Glass Ceiling

Punk vets Glass Heroes got tired of waiting for a break. They've turned to the Net.

Comments (0) By Christopher O'Connor Thursday, Sep 18 2003

That brings us to the Sex Pistols saga. Jackson found out the Pistols had booked a last-second Tempe show on their reunion tour. He contacted Tom LaPenna and Will Anderson, who own and book the Marquee Theatre, respectively, about the possibility of the Heroes opening for their heroes. Those guys referred him to the publicist who referred him to the manager who referred them back to the Marquee guys -- until eventually they found out they had to track down the Pistols' road manager Skip.

With no decision rendered by the afternoon of the show, Shelton made a last desperate trip to the Marquee. There, he encountered the sardonic Mr. Rotten and friends.

"I say, I saw you guys in Vegas,'" Shelton says. "He goes, [using his best snotty Johnny Rotten impersonation] Lucky for you!'"

After a few minutes, Shelton struck up a conversation with Rotten's buddy Rocco, who finally got Rotten to say yes to getting the Glass Heroes on board.

"Once we did sound check, they knew we were professional. They knew there was no bullshit. And then it was great," Jackson says.

And the audience apparently agreed. Jackson says he received 124 e-mails the next day from people claiming to have seen the show.

That's 124 potential users of the downloads, and more proof the Internet these days can be extraordinarily powerful, even for old-school dinosaurs. -- By Christopher O'Connor

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