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Splatt Gallery's History of Michigan Concert Posters
The Grande Ballroom Posters - Page Four
Year Two
October 1967
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The one-year anniversary of the Grande Ballroom on October 6-7, 1967 featured Gary Grimshaw’s 24th poster for the venue. Bands were Scot Richard Case with Billy C & the Sunshine, and MC5 with the Gang and Odds & Ends. The poster featured a photo of Grimshaw’s hand reaching around a marble sculpture at the Detroit Institute of Arts.
The newspaper ad was for “a dance concert in honor of Our First Birthday” and the admitted-free gimmick was for “Anyone Born Oct. 7 or 8”.
This image was printed as both a poster and a postcard.
The original poster measures approximately 14″ x 22″. The original postcard measures approximately 4″ x 7½″.
The newspaper ad for the “First Birthday” weekend at the Grande Ballroom, October 6-7, 1967.
The back of the postcard for the October 6-7, 1967 card. This was the third Grande Ballroom postcard, but apparently the first to have printing on the back side.
The 54th weekend at The Grande Ballroom, October 13-15, 1967 (three shows) featured Gary Grimshaw’s 25th poster for the venue. One of his most popular posters, it is known as the “Creamsicle”.
The supporting bands were MC5 (two nights), the Rationals (two nights), Thyme, and the Apostles.
This image was printed as both a poster and a postcard.
The original poster measures approximately 12″ x 22″.
The second print poster was printed in 1992 and measures approximately 12″ x 22″. The notation “© 1992 Gary Grimshaw” appears in the bottom left corner.
The original postcard was printed on white stock and measures approximately 4″ x 7″.
These shows are widely considered as Cream’s first Michigan appearances, possibly because they were so well documented, but there’s evidence that once again, Ann Arbor’s Fifth Dimension actually got the scoop on yet another British band debut. Both Jack Bruce’s and Eric Clapton’s websites list shows at The Fifth Dimension on the two days (October 11 and 12) before the Grande shows. These are also listed in theconcertdatabase.com and a comment on a Clapton fan forum mentions seeing Cream in Ann Arbor in “a small club”.
We’d give the Fifth Dimension the credit on this one, adding to The Who and Hendrix (and yet another coming up).
As we mentioned, Cream at The Grande is well documented and we have this treat, a recording of the complete Sunday night show:
Cream – Live at the Grande Ballroom (10/15/67)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGLsjwCp4QQ
Gary Grimshaw’s poster for Cream at the Grande Ballroom, October 13-15, 1967, as published in the Fifth Estate newspaper in Detroit, Michigan. Kind of cool to see it in the purple and black in comparison to the familiar orange and green of the actual “Creamsicle” poster.
Two newspaper ads for “The Cream” at the Grande Ballroom, October 13-15, 1967.
For this one, the newspaper ad had no “in honor of” gimmick and no “admitted-free” gimmick. This was simply for “The Cream”, but it was also no age limit.
An entry in the events section of the South End newspaper at Wayne State University in Detroit for Cream at the Grande Ballroom, October 13-15, 1967. It has the band line-up for each night and it mentions an “admitted-free” gimmick - for “milkmen”.
A poster/ad by Gary Grimshaw in The Fifth Estate newspaper for three shows at the Grande Ballroom, with the Cream shows, October 13-15, 1967 and upcoming shows with Moby Grape and the Paupers. The dates for both the Moby Grape and the Paupers shows turned out to be wrong or were rescheduled after publication.
This image, referred to as “Black Wave” was published in poster form as part of the Grimshaw Memorial Series in 2015. It appears to have been originally printed only as an ad and not distributed.
The 55th weekend at The Grande Ballroom, October 20-21, 1967 featured Gary Grimshaw’s 26th poster for the venue. The bands were the Pack with Gold and Our Mother’s Children, and MC5 with the Gang and Billy C & the Sunshine. Grimshaw signed the poster as Pisces Eyes Poster Co.
The central image is a painting titled “Self-portrait in a Convex Mirror” by 16th century Italian painter and printmaker Parmigianino.
