Steev
05-28-08, 09:17 AM
Being CT's Tracker is still down, I was going over some files in my laptop and found this article, which I probably copied from The Axis. It was originally printed in Univibe #20 1995. It's a review of the 4/12/69 gig at the Spectrum but covers all his 4 visits to the city with the Cracked Liberty Bell. As it fascinates me more each time I read it, I wanted to share it, to give us something to do while we're waiting for the tracker to come back up. Hope U guys enjoy it. :)
Peace
It appears I exceeded the 10,000 word limit with 24271 words. So this will be (another) 2 or 3 part post. You just won't have to wait so long for the ending this time :D
Jimi Plays Philadelphia - April 12, 1969
by Frank Moriarty
As was the case in cities across America, the burgeoning hippie movement that could be found in Philadelphia in the late 1960s took root in coffeehouses during the middle of that decade. Always something of a conservative city -and very much identified by its close-knit neighborhoods- Philadelphia wasn't exactly a fertile ground for the emergence of the counter-culture. But a public park to the south and west of City Hall became Philadelphia's hip focal point as kids from across the area joined together to share in the joys of the rapidly evolving rock and roll scene.
Rittenhouse Square served as this de facto meeting ground, and narrow Samson Street just to the north became the commercial and cultural center for Philadelphia's hip kids. As the music shifted further and further from acoustic music to electric, coffeehouses like The Second Fret, the Artist's Hut, and the Gilded Cage yielded to venues more suitable to high-volume rock. The owner of The Second Fret, Manny Rubin, saw the changes coming and opened a new club called The Trauma. Philadelphia bands like Mandrake Memorial, Woody's Truck Stop (featuring young guitarist Todd Rundgren), and Elizabeth performed in the club located in the heart of the Samson Street hippie district. But soon after the opening of The Trauma, the rock and roll focus of the city turned to a tire warehouse several blocks north. There, several brothers in the Spivak family -experienced in the bar business in the city- took the empty space and converted it into the Electric Factory.
The Electric Factory
Located at 2201 Arch Street, opened in February of 1968 with the Chambers Brothers headlining. Most shows in the club's early days were booked on weekends, but the quality of available talent was high. The third week after the club was opened the headline act was the Jimi Hendrix Experience. Hendrix and the Experience performed two shows each night on February 21 and 22, supported by Rundgren and Woody's Truck Stop. According to Larry Magid, the talent booker at the Electric Factory, Jimi played on a dark stage with fluorescent flowers painted on his face, and his hands - "All you could see was his face, and his hands moving across the guitar. It was amazing."
This was to be the first of four appearances by Jimi in Philadelphia. By the time Hendrix, Redding, and Mitchell returned to Philadelphia to play the Arena on March 31, 1968 with Soft Machine and Woody's Truck Stop, the Electric Factory was regularly booking shows on week nights as well. The Trauma had gone out of business, unable to compete with the Spivak brothers and Larry Magid. The coffeehouses had died out even earlier. But, as evidenced by the Experience's performance at the higher-capacity Arena, prime rock and roll acts were already drawing crowds too large for the confines of the Electric Factory.
The Spectrum
Coinciding with the rise of the Electric Factory was the construction of a huge new entertainment facility in South Philadelphia. To be known as the Spectrum, the 17,000-seat, oval-shaped building was intended to be a multi-purpose arena capable of hosting events as varied as its name implied. It would be the home hockey rink of the National Hockey League Flyers, the home basketball court of the Philadelphia 76ers, as well as the site of major entertainment events.
Opening to much hoopla in September of 1967, the Spectrum went from being the pride of the city to a source of embarrassment on March 1, 1968. During a fierce late-winter storm, huge gusts of wind battered the facility and tore the roof right off the building. The inside of the Spectrum was exposed to the elements, and months worth of events had to postponed. Hasty repairs and reinforcements were mandated, and the Spectrum reclaimed its state-of-the-art status in time to host its first major rock concert in December of 1968: the Philadelphia stop of Cream's final tour.
Despite the growing popularity of the new forms of rock and roll, all was not well in the Philadelphia scene. Urban legend has it that John Cardinal Kroll, boss of the Philadelphia Catholic church, would pass by the Electric Factory on the way to his suburban mansion. Growing incensed at the freakish appearance of club patrons and the blatant use of such vices as marijuana, Kroll complained to his good friend, Frank Rizzo. Rizzo was commissioner of Philadelphia's police, a force with a growing reputation for violence and a tendency to ignore civil rights. Allegedly at Kroll's behest, Rizzo targeted the Electric Factory for heightened police attention. Rizzo made it clear that he thought the only product coming out of the Electric Factory was juvenile delinquency. Rizzo was determined to shut it down.
