August 14-August 22, 1970 Family Dog on The Great Highway, 660 Great Highway, San Francisco, CA: The Edge Of The Western World--Journey's End [FDGH '70 XXI]

The Family Dog on The Great Highway, at 660 Great Highway, ca. 1969

The Family Dog on The Great Highway, 660 Great Highway, San Francisco, CA
The Family Dog was a foundation stone in the rise of San Francisco rock, and it was in operation in various forms from Fall 1965 through the Summer of 1970. For sound historical reasons, most of the focus on the Family Dog has been on the original 4-person collective who organized the first San Francisco Dance Concerts in late 1965, and on their successor Chet Helms. Helms took over the Family Dog in early 1966, and after a brief partnership with Bill Graham at the Fillmore, promoted memorable concerts at the Avalon Ballroom from Spring 1966 through December 1968. The posters, music and foggy memories of the Avalon are what made the Family Dog a legendary 60s rock icon.

In the Summer of 1969, however, with San Francisco as one of the fulcrums of the rock music explosion, Chet Helms opened another venue. The Family Dog on The Great Highway, at 660 Great Highway, on the Western edge of San Francisco, was only open for 14 months and was not a success. Yet numerous interesting bands played there, and remarkable events took place, and they are only documented in a scattered form. This series of posts will undertake a systematic review of every musical event at the Family Dog on The Great Highway. In general, each post will represent a week of musical events at the venue, although that may vary slightly depending on the bookings.

If anyone has memories, reflections, insights, corrections or flashbacks about shows at the Family Dog on the Great Highway, please post them in the Comments.

660 Great Highway in San Francisco in 1967, when it was the ModelCar Raceway, a slot car track

The Edgewater Ballroom, 660 Great Highway, San Francisco, CA
As early as 1913, there were rides and concessions at Ocean Beach in San Francisco, near the Richmond District. By 1926, they had been consolidated as Playland-At-The-Beach. The Ocean Beach area included attractions such as the Sutro Baths and the Cliff House. The San Francisco Zoo was just south of Playland, having opened in the 1930s. One of the attractions at Playland was a restaurant called Topsy's Roost. The restaurant had closed in 1930, and the room became the Edgewater Ballroom. The Ballroom eventually closed, and Playland went into decline when its owner died in 1958. By the 1960s, the former Edgewater was a slot car raceway. In early 1969, Chet Helms took over the lease of the old Edgewater.

One of the only photos of the interior of the Family Dog on The Great Highway (from a Stephen Gaskin "Monday Night Class" ca. October 1969)

The Family Dog On The Great Highway
The Great Highway was a four-lane road that ran along the Western edge of San Francisco, right next to Ocean Beach. Downtown San Francisco faced the Bay, but beyond Golden Gate Park was the Pacific Ocean. The aptly named Ocean Beach is dramatic and beautiful, but it is mostly windy and foggy. Much of the West Coast of San Francisco is not even a beach, but rocky cliffs. There are no roads in San Francisco West of the Great Highway, so "660 Great Highway" was ample for directions (for reference, it is near the intersection of Balboa Street and 48th Avenue). The tag-line "Edge Of The Western World" was not an exaggeration, at least in American terms.

The Family Dog on The Great Highway was smaller than the Bill Graham's old Fillmore Auditorium. It could hold up to 1500, but the official capacity was probably closer to 1000. Unlike the comparatively centrally located Fillmore West, the FDGH was far from downtown, far from the Peninsula suburbs, and not particularly easy to get to from the freeway. For East Bay or Marin residents, the Great Highway was a formidable trip. The little ballroom was very appealing, but if you didn't live way out in the Avenues, you had to drive. As a result, FDGH didn't get a huge number of casual drop-ins, and that didn't help its fortunes. Most of the locals referred to the venue as "Playland."

The Family Dog In 1969
Chet Helms had opened the Family Dog at 660 Great Highway to much fanfare on June 13, 1969, with a packed house seeing the Jefferson Airplane and The Charlatans. One of the goals was that the Dog would feature mostly San Francisco bands and a variety of smaller community events and groups. Since so many San Francisco bands were successful, and had record contracts, this didn't confine the venue to obscurity. A lot of great bands played the Family Dog in 1969, but the distant location and the gravitational pull of major rock events hosted elsewhere in the Bay Area kept the Family Dog isolated. We know only the most fragmentary bits about music played, events and audiences throughout the year.  Despite the half-year of struggle, Helms had kept the Family Dog on The Great Highway afloat. He had entered the new year of 1970 with a new plan.

• For a complete list of Family Dog shows (including FDGH), see here
• For the previous entry (July 24-August 2, 1970 various) see here
  
• For a summary and the link to the most recent entries in this series, see here

In the 1920s, 660 Great Highway was Topsy's Roost, a restaurant with dancing

August 14-August 22, 1970 Family Dog on The Great Highway, San Francisco, CA: The Edge Of The Western World--Journey's End

August 14-16, 1970 Family Dog on The Great highway, San Francisco, CA: It's A Beautiful Day/Elvin Bishop Group/Sawbuck (Friday-Sunday)
Chet Helms had kept the Family Dog on The Great Highway open throughout the Summer of 1970, although why he did so isn't exactly clear. There were only occasional events. I have to assume that the perpetually optimistic Helms had hopes or plans of finding a backer to revive the Dog, so he would have had a vested interest in not shutting it down altogether. The rock concert business was booming, of course, bigger than ever, but the ballroom was to small and the Great Highway too far from the hordes of suburban teenagers who would have been paying customers. After the Youngbloods weekend on July 31-August 2, the Family Dog on The Great Highway was closed for the following weekend, never a good sign for a venue. There were two final weekends, probably fulfilling contracts that had been agreed to some weeks before, and the Family Dog on The Great Highway would close for good. 

The headliner for the next-to-last weekend at the Family Dog was It's A Beautiful Day. It's A Beautiful Day had made a stunning success of their debut album, and the song "White Bird" was a hit on not only FM but also AM radio. The band was involved in bitter litigation with their now-former manager, Matthew Katz, so they weren't in a great position to capitalize on their success. Nonetheless, IABD had played the Family Dog regularly, so they must have done alright there. Certainly the somewhat suburban kids who lived out in the Sunset and Ocean Beach would have been the sweet spot for the band's audience (the term "target market" had not yet been invented). It's A Beautiful Day sounded different, with David La Flamme's electric violin and shared vocals, but they still sang songs you could hum and they had a beat.

In June, 1970, It's A Beautiful Day had released their second album on Columbia, Marrying Maiden. It's an enjoyable album, but it didn't have memorable songs like their debut. David La Flamme and singer Patti Santos were still out front, but Fred Webb had replaced David's now ex-wife Linda on organ. Hal Wagenet (guitar), Mitch Holman (bass) and Val Fuentes (drums) remained from the debut lineup. Jerry Garcia added some Fillmore credibility by playing pedal steel guitar on one track and banjo on another.

It's A Beautiful Day was a happening band at this moment in San Francicso rock history. What that meant, however, was that Bill Graham would get first bite of the apple. Just two weeks earlier, It's A Beautiful Day had headlined Fillmore West (July 31-August 2, supported by the Elvin Bishop Group and Boz Scaggs). Pent up desire to see them, and the no doubt full-press support of Columbia for the new album would directly benefit Graham's booking. Chet Helms and the Family Dog would get anything left over--same as it ever was.

