Tuscaloosa Concert Retrospective: Memorial Coliseum had Elvis, Zeppelin, the Stones, Jimi and so many more By Ben Flanagan August 16, 2013 TUSCALOOSA, Alabama -- This series offers a retrospective on high profile performers who have visited Tuscaloosa's major music venues including Coleman (Memorial) Coliseum, the Bama Theatre, the University of Alabama campus (including Morgan Auditorium and the Quad) and various bars and other venues. Please share your memories of bands or other artists you have seen over the years at these venues or any others in Tuscaloosa in the comments section below or by emailing tuscaloosa@al.com. Young people wouldn't believe the likes of Elvis Presley, The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix and Led Zeppelin rocked the floor where their Alabama basketball team plays games today. But previous generations knew it to be true. It was as common as seeing their beloved Crimson Tide win one football championship after another. Of course, current students are just as used to that now, and they've even seen Bob Dylan and similarly famous acts perform at the Tuscaloosa Amphitheater as recently as this summer. Dylan performed in Tuscaloosa twice before, both shows at Coleman Coliseum in the 1990s. And that was after the name changed to Coleman. Before, it was Memorial, and the frequency of high profile acts that zipped through in the 1960s and 70s would make and young music lovers head spin and stomach hurt a little. Alabama graduate and current Red Mountain Entertainment president Gary Weinberger saw it all and was partially responsible for bringing it to Tuscaloosa as volunteer and eventual president of the University Programs Council, a student organization dedicated to entertaining the campus. Born in Massachusetts, Weinberger moved to Tuscaloosa in 1965 before he attended Eastwood Junior High and graduated from Tuscaloosa High School in 1972. His father was rabbi at Hillel temple in town and also taught at UA. Weinberger always enjoyed listening to music of all sorts, but rock stuck out like it would for plenty of kids his age. Luckily, Tuscaloosa catered to those tastes. "Tuscaloosa really had a very healthy music scene fom local and regional bands," Weinberger said. "The YMCA downtown on Friday nights had dances. There were handful of bands. The Rivets, The Gents and The Misfits were three of the bigger bands that played. They are pop bands in the mid-60s. They played R&B and pop music. When you were in junior high or high school on a Friday night, you went downtown to the Y and the bands would play." Even on University Boulevard up towards Druid City Hospital (now DCH Regional Medical Center) was the Fort Brandon Armory, which also hosted concerts. Among its acts were Little Anthony as well as two of the earlier incarnations of the Allman Brothers Band, The Allman Joys and The Hour Glass, which were bands that Greg and Duane formed prior to them starting their better-known group. But when Weinberger was in high school, everything changed with one phone call. "We always had the opportunity to come see dance bands," he said. "Then in 1969, Jimi Hendrix came to Tuscaloosa at the Memorial Coliseum. I was in high school. It was a big deal for everybody that went there." Weinberger said his friend Michael Trucks cold-called his future business partner Tony Ruffino, who was living in New York at the time. "He said 'Tony, we've got this big coliseum on campus. We see you're promoting concerts with Hendrix. You should bring him down. You'll make money. It was very serendipitous. Tony had a friend who lived in Leeds. Tuscaloosa wasn't totally off his charts. He flew down, co-promoted show with students, show did well. He did the same thing with Grand Funk Railroad and Three Dog Night the next few weeks. "That continued from 1969-77 when the Birmingham Jefferson Civic Center opened, Weinberger said. We went from doing 20 shows in a year to probably doing four shows a year. The Civic Center was new. You wanted to play the bigger city and play the newer place. It was an athletic facility. It became harder and harder to get in there, and it was just much more convenient to play in