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| A poster for the Youngbloods and Paul Arnoldi at Berkeley's New Orleans House, November 27-29, 1967 |
In early 1966 the live rock concert market exploded in San Francisco, thanks to Bill Graham at the Fillmore Auditorium and Chet Helms at the nearby Avalon Ballroom. The city of Berkeley, and the University of California there, provided a significant number of the fans for the San Francisco ballrooms. It was no surprise that Berkeley rapidly had a live rock scene of its own. Throughout 1966 there had been various efforts to establish live rock venues in Berkeley, largely unsuccessful. In January of 1967, however, Berkeley had its first nightclub primarily devoted to live rock bands playing original music.
[This is the last in a series of 1967 Berkeley posts originally presented on Ross Hannan's Berkeley In The Sixties blog. Ross, a friend, co-conspirator and inspirational scholar, died on November 9, 2024, mourned by all who knew him and many who did not. Since the fate of Ross' blog cannot be predicted, I am publishing the final post in my own blog. Hoist a pint or light one up for Ross]
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| 1505
San Pablo Avenue in Berkeley, the site of New Orleans House, as it
appeared in 2009. I do not know of any photos of the exterior, interior
or stage of New Orleans House from when the club was open. |
The New Orleans House, in North Berkeley at 1505 San Pablo Avenue, between Jones and Hopkins Streets, only held about 200 patrons. But it served beer and wine, there was a dance floor and sometimes even a light show. So it was kind of like a miniature Avalon, if the Avalon had offered beer and dinner. There weren't yet that many rock bands in Berkeley, but there weren't really many places to play, either. As part of my survey of 1967 rock music in Berkeley, I am looking at every performer at the New Orleans House during that year (see below for links). My prior post reviewed New Orleans House performers from July to September 1967. This post will look at New Orleans House performers from October through December 1967. If anyone has additional information, corrections, photos, insights or recovered memories, please include them in the Comments. Flashbacks encouraged.
 |
| Berkeley Barb ad for New Orleans House, September 29, 1967 |
September 29-30, October 1, 1967 New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA: Morning Glory (Friday-Sunday)
New
Orleans House was on San Pablo Avenue, near the Berkeley border and the
Alameda County line. It was North of campus--"Northside" in local
parlance--which was more sedate than the more raucous Southside. Telegraph Avenue, the riots and the undergraduates were all Southside.
Southside was for undergraduates. Northside was more oriented towards
assistant professors and graduate students, with no riots. The Gilman
Street neighborhood where the club was located was accessible both to
campus and to San Francisco via Transbay buses, and just below (West) of the "Northside" neighborhood of the UC Campus.
Music generally began at New Orleans House at 9:30, even on weeknights, which seems late. But in fact the club served dinner from 5:00-9:00pm, and happy hour was from 8:00-9:00, where beer was just 75 cents a pitcher. So the club was also a restaurant and hangout for the neighborhood, separate from being just an entertainment venue. It was mostly open six nights a week, closed on Thursdays. Owner Kitty Griffin had run a restaurant on College Avenue (Kitty's) for a while, so she knew the Berkeley market. She also taught handicapped children during the day for the Contra Costa School district, and New Orleans House was her night gig.
 |
| Two Suns Worth, by Morning Glory, released on Fontana Records 1968 |
Morning Glory was a Mill Valley band with a sort of Jefferson Airplane sound. Since the Airplane were huge in 1967, those sort of groups got signed, and Morning Glory would put out the album Two Suns Worth on Fontana in 1968 The back cover was photographed on a cable car, just to ensure that no one missed the San Francisco connection. The album isn’t bad, but its not that memorable. Bassist Bob Bohanna wrote most of the songs, and shared the vocals with Gini Graybeal.
