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Splatt Gallery's History of Michigan Concert Posters
Volume Eleven - 1975 - Page Four
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Images from the fourth annual Hash Bash in Ann Arbor, Michigan on April 1, 1975, along with the subscription page to the new magazine “High Times”.
Poster/flyer and ad for Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band, with Lightnin’, at Chances Are in Ann Arbor Michigan on April 1, 1975.
A pair of ads for Alice Cooper in Chicago, Illinois on April 1, 1975, the seventh show of the “Welcome to My Nightmare” tour, now clearly including Suzi Quatro. The second ad was actually published the day after the show as a “thank you” to Chicago.
Going back to Capitol Records was a good thing for Bob Seger, as the label sprung for a full-page ad in CREEM magazine for the release of the “Beautiful Loser” album and some remaining dates on the Bachman-Turner Overdrive tour, starting with the April 3, 1975 show in Madison, Wisconsin. It also lists one of his Detroit shows at the end, he actually performed two nights at the Michigan Palace, April 19th and 20th.
Illustration by Overton Loyd on the cover of the April 3, 1975 edition of the Fifth Estate newspaper in Detroit, Michigan for a feature story on the start of the 1975 Major League Baseball season and the Detroit Tigers’ prospects for it.
There were no great expectations for the team that had finished in last place in their division in 1974, but the Tigers managed to exceed the predictions, in the wrong way, with a 57-102 record and a last place finish over 37 games out of first place, it was the fifth worst season in Detroit Tigers history.
Inside illustrations by Overton Loyd in the April 3, 1975 edition of the Fifth Estate newspaper in Detroit, Michigan for a feature story on start of the Detroit Tigers’ 1975 Major League Baseball season.
“Weed Wet Dreams” comic by Overton Loyd in the April 3, 1975 edition of the Fifth Estate newspaper in Detroit, Michigan.
“Instant Brainwash” comic by Overton Loyd in the April 3, 1975 edition of the Fifth Estate newspaper in Detroit, Michigan.
Poster and ad by Hugh Surratt for Maria Muldar at Michigan State University in East Lansing on April 3, 1975.
Suzi Quatro on the cover of Scene magazine in advance of her appearance in Cleveland, Ohio opening for Alice Cooper on April 4, 1975.
Poster/ad from Brass Ring Productions for KISS with the Mike Quatro Jam Band and Smack Dab in Hartland, Michigan on April 4, 1975.
A full-page RAK Records ad for the Suzi Quatro single "I Bit Off More Than I Could Chew", released on April 4, 1975.
Suzi Quatro – I Bit Off More Than I Could Chew (1975)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0MnWdxb3psU
Suzi Quatro returned to her hometown as the opening act on Alice Cooper’s “Welcome to My Nightmare” tour on April 5, 1975. A second show was added for April 8th, due to popular demand.
An Atlantic Records poster for “Super Soul on Tour”, an eight show tour of England, including the Detroit Spinners, that started on April 5, 1975. The Spinners used the “Detroit” appendage to their name when touring England due to the UK group called the Spinners.
An ad for Maria Muldaur in Ann Arbor, Michigan on April 5, 1975.
Poster for Alice Cooper in Cincinnati, Ohio on April 6, 1975, the tenth show of the “Welcome to My Nightmare” tour, sandwiched between the two Detroit shows.
An ad for a “Get Out To Vote Dance” in Ann Arbor, Michigan on April 6, 1975, featuring Rabbits, Mojo Boogie Band, Diamond Rio, The Silvertones, Iris Bell and Big Daddy G & the Night Train.
Poster by an unknown artist for Gil Scott-Heron in Ann Arbor, Michigan on April 7, 1975.
An MCA Records ad for Golden Earring with tour dates, including Ford Auditorium in Detroit, Michigan on April 7, 1975.
“Chocolate City”, the third album by Parliament was released on April 8, 1975. The album cover art was by John Van Hamersveld, the iconic poster artist whose album cover work is equally impressive, including The Beatles’ “Magical Mystery Tour”, the Rolling Stones’ “Exile on Main Street”, and the “Hotter Than Hell” album by KISS, which like “Chocolate City” was on the Casablanca record label.
The album showed the group continuing to expand closer to the full P-Funk ensemble, with the song-writing team of George Clinton, Bootsy Collins, and Bernie Worrell beginning to solidify. Bass player Prakash John, currently touring as part of Alice Cooper’s “Welcome to My Nightmare” tour, also plays bass on several tracks.