Birmingham." But before we digress, what about those shows where "that continued" in that span? As a freshman, Weinberger found himself walking the halls of the Ferguson Center on campus. He ended up on the third floor where he found a suite of offices decorated in signs asking for help putting up posters for upcoming Emerson, Lake & Palmer and Todd Rundgren concerts. He signed up, put up the posters and wound up working as a stagehand for the EL&P show and the Liza Minnelli homecoming show in 1973. By the time he was an upperclassman, he became president for two years. There were five or six divisions in the UPC, including entertainment, recreation, cultural, marketing and film. The chair for each division and their committees were responsible for providing entertainment and other activities on campus. "We showed 200 movies a year," Weinberger said. "The cultural chair and his group booked ballet, operas, symphonies and cultural events. And the entertainment chair booked the music along with his committee. "It's no different than it is today. You're a function of what's around. In addition to promoting concerts in the Coliseum, we promoted a lot of shows in Foster Auditorium, the Ferguson Center, Morgan Auditorium and the Bama Theatre." Given Memorial Coliseum was the only 15,000-seat venue between Atlanta, New Orleans, Memphis and Florida, virtually every major touring act other than The Beatles played Tuscaloosa. To give you an idea: Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Elvis Presley, The Who, Jethro Tull, The Rolling Stones, Yes, The Eagles, Stevie Wonder, Elton John, Neil Young, Allman Brothers Band, Led Zeppelin, Lynyrd Skynyrd, The Band, Joni Mitchell, Grateful Dead, Linda Ronstadt, Eric Clapton and many, many, many more passed through. In that malaise of awesomeness, several shows stick out as personal favorites for Weinberger. Memorial Coliseum concertsView full sizeElvis Presley performs at Memorial Coliseum. Tuscaloosa's Coleman Coliseum, formerly Memorial Coliseum, has a rich history of musical concerts and other entertainment events including Elvis Presley, The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, Elton John, The Who and many others since the late 1960s when the venue opened. (UA Corolla) "Hendrix, the Stones and Stevie Wonder, Zeppelin," he says. "They were playing on our campus in our facility, and it was a great show. They were great bands. The Band was one of the best shows. "Elton John and Kiki Dee played on a Saturday night after Alabama won an aftenroon football game like 77-0. It was completely sold out. He absolutely tore the roof off. Elvis Presley was unbelievable." Weinberger says that often after concerts, there would be an after party at a UPC members's house, and the acts would show up and just hang. Among those were Frank Zappa, who actually played Morgan Auditorium. The shows were fun but always risky for promoters willing to put up the money and everything else needed to make it happen before praying folks turned out and they made a profit. "The process is who's the promoter who has the money to put up and risk to promote a concert? As the promoter, you guarantee everybody. The act, the building, the police, the ushers, the doormen, the ticket-takers. You pay the insurance, first aid. You pay every bill there is, and if there's more money left from ticket sales after you've paid everybody, you make," Weinberger says. "If you don't, you lose. It becomes a function of who's the bank. Who's saying 'I'll take that risk.'" Of course, after 1977 when the BJCC opened, the dynamics changed in Tuscaloosa, and the city saw less shows. "The guarantees for acts went sky high," Weinberger says. "With a big, big, big act, you could pay a half a million dollars now. The financial paradigm is very different now that it was. But what's brought Tuscaloosa back is the Tuscaloosa Amphitheater because now there's a venue, and there's a business model that works where you can promote 15-22 shows a year. "The city has come up with a programming model where they want to try to promote concerts that appeal to all different types of demographics. During the course of a season, we're