 |
| Joe on a rainy afternoon after setting up guitar world on tour with Tina Turner and scowling at the chord he plays in his headphones. |
In the early 1970's, Joe Astrella played guitar with his childhood friends in an early incarnation of the band from Shrewsbury, Mass called Dark Horse but he said he felt uncomfortable on stage and became their lighting and sound technician instead. After a couple years of club gigs and school dances he was asked to run lights for the band FATE and soon realized it was not only fun but he could actually make a living as a roadie. Joe was extremely organized and this made him one of the best techs in the area. In the late 70's he did a tour with Willie 'Loco' Alexander and the Boom Boom Band who were backing up Elvis Costello on several dates and was hired at Polico Lighting in Warwick RI who was providing production equipment for the J. Geils Band and Boston. Boston was headlining an arena tour with Sammy Hagar as the opening act and Joe went out as a lighting tech for Polico.
Tom Scholz appreciated Joe's technical ability and knowledge of guitars enough to ask him to test out a new product he had created called the Rockman. He also had him build his foot pedal boards for touring and do some woodworking at his home recording studio.
Back from the road, Joe learned from his old friends David Heglmeier and Brian Sklarz who had worked with him for FATE that a new band, The Cars, were about to break and needed a guitar tech. Joe was perfect for the job and toured with them throughout the 80's. When not on tour with The Cars he worked at their studio on Newbury Street in Boston called Synchro Sound. In the mid 80's, after 5 tours with The Cars, they were not touring as much and even though Joe remained employed by The Cars Limited, he began touring with Tina Turner as the guitar tech. Tina's resurgence had her doing long, massive world tours that lasted as much as a year and a half. He had built his own customized guitar-workstation and multi-guitar stands as road cases for touring. He also designed and patented a guitar fork-hanger that mounts into a road case. With his knack for building things he decided to open a woodworking shop in Worcester Mass. so he could build his own projects and take on commercial work when he wasn’t on the road. He also did short stints as guitar tech for shows with Dan Fogelberg, Hall & Oates and Stevie Wonder.
Joe was on his 7th world tour with Tina Turner in 1993 when he fell ill and succumbed to an aggressive cancer a few months later. He was an inspiration to many people for his ability to design and build what he imagined and in the way he would strive for perfection. He developed methods to accomplish tasks that would amaze people when he described exactly why he did things in a logical, form-follows-function kind of way. It always made sense.
Today, Joe’s son Alex has taken guitar lessons from Joe D'Angelo and Joe Astrella Jr. is playing drums in his own band.
The big old tour bus rolls on!