October 2-4, 1967 New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA: Steve Miller Band (Monday-Wednesday)
It
was commonplace at folk clubs to have a Hoot Night (short for
"Hootenanny") early in the week. The general format was that a "host"
would perform a few songs, and aspiring locals could get up and sing a
few songs. It was a way for amateurs to have some fun, and for aspiring
professionals to get heard. The likes of Bob Dylan and Linda Ronstadt
were first heard (in Greenwich Village and West Hollywood, respectively)
at a Hoot. Berkeley folkies had attended the regular Hoot at the Jabberwock until it had closed in July of 1967.
Later
in the Summer, the New Orleans House added "Guest Night" on Monday
nights, hosted by folksinger Larry Hanks, who had also hosted the
Jabberwock hoot. New Orleans House pointedly called it "Guest Night."
The ad said "Folk Music, Poetry, Variety" to distinguish it from an
exclusively folk music event. Berkeley hippies weren't against folk
music--they mostly liked it--but they didn't want to see themselves as
square, aging "Folkies," so Guest Night broadened the options. I have no
idea who actually may have performed.
New Orleans House
"Guest Night" also included a late night set by a rock band. "Dancing to
Rock Bands 11:30-1:30" was also code for "not just folk music." Usually
a regular band played the late set, but this week featured the Steve
Miller Band. The Steve Miller Band had been playing New Orleans
House since early in 1967, and by this time they were major attractions
at the Fillmore and Avalon, with record companies hovering around. But
the Miller Band worked hard, gigging every night if they could, so they
were always willing to play New Orleans House on weeknights. Steve
Miller and Boz Scaggs were out in front of the band, singing and playing
guitars. Jim Peterman was on organ, with Tim Davis on drums and vocals,
both old pals of Miller from Madison, WI. Berkeley's Lonnie Turner
played bass.
 |
| Berkeley Barb ad for New Orleans House, October 6, 1967 |
October 6-8, 1967 New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA: Flamin’ Groovies (Friday-Sunday)
The Flamin’ Groovies were a few years younger than the first wave of Fillmore and Avalon musicians, but had still been connected to the scene from the beginning. The Groovies had continued to play in the British Invasion style that preceded the acid-tinged jamming that characterized the Fillmore scene. The Groovies short rock songs and snotty attitude were not popular in San Francisco, and opinions remain divided about them. The group intermittently broke up and reformed over the next few decades. When punk hit a decade later, the Groovies were seen as precursors, but despite popularity in England and elsewhere they remained (and remain) small beer in San Francisco and the Bay Area. The Groovies had already played a few weekends at New Orleans House earlier in 1967, so the fact that they were still getting booked meant they must have built an audience there.
October 9, 1967 New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA: Guest Night/Short Yellow (Monday)
The Barb ad just listed "Guest Night" as "Hoot," perhaps giving in to the inevitable. The late night band was Short Yellow. Short Yellow had recorded some demos at Golden State Recorders in 1967 ("Highway Highway" and "Start Seeing"). The group featured singer Sandy Gurley, and the two tracks were released on the Big Beat compilation What A Way To Come Down. Sandy Gurley would later release a solo album on Tower in 1968.
October 10-11, 1967 New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA: Quicksilver Messenger Service/Congress of Wonders (Tuesday-Wednesday)
Quicksilver Messenger Service were already headliners at both the Avalon and the Fillmore, and had little need to play the New Orleans House. After this date, however, numerous lesser groups that shared management with Quicksilver started to play the New Orleans House, so I believe that this show was a quid pro quo, since Quicksilver surely packed the place even on a weeknight. Capitol Records was on the verge of signing Quicksilver, although there debut album would not come out until May 1968.
Quicksilver Messenger Service’s manager was a shrewd Chicagoan named Ron Polte. Polte was friends with Nick Gravenites and Paul Butterfield and was primarily responsible for the many connections between Chicago and San Francisco musicians. Polte also had a booking agency called West-Pole. Polte's partner in West-Pole was former Big Brother manager Julius Karpen, who had been supplanted by Albert Grossman (Bob Dylan's manager). West-Pole booked numerous act, including Quicksilver, Congress of Wonders, Freedom Highway, The Sons of Champlin, The Ace of Cups and Phoenix. They also seem to have handled West Coast booking for Albert Grossman's acts, including Big Brother and Electric Flag.
 |
| Congress Of Wonders released their debut album Revolting on Fantasy Records in 1970 |
Congress Of Wonders were a comedy trio from Berkeley, initially from the UC Berkeley drama department and later part of Berkeley’s Open Theater on College Avenue, a prime spot for what were called “Happenings” (today ‘Performance Art’). Congress Of Wonders also performed at the Avalon and other rock venues.
