Well I have been working with Miles for 27 years, but it is time for me to leave. Due to the huge success of Murder at Marouatte, (look out for the world premier on this website) Hollywood has been calling so I have 5 scripts on offer, which my new agent/Manager, Miles Copeland, says I cannot say too much about. But stay tuned and as soon as I have permission, I will let you know. I can say people have been commenting on my new beard asking why, well Tom Hanks is working on a follow-up to Castaway and I will not be playing the role of the football.
Over the years, I have had many offers to speak about the exploits of the Bellydance Superstars from The National Enquirer, People Magazine, OK Magazine from the UK, and many other magazines too numerous to mention, but I have decided to reveal all on the website of the Bellydance Superstars as a parting gift to one and all.
Tales from the Road- The Good, The Bad, The Ugly:
Part 1 in Series of Dispatches from The Road
July 4th, 2003
Hollywood, CA
“Come on Amar, we have to go, we cannot be late it’s the, number one rule of Stevo’s guide to touring “but Stevo the person in the room next to me committed suicide during the night” “not sure what this has to do with us catching a plane to Indiana today, you’re late” Amar and Kaeshi look slightly perturbed but follow and we make it to LAX, where we meet the first incarnation of The Bellydance Superstars. Ansuya, Rachel Brice, Jillina, Kaeshi, Colleen, Sonia, Adalis, Carol, Georgianne, and of course, Issam
I get on the plane and fall asleep and start dreaming, and thinking about the past. My last tour was in 1986. I was flying around the world playing huge Arenas with the worlds biggest all girl group called The Bangles. I went to Miles in 1986 and said I was 26 ready to retire from road Management and life on the road; I was getting too old. Not sure what happened and how I was talked into doing this 16 years later, but that’s Miles for you.
We are flying to Indiana for the grand reunion of Jane’s Addiction and the first Lollapalooza tour for many years. We are scheduled to play 40 shows all across America; the first one being just outside of Indianapolis on July 5th. We have 2 slots- one in the afternoon on the second stage and another slot between Audioslave and Incubus on the main stage. We all arrive very early in the morning of the show there are hundreds of people all working and looking very busy. I have never seen so many trucks and buses lined up, and one really funny looking white shuttle bus we named the Bellybus that was our home away from home, and still is.
All the dancers looked very overwhelmed about the whole experience. We had been given a pass for this stage, a different pass for another stage, another pass for food- all very confusing! We eventually find the second stage for our very first performance, and we arrive with 30 minutes to spare. “Hey, good news! We have a dressing room, 20 minutes to show time!” Rachel Brice looks at me and tells me she needs 2 hours to prepare her hair and make-up. “Rachel, you have 20 minutes, so let’s go!” A look of shock and horror crosses her face and she disappears into the dressing room and starts to prepare. Ten minutes to show time I yell. It’s been raining with mud everywhere, so we use the back of a semi as our quick-change tent and the help of a shower curtain, so the ladies have some privacy. Everyone looks great, and we hit the stage and after the initial shock of “what is this,” the pretty large crowd gets into it and we all leave feeling really good about the whole experience. One down, one to go.
Everyone is really excited, and we feel it’s us against the world. We are all in this together and an instant camaraderie strikes up that remains to this day. Everyone is looking forward to dancing in front of the 20,000 capacity crowd. We head back to the hotel between sets to get some much-needed rest. I am in a room with Miles that is covered with merchandise. There is not one inch of space in the room; it is covered with hip scarves, coin belts and every type of bellydance apparel you could ever imagine. He is busy putting tags and pricing the hundreds of items he has spread out everywhere. Miles appears to be taking an afternoon nap with all of the merchandise festooned all over his bed. He does not snore, so that’s good news! I switch on the TV and there is this strange red box at the bottom of the screen saying ‘Thunderstorm and Tornado watch.’ They don’t have this in England, and definitely not in Los Angeles were I live! I don’t take much notice, but the local news comes on with the big headline to stay indoors. There is a huge storm approaching Fishers, Indiana, where the gig is and its outdoors. Holy shit!! Well it’s only about 4:00 pm, and we are not due to hit the stage until around 8:30 pm, so fingers crossed. I also try and take a quick cat nap. Lobby call is at 6:00 pm, so I have a couple of hours, and also fall asleep. We all meet downstairs and we head back to the gig all very excited about our major debut in front of 20,000 people. Rachel has had her required 2 hours to prepare her hair and make-up, Jillina is very excited to finally be able to perform in front of such a huge crowd after everyone’s hard work and rehearsals for the last 2 weeks and many months of preparation before that. We are ready to show the world. We arrive backstage and are met by lots of very gloomy faces. We are all ushered into a very large room where we are met by the tour director of the Lollapalooza tour. “Bad news, ladies… sorry, no show tonight!” What? What happened? We have spent months preparing for this moment. The whole Bellydance world is watching us; of course we are performing tonight! “No, sorry ladies. A tornado hit part of the stage and it is too dangerous to perform. We are cutting everyone’s performance down and we have to cut your performance completely!” The silence was deafening, no one knew what to say, or do. We were all dressed up with nowhere to go. Everyone is mortified. All the hard work, time, and thought it has taken us to get here are all of a sudden gone in one brief conversation. There is nothing we can do but just nod our heads in agreement and we all leave very dejected. Not a single word is spoken in the Bellybus on the way back to our hotel. Sometimes words just aren’t enough to say how upset we all were. Our major league debut would have to wait for another day. Oh well, I think to myself, tomorrow we have our own gig in Des Moines- at least it’s indoors!
