1746 US-20, West Lebanon, NY, Lebanon Valley Speedway Concert History (1973, 1977, 1980)

 

SuperModifieds racing at Lebanon Valley Raceway in West Lebanon, NY

Lebanon Valley Speedway, 1746 US-20, West Lebanon, NY: Concert History (1973, 1977, 1980)
The live rock concert business boomed from 1965 until the end of the 20th century. Venues of all sizes and configurations were added all over the country, filled by rock bands (and other genres) criss-crossing the country, playing live and selling t-shirts wherever they went. Even performers whose recording careers were clearly in decline were still often huge concert attractions. One peculiar result of this explosion, however, was that in the 1970s there were simply not enough venues for live rock concerts, particularly at scale. This was magnified in areas that were far from professional sports arenas, where a multi-use basketball arena could be transformed for a night into a concert hall.

Promoters looked for viable alternatives in order to capitalize on the potentially thriving markets. If a band had a big booking in, say, Cleveland, and one in Boston two weeks later, it made sense to play somewhere in between. FM radio had a huge reach, and while the countryside and distant suburbs may not have had the underground cool of big cities, the kids there still read Rolling Stone and wanted to see the hot bands traveling around the country. One temporary response to this economic opportunity was to make use of auto racing tracks. In the 1970s and early '80s, auto racing tracks were pressed into use as concert venues, with differing degrees of success. Ultimately, customized outdoor concert facilities, usually called "sheds," dotted the landscape, and converted race tracks were no longer needed. At the same time, auto racing tracks had great difficulty staying viable at all, so there were fewer of them to even consider converting. 

The biggest rock concerts of the 70s were held at auto racing tracks. 600,000 attended the "Summer Jam" featuring the Allman Brothers, the Grateful Dead and The Band at Watkins Glen Grand Prix Raceourse in New York (July 28, 1973). While only 150,000 of those in attendance at the Glen had paid, the biggest paid attendance was at the "California Jam" concerts at Ontario Motor Speedway, near Los Angeles, with over 168,000 paid out of at least 200,000 at each event (April 6, 1974 and March 18, 1978). Elsewhere I wrote about the history of auto racing tracks as concert facilities, although I focused on Grateful Dead concerts, in order to keep the topic manageable. 

Yet some less prominent auto racing tracks also had brief histories as concert venues in the 70s. One of the smallest was the Lebanon Valley Speedway, in tiny West Lebanon, NY, between Albany and Pittsfield, MA. There were concerts in 1973, 1977 and 1980. The concerts were financially successful, and things initially went well--until they didn't. 

This post will look at the history or rock concerts at the Lebanon Valley Raceway in the 1970s. If anyone has corrections, insights or memories, please put them in the Comments. Flashbacks are actively encouraged.

Lebanon Valley Raceway, 1746 US-20, W. Lebanon, NY in 2019

County Speedways
Due to the rise of NASCAR as a national "brand" in the 1990s, many sports fans are somewhat familiar with how County speedways in the South created a kind of NASCAR minor leagues, giving an opportunity for the likes of Dale Earnhardt to thrive and rise. In places like the Carolinas, just about every county had a speedway, often just a 1/4 or 3/8 mile track, often dirt rather than paved, that provided the weekend entertainment for all the gearheads and farmers. On either Friday or Saturday throughout the summer, all the local drivers and a few regional hotshoes raced their cars for prize money. Neighbors, co-workers and family members helped with car prep and pit crew. There wasn't much doing in many of these small towns, so going to the local Speedway on Friday or  Saturday was the most fun around until High School football season would kick off. A few "locals," like Earnhardt, in Kannapolis, NC, rose through the ranks and went on to fame at the NASCAR superspeedways. 

From an auto racing point of view, the Dale Earnhardt story was played out in rural areas throughout the United States. The social, financial and agricultural contexts varied for the Northeast, the Midwest and California's Central Valley, often quite different than the tobacco and cotton fields of the Southeast. But the story about auto racing was pretty much the same. 

