Jump to content

A Walk Down Memory Lane: The Houses of the Holy


SteveAJones

Recommended Posts

Great info & pics Jeff and Badgeholder! Those sounds like fantastic times indeed Badgeholder, what Zep shows were you at? Also, I notice that sometimes the location is given as LA and other times as Inglewood... what is correct? Is it the same thing as in Miami where Miami Beach is another legal entity but de facto Miami Beach and Miami is the same city?

The Forum is also in the video game GTA: San Andreas.

asdfw.jpg

Edited by Henrik
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

The last time I photographed The Forum was in June 2004, and it was owned and operated by a church at the time. So far as I know it no longer hosts any rock concerts or professional sports events. Perhaps I'll post a nice retrospective on The Forum to this thread unless some beats me to it.

http://articles.latimes.com/2010/dec/10/entertainment/la-et-forum-sale-20101210

L.A. Forum poised to reenter spotlight

December 10, 2010|By Randy Lewis and Geoff Boucher, Los Angeles Times

When sports and music fans look at the Forum in Inglewood they see the glorious past — days of Magic Johnson and Wayne Gretzky, nights with Elvis Presley and Led Zeppelin — but more cynical souls see a creaky 43-year-old venue that long ago became a local afterthought.

Now there may be a third view of the Forum — a venue that has a chance to be fabulous once more. A big name from the East Coast is close to finalizing its purchase of the venue and plans a major refurbishment of the 18,000-seat arena, which never recovered from the 1999 departure of its signature tenants, the Los Angeles Lakers and the Los Angeles Kings.

The owners of Madison Square Garden in New York are in the final stages of buying the Manchester Boulevard landmark for an undisclosed price that, according to numerous industry sources, falls between $20 million and $25 million. Their plan is to sink as much as twice that amount into renovations to reestablish the Forum as a heavyweight contender on the Southern California concert scene.

"We have reached an agreement for the option to purchase the L.A. Forum, subject to due diligence and other conditions," a spokeswoman for Madison Square Garden said Thursday. She said company executives would have no further comment for now.

The transaction would be a godsend for Forum Enterprises, a for-profit arm of Faithful Central Bible Church, which paid $22 million to buy the Forum in 2000, intending to use it as a new home for its services and to build a family entertainment center that would generate jobs in an underserved area of Los Angeles. Those development plans never materialized and the huge round building lined with trademark Roman columns became a white elephant.

Marc Little, chief operating officer of Forum Enterprises, confirmed that the church reached an agreement last month to sell the Forum. But he cautioned that the deal was not finalized and that the buyers were still conducting their due diligence (a final property review is now underway with attention to asbestos and structural issues, according to sources close to the deal). Little declined to disclose the purchase price or reveal any details of the agreement.

It's a bold move for Madison Square Garden, considering the age of the venue and the tricky proposition of a music-only venture.

A rejuvenated Forum would immediately be intriguing because Staples Center — the downtown Los Angeles venue that famously lured away the Forum's pro teams — is tied up 130 days a year by sports events.

"Staples Center has a tremendous lack of available dates," said Jim Guerinot, who manages rock acts such as No Doubt, the Offspring, Trent Reznor and Robbie Robertson. "You talk about Madison Square Garden being a great challenge to get into? Staples is even more of a challenge with two basketball teams and a hockey team. So there's been a great need for the Forum."

The resuscitation of the Forum would fall to Jay Marciano, president of MSG Entertainment. Marciano has overseen a major expansion of the company's entertainment division since he came to MSG in 2005 from AEG Live, where as chief strategic officer he handled new venue development, regional operations and presided over AEG's festival division that puts on the Coachella Arts and Music Festival and the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival.

Marciano instigated MSG's acquisition and $16-million renovation of New York's historic Beacon Theater that restored the 1929 building and upgraded its technology.

Under his watch MSG also has acquired the Chicago Theatre and entered into a co-booking arrangement of the entertainment at the Wang Theater in Boston. He is in charge of all concert, family and award shows at MSG's venues.

