The Noel Monk Collection Auction

Van Halen 1978 Tulsa OK

Backstage Auctions, Inc. is proud to present their upcoming auction event which will feature the personal and private collection of Noel Monk, music industry veteran and most notably manager for Van Halen and tour manager for the Sex Pistols. The auction will go live on October 13, 2018 and feature hundreds of pieces of rare music memorabilia, including early day Van Halen, Sex Pistols and Fillmore East collectibles from the personal archives of Noel Monk. A special VIP All Access Preview of the entire online catalog will be available beginning September 26, 2018.

Van Halen 1978 Fully Band Signed Card

Noel Monk’s career reads like a storybook – and one that we all wish we could have been part of. His first and formative years took place under the wings of Bill Graham as the production/ stage manager at the Fillmore East in New York. From pouring Southern Comfort for Janis Joplin, fixing Chuck Berry’s broken amp to working the historic 1969 Woodstock Festival, Monk quickly learned the ropes of the music business. The early 1970s brought new experiences for Monk as he continued his career on the road with The Rolling Stones, Johnny Cash, Bonnie Raitt, James Taylor, Tom Waits, David Sanborn, GO, Gasolin, Trapeze and Blue Cheer – to name just a few.

Sex Pistols 1977-78 Crew Itineraries

Monk’s career took a pivotal turn in 1978 when he took The Sex Pistols on their first U.S. tour. His recollections and experiences were published in 1990 in the critically acclaimed book ‘12 Days on the Road: The Sex Pistols and America’, which is still in print.  Having barely recovered from his Sex Pistols gig, Monk was asked to go back on the road with another newly signed Warner Bros. Records act; Van Halen.

Van Halen 1978 First Tour Itineraries

Monk took over as the manager for Van Halen in early 1979 and in the span of six years was instrumental in making the band one of the biggest rock acts in the world. Under Monk’s guidance, Van Halen ruled virtually every imaginable chart; from record and merchandise sales to concert attendance and good ol’ rock ‘n roll debauchery. Following brief stints as manager for David Lee Roth, Glenn Hughes and Prophet, Monk eventually retired from the music business in the ‘90s. In 2017 he published the best-selling ‘Runnin’ With The Devil’ memoir of Van Halen.

Backstage Auctions owner Jacques van Gool comments “we could not be more excited and honored to host this event, which is a true reflection of Noel’s impressive career. This once-in-a-lifetime auction offers predominately rare and one-of-a-kind items. Fans and collectors of Van Halen, Sex Pistols, Fillmore and vintage music memorabilia will not want to miss out on this opportunity”.

Van Halen RIAA Award Debut Album 1978

Among the many highlights are gold and platinum Van Halen and Sex Pistols RIAA record awards, original artwork, never-before-seen photos, historic documents, personal correspondence and a deep selection of tour specific memorabilia. More than half of the nearly 800 auction lots are related to the Van Halen years and include anything from some of the oldest Van Halen tour t-shirts and backstage passes to signed Christmas cards and an array of prestigious RIAA record awards.  “I don’t believe there has ever been this much original and historic Van Halen memorabilia offered in a single auction”, comments van Gool. “There are itineraries for virtually every single Van Halen tour, molds for Van Halen jewelry, a Vox dressing room amp used by Eddie Van Halen, original photos from Helmut Newton…the list goes on and on and on”.

Glenn Hughes Owned/Used 1981 Bass Guitar

Sex Pistols collectors will find gems such as buttons worn by Johnny Rotten and Sid Vicious, signed photos, original rooming lists and even Sid’s favorite Reggae cassette tape that he gave to Noel Monk. Fillmore aficionados will be thrilled to find a host of Bill Graham correspondence, BGP Presents posters and an amazing collection of over 100 hand-drawn stage diagrams from concerts the Fillmore East. Other stunning auction lots include a Glenn Hughes owned bass guitar, an one-hour interview cassette with Joe Strummer, vintage Hells Angels mementos, Johnny Cash soundboard tapes, rare Alice Cooper posters and a most impressive collection of Gasolin memorabilia; the biggest band to ever come out of Denmark.

Jeff Beck Guitar Slide Fillmore East 1960s

The Noel Monk Collection Auction event starts October 13, 2018 and will run through October 21, 2018. A special VIP All Access Preview of the entire auction catalog will be available online beginning September 26, 2018 and is open to fans and collectors worldwide. 