It was in this contentious atmosphere that word came of the Jimi Hendrix Experience's performance scheduled at the Spectrum on Saturday, April 12, 1969. Not that things were any less strained in the Hendrix camp. Rumors of the breakup of the Experience were hot topics in 1969, and the rumors appeared to take on greater substance when Noel Redding announced his side project Fat Mattress. The fact that Fat Mattress was scheduled to be the opening act on the 1969 American tour appeared to be as much a concession to keep Noel in the fold as it was a musical decision.
Creative matters weren't the only difficulties troubling Jimi. His relationship with manager Michael Jeffery was growing strained, the Ed Chalpin/PPX lawsuit over the contract Jimi had signed in his days with Curtis Knight was a nagging problem, and the sheer pressure of rock stardom and its attendant demands were focused directly on Jimi.
Since playing the Royal Albert Hall in London on February 18 and 24, the Experience had not performed live until the night before the Philadelphia show, when the band performed at Dorton Arena in Raleigh, North Carolina. Flying into Philadelphia International Airport on April 12, the Jimi Hendrix Experience were just getting into shape for the 25-date North American tour booked by Jeffery.
The Interview
On Saturday afternoon of the show at the Spectrum Jimi was interviewed in his room at the Holiday Inn at around 4 p.m. by writer John Lombardi. The story was published a week later in the now-defunct Philadelphia alternative newspaper Distant Drummer [issue of April 17/23]. Despite being tired, the ever-accommodating Hendrix submitted to yet another interrogation. Jimi revealed a bit about his state of mind regarding this interview when he was asked if he would mind being photographed. "No," Hendrix replied, "the same shit happens every day, so fuck it."
Lombardi, who apparently was far from being an expert on Hendrix's music (as seen by his reference in print to the song "Let Me Stand Inside Your Fire"), started things off on a superficial note by remarking that Jimi's hair appeared shorter than in his publicity photos. "My hair?" Jimi questioned. "I cut it short in protest. There are too many long-haired people running around whose heads aren't anywhere. But I think I'm gonna grow it again."
The interview continued to get off to a rocky start as the sore subject of the "nude" Electric Ladyland cover and Jimi's image was brought up. "I don't consider myself a success. I haven't even started yet," Hendrix told Lombardi. "The scene puts you through a lot of changes...you get involved in images. I didn't have nothing to do with that stupid LP cover they released, and I don't even want to talk about it. It's mostly all bullshit."
Lombardi proceeded to remind Jimi about his stage act, referring to "setting the guitar on fire, going through the motions of intercourse." Not surprisingly at this stage of his career, the question served only to aggravate Jimi. "We did those things mostly because they used to be fun," Jimi noted. "They just came out of us. But the music was still the main thing. Then what happened, the crowd started to want those things more than the music. Those little things that were just added on, like frosting, you know, became the most important. Things got changed around. We don't do that stuff as much anymore."
To Be Continued - directly . . . .
Peace
It appears I exceeded the 10,000 word limit with 24271 words. So this will be (another) 2 or 3 part post. You just won't have to wait so long for the ending this time :D
Jimi Plays Philadelphia - April 12, 1969
by Frank Moriarty
As was the case in cities across America, the burgeoning hippie movement that could be found in Philadelphia in the late 1960s took root in coffeehouses during the middle of that decade. Always something of a conservative city -and very much identified by its close-knit neighborhoods- Philadelphia wasn't exactly a fertile ground for the emergence of the counter-culture. But a public park to the south and west of City Hall became Philadelphia's hip focal point as kids from across the area joined together to share in the joys of the rapidly evolving rock and roll scene.
Rittenhouse Square served as this de facto meeting ground, and narrow Samson Street just to the north became the commercial and cultural center for Philadelphia's hip kids. As the music shifted further and further from acoustic music to electric, coffeehouses like The Second Fret, the Artist's Hut, and the Gilded Cage yielded to venues more suitable to high-volume rock. The owner of The Second Fret, Manny Rubin, saw the changes coming and opened a new club called The Trauma. Philadelphia bands like Mandrake Memorial, Woody's Truck Stop (featuring young guitarist Todd Rundgren), and Elizabeth performed in the club located in the heart of the Samson Street hippie district. But soon after the opening of The Trauma, the rock and roll focus of the city turned to a tire warehouse several blocks north. There, several brothers in the Spivak family -experienced in the bar business in the city- took the empty space and converted it into the Electric Factory.
The Electric Factory
Located at 2201 Arch Street, opened in February of 1968 with the Chambers Brothers headlining. Most shows in the club's early days were booked on weekends, but the quality of available talent was high. The third week after the club was opened the headline act was the Jimi Hendrix Experience. Hendrix and the Experience performed two shows each night on February 21 and 22, supported by Rundgren and Woody's Truck Stop. According to Larry Magid, the talent booker at the Electric Factory, Jimi played on a dark stage with fluorescent flowers painted on his face, and his hands - "All you could see was his face, and his hands moving across the guitar. It was amazing."