MSG also owns a minority interest in Front Line Management, the world's largest talent management company and part of Live Nation Entertainment. Front Line is headed by Irving Azoff, whom a number of industry sources describe as an architect of the MSG-Forum deal. Azoff did

not return requests for comment.

For nearly 30 years before the splashy $375-million Staples Center opened downtown and took the Lakers, Kings and most concerts away from Inglewood, the Forum was the arena of choice for hundreds of musicians and countless thousands of rock 'n' roll fans who lined up regularly for performances by the likes of the Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, Bob Dylan, Aerosmith, the Police, Guns N' Roses and Nirvana.

Concerts and other public events, however, have been few and relatively far between since the building was purchased by Faith Central, although Green Day and Metallica have played there since the beginning of 2009.

Little said Forum Enterprises entered into discussion with Madison after a planned joint venture with the owner of Hollywood Park for a mixed-use development at the Forum fell through.

"If this deal goes through," Little said, "then the church will have done a good job in terms of its ownership of the asset and raising the opportunities for the Inglewood community in Greater Los Angeles."

The Forum opened in 1967. Its architect, Charles Luckman, also designed the new Madison Square Garden, which opened in 1968. That bit of historical connection won't matter much to fans of the 1970 Lakers who will blanch at the notion of "Madison Square Garden" on the Forum's deed.

Even if the Forum regains its stature, it will need to thrive in tight times to pay off for its new owners. Overall ticket revenue in North America is expected to be down about 15% this year compared with 2009, according to Gary Bongiovanni, editor of the concert industry-tracking publication Pollstar.

Concert industry veterans are speculating about whether the Forum would strike an exclusive booking deal with Live Nation or remain available for other concert promoters.

"At Madison Square Garden they work with any promoter that wants to come in there," Bongiovanni said. "It will be interesting to see what happens with Live Nation because of [MSG Executive Chairman] Jim Dolan's close association with Irving Azoff."

While the Forum hasn't been intensely active as a concert venue, it still plays one on TV, in movies, video games and even at amusement parks. "Michael Jackson's This Is It," "Hannah Montana: The Movie," the Guitar Hero: Metallica video game and Walt Disney World's Rock 'n' Roller Coaster all use the Forum as a backdrop of one kind of another — although that may speak to the venue's availability more than its charisma.

Many music acts still have a sentimental attachment to the Forum because of its key role in the Southern California music scene over three decades. Some also prefer its acoustics and relative intimacy — Staples Center covers roughly triple the real estate, about 950,000 square feet versus the Forum's 330,000 — but many artists have avoided performing there in recent years because of a long-running labor dispute and other logistical complications.

In 2008, for instance, Neil Young canceled a Forum booking in deference to a picket line by the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees. Roger Waters initially announced that he would bring his massive restaging of "The Wall" to the Forum when the tour reached Los Angeles, but then shifted the complicated production to Staples Center, where he just concluded a three-night stand Sunday.

Still, Tom Morello, lead guitarist of Rage Against the Machine, said the lack of

polish at the Forum is appealing to the rebel soul of rock.

"The Forum has been an important gathering place for Angelenos and a respite from the sterility of corporate luxury-box venues," Morello said. "I had the good fortune of sitting in those Forum seats many a time and rocking that hallowed room once or twice myself."

Guerinot said a funded and rejuvenated Forum would plug into a powerful history and future.

"It's a bona fide arena, it has the legitimate capacity of an arena, so you're able to do a house with a large audience and you can mix the room very easily," Guerinot said. "It certainly has sentimental value to people of a certain age. But the truth is, it's a great room."

Perhaps, but some onlookers have a hard time seeing anything fabulous that's left in the Forum.

David Brooks, a senior writer at industry trade

publication Venues Today, said Staples will not be easy to beat in the arena showdown.

"In Staples Center and L.A. Live you have several billion dollars invested in a very successful project in revitalized downtown Los Angeles, versus a much older arena in a nondeveloped area with safety concerns in the surrounding neighborhood," Brooks said.

He added that the Forum is still a stop for bands that elect to play there for "music industry or political reasons" or for a retro reason: "It has that old arena feel."