The newspaper ad was for “a dance concert in honor of the Upright People” and the admitted-free gimmick was for “People over 6’5””.
This image was printed as both a 13” x 22” poster and a postcard.
The headlining band on Friday night was The Pack, formally separated from Terry Knight and making better records for it. The B-side to their first record (and as in many cases, the B-side equals the better-side) was written by Dick Wagner. As we’ve already seen with records by The Bells of Rhymny and Cherry Slush, Wagner’s compositions and productions were becoming the standard of some of the best Michigan music.
The Pack – I’ve Got News For You (1967)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsLhyinpJZU
A newsprint version of Gary Grimshaw’s poster for the Grande Ballroom, October 20-21, 1967 in The Fifth Estate newspaper uses a mirror-image of the central figure in the poster.
The newspaper ad for the “Upright People” weekend at the Grande Ballroom, October 20-21, 1967.
And a chance to share the A-side of The Pack’s first single:
The Pack – Harlem Shuffle (1967)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arbjZx20CMw
On October 27, 1967, down in Austin, Texas a new venue called The Vulcan Gas Company opened in a rented building at 316 Congress Avenue. It was the culmination of a year-long effort by a loose group of hippies who called themselves “The Electric Grandmother”. Just like The Family Dog in San Francisco and Trans-Love Energies in Detroit, the group organized concerts and even a “Love-In” in Austin’s Zilker Park on September 24, 1967.
Finding a permanent location, the group changed their name to match, Vulcan Gas Company. Much like the MC5 at The Grande Ballroom, The 13th Floor Elevators were the de-facto house band, although The Conqueroo and Shiva’s Head Band become more frequent headliners. And like Gary Grimshaw at Trans-Love, the Vulcan had an art director and primary poster-maker in Gilbert Shelton, who later became famous for his “Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers” comics.
Also, just as The Grande Ballroom fostered a stable of great artists over the years, other artists that became known for their Vulcan Gas posters included Mark Weakley, Jack Otis Moore (Jomo), Terry Holoman, Tony Bell, Charlie Loving, Robert Rush, Wittlif, John Shelton, Jack Johnson, Jim Harter, and the master “Armadillo” artist, Jim Franklin.
Detroit, San Francisco, and Austin were now the three major centers for psychedelic rock posters that went virtually unmatched anywhere else in the United States. The timeline below shows the opening dates of the major rock music ballrooms that sprung up around the country:
Fillmore Auditorium, San Francisco – February 4, 1966
Cheetah Club, NYC – April, 1966
Avalon Ballroom, San Francisco – June 24, 1966
Winterland, San Francisco – September 23, 1966
Cheetah Club (Aragon Ballroom), Chicago – October 2, 1966
Grande Ballroom, Detroit – October 7, 1966
Boston Tea Party, Boston – January 20, 1967
Electric Circus, NYC – June 27, 1967
Vulcan Gas Company, Austin – October 27, 1967
Electric Factory, Philadelphia – February 2, 1968
Fillmore East, NYC – March 8, 1968
Electric Theater, Chicago – April 3, 1968
The 56th weekend at the Grande Ballroom, October 27-28, 1967 featured Gary Grimshaw’s 27th poster for the venue. The bands were MC5 with the Rationals and the Prime Movers, and the James Gang with UP and Stuart Avery Assemblage.
This image was originally printed as both a 12” x 21” poster and a 4” x 7” postcard.
An 18” x 24” screen print of this poster was created as the seventh release of the Grimshaw Memorial Series in the fall of 2015; a partnership between Richard Wohlfeil of Lo & Behold in Hamtramck, Michigan, and Laura Grimshaw, Gary's widow, through the Gary Grimshaw Legacy Foundation. The print run of each poster was 100 copies.
This was the first Detroit appearance of The James Gang from Cleveland, still slightly prior to Joe Walsh joining the band, having up to that time well over twenty members that had passed in and out of the band, including members from Detroit’s The Case of E. T. Hooley, leaving drummer K. J. Knight to concentrate his own band, The Knightriders.
The newspaper ad for the “Great Pumpkin” weekend at the Grande Ballroom, October 27-28, 1967. The ad was for “a dance concert in honor of the Great Pumpkin” and the admitted-free gimmick was for “All Charlie Browns”.
