A Walk Down Memory Lane: The Houses of the Holy

[sam_webmaster]

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

[sam_webmaster]

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

[jabe]

Wow! Nice find in my backyard there, Sam.

I saw Elton in Tuscaloosa the second go round, The Doobie Brothers, and Little Feat in '78 or '79.

I called Red Mountain Entertainment the moment I read on this forum that SSS was playing the Alabama Theatre in August 2012 before tickets went on sale.

My schmoozing with the woman on the other line got me no percs, but it was worth a shot.

About Tony Ruffino,. I met him a couple of times, always nice to me. Actually saw a framed typed letter addressed to Tony, signed by Bill Graham.

My brother walked away from the Who concert with one of keith Moon's fractured drumsticks he tossed into the crowd.

Edited August 20, 2013 by jabe

[Wolfman]

Being an Alabama graduate, I always got goosebumps knowing the boys played there. Hopefully, a bootleg shows up one day.

[SteveAJones]

The Forum in Los Angeles is now well on the way to being back and better than ever in 2014!

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/music/posts/la-et-ms-forum-renovation-20130730-dto,0,7822933.htmlstory

The Forum presented by Chase reopens in Jan with concerts by The Eagles & Justin Timberlake...here's the before and after renovation pics:

http://www.contender.com/blog/music/venue-spotlight-the-forum-presented-by-chase-history-reviews-events-tickets/

[SteveAJones]

The Fifty Nine Club in Hackney

http://the59club.com/public_html/stmary/index.html

Q: How did you meet Jimmy Page?

"Our first gig was the Fifty Nine Club in Hackney. Transport consisted of a bubble-car and (Mickey) Waller's Dad's Ford. It was there that we first met Page - Jimmy played guitar with Neil Christian and The Crusaders".

-- Mick Stannard of The Strangers and (later) The Mickey Finn

"I couldn't believe anyone could be that good. Jimmy was the first guitarist I'd seen with effects pedals. I modelled myself on him".

-- Mickey Waller of The Strangers and (later) The Mickey Finn

Edited October 15, 2013 by SteveAJones

[SteveAJones]

The Forum presented by Chase reopens in Jan with concerts by The Eagles & Justin Timberlake...here's the before and after renovation pics:

http://www.contender.com/blog/music/venue-spotlight-the-forum-presented-by-chase-history-reviews-events-tickets/

If that wasn't impressive enough, this is freaking unbelieveable:

http://www.classicrockmagazine.com/news/eagles-album-made-into-worlds-largest-disc/

[ListenToThis]

What a turn on it would be for the group to return to the Forum to play a little acoustic set. With WLL as an electric encore of course.

[SteveAJones]

March 19, 2014

Pontiac Silverdome seats and fixtures heading to auction

By JC Reindl

Nearly every fixture in the Pontiac Silverdome from floodlights to game clocks to urinals will be auctioned online this spring.

The Silverdome, which opened in 1975, has been used only sporadically since 2002, when the Detroit Lions moved to Ford Field in Detroit.

The stadium is owned by Triple Investment Group, which has ordered the clearance auction to be held from May 12-16.

Plymouth-based RJM Auctions will oversee the auction. A pre-auction sale of Silverdome seats began Tuesday, with prices starting at $100 each.

“If we can sell every seat, we’ll sell every seat,” said Jim Passeno, facilities manager for RJM Auctions.

The Silverdome had more than 80,300 seats, although some are thought to have weather damage after much of the stadium’s roof was shredded by a winter storm in January 2013.

Triple Investment Group is controlled by the family of Andreas Apostolopoulos, who also owns the Penobscot Building in downtown Detroit. The group bought the Silverdome from the city of Pontiac for $583,000 in a 2009 auction, according to Free Press reports.

Triple Investment announced the auction today, although a spokeswoman declined to take questions regarding the future of the Silverdome.

“We felt it was important that some of the artifacts and items that are no longer required be made available now to Silverdome fans here in Detroit and around North America,” Apostolopoulos, the group’s president, said in a statement. “We continue to assess the status of the building to determine its viability as a venue for sports and entertainment events. We are continuing to investigate all potential revenue options for the site.”

