WOMAD (with Peter Gabriel, Jah Wobble, Ziggy Marley, PM Dawn, Crowded House, James, Stereo MCs) - The Polo Fields, San Francisco, CA - Sept 19, 1993

I have to say that this show will always remain one of the magical days in my life. From start to finish it was quite an amazing event.

I can’t remember if we stayed the weekend in San Francisco or not. I want to think we did, because it was a really long day. The Polo Fields are in Golden Gate Park, which is one of my favorite parks anywhere. It is a sprawling park with several museums, an aquarium, and lots of really big spaces like the Polo Fields – which I imagine are designed for playing Polo. When you walk into the space, it just goes on and on and it is hard to imagine you could get to the end and have a concert there.

Another great thing about the day – fall in San Francisco. San Francisco is a funny place for weather, sometimes it just really sucks, but fall seems to be the best. It was perfectly warm and crisp (at times too warm perhaps considering the amount of people there) and the smell of fall was in the air.

We got there fairly early, before noon I would say, and we managed to find a free parking spot not too far into the park. It was a bit of a hike in, but, like I said, it was a nice day, so we didn’t mind.

This was probably my first real festival show. I never did make it to a Lollapalooza, nor did I ever see Lillith Fair. I came close to those a couple of times, but skipped them for some reason or another.

My primary reason for wanting to come to WOMAD was Peter Gabriel. I had a chance to see him when I was in high school and he came to Reno on the So tour, but the show got cancelled. Sledgehammer was really my first exposure to him as a kid – and I have to admit I never liked it until I saw the video. For some reason, those headless dancing chickens always make me laugh. After I recovered from my first impression, I really grew to love his music. There are several I still consider among my absolute favorites, and there are several that are always good for a mix tape (or CD now).

WOMAD stands for World of Music and Dance, and I have to admit I am not really sure what the whole point is, but I know that a big part of it is finding, recording and releasing different kinds of music all over the world. Kind of a musical outlet for the rest of the world. A different take I suppose on the whole aid for third world countries thing – not donating money or campaigning for world powers to do so, but instead to give folks in poorer countries the opportunity to be heard. And this was the first of many festivals to this effect – but the only one I ever saw.

Anyway, back to the day. When we arrived, we were awed by the sheer size of the place, and the massive swarm of people. People just kept on streaming in. As it was a festival, they had lots of little booths with people hawking jewelry, hemp clothing, and that kind of stuff. We wandered around these until the show started. One lowlight of the day was the food situation. We waiting forever in line to get some chicken kebab things – only to have them run out just as we made it to the front of the line. I don’t remember what we wound up doing for food – which is unusual for me since I am pretty much unbearable without it.

Since we got their fairly early, we managed to be pretty close to the stage. Not overly close, but we could see plenty well. When you turned around and looked back, it was an unbelievable flood of people behind us. Later we learned that at its biggest point, there were 100,000 people there. Pretty amazing.

Of the shows we saw, it’s funny what I remember and don’t. I remember Ziggy Marley, mostly because of the crowd’s reaction to the music. I also remember the Stereo MC’s. Not sure what they have ever done again, but I did see them.

Peter Gabriel was by far the most memorable though. When he came on stage and the band started playing Solsbury Hill, it gave me chills. It sounded so much like the CD you almost thought it was pre-recorded – I don’t know how you get that kind of sound in a venue like that. In fact, we might have thought it was pre-recorded if all of a sudden, a minute or so into the song, the band abruptly stopped playing.

Peter saw something going on he didn’t like – I am not sure what it was. I think that some people were climbing up on something to try to see better, and some guy was pushing another off or something. Whatever it was – he stopped singing. Pointed at the guy and said something like – “Hey, you. Yes you. Stop that.” I can only imagine how humiliated that guy must have felt – to have Peter Gabriel stop his show in front of 99,999 other people and tell you to stop.

Since it was kind of a long night – he only sang something like six songs total, but all were amazing. It was an amazing wrap up to a magical day, and one of the shorter rides back to Reno I remember from the City.

A couple of years ago I sold a bunch of old concert t-shirts on e-bay. The one I have from this show has shrunk and faded, but I still can’t bear to part with it. Right now it is in a storage shed in Portland, Oregon.