July 6th, 2003
Somewhere in the Midwest
After a restless night, we all meet for the lobby call at 9:00 am. Everyone is disappointed, but we have another 39 shows on the Lollapalooza tour so what the hell! At least today we are in charge of our own destiny with no tour director telling us whether we can perform or not. Our agent has booked us to perform in Des Moines at a place called Hairy Mary’s; sort of a strange sounding name, but the routing works towards our next Lollapalooza show, so no worries. We all climb aboard the Bellybus. Juan is driving, and we start heading west. Everyone’s aboard, and a pattern starts to develop that lasts through the whole tour. Jillina is constantly coming up with ideas to improve the show, Carol is always on the phone (thank you, Motorola) Ansuya and Rachel are becoming fast friends and everyone’s personality is starting to come out. Colleen seems to be the class clown but no one knows if she is serious or not. I find her highly amusing and we bond at some salad bar west of Indianapolis, and become fast friends, which has endured to this day. It’s a pretty uneventful trip, and we are all still getting to know each other, so some chatter back and forth, but lots of IPods and people reading books and, of course, Miles throwing out ideas at every mile marker we see on the side of the freeway. We are getting close to Des Moines and the skies darken as black as coal. We hit this huge hail storm with hail the size of golf balls. I have never seen anything like it! I tell Juan to pull over (precious cargo on board). We wait about 15 minutes and it passes. It’s mid-afternoon and we are about 10 miles from Des Moines. Are the gods telling us something? Ok Juan, let’s go. We head into the town and drive around looking for some place called Hairy Mary’s. We drive up the street and see this run down building. No, this can’t be it! Is there another Hairy Mary’s in Des Moines? To my horror, I discover there’s only one Hairy Mary’s and this is it. I am absolutely flabbergasted, as it’s some really horrible Punk/Rock club. I walk in and there is some local speed metal band sound checking. I can’t believe it! I used to run with some punk bands back in the day, and I still thought the place was a shit hole. God forbid what the dancers would think! This is just all wrong. It smells, there are empty beer glasses, and sticky carpet from spelt beer. I ask when the speed metal band will be finished. Apparently they are rehearsing and they need a lot more than rehearsals if you ask me. They are performing after us! I go outside and give Miles the heads up, and we both break the news to the ladies. So in we walk with our heads down. Rachel Brice instantly has a big grin on her face and loves the whole vibe! Everyone else is not so sure. The people are nice and the guy who booked us- Gus- seems very nice and nothing is too much trouble. Anything we need just let him know and he will help. I am thinking what about demolishing the building and starting again? (Shut up, Stevo) The stage is just terrible! Shitty black carpet; sticky with even more beer stains and broken glass everywhere, and also very small stage- indeed not enough room to have everyone up there at the same time. Gus finds a Hoover and Miles is on his hands and knees on the stage looking for the broken glass. Everyone must wear shoes tonight- that includes you, Ansuya! We decide to rent rooms across the street at the local Holiday Inn hotel to do hair and make-up. The dressing rooms at the venue do not work at all. Performance time is at 9:00 pm, and we arrive back at the venue at around 8:30 pm. The crowd is small, but very vocal. We start the show and the crowd goes nuts- a fantastic audience! The show is fantastic; everyone totally stepped up. I can’t believe how well everyone did; these ladies are brilliant. The show finishes, and everyone has a huge grin on their face- very different from last night. Rachel is jumping up and down and says it’s the most fun she has ever had performing. Go figure. We all head back to the hotel laughing and joking the whole way back. Hey, this looks like it might be fun. Miles, I think this might work! I think I will come out of retirement!
