Following the Grand opening night of Crown Entertainment complex I embarked on the most star studded year of my life. I was Bobby Valentine CPE (Chairman’s preferred entertainment – refer BLOG # 2) and our first gig was opening for Whitney Houston for 2 nights.
This was the first of many ‘exclusive to Crown’ performances. The artist roster was impressive, to say the least, and they were exclusive to Crown, for the most part only coming to Oz to appear there.
There was quite a deal of controversy concerning Whitney and her entourage’s demands on arrival. Bobby Brown (her partner) was in her touring party and there was an agreement that he would perform 2 songs in his own right. However Whitney announced he would be doing a “set” - Lloyd (Williams) said No! and the fun began. There were demands about accom. for her sizeable entourage (apparently the best rooms in Crown Towers were not good enough). She demanded that the ‘tunnel’ that ran backstage between the Stage and Green room entrances (to be fair, a bad design arrangement as this was the main service corridor for the whole casino) was to be vacated by all staff 10 minutes prior to her taking the stage and anyone unfortunate enough to be caught in there if she did appear, was to face the other way! 2 lines of her security made up a walkway you couldn’t see through anyway. There was more, but you get the idea.
Her performance was OK, the voice wasn’t 100% there and she talked endlessly about “Jesus” between songs, prompting someone in the crowd to yell “shut up and sing” – to no effect. We didn’t know at the time, but it was the beginning of her demise – such a shame. Bobby was kept to 3 songs, I think, which was a relief.
Oh and she was very upset with the seating arrangements for the audience. There was a huge triangular area of tables (probably about 10) directly front and centre which were reserved for the Casino’s High rollers. They would arrive eat, their free dinner and then leave for the tables. So they’d be there for our set, but the tables would be empty for Whitney’s. Again, to be fair this was not great, but by this time Lloyd had lost all patience and when she ranted at him, he simply said “they’re paying your fee”.
So to the 2nd show. We were waiting in our our “Green Room” (a storage area in the bowels somewhere as we weren’t allowed in the WH Green Rooms) to go on at 7.45 and do our 50 min. set of Dinner Jazz, when at about 7.00 my manager, Steve Copeland, burst in and announced Whitney would not be performing as she had lost her voice! We had to do the whole show!!!
Whilst we had an amazing band led by my M.D. John McAll, it was a small Jazz ensemble. We made some phone calls and recruited some extra players, including a horn section. An announcement was made to the effect that Whitney could not perform tonight, but everyone would have their ticket cost refunded and they were welcome to stay, the dinner and drinks were on the house.
We took the stage at about 8.30 I think some of the empty tables in the “triangle” were cleared to make an impromptu dance floor and off we went. We pulled tunes from everywhere. Pulled a couple of guests up out of the audience – I remember Sam Newman singing a couple of songs and telling some jokes. Most of the night is a blur, but I have a vague memory of Rhonda Burchmore getting up with us too.
The night took on a life of its own and to this day people tell me they were there that night and had the best time. One woman had been to the show the night before as well and said our night was better. She’d bought tix to both and was not looking forward to the 2nd night, but she told me she had one of the best nights of her life – Thxxx Whitney.
Postscript. We found out later that Whitney and her entourage had been filmed on CCTV in Fidel’s Cigar Bar at 5 am that morning. Whitney was seen smoking Cigar’s and drinking expensive Cognac til that hour.
The entourage were promptly given their marching orders in no uncertain terms. I don’t know if she was even still in Australia when we took the stage.