Ultimately a duo, Karl Truckload (Howard Kerr) and Winslow Thrill (Richard Rollins) created two Congress of Wonders albums on Fantasy, Revolting (1970) and Sophomoric ('72). Their pieces “Pigeon Park” and “Star Trip”, although charmingly dated now, were staples of San Francisco underground radio at the time. Earl Pillow (Wesley Hind) was the original third member.
 |
| Berkeley Barb ad for New Orleans House, October 13, 1967 |
October l3-14, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Freedom Highway/Congress of Wonders (Friday-Saturday)
Congress
Of Wonders, as Berkeley locals, seemed to have enough heft to headline
the weekend. They were joined by another West-Pole affiliated band. I
believe this was the implicit deal for Ron Polte: Quicksilver packing
the house on two weeknights in return for his up-and-coming groups
getting booked for the weekend.
Freedom Highway had formed
in the Haight Ashbury in 1965, and may have opened for the Buffalo
Springfield at the Fillmore in November 1966 (local bands often opened
shows yet did not appear on the poster). By 1967, the group had moved
to Marin, and contrary to almost every other San Francisco group, became
a power trio influenced by English groups like The Who. Richie Ray
Harris was the guitarist, Scott Inglis played bass and Bruce Brymer
played drums. Freedom Highway was under the West Pole management
umbrella and lasted until 1970. In 2002 Switzerland’s RD Records
released a CD of Freedom Highway demos called Made In 68.
October 15, 1967 New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA: The Black Messengers (Afro Jazz 5-9pm)/Rock & Blues Jam Session (Musicians Invited 9:30-2 am) (Sunday)
Another
informal tradition was started at New Orleans House, namely Sunday jazz
shows. Berkeley had no jazz club, and the sort of assistant
professor/grad student types who liked jazz probably lived Northside
anyway (and they probably still do, but that's another issue). I don't
know who was in The Black Messengers, nor exactly what may have constituted "Afro-Jazz." My suspicion was that there was a conga drummer in the band.
The
Black Messengers were followed by a jam session. Some musicians must
have hosted the jam, but I don't know who. The Sunday jams the next few
weeks were hosted by the band Short Yellow.
October 16, 1967 New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA: Short Yellow/The Time Being (Monday)
The "Hoot" or "Guest Night" seems to have disappeared. Within a year, the Freight & Salvage would open a few blocks away, and Hoot Night would reappear on San Pablo Avenue.
The Time Being is unknown to me. Good name, though.
October 17-18, 1967 New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA: Strawberry Jam (Tuesday-Wednesday)
Strawberry Jam
is unknown to me. There had been an Oakland band called Strawberry
Window that had played New Orleans House earlier in the year. Strawberry
Window would change their name to Dandelion Wine, so perhaps this was
an intermediate name.
The Zuckerman Clavichord was a local group that local guitarist Bob Zuckerman (in both Motor and later Deacon And The Suprelles) was not a member. They were a trio featuring Jeff Baker on electric clavichord, Geoff Ohlsonn on electric bass and Peter Joseph on drums. They played original songs with vocals, but I don't know what they actually sounded like (they did appear once on KPFA on May 16 1968).
Paul Arnoldi had been a folksinger/bluegrass musician in Cambridge, MA, but he had come to UC Berkeley to get a graduate degree in architecture. He was a songwriter by this time, and he wrote and played in what he called a "Prairie style."
There were almost no clubs in the Bay Area that
booked original rock music, really just New Orleans House, the Matrix in
San Francisco and The Poppycock in Palo Alto.
