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Splatt Galley's History of Michigan Concert Posters
Volume Fifteen - 1979
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1979 calendar from WABX-FM radio in Detroit, Michigan. The radio station introduced a new mascot, Rocky the X Pup, designed by San Francisco poster artist Victor Moscoso with assist from Gary Grimshaw.
A fabric version of the 1979 calendar from WABX-FM radio in Detroit, Michigan.
Close-up of Rocky the X Pup, mascot for WABX-FM radio in Detroit, Michigan.
A collection of various color-proofs for the Rocky the X Pup logo for WABX-FM radio in Detroit, Michigan, by Victor Moscoso and Gary Grimshaw.
One more shot of the WABX radio mascot Rocky the X Pup since this image of a postcard has quite nice resolution. Designed by Victor Moscoso (credited) and Gary Grimshaw (uncredited).
A Warner Bros. Records promo card with “From The Inside” Alice Cooper album art on the front side and a calendar for 1979 on the reverse.
Calendar of events at Bookie’s 870 Club in Detroit, Michigan for January 1979, likely created by Scott Campbell.
The weekend of January 19-20 appears to be the earliest found mention of the Torpedoes, formed by guitarist Robert Gillespie and vocalist Johnny Angelos in October 1978.
Gillespie, along with drummer Ralph Serafino and bassist Mike Marshall, had all been members of Rob Tyner’s MC5. Angelos had been with the Amboy Dukes, replacing Dave Gilbert as the band’s lead vocalist in late 1972.
The calendar also has a show by Destroy All Monsters, the Sillies, and Teenage Head at Second Chance in Ann Arbor on January 8th.
Issue #2 of Spooee! Magazine, January 1979, with cover stars Cinecyde, Denizens, and Destroy All Monsters. Spooee! Logo by Dennis Loren.
A half-page ad, courtesy of Russ Gibb, in the January 1979 issue of Spooee! magazine with the title “Detroit Has A Lot Of Talent” that has an interesting list of musicians and their representatives along with pertinent phone numbers.
A full-page spread for the band Flirt in the January 1979 issue of Spooee! magazine.
A full-page photo by S. Thomas Sears of Ron Asheton with Destroy All Monsters in the January 1979 issue of Spooee! Magazine.
The front cover of Issue #5 of Destroy All Monsters magazine, published by Cary Loren in January 1979. The issue celebrated the 1919-1929 Hollywood Era of Austrian-American actor and director, Heir Erich Von Stroheim and was dedicated to French poet and actor Antonin Artaud. Loren himself had been living in Hollywood, California in the final months of 1978.
Copies of Issue #5 of Destroy All Monsters magazine also included a color xerox taken from a set of ten that Carey Loren had produced during his four months living in Hollywood, California at the end of 1978. Shown above are four of the pieces.
Bob Seger photo by Thomas Weschler on the January 1979 cover of the Harmony House record store Monthly Music Magazine.
An ad for the second single by the Romantics, “Tell It To Carrie” on Greg Shaw’s BOMP! label in the January 1979 issue of BOMP! Magazine.
An ad for the debut single by the Reruns in the January 1979 issue of BOMP! Magazine.
Ads in the January 1979 issue of BOMP! Magazine for the third(!) album by the San Francisco band Chrome, the “So American” single by Detroit’s Mutants, and a live EP by the Dogs.
Chrome - Half Machine Lip Moves (album) (1979)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZfGrdRcTyc
The January 1979 issue of Bomp! Magazine with a cover story on “The New Motor City Sound” of Detroit.
Ted Nugent on the cover of CREEM magazine for his fourth time, with the January 1979 issue.
Gilda Radner’s “Cut-Out Doll Book”, published on January 1, 1979, featured a cardboard Gilda figure with 14 outfits, including those of her most popular SNL characters and fashionable street clothes of the late 1970's.
Poster by John McCormick for the Ivories, Flirt and the Dead Endz at the Latino Ballroom in Pontiac, Michigan on January 5, 1979.
