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Splatt Gallery's History of Michigan Concert Posters
Volume Six - 1970 - Page Eleven
Poster by an unknown artist for an amazing Jerry Patlow production at Aquinas High School in Southgate, Michigan, June 28, 1970 with an incredible line-up of Frost, Rumor, Brownsville Station, Rationals, Free (not the English group), Sunday Funnies, White Light, Lost Nation, Bump, Hollow Ground, and Alice Cooper as last minute replacement for Savage Grace, with MC’s Dan Henderson and Jesse Crawford from WKNR radio.
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Poster by Doug Huston, June 29, 1970.
Logos for the record review column “Shake!” by Sandy Lynch in the Berkeley Tribe newspaper in Berkely, California as rendered by Gary Grimshaw, Carl Lundgren, and others from August 1969 through June 1970.
Alice Cooper on the cover of the July 1970 issue of CREEM magazine.
A mash-up of two pages from the July 1970 issue of CREEM magazine for a story on the publication of the first issue of the Sun/Dance newspaper. Photo of Gary Grimshaw by Leni Sinclair and illustration by Al Shamie (Bad Dog),
A little more than a year after Tales From The Ozone #1 was published, the second, and final, issue was published in July 1970. Edited by Carl Lundgren with Lundgren’s front cover art.
Gary Grimshaw art on the back cover of Tales From The Ozone #2, published in July 1970.
A page of Gary Grimshaw art in Issue #2 of “Tales From The Ozone” comic book.
A one-page story “The Terrible Tale of George McShitski – All-Amerikan Chomp”, credited jointly to Carl Lundgren and Gary Grimshaw, in Issue #2 of “Tales From The Ozone” comic book, published in July 1970.
When Cactus, the band that was a mix of Detroit with Vanilla Fudge, emerged at the end of March, they hit the ground running, touring around the country and releasing their first album on July 1 1970, just three months after forming.
On the right side is the original cover for the debut album by Cactus that was deemed obscene with just the two balls at the base of the cactus.
Promo poster for the release of the self-titled debut album by Cactus, released on July 1, 1970.
Although the band Journey would later catch a lot of flack for having the lyric “south Detroit” in their 1981 song "Don't Stop Believin'", the first Cactus album had an entire song about the mythical geographic locale.
Cactus – My Lady from South of Detroit (1970)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mp3rYJhzQzk
The Cleveland Scene weekly entertainment newspaper, launched in July 1970, the name shortened to The Scene with Issue #9, lasted for 30 years. With less than a three hour drive from Detroit, Cleveland was a frequent destination for gigs for Michigan bands and the paper is a treasure trove of ads, graphics, and reviews of those shows.
It also provides a fascinating history, tangential to our project, of the rise of the Agora Ballroom, the emergence of radio station WMMS and its Buzzard mascot, and the rise and fall of a popular local group called the Raspberries.
The Scene is also the starting point of a staff writer named Crocus Behemoth, aka David Thomas, that we will follow in some detail.
If you can’t wait, or if you want to explore Cleveland’s musical history beyond what we can cover, the entire archives of the paper can be found here:
https://www.jstor.org/action/doBasicSearch?si=1&Query=au%3A%22Northeast+Scene%22&so=old
Stevie Wonder on the cover of the July 2, 1970 issue of the British music magazine Blues & Soul.
The MC5, back in New York, at Stoneybrook University, July 3, 1970, with two versions of the strange “Ringcycle” logo.
Another extraordinary poster by Carol Ann for the Palladium in Birmingham, Michigan, July 3-4, 1970, with Brian Auger & the Trinity Express, Frijid Pink, Springwell, and Black Watch.
This was the second time that Brian Auger & Trinity appeared in Michigan, the first was opening for Chuck Berry at the Grande Ballroom in Detroit in April, 1969. And this would be the last, Auger formed the Oblivion Express shortly after, releasing their first album in 1971.
Brian Auger’s Oblivion Express - Brian Auger’s Oblivion Express (album) (1970)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Z2SYboFRCo
The “American Top 40” radio program was launched by Detroit natives, and childhood friends, Casey Kasem and Don Bustany on Independence Day weekend, July 3-4, 1970.
The DAPA/Dore presentations of the Midsummer Night Rock Fest series at the Michigan State Fairgrounds continued on into its second week, coinciding with the Fourth of July, 1970 weekend, with a poster by an unknown artist, Bob Taylor, who may be the same Bob Taylor with CREEM magazine.
Line-up matches the above poster. On July 3, 1970, it was Catfish with Blind River, Black Merda and Fugi. On the Fourth of July it was Rotary Connection with Alice Cooper, SRC, Catfish, Black Merda, Fugi, Wesselfox, Streetnoise, Milestone, Chimo, Magic Circus, and Poor Souls. On July 5th, it was McKenna Mendelson Mainline with Tate Family, Manchild, Brutus, Fludd, and Helmut Pister’s Big Rock Jazz Band.
The line-up for the DAPA/Dore Fourth of July, 1970 show includes a host of previously unseen bands in these one-time appearances, such as Manchild, Buckstone Hardware, Miles Stone, Street Noise, Brutus, Tote Family, and Aum.