But the concert business was booming, so almost every band was booked
somewhere during the weekend, making it hard for New Orleans House to
get established bands on Friday and Saturday.
There are no Barb
listings, nor an ad for the week of October 21-28. I don't read
anything into that. Any temporary closure would likely have been
announced. I think an advertising deadline was missed, and some regulars played the weekend.
 |
| Berkeley Barb ad, October 27, 1967 |
October 27-28, 1967 New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA: The Zuckerman Clavichord/Paul Arnoldi (Friday-Saturday)
The previous weekend's headliners were booked again.
October 29, 1967 New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA: The Black Messengers (5-9 pm)/Short Yellow and Jam Session (9:30-2:00 am) (Sunday)
October 31-November 1, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Miller Blues Band (Tuesday-Wednesday)
The
Steve Miller Band returned to New Orleans House for a final time,
playing on Halloween and the night after. They were incorrectly billed
under their early '67 name "Miller Blues Band." Steve had dropped the
"Blues" part of his name a few months earlier, as the band had broadened
their sound. Yet it was appropriate that the last booking at New
Orleans House for the Steve Miller Band was under the same umbrella as
the first one, as they traveled on to bigger and better things.
The Steve Miller Band had been signed to Capitol, who would send them to London to record their debut album. The classic Children Of The Future would be released in April 1968. The Sailor album followed at the end of '68, after which Boz Scaggs had left the group. Both Boz and the Miller Band went on to staggering success in the 1970s, a long climb from the corner of San Pablo Avenue and Hopkins Street.
Tuesday night was a Halloween Costume Party. The Bay Area
loves, loves, loves Halloween, always has, always will. Some locals must
have dressed up that night as zombies, or "Ronnie Raygun," and gone out to New
Orleans House for Halloween . A decade later, when some of those
couples, now married, may have been driving in their Volvo station
wagon, hearing "Fly Like An Eagle" or "Lido Shuffle" on the radio, did
they recall dancing to Steve and Boz doing "Junior Saw It Happen" and
"Baby's Calling Me Home"?
From here on, New Orleans House was once again open on Thursday nights, but closed on Mondays. The "Hoots" were probably passe, and not a draw for a rock club. Interestingly, however, New Orleans House booked a dance troupe on Thursday nights.
A unique feature of Berkeley rock clubs in the 1960s was how regularly they booked theater and dance troupes. Now, it was common for rock clubs everywhere to book a little jazz, folk and blues on off nights. There weren't always enough rock bands to go around, particularly in the '60s, and rock fans usually had some residual interest in other music, so it made sense to have other genres on weeknights. But theater and dance was something different entirely. Yet New Orleans House, along with The Steppenwolf and later Mandrake's (both several blocks South on San Pablo Avenue) regularly booked theater and dance. These troupes were usually "progressive," and sometimes political, not just performing old musicals, but it wasn't rock nor even music.
In 1967, New Orleans
House regularly booked a troupe called the Graham Leath dancers. The
Graham Leath company was a collaboration between John Graham and A.A.
Leath. I won't try and go into a dance rabbit hole, but Leath was
apparently a unique and independent creative force, just like the rock
bands carving out their own musical futures. A.A. Leath had been part of Anna Halprin's dance school, who had her own deep ties to the Haight-Ashbury arts community. His dance company partnership with John Graham seems to have been formally presented here as Graham Leath Productions.
New Orleans House had booked the dance company regularly on Thursday nights
throughout the Spring. After a hiatus, Graham Leath Productions returned to perform many Thursdays in the Fall of 1967.
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| Berkeley Barb ad for New Orleans House, November 3, 1967 |
November 3-4, 1967 New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA:Charlie Musselwhite Band (Friday-Saturday)
Harmonica player Charlie Musselwhite
had led a blues band in Chicago, sharing the front line with guitarist
Harvey Mandel. Both were white, but they had a black rhythm section,
similar to their friends in The Butterfield Blues Band. Musselwhite had
been born in Mississippi and had then moved to Memphis, and ultimately
Chicago. He was one of a small number of white musicians in Chicago
(including Nick Gravenites, Paul Butterfield, Mike Bloomfield, Elvin
Bishop and a few others) who stumbled onto the blues scene by
themselves.
