My weekend with (not) Goblin, part 1.

In October of 2000, I got a phone call from my friend Thom. He wanted to know if I'd be interested in working on the staff of his friend's convention in Tarrytown, New York. He said I'd be doing general odd job work, maybe a little security, and rattled off a few of the guests' names.

He then said the words that I would soon regret hearing.

"Goblin's reuniting to do the show."

A little background. Goblin was an Italian prog-rock band named Cherry Five who transformed themselves into Dario Argento's house band for his groundbreaking horror films of the late 70's and early 80's. They played a keyboard-heavy, ELP-esque driving rock which seemed to fit Argento's artsy, plot-light, flash-heavy movies. Egos consumed the band, and they split in the early 80's, reuniting briefly a few times for soundtrack work. In the fall of 2000, they had reunited again to produce the soundtrack to Argento's Non Ho Sonno (literally, "I Can't Sleep", domestically released in a butchered form by Artisan releasing as "Sleepless".)

Apparently, Thom's friend Phil Palmieri knew someone who knew someone who knew Claudio Simonetti, the keyboardist and frontman of Goblin, and Claudio had agreed to bring the band over for the convention.

Being a huge Goblin mark, I told Thom, and then Phil, that I'd do whatever they had for me to do in order to see Goblin perform live.

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Next: Logistical nightmares and unplanned changes.