Splatt Gallery
Double click here to add text.
Splatt Gallery's History of Michigan Concert Posters
The Grande Ballroom Posters - Page Five
A full-page London Records ad in Billboard magazine with tour dates for John Mayall’s first US tour, the second stop, after a thirteen-night engagement at the Café A Go Go in NYC, is his first Michigan appearance, at the Grande Ballroom in Detroit on January 23, 1968.
*********************************************************
The 69th weekend at The Grande Ballroom, January 26-27, 1968 featured Carl Lundgren’s seventh poster for the venue, two nights with the Lyman Woodward Trio with Jagged Edge, and the Rationals with Thyme each opening one of the nights. Lundgren calls this poster “Einstein”.
This image was originally printed only as a postcard, either with a blank back or with “Grande Ballroom” and a “Place Stamp Here” imprint on the back
The back side of the Lyman Woodard January 26-27, 1968 postcard.
The 70th weekend at the Grande Ballroom, February 2-3, 1968 featured Gary Grimshaw’s 36th poster for the venue. The Beacon Street Union from Boston headlined both nights with MC5 and the Charging Rhinoceros of Soul from Ann Arbor on both nights.
This image was originally printed only as a postcard.
The Beacon Street Union were part of the “Bosstown Sound”, a somewhat fabricated scene in Boston created by MGM record producer Alan Lorber that was roundly slammed right from its beginning. There are some interesting parallels, and differences, between the comparative scenes in Boston and Detroit, that we’ll look at in the next few posts.
For now, here is a track by Beacon Street Union that demonstrates both the occasional flashes of brilliance combined with an over-all wretchedness that exemplified the Bosstown Sound.
Beacon Street Union – South End Incident (I’m Afraid) (1967)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_l7Ztiuc7Q
A newsprint version of Gary Grimshaw’s poster for Beacon Street Union at the Grande Ballroom, February 2-3, 1968.
Nice illustration by an unknown artist in The Paper newspaper in East Lansing, Michigan, advertising the show at the Grande Ballroom in Detroit with Beacon Street Union, “The Bostown Sound”, February 2-3, 1968, and also squeezing in the listing for the Chessmate Club in Detroit featuring Orpheus and Can’t Find the Time, on February 6th.
The 71st weekend at the Grande Ballroom, February 9-10, 1968 featured Carl Lundgren’s eighth poster for the venue. Lundgren later reissued this poster highlighting the bed of eyeballs, adding one in the center and two in the upper corners as well as re-arranging the text.
The center image is from the popular children’s books “Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland” (see below).
The original image was only printed as a postcard, either with a blank back or with “Grande Ballroom”, “Place Stamp Here”, and a small illustration printed on the back (see below).
This is one of the first shows by Dick Wagner with his new band, The Frost. Wagner had just lost out in an audition to become the lead singer for Blood, Sweat & Tears in New York City. Returning to Michigan, he co-opted an Alpena, Michigan band, Bobby Rigg & The Chevelles, at first re-naming them The New Bossmen, and then The Frost.
The Children opened for Frost, and the following night, the Jagged Edge headlined with the Ashmollyan Quintet.
Dick Wagner & the Frosts – Little Girl (1968)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXczxW1dnd0
A page from the children’s book “Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland” with the panel (top center) used by Carl Lundgren for the February 9-10, 1968 Grande Ballroom poster.
The back side of the postcard for the 71st weekend at the Grande Ballroom, February 9-10, 1968.
The 72nd weekend at The Grande Ballroom, February 16-18, 1968 featured Carl Lundgren’s ninth poster for the venue. The poster can be viewed one way for the two shows by Canned Heat on the 16th and 17th, and when turned 180-degrees, for the Sunday night show by The Byrds.
Canned Heat was supported in their two shows by Thyme, Carousel, and UP. The Rationals and Wilson Mower Pursuit opened for the Byrds.
This image was originally printed only as a postcard.
In John Sinclair’s review of recent shows at the Grande in The Sun newspaper, he wrote about the hapless Beacon Street Union’s shows, confirming what we’ve reported about the transparency of the hype surrounding the “Bosstown Sound”, and also describing the subsequent action of the Beacon Street Union telling their management that they never again wanted to follow The MC5 on any stage, becoming the first of many national acts that would make that request after playing at The Grande Ballroom.