Musselwhite eventually recorded an album for Vanguard in 1967 called Stand Back, which had started to receive airplay on San Francisco’s new underground FM station, KMPX-fm. As a result of his friendship with the Chicago crowd who had moved to San Francisco, Musselwhite's band was offered a month of work in San Francisco. Musselwhite took a month’s leave from his day job and stayed for a couple of decades.
By the end of
1967, Harvey Mandel had moved on to his own thriving musical career, but
Musselwhite had become a regular performer in the Bay Area. I believe
Musselwhite's guitarist at this time was young Tim Kaihatsu, who would
go on to have an excellent career as a blues musician in the Bay Area.
November 5, 1967 New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA: The Black Messengers (5-9pm)/Short Yellow & Guest Musicians (9:30-2am) (Sunday)
November 7-8, 1967 New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA: Hair (Tuesday-Wednesday)
The Barb ad says “The Darby Slick Band,” to distinguish this from the then-current Broadway musical. Hair
was a short-lived San Francisco band featuring singer Jean Piersol and
guitarist Darby Slick. Slick had been in The Great Society (his brother
had married the former Grace Wing) and had co-written “Somebody To
Love.” Also in the band were saxophonist Terry Clements, bassist Bing
Nathan and drummer John Oxendine (there was apparently another member
named Henry Salas, too).
November 9, 1967 New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA: Graham Leath Productions (Thursday)
 |
| Berkeley Barb ad for New Orleans House, November 10, 1967 |
November 10-11, 1967 New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Morning Glory/Short Yellow (Friday-Saturday)
November 12, 1967 New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA: The Black Messengers (5-9pm)/Short Yellow & Guest Musicians (9:30-2am) (Sunday)
November 14-15, 1967 New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA: Liberty Street (Tuesday-Wednesday)
Liberty Street was so named because the group lived on Liberty Street in San Francisco. One member (bassist Mike Friedman) had been in a Berkeley High School group called The Answer.
November 16, 1967 New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA: Graham Leath Productions (Thursday)
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| Berkeley Barb ad for New Orleans House, November 17, 1967 |
November 17-18, 1967 New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA: Gale Garnett & The Gentle Reign/The Black Messengers (Friday-Saturday)
Gale Garnett was born in New Zealand, and after a variety of family difficulties her family re-settled in Canada at age 11. She moved to New York and became an actress, and then moved to California. While Garnett guest starred in numerous TV shows, she also had a folk-singing career. She had a 1964 hit called “We'll Sing In The Sunshine,’ for which she won a Grammy.
She mostly focused on her singing career in the 60s and was primarily
located in the Bay Area. Garnett was talented at both singing and
acting, but of course, the fact that she was a knockout helped a lot.
 |
| An
Audience with The King Of Wands, by Gale Garnett & Gentle Reign.
Their debut folk-rock album would be released by Columbia in 1968. |
In late 1967, Garnett moved from folk music to "folk-rock," leading the group Gentle Reign. Their initial 1968 album on Columbia would be called An Audience With The King Of Wands. The 1969 followup was Sausalito Heliport. The Sausalito Heliport was a failed business venture--private helicopters turned out not to be a thing, sadly--but many Fillmore bands rehearsed there, including the Grateful Dead. In a heliport, no one cares if you are a loud rock band.
November 19, 1967 New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA: The Black Messengers (5-9pm)/Short Yellow & Jam (9:30-2am) (Sunday)
November 21-22, 1967 New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA: Charles Musselwhite Band/Congress of Wonders (Tuesday-Wednesday)
November 23-25, 1967 New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA: Hair/Congress of Wonders (Thursday-Saturday)
The band Hair did not last song. Darby Slick and singer Jean Piersol would go to Chicago, where Darby would produce two Piersol singles for Cadet Concept Records. Note that the bands are booked for Thursday night, which was Thanksgiving. Berkeley in the 60s had a lot of people far from home, so going out on Thanksgiving was well within the norm.
