WGBH's Henry Santoro interviews Mike Gioscia of the nonprofit Plymouth Rocks Events, about its first fundraiser, a pop-up museum featuring David Bieber's music collection. The transcript below has been edited for clarity.
Henry Santoro: The newly founded nonprofit Plymouth Rock sets its sights on all things music, film, culture and community, based in Plymouth Mass. The organization is holding its first-ever fundraiser next Saturday, April 6, with proceeds benefiting music programs and local schools, among other things. Mike Gioscia is a filmmaker, musician, D.J. and is the executive director of Plymouth Rocks. And he's an old friend. Mike, it's good to see you again.
Mike Gioscia: You as well, Henry, thank you.
HS: You've been living in the shadow of Plymouth Rock for a long time, many years now. And the historical and cultural aspects there are huge. When did you realize that you could add to that?
MG: I think being somebody who moved to the south shore from the city, and then coming to the city a lot for events, and suddenly realizing we can we can go to Plymouth for a lot of this stuff. There’s music here, there's food here, there's culture, there's art, and then if you're doing that for a little while, I thought I could bring a little bit of my city experience with music and film to Plymouth and give Plymouth a little bit more of a curated, fun, cool event.
HS: Yeah, and more wide-reaching as well.
MG: Exactly.
HS: April 6 at Memorial Hall Blue Room in Plymouth. The theme of the night is what?
MG: It’s a pop-up museum featuring Mr. David Bieber, and David Bieber archives. David, as you know, is someone we worked with in radio in the 90s, has one of the largest pop-culture collections music and film just about anywhere ... in the country.
MG: And I think you could almost even say the world.
HS: Well, I think you're right. I mean, this is a guy who has collected everything pop-culture oriented, forever. And the thing about this guy, David Bieber, that we're talking about, is that he really kept himself under the radar for a long time. There are, you know, archives that you can have access to, like Michael Ochs, for instance, the Michael Ochs Archives or pop-culture archives. And he makes a business out of farming the stuff out, and then getting it back, and farming it out again.
David never did that, until recently. That’s when he curated the Verb Hotel, using a lot of stuff from local radio stations, and the now defunct Boston Phoenix newspaper, and stuff from his own days at WBCN, now another defunct radio station. But he has amassed a warehouse full of stuff.
MG: Absolutely.
HS: That you get to pick through.
MG: I say it's kind of like the end of Raiders of The Lost Ark, when they're pushing the ark into the death huge. That's what David's warehouse is like. And exactly, Henry, what we're doing is picking specific pieces to bring to our fundraiser in Plymouth to show off. And again, what Plymouth Rocks wants to do in the area is to bring those one of a kind events that people just can't see anywhere else to Plymouth.
HS: What are what are some of the items that have already been picked up?
MG: Oh, there's some great stuff from the old Boston Tea Party. One thing that sticks out is a Pink Floyd poster, where you could have gotten in for three dollars, for that Pink Floyd Show. He has the iconic poster, it's one month in, I think 1967 or 1968, from the Boston Tea Party, where the WHO has a three-night stand, Led Zeppelin has a three-night stand, Delaney and Bonnie with Eric Clapton are playing, and the Allman Brothers. This is all in one month, so these are the kind of posters you can see as well.
HS: The David Beber archives. Again, you can see the tip of the iceberg, if you go to the Verb Hotel in Boston. Mike Gioscia is president and co-founder of Plymouth Rocks, a nonprofit whose mission is to bring more arts and culture to the Plymouth Community. Mike, always a pleasure.
MG: Henry, thanks so much.
