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.
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| 1505 San Pablo Avenue in Berkeley, the site of New Orleans House, as it appeared in August 2009. I am not aware of any photos of the exterior or stage of New Orleans House from when it was a nightclub in the 1960s and '70s. |
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 looking at every performer at the New Orleans House during that year. My prior post reviewed New Orleans House performers from April to June 1967. This post will look at New Orleans House performers from July through September 1967. If anyone has additional information, corrections, photos, insights or recovered memories, please include them in the Comments. Flashbacks encouraged.
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| Berkeley Barb ad for New Orleans House, June 30, 1967 |
June 30-July 1, 1967 New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA: Loading Zone (Friday-Saturday)
The Loading Zone had been Oakland's first export to the Fillmore scene. The band had formed out of the ashes of a Berkeley band called The Marbles. In 1966, The Marbles had fallen apart, and they had merged with the remnants of the jazzy Tom Paul Trio. Guitarists Steve Dowler and Pete Shapiro shared the front line with organist and singer Paul Fauerso. Loading Zone was the first of the ballroom bands to merge psychedelic rock with R&B, with long feedback-drenched solos on top of a funky beat. Ballroom crowds loved it, and Loading Zone showed promoters and musicians that the sound would work. The Zone kicked open the door that was walked through by Sly And The Family Stone and then Tower Of Power. Their unheralded history is complex, but we have looked at it at great length.
The Loading Zone played numerous free concerts in Provo Park and Sproul Plaza, and then capitalized on it by playing gigs at Pauley Ballroom, New Orleans House and elsewhere. They were an excellent live band, and their psychedelic R&B was ahead of its time, so the strategy worked well. In any case, there wasn't really another method in Berkeley to build an audience, as they didn't have a record. At New Orleans House or UC's Pauley Ballroom, Loading Zone got to make paying customers out of the fans they had made at free concerts.
The Second Coming had been one of the first psychedelic rock bands in Berkeley, and in fact the first rock band to play New Orleans House, back in December 1966. Second Coming had returned to play a number of dates on through May and June of 1967. Vic Smith and David Lieberman were the guitarists, with Mike Friedman on keyboards. John Francis Gunning, formerly of Country Joe & The Fish, played drums and Marc Pessar played bass. Pessar had replaced original bassist Lonnie Turner, who had been recruited into the Steve Miller Blues Band. Second Coming played New Orleans House just about every Sunday and Monday night throughout the Summer.
New Orleans House was on San Pablo Avenue, near the Berkeley border and
the Alameda County line. It was North of campus--"Northside" in local
parlance--which was more sedate than the more raucous Southside, but also West of Campus, nearer to the Bay.
Telegraph Avenue, the riots and the undergraduates were all Southside.
The Gilman Street neighborhood where the club was located was accessible
both to campus and to San Francisco via Transbay buses. It was more
oriented towards assistant professors and graduate students, with no
riots.
Music generally began at New Orleans House at 9:30, even on weeknights, which seems late. But in fact the club served dinner from 5:00-9:00pm, and happy hour was from 8:00-9:00, where beer was just 75 cents a pitcher. So the club was also a restaurant and hangout for the neighborhood, separate from being an entertainment venue. Owner Kitty Griffin had run a restaurant on College Avenue (Kitty's) for a while, so she knew the Berkeley market. She also taught handicapped children during the day for the Contra Costa School district, and New Orleans House was her night gig.
For the Summer of '67, New Orleans House was mostly open six nights a week (usually closed Thursday). Tuesday and often Wednesday nights were often filled by local bands looking for an audience. High Mass is unknown to me.
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| Say Siegel Schwall, the band's second album, had been released on Vanguard in 1967 |
July 5, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Siegel-Schwall Band (Wednesday)
Siegel-Schwall were another of the "crossover" white blues bands coming out of Chicago on the heels of the Butterfield Blues Band. Corky Siegel played harmonica, and Jim Schwall played guitar, and the group expanded the Chicago blues repertoire to include a lot more improvisation than other groups at the time. They recorded for Vanguard. In 1967 they had released their second album, Say Siegel Schwall.