The auction company plans to have a preview of available items at a later date. The items could include just about anything that can be removed — including old turf, water fountains, lighting fixtures, concession stands, the scoreboard, end zone logos, toilets and a removable fiberglass pool in the training room.

“We’re going to be selling everything in and around the stadium,” Passeno said.

For $25-$30, Silverdome fans currently can buy a certificate of authenticity to accompany their salvaged stadium seats. Each certificate comes with a laminated swatch of what was the Silverdome’s inflatable canvas roof. The stadium’s original Teflon-coated fiberglass roof famously collapsed in 1985.

No minimum bids will be required.

“It will sell for whatever the highest bid is,” Passeno said.

Edited March 20, 2014 by SteveAJones

[Pagefan55]

It does seem like a lot of the old "Zeppelin" arenas and stadiums have disappeared--the Seattle Kingdome, Kezar, Three Rivers Stadium, the old Boston Garden, the Atlanta and Tampa stadiums, etc, etc. It's kind of sad.

[SuperDave]

It does seem like a lot of the old "Zeppelin" arenas and stadiums have disappeared--the Seattle Kingdome, Kezar, Three Rivers Stadium, the old Boston Garden, the Atlanta and Tampa stadiums, etc, etc. It's kind of sad.

That's sort of the state of the USA with various real estate unfortunately at times! Out with the old and in with the new. It's about bringing in something more modern that can bring in more $$$!

[sam_webmaster]

SAN BERNARDINO: The man behind the name of the Swing Auditorium

Fred Bauman/The Press-Enterprise

The Rolling Stones caused a commotion when they arrived at the Swing Auditorium in San Bernardino, in spring 1964, for their first American concert.

A Text Size

BY MARK MUCKENFUSS | April 11, 2014; 04:08 PM

Anyone who spent time as a teenager in San Bernardino in the 1960s or 1970s knew Ralph Swing.

Well, maybe they didn’t know Swing so much as they did his auditorium.

Swing was a native son of the city who had a local law practice before becoming one of California’s most influential state senators. He also was one of the local citrus industry’s biggest boosters; he helped found the first National Orange Show and served as manager and later board president.

So when a large auditorium was constructed on the show grounds in 1949, officials slapped Swing’s name on it. He retired from the state Senate in 1950 after 28 years of service that earned him the stature of dean of the senate. (Some references say he served 24 years, but others, including the political archives of JoinCalifornia, show Swing winning his first election in 1922 and every election after that through 1946.)

But the kids who lined up waiting for Alice Cooper or KISS to blow out their tender eardrums probably had no idea who Ralph was.

In fact, no one called it the Ralph Swing Auditorium. It wasn’t even called the Swing Auditorium. It was known simply as The Swing.

It wasn’t the greatest venue for sound quality, but it was the best the region had, and it drew plenty of worthwhile acts.

Most famously, it was the site of the first American concert by the Rolling Stones, in 1964. The group returned the following year.

Later on, rock ’n’ roll legends such as Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Elvis Presley, Led Zeppelin and Elton John visited its stage — John, on his first American tour, was actually second bill to Leon Russell.

In earlier years, performers of a different generation entertained the crowds. Jack Benny, Louis Armstrong and Sammy Davis Jr. were among the. Davis performed in a benefit there for San Bernardino Community Hospital, where had been treated after a serious automobile accident on Cajon Boulevard, Route 66. Davis lost his left eye in the crash.

And for a run of 13 years, Bob Hope appeared at The Swing as part of the entertainment for the National Orange Show. That string of shows would have started before Swing died in 1961, at age 86.

The Swing Auditorium died in 1981, when a twin-engine Cessna crashed into it, killing the pilot and his passenger. Beyond repair, it was torn down.

Swing’s name doesn’t adorn anything else of significance in the city. Maybe it should. In addition to his promotion of the Orange Show, Swing had a big impact on San Bernardino. Some is still felt today.

In the 1910s, he represented San Bernardino in the city’s landmark legal battle with Riverside over control of local water. He was a leader in establishing the Metropolitan Water District in the mid-1920s. When Swing introduced that legislation with Hiram Johnson, the Los Angeles Daily Times called it "one of the most radical and socialistic proposals ever submitted to the State Legislature."

