Hard Rock's walls of fame get makeover
Cheap Trick played a show when the Hard Rock Cafe Chicago opened in 1986, and the Rockford rockers perform again this week to celebrate the rock-themed restaurant's redecoration -- new trash, new treasures.
"They're kind of the house band of Hard Rock," says Don Bernstine, manager of acquisitions and artist relations for Hard Rock cafes.
(Jean Lachat/Sun-Times)
His lengthy title translates this way: Bernstine begs rock stars to turn over their instruments, costumes and other ephemera for display in the worldwide eatery chain's hundreds of cafes.
Hard Rocks reshuffle their memorabilia every seven years. For this, Chicago's third redo, the display cases at 63 W. Ontario now include a jacket worn by Patrick Stump of Fall Out Boy, a handwritten letter by John Lennon to a fan, a two-piece outfit worn by Madonna during her 1985 Like a Virgin Tour, one of Bo Diddley's custom-made Funk Box guitars, even a Hamer Checkerboard guitar from Rick Nielsen of Cheap Trick. Nielsen will officially present the guitar during Wednesday night's show -- open only to the winners of tickets on WLUP-FM (97.9).
"Obviously we try to represent the location of the cafe as much as possible, and in Chicago's case there's an abundance of material," Bernstine says.
Where's the stuff they took out? "It's crated up and probably sitting in warehouse in Orlando, waiting for the warehouse team to put the stuff back into circulation for use elsewhere."
Thomas Conner