Siegel-Schwall was the first touring band from outside the Bay Area to play New Orleans House. The band was playing Tuesday (July 4) at the Avalon, and then Thursday through Sunday as well, opening for the Steve Miller Blues Band. On their off night, Siegel-Schwall was booked at New Orleans House. When the rock market matured within a year or two, bands regularly played weeknights at New Orleans House prior to opening at the Avalon or elsewhere, but this was the first time. Touring bands in the 60s were like sharks, as they had to keep moving to survive.
A unique feature of Berkeley rock clubs in the 1960s was how regularly they booked theater and dance troupes. Now, it was common for rock clubs everywhere to book a little jazz, folk and blues on off nights. There weren't always enough rock bands to go around, particularly in the '60s, and rock fans usually had some residual interest in other music, so it made sense to have other genres on weeknights. But theater and dance was something different entirely. Yet New Orleans House, along with Mandrake's and The Steppenwolf (both nearby, several blocks South on San Pablo Avenue) regularly booked theater and dance. These troupes were usually "progressive," and sometimes political, not just performing old musicals, but it wasn't rock nor even music.
In 1967, New Orleans House regularly booked a troupe called the Graham Leath dancers. The Graham Leath company was a collaboration between John Graham and A.A. Leath. I won't try and go into a dance rabbit hole, but Leath was apparently a unique and independent creative force, just like the rock bands carving out their own musical futures. A.A. Leath had been part of Anna Halprin's dance school, who had her own deep ties to the Haight-Ashbury arts community. His dance company partnership with John Graham seems to have been formally presented here as Graham Leath Productions. New Orleans House had booked the dance company regularly on Thursday nights throughout the Spring, but the club appeared to be dark on Thursdays after the next week.
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| Berkeley Barb ad for New Orleans House, July 7, 1967 |
July 7-8, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Anonymous Artists of America (Friday-Saturday)
The Anonymous Artists of America were a group linked to the Merry Pranksters and based in a commune in the La Honda Mountains. The AAA got together at Stanford (where most of them were students or employees), and their name was as an expression of the belief that every person is an artist. The band debuted publicly in the early hours of July 24, 1966, at a private party at the Fillmore that was a reception for reporter Lee Quarnstom's wedding, held after the Saturday night Quicksilver concert. The most notable member of AAA was Sara Ruppenthal Garcia, who was Jerry Garcia's wife. She had abandoned the Merry Pranksters, and Jerry, in mid-1966.
Sara Ruppenthal Garcia recalled, in a private email,( correcting an earlier entry in our New Orleans House chronicle):
"The AAA got together at Stanford (where most of us were students or employees), as an expression of our belief that every person is an artist. The makeup of the group was basically Lars Kampmann, a drama major; Norman Linke, who was in graduate school as an economist studying Chinese; Michael Katz, a PhD candidate in Psychology; Sara Ruppenthal Garcia, (Communications/film undergrad) separated from her husband Jerry and returned from helping put on the L.A. Acid Tests with the Pranksters; Manny Meyer, Trixie Merkin, Len and Toni Frazer, Annie Balaam (an art student), and Adrienne Berkun (a chemist). Some other folks came and went, but during my two+ eventful years with the group... Alas, we did not have a Boise Thunder Machine, but an idiosyncratic early Don Buchla electronic music generator, provided by our honorary uncle Richard Alpert (later Ram Dass).
Our music and presentation were psychedelic in the extreme. We lived first at Rancho Diablo, a hideaway off Skylilne Blvd. in La Honda built by one of the railroad barons. Later we moved to Potrero Hill in SF. For a while we had a killer young drummer from Texas known as Little Richard, whose last name I cannot recall. Michael Katz and I left in 1968 and the AAA moved to Colorado, where they played for several years."
The AAA were captured on film and video, and some snippets can be seen here.
July 7-8, 1967 The Jabberwock, Berkeley, CA: Doc Wastson (Friday-Saturday)
The Jabberwock, at 2901 Telegraph Avenue (at Russell, across from the Co-Op Market), had been Berkeley's leading folk club from 1965-67. From 1966 onwards, it had also regularly hosted rock bands, most famously Country Joe & The Fish. Members of the band had lived next door to the Jabberwock, and had played there regularly in numerous incarnations. The tiny 'Wock, capacity about 100, had simply become too small for a popular music venue. In any case, it was officially closed due to its inability to meet the public safety code, but it was already economically unviable.