On Sunday night, October 29, 1967 there was yet another Trans-Love benefit show at the Grande Ballroom with MC5 and Gold, and this one introduced a new poster artist, Carl Lundgren. Earlier, we recounted how Lundgren helped found The Detroit Triple Fan Fair in 1965. We also encountered Lundgren when it was mentioned that he was a roommate of Jerry Younkins at John Sinclair’s “Castle” commune and that the two had left Detroit for San Francisco immediately following the ’67 rebellion.
While in California, Lundgren had stayed with Stanley Mouse and discovered the world of rock posters in that city. Still hoping to work in book cover illustrations, Lundgren returned to Detroit to be closer to the East Coast publishing houses, where he met Gary Grimshaw, who was overwhelmed with work and enlisted Lundgren to create posters for the Grande.
The poster is attributed to Pisces Eyes Poster Co. next to Lundgren’s name, which is also the name of the light show company for the concert.
The photo is a 1916 photograph taken for the Bureau of American Ethnology at the Smithsonian Institute showing anthropologist Frances Densmore sitting with Mountain Chief of the Blackfoot Indian tribe, while he interprets a song in Plains Indian sign language.
This poster was originally printed as only a postcard, either with a blank back, or with “Trans-Love Energies” on the back.
As with all of Carl Lundgren’s posters, he has made them readily available as 13” x 17” reprints that are priced at $15.
The 57th weekend at the Grande Ballroom, November 3-5, 1967 (three shows) featured Gary Grimshaw’s 28th poster for the venue. The Paupers headlined all three nights with support from the Gang, Thyme (two nights), UP, MC5 and the Rationals.
This image was originally printed as both a 12″ x 22″ poster and as a postcard, either with a blank back or with a “Grande Ballroom” imprint. Detail shown above is an eye test for your ability to read psychedelic lettering.
The Paupers, from Toronto, were on the verge of big things, being managed by Bob Dylan’s manager Albert Grossman, performing at the Monterey Pop Festival, and releasing a well-promoted album, but the group fizzled. Drummer Skip Prokop went on to acclaimed sessions and production work and as founder of the group Lighthouse, the world’s first 13-piece rock orchestra, renown by Canadians nationally.
The Paupers – Think I Care (1967)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3aDZHdznLw
The newspaper ad for the Paupers weekend at the Grande Ballroom, November 3-5, 1967. The ad was for “a dance concert in honor of The Paupers” and the admitted-free gimmick was for “Social Workers”.
A poster by Peter Max and Sid Wasserbach for an exhibit of Max’s art, apparently held at the Grande Ballroom in Detroit, Michigan, November 3-5, 1967, coinciding with that weekend’s concerts.
The exceedingly rare poster measures approximately 36" x 24".
The 58th weekend at the Grande Ballroom, November 10-11, 1967, featured Carl Lundgren’s second poster for the venue. The headliner both nights was the James Cotton Blues Band with support by the MC5, Thyme, Apostles, and Billy C & the Sunshine.
Lundgren’s second poster is one of the most recognized of the Grande Ballroom posters, known as “Vanessa” for the photo of actress Vanessa Redgrave.
This image was originally printed as both a poster and a postcard.
The original poster measures approximately 14″ x 24″.
The second print poster was printed in 1994 as a signed and numbered, limited edition of 500 silk screen. This version measures approximately 18″ x 28⅜″.
The third print poster was printed in 2006, also as a signed and numbered, limited edition. This printing measures approximately 17″ x 27⅛″.
The postcard measures approximately 4″ x 7″. The card was reprinted in 1994 by Pomegranate Artbooks and has the Pomegranate imprint on the reverse.
James Cotton –Blues in My Sleep (1967)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjA8BiA39D4
The newspaper ad for the 58th weekend at the Grande Ballroom, November 10-11, 1967. The ad was for “a dance concert in honor of Sad People” and the admitted-free gimmick was for “Psychiatrists”.
