QueenCityJamz: 1976

1976

Steve Martin January 2-4, 1976

John Klemmer January 8-11, 1976

Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show January 12-13, 1976

Magic Music January 14-15, 1975

Chick Corea January 16-17, 1976

Stanley Turrentine January 21-24, 1976

Vassar Clements February 3, 1976

Taj Mahal February 4-8, 1976

Cheech & Chong February 9-11, 1976

Asleep at the Wheel February 12-14, 1976

Ray Wylie Hubbard February 15-18, 1976

Tom Paxton February 19-22, 1976

David Bromberg February 24-26, 1976

Cecilio & Kapono March 1-3, 1976

Steve Martin March 4-6, 1976

Flying Burrito Brothers March 7-9, 1976

Canned Heat March 12-13, 1976

Gary Burton Quartet March 16, 1976

Tim Weissberg March 18-20, 1976

The Outlaws March 21-23, 1976

Ronnie Laws and Corky Seigel March 24-28, 1976

(Noel Redding March 24-27, 1976) *

Ace March and Heartsfield March 30 - April 3, 1976

Heartsfield April 4, 1976

John Stewart April 7-11, 1976

Billy Cobham and George Duke Band April 13-15, 1976

Larry Gatlin and Tom Rush April 16-18, 1976

Bill Withers April 19-20, 1976

Steve Fromholtz & 3rd World April 22-24, 1976

Vassar Clements April 26-27, 1976

John Kay & Steppenwolf April 29-30, 1976

Savoy Brown May 1-3, 1976

Lonnie Lister Smith May 4-8, 1976

(James Lee Stanley May 5-8, 1976) *

Dave Lindblom May 9-11, 1976

Firefall May 12-13, 1976

Steve Goodman May 14-16, 1976

Tommy Bolin May 19-20, 1976

Gil-Scott Heron May 21-23, 1976

Brecker Brothers May 26, 1976

L.A. Express May 28 - 30, 1976

Ian Matthews June 1-3, 1976

Kenny Rankin June 4, 1976

Loudon Wainwright III June 5-6, 1976

Atlanta Rhythm Section June 7, 1976

Steve Young June 8-9, 1976

Amazing Rhythm Aces June 10-12, 1976

Bo Diddley June 17-20, 1976

Nils Lofgren June 23-24, 1976

Brian Auger June 25-27, 1976

Zephyr June 28, 1976

J.D. Souther Band June 29 - July 3, 1976

Bellamy Brothers July 5-6, 1976

Hoyt Axton July 7-8, 1976

Zephyr July 9-10, 1976

Grinderswitch July 12-17, 1976

Roger McGuinn July 19-22, 1976

Ronee Blakely July 23-25, 1976

Spirit July 26-27, 1976

Felix Pappalardi & Creation July 28 - August 1, 1976

Terry Reid August 2, 1976

Jean-Luc Ponty August 3-4, 1976

L.A. Express August 5-8, 1976

Renaissance August 9-11, 1976

Brewer & Shipley August 12-14, 1976

Cheech & Chong August 19-21, 1976

Raw Honey August 23, 1976

Chris Hillman August 24-26, 1976

Leon Redbone and Joan Armatrading August 27-28, 1976

Mark-Almond Band and Steve Young September 1-4, 1976

John Stewart September 8-12, 1976

Grinderswitch September 13 & 16, 1976

Ozark Mountain Daredevils September 14-15, 1976

John Mayall Septemeber 17-18, 1976

Jimmie Spheeris September 22-24, 1976

(J.J. Cale September 22-24, 1976) *

Ian Matthews September 25-26, 1976

John Klemmer September 28-29, 1976

Steeleye Span October 1-3, 1976

Point Blank October 4-6, 1976

Dion October 7-9, 1976

El Chicano October 12-13, 1976

Eric Andersen October 14-16, 1976

Freddie Hubbard October 20-23, 1976

Silver October 25-26, 1976

Shawn Phillips October 27, 1976

Southern Pacific with Paul Butterfield & Dallas Taylor October 28-30, 1976

Parliament / Funkadelic October ??, 1976
(Exact date unknown as PFunk warmed up for their legendary tour at Ebbets Field, prolly due to Barry Fey booking the tour.)

Richie Haven November 1-2, 1976

Gil-Scott Heron and Brian Jackson November 4-7, 1976

Jimmie Spheeris November 9-10, 1976

Joan Armatrading November 11, 1976

Southside Johnny & the Asbury Jukes November 12-13, 1976

Long John Baldry November 16-17, 1976

Kalapana Novemeber 17-18 & 20, 1976

John Klemmer November 19, 1976

Wendy Waldman November 23-24, 1976

Little River Band November 25-28, 1976
Country Joe McDonald November 26-28, 1976

Flyers November 28-30, 1976

Kenny Rankin December 6-7, 1976

Les McCann December 8-12, 1976

Tom Paxton December 13-14, 1976

Lost Gonzo Band December 17-18, 1976

Cedar Walton December 25-27, 1976

Chambers Brothers December 29-31, 1976 - January 1, 1977

* (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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