The Jabberwock was over on the South side of campus, so it probably didn't affect attendance at New Orleans House, since it was Northside. But it affected the musicians, since rock bands now had only half as many places to get booked. The Steppenwolf coffee shop, not far away at 2136 San Pablo Avenue, booked rock bands occasionally but not that often.
July 9, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA John Fahey/Red Crayola (Sunday) afternoon
John Fahey was an acoustic guitar pioneer, founder of both Takoma Records and a whole style of music. Fahey had been a regular performer on the Berkeley folk scene for several years by this time, and was a significant influence on County Joe McDonald’s compositions.
The Red Crayola were from Texas, at a time when Freaks in Texas took their life into their hands merely by growing long hair. Red Crayola recorded for International Artists, who also produced the 13th Floor Elevaotrs. Fahey and the Crayola met at the 1967 Berkeley Folk Festival, which had ended July 4. At the Festival, Red Krayola had invited Fahey to join them on electric guitar (a rare and remarkable happening in itself), and they had played their infamous "ice block" piece. Apparently, a block of ice was suspended over a microphone, and the dripping ice provided the rhythm for increasingly frenzied jamming. According to legend, within 10 minutes, the Crayola were paid $10 if they would stop (I do not know if they stopped). Fahey apparently then invited them to play with him at New Orleans House. It's unknown what actually occurred, or if ice blocks were involved. The Red Crayola would later change the spelling to Red "Krayola," and remained legend.
The Fahey show initiated a series of Sunday afternoon events that endured for much of the history of New Orleans House. The club would have a folk or jazz show starting in late afternoon, and then a rock band starting after 10:00pm. This schedule allowed New Orleans House to build an audience for folk, and later jazz, that was separate from rock. North Berkeley did not have a jazz venue at all, so in a tiny way New Orleans House had a small, but captive market.
Also on July 9, across campus, The Jabberwock held a private wake for itself. In a telling detail, what had been Berkeley's premier folk club had rock bands at its last event. That pretty much summed up the history of West Coast folk music. Symbolically and actually the club’s closing represents a shift from folk to rock as the music of choice for ‘serious’ college students (and serious dropouts, of course).
July 9-10, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA The Second Coming (Sunday-Monday)
Second Coming played a late set Sunday, after Fahey, and then played again on Monday night.
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| "Hastings Street Opera" was recorded in the back of Joe's Records on Hastings Street in Detroit, ca. 1948. Shop owner Joe Van Battle recorded a "street poet" called The Detroit Count, with blues piano accompaniment |
July 11-12, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA The Hastings Street Opera (Tuesday-Wednesday)
Hastings Street Opera is unknown to me. The band name can be seen on a few Berkeley listings in the Barb during July '67. Hastings Street was at the center of the Detroit African-American business district. "Hastings Street Opera" was a famous record from the late 1940s. that was sort of a spoken word description of the scene, accompanied by blues piano. There were many bands from out of town in Berkeley and San Francisco during this summer, so possibly Hastings Street Opera was from elsewhere.July 13, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Graham Leath Productions (Thursday)
This is the last New Orleans House date advertised for Graham Leath Productions, or anything at all, on a Thursday night in the Summer of '67.
July 14, 1967 New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA: Congress of Wonders/Second Coming (Friday)
July 15-17, 1967 New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA: The Second Coming (Saturday-Tuesday)
Bands were pouring into the Bay Area throughout 1967, eager to get heard in the Summer Of Love. New Orleans House was the only Berkeley club that regularly booked original rock music, and there was only one similar venue. But San Francisco's Matrix, while hip, was even smaller than New Orleans House. So from the outside it seems odd that New Orleans House just booked the same bands over and over, and so few that were new to the area.
After the success of the Fillmore and Avalon, however, venues and promoters had sprung up all over. There were competing venues in San Francisco (the Western Front at 895 O'Farrell), new venues in places as far flung as Fremont and Lake Tahoe, and numerous concerts at rented venues like California Hall in the City. All of these concerts had three or four bands, so there were gigs to be had, even for new bands. Now, many of these gigs weren't successful, or the bands didn't get paid, but they were playing around. It would take a while for agents and bookers to recognize New Orleans House as a solid booking where a band could build an audience.