The source image for Carl Lundgren’s famous “Vanessa” Grande Ballroom poster. The photograph of Vanessa Redgrave by Victor Skrebneski was published in 1967 and was used to promote the 1968 film "The Loves of Isadora", so it is not actually a shot from the film.
The 59th weekend at The Grande Ballroom, November 17-18, 1967 featured Gary Grimshaw’s 29th poster for the venue. The bands were Scot Richard Case with Apostles and Lost Generation, and Odds & Ends with Our Mother’s Children and the Epidemic.
This image was printed only as a postcard which measures approximately 4″ x 7″ with “Grande Ballroom” and “Place Stamp Here” imprint and a flower drawing on the back
The back of the postcard for the November 17-18, 1967 card.
The newspaper ad for the 59th weekend at The Grande Ballroom, November 17-18, 1967. The ad was for “a dance concert in honor of The New Children” and the admitted-free gimmick was for “Children born on Nov. 17 & 18”.
This flyer, by an unknown artist, advertises a special Thanksgiving evening recording session at the Grande Ballroom, November 23, 1967, with MC5 and Scot Richard Case, and free admittance. No recording has ever been known to exist.
The 60th weekend at The Grande Ballroom, November 24-25, 1967 featured Gary Grimshaw’s 30th poster for the venue. The Fugs headlined both nights with support by MC5, the Gang, and the Ashmollyan Quintet.
This image was originally printed as both a poster and a postcard. The back of the postcard has variations (see below for one of them).
This was the second time that John Sinclair brought his friends and like-minded travelers from New York City, The Fugs, to Detroit. In April they did two shows at the Community Arts Auditorium on the Wayne State University campus, and now, in November for two shows at the Grande Ballroom.
The Fugs – Kill for Peace (1966)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvA1bKLQtbM
The back of the postcard for The Fugs November 24-25, 1967 card.
The Fugs stuck around for an extra night to perform a Sunday benefit show, November 26, 1967, for a John Sinclair Defense Fund, advertised by Gary Grimshaw’s 31st poster for the Grande Ballroom. Opening bands were the MC5 and Billy C & the Sunshine.
There are two types of original handbills, both 8” x 11”, one on thin white stock in red ink and one on pale yellow stock in purple ink.
The 61st weekend at The Grande Ballroom, December 1-2, 1967 featured Carl Lundgren’s 3rd poster for the venue. The poster is co-credited to Jerry Younkins who may have added the second layer of the image that can be seen with different lighting. It appears that the era of the newspaper ads with the “in honor of…” themes and the admitted-free gimmicks had ended.
The Chambers Brothers headlined both nights, with support by Thyme, UP, and Children.
This image was originally printed as both a poster and a postcard.
The original poster measures approximately 14 x 23″. The lower portion is printed in green and there is a light bulb superposed over the face of the figure on the far right.
The second print poster was printed in 2004 and measures approximately 17″ x 27″. This printing was issued as a signed and numbered edition of 100.
The original postcard measures approximately 4.5″ x 7.5″. The lower portion of this item is printed in yellow. Variations exist in the way the back of this card was printed.
Newspaper ad for the 61st weekend at The Grande Ballroom, December 1-2, 1967, which also adds the Endless Chain to the line-up.
The 62nd weekend at The Grande Ballroom, December 8-9, 1967 featured Gary Grimshaw’s 32nd poster for the venue. The San Francisco band Moby Grape, who had earlier played in Detroit at The Roostertail supper club in July, headlined both nights with support by the Rationals, Wilson Mower Pursuit, and the MC5.
This image was originally printed as only a postcard, in three versions. One with a blank back and two with “Grande Ballroom” and “Place Stamp Here” imprint on the back in black or blue ink.
A last-minute cancellation by an unknown band, not listed on the poster, allowed Wilson Mower Pursuit to play their first Grande Ballroom show as the substitution.
The back of the Moby Grape December 8-9, 1967 postcard with blue ink.
The 63rd weekend at The Grande Ballroom, December 15-17, 1967 (three nights) featured Carl Lundgren’s 4th poster for the venue. This was the first appearance in Detroit by The Vanilla Fudge from Long Island, New York. As we’ll see later, the rhythm section from the Fudge, Carmine Appice (drums) and Tim Bogert (bass), will hook up with Detroit musicians Jim McCarty (guitar) and Rusty Day (vocals) to form the band Cactus.