The Elvin Bishop Group opened for It's A Beautiful Day, just as they had at the Fillmore West two weeks earlier. I'm not guessing about the hand of Bill Graham here. Bishop was not only managed by Bill Graham and booked by his Millard booking agency, the Elvin Bishop Group's just-released album Feel It! was on Graham's Fillmore label. Since Fillmore was distributed by Columbia, it made sense to share booking (and thus promotional costs) with label-mates It's A Beautiful Day, but once again the Family Dog was getting the second helping. Earlier ads had Osceola instead of Bishop, so more powerful forces had to have intervened.

The Elvin Bishop Group had also played the Family Dog before (most recently in February), and they were an excellent live band. Organist Stephen Miller, ex-Linn County, shared vocals with Bishop and singer Jo Baker, so the band had a strong front line. Bishop is a limited vocalist, but he knew it--unlike some guitarists--and his band was able to present a wider variety of music as a result.

Opening act Sawbuck was another Bill Graham Presents act. Lead guitarist Ronnie Montrose was unknown at the time, but they would go on to release an album on Fillmore in 1971, so the BGP/Columbia link was plain. The Family Dog was available for three bands tied to the same record company, so the hall was booked. Now, to be clear, the music was probably really good this weekend, but it wasn't any sign of health out on the Great Highway.

August 21-22, 1970 Family Dog on The Great Highway, San Francisco, CA: Quicksilver Messenger Service/Robert Savage Group/Backyard Mamas (Friday-Saturday)
Tom Campbell's weekly rock music column On The Scene in the Saturday, August 22, 1970 San Francisco Examiner was headlined "Family Dog Finally Dies."

Family Dog on the Great Highway is finished for good. Chet Helms, who headed the dance-concert operation, says "No more." 

Quicksilver Messenger Service plays the final concert there tonight. The phones have been disconnected, and when the crowds leave tonight, the doors will close permanently behind them.

The eternal optimist, Helms managed to hold things together when he was forced to leave the old Avalon. Internal problems scattered the original partners and Family Dog survived, but Chet was unable to overcome financial difficulties.

Back taxes from the last really great year, 1967, put the final bite on the Family Dog. Now in the process of paying them off, Helms says he'll leave the headaches to Bill Graham and his Fillmore West. When the books are closed, Helms add, he may put San Francisco behind him. 

Today, it seems very strange to hold an event of any sort in a building with no functioning phone. At the very least, this peculiar detail is a sign that the concert was booked some time earlier, and Helms was merely honoring an agreement, while not personally intending to go any further with the Great Highway location.

Quicksilver Messenger Service had a new album coming out, and manager Ron Polte was an active, entrepreneurial manager. After a mostly dormant 1969, Quicksilver had reconstituted themselves by New Year's Eve. Quicksilver had played the Family Dog when it had effectively re-opened in February 1970 and again in April. Since that time, the band had gone to Hawaii to record, and they had a forthcoming album on Capitol, Just For Love. Release dates are uncertain in that era, but the album may already have been released, or at least KSAN may have been playing an advance copy.

The classic Quicksilver quartet of John Cipollina, Gary Duncan, David Freiberg and Greg Elmore had made the band popular on FM radio with their debut and then Happy Trails. Duncan had left, replaced by pianist Nicky Hopkins, and the band had released the unsatisfying Shady Grove. Duncan re-joined at the end of the year, however, along with singer Dino Valente. Valente had written "Get Together," by this time a big hit for the Youngbloods, and had released a 1968 solo album. The revived Quicksilver seemed like an all-star team, with the twin guitars of Cippo and Duncan, Hopkins' brilliant piano and a productive songwriter in Dino Valenti.

Early 1970 performances were well-received, but Valenti came with a lot of baggage. For one thing, no one else really had any new original material, so his songs slowly became prominent. Also, Valenti wasn't the type of singer to lay out when the band was soloing, and those that came for Cippolina didn't really want to hear Valenti's wordless chants. Plus, apparently, Valenti was a dominant, difficult personality and that did not help band dynamics. Quicksilver Messenger Service had headlined at Fillmore West in both June (June 18-21) and July (9-12), but Hopkins had left after that. Quicksilver still had plenty of musical firepower with their twin-guitar lineup, but their new material emphasized Valenti. In fact, Dino would bring the band a kind of hit with "Fresh Air," which got a lot of radio play, but many Quicksilver fans never adjusted to him. Quicksilver had been booked for headlining weekends at the Dog back in February (Feb 6-7 '70) and then again in April (Apr 24-26 '70).

The Adventures of Robert Savage, Volume 1, featuring ex-Leaves guitarist Bobby Arlin, was released on Paramount Records in 1971. Future Fleetwood Mac producer Keith Olsen (ex-Music Machine) made the record.

In August, manager Ron Polte would have been putting on the Quicksilver show at the Family Dog himself, putting up the money and taking the risk and reward. He did this regularly during this period, often renting venues that were rarely used for rock concerts. The opening acts at the Dog were both associated with Polte's booking agency (West-Pole). The Robert Savage Group featured guitarist Bobby Arlin, formerly of The Leaves, and they were based in the Bay Area at the time (Keith Olsen would produce an album for Paramount Records released in 1971). I know nothing about the Backyard Mamas, but they were local and regularly booked with Polte's acts, so I assume there was a connection.

As to the final shows at the Family Dog, we have little to go on. There is a 58-minute tape that circulates that is apparently from the August Family Dog shows, and it gives an idea of the sound of the 5-piece band fronted by Valenti. The only real description of the event comes indirectly, in writer Joel Selvin's 1999 book The Summer Of Love, about the glory days of San Francisco rock. He mentions that Chet Helms was busy and late for the final night. It had apparently ended early, so when he got there, the Family Dog was locked and dark, a fitting metaphor for its ending. The fact that Helms wasn't even there on the last night was a sign that he was just letting the venue out for rent.

A poster for the New Riders, Country Joe, Stoneground, Grootna and Ace Of Cups at Friends And Relations Hall on June 3, 1971. Friends And Relations was the new name for the former Family Dog at 660 Great Highway

Music On The Edge Of The Western World
For the last few months of the Family Dog on The Great Highway, whatever Chet Helms' hopes and dreams might have been, the old Edgewater Ballroom had just been for hire. Once Helms gave up the lease, nothing much changed. In the Fall of 1970, the ballroom was rented for a student production of "Tommy," the rock opera by The Who. At the end of 1970, a few shows were advertised at 660 Great Highway with the venue name Poor Richard's. Throughout 1971, and into 1972,  the ballroom was used regularly with the name Friends And Relations Hall. It just seemed to be a hall for rent. The bands who played there were many of the same ones who had played the Family Dog, such as The Youngbloods, Joy of Cooking and the New Riders. I think the only difference was that the bands were putting on their own concerts, without Chet Helms' participation. 

