Posters and Handbills

These posters and handbills are from my personal collection. I have had them stashed away for years and recently ran across them and decided to scan them so that I can share them with the world. Some of them may be quite rare. Many of them are for various festivals in the Northern California area during the heyday of rock and pop festivals - the late 1960s. Some of them I attended and some I did not. The ones that I attended are still fresh in my memory and if I close my eyes I can see it all as if it were yesterday. Many of the handbills I just picked up at various record shops during the late '60s. They were so ubiquitous at the time that very few thought to save them. In my case, I used them for wall decoration and ultimately just stuffed them in a box when I got tired of looking at them. I'm sure I threw away many more than I still have.

From a historical perspective, these are very interesting. To see the combination of acts at places like the Fillmore is to realize just how diverse the popular music of that era was. Try to imagine such a diverse mixture of acts all playing on the same bill today. It just doesn't happen. The artwork, too, was incredible, especially for something that was intended to be thrown away as soon as the show was finished. This was, after all, basically commercial art. But what glorious commercial art it was!

So, without further ado I present my gallery of forgotten psychedelic poster and handbill art from the late '60s.

Click on the thumbnails to see the full size images.

Everybody knows about the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival, right? The one that introduced Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix and was the first big breakthrough for the Who in America, etc.? Well, how many people know that there were two more "Monterey Pop" festivals to follow in 1968 and 1969? Because neither of them were in Monterey (permission denied) the venue was moved up the coast to San Jose, California. The name was changed, obviously, from Monterey Pop to Northern California Folk Rock Festival. As such, it was probably the second major rock festival in the country, although many more would follow throughout the US in the coming years. This was a great event, and I am happy to say I was there.
This was an early version of the handbill, advertising bands that would not appear (Buffalo Springfield had broken up by the time the festival happened), and there was no Ravi Shankar nor the Animals. Everything else was about right, though, including the dates and the place - the Family Park at the Santa Clara Country fairgrounds. It was basically just a big grassy area with picnic tables and shady trees here and there. A very nice time was had by all.

This was the second and more common version of the handbill for the above venue. By this time the lineup had been solidified a little more and the headliners were Jefferson Airplane (on Saturday) and the Doors (on Sunday). Most of the others mentioned did appear, including a number of local bands like the People and Rubber Maze (I knew those guys). The Animals were still being advertised, but they never made it. Some important bands were not even advertised: the Grateful Dead, Steve Miller Blues Band, and the Sons of Champlain.
I was particulary impressed by the Sons and Steve Miller, who had not yet released his first album and played nothing but blues. The Grateful Dead played one song for their entire set: "Aligator". By the time the Airplane took the stage most of the crowd were leaving, probably because seeing the Airplane at that time was no big deal, but it did give me a chance to get up close to the stage.

This festival (see above) had a program to go with it, which is nice for me because I could never have remembered in a thousand years that such bands as Morning Reign and Indian Headband made an appearance, but apparently I sat there and listened to them while waiting for the band I really came to hear - Jefferson Airplane. Handing out programs at a festival seems a little archaic now because part of the joy of going to a music festival is not knowing who you're going to hear next. Did Woodstock have a program?
This is the outer part of the folding program. The most interesting thing to see here is the reference to the radio stations that were sponsoring the event. KYA was San Francisco's most popular top-40 AM radio station. Note the DJ's names in the inner circle. Longtime San Franciscans will probably recognize some of those names. KOIT-FM still exists today, but I believe it is an easy listening station.

This is the inside of the program and lists all of the bands who played for the two days. I seem to have vandalized it for whatever reason. I suppose I might have been trying to rank the bands in order of how much I liked their performances. Apparently the Doors were my favorite and the least favorite was Big Brother and the Holding Company. It's true, I couldn't stand Janis Joplin. My opinion hasn't changed all that much.
Some random memories: it started raining about halfway through the Doors' set. The stage was rearranged on the second day and faced a different direction, for whatever reason. Someone took the stage at one point and threw out a bunch of pills which turned out to be PCP. There were several ODs but no one died, as far as I know. The lead singer for Elgin Marble passed out onstage, supposedly due to the heat, and had to be carted offstage. A few years later he became an agent and represented one of the bands I was in. Small city.
Fun fact: the lead singer of local San Jose band the People, who appeared both days, was Larry Norman, who later made a name for himself as a Christian rocker. The People were always playing local gigs like this and often opened up for name bands who passed through San Jose.