looking to promote three R&B shows, three country shows, three pop shows, a couple of rock shows, three student/alternative shows. Together, you've got a season." And the Amphitheater has certainly taken the pressure off of venues Coleman Coliseum to hosts high profile acts. Built in 1968, the Coliseum primarily serves as the an athletic venue for Alabama basketball, gymnastics and volleyball events. It currently has a seating capacity of 15,316, according to UA. It also hosts graduations, sorority convocations, Week of Welcome events, memorial ceremonies and other large scale campus-related events. But rarely does it host concerts anymore. It last hosted a homecoming show in 2009 when Taking Back Sunday performed, and Hank Williams Jr. did a year prior. Keep in mind, the venue wasn't constructed specifically to host large scale concerts. The acoustics aren't tailor-made for music, as it's mostly concrete where sound just bounces around the walls. It also provides promoters with challenges in the way it is laid out for concerts, where you virtually eliminate nearly half of the seating once you position a large-enough stage on the floor for the artists. University Programs only frequently uses the facility for events like Week of Welcome, but no longer concerts. Instead, they now work with the Tuscaloosa Amphithetaer and the SGA to host events like the RAGE concert or welcome back shows. But the athletics department does have a process by which you can request dates and use of the venue. In fact, the process is more open and transparent that it once was, no with an online facilities request form on the athletics website. But the 7,470-seat capacity Ampitheater serves as a more than fitting substitute for a venue that wasn't built for what the stage on Jack Warner Parkway was designed to do. The scenic venue occupies 15 acres on the banks of the Black Warrior River and is located just a short distance from the UA campus. And students have turned out in droves for artists like Widespread Panic, Avett Brothers and My Morning Jacket (all of whom have now played the Amphitheater multiple times). With Red Mountain serving as the promoter for the venue, Weinberger couldn't be more proud to be a part of a resurgence in Tuscaloosa that has seen the likes of Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Wilco, Merle Haggard, Brad Paisley, Earth Wind & Fire, Steely Dan and Crosby, Stills & Nash. "It makes me very proud to be a part of a team that's involved in the project," Weinberger says. "There are a lot of people who worked very hard to make the Tuscaloosa Amphitheater successful. A lot of people in Tuscaloosa led by the mayor. It's by no means a one-person show. It's a team of players that worked hard to come up with acts. "It's not by happenstance. It wasn't just let's build it and see what happens. We had a very detailed plan on what we wanted to do. Before a shovel was put into the dirt, we spent a long time figuring out what we wanted to build. From the very beginning, this was a very carefully thought-out plan. A lot of people working really hard." Weinebrger says he also thinks Tuscaloosa's is "the prettiest amphitheater in America." "It's spic-and-span clean," he says. "The staff is conscious of how important our patrons are. It's not a mistake. It's a lot of people in a lot of areas all pushing when they need to push and pulling when they need to pull. We all share the same goal. For someone who grew up in Tuscaloosa, it's just a thrill to be a part of something with other great folks to make this happen." One of the common threads between what happened in the 1960s and 70s and what's happening now in Tuscaloosa is that a venue like the Amphitheater must be needed by touring artists. "You had Memorial Coliseum, which could seat up to 15,000 people," Weinberger says. "There was no big biulding in Bham. Boutwell was it. 5,500 seats. Fans were driving through coming or going and there was somebody willing to make the offer, put up the money, and the shows worked. "Today, we've got the same thing." http://www.al.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2013/08/tuscaloosa_concert_retrospecti_1.html

