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

Berkeley Folk Festival - 1967

Reverend Gary Davis: Twas Brillig

Friday 25 February 1966
Little Theater, Berkeley (Florence Schwimly Little Theatre): Rev Gary Davis
Jabberwock, 2905 Telegraph Avenue, Berkeley: Wry Catchers, Ale Ekstrum, Country Joe and the Fish, Paul Armstrong, Dan Paik. Unscheduled: Rev Gary Davis (nominally a benefit to raise the $1100 bail for Bill Ehlert and Bill Tolman who were busted for possession of pot on February 23 and had been held at Santa Rita County Prison)
ED Denson from the Berkeley Barb (Vol 2, No 9: March 4, 1966): Last Friday the Rev. Gary Davis came to Berkeley and gave his third (Brillig-sponsored) concert here during the present folk revival. It is likely to have been his last, and those who went to see the Byrds instead missed a chance to see an unforgettable, even unbelievable performance.
Two years ago Artesian Productions was destroyed by its double bill of the Rev. and Jimmy Reed, and the Brillig experience may do the same for it. I attended both, and can say that through no fault of its own Brillig managed to put on a better show, or lesser disaster, depending upon your point of view.
But as a promotion which was to be the springboard for later i concerts the whole idea was suicidal from the beginning, for the persistence in Berkeley's folk mind of the memory of the Artesian show was a crippling handicap.
The inexperience of Brillig, a front group for the Jabberwock, combined with the malevolence of nature to ensure that almost every thing went wrong. The publicity photo used on the poster was terrible, the Byrds were booked into the adjacent Community Theater on the same night and for some reason the date of the Davis concert was not changed, the flu epidemic hit hard, and the evening of the concert it rained.
As a final blow Bill Elhert, the active agent of Brillig, was busted two days before the performance in what appears to be one of the shabbiest political busts for grass that the narcos have pulled. These little things add up, and the only blessing is that the concert was a one-night stand for it seems unlikely that five of the 130 who showed up for the first night would have come back for a second.
GOOD START
The show limped off to a good start; although Elhert understandably preoccupied, had neglected to discover how to operate the sound equipment or house lights, and the first few minutes contained some unexpected fluctuations in these, especially when the building manager gave a hand by turning the volume higher than the Byrds could have stood. Davis was singing well, however, and the audience showed no signs of restlessness.
The Rev. has been called the best living folk guitarist, and in his style he is. His voice, while rough and cracked after a lifetime of street singing, has a power unrivalled among the living blues singers, and the sheer force of his performance covers any imperfections and laves you spellbound.
For the first 45 minutes that he sang it was one of the best performances I have attended. The songs were for die most part simple but like most religious folk songs filled with a vivid imagery that has a cumulative effect on the audience. They seemed to sink deeper and deeper, and the spell was not broken by Gary's poor harmonica playing, or Elhert's foolish attempt to get the audience to clap in time to the music,
FATAL ERROR
Then the' fatal mistake of the evening was made. Elhert called an intermission.
Two things occurred during the next 15 minutes which set the stage for final catastrophe. The Byrds concert got out which released hordes of young chicklets who kept thinking that they could find the Byrds by coming though the Davis concert. This also released the critics for the Chronicle and the Examiner, both of whom after being told of the first half seemed well disposed towards the second half and waited to see the Rev.
The gods were having their little joke, however, for the Rev. had caught cold during his 3-day stay in Berkeley prior to the performance. During the initial few songs he had stopped to wipe his nose every now and then, and now in the intermission he dosed himself liberally with his folk medicine: Seagram’s 7 with a lot of peppermint candy in it. By the time he hit the stage again he was getting high. Gary has a way of tantalizing the audience when he is drunk, because he almost begins to play and then thinks of something he wants to say. It seems like he must play in a moment and that moment is pushed further and further down the evening. It rapidly became evident what was going to happen, and my mind began to blow, so my memories may be a little confused in their order, but as I recall the second half of the show Gary launched into a long sermon/conversation about men and women.
NO MUSIC, NO WHISKEY
Elhert paced around and finally in an attempt to get the Rev. to sing came out through the curtains on stage, to scattered applause, and whispered to Gary that no music, no whiskey. Infuriated, the Rev. tried to smash his guitar over Ehlert’s head, muttering that nobody could talk to him that way. After a long tableau during which time no one moved much, Davis realized he was on stage and pretended it was a joke.
As the sermon continued Gleason fled, and 10 minutes later Elwood joined him, asking that it be recorded that the Examiner outlasted the Chronicle.
No sooner was he out of the door then Gary began to sing. He sang a long blues called “She's Funny That Way" which alternates sex with inconclusive verses and is repetitious. It went on for a long time. After some more talking, he sang it again.
By this time the audience was yelling for him to sing gospel, and two hippies were especially vocal. He invited them to come up and help him sing, which one did. That was the high point of the second half, until the guy got tired of making repartee between the lines and went back to the audience. Gary talked some more about pistols, sin and sex, and finally tried to get the audience to sing along with him, which at length part of it did.
Surprisingly few people left, and those that did probably were misled by the advertising into expecting a serious performance or real gospel singing with no side excursions. They looked very unhappy. Towards the end of the evening Gary began to sing again, and whoever was working the lights changed the colors as the Rev. changed chords. It was a nice psychedelic touch, and the Rev. and the lights got two encores.
AND THEN
After the concert Gary was visited in his dressing room by a few fans and discovering some chicks among them he lectured on girls should give a man What He Needs, and how about it, at which point they left. At last the Seagram's was gone and the slow progress toward the waiting car began.
Having gotten up the Rev. got into a head butting contest with one of the people leading him, and with one thing and another it was a half hour before he got to the car.
Later that evening he turned up much drunker singing sloppy blues at the Jabberwock.
I enjoyed the evening very much but I wouldn't have paid to see it, and would not go again for free. The amusing part was the total collapse of everybody's expectations this rapidly transcends being painful and just becomes outrageously funny. The tragedy is that the Rev. Gary Davis is a gifted performer capable of some of the best music of any of the living folk musicians. Instead the audience is treated to a sideshow which Is degrading to the artist, and for the most part a drag.
This is true of others besides the Rev when they perform, and normally comes from an almost total misunderstanding of the situation. In the Rev’s case he simply has not adapted to being an artist for audiences more sophisticated than those on the street corners of Harlem, and the problem is made much worse by the encouragement given to him to continue his burlesque and Uncle Toming by the younger hippies.
Quite naturally the blame in the end must fall upon the promoters who are afraid to tell the performer what they expect, or worse yet; don't realize what they should expect. - Ed Denson