And Swing was a Republican.

He also was very non-Republican (at least by today’s standards) in how he saw the role of government. Instead of trying to eliminate it, he disseminated it, decentralizing state offices in Sacramento and establishing satellites in counties.

“We must take the government to the people, not require the people to come to the government,” he said.

He also took it upon himself to complete a petition for redress of a grievance written by Col. Isaac Williams, the original owner of the Chino Rancho, in 1850, but which had never been filed. Swing got the Legislature to restore Williams’ good name and considered it one of his most significant accomplishments.

Well, that and the Stones.

http://www.pe.com/local-news/san-bernardino-county/san-bernardino-county-headlines-index/20140411-san-bernardino-the-man-behind-the-name-of-the-swing-auditorium.ece

Led Zeppelin:

• Swing Auditorium - August 8, 1969
• Swing Auditorium - June 22, 1972

[sam_webmaster]

NY State Pavilion named ‘treasure’

On World’s Fair 50th anniversary, there’s joy in Flushing Meadows

As the smell of sweet Belgian waffles wafted in the spring breeze, 2,500 spectactors gathered at the New York State Pavilion in Flushing Meadows Park on Tuesday morning to hear it declared a “National Treasure” and see for themselves what’s left of the hulking relic.

The event was held to commemorate the opening of the World’s Fair in 1964 and give visitors a chance to see the decaying pavilion that has been chained off for years. People waited on line for hours to don a hard hat and take a quick peek inside the Tent of Tomorrow.

They were joined by elected and Parks Department officials, but the big news came from Paul Goldberger, a board member of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, who announced the “National Treasure” designation.

Goldberger said the title “recognizes historically, culturally and architecturally important sites to raise awareness and funding for their preservation.” Only 44 locations in the United States have been awarded the designation since the program began four years ago.

He called the Philip Johnson-designed pavilion “a remarkable piece of architecture” and “the finest architectural achievement of the fair.”

The event was organized by Parks and the Pavilion Paint Project, volunteers who since 2009 have repainted the structure with the familiar red and white stripes that decorated it during the fair.

John Piro, who helped organize the group, said he was overwhelmed by the response of the large crowd. “It shows people care about the pavilion and want it preserved,” Piro said.

Earlier this year, Parks held listening sessions to find out what people wanted done with the pavilion. It’s been estimated that it would cost $72 million to fully restore it or $14 million to demolish it.

But Borough President Melinda Katz has come out strongly in favor of saving the structure and said Tuesday that as far as she is concerned, the $14 million can go toward restoring it.

Congressman Joe Crowley (D-Bronx, Queens) said he wants to make the pavilion a national landmark “and we should do all we can to save it.”

Goldberger, noting that for years the future of it had been problematic, added: “For a long time the pavilion’s future was a question mark; in the future it will be an exclamation point.”

The people who came for the opening were a mixed bag, from those who went to the fair and wanted to renew the positive feelings it invoked to restoration supporters and the curious who wondered what the hype was all about.

Christopher Dean traveled from Boston. He grew up in New Haven, Ct. and remembers the transportation exhibits from the fair, including the Avis antique car ride.

Artie DeGennaro and his wife, Lois, of Oceanside, LI, both grew up in Queens. He remembers singing with his school at the pavilion during Brooklyn-Queens Day. “I had a camera and I saw bandleader Guy Lombardo standing with Robert Moses and Mayor Robert Wagner, and I asked to take their picture, which they agreed to,” DeGennaro said. “I have lots of good memories.”

DeGennaro, who was raised in Bayside, said he and his family went to the fair almost every weekend it was open for two years. “That was our vacation,” he said.

Sueann Hoahng grew up in Chinatown and still lives in Manhattan. She came to the fair with the Henry Street Settlement House at the age of 6. “Everyone was well dressed and well behaved,” Hoahng said. “The Fountain of the Planets was amazing and I remember the Belgian waffles.”

Valerie Barbarite grew up in Maspeth and went to the fair with her drum and bugle corps, performing at the pavilion. “We marched in formation and played our instruments,” Barbarite said.

Barbarite now lives in Sea Cliff, LI, and is happy that saving the pavilion now looks more likely.

