Land of Hope and Dreams

Ever wondered what it was like in the early days of the E Street Band?

Well, the ‘Land of Hope and Dreams’ Springsteen convention last weekend gave fans a real glimpse at the birth of a legend.
Vini “Mad Dog” Lopez was in on E Street at the very beginning, hooking up with Danny Federici before the Phantom had even met Bruce.

Together, while searching for a guitar player who wrote original songs, they discovered Springsteen.

And the rest, with a few curves and some ups and downs along the way, is history.
Vini has recorded the songs that Bruce wrote for their band, Steel Mill, and the reformed band took the stage twice at the convention in Schiedam, near Rotterdam.


Steel Mill manager Carl ‘Tinker’ West was also there and joined Vini in a Q&A session which shed light on the teenage Springsteen and the recording of Greetings From Asbury Park and The Wild, The Innocent and The E Street Shuffle.



A highlight of a special weekend was the all-star jam which Vini led on Sunday night. He was joined by many of the artists who had played hard all weekend, including Italy’s Graziano Romani and England’s Mark Wright.



“This is just like the Upstage!” Vini said, referring to the Asbury Park club which was at the centre of the town’s wild music scene at the end of the 1960s.