Unscheduled, Reverend Gary Davis plays (drunk on Seagram's 7 with peppermint candy) at the Jabberwock later in the evening. The Reverend Gary Davis had played the "Brillig" presented show at the Little Theater, Berkeley (Florence Schwimly Little Theatre) earlier in the evening. Whilst visiting Berkeley, the Reverend stayed with members of Country Joe and the Fish in Mrs Sherrill's adjacent apartment building on Russell Street. Barry Melton recalls the visit of the good Reverend.

In the early days of Country Joe and the Fish, me and most of other guys in the band lived next door to "The Jabberwock," a folk music nightclub in Berkeley. The club was owned by a big, friendly guy named Bill "Jolly Blue" Ehlert. The Jabberwock was only a postage-stamp sized place, so when Jolly Blue got an offer to do a Reverend Gary Davis show, he decided to promote it in the Berkeley Community Theatre. We were all in awe of "Rev" and it was decided that while he was in Berkeley, he would stay in our house. I remember he stayed there several days, as we sat about the kitchen playing music hour by hour. I think he'd played the "Ash Grove" down in L.A. and had dead time between playing there and playing in Berkeley--this was in late 1966 or early 1967.
And, by the way, Easy Ed's quote from Jerry Garcia expressing the belief that Rev had nothing to do with San Francisco psychedelia is stone wrong. The Rev DID participate in the psychedelic aspect of the San Francisco scene, at least to a limited degree while staying at our house.
Because I was the band's lead guitar player and--I believe--the guy in the band most in awe of Rev, I surrendered my room and bed for Rev to stay in. Things were fine for the first few days he was there: We'd wait for him to get up in the morning, cook him breakfast, take him on whatever errands he had to do, etc., and sit around, smoke, and play music all day and into the night. It was easy to forget that Rev was blind as we sat around the kitchen table, listening to his songs and stories hour after hour. Then the night of the big concert came and, as was the long-standing musical custom, the Rev was paid in cash at the conclusion of the gig. He brought me with him to collect the money and made me read off the denomination of each bill was it was counted into his hand, and I remember him stashing the larger portion of his money into the sound hole of his Gibson J-200, while leaving some travelling money rolled up in his pockets.
Well, the next morning I woke up and remember having to go into my room to get some clothes or something out of my chest of drawers. I was very quiet, as I could hear Rev snoring and didn't want to wake him. Well, I got whatever it was and I was headed toward the door when I heard in a commanding voice,"Don't move or you're dead!". I turned around to see Rev with a .38 revolver in his hand pointed in my general direction, but sort of moving around so as to cover a wider target area. I remember screaming something to the effect of, "No--don't shoot." Rev replied, "One wrong move and you're dead." Well, then I started talking a mile a minute..."Rev, it's me, it's Barry, don't shoot Rev...I was only getting something from my chest of drawers..." Finally, Rev said, "Is that you, Barry?" The incident was soon over, and I had escaped with me life. I guess, from his perspective, it must have been kind of weird to be alone, blind, on the road 3,000 miles from home and rooming with a bunch of lunatic young musicians many years his junior. But to this day, the picture of Reverend Gary Davis that sticks in my mind the most is early in the morning, half-awake and blind as a bat, with a .38 in his hand pointed in my general direction. It was one of the most frightening moments of my life. I'll never forget it.