Link to comment
Share on other sites

From ncstatefair.org:

J.S. Dorton Arena

dorton.jpg



  • Completed in 1952, renovated in 1979, 1996 and 2002
  • Seating capacity: 5,110 permanent seats (7,610 with portable seats used with stage)
  • Shape: elliptic (see building floor plan)
  • Square footage: 25,000
  • 300 ft in diameter and concrete floor is 221 feet long and 127 ft wide at widest point
  • Ideal venue for concerts, trade shows, athletic events, circuses, speakers, proms and other special events
  • Rental cost: $ 2,000 per day or 10 percent of gross ticket sales, whichever is greater
  • Energy-conservation rate (ECR) available for access days other than event dates.
  • Support services, such as staging, tables, electrical hookups, etc., are available for an extra fee
  • Restrooms, dressing rooms and storage areas are available
  • Contact: State Fairgrounds, 919-821-7400
  • Enlarged example of floorplan with stage set on East end of Arena during annual NC State Fair
  • Concert Typical Seating/Floor Plan during annual NC State Fair
  • Calendar of Events

History

The J.S. Dorton Arena was built to serve agriculture, industry, commerce and the general welfare of North Carolina. It has earned an international reputation since its construction in 1951. The innovative design was created by the late Matthew Nowicki while head of the Department of Architecture at North Carolina State University. Professor Nowicki was killed in an airplane accident shortly after being commissioned as the architect. His personal friend, Wm. Henley Deitrick of Raleigh, was named to the project.

The building is 300 feet in diameter, elliptic in shape, with a central concrete floor 221 feet long and 127 feet wide at the widest point of the ellipse. There are 4,750 permanent seats, 360 box seats and 2,500 portable seats that can be installed when a stage is used. Seating capacity when used with a stage is 7,610.

The metal roof, suspended on a network of cables, which extend crosswise from the 90-foot parabolic arches, is saddle-shaped. The 14-foot wide arches reach a maximum height of 90 feet. They cross each other at about 26 feet above the ground, then extend into a tunnel below the surface at the east and west ends. The weights of the roof is equalized by tension cables, with 14 two-inch strands connecting each end of the parabola through the stress tunnel. The roof, so suspended, eliminates any necessity for structural steel supports and presents no view obstructions from any seat. The exterior walls are constructed of translucent heat and glare-reducing glass above the lobby levels and of heat-absorbing transparent glass on the lobby levels. The two lobbies are on the ground level. The arena floor provides 25,000 square feet. Restrooms, dressing rooms and storage areas are also available.

In 1972, Dorton Arena was named a National Historic Monument. In 2002, the building celebrated 50 years of serving Raleigh.

-----------------------------------------------------------------

This venue still exists but only has live music during the NC State Fair every October. Back in the early 70s one of my older brothers saw The Jimi Hendrix Experience and Led Zeppelin there. Years later I attended a concert by Kiss and one from Derringer/Foghat/The Outlaws there. It is probably best known for having absolutely shitty sound, probably the main reason why it's not used as a live music venue except during the State Fair. It is telling though, that for the longest time it was one of the only venues in this area of the state to host live music. Otherwise you had to go to Greensboro or Charlotte to see shows. It took many years and some experimentation via NC State's Carter-Finley Stadium to determine that NC could host bands as big as the Stones, the Grateful Dead, Pink Floyd and The Who with rousing success. The fact that those concerts did so well there definitely helped paved the way for Walnut Creek Amphitheater which opened back in 1991.

Edited by Jahfin
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 weeks later...

The Astoria Theatre, 157, Charing Cross Road, London, WC2

The Astoria was coverted from a factory to a Theatre in 1927, Jimi Hendrx played there, it is indeed one of the best venues to see any form of music as the acoustics were great. Its a travesty it got demolished in 2009.

Have happy memories seeing Robert Plant on his "Non Stop Go Tour" in 1988 and a few others their.