This image was originally printed as both a 13” x 22” poster and a postcard. There are also a few uncut posters known to exist that measure 17" x 22".
There are two versions of the original postcards, one with a blank back and one with “Grande Ballroom” and “Place Stamp Here” imprint on the back in black ink’.
The Thyme opened the first night, Children, the Epidemic, and the Rationals opened the second night, and the MC5 opened on the final night.
The 64th weekend at The Grande Ballroom, December 21-23, 1967, featured Gary Grimshaw’s 33rd poster for the venue. It included a Thursday night show by Paul Butterfield with the Rationals and Thyme. And the return of Cream for two nights, supported by the line-up of Billy C & the Sunshine, MC5, and Soap both nights. Grimshaw’s poster was now Trans-Love Poster Co.
This image was originally printed as both a 13” x 22” poster and a 4” x 7” postcard.
Detroit and Cream took an instant liking towards each other, the band played a total of seven shows in the area in two months.
In 1964, The Beatles convinced the kids to go out and get guitars, in 1967, Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton showed them what they could do with them.
Cream – White Room (1968)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKyGn_uxkPU
A Christmas ad for the December 1967 Paul Butterfield and Cream shows, December 21-23, 1967, at the Grande Ballroom, by an unknown artist.
Eric Clapton at the Grande Ballroom poster from a photograph by R. G. Shefell (?), published by the Trans-Love Poster Company, 1967.
The back side of the next upcoming Grande Ballroom postcard with the listing for a Christmas night show , December 25, 1967, with MC5, the Rationals, UP and Odds & Ends.
The year-end wrap-up week of 1967 for the Grande Ballroom, six nights worth of shows, was crammed into Carl Lundgren’s fifth poster for the venue. John Lee Hooker made his first Grande Ballroom appearances on two of the nights.
The run of shows started on Tuesday, December 26, 1967, the Day after the Grande’s Christmas show, with two nights of the Lyman Woodard Trio headlining with support by Billy C & the Sunshine, Talisman, MC5 and UP.
On December 28, the Woolies returned for their first time since the Grande Ballroom’s second show, back in October 1966. Soap and Heavy Metal Kids opened. December 29-30 were John Lee Hooker’s two shows, with support by the Apostles (two nights), the Pack and the Gang.
Those shows brought us up to Sunday, New Year’s Eve, with a NYE Bash featuring the MC5, Billy C & the Sunshine, the Prime Movers, UP, and the Apostles.
This image was printed as both a poster and a postcard.
The original poster measures approximately 13″ x 22″ and the biplane and arch on the poster are pink. The postcard measures approximately 4″ x 7″ and the biplane is brown. Some of the postcards have the calendar on the back.
The 66th weekend at The Grande Ballroom, January 5-6, 1968, the first shows of the new year, featured Gary Grimshaw’s 34th poster for the venue. Clear Light from Los Angeles headlined both night with openers Gipsy Blue and Children.
This image was originally printed only as a postcard.
The 67th weekend at The Grande Ballroom, January 12-13, 1968 featured Carl Lundgren’s sixth poster for the venue, two nights with the Buddy Guy Blues Band. Opening local bands were the Gang on the first night, and Soap on the second night.
This image was originally printed only as a postcard.
The 68th weekend at The Grande Ballroom, January 19-20, 1968 featured Gary Grimshaw’s 35th poster for the venue, as he and Carl Lundgren continued alternating weekly. The line-up for both nights was Scot Richard Case with the Amboy Dukes and Apple Pie Motherhood from Boston, although the Amboy Dukes would cancel the second night and would be replaced by the debut performance by the Psychedelic Stooges.
The Tuesday night show by John Mayall on January 23 would be Mayall’s first Michigan appearance. The Rationals and Odds & Ends opened.
This image was originally printed as both a 13” x 22” poster and as a 4” x 7” postcard
The back of the John Mayall January 19-20, 1968 postcard.