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

This post continues a project listing the major Berkeley and East Bay rock concerts from 1965 to 1969, and is part of our Berkeley Music Project. Previous posts have been

• Berkeley I: October-December 1965
• Berkeley II: January-March 1966
• Berkeley III: April-June 1966
  

This post lists rock concerts from July to September 1966.

Our interest is in rock bands who played the Fillmore or Avalon during this period. I have tried to define this as broadly as possible, generally including bands who at least wanted to play the Fillmore (even if they didn’t), but I have generally shied away from pop acts. I have included some comments about the bands and venues, where relevant, but they are not exhaustive. I have assumed that anyone who actually reads this knows about, say, The Doors or Bill Graham.

In order to keep the scope of these posts plausible, I have generally refrained from listing shows that only featured local "garage" bands made up of mostly High School students, even though some of them had fairly substantial followings. I have also consciously excluded the popular groups who played teenage dances throughout the East Bay (for Bill Quarry and others) as those scenes have been fairly well documented.

Venues include, but are not limited to

•    Berkeley Community Theater
•    Provo Park, Berkeley
•    Harmon Gym , UC Berkeley
•    Pauley Ballroom, UC Berkeley
•    Greek Theatre, UC Berkeley
•    Oakland Auditorium, Oakland
•    Oakland Coliseum Arena, Oakland

I have also included events at nearby Maple Hall in San Pablo and The Rollarena in San Leandro when there was a meaningful headliner, but the list is not exhaustive for those two venues. The list does not include performances at East Bay clubs, which we are covering in other lists (currently we have completed The Jabberwock, The Questing Beast, The New Orleans House and The Freight and Salvage, with more to come). Scholars who are more focused on the posters, handbills and more site-specific information about the venues should look on the Berkeley Art page.

Like all scholarship, this project is an ongoing work in development. This information is the most accurate available to us at this time.  Parties with corrections, insights, information or recovered memories should Comment or Email.

Berkeley and East Bay Rock Concerts July-September 1966
The San Francisco Underground rock explosion that would lead to "The Summer of Love" was rolling full speed ahead in San Francisco. However, although Berkeley and East Bay hippies made up a significant portion of the audience at the Fillmore and the Avalon, the absence of a viable rock venue in Berkeley meant that with the University of California on Summer break, there were only intermittent rock concerts in the East Bay, mostly at San Leandro's Rollarena, 18 miles south of the UC Campus.

July 3-4, 1966 ASUC 9th Annual Berkeley Folk Music Festival
The Berkeley Folk Festival had been a popular annual event since 1958, but for 1966 one of the headline acts was a rock band, namely the Jefferson Airplane. At this distant remove, the Jefferson Airplane seem to be peripheral to folk music.  However, that was not the view of either Paul Kantner or manager Mathew Katz.  Kantner had been an aspiring folksinger in Venice Beach and San Jose, and specifically sought out a female singer to give his band Weavers-like harmonies.  Jorma Kaukonen, though more focused on blues guitar, was well-known in local folk circles, so the Airplane would have felt very comfortable at a Folk Festival.  Manager Katz, meanwhile, had originally tried to peddle the Airplane to booking agents as a “FoJazz” band. The Airplane thus became the first electric rock group to play the Berkeley Folk Festival.

Festival Highlights
>>July 3, 1966  Pauley Ballroom, UC Berkeley Jefferson Airplane, Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach, Alice Stuart Thomas, The Gypsies “Special Gypsy Fiddle Program” (afternoon)
The Airplane’s role in the Gypsy Fiddle Program remains unknown.