The title track was a tribute to Washington DC, one of the cities where Parliament Funkadelic had their greatest popularity, “Chocolate City” a reference to the majority black population. The track imagines an African-American White House administration that included Muhammad Ali as President of the United States, James Brown as Vice President, Reverend Ike as Secretary of the Treasury, Richard Pryor as Minister of Education, Stevie Wonder as Secretary of Fine Arts, and Aretha Franklin as First Lady.
Parliament – Chocolate City (1975)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nm0g00Hpp7Q
Parliament – Chocolate City (album) (1975)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2M1bvJlXcA&list=OLAK5uy_kC0bc1SWWh-532dA0VIv70r-Ay-o-60JQ&index=1
An ad for Aerosmith at Central Michigan University in Mount Pleasant, Michigan on April 8, 1975. Ted Nugent & the Amboy Dukes filled in for the scheduled opener, the Baker Gurvitz Army, whose truck had broken down in Georgia. This was Aerosmith’s second Michigan appearance for the year, having performed a week earlier in Lansing, with Rush and the Amboy Dukes. The Baker Gurvitz Army never did make it for any Michigan shows in their short existence.
A two-page ad for Suzi Quatro’s tour with Alice Cooper, picking up with the show at Olympia Stadium in Detroit, Michigan on April 8, 1975.
Poster/ad for ZZ Top at Wings Stadium in Kalamazoo, Michigan that was rescheduled to April 9, 1975. It was the Texas trio’s eleventh Michigan show over two years.
Poster by CREEM artist Gary Ciccarelli for WWWW radio in Detroit, Michigan, introducing Quadzilla, April 10, 1975.
Newspaper version of the WWWW radio Quadzilla poster that appeared in the April 6, 1975 edition of the Detroit Free Press.
From the April 10, 1975 edition of the Fifth Estate newspaper in Detroit, Michigan:
“Overton Loyd, the artist who did so much work for the Fifth Estate recently, has left Detroit for New York, there to make his way as a commercial artist. Having grown up on the S.W. side of Detroit, and finally ending up as the caricaturist at the Savoy. When that folded, he decided it was time to split.”
But Loyd will be back in this tale, as he had made an important contact during his time at the Shelby Hotel, in the person of George Clinton.
An ad for the Grand Opening of the Silver Dollar Saloon in East Lansing, Michigan on April 11, 1975. It was the new-image renovation of The Brewery which had its last show with Return To Forever on April 3rd. According to owner Rick Becker, The Brewery had three strikes against it: "It was too loud, too dark and too nasty," and the name was changed in order to "counter its one-time reputation as a bawdy brawling house.”
Before it had been The Brewery, the venue was known as Grandmother’s from January 1968 through May 1970.
Poster for Grand Funk in Stuttgart, Germany on April 11, 1975. The tour, which had started on January 2nd, had completed a 27 city sweep through the USA, this was GFR’s fourth European show.
Advertised as “Detroit’s Newest” theatre, there was no mention that Detroit’s Showcase Theatre had a former life as the notorious Eastown, which by this point had been closed for nineteen months, since September 1973, when Eddie Kendricks opened April 11-13, 1975. Along with Kendricks, one of the original Temptations, a Fashion Show Review with “Sexciting Essex Models” indicates that the new owners for going for a different clientele than the audiences for Mountain, Humble Pie, Alice Cooper and the Stooges.
A nice color combo on this poster for Grand Funk Railroad in Switzerland on April 12, 1975.
Sky King returned to their hometown of Ann Arbor, Michigan, appearing at Chances Are on April 13, 1975, with their newly released first album. Reviewer Freddie Brooks in the Ann Arbor SUN newspaper concluded, after naming multiple album tracks, that the entire album was a gem, so here is the full album for your pleasure:
Sky King – Secret Sauce (album) (1975)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=suQvNk8Y4oY
Just recently, we had commented how Gordon Carleton, the most prolific illustrator for the State News newspaper in East Lansing, Michigan, had not done any work for concerts or shows, and then immediately after we discovered this one for Blue Oyster Cult and Bob Seger in Lansing on April 14, 1975. Carleton knocks it out of the park with this one, only making us wish for more.
We’ve been waiting for a chance to use this striking Island Records poster for the band Sparks, and we have it now, for the band’s first Michigan appearance, at the Masonic Auditorium in Detroit on April 14, 1975.
Sparks – This Town Ain't Big Enough for Both of Us (1974)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAzESJ62irI
A full-page Motown Records ad for the Jackson Five’s single “Dancing Machine” and their two-week engagement at the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada, April 10-23, 1975.
