Before They Were Famous


What artists did you see on the way up, before superstardom?
Anyone lucky enough to see the Beatles in Germany? If so, the thread should stop there. Until then, I have two. Aerosmith played at my high school Junior Prom, Stepinac High School in White Plains, N.Y., and I was lucky enough to see John Belushi do Joe Cocker in "Lemmings" at the Village Gate in N.Y.C. around 1970, just before SNL.
blbloom

Showing 1 response by dekay

Here are a few and though some are a stretch they are true stories. Led Zep and Steppenwolf in parking lot concerts in or around Pompano Beach, FL maybe in 1968 or 1969 (not certain of the year and it could have been well before then, but LZ only had a 45 out at the time, this I remember and it had the word "breakdown" in the title). Ted Nugent and the Amboy Dukes as an opening act in the Midwest when everyone except Ted thought that they were not famous (he was an A-hole even back then). Bonnie Raitt in a small bar in Iowa City, IA in 1973 ($4 cover and I forget the name of the bar - not Gabe & Walker's though). Split a Thai smoke with Jerry Garcia in a public restroom at the Field House auditorium in Iowa City, Ia in maybe 74 or 75 (can't remember). Of course he was already famous by then but by the time we finished he forgot who he was and I forgot that he was famous for a while. It took 45 minutes to get him to the back stage and the intermission/break lasted for about an hour, I don't think that anyone really noticed though. In 1978 my ex girl friend (who formed her own record label in England) brought an English band by to my apartment in LA to listen to some popular music that I had collected performed by "not" famous African bands and due to the fact that they (the English band) stank to high heaven from not bathing I would not allow them to enter. I am pretty sure that it was The Clash. The Dead, Quicksilver and Jimi Hendrix were all at some time or other neighbors to my wife who lived in the Bay area (Berkely) in the 60's. She gave the Dead a lift to one of their concerts as they did not have any transportation at the time, nor could they remember exactly where the concert was to take place (which had to be researched and it ended up being at a warehouse on the pier). My wife saw the Beatles performance at Carnegie Hall when she was a teen. The Beatles had already started to explode in the US, but the kicker is that they oversold the hall for the conceert and my wife ended up sitting on the side of the stage on folding chairs with her girlfriends. Her father who had driven them all down from CT, waited in the car until the concert was over.