Part Two: Interview with Los Angeles Memorabilia Collector Sean Costello
ALL THE YEARS COMBINE: What were your earliest rock concert memories?
Sean Costello: My earliest memories were all based around performances in and around Saratoga Springs, NY. The Saratoga County Fair was held across the street from my house at the thoroughbred racetrack, which my dad managed. So between 1974 and 1976, I was able to see top-name acts like Olivia Newton-John, Mac Davis, Glen Campbell, The Fifth Dimension, and Johnny Cash as they toured the fair circuit.
At the fair I was able to wander backstage because of my father’s job. I loved every moment—and even met Olivia! But the first real adult-themed rock concert was at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center (SPAC). On August 26, 1976, The Beach Boys played to a record crowd of 30,000 people. I was eleven and went with my older brothers and sisters and their friends. It was intense for a young kid—every song was a hit, and the crowd was so into the show. It was electric.
ATYC: You were hooked at that point, I’d imagine?
SC: Absolutely. When I turned 13 in 1978, my father was transferred downstate to Long Island to manage Belmont Racetrack, and I suddenly had access to year-round concerts at every major venue in the tri-state area—particularly Madison Square Garden and Nassau Coliseum. Music saved my life, and access to real bands eased the pain of leaving behind my childhood home.
ATYC: What was the music climate at that time?
SC: It was a magical time for the music industry. Record stores were booming; kids were buying rock posters and T-shirts. This is pre-internet, pre-MTV—if you wanted access to music, you had to work for it. Kids joined fan clubs and subscribed to rock magazines—they knew the names of each band member.
By 1978, disco and punk were breaking through thanks to the Bee Gees and the Sex Pistols kicking down doors, but you still had rock bands like Led Zeppelin, Queen, and Pink Floyd selling millions of records and doing three-night runs at a single arena.
ATYC: So what concerts or venues in New York City and Long Island stood out?
SC: My first real New York concert was Aerosmith at Nassau Coliseum on November 12, 1978. Golden Earring opened the show. A week later, the following Sunday, I saw the original Queen there on the Jazz tour.
A year later, I saw KISS at Nassau during their Dynasty tour, with Judas Priest opening. My first show at Madison Square Garden was on September 13, 1979, when The Who played during a sold-out five-night run, a year after the death of Keith Moon.
It was the best concert experience to date—the hard-to-get tickets and the buildup to the actual date. I would pin the tickets to a corkboard in my room. The night of the show, there was so much energy (and weed smoke) in the air.
A close second: I saw Pink Floyd perform The Wall at Nassau on 02/25/1980. Tickets were $15, but since they were so scarce—they only did 10 shows in the United States—I was offered $300 for my ticket, which I refused.
Of course, there were smaller venues on Long Island where I saw shows as well: The Calderone Concert Hall (Cheap Trick, Rainbow, Joan Jett), Hofstra University (The Ramones, The B-52s), and Belmont Racetrack (Hot Tuna, Todd Rundgren, Blondie).
ATYC: I imagine you saw over a hundred concerts— which bands did you see the most?
SC: In the past 45+ years, I’ve seen hundreds of shows -- everything from The Allman Brothers and Neil Young to Ozzy Osbourne and Radiohead. The peak was 1980–1999. The band I saw the most was the Grateful Dead and their various side projects. I saw the Grateful Dead with Jerry Garcia close to 50 times.
I also saw Jerry play solo half a dozen times—same with Bob Weir. Bobby had several side bands, most notably Bobby and The Midnights and RatDog, which I saw a dozen times.
After 1995, the surviving Grateful Dead members (Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, Mickey Hart, Bill Kreutzmann) toured under several names, including The Other Ones (1998–2002), The Dead (2003–2009), Furthur (2009–2014), and Dead & Company (2015–present). My childhood friends, who I’ve attended concerts with since 1980, have gone with me to see all those post-Jerry Dead tours. We still meet up yearly.
ATYC: Are any of these concerts related to your professional career?
SC: No. My professional career in Los Angeles is closer to the film and television industry. I worked for many years at the Writers Guild of America West, and worked closely with The Sundance Film Festival and The Franco-American Cultural fund. Those years were followed by stints at several streaming video companies: Broadcaster, Netflix (Beverly Hills), ABC Television Group, Disney+, and Hulu.
As a screenwriter, I’ve had projects optioned and set up but never produced (yet). As a screenplay analyst, I’ve done coverage on hundreds of scripts, but my current job is more related to analysis of film libraries—how they’re presented on a consumer-facing basis—and helping track backend story elements that feed recommendation algorithms and internal metrics. That said, I do have close friends in the music industry who occasionally still sneak me backstage to some amazing concerts and VIP events.
ATYC: Is your real passion closer to music or film and television?
SC: I think it's a bit of both. I see good songs as four-minute movies, and I view movies as music albums—replaying key scenes like you would a favorite song. To me, they’re the same thing. Two of my favorite film genres are music-related stories and movies about the film industry itself.
ATYC: Can you give us some examples?
SC: Take Almost Famous (2000). That’s an open love letter to rock music, told from inside the music business through the eyes of a fan. It works on every level.
Or look at The Player (1992)—an amazing glimpse inside the film business, but told as a crime mystery. I thought films like Bohemian Rhapsody (2018), Straight Outta Compton (2015), and Rocketman (2019) were excellent—they really captured the era and the industry perspective in each. I’m also looking forward to the four separate Beatles biographical films, as well as the Michael Jackson biopic coming soon.
But music-industry movies don’t have to be about a famous musician to work. For example, I love the films made by Irish writer-director John Carney—most notably Once (2007), Begin Again (2013), Sing Street (2016), and Flora and Son (2023).
He tends to write romance-themed stories about people (almost) falling in love while they create music together. It’s the creative process that brings them together, but he always pulls back at the last minute, which adds a certain truth to the mix.
I’m optimistic about his latest film, Power Ballad, which comes out June 5, 2026. It’s getting great pre-release reviews and seems to follow his established formula.
Skateboard Ramp - Saratoga Springs 1977
High School Band, Long Island 1983
