Bruce Springsteen and West Conshohocken (Ceccola Family, we’re looking at you)
Bruce Springsteen and West Conshohocken (Ceccola Family, we’re looking at you)
8/20/2024
by Brian Coll
It’s been 40 years since Bruce Springsteen released Born in the USA. Almost 50 years since Born to Run came out and made Bruce a household name. We’re going to go a little further back, before he was on the covers of both Time and Newsweek on the same day! We’re going to take a look at one occasion when Bruce Springsteen came to West Conshohocken.
Bruce would visit and stay in West Conshohocken, as well as Bridgeport and he would presumably have at least visited Conshohocken in the early 70’s. Here is at least one time when he came into West Conshohocken.
The following is from Bonnie Ceccola Devitis:
Phil was 16 at the time. I was his camera lackey for concerts even at 14 years old, so I was used to meeting all kinds of musicians. In the Summer of 1971, I was going down the other side of the street to visit my friend. A car came over the hill and pulled up next to me. The driver asked me if I knew where Phil Ceccola lived. I said ‘Yes, that’s my brothers house-the second house at the top of the hill on the right hand side.’ I later found out that it was Bruce. At the time, I wasn’t aware of Bruce’s music and later became a fan.”
The reason we’re writing this is a few things, 1st, West Conshohocken is celebrating it’s 150th anniversary as a borough, the 2nd is that Russ Ceccola, (The late Phil Ceccola’s brother) is working on a book of his brothers photos set to be released in 2025. The 3rd is that Bruce Springsteen and THE E Street Band is set to perform twice in Philly this week. Wednesday August 21st and Friday August 23rd.
I think most of you may know Bruce, or at least his music, his charitable endeavors and his support of young artists. He even performed with and recorded with Marah, which formed from two Conshohocken brothers Dave and Serge Bielanko. Most of you may not know Phil Ceccola, or know about him since he passed away in 2003.
Phil Ceccola grew up in West Conshohocken and is still missed by many including his brother Russ and sister Bonnie. At a young age Phil would go to local concert venue’s and catch the biggest acts of the time as well as find new up and coming acts. He always had his camera around his neck. (side note, he was also a talented artist). When Phil was 18 he moved to Bridgeport and has photos from some of his Springsteen visits. In addition to being a friend to Bruce and his bandmates in the early days he found himself heading to gigs with the guys, sticking around for soundcheck and sharing private moments with them. Many early bootleg tapes and fan magazines in the day would use Phil’s photos of Bruce. When Phil wasn’t with Bruce, he’d be found at the Main Point in Bryn Mawr or other local music venues and as Bruce grew in popularity, Phil would make sure he was at the Tower Theater or Spectrum as the venue’s got bigger.
Bruce and Phil, when Phil wasn’t behind the camera!
Phil was honored when Bruce approached him in the late 90’s to discuss using one of Phil’s photos on the 66 track box set titled “Tracks”. “Tracks” came out in 1998 and contained many B-sides as well as unreleased songs. Here is that cover:
Before we let you go… if you are heading to see Bruce Springsteen and THE E Street Band, enjoy yourself. If you knew Phil, his family would appreciate hearing any stories you might have. Two other things… about an year ago, we had Vini Maddog Lopez in our shop in Conshohocken. He was with Bruce and his bands in the early days, recorded on the first two albums with Bruce and toured a bit with him. Russ Ceccola got the chance to chat with Vini and Vini had the nicest things to say about Phil. The guys in the band really enjoyed the support of Phil Ceccola in the early days. Russ gave Vini some photos he had found of Vini and it was a trip down memory lane.
Lastly, The Conshohocken Baseball and Softball League is building a batting cage, they have an online raffle set up with some wonderful prizes. Raffle entries start at $10. Get your raffles here and check out all there prizes…. including weekend stays at a beach house or a beach condo, framed, autographed items from Jason Kelce and John Kruk. Multiple Conshohocken baskets and more!
Thanks for reading, happy anniversary West Conshohocken. I’m glad you’ve had a number of great residents over the years including Phil Ceccola.