Former Northcote Arms pub in Southall has become crime den A derelict Southall pub, where Led Zeppelin once played, may be turned into housing. In the late 60s and early 70s the Northcote Arms was the venue for the Farx Blues Club, where the likes of Free, Stray, Groundhogs, Edgar Broughton played. In 1969 Gene Vincent played there and in the same year Zeppelin performed before the release of Led Zeppelin 1. (A-Z of Ealing Rock). In 2010, with its musical hey day long gone the pub was due to be converted into a care home but no work was done and the site became neglected and a haven for crime. Neighbours have reported fires and hazardous waste being dumped on the site. Ealing Council secured its first ever premises closure order in November 2012 meaning any unauthorised people there risked being arrested. The closure order can't remaining in force permanently, so the council is now taking further action - which may lead to a compulsory purchase order (CPO). The council agreed at its cabinet meeting on Tuesday, 23 July 2013 to begin negotiations to buy the site from the owner. Councillor Julian Bell, leader of the council, said: “We have given the owner lots of opportunities to develop the site, yet it remains an eyesore. It is simply not acceptable for them to continue to make the lives of the local community a misery. We have been left with no choice left but to take further action.” The cabinet also agreed in principal that a compulsory purchase order would be sought from the courts if negotiations failed. This however, would need additional cabinet approval. 
All cabinet decisions are subject to call-in for a period of five working days from the date of publication of the minutes of the meeting. http://www.ealingtoday.co.uk/default.asp?section=info&page=eanorthcote001.htm

