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Splatt Gallery's History of Michigan Concert Posters
Volume Seven - 1971 - Page Six
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Poster for Commander Cody & his Lost Planet Airmen, opening for Big Brother & the Holding Company at the Great Highway at the Beach in California, April 9-10, 1971.
Poster by Matthew Radofsky (aka Matt Rock) for the Palladium in Birmingham, Michigan, April 10, 1971. Local bands opening were Third Power and Tea.
Motown at the Olympia Stadium in Detroit, Michigan on April 10, 1971, with Smokey Robinson & the Miracles, Martha Reeves & the Vandellas, Chairmen of the Board and Jr. Walker & the All Stars.
Newspaper ad by for a “Hot Pants Cabaret” with “Parliaments & Funkadelics” at the “Roseland Skating Ring”, aka the Roseland Roller Rink, in Pontiac, Michigan on April 10, 1971, a new show for the concert database.
The final concert in the concert database for The Dells in Haslett, Michigan, the community that included Lake Lansing, on Easter Sunday, April 11, 1971.
An eye-grabbing poster for a soul show featuring Stax and Atlantic Records’ soul stars in Brixton, London, England on April 11, 1971. Putting Wilson Pickett and Eddie Floyd on the same stage again, just as it was, back in their teenage years in Detroit when they were both members of The Falcons.
Poster for Alice Cooper in Baton Rouge, Louisiana on Easter Sunday, April 11, 1971.
An ad for Stevie Wonder’s 13th studio album and 15th overall, “Where I’m Coming From”, released on April 12, 1971.
A full-page Motown Records ad for the thirteenth studio album and fifteenth album overall by Stevie Wonder, called “Where I’m Coming From”, released on April 12, 1971. With all nine songs written by Wonder and his wife Syreeta Wright, it was the last album produced under his first contract with Motown Records and his last to be recorded with the instrumentation of the Funk Bothers at Motown’s Hitsville studio in Detroit.
The Vanity Ballroom was the cross-town sister to the Grande Ballroom, opening within a year of each other in 1928 and 1929, and both designed by the same architect, Charles N. Agree. Both ballrooms were on the second floors, above retail spaces, but while the Grande was designed in a Moorish Deco style, the Vanity was Art Deco with an Aztec theme.
Both ballrooms were developed by Edward Strata and both shared a similar history with the heyday of ballroom dancing in the ‘30’s and ‘40’s and the eventual decline and demise in the late ‘50’s. But while Russ Gibb re-opened the Grande in 1966, it wasn’t until 1971 that a group of investors attempted the same with the Vanity. The Grand Opening was April 13, 1971.
The opening night line-up was the Stooges, MC5, Mike Quatro Jam Band, Frut, and Werks (misspelled as Works).
Poster by artist Fred Vocino for the opening night of the Vanity Ballroom in Detroit, Michigan, April 13, 1971. It was the first show of the year for the Stooges, having taken a four-month break.
The Stooges set was recorded and bootlegged. The sound quality isn’t great, but you are there!
Iggy & the Stooges – Live at Vanity Ballroom, Detroit Pt. 1 (4/13/71)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Ds8Qvbin7E
Iggy & the Stooges – Live at Vanity Ballroom, Detroit Pt. 2 (4/13/71)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9z50Hw36lDI
Iggy & the Stooges – Live at Vanity Ballroom, Detroit Pt. 3 (4/13/71)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3CrCSzJY0NE
Something for something in Chicago, April 1971, photos by Detroit Annie.
The entertainment side of the underground press in Ann Arbor/Detroit was in a lull period. The Ann Arbor Argus sputtered out with April 1971 issue that we excerpted earlier. There would be one more issue coming in June and that was the end of that publication, it had a good two-year run through 1969 and 1970, and gave us artists Dave Baker and Al Shamie (Bad Dog).
The Sun, which had started in April 1967, with a run of first three issues of the most artistic of any paper, thanks to Gary Grimshaw’s extensive contributions. It struggled along, sometimes as merely a two-page typed mimeograph. Virtually extinguished by the autumn of 1969, it hinted at a rebound with the colorful Sun/Dance, but that only lasted for two issues, the last one had been October 1970.
The Fifth Estate was still going strong, one of the original five charter members of the Underground Press Syndicate in 1966, it had just increased its production from a bi-weekly to a weekly, but its emphasis had become more political than cultural. At this point in April 1971, it ran a half-page “Deee-troit Seen” column with regular rock and roll news, and its events calendar, but that was about it. So in this vacuum, a benefit show for the MCC Drop-In Center at the Grande Ballroom on April 14, 1971 went practically unannounced. This ad doesn’t even list a date (just “More Benefits”) and in fact this issue came out a day after the show took place.
This show appears to have been the final appearance, and the end of the road, for the band The Jagged Edge. They had started out on the eighth weekend at the Grand Ballroom, in November 1966. Other bands at this show were the Iron Horse Exchange, about a year into their three-year run, Proud Flesh, about half-way through their two year run, The Coming, with their first known appearance, they would last until the end of the year, and one-shots, known from this show only, The Jets, Joust Unlimited, and Washing Machine.
It would have made for a killer poster.
