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Splatt Gallery's History of Michigan Concert Posters
Volume Five - 1969 - Page Seven
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The Ann Arbor Hullabaloo franchise lasted only long enough to be the final dagger in the heart of the Fifth Dimension Club. The Hullabaloo was re-named Avehicle, which only lasted slightly longer.
This poster by CREEM magazine artist, Linz, for the April 12, 1969 and April 19th shows, might be how the artist imagined the tables at this oddly named venue.
Poster by James Render, for the Bob Seger System with Wind, at the Silverbell Hideout in Auburn Hills, Michigan, April 12, 1969.
Poster artist James Render made a total of ten posters of the Bob Seger System, the most of any act documented in the Render posters, over a period from July 1968 through April 1969. For those interested in this type of thing, the second most was SRC and the Wilson Mower Pursuit, each with seven posters, and then, Frost and Third Power with six each.
Show at Avehicle (formerly the Hullabaloo) in Ann Arbor, Michigan, April 12, 1969, with Rotary Connection, Head, and the Soul Remains in an ad by Dave Baker.
Conflicting with the previous ad, a different show listed for Avehicle in Ann Arbor, Michigan, April 12, 1969.
An ad for the Amboy Dukes at the Crazy Horse near Kalamazoo, Michigan on April 12, 1969.
A full-page Atlantic Records ad in the April 12, 1969 issue of Billboard magazine for Aretha Franklin’s twelfth single for the label.
The fifth Michigan pop festival of 1969, at Oakland Community College, April 13, 1969, featuring seven bands.
A full-page “WOW” poster by Dave Baker in the April 14, 1969 issue of the Ann Arbor Argus newspaper in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Benefit show for the Ann Arbor Argus newspaper with SRC, Commander Cody, Soul Remains, and MC5 on April 17, 1969 at Avehicle, formerly the Ann Arbor Hullabaloo. Poster presumably by Dave Baker.
An ad by Dave Baker for the Argus benefit, April 17, 1969, before the addition of the MC5 to the bill.
Poster/ad by N. Conkle (?) for the Flying Bear Medicine Show, a package that included the Buddy Miles Express, featuring Detroit guitarist Jim McCarty, for two shows in California, April 17-18, 1969.
Posters for the Crow’s Nest West were nowhere near the quality of the ones being made for the Village Pub or the Something Different club, but we’re happy to find this image, by an unknown artist, for an April 18, 1969 show.
The Frost had just released their first album, on the Vanguard label. This is also one of the earliest appearances of the band All The Lonely People, an eight-piece ensemble led by Larry Baird who would go on to an illustrious career as an orchestral arranger and composer.
Tony Reay has compiled a medley from ATLP live tapes, and as usual, he can tell the story much better than we can, and you can read it here:
All The Lonely People – Blues and the Abstract Five String Truth (1969)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ihJe20IO18
Three Michigan bands, Amboy Dukes, Mitch Ryder, and Frijid Pink (shown as “Bridgid Pink”), listed as upcoming acts at the Rondeau Pavilion in Morpeth, Ontario, Canada, April 18, 1969.
An awesome poster by Seattle artist John Moehring, for the Mothers of Invention with the Guess Who and Alice Cooper in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada on April 18, 1969. The same poster would be used for the same show the next night in Seattle, Washington. Here is a review, of sorts, of the Vancouver show:
“Alice Cooper, (a group) however, proved to be little more interesting than sitting in on a jam session in an insane asylum. Light show excepted, these freaks pranced and skipped around the stage like the house band at a spastic reunion, playing with all the finesse of a kindergarten percussion group. The most interesting part of their act was trying to figure out if Alice Cooper was a girl, boy or neuter.”
An ad for Alice Cooper, appearing with the Mothers of Invention and the Guess Who, at the Agrodome in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada on April 18, 1969.
The 133rd weekend at the Grande Ballroom, April 18-19, 1969, featured Matt Radofsky’s third poster for the venue. Chuck Berry headlined both shows with support by Julie Driscoll with Brian Auger & Trinity and Rare Earth both nights.
This image was produced only as a 4” x 6” postcard.
In an interesting case of timing, Julie Driscoll with Brian Auger & Trinity had, just four days before, effectively put an end to the career of The Monkees.
On April 14, 1969, NBC had televised what was to be the first of three prime-time Monkees specials, but it would be the first and the last. An over-the-top plotline that had Julie Driscoll and Brian Auger trap the Monkees in giant test tubes to brainwash them to brainwash the masses through commercial exploitation, with a confusing nod to Darwin and a capsule history of rock and roll, and yeah, it was kind of a mess.