Thinking, at first glance, this was an incredible double-bill, but it is an ad for two separate shows, with Devo at the Detroit Music Hall on January 5, 1979, their fourth Michigan show, and the Grateful Dead sixteen days later at the Masonic Auditorium in Detroit, their 16th Michigan show.
A later ad for Devo at the Detroit Music Hall in Detroit, Michigan on January 5, 1979, in attention-grabbing BIG letters.
Poster/flyer by an unknown artist for the Mutants, Reruns and Plugs at Bookie’s Club 870 in Detroit, Michigan, January 5-6, 1979.
A second poster/flyer for the Mutants, Reruns and Plugs at Bookie’s Club 870 in Detroit, Michigan, January 5-6, 1979.
A flyer for the Aruba Palace in Detroit, Michigan with a schedule of events presented by Suzy Clone, starting with R.U.R. and Seatbelts on January 5, 1979. The venue appears to have been a banquet hall or a discotheque with a PA system, not sure if it was referred to as the Aruba Palace other than for these shows presented by Suzy Clone, also not sure if the Romantics actually appeared there in February as indicated.
An ad for the Aruba Palace in Detroit, Michigan with a schedule of events presented by Suzy Clone, starting with R.U.R. and Seatbelts with Boy Dogs on January 5, 1979. Coming up were shows by The 27, Cult Heroes, Destroy All Monsters, Flirt, Cinecyde, Denizens, and the Romantics.
Newspaper ad for the Second Ann Arbor Folk Festival in Ann Arbor, Michigan on January 6, 1979, the year on the ad is wrong, the page header is correct.
A full-page Warner Bros. Records ad in the January 6, 1979 issue of Billboard magazine celebrating the Platinum certification, a million units sold, of Funkadelic’s album “One Nation Under A Groove”.
A full-page Epic Records ad in the January 6, 1979 issue of Billboard magazine for the seventh, and final, album by Brownsville Station, called “Air Special”. At this point the band was simply known as just Brownsville.
A collection of album cover art and picture sleeve singles that comprise the recorded output by Brownsville Station over the course of their eleven year recording career, 1969 through 1979. The band released seven albums and fifteen singles.
Their first single was released on Hideout Records, the label owned by Dave Leone and Punch Andrews and named for the series of teen clubs that they owned and operated. Brownsville Station’s first album was released on Palladium Records, owned by Punch Andrews and named for the teen club that he had in Birmingham, Michigan. The album was picked up by Warner Bros. Records.
Their next four albums were released on Big Tree Records, a label started by Doug Morris, who eventually became Chairman and CEO of Sony Music Entertainment. Brownsville Station’s penultimate album came out on the Private Stock label owned by Larry Uttal who had owned and presided over the Bell, Amy and Mala conglomerate of labels. The last album was on the major label, Epic.
Their biggest record, and the song they are most remembered by, is of course, 1973’s “Smokin' In The Boy's Room”, it peaked at #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart and at #2 on the Cashbox chart.
Following the release of the final album “Air Special”, the band continued to perform until the end of April 1979 before disbanding. Brownsville Station probably made their mark more through their live shows than by their records, as the group was relentless in turning up on nearly every festival bill they could find. We’ll take a retrospective look at their performance career when we reach April 1979, but for now, one last time, here is the video for “Smokin' in the Boys Room” by Brownsville Station:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5K59EMGgrUA
A full-page Motown records ad in the January 6, 1979 issue of the British trade magazine Music Week for the fifteenth studio album by Marvin Gaye, a double album called “Here, My Dear” which was recorded as part of the divorce settlement between Gaye and his first wife Anna Gordy.
