Thursday 28 March 2024

March 25, 1967 Oakland Coliseum Arena, Oakland, CA: Eric Burdon and The Animals/The Association/Bola Sete Trio/more ('67 Berkeley II)

 

The City of Oakland joined the major leagues when construction was finished on the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum Complex. The Oakland Coliseum stadium became the home of the Oakland Raiders, who moved from their temporary football field near Laney College. The Raiders debuted at the new stadium on September 18, 1966. The stadium would also become the home of the newly-arrived Oakland Athletics on April 17, 1968. Just across the parking lot, the Oakland Coliseum Arena became the largest and most modern indoor arena in the Bay Area, taking prominence over the aging Cow Palace in Daly City and the mid-size San Francisco Civic Auditorium, both of them of pre-WW2 vintage. As a premier destination, it was no surprise that the Oakland Coliseum became a destination for major rock concerts. 

A list of performers who have played the Oakland Coliseum Arena pretty much includes the entire Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame. It is a little-realized fact that the Grateful Dead played the Coliseum Arena more than any other single venue, including all the Fillmores, Winterland, Shoreline, Madison Square Garden, The Spectrum or any other venue. The mild Bay Area weather ensured that indoor temperatures in the Arena were always reasonable. Not only could the Arena hold 15,000 or more, it was located at the nexus of several freeways, it had great parking, and after 1972 it had direct public transport from the BART train. Any band that played the Arena could be certain that it was convenient for the entire Bay Area, from San Jose to San Francisco and beyond. 

Like all good ideas, however, successful rock concerts at the Oakland Coliseum Arena did not reach fruition immediately. The second rock concert held at the Arena was an unmitigated disaster that seems to have dissuaded promoters from holding rock concerts there for some time. This post will look at the booking of Eric Burdon and The Animals, The Association and several other groups at the Oakland Coliseum Arena on Saturday, March 25, 1967. If anyone has additional information, insights, corrections or useful speculation, please include them in the Comments. Flashbacks welcome.


The Oakland Coliseum Arena under construction on July 19, 1966

During the British Invasion of the early 1960s, rock concerts were frequent occurrences, but they were treated more like "personal appearances" than musical performances. Most concert bills had numerous acts that played very short sets, and the vocals were carried over the arena's public address system. When the Beatles played the Cow Palace or Candlestick Park, for example, their solitary amplifiers were all that was broadcasting the guitar sounds. Since all the girls screamed, it was all inaudible anyway. Smaller concerts were less cataclysmic, but often no better amplified. Bill Graham, Chet Helms and the Fillmore changed all that. 

When Bill Graham presented Jefferson Airplane at the Fillmore Auditorium on February 4 and 5, 1966, he initiated the modern rock concert as we know it. Graham had presented some benefit concerts already at the Fillmore, but he had also produced the Trips Festival at Longshoreman's Hall in late January. The Trips Festival, inspired by (and helped along by) LSD, was a multi-sensor immersion of sound and lights, not just music. Chet Helms, who had already produced Family Dog events with light shows, helped Graham with the production. When Jefferson Airplane played the Fillmore, it wasn't just a personal appearance, it was a presentation of art and culture, by and for the community. Rock concerts became something different that weekend. 

By early 1967, Graham was putting on shows at the Fillmore every weekend, and Chet Helms had split off and was producing competing shows at the nearby Avalon. New bands were exploding out of the San Francisco underground, and record companies were signing up every group they could find. The biggest regular rock venue in the Bay Area, however, was actually in suburban San Leandro, about 16 miles Southeast of Berkeley. Most of the week the Rollarena was a skating rink, but on many Friday nights it was a home for rock and roll. A Rollarena concert could hold 2000 patrons, and that was more than the 1500 Bill Graham could fit in the Fillmore, much less than 1200 or so Chet Helms could get at the Avalon. The Rollarena promoter was Bill Quarry, who had been putting on shows continuously since 1964 in smaller halls. Quarry had moved to the Rollarena on New Year's Eve 1965, and had booked many Friday nights since then.

Quarry's "Teens 'N' Twenties" (TNT) promotions mostly featured East Bay bands, whether he was booking the Rollarena or smaller places. The bands were fairly professional, for young rock and rollers, but they weren't hippies. Some of the local bands had even released singles, but they were mostly playing covers for kids to dance. San Leandro had a big cruising scene on East 14th Street, just like in American Graffiti. The Rollarena was at 15721 East 14th St, at the edge of the huge Bay Fair Shopping Center. Bay Fair had built in the late 1950s on the site of the old Oakland Speedway. TNT shows were all about High School, or young men who had a job at the Fremont Ford plant, not the underground college crowd in the Haight-Ashbury on Telegraph Avenue. 

Jefferson Airplane headlined the Rollarena in San Leandro for Bill Quarry on July 29, 1966. Jeff Beck and the Yardbirds were booked for the next month. Beck was sick, however, so bassist Jimmy Page took over the lead guitar duties. Fortunately, it worked out alright.

Still, Quarry often bought in touring headliners for his Rollarena shows. Some of them had even played the Fillmore. Jefferson Airplane had headlined the Rollarena once, and Them had headlined, too. Before that show, out behind the Rollarena, Van Morrison had met San Leandro native Janet (Planet) Rigsbee, his future wife and the world's Brown-Eyed Girl. Yet rock was getting even bigger. Bill Graham had started using the 5400-capacity Winterland ballroom for a few shows, and the Rollarena was only available one night a week. So Quarry swung big, and booked the Oakland Coliseum Arena. 


Eric Burdon And The Animals, 1967 Edition
The Animals had been on the harder edge of the British Invasion. Some groups like Herman's Hermits emphasized harmony singing, and seemed like nice boys a girl could bring home to their parents. The Animals, befitting their name, were supposed to scare those parents by enticing the innocent. The Animals had hits with "House Of The Rising Sun" and John Lee Hooker's "Boom Boom," all the way back in 1962. Lead singer Eric Burdon had a big voice and he could yell the blues. The Animals had hit after hit, including "We Gotta Get Out Of This Place" (1965) and "Don't Bring Me Down" (1966).

The Animals toured relentlessly, and Burdon was less and less happy with the pop machine that was the early 60s music industry. In August 1966, he had a break from an American tour and visited San Francisco. He went to the Fillmore and the Avalon and got to hang out with the local bands and hear them play in their native habitat. Burdon was an instant convert--perhaps after experiencing that rarest of events, a warm San Franciscan night. When he returned to England, he reconstituted the Animals into a psychedelic outfit. 

Eric Burdon and The (New) Animals, ca 1967 (L-R:Barry Jenkins, John Weider , Eric Burdon, Danny McCulloch, Vic Briggs)

The New Animals, as they were called,were a quintet that sounded kind of like Quicksilver Messenger Service with Burdon singing. They fit right in with the Fillmore scene. Interestingly, only Burdon had actually heard Quicksilver or any of the San Francisco bands, as none of those bands had recorded yet. His English compatriots were Vic Briggs and John Weider on dueling lead guitars, Danny McCulloch on bass, and Barry Jenkins on drums. Only Jenkins was a holdover from the prior Animals incarnation. Soon the band was just called Eric Burdon And The Animals, to distinguish them from their predecessor.

We have written in great detail about the adventures of the later, psychedelic Animals, so I will not recap them all here. Suffice to say, they found a sweet spot. They had fame and acclaim thanks to the Animals run of hits, but they were a terrific live band just when the fans started to expect that. The twin guitars extended their live songs just when that was expected of groups. Eric Burdon and The Animals was the first touring band with pop hits who were at home in a Fillmore environment. By the end of 1967, they would move to Los Angeles.

In early 1967, however, Eric Burdon And The Animals were doing their first American tour as a new band. They played colleges, typical "teen" gigs and some hip places. They had just recorded their new single "When I Was Young, " which would be a huge hit when it was released in April. In the meantime, MGM Records released the album Eric Is Here, which was a mix of singles and odd tracks that had not appeared on Animals albums. The "old" Animals had played Sacramento and Santa Rosa in August of 1966, and San Jose in July of 1966, but had not played San Francisco since 1965. There was plenty of interest in the Animals, so Bill Quarry took a chance on the newest, biggest arena in the region.

 

Oakland Coliseum Arena: Early Days Fall 1966>Winter 1967
The Oakland Coliseum Arena had opened for business in December 1966. The first attraction was a multi-week stand by The Ice Follies, a touring ice skating extravaganza. There was already a sports tenant, too, as the San Francisco Seals had moved over from the Cow Palace to become the California Seals, playing their home games at the Arena in the 1967 part of the season. The Seals were still in the Western Hockey League in the 1966/67 season, but they would become an NHL expansion team the next year (long-time residents will recall that Charlie Finley bought the team and re-named them the California Golden Seals, but the franchise became the Cleveland Barons after 1976). There was also a multi-day track meet and a boxing match, so the Arena was steadily booked with sports.

The first musical event that I can find at the Oakland Coliseum Arena seems to be "An Evening With Henry Mancini." Mancini, a famous composer of film scores such as "The Pink Panther," would conduct the Oakland Symphony Orchestra on Wednesday, January 4. On February 11, there was a musical program featuring New Orleans jazz trumpeter Al Hirt. Although Al Hirt is not a popular name today, he appeared regularly on Television during the early '60s. I do not think that promoters of Mancini or Hirt expected either show to sell anywhere near the 15,000 to 18,000 seats that must have been available. Rather, they were scheduled with the idea that as many tickets could be sold as possible.