He also insinuated that the fame of The Byrds was largely hype as their performance was “wholly lackluster” and that The Rational’s four-song opening set blew away the main act. “The beautiful thing is that the kids weren’t misled by everything they’d read or heard about The Byrds and they really knew it when the energy failed to flow.”
“Now, Canned Heat, on the other hand, came to town with little reputation and they played their asses off. They stayed in town two weeks, returning to the Ballroom for a second (unscheduled) weekend by popular demand, as they say.”
Canned Heat – On the Road Again (1967)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QexOuH8GS-Y
The back side of the postcard for the 72nd weekend at The Grande Ballroom, February 16-18, 1968, with the detailed line-ups for the three nights.
An ad for the Grande Ballroom, of a different sort, in the Fifth Estate newspaper, for three weeks of shows, starting with Canned Heat, February 16-17, 1968. The ad has some deviations from the concert database on the supporting bands. In addition to Thyme on the first night, the ad also lists Commander Cody in one of their earliest incarnations as, “Commander Cody’s Lost Planet Extra-Terrestrial Expeditionary Force & Ladies Auxiliary Band”.
For the second night with Canned Heat, the ad has Children and Carousel, the database has the UP instead of Children. For the Byrds on Sunday the 18th, the ad has the Psychedelic Stooges added in addition to the Rationals and Wilson Mower Pursuit.
At the time of the ad, they could not have known that Canned Heat would go over so well that they would stay in town and come back to headline the February 23rd show with Frut of the Loom and Tiers. It also could not know that Canned Heat would also do a Sunday night show on the 25th.
The ad is in agreement with the database for the February 24th show, headlined by the Scot Richard Case, although it added “Lovecraft” to H.P. possibly by reflex.
Finally, the ad lists the March 1-2 shows by Big Brother & the Holding Company, with support bands to be determined.
A newsprint version of the poster for Jimi Hendrix at the Masonic Temple in Detroit on February 23, 1968, with information for the Grande Ballroom shows with Canned Heat and the Bryds on the prior weekend.
The 73rd weekend at The Grande Ballroom, February 23-24, 1968 featured Gary Grimshaw’s 37th poster for the venue. As we know from John Sinclair’s article, and confirmed by the newspaper ad for this weekend, Canned Heat had gone over so well the week before that they stuck around town and headlined Friday night and an additional Sunday night show.
Frut of the Loom and Tiers opened for Canned Heat on Friday. Scot Richard Case (noted as SRC), Born Blues, and H. P. & the Grass Route Movement performed on Saturday, and Odds & Ends opened for Canned Heat on Sunday.
This image was originally printed only as a 4” x 7” postcard.
An 18” x 24” screen print of this poster was created as the first release of the second series of the Grimshaw Memorial Series in 2022; 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.
The photo, by Leni Sinclair, is of the artist Gary Grimshaw working the light show at the Grande Ballroom.
Newspaper ad listing the February 25, 1968 Sunday show with Canned Heat and Odds & Ends.
A photo taken inside the Trans Love bookstore in Detroit, Michigan in March 1968, with Leni Sinclair and Genie Plamondon. Grande Ballroom posters are on the wall, priced at $2.50 each (about $22 in today’s money). The most recent poster, for Big Brother & the Holding Company, is in the corner on the side wall.
The 74th weekend at The Grande Ballroom, March 1-2, 1968, featured Gary Grimshaw’s 38th poster for the venue. Big Brother & the Holding Co. opened both nights with support by the MC5, Pink Peech Mob, Family Dump Truck, and Tiffany Shade.
This image was originally printed as both a 13” x 22” poster and as a 4” x 7” postcard.
A second print poster was printed in 1992 on gloss coated stock and measures approximately 13″ x 22″. The notation “© 1992 Gary Grimshaw” appears at the bottom left.
Guitarist James Gurley came back to his hometown with the first Detroit appearance by Big Brother & the Holding Company. The band’s first album had been mangled in the recording and mishandled in the marketing by the Chicago record label Mainstream. The band had signed with Mainstream only because they were stuck in Chicago without enough funds to return to San Francisco and the jazz label got its first rock release.
Following their performance at the Monterey Pop Festival they were signed to Columbia and Gurley told The Sun newspaper that the next album would be a live record of their shows at the Grande Ballroom. However, their manager and producer weren’t entirely happy with the results, the idea was scrapped and Cheap Thrills re-created the Grande set in the studio.
