QueenCityJamz: 1975

1975

Spirit January 3-5, 1975

Flying Burrito Brothers January 8-11, 1975

Pure Prairie League January 13-18, 1975

Chuck Mangione January 16-18, 1975

Freddie King January 23-26, 1975

Ramblin' Jack Elliott & John McCuen January 30 - February 1, 1975

Gentle Giant February 3-4, 1975

Freddi-Henchi and the Soul Setters February 5-9, 1975

J.J. Cale February 12-15, 1975

Gene Clark and Tom Waits February 18-23, 1975

Michael Martin Murphy February 25 - March 2, 1975

Stanley Turrentine March 4-9, 1975

Barry Manilow & Jimmie Spheeris March 11-16, 1975

Jonathan Edwards and the Wayne Terry Band March 17-19, 1975

Kenny Rankin and Mimi Farina March 20-23, 1975

(The Wailers March 20-23, 1975) *

Pure Prairie League March 25-30, 1975

Loudon Wainwright III March 31, 1975

Tim Weissberg April 8-10, 1975

Doc Watson April 11-13, 1975

Eric Andersen April 16-20, 1975

Passport April 21, 1975

John Stewart & Kathy Moffat April 22-27, 1975

Harvey Mandel & Sky King April 28-29, 1975

Jo Jo Gunne May 2-4, 1975

Larry Coryell & 11th House May 5-6, 1975

Jimmy Buffet May 12-13, 1975

Gil-Scot Heron May 14-15, 1975

Kraftwerk May 20, 1975

Brewer & Shipley May 23-24, 1975

Muddy Waters May 27 - June 1, 1975

Cheech & Chong with Beau Brummels June 11-15, 1975

Photo by Bob Ferbrache via CMHOF

Nicky Hopkins June 16-17, 1975 **

Lightnin' Hopkins and Michael Stanley June 18-22, 1975

Steve Goodman and Emmylou Harris June 23-24, 1975

David Bromberg June 25-29, 1975

Tom Paxton June 30, 1975

Stan & Steve Getz July 3-6, 1975

Crusaders July 9-12, 1975

Caravan July 14-16, 1975

Stanley Turrentine July 17-19, 1975

Nicky Hopkins July 21-22, 1975 **

(Either this one or the June gig happened, more than likely not both. Nicky was not in the Stones touring band in 1975 when they played in Ft. Collins on 7/20/75. Maybe he was booked to lure in some Stones fans? Either way he was on the way to "briefly" joining the Jerry Garcia Band in August of 1975. Or neither one happened.)

The Outlaws July 23, 1975 **

(1975 Billboard article listed The Outlaws as having playing two SRO weeks at Ebbets Field - it must have occurred in and around the mid-July date as several other shows seem like they might not have happened.)

Bob Seger July 24-26, 1975

Ambrosia July 28-29, 1975

Sugarloaf July 30 - August 2, 1975

Persuasions August 4, 1975

Rowan Brothers and El Chicano August 5-9, 1975

Beau Brummels August 11, 1975

Jimmy Buffett August 18-20, 1975

Vassar Clements August 21-24, 1975

Heartsfield August 25-26, 1975

Jimmie Spheeris & Danny O'Keefe August 27-31, 1975

Willie Nelson September 2-4, 1975

Caravan September 8-10, 1975

Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee September 11-13, 1975

Chuck Mangione and Esther Satterfield September 15-18, 1975

Corky Siegel September 19, 1975

Kenny Rankin September 20-21, 1975

Steve Goodman September 22-23, 1975

Nils Lofgren and the Sons of Champlin September 24-27, 1975

Asleep at the Wheel September 25 & 30, 1975

Gene Clark October 1-5, 1975

Steve Martin October 6-7, 1975

Esther Philips October 8-9, 1975

John Prine October 10-12, 1975

Johnny Rivers October 15-18, 1975

Kenny Rankin October 20-22, 1975

Dillards & Geoff Muldaur October 23-26, 1975

Larry Coryell October 27-29, 1975

Muddy Waters October 28 - November 1, 1975

Savoy Brown November 2, 1975

Cecelio & Kapono November 3, 1975 FREE SHOW

Billy Cobham November 4-6, 1975

Strawbs and Bette White November 7-9, 1975

(Renaissance November 11-13, 1975 CANCELLED) *

Steve Martin November 17-18, 1975

Leonard Cohen November 19-21, 1975

Brian Auger November 22-23, 1975

Leon Redbone & Earl Scruggs Revue November 28-30, 1975

(Ronee Blakely November 27-30, 1975 CANCELLED) *

Tom Waits December 3-7, 1975

Spirit December 10-11, 1975

Tom Rush & Corky Siegel December 17-21, 1975

John McCuen & Magic Music December 26-27, 1975

Steve Martin & Katy Moffatt December 31 1975

* (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:

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