 

February 18, 1967 Oakland Coliseum Arena, Oakland, CA: Paul Revere & The Raiders/Roger Collins/The Mojo Men/Harper's Bizarre/The Turtles (Saturday)
The first rock concert at the Coliseum Arena was headlined by Paul Revere & The Raiders. The Raiders are largely forgotten now, but they were absolutely huge from 1965-67. Originally founded in Boise, ID, in 1958, by the early '60s they had adopted their name ostensibly because they were "fighting the British Invasion." They wore stylized British Army uniforms on stage. They were a good band, though. They emulated bands like the Animals and the Stones while adding an authentic American R&B feel. The group got massive promotion from Columbia Records, and they regularly appeared on network TV shows like ABC's Where The Action Is. Even if you've forgotten Paul Revere and The Raiders, you might likely recognize songs like "Kicks" or "Hungry" if you heard them, if only from retro soundtracks and TV commercials.

Paul Revere & The Raiders were a huge concert attraction, because they had good songs and they could really play. Of course, they wore corny costumes and did dance steps when they played--a lot harder to do than it sounds--which ultimately worked against them in the Fillmore era. The other groups on the bill were actually pretty good, too. The Turtles are treated like a kind of joke now, since lead singers Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan (aka Flo & Eddie) make fun of everything, but actually they were an excellent folk-rock band. Roger Collins was a pretty good Oakland soul singer and the Mojo Men were a Bay Area band with a pretty good cover of Buffalo Springfield's "Sit Down I Think I Love You." Harper's Bizarre, while a corny vocal group who scored a hit with a cover of Paul Simon's "59th Street Bridge Song" ("Feelin' Groovy") on Warner Brothers were certainly the most successful band ever to come from Santa Cruz. 

Rock concerts were just personal appearances, however, unless they were at the Fillmore. I don't know who promoted the Paul Revere show at the Coliseum Arena, nor do I know what happened. After the event, there wasn't a review or a comment or anything about it in the local dailies or the college papers. The event was simply a large-scale version of a sitcom teen heartthrob appearing at the local shopping center, disappearing without a trace.

March 25, 1967 Oakland Coliseum Arena, Oakland, CA: Eric Burdon & The Animals/The Association/Bola Sete Trio/Harbinger Complex/Baytovens/Sly And The Family Stone (Saturday) Bill Quarry's Teens N Twenties Presents
There were six acts booked at the Coliseum. At the Fillmore or Avalon, they typically booked just three acts, and everyone did two sets. On this very evening, Bill Graham had booked Moby Grape and The Chambers Brothers at Winterland, instead of at the Fillmore, along with The Charlatans. If you stayed for all six sets, you'd get to see the great Moby Grape get relatively deep into their songs, or you could just catch a set by each band and leave. Rightly or wrongly, the Coliseum booking was designed to make you sit through every act. 

At this great remove, the most fascinating detail is that Sly And The Family Stone were sixth on the bill. In fact, as Phil Elwood noted in his Examiner review (below), they did not appear. Whether this was due to a change in plans or anything else is lost to history. It is a plus for Bill Quarry that he had them on the bill at all, even if they did not play. At this time, Sly and The Family Stone were an underground sensation in the Peninsula. Starting in December 1966, they had been playing weekend "Breakfast Shows" from 2-6am at a place called Winchester Cathedral, at 3033 El Camino Real in Redwood City (at Selby Lane, near 5th Avenue). All the local musicians would come over after their gigs were over. Officially, no liquor was sold, although I'll bet plenty was consumed. All the hip players were totally knocked out by Sly's groundbreaking intersection of rock and soul. Quarry must have heard about it, but apparently something fell through and Sly did not play.


SF Examiner March 27, 1967

Jazz and Pop critic Phil Elwood of the San Francisco Examiner reviewed the Coliseum concert on Monday (March 27, above). In his own polite way, Elwood was absolutely scathing. The first part of the review praises the Motown revue at the Oakland Auditorium on Friday (March 24), highlighted by The Temptations and Martha and The Vandellas. That sets the table, however, for Elwood's grim takedown of the Coliseum show:

In the new Coliseum glass cage Arena, almost everything went wrong: too many acts, poor pacing, wretched sound and inept staging. Dullsville.

But Saturday, with only 4,000 of the 18,000 seats filled in the new Arema the Animals shows started erratically and collapsed before the stars appeared at 11 p.m., even though one announced act was completely scratched.

NEAT FIRST
Bola Sete's Brazilian jazz-bossa-nova trio played a neat first set, but the teen-age Top 30 crowd, although remarkably respectful, could get little intimacy with Bola's guitar projected from a ceiling-high honeycomb speakers and a couple of stage speaker sets.

It was an unstated assumption by the promoter that fans of Eric Burdon and The Animals would enjoy the understated elegance of Bola Sete's jazz guitar trio. Now, Eric Burdon and his band probably enjoyed it, but as Elwood makes clear, it was a complete misfire for the audience. Any of those who might have been persuaded by Bola Sete in a small setting could hardly have been impressed with hearing him in a huge basketball arena. Elwood continued:

The Association followed Sete and as always has been my experience with them, performed a good solid half hour. No one would call them hard rock or avant garden, but they put on a neat show, sing well, pace their set and are entertaining. 

The Association, while largely forgotten today, were huge at this time. They had headlined at UC Berkeley's 8500-seat Greek Theatre back in October of 1966, leaning on their #2 single "Along Comes Mary" and their #1 smash "Cherish." While their most iconic hit, "Windy" would not be released until May of 1967, they were a huge pop group. Unlike some hit bands, they could play and sing really well live. They did wear matching outfits, and did some steps while they performed. The Association would be among the headliners at the Monterey Pop Festival in June of '67, but they would be forgotten next to Janis, Otis and Jimi. Elwood:

At this point in the evening, when a short bit by another group plus an intermission would have set up a climactic hour with the Animals, the producers dragged out first the Baytovens and then the Harbinger Complex. Neither bunch can really hold up 30 minutes in concert, and the crowd gradually realized that when the Association left, so did their stage sound equipment, which Bola Sete had shared.
So for almost the last two hours, all instrumental sounds blared from the amplified instruments on stage, and the voices squeaked down from the overhead speakers in the rafters. Cacophony defined. 

Bill Quarry was an experienced promoter, but he seems to have made a beginner's mistake here. The amps for the local garage bands might have been okay at a smaller place, but for the cavernous Coliseum? The "overhead speakers" Elwood refers to would have just been the Public Address system for announcing hockey substitutions, not exactly designed for hi-fidelity.

DISTRACTION
The Baytovens plodded along imitatively, with a good version of "Waiting For You" thrown in, and the Harbinger Complex (coincidentally managed by the show's producer) turned everybody off. Kids chased each other around the empty seats, and dozens of girls combed their hair, smoked, chewed gum, sent their dates out for Cokes and compared wallets.

The Baytovens covered a Kinks song. Now, it's a good song, but a fourth-on-the-bill band covering a two-year-old hit doesn't make for a memorable date night. Both the Baytovens and Harbinger Complex were sort of Stones-wannabes, typical of garage bands throughout America, but hardly memorable. And much less so with only their own Fender amps in a basketball arena. Elwood's remark about Quarry managing the Harbinger Complex is a sign of his distaste. Most promoters booked their own bands--Bill Graham effectively managed Jefferson Airplane, and he booked them all the time--but mentioning it was a reminder that they weren't chosen for merit.

For the fifth time during the night, a pair of Lum 'n' Abner type m.c.'s (apparently dis) wasted time on mike and asked "Are you ready for the Animals?..." and embarrassing scattered applause and a couple of iffy screams resulted. More imploring, louder cheers, and on came Eric Burton, who looked as if he'd like to brain a few people with the mike stand. 

"Lum 'n Abner" were a hick 40s radio comedy duo, a joke likely lost on any Examiner readers under 40. Still, while 4000 fans is a good crowd, it doesn't seem that way when capacity was over 15,000.

By this time, Burdon had to half kill himself to work up the crowd, and he did a brilliant job. His new Animals aren't as ferocious as their predecessor, but they're good: especially using a violin behind his vocal on "When I Was Young."

Burdon is a great blues shouter, obviously a big fan of the of the giants, from Ma Rainey to Joe Williams: "See See Rider" to "Every Day" (both of which he did Saturday). He struts, shouts; he'd break up the Fillmore or Avalon.

Elwood's comment that Eric Burdon would break up the Fillmore or Avalon was telling. The very next night (March 26), the Grateful Dead and Quicksilver Messenger Service were booked at the Avalon. The Animals came over and brought their guitars, and the Dead gave up the stage to them for a few songs. Animals guitarist Vic Briggs recalled the Avalon drop-in pretty clearly 40-some years later, but he had forgotten the Coliseum gig that preceded it. Probably better that he did

After the Animals, the next memorable rock concert at the Oakland Coliseum Arena was not until Friday, September 13, 1968. The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Vanilla Fudge, The Soft machine and Eire Apparent were presented by A/C Productions.

