Carl Begai

The following is an excerpt from the book I co-wrote with ex-BONFIRE bassist Joerg Deisinger, entitled Fire And Fame. His story, my words…

By the middle of July our follow-up to Don’t Touch The Light was nearing completion, and our label partners at RCA in Hamburg were anxious to hear what we’d come up with. Mario, who had travelled from Germany to Los Angeles in preparation for the impending promotional campaign, had intended to bring them an advance tape featuring the four most promising new tracks from the album – ‘Ready 4 Reaction’, ‘Sleepin’ All Alone’, ‘Sweet Obsession’ and ‘American Nights’ – as a taste, but Michael (Wagener / producer) was dead against doing so.

“Forget it; the record label is not getting any advance rough mixes,” Michael told him. “Those mixes aren’t representative of what the album is going to sound like in the end, and I don’t want people who don’t have a clue telling me that the final mixes aren’t as good as the rough mixes. If they want to hear the music they can get their asses to L.A., sit down in the studio control room and blast the album here, but I’m not sending out unfinished work. The end.”
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The following is an excerpt from the book I co-wrote with ex-BONFIRE bassist Joerg Deisinger, entitled Fire And Fame. His story, my words…

Rock Star 101 – Class Is Now In Session

On the morning of September 22nd, following a seven hour drive, we arrived in Dallas for our On The Rocks club gig the next day. The previous gig in Wichita, Kansas had gone really well judging by the crowd’s reaction, but compared to the shows in California and Arizona things were on a downward slide that got progressively worse. It started with our bus driver Dave, who left us stranded at a truck stop during the 16 hour trip from Arizona to Glendale, Colorado. He simply pulled into the rest stop in the middle of the night while everyone was asleep, packed his things and disappeared, never to be seen again. On top of that he made off with $400 in production money. Rick and Sanctuary had to scramble to find a new driver, who showed up in the morning and put the pedal to the floor in order to make up for lost time.
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The following is an excerpt from the book I co-wrote with ex-BONFIRE bassist Joerg Deisinger, entitled Fire And Fame. His story, my words…

Peter’s Pop Show

November 4th – 6th, 1987: Peter’s Pop Show, Dortmund, Germany

The security people had plenty to do with regards to keeping the fans and autograph hunters under control. The Westfalen Hotel had been under siege for over 24 hours, with hundreds of teenies camped out in front of the main and side entrances in the hopes of meeting up with their favourite celebrities. It was a veritable belt of fans, primarily female and most of them having only recently gone through their first “welcome to adulthood” monthly oil change, subdivided into small groups so that news of the arrival of a van or limousine carrying a star could be transferred through the collective at lightning speed through a mix of hectic waving and screams of “They’re coming! They’re here!” And, of course, all hell broke loose each time a vehicle pulled up. Small wonder that the big stars like the Pet Shop Boys and Depeche Mode opted to use an underground tunnel running from the hotel to the Westfalenhalle, where the actual festivities were taking place.
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