>>July 3, 1966  Pauley Ballroom, UC Berkeley  Jefferson Airplane, Country Joe and The Fish, Greenbriar Boys    “Dance Happening” (evening)
Pauley Ballroom was a low-ceilinged room in the second floor of the Student Union.  While well-situated, the room was designed for visiting lecturers, and the low ceilings insured horrible sound for electric music. Country Joe and The Fish, Berkeley's newly-electric folk rock band, had also been established folk musicians. This Pauley event was an implicit concession that the Berkeley audience wanted a Fillmore style show to go along with the workshops and panel discussions of the Festival.

>>July 4, 1966   Greek Theatre, UC Berkeley Pete Seeger, Jefferson Airplane, Robert Pete Williams, Greenbriar Boys, Alice Stuart Thomas, Sam Hinton, Charley Marshall, Phil Ochs, John Fahey, others (afternoon finale with all performers)
In the early 1960s, college age folk musicians had split into various camps, amongst them those who liked commercial folk music like the Kingston Trio, and those who were ‘serious’ about folklore and accurate reproductions of original musical styles.  The latter camp was more into jazz, more pretentious and more into drugs and for the most part leaped into long-haired rock and roll with both feet. There was still a viable folk scene for East Coast bands like the Greenbriar Boys, but California folk music abruptly disappeared in a haze of feedback and funny smelling smoke.

Pete Seeger had been the folksinger most upset by Bob Dylan’s electric performance at Newport the previous year, but I do not know whether he cared that he was ‘co-headlining’ with a rock band full of used-ta-be folkies.  Electric rock acts were becoming more and more common at college folk festivals in any case.

July 22, 1966  Rollarena, San Leandro  Love
Since AM radio differed throughout the country, San Francisco radio often played quite different songs than were popular elsewhere.  As a result, groups like Love (who were on the charts with “My Little Red Book”) sometimes headlined teen shows at the Rollarena, even though they were a progressive Underground band from the Sunset Strip. Without eyewitness accounts, its hard to say whether Love came off well or poorly to the suburban audience.

There certainly would have been other local acts on the bill, but they are unknown to me.

July 29, 1966 Rollarena, San Leandro  Jefferson Airplane, Soul Venders, System of Soul
The Jefferson Airplane were on the verge of splitting with their manager, Mathew Katz.  Most of the disputes were about money.  However, one very real issue was that Katz wanted the increasingly successful Airplane to follow the path to stardom blazed by the likes of Paul Revere and The Dave Clark Five.  Needless to say, Messrs Kantner and Balin did not share this goal, and were determined to become successful as serious artists, like Bob Dylan.

This gig sums up the crossroads that the Airplane had reached.  Although no account or tape of this show survives (to my knowledge), it is clear that the photogenic, tuneful Airplane could have moved over to the Teen circuit quite easily.  Remember that Paul Revere and The Raiders were still appearing weekly on ABC-tv’s Where The Action Is, and many areas had local ‘Shindig’-like TV shows (Shindig itself had been canceled).  Nonetheless, save for a few exceptions like this one the Airplane steadfastly focused on the Fillmore and “serious” shows.   

System of Soul and The Soul Venders were Oakland “teen” bands.

August 26, 1966 Rollarena, San Leandro The Yardbirds, The Harbinger Complex, Peter Wheat & The Breadmen, The Just VI 
This show was presented by Bill Quarry’s Teens And Twenties, and featured a Friday night show (August 25) at San Francisco’s Carousel Ballroom (two years before Bill Graham moved the Fillmore there and called it the Fillmore West).

For a teen show, this was actually quite an inspired booking.  The Yardbirds were a popular British Invasion band, but unlike some British bands the Yardbirds were genuinely special.  This lineup featured Jeff Beck on lead guitar.  The great single “Over Under Sideways Down” had been released in the US in June 1966 and was a big AM hit.  Producer and bassist Paul Samwell-Smith, a key component of the Yardbirds sound, had left the group to become a producer (he would later have big hits producing Cat Stevens).  Replacing him on bass was veteran British session guitarist Jimmy Page. There was a general idea that Page would ultimately switch with rhythm guitarist Chris Dreja, but there had been no time to rehearse.

After a performance at Catalina Island on August 23, the next night in Monterey was canceled, and then Jeff Beck became quite ill.  With no time whatsoever to rehearse, Page took over lead guitarist duties for the Yardbirds on Friday night at the Carousel, with Dreja switching to bass.  Although Beck rejoined soon after, he only stayed a few more months.  Page remained the Yardbirds lead guitarist until the band broke up in July 1968. Its remarkable that Page's Yardbirds debut as lead guitarist came at the future location of the Fillmore West.