Aftermath

The Oakland Coliseum Arena was heavily booked for the next 27 years, until it was largely rebuilt as the Oracle Arena. The California Golden Seals had left in 1976, but the Golden State Warriors had arrived in 1971. While just about the entire Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame would play the Oakland Coliseum Arena in the next few decades, it took a while to get started.

After Bill Quarry's debacle of a concert with Eric Burdon, there wasn't a Fillmore-style rock concert at Oakland Coliseum Arena until the next year. The Righteous Brothers played on October 21, 1967, and The Young Rascals headlined a KYA Radio sponsored concert on April 9, 1968.  The electric door finally opened when the Jimi Hendrix Experience headlined the Arena on September 13, 1968. Eric Clapton and Cream then played the Oakland Coliseum Arena on October 4, 1968, during their Farewell Tour. No band was more of a live sensation than Cream, and--decades ahead of their time--they were also the first rock band to cash in on a Farewell tour.

In 1969, Creedence Clearwater Revival played on April 11, 1969, and then the Jimi Hendrix Experience would play the Coliseum Arena again (April 27), as did the monstrously popular Blood, Sweat & Tears (August 2), Blind Faith (August 16) and finally the Rolling Stones (November 9). By that time, there were advanced sound systems that made the audio a little more plausible. The sound probably wasn't anywhere near today's quality, but at least it wasn't being pumped through the sports arena system.

Bill Quarry was ultimately pushed aside by Bill Graham, as was every other rock promoter in the Bay Area. Eric Burdon and The Animals hit it big at Monterey Pop, and toured and recorded successfully for the next few years. Burdon had yet another big success when he discovered and introduced the band War. The Spring '67 concert at the Oakland Coliseum Arena was consigned to the room of bad memories, where it belonged.

For the next episode in the '67 Berkeley series (Berkeley and East Bay Concerts, January-March1967), see here. [forthcoming]

For the previous episode in the '67 Berkeley series (New Orleans House Performers List, January-March 1967)

For the Berkeley, Oakland and East Bay Rock History Navigation Tracker, see here

Chicken On A Unicycle

 

 

 

Friday 1 March 2024

1505 San Pablo Avenue, Berkeley, CA: New Orleans House Performers List January-March 1967 ('67 Berkeley I)

A Berkeley Barb ad for a benefit (for the Barb) at New Orleans House in Berkeley on January 20 & 21, 1967. On stage were Notes From Underground plus Blackburn and Snow

In early 1966 the live rock concert market exploded in San Francisco, thanks to Bill Graham at the Fillmore Auditorium and Chet Helms at the nearby Avalon Ballroom. The city of Berkeley, and the University of California there, provided a significant number of the fans for the San Francisco ballrooms. It was no surprise that Berkeley rapidly had a live rock scene of its own. Throughout 1966 there had been various efforts to establish live rock venues in Berkeley, largely unsuccessful. In January of 1967, however, Berkeley had its first nightclub primarily devoted to live rock bands playing original music. 

The New Orleans House, in North Berkeley at 1505 San Pablo Avenue, between Jones and Hopkins Streets, only held about 200 patrons. But it served beer and wine, there was a dance floor and sometimes even a light show. So it was kind of like a miniature Avalon, if the Avalon had offered beer and dinner. There weren't yet that many rock bands in Berkeley, but there weren't really many places to play either. As part of my survey of 1967 rock music in Berkeley, I am going to look at every performer at the New Orleans House during that year. This initial post will look at New Orleans House performers from January to March 1967. If anyone has additional information, corrections, insights or recovered memories, please include them in the Comments. Flashbacks encouraged. 

A December 1966 ad for New Orleans House, when it was still booking New Orleans-style jazz

New Orleans House Backstory: June-December 1966

During World War 2, the West Coast throbbed with industrial activity. The Port Of Oakland was the hub of shipbuilding, particularly "Liberty Ships," economical transport ships built on a simple model. Oakland and Richmond were building ships 24/7, and numerous workers relocated to help build them. Berkeley, Oakland and the rest of the East Bay were full of transplants, black and white, men and women, working three shifts with money in their pocket. The main East Bay thoroughfare was San Pablo Avenue, then also known as US Highway 40, running from Richmond to Oakland. There were so many bars and dance halls presenting music that US40 became known as Music Row. Live music clubs declined after WW2, with the departure of the shipbuilders. The music itself lived on, however.

1505 San Pablo Avenue is just one block from the triple intersection where San Pablo meets both Hopkins and Cedar Streets. It is in North Berkeley, but in local parlance it is in the "Gilman Street" neighborhood. The odd street geography stems from the direction of the Key Route Streetcar system at the beginning of the 20th century (the Key Route lasted until the late 1950s). Today, the North Berkeley BART station is only a half-mile from 1505 San Pablo, but in 1967 the BART system was still in the planning phase.

The New Orleans House had opened in June 1966. As you might have expected, the original plan was to present a club for traditional New Orleans-style jazz, which still had some adherents in San Francisco. The jazz presentations flopped almost immediately. There was room in North Berkeley for a rock club, however, and by the end of ‘66 the New Orleans House was presenting local rock bands. There was a folk club in Berkeley, the Jabberwock, which hosted some rock bands, and shows at various veterans halls and college facilities, too. But all these were "Southside" in Berkeley (the South side of campus), and in a town where most people walked, hitchhiked or took the bus, Northside was a long ways away. So shows at the New Orleans House had a built-in clientele.

The Second Coming, the first rock band to play New Orleans House, played Tuesdays through Thursdays in December 1966 (the ad is from the December 9, 1966 Barb)

1505 San Pablo Avenue, Berkeley, CA: New Orleans House Performers List January-March 1967

By mid-'67, there would be bands from everywhere flocking to the Bay Area looking for gigs. Some of them were even good. They needed a place to start out. The only other rock club was The Matrix in San Francisco, where local bands and even some touring bands gigged regularly. The goal was to get enough attention to get booked at the Fillmore or Avalon, because anything could happen after that. 

By mid-January, rock bands were the main feature of New Orleans House. Only the name was retained from its previous incarnation, now detached from any jazz context. I'm not sure who the original operators of New Orleans House were, but the rock club was managed by Katharine "Kitty" Griffin. Griffin taught disabled children in the Contra Costa school district by day, and ran the club at night. She took over in early 1967. Previously, she had run a restaurant on College Avenue, over on Southside. 

1505 San Pablo Avenue in Berkeley, the site of New Orleans House, as it appeared in 2009. I know of no photos of the exterior, interior or stage of the club while it was open.

The first rock booking at New Orleans House seems to have been the band Second Coming, who played Tuesdays through Thursdays in December of 1966. Second Coming were one of the first underground rock bands (not counting High School bands) in Berkeley, following Country Joe & The Fish. The band was led by guitarist Vic Smith and organist Mike Lafferty. Also in the band at this time were guitarist David Lieberman, drummer Paul Tillman-Smith and bassist Lonnie Turner. Vic Smith would go on to lead the Berkeley bands Sky Blue, and Grootna. The Oakland-born Tillman-Smith would move to New York in 1967, playing with many jazz musicians and finding success as a producer. Lonnie Turner would join the Steve Miller Band in early 1967, and ultimately co-wrote Miller's massive hit single "Jungle Love" (with Greg Douglass).

Some years ago we looked at the performers at the New Orleans House from 1967 through 1969. It was a pretty thorough review based on what information was available. We have considerably more information now, so it's time to revisit the subject. Like baseball's minor league, or soccer's lower division, a lot of journeymen passed through, but they were mixed with some talent and even some stars.  The New Orleans House was pretty much Berkeley's only rock club for a few years, Northside or not, so it did alright. But rock was exploding, and things weren't going to stay that simple. 


January 11-12, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Notes From Underground (Wednesday-Thursday)
January 18-19-12, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Notes From Underground
(Wednesday-Thursday)
The next regular rock booking at New Orleans House was Notes From Underground, who played there often throughout early 1967. The band played some weeknights and then a weekend (January 20-21).  I assume the house jazz band played the weekend shows in between. Notes From Underground were a Berkeley group whose sound fell between Country Joe & The Fish and The Loving Spoonful.  They featured Southern California high school friends Fred Sokolow and Mark Mandell on guitars and vocals, as well as an electric pianist (Jim Work) and a rhythm section (Mike O’Connor-bass and Peter Ostwald-drums). Ultimately they would release an album on Vanguard in 1968. The band was named for a Dostoievski novel, a reference that all of Berkeley would have recognized.

On Saturday, January 14, the Human Be-In was held at the Polo Grounds in San Francisco. 20,000 hippies discovered there were 20,000 hippies in the Bay Area. Bands played, people danced, amongst--as Paul Kantner put it--"acid, incense and balloons." The Be-In was designed as a merger of the Berkeley political scene and the San Francisco music scene, and it worked. Even in Berkeley, however, the musical, stoned part of the scene started to take precedence over the political one.