November 27-29, 1967: New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA: Youngbloods/Paul Arnoldi (Tuesday-Thursday)
The Youngbloods were a Boston and New York folk-rock band in the mode of the Lovin' Spoonful. Lead singer and bassist Jesse Colin Young (nee Perry Miller from Queens) had released two solo albums by 1966, one of which had been called Young Blood. The band had now been signed to RCA, and they had released their first album as a band for RCA in early 1967. In June 1967, Young and the rest of the band (singer-guitarist Jerry Corbitt, pianist/dobro player Lowell "Banana" Levenger and drummer Joe Bauer) were booked for six weeks on the West Coast. It went so well that the Youngbloods moved to Marin County in September 1967. Around that time, RCA released Earth Music, the Youngbloods' second album.
The early Youngbloods were much more bluesy than their lighter, better known work a few years later would suggest. It is a little-noticed fact that the Youngbloods' famous recording of Dino Valenti’s “Get Together” had actually appeared on the first RCA album in late 1966. It was a modest hit single, but did not attract much attention until 1969. Valenti was well known around the scene, and both The We Five and The Jefferson Airplane (among others) had already recorded the song. While they were booked for many weekend concerts up and down the Coast, the Youngbloods often found time to play weeknight gigs at clubs like New Orleans House and the Poppycock.
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| Berkeley Barb ad for New Orleans House, December 1, 1967 |
December 1, 1967 New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA: Ace of Cups,/”Xmas Carol” by Congress of Wonders (Friday)
The Ace Of Cups had formed in San Francisco in the Summer of 1967.
While they played fine original music and had well-crafted songs with
excellent harmonies, they are mainly remembered for being the only
all-woman group on the Fillmore scene. By late 1967, Ace Of Cups
were managed by Ron Polte and booked by West Pole. The band lived in Tam
Valley in Marin. Denise Kaufman, the primary songwriter in the group,
had gone to Berkeley High with the son of New Orleans House owner Kitty
Griffin.
Kaufman, however, despite only being in her early 20s,
had already had a remarkable history. Soon after high school, she had
joined up with Ken Kesey’s gang of Merry Pranksters (she appears in Tom
Wolfe’s Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test as ‘Mary Microgram’). After breaking up with boyfriend Jann Wenner (future Rolling Stone publisher), she moved to the San Bruno Mountains and joined the remains of a group called The Frantics.
The Frantics changed their name to Luminous Marsh Gas and played some obscure joints on the El Camino Real in the South Bay. Kaufman sang for the group, as well as playing some guitar and harmonica. The other members were all from Seattle: guitarist Jerry Miller, drummer Don Stevenson and organist Chuck Schoening. Schoening subsequently joined a different commune in the Mountains and became part of the group Anonymous Artists of America. Miller and Stevenson went on to form the legendary Moby Grape (the entire story is detailed in Patrick Lundborg’s fine article in Shindig #7).
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| It's Bad For You But Buy It, the 2003 cd on Big Beat of demos and live tracks recorded by Ace Of Cups in the 1960s |
West-Pole booked Ace Of Cups all over the Bay Area in the 1960s, usually paired with other West-Pole bands (as they were this night in Berkeley). Polte was too coy with record companies, however, and Ace of Cups was never signed. Despite their local popularity and substantial talent, the Ace of Cups never recorded while they were still an active band. Good taste won out, however, and a scant 36 years after their formation, Big Beat released a fine CD of the group’s demos and live recordings in 2003. Just 15 years later, Ace Of Cups released their first studio album and commenced a world tour (if your world is Marin County). December 2, 1967 New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA: Ace of Cups/Savage Resurrection (Saturday)
Savage Resurrection were a mostly teenage band from nearby Richmond. They would release an album on Mercury in 1968 (subsequently re-released as a CD on Mod Lang in 1998).