The Carousel bill from the night before was repeated at The Rollarena on Satrurday, August 26. The Harbinger Complex and Peter Wheat and The Breadmen were both from Fremont and were punky garage-rock bands.  Both of them released a few singles (Harbinger Complex on Mainstream, The Breadmen on Amber).  The lead singer of The Harbinger Complex was reputedly asked to leave his Fremont high school as a result of causing too many teenage pregnancies.

September 6, 1966 Finnish Brotherhood Hall, Berkeley Wildflower
The Finnish Brotherhood Hall was a tiny building on 1970 Chestnut, just off University. The Wildflower probably had a bit of a following of their own by this time, and could try and headline a small hall.

September 11, 1966 Tilden Park, Berkeley  Blues Project, Country Joe & The Fish
The Blues Project were playing at The Matrix all week, but this was an afternoon show.  Tilden Park was the big city park in Berkeley, in the Berkeley Hills, and regularly used for folk shows.  However, this is the only rock show that I know of at this venue. 

September 13, 1966 Finnish Brotherhood Hall, Berkeley Wildflower

September 17, 1966 Pauley Ballroom, UC Berkeley Quicksilver Messenger Service, Loading Zone
By mid-September, school was back in session, or close to it, and activities started up again in campus buildings. This show at Pauley Ballroom was on a Saturday night. An eyewitness reports that it was poorly attended. At this point, while Quicksilver Messenger Service had a sterling (and well-deserved) underground reputation from the Fillmore and Avalon, they would have been merely a rumor to most students.

September 23, 1966 Rollarena, San Leandro  13th Floor Elevators, Staton Brothers, Elements of Sound
The 13th Floor Elevators were from Austin, TX, and after a pot bust and a hit single they had relocated temporarily to the Bay Area. Since the Elevators had an electrifying effect even on people used to seeing the likes of Quicksilver and The Airplane at the Fillmore, its difficult to comprehend how they may have appeared to a teen audience in the suburbs.  Roky Erikson certainly took as much acid as anyone in San Francisco, and was an intense, weird guy by any standard.  The mystical, intense aspect of the Elevators was plausible at the Fillmore or the Avalon, but very far from a roller rink, so it’s an intriguing question how the band was received in the suburbs.

Staton Brothers and Elements of Sound were both local bands.

September 24, 1966 Veteran’s Memorial Hall, Oakland Deed of Shame, The Friendly Stranger, Motley Crew, Iron Butterfly
This quite obscure gig has nonetheless received a certain amount of attention for having its boxing style poster reproduced in Paul Grushkin's book The Art Of Rock. This gig featured the first known out-of-town gig by the then San Diego based Iron Butterfly.  Veteran’s Memorial Hall, at 200 Grand Avenue, was a tiny hall (capacity a few hundred) across from Children’s Fairyland in Lake Merritt. The venue had been used occasionally for “teen” dances featuring local bands.

Deed of Shame and Motley Crew are unknown to me, although I have seen a photo of the Motley Crew (spelled Mottley Crew in the photo caption) and they may be a Richmond High band.  The poster says “A Beautiful Thing”, but this appears to be the name of the dance (or the promoter), not a band. The Iron Butterfly, then called The Palace Pages, had opened for the Friendly Stranger in the San Diego area, and had been so impressed with the “psychedelic’ vibe that they changed their name. This presumably accounts for an unknown San Diego band appearing at obscure Bay Area venues.

 

The Oakland Veterans Memorial Building, at 200 Grand Avenue, as it appeared in August 2009

September 30, 1966 California Hall Deed of Shame, Universal Joint, Friendly Stranger
Another “A Beautiful Thing” show. As the rock market expanded, the relatively tiny Veterans Memorial Auditorium, with poor parking and far from Berkeley, was shunted aside as a rock venue. To my knowledge it was not used for rock shows after 1966. The building has subsequently been refurbished, and continues to be used for local community events.

Next: East Bay Rock Concerts October-December 1966

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

This post continues a project listing the major Berkeley and East Bay rock concerts from 1965 to 1969, and is part of our Berkeley Music Project. Previous posts have been

• Berkeley I: October-December 1965
• Berkeley II: January-March 1966

This post lists rock concerts from April to June 1966.

Our interest is in rock bands who played the Fillmore or Avalon during this period. I have tried to define this as broadly as possible, generally including bands who at least wanted to play the Fillmore (even if they didn’t), but I have generally shied away from pop acts. I have included some comments about the bands and venues, where relevant, but they are not exhaustive. I have assumed that anyone who actually reads this knows about, say, The Doors or Bill Graham.

