Sunday, February 14, 2010

345 Broadway, San Francisco August 1-2-3, 1969 Headhunters Amusement Park: Phanangang/Indian Puddin' 'N' Pipe/Quicksilver

 

This post is more about process than substance, but no less interesting for that. Did Quicksilver Messenger Service play an obscure venue on Broadway in San Francisco on the weekend of August 1-2-3, 1969?

The Evidence
Reviewing the entertainment listings in Berkeley's Tribe from August 1, 1969 reveals some surprising listings. The listings for Friday August 1 (above) and Sunday August 3 list the following

Phanangang, Indian Puddin' Pipe, Quicksilver, lights Optic & Illusion. Headhunters Amusement Park, 345 Broadway, 8 pm $2. 


(The listing for Saturday, August 2 is the same but excludes Quicksilver. Whatever the status of this listing, I am as inclined to assume that the absence of Quicksilver in Saturday's listing is simply a typo, although that says nothing about whether or not the band actually played)

Quicksilver Messenger Service
In Summer 1969, Quicksilver Messenger Service was San Francisco rock royalty by any standard. Their classic second album Happy Trails had received massive FM airplay, and was a favorite on turntables all over the Bay Area. Gary Duncan had in fact left the group, and it only barely existed, even though they were ostensibly recording an album on Capitol (which would eventually be released as Shady Grove). Although Quicksilver only consisted of John Cipollina, David Freiberg and Greg Elmore, plus any possible guest musicians, they were still a hugely popular group in San Francisco.

Although the band was regularly referred to as "Quicksilver," for obvious reasons, they were never billed that way (just as The Grateful Dead or The Jefferson Airplane were never formally billed as "The Dead" or "The Airplane"). From that point of view, it makes no sense whatsoever that a major San Francisco band that could easily headline a weekend at Fillmore West would be billed for two or three nights at a bar on Broadway, and not listed first to boot.

On the other hand, after several months of complete isolation, Quicksilver Messenger Service had started to play a few gigs. They had played near Monterey (at the Resurrection Theatre in Seaside) on July 18-19, and they played a few gigs in support of the Wild West Festival on August 22 and 23 (Fillmore West and Family Dog, respectively). All the reports suggested a tentative working out of a new lineup, and a low-key gig at a North Beach club is not so far fetched as it might initially seem.

The Venue
345 Broadway was the former site of a North Beach club called Goman's, which I have written about earlier. Initially it was known as Goman's Gay 90s, and it was owned by an old Vaudeville family. The club had mostly presented Vaudeville style reviews, in some sort of modified fashion befitting its name. In early 1967, at least, it did have "Breakfast Shows" from 2-6am, featuring the likes of The Sparrow, but that seems to have been an afterthought.

Starting in April, 1967, however, Goman's Gay 90s became Goman's Gay 60s, and featured Topless Dancers, a Light Show and rock bands. Topless clubs provided paying gigs to new bands in town who weren't yet of the status of a Fillmore or Avalon gig (like New Salvation Army Banned or West Coast Natural Gas). While not a great gig, necessarily, club owners were usually tolerant of whatever the band played as long as they kept the beat going, so it was a chance to get started in a new city.

By late 1969, however, the Topless craze had subsided. It wasn't unknown on North Beach, but it wasn't the auotmatic moneymaker it had been. I have to assume that the Goman family gave up on Goman's Gay 60s Topless club, which wasn't their style anyway, and operated a psychedelic nightclub instead. Whether the Goman's actually owned the building, subleased their club or simply let the property owner lease it is unknown to me. It is a fact of city life, however, that Use Permits tend to remain in effect, so a building licensed both to sell liquour and put on musical performances was likely to remain a nightclub.

Did Quicksilver Play Headhunters?--The Parameters
If Quicksilver Messenger Service did play Headhunters Amusement Park, it would have been because they felt they needed the work. The group had experimented with Nick Gravenites as lead singer and rhythm guitarist, and legendary pianist Nicky Hopkins had just joined, but a description of one of the Seaside shows (July 18) showed them to be quite ragged. An eyewitness account of the August 22 Fillmore West show (from diarist Faren Miller) suggests a much more together band, without Gravenites, but with occasional appearances by engineer Dan Healy on guitar and bass (yes, the once and future Dead soundman). Perhaps Quicksilver got it together by playing a few stealth gigs, and Headhunters may have been one of them.Phangangang and Indian Puddin and Pipe, while not well known, were common in Bay Area club listings at the time and would be typical of the groups one might expect to play Broadway.