David Steinberg hails from Bayside and said he has a vague memory of going up the elevator to one of the pavilion’s three observation towers. “I want the pavilion preserved,” Steinberg said. “It’s criminal that it was allowed to decay so long.”

A food truck serving Belgian waffles, which became popular during the 1964-65 fair, was a hit with visitors on Tuesday, though the price has escalated from 99 cents then to almost $10 now.

Most of the pavilion, which includes the observation towers, the Tent of Tomorrow and the Theaterama, now home to the Queens Theatre, has been deteriorating since the fair ended. For a time the tent was used as a roller skating rink and a concert venue for Led Zeppelin and other acts.

But in the 1970s, the Plexiglas panels above it began falling and Parks said they posed a safety risk, so it removed the remaining panels and closed the site. Weather and time have eroded the Texaco terrazzo floor map of the state, and rust and decay can be seen everywhere.

To conserve what’s left of the floor, Parks covered it, and only gravel is visible. But parts of the floor were on display Tuesday to help visitors imagine what it looked like 50 years ago.

by Liz Rhoades, Managing Editor | http://www.qchron.com/editions/queenswide/ny-state-pavilion-named-treasure/article_29949268-e22c-528d-9480-599a7abb4ae7.html

http://www.ledzeppelin.com/show/august-29-1969

http://www.ledzeppelin.com/show/august-30-1969

[mickey g]

Thanks, Sam. I posted a couple years ago about this place if you care to scroll back.

Here's another article about it :http://nydn.us/1lCWEQY

There was a link to a Facebook page in the original article :https://www.facebook.com/events/605484396205263/

[pblaster]

The Pontiac Silverdome

"Here's What Happens When You Abandon A Football Stadium"

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/29/abandoned-stadium-silverdome-detroit-lions_n_5234321.html?ncid=txtlnkusaolp00000592

Edited April 30, 2014 by pblaster

[Walter]

^That's a disgrace!

[SteveAJones]

March 19, 2014

Pontiac Silverdome seats and fixtures heading to auction

By JC Reindl

Nearly every fixture in the Pontiac Silverdome from floodlights to game clocks to urinals will be auctioned online this spring.

The Silverdome, which opened in 1975, has been used only sporadically since 2002, when the Detroit Lions moved to Ford Field in Detroit.

The stadium is owned by Triple Investment Group, which has ordered the clearance auction to be held from May 12-16.

Plymouth-based RJM Auctions will oversee the auction. A pre-auction sale of Silverdome seats began Tuesday, with prices starting at $100 each.

“If we can sell every seat, we’ll sell every seat,” said Jim Passeno, facilities manager for RJM Auctions.

The Silverdome had more than 80,300 seats, although some are thought to have weather damage after much of the stadium’s roof was shredded by a winter storm in January 2013.

Triple Investment Group is controlled by the family of Andreas Apostolopoulos, who also owns the Penobscot Building in downtown Detroit. The group bought the Silverdome from the city of Pontiac for $583,000 in a 2009 auction, according to Free Press reports.

Triple Investment announced the auction today, although a spokeswoman declined to take questions regarding the future of the Silverdome.

“We felt it was important that some of the artifacts and items that are no longer required be made available now to Silverdome fans here in Detroit and around North America,” Apostolopoulos, the group’s president, said in a statement. “We continue to assess the status of the building to determine its viability as a venue for sports and entertainment events. We are continuing to investigate all potential revenue options for the site.”

The auction company plans to have a preview of available items at a later date. The items could include just about anything that can be removed — including old turf, water fountains, lighting fixtures, concession stands, the scoreboard, end zone logos, toilets and a removable fiberglass pool in the training room.

“We’re going to be selling everything in and around the stadium,” Passeno said.

For $25-$30, Silverdome fans currently can buy a certificate of authenticity to accompany their salvaged stadium seats. Each certificate comes with a laminated swatch of what was the Silverdome’s inflatable canvas roof. The stadium’s original Teflon-coated fiberglass roof famously collapsed in 1985.

No minimum bids will be required.

“It will sell for whatever the highest bid is,” Passeno said.

May 2014: The Pontiac Silverdome in Ruins

[sam_webmaster]

Dome memories: Time for the Fort Worth convention arena to go

Thursday, Jul. 17, 2014

Finally, Fort Worth is putting the convention center arena out of our misery.