What the previous poster could not document is that the Amboy Dukes, on the poster as the opening act for January 20, 1968, had to cancel and were replaced that night by a new group from Ann Arbor called The Psychedelic Stooges in their first true public appearance.
When we last left Jim “Iggy” Osterberg, he was working at Discount Records in Ann Arbor and commuting to Chicago for periods of stays studying blues drumming with the master Sam Lay. As you can hear him say for himself in the following video, Iggy “wanted to be him”, and Lay was a huge influence, not so much on the drumming side as much as for opening his mind to larger possibilities beyond the blues, both musically and in presentation.
Two other incidents, which we’ve previously described; becoming roommates with Scott Richardson and witnessing Jim Morrison’s debacle at the U of M Homecoming dance, both further led Iggy to abandoning the drums.
For months, Iggy had hung out at Ron Asheton’s house, getting high and talking about forming a band with Ron and his brother Scott. They did more of the former activity, but occasionally Iggy would coax them into semblances of rehearsals. Ron played bass and guitar, Iggy was teaching Scott to play drums, and for himself, Iggy was experimenting with an assortment of instruments from piano, organ, toy Hawaiian guitar, oil drums, vacuum cleaner, and homemade contraptions, including the “Jimaphone”, a phone receiver in a funnel connected to an air blower, and the “Osterizer”, a microphone in a blender half-filled with water.
They decided to call themselves The Psychedelic Stooges, obviously inspired by their favorite activity of watching TV while tripping, and the feeling of alienation that the Asheton brothers and their friend, Dave Alexander, felt living in a town largely populated by threatening jocks and frat brothers which made the three of them (the three stooges) band together for survival.
Their first public performance of the cacophony that they could produce was at a Halloween party in Ann Arbor in October, 1967. Then they got a call that the Amboy Dukes had cancelled a scheduled appearance on January 20, 1968 at the Grande Ballroom.
Their 18-minute free-form performance with the above-mentioned instrumentation left the audience asking WTF, as was to become the general reaction to the band. This night they had performed as a trio, quickly after this, they brought in Dave Alexander on bass and Iggy switched over exclusively to vocals.
(Notice the nice logo that Gary Grimshaw made for the band.)
Bluesland movie trailer
https://vimeo.com/130815177
A long review written by Steve Silverman in the January 23, 1968 edition of the Michigan Daily newspaper in Ann Arbor for the show at the Grande Ballroom in Detroit on January 20. It was the writer’s first visit to the Grande, now approaching its 16th month of operation, and half of the review was on the venue itself, which despite the “Fun” headline was snipingly critical and fairly dismissive. “Phantasmagoria” sent us running to a dictionary, which defined the word as “a sequence of real or imaginary images like those seen in a dream”, the article stated that the Grande’s “electrical phantasmagoria is not up to Walt Disney”.
The article was both complimentary and critical of the headliners SRC, calling them “easily the best band in Michigan” and noting “the virtuosity of lead guitarist Gary Quakenbush and the excellence of the group”, but that vocalist Scott Richard (sic) “can’t sing” and that the band’s original material was weak, with “banal lyrics”.
The review was full of praise for the “Ann Arbor band, the Psychedelic Stooges, making its first appearance anywhere”. In a section subtitled “Silk Pajamas”, he writes:
“Led by Iggy Osterberger, known to Ann Arbor rock fans for his work with the Prime Movers, the Stooges were visually the most exciting thing at the Grande. Iggy wore white silk pajamas and a two-foot high wig of curled aluminum topped off with white-painted face. The drummer played on two oil drums. Suffice it to say that with Iggy on vacuum cleaner the group played what was easily the most imaginative music of the evening.
“They played electronic music which utilized controlled feedback, wah-wah, pedal, slide guitar, and droned bass as well as scat-like singing and neo-primitive howling, all backed up by a strong simple drum beat. Unfortunately, the performance was marred by equipment difficulties.”
A newsprint version of Gary Grimshaw’s poster for John Mayall at the Grande Ballroom on January 23, 1968. The upcoming shows for the next weekend are listed on the bottom.
The Grande Ballroom Posters - continues - HERE
