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Splatt Gallery's History of Michigan Concert Posters
Volume Eleven - 1975 - Page Six
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From a KISS fan page:
“Two unsuspecting teenagers made KISSTORY by posing with a homemade sign. They were sitting in the sixteenth row when photographer Fin Costello noticed them. He only took a couple of shots of the boys proudly holding their sign against a sold-out arena crowd of 12,009 people (at the KISS concert at Cobo Arena in Detroit, Michigan on May 16, 1975). The photo debuted in July 1975 as a centerfold in the weekly industry magazine, Performance.
“Next, magazines like Circus and Cream were running full-page ads, featuring the two Detroit area youth, announcing the pending live album from KISS. Finally, on September 10, ALIVE! was released (using the picture on the back album cover) and Bruce Redoute and Lee Neaves lives were instantly transformed.
“Still in (Roseville High) school, their popularity soared and by the time KISS returned-just seven months later the boys had more than enough friends that wanted to go to the show with them. Each kid brought only one friend and they sat in the sixteenth row again, except this time they were allowed to go backstage and briefly appear in the video as the band is seen walking to the stage for opening night.”
In the lower left corner, Bruce Redoute and Lee Neaves relive their famous pose 40 years later. The other three pictures are from the night of May 16, 1975. Allegedly, in the photo in the upper right corner, to the right of the two kids holding the banner is future Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith, along with his brother Richard.
The back cover of the album “Alive!” by KISS, released in September 1975, with the photo of Bruce Redoute and Lee Neaves taken at Cobo Arena on May 16, 1975.
An ad for Steve Glantz Presents KISS at Cobo Arena in Detroit, Michigan on May 16, 1975, the show that made two local kids famous.
A Discount Records ad by Jive Comix, aka Ted Echterling, in the May 16, 1975 issue of the State News in East Lansing, Michigan.
Following his May 16, 1975 Discount Records ad for George Duke albums, artist Ted Echterling seems to have disappeared, likely having left Michigan State University. Here is a collection of some of his less elaborate Discount Records ads from early 1975.
Echterling seems to have made a career in adult comics, including the Stray Cat series (Issue #1 shown in the comments below) and a graphic novel version of John Cleland’s notorious “Fanny Hill”.
He also apparently recorded some blues music, and for some time, maintained a blog called “Muddy the Waters”, found here:
http://muddythewatersblues.blogspot.com/
The front cover of “Stray Cats” #1, an erotic adult comic by Ted Echterling, published in 1991 in Keego Harbor, Michigan.
One final collage of the works of Ted Echterling for the Discount Records store in East Lansing, Michigan, from late 1974 through early 1975, showing his conceptual continuity.
Poster for Ted Nugent & the Amboy Dukes in Houston, Texas, May 16-17, 1975.
An ad for Foghat with Montrose and Thee Image in Lansing, Michigan on May 17, 1975. The band Image was guitarist Mike Pinera’s post-Cactus band, coming full circle to when his first group Blues Image was the house band at Thee Image club in Miami Beach, Florida.
An excellent poster by Crow Quill for Leslie West at the Michigan Palace in Detroit on May 17, 1975.
Newspaper ad for Leslie West at the Michigan Palace in Detroit on May 17, 1975.
Even though we had a rare poster for the Michigan Palace, and an excellent one at that by the artist Crow Quill, for Leslie West on May 17, 1975, the generic tour poster was pretty cool too.
A poster by an unknown artist for the final two weeks of operation for the Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, New York. Commander Cody & His Lost Planet Airmen performed on May 17, 1975.
An ad for the first Michigan appearance by the pop-rock band Orleans, at Chances Are in Ann Arbor, May 17-19, 1975. On another ad for the show they have a quote attributed to Rolling Stone magazine, “Probably the best live rock and dance band you can find in the country”. Their 1976 hit “Still the One” is a guilty pleasure.
“I Don’t Care” is not a song title, as we first assumed, but rather the name of an obscure jazz-rock band from Cleveland, Ohio – see our following post.
Orleans – Still the One (1976)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrqkr8PpEvM
“I Don’t Care” was the name of jazz-rock band from Cleveland, Ohio. Their cover of the Jimi Hendrix song “Fire”, with a bizarre video is also linked below:
I Don’t Care – Fire (1976)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qik32lbQqbw
Grand Funk Railroad toured Japan for a second time, with five shows starting on May 18, 1975 and ending on May 23rd. Their first tour of Japan had been three shows in July 1971.