The Monkees thought the plot was too silly, Davey Jones complained that Driscoll and Auger had more screen time than the band, and for Peter Tork, it was the last straw, he quit the band at the end of the production.
The Monkees – 33 1/3 Revolutions per Monkee (NBC TV 1969)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYSssfG7Gy8
A newsprint version of Matt Radofsky’s postcard for the Grande Ballroom, April 18-19, 1969.
Poster/flyer with the Grande Ballroom Lightning Bulb ad by Dave Baker for a long list of upcoming shows at the Grande Ballroom in Detroit, Michigan, starting with Chuck Berry on April 18-19, 1969 and the following half-dozen shows through to May 1st.
Dave Baker’s ad for the Grande Ballroom in the Ann Arbor Argus newspaper.
A new artist, Mary Partridge, began making posters for the Village Pub in Birmingham, Michigan with these shows by the Rationals with Head Over Heels, and Savage Grace with Professor Cain’s Experiment on April 18-19, 1969. Her posters were collaborations with a partner, either her boyfriend Tom Wall, or a guy named Phil (last name unknown). If we have the story right, the guys would draw “the sexy girls” and Mary would do the lettering.
An ad for the Red Roach on Plum Street in Detroit, Michigan with the bands Plum Wine and Zenith Murry Fly Palace initiating Friday and Saturday “all night sounds”, April 18-19, 1969. The short-lived Plum Wine band performed at the two Crow’s Nest clubs, opening for the MC5 at the Crow’s Nest West in Westland in February 1969. They opened for Joe Cocker at the Grande Ballroom in May 1969, and performed at the first WABX free concert at Tarter Field in Detroit on July 20, 1969 along with SRC, Savage Grace, Virgin Dawn, and Wilson Mower Pursuit.
Ads in the Ann Arbor Argus newspaper by Dave Baker, plus a show at Avehicle in Ann Arbor, Michigan with Teegarden & Van Winkle and Charging Rhinoceros of Soul on April 19, 1969.
Poster by James Render, for Sweetwater, Geyda, and Toby Wesselfox at the Silverbell Hideout in Auburn Hills, Michigan, April 19, 1969.
The Freakouts continued in East Lansing, Michigan, No. 8 brought Bob Seger to Grandmothers on April13, 1969, and No. 9 was back on the MSU campus on April 19, 1969.
On the previous post with the poster for the Village Pub, the band Savage Grace was billed as “the Hit of the Detroit Pop Festival”, and on the poster for Freakout No. 9 they are billed as “the most talked about band at the Detroit pop festival”, so they must have made quite the impression at that inaugural festival of the 1969 season.
Savage Grace was formed when a bass player from Ann Arbor named Al Jacquez joined the band The Scarlett Letter who had already released three singles on the Mainstream label. The name for the new band was suggested by WABX deejay Jerry Lubin at a band rehearsal.
Savage Grace became labeled as an early Prog Rock band, but first, here is a sample of the sound of The Scarlett Letter:
The Scarlet Letter – Mary Maiden (1968)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tg4fH9cBxlg
April 19, 1969 at the Silverbell Hideout is the earliest known gig we can find by the Toby Wesselfox Band, formed at the end of 1968, and included Plymouth, Michigan musicians Bob Resch, drummer from the Southampton Rowe, and Chris Campbell, the bass player that would later be a mainstay with Bob Seger’s future bands. Band poster by Jeep Holland for A-Square Productions.
Wesselfox – Fool for your Lovin’ (1969)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NaM2WjZ930w
Another pairing of the MC5 with the Pleasure Seekers, again across the river in Canada, on April 19, 1969.
A beautiful, colorful poster for an April 19, 1969 concert in Livonia, Michigan, by artist Marge Lombardi. As we’ve recounted before, Detroit was the top fund-raising city in the country for ALSAC, the leukemia research organization, with many of those events being benefit concerts by the city’s rock and soul groups. This concert at the Ice Palace in Livonia seems to be a thank-you to some of the ALSAC bands, it was also only the second or third show ever by Brownsville Station, and the line-up was also stacked with acts associated with the producer Artie Fields.