An ad for the Berkeley Barb benefits at New Orleans House on January 20-21, 1967. The design and title "MINITRIPTIC" is a reference to an American Automobile Association (AAA) travel service aid called a "Trip Tic," a customized map of your journey. Trip Tics were essential for long distance travel in the pre-Mapquest era of the 20th century,

January 20-21, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Notes From Underground/Blackburn and Snow
(Friday-Saturday) Berkeley Barb Benefit
The Berkeley Barb had begun publication in 1965, and it was one of the first underground press outlets. It was sold on the streets for a dime, or available at record stores and the like. It was a critical source of political and cultural information, and certainly a boon to rock prosopography. The final page of the weekly Barb, called Scenedrome, listed all the events in Berkeley and San Francisco: concerts, dance, protests, poetry readings, you name it. There was advertising, too, that was critical to the hip community. The Barb often struggled financially, however, so Notes From Underground played a weekend benefit for the paper at New Orleans House.

Also on the bill were Jeff Blackburn and Sherri Snow. Blackburn and Snow had been part of the San Jose State folk scene since around 1964. They had formed a duo, and had been recording for Frank Werber (manager of The Kingston Trio). They had released a well-regarded, if obscure, single (“Stranger In A Strange Land”) in 1966, but their excellent work on an album did not see the light of day until 1999 (on a Sundazed CD of their unreleased studio work). They mostly played as a duo, but they sometimes had casual pick up bands of Berkeley musicians.


January 27, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA El Teatro Campesino (Friday) Delano Grape Strike Benefit
El Teatro Campesino (literally “The Farmworkers Theater”) was a political theater group founded by former SF Mime Troupe member Luis Valdez (who among many projects later made the film “Zoot Suit”). The United Farmworkers (led by Cesar Chavez) were striking against California Grape Growers in Delano, CA, and it was a significant political issue in California. 

A January ad in the Barb promoted "Happy Hour" at the New Orleans House. Beer was 75 cents a pitcher from 8:00-9:30, between the dinner rush and the start of the music.

January 28, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA: Notes From Underground (Saturday)
Berkeley's Northside niehgborhood always considered itself separate from the undergraduate cauldron of Southside. All the famous riots on Telegraph Avenue and People's Park were Southside. Northside was more for graduate students and Assistant Professors, hip but sedate. The Westbrae neighborhood, just above Hopkins street, featured small houses and was even less of an overt university neighborhood than Northside. "Northside" in Berkeley parlance, generally implies the hilly section directly North of campus (near Euclid and Hearst). Down on Hopkins Street, it is usually referred to as North Berkeley but not Northside, although I am shorthanding somewhat.

Music at the New Orleans House began at 9:30, which seems late. But the start-time tells us that New Orleans House was also a local dinner stop and watering hole for the 'hood. Lots of people might stop in for a beer or a bite, separate to some extent from those watching the music. An ad in the Barb (above) promoted "Happy Hour" from 8:00-9:30pm, with beer offered at 75 cents a pitcher. This implied that while dinner was over, since the music hadn't started, locals were encouraged to drop by. Due to its legacy as a streetcar neighborhood, Westbrae was a good Berkeley residence if you commuted to downtown San Francisco. Up until the 40s, the G-Westbrae shuttle connected to the H (Monterey Street) Transbay shuttle. In 1941, these streetcars were changed to buses, but AC Transit was still running them well into the '70s, so it was easy to get to the City from that part of Berkeley. A neighborhood full of City commuters was always going to be a little better off than others around it.




Country Joe & The Fish self-released EP. The band was still a six-piece in June 1966

January 29, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA: Country Joe & The Fish/The Loading Zone
(Sunday) Delano Grape Strike Benefit
Berkeley's leading rock band came over to New Orleans House to headline another benefit for the Delano Grape Strikers, along with Oakland's Loading Zone.  

Joe McDonald and Barry Melton had formed a folksinging duo in the Fall of 1965. They had given themselves a clever name when they recorded a protest song called "Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-To-Die Rag" that year. It had been privately released, a peculiar innovation. In February 1966, the pair had seen the Butterfield Blues Band at the Fillmore, and decided to "go electric." After some experiments, they started to play around Berkeley as an electric combo. They had recorded a three-song EP, and released that themselves, too. It was mostly for sale at the popular Moe's Books, or by mail. But they sold 15,000 copies. For many people, and not just in Berkeley, the Country Joe & The Fish EP was the first self-proclaimed psychedelic music they had ever heard. When Joe sang "Hey partner, won't you pass that reefer around," it was a call heard around the world.

Country Joe & The Fish had signed with Vanguard Records in late 1966, and they were recording their debut album in January. As part of their deal with Vanguard, the band had to agree to withdraw any copies of their EP and to stop selling it. Still, the band had already played the Fillmore a number of times, and had been booked at the Avalon on New Year's Eve. Besides Joe and Barry on lead vocals, Barry on lead guitar and harmonica from Joe, David Cohen played organ and guitar, Bruce Barthol played bass and Gary "Chicken" Hirsch played drums. When Vanguard had signed the band, the producer took exception to original drummer John Francis Gunning's refusal to rehearse, and had forced him out of the band. 

Country Joe & The Fish were Berkeley's first, best and most archetypal 60s band, not least because political activism was at the absolute center of their being. If the Delano Grape Strikers needed support, Country Joe & The Fish were on board.

The Loading Zone, near 14th Street in Oakland in 1967

The Loading Zone was based on a house on West 7th Street in Oakland. Although intimately connected with the psychedelic ballroom scene, their sound was much closer to soul music. Yet they never managed to ride the wave of popularity that other groups did.  The Zone had grown out of a Berkeley group called The Marbles, who as a result of being managed by original Family Dog member Luria Castell, had played the very first Family Dog Dance at Longshoreman’s Hall (on October 1June 65).

The Marbles had disintegrated in late 1965, and guitarists Pete Shapiro and Steve Dowler had joined forces with organist and vocalist Paul Fauerso, whose jazz trio had just broken up.  Along with bassist Bob Kridle and drummer George Newcom, The Loading Zone played not only the burgeoning underground psychedelic scene but also soul clubs throughout the East Bay.

January 31, February 1-3, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Notes From Underground (Tuesday-Friday)
Notes From Underground were booked for the entire week. According to the Scenedrome listing in the Barb, Tuesday was "Ladies Night: Men $1, Girls Free." This sort of pricing was common at nightclubs at the time, particularly on weeknights. 

February 4, 1967 New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA: Mardi Gras Party with Notes From Underground (Saturday)
Today it is common for local bars all the country to have a Mardi Gras special, but in 1967 it was pretty rare outside of New Orleans. But Berkeley, for all we like to make fun of it--I never tire of making fun of it--had a much broader cultural universe long before other places. Berkeley knew what Mardi Gras was, at least enough to know it was a good excuse to celebrate. 

As a result of substantial migration in the 1940s to provide workers for the shipyards in the Bay Area during World War 2 (primarily in Oakland, Richmond, San Francisco and Vallejo) every area of the South and Southwest was represented in the region by many immigrants.  As a result, every imaginable style of blues, country and other forms of music (including Zydeco, Texas Swing and just about anything else) was well represented in the East Bay. Thus any celebrations that went with the music was established, too. I'm sure the Northside locals just showed up to dance and drink beer to Notes From Underground, but at least they knew it was a celebration. 

During February, 1967, Jefferson Airplane release Surrealistic Pillow, and “Somebody To Love” immediately climbed the charts. “White Rabbit” would hit in the summer.  The rest of the United States, and indeed the world, started to become aware of the San Francisco rock scene.

February 7, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA:  Motor (Tuesday)
Motor was a local group who played every Tuesday at New Orleans House for months, and occasionally other nights. Guitarist Bob Zuckerman explained the story to me (personal email):  

My old band Motor was formed in 1966 by myself on guitar and my friend Stu Feldman on bass.  Our original lead singer was Paul Wright, drummer was Ralph (can’t remember his last name right now) and Greg Turman on lead guitar.  Paul left the group, and we reverted to a 4 piece.  We wrote almost all of our own material, which was heavily sarcastic/humorous/political, as well as a few rock standards, blues, etc.  We  performed every Sunday for about two years at the so called Provo Park along with the Loading Zone, and many other groups.  Stu was the guy who did the bookings (bands, times, dates).  We played at all of the stop the draft week rallies, people’s park rallies, as well as local clubs.  The New Orleans House was one of our regulars. 

February 8-11, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA: Notes From Underground (Wednesday-Saturday)
From what information I can uncover, mainly from a 1971 Examiner article, this seems to be the weekend that Kitty Griffin officially took over New Orleans House. Saturday (February 11) was billed as a "Love Feast," presumably in honor of Valentine's Day.

The next week's ad in the Barb (below) included some details about the club, which suggests that it was then officially under new management.  The handwritten text said "Homespun Dinners 5-9pm, A la Carte Service 9pm-1am, Electric Dancing Tues thru Sat 9pm-2am, BEER + WINE. $1.50 couple, $1 single. Underneath, typeset letters say "*formerly Kitty's Restaurant, College Avenue, Berkeley." Since College Avenue was nowhere near San Pablo, I take that to have been a shout-out to Kitty Griffin's customers at her former business.

A Barb ad for the Steve Miller Blues Band at New Orleans House on February 17, 1967.

