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Splatt Gallery's History of Michigan Concert Posters
Volume Six - 1970 - Page Eighteen
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Full-page Motown Records ad in the November 7, 1970 issue of Billboard magazine, this was the highest charting single by the post-Diana Ross Supremes, and would be their last Top Ten record.
Supremes – Stoned Love (1970)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2ce7FWOAM8
Two ads by Doug Huston, for Jethro Tull and Catfish at the Jenison Fieldhouse in East Lansing, Michigan, November 7, 1970.
Additional newspaper ads for Jethro Tull and Catfish at the Jenison Fieldhouse in East Lansing, November 7, 1970.
Full-page ad for Holland-Dozier-Holland’s Hot Wax Records in the November 7, 1970 issue of Billboard magazine, promoting a single by the Flaming Ember.
Flaming Ember – I’m Not My Brother’s Keeper (1969)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgqpxRMbtAE
Poster for Stevie Wonder at Emens Auditorium in Muncie, Indiana, November 7, 1970.
Newspaper ad for Three Dog Night with Johnny Winter, the Small Faces featuring Rod Stewart, and Mutzie, at Olympia Stadium in Detroit, Michigan, November 7, 1970. It was the seventh Michigan show for Three Dog Night, the 11th or 12th for Johnny Winter, and the 13th for the Faces, all of theirs in 1970.
The day after they appeared at the Eastown Theater in Detroit, the band Traffic performed with Teegarden & Van Winkle at Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti, November 8, 1970, with a nice poster by an unknown artist (tiny illegible letters along the bottom).
Newspaper ad by an unknown artist for Traffic with Teegarden & Van Winkle at Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti, November 8, 1970.
An ad for the first Michigan appearance by singer Ronnie Dyson, at the University of Detroit in Detroit, Michigan on November 8, 1970, also featuring Detroit guitarist Dennis Coffey, and a rare appearance by jazz harpist Dorothy Ashby. Dyson would perform well over fifty shows in Detroit over the next nine years, primarily at Watt's Club Mozambique.
The last show ever held at the Labor Temple in Minneapolis, Minnesota, November 8, 1970, with two Michigan groups, Alice Cooper and Amboy Dukes. Unfortunately, no poster by Juryj Ostroushko for this one.
Two weeks earlier, the Labor Temple had booked The MC5 with Brownsville Station, but the MC5 cancelled two days before the show. Brownsville Station took the headlining spot, with “a band from Detroit called Night Train” opening (may have been Blues Train from Windsor, Canada). For some reason, this setback caused the cancellation of the Allman Brothers, who were scheduled for the week after the Amboy Dukes and Alice Cooper, and this was the end of the Labor Temple.
Poster/ad for Rare Earth at the Westbury Music Fair in New York on November 8, 1970.
Almost exactly a year since we’ve last seen a poster by artist Ken Victor, he came back with this one for a White Panther Party benefit for the “Detroit 15”at Wayne State University in Detroit, November 10, 1970. Music by Frut, Brat, and UP.
Issue #4 of the Motor City Rock Roll News, November 10-24, 1970 with illustration by Gary Grimshaw taken from the Goose Lake Comics program.
Speaking of Sky, the group recorded their first album in London, England, during the same time that the MC5 were on their first UK tour. The album came with a poster the spelled out the band’s name in the shadows from the group standing in front of a sunlit window. In some markets the poster was wrapped around the outside of the record cover to mask the suggestive title of one of the songs.
Sky – How’s That Treatin’ Your Mouth, Babe? (1970)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9LzaV6dddg
The album was marketed as “a new kind of Detroit group” with a review quote that “Sky sounds more London than Motor City”. This was due to being recorded at the famous Olympia studio in London by Jimmy Miller who produced the Rolling Stones. Miller had come to Detroit at the invitation of the band and auditioned them at bass player Doug Fieger’s house, or more to the point, Feiger’s father’s house.
As you may recall, his father was a high-power lawyer with connections in the Detroit’s music business, in particular client Gabe Glantz, who gave his lawyer’s kids an early slot on the Grande Ballroom stage. Older brother Geoffrey gave up on the brother’s band and followed his father into a legal career, most famously defending “Dr. Death” Jack Kevorkian.
As reported in Issue #4 of the Motor City Rock Roll News, and also the November 12, 1970 issue of the Fifth Estate newspaper in Detroit, the local KFC stores were offering CCR albums for only $1.00 with the purchase of a barrel of fried chicken.
The November 12, 1970 issue of the Fifth Estate newspaper in Detroit, Michigan with cover illustration by Tom Sincavitch. An event listing in this issue leads to a maze of conflicting information that ultimately leads to the conclusion that the Allman Brothers Band did not make their Michigan debut during this week in November of 1970.
Beginning with the concertdatabase, they list the Allman Brothers opening for Ten Years After at the Eastown on 11/12/70, The events calendar in the Fifth Estate has the same, but with Mutzie also in the line-up.
The incredibly comprehensive Duane Allman timeline (link below) has two shows, on 11/10 and 11/11/70 at the Eastown with no additional information.