Poster by Barbara Weinberg, with art direction by John Sinclair and photo of Eddie Jefferson by Leni Sinclair, for two jam-packed shows on January 7, 1979 at the Paradise Theatre in Detroit, Michigan, presenting Jay McShann, Eddie Jefferson, Roy Brooks, the Paradise Theatre Orchestra featuring Lamont Hamilton and “Little Giant of the Trumpet” Marcus Belgrave, and an All-Star Revue with original McKinney Cotton Picker Dave Wilborn, “Alto Madness” Richie Cole, “Pure Vocal Dynamite” Marla Jackson, “Last of the Red Hot Tap Dancers” Flash Beaver, “Two Dancing Fools” the Leonard Brothers, Candy Johnson “And His Wild Wailing Horn”, the “Motor City’s Pride and Joy” Jimmy Wilkins Orchestra, and MC Paul Leonard, plus Bessie Smith in “St. Louis Blues”, and Bela Lugosi in “The Phantom Ship”.
Poster/flyer by Niagara for Destroy All Monsters with Teenage Head at Second Chance in Ann Arbor, Michigan on January 8, 1979.
A second poster for Destroy All Monsters with Teenage Head at Second Chance in Ann Arbor, Michigan on January 8, 1979.
The Friends Roadshow returned to Ann Arbor after a five-year absence, living in Amsterdam. They performed at the Second Chance on January 11, 1979, twenty days later, giving time for things to sink in, the Michigan Daily newspaper ran a show review, an interview with group founder Jango Edwards, and an record review of their album “Live at the Melkweg”, recorded at the Amsterdam night club in February 1978.
Here is some live video, recorded at the Michigan Union Ballroom, apparently another show performed in town during their February 1979 visit.
Friends Roadshow - Prismatic Band Song (Michigan Union Ballroom - 1979)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Glh05EJ3r_M
Friends Roadshow - Bicycle Seat (Michigan Union Ballroom - 1979)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qWbaA9sTqlE
Poster/flyer for the Aruba Palace in Detroit, Michigan with the Algebra-Mothers on January 12, 1979, the Cult Heroes also appeared according to other flyers for this night. “A-Moms” bassist Ralph Valdez created most of the flyers for the band’s shows.
Poster/flyer for Suzy Clone’s Aruba Palace in Detroit, Michigan with the Cult Heroes and A-Moms on January 12, 1979, and with Flirt and Destroy All Monsters on January 20th.
Poster/flyer for R.U.R., Cinecyde and the Boydogs at Bookie’s Club 870 in Detroit, Michigan, January 12-13, 1979.
Poster by Hiawatha Bailey for the Cult Heroes with the Jems in Ann Arbor, Michigan on January 13, 1979.
An ad for the Old Chicago amusement park in Bolingbrook, Illinois with a rather morbid “re-creation of the Hendrix-Joplin Rock Legend”, and with two nights by Brownsville Station, January 13-14, 1979.
Poster for Stevie Wonder at the 50th Birthday Anniversary Benefit Concert For Martin Luther King in Atlanta, Georgia on January 15, 1979, a precursor, or perhaps the start of Wonder’s advocacy for a national holiday on King’s birthday and Wonder’s upcoming 1980 single “Happy Birthday”.
A second poster, possibly a backstage pass, for Stevie Wonder at the 50th Birthday Anniversary Benefit Concert For Martin Luther King in Atlanta, Georgia on January 15, 1979.
President Ronald Reagan approved the creation of the holiday, signing it into existence on November 2, 1983. The first official Martin Luther King Jr. Day, held the third Monday in January of each year, was held on January 20, 1986, and was commemorated with a large-scale concert, where Wonder was the headlining performer.
Poster/flyer by John McCormick for Cinecyde, Plugz and the Pigs at the Latino Ballroom in Pontiac, Michigan on January 19, 1979.
Poster/flyer for Destroy All Monsters and Flirt at Suzy Clone’s Aruba in Detroit, Michigan on January 20, 1979.
A two-page Motown Records ad in the January 20, 1979 issue of Billboard magazine for the Marvin Gaye album “Here, My Dear” and the single “A Funky Space Reincarnation”.
Marvin Gaye - A Funky Space Reincarnation (1979)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehQG6Lj0yM4
Volume Fifteen - 1979 - continues - HERE