For information and to register for a VIP Auction Pass visit:  Backstage Auctions

NOEL MONK began his career helping stage-manage Woodstock, served as Bill Graham’s right-hand man at the legendary Fillmore East, and worked with rock musicians including Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, the Grateful Dead, The Rolling Stones, The Sex Pistols and Van Halen. He is also the author of ’12 Days on the Road: The Sex Pistols and America’ and ‘Runnin’ With The Devil’ both are available for purchase directly from Amazon.

BACKSTAGE AUCTIONS is a boutique online auction house specializing in authentic rock memorabilia and exclusively representing legendary musicians and entertainment professionals directly. Every auction event is unique, reflecting the artist's legacy and chronicles their legendary career. Backstage Auctions has represented dozens of notable and very talented musicians, producers and managers in the music industry.

August 29, 2018

CD Review: Johnny Winter: "Live at the Fillmore East 10/3/70"

CD Review: Johnny Winter "Live at the Fillmore East 10/3/70"
Collectors' Choice Live
All Access Review:  A-

It was a curious decision to say the least. After Johnny Winter split with the band – bassist Tommy Shannon and drummer “Uncle” John Turner - that had backed him on 1969’s Johnny Winter and 1970’s Second Winter, an album that also boasted the instrumental multi-tasking of brother Edgar – the Texas blues guitar dynamo took a flyer on three members of The McCoys. That’s right, those McCoys, the same gang responsible for the 1965 smash hit “Hang On Sloopy.” 

Playing matchmaker, it was Johnny’s manager, Steve Paul, who suggested the pairing, and what an inspired union it was. At first blush, the trio of guitarist/vocalist Rick Derringer, drummer Randy Zehringer and bassist Randy Jo Hobbs and the roughneck, garage-flavored R&B they were known for seemed unlikely to push and prod Winter to new heights. But, by the late ‘60s, the McCoys were experimenting more and more with psychedelia, and their performances at Paul’s Scene club in New York indicated to Paul that maybe, just maybe, they weren’t so different that they couldn’t make a go of it.

Immediately, Winter and his new band mates fell into lockstep. A couple of weeks of jam sessions led to the recording of 1970’s brilliant  Johnny Winter And, an edgier, more rock-oriented record than anything Winter had previously done, though still thoroughly basted with Lone Star state blues. Many consider it to be the high point of Winter’s recorded output, and the former McCoys, now sharing musical recipes with Winter, were now getting their just due.

The very month Johnny Winter And, doubling also as the name of this new super group, was released Winter and company invaded the Fillmore East and burned the place to the ground, as this seven-song concert document, one of the first rare vintage live recordings being issued by the Collectors’ Choice Live label, of that fiery performance proves. With Derringer and Winter trading wild, uninhibited solos, their duels like Old West shootouts with bullets, or, in this case, notes, flying everywhere, Johnny Winter And sizzle on the opener “Guess I’ll Go Away” and follow it up with the equally potent “Good Morning Little School Girl” – two simmering blues numbers that rapidly are brought to a boil.

After showcasing the Derringer-penned, slash-and-burn rocker “Rock And Roll Hoochie Koo,” a song he would later score a Top 30 hit with and a featured track on the then-newly released Johnny Winter And, the foursome downshift into the tantalizing, smoky blues workout “It’s My Fault,” which flies off into an extended jam that could have gone on forever … and almost does. Anyway, the slide-guitar frenzy of “Mean Town Blues” and the locomotive power of “Rollin’ And Tumblin’” close out the proceedings in breathless fashion, following a completely unhinged, ramshackle deconstruction of Dylan’s “Highway 61 Revisited” that’s deliciously blasphemous.

As entertaining as it is to witness Winter and Derringer play with reckless abandon, without the sure, confident, and often combustible, movements of a well-oiled rhythm section binding it all together, their efforts would have resulted in a chaotic, self-absorbed mess. Bounding to and fro, Hobbs and Zehringer, bashing it out with controlled violence, are a force in and of themselves. While the playing is smoking and white-hot, there’s also a loose and carefree vibe that comes across clearly, and the occasional rebel yell signals just how much fun this hastily put together, if short-lived, unit was having at the time. Now, those who weren’t at the Fillmore East back then can beat their heads against the wall with regret over missing seeing them in person.

-         Peter Lindblad