The Setlist website shows two shows at the Eastown, but with the Stooges on 11/13 and 11/14/70.
The Stooges timeline on Bruno’s excellent Rock Prosopography 102 website also has the Stooges and the Allman Brothers on 11/13 and 11/14/70 and sweetens the pot by adding Mott the Hoople, Skid Row, and Illusion, but it also has the definitive “(cancelled)”.
With all the mix of dates and acts, and with no other confirmable evidence on any of it, we tend to agree with Bruno that this show(s) didn’t happen. Which moves the Allman Brothers’ Michigan debut out another year.
All of the above-mentioned websites are among our top resources and are all highly recommended, especially the Duane Allman site which starts with the birth of his grandfather in 1889 and has extensive posters, photos, articles on probably every gig Duane ever performed.
https://www.duaneallman.info/chronologypart1.htm
http://rockprosopography102.blogspot.com/search/label/The%20Stooges
https://www.setlist.fm/
https://theconcertdatabase.com/
An ad for the first Michigan appearance by Leonard Cohen, at the University of Detroit which is undated. Somewhere, we sourced that this appearance was on September 25, 1970 but this ad was found in the November 12, 1970 issue of the Fifth Estate newspaper.
An infrequent performer, especially in the United States, it would be 18 years before his return to Michigan, in 1988 in Ann Arbor. He performed again in Detroit three more times, in 1993, 2009 (his biggest touring year, at age 75), and 2012.
An ad by Bill Seybold for The John boutique in Detroit, Michigan from the November 12, 1970 issue of the Fifth Estate newspaper.
Gary Grimshaw illustration in the November 12, 1970 issue of The Ann Arbor Argus newspaper, a variation on his original artwork for the first MC5 album.
Artists Gary Grimshaw and Dave Baker, both back in the pages of The Ann Arbor Argus newspaper, in the November 12, 1970 issue. Grimshaw’s ad for the This Is It store uses the same character that he created for ads for the Chaldea clothing store in Berkeley, California during his exile there.
An ad by Doug Huston for the Free Spirit community of boutiques in Lansing, Michigan, published in the November 12, 1970 issue of the State News newspaper.
Newspaper ad for the Bob Seger System at Ungano’s in NYC, November 12-14, 1970.
A Rock Musical called “Salvation” at the Erickson Kiva in East Lansing, Michigan, November 13-22, 1970 with poster by an unknown artist.
The one-year anniversary of the Palladium in Birmingham, Michigan, November 14, 1970, with poster/handbill by Chad Hines, with Bloodrock, Third Power, Mutzie, and Armada.
Newspaper ads for a concert by Parliament-Funkadelic with Charles Wright & the Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan on November 14, 1970, with a call for “Ushers Needed!!!” Sign us up.
The November 14, 1970 issue of Billboard magazine carried a special section on rock music, and Grand Funk Railroad took out five full-page ads that were completely stark black with each one of their four albums, all certified as gold records, one per page, plus a final page with just two lines of text, “Four Gold Albums in four months (and twelve days). Oh well, it seems all Railroads are running late these days”. We’ve combined all five pages, along with a sexy swinging ad for the Wurlitzer Zodiac jukebox.
Finally, after three cancellations going back to February, Sly & the Family Stone performed at Cobo Arena in Detroit, Michigan on November 15, 1970. Ruth Copeland with a backing band comprised of Parliament-Funkadelic musicians was the opening act.
When the Stooges played at the Frut Palace in Mount Clemons, Michigan, November 15, 1970, it was their second time there since their appearance two months earlier at the opening night. In between, the Frut Palace had presented The MC5, Detroit featuring Mitch Ryder, Alice Cooper, and Parliament-Funkadelic. The week after this second Stooges show will feature Ted Nugent & the Amboy Dukes, November 22, which then seems to be the end of the line for the Frut Palace.
Described as “two geodesic domes”, Frut (the band) rented the facility as their party ground and no doubt opened for each of these headlining acts, unfortunately there are no posters that could document the festivities.
Back when they were known as Frut of the Loom, the band had released a single, documented earlier, on their own Loom record label. In June 1970, they released an album on Trash Records, a label known for risqué party records, like Billy Bedamned’s “Bag to Bitches”, Jonas Butbuster, The Dirty Old Men, and Sad Sack’s “Slops it to Ya!”. Frut’s album got rescued from this motley crew and was later picked up and re-issued on Westbound.
Frut – Running Bear (1970)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMlZYAR_YUc
A two-sided poster included with the double-album “Live Album”, the first live album by Grand Funk Railroad, released by Capitol Records on November 16, 1970.
An ad for “The Parliaments & Funkadelics” at the Sugar Shack in Boston, Massachusetts on November 16, 1970.
Poster by Mark Behrens with John Lee Hooker at the Matrix in San Francisco, California, November 17-18, 1970.
Newspaper ad for the Whisky a Go Go in Los Angeles, California, with shows by Teegarden & Van Winkle, November 18-22, 1970.