In order to keep the scope of these posts plausible, I have generally refrained from listing shows that only featured local "garage" bands made up of mostly High School students, even though some of them had fairly substantial followings. I have also consciously excluded the popular groups who played teenage dances throughout the East Bay (for Bill Quarry and others) as those scenes have been fairly well documented.

Venues include, but are not limited to

•    Berkeley Community Theater
•    Provo Park, Berkeley
•    Harmon Gym , UC Berkeley
•    Pauley Ballroom, UC Berkeley
•    Greek Theatre, UC Berkeley
•    Oakland Auditorium, Oakland
•    Oakland Coliseum Arena, Oakland

I have also included events at nearby Maple Hall in San Pablo and The Rollarena in San Leandro when there was a meaningful headliner, but the list is not exhaustive for those two venues. The list does not include performances at East Bay clubs, which we are covering in other lists (currently we have completed The Jabberwock, The Questing Beast, The New Orleans House and The Freight and Salvage, with more to come). Scholars who are more focused on the posters, handbills and more site-specific information about the venues should look on the Berkeley Art page.

Like all scholarship, this project is an ongoing work in development. This information is the most accurate available to us at this time.  Parties with corrections, insights, information or recovered memories should Comment or Email.

Berkeley and East Bay Rock Concerts April-June 1966

April 1, 1966 Harmon Gym, UC Berkeley Jefferson Airplane, The Skins
April 2, 1966 Harmon Gym, UC Berkeley Quicksilver Messenger Service, The Exiles 
Delano Grape Strikers Benefit
I have had to make some assumptions about these shows, as they are usually listed as “April 1-2 Jefferson Airplane/Skins/Quicksilver/Exiles.” I believe it is the way I have it here, however. Unraveling the Berkeley concerts is complicated by the full schedule of rock shows in San Francisco. The Jefferson Airplane were headlining the Fillmore on Friday night (April 1), Saturday night (April 2) and Sunday afternoon (April 3). The Quicksilver Messenger Service were co-billed with the Airplane at the Fillmore on Friday night, and playing a different benefit at the nearby Geary Temple (at 1859 Fillmore) on Saturday night.

There are at least two different circulating handbills that I know of (above), and possibly more. Its remarkable enough that the Airplane were headlining two shows in Berkeley and San Francisco on the same night, but I find it impossible to believe that both Fillmore acts on Friday night were also playing Berkeley--who was going to be playing the Fillmore? That is why I have interpreted the ad to mean that the big Underground bands (the Airplane and Quicksilver) would highlight one show each night.

Even as early as April 1966, Bill Graham would not have wanted his headline act (the Airplane) playing Berkeley without his imprimatur, and Graham’s involvement is tipped by the listing of The Skins. The Skins was an informal name for three conga drummers Graham hired to play between sets (they included lightshow man Jerry Abrams and jazz musician Ulysses Crockett). I assume Graham saw the Airplane’s benefit show as publicity for the Fillmore shows, and given how few people would have actually heard the Airplane, this was very shrewd.

My assumption is that on Friday night, the Airplane played early in Berkeley, while Quicksilver and probably another band opened the Fillmore. The Airplane would have made it over to the Fillmore in ample time for their first set, probably around 10pm.

Meanwhile, Quicksilver could have played in the middle of the Saturday night Harmon Gym show, still leaving them plenty of time to get over to Geary Temple to participate in the Benefit, which probably went until at least 2am. Both events probably had additional performers, as well as speakers, since Cesar Chavez's UFW strike in Delano, CA was an important political cause in Berkeley.

April 6, 1966 Oakland Auditorium Arena, Oakland Paul Revere and The Raiders, Harbinger Complex, English Shillings, Peter Wheat and The Breadmen, The Baytovens, Wm Penn and His Pals
This show was presented by Bill Quarry’s Teens N Twenties Presents and MC’d by KYA dj Johnny Holliday. Quarry usually presented local bands at smaller venues, but periodically he had a big event. Paul Revere and The Raiders were a hugely popular band at the time, appearing almost weekly on ABC-TV's show Where The Action Is. The supporting groups were almost all East Bay “garage” bands popular at Quarry’s dances. The exception was Wm Penn and His Pals, a Paul Revere-styled South Bay band featuring organist Gregg Rolie, later in Santana and Journey.



April 9, 1966  Veterans Memorial Hall, Berkeley The Loading Zone, The Answer
“Trip A-Go-Go”
The Veterans Memorial Hall was a fairly small downtown auditorium at 1931 Center, (between Shattuck and Grove and near the High School). The Loading Zone were an Oakland-based "psychedelic soul" band, perhaps the first. The Answer was a band of Berkeley High School students.

