NAMM Day 3, the Saturday is always the busiest day of the event. It began with the NAMM U Breakfast Session at the Anaheim Hilton Pacific Ballrom with special guest Apple Co-founder Steve Wozniak. The audience of around 3,000 was enthralled with Wozniak’s anecdotes and he jokingly suggested that if we continued with the dependance of gadgets in our life, then humans are in danger of becoming ‘like the family pet’. Wozniak also declared himself to be a huge Bob Dylan fan. Later, Wozniak strolled the trade show floor checking out the latest music gadgets.
Gibson guitars had a bit of fun this year with a Willy Wonka style Golden Ticket giveaway. They hid 40 Golden tickets within a four block radius of the convention centre. The competition was also open to the public as well as NAMM attendees. If found, the ticket could be exchanged for Gibson or Epiphone guitars or Gibson brand pro audio gear. Total value of prizes offered was $50,000.
Spotted in the NAMM house on Saturday were TV’s Randy Jackson, Robby Krieger, the last of The Doors, Jackson Browne, and Green Day’s Tre Cool among a truck load of other well known musicians.
Saturday night is traditionally party night. It began with the public show, Stanley Randolph & No Wonder” featuring the Stevie Wonder Band, NAMM GoPro Stage on the Grand Plaza.
Meanwhile in the Hilton’s Pacific Ballroom, the 30th annual TEC Awards were being held with Hall of Fame honours being bestowed on bass great Nathan East and Slash receiving the Les Paul Award. See our separate news item on the event with list of winners.
For dance music fans, there was the Monster Cable After Dark featuring DJ Ecto1 & Crisco Kidd, Venue Stage presented by Pioneer DJ
Hottest ticket of the night may well have been the 65 Amps, Duesenberg party at the Imperial Ball, which featured Joe Walsh and Alice Cooper.
