Long before the fans enter through the gates, buy their first cold beer or cocktail and head to their seats to enjoy an evening of live music at Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre, dozens of men and women have already been hard at work behind the scenes to ensure that every last detail is perfectly in place before the first note is played up on the stage.
After 36 years, the venue will be torn down this year to make way for the expanding Los Olivos apartment community, but not before a pair of shows headlined by Orange County’s own Gwen Stefani on Saturday and Sunday. Putting together these last few gigs, including Go Country 105 FM’s final Go Fest with Florida Georgia Line, the hip-hop festival How the West Was Won featuring Ice Cube, and longtime venue favorite Jimmy Buffett, has been an emotional experience for the amphitheater’s crew, which has become like family over the past three decades.
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Several members of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees Local 504 have worked at the 16,000-capacity amphitheater since it opened with the Charlie Daniels Band on Aug. 21, 1981.
“He had brown hair back then, like I did,” head carpenter James “Buck” Buckholz said of Daniels with a laugh, pointing down at one of his work ID badges bearing a photo that’s a few decades old. He’s also head of payroll, and as the team shows up to his office, nestled just off stage right, he checks off their names as they clock in before 10 a.m. to set up pop-punk band Blink-182’s show later that evening.
Over the years, Buckholz and his team have witnessed some once-in-a-lifetime moments, from sharing ribs with Hall of Fame blues guitarist Bo Diddley in 1985 to hanging out with members of the English metal band Iron Maiden as they cooled off at the then-adjacent Wild Rivers water park after a sound check during one of their numerous summer visits.
They got to meet Michael Jackson’s chimpanzee, Bubbles, and were there to see the original stage be completely rebuilt just to support the weight of the production for Jackson’s “Bad” solo tour in 1988. They also got to see the Eagles reunite and kick off their “Hell Freezes Over” tour in Irvine in 1994.
“Being up in the spotlight tower and having them open up with ‘Hotel California,’ it gave me the chills,” said head of audio Andy Kinnon of the Eagles’ performance.
The 54-year-old Laguna Hills resident has worked at the venue since 1982 and says some of the loudest shows have been put on by Metallica, Iron Maiden and Bon Jovi when it came through for three nights in 1987 on its “Slippery When Wet” tour.
He also recalled the time they had to wheel out Prince to the soundboard in a road box so he could serve as front-of-house engineer for his own opening act in 1997 and when David Bowie played to a packed house in 2002.
More recently, Kinnon was also excited to meet presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders, who made a campaign stop at the venue in May.
Buckholz, however, has seen it all and has been with Irvine Meadows since day one. The 77-year-old Anaheim Hills resident started off as a film jerker and a projectionist at the Lincoln Drive-In Theater in Buena Park and went on to become a rigger for massive events at the Anaheim Convention Center and for stadium shows by mega rock bands such as KISS, the Rolling Stones and the Who.
He was a big fan of sets put on at the amphitheater by artists like Smokey Robinson and Johnny Mathis and noted that the Halloween shows that L.A. new wave band Oingo Boingo put on in the late ’80s to mid-’90s were some of his favorites.
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“That’s the one we would have all liked to see come back,” he said. “They could have done two weeks here and sold out every single show. We were really hoping (vocalist Danny Elfman) would do it, but he wouldn’t. I really loved Oingo Boingo’s music.”
Ralph Bedes, who goes by Randy, has worked with Buckholz for almost 50 years. The pair rigged numerous shows together before they both started working in Irvine. Bedes drives nearly eight hours from his home in Pollock Pines to serve as the head of properties and head rigger for shows at the venue.
“Everyone has their own little niche and it runs like clockwork,” the 68-year-old said of the operation. Some of his most memorable moments were seeing Queen play in 1982, the “Bad” tour and any time Boingo or Buffett performed.
“Andy and I always have to commandeer a golf cart and go check out the fans in the parking lot when Buffett plays,” he said with a laugh. “We’ve seen fans passed out in their lawn chairs in front of their RVs before the show even started, but I guess they still had a good time.”
As the crew hustled to get the stage set up, several others took a few moments to share some of their stories. Matt Fox, who resides in Nashville and works for Rat Sound Systems, has toured with Blink-182 and attended many KROQ Weenie Roasts in Irvine. He said he’d never forget the fan who threw a lemon from about 15 rows back in the orchestra section that lodged perfectly into drummer Travis Barker’s kick drum during a set in 1999.
“It was an impressive shot,” he said. “We all looked at each other and laughed, but then everyone started throwing their lemons from their lemonades on stage and pelted the band and the equipment. By the time their set was done, the stage was just covered in lemons.”
Stagehand Larry Morgia of Irvine, who was dressed in a bright orange Ducks T-shirt and an Angels baseball cap, has worked at the venue since 1996; his first show was Van Halen.
“I’m a guitar pick collector so I have probably thousands of guitar picks from over the years,” he said. “Everyone collects the passes or the tickets and things that they can make collages of. Those are just the things we take away, but the experiences have just been great, and I’m very happy to have been a part of it.”
Though he has definitely paid his dues, Buckholz insisted that all of the credit for 36 years of service and shows at Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre needed to go to members of his team, many of whom also set up productions at Disneyland, Anaheim Convention Center, Segerstrom Center for the Arts and Pacific Amphitheatre.
“All of the people that come in here from the local, the men and the women of all ages and nationalities, they come in and they work really hard,” he said. “It always comes down to the crew. From the riggers to the truck loaders, the spotlight and camera operators, the stage hands that do the set changes and all of the technical work they’re qualified to do, we put them in the right places, but they’re the ones that make it for us and that’s what really counts.”
Buckholz said he plans on officially retiring from the business after Irvine Meadows closes to spend more time driving his street rods and have a little fun, while Bedes said he’d probably work a few shows here and there, but he wants to catch up on fishing near his cabin.
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Kinnon and a few of the others have been following the progress of concert promoting giant Live Nation, which oversees Irvine Meadows, and developer FivePoint in their efforts to construct a 12,000-seat outdoor venue, which would border Irvine’s Great Park and be finished in time to kick off the concert season by next summer. The proposal is still pending approval by the city.
“We’re looking forward to supporting Live Nation’s efforts for the new venue here in Irvine to continue to accommodate live entertainment,” Kinnon said. “My gosh, right now, that is just so important.”
Contact the writer: 714-796-3570 or kfadroski@ocregister.com