There was a third and last Northern California Folk Rock Festival, again at the Santa Clara County fairgrounds but not in the family park. Instead it was held at the racetrack and most of the seating was in bleachers with some standing/sitting room in the pit below the stage. I opted out of the third day, probably because I couldn't afford it. This time around the festival was a Friday night show followed by a Saturday afternoon show, and finally the Sunday afternoon show headlined by Led Zeppelin. I never did see Led Zeppelin...
Jimi Hendrix was the headliner on Saturday and Jefferson Airplane headlined Friday night's show. Chuck Berry played an extremely long set, much to the annoyance of those who came to hear Spirit, who were forced to cut their set to a mere three songs! Lee Michaels was the undisputed highlight of day two. Some of the more tedious bands on day two were Cat Mother (I couldn't wait for their set to finish) and Fat Mattress with Noel Redding. Fat Mattress preceded Hendrix and was apparently in that exalted position because Noel Redding wanted to showcase his new band before playing the regular Hendrix set. Fat Mattress were unmemorable, to say the least. During Hendrix's set (which was one of the final, [if not THE final] appearances with the original Experience) the power went out and the time was filled up with a long drum solo while the power was being restored.
Note all the typos! "Steave" Miller, Chuck "Berre", "Lynn" County, "Loadin" Zone.

This was a free festival being thrown at the same time as the above non-free event. The purpose of the Aquarian Family Festival was to offer a free alternative to the "ripoff" concert at the fairgrounds that you had to pay to get into. This was all during a time when everything should be free and no one should be concerned with monetary values. Ah, the good old idealistic days! It was a nice thought, but obviously it could never have worked out in reality. Too many people want to get paid.
I went to this one on Sunday, after going the two days to the above Northern California Folk Rock Festival, and I can tell you that it was indeed a blast; lots of happy people hanging out on blankets, dancing all over the place, copious nudity, drugs drugs drugs... I don't remember much about the music, though, and none of the "name" bands listed on the handbill were anywhere near the stage during the time I was there.

Okay, I didn't go to this one so I have nothing to say about it. I will say that the lineup doesn't look that appealing: Johnny Rivers, Jose Feliciano? Day two looks much more interesting: Procol Harum, Creedence Clearwater, Deep Purple.

Again, I didn't go to this one, and in fact I'm not even sure it happened. I tended to go to just about every local show I could at that time, and it being at the fairgrounds (just a 10 minute drive from home) I don't know why I would have missed this one. Oh wait, I have an idea: the lineup sucks! With the exception of Jeff Beck, there's hardly anyone I would have been excited about hearing, and most of them were local San Jose bands anyway: Chocolate Watchband, Mixed Company. And the 22 Piece Lockheed Bagpipe Band? Oh yeah, I want to hear that, alright!

This one looks more interesting. I didn't go because it was farther than I could do (I was still in high school and didn't have a car). The location sounds pleasant - up in the Gold Country - and the lineup was pretty good; lots of folk and blues. Could have been nice. If anybody reading this was at any of these shows, drop me a line! howells@punkhart.com.

The seminal boot Live'r Than You'll Ever Be was recorded at one of these shows at the Oakland Colliseum. A short while later the Stones went to Altamont and into the history books. Altamont was one of the events that helped to end the age of great rock music festivals.

Unlike many of the Fillmore handbills, this design is not in any way surrealistic. For a change, it actually depicts the headliner in an artist's rendition.

This is typical of the surrealism usually presented in the Fillmore handbills. We also appear to have some anti-war commentary as well. Observe the hawk, the dove, the marching army. An intriguing design.

