Stories from backstage, on the road, and the lives behind the spotlight.
Howie Hoffman: Ambience Coordinator
Upcoming book
Meet Howie Hoffman. He’s a Bronx kid who snuck into Yankee Stadium with a mailbag full of hats and went to Woodstock at sixteen. From there he spent two decades on the road, from selling programs at Sinatra and Elvis shows to life backstage with some of the biggest acts in music history. Phil Collins gave him his title on camera: Ambience Coordinator. Nobody could ever say exactly what the job was, but every tour seemed to need one. Whatever you needed, Howie had one answer: “I got a guy.”
Inside the book. Howie sold programs to Sinatra crowds and souvenirs on the Elvis circuit, and he turned the Elvis truck around for Graceland the day the King died. He worked The Who, Queen, Foreigner, and Pink Floyd’s The Wall. Then came Genesis and Phil Collins, which meant Live Aid, the Concorde, Wimbledon, royal birthdays, Ringo’s house, and twelve years living at the Farm in the English countryside with the band’s inner circle.
The other side of the pass. This isn’t a highlight reel. Howie was shot in 1980, and the bullet is still in his skull. He was extradited across six states in shackles. He buried two of his three wives to addiction, and he’s honest about his own years with drugs. It’s the truth about life on the road, told by the man who lived it, laughs included.
Against all odds. Today Howie lives on Fort Myers Beach. He’s the island’s softball commissioner, a former supermarket Chicken Man, and a survivor of Hurricane Ian, which took nearly everything he owned at seventy. Ambience Coordinator is his story as told to Charley Valera. It’s a memoir about music, mischief, survival, and the friends who turn out to be the only wealth that matters.
Top Secret: A Project in the Works
Another Music & Entertainment project is in the works. The name and details are under wraps for now. Stay tuned.