DAPA stood for the Detroit Association of Performing Artists, whose charter mission was to steer kids away from rock and roll and “to encourage youths to study serious concert music”. Where they came up with these bands is unknown (It’s A Beautiful Day could be the well-known San Francisco group, but they seem to have not actually shown up).
Legend is that Grand Funk Railroad blew everybody away at the 1969 Atlanta Pop Festival so they were selected as the headliners for the 1970 version. Other sources say that they showed up unannounced and played for free, as had been the case in 1969. The official poster does not have them listed, and neither did a letter, with an updated list, that was sent out with the tickets. The “headliner” claim may be dubious, but this footage from the event looks like it was shot at night, so it was a step up from 1969. And apparently, GFR were the only band to play at both.
Grand Funk Railroad – Live at Atlanta Pop Festival (1970)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYTcx0tTJQU
Original ad for the second Atlanta Pop Festival, July 3-5, 1970, again with no mention of Grand Funk Railroad although Bloodrock, also managed by Terry Knight, is listed and on the previous poster as well. With Jimi Hendrix headlining, the band Cactus may have been brought in by his recommendation. It looks like this was only the fourth live performance by Cactus, all three prior shows had been opening for Hendrix, in Philadelphia, Baltimore and Boston.
Hendrix performed at midnight on the Fourth of July, to his largest American audience of his career. Some attendance estimates for the 2nd Atlanta Pop Festival are as high, or higher than Woodstock, however, when Hendrix took the stage at Woodstock, at 9 AM on Monday morning, at least half of the crowd had already left and many departed during his set. On the low side, some estimates are that Hendrix performed in front of only 30,000 to 40,000 at Woodstock.
The program for the second Atlanta Pop Festival, July 3-5, 1970, is one place where we find Grand Funk Railroad listed, as part of Sunday’s line-up. Other Michigan bands include Savage Grace, Rare Earth, and Bob Seger. The letter that was sent with the tickets listed Michigan bands Third Power and Bob Seger.
The program still carried the qualifier “Tentative – Subject to Change”, and many of the acts did not appear (notably Captain Beefheart or Jethro Tull). Savage Grace did indeed perform and they wrote a song about it which was included on their second album.
Savage Grace – Macon, Georgia (1971)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0C-JBI4oSWw
Terry Knight did take a full-page ad in the Atlanta, Georgia underground newspaper, Great Speckled Bird for his “headlining” act at the second Atlanta Pop Festival, July, 1970.
Poster/ad, possibly by Dave Baker, for the 1st Annual Buffalo Party Convention & Pig Roast in Eatonville, Washington, July 3-5, 1970 with Mitch Ryder among the acts.
Full-page ad in the July 4, 1970 issue of Billboard magazine for the third single by The Dorians, a group from Kingsville, Ontario, Canada, who recorded four singles at the GM Studios in Detroit, Michigan that became popular in Europe.
The Dorians – Psychedelic Lipstick (1970)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XlA8mThO-P0
A full-page ad for Janus Records, distributor for Funkadelic on Westbound Records, in the July 4, 1970 issue of Cash Box magazine.
One of Gary Grimshaw’s first tasks when he returned to the Ann Arbor White Panthers as the Minister of Art was to assemble the new Sun/Dance newspaper, as a national White Panthers Information Service, freeing The Ann Arbor Argus to focus on local news. The first issue was released July 4, 1970, with a print run of 4,000 copies, and it was meant to become a bi-weekly publication, but the second issue would not emerge until October.
Volume 1 – Issue 1 of Sun/Dance magazine, Ann Arbor, Michigan, July 4, 1970.
Sun/Dance was intended as a national publication and advertisements for subscriptions were run in the underground press from Seattle to Berkeley to Chicago to New Orleans to New York.
One of Al Shamie’s (Bad Dog) most memorable pieces, from the first issue of Sun/Dance newspaper, July 4, 1970.
The fully developed tri-pod of guitar, gun, and peace pipe by Gary Grimshaw from the first issue of Sun/Dance newspaper, July 4, 1970. Seen a month earlier on the Commander Cody in Berkeley poster.
Gary Grimshaw’s tri-pod symbol being used far and wide, in this case, in a Chicago newspaper reporting on the Seattle scene.
Missives from the incarcerated chairman, “Quotations from John Sinclair was a center-spread from the Ann Arbor Argus newspaper in April 1970, and “Message to the People of the Woodstock Nation” was a pamphlet published around July 1970.
Advertisement in the July 1, 1970 issue of The Chicago Seed for an upcoming music festival in Jackson, Michigan.
Ad for the upcoming Goose Lake Festival from the June 25, 1970 issue of The Fifth Estate in Detroit. Imagine you’re a sixteen or seventeen year old kid, you need to come up with today’s equivalent of about a hundred bucks, get a money order or ask your parents to write a check, get over to a Hudson or a Grinnell store or make a self-addressed stamped envelope to put in the mail. If you’re going by bus, repeat all the above, without the store option, and make the decision to either leave the festival Sunday night at 6pm, probably missing the best acts, or have the fortitude to catch the bus at 1am Monday morning. Or, if you have a car, or a friend with a car, you could decide to just go there and try to sneak in.