February 17, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA: Steve Miller Blues Band (Friday)
Friday night featured the Steve Miller Blues Band. Miller lived just off of College Avenue in Berkeley, and he had just formed his band in late November when he had arrived in town. By February, he had already played the Matrix and had opened at the Avalon.

Miller, a guitarist from Madison, Wisconsin, had been a successful musician in Texas and Chicago.  In Texas he had a band with one Boz Scaggs, and in Chicago he had a band with pianist Barry Goldberg, and had played with blues guitarist Buddy Guy. Guy advised Miller to name bands after himself. In late 1965 he had visited San Francisco and Berkeley, and hung out at the Jabberwock. He had found the scene fun but unprofessional, and figured a good blues band would do well. 

Miller moved to the Bay Area in October, jamming with his friends in the Butterfield Blues Band at the Fillmore on his first night in town. Initially living in his VW Microbus, he was joined by some friends from Madison to form the first Steve Miller Band. They had rehearsed in the basement of the still-under-construction Wurster Hall on campus (the Architecture building) over Thanksgiving 1966, and he quickly had a band that knew 25 tunes "in tune and tight," in Miller's own words. They started gigging in December, and had soon been invited to open for the Grateful Dead at the Avalon (December 23 &24).

The Steve Miller Blues Band at the New Orleans House was led by Miller on lead guitar, harmonica and lead vocals. James "Curley" Cooke also played guitar, Tim Davis played drums and sang, all from Madison. On bass was Californian Lonnie Turner, who Miller had met at the Jabberwock. Turner had left the Second Coming to join Miller.

February 18, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Motor (Saturday)

February 21, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA: Motor (Tuesday)

February 22-23, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA: Notes From Underground (Wednesday-Thursday)

February 24-25, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA: The Only Alternative and His Other Possibilities (Friday-Saturday)
The intriguingly named Only Alternative And His Other Possibilities are familiar from many flyers at places like The Matrix in 1966 and '67. I don't actually know who was in the band, nor what they sounded like. Sometimes they performed with singer Mimi Farina, who was Joan Baez's sister. Since Farina was sort of well-known, she was usually advertised on flyers if she was going to play. Sometimes they used another female singer instead (Sunshine MacNichol), but I think she only appeared intermittently as well.

The Barb listing mentions "Lights provided by The Stella Birdhikers." Light show providers at the time saw themselves as artists, not just technicians.  In 1967 mentioning the light show by name was also an indication that it was a Fillmore-style environment, with loud music, no seats and dancing.

February 28, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA: Motor (Tuesday)

March 3-4, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA: The Only Alternative and His Other Possibilities
(Friday-Saturday)

March 10-11, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA: Notes From Underground
(Friday-Saturday)

March 14, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA: Motor (Tuesday)

March 15-16, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA: Notes From Underground
(Wednesday-Thursday)

Ulysses Crockett's 1968 45 "Funky Resurgence" (on Transverse Records) probably gives a fair idea of his sound. Crockett later was a lawyer in the Alameda County prosecutor's office.

March 17-19, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Ulysses S. Crockett and The Afro Blues Persuasion (Friday-Sunday)
Ulysses S. Crockett and The Afro Blues Persuasion were regular performers at local soul and blues clubs, particularly the Haight Level Lounge (on Haight and Ashbury) in San Francisco. Crockett was a vibraphone (vibes) player who would release two 1968 singles (“Funky Resurgence”, ’Tamura’s Theme” and “Sunshine Superman”) on the Transverse label, and they were recorded in a “soul-jazz” style. The combo probably featured Crockett on vibes and flute, John Richard Miller on piano, Bing Nathan on bass, Clark Miller on drums and Butch Haynes on congas.

In the subsequent decades Ulysses Crockett appears to have gone on to a distinguished career as a Law Professor. In this century, a limited edition LP of Ulysses Crockett playing at the Haight Level Lounge was released.

The Barb ad notes that while the Friday and Saturday shows will be from 9:30-1:30am, fairly typical hours, the Sunday night show (March 19) will be from 7pm-midnight, and have no light show. In later years, Sunday evening modern jazz bookings were a regular event at the New Orleans House, and this seems to have been the first hint of it. 

March 21, 1967 New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA: Motor (Tuesday)

The Steve Miller Blues Band, early '67. (L-R Curley Cooke, Miller, Tim Davis, Lonnie Turner). [photog unknown, from the Berkeley Folk Music Festival]

March 24-26, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Steve Miller Blues Band (Friday-Sunday)

March 28, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA: Motor (Tuesday)

March 29-30, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Notes From Underground (Wednesday-Thursday)

Berkeley Barb ad, March 31, 1967


March 31-April 1, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA: New Delhi River Band
(Friday-Saturday)
The New Delhi River Band was based in Palo Alto, and they were a very popular band on the South Bay underground psychedelic scene, such as it was. The group was more or less the house band at the Scotts Valley venue The Barn (just East of Santa Cruz), and regularly played gigs throughout Santa Clara County. They never managed to extend their fan base much beyond those counties, however. The New Delhi River Band played Chicago blues, more or less, in the style of the Butterfield Blues Band or John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers. They were one of the first white blues bands in the South Bay, and the second psychedelic blues band from Palo Alto.

The band featured two former members of the South Bay band Bethlehem Exit (singer John Tomasi and guitarist Peter Schultbach), along with David Nelson, former bluegrass partner of Jerry Garcia, playing guitar in his first electric band. Nelson and NDRB bassist Dave Torbert went on to be in the New Riders of The Purple Sage, and Torbert and drummer Chris Herold were subsequently in the 70s band Kingfish.

The New Delhi River Band had a following in Santa Cruz and Santa Clara County, but they were trying to expand their footprint. In early 1967, they started playing gigs in Berkeley, playing for free in "Provo Park" (actually Constitution Park) in downtown Berkeley. They also played a show on campus with the Loading Zone at Pauley Ballroom. Their weekend appearance at New Orleans House was in hopes that they had established enough recognition to draw fans on their own.

The New Delhi River Band usually played with their own light show, an outfit called Magic Theater. The NDRB mostly lived in one house (on Channing Avenue in Palo Alto) and the Magic Theater lived a few doors away. At New Orleans House, however, the Barb reported that lights would be done by Scum Of The The Earth, who appeared to have been a local company.

Aftermath
In May 1967, Country Joe & The Fish would release Electric Music For The Mind and Body. Joe's reefer was passed around the world. Live rock music continued to thrive, not only in San Francisco and Berkeley, but everywhere. New Orleans House continued to thrive as well. 

For the next post in the '67 Berkeley series (March 25, 1967 Oakland Coliseum Arena: Eric Burdon and The Animals), see here. [forthcoming]

For the Berkeley, Oakland and East Bay Rock History Navigation Tracker, see here

Chicken On A Unicycle

 

Friday 2 February 2024

Berkeley and East Bay Concerts, October-December 1966 ('66 Berkeley V)


Berkeley and East Bay Concerts, October-December 1966
At the beginning of 1966, concerts at the Fillmore Auditorium and Avalon Ballroom in San Francisco transformed live rock shows and the music business itself. Rock concerts went from mere personal appearances by entertainers popular with teenagers to full expressions of art, music and culture. The live rock concert business exploded. What we understand as a rock concert today can be traced directly to those early 1966 concerts at the Fillmore and Avalon.

The Fillmore and Avalon had concerts every weekend in 1966, but they weren't large venues. The Fillmore held about 1500, and the Avalon somewhat less. Yet the shows were generally crowded, even though few of the bands had made a record, much less scored a hit. It was a true underground rock scene, that rarest of birds in the rock sky. Not all of the fans came from just the Haight-Ashbury, either. Many came from the Peninsula, and many came from surrounding colleges and universities. No school could have had more Fillmore rock fans than the University of California at Berkeley, since the school was so large, and transbay access to the ballrooms was so easy. The Bay Bridge, following the path of the old Key System, took patrons straight from downtown Berkeley to downtown San Francisco, just a quick sprint away from the Fillmore district. 

With so many rock fans in the city of Berkeley, it's no surprise that even in 1966 there was a growing rock scene. The City and University were already centers of protest, long hair and rebellion, anyway--why not add some loud rock and roll to the mix? Yet live rock concerts had great difficulty taking hold in Berkeley, or anywhere nearby. But it wasn't for lack of trying. Some years ago--fourteen, actually--I began working up a list of concerts in Berkeley, Oakland and the rest of Alameda County. I published four parts, covering from September 1965 through September 1966 (see below for links). This post will continue the list, covering concerts in Berkeley and the East Bay from October through December 1966. Anyone with any recollections, corrections, insights or clever speculation should include them in the Comments. Flashbacks actively encouraged. 

Pauley Ballroom on the UC Berkeley campus, as it looked in 2010. The Ballroom was on the 2nd floor of the Student Union building, and could hold about 1000 patrons.

Berkeley Rock Scene, Status Report: October 1966

Berkeley was a prosperous college town with a huge State University. Up until the Beatles, however, Berkeley was the kind of place that casually turned up its nose at rock and roll, implying that it was "kid stuff" for unlettered teenagers. Berkeley had some folk clubs, and there was some jazz, and both went well with protest, which was practically a spectator sport. Some students followed the California Golden Bears football or basketball team, but that was considered kid stuff, too.

