July 11,1967 - Charlotte, NC - My dad took me and my younger brother David to see The Monkees. I had tried to get my dad to take me The Beatles at Shea Stadium, New York in summer of '65, but it never happened. At this point I had only seen a local rock band on an outdoor stage and Chad & Jeremy when they came to the local college gym. So this was my first real concert. I knew The Monkees were a sort of TV joke based on A Hard Days Night, but still dug them.
So we drove about a hundred miles to Charlotte. I remember we were on audience left side about halfway up. I had not heard of ANY of the opening acts... Lynne Randell & The Sundowners & Jimi Hendrix. Jimi played on a handful of dates from Florida to NC. Before that the only Jimi Hendrix Experience show was a few weeks before at Monterey. His first album didn't come out until August '67 in the states. Eventually he breaks into WILD THING, and I was thinking like... "oh yeah, I've heard this tune on radio... that's who this guy is?" Later on figuring out he was covering The Troggs. At the end of his set Jimi was standing there feeding back and grooving and he held up his guitar and tossed straight up in the air about ten feet and then it landed on the stage squealing as the trio left the stage.
My eleven year old mind was blown... still dug The Monkees set, but never forgot Jimi. Problem is the bar was set so high at my first concert, that everything since has been second best.
My dad snapped this photo of me and my brother in front a seafood restaurant called Captain's Wheel that we ate at just before the show. Man, we were so hip with our cool bermuda shorts outfits.
In '66, my brothers and I had a band where we jammed on tennis racquets and trash cans. I eventually called it... Racquet Band. That's my brother David in the three cornered revolutionary hat that we scored in Williamsburg for a sort Paul Revere and The Raiders nod who I had seen on Shingdig! and Where The Action Is on TV.
By '68, my band had become The Electric Onion. We covered Steppin' Stone, I'm A Believer, Foxy Lady and Purple Haze. I finally had a real rig... Silvertone Bobkat Guitar & Harmony H415 amp & Lafayette Reverb & Shure microphone. I now have collected all of this gear again. It is fitting that today (July 11, 2011), I just got the actual guitar amp (seen in picture) after finding it on ebay. More on that and the planned Summer 2012 reunion for The Electric Onion later as details unfold.
This is a radio spot advertising Jimi's opening for The Monkees at the Detroit, but of course Jimi had dropped off the tour before that. Read more about what happened over at SNOPES. PS. The Monkees concert poster (at top of this post) is from the FLORIDA show.
I built this car model kit of the MONKEEMOBILE X-mas '67...
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2 comments:
This is the BEST blog entry I've ever read!!! BTM, you are by far the hippest cat I stalk! Love the Monkees & anyone who admits to that also is top notch in my book!
Hendrix opens....outrageous!! Rock On!
- THANX RISA.... I always say, The Beatles were the blueprint for a rock band, but really A Hard Days Night & Help are about how to be ROCK STARS. THE MONKEES (and their script writers) were really the real architects from whom I learned about being in a struggling band. Everything from how to deal with all the rift raft slime industry people to diggin' groovy rock babes and generally how a band kinda works. They had it all, cool beach pad, Moog synthesizers, Gretsch guitars, spiffy outfits and hairdos ...and they even hung with Zappa.
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