Playland itself closed after Labor Day 1972. The old ballroom was torn down around 1973. It didn't seem to serve a useful function, and it was too small. The Fillmore was dormant, too, as was the Fillmore West. Rock music had gone coast to coast, in its way, and had reached the limit at Ocean Beach. Chet Helms and the Family Dog did have a wonderful revival concert at Berkeley's Greek Theatre on October 1, 1978, and then a failed revival the next year at the Monterey Fairgrounds, and went to ground again. Thereafter,  Helms was mostly an art dealer.

In the 21st century, there are a chain of concert venues called "The Fillmore," including the original Fillmore, one in Denver, one in Charlotte and all sorts of other places. An intimate ballroom on the beach, and one with a history at that, could have been a prime destination. The children and grandchildren of those hippies that now live in San Francisco could pay a huge amount of money to dance in the old Topsy's Roost, but the edge of the Western World is just a windy outpost now, the Family Dog on The Great Highway largely a mystery, only glimpsed amidst the fog of the past. Sic Transit Gloria Psychedelia.

This is the 49th and final post in the Family Dog on The Great Highway series. For the initial post (June 13-15, 1969-Jefferson Airplane), see here 

July 24-August 2, 1970 Family Dog on The Great Highwy, 660 Great Highway, San Francisco, CA: Various Shows [FDGH '70 XX]

The Family Dog on The Great Highway, at 660 Great Highway, ca. 1969

The Family Dog on The Great Highway, 660 Great Highway, San Francisco, CA
The Family Dog was a foundation stone in the rise of San Francisco rock, and it was in operation in various forms from Fall 1965 through the Summer of 1970. For sound historical reasons, most of the focus on the Family Dog has been on the original 4-person collective who organized the first San Francisco Dance Concerts in late 1965, and on their successor Chet Helms. Helms took over the Family Dog in early 1966, and after a brief partnership with Bill Graham at the Fillmore, promoted memorable concerts at the Avalon Ballroom from Spring 1966 through December 1968. The posters, music and foggy memories of the Avalon are what made the Family Dog a legendary 60s rock icon.

In the Summer of 1969, however, with San Francisco as one of the fulcrums of the rock music explosion, Chet Helms opened another venue. The Family Dog on The Great Highway, at 660 Great Highway, on the Western edge of San Francisco, was only open for 14 months and was not a success. Yet numerous interesting bands played there, and remarkable events took place, and they are only documented in a scattered form. This series of posts will undertake a systematic review of every musical event at the Family Dog on The Great Highway. In general, each post will represent a week of musical events at the venue, although that may vary slightly depending on the bookings.

If anyone has memories, reflections, insights, corrections or flashbacks about shows at the Family Dog on the Great Highway, please post them in the Comments.

660 Great Highway in San Francisco in 1967, when it was the ModelCar Raceway, a slot car track

The Edgewater Ballroom, 660 Great Highway, San Francisco, CA
As early as 1913, there were rides and concessions at Ocean Beach in San Francisco, near the Richmond District. By 1926, they had been consolidated as Playland-At-The-Beach. The Ocean Beach area included attractions such as the Sutro Baths and the Cliff House. The San Francisco Zoo was just south of Playland, having opened in the 1930s. One of the attractions at Playland was a restaurant called Topsy's Roost. The restaurant had closed in 1930, and the room became the Edgewater Ballroom. The Ballroom eventually closed, and Playland went into decline when its owner died in 1958. By the 1960s, the former Edgewater was a slot car raceway. In early 1969, Chet Helms took over the lease of the old Edgewater.

One of the only photos of the interior of the Family Dog on The Great Highway (from a Stephen Gaskin "Monday Night Class" ca. October 1969)

The Family Dog On The Great Highway
The Great Highway was a four-lane road that ran along the Western edge of San Francisco, right next to Ocean Beach. Downtown San Francisco faced the Bay, but beyond Golden Gate Park was the Pacific Ocean. The aptly named Ocean Beach is dramatic and beautiful, but it is mostly windy and foggy. Much of the West Coast of San Francisco is not even a beach, but rocky cliffs. There are no roads in San Francisco West of the Great Highway, so "660 Great Highway" was ample for directions (for reference, it is near the intersection of Balboa Street and 48th Avenue). The tag-line "Edge Of The Western World" was not an exaggeration, at least in American terms.

The Family Dog on The Great Highway was smaller than the Bill Graham's old Fillmore Auditorium. It could hold up to 1500, but the official capacity was probably closer to 1000. Unlike the comparatively centrally located Fillmore West, the FDGH was far from downtown, far from the Peninsula suburbs, and not particularly easy to get to from the freeway. For East Bay or Marin residents, the Great Highway was a formidable trip. The little ballroom was very appealing, but if you didn't live way out in the Avenues, you had to drive. As a result, FDGH didn't get a huge number of casual drop-ins, and that didn't help its fortunes. Most of the locals referred to the venue as "Playland."

The Family Dog In 1969
Chet Helms had opened the Family Dog at 660 Great Highway to much fanfare on June 13, 1969, with a packed house seeing the Jefferson Airplane and The Charlatans. One of the goals was that the Dog would feature mostly San Francisco bands and a variety of smaller community events and groups. Since so many San Francisco bands were successful, and had record contracts, this didn't confine the venue to obscurity. A lot of great bands played the Family Dog in 1969, but the distant location and the gravitational pull of major rock events hosted elsewhere in the Bay Area kept the Family Dog isolated. We know only the most fragmentary bits about music played, events and audiences throughout the year.  Despite the half-year of struggle, Helms had kept the Family Dog on The Great Highway afloat. He had entered the new year of 1970 with a new plan.

• For a complete list of Family Dog shows (including FDGH), see here
• For the previous entry (July 14-15, 1970 Terry Reid) see here
  
• For a summary and the link to the most recent entries in this series, see here

 

A photo of the band Phananganang (purportedly), from Discogs

July 24-26, 1970 Family Dog on The Great Highway, San Francisco, CA: Indian Puddin' & Pipe/Tripsichord/Phananganang (Friday-Sunday)
By the middle of the Summer, Chet Helms must have only kept the Family Dog on The Great Highway open because he thought he could find new financial backing. The venue no longer even put on rock concerts every weekend, and was effectively for rent. The three obscure acts booked for this weekend all had in common that there were managed by the infamous Matthew Katz, who had been making money off San Francisco rock since 1965.

Katz had been the first manager of the Jefferson Airplane in 1965. By mid-66, the Airplane members were unhappy with him and wondering where their money had gone. A long series of lawsuits ensued, not resolved until the mid-1980s. At the end of 1966, Katz had put together five experienced musicians to form Moby Grape. By mid-67, the band members were angry and sued. The litigious Katz argued that he owned the name Moby Grape (sending out a fake Grape at one point). The legal wrangling over the rights to the name Moby Grape are still going on to this day. In 1967 Katz backed the band It's A Beautiful Day. As soon as they had a big hit with "White Bird," the lawsuits began. Leader David LaFlamme sued Katz and lost, causing untold damage to LaFlamme's career, since he couldn't reform his own most famous ensemble. 

By 1969, Katz had focused on the rights to name a band, then inserting different members. To the extent he released records, they were on his own label (San Francisco Sound) and he promoted his own concerts. At various times he seemed to control some venues in the Bay Area, including the Headhunters Amusement Park at 345 Broadway in San Francisco (in 1969), and the Aheppa Center in Oakland (at 7400 MacArthur Blvd). The venues mostly featured only his own bands.