The biggest venue in town was the Berkeley Community Theater, a 3500 seat auditorium on Grove Street (now Martin Luther King Jr Blvd), at Allston. The Theater was the city auditorium, but it was also on the campus of Berkeley High School. Not only was it really too large for the rock market, but because it was on a campus, it often wasn't available on school nights. There were some venues on the UC Campus, like Harmon Gym or the new Pauley Ballroom, but they, too were restricted by the institution. In any case, neither UC Berkeley nor Berkeley High needed the money that came from booking shows, so it was tough for would-be promoters. 

The only sort-of rock club, The Questing Beast (at 2504 San Pablo Avenue, 2 miles West of campus), had closed in June 1966. A folk club, The Jabberwock, at 2901 Telegraph (at Russell, across from the Co-Op market), sometimes booked rock bands, but they were mostly folk musicians who had bought an amplifier. The best known of those were Country Joe and The Fish, made up of former Jabberwock folkies. Since we have covered the history of both those venues, and Joe and The Fish, in great detail elsewhere, this chronicle will focus on the somewhat-larger-but-not-very venues where concerts were booked. In the East Bay, there were plenty of rock fans. The struggle was finding a venue for the type of concerts that people wanted to see, like they did at the Fillmore or the Avalon. 



October 1, 1966 Greek Theatre, Berkeley, CA:  Jim Kweskin Jug Band/Jesse Fuller/Robin Goodfellow/Merritt Herring/Barry Olivier/Country Joe & The Fish/Dev Singh (Saturday) Fireside Folk Festival
One of the major events on the Berkeley music calendar was the Berkeley Folk Festival, held across a summer weekend in late June every year since 1958. There were smaller events in campus buildings, including workshops and lectures, usually an outdoor concert in "Faculty Glade" and then finally a Sunday afternoon concert with all the performers. The Sunday afternoon show was held at the Hearst Greek Theatre, a large outdoor venue at 2001 Gayley Road, just above the campus. Built in 1903 and modeled on the ancient Greek theater of Epidaurus, it held up to 8,500 people. Huge rows of stone seats extended upwards in a giant bowl. The University used it for graduation and high profile speeches. UC Berkeley, being UC Berkeley, explicitly spelled it English-style as "Theatre" rather than the Americanized "Theater."

A bonfire lights up the stage at Berkeley's Fireside Folk Festival, September 25, 1966

1966 was about the high water mark for the crossover between rock and folk. The 1966 Berkeley Folk Festival had been headlined by a group of former folkies calling themselves Jefferson Airplane. All the electric bands that were plugging in at the Fillmore and Avalon called themselves "folk-rock" bands. For another year or two, at least on the West Coast, folk and rock were still aligned. The Fireside Folk Festival was held on two Saturdays at the Greek Theatre. The first date was September 25, and the culmination was October 1. I don't know if there were smaller campus events in between, but I doubt it. The concerts were organized by Barry Olivier, who was the organizer of the Summer Berkeley Folk Festival. In the sandy bowl between the stage and the stone grandstand, a huge bonfire was built, apparently to simulate singing folk songs around the campfire. Deadheads who saw the band at the Greek many times--I saw 16, I think--can only imagine what that might have been like. 

The second weekend leaned more towards a rock orientation. The Jim Kweskin Jug Band were the headliners. The Kweskin band had more or less single-handedly re-introduced Jug Band music to the folk community with their 1963 debut album. It had a profound effect. On one hand, Jug Band music was truly part of the folk tradition, as authentic and revealing as bluegrass, string band or Appalachian ballads. On the other hand, Jug Band music was easy and fun to play, and didn't require great technical facility (like bluegrass) or powerful singing (like Appalachian music). In an era when even folk performers wore matching outfits and had stage "patter" between songs, the Kweskin band wore their street clothes, bantered with the audience and played what they felt like. 

When Jerry Garcia saw the Jim Kweskin Jug Band in Berkeley (at the Cabale on March 11, 1964) he saw the blueprint for the Grateful Dead, even if he didn't realize how loud he was eventually going to play. After the Greek, the Jim Kweskin Jug Band would be headlining the next weekend at the Avalon Ballroom (October 7-8), above Janis Joplin and Big Brother. The Kweskin Band went on to have a long, complicated, important history, but brace yourself if you google it.  In any case, one of the singers was a pretty teenager named Maria D'Amato, who would marry the other singer, Geoff Muldaur, and go on to legendary status herself.

The Berkeley Gazette ran a photo of Country Joe and The Fish to promote the October 1, 1966 Fireside Folk Festival at the Greek Theatre. The caption says "Country Joe, second from right, brings his group known as "the fish" to the Greek Theater." Joe McDonald is, in fact, in the middle. Second from right (in sunglasses) is actually Barry "The Fish" Melton. (L-R): John Francis Gunning (drums), David Cohen (organ), McDonald, Melton, Bruce Barthol (bass).
 

The Fireside Folk Festival also featured Country Joe & The Fish, and this was no small thing. Joe McDonald and Barry Melton had been young folkies and anti-war activists in Berkeley, and had invented their name to memorialize their duo. They had released an obscure "talking magazine" called Rag Baby that included a version of "Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-To-Die Rag" in 1965. It would become well-known a few years later when it was released on an album, and infamous when it was part of the Woodstock movie in 1970. Country Joe and The Fish were the first Berkeley folk ensemble to "go electric," which they did at The Questing Beast in March, 1966, soon after Joe and Barry had seen the Butterfield Blues Band at the Fillmore. A September 30 Berkeley Gazette preview of the Festival mentioned that the band was one of the "new style" folk-rock bands. 

In June 1966 Country Joe and The Fish recorded a three-song EP, which they had released themselves later that month. The group was way ahead of the industry, releasing their own record and selling it at the popular Moe's Books in Berkeley and other hip outlets. They sold 15,000 copies. When they signed with Vanguard later in the year, they re-recorded the songs, and Vanguard insisted they stop selling their own record. The EP was the first "psychedelic" record that many underground bohemians had ever heard, in places far from Berkeley. When "Bass Strings" started and Joe sang "Hey partner won't you pass that reefer around," he was calling out around the world.

By October, Country Joe and The Fish had already played at the Fillmore (August 27 and September 4), and were regulars at The Matrix, so they were the rising stars in the Berkeley folk-rock firmament. Another act on the bill were Jesse Fuller, a "one-man band" from Oakland who had written "San Francisco Bay Blues." He also wrote two songs later played by the Grateful Dead ("Beat It On Down The Line" and "Monkey And Engineer"). Also on board was pennywhistler Robin Goodfellow. Merritt Herring, Dev Singh and Barry Olivier were solo folk singers. Olivier also acted as MC for both Saturdays. 

The Fireside Folk Festival was a typical mid-sixties folk festival, folk music mixed with some forward looking folk-rock sounds. But the seeds of change were being sown. Northwestern University has a great archive for the Berkeley Folk Festival, based on Barry Olivier's archives,  and it has some great material about the Fireside Folk Festival. Some planning notes from Olivier are revealing. He includes a list of possible artists to contact, some of whom actually ended up playing the festival. Besides Country Joe and The Fish, however, it also includes guitarist Perry Lederman, a player who influenced Garcia--he was also Owsley's Berkeley "sales rep." The Berkeley bluegrass band Pine Valley Boys played the prior Saturday (September 25), and leader Butch Waller was famously was the first person to drop acid with Jerry. Also playing was guitarist Alice Stuart, already a former member of The Mothers Of Invention. Change was coming. 


October 8, 1966  Pauley Ballroom, Berkeley, CA: Quicksilver Messenger Service/The Only Alternative with Mimi Farina/Circus Maximus  (Saturday) “Total Experience”
In Fall '66, the Berkeley rock concert market could absorb about a concert a week. No one had a plan, but a weekly event was what the market could muster. Pauley Ballroom was a low-ceilinged room in the second floor of the Student Union, holding about 1000. It had been built as part of the new Student Union in 1965.  While Pauley well-situated, the room was designed for visiting lecturers, and the low ceilings ensured horrible sound for electric music. Student groups could rent the room, so bands and promoters teamed up with student groups to put on weekend shows.

The top act this weekend was Quicksilver Messenger Service, who had already made a name for themselves at the Fillmore and Avalon. Quicksilver had been formed with the idea of backing folksinger Dino Valenti, but he had been in prison for violating probation in late '65, so the band got together without him. As the flyer above shows, 1966 Quicksilver was a quintet, with guitarist Jim Murray. The rest of the band was the quartet that would become famous two years later, when their debut album was released by Capitol. Joining Murray on guitar were John Cipollina and Gary Duncan, with David Freiberg on bass and Greg Elmore on drums. Murray, Cipollina and Duncan sang, and Murray played harmonica, too. While 1966 QMS played similar material to the later, famous version, it had shorter songs and 3-part harmonies, and far less jamming. 

The Only Alternative, often billed as "The Only Alternative And Their Other Possibility," featured singer Mimi Farina. Farina was a local folk singer, famous for being Joan Baez's sister, but a fine singer herself. Farina didn't play every show with the Only Alternative, and sometimes they also played with a different female singer (Sunshine MacNichol). Circus Maximus was from Los Angeles, and featured an electric violinist. They were not the Greenwich Village band of the same name, who would release two albums on Vanguard in 1967 and '68 (and feature no less than pre-Outlaw Jerry Jeff Walker under a different name). 

