Monthly Archives: February 2008

Hi
My name is Roger Standridge and I worked for Wally Heider from 1966 to 1972. I just saw an article in the LA times about Buddy Miles and the Band of Gypsys live date at the Filmore East. It was New Years Eve 1969-70 and I worked that date. I didn’t mix that one and I forgot who did. We all drank Cold Duck and ate Pizza afterwards.
Looking at the site, the only one I recognize is Ray Thompson. I worked a lot of dates with him! From the dates it looks like he passed away in 1999. Is that true?
I used to have a ton of photos from the old days. I always carried my old Nikon F. Unfortunately they all went away years ago.
It would be good to hear from some of the people who were around in those days.
Roger

Three weeks after graduating from San Francisco State College in June of 1977 I found myself working at Filmways/Heider Studios in Hollywood. The job paid minimum wage and in those days you could still rent a place in Hollywood on that salary. Ok, a little overtime was required, but we were all young and eager. We couldn’t get enough of it.

While I was ecstatic much of the time, the place was riddled with contention. There were the Heider people and the Filmways people, each having a different view of how the company should move forward. This small family oriented recording studio was now part of a large corporation and people just didn’t like the shift. We had walls lined with certified gold. Ray Thompson was a legend and each week Ray, Biff Dawes, Dennis May and Paul Sandweiss would storm the studio. They would grab all of the best gear and off they would go to record another great live album.

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