Beautiful design, somewhat similar to the early Pink Floyd covers designed by Hipgnosis. Although I had managed to see the Who three times before 1969, I had not been able to attend any of their Fillmore shows. Too bad, because the combination of the Who and the Woody Herman Orchestra must have been mind blowing. Imagine such a bill today. Impossible. The other lineups, with Santana and the Impressions one one night and Ike & Tina Turner with Blues Image the next night, must have been awesome as well. It's amazing how much truly diverse music was happening just in San Francisco alone at that point in time. Never again will such a time come. Sigh.

Another beautiful design. The ruby red lips and tulips seem to have nothing at all to do with Johnny Winter, Lonnie Mack, or Eric Burdon but that was all part of what made these handbills and posters so special. It was commercial art at its highest form.

What can I say? A perfect design that compliments the artist lineup. It just invokes the very essence of Quicksilver Messenger Service, with the sort of Silver Surfer image hovering over a magnified drop of water and the fiery eclipse in the background. This is commercial art?

A superb collage. Doesn't really invoke any images of B. B. King, though. Just a random image that was chosen for that week. But what an awesome image it is. Notice the soldiers in the background. The bust in the foreground looks like George Washington. I'll leave it up to you to interpret.

The great Miles Davis opening up for Leon Russell? Who thought of these double bills? But this was typical for the era, though. Like the Who/Woody Herman pairing seen above, and some others I can think of offhand (Van Morrison/Captain Beefheart, for instance) there was always something unexpected happening at the Fillmore. I miss Bill Graham.

Another interesting collage. Notice the astronaut holding the monkey! Also, notice these prices. $3.00 to see Small Faces w/ Rod Stewart! How much would it cost to see Rod Stewart today? How much does it cost to see just about anybody in concert? $3.00 won't even buy you gas to get to the venue.

Okay, this one I went to. I was there either on the 20th or the 21st, I can't remember. I went mainly to hear Love, but also to hear Black Sabbath, and none of my friends had any clue whatsoever who they were. I had been a fan since the first album and I had just bought their second album - which hadn't even been released in the US yet. That's how unknown they were at the time. Their second release didn't make it to the states until about six months later. Anyway, Black Sabbath were just about the tightest band I'd ever heard. They had a no nonsense presence at that time: Ozzy was young and thin and didn't do anything particularly theatrical at all. Just stood there and sang. The guitarist (Tommy Iommi) stood stock still and burned out precise and fluent leads on his Gibson SG, and I couldn't help but notice that he was probably about 5'4".
Arthur Lee was great, as usual, and the thing I remember most of all about his set was the clear acrylic Ampeg guitar he played. The James Gang were very impressive, and I didn't really like them going in. I have since become a long time Joe Walsh fan, but at that time I had no idea who he was. I just thought "Led Zeppelin ripoff". I was wrong.

This is so fantastic that it is almost unreadable. You really have to study this one closely just to see the dates and who the supporting acts are. Look at the lettering and the background. Amazing detail that you can't really see without a magnifying glass. Just beautiful artwork.
Another show that I missed, but a friend went to one of these and said "that Jeff Beck sure is a hell of a singer". He wouldn't believe me when I pointed out that Jeff Beck was not the singer but the lead guitarist.

Handbills for venues other than the Fillmore tended to be a little ordinary, and this is no exception. An acceptable one for a Winterland Chambers Brothers show.

This is a postcard depicting four faces, but they are not the faces of the Quicksilver Messenger Service. Possibly members of the Sons? They had more than four people in the band, though.

A not especially great handbill, typical of the sort put out for shows at the Santa Clara County Fairgrounds. For a brief period the fairgrounds was just about the only place in San Jose where you could hear bands, and at least once a week they had some great shows. It wasn't a particularly great place for a number of reasons: acoustics were usually bad, the halls (not always in the same building) were cramped and poorly ventilated, and there tended to be a lot of criminal activity.
I was at this particular show. Chicago were still at that time a worthwhile group and they had just released their second album. I was a huge fan at the time, but after their third album I gave up on them as they became too commercial and began to follow a formula.

