QueenCityJamz: 1974

1974

Henry Gross and Country Gazette January 8-13, 1974

El Chicano January 14-19, 1974

Tom Rush January 22-26, 1974

Maria Muldaur January 30 - February 2, 1974

Steve Getz February 11-12, 1974

Lynyrd Skynyrd February 13-17, 1974

(BONUS - here's the paperwork for Sknyrd's gig for sale on eBay)

Roger McGuinn with Jerry Jeff Walker February 20-24, 1973

Mason Proffit Band feat. Talbot Bros. with Kenny Rankin February 25 - March 3, 1974

Frampton's Camel March 5-6, 1974

Muddy Waters March 7-9, 1974

Al Kooper March 11, 1974

Spirit March 12-17, 1974

B.W. Stevenson March 18-19, 1974

John Fahey March 21-23, 1974

James Vincent & Rufus Krisp March 25-26, 1974

Brewer & Shipley with Ozark Mountain Daredevils March 27-30, 1974

Hoyt Axton April 1-2, 1974

Brian Auger April 3-6, 1974

Azteca April 9-13, 1974

Tim Weissberg April 15-16, 1974

J.J. Cale April 17-19, 1974

Leo Sayer April 17-20, 1974

Ramblin' Jack Elliot April 22, 1974

Magic Music & Steve Getz April 23-24, 1974

Lightnin' Hopkins April 25-27, 1974

Loudon Wainwright III April 29-30, 1974

Robert Klein with Willis Alan Ramsey May 1-5, 1974

Mimi Farina May 6, 1974

The Great American Music Band May 7-12, 1974

(David Grisman, Richard Greene, Taj Mahal & David Nichturn)

David Bromberg May 13-15, 1974

Phil Ochs with Jerry Jeff Walker & Gabe Kaplan May 16-19, 1974

Ry Cooder May 20-21, 1974

Sandy Denny & Fairport Convention May 22-23, 1974

Minnie Ripperton May 24, 1974

Billy Joel May 25-27, 1974

Michael Martin Murphy May 28 - June 1, 1974

Tommy Bolin and Friends with Gerard June 3-4, 1974

The Strawbs June 5-6, 1974

Moby Grape June 7-9, 1974

Pure Prairie League with Janis Ian June 13-15, 1974

John Stewart with Tom Waits June 17-19, 1974

Elvin Bishop with Tom Waits June 20-22, 1974

BILLBOARD July 20, 1974

Severin Browne June 24, 1974

Wet Willie with Severin Browne June 25-29, 1974

Pure Prairie League July 1-7, 1974

Bob Seger July 8, 1974 ????

Rufus Krisp July 9, 1974

Cold Blood July 10-13, 1974

Steeleye Span July 16-20, 1974

Eileen Dover and the Rhythm Kings July 23, 1974

Goose Creek Symphony (with Hudson & Ford of the Straubs) July 24-27, 1974

Richard Pryor July 30-31, 1974

Papa John Creach & Zulu August 1-4, 1974

Return to Forever August 8 - ??, 1974

Chris Jagger August 1974

Mose Allision August 1974

Rufus Krisp September 8-11, 1974

Flyer from NY Doll Concert Chronology

Roy Buchanan September 12-14, 1974

New York Dolls 16 - 19, 1974

Dr. John September 25 - ??, 1974

Dan Fogelberg October ??, 1974

Tom Waits October 7-9, 1974

John Stewart with Tom Waits October 10-13, 1974

Eric Burdon Band October 16-19, 1974

Tom Rush October 22-23, 1974

David Bromberg October 24-27, 1974

Spirit October 29 - November 2, 1974

Brian Auger November 3-4, 1974

Minnie Ripperton November 5, 1974

Sandy Denny & Fairport Convention November 6-7, 1974

John Hammond with Red White Bluegrass November 8-10, 1974

Caravan November 11-13, 1974

Tim Buckley November 15-16, 1974

David Bromberg November 20-24, 1974

Tim Weissberg November 26 - December 1, 1974

James Montgomery Blues Band December 5-7, 1974

Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee December 9-10, 1974

Turtles with Flo & Eddie December 12-15, 1974

Goose Creek Symphony December 18-21, 1974

Jimmy Walker December 27-28, 1974

Spirit December 31, 1974

* (LISTING IN ITALICS WERE BOOKED BUT CANCELLED)

Feminist protesters show up to protest the New York Dolls show. They feel the Dolls are mocking
women. Boy, the 80s will get much,much worse for misogynist rockers dressed in women's clothes.
Image credit - Getty Images

Denver's first rock nightclub Ebbets Field opened on Tuesday night in the winter of 1973. Taking over the space in Brooks Tower formerly occupied by the MOR nightclub Marvelous Marv's at 1020 15th street, Ebbets Field was at the fore front of the "music-only" clubs that would proliferate all across America in the late 60's and early 70's.