This was to be the first of four appearances by Jimi in Philadelphia. By the time Hendrix, Redding, and Mitchell returned to Philadelphia to play the Arena on March 31, 1968 with Soft Machine and Woody's Truck Stop, the Electric Factory was regularly booking shows on week nights as well. The Trauma had gone out of business, unable to compete with the Spivak brothers and Larry Magid. The coffeehouses had died out even earlier. But, as evidenced by the Experience's performance at the higher-capacity Arena, prime rock and roll acts were already drawing crowds too large for the confines of the Electric Factory.
The Spectrum
Coinciding with the rise of the Electric Factory was the construction of a huge new entertainment facility in South Philadelphia. To be known as the Spectrum, the 17,000-seat, oval-shaped building was intended to be a multi-purpose arena capable of hosting events as varied as its name implied. It would be the home hockey rink of the National Hockey League Flyers, the home basketball court of the Philadelphia 76ers, as well as the site of major entertainment events.
Opening to much hoopla in September of 1967, the Spectrum went from being the pride of the city to a source of embarrassment on March 1, 1968. During a fierce late-winter storm, huge gusts of wind battered the facility and tore the roof right off the building. The inside of the Spectrum was exposed to the elements, and months worth of events had to postponed. Hasty repairs and reinforcements were mandated, and the Spectrum reclaimed its state-of-the-art status in time to host its first major rock concert in December of 1968: the Philadelphia stop of Cream's final tour.
Despite the growing popularity of the new forms of rock and roll, all was not well in the Philadelphia scene. Urban legend has it that John Cardinal Kroll, boss of the Philadelphia Catholic church, would pass by the Electric Factory on the way to his suburban mansion. Growing incensed at the freakish appearance of club patrons and the blatant use of such vices as marijuana, Kroll complained to his good friend, Frank Rizzo. Rizzo was commissioner of Philadelphia's police, a force with a growing reputation for violence and a tendency to ignore civil rights. Allegedly at Kroll's behest, Rizzo targeted the Electric Factory for heightened police attention. Rizzo made it clear that he thought the only product coming out of the Electric Factory was juvenile delinquency. Rizzo was determined to shut it down.
It was in this contentious atmosphere that word came of the Jimi Hendrix Experience's performance scheduled at the Spectrum on Saturday, April 12, 1969. Not that things were any less strained in the Hendrix camp. Rumors of the breakup of the Experience were hot topics in 1969, and the rumors appeared to take on greater substance when Noel Redding announced his side project Fat Mattress. The fact that Fat Mattress was scheduled to be the opening act on the 1969 American tour appeared to be as much a concession to keep Noel in the fold as it was a musical decision.
Creative matters weren't the only difficulties troubling Jimi. His relationship with manager Michael Jeffery was growing strained, the Ed Chalpin/PPX lawsuit over the contract Jimi had signed in his days with Curtis Knight was a nagging problem, and the sheer pressure of rock stardom and its attendant demands were focused directly on Jimi.
Since playing the Royal Albert Hall in London on February 18 and 24, the Experience had not performed live until the night before the Philadelphia show, when the band performed at Dorton Arena in Raleigh, North Carolina. Flying into Philadelphia International Airport on April 12, the Jimi Hendrix Experience were just getting into shape for the 25-date North American tour booked by Jeffery.
The Interview
On Saturday afternoon of the show at the Spectrum Jimi was interviewed in his room at the Holiday Inn at around 4 p.m. by writer John Lombardi. The story was published a week later in the now-defunct Philadelphia alternative newspaper Distant Drummer [issue of April 17/23]. Despite being tired, the ever-accommodating Hendrix submitted to yet another interrogation. Jimi revealed a bit about his state of mind regarding this interview when he was asked if he would mind being photographed. "No," Hendrix replied, "the same shit happens every day, so fuck it."
Lombardi, who apparently was far from being an expert on Hendrix's music (as seen by his reference in print to the song "Let Me Stand Inside Your Fire"), started things off on a superficial note by remarking that Jimi's hair appeared shorter than in his publicity photos. "My hair?" Jimi questioned. "I cut it short in protest. There are too many long-haired people running around whose heads aren't anywhere. But I think I'm gonna grow it again."
The interview continued to get off to a rocky start as the sore subject of the "nude" Electric Ladyland cover and Jimi's image was brought up. "I don't consider myself a success. I haven't even started yet," Hendrix told Lombardi. "The scene puts you through a lot of changes...you get involved in images. I didn't have nothing to do with that stupid LP cover they released, and I don't even want to talk about it. It's mostly all bullshit."
Lombardi proceeded to remind Jimi about his stage act, referring to "setting the guitar on fire, going through the motions of intercourse." Not surprisingly at this stage of his career, the question served only to aggravate Jimi. "We did those things mostly because they used to be fun," Jimi noted. "They just came out of us. But the music was still the main thing. Then what happened, the crowd started to want those things more than the music. Those little things that were just added on, like frosting, you know, became the most important. Things got changed around. We don't do that stuff as much anymore."
To Be Continued - directly . . . .