This is a pretty hideous handbill. Nothing more can be said about that.
Another show at the fairgrounds that I attended, and it was pretty disappointing. Creedence sounded just like they did on the records - note for note, including all of Fogerty's solos. I could have easily been listening to an album turned up real loud. It was the closest thing to lip-synching I've ever seen at a rock concert. It was just plain boring beyond belief. I had really expected them to have at least a little variation from their recordings, and I thought that all of Fogerty's fantastic lead guitar on the first two albums was largely improvised, but it turned out that each and every note was orchestrated right down to the seemingly spontaneous feedback. To some this may be a good thing, but to me it was a huge letdown and it was the end of my admiration for CCR.
The ubiquitous People showed up again as one of the opening bands, but by this time lead singer Larry Norman had left to pursue a Christian Rock career and the group now sported a quasi heavy metal sound that was nothing at all like their earlier pop top-40 approach.

The Continental was a club in San Jose that was around for only a brief time and catered to the under-21 crowd and had to be shut down after a particularly notorious Doors show there in 1968. I regret that I never had the opportunity to go to the Continental. The Grass Roots? This completely manufactured Hollywood rock band was trying to improve its reputation, I suppose, and were playing festivals and clubs like this in an attempt to prove how "heavy" they were. They weren't.

An utterly simple mailer, not a handbill, that was sent out to students at San Jose City College. The Youngbloods were a very underrated and largely forgotten band from that era, and one of the very best of the San Francisco bands around at the time. They never quite made the big time, in spite of a huge hit in the summer of 1967 ("Get Together", which is still a staple of classic rock radio everywhere) and a couple of great albums, especially the overlooked Elephant Mountain.

This picture was taken at the 3rd Northern California Folk Rock Festival (see above). I'm in the stands up there somewhere. Lee Michaels was awesome at the show and was the undisputed highlight of the day. The entire band consisted of himself and drummer Frosty, but what a powerful sound they got! Just Michaels blasting his Hammond B-3 as loud as he could and Frosty bashing away on the drums. The entire set consisted of one song, or suite of songs if you will, as appears on side one of his third, self-titled album, which had not yet been released.
I can't tell you anything about the show advertised in this handbill because I didn't go. I don't know why.

The artwork is simple and somewhat interesting, but nothing like the Fillmore art.
At the time of this show, taking place in a high school gym, Santana was still pretty much unknown to the world outside of the bay area. I'm not even sure if the first album had been released yet. Having played this particular high school gym with my own band at one time, I can tell you that the venue was pretty small. I suppose you might be able to fit about 500 people in there. I wasn't at this show, so I can't tell you anything about it. I did see Santana at the Santa Clara County Fairgrounds right after the first album was released and made the band a national success.

Rather amateurish art, which is typical for many of the San Jose concerts. N.B.C. Productions did a lot of stuff during that time, almost everything that took place in San Jose.
Fun fact: Opening band Fritz featured Lindsay Buckingham and Stevie Nicks before they attained superstardom a few years later in Fleetwood Mac.

The design here is not too bad.
Can't say anything about the show, since I didn't go.

This is pretty awful. Since I knew the people who were running the Fox Theatre at the time, I can just say that they were doing everything on the cheap, which included the artwork for their posters and handbills no doubt.
This particular edition of Spirit was obviously not the original lineup. The only original members here are Ed Cassidy and John Locke. Some years later I was in a band with the bass player from opening band Truckin'. They played a lot of clubs and opened for a lot of bands during that time. The Fox Theatre was an old movie palace, probably built in the 1930s, that had gone into disrepair when all of the first run movies moved to the outskirts of town, but I remember going to the Fox as a kid to see new films. The guys who took it over tried to turn it into a counter-cultural movie mecca, showing such films as "Woodstock", "Concert for Bangladesh", and foreign/art films by Bergman and Fellini. Occasionally they would put on a concert and even managed to get Van Morrison to headline at one time. The theatre was pretty large and fit about 1500 people. Their enterprise didn't last long and the theatre was eventually closed.

Nice pleasant design. Very sunny, like the music itself.
I went to one of these shows, I don't know which night, and it was one the best concerts I've ever attended. Wonderful, wonderful stuff. Dan Hicks was at his best.

One of my all-time favorites: Captain Beefheart. I didn't go to any of these shows, but I wish I had. I did manage to see the Captain twice before - 1975 at Winterland (opening for Frank Zappa) and 1976 at the Catalyst in Santa Cruz. The Winterland show was depressing because the audience booed him off the stage, but the Catalyst show was absolutely fantastic.

more posters (no commentary)

	Everybody knows about the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival, right? The one that introduced Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix and was the first big breakthrough for the Who in America, etc.? Well, how many people know that there were two more "Monterey Pop" festivals to follow in 1968 and 1969? Because neither of them were in Monterey (permission denied) the venue was moved up the coast to San Jose, California. The name was changed, obviously, from Monterey Pop to Northern California Folk Rock Festival. As such, it was probably the second major rock festival in the country, although many more would follow throughout the US in the coming years. This was a great event, and I am happy to say I was there. This was an early version of the handbill, advertising bands that would not appear (Buffalo Springfield had broken up by the time the festival happened), and there was no Ravi Shankar nor the Animals. Everything else was about right, though, including the dates and the place - the Family Park at the Santa Clara Country fairgrounds. It was basically just a big grassy area with picnic tables and shady trees here and there. A very nice time was had by all.
	This was the second and more common version of the handbill for the above venue. By this time the lineup had been solidified a little more and the headliners were Jefferson Airplane (on Saturday) and the Doors (on Sunday). Most of the others mentioned did appear, including a number of local bands like the People and Rubber Maze (I knew those guys). The Animals were still being advertised, but they never made it. Some important bands were not even advertised: the Grateful Dead, Steve Miller Blues Band, and the Sons of Champlain. I was particulary impressed by the Sons and Steve Miller, who had not yet released his first album and played nothing but blues. The Grateful Dead played one song for their entire set: "Aligator". By the time the Airplane took the stage most of the crowd were leaving, probably because seeing the Airplane at that time was no big deal, but it did give me a chance to get up close to the stage.
	This festival (see above) had a program to go with it, which is nice for me because I could never have remembered in a thousand years that such bands as Morning Reign and Indian Headband made an appearance, but apparently I sat there and listened to them while waiting for the band I really came to hear - Jefferson Airplane. Handing out programs at a festival seems a little archaic now because part of the joy of going to a music festival is not knowing who you're going to hear next. Did Woodstock have a program? This is the outer part of the folding program. The most interesting thing to see here is the reference to the radio stations that were sponsoring the event. KYA was San Francisco's most popular top-40 AM radio station. Note the DJ's names in the inner circle. Longtime San Franciscans will probably recognize some of those names. KOIT-FM still exists today, but I believe it is an easy listening station.
	This is the inside of the program and lists all of the bands who played for the two days. I seem to have vandalized it for whatever reason. I suppose I might have been trying to rank the bands in order of how much I liked their performances. Apparently the Doors were my favorite and the least favorite was Big Brother and the Holding Company. It's true, I couldn't stand Janis Joplin. My opinion hasn't changed all that much. Some random memories: it started raining about halfway through the Doors' set. The stage was rearranged on the second day and faced a different direction, for whatever reason. Someone took the stage at one point and threw out a bunch of pills which turned out to be PCP. There were several ODs but no one died, as far as I know. The lead singer for Elgin Marble passed out onstage, supposedly due to the heat, and had to be carted offstage. A few years later he became an agent and represented one of the bands I was in. Small city. Fun fact: the lead singer of local San Jose band the People, who appeared both days, was Larry Norman, who later made a name for himself as a Christian rocker. The People were always playing local gigs like this and often opened up for name bands who passed through San Jose.
