After an all night ride from Kenosha, the Winter Dance Party arrived about midday in downtown Mankato Minnesota, the scene of their next performance. They checked into the Hotel Burton and got some much needed rest before their show which was to begin that night at the Kato Ballroom. The Kato was owned by Herb and Jerry Martinka who had some success in booking many different kind of bands at that time. Of course, they hosted many teen rock and roll dances in 1959 also. These events were watched over with a firm hand back then and like many of the venues the WDP was to play, a strict no-drinking policy was enforced. Policemen were on duty keeping an ever watchful eye on the crowd and parents were admitted free to further keep things under control. As Larry Lehmer's book, The Day The Music Died reports, most of the dances were over by 11:30 PM in those days, which turned out to be a very good thing as most of them were held on weeknights. Weeknights meant school nights for the kids and it's unlikely that much homework got done over the weekend on this Sunday night Jan. 25. The Kato was going to have an overflow crowd. 1,500 teenagers willing paid $1.50 each to come dance to the music of Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper. Popular Minneapolis DJ, Bill Diehl not only promoted the show but drove 70 miles to be the emcee that night. Bill had met Buddy Holly a year earlier when Holly appeared in Minneapolis and had this to say about the rock and roll star: "He was very scholarly..I always called him the Glenn Miller of rock. This was not the stereotypical rock and roll star. This was a fellow who made sense." The kids too were looking forward to seeing Holly who most of them had heard only on portable transistor radios, jukeboxes and record players. They pressed near the stage as Holly and his band came on and some even sat on the front of the stage where a large section of the wrought iron railing was missing. Between sets, all the performers posed for pictures and signed autographs. One of the fans, Dianne Cory who attended the show that night said that the members of the WDP seemed to be in a very good mood, especially Ritchie Valens and Frankie Sardo. Typical teenagers themselves, they were having a good time on their first big tour. "They were cutting up and being silly." Dianne said. Drummer Carl Bunch was having fun too. Earlier that day he had met a young lady by the name of Cathy Chatleain at Frederickson's Cafe across the street from the hotel. Cathy was a waitress and working but liked Buddy Holly's drummer and invited him back to her home to meet her parents that afternoon. That night, Cathy would attend the show to watch Carl play drums and even invite him to a late night birthday celebration for friend Judy Peery. After the show, Carl and Dion's Belmonts would take Cathy up on her invitation and show up to help with the birthday party. It must have been a welcome relief to return to just being a teenager that night for Carl, Freddie and Carlo. The next morning they would face another long drive to Eau Claire, Wisconsin some 167 miles to the east. It was a crazy itinerary that would make them drive 5 hours BACK to Wisconsin from which they had just performed. It was still cold too. The Midwest was known for it's subzero winters with the winter of 1959 being no different. Little did they know that night too just how cold it was going to get either. Just three days into the tour, it was to be the last night their journey would be trouble free. They would soon find out just what kind of transportation they had been given to get themselves from date to date and how brutal life on the road could be. But for this night, they would sleep in a warm bed at the Hotel Burton, with the sounds of the crowd and the rock and roll they played drifting through their dreams. Winter Dance Party 1959-JAN 25-Mankato, MN (tripod.com)

Teen heartthrob Buddy Holly joined rising stars Dion and the Belmonts, Ritchie Valens and J.P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson for the second stop of the infamous Winter Dance Party tour on Jan. 24, 1959, at the Eagles Ballroom. More than 1,500 screaming teenagers squeezed into a packed ballroom to witness a performance that would soon become — certainly far sooner than anyone envisioned — a significant piece of music history. Just one month past her 13th birthday, Kenosha resident Pat Keating arrived hours early to assure a front-row spot at the stage. “The Big Bopper was all over the stage,” said Keating, who attended Washington Junior High School at the time. “He had so much energy. He was nuts. He looked like a goofball, but was so much fun to watch. “Then Buddy came out, and everyone was in awe. Girls were crying like the Beatles were performing. Ritchie Valens was so laid back and quiet. We all thought maybe he was a little shy or something.” It was one of the most energetic shows of the tour and also the most documented, thanks to the diligence of local photographer Tony Szikil. Winter Dance Party rocked Kenosha before deadly plane crash | AP News Szikil documented the historic night in Kenosha with a series of stunning photographs, capturing a sea of star-struck teenagers singing along to hits including Holly’s “Peggy Sue”, Valens’ “La Bamba” and the Big Bopper’s “Chantilly Lace.” Tony Szikil was working a wedding on the first floor of the Eagles Ballroom when the ceiling started shaking from the Winter Dance Party above. Winter Dance Party: Ten days before the music died - Kenosha.com