On occasion, Katz booked concerts at larger venues, which seemed to be what was going on here. The three bands all have West Coast roots and confusing histories, which I won't detail in this post. Indian Puddin' and Pipe had evolved out of a Seattle band called West Coast Natural Gas, Tripsichord (sometimes called Tripsichord Music Box) would actually put out an album in 1971 and Phananganang were apparently from Marin. Needless to say, we know nothing about this weekend's performances.

July 27, 1970 Family Dog on The Great Highway, San Francisco, CA: AC Bhaktivendanta Swami (Monday)
In the Fall of 1969, San Francisco State literature instructor Stephen Gaskin had made "Monday Night Class" a popular thing, where he would lecture for free. Donations from the crowd covered expenses (the interior picture above is from a Monday Night Class). San Francisco State College was just up the road, and it was expanding rapidly. A lot of young people lived within range of the Family Dog, and what we would now call "Consciousness Expansion" was a big thing. At the time, Indian thought was considered to be the most sophisticated form of such things. Later in the 70s, the same people became interested in the "Human Potential" of things like EST.

If I have my gurus correct, Bhaktivendanta Swami was the founder of the Hare Krishna movement, but that is outside the scope of this blog.  For this night, the Dog was just rented out, just as with Matthew Katz's bands. The Hare Krsna group had rented the Family Dog as a culmination of a weekend long event  the previous month (on June 27), so there was an existing business relationship.

July 31-August 2, 1970 Family Dog on The Great Highway, San Francisco, CA: Youngbloods/Joy Of Cooking/Jeffery Cain (Friday-Sunday)
The Family Dog on The Great Highway had a true headliner for the last weekend of July. The Youngbloods had played the Family Dog soon after it opened (July 11-13 '69) and had played there again in the Spring (March 27-29). The Youngbloods had formed on the East Coast in 1967, and RCA had released their debut album mid-year. In September 1967, the band had moved out to San Francisco, recognizing a better place for their music. By 1969, the Youngbloods had released their third album for RCA, Elephant Mountain, and were well-entrenched in Marin and the Bay Area Fillmore scene.

Unexpectedly, a song from the Youngbloods' 1967 debut was used in 1969 as background music for a Public Service Announcement for the National Conference of Christians and Jews. "Get Together" had been a modest hit in 1967, but when it was re-released in Summer '69, it went all the way to #5 on Billboard. The Youngbloods, a fine band with only modest success, were suddenly a high-profile rock group. They had the sense to get a new contract while they were hot.

By 1970, the Youngbloods had signed to Warner Brothers, who gave them their own Imprint, Raccoon Records. The Youngbloods were also a very entrepreneurial band, so my guess is that they played the Family Dog without a guarantee, probably in return for a better piece of the door. This is an assumption on my part, but the Youngbloods would play the venue for another 18 months after the Family Dog closed (when it was called Friends And Relations Hall) so I am assuming that the self-financed approach was in play here.

In the middle of 1970, the Youngbloods were a trio. Lead singer Jesse Colin Young played bass or guitar, Banana (Lowell Levenger) played piano, banjo, steel guitar and anything else, anchored by Joe Bauer on drums. Sometimes they were joined by a harmonica player (Richard "Earthquake" Anderson, who may have also been their road manager). It's possible that the Youngbloods' first Warner Brothers album Rock Festival had been released by this time. A mixture of live and studio recordings (including one track from the Family Dog, back in March), it had been produced by Bob Matthews and Betty Cantor, who had also produced Live/Dead and Workingman's Dead.

Joy Of Cooking's debut album would be released on Capitol in January 1971

Joy Of Cooking had played the Family Dog in March, and now they were returning. Joy Of Cooking had formed as a duo in Berkeley called Gourmet’s Delight, featuring guitarist Terry Garthwaite and pianist Toni Brown.  Garthwaite was a veteran of the Berkeley folk and bluegrass scene, and Brown was an artist as well as a musician.  The group had expanded to include conga player Ron Wilson, bassist David Garthwaite (Terry’s brother) and drummer Fritz Kasten. They changed their name to Joy of Cooking and shared management with Country Joe and The Fish. Joy Of Cooking had been a regular performer weeknights at a tiny Berkeley club called Mandrake's, where they built up a solid following.

Joy of Cooking was a significant group on the Berkeley scene, because both Garthwaite and Brown were accomplished musicians. Although both were excellent singers as well, Joy of Cooking featured the same kind of lengthy jamming popular at the time, rather than short and sensitive neo-folk songs.  The group were ultimately signed to Capitol Records and released their first of three Capitol albums in January 1971.

Singer/Songwriter Jeffrey Cain had been signed to the Youngbloods' Raccoon label. The Raccoon imprint allowed the band to sign anyone they wanted, while Warner Brothers would manufacture and distribute the record. The profits and losses were assigned to the Youngbloods (the Airplane had a similar deal with RCA, called Grunt Records), but the band had artistic control. Cain's album For You was released in mid-1970, and members of the Youngbloods backed him on the album. 

For the next and final post of the series (Quicskilver Messenger Service August 21-22, 1970), see here

 

July 14-15, 1970 Family Dog on The Great Highway, 660 Great Highway, San Francisco, CA: Terry Reid/Cat Mother and The All-Night Newsboys/Ace Of Cups [FDGH '70 XIX]

The Family Dog on The Great Highway, at 660 Great Highway, ca. 1969

The Family Dog on The Great Highway, 660 Great Highway, San Francisco, CA
The Family Dog was a foundation stone in the rise of San Francisco rock, and it was in operation in various forms from Fall 1965 through the Summer of 1970. For sound historical reasons, most of the focus on the Family Dog has been on the original 4-person collective who organized the first San Francisco Dance Concerts in late 1965, and on their successor Chet Helms. Helms took over the Family Dog in early 1966, and after a brief partnership with Bill Graham at the Fillmore, promoted memorable concerts at the Avalon Ballroom from Spring 1966 through December 1968. The posters, music and foggy memories of the Avalon are what made the Family Dog a legendary 60s rock icon.

In the Summer of 1969, however, with San Francisco as one of the fulcrums of the rock music explosion, Chet Helms opened another venue. The Family Dog on The Great Highway, at 660 Great Highway, on the Western edge of San Francisco, was only open for 14 months and was not a success. Yet numerous interesting bands played there, and remarkable events took place, and they are only documented in a scattered form. This series of posts will undertake a systematic review of every musical event at the Family Dog on The Great Highway. In general, each post will represent a week of musical events at the venue, although that may vary slightly depending on the bookings.

If anyone has memories, reflections, insights, corrections or flashbacks about shows at the Family Dog on the Great Highway, please post them in the Comments.

660 Great Highway in San Francisco in 1967, when it was the ModelCar Raceway, a slot car track

The Edgewater Ballroom, 660 Great Highway, San Francisco, CA
As early as 1913, there were rides and concessions at Ocean Beach in San Francisco, near the Richmond District. By 1926, they had been consolidated as Playland-At-The-Beach. The Ocean Beach area included attractions such as the Sutro Baths and the Cliff House. The San Francisco Zoo was just south of Playland, having opened in the 1930s. One of the attractions at Playland was a restaurant called Topsy's Roost. The restaurant had closed in 1930, and the room became the Edgewater Ballroom. The Ballroom eventually closed, and Playland went into decline when its owner died in 1958. By the 1960s, the former Edgewater was a slot car raceway. In early 1969, Chet Helms took over the lease of the old Edgewater.