	There was a third and last Northern California Folk Rock Festival, again at the Santa Clara County fairgrounds but not in the family park. Instead it was held at the racetrack and most of the seating was in bleachers with some standing/sitting room in the pit below the stage. I opted out of the third day, probably because I couldn't afford it. This time around the festival was a Friday night show followed by a Saturday afternoon show, and finally the Sunday afternoon show headlined by Led Zeppelin. I never did see Led Zeppelin... Jimi Hendrix was the headliner on Saturday and Jefferson Airplane headlined Friday night's show. Chuck Berry played an extremely long set, much to the annoyance of those who came to hear Spirit, who were forced to cut their set to a mere three songs! Lee Michaels was the undisputed highlight of day two. Some of the more tedious bands on day two were Cat Mother (I couldn't wait for their set to finish) and Fat Mattress with Noel Redding. Fat Mattress preceded Hendrix and was apparently in that exalted position because Noel Redding wanted to showcase his new band before playing the regular Hendrix set. Fat Mattress were unmemorable, to say the least. During Hendrix's set (which was one of the final, [if not THE final] appearances with the original Experience) the power went out and the time was filled up with a long drum solo while the power was being restored. Note all the typos! "Steave" Miller, Chuck "Berre", "Lynn" County, "Loadin" Zone.
	This was a free festival being thrown at the same time as the above non-free event. The purpose of the Aquarian Family Festival was to offer a free alternative to the "ripoff" concert at the fairgrounds that you had to pay to get into. This was all during a time when everything should be free and no one should be concerned with monetary values. Ah, the good old idealistic days! It was a nice thought, but obviously it could never have worked out in reality. Too many people want to get paid. I went to this one on Sunday, after going the two days to the above Northern California Folk Rock Festival, and I can tell you that it was indeed a blast; lots of happy people hanging out on blankets, dancing all over the place, copious nudity, drugs drugs drugs... I don't remember much about the music, though, and none of the "name" bands listed on the handbill were anywhere near the stage during the time I was there.
	Okay, I didn't go to this one so I have nothing to say about it. I will say that the lineup doesn't look that appealing: Johnny Rivers, Jose Feliciano? Day two looks much more interesting: Procol Harum, Creedence Clearwater, Deep Purple.
	Again, I didn't go to this one, and in fact I'm not even sure it happened. I tended to go to just about every local show I could at that time, and it being at the fairgrounds (just a 10 minute drive from home) I don't know why I would have missed this one. Oh wait, I have an idea: the lineup sucks! With the exception of Jeff Beck, there's hardly anyone I would have been excited about hearing, and most of them were local San Jose bands anyway: Chocolate Watchband, Mixed Company. And the 22 Piece Lockheed Bagpipe Band? Oh yeah, I want to hear that, alright!
	This one looks more interesting. I didn't go because it was farther than I could do (I was still in high school and didn't have a car). The location sounds pleasant - up in the Gold Country - and the lineup was pretty good; lots of folk and blues. Could have been nice. If anybody reading this was at any of these shows, drop me a line! howells@punkhart.com.
	The seminal boot Live'r Than You'll Ever Be was recorded at one of these shows at the Oakland Colliseum. A short while later the Stones went to Altamont and into the history books. Altamont was one of the events that helped to end the age of great rock music festivals.
	Unlike many of the Fillmore handbills, this design is not in any way surrealistic. For a change, it actually depicts the headliner in an artist's rendition.
	This is typical of the surrealism usually presented in the Fillmore handbills. We also appear to have some anti-war commentary as well. Observe the hawk, the dove, the marching army. An intriguing design.
	Beautiful design, somewhat similar to the early Pink Floyd covers designed by Hipgnosis. Although I had managed to see the Who three times before 1969, I had not been able to attend any of their Fillmore shows. Too bad, because the combination of the Who and the Woody Herman Orchestra must have been mind blowing. Imagine such a bill today. Impossible. The other lineups, with Santana and the Impressions one one night and Ike & Tina Turner with Blues Image the next night, must have been awesome as well. It's amazing how much truly diverse music was happening just in San Francisco alone at that point in time. Never again will such a time come. Sigh.