Here's an example with RP's symbol, from Liverpool '71

I posted a new quote here a couple of years ago: http://forums.ledzeppelin.com/index.php?/topic/308-zeppelin-mysteries-hosted-by-steve-a-jones/?view=findpost&p=532435

Glasgow, Dec. 3, 1972

#1 and #3 are from spring 1971 - photo session with Chris Dreja. #2 is Los Angeles 8-71 last one is France 1973

Interview: http://www.gaterrocks.com/player/?mid=23359701

Not sure if this has been posted before.... The Yardbirds - Christ The King High School, Middle Village, NY 1967

Jason Bonham and Heart have a Whole Lotta Love for Led Zeppelin By Joanie Cox-Henry Rocker Jason Bonham holds an impressive legacy in his drumsticks. As the son of the late, legendary Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham, his passion for drums began at age four. While he’s performed with his dad’s Led Zeppelin band mates in addition to creating his own music, Dec. 26, 2012 was a night that would change his life forever and lead him to his present tour. Bonham shared the stage with Ann and Nancy Wilson of Heart to perform “Stairway To Heaven” during the Led Zeppelin tribute at the Kennedy Center Honors. As Robert Plant, Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones looked on, the incredible melodic chemistry behind Bonham and the Wilson sisters prompted a phone call from executives at Live Nation. “When I was asked to do ‘Stairway,’ I was like really? ‘Stairway?’ There are some songs you just don’t touch,” Bonham said. “But the arrangement with the choir, orchestra and way the whole band played was very special. Both Robert and John Paul were both blown away by the arrangements. It was cool and different. The respect to the original was incredible and Ann and Nancy were fantastic. There were 50 people bobbing up and down wearing top hats. The hairs on the back of your neck stand up when you see something like this.” Bonham was blown away by the more than five million hits that one song garnered on YouTube. “The demand became so great it got released on iTunes,” Bonham said during a recent phone interview with Forum Publishing Group. “I later got a call from Live Nation asking how we could put something like this together for a show.” They serendipitously joined forces for The Heartbreaker Tour: Heart with Jason Bonham’s Led Zeppelin Experience. “I started talking to the girls from Heart and we came up with an idea of taking my band and doing a shorter version of what I normally do and then they would do a shortened version of their show,” Bonham explained. “Then, we could be together and end with my guitar player and do a 45 minute extravaganza of performing some of the greatest music from Led Zeppelin that there is. It’s going to be a fantastic summer.” Bonham never actually played drums together with his father because they only had one drum kit at home, but every time he performs his father’s songs, it is sacred to him. “It’s special to me to be able to do things we never got a chance to do together while he was alive,” the 46-year-old musician said. “As a teenager growing up, you kind of take it for granted. He was just dad to me. I was way more interested in The Police and Sting. This is my way of telling him how great I think he is.” And a great drummer he was. In 2011, Rolling Stone’s readers declared John Bonham the “Best Drummer of All Time.” “Every drummer I’ve ever spoken to or read an interview with – my dad is always in their top three,” Bonham said, proudly. “I’m honored to share his name and represent him all these years after he’s gone. It’s been fantastic. I’m a bit nervous about opening a tour where I live. We start in West Palm.” Bonham moved to Boca Raton eight years ago and now calls Delray Beach home. He insists his humble dad would be taken aback by how famous he remained. “I don’t think he even realized that 33 years after he died, he’d be an icon in the drumming world and the band became what they did—bigger than ever,” Bonham said. “He’s such an icon and yet he was such a simple, regular guy when he was at home.” Each time he picks up his drumsticks, Bonham welcomes the privilege of performing Zeppelin’s music including “Rock and Roll,” which he said is the most difficult Zeppelin song to drum correctly. “A lot of bands play this song but they’re not playing it right,” Bonham said. “It’s the way you’re playing sixteens on the high hat as well as the snare drum. You never really hear it so much on the album, but you can see it in a video they released of my father a few years ago. It has very intricate parts. A lot of the old shuffle drummers could do it really well, but it’s one of those things until you really look at it, you don’t realize how hard it is. There are some hidden notes that totally make that track lift.” The show, Bonham said, also aims to make you feel Zeppelin’s music, not just hear it. There’s a point in the concert when Bonham plays his dad’s iconic “Moby Dick” drum solo while a split screen of his father performing the song plays in the background. “We do is a shortened version of the song in the show and every time I play this, it takes my breath away,” Bonham said. “I’ve never been a huge fan of drum solos. The crowd seems to really enjoy this, which is really important to me. To be able to play something he became so famous for means a lot to me.” He continues to write music and has plans to release his own line of wood-and-carbon-fiber Bonham drums. By the middle of next year, Bonham also hopes to finish an album featuring everyone he’s worked with and those who he’d like to work with in addition to doing some acting. He appeared in Mark Walhberg’s 2001 film Rock Star as the Steel Dragon drummer. “My behavior right at that point was truly like a rock star. I remember asking the director to give me my character,” Bonham said. “He asked me to be an alcoholic rock star so I said there’d be no acting involved then. Little did I know a year later, I checked myself into a clinic. I’ve been clean and sober ever since, but playing a rock star made me realize I had a problem. “Working with Mark [Walhberg] was fantastic. He was very enthusiastic and really a nice guy. It was a huge thing to be a part of this movie and if I ever got asked to do something like that again, I would.” Outside of his career, Bonham’s a proud papa, which is exactly what his own father was, he said. “My daughter is going to college and I’m very proud of her and my son is pursuing his own career in rap,” Bonham said. “I’m very proud of him and I encourage him to be creative and as real as possible. South Florida was definitely not a bad place for my kids to grow up. The wonderful thing about opening your eyes in the morning and looking out at the blue sky is you’re encouraged to go out and do things.” The Heartbreaker Tour: Heart with Jason Bonham’s Led Zeppelin Experience is 7:30 p.m. June 17 at Cruzan Amphitheatre, 601-7 Sansburys Way, West Palm Beach. Tickets cost $25-$70. Visit Jasonbonham.net for details. http://www.sun-sentinel.com/citylink/sfl-jason-bonham-interview-20130605,0,4879695.story