A couple of the live tracks from the Grande Ballroom turned up on later compilations. This track is of the last song of night of the second show. At the end, you can hear the Grande’s announcer talking about the upcoming shows by Blood, Sweat & Tears, and The Who.
Big Brother & the Holding Company – Magic of Love (live at Grande Ballroom 3/2/1968)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=on1Td7X6EgE
Newspaper version of Gary Grimshaw’s poster with the added note that the concert would be recorded.
A blurb to become a dealer for the SUN newspaper in a March 1968 issue with photo by Leni Sinclair of guitarist James Gurley perusing the issue with the poster for The Who at the Grande Ballroom on the back cover.
Gary Grimshaw’s 39th poster for the Grande Ballroom was for the Sunday night show on March 3, 1968 with Blood, Sweat & Tears, whose management requested that the MC5 not open the show based on mounting reports from national touring acts appearing at the Grande that The Five were blowing them off the stage.
So instead, the relatively safe pick of a new unknown band, the Psychedelic Stooges were selected, appearing for their second time at the Grande Ballroom, but the first time actually appearing on the bill. And by most accounts, the Stooges blew BS&T off the stage. The band Carousel also performed.
This image was originally printed as both a 13” x 22” poster and as a postcard.
The Stooges – I Wanna Be Your Dog (1969)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJIqnXTqg8I
The 75th weekend at The Grande Ballroom, March 8-9, 1968 featured Gary Grimshaw’s 40th poster for the venue. This image was produced only in postcard form. No poster is known to exist for this event.
The original postcard was printed on white stock and measures approximately 3″ x 7″. This card has a “Grande Ballroom” and a “Place Stamp Here” imprint on the back.
A newspaper ad had the Who performing on both the 8th and the 9th, but the Who were in Bloomington, Minnesota on the 8th. The Electric Prunes and Thyme played Friday night, the 8th, and on Saturday, the 9th, it was The Who with Soap and the Schillings (instead of the MC5 in the newspaper ad). On Sunday, the 10th, the Electric Prunes returned, this time with the Jagged Edge opening.
Russ Gibb was stung by being out-bid by a high school student the last time The Who passed through town, and this time he made sure to get them. Compared to the small, cramped stage of the Fifth Dimension, or being third billing on an arena tour, or looking uncomfortable in a high school gymnasium, for the Who’s fourth Michigan appearance the Grande Ballroom was finally an appropriate venue for the band’s volume and energy.
But more than that, it was the Grande Ballroom crowd that made it perfect, from greeting the band members by name as they made their way to the stage, to knowing all the words to the songs, to creating a feedback loop of energy that pushed the band to, by their own description, their best performance to date.
The Who’s road manager, Tom Wright, the longtime friend who’d introduced Pete Townshend to both American music and pot, told Russ Gibb that the night had been magical, to which Gibb replied it had been no different a few weeks before with The Cream, and to him and the crowd it had been a typical Grande Ballroom night. When the tour concluded and The Who went back to England, Wright came back to Detroit to work for Gibb at The Grande. The Who felt that Wright had made a step up by taking the job.
The Who – Magic Bus (1968)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bl9bvuAV-Ao
The back of the Who March 8-9, 1968 postcard.
A newsprint version, on the back cover of the SUN newspaper, of Gary Grimshaw’s poster for The Who at the Grande Ballroom in Detroit, Michigan, March 8-9, 1968, with the information written along the right side instead of at the bottom.
A pair of newspaper ads for the Grande Ballroom, March 8-10, 1968. As described above, the Who did not appear on the 8th.
Grande Ballroom stationary with Gary Grimshaw lettering. With Tom Wright listed as manager, the stationary is from some time after April 1968. Wright had first been at the Grande Ballroom on March 9, 1968, serving as the road manager for his friends The Who on that triumphant night that convinced the band that they could become popular in the United States.
When The Who returned to England at the end of the tour in early April, Wright, who was already an accomplished rock photographer took a job in New York for a magazine publisher. He raved about the Grande and convinced his new bosses to send him back to Detroit to create a photo essay about the Motor City. Returning to New York with canisters of film, Wright found the publisher’s offices padlocked and out of business. He made a call to Russ Gibb which resulted in Wright becoming the new manager of the Grande Ballroom.
The 76th weekend at the Grande Ballroom, March 15-17, 1968 featured Gary Grimshaw’s 41st poster for the venue. The Youngbloods headlined two nights, with the Rationals and UP opening the first night, and the James Gang opening the second night, The poster also had a Sunday night, St. Patrick’s Day show on the 17th with the MC5 and Thyme.