Carolyn Heines presented her ninth rock concert at the Fountain Street Church, bringing the notorious Frank Zappa to Grand Rapids, Michigan, November 19, 1970. Following the band’s first set, she asked Zappa not to repeat the song “Penis Dimension” in the second set as the lyrics had set some of the church mothers atwitter. He complied by performing a completely instrumental second set.
Zappa was reluctant to attend the customary after-show party at the Heines home until she informed him that they would be listening to tapes of the shows (as was also customary at the parties). He went and was pleasantly surprised that many at the party knew his music well.
A poster by Mud Productions for a concert by Melanie at Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti on November 20, 1970. This was Melanie’s second Michigan appearance, following a show in East Lansing a month before, and it came at the end of the biggest year in her career.
In March, she released a song to describe her experience at the 1969 Woodstock festival, where she was one of only two solo women acts, the other being Joan Baez. The song “Lay Down (Candles in the Rain)” peaked at #6 on the Billboard Hot 100 in July, reaching #1 in Canada and the Netherlands.
She was the only artist to ignore the court injunction banning the Powder Ridge Rock Festival in Connecticut at the end of July, performing on a homemade stage powered by Mister Softee trucks. Shortly following, she played at the Strawberry Fields Festival held in Ontario, Canada, and at the Isle of Wight Festival in the UK, introduced by none other than, Keith Moon as she received four standing ovations.
A couple of months after all that, she was back to playing the college circuits in the US, which by logic would include EMU, although the only evidence is this sweet looker poster.
Here is a wildly creative period piece video:
Melanie - Lay Down (Candles in the Rain) (1970)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlp3wmE4bbI
Poster/flyer by an unknown artist for Detroit featuring Mitch Ryder at The Place in Syracuse, New York, November 20, 1970.
Simple can be striking, like this poster for Traffic and Cactus in Albany, New York on November 20, 1970. This show was about six months into the live performances by the original line-up of Cactus, half-Vanilla Fudge and half-Detroit with Jim McCarty and Rusty Day.
The Temptations on the cover of the November 20, 1970 issue of the British music magazine Blues & Soul.
The front page headline of the Scene magazine in Northeastern Ohio, “Rock ‘N’ Roll Is Here – four major concerts in one week!”, with Grand Funk Railroad at Public Hall in Cleveland on November 20, 1970. The other three concerts were the Byrds with Elton John, Derek & the Dominoes, and the Guess Who.
Poster by Raw Sugar Studios for Grand Funk Railroad at Public Hall in Cleveland on November 20, 1970.
Jane Fonda at the University of Detroit, November 21, 1970, with supporting acts, the Stooges, Alice Cooper, and Damnation.
A pair of ads for the Contemporary Jazz Quintet at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor on November 21, 1970.
Another very nice collaboration of Gary Grimshaw and Al Shamie (Bad Dog), for the Ann Arbor Rock & Roll Jamboree, November 22, 1970, with SRC, UP, Brat, and Carnal Kitchen.
Poster/ad by an unknown artist for Richie Havens with Ten Wheel Drive at the Jenison Fieldhouse in East Lansing, Michigan, November 22, 1970.
Illustration by Doug Huston (left) and by an unknown artist (right) for Richie Havens with Ten Wheel Drive at the Jenison Fieldhouse in East Lansing, Michigan, November 22, 1970.
Nice poster for the Amboy Dukes in Houston, Texas, November 22, 1970, by legendary Texas artist Bill Narum. In addition to numerous posters for Texas venues such as the Armadillo World Headquarters, he became the “house artist” for the band ZZ Top, designing their posters, album covers, and even the murals for their fleet of semi-trucks.
A pair of ads for the Amboy Dukes at the Of Our Own club in Houston, Texas on November 22, 1970, also shows the rescheduled dates for the upcoming shows by the MC5.
Events happened quickly for the British band “Earth”, formerly known as the Polka Tulk Blues Band, when they changed their name for the third time, to “Black Sabbath”. They performed their first show under the new moniker on August 30, 1969. Their first single (a cover version of “Evil Woman” by the Minneapolis band Crow, as previously mentioned) was released in November and their first album on Friday the 13th, in February 1970. It was released in the US in May.
A second album was released in October 1970, and on the success of the single “Paranoid”, released a month earlier, the album shot up to #1 in the UK. The US release was delayed until January 1971 because the first album was still being promoted and selling well in the states, as seen in this November 25, 1970 ad.
Black Sabbath – Paranoid (1970)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qanF-91aJo
Poster for Alice Cooper and Wishful Thinking at the Fairgrounds Coliseum in Salt Lake City, Utah on November 25, 1970. The “free” access is for folks that had ticket stubs from an earlier cancelled show in August.
Newspaper ad for Alice Cooper and Wishful Thinking at the Fairgrounds Coliseum in Salt Lake City, Utah on November 25, 1970 with a ticket stub exchange for folks that had tickets from an earlier cancelled show in August.
Volume Six - 1970 - continues - HERE
Poster for Gordon Lightfoot at Masonic Temple Auditorium on November 14, 1970, sponsored by WABX-FM.