	Another beautiful design. The ruby red lips and tulips seem to have nothing at all to do with Johnny Winter, Lonnie Mack, or Eric Burdon but that was all part of what made these handbills and posters so special. It was commercial art at its highest form.
	What can I say? A perfect design that compliments the artist lineup. It just invokes the very essence of Quicksilver Messenger Service, with the sort of Silver Surfer image hovering over a magnified drop of water and the fiery eclipse in the background. This is commercial art?
	A superb collage. Doesn't really invoke any images of B. B. King, though. Just a random image that was chosen for that week. But what an awesome image it is. Notice the soldiers in the background. The bust in the foreground looks like George Washington. I'll leave it up to you to interpret.
	The great Miles Davis opening up for Leon Russell? Who thought of these double bills? But this was typical for the era, though. Like the Who/Woody Herman pairing seen above, and some others I can think of offhand (Van Morrison/Captain Beefheart, for instance) there was always something unexpected happening at the Fillmore. I miss Bill Graham.
	Another interesting collage. Notice the astronaut holding the monkey! Also, notice these prices. $3.00 to see Small Faces w/ Rod Stewart! How much would it cost to see Rod Stewart today? How much does it cost to see just about anybody in concert? $3.00 won't even buy you gas to get to the venue.
	Okay, this one I went to. I was there either on the 20th or the 21st, I can't remember. I went mainly to hear Love, but also to hear Black Sabbath, and none of my friends had any clue whatsoever who they were. I had been a fan since the first album and I had just bought their second album - which hadn't even been released in the US yet. That's how unknown they were at the time. Their second release didn't make it to the states until about six months later. Anyway, Black Sabbath were just about the tightest band I'd ever heard. They had a no nonsense presence at that time: Ozzy was young and thin and didn't do anything particularly theatrical at all. Just stood there and sang. The guitarist (Tommy Iommi) stood stock still and burned out precise and fluent leads on his Gibson SG, and I couldn't help but notice that he was probably about 5'4". Arthur Lee was great, as usual, and the thing I remember most of all about his set was the clear acrylic Ampeg guitar he played. The James Gang were very impressive, and I didn't really like them going in. I have since become a long time Joe Walsh fan, but at that time I had no idea who he was. I just thought "Led Zeppelin ripoff". I was wrong.
	This is so fantastic that it is almost unreadable. You really have to study this one closely just to see the dates and who the supporting acts are. Look at the lettering and the background. Amazing detail that you can't really see without a magnifying glass. Just beautiful artwork. Another show that I missed, but a friend went to one of these and said "that Jeff Beck sure is a hell of a singer". He wouldn't believe me when I pointed out that Jeff Beck was not the singer but the lead guitarist.
	Handbills for venues other than the Fillmore tended to be a little ordinary, and this is no exception. An acceptable one for a Winterland Chambers Brothers show.
	This is a postcard depicting four faces, but they are not the faces of the Quicksilver Messenger Service. Possibly members of the Sons? They had more than four people in the band, though.
	A not especially great handbill, typical of the sort put out for shows at the Santa Clara County Fairgrounds. For a brief period the fairgrounds was just about the only place in San Jose where you could hear bands, and at least once a week they had some great shows. It wasn't a particularly great place for a number of reasons: acoustics were usually bad, the halls (not always in the same building) were cramped and poorly ventilated, and there tended to be a lot of criminal activity. I was at this particular show. Chicago were still at that time a worthwhile group and they had just released their second album. I was a huge fan at the time, but after their third album I gave up on them as they became too commercial and began to follow a formula.
	This is a pretty hideous handbill. Nothing more can be said about that. Another show at the fairgrounds that I attended, and it was pretty disappointing. Creedence sounded just like they did on the records - note for note, including all of Fogerty's solos. I could have easily been listening to an album turned up real loud. It was the closest thing to lip-synching I've ever seen at a rock concert. It was just plain boring beyond belief. I had really expected them to have at least a little variation from their recordings, and I thought that all of Fogerty's fantastic lead guitar on the first two albums was largely improvised, but it turned out that each and every note was orchestrated right down to the seemingly spontaneous feedback. To some this may be a good thing, but to me it was a huge letdown and it was the end of my admiration for CCR. The ubiquitous People showed up again as one of the opening bands, but by this time lead singer Larry Norman had left to pursue a Christian Rock career and the group now sported a quasi heavy metal sound that was nothing at all like their earlier pop top-40 approach.