First thing people will think of with Ebbets Field is legendary old baseball stadium in Brooklyn, home of the Dodgers before they were stolen to the Gold Coast of Los Angeles. What in the world could that have to do with Denver and the Seventies? Club owner Chuck Morris grew up in Brooklyn, in the shadow of the old ballpark. He thought it sounded like a cool name for a club. He was and still is right.

"Roger (Jim) McGuinn, David Crosby, Gene Clark,
Chris Hillman & Michael Clarke"

All prospective employees of Ebbets Field had to name the original Byrds lineup to get a job. Chuck Morris was a huge Byrds fan & 4 of them would eventually play Ebbets Field with Gene Clark playing there many times over it's 4 years.

Second thing people will think of with Ebbets Field is the amazing amount of high quality bootlegs that survive from the club's short four-year lifespan. Go to YouTube and enter "Ebbets Field Denver" and marvel at the range of shows on offer. This is due to the club's arrangement with local A/V company ListenUp.

ListenUp's recording truck in action

Ebbets Field had worked out an arrangement early on with local free-form underground station KFML to simulcast a few shows on radio. Chuck Morris thought this would be a great way to advertise the club while also being a potential feather in the club's cap to show to record labels. Walt Stinson, one of the founders of ListenUp recalled it went down like this:

“I called Don Zucker, KFML’s general manager, and told him that I could dramatically improve the quality of the broadcasts, and I would do it in exchange for advertising — he wouldn’t have to pay us. Well, he thought that was a great idea – especially the part about not having to pay us. We tagged all the shows with the line ‘Sound by ListenUp’ and they ran a ton of radio spots for us.” (from ListenUp's History)

KFML was only too happy to have a higher-quality broadcast of the shows while ListenUp was happy for all of the "exposure" the gig would bring them. By all accounts, KFML was the classic eclectic, DJ-drive radio station a lot of people will remember from the 60's and 70's.

Ebbets Field held 238 people. It was not a huge venue so it often brought in bands for multi-nightstands with and early and late show each night. Bands would be booked in from Tuesday thru Saturday and a lot of times Sunday too. The concert touring life in the early 70's was still beholden to the supper club booking practice of week-long stints in a venue. For the club owners it made sense to try and fill up the club twice a night to get 500 people or so into the venue.

One thing about the decor of Ebbets Field - it was fairly minimalist and distinctly Seventies - it was bare floors, wood paneling and loads of orange shag carpet. As of this writing in late 2019, sadly no known photographs of the actual club layout have been located. There are LOADS of photographs of the many legendary performers up on stage (a lot more on this to come) but there are none of the room itself.** Tracking down the pic at the top of this blog had taken many years too. In a world where photography was an expensive & time-consuming thing (remember taking your roll of film down to the FotoHut to drop it off for processing?) one didn't waste pictures on things like empty clubs with their tables and chairs. Sigh.

** - Gary C on Steve Hoffman Forums pointed me to the Dangerous Minds post abt the Ramones live at Ebbets Field.

Here's a pic of the orange shag carpet bleachers off to the side.

Photograph by Marc Campbell

Here's a great shot of the side of stage where you can see how low the ceiling was and see the bleachers off to the side.

Photograph by Steve Knutson

So great to finally see some cool photographs of the inside of the club!

The first shows at Ebbets Field occurred in the middle of February in 1973. What follows will be my best attempt to piece together a show listing for the club's entire 4-year run. Information online has been scattered and mainly focused around the Friday & Saturday night shows that were broadcast & heavily bootlegged.

What follows has been constructed thru detailed microfilm research conducted down at the Denver Public Library's downtown central branch using the alternative Denver underground newspaper Straight Creek Journal. SCJ had Denver's first comprehensive concert listing guide and it is a veritable treasure trove of ads, club listings and articles about Denver from 1972 - 1980. You just have to head out into the physical world, load up the reels and do the research the old fashioned way.

Here's the first bookings at the club - a British jazzy pop group and a comedian. This would be a harbinger for the club's booking M.O. - rock, jazz fusion, country and comics.

MARK-ALMOND BAND February 13 - 16, 1973

DAVID STEINBERG February 19 - 24, 1973

(LISTING IN ITALICS WERE BOOKED BUT CANCELLED)

The club's years of operation were from 1973 to 1977. The diverse roster of artists who graced the orange shag carpet venue is pretty staggering, from Muddy Waters to the Ramones. The listings will be separated into each individual year. Using SCJ along with Billboard magazine, there are still some significant gaps, a missing few months of bookings here and there. This first attempt at a comprehensive list was time-consuming yet very rewarding. Hopefully we can get all of the gaps filled in. Oh yeah, hopefully we can find some pictures of the inside layout and the front of the club. Fingers crossed.

Here are the links to each year:

<a rel="me" href="https://heads.social/@QueenCityJamz">Mastodon</a>