I have no more information than I have presented here. What I am left with is a list of possible choices, that I have to consider in light of any future evidence (however slender) that may come to light. I am presenting them here so that readers can consider the sparse evidence that Rock Prosopography contends with.

Alternative Explanations
1. There was another group named 'Quicksilver.' 
This proposition is a self-evident "no" in 1969 San Francisco. It's like suggesting there was a band called "The Airplane" that was somehow different than Jefferson Airplane. I am dismissing this possibility out of hand.

2. The listing was a mistake, and 'Quicksilver' was a misreading of something else.
This proposition is the most likely. Generally entertainment listings had a deadline (usually something like Tuesday for the Friday edition), and some functionary at a venue made a phone call or sent in a list to various papers. Given that many flyers back in the day were psychedelically lettered and hard to read, some well meaning office clerk could simply have confused some unreadable thing as "Quicksilver" when it was something else entirely.

3. Some stealth Quicksilver gigs were planned, and they got inadvertently publicized.
This is the most intriguing proposition, though the likelihood is still well under 50%. Quicksilver was starting to play around, but didn't even have a stable lineup, and a gig or two at a low-key club would have given the band a chance to try themselves out at low risk. Following the logic here, if they had agreed with the club owner that they might show up, the band's name may have been on some internal log not meant for dissemination, and a well-meaning functionary may have simply phoned in the listing and read off their name, without realizing the implication.

From that point of view, the common shortening of the name to "Quicksilver" makes more sense. Also, the odd configuration of playing Friday (Aug 1) and Sunday (Aug 3) but not Saturday makes an odd kind of sense. The band may have listed nights they might show up, rather than having booked real gigs.

For the third and most interesting proposition, two future pieces of research might be of interest:
  • Who were the owners or operators of the Headhunters Amusement Park? If they were someone associated with Quicksilver Messenger Service or their management (West-Pole), then this hypothesis becomes more plausible
  • Fragmentary memories of seeing Quicksilver in North Beach or Broadway. It is common to read vague stories from old hippies who say things like "once I wandered into a bar on Broadway and found Quicksilver rocking the joint," and to dismiss them as acid-tinged memories of no value. However, there may be an element of truth to such a memory in this case.
My analysis stops here, as I have no further information. In the end, all I can suggest is that Quicksilver Messenger Service may have played a few stealth gigs at a Broadway nightspot on August 1, 2 or 3, 1969. Or not. 

18 comments:

  1. Corry a couple of question for you:
    1) At the time of QMS gigs (July 8-9, 1969) the Resurrection Theatre is called The Iron Triangle right?
    2) In this post you says QMS play at Family Dog on the Great Highway on August 23, 1969 but in your "Ace Of Cups gigs list" (posted on the Ace Of Cups official homepage) you says QMS play at Avalon Ballroom on that day. Indeed I listed in my "QMS gigs list" a gig at Family Dog on July 8, 1969....who is right?

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  2. The Resurrection Theatre was formerly called The Iron Triangle, but that wasn't the name on the poster.

    I don't recall what's on the Ace Of Cups site now, but I wrote that a few years ago. I am more confident of my current information.

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  3. I was in the band Phananganang- I was Leila Kells- I played keyboards and sang. Late 60s early 70s. Awesome band! Photos and memorabilia here:
    http://s847.photobucket.com/albums/ab40/nokomisnw/Phananganang/

    Enjoy!

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    1. Isaw you gy and hungout with Ernie when you guys played at the Catacombs in Boston in 1969.You stayed on Pearl St in Cambridge. Great band!

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  4. Leila, thanks so much for the link. The photos and posters are quite amazing. Can you answer a few questions?

    How did Phananganang ended up playing in both Boston and the Bay Area?

    Do you recall the Headhunters Amusement Park club on Broadway in SF? Was it a Katz-operated club, or was that just a gig the band worked?

    Thanks so much for linking

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  5. Corry,

    I spoke with Leila and she confirmed me that QMS played there. I also asked her if she remember if QMS played there only on day 1 and 3 or on day 2 too (because the listing for this day excludes them), but unfortunately she don't remember.

    PS: The correct spelling of Leila's band is "Phananganang".