	The Continental was a club in San Jose that was around for only a brief time and catered to the under-21 crowd and had to be shut down after a particularly notorious Doors show there in 1968. I regret that I never had the opportunity to go to the Continental. The Grass Roots? This completely manufactured Hollywood rock band was trying to improve its reputation, I suppose, and were playing festivals and clubs like this in an attempt to prove how "heavy" they were. They weren't.
	An utterly simple mailer, not a handbill, that was sent out to students at San Jose City College. The Youngbloods were a very underrated and largely forgotten band from that era, and one of the very best of the San Francisco bands around at the time. They never quite made the big time, in spite of a huge hit in the summer of 1967 ("Get Together", which is still a staple of classic rock radio everywhere) and a couple of great albums, especially the overlooked Elephant Mountain.
	This picture was taken at the 3rd Northern California Folk Rock Festival (see above). I'm in the stands up there somewhere. Lee Michaels was awesome at the show and was the undisputed highlight of the day. The entire band consisted of himself and drummer Frosty, but what a powerful sound they got! Just Michaels blasting his Hammond B-3 as loud as he could and Frosty bashing away on the drums. The entire set consisted of one song, or suite of songs if you will, as appears on side one of his third, self-titled album, which had not yet been released. I can't tell you anything about the show advertised in this handbill because I didn't go. I don't know why.
	The artwork is simple and somewhat interesting, but nothing like the Fillmore art. At the time of this show, taking place in a high school gym, Santana was still pretty much unknown to the world outside of the bay area. I'm not even sure if the first album had been released yet. Having played this particular high school gym with my own band at one time, I can tell you that the venue was pretty small. I suppose you might be able to fit about 500 people in there. I wasn't at this show, so I can't tell you anything about it. I did see Santana at the Santa Clara County Fairgrounds right after the first album was released and made the band a national success.
	Rather amateurish art, which is typical for many of the San Jose concerts. N.B.C. Productions did a lot of stuff during that time, almost everything that took place in San Jose. Fun fact: Opening band Fritz featured Lindsay Buckingham and Stevie Nicks before they attained superstardom a few years later in Fleetwood Mac.
	The design here is not too bad. Can't say anything about the show, since I didn't go.
	This is pretty awful. Since I knew the people who were running the Fox Theatre at the time, I can just say that they were doing everything on the cheap, which included the artwork for their posters and handbills no doubt. This particular edition of Spirit was obviously not the original lineup. The only original members here are Ed Cassidy and John Locke. Some years later I was in a band with the bass player from opening band Truckin'. They played a lot of clubs and opened for a lot of bands during that time. The Fox Theatre was an old movie palace, probably built in the 1930s, that had gone into disrepair when all of the first run movies moved to the outskirts of town, but I remember going to the Fox as a kid to see new films. The guys who took it over tried to turn it into a counter-cultural movie mecca, showing such films as "Woodstock", "Concert for Bangladesh", and foreign/art films by Bergman and Fellini. Occasionally they would put on a concert and even managed to get Van Morrison to headline at one time. The theatre was pretty large and fit about 1500 people. Their enterprise didn't last long and the theatre was eventually closed.
	Nice pleasant design. Very sunny, like the music itself. I went to one of these shows, I don't know which night, and it was one the best concerts I've ever attended. Wonderful, wonderful stuff. Dan Hicks was at his best.
	One of my all-time favorites: Captain Beefheart. I didn't go to any of these shows, but I wish I had. I did manage to see the Captain twice before - 1975 at Winterland (opening for Frank Zappa) and 1976 at the Catalyst in Santa Cruz. The Winterland show was depressing because the audience booed him off the stage, but the Catalyst show was absolutely fantastic.