One of the only photos of the interior of the Family Dog on The Great Highway (from a Stephen Gaskin "Monday Night Class" ca. October 1969)

The Family Dog On The Great Highway
The Great Highway was a four-lane road that ran along the Western edge of San Francisco, right next to Ocean Beach. Downtown San Francisco faced the Bay, but beyond Golden Gate Park was the Pacific Ocean. The aptly named Ocean Beach is dramatic and beautiful, but it is mostly windy and foggy. Much of the West Coast of San Francisco is not even a beach, but rocky cliffs. There are no roads in San Francisco West of the Great Highway, so "660 Great Highway" was ample for directions (for reference, it is near the intersection of Balboa Street and 48th Avenue). The tag-line "Edge Of The Western World" was not an exaggeration, at least in American terms.

The Family Dog on The Great Highway was smaller than the Bill Graham's old Fillmore Auditorium. It could hold up to 1500, but the official capacity was probably closer to 1000. Unlike the comparatively centrally located Fillmore West, the FDGH was far from downtown, far from the Peninsula suburbs, and not particularly easy to get to from the freeway. For East Bay or Marin residents, the Great Highway was a formidable trip. The little ballroom was very appealing, but if you didn't live way out in the Avenues, you had to drive. As a result, FDGH didn't get a huge number of casual drop-ins, and that didn't help its fortunes. Most of the locals referred to the venue as "Playland."

The Family Dog In 1969
Chet Helms had opened the Family Dog at 660 Great Highway to much fanfare on June 13, 1969, with a packed house seeing the Jefferson Airplane and The Charlatans. One of the goals was that the Dog would feature mostly San Francisco bands and a variety of smaller community events and groups. Since so many San Francisco bands were successful, and had record contracts, this didn't confine the venue to obscurity. A lot of great bands played the Family Dog in 1969, but the distant location and the gravitational pull of major rock events hosted elsewhere in the Bay Area kept the Family Dog isolated. We know only the most fragmentary bits about music played, events and audiences throughout the year.  Despite the half-year of struggle, Helms had kept the Family Dog on The Great Highway afloat. He had entered the new year of 1970 with a new plan.

• For a complete list of Family Dog shows (including FDGH), see here
• For the previous entry (June 30-July 1, The Kinks) see here
  
• For a summary and the link to the most recent entries in this series, see here

 

 

July 14-15, 1970 Family Dog on The Great Highway, San Francisco, CA: Terry Reid/Cat Mother and The All-Night Newsboys/Ace Of Cups (Tuesday-Wednesday)
By mid-July, the Family Dog on The Great Highway was just barely open, rented occasionally by outsiders. I have to assume that Chet Helms had not yet closed it because he was hoping to arrange new financial backing. Despite these precarious circumstances, however, there were still some interesting bookings on the Great Highway during the Summer. One of the most intriguing events was near the end: two weeknights featuring the British guitarist Terry Reid. We know nothing about the events, not even whether they were held. But all the signs point to something very interesting indeed. 

Terry Reid
Singer and guitarist Terry Reid (b.1949) had been in Peter Jay and The Jaywalkers when they had opened a UK tour for the Rolling Stones in 1966. Reid soon came to the attention of producer Mickie Most, who had been hugely successful with the Animals, Hermans' Hermits, Donovan and many other hit artists. Reid's debut album, produced by Most for Epic, Bang Bang You're Terry Reid, had been released in 1968. Reid had toured the United States opening for Cream in their high-profile "Farewell Tour." Reid's band was a trio, with Reid on guitar and vocals, Pete Solley on organ and Keith Webb on drums. Reid was personally well-connected, as was Mickie Most, so Reid was scheduled to support the Rolling Stones on their 1969 tour of America.

Terry Reid's legendary status stemmed from his relationship to Most. Mickie Most's management partner was one Peter Grant, who had been the road manager for the Animals and the Yardbirds, among many others. Most had also produced the Yardbirds' album Little Games, but it had not gone well. As the Yardbirds had disintegrated, Jimmy Page was planning to form a new band with session man bassist John Paul Jones. They needed a singer and a drummer. Peter Grant recommended that Page ask Terry Reid about joining up as the lead vocalist. Since Page and Reid shared management, the idea made a lot of sense.

Around September 1968, Terry Reid and Jimmy Page had a nice lunch, where Page asked him to be lead singer in his new band. Reid had been promised a lot of money to tour the States with the Stones, however, and since Page could not guarantee that he would make up that income, Reid declined the offer. As a friendly gesture, however, Reid told Page about a Midlands band with a singer whose style was similar. They also had a good drummer. Page went to see them, and soon after hired Robert Plant and John Bonham. So Reid became a legend by turning down Led Zeppelin.

Reid went on tour the States with his trio throughout 1969. He had played the Fillmore East with BB King and Johnny Winter (January 1969), and he had played the Fillmore West with Country Joe and The Fish (December 1968) and Ten Years After (July 1969). Reid and his trio can be seen performing a song in the cheesy 1970 documentary Groupies: The Movie, probably recorded at Fillmore West in July '69. His second album also came out in 1969 (on Columbia instead of Epic). In the Fall of 1969, Terry Reid did indeed open many shows in the United States for the Rolling Stones. Of course, Led Zeppelin were already fast-rising stars by this point, but Reid was talented, versatile and handsome, and in general it looked his bet on himself would pay off.

In early 1970, however, Reid had a falling out with Mickie Most. Most wanted Reid to keep his songs under three minutes and aim them towards the singles market, whereas Reid was more interested in the extended jamming of groups like Jeff Beck and Led Zeppelin. Lawsuits followed, and Reid wasn't able to record. Reid did perform live, but details are scant. The two days at the Family Dog on The Great Highway are exotically intriguing, and we know nothing. I am going to hazard an educated guess about what went down, however, based on some triangulation. If anyone knows anything, or has some clever speculation of their own, please mention them in the Comments.

Terry Reid Live Performances July 1970
I only know of three live dates for Terry Reid in 1970.

July 3, 4 or 5, 1970 Second Atlanta International Pop Festival, Middle Georgia Raceway, Byron, GA
July 14-15, 1970 Family Dog on The Great Highway, San Francisco, CA
July 28, 1970 Third Isle Of Wight Festival, Afton Down, Isle Of Wight, UK

Terry Reid's performance at Isle Of Wight was released on a 2004 cd (Silver White Light on Water Records). His band was

Terry Reid-guitar, vocals
David Lindley-slide guitar, guitar, banjo, violin
Lee Miles-bass
Mike Giles-drums

It seems reasonable to assume that Miles and Lindley, for reasons I will explain, were also at Atlanta and the Family Dog. Who the drummer might have been for those shows is not so certain.

Lee Miles had met Reid on the Rolling Stones tour, as he had been the bass player for the Ike&Tina Turner Revue. Since Ike & Tina had opened many Rolling Stones shows, it's not surprising that Reid and Miles became friends. Miles would go on to be in many of Terry Reid's future bands.