65 years gone now for Winter Dance Party '59 275: THE 1959 WINTER DANCE PARTY TOUR – A TRIBUTE TO BUDDY HOLLY, RITCHIE VALENS, AND THE BIG BOPPER – THROUGH THE EYES OF JEFFERSON Sidling up on January 23, 1959, came the “Winter Dance Party” bus. “They had come in from Chicago, where they all congregated the day before, for rehearsals,” said Garabedian. “It arrived about an hour late, I’m told. These were days with no tight security, like now, so it wasn’t a mob scene. The Milwaukee Journal estimated 6,000 people attended the show that evening.” Attending the show was 16-year-old Donna Fischer Doffing, and her memories still provide a fresh and unique window into that evening, still fun, 64 years later. “Ritchie Valens had been singing the song ‘Donna,’ and it was playing on Milwaukee radio,” said Doffing. “It was part of the Channel 6 (WITI) Dance Party, a local version of American Bandstand. Because of that song, and being on TV, and hearing he would be coming to town … I don’t remember if I asked my parents, but my brother went with me, he was two years older than me.” They took two buses to get to the Eagles Club. “We got there early, my mother gave me a red and white valentine heart, and I glued it to the back of my purse. It said, ‘Donna,’ and you could flip it up or down, if I wanted to be noticed. Someone would say my name, and I would always act surprised. I was 16.” She was walking inside the Million Dollar Ballroom “and then, it just so happened that Ritchie Valens walked past, unrecognized, and he saw my purse, and said ‘Donna.’ We talked,” she recalled, “and I realized it was Ritchie. I told him the song, ‘Donna,’ was very popular in Milwaukee because I was calling the stations all the time. Valens invited her into a larger room, where musicians waited before coming on stage. “I gave my camera to someone to take our picture,” she continued. “People had cameras back then, but it was only used for special occasions, for Christmas, Easter … there were two photos left. My Mom let me have the camera for the two photos. ‘I want to take the roll to Walgreen’s to get it developed.’ That was the photo of both of us, and him playing. “I was waving at Ritchie. Backstage, he was so conscientious, very much of a gentleman, and I thought he was older than me. Come to find out later, he was only one year older. The audience was very receptive and singing the songs. It was a real experience to be in a place where these songs on the radio were being played live." The 1959 Winter Dance Party in Milwaukee: Memories of a Moment - Shepherd Express

A year in review for a year in review. And what a review it's been of 50 year concert anniversaries. So many great performances and audience recordings from 1973. I picked a few favs for a starter '73 AUD playlist. Hit shuffle and it's a nice trip back to a place in time i like to frequent. 02/24 FZ+Mothers+J Luc Ponty - Durham, NC 03/16 LZ - Vienna 03/17 Neil Young+The Stray Gators - Seattle 03/24 LZ - Offenbach 06/20 PF - Columbia, MD 06/22 GD - Vancouver 06/24 DP - Nagoya 07/01 GD - Universal City, CA 09/30 RS - Frankfurt 11/03 Neil Young+The Santa Monica Flyers - Manchester, UK 12/31 BOC - NYC One more for the road! 50 years ago tonight!

55 years ago last night That 1968 show at Gonzaga's Kennedy Pavilion would later assume a historic status in Zeppelin lore – all because a student brought a small tape recorder. Today, this tape – bootlegged and distributed all over the world and the Web – is widely considered the first Led Zeppelin concert ever captured on tape; the earliest live recording of Led Zeppelin ever. Here's how lead singer Robert Plant introduced one of the songs: "This is off an album that comes out in about three weeks time on the Atlantic label. It's called 'Led Zeppelin.' This is a tune … called 'Dazed and Confused.' " So their first album wasn't even out yet. The album would not make a mark on the charts until February 1969. "We knew who Jimmy Page was, from the Yardbirds, and we heard it was his band," said Gallagher, who was a teenager at the time. "I was a big Vanilla Fudge fan because psychedelia was really happening then. … But we were excited about seeing Jimmy Page." Spokane was experiencing a severe cold snap that week, with temperatures dropping to 10 below. Apparently, the Kennedy Pavilion (Gonzaga's gym) wasn't well-heated either, because many fans remember it as being icy inside, as well. But when Led Zeppelin launched into the first song, the place heated up. "Bonham came out and started drumming on 'Train Kept a-Rollin',' and everybody went, 'Holy crap,' " said Gallagher. "There's never been a drummer like him. He was awesome. Then they all started playing and they were totally amazing." Plant said, between songs, "You won't believe this, but I don't think that either ourselves or our equipment is quite used to the temperature. It's taken about three hours of gas stoves under the equipment to get everything going." A little later Plant said they were now "getting warmed up properly," and you can hear the crowd response building after each song. By the evidence of the recording, the band's sound was already fully formed, distinguished by Plant's wailing voice – at one point he sounds like a siren – and Page's virtuoso guitar. "What I mostly remember is when Jimmy Page took out a violin bow and began bowing his double-neck guitar," remembered Jeff "Tor" Nadeau. "The house was universally mind-blown. It was the most stunning and awesome sound ever." "It took about a half a song before everybody was blown away," remembered David Priano. "When Plant harmonized to Page's pipe-wrench riffs, the audience went nuts. The other thing I remember was the drum solo (during 'Pat's Delight'). As a rule I don't like them. This was the exception. When he threw away his drum sticks and finished with his bare hands – far out." Whitsitt recalls that Vanilla Fudge "paled in comparison," even though that band was riding high at the time with a hit version of "You Keep Me Hangin' On." Mike and Dorothy McMurtery said they left the show more impressed with Led Zeppelin, "whose hard rock music was ahead of its time for Spokane." "Then when Vanilla Fudge came on, they were so sleepy," said Gallagher. "It was like, after that, psychedelia was dead and heavy metal was born, all in a three-hour show. We didn't care about psychedelia anymore. We all just ran back to our Yardbirds records." "We felt transformed," said Whitsitt. "Those of us who experienced it together felt like we were in a special club." (by Jim Kershner / The Spokesman-Review)

Today in 1968 Led Zeppelin Kicked Off First U.S. Tour – Billboard Denver, 1968: Led Zeppelin Makes American Debut | Denver Public Library History (denverlibrary.org)

R.I.P. Jim Ladd. Enjoyed listening to his show on KLSX in the 90's. Remember him closing a show with the Unledded "Kashmir".

The Bills are still in it because there aren't any AFC teams that can be counted on to produce any kind of expected result. It's a crapshoot. Likely the AFC will be decided by circumstances rather than dominant play. Whoever can survive Injuries, penalties, bad calls, weather, distracting girlfriends & themselves. But if you're looking for a bandwagon to jump on, take a ride with these rock stars. No Excuses Just Results