"imgastoria2.jpgimg"

Demolished site 2009

"img800px-London_Astoria_site_September_2009_CB.jpgimg"

Edited by leddy
Link to comment
Share on other sites

The Astoria Theatre, 157, Charing Cross Road, London, WC2

"imgastoria2.jpgimg"

The Astoria Theatre's connections to Led Zeppelin:

Mar 27, 1988: Jones joined The Mission on keyboards for an encore of "Shelter From The Storm' which included references to 'Rock And Roll'

Apr 15, 1988: Robert Plant gig with support from It Bites

??? ??, 2003: Jones attended The Datsuns gig

Jun 24, 2004: UFO gig (Jason Bonham on drums) with support from Quireboys

Apr 20, 2006: Plant attended sold-out Pearl Jam gig

May 16, 2007: Page, Halfin, Simon Kent (Halfin's agent) and Gordon Gheller attended a Chris Cornell gig…Page posed for photos with Cornell and the band before the show

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

St Matthew's Baths re-opens as The Gym Ipswich

http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/suffolk/hi/people_and_places/history/newsid_9373000/9373167.stm

The St Matthew's Baths on Civic Drive opened in 1924 and it was also used as a public hall for music acts including Cream and Led Zeppelin (November 16, 1971).

Abbeycroft Leisure has turned the two-floor building into what it calls an "affordable" fitness centre.

"There are no shareholders that we have to give a dividend back to," said Matthew Hickey, contract fitness manager for Abbeycroft.

The gym has 100 fitness machines and standing free weights. Abbeycroft leases the building and estimates it will spend £500,000 on it over its first five years.

Some of the machines feature plug-ins for personal mp3 players and screens which simulate the view as if you were running through US national parks.

Mr Hickey said: "The uniqueness is obviously £12.99 a month which is a model which is starting to grow throughout the country.

"People naturally assume that with lower rates comes low specification equipment, but it's modern, innovative and where fitness is going with more interaction."

Abbeycroft also runs leisure centres in Bury St Edmunds and Haverhill on behalf of St Edmundsbury Borough Council.

Last year it gained social enterprise status and was looking to run its own facilities on a not-for-profit basis.

"Social enterprise status is gained through proving and showing that you look to generate any surplus back into the local community," said Mr Hickey.

"We were blown away by the space itself, its location in the town centre, the vaulted ceiling and skylight and here you can work out in a very spacious area.

"The building was very tired when we came to look at it a year ago and it's taken an enormous amount of work to bring it back up into 2011."

History

According to Ipswich Borough Council archive newsletters, the original building cost around £27,770 in 1924 and it consisted of a 75 x 30ft (23 x 9m) pool and a balcony for 200 spectators.

Russell Nunn, local historian with the Ipswich Society, said: "The only other facility would have been Fore Street Baths which opened in about 1870 and Stoke bathing place [open air] on the Wherstead Road which was river water with very limited changing facilities.

"There were a certain number of men who would take their dip at Stoke every day throughout the winter months."

The St Matthew's Baths also featured 21 slipper baths for washing in at a time when many houses did not have bathrooms.

During the winter months a sprung maple floor would cover the pool and it was used as a public hall for community events, dances, boxing, wrestling and concerts.

Mr Nunn said: "It was a heated pool, but it must be borne in mind that there were very limited facilities in the town for meetings and other functions.

"It was in very heavy demand between 1957 and the early 1970s because in 1947 the large public hall in Westgate Street (on the site now occupied by Primark) burned down.

"It wasn't grand, but it was certainly very functional.

"It's been hidden away there. With the developments in front of it, it's been completely lost really."

The building was not required as an entertainment centre when facilities became available at the Corn Exchange in the mid-1970s.

It was then used for swimming all the year round until Crown Pools was opened by Ipswich Borough Council.

It was sold to developers, divided into two floors and it was last used as a social club.

Sustainability

Abbeycroft expect the new gym to take off.

"There's no reason we can't aim towards 2,500 members," said Mr Hickey. "The population is ever-increasing and with the other fitness options that are out there, there is sustainability for all of us.

"As a small leisure trust, if we can make this model work, we will certainly be looking at other towns where we could repeat this before the big private chains come in and take over everywhere."

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 5 months later...