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| Congress Of Wonders' debut 1970 album Revolting, on Fantasy Records |
Second Coming played both the weekend gigs and their regular Sunday and Monday slots. They were probably pretty good live, but New Orleans House didn't seem to have many other options in early Summer. Friday headliners Congress Of Wonders were a comedy trio from Berkeley, initially from the UC Berkeley drama department and later part of Berkeley’s Open Theater on College Avenue, a prime spot for what were called “Happenings” (today ‘Performance Art’). The group performed at the Avalon and other rock venues.
Ultimately a duo, Karl Truckload (Howard Kerr) and Winslow Thrill (Richard Rollins) created two Congress of Wonders albums on Fantasy, Revolting (1970) and Sophomoric ('72). Their pieces “Pigeon Park” and “Star Trip”, although charmingly dated now, were staples of San Francisco underground radio at the time. Earl Pillow (Wesley Hind) was the original third member.
July 16, 1967 New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA: Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach (Sunday) 6:00pm
Similar to the Fahey show the previous Sunday, the Rabbi was listed from 6-10pm, and Second Coming played afterwards (an interesting evening for the religious minded). Berkeley musician Brian Voorheis recalled Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach:
“Rabbi Shlomo - YEAH! Unforgettable guy - he was a Hassidic rabbi who was all over the place leading his own kind of life-celebration thing which included dancing the Horah, etc. Can't recall if he had a Klezmer-type group with him or not - I think not, maybe he just played guitar. He did his thing up on UC campus a lot, in Sproul Plaza. Really got folks revved up, ‘cause he was revved up!”July 18-19, 1967 New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA: The New Salvation Army Banned (Tuesday-Wednesday)
The New Salvation Army Banned was formed in the Haight Ashbury in 1967, with Joe Tate on guitar and Artie Resnick on keyboards. They would go on to release two albums for ABC Records in 1968, although by that time they had changed their name to Salvation because of the record company’s fear of being sued by the actual Salvation Army.
It appears that New Orleans House was dark on Thursday nights for the balance of the Summer.
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| Berkeley Barb ad for New Orleans House, July 21, 1967 |
July 21-22, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Yajahla (Friday-Saturday)
Yajahla was a group formed by former members of The Chocolate Watch Band, mainly lead guitarist Mark Loomis. The Watch Band, while an excellent group and possibly the best group to come out of the South Bay in the 60s, had an extraordinarily tortured history, with members coming and going and recordings released without the band’s approval. For reasons too byzantine to explain, even for this blog, Yajahla is sometimes referred to as Yajahla Tingle Guild, but that is a mistake (there was an entirely different group called The Tingle Guild--don't get me started).
July 23-24, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA The Second Coming (Sunday-Monday)
July 25-26, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Strawberry Window (Tuesday-Wednesday)
The Strawberry Window were a four piece Oakland-based band with Jack Eskrich and Marc Rich on guitars, Steve Wilson on bass and Andy Kennedy on drums. Two tracks recorded at Golden State Recorders were released on the Big Beat CD What A Way To Come Down. The band later changed their name to Dandelion Wine.
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| Berkeley Barb ad for New Orleans House, July 28, 1967 |
July 28-29, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Mother Earth (Friday-Saturday)
There were various micro-communities within the Bay Area music scene that were formed by expatriates from other tiny, hip scenes in other parts of the country. One such micro-collective was the various Texas musicians who migrated to the Bay Area. Chet Helms and Janis Joplin are the most memorable of the Texas-San Fran crowd, and the 13th Floor Elevators were based in the Bay Area for a time in late 1966, too, but there were many others. Doug Sahm and The Sir Douglas Quintet escaped Sahm’s pot bust in mid-66 to become Bay Area transplants. Supposedly, so many Texans lived in one San Francisco neighborhood (near Connecticut Street on Potrero Hill) that it was called “Little Texas.”