A photo of musician Ted Lucas in the Fifth Estate newspaper in Detroit, Michigan to promote his appearance at the Pretzel Bowl in Highland Park, April 14-15, 1975. Also, a photo by Chuck MacDonald to herald the change of season in the same issue.
Poster for Grand Funk in Hamburg, Germany on April 15, 1975 with a variation of the artwork by Neal Adams that was the inside gatefold of the “All The Girls In The World Beware!!!” album.
A full-page A&M Records ad for the first American tour by the English prog-rock band Supertramp, touring in support of their third studio album “Crime of the Century”, with their first Michigan appearance, on April 15, 1975, at the Ford Auditorium in Detroit.
Illustration by Sam Viviano for a show called “The Birds” at the Power Center in Ann Arbor, Michigan, April 16-20, 1975. Viviano, who was a student at the University of Michigan at the time, became a well-known caricature artist, later working for MAD magazine.
Poster for Alice Cooper’s “Welcome to My Nightmare” show in Pembroke Pines, Florida on April 18, 1975, the 17th show of the tour.
Two full-page poster/ads for Grand Funk in Wembley, England on April 18, 1975.
Jackson Browne made a three-city swing through Michigan, starting with Grand Rapids on April 18, 1975, followed by Ann Arbor on the 19th and Kalamazoo on the 21st.
Poster/ad for Jackson Browne with Phoebe Snow at Hill Auditorium in Ann Arbor, Michigan on April 19, 1975.
A full-page Capitol Records ad for Bob Seger’s “Beautiful Loser” album with tour dates that include the first night of his two-nights at the Michigan Palace in Detroit, April 19-20, 1975.
Courtesy of Big Rich Dorris, here is an amazing poster by Mike Brady for the New Riders of the Purple Sage at Masonic Auditorium in Detroit, Michigan on April 20, 1975.
Truer colors, but poorer quality image of Mike Brady’s poster for the New Riders of the Purple Sage at Masonic Auditorium in Detroit, Michigan on April 20, 1975.
Newspaper ad for the New Riders of the Purple Sage at Masonic Auditorium in Detroit, Michigan on April 20, 1975.
An ad for a benefit basketball game at Michigan State University in East Lansing between Hugh Hefner’s Playboy Bunnies and local community celebrities on April 20, 1975.
Thirteen days after the release of the Parliament album “Chocolate City”, the seventh Funkadelic album “Let’s Take It to the Stage” was released on April 21, 1975, artwork by Eddie Douglas.
The guitar solo on the standout track "Get Off Your Ass and Jam" is uncredited. In several interviews and in his 2014 autobiography, “Brothas Be, Yo Like George, Ain't That Funkin' Kinda Hard on You?”, Clinton has said that the guitarist is unknown:
“We finished one take, took a smoke break or something, and noticed that a white kid had wandered into the studio, a smack addict. We didn't know him at all, but he said he played a little guitar, and he wanted to know if he could play with us and pick up a little cash in the process. We set him up, started the track, and he just started to play like he was possessed. He did all the rock 'n' roll that hadn't been heard for a few years, and he did it for the entirety of the track. Even when the song ended, he didn't stop. All of us were up there goggle-eyed, saying, "Damn." We had agreed on 25 bucks, but I gave him 50 because I loved it.”
According to Clinton, he tried to find the guitarist without success. "I tried to find the guy and put him on another song, but he was gone. He never resurfaced. We never heard from him. He's not credited on the record because we have no idea who he was."
In a July 2009 interview with Vintage Guitar, guitarist Paul Warren, who grew up in the Detroit area and had been a session guitarist for Motown Records, is quoted as saying that he played the solo on "Get Off Your Ass and Jam".
Here is the link to Warren’s story, as part of a very interesting larger story about a Gibson “Burst” guitar:
http://www.vintageguitar.com/22223/peter-green/
Funkadelic - Get Off Your Ass and Jam (1975)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4d1i35T5yAk
Cover artwork by Pedro Bell for the Funkadelic album “Let’s Take It to the Stage”, released on April 21, 1975.
The inside gatefold of the cover by Pedro Bell for the Funkadelic album “Let’s Take It to the Stage”.
The Funkadelic Main Invasion Force drawn by Pedro Bell for the Funkadelic album “Let’s Take It to the Stage”, released on April 21, 1975.
Volume Eleven - 1975 - continues - HERE
Returning to the tour, Bob Seger opened for Bachman-Turner Overdrive in St. Cloud, Minnesota on April 4, 1975, in St. Paul, Minnesota on April 6th, and in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on April 7th, all with Thin Lizzie also on the bill.
An ad for Grand Funk’s tour of Germany, picking up with the show in Frankfurt on April 10, 1975.
