Steven Farro booked the Real Kids during their first comeback surge, circa '85. He sent along this piece, which tells a bit about the view from the other side of the booking / management looking glass. Thanks, Steve.

My Boston Music Experience

I guess my interest in the Boston music scene began with me spending time with Friends Chuck Vitale, Vernon and Dana West who had a pretty good band going called Sass, We would hang out and go to clubs like Spit, The Rat, The Underground and The Paradise where the music was hot and you could see anything from hard rock to punk. It was here that I realized I wanted to be a part of this scene. Since I did not play an instrument and had a reputation for being a good talker the natural progression was to management and booking. I started out small with Chuck Vitales band look and was able to get great gigs and cultivated some critical relationships, With this in hand I decided to go on to the big time.
I first met John Felice with his then wife Marilyn at his Saratoga Street apartment in East Boston. He was deciding to get his band the Real Kids back together and wanted someone to book them. John wasn’t quite sure but he felt he had nothing to lose so we made an agreement. The next couple of days I listened to the music of the old Real Kids and the Taxi Boy’s so I could get a feel for where to book them; the year was ‘84 or ‘85 I really don’t remember (too many drugs perhaps). With my partner Anthony we opened Cherry Lane Productions, with an office on Boylston Street; it was here that I met the rest of the Real Kids: Alan “Alpo” Polino, Billy Cole, Bobby “Moroccan” Morin and John Felice. I had a couple of gigs for them, one at Cantones and one at Jonathan Swifts, although they were on week nights. I was learning that there were some bad feelings in the clubs surrounding the Kids -- for things like not showing up, or just not wanting to play. In order for these clubs to take the Kids I had to promise they would be there, and deliver on that promise. So I became a roadie and a manager -- in the sense that I managed to get them to the gig and play.
This went on for most of the summer, getting more gigs at better days with better bands and getting some buzz going. I don’t think the kids realized how much work I had to do during the day, getting on the phone, meeting with those who could write good things about the band, and cleaning up previously bad feelings. Then at night I’d take the band to their gigs, help set up, stay till closing, and be back at the office at 9am the next morning. This behavior led to doing cocaine and speed to keep up. It was a ride to be sure, but the best ride of my life.
Through all of this the Kids were making an album, No Place Fast, with some great songs, my favorite being “Small Town”. At the clubs the band was cranking and the crowds were getting larger; the Real Kids were back! I had managed to get a headliner Saturday night at the Channel, with the Angry Young Bees. The place was packed and the local media was all there, I worked my ass off to get this gig and I was not going to let anyone or anything fuck it up. Andy Paley was doing the sound and he knew the Kids well; the gig was perfect. We could play anywhere now as headliner. This was what I wanted -- and what I thought the Kids wanted, too. For the rest of that summer we played outdoor gigs, indoor gigs, New York gigs, Two gigs in one day and everything in between. I was spending so much time with the Real Kids that I was neglecting the rest of my bands, and this was causing some friction within the booking agency. I was asked to make a choice, and I chose the Kids. This, I was later to learn, was a mistake.

John Felice made me aware that they were going to France for a few gigs, and a record contract was there for the taking. At this time the kids were using again and were surrounding themselves with those people who wanted to encourage the drugs. I was slowly pushed out. I was the mother hen who kept them straight and playing, but they wanted people around them who, in my opinion, were hangers-on, people who did not have the Kids best interest at heart. The band left for France and I was not invited; this hurt. I knew why: they were there to party; and I would have stopped them from doing that. The last word I had on the Real Kids was when they missed a gig in France because of drugs and their tour ended.

I haven’t really talked to John or the rest of the band since then. I have some fond memories and some bad memories. I was always disappointed in the fact that the Real Kids never really knew how much I did and what I gave up in order to do it or why I was left off the liner notes on No Place Fast -- instead they referenced the drug users in their gang . All and all it was a good time. I met a lot of great people and hold no Ill Feelings for anyone, and I look back on the experience as a good one (except when I was in the hospital for a viral infection, the result of doing much too much cocaine). We did what we thought was right,we had fun doing it, and many of us survived.