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4 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution / Friday, Sept. 10, 2004 F5

JEAN SHIFRIN / Staff Photos of Free and Bad Company fill a wall in Lucy Piller’s office. A dedicated rock fan, she also finds space on her walls and Web site to promote the careers of several local musicians. Fan: Bond with band ripens into friendship

➤ Continued from F1 ______

past few decades, and Kirke rewarded her devotion with a special treat for her 50th birth- day last year. He came down and played a solo acoustic set in her house and jammed with some local musicians. “She called me, and I didn’t hesitate,” Kirke says. “She’s been so valuable to us. She’s more a friend now. I thought it was just a small way to pay her back.” When she talks about the band, you can still see the smitten London teenager that spent three hours in a record store listening to the band’s first album, “Tons of Sobs,” before taking it home. Her eyes light up, and the enthusi- asm transports you back to the end of the ’60s. “I had a Saturday job at a card shop in Central London,” she begins. “I went out for lunch, and I passed a store that had ‘Tons of Sobs’ plas- tered all over the window.” The bleak cover image of Free’s bluesy debut album piqued her curiosity. “I walked in and there was this music playing — I think it was ‘I’m a Courtesy of Lucy Piller Mover.’ After it finished, I said Lucy Piller playfully coaxes Free’s frontman Paul Rodgers to to them, ‘Can I hear that song hold his head up for a backstage photo in 1970 in England. again?’ And they gave me a She was a teenager in London when she first fell in love with booth where I could go in and the band’s music, and she’s been a loyal fan ever since. listen. I must have been in there two, three hours. I went right through my lunch. Of course, I bought the album. Went home and played it, Drummer Kirke picks up guitar played it, played it.” Soon after that, she went to Simon Kirke has provided the beat for some great rock see Free at a club she fre- anthems: “All Right Now,” “Feel Like Makin’ Love,” “Rock and quented to hear reggae and Roll Fantasy,” “Can’t Get Enough.” Each was a Top 20 hit in the one of its popular sub-genres, ’70s — the first for Free, the last three for Bad Company. bluebeat. Observing the In recent years, he’s scored independent films, played with “hippie-ish” crowd, the young Ringo Starr and started a company called Rockstarz to produce Listen to the Bert Show on All The Hits Q100 woman in mod clothes felt she instructional DVDs. He’s planning a United Nations-affiliated had “arrived on a different show that will showcase drumming from around the world. to see who has what it takes to become planet.” He’ll always be a drummer, and a particularly fine one, but When she recalls the show, he’ll be front and center on acoustic guitar tonight in Gwinnett “The Apprentice” Bert Show Style! it sounds like a life-altering County. This new phase started with some club shows around experience. “That memory of the country last year. “I did a couple of acoustic songs with Bad Company, so it’s that first time I saw them will Six contestants compete to win: never, ever leave my mind. I not as if I’m not used to getting out from behind the kit and hear the music. As I talk to strolling to the front of the stage,” Kirke says. “But to be up ■ A great job with a big named company you, I can close my eyes and there for an hour, 75 minutes was a little daunting.” ■ $1000 cash to stash in their personal piggy bank [I’m back] on the train when I Simon Kirke with John Waite. 7:30 tonight. $19-$35. Gwin- was leaving the venue, and I nett Performing Arts Center, 6400 Sugarloaf Parkway, Duluth. ■ Additional prizes (tickets, Q100 apparel and ajcjobs apparel) remember looking out the 770-813-7600, www.gwinnettcenter.com. window in the Underground ■ Become the on-air voice promoting ajcjobs.com — nothing out there, it’s black, it’s tunnel — and with the ringing of the high note, and ajcjobs.com & All the Hits Q100 will make one lucky I’m like paralysed and think- community might span the Gumbo. Atlantan the ultimate Apprentice! ing, ‘That was the most amaz- globe, but sometimes its citi- Free might be her shining ing thing I just experienced.’ zens make a pilgrimage to her beacon of musical brilliance, That was the beginning.” office, which they call “the but Piller speaks with zeal For more information visit ajcjobs.com Piller had discovered the shrine.” about local bluesy rockers like or All the Hits Q100. soundtrack of her life and It’s lined with framed, Andrew Black and Mike Mar- would go on to see Free 33 signed photos and crammed tin, and she gives them space times, becoming acquainted with bulging books and boxes on her site. with the band’s members. of memorabilia, including the She’s always turning more Camera in hand, she also diary of Piller the teenage fan, people on to the locals she amassed a treasure trove of which she pulls out to search champions. photos that capture the youth- for the exact date of that first “I see her at almost every Missed your chance to ful energy of a band that live brush with Free (it was show I do,” says Martin. would live a short but influen- Sunday, May 4, 1969). “She’s very supportive. And become “The Apprentice”? tial life. The fellow fans she gets to she’s almost always got some- Visit ajcjobs.com and search About 25 years passed know well are sometimes body with her: somebody from between that first encounter invited to stay in the upstairs Canada, somebody from thousands of local employers today! and the launch of guest room, where the walls England, somebody from out Allrightnow.com. The site’s are covered with several large of state, and if not that, some looking to hire you name (after Free’s biggest hit) images of Free and Bad Com- of her family.” and concept was suggested by pany frontman Paul Rodgers, Her enthusiasm for the her husband, Robert, a soft- whom she also keeps in touch hometown talent would thrill ware architect in the financial with. any tourist board. industry and a native of Swit- Fans from as far away as Piller, who has spent short zerland. He’s still the man South Africa have drifted off stints in a number of North behind the site’s technological to dreamland under Rodgers’ American cities because of her aspects. “I’m just grateful that smoldering gaze. husband’s job, seems deter- Robert can keep me at home Those visitors are sure to mined to be here a while. 7118775 to do this,” she says. “He got a get a dose of local musical col- “He would like to move job, and I wasn’t allowed to or, too. She may have a special somewhere to retire,” she says work. I wasn’t a green-card connection with Free and Bad of Robert, but it seems she has holder then. I am now, but Company, but she’s also a other ideas. “If it’s not broken, now I’m so busy with this.” champion of local talent. On don’t fix it. I tell people For Piller, Allrightnow.com many weekend nights, you Atlanta has music here seven is not just a matter of posting might see her at local venues nights a week — and first-class information and memorabilia. like Marietta blues club Dar- music — so why would any- She’s built a community. That win’s or Kennesaw’s Fee-Lay body want to move?”

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