Mother Earth had been formed by Texas musicians, along with a singer from Madison, WI, all of whom lived in the Bay Area, and they are rightly located as part of the Texas expatriates in San Francisco. Songwriter and sometime singer R.P. St. John had been in an early 60s group with Janis Joplin (The Waller Creek Boys), which accounts for Big Brother and The Holding Company recording one of his songs (“Bye Bye Baby”). He had gone on to a seminal Austin group called St. John And The Conqueroo. One of the members of that band (Tommy Hall) then left to form the 13th Floor Elevators, which is how the Elevators ended up recording another of St. John’s songs. When St. John left the group, they changed their name to The Conqueroo and continued on. The other members of Mother Earth (guitarist Toad Andrews, bassist Bob Arthur and drummer George Rains) were also Texans.
The primary lead singer, Tracy Nelson, was from Madison. While a teenager in college (at UW) she started singing in local bands, and ended up recording an album for Prestige in 1964 called Deep Are The Roots. She had tried various ways of making a living, but despite her distaste for having a high profile, music turned out to be the best way to earn. As well as being a fine keyboard player, Nelson had a soulful country and blues voice that belied her college-girl Midwestern roots. She had relocated to California in 1966 and ended up in the Bay Area by 1967 and helped form Mother Earth.
These shows were probably among Mother Earth’s earliest gigs in the Bay Area. The New Orleans House would later establish itself as a place where bands that were new to town could get a gig, which is very much in line with the Berkeley tendency to seek out the new and unknown.
July 30-31, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA The Second Coming (Sunday-Monday)
August 1, 1967 New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Mother Earth: (Tuesday)
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| A color flyer for the New Orleans House for the week of August 1, 1967 |
August 2, 1967 New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA: Steve Miller Blues Band/Mother Earth (Wednesday)
The Steve Miller Blues Band had played a few weekends at New Orleans House earlier in the year, but had now established themselves as regulars at the Fillmore and Avalon. Yet Miller gigged every night he could, so they still played weeknights at New Orleans House. Steve Miller was from Madison, WI, via Chicago and Texas, but at this time he lived off College Avenue in Berkeley. They played the blues, very well, but in a free-flowing, jazzy way.
When he had arrived in October '66, Miller had imported some musicians from Wisconsin--Tim Davis on drums and vocals and guitarist Curley Cooke. Since then, he had drafted Berkeley bassist Lonnie Turner, formerly of Second Coming, who had joined in February, and organist Jim Peterman, who had come out in June of '67. Cooke had gotten very ill, however, and had to return home to Wisconsin. Miller imported another old friend, William "Boz" Scaggs, a former bandmate from Texas. Scaggs had played in a band with Miller when they were both in prep school in Texas. In the meantime, Scaggs had become a folksinger in Sweden, and had even recorded an album there. Boz joined the Steve Miller Band in July of 1967. He would leave the group 18 months later, but Scaggs stayed in the Bay Area for the rest of his sterling career.
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| Berkeley Barb ad for New Orleans House, August 4., 1967 |
August 4, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Strawberry Window/Liquid Blues Band (Friday)
The Liquid Blues Band are unknown to me.
August 5, 1967 New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA: The Loading Zone/Yajahla (Saturday)
August 6, 1967 New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA: Benefit for Delano Workers (Sunday) 3-7pm
Cesar Chavez and his striking grape workers in Delano, CA were an important political cause in Berkeley. This event was listed in the Barb, but I don't know who performed.
August 6, 1967 New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA: Second Coming (Sunday)
August 7-8, 1967 New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA: Mother Earth/Second Coming (Monday-Tuesday)
August 9, 1967 New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA: Steve Miller Blues Band (Wednesday)
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| Berkeley Barb ad for New Orleans House, August 11, 1967 |
August 11, 1967 New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA: Congress of Wonders/Strawberry Window (Friday)
August 12, 1967 New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA: Congress of Wonders/Yajahla (Saturday)
August 13, 1967 New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA: The Proposals (Sunday) 5:30-9:30pm
The Proposals were a local ‘modern’ jazz group. These were Sunday afternoon shows (5:30-9:30).
New Orleans House kept up the pattern of a Sunday afternoon jazz show, followed by a nighttime set by Second Coming.
