Cecilia here. So, the offices described for BNC Records are the offices of what was RCA Records back in the day. I didn’t change anything.
RCA started out as Radio Corporation of America in the 1920s and when I first set foot in their offices in 1984 they hadn’t yet been through the mega-mergers and acquisitions that would eventually make them part of BMG (Bertelsmann Music Group) and recently there was even such a big merger that they are now part of the same company as their ancient rivals, Columbia Records. (This is like if the NBC and CBS tv networks merged, basically. Crazy.)
Their offices then were on Avenue of the Americas, not terribly far from Radio City Music Hall, as well as the building that housed 95.5 WPLJ FM, where I worked when I was in high school. WPLJ had just gone Top 40 and changed its handle to “Power 95” at that time.
The two-story rehearsal studio/recording studio/performance space I describe at the BNC offices, where the video footage is filmed and where Daron and Ziggy get interviewed in the control room, was a real place deep inside the bowels of RCA’s corporate HQ. And if I’m remembering right, it was on floor 8.
One day I’ll tell the story of how I started working at the world’s biggest radio station while I was still in high school, but for now to say anymore would distract from the story at hand.
As you’ve figured out by now, I mix together real things with things I made up, and sometimes real things just have their names changed. So RCA becomes BNC. Could I have just called it RCA? Probably. But I had one run-in with RCA’s legal department in my life and that was enough. (Again, long story.)
Limelight was a real club. It had been a big Episcopal church, and I think I mentioned it in an earlier liner note — that was where Sexploitation, the band I managed, played a showcase for record company execs with Marilyn Manson and the Spooky Kids as part of the College Music Journal (CMJ) festival. You’ll note the shout-out to the CMJ in recent chapters, too.
Interesting note about the Limelight that I didn’t know, this from Wikipedia: “In the 1990s, it became a prominent place to hear techno, goth, and industrial music, and to obtain recreational drugs. It earned the media’s attention in 1996 when club and party promoter Michael Alig was arrested and later convicted for the killing and dismemberment of Angel Melendez, a resident drug dealer at the club. The 2003 film Party Monster, starring Macaulay Culkin and Seth Green, was based on this event.” Alig was apparently bisexual and an interesting role choice for former child star Culkin, and the film also features Marilyn Manson as a transsexual character.
To all of which Daron says, “wow. That is fucked up.” No lie, bwana.
I’ll end this liner note with a mention of something that relates to the subject of names and reality versus fiction. Did you know that for a big enough donation I’ll write you into the story? It’s kind of like being an underwriter on NPR. For $25 I’ll make a text link ad from a single chapter for a year, whereas $50 gets you a permanent “product placement” with a link in the text to whatever site or business you want.
If you really want to be special, though, for $200 I’ll write you a cameo appearance in the actual story (plus you’ll get copies of any future ebooks and any schwag we might eventually produce). (The boys meet so many random people in their travels that it really won’t be hard to work in someone new.)
Details on all these kinds of supporter donations can be found on the Supporter Page: https://daron.ceciliatan.com/supporters
Wouldn’t that make a great gift for a friend who is reading DGC? It’s like their name in lights only it’s text. Be sure to include your request with your donation and I’ll email you back for more details about what you want.
Liner Note #8