The David Lindley connection was a little more unlikely. David Lindley, a multi-instrumentalist of infinite talent, is best known as Jackson Browne's principal co-conspirator in the 1970s, but Lindley also played on records by Crosby & Nash, Linda Ronstadt, Warren Zevon and the rest of the Troubadour crowd from those days. He also has had a unique and thriving solo career.

In the late 60s, Lindley was a principal member of a band called Kaleidoscope, a band who pretty much invented "World Music" about twenty years before the world was ready for it. A brilliant, versatile band, they put out four poorly-selling but critically acclaimed albums on Epic. Save for some primitive production, the music sounds contemporary today. Kaleidoscope was revered by fellow musicians (not least Jimmy Page), but the public had simply not been ready for them. By mid-1970, Kaleidoscope had finally sputtered to a halt. 

According to Peter Doggett’s excellent liner notes to the 2005 Terry Reid cd Superlungs (compiled from his first two albums), Lindley and Reid had met at the Sky River Rock Festival in Summer ‘69 (August 30-September 1). Nonetheless, the key connection between David Lindley and Terry Reid was a legendary rock and roll character named Chesley Millikin (1942-2019). Just the parts of Millikin's story that I know are filled with adventure. He was a member of the Royal Irish Jumping Team (horses) in the 1950s, apparently of Olympic quality, but he had ended up in Canada in the early 1960s. By 1966, Millikin was in the music business in Los Angeles and managing Kaleidoscope, who were on Epic. In 1967, Millikin was offered the job as executive vice-president of Epic Records in London. In London, Millikin became friendly with the Stones, and Stones' road manager Sam Cutler. Millikin's connection to the Stones was most likely how Terry Reid got on to the US Stones tour. 

Millikin must have been looking after Reid on the Stones tour, as well as hanging with Sam Cutler. By 1970, Cutler (blamed for Altamont) had defected to the Grateful Dead, and Millikin wasn't far behind. So when Reid was in limbo and looking for a band, Millikin would have known that his old charges the Kaleidoscope had broken up, so was the connection between the two guitarists (the Millikin story goes on and on, but it's a rabbit hole of its own). 

Denise Sullivan's liner notes to Silver Light White (from 2004) give more detail, although they elide some other points

"What was happening was, we'd not been able to make an album for two to three years," [Reid] says by way of explaining away his fairly well-documented legal hassles with his former producer, Mickie Most. The troubles besieged him before, during and after the [1970 Isle Of Wight performance].

"So what I'd done is put a band together in England with myself, [bassist] Lee Miles who was with Ike and Tina Turner, Alan White on drums and David Lindley." It was a mutual friend, the 60s character Chesley Millikin, who had suggested Reid join forces with California's kaleidoscopic multi-instrumentalist, Lindley. "David wrote me this letter, it was a page and a half of the instruments he played and I thought, imagine what the the freight'll be when he gets here," Terry laughs. "He turned up with something like 20 instruments."

As the band got the call for the Isle Of Wight Festival, drummer White was committed to studio work with John Lennon, who had refused the drummer a “day pass.” Though it was Lennon who kindly suggested Reid pull in Mike Giles from King Crimson for the day, "I'm sure it was a blur for him. It was the only gig we ever did together,' says Reid

From Sullivan’s liner notes--referring to events over 30 years in the past when they were written--we can infer that Reid had enough backing to import American musicians. (Doggett’s liner notes add some interesting details, and they don’t contradict Sullivan directly, but certain details do not match up. It too was researched 30 years after the fact). Kaleidoscope's last known shows were in April 1970, so Lindley must have come over to England in May or June. Yet Terry Reid played the Atlanta Pop Festival and the two Family Dog shows, which seems a rather slight touring schedule. I have to think there were more American shows around July. Just to confuse matters, the Terry Reid Wikipedia entry says that Tim Davis played with Reid, Lindley and Miles in America. Davis, a fine drummer, had just left the Steve Miller Band, but there is no attribution. In any case, whether Alan White was the drummer, or Tim Davis, or someone else, Reid, Lindley and Miles seem to have been the rest of the band at the edge of the Western World.

[update 2023 15 July] Ace researcher David Kramer-Smyth figured out that Terry Reid's drummer on the American tour was the great Bruce Rowland. Rowland, an original member of Spooky Tooth, was the drummer for Joe Cocker and The Grease Band at Woodstock. But he was also in Fairport Convention for years, played with Ronnie Lane and Slim Chance and a million sessions, including the Jesus Christ Superstar soundtrack.

Why Weeknights?
Given that the Family Dog was empty, it doesn't make too much sense that Terry Reid played a Tuesday and a Wednesday. The only thing that makes sense to me is that they were warming up for a bigger weekend gig somewhere else. Since all the participants were based in Southern California, it also doesn't make sense that they played a gig in San Francisco. It may be that Los Angeles would have been too high-profile for a warmup gig, but it begs the question of what was behind the booking. Possibly some planned tour dates were canceled.

In any case, because of the Isle Of Wight live album, we have a pretty good idea of what Reid and Lindley sounded like. It's not fully fleshed out, but its intriguing. Once the lawsuits were settled, Atlantic Records would go on to sign Reid. Ultimately, Atlantic would release the next Terry Reid album River in 1973, and Chesley Millikin remained Reid's booking agent (as part of Sam Cutler's Out-Of-Town Tours). The album included material with Lindley and Lee Miles, but Lindley had already moved on to Jackson Browne by then. Supposedly, Lindley and Jackson Browne had actually met in London in 1971, Browne recording and Lindley working with Reid at Glastonbury Fayre, and agreed to put something together in the future. If that (possibly apocryphal) story is true, its funny that two guys from Claremont (Lindley) and Orange County (Browne) started their partnership in London. 

Reid would go on to have intermittent successes, but would still remain more famous for turning down Page then his own music. Whatever may have happened on these two nights at the Family Dog seems to have stayed out on the Great Highway.

Greenwich Village band Cat Mother and The All-Night Newsboys had formed in 1967. By 1969, they had been signed by Michael Jeffery, the manager of Jimi Hendrix. Hendrix had even produced the band's debut album on Polydor, The Street Giveth and The Street Taketh Away. Thanks to the Jeffery connection, Cat Mother got to open for Hendrix and a number of other high profile events. Cat Mother even had a minor hit in late '69, with medley of oldies called "Old Time Rock And Roll." In fact, the band's sound was more country-folk oriented, but they were versatile musicians.

By 1970, however, Cat Mother was anxious to separate themselves from Jeffery's questionable management practices. Their second album, Albion Doo-Wah, would be recorded at Pacific High Recorders in San Francisco. In February, the band had played the Family Dog, probably because they had just arrived in San Francisco to start recording. By June, they had probably completed the album. Cat Mother had played the Family Dog in February, probably when they had started recording, and they had returned in June. Returning to the Dog so quickly meant that the gigs must have gone well.