The scene of 1970s sellout rock concerts, but forever an awful sports arena, the saucer-like downtown dome will be junked as soon as the city and donors can afford a new Cultural District events center.

Frankly, the arena should have given way to a convention ballroom long ago.

It’s almost embarrassing that a city larger than Denver, Washington, Nashville, Boston or Kansas City relies on civic arenas built in 1968, 1936 and 1908.

“It needs to go,” said Melvin Morgan, 68, of Azle. For 18 years until 1997, he kept the seats packed and the roof patched when it was the Tarrant County Convention Center.

“Fort Worth is finally doing things downtown that people have talked about for years. It was just a matter of how fast they could get a new rodeo arena up. We need that, too.”
If you haven’t followed the checkerboard jump of arenas, touring events will move to a new, 12,000-seat rodeo and exposition center south of the current Will Rogers Memorial Center in the Cultural District. News reports in competition-wary Denver put the Fort Worth arena cost at $450 million, half privately funded.

At the downtown convention center, the horseshoe-shaped arena may be replaced with a 50,000-foot ballroom flexible for convention sessions or trade shows.
Morgan remembered a career of coordinating rock concerts and tractor pulls in the arena and ballet performances in the old theater (before today’s Bass Hall).
When a U.S. president visited in 1976, the marquee read: “Welcome President Ford.”

But that was in small letters.

Above, in larger letters, the marquee announced: “Arena — May 3 — Paul McCartney.”

The arena hosted Elvis Presley for record crowds at nine shows in three visits, the Rolling Stones, gymnastics star Nadia Comăneci in the 1979 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships and U.S. stars Andre Agassi and John McEnroe in the 1992 Davis Cup world tennis finals.

It was also the oddly shaped home court for Fort Worth’s only major league sports team ever: the 1970-71 basketball Texas Chaparrals.
Before that, they had been the Dallas Chaparrals. Now, they’re the San Antonio Spurs.

“But we had lots of wrestling and [minor league] hockey,” Morgan said.

When Dallas’ wrestling Von Erich brothers were at the top of their career, Morgan said, “The crowds were so huge and wild we almost couldn’t handle it.”
When the legendary 1995 hailstorm pounded Fort Worth with grapefruit-sized hailstones, the center had 10,000 guests at a marketing convention and another full house at an exhibit-hall trade show. Hail broke through the theater roof and pounded sets for an opera.

Morgan remembered years of finicky concert artists and rock stars between 1968 and 1980, when Dallas’ now-gone Reunion Arena opened and took most tours.
The band Parliament Funkadelic ended one show by staging a giant pie fight on stage. Morgan had the catering staff bake 300 cream pies that the housekeeping staff later cleaned up.

Presley made only one special request, Morgan said: a six-pack of Cokes, “and he didn’t drink a single one.”

But when the late actor and singer Yul Brynner came to the theater, his agent insisted on one very personal amenity: a brand-new toilet seat.
The arena also hosted U2, Led Zeppelin, Johnny Cash, Dean Martin, an ill-conceived rodeo on a shallow layer of imported dirt and once, a bullfight.
Now, it hosts mostly conventions coming to a much more energetic downtown Fort Worth.

“It’s time for a change,” Morgan said.

“I could never have imagined how beautiful the rest of the center has turned out. They need to do something just as beautiful in place of the arena.”
The dome is done.

By Bud Kennedy
http://www.star-telegram.com/2014/07/17/5978572/dome-memories-time-for-the-fort.html?rh=1

[SteveAJones]

I'll be sorry to see the Tarrant County Convention Center reduced to rubble but it really is an ugly and outdated facility.

[sam_webmaster]

August 16, 1969 | Asbury Park, NJ US

Convention Hall

http://www.ledzeppelin.com/show/august-16-1969

[sam_webmaster]

Led Zeppelin turned down Woodstock for Asbury Park

Jean Mikle, | August 23, 2014

It was Saturday Aug. 16, 1969, and at Max Yasgur’s farm in Bethel, New York, hundreds of thousands of people clustered on a mud-covered field for Day Two of the Woodstock Music & Art Fair.