December 3, 1967 New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA: The Black Messengers (5-9pm)/Short Yellow (9:30) (Sunday)
December 5-6, 1967 New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA: Clover/The Natural 7 (Tuesday-Wednesday)
The
New Orleans House was becoming not only a regular gig for East Bay
bands, but for Marin County groups as well. While this was partially a
result of the profusion of West-Pole groups (while West-Pole offices
were on Martha Street in San Francisco, most of their bands lived in
Marin), it was also a function of the fact that bucolic Marin had very
few paying gigs. A Mill Valley band like Clover could easily exhaust
what few gigs there were in Marin County, but they were not yet
established enough to be San Francisco regulars.
Clover was a rarity in 1967, a Marin band that whose members were actually from Marin County. In early 1967, the Mill Valley band Tiny Hearing Aid Company had featured John McFee on lead guitar, Alex Call on guitar and lead vocals, Bob McFee on bass and Mitch Howie on drums. In mid-67, Bob McFee had moved over to become lead guitarist in Flying Circus, another Mill Valley band. John Ciambotti, formerly of The Outfit, had joined, Tiny Hearing Aid became Clover. The Outfit weren't well-known, but they had rehearsed at the Straight Theater, so they were well hooked into the SF rock underground. Clover's debut was apparently July 4, 1967.
Clover had a long, complicated career. Its members were mostly successful, but not while they were in Clover. Throughout the band's 10 years of existence, they played Berkeley as much as anywhere, but they started at New Orleans House.
The Natural 7 is unknown to me.
December 7, 1967 New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA: Graham Leath Productions (Thursday)
December 8-9, 1967 New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA: The Loading Zone/Robert Baker (Friday-Saturday)
The Loading Zone
had been Oakland's first export to the Fillmore scene. The band had
formed out of the ashes of a Berkeley band called The Marbles. In 1966,
The Marbles had fallen apart, so they had merged with the remnants of
the jazzy Tom Paul Trio. Guitarists Steve Dowler and Pete Shapiro shared
the front line with organist and singer Paul Fauerso. Loading Zone was
the first of the ballroom bands to merge psychedelic rock with R&B,
with long feedback-drenched solos on top of a funky beat. Ballroom
crowds loved it, and Loading Zone showed promoters and musicians that
the sound would work. The Zone kicked open the door that was walked
through by Sly And The Family Stone and then Tower Of Power. Loading Zone's unheralded history is complex, but we have looked at it at great length.
The Loading Zone often had a horn section that played with them, although in smaller clubs there was often no room for them on stage. The players were probably Todd Anderson on tenor sax and Pat O’Hara on trombone. Their roadie, high school student Steve Kupka, played baritone sax when there was room on the stage, and if he was allowed into the venue. Todd Anderson shared vocals with organist Paul Fauerso. At one point in late '67 (the exact chronology is unclear, even to us) they had a female vocalist (possibly named Suzanne Lewis), but she did not last.
Robert Baker was a comedian.
December 10, 1967 New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA: The Black Messengers (5-9pm)/Short Yellow (9:30) (Sunday)
December 12-13, 1967 New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA: Ball-Point Banana (Tuesday-Wednesday)
Ball-Point Banana is unknown to me.
December 14, 1967 New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA: Graham Leath Productions (Thursday)
December 15-16, 1967 New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA: Morning Glory/T&A Rhythm & Blues Band (Friday-Saturday)
Supporting the Morning Glory this weekend were the oddly-named T&A Rhythm & Blues Band. The T&A
Rhythm and Blues Band featured bassist John Kahn, saxophonist Ron
Stallings, guitarist Bob Jones and drummer John Chambers. Stallings and
Jones sang. Bob Jones had been in the folk-rock group the We Five
("You Were On My Mind"), and Chambers had been their drummer. Stallings
was also an actor, and had been a leading player in the San Francisco
Mime Troupe. Kahn had come to the San Francisco Conservatory in Fall
'66 to receive formal training in the bass. A roommate, however (probably Chuck Schoning),
persuaded him to rent an electric and play soul music in Top 40 clubs.