After World War 2, farming had become fairly mechanized, and of course many future farmers returned from the War with a sophisticated practical understanding of internal combustion engines. Regardless of anyone's actual profession, or what crop was grown in their region, come the weekend, a lot of young men wanted to see how fast their cars would go. In the South, some of that was about running moonshine, but that was less of a factor elsewhere in the country. Yet the urge to put pedal to the metal was nationwide. Indeed, it was little different than a prior century before when their grandfathers might have wanted to see who had the fastest horse. Now, the racing was with modified Chevy, Ford and Dodge sedans, but the impulse was the same. 

The red star represents tiny West Lebanon, NY, in Columbia County.

West Lebanon, NY
West Lebanon, NY is a tiny hamlet (current population: 132) in Columbia County, about 25 miles Southeast of Albany and just 15 miles West of Pittsfield, MA and the Berkshires. The Mohicans originally lived in the area, but the Dutch started to move in to the region in the 17th century. Columbia County itself was founded in 1786. The Vermont Central Railroad was built through the area in the 1850s, linking Portland, ME and other cities in New England with Chatham, NY, thus linking to Manhattan. The nearby town of New Lebanon was the home of the Shaker religious community. 

West Lebanon was on US Route 20, the longest transcontinental road, which stretches from Boston to Newport, OR. US-20 was the main route through Columbia County prior to the introduction of Interstate 90 in 1957. Lebanon Valley Speedway commenced racing in 1953, and the track is still open (using the name Lebanon Valley Raceway). It currently features a half-mile clay oval track for dirt track racing as well as a quarter-mile dragstrip. There are SuperModified and Sportsman Dirt Track Races every Saturday night starting in May. The venue lists a capacity for racing at 7100 fans. An historic site has a good summary of the track history. I have excerpted the parts below that focus on the economic history of the track (for a full summary of the racing details and great photos, check out the site itself):

Laid out in 1953 in a cornfield and the Lebanon Valley Airport, the speedway was owned by the Spanier family and leased to  and operated by a Massachusetts group consisting of Edward Radke, Robert Scott and Harold Beitzel. The gentlemen had hopes of developing a state of the art race track drawing Massachusetts, Vermont, Connecticut and New York State drivers and teams to this centralized location.

In 1953, the interstate systems were not yet developed and Route 20 was one of the main east west routes for getting to or from Albany and Massachusetts. Route 22 was a main road for North South traffic.  

There were three sanctioning bodies in the area. The Eastern States Racing Association, Big Car Racing Association and the AAA. These associations often used fairgrounds to organize races and it was becoming quite popular.

The Pittsfield group were focused on gaining cars from State Line Speedway in North Bennington Vermont, Route 66 Speedway in Averill Park New York, Pine Bowl Speedway north of Route 66 Speedway and Arlington Speedway in Poughkeepsie New York.

During the preparation of the half mile oval, fences were put in, grandstands were erected and the barn was lettered with 'Lebanon Valley Speedway.’ All of these preparations developed a significant debt (for 1953 standards) and they assured the banker that he would be easily repaid. The grand opening-day show was cancelled due to a Sunday rainstorm and the following week's scheduled 50-lapper was reduced to 26 circuits when competing drivers declared the track turns too dangerous. Hully Bunn from Bristol Connecticut won the inaugural 13 mile main event on June 28, 1953 in front of an estimated crowd of 2,500.

In 1954, Lou Spanier gained ownership and at the end of the 1955 season, Lebanon Valley gained its signature 'high banks'. A timely project as no record of racing in 1956 can be found. The 'high banks' have become a trademark of Lebanon Valley Speedway ever since making Lebanon Valley Speedway a track that demands power along with keen driving skills. Racing resumed in 1957 under the promotion of Spanier and the Lebanon Valley Auto Racing Association. Race day moved from Sunday afternoons to Friday evenings and midway through that same season the switch was made to Saturday nights where it has remained for more than 50 years.