Newspaper ads for Frank Zappa & the Mothers at Cobo Arena in Detroit, Michigan on May 18, 1975. Zappa was helping his old friend, a struggling Captain Beefheart, by bringing him along on this tour. Beefheart expressed his appreciation by sitting in a chair onstage during most of the set making drawings of Zappa as the Devil. But he also contributed some harmonica, some poetry recital and some singing, especially on the encore “Willie the Pimp”, some of which is documented on the album “Bongo Fury” which was recorded live in Austin, Texas two days after this Detroit show.
Oh, and the drummer that a show reviewer could not identify, “the skinny kid who played with such savagery”, was Terry Bozzio.
Poster for Alice Cooper with Suzi Quatro in Houston, Texas on May 18, 1975.
We’ve pinned down the date of a Detroit Free Press newspaper story about the debut of the Motor City Bad Boys to May 21, 1975, because of a reference to an Alice Cooper show in Knoxville, Tennessee on the same night. The article also lists the band’s lineup, which is the original line-up that included Spencer Hirsch, formerly of Assemblage, on drums. The second line-up, with former MC5 and New Order drummer Dennis Thompson, will form in 1976.
There is also a ticket stub that is clearly from 1975.
A screenshot from the Motor City Music Archives, posted in the comments below, has the full line-ups and discography of the band.
A screenshot from the Motor City Music Archives (now defunct), with the full line-ups and discography of the Motor City Bad Boys.
A “tour-blank” poster for the Spring 1975 tour by Fleetwood Mac that would have been used for the band’s appearance at the Michigan Palace in Detroit on May 22, 1975. This was the first tour, and first Michigan appearance, with the line-up including Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks.
This was just two months before the release of the first album by this line-up, the self-titled “Fleetwood Mac”, also known as the “White Album”, which would their first #1 album, although it would take 58 weeks to hit that mark.
The cover of the May 23, 1975 edition of the Ann Arbor SUN newspaper in Ann Arbor, Michigan with an interview with John McLaughlin who had recently performed at the Masonic Auditorium in Detroit, opening for Jeff Beck. The insert is Norma Jean Bell who had been performing with Lyman Woodard until she joined McLaughlin’s band.
McLaughlin’s bass player was Ralphe Armstrong, who was born in Detroit and had attended Michigan's Interlochen School of Fine Arts before he joined McLaughlin’s group in 1973 at age 17. By the end of the year both Bell and Armstrong would join Frank Zappa’s Mothers of Invention.
An ad by Rainbow Productions for the Lyman Woodard Organization and John Sinclair’s Strata Records, May 23, 1975.
The subscription form in the May 23, 1975 edition of the Ann Arbor SUN newspaper in Ann Arbor, Michigan with the premium offer of the new album by the Lyman Woodard Organization on Strata Records.
The Strata Records label for the “Saturday Night Special” album by the Lyman Woodard Organization.
Lyman Woodard Organization – Creative Musicians (1975)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQjw9n9pB28
The album “Time” by Larry Nozero was released shortly after Lyman Woodard’s “Saturday Night Special” album in 1975, it was the sixth, and final, album released on the Strata Records label.
A super-nice poster/handbill by Roger Shepherd for Commander Cody & his Lost Planet Airmen opening for Jefferson Starship in Tempe, Arizona on May 23, 1975. Shepard was based in Sacramento, California which has a pretty rich, but largely unknown, rock poster legacy. You can find many examples at the following link. Go through all the pull-downs, some fantastic stuff there:
http://www.sacrockmuseum.org/roger-shepherd.html
The earliest reference to Ron Asheton’s new band New Order we’ve found, in the May 23, 1975 edition of the Los Angeles Free Press newspaper, where in The Hunter column it was reported. “New Order, a band made up of ex-Stooges and ex-MC5ers, rehearsing at the Whisky.” We have also included some LA cultural artifacts from the time.
A first-hand account on the formation of New Order can be found on drummer Dennis Thompson’s blog, Parts One and Two are linked below, we will link to Part Three in another post.
Machine Gun Thompson – Beginning of New Order:
https://web.archive.org/web/20091110021307/http://www.machinegunthompson.com/2009/11/beginning-of-new-order.html
Machine Gun Thompson – New Order Part 2:
https://web.archive.org/web/20091111172720/http://www.machinegunthompson.com/2009/11/new-order-part-2.html
As we discussed on the occasion of Gloria Gaynor’s first Detroit appearance back in February 1975, the recording industry had come up with a new product, the twelve-inch single, or the “disco mix” with extended versions of dance songs intended more for club use than for commercial sales.