Fields, who was born in Brooklyn, New York, came to Detroit when his family moved there in the 1930’s. He began playing in bands at age 15 and became the orchestra leader at Fortune Records during the 1950’s. In 1967, he bought the Alhambra Theatre on Woodward Avenue at the North End of Detroit, a movie palace that was built in the second wave of theater constructions, opening in 1914. He converted the place into a recording studio and took on commercial clients. Fields wrote the 1967 baseball theme song “Go Get ‘Em, Tigers” and jingles for Firestone Tires, General Motors, and “Let’s Go Krogering” for the supermarket chain.
He also started the Top Dog record label, recording rock, pop, and soul, including four of the acts at this concert, three of whom you can hear below. The Alhambra Studio will also feature again later, as the site of some big albums coming up. These are the sounds of true Detroit.
The Camel Drivers – Give It a Try (1968)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7Ki7wDsWIE
Larry Buffa – Love Can Change You (1969)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0bqV99ykGY
Joe Towns – Busy Signal (1969)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZv4j9XrnRc
And wrapping up a busy April 19, 1969, we have this poster by an unknown artist, for a show at the Groves High School in Birmingham, Michigan, promoted by Mike Quatro, and featuring the Spencer Davis Group, for their fifth show in the area within a month.
Atlantic Records ad in the April 19, 1969 issue of Billboard magazine which shows a point in transition for George Clinton. Starting with the hit record “(I Wanna) Testify” in 1967, Clinton’s group The Parliaments were on the Revilot Records label until the label went bankrupt in 1969 and the rights to the group were sold off to Atlantic, who re-issued the group’s final single for Revilot, “A New Day Begins”. Clinton did not want work for Atlantic, so he gave up the rights to the Parliaments name and formed the group Funkadelic.
One of Clinton’s weirdest records, we’re not sure if the title was meant to be prophetic, but it turned out to be.
The Parliaments – A New Day Begins (1969)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GD10PkFOHUM
Thanks to Mayer Hawthorne, more people now know the song “Maybe So Maybe No”, a criminally over-looked gem from 1969.
The original recording is credited to the New Holidays, aka The Holidays, The Hollidays, The Royal Holidays, The Four Hollidays, and The Fabulous Holidays, just that list alone gives you an idea of how complicated and convoluted the history of this group of singers was, they even had a hit record without actually being on it. Their head-spinning history which includes Detroit clubs such as the Webbwood Inn, the Chit Chat club, Mr. Kelly’s, Phelp’s Lounge, Lee’s Club Sensation, the 20 Grand, and The Moonglow, and Detroit record labels Star-X, Bumble Bee, Master, La Beat, Holliday, Golden World, Revilot, Groove City, Soul Hawk, and Westbound, is best left to the Soulful Detroit website.
“Maybe So Maybe No” was written and produced by Tony Hester and Richard “Popcorn” Wylie, each of whom also have long, intersecting histories in the Detroit music scene, much of which we managed to document so far.
Originally released on Wylie’s Soul Hawk label, Wylie though the song had the potential to be a nation-wide hit so he gave it to Armen Boladian for release on his Westbound label, which although relatively new, had just shipped “vast quantities” of Funkadelic’s “I Bet You”, but it seems that the only Westbound copies that have been found are marked “Promotion Copy Not For Sale”.
So, if you are still with us throughout this jumbled mess, the above image combines a picture of the Soul Hawk release with an inset picture of Tony Hester (we think), a poster from a 1988 UK appearance of Richard “Popcorn” Wylie, and a picture of the “promo-only” Westbound release.
For the following videos, we have the original 1969 recording and the promo video for Mayer Hawthorne’s 2009 faithful cover, which incidentally also has a cameo appearance by the famous Venice Beach busker Harry Perry, whose Michigan roots we have earlier detailed as well. Whew!
The New Holidays – Maybe So Maybe No (1969)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEEvQVxFLzY
Mayer Hawthorne – Maybe So Maybe No (2009)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpfcydeSGeo
The second earliest-known poster by Mary Partridge, for a Pop Concert Fashion Show at the Village Pub in Birmingham, Michigan on April 20, 1969. Music was provided by the bands Tea, Bhang, and Carousel.
The tenth Freakout in East Lansing, Michigan, took place again at Grandmother’s and featured the MC5 on April 20, 1969. Terry Sharbach made this poster, there’s something on the back of it that we’d sure like to see.
A second poster/ad for The MC5 at Grandmother’s in East Lansing, Michigan, April 20, 1969, again made by Terry Sharbach, who was never content with just one.
Illustration by Dave Baker for a concert by Earth Opera at the Canterbury House in Ann Arbor, Michigan, April 20, 1969. The Boston-based group had opened three shows for the Velvet Underground at the Grande Ballroom in Detroit the week earlier.