August 15-16, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA South Side Sound System (Tuesday-Wednesday)
The South Side Sound System featured Charlie Musselwhite on harmonica and vocals and Harvey Mandel on lead guitar. Both were white, and they led a racially mixed band from Chicago. Musselwhite had been born in Mississippi and moved to Memphis and ultimately Chicago. He was one of a small number of white musicians in Chicago (including Nick Gravenites, Paul Butterfield, Mike Bloomfield, Elvin Bishop and a few others) who stumbled onto the blues scene by themselves.
A club regular, Musselwhite eventually recorded an album for Vanguard in 1967 called Stand Back, which had started to receive airplay on San Francisco’s new underground FM station, KMPX-fm. Friendly with the Chicago crowd who had moved to San Francisco, his band was offered a month of work in San Francisco, so Musselwhite took a month’s leave from his day job and stayed for a couple of decades. Mandel, too, remained in the Bay Area throughout his career, joining first Canned Heat and then John Mayall, among many others.
Musselwhite was a known quantity in Chicago, so he hit San Francisco with a bang in August. First he opened for a week at the Fillmore from August 8-13, supporting Mike Bloomfield's Electric Flag. Two weeks later, Southside Sound System were supporting Cream and Butterfield Blues Band (Aug 22-27). These were Cream's debut shows in San Francisco, and they changed Cream's career and indeed all of rock music. The Fillmore was crammed, so everyone had gotten to hear Musselwhite and Mandel. Taking two nights in between at New Orleans House was a chance for newly-minted fans to hear them. Many bands would follow this pattern, playing a gig at the Avalon or the Fillmore as a way to create interest in club dates at places like New Orleans House.
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| Berkeley Barb ad for New Orleans House, August 18, 1967 |
August 18, 1967 New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA: Indian Head Band (Friday)
The Indian Head Band were an improvisational ‘Raga Rock’ group featuring lead guitarist Hal Wagenet and a trained opera singer (Mickey Mader) as lead vocalist. The group broke up in 1968 when Wagenet would join It’s A Beautiful Day.
August 19, 1967 New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA: Yajahla (Saturday)
August 20, 1967 New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA: The Proposals (Sunday) 5:30-9:30pm
August 20, 1967 New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA: The Strawberry Window (Sunday) evening
August 21-22, 1967 New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA: Mother Earth (Monday-Tuesday)
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| A poster for the Flamin' Groovies at New Orleans House, August 23 &25, 1967 |
August 23 & 25, 1967 New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA: Flamin’ Groovies (Wednesday & Friday)
The Flamin’ Groovies were a few years younger than the first wave of Fillmore and Avalon musicians, but had still been connected to the scene from the beginning. The Groovies had continued to play in the British Invasion style that preceded the acid-tinged jamming that characterized the Fillmore scene. The Groovies short rock songs and snotty attitude was not popular in San Francisco, and opinions remain divided about them. The group intermittently broke up and reformed over the next few decades. When punk hit a decade letter the Groovies were seen as precursors, but despite popularity in England and elsewhere they remained (and remain) small beer in San Francisco and the Bay Area.
August 26, 1967 New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA: Yajahla/Congress of Wonders (Saturday)
August 27, 1967 New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA: The Proposals (Sunday) 5:30-9:30pm
August 28, 1967 New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA: The Second Coming (Monday)
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| Sandy Bull's Fantasias For Guitar and Banjo (with drummer Billy Higgins) was released by Vanguard Records in 1963. |
August 27, 29-30-31, 1967 New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA: Sandy Bull/Pyewacket (Sunday, Tuesday-Thursday)
Sandy Bull was a unique guitarist, years ahead of his time. He had released two albums on Vanguard (Fantasias For Guitar and Banjo in 1963 and Inventions in 1965) that merged folk and blues with Indian, Brazilian and Middle Eastern sounds. He overdubbed electric and acoustic guitars, banjo, bass and various other instruments, with only jazz drummer Billy Higgins as accompanist. The material was all instrumental, and the longest track on Inventions took up an entire side of the album.