Despite the obscurity of this event, we actually know a fair amount about it. Faren Miller (1950-2022) was a Berkeley teenager whose parents liked rock music. They took her to local concerts, and Faren thankfully wrote about the shows she saw in careful detail. Some time in the 1990s, Miller typed up the musical portions of her old diaries, and posted them on a Yahoo group, do the delight of rock prosopographers everywhere. So we have her detailed account of the Pauley show. Quicksilver’s set included “Dino’s Song”, “Susie Q”, “Runaway”, “Babe I’m Gonna Leave You” and  “Acapulco Gold and Silver.’  The bands played just one set each, as Pauley was a University venue and couldn't run late.  Circus Maximus were from LA, and featured a black, female lead singer and an electric violinist, but Miller roundly criticized them.

October 14, 1966 Finnish Brotherhood Hall, Berkeley, CA: Second Coming (Friday)
The struggle for Berkeley rock concerts was to find a regular venue. The Finnish Brotherhood Hall , built in 1932, was near Downtown on 1970 Chestnut Street, just off University Avenue. It was available for rent, and had already been used a few times for concerts. It was a nice little place, but it was just too small for the exploding rock concert industry.



Second Coming were one of the first underground rock bands (not counting High School bands) in Berkeley, following Country Joe & The Fish. The band was led by guitarist Vic Smith and organist Mike Lafferty. Also in the band at this time were guitarist David Lieberman, drummer Paul Tillman-Smith and bassist Lonnie Turner. Vic Smith would go on to lead the Berkeley bands Sky Blue, and Grootna. The Oakland-born Tillman-Smith would move to New York in 1967, playing with many jazz musicians and finding success as a producer. Lonnie Turner would join the Steve Miller Band in early 1967, and ultimately co-wrote Miller's massive hit single "Jungle Love" (with Greg Douglass).


October 15, 1966 Maple Hall, San Pablo, CA: The Group/Purple Earthquake/Just V/The Dimension (Saturday) Presented by Malcolm Williams, Jr
Events near the UC Campus were focused on college students, whether they were rock concerts, poetry readings or protests. Berkeley High School had a thriving rock scene of it's own, however, explored in astonishing detail by Alec Palao in the second issue of Cream Puff War. For the most parts, the High School bands performed in little "teen" venues that were directed at other High School students. Nonetheless, the High School rockers did put on some shows intentionally directed at more than just Berkeley High. Throughout 1966 and 1967, many shows were booked at tiny Maple Hall in the East Bay town of San Pablo.

San Pablo, CA is 10 miles and 20 minutes North of downtown Berkeley. It is a tiny city almost entirely surrounded by the much larger city of Richmond. In 1966, San Pablo would have had a population of about 18,000. Most Berkeley residents, much less college students, have no idea San Pablo even exists. Driving North on San Pablo Avenue--which Berkeley college students never did anyway--the little city of San Pablo just seems to be part of Richmond. Maple Hall was part of San Pablo's city hall complex. The original Maple Hall had burned down in 1946, but prior to that it had hosted many performers, as it was a significant venue for the "Music Row" that had entertained Richmond shipyard workers during WW2. Bob Wills and many others had played there. The address was probably 13381 San Pablo Avenue, although Maple Hall apparently faced Church Lane.

Maple Hall had been rebuilt by 1950, and returned to hosting music shows. The Berkeley High crowd discovered they could rent it, and started putting on shows there. College students didn't apparently attend Maple Hall shows, but the local Richmond residents did show up (in the Cream Puff War article, they are referred to as "greasers"). This October show was promoted by Malcolm Williams, who would go on to take over the Babylon club, at 2504 San Pablo, site of the Cabale. In May, 1971 Williams would re-open the venue as The Long Branch, which would play a big role in Berkeley rock in the early 1970s

Purple Earthquake guitarist Robbie Dunbar, at the Drop In Teen Center in the Berkeley Hills in 1966. Dunbar was a member of Earth Quake throughout the 60s and 70s. The photo is from Cream Puff War #2 (February '93).

Of the groups playing this night at Maple Hall, Purple Earthquake was the most notable. Then a Berkeley High quintet, Purple Earthquake would evolve into the band Earth Quake. Earth Quake would release two albums on A&M in the early 1970s, and later start their own record label. Beserkeley Records scored hits with Johnathan Richman and Greg Kihn. At this time, guitarist Robbie Dunbar and bassist Stan Miller were already in Purple Earthquake, and they would remain in the band throughout the entire 1970s.

A poster for the Teens 'N Twenties show at San Leandro's Rollarena featuring The Byrds on Saturday, October 21, 1966

October 21, 1966  Rollarena, San Leandro, CA:  The Byrds/Peter Wheat & The Breadmen/The Baytovens/Jack and The Rippers (Friday) TNT Presents
The biggest regular rock venue in the Bay Area was actually in suburban San Leandro, about 16 miles Southeast of Berkeley. Most of the week the Rollarena was a skating rink, but on many Friday nights it was a home for rock and roll. A Rollarena concert could hold 2000 patrons, and that was more than the 1500 Bill Graham could fit in the Fillmore, much less than 1200 or so Chet Helms could get at the Avalon. The Rollarena promoter was Bill Quarry, who had been putting on shows continuously since 1964 in smaller halls. Quarry had moved to the Rollarena on New Year's Eve 1965, and had booked many Friday nights since then.

Quarry's "Teens 'N' Twenties" (TNT) promotions mostly featured East Bay bands, whether he was booking the Rollarena or smaller places. The bands were fairly professional, for young rock and rollers, but they weren't hippies. Some of the local bands had even released singles, but they were mostly playing covers for kids to dance. San Leandro had a big cruising scene on East 14th Street, just like in American Graffiti. The Rollarena was at 15721 East 14th St, at the edge of the huge Bay Fair Shopping Center. Bay Fair had built in the late 1950s on the site of the old Oakland Speedway. TNT shows were all about High School, or young men who had a job at the Fremont Ford plant, not the underground college crowd on Telegraph Avenue. 

Still, Quarry often bought in touring headliners for his Rollarena shows. Some of them had even played the Fillmore. Jefferson Airplane had headlined once, and Them had headlined, too. Before that show, out behind the Rollarena, Van Morrison had met San Leandro native Janet (Planet) Rigsbee, his future wife and the world's Brown-Eyed Girl. This weekend's show was headlined by The Byrds. The Byrds had scored two number one singles in 1965 ("Mr. Tambourine Man" and "Turn, Turn, Turn"), and their big hit off their new album (5th Dimension) was "Eight Miles High." The original Byrds quintet was still intact, with David Crosby and Gene Clark. 

Interestingly, great as they were on record, The Byrds were a lousy live band. Their equipment was inadequate, they never rehearsed, and their headline sets were typically about half an hour. Their long-time road manager, Jimmi Seiter, said that in this era record companies and bands considered concerts to be like "personal appearances," not performances. Movie stars often appeared at shopping center openings and the like, smiling and shaking hands, but not really expected to perform. The Fillmore changed that equation for rock music--and for each Byrd as individual musicians.

As for the opening acts, Peter Wheat & The Breadmen were from Oakland, and the Baytovens were from San Leandro. Both had released singles that have been released on "Garage Rock" compilations. Jack And The Rippers were from Vallejo. All of these bands were aspiring to be the Rolling Stones, more or less. The Rollarena shows were held many Fridays through mid-'67. Eventually, the San Leandro kids wanted to go the Fillmore or larger places to see bands they were hearing on the radio, rather than dance to local groups, and Quarry ceased putting on shows there (for a list of Rollarena shows during this period, see below).


The October 18, 1966 Berkeley Gazette had a promotional photo of The Association

October 22, 1966 Greek Theatre, UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA: Association/Love (Saturday)
The Association headlined a concert at the Greek Theatre. The note in the Berkeley Gazette (above) called it a "Benefit" because all concerts in University facilities had to be not-or-profit, with the proceeds directed somewhere. Of course, the bands would have been paid, the promoter and stagehands would have been paid, and so on, so most of it was really not charitable, not like a benefit for People's Park protesters.

The Association were a six-man pop group from Southern California. They had smooth vocal harmonies supported by a modest rock beat. The band had released their debut album And Then...Along Comes The Association in July of 1966. It would reach #5 on Billboard, and went Gold. It's success was driven by two huge hit singles, "Along Comes Mary," released in March '66, which reached #2, and "Cherish," from August, which would reach #1. The Association had a reputation of being a good live band, playing their own instruments and hitting their notes when they sang, which many 60s pop groups could not manage. The band played a lot of college campuses, as they were the kind of band where you could take a nice girl out on a date. 

The Association would only get bigger, with their 1967 smash "Windy." They even played the Monterey Pop Festival, where absolutely nobody remembered them, amidst a weekend full of the likes of Janis Joplin, Otis Redding and Jimi Hendrix. In Fall '66, however, they were big enough to headline an 8500 seat venue on the Berkeley campus. 