After they finished their second album, Cat Mother relocated permanently to San Francisco, although I assumed they must have briefly returned to New York. San Francisco had a unique status for rock bands in the late 1960s and '70s. While the record industry was centered, as it always had been, in Manhattan and Hollywood, San Francisco was an enticing opportunity for rock groups. For one thing, the concert industry was thriving, so a good band could make a living whether they had an album or not. Plus, there were studios and plenty of A&R guys, so SF wasn't the wildnerness. And, it was California--no snow, pretty girls, open minds--so it wasn't hard to persuade fellow band members to make the move. A large number of bands from elsewhere moved to San Francisco in the late 60s and early 70s.

The three founding members of Cat Mother, Roy Michaels (bass, vocals), Bob Smith (keyboards, vocals) and Michael Equine (drums), would all relocate permanently to California. At the time of this show, the band still had lead guitarist Paul Johnson and probably violinist Larry Packer. Both of them would ultimately return to New York. Michaels, Smith and Equine would move to Mendocino County and continue on as Cat Mother until 1977. 

The Ace Of Cups debut studio album (released in 2018)

The Ace Of Cups were another unique ensemble, and they had a following in the Bay Area, if not a huge one. The fact that there were three bands booked for this weeknight makes it even stranger--how much revenue was expected to come in? Perhaps someone was bankrolling the event, as some sort of dry run for an unfinished plan, but with an open weekend date, booking two mid-week nights seems strange. 

The Ace Of Cups were an all-woman band, pretty much the only one on the Fillmore scene. They were managed by Ron Polte, who also handled Quicksilver Messenger Service. There was a lot of record company interest in the Aces, as a band of young hippie women writing their own songs and playing their own instruments. Polte had overplayed his hand, however, holding out for a best offer which never actually came. By 1970, the individual members of the band were starting to have babies and the band was playing less and less. I wrote about the entire Ace Of Cups saga at great length, but they would not release an album until 2003.

For the next post in the series (July 31-August 2 Youngbloods), see here

 

June 30-July 1, 1970 Family Dog on The Great Highway, 660 Great Highway, San Francisco, CA: The Kinks/Osceola [FDGH '70 XVII]

 

The Family Dog on The Great Highway, at 660 Great Highway, ca. 1969

The Family Dog on The Great Highway, 660 Great Highway, San Francisco, CA
The Family Dog was a foundation stone in the rise of San Francisco rock, and it was in operation in various forms from Fall 1965 through the Summer of 1970. For sound historical reasons, most of the focus on the Family Dog has been on the original 4-person collective who organized the first San Francisco Dance Concerts in late 1965, and on their successor Chet Helms. Helms took over the Family Dog in early 1966, and after a brief partnership with Bill Graham at the Fillmore, promoted memorable concerts at the Avalon Ballroom from Spring 1966 through December 1968. The posters, music and foggy memories of the Avalon are what made the Family Dog a legendary 60s rock icon.

In the Summer of 1969, however, with San Francisco as one of the fulcrums of the rock music explosion, Chet Helms opened another venue. The Family Dog on The Great Highway, at 660 Great Highway, on the Western edge of San Francisco, was only open for 14 months and was not a success. Yet numerous interesting bands played there, and remarkable events took place, and they are only documented in a scattered form. This series of posts will undertake a systematic review of every musical event at the Family Dog on The Great Highway. In general, each post will represent a week of musical events at the venue, although that may vary slightly depending on the bookings.

If anyone has memories, reflections, insights, corrections or flashbacks about shows at the Family Dog on the Great Highway, please post them in the Comments.

660 Great Highway in San Francisco in 1967, when it was the ModelCar Raceway, a slot car track

The Edgewater Ballroom, 660 Great Highway, San Francisco, CA
As early as 1913, there were rides and concessions at Ocean Beach in San Francisco, near the Richmond District. By 1926, they had been consolidated as Playland-At-The-Beach. The Ocean Beach area included attractions such as the Sutro Baths and the Cliff House. The San Francisco Zoo was just south of Playland, having opened in the 1930s. One of the attractions at Playland was a restaurant called Topsy's Roost. The restaurant had closed in 1930, and the room became the Edgewater Ballroom. The Ballroom eventually closed, and Playland went into decline when its owner died in 1958. By the 1960s, the former Edgewater was a slot car raceway. In early 1969, Chet Helms took over the lease of the old Edgewater.

One of the only photos of the interior of the Family Dog on The Great Highway (from a Stephen Gaskin "Monday Night Class" ca. October 1969)

The Family Dog On The Great Highway
The Great Highway was a four-lane road that ran along the Western edge of San Francisco, right next to Ocean Beach. Downtown San Francisco faced the Bay, but beyond Golden Gate Park was the Pacific Ocean. The aptly named Ocean Beach is dramatic and beautiful, but it is mostly windy and foggy. Much of the West Coast of San Francisco is not even a beach, but rocky cliffs. There are no roads in San Francisco West of the Great Highway, so "660 Great Highway" was ample for directions (for reference, it is near the intersection of Balboa Street and 48th Avenue). The tag-line "Edge Of The Western World" was not an exaggeration, at least in American terms.

The Family Dog on The Great Highway was smaller than the Bill Graham's old Fillmore Auditorium. It could hold up to 1500, but the official capacity was probably closer to 1000. Unlike the comparatively centrally located Fillmore West, the FDGH was far from downtown, far from the Peninsula suburbs, and not particularly easy to get to from the freeway. For East Bay or Marin residents, the Great Highway was a formidable trip. The little ballroom was very appealing, but if you didn't live way out in the Avenues, you had to drive. As a result, FDGH didn't get a huge number of casual drop-ins, and that didn't help its fortunes. Most of the locals referred to the venue as "Playland."

The Family Dog In 1969
Chet Helms had opened the Family Dog at 660 Great Highway to much fanfare on June 13, 1969, with a packed house seeing the Jefferson Airplane and The Charlatans. One of the goals was that the Dog would feature mostly San Francisco bands and a variety of smaller community events and groups. Since so many San Francisco bands were successful, and had record contracts, this didn't confine the venue to obscurity. A lot of great bands played the Family Dog in 1969, but the distant location and the gravitational pull of major rock events hosted elsewhere in the Bay Area kept the Family Dog isolated. We know only the most fragmentary bits about music played, events and audiences throughout the year.  Despite the half-year of struggle, Helms had kept the Family Dog on The Great Highway afloat. He had entered the new year of 1970 with a new plan.

• For a complete list of Family Dog shows (including FDGH), see here
• For the previous entry (May 29-June 27, 1970 various) see here
  
• For a summary and the link to the most recent entries in this series, see here

June 30-July 1, 1970 Family Dog on The Great Highway, San Francisco, CA: The Kinks/Osceola (Tuesday-Wednesday)
The Family Dog on The Great Highway had pretty much just been a hall for rent throughout June of 1970. I presume that Chet Helms was keeping it open only because he was seeking some sort of well-capitalized partner in order to make another go of it. The month of July only featured a couple of bookings, and two of them were mid-week, so the venue was only just barely open. Yet a few of the bookings in July were among the most fascinating in the brief history of the Family Dog, and worthy of careful examination of the evidence that remains. Perhaps the most unlikely booking was on Tuesday and Wednesday, June 30 and July 1, 1970, when the Family Dog on The Great Highway presented no less than The Kinks. As if that wasn't enough, the Family Dog presented The Kinks again the next night (Thursday July 2), at a High School Auditorium in the suburbs. This was the only Family Dog promotion at a High School, at a time when the Bay Area rock audience was centered around that age group.