The lineup that day included some of the biggest bands in the land: Canned Heat, Mountain, Sly and the Family Stone, Creedence Clearwater Revival, The Grateful Dead and The Who all played, although heavy rain and lengthy delays meant that several of the performers finished their sets in the wee hours on Sunday morning.

This is a story, though, about a band that wasn’t there.

Recruited to play at Woodstock, Led Zeppelin turned down the gig. Instead, they headlined a show about 150 miles south of Bethel, at Asbury Park’s Convention Hall, as part of promoter Moe Septee’s “Summer of Stars” concert series.

Zeppelin’s manager, Peter Grant, apparently turned down Woodstock because he didn’t want his band to be part of a multi-act bill.

In a 2010 interview on “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon,” Zeppelin’s lead singer Robert Plant said, “Our management thought we would be typecast,” explaining that the festival was so visible that the fear was the guys’ performance would forever be linked to that particular event. Of course, in fairness, what a cultural touchstone Woodstock would become.”

In the summer of 1969, Zeppelin was a band on the rise. Its self-titled first album, released in January of that year, reached Number 10 on the Billboard charts in the U.S., and peaked at Number 6 in the U.K. The band’s pairing of blues, folk and psychedelia eventually would make it the biggest band of the 1970s, “as influential in that decade as The Beatles were in the previous one,” according to their biography on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame site.

Zeppelin would play more than 40 gigs on their Summer of 69 tour of U.S. At Convention Hall, they did two shows — at 7:30 and 9:45 p.m. — as was typical of bands who played Septee’s summer concert series. Tickets were $5.50 and $4.50, and $2.50 for standing room. The opener in Asbury: a young British blues-rocker named Joe Cocker.

Glen Partusch was only 12 years old in 1969, but he already was working at Convention Hall, hawking programs during the shows. Before the concerts, Partusch’s job was to number the seats that were placed on the floor of the hall before each show.

“We had the little stickers and we had to number each of them,” said Partusch, 57, who lives in Monmouth Beach.

He remembers that the 7:30 p.m. Zeppelin show was not sold out. “You could just walk up to the door and buy a ticket for $5.50,” he said, but the second one was “pretty much a sell-out.”

After seeing Zeppelin play, Partusch got its debut album the next day, although he didn’t buy it in a store. Instead, he won it at a boardwalk stall on Asbury’s boardwalk.

But it was Joe Cocker, backed by the Grease Band, and not Led Zeppelin, who stole the show in Partusch’s eyes.

“They were wild,” he remembered. “Seeing him perform, with the songs and the hand gestures, you couldn’t take your eyes off him. After the first show, I couldn’t wait for the second show to see it again.”

Asbury Park Press music writer Joan Pikula also seemed to like Joe Cocker just a bit more.

In her review of the show, which ran in the Aug. 18, 1969 edition of the Press, Pikula wrote, “Joe Cocker is something to see. Lining him up with Zeppelin was an interesting idea and while it probably wasn’t planned, what the proximity does is present a picture of pseudo-blues and blues-where-it’s-really-at. Plant’s vocals could not seem anything but “staged” when seen against Cocker’s ... it is Cocker who is a blues man from the inside out and Plant who merely sings the blues.”

Joe Cocker did make it to Woodstock. He and the Grease Band headed to Bethel after the Asbury show. Cocker would play at 2 p.m. Aug. 17 at Woodstock, and his powerful, soulful performance would propel him to stardom.

For Deal resident Pam DeLisa, Led Zeppelin was definitely the draw.

Sixteen years old that summer, DeLisa already was a huge Zeppelin fan. At the second show on Aug. 16, she had standing-room-only tickets, but managed to work her way right up to the stage by the end of the concert. Even better, she received a kiss from a T-shirt clad, super sexy Robert Plant, with his long mane of golden hair.

But it was not until 45 years later that DeLisa realized that the night had been even more special than she remembered. For decades, she had kept her ticket stub along with two items she had taken from the stage that night at show’s end: a paper cup that had once been filled with whiskey for the band, and a cigarette.

About a week ago she pulled out the ticket stub and was surprised to see some writing on the back. At first, she was annoyed.