Somewhere--probably a jam--Kahn had met Jones.
The silly name
was just a goof on absurd psychedelic band names. The group mostly
played soul music, like Sam & Dave songs. The band later evolved
into the more bluesy Memory Pain. The band lived together, and sometimes
when Kahn would go to jam sessions, he would encourage Jones to bring
John Chambers' drums, even though he had no training as a drummer.
Ultimately, Bob Jones was hired by Mike Bloomfield as a drummer, so in
effect Jones was, in his words "Kahned into drumming."
December 17, 1967 New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA: The Black Messengers (5-9pm)/Short Yellow (9:30) (Sunday)
December 19-20, 1967 New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA: Celestial Hysteria (Tuesday-Wednesday)
Celestial Hysteria
was a Berkeley band, and they had played the Straight Theater and the
North Beach club DinoCarlo's, among other venues. The organist was John
Barsotti, later a Professor of Broadcast Arts and Communications at San
Francisco State University. No doubt Professor Barsotti is a relative
of the many Berkeley Barsotti’s who played a critical role in the Bill
Graham Presents organization.
According to Professor Barsotti (in an email to Gray Newell):
Celestial Hysteria had a male lead singer named Greg Renfro who later left the band and was replaced with a female singer named Mary Lou Hazelwood. The band also consisted of Buddy Greer on traps, Mark Buvelot on Bass, John Formosa and Jim Logue on Guitar (later a guy named John Allen also on guitar), and I played Hammond organ. We recorded and played shows from 1967-69… I believe I am the only member of the band that stayed in the music Industry.
There was apparently some record company interest in 1968, and the band
recorded some demos, but the band members were minors and their parents
refused to sign a contract, so the deal went no further.
December 21, 1967 New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA: Flamin' Groovies (Thursday)
December 22-23, 1967 New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA: Flamin' Groovies/Country Weather (Friday-Saturday)
Country Weather
was a Walnut Creek (Contra Costa County) group, from just over the
Berkeley Hills. They had originally been called The Virtues, but soon
after lead guitarist Greg Douglass joined, they changed their name to
Country Weather. This was probably one of their earlier gigs as Country
Weather.
Country Weather never released a record when they were
together from 1967-73 Since the group was familiar from many posters
from 1968 onward, Country Weather became one of the great "lost" San
Francisco groups of the 1960s. Ultimately, the group reformed in the
21st century and still performs occasionally. RD Records released a
vinyl edition of some of their 60s demos and live performances.
Greg
Douglass became a successful guitarist in the Bay Area, best known for
co-writing “Jungle Love” for Steve Miller, with whom he played for many
years. Douglass was also a member of Hot Tuna for one brief, sensational
tour in Spring 1975.
 |
| Berkeley Barb ad for New Orleans House, December 29, 1967 |
December 29-31, 1967 New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA Charlie Musselwhite Blues Band/Congress of Wonders (Friday-Sunday)
New
Orleans House first year as a rock club ended with some regular
performers, as Charlie Musselwhite and Congress Of Wonders had been
booked there many times. The live rock market was booming, in Berkeley
as well as everywhere else, and opportunities looked promising for 1968.
[In the future, since these posts were on Ross' blog, they may only be accessible on a Wayback Machine]
For the previous post in the '67 Berkeley series (Berkeley concerts, July-December 1967), see here
1505 San Pablo Avenue, Berkeley, CA: Performers List January-March 1967 ('67 Berkeley I)
1505 San Pablo Avenue, Berkeley, CA: Performers List April-June 1967 ('67 Berkeley IV)
1505 San Pablo Avenue, Berkeley, CA: Performers List July-September 1967 ('67 Berkeley VII)
For the Berkeley, Oakland and East Bay Rock History Navigation Tracker, see here
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