April 15, 1966 Harmon Gym, UC Berkeley Clifton Chenier, Mance Lipscomb, Lighning Hopkins, Muddy Waters and His Chicago Blues Band featuring Otis Spann & James Cotton
Parts of this show were released on an album on Arhoolie Records, featuring Chenier and Lipscomb (who recorded for Arhoolie), from a tape for campus station KAL-fm.

April 15, 1966 The Bear’s Lair, UC Berkeley Bethlehem Exit, The Answer, The Exiles
“Trip Dance”

April 16, 1966 Harmon Gym, UC Berkeley  Butterfield Blues Band, Jefferson Airplane
This was a Bill Graham show. This bill was playing the Fillmore, but instead of a Saturday night Fillmore show, the bill played at Berkeley’s Harmon Gym instead. This may have been a concession to the synagogue next door to the Fillmore.

April 24, 1966 North Field, UC Berkeley Country Joe And The Fish, Malvina Reynolds, Wildflower, Dan Paik, Chris Selsor, Gothic Cathedral Jug Band, Bethlehem Exit
Robert Scheer For Congress Benefit
Bob Scheer was the anti-Vietnam war candidate, running in the Democratic primary. I’m not sure where North Field was. Knowing UC Berkeley, I’m sure it’s a building now.

May 6, 1966 Wurster Hall, UC Berkeley Latin All-Stars, John Handy, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Bethlehem Exit
“Beaux Arts Ball.”
Wurster Hall was the newly-constructed building for the Department of Architecture. The current configuration of the building would not support a dance/concert. However,  I think the building was not fully utilized at the time, so the open architecture of the interior could simulate a ballroom environment.


The Beaux Arts Festival was a week long Arts Festival at the University, and the Friday Night Ball was the culminating event.

May 7, 1966 Harmon Gym, UC Berkeley  Grateful Dead, Jaywalkers, Billy Moses Blues Band
“Peace Rock 3”
The Dead’s performance was reviewed in the UC Berkeley student newspaper (The Daily Cal) by one Jann Wenner, who went on to found Rolling Stone magazine the next year. This was a benefit for The Vietnam Peace Day Committee.  A peculiarity of Berkeley student events was though they were run as commercial enterprises (bands were paid, etc), since University funds were used, no profit could be made by the students, so a charity always had to be designated.

The Charlatans and Great Society opened along with Billy Moses Blues Band (The Charlatans were also playing the Avalon, but they could have played both shows). The Great Society were a Palo Alto based group featuring the inimitable Grace Slick on vocals and keyboards.

The Jaywalkers featured guitarist Charlie Cockey. Billy Moses Blues Band is unknown to me.

May 12, 1966 Pauley Ballroom, UC Berkeley Blues Project
Robert Scheer For Congress Benefit
Pauley Ballroom was a moderate sized Ballroom with a very low ceiling, on the second floor of the new Student Union building on Bancroft and Telegraph (the Bear's Lair was in the Basement). It overlooked both Upper and Lower Sproul Plaza. Student groups apparently could reserve the Ballroom for a relatively token fee, so many events were put on there, even if it doesn't sound that great when the music is loud. Pauley Ballroom has a capacity of several hundred at most.

The Blues Project, from Greenwich Village, were performing around California at this time.

May 14, 1966 Veterans Memorial Hall, Berkeley  Grateful Dead, Final Solution
Berkeley was a principal source of attendees at the Fillmore and Avalon (for obvious reasons), but despite continued efforts no suitable rock venue was ever established in Berkeley. Ironically, the failure to find a suitable venue in Berkeley helped insure the vitality of the San Francisco ballroom scene. Since Harmon Gym was a University facility, it could never take on status as a regular venue (bad sound and poor parking notwithstanding), and the same was true of the Berkeley Community Theater, located at the High School.

The Veterans Hall was (and is) a tiny hall in downtown Berkeley, and bands like The Dead were already too big for this venue, even by this early date. The Final Solution were a San Francisco State band, well connected to the scene and led by Ernie Fosselius. Well regarded by their peers, if undanceable, they were quite embarrassed years later when they figured out why Holocaust survivor Bill Graham only booked the band one time at the Fillmore. Fosselius went on to become a filmmaker, best known for some animated features he created in the early 1970s for Sesame Street.