Had the term ‘World Music’ been invented, Bull would have been one of its first practitioners. Not only was he well-versed in American music styles, he had spent time in Paris and London in the early 60s and met and played with musicians from Africa, the Middle East and elsewhere. Bull had moved from England to California in the Spring of 1967 to play the San Francisco Folk Festival and soon became a regular at the Fillmore and The Matrix. Unfortunately, Bull had many drug and personal problems, and never lived up to the spectacular promise that he initially showed. Nonetheless, he managed to clean himself up by 1974, and continued to record and perform until he died in 2001.
Pyewacket were a Southern California group, but I don't have any other information.
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| Berkeley Barb ad for New Orleans House, September 1, 1967 |
September 1-2, 1967 New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA: The Second Coming/Clover (Friday-Saturday)
Clover were a Marin band that had formed out of the isolated Muir Beach scene in Western Marin. Bassist John Ciambotti had been in a San Francisco group called The Outfit in 1966 and 67, but he left the group as it fell apart. He joined a group called Tiny Hearing Aid Company, and the group changed its name to Clover. Clover’s debut had only been on July 4, 1967, so they were still quite a new group. Clover lead guitarist John McFee went on to play with Elvis Costello and then join the Doobie Brothers, among many other groups.
By 1967, Marin County was becoming the new refuge for hippie musicians. The County was transitioning from being a primarily agricultural to an enclave of San Francisco commuters. As a result, in the '60s and '70s, rent was cheap, and there were plenty of old farmhouses and the like for rent. Clover shared a rehearsal space with another band, Flying Circus, which featured Bob McFee--John's brother--on lead guitar. Brother Bob had been in Tiny Hearing Aid, too, but as the bass player. A geographical oddity of Marin was that while it was cheap for musicians, there were almost no gigs there, as the population was tiny. Thanks to the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge, Berkeley was surprisingly close to Marin County when it wasn't rush hour, so all of the Marin bands played Berkeley regularly.
September 3, 1967 New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA: The Second Coming (Sunday)
Second Coming broke up by October. Guitarist Vic Smith would go on to form Sky Blue, and later Grootna.
September 4-7, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA South Side Sound System (Monday-Thursday)
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| Berkeley Barb ad for New Orleans House, September 8, 1967 |
September 8-9, 1967 New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA: Mother Earth/Prime Movers (Friday-Saturday)
The Prime Movers were a Michigan band, most notorious for their former drummer James "Iggy" Osterberg. Iggy had moved on to The Stooges by 1967, but The Prime Movers, who played driving blues, were friendly with Mike Bloomfield and summered in Sausalito, hoping to break into the California music scene. Despite Bloomfield’s good offices, this was one of the few gigs that the band played. The Prime Movers did substitute for the Electric Flag at the Fillmore one night when they were supposed to open for Cream (between August 28 and September 3). The Prime Movers would return to Michigan in the Fall of 1967. Lead singer Michael Erlewine went on to found the All Music Guide in the 1990s.
September 10, 1967 New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA: Mother Earth/Flamin' Groovies (Sunday)
The Flamin' Groovies created a flyer for their opening slot for Mother Earth, likely drawn by band members or friends.
September 11-12-13, 1967 New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA: South Side Sound System (Monday-Wednesday)
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| Berkeley Barb ad for New Orleans House, September 15, 1967 |
September 15-17, 1967 New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA: West Coast Natural Gas (Friday-Sunday)
West Coast Natural Gas were from Seattle. They signed with the notorious Mathew Katz (whose litigation with the Airplane and Moby Grape lasted 20 and 39 years, respectively) and would move to San Francisco in 1968 For obscure reasons, Katz had them change their name to Indian Puddin and Pipe, even thought there was another band with that name (also managed by him).
September 18, 1967 New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA: "Guest Night" (Monday)
The Barb ad says “Every Monday Night, starting Sept. 18—Guest Night—performers welcome. Folk Music Poetry, Variety. M.C. Larry Hanks, 8:30-11:30 pm. Dancing to Rock Bands 11:30-1:30.” Larry Hanks had been one of the regular MCs for Hoot Night at the recently closed Jabberwock, on the other side of campus. The wording of the ad carefully encourages any interested folkies while broadening the appeal beyond the Hootenany concept.