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  6. Corry,

    About your above questions for Leila, she told me that: "We originated in the SF Bay area, actually I joined after they had been together for a little while, they wanted to add a keyboard player and that's where I came in. The leader of the band, Ross Winetsky, was originally from Boston. One day he purchased an old school bus and we decided to travel to the East coast to try it out. It was fun but we decided to return to California as we liked it better. I do not know the answer to the other question about Headhunters club".

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  7. Fascinating research, Bruno (and thanks to Leila). Its very interesting to hear that Quicksilver played a dumpy club on Broadway, and one apparently run by Matthew Katz at that. On the other hand, August 69 was the period that QMS was playing around a little bit, so the timeline fits.

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  8. Yikes!
    As usual, you guys are right on it. I just listened to the 2010 Sanpaku conference call that I didn't take part in. All 5 band members remembered an incredibly decadent, multi-floored party at the Gay 90's club in 1969. I was there, but thought it was in a building down one of the alleys off of Broadway, perhaps Osgood or Bartol. I distinctly recall that the party was called Headhunters Amusement Park. We didn't play, but met The Doobies for the first time as well as Harvey Mandell and various other SF music folks. Check this corporate registration listing from 5/20/1969
    http://businessprofiles.com/details/headhunter-amusement-park-of-san/CA-C0570416
    I'm willing to bet this episode has legs.
    H.

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  9. HPaku, there is definitely more to this story but I can't figure out what. I did notice that some of the bands who played Headhunters were affiliated with former Moby Grape/IABD manager Matthew Katz, but I have no idea if that was a coincidence.

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  10. Wish I could dig up who it was that registered that corporation - I'll keep after it. Meanwhile, a bit more digging turned up this poster, which sold on eBay in 2010
    http://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/fillmore-era-bg-handbill-headhunter-127800732
    Unfortunately the details are hard to see, but it looks like a July 69 date. I'm chasing the artist.
    H.

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  11. Another great find. Transatlantic Railroad were a Marin band. What little information I know about them is here:
    http://deaddisc.com/GDFD_NorCal_T.htm

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  12. I was the leader singer/rhythm guitar player in Phananganang then. Leila's memory may be better than mine, but I don't remember Quicksilver playing that night. I remember that it was a ruse concocted by Matthew to draw a crowd. But I could be wrong. It was the late 60s in San Francisco!

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  13. A record maintained at the time indicates that Headhunters came to an ignominious end soon after it opened. The last listed shows are in August and there is no record of Quicksilver performing. The records for those dates show the acts on all four nights to be Phananganang, Games Fifth Pipe Dream & Indian Pudding and Pipe.

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    1. ok, so very clearly a Matthew Katz outfit. Maybe he was planning a fake Quicksilver?

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  14. The run of shows lasted four nights from July 31. Transatlantic Railroad and Gentle Dance having played on July 30.

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  15. I was 14 when I attended the opening of Headhunters in August 1969, at what used to be Goman's Gay 90's. The wallpaper was classic Saloon/stripper decor, flocked red Victorian design. A lawyer named Tony...had leased it in some kind of power move to compete with Bill Graham. My older brother and his friends had been hired as laborers on some minor renovations. The light show was amazing, with lots of film footage, old cartoons, etc. so I think it may have been Brotherhood of Light. Yes, Quicksilver played. The atmosphere was heavy, the kind of vibe around big-money hard drug dealers. The Hells Angels were there in force. I remember Pigpen and the gang sitting on the stairs to the upstairs rooms, snorting amyl nitrate and looking for a reason to fight. As a girl I felt unsafe. I was used to the Fillmore, but this was a whole different vibe. It wasn't to celebrate the music, it was to challenge Bill Graham, which was ridiculous, as the venue was a fraction the size of the Fillmore, let alone Winterland. The aesthetic of how the girls dressed was not hippy, but stripper-esque. It was a night I will never forget. I stayed to help a bit with the clean-up, which felt like the end of the world and left around 5 am. In the morning I got a call that my boyfriend, who was 18, and on the construction crew, never made it home, a victim of a drug that wasn't what he thought it was. It was for me the night that my childhood in San Francisco ended, and the creative light radiating from the 60s scene turned dark, largely due to the arrival of heavies from NY with hard drugs, guns and no idea of the spirit of the culture we were trying to create in our town.

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    1. Christie, thank you for this sad and fascinating eyewitness account

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