Billboard magazine added the “Disco Action” chart in the October 26, 1974 issue, the first #1 record was Gaynor’s “Never Can Say Goodbye”, as compiled by Tom Moulton and was based on the popularity of the record in the clubs, as opposed to the number of records sold. In a way, this was reminiscent of the earliest Billboard charts that used to figure in radio and juke box play.
The Los Angeles Free Press newspaper began their regular “disco survey” in the May 23, 1975 edition, a city-wide record survey of the discos in the L.A. area. Topping that first list was the Temptations’ song “Glasshouse” from their album “A Song For You”.
A live version, from a show in Germany in October 1975, is linked below. We also have the live performance of the song “Shakey Ground” from the same album. It is faster paced than the studio recording and starts off with a cool wah-wah “earthquake” not included on the record.
But we have also included the studio version of “Shakey Ground”, which was co-written by Funkadelic guitarist Eddie Hazel and features Hazel on guitar along with original Funkadelic bassist Billy "Bass" Nelson.
Temptations – Glasshouse (live in Germany 10/75)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtShk1-DY6g
Temptations – Shakey Ground (live in Germany 10/75)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlqeg9nenHE
Temptations – Shakey Ground (1975)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQljbpsXKUY&pp=QAA%3D
Two ads by an unknown artist with two nice logos for the Tribe, appearing in Ann Arbor, Michigan on May 24, 1975.
An ad that has the pretzels dancing, for Miles Davis at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan on May 24, 1975. Guitarist George Benson was a last-minute substitution when Miles had to cancel due to illness.
A poster by an unknown artist for the season’s Grand Opening of Wampler’s Lake Pavilion, with Astigafa and Sonar Eclipse on May 24, 1975, followed the next day by Salem Witchcraft and Spunk.
Poster by Gary Grimshaw for the Summer Celebration at Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti on May 25, 1975, featuring Santana, Peter Frampton and Lynyrd Skynyrd (mis-spelled).
Newspaper ad with ticket price. Here is the Santana set from that day:
Santana – Live in Ypsilanti, Michgan (5/25/1975)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35H4nnYtj5Q
Record store ad with tie-in to the Summer Celebration concert with Santana, Peter Frampton and Lynyrd Skynyrd at Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti on May 25, 1975.
A full-page MCA Records ad for the third album by Lynyrd Skynyrd with tour dates including a show in Detroit, Michigan on May 25, 1975. It was actually in Ypsilanti, Michigan, opening for Santana and Peter Frampton at the Summer Celebration concert at Eastern Michigan University.
A full-page MCA Records ad for the single “Saturday Night Special” by Lynyrd Skynyrd with tour dates including a show in Detroit, Michigan on May 25, 1975. We believe the venue was changed to Ypsilanti, Michigan, opening for Santana and Peter Frampton at the Summer Celebration concert at Eastern Michigan University, but the Concert Database lists two shows for that date, with the Detroit show at the Masonic Temple.
An ad for the “Ann Arbor premier” of Sonic’s Rendezvous Band at Chances Are on May 25, 1975. Notwithstanding an earlier flyer from August 1974, this is probably the first real SRB show. The ad name-drops the former bands of the group, Fred Smith from the MC5, Scott Morgan from the Rationals and Lightnin’, and bassist Ron Cooke from the band Detroit. Since the ad does not name-drop the Stooges, this must be before drummer Scott Asheton joined the band. The drummer was probably the guy in the promo photo shown below, named Miguel “Mike” Martinez.
One of the earliest mentions of the band had been two months earlier, in the Music Notes section in the March 28, 1975 issue of the Ann Arbor SUN newspaper. “Scott Morgan, formerly of the Rationals and Lightin’, has put together a band with MC5er Fred Smith and ex-Detroit bass player Ron Cook (sic), called Sonic’s Rendezvous”.
Note that the ad uses Leni Sinclair’s photo of Fred Smith performing with the MC5, as there were obviously no live shots of SRB yet.
Early promo photo for Sonic’s Rendezvous Band, with (from right to left) Scott Morgan, Fred Smith, Ron Cooke, and drummer Miguel “Mike” Martinez(?)