Love's debut album on Elektra Records, released March 1966

Opening the show was the legendary Los Angeles underground band Love. Led by singer and guitarist Arthur Lee, Love was one of the first bands to arise from West Hollywood's Sunset Strip. Lee was a fashion icon in his way, influencing Hednrix's psychedelic look, and the band was a musical influence on The Byrds and others. Love's showstopper was a cover of "Hey Joe," although The Leaves, The Byrds and Hendrix actually recorded it before them. Love had released their debut album on Elektra in March 1966.

The original Love never performed outside of California, and they remain a fixation to collectors and music historians. Arthur Lee was notoriously unreliable, and could be brilliant, terrible or just not show up. At this time, newspapers did not take rock music seriously, so while the Berkeley Gazette ran a promotional photo (above). there was no mention of the show in any Oakland, Berkeley or San Francisco papers. I have no idea if the show was sold out, how Love went over, or if Arthur Lee even performed.


November 4, 1966 Pauley Ballroom, UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA: Country Joe & The Fish/Second Coming (Friday)
Country Joe and The Fish were Berkeley's leading home-grown rock band, so it's no surprise they were booked at Pauley Ballroom. Interestingly, in an interview in the legendary Mojo Navigator fanzine ( issue 11), Country Joe and The Fish suggested that while the students who worked dances at Pauley Ballroom were friendly enough, they darkly asserted that “the people who run the building are creeps.” While much of Berkeley proper was sympathetic to the progressive musical and political agenda of Country Joe & The Fish, plenty of people in positions of authority were suspicious of the long-haired hippies.

November 5, 1966 Hearst Gym, UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA: Country Joe and The Fish/Blackburn & Snow (Saturday) “Vietnam Day Committee Peace Rock”
UC Berkeley was Ground Zero for protesting American involvement in the Vietnam War. It was no small thing that Country Joe & The Fish were explicit, committed anti-war activists, regularly performing at protests and playing benefit concerts to support the cause. "Vietnam Day" was a national day of protest against the War, and the band was headlining a concert on campus. Hearst Gym was the smaller Women’s gym on Bancroft (near Bowditch). Ultimately, this show was moved to Pauley Ballroom (about 1000 yards West). 

(Jeff) Blackburn and (Sherrie) Snow, in a 1965 Trident Productions publicity photo

Jeff Blackburn and Sherrie Snow had met as San Jose State students, and had a sort of folk duo. In late 1965, they had been signed by Frank Werber, who had produced the Kingston Trio and the We Five. His Trident Records label released two singles by Blackburn & Snow. Sessions were completed for an album, but they broke up (musically and personally) before it was released. Ultimately the material was released on CD in 1999. Blackburn & Snow were regular performers in the East Bay and San Francisco in 1966. They usually performed with other musicians, including on occasion Carlos Santana on lead guitar.

November 11, 1966  Maple Hall, San Pablo, CA: The Justice League/The Group/The Fuzz/The Chosen Four (Friday)
On occasion, the rock shows at Maple Hall featured a headliner that wasn't a Berkeley High group. In this case the show featured the band Justice League, who were part of Frank Werber's Trident Productions stable. Trident's acts included the Sons Of Champlin and Blackburn & Snow, among others. Justice League featured guitarist Ron Cornelius. Cornelius was later in the band West. Ultimately he moved to Nashville, played on a Bob Dylan album, and had success as a session man and producer. 

The poster included the caption “The Biggest thing to hit Richmond since they caught Aunt Audrey Blowing Pot" (the city of Richmond was just North of the tiny town of San Pablo).


November 25, 1966  Maple Hall, San Pablo, CA: 13th Floor Elevators/The Group/Chosen For (Friday)
The 13th Floor Elevators were from Austin, TX. Being a long-haired marijuana-smoking dropout was an adventure in California or Greenwich Village, but it was genuinely dangerous in Texas. It's no surprise that the Elevators had a dangerous edge not found amongst their relaxed compatriots in San Francisco or Los Angeles. For a few months in late 1966, the 13th Floor Elevators moved to the Bay Area. My understanding, however, is that they lived in hilly, suburban San Bruno, rather than the Haight-Ashbury or Berkeley (they also brought along Curly Jim Stalarow, but that's another story). 

The Elevators had a modest radio hit with "You're Gonna Miss Me," so they played the more teenage gigs rather than the underground ones. They did not play the Fillmore and were blocked for some reason from playing the Avalon. Still, they played steadily around the Bay Area, including headlining this Maple Hall show. They returned to Texas shortly after this.

The old Maple Hall was torn down in 1974, and a few years later, the city of San Pablo replaced the old Maple Hall with a new one. The new one was only a block away from the old one, but has a new address.


December 2, 1966  Pauley Ballroom, UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA:  Grateful Dead/Country Joe & The Fish/Notes From Underground (Friday)  “Danse Macabre” Presented by Junior Class of The University of California
The Grateful Dead and Country Joe and The Fish were booked together at Pauley Ballroom. One note about this show was that the infamous Chesley Millikin, then working in Berkeley, attended the show and became friends with Rock Scully and the Dead. Millikin was one of the most influential "behind-the-scenes" guys in rock history, a tale I will tell elsewhere. After this show, both headliners grew far beyond the confines of the little campus ballroom.

Notes From Underground were not on the poster, but a band member recalls opening the show. It doesn't seem like something he would have mistaken for another event, so I'm confident of the memory.  They were local folkies who "went electric," like everyone else, and they released an album on Vanguard in 1968.

A flyer for a Blackburn & Snow concert at the Longfellow School in Berkeley, December 10 1966

December 10, 1966 Gym, Longfellow School, Berkeley, CA: Blackburn & Snow/Pat Kilroy and The New Age (Saturday) A BBC Benefit
The Longfellow school was at California and Ward, about a mile from the Jabberwock club. I do not now know the reference to "BBC," for whom the benefit was held. It seems fair to assume it wasn't the British Broadcasting Corporation. 

Both Blackburn & Snow and The New Age were popular performers at the Jabberwock (on Telegraph and Russell). The New Age was a trio that played ethereal, improvised acoustic psychedelic music. Pat Kilroy sang and played acoustic guitar, joined by Susan Graubard on flute and koto (a Japanese stringed instrument) and Jeffrey Stewart on congas. A guitar/koto-flute/congas trio may seem like "typical New Age music" to modern ears. It's important to remember, however, that no such genre existed at the time. I am able to make the case that Berkeley's New Age trio pretty much invented "New Age" music, even if in a somewhat unheralded way. 

Pat Kilroy had released a 1966 solo album on Elektra, Light Of Day. The New Age went on to record an album in 1967. It was shelved when Pat Kilroy died of Hodgkin's Lymphoma on Christmas 1967. A cd was ultimately released in 2007. 

Jeff Blackburn and Sherrie Snow broke up in 1967, musically and personally. Sherrie Snow was a founding member of Dan Hicks and The Hot Licks in 1969, but dropped out of music and moved out of the Bay Area for another decade. Jeff Blackburn was in various bands, including Moby Grape, and played in The Ducks with Neil Young. He co-wrote "My My, Hey Hey" with him. Jeff Blackburn died in 2023 at the age of 77.

Berkeley Concert Scene: Status Report, End of 1966
The rock concert industry was booming in San Francisco, and the East Bay was trying to keep up. Country Joe & The Fish was Berkeley's leading rock export. Concerts at UC Berkeley were a regular thing, but University venues were either too large or too small, and not always available. There were teenage rock shows, too, but college and high school tastes weren't the same yet. In 1967, there would be a more focused effort to have rock shows in Berkeley.

For the next post in this series  (Berkeley and East Bay Concerts, January-March 1967), see here [forthcoming]

Appendix: TNT Shows at the San Leandro Rollarena, October-December 1966
The Rollarena (at 15721 E. 14th St, near Bay Fair shopping center) held rock shows most Friday nights. There were rarely newspaper ads, so flyers were the only trace of them. We only have flyers for certain days, so it's impossible to know if there were shows at the Rollarena on the "missing" Fridays. See here for some surviving Rollarena flyers

October 7, 1966 Rollarena, San Leandro, CA: Psychadilic Circuit/The Weeds/San Andreas Fault Finders (Friday)

October 14, 1966 Rollarena, San Leandro, CA: Everly Brothers/The Generation (Friday)
The Generation was a San Mateo band featuring Lydia Pense on vocals. They evolved into Cold Blood.

October 21, 1966 Rollarena, San Leandro, CA:  The Byrds/Peter Wheat & The Breadman/Baytovens/Jack and The Rippers (Friday)

November 11, 1966 Rollarena, San Leandro, CA: Harbinger Complex/The Spyders (Friday)

November 18, 1966 Rollarena, San Leandro, CA: Beau Brummels (Friday)

December 9, 1966 Rollarena, San Leandro, CA:Music Machine/Hypnotist Collector (Friday)

Other Posts in the East Bay Concert Series

 Berkeley and East Bay Concerts, September-December 1965 (Berkeley I)

 Berkeley and East Bay Concerts, January-March 1966 (Berkeley II)

 Berkeley and East Bay Concerts, April-June 1966 (Berkeley III)

 Berkeley and East Bay Concerts, July-September 1966 (Berkeley IV)

Provo Park, Berkeley Concerts, 1967-69