The Houston Summit was the site of some great concerts back in the day, including Led Zeppelin in 1977. Unfortunately, my Mom thought I was too young at the time and would not let me see Zeppelin with my older brothers. (Looking back, at 12, I was just a bit young. B) ) Well, the Summit is now a "House of the Holy" if you want to call it that, as in Lakewood Church. It's a bummer really, because it was a great concert venue, in my opinion. There was a lot of wacky weed smoked in that building, let me tell you. :D Now, it's home to an egomaniac, his snotty wife and their followers. (Sorry to any of you Osteen fans out there.)

The Summit back in the day:

HoustonSummit.jpg

And, Lakewood Church now:

Lakewoodchurch.jpg

Yep. Nice venue it was (the summit in Houston).

R B)

Edited by reids
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 months later...

KB Hallen in Copenhagen, Denmark DESTROYED

Hosted three Led Zeppelin concerts: February 28, 1970, May 3, 1971, March 2, 1973

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Fire destroys KB Hallen before sex fair opening

Wednesday, 28 September 2011

Fire thought to be linked to preparations for today's opening of the sex fair, 'Sex Messe 2011'

kbhallen_fire.jpg

The historic KB Hallen venue is not expected to survive the fire (Photo: Scanpix)

A fire that broke out early this morning in multi-purpose venue KB Hallen is spreading rapidly throughout the building and is likely to completely destroy it.

The fire at the Frederiksberg venue is thought to have started by a halogen lamp heating up cardboard boxes near its entrance.

Firemen thought they had brought the fire under control soon after is started at 5:30 this morning, but the fire regained strength and swept through the building.

"We expect that it will soon collapse so we have withrdrawn from the building," a fireman told news service Ritzau. "We are now trying to put it out from the outside."

The sex fair 'Sex Messe 2011' was due to open today at KB Hallen and several individuals preparing for the fair were sleeping inside the building when it caught fire.

Two people have been admitted to hospital and are under observation for smoke inhalation.

The middle section of the arena's roof has collapsed, while a dense blanket of smoke is travelling westward toward Nørrebro and can be seen from a distance of several kilometres.

Police are advising residents near the fire to stay indoors and close their windows to avoid exposing themselves to the toxic smoke.

Peter Bangs Vej, the street on which the venue is located, has been closed by police though the fire department has said that nearby buildings are not at risk of catching fire.

KB Hallen opened in 1938 and was at the time the largest indoor sports hall in Europe. It has been used for a variety of purposes including as a music venue, with the Beatles, Bob Dylan and the Rolling Stones among the international acts to grace its stage. KB Hallen's historic status led the 73-year-old building to be classified as a listed building this spring.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prWjEOKLeZQ

Edited by SteveAJones
Link to comment
Share on other sites

07map.xlarge1.jpg

I know the site lists them playing at The Singer Bowl, but a few friends that were there said that they actually played at the old New York Pavillion at the 1964-65 NY Worlds Fair.

The official timeline now seems to have been updated to reflect they performed at The Pavillion during the Singer Bowl Music Festival. Further substantiation comes via a press review published shortly thereafter. Good catch and the haunting photos of the venue you've posted are outstanding.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Iconic music venue to live on says boss

Friday 23rd September 2011, 9:00PM BST.

WD3765660@JBS-03-DG-13.jpg

Landmark music venue JB's will keep on rocking after new owners today took control of

the iconic Black Country nightspot.

After a tense bidding war at an auction at Villa Park yesterday, Wolverhampton boss Raj Kumar won the race to take on JB's with a final bid of £225,000. He vowed to keep the tradition of live music at the spot going into the future.

The businessman said: "I felt that the history of the place was so strong in the Black Country, I wanted to keep that alive," he said.

"I only found out about the sale of the place relatively recently, and I went to look around a few times and really liked it.

"I'm really pleased with this purchase, and hopefully it will bring a lot of people into Dudley and into the Black Country who have always enjoyed nights there."

If all goes to plan, he added, JB's will be open again to live music and club nights by Christmas.

And Mr Kumar has even been consulting with former owner and founder Sam Jukes in the hope of getting him on board to help start the ball rolling.