The Kinks had been a legendary "British Invasion" band since the release of "You Really Got Me" and "All Day And All Of The Night" back in 1964. In 1965, the Kinks had been booked to tour the United States. In Los Angeles, singer Ray Davies got in a fight with the head of the Los Angeles Musicians Union. As Ray had been a champion teenage boxer, he probably thumped the guy pretty hard. The US Musicians Union banned The Kinks from performing in the States. So unlike the Beatles, Stones, Animals, Yardbirds and others, the Kinks weren't able to build the reputation from touring that their music deserved. Instead, they concentrated on England and Europe. Despite the touring ban, a few Kinks hits still made it across the pond to US radio, like "Sunny Afternoon."

By 1969, the fact that the Kinks could not tour the States was a serious impediment to their future success. With the rise of the Fillmore circuit, English bands without a giant hit single (like Fleetwood Mac, Traffic or Ten Years After) could build an audience and sell albums, thanks to FM radio. The Kinks made great records, but they needed to get out there. Eventually, the union issues were resolved, and the Kinks were able to tour America in the Fall of '69. The band was still intact: Ray Davies was the lead singer and songwriter (and rhythm guitarist), his brother Dave played lead guitar and sang harmonies and Mick Avory played drums. All three had been in the Kinks from the beginning. Bassist John Dalton had permanently replaced Peter Quaife in early '69. The Kinks initial tour of the US was as a quartet, mostly opening for other bands. The Kinks were inconsistent and unpredictable, which, while part of their appeal, didn't always translate well on the road. 

In the Summer of 1970, the Kinks had set out on another North American tour. Their most recent album had been Arthur (or The Decline And Fall of The British Empire), released in October of 1969. It was a brilliant album that holds up well today, but it hadn't yet gained much traction on FM (or AM) radio in the States or Canada. In 1970, the Kinks had added John Gosling on piano, initially just for the US tour (Gosling would in fact stay in the band until 1978). The Kinks were booked in June for some Northeastern US shows, a Canadian tour, then a week in Hawaii and a few days at the Whisky A Go Go in West Hollywood. It was common for touring bands, particularly from England, to spend time in Hawaii as a kind of vacation. They would book a few shows in Hawaii to pay for the trip.

Unfortunately for The Kinks, however (per the indispensable Douglas Hinman's amazing 2004 Kinks chronology All Day And All Of The Night: Concerts, Recordings and Broadcasts 1961-1996), the three gigs booked for Hawaii from June 30-July 2 were canceled, as the venue had closed. Having just played British Columbia, and awaiting a high-profile Whisky show, the Kinks were stranded on the West Coast. The bookings at the Family Dog were clearly put together at the last minute. Since The Kinks were playing the Whisky on the weekend of July 3-5, only these weekdays would have been available. The Fillmore West had booked Traffic and Leon Russel. The Kinks were not popular enough yet to get Bill Graham to upend his booking, nor would Graham have booked a show competing against his own venue. That seems to have left the Family Dog.

We can be pretty certain that the Kinks Family Dog shows took place, but we don't know how many tickets were sold or what songs the band played. We have some slight confirmation of the High School show on Thursday (see below), but the Kinks appearance at the edge of the Western World remains just outside of our view. As any Kinks fan can tell you, the Kinks can be a charming mess, or get in a fistfight onstage or be one of the greatest bands you've ever seen in a concert. Ray Davies' song choices could be a surprise--sometimes he might do old blues covers--but the Kinks never run out of great songs to play, when Ray was inclined. So the Kinks could have absolutely killed it (if anyone has an inkling about what really happened, please note them in the Comments).

Things were about to change for The Kinks fortunes in the States, however, in a very unlikely way. In May, the Kinks had finished a new single, which was released in the UK in early June. It was starting to be a hit in England. "Lola" would not be released in the US until the end of July, and it's hard to imagine that a sing-along about a transvestite would make a band's fortunes back in 1970, but that's what it did. So maybe the Family Dog audience got to hear then-unknown (to them) "Lola" for the first time, and maybe they all just sang along...when the Kinks would return to the States at the end of 1970, they were riding a big hit single and a popular album, and they wouldn't be playing little ballrooms on a Tuesday night.

Opening act Osceola were regular performers at the Family Dog on The Great Highway. Guitarist Bill Ande had founded the group in San Francisco, but all the members were transplanted Floridians. Osceola played around the Bay Area from 1969 to '72, but never recorded. The members mostly returned to successful music careers in the Southeast.

July 2, 1970 Ygnacio Valley High School, Concord, CA: The Kinks/Beggars Opera (Thursday)
The Kinks had an open date, so the Family Dog booked a show way out in Contra Costa County, over the hill from Berkeley. The suburbs in Contra Costa--Lafayette, Walnut Creek, Pleasanton, Danville, Concord and so on--were just starting to boom. There were a lot of teenagers there, and not surprisingly a booming rock concert market. One intriguing dynamic of the Contra Costa County market was that the suburban teenagers all had access to cars, but in many cases were not allowed to go to San Francisco or Berkeley. They would all be dying to go to the Fillmore West or the Oakland Coliseum, but it was forbidden. So a fair number of bands played some venues on that side of the hill. There was a Fillmore competitor called the Concord Coliseum in 1967-68, and later a number of shows at the Concord Armory in 1968 and '69. 

Since school was out, it appears that the Ygnacio Valley High School gym was just rented like any other venue. Ygnacio Valley High School was at 755 Oak Grove Road in Concord, and had only opened in 1962. Since the Contra Costa suburbs were expanding, new schools had to be built to accommodate them. The local rock shows were centered around Concord because the network of freeways led to the town, and a critical mass of teenagers could go to a Concord show from different towns, even if they weren't allowed to go the City. 

Contra Costa teenagers read the newspaper, so they had all heard of the Family Dog. The Family Dog probably seemed like a cool and exotic place, so the fact that the Dog was bringing an English band to a local High School gym would have been extremely attractive to restless suburban teenagers. It does hint that Helms could have used the value of the Family Dog's hipness--today it would be called "His Brand"--to generate interest farther from San Francisco. He lacked the capital to do so, however, which poses the question of how these Kinks shows were financed, particularly this lone adventure to a distant suburb. As a curiosity, the Kinks had actually played Contra Costa the previous year, at the County Fairgrounds in Antioch (on November 26, 1969, opening for It's A Beautiful Day).

In a Comment Thread on my post about Concord rock shows in the 60s, a few commenters mention attending the Kinks show at YGVS, so it appears to have happened, yet once again we know next to nothing about it. Beggars Opera was a Contra Costa County band, but I don't know anything else about them. 

[update: 1 July 2023: Stellar researcher David Kramer-Smyth found a detailed newspaper report of the Ygnacio Valley HS Kinks show. Ironically, it mostly focuses on the local band Beggars Opera (from the Contra Costa Times, July 19, 1970) ]

The Contra Costa Times, July 19 '70 had a detailed report of the July 2 Ygnacio Valley HS show, mostly focusing on the local band Beggars Opera (thanks DKS for the grafted scan)

For the next post in the series (July 14-15, 1970 Terry Reid), see here