Jagged Edge - Can’t Handle your Lovin’ (1971)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kEvQ17aYnM
A handbill, measuring approximately 4” x 7”, by an unknown artist Bruce Gibson, for the Grande Ballroom in Detroit, Michigan, April 14-15, 1971. A couple of benefit shows for the MCCC Drop-In Center, with Jagged Edge (possibly their last known show), the Iron Horse Exchange, Proud Flesh, The Jets, The Coming, Joust Limited, and Washing Machine.
An ad for MC5 and SRC at the Minneapolis Armory in Minnesota, April 16, 1971.
“Back by Popular Request”, Danny Hernandez & the Ones started a two-week gig at The Dells in Haslett, Michigan, beginning April 16, 1971.
An eye-popping red-on-black poster for Grand Funk Railroad in Seattle, Washington on April 16, 1971, along with Bloodrock, both bands at this point still managed and/or produced by Terry Knight.
An ad on the back of the CKLW weekly music guide for Alice Cooper with Steppenwolf and Lighthouse at the Olympia Stadium in Detroit, Michigan, April 16, 1971.
Poster and ad for Smokey Robinson & the Miracles with the Four Tops at the Cow Palace in San Francisco, California on April 16, 1971.
Eddie Kendricks, one of the founding members of the Temptations, on the cover of the April 16, 1971 issue of the British music magazine Blues & Soul.
Newspaper ad in the student newspaper at Kent State University in Kent, Ohio with a show by Mitch Ryder with Detroit at a club called Revelation on April 16, 1971, a new show for the concert database. The ad also mentions that Frijid Pink will play two shows at the same club on the following Friday, April 23rd, more new shows for the concert database.
Record company ad for the British band Trapeze with tour dates, including two shows at the Eastown Theater in Detroit, Michigan, opening for Procol Harum and the J. Geils Band, April 16-17, 1971. The band was touring in support of their second album, Medusa, one of the decade’s most underrated rock albums.
Trapeze – Medusa (album) (1970)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3p_yUQqbiuQ
Poster by Dennis Preston for a weekend festival at Shaw Hall in East Lansing, Michigan, April 16-18, 1971.
Poster by an unknown artist in the Joint Issue newspaper for the weekend festival at Shaw Hall in East Lansing, Michigan, April 16-18, 1971. The band in the photo is The Dogs, still active today, formed in 1969, might they be Michigan’s longest running rock band?
A three-night showing of the Jean Luc Godard movie One Plus One to raise funds for the Ann Arbor Argus newspaper and other revolutionary people’s causes, April 16-18, 1971.
The Meadow Brook amphitheater in Rochester Hills, Michigan announced its Summer 1971 line-up of acts. For sure, all excellent artists in their own right, the jazz was top-notch, and we would have loved to have seen Ludwig van Beethoven, 144 years after his death, but they may have purposely omitted including the name of the notorious Frank Zappa, who was scheduled to appear May 28th, from sullying such a respectable list.
Carl Lundgren created a cover for a comic book called “The Destruction of Chicago” and gave it to Jerry Younkin, who was in Chicago at the time. Neither of them know how it ended up as this poster for the all-Michigan show, Alice Cooper, the Stooges, and Mike Quatro’s Jam Band at the Opera House in Chicago, April 17, 1971.
The original cover for “The Destruction of Chicago” comic book by Carl Lundgren shown on the right.
Poster by Chris Frayne (Ozone), using a photo by Leni Sinclair, for Commander Cody at Hill Auditorium in Ann Arbor, Michigan, April 17, 1971, his first show back in his hometown in over a year. Other than the short stay in Michigan, June and July of the previous summer, Cody & His Lost Planet Airmen, were essentially San Francisco-based now.
Uses a Leni Sinclair photo that also appeared on the cover of a July 1970 issue of the Ann Arbor Argus.
Newspaper ad by Chris Frayne (Ozone) for Commander Cody & His Lost Planet Airmen at Hill Auditorium in Ann Arbor, Michigan, April 17, 1971.
A series of ads in The Daily Egyptian, the campus newspaper of Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, Illinois, building up to an appearance by the Amboy Dukes on April 17, 1971 at the local watering hole, Bonaparte’s.
From the events calendar in a Detroit newspaper for April 17, 1971, with Mitch Ryder & Detroit, “featuring the return of Billy Lee & the Rivieras”, along with Frut, Track, and Glass Candle at the Tumbleweed Ballroom in Walled Lake, Michigan.
A wonderful poster by Willyum Rowe with Grand Funk Railroad at the Winterland in San Francisco, California, April 18, 1971.
As we’ve seen with so many of Motown’s classic songs, Berry Gordy hated it and turned it down from being released. But Gordy was spending most of his time now in Los Angeles, so Barney Ales released it without Gordy’s knowledge on January 20, 1971. By April it had been #1 on the Billboard soul charts for four or five weeks and peaked at #2 on the Hot 100, which Gordy happily noticed and he gave Marvin total control over producing an album.