This image was produced only in postcard form. No poster is known to exist for this event. The original postcard measures approximately 4″ x 7″.
This was the only time, as far as we can tell, that The Youngbloods from Greenwich Village, NYC performed in Detroit.
Remember when we recounted how Dino Valenti, in a prison audience for a performance by Billy Roberts, heard his performance of “Hey Joe” and later claimed authorship of the song? Well, Dino Valenti, aka Chet Powers, did write “Get Together”.
Its simple beauty may seem quaint and naive in this time when ugliness is excused, defended, and even cheered on, or maybe it’s needed now more than ever. Regardless, every guitar player should take a lesson here.
The Youngbloods – Get Together (1967)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tsxVGb2d9dw
A newsprint version of Gary Grimshaw’s poster for the Grande Ballroom, March 15-17, 1968.
A newspaper ad for the Grande Ballroom for the weekend of March 15-17, 1968.
For the weekend of March 22-23, 1968, Russ Gibb decided to take “The Grande Scene” to the Coliseum of the Michigan State Fairgrounds. Bad weather made for poor attendance and a cold room, so after Friday night’s flop, they decided to take the show back to the Grande Ballroom for the Saturday night show.
The line-up for both nights was Eric Burdon & the Animals, the Grateful Dead, the Apostles, Jagged Edge, and the Aere Apparent.
Newspaper ad for The Grande Scene at the State Fairgrounds by Gary Grimshaw.
The 77th weekend at The Grande Ballroom, March 22-23, 1968 featured Gary Grimshaw’s 42nd poster for the venue. Our previous post recounted how the experiment to have the shows at the State Fair Coliseum didn’t go so well.
This image was produced only in postcard form. No poster is known to exist for this event.
The original postcard was printed on white stock and measures approximately 4″ x 7″. This card has a “Grande Ballroom” and a “Place Stamp Here” imprint on the back.
Newspaper ad for “the Grandee Scene at the State Fair Colosseum”, March 22-23, 1968.
A poster by an unknown artist for a Tribal Stomp at the Grande Ballroom on Sunday, March 24, 1968. The long list of bands performing was MC5, Psychedelic Stooges, UP, Pink Peech Mob, Gold, and Odds & Ends.
The 78th weekend at The Grande Ballroom, March 29-30, 1968 featured Gary Grimshaw’s 43rd poster for the venue. This image was produced only as a 4” x 7” postcard. No poster is known to exist for this event.
John Sinclair’s pals, The Fugs were in town for their third time, headlining two shows (their 5th and 6th Michigan shows) with Sly & the Family Stone both nights and the opening slots filled by the MC5 on the first night and the Psychedelic Stooges on the second night.
It was the first Detroit appearance for Sly & the Family Stone, a band that formed in San Francisco in November, 1966 by a marriage of two bands, Sly & the Stoners, and Freddie & the Stone Souls. When they appeared at the Grande Ballroom, they had just released their second album, Dance to the Music.
Their first album, A Whole New Thing was not a great success and everything afterwards made it a forgotten album, which is why you should check it out.
Sly & the Family Stone – Underdog (1967)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMQQcniF2Bg
Newspaper version of Gary Grimshaw’s poster for the Grande Ballroom, March 29-30, 1968.
A newspaper ad with the shows by the Fugs and Sly & the Family Stone at the Grand Ballroom, plus an additional Sunday night show, March 31, 1968, with MC5, Rationals, and Thyme.
The 79th weekend at The Grande Ballroom, April 5-7, 1968 featured Gary Grimshaw’s 44th poster for the venue, printed here as the back cover of Issue #6 of the SUN newspaper.
On Thursday evening, April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King Jr was shot and killed in Memphis, Tennessee. In nearly every major city in the country outbursts of rage erupted, particularly in Chicago and Washington DC.
In Detroit, reports of shootings, some fires, and gathering crowds on 12th Street, the epicenter of the previous summer’s rebellion, were being reported. Schools closed early on Friday and the Governor declared a state of emergency for Wayne County and imposed an 8:00 pm curfew, and closed “all places of amusement”.