The events section in the May 23, 1975 issue of the Ann Arbor SUN newspaper confirms the first show, it has the correct day of the week, Sunday, but has the date wrong as the 24th. It also mentions two immediately following shows, on Monday and Tuesday at the Red Carpet Lounge in Detroit, again with the wrong dates. The concert database has them correctly as May 26-27, 1975 at the Red Carpet.
The concert database also has a listing for a show at Chances Are in Ann Arbor on July 7, 1975, a Monday night, confirmed by an events listing in the Ann Arbor SUN.
Disc #1 of the 2006 6-CD Box Set is called “Chances Are 1975”, and likely is the July 7th show. The liner notes list Scott Asheton as the drummer by then. It has (13) tracks, and can be heard here:
https://archive.org/details/sonicsrendezvousbandcd1chanceareliveatannarbor1975
A pair of newspaper ads for Aerosmith at Cobo Arena in Detroit, Michigan on May 27, 1975, with a second show added for May 28th, “due to overwhelming popular demand”.
Despite a few straggler show ads afterwards, which may or may not have actually happened, it became obvious that the Rockets actually had broken up near the end of 1974. Jim McCarty and Johnny “Bee” Badanjek stuck together and formed a new band called Ace High, with Rusty Day and John Sauter from the band Detroit, and Jody Blair from Catfish and Zoom.
The band debuted at the Red Carpet in Detroit in late April, this ad has their return for a couple more weeks starting on May 28, 1975.
Poster/ad for Grand Funk in Honolulu, Hawaii on May 28, 1975, at the conclusion of a four month, 43 show tour, that covered nine countries. The live album “Caught in the Act”, released in August 1975, was comprised of recordings from this tour. It would also be the band’s final tour.
Once they dried out from the historic flood that washed out their planned grand opening at the end of April, the Silver Dollar Saloon in East Lansing, Michigan began a series of shows that included Brian Auger & the Oblivion Express, REO Speedwagon, .38 Special, in their first Michigan appearance, and, as seen in the above ad, the Pure Prairie League on May 29, 1975.
A pair of poster/ads by Hugh Surratt for Rufus with Mandrill and Parliament-Funkadelic at Michigan State University in East Lansing on May 29, 1975. It was the first Michigan show for the Chicago band Rufus, who were becoming known as “Rufus featuring Chaka Khan”.
The roots of the band went all the way back to the band American Breed who had the 1968 smash hit “Bend Me, Shape Me”. The band eventually became "Ask Rufus", taking their name from the title of the advice column in Mechanics Illustrated. By the time of their debut album in July 1973 they had shortened their name and added vocalist Kahn.
Their second album, released in May 1974, included their first hit single "Tell Me Something Good", written for the band by Stevie Wonder. The album became their first of a consecutive five Gold albums that yielded nine hit singles.
Rufus – Tell Me Something Good (1974)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cm_cFzVAoo8
Rufus followed up their Michigan debut with a show the very next day, May 30, 1975, in Ann Arbor, again with Mandrill and Funkadelics, and then once more two days later, on June 1st, in Detroit with the addition of Kool & the Gang to the line-up (the ad is incorrect for the June 1st show at Cobo Arena).
Kevin Tolman provided the artwork for the cover of the June 1975 issue of CREEM magazine, which was later reprinted without the text in the magazine’s first anthology “The Best of CREEM #1” published in Spring 1977.
CREEM magazine had started a new photo feature with the February 1975 issue called the “Star’s Cars”, so far they had Rod Stewart (Excaliber SS Phaeton), Tina Turner (Jaguar V12 XKE), Billy Preston (1958 Bentley), Gregg Allman (1966 Excaliber Roadster), and above, from the June 1975 issue, Grand Funk with their 1974 Cadillac Limo.
After a quiet month following the re-opening of the Eastown as the Showcase Theatre, with David Ruffin and fashion shows, the owners must have realized that the past incarnation would hold appeal to the previous audiences for rock music and came out with “Remember The…Eastown?” to promote a show by Kraftwerk with Les Variations and Brataxis on June 1, 1975.
This was the second Michigan appearance for Kraftwerk, they had performed at Ford Auditorium a month earlier, both shows part of their first US tour. They would not appear very often in Detroit afterwards, but they certainly made their mark on the city that would invent “Techno” in the mid-1980’s.
Kraftwerk – Autobahn (Midnight Special TV show) (1975)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJM9xpvMbJ0
Volume Eleven - 1975 - continues - HERE
An ad with Bob Seger opening for Wishbone Ash and Aerosmith in Louisville, Kentucky on May 31, 1975.