Marvin Gaye – What’s Going On (1971)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0xitQKNsQY
Now firmly established in Los Angeles, California, Berry Gordy’s main interest was the solo career of Diana Ross. Ross married press agent Robert Silberstein in January 1971, pregnant with Gordy’s child, while Gordy invested $15 million in Motown’s TV and movie production department, with a TV special broadcast on April 18, 1971, and work begun on the film “Lady Sings the Blues”.
A full-page Motown Records ad promoting Diana Ross’ April 18, 1971 TV special, and her latest single. Here’s the clip of the song from the show:
Diana Ross – Remember Me (1970)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHQsMZV7r00
A full-page Elektra Records ad in the April 19, 1971 issue of Billboard magazine for the sixth album by The Doors, the final one with singer Jim Morrison. Morrison performed with The Doors only three times in Michigan, but all of them were significant for one reason or another.
The first time was in Ann Arbor as part of the University of Michigan’s Homecoming weekend on October 19, 1967. Morrison got mad at the band for wanting to stop for ice cream on the way from the airport and he sulked in the back seat with a couple bottles of whiskey. He was in no shape to perform, the band eventually started without him until he stumbled across the stage, berating the audience and ending up in a sobbing heap until he was carried off. The band again tried to soldier on, but most of the crowd left. Ironically, Morrison returned fully recuperated and gave a stellar performance, at least according to the sparse crowd remaining, and one Ann Arbor kid named James Osterberg who loved the entire thing.
The Doors’ second Michigan appearance was at Cobo Arena in Detroit on May 11, 1968. Their performance may have been rather lackadaisical, by some accounts the local opening band, The Jagged Edge, stole the show.
They made up for it on the third, and final, visit, again at Cobo Arena in Detroit, on May 8, 1970. The band defied a midnight curfew and played for a full hour past it, with opener John Sebastian joining in for six songs, making it one of the longest live performances by The Doors and a highly regarded show, one track was included on the 1970 “Absolutely Live” album and later, the entire two hour and fifteen minute show was released in 2000 on Rhino Records. As a result of violating the curfew, The Doors were banned from Cobo.
The Doors – L.A. Woman (1971)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JskztPPSJwY
A poster for John Lee Hooker with Canned Heat in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on April 21, 1971.
Ad for the Whisky A-Go Go in North Hollywood, California, with the Amboy Dukes and Brownsville Station appearing April 21-25, 1971. Unfortunately, the upcoming “Mother’s Day Special” with the Mothers was cancelled, as the Whisky was closed from May 5 until June 22, due to damage from a fire.
Three Michigan bands, Frost, Mutzie, and 3rd Power, at this show at the Toledo Sports Arena in Ohio, April 23, 1971.
A poster with Alice Cooper opening for the Grass Roots in Minneapolis, Minnesota on April 23, 1971. Guitarist Creed Bratton was no longer with the Grass Roots at the time of this show, but he can be seen in the lip-synch video of the band performing their 1968 hit “Midnight Confessions”. After a disastrous appearance at the Fillmore West in April 1969, a "slightly inebriated" Bratton was asked to leave the band.
Creed Bratton is probably best known for playing a fictionalized version of himself on the NBC comedy sitcom “The Office”.
The Grass Roots - Midnight Confessions (1968)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nZnqtDdsws
Poster for a “Battle of the Groups Part 3” at the Manhattan Center in NYC on April 23, 1971 with two Michigan groups, Chairmen of the Board and the Detroit Emeralds.
An appearance by Ted Lucas at Wonders Kiva in East Lansing, Michigan, April 23-24, 1971.
Poster by Mary Partridge and Tom Wall for the Palladium in Birmingham, Michigan, April 24, 1971. This was the first show by the band Guardian Angel, which Scott Morgan formed with ex-Rationals band-mate bassist Terry Trabrant, Morgan’s brother Dave, who had been the drummer in The Children, and guitarist Wayne “Tex” Gabriel. Additional bands on the bill were the Stooges and Commander Cody.
Guardian Angel – Hijackin’ Love (live) (1971)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMk4o5uu0ls
Poster for Alice Cooper with Mike Quatro’s Jam Band at the Taft Theatre in Cincinnati, Ohio on April 24, 1971.
An ad for a club called Revelation! In Kent, Ohio, featuring Frijid Pink on April 25, 1971. The group had also performed at Cyrus Erie in Cleveland, Ohio on the night before, on April 24th.
Two poster/ads by Doug Huston, for Stevie Wonder at MSU Auditorium in East Lansing, Michigan, April 26, 1971.
Another poster/ad by Hugh Surratt, and a show preview for Stevie Wonder at MSU in East Lansing, April 26, 1971.
Newspaper ad for Herbie Hancock at the Strata Concert Gallery in Detroit, Michigan, April 26-28, 1971.
Michael Jackson became the youngest person to appear on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine, April 29, 1971.
Volume Seven - 1971 - continues - HERE
A full-page ad for Grand Funk Railroad and Bloodrock in San Diego, California on April 15, 1971.
Newspaper ad for Alice Cooper, the Stooges, and Mike Quatro’s Jam Band at the Opera House in Chicago, April 17, 1971.
Another newspaper ad for Herbie Hancock at the Strata Concert Gallery in Detroit, Michigan, April 26-28, 1971.
