Welcome to MusicDayz

The world's largest online archive of date-sorted music facts, bringing day-by-day facts instantly to your fingertips.
Find out what happened on your or your friends' Birthday, Wedding Day, Anniversary or just discover fun facts in musical areas that particularly interest you.
Please take a look around.

Fact #131162

When:

Short story:

When Frank Sinatra plays at The Roman Amphitheatre, Verona, Italy, Europe, a huge thunderstorm erupts, filling the plastic overhead canopy which soon looks set to burst. Just as the Italian crew, by climbing up huge A-frame ladders, manages to dump the water over the front of the canopy, Sinatra walks underneath and is drenched from head to foot. Nevertheless, he continues singing and manages to complete the show.

Full article:

Mike Lowe (director Britannia Row Audio) : We did the audio for that European tour. Frank flew in on his Gulfstream private jet, which had extra fuel tanks to enable it to fly across the Atlantic, and the first thing he said to the limo driver on his way to the venue was, "Why they gotta build these goddam fuckin’ facilities so far from the fuckin' goddam airport?" That was funny right away because, of course, the 'facility' had been been built 1800 years before the airport.

It was an absolutely gorgeous day, brilliant sunshine, but as Frank took to the stage the heavens just opened. It was like a monsoon. The Italian crew operating the SuperTroopers just abandoned them because it was too dangerous. So we quickly rustled up some plastic sheeting which we draped over the console, and three of us ducked underneath it and divided the console up between us, I was doing the orchestra, and we’d stick our heads out from time to time to hear how it sounded, and then duck back under. Then Frank’s drummer’s wife, Rose, joined us under the plastic sheeting. She was a lovely, bubbly lady, but she was wearing the cheapest perfume imaginable, and lots of it, so we could hardly breathe under there.

Meanwhile, onstage, they’d put a canopy up over the orchestra and it very quickly filled with gallons and gallons of water. You could see it was going to burst, so the Italian stage crew came on with huge A-frame ladders and clambered up with these long poles to poke the canopy. Just as they pushed a huge amount of water over the edge, Frank walked right underneath it and was completely drenched. His rug was like a drowned rat on his head, the mike was dripping wet, but he carried on singing. At the end of the number he went back to the grand piano and picked up his glass of Jack Daniels. He returned to the front of the stage and started dipping the mike in the Jack Daniels and blessing the audience. I was certain the mike was going to give up, but somehow, miraculously, it didn’t and did the whole show.

Then, about 1.30am, he and the entourage got to the airport, which had been kept open with a skeleton crew, just one guy in the tower, specifically so Frank could fly out to his house in Monaco. The pilot tells Frank that the plane can’t take off, because the rain must’ve got in somewhere, so Sinatra tells his valet, Eddie, to go and hustle up another plane. Eddie heads off into the night, the door of the plane is pulled up and then the pilot says, "It’s OK, now. It’s firing up. We can go." So Frank says, "Well let’s get this crate off the ground." The pilot asks, "What about Eddie?" "Aw, fuck Eddie. Get outta here."

Next morning, in Monaco, Frank wakes up, wants a toffee apple or a silk robe or some such, so he wants to know where Eddie is. "He’s in Verona, Mr. S." "Well, get him over here now!" So they had to get a single-engine Piper to fly Eddie to Monaco. That whole day was just incredible.
(Source : interview with Johnny Black, 5 Aug, 2015, for Audience magazine.)