John and Leni Sinclair both have mentioned that the curfew negatively affected Trans-Love’s main source of income, shows at the Grande Ballroom. These shows by The Troggs must certainly have been cancelled as the curfew was imposed on April 5th. But the curfew was lifted on April 11th, in time for the following weekend’s shows to occur as planned.
The Detroit Tigers played their season opening game on April 10th, a game that they lost to the Boston Red Sox. An article in the Michigan Daily newspaper in Ann Arbor began with, “Yesterday was opening day at Tiger Stadium but Detroit’s big guns were apparently still busy patrolling the city’s streets, as the visiting Boston Red Sox were able to coast to a 7-3 victory over the Tigers, spoiling the Bengal’s debut before 41,429 hometown fans.”
The Troggs – Wild Thing (1966)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hce74cEAAaE
Poster by Gary Grimshaw for the Troggs with Tiffany Shade and the MC5, at the Grande Ballroom in Detroit, Michigan, April 5-6, 1968, and Junior Wells with the Psychedelic Stooges and UP on April 7th.
We are going to assume these shows were cancelled by the curfew. The poster still counts, of course, but the shows will not.
This image was originally produced only as a 4″ x 7″ postcard
An 18” x 24” screen print of this poster was created as the fifth release of the Grimshaw Memorial Series which began 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.
A rather different ad for the Grande Ballroom in Detroit, Michigan, by Liberation News Service illustrator Frank Cieciorka, inspired by the popular movie “Bonnie and Clyde” for April 5-6, 1968 shows by The Troggs (sic), Tiffany Shade, and The Apostles (instead of The MC5 on the Gary Grimshaw poster), and the following week, April 13-14, with Traffic (written as “The Traffic (from England”), “and other top groups” (who turned out to be the Jagged Edge, the Ashmollyan Quintet, and Panic & the Pack). The ad appeared in the April 1, 1968 issue of The Fifth Estate newspaper in Detroit.
The 80th weekend at The Grande Ballroom, April 12-14, 1968, featured Gary Grimshaw’s 45th poster for the venue. Traffic headlined two nights in their first Michigan appearance, with Jagged Edge, Ashmollyan Quintet, and Panic & the Pack opening the shows. The poster also has a Sunday night show by the Thyme.
This image was produced only as a 4” x 7” postcard. No poster is known to exist for this event.
Traffic – Dear Mr. Fantasy (1967)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxVlN-LzIks
Newspaper black-and-white version of Gary Grimshaw’s poster for the Grande Ballroom, April 12-13, 1968.
The 81st weekend at the Grande Ballroom, April 17-21, 1968 featured Gary Grimshaw’s 46th poster for the venue. The poster packs in five shows, starting with MC5, Jagged Edge, and Psychedelic Stooges on Wednesday, April 17th. The next night had Scot Richard Case with Thyme and the Ashmollyan Quintet.
Cream, however, had to cancel and was rescheduled to appear in June. Going on without them, Children and Poor Richard’s Almanac performed on Friday, April 19th, the Rationals and Frost on Saturday, and the James Gang with the Psychedelic Stooges on Sunday.
This image was originally produced only as a 4” x 7” postcard.
An 14.5” x 24.5” screen print of this poster was created as the ninth 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.
Newsprint version of Gary Grimshaw’s poster for Cream at the Grande Ballroom with the cancelled dates of April 19-21, 1968.
The 82nd weekend at The Grande Ballroom, April 26-28, 1968 featured Gary Grimshaw’s 47th poster for the venue. The poster has four shows. The Rationals, Thyme, and Apple Corps performed on April 26th, Jagged Edge, Thyme and Orange Fuzz performed on April 27th. The two Sunday shows by Frank Zappa & the Mothers of Invention were their only Grande Ballroom appearances. The Psychedelic Stooges and the Charging Rhinoceros of Soul opened the first show, and the MC5 and Carousel opened the second show.
This image was produced only as a 4” x 7” postcard. No poster is known to exist for this event.
The band on Friday night, The Apple Corps from Plymouth, Michigan was formed by members from various other Plymouth bands, The Museum, The Phyre, and The Southampton Rowe.
There are a number of tracks in circulation taken from a soundboard recording of The Mothers at The Grande Ballroom on April 28, 1968. Here’s the “Let’s Make the Water Turn Black/Harry, You’re A Beast/Orange County Lumber Truck” medley.
Mothers of Invention – Medley Live Grande Ballroom (1968)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBBx5NteFDI
The Grande Ballroom Posters - continues - HERE