“I couldn’t believe someone had scribbled on the back of the ticket,” DeLisa said. Then she looked closer. The scribbling turned out to the signatures of Plant and Led Zeppelin’s lead guitarist, Jimmy Page. “Love to Pam,” they had written.

“I couldn’t believe it,” DeLisa said. “I must have been so excited about getting kissed by Robert Plant that I forgot that I had gotten the autographs.”

It may not have been Woodstock, but Aug. 16, 1969, was certainly a night to remember on the Jersey Shore.

http://www.app.com/story/news/local/2014/08/23/led-zeppelin-turned-woodstock-asbury-park/14496865/

[Walter]

Very cool story, Sam! Thanks for sharing that!

[luvlz2]

Very cool story, Sam! Thanks for sharing that!

+1

[Ddladner]

What a great story! Thanks for sharing, Sam!

[sam_webmaster]

What Nassau Coliseum Means To Me

by Chris Dordon

In July of 2015, the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum will exist no more. It will be torn down, renovated, refinished… however you look at it, the barn will never be the same again. My first time at Nassau Coliseum was when I was the ripe old age of 6. It was an Islanders game against the original Winnipeg Jets. I remember a small amount of the game. The final score was 7-5 Winnipeg and Ziggy Palffy netted a hat trick. It was also a game in which I saw Derek King take a face plant onto the ice, subsequently breaking his jaw. From that moment my favorite player was Palffy. The following season I went to a game between the Isles and Panthers. It was a snooze fest, 0-0 going into overtime. I don’t remember the end to the third period, because as a 7 year old sitting in the 300′s, I fell asleep! I’ll tell you what though. I woke right up when the Isles scored the game winner in OT and the barn erupted.

I’ve seen other events at the Nassau Coliseum too. I saw Monster Jam there a couple time as well as Supercross. I saw the Backstreet Boys when I was 11. More recently I saw one of the greatest non-sporting events I’ll ever witness at the Nassau Coliseum. Roger Waters of Pink Floyd fame came to town and performed the immortal classic album, “The Wall”. It was a dream come true for a kid who will never see a true Pink Floyd show. I grew up with my father listening to bands like Black Sabbath, Pink Floyd, and Led Zeppelin. I guess some of those tastes were transferred onto me because when the show was announced I begged him to go. It worked. The stage effects, the atmosphere, and the music were once in a lifetime for me.

The epitome of all events though, for me, was game four of the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals against the Pittsburgh Penguins on May 7, 2013. Of all the times I’ve been to Nassau Coliseum, never have I felt electricity like I did that night. The Islanders die hards all showed up and it was so LOUD. Before they even had warm ups, chants of “Let’s Go Is-lan-ders!” filled the air. They had a car painted in Penguins colors outside for fans to beat with a sledgehammer. As the puck dropped, I couldn’t hear the person next to me. When Brian Strait scored the first goal of the game the place exploded. The game was back and forth until the third period. You all know what happened. The Captain, John Tavares, delivered. The go-ahead goal gives me goose bumps as I write this. I’ve never felt more PROUD to be an Islanders fan than I did at that moment. The final score was 6-4 Islanders.

It was at this time when I found my home away from home in Nassau, Section 329. I had sat there by coincidence for the playoff game, that’s where my tickets ended up being when I bought them. It was during that game when I had my first experience with the group known as the Blue and Orange Army. Throughout the summer of 2013, I started talking to the members of the BOA. They welcomed me with open arms for the 2013-14 season and I now can proudly call myself a member of the group of not only Islanders fans, but some of the best friends I’ve ever had. The 2013-14 season was the most fun I’ve had, even though it was so disappointing on the ice.

I’m going to miss this old barn. It’s going to be a rough ride the first couple seasons in Brooklyn, where the Islanders, as we all know, will make Barclays Center their home. It’s going to be strange getting used to having to take a train and not being able to show up at the parking lot early to hang out with friends and tailgate. No longer will we have the compact sightlines and unobstructed views of the ice at the Nassau Coliseum. We won’t have a center hung scoreboard, unless you consider the center of the ice the blue line. It’ll be different. Sometimes change is good. We will just have to wait and see.

http://eyesonisles.com/2014/08/31/nassau-coliseum-means/