May 20, 1966 Rollarena, San Leandro Neil Diamond, The Spyders, The Harbinger Complex, Mack and The Uptowners, The Epics  
Bill Quarry's TNT presented Neil Diamond, backed by a local group, The Spyders.  Apparently, Diamond was picked up at the airport by promoter  Quarry, spent a day rehearsing with The Spyders,and was paid $1000. The flyer says “Direct From New York!!! Singing his hit ‘Solitary Man.’” The next night (Saturday May 21) Diamond played Frenchy’s in Hayward where he was backed by the other band on the bill, The Mothers (really). Diamond flew back East after the weekend.

May 21, 1966 Greek Theatre, UC Berkeley Lovin’ Spoonful, Charlatans, Syndicate Of Sound
The Greek Theater was a faux “Greek” Theatre nestled on a hillside at Hearst St and Gayley Rd, on the Berkeley campus, that seated about 8700.  The sound was beautiful and the site was perfect.  The University allowed occasional rock shows in the 60s and early 70s, mostly on Sunday afternoons, but otherwise prevented shows from taking place.  Ironically, this perfect East Bay dance-concert venue was there all along, but UC Berkeley for its own reasons chose to limit access.  The Grateful Dead triumphantly returned to the venue in 1981 and the Greek Theater became a major Bay Area rock venue throughout the 80s.

Sometime in 1966, probably around the time of this show, Lovin Spoonful guitarist Zal Yanofsky was busted in San Francisco for marijuana possession.  The police let him go after he gave up his dealer, who was a member of The Committee.  Yanofsky, a Canadian, was afraid of getting deported and losing his chance at stardom.  Word got around the underground rapidly, however, and Lovin Spoonful was no longer invited to play the Fillmore and The Avalon, and in fact they never played either venue.

Although the Spoonful's records remained successful, it would turn out that the road was the only place for bands to make money.  When Lovin Spoonful was cut out of the nascent underground touring scene, their chance to establish themselves as ‘artists’ like the Airplane or the Blues Project was destroyed.  Zal Yanofsky left the Spoonful once the story broke publicly in Spring, 1967, but the damage had already had been done.  The underground was now strong enough to not only make bands, but also to finish them.

May 27, 1966 Rollarena, San Leandro Them, Peter Wheat and The Breadmen, Canadian Fuzz
Van Morrison and Them were on the typical mid 60s “British Invasion” tour, appearing as headliner on top of numerous local bands.  Them were small change compared to the Dave Clark Five or The Animals, much less the Beatles or the Stones. Nonetheless, Them were very popular in California and were revered by many young musicians, since their immortal “Baby Don’t Please Don’t Go”/”Gloria” single in November 1964. That record had been shockingly raw for 1964 radio.

Van Morrison’s success in the 1970s has left fans with an image of an insular, brooding crooner.  However, in 1966 not only were Them popular as wild rockers with songs like “Gloria” and “Mystic Eyes”, but Van had come out of Irish “Showbands”, which were quite the opposite of Celtic mysticism.  Reports from every city on the 1966 American tour not only tell of how great Van’s singing and music were, but his wild James Brown-style showmanship as well.  The showstopper for Them was a high-octane version of Bobby Blue Bland’s “Turn On Your Lovelight.” Bill Quarry reminisces (in Bruce Tahsler’s book) that Them’s performance had the biggest crowd ever to see a show at the Rollarena, and fans were lined up at 3:00 pm when Quarry’s staff pulled in to set up the show.

Everything changed for Van after this show, in an alley behind the venue, when Van bumped into 19-year old Janet (Planet) Rigsbee, his future wife and the world’s Brown-Eyed Girl.  She had gone to see the show, and was trying to get backstage to meet him afterwards. 

Peter Wheat and The Breadmen were the KYA ”house band”, which suggests that this may have been a KYA sponsored event.  The Canadian Fuzz were apparently actually Canadians who lived in California.

May 28, 1966  Community Theater, Berkeley Simon & Garfunkel

June 26, 1966  Oakland Auditorium Arena, Oakland  Them, The Association, The Grass Roots, The Baytovens, The Wildflower, The Harbinger Complex, William Penn and His Pals
Leander Productions Presents
This was another big "Teen" show, featuring a wide variety of groups playing brief sets. Note, however, that Oakland's psychedelic Wildflower were on the bill along with various teen bands. The Grass Roots were Fillmore and Avalon regulars (for complicated reasons), and Them would play some historic shows at the Fillmore a few days after this event. So while this Oakland Auditorium show was in many ways typical of teen rock shows throughout the country, the migration of rock music from radio "entertainment" to Fillmore-style "Art" was already happening.

Next: East Bay Concerts July-September 1966