Anecdote # 19

Oh Frankie.

david bowie's Sound and Vision tour included an expansive crew of 50 people! there was a sound crew, a lighting crew, stage crew, electricians, trucks, buses, drivers, bodyguards, caterers, wardrobe, and even personal assistants. many of the extra people came to operate visuals. we had a monstrous stage set-up with giant opera scrims, multiple film effects, and a five-camera crew. for so many people we had two tour managers.

Frankie was a youngish british tour manager with a penchant for jokingly flirting. there was a coterie of women in our entourage and frankie liked to think of them as his own brood. he liked to tickle them and keep them laughing with innuendo, all very harmless of course.

a half dozen of frankie's girls developed a habit of meeting each morning at the Quebec Hilton's work out room on the third floor. you could find them there at 8 each morning sitting on their stationary bikes or doing their yoga stretches. frankie would always come by to check on them and cut-up a bit.

one such morning frankie arrived to find everyone busy in their workout mode, chatting away.
he spotted one of the girls lying face down on a mat and decided to surprise her.
he tiptoed over and leaped on top of her tickling her relentlessly
and then pretended to be humping her.
frankie was laughing and having a great time when
one of the other girls nearby warned drolly,
"that's not who you think it is, frankie".
the woman finally pulled herself from under frankie
and stood up with an indignant scowl.
she spat a flurry of nasty french adjectives.
she wasn't one of frankie's girls,
she was a french-canadian hotel guest who spoke not a word of english!