September 18, 1967 New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA: Martha's Laundry (Monday) 11:30pm-1:30am
Martha’s Laundry were a San Francisco group (named after a laundry they had passed by when forming in 1966). They did jazzy arrangements of blues tunes, but had little original material. Lead guitarist Jim Lehman and drummer Randy Smith had formed the group. Tom Peterain played rhythm guitar, Dave Kessner played keyboards and Michael Husser played bass.
After Martha's Laundry ground to a halt in 1968, Smith, Lehman and Kessner would start a Berkeley music store called Prune Music (1345 Grove at Rose), which later moved to Mill Valley. Smith built a small, powerful amplifier (initially to play a prank on Barry Melton) and formed a company called MESA Engineering. After Carlos Santana said “man, that amp really boogies,” Smith named the product MESA Boogie. Jim Lehman now runs a guitar shop in Austin, while Dave Kessner remains a producer and writer in Marin, and owned Church Studios in San Anselmo in the 70s.
Randall Smith's improbable story deserves a full hearing, and is an only-in-the-60s tale. MESA--it stands for Mercedes Sales (you have to read the whole thing).
September 19-20, 1967 New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA: Steve Miller Band (Tuesday-Wednesday) When Boz Scaggs had joined the band, Steve Miller changed their name from the Steve Miller Blues Band to the Steve Miller Band. Scaggs was a tremendous vocalist, and a pretty good guitarist as well, so the Miller Band was suddenly a very hot commodity to record companies. Unlike many other local musicians, Steve Miller had been an ambitious professional for some time and he did not leap at the first contracts offered to him.
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| Berkeley Barb ad for New Orleans House, September 22, 1967 |
September 22-23-24, 1967 New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA: The Strawberry Window (Friday-Sunday)
September 25, 1967 New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Guest Night/Martha’s Laundry (Monday)
The MC was Larry Hanks.
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| A 1966 photo of The Generation (from the SF Band ID book). Lead singer Lydia Pense would later lead Cold Blood for many years |
September 26-27, 1967 New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA: The Generation (Tuesday-Wednesday)
The Generation was a San Francisco based R&B group with two vocalists and a three-piece horn section. Members included future Cold Blood stalwarts Lydia Pense (vocals), Larry Fields (guitar) and Rod Ellicott (bass). Pense had been a professional singer for some years on the Peninsula. The photo of the group in the 1966 SF Band ID Book shows a pretty straight-looking bunch, the sort of band who played teen dances and debutante balls. Other Generation members included co-vocalist (and bandleader) Don Herron, organist Craig Parker and drummer Dick Sidman.
Bill Champlin credited The Generation with being the first band in the Bay Area to play original rock with a horn section, before The Sons of Champlin.
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| Berkeley Barb ad for New Orleans House, September 29, 1967 |
September 29-30, October 1, 1967 New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA: Morning Glory (Friday-Sunday)
Morning Glory were a Mill Valley band with a sort of Jefferson Airplane sound. Since the Airplane were huge in 1967, those sort of groups got signed, and Morning Glory put out an album on Fontana in 1968. The back cover was photographed on a cable car, just to ensure that no one missed the San Francisco connection. The album isn’t bad, but its not that memorable. Bassist Bob Bohanna wrote most of the songs, and shared the vocals with Gini Graybeal.
Status Report: New Orleans House, October 1967
New Orleans House had been the only rock club in Berkeley for the Summer of Love. By the Fall, the club was starting to benefit from the bands who had come to San Francisco. In particular, New Orleans House was regularly booking a lot of groups who had learned the blues in Chicago, like Steve Miller Band and Southside Sound System. Although without design, New Orleans House booked more bands with blues or country roots than folkie psychedelic ones, a precursor to the kind of "Americana" sounds of a lot of modern rock nightclubs. The departure of the Jabberwock and the lack of a East Bay jazz club also made New Orleans House a refuge for that kind of music as well.
For the next post in the '67 Berkeley series (July 12, 1967 Oakland Auditorium: Moby Grape), see here [forthcoming]
1505 San Pablo Avenue, Berkeley, CA: New Orleans House Performers List April-June 1967
1505 San Pablo Avenue, Berkeley, CA: 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