Leeds University - January 24, 1970

Glasgow - Jan. 1970

Robert Plant Explains “The British Condition” (LA Weekly) 06.4.2013 Robert Plant and The Sensational Space Shifters | Photo: Oli Powell Led Zeppelin lead singer Robert Plant returns to Los Angeles on June 26th at the Shrine Auditorium with his newest backing band, The Sensational Space Shifters. The lineup features members of his early-’00s band The Strange Sensation, and sees Plant revisiting both blues rock and world music influences; this after exploring Americana the last few years through collaborations with Alison Krauss and Band of Joy. L.A. Weekly talked with Plant about this new project, memories of L.A., and what he means by the “British condition.” After exploring Americana music the last few years, what drew you back to classic blues and world music? I have had an amazing education the last few years. The time I spent around all of those men and women was an eye-opening experience. The thing about working with musicians in Nashville is that they generally are always moving on to the next thing. [Plant's partner and singer-songwriter] Patty [Griffin] went to work on her solo record and [guitarist] Buddy [Miller] went to produce the Carolina Chocolate Drops. I decided that I wanted to get back to something resembling a “British condition.” I looked back at the Strange Sensation lineup I had worked with before Band of Joy. I called up [bassist] Justin Adams, who had just gotten done touring with JuJu. We decided to get together to try something out. It just had such a strange and unusual way about it. We brought in a musician from West Africa [Juldeh Camara], who had already been playing in the U.K…but then we stick in my voice and bring in [keyboardist] John [baggott] from Massive Attack with his insanely powerful drum loops and crashing, crunched up sounds. We’ve got a new drummer [Dave Smith], a real good young kid who is big on the jazz scene here [in the U.K.]. It’s proven to be a great passport for fun and power. I’m able to get the “R.P.” voice back out there again. I don’t have to be so concerned about making sure I am in harmony with anyone else since I’m mostly singing alone this time. I won’t have to worry about Patty glaring at me when I fuck up this time! Can you tell us more what you mean by “the British condition”? There’s a historical point of reference with the people I’ve worked with since I began my adventures with Alison Krauss. The reference points in that world in the United States are very deep and loaded with history. Whether it’s the music of the Mississippi…whether it’s the music that found its way into Nashville in the ’40s and ’50s…whether it’s from The Carter Family or Roscoe Holcomb or Leadbelly. The guys I work with in the U.K. have more of an urban British thinggoing on. If you compare Led Zeppelin to the U.S. bands of the time like The Electric Flag, we were like a train wreck. We masticated American music, grabbed it, and swung it around wildly, as kids do. The British thing is to get to a different place. Artists like Tricky, Portishead, and Massive Attack all came from Bristol. Three or four of the guys I’m playing with now come from that town. There’s something about it that inspires a more techno way…techno elements, samples, big “fuck off” drum loops that fry you sometimes. It’s a complete dynamic juxtaposition to what I was doing, but they are both equally rewarding as musical adventures. What are your memories of the first time you came to Los Angeles with Led Zeppelin? I got off the plane with John Bonham. We had never been to America before. We had never seen anything like it. The control tower at LAX looked like something from I Married A Monster From Outer Space. The city of Los Angeles was stunningly beautiful compared to everything we had seen growing up in Britain. For someone like me that was 20 years old at the time, the musical community couldn’t have been better. It was well-intended, beautiful and overwhelming. It was loaded with amazing musicians. To be able to go to The Whisky, and in a week see Howlin Wolf, The Doors, Steve Miller, and then play there with Led Zeppelin, it was just sensational. What are your reflections on Led Zeppelin being honored at last year’s Kennedy Center Honors? I knew we did a lot of damage to people’s brains and ear drums, and I knew we wrote some great songs, but it was a very humbling experience. When I saw Heart perform “Stairway To Heaven,” I just couldn’t believe that song had anything to do with this 64-year old man that was sitting next to John Paul Jones. I thought to myself, “This is me…how did this happen?” The charm of the people involved in the project, from the president and across the board…it was mind-altering. I’ve been thrust in front of royalty all over the world, kings and queens and princes…but these guys were actually having a good time! The three of us were amazed that that sort of thing happened. That wouldn’t happen with Prince Charles! What still motivates you to keep pursuing musical endeavors in 2013? The sound of a new project. The sound of music developing. For the last year or so I’ve been writing quite a lot, and I like the way my voice sounds now. It’s not the same as it was years ago. I’m not a castrato anymore but I’ve learned to get down into that pocket and have it sound good. So here I go again…over the years, I’ve seen all of these artists that I respect that are able to create all of these amalgamations with other artists. I’ve watched the way John Paul Jones has worked throughout his life as a musician. I have great respect for him. He’s right in the middle of writing an opera right now and people are taking him seriously as a writer in the classical mode. But he can also play in Them Crooked Vultures and play mandolin with Seasick Steve. I’ve learned that it’s good to keep moving and keep smiling! By Jason Roche http://blogs.laweekly.com/westcoastsound/2013/06/robert_plant_shrine_los_angeles.php

from Jason....

Starts about 3:30

Origin magazine

Not sure, probably around the WIllie & The Poor Boys LP. 1985

Paul Rodgers, Bill Wyman, Jimmy Page

Rhythm (UK) April 2013

It's taken at JPJ's house, around March '69.

It was used on a "Stockholm '69" bootleg cover, but it's not from there. Looks more like June '69, probably Paris.

another pic: