearly having a good time, and is so much fun to shoot!

But that wasn’t the only highlight of the night for me! I absolutely loved seeing Berlin again – in fact, I’m saving those images for another post tomorrow – and they’re HOT! And I got introduced to a brand new band, made up of four fourteen-year-olds – more about them next week. And I got to shoot one of the sexiest men from the mid 1980’s – Nick Richards was (and still is) in a band called Boys Don’t Cry, and their big hit was called “I Wanna Be a Cowboy”, which peaked at #12 on the Hot 100 in 1986. The video featured Nick in a clawfoot bathtub – which I love – and he has the sexiest eyes.

I also loved meeting Martha Quinn for the first time, and meeting Richard Blade again – he was backstage occasionally during Rock Star: INXS, and he introduced INXS at The Greek in 2006, and hosted Rock Star: Supernova at Universal City Walk – so I’ve crossed paths with him quite a few times!

But perhaps the highlight of the night was when Fee Waybill of the Tubes came out to perform his biggest hit, “She’s a Beauty” and the crowd got excited – and Fee was clearly touched. It was great! Spontaneous joy from the crowd and real appreciation from the singer. Just very cool!

And yes, I did sneak an awful lot of Garry Beers into this post – but there’s a reason for it! Even though I’ve seen INXS perform live over a dozen times, I’ve only shot the band live in concert once – way back in 2006 – and during the one and only time I shot them, I didn’t get very many images of Garry. Six members in a band, and only three songs to shoot, so not a lot of margin for error… and I accidently shortchanged Garry that night. So this was my chance to make up for that oversight – and I made the most of it!

To see the slideshow from this concert, go to ROCKBANDLOUNGE.COM – and yes, there are more images in it – and they’re bigger than here! Or, check out Facebook in the coming days for some backstage photos…