The Who made their eighth visit to Michigan, at Cobo Arena in Detroit on July 5, 1970, making the jump to arena size shows. Openers, the James Gang hadn’t been in state for eight months, their longest absence since they formed into a trio, out of necessity, at the Grande Ballroom in 1967.
They showed up once before, listed as the Brat Band on the poster for the Cosmic Circus Festival at King Animal Land in October, 1969, but this show at the Big Steel Ballroom in Ann Arbor, Michigan, July 6, 1970, with a poster by an unknown artist is the first of many for Brat, from Mt. Clemens, paired with their pals the UP.
The second album by the Stooges, called “Fun House”, was released on July 7, 1970.
The Stooges - Funhouse (album) (1970)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OedEgzDl_I
Poster for Jethro Tull at the Spectrum in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on July 8, 1970. Although not mentioned on the poster, Cactus was the opening band and they received a pretty favorable review which read:
“Cactus is made up of four men from three different groups: Amboy Dukes, Detroit Wheels and Vanilla Fudge. The ensemble received a fantastic reception when they performed at the Jimi Hendrix concert at Temple Stadium last May (their live debut). The group also has an album and an appearance at the recent Atlanta Pop Festival to their credit. Since their appearance at Temple, the group has definitely gotten more together musically, as evidenced by their fine performance at the Spectrum.
“Cactus has a unique entrance: one guitarist tunes up, then gets feedback and a few riffs out of his guitar. Then, the rest of the group – another guitarist (sic bassist), a vocalist and a drummer – come on stage. What they produce is a very spirited and moving brand of music, concentrating on a heavy, vibrating sound. If the vocals improve, Cactus should be a group to watch. It received a well deserved standing ovation.”
A events calendar with a “Rock ‘n’ Roll Weekend in Ann Arbor” featuring the Tate Blues Band starting July 10, 1970, and with shows in Ann Arbor and Detroit.
Poster by Gary Grimshaw for the Palladium in Birmingham, Michigan, July 10, 1970, possibly his first work that was not White Panther related since his return from exile.
Poster using Jem Targal’s Boof Design artwork from the back of their album cover for this show with Third Power, Bedlam Riff, Shakey Jake, and Target at St. Francis Gym in Traverse City, Michigan, July 10, 1970.
Strange poster, even stranger that it is signed by Al Shamie, doesn’t look anything like the work that Shamie was simultaneously producing as Bad Dog, but that’s what it says. For the Aragon Ballroom in Chicago, Illinois, with Grand Funk Railroad, Litter, Brian Auger & the Trinity, and MC “Righteous” Bob Rudnick, July 10, 1970.
A flyer for a high school dance at Aquinas High School in Southgate, Michigan, July 11, 1970. A Jerry Patlow Presentation.
Frijid Pink – Sing a Song for Freedom (1970)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iuIhOoFrOqQ
An ad by an unknown artist for a frat party in Ann Arbor, Michigan on July 11, 1970, featuring the Walking Talking Tangerine Band with the Leaves of Grass.
Poster by unknown artist for Alice Cooper and Loki at the Factorie Ballroom in Waterford, Michigan, July 12, 1970.
The SUN was still being published sporadically as a mimeograph, the cover for this issue was also a poster, by an unknown artist, for an Ann Arbor Tribal Council meeting on July 14, 1970.
One more poster from the Aragon Ballroom in Chicago, Illinois, just because it is one of our favorites by the great Chicago artist Daniel Clyne, but it does also include Cactus with Jim McCarty and Rusty Day, billed prominently as “formerly Vanilla Fudge”, July 15, 1970.
The movie “Joe” was released on July 15, 1970, starring Peter Boyle in the title role, a man who befriends a hippie killer. Ten weeks earlier, a similar real-life incident had occurred in Detroit when a railroad worker named Arville Garland murdered his own daughter along with her boyfriend and two other kids in their campus residence at Wayne State University. The judge in the Detroit case screened the jurors to exclude those who had seen the movie. Garland got off with a light sentence, and he received hundreds of letters of support.
Dennis Preston ad for the Vibrations store in Lansing, Michigan, in the July 15, 1970 issue of the State News newspaper.
Peter Steinberger’s prison interview with John Sinclair, originally published in the June 1970 issue of Big Fat magazine in Ann Arbor, Michigan, was reprinted in the July 15, 1970 edition of the Los Angeles Free Press, with added graphics, including the unveiling of another variation of Gary Grimshaw’s “Nation” tri-pod/tee pee symbol.
An ad for the first issue of SUN/DANCE magazine in the July 15, 1970 edition of the Los Angeles Free Press.
A flyer for the Middle Earth in Indianapolis, Indiana which looks like had a last-minute line-up change to add the MC5 on July 16, 1970. Alice Cooper performed the following night.
Volume Six - 1970 - continues - HERE
"Hoodoo Voodoo" by Gary Grimshaw, in Issue #2 of “Tales From The Ozone” comic book, published in July 1970.
Inside front cover and an inside page by Carl Lundgren in Issue #2 of “Tales From The Ozone” comic book