Mr Jukes, 64, attended the auction with fellow founder Sid Weston, 65, of Caswell Road, Sedgley, to bid farewell to the club which hosted legends like Robert Plant, Manic Street Preachers, U2 and The Stone Roses over its 42-year lifespan.

"It was really sad to see it go like that – I wish we could have carried on with it," said Mr Jukes.

"But I'm happy someone has taken it on who wants to use it as a music venue.

"I won't be able to get on board full-time but I would be happy to get involved and help someone else with what to do."

The club, in Castle Hill, Dudley, went into administration in September 2010 due to Mr Jukes' ailing health and debts of £450,000. It went on the market for £350,000, which dropped to £325,000 after several months in a bid to attract a buyer – but none came forward.

Administrators admitted defeat in July and revealed they would be putting the building up for auction.

Read more: http://www.expressan.../#ixzz1a6ei0OdF

Edited by SteveAJones
Link to comment
Share on other sites

When Led Zeppelin and The Doors Played Woodinville in the Summer of Love

http://woodinville.patch.com/articles/when-led-zepplin-and-the-doors-played-woodinville-in-the-summer-of-love#c

Gold Creek Tennis & Sports Club was an amusement park and hosted Woodstock-like concert before it became the sports club it is today.

Just think…it could have been known as the Woodinville Generation, rather than the Woodstock Generation. In July 1969 – just weeks before the iconic music festival occurred in upstate New York – Woodinville hosted a similar event at what was then called Gold Creek Park.

More than 20 musicians and groups performed at the show, known as the Seattle Pop Festival. Among them were Led Zeppelin, the Doors, The Byrds, Chicago Transit Authority, Chuck Berry, Santana, Ike & Tina Turner and the Flying Burrito Brothers. Yes, with 50,000 in attendance over the three days, it was substantially smaller than Woodstock. But still…

The Gold Creek Tennis & Sports Club commemorates the Festival with a framed poster and photo from the event hanging at the club; look closely, and you’ll see that a decidedly Woodstock-like atmosphere prevailed.

Even before the Festival, Gold Creek was a colorful presence in the community. The facility opened as an amusement park in the mid-1960s, says current business manager Charlotte Ochoa, whose family bought the property in 1976. Owned at the time by Seattle dog food magnate William Tyrrell, it featured swimming pools, picnic grounds and, in the domed building, an ice skating rink.

The S.S. Lollipop, a steam paddle wheeler, toured a hand-built canal on the property and a small train ran on a track around the perimeter. There was an old-west style garrison – Fort Bixby – which still exists, although it’s not in good repair. According to Ochoa, author Stephen Cosgrove (Wheedle on the Needle), who wrote at the fort, was married in the surrounding stockade.

And that miniature Space Needle you can see from the Woodinville-Redmond Road? According to Ochoa it was an exact replica when an engineer who worked on the 1962 World’s Fair site in Seattle built it. She says a number of people who helped construct the fairgrounds parked RVs at Gold Creek and rode busses into Seattle to work. “This was out in the tules,” she adds.

Today, the busy health club retains some of the feel of its funky, unconventional history. “Our buildings are so unique,” says Ochoa, who owns and operates the business with her brother, general manager Peter Dahl. Indeed, many of the original structures remain.

Ochoa and Dahl’s father, William Dahl, bought the 70-acre property in 1976, “much to my mother’s surprise,” laughs Ochoa. An architect, Dahl purchased it with the intent of turning it into a health club. “He was a great idea man,” she says, adding that in the end, “it was a great thing for my parents.”

One of the first things Dahl did was turn the dome into a tennis facility, complete with three full-sized courts surrounded by a circular jogging track. The track is still there, but today the 24,000-square foot building houses a basketball court, a tennis practice court (complete with ball machine), and volleyball, ping-pong and pickleball facilities.

Adjacent to the dome, a former dance hall now serves as the weight room. A cardio room is next door. According to Ochoa, trainers are available to help with the equipment; members can contract with them for personal training services.

The main building also houses locker rooms, saunas, a co-ed hot tub and steam room, and four regulation racquetball courts. Wallyball (like volleyball on a racquetball court, explains Ochoa) is available as well.