Earth Opera – The Red Sox Are Winning (1968)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uofLPdOwhQo
A random bit of artwork by Gary Grimshaw in the April 21, 1969 issue the East Village Other in New York City.
Flyer, possibly a program cover, for Diana Ross & the Supremes at the O’Keefe Center for the performing arts in Toronto, Canada, April 21-26, 1969, with O.C. Smith.
O.C. Smith - The Son of Hickory Holler's Tramp (1968)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FvkJAS4rI8
A poster/handbill by Matthew Radofsky (aka Matt Rock) for a benefit show for the Open City community collective at the Grande Ballroom in Detroit on April 23, 1969, featuring MC5, the Rationals, and the Red, White & Blues Band.
A newspaper ad, with photo by Leni Sinclair, for the benefit show for the Open City community collective at the Grande Ballroom in Detroit on April 23, 1969, featuring MC5, the Rationals, and the Red, White & Blues Band.
A newspaper ad for the “Rites of Spring” benefit concert for Open City at the Grande Ballroom on April 23, 1969.
Ad for the Sunliners (pre-Rare Earth) finishing up another month-long booking at Grandmother’s in East Lansing, Michigan, April 21, 1969. Jr. Walker & the All Stars following up.
An illustration by unknown artist Dayne(?) that makes a nice play on the band’s name, for the Sunliners’ April 1969 shows at Grandmother’s in East Lansing, Michigan.
The same night as the Open City Benefit at the Grande Ballroom, April 23, 1969, Jr. Walker & the All-Stars appeared at Grandmother’s in East Lansing, Michigan. Terry Sharbach’s poster/ad shows a very dark Junior. Admission was $1.75 per person.
An ad for “Greek Week” at Central Michigan University in Mount Pleasant, featuring the Bob Seger System with the Sandpipers on April 23, 1969.
An ad for the MC5 with the Woolies and Canned Heat at Lake Lansing Amusement Park, April 24, 1969, a show that is missing from the MC5 Gateway.
Volume Five - 1969 - continues - HERE
Issue #4 of CREEM magazine, presumably mid-April, 1969, based on the events calendar for Issue #3, this issue would start with April 15, 1969. This issue remains missing from the CREEM archive site.
A description from an auction website (see below) assumes (correctly, we believe) that there are photos from the Detroit Pop Festival, which occurred at the Olympia Stadium in Detroit on April 7, the cover shot sure looks like the place, we’re betting some of our readers can probably identify the band on stage.
Here is the description verbatim:
“This the Number Four edition (no volume number, date or month is given). Features include: Jimi Hendrix - a RARE and very cool ad for The Jimi Hendrix Experience at Cobo Arena in Detroit! The Detroit Pop Festival - extensive coverage and commentary on the event which included The MC5, SRC, Savage Grace, The Pleasure Seekers (with Suzi Quatro. They appeared in sexy, see-through clothing!) and more.
“The MC5 / SRC / Frost / 3rd Power / Train / Pete Andrews / Red White and Blues band - several pages of in-concert photos, some presumably taken at the Detroit Pop Festival, Iggy Pop - rare 1/2 page photo of Iggy & the Iguanas. The Amboy Dukes - feature article, John Mayall – feature, article on Procol Harum - concert and album reviews.
“Mike Quatro - interview with the booking agent / pianist who was booking most of Detroit's top bands including The Pleasure Seekers which included siblings Suzi, Patti and Arlene Quatro!
This is a great feature for those interested in the Detroit scene of that era. Sweetwater - concert review, Michigan Lyricists - Richard Keelan - article All The Lonely People - feature article on this 8 piece band. A Letter From Creem Magazine to Lester Bangs at Rolling Stone Magazine - it's an interesting one relating to The MC5. Music, news, Film columns and commentary. Album reviews include Savage Grace, Flying Burrito Brothers and more Calendar of events - includes music listings for top bands.”
Another site mentions that the issue has 28 numbered pages.
The last page has a letter from Creem editor, Tony Reay, to "Mr. Bangs" care of Rolling Stone Magazine, concerning a MC5 record review that turned out to be Lester Bangs' first published record review. Interestingly, Lester Bangs subsequently left California and came to Detroit to work for Creem.
Two inside pages from Issue #4 of CREEM magazine.
Another inside page from Issue #4 of CREEM magazine.
The back cover of Issue #4 of CREEM magazine.
A bizarre ad for the Silverbell Hideout in Issue #4 of CREEM magazine.