Keeping the facilities in good operating condition is “very labor intensive,” notes Ochoa, adding that her brother is a master at maintenance and repairs.

At the heart of the Club, at least in name, are the driving range and the tennis building, which Dahl added to the property in the late 1970s. With six Plexi-paved courts, the building houses Gold Creek’s sizable tennis program. The driving range, unlike the rest of the facility, is open to the general public. Both covered and grass tees are available, as are a putting green, chipping area and sand trap. The range is lighted for nighttime play.

“The golfers are as addicted to their sport as the tennis players,” says Ochoa. “That’s a good thing for us,” she laughs.

Rounding out the facilities is the indoor swimming pool; it is kept at 86 degrees, which Ochoa says keeps both the lap swimmers and recreational users happy. There is a party room, and sliding glass panels open to grassy outdoor areas when weather permits.

Gold Creek offers 30-plus fitness classes a week, says Ochoa, everything from water aerobics to yoga to circuit training, cycling and ZUMBA, all free to members. “We’re very fortunate to have some of the best instructors in the area,” says Ochoa.

Ochoa also speaks highly of the Club’s clientele. “We have a great relationship with our members,” she says. With many of the 1,200-1,500 memberships held by families, the Club serves approximately 3,000 users at any given time. A number of people have been members since the early 1980s.

Gold Creek’s clientele come in all ages, shapes and sizes, says Ochoa. It’s not the kind of club where you feel like you have to dress a certain way or put on your make-up before you go workout, she explains.

Day care is available and the Club attempts to accommodate users’ needs with flexible membership options. You can even bring your dog to walk the path to the Sammamish River, or to play fetch on the grounds; biscuit are available at the check-in window.

That’s the appeal, says Ochoa. “It really is down home.”

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The official timeline now seems to have been updated to reflect they performed at The Pavillion during the Singer Bowl Music Festival. Further substantiation comes via a press review published shortly thereafter. Good catch and the haunting photos of the venue you've posted are outstanding.

July 13, 1969

lz19690713_04.jpg

Led Zeppelin joined Jeff Beck, Rod Stewart, Glenn Cornick of Jethro Tull and Alvin Lee of Ten Years After on stage for "Jailhouse Rock". John Bonham played drums for "Rice Pudding".

The Beck Group's rowdy encore of "Jailhouse Rock" occasioned a drunken invasion from backstage that resulted in what history has dubbed the "nine man jam", including Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, and John Bonham, during which Bonzo started pounded out "The Stripper" while removing his clothing piece by piece.

"It was one of those riotous sorts of day," Beck recalls, "everyone's energy level was 100 percent and we were throwing things at each other onstage. I threw a mug of orange juice at Alvin Lee and it stuck all over his guitar. It was just one of those animal things. Three English groups at the same place has to add up to trouble!"

Rod Stewart: "The stage was full of people-we were doing 'Jailhouse Rock' and it was fucking incredible. I finished the whole thing by shoving a mike stand up John Bonham's ass and he got arrested, the cops pulled him off and I ran away . . . we were all pissed out of our heads. And the Vanilla Fudge couldn't follow it."

The audience actually began leaving at the end of the jam, and during the Fudge's set, when Vince Martell took a solo, there were even a few boos. They were so demoralized that by the end of the evening they'd decided to split up.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Its sad that all of these buildings are being lost.There must have been thousands of stories containted within each of these structures.Stories of a fan's first exposure to the magic that is Led Zeppelin or whichever band they happened to see.

Those bricks are the temples to store lifelong memories and each loss of a music palace is a small erasure of those memories contained within.

Years ago,in an attempt to capture photos of these Zeppelin venues,an effort was put forth by Bruce Deerhake,Nestor Tytla and myself to build a web site displaying these buildings.

It remains unfinished and in need of quite a few corrections.

It can be found thru Bruce the Buckeye's page as Houses Of The Holy.

Also,I have also thought a coffee table book devoted to the Zeppelin venues

would be a viable and marketable idea that is long overdue.It stands to reason that there would be a demand for a book showcasing the actual buildings where the music was made....not only the concert halls but the recording studios,hotels and places such as Bron-Y-Aur and Headley Grange.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...