A characteristic of regional tracks like Lebanon Valley Speedway was that they typically held races only one weekend night a week, on either Friday or Saturday. For one thing, rural areas couldn't really support more than one night. More importantly, some of the more serious regional racers would race at one track on Friday and another track on Saturday, ensuring that the fields were larger and more competitive at more than one track. In the case of Lebanon Valley Speedway, Saturday night has been "Race Night" since 1957, so that left Fridays open for other kinds of promotions. Thus rock concerts at Lebanon Valley Speedway would be on Friday nights.

The listing in the Troy Times-Record says "8 p.m. Country and blues festival with New Riders of the Purple Sage, Star Spangled Washboard Band and special guest John Lee Hooker"

August 24, 1973 Lebanon Valley Speedway, W. Lebanon, NY: New Riders of The Purple Sage/John Lee Hooker/Star Spangled Washboard Band (Friday)
The live rock concert business had really started to expand by 1973. FM radio had spread rock music from college campuses and bohemian underground ballrooms. Even in a rural place like Columbia County, high school kids and young adults were hearing the same bands on FM stations that were being played in Manhattan or San Francisco. Record companies wanted to keep their bands on the road, as they saw live concerts as a way to encourage FM airplay, which in turn increased record sales. Many bands sold truckloads of records because they were willing to crisscross the country playing gig after gig. Bands like Foghat or Ten Years After didn't have a single giant hit, but they had played every Municipal Auditorium and College gym from Coast to Coast, and they had gold records to show for it.

In August 1973, the New Riders of The Purple Sage had released three albums on Columbia Records, and they would soon release their fourth. Their 1971 debut had been notable for the presence of Jerry Garcia on pedal steel guitar, but the demands of the Grateful Dead made it inevitable that he would depart. In late 1971, Garcia gave up the chair to the exceptional Canadian steel guitarist Buddy Cage, who had most recently played with Anne Murray and Ian & Sylvia Tyson. Powerglide had been released in April of 1972, and Gypsy Cowboy had followed in December of that year. The Riders recorded what would be their most popular album, Panama Red, in the Spring, and it would come out in October. In the meantime, the New Riders followed the Grateful Dead model, touring hard and putting on 2-hour shows that kept their fans on their feet. There weren't "Grateful Dead Cover Bands" in those days, so if you wanted a figurative dose (or even a literal one), the New Riders were the next best option to the main attraction. 

On the August leg of their 1973, tour the New Riders were booked for Saturday, August 25 in Lewiston, ME. On the next weekend, they were playing Asbury Park, NJ on Friday (August 31) and Westport, CT on Saturday (September 1). In between they had three weeknights at a club in Boston (Paul's Mall August 27-29). There was some logic to kicking off the tour with a Friday night show, but it couldn't compete directly with any of those other areas. At the same time, touring logic dictated that the extra gig would have to be in the same region.

In the 1960s, kids in Columbia County would have liked rock music, but would have had a hard time knowing about all but the most famous groups. By 1973, however, they would all have been listening to FM radio and reading Rolling Stone, just like their peers throughout the country. All the Riders needed was a venue in the right place. Someone seems to have figured out that a Friday night at the Lebanon Valley Speedway would work. It was a standing venue with power, water, bathrooms, parking and crowd control. Rock concerts can be noisy, but they aren't necessarily noisier than the Saturday night Super Modifieds. So the New Riders of The Purple Sage were booked to open their tour on Friday, August 24, supported by blues legend John Lee Hooker and a local group. The concert was supported by radio station WGFM in Albany, NY. 

John Lee Hooker had been a blues legend since the late 1940s. He had had somewhat of a revival thanks to 60s covers by the likes of The Animals (with "Boom Boom") and Canned Heat. After some fallow years recording, Hooker had been signed by ABC Records. His most recent album was 1972's Never Get Out Of These Blues Alive, recorded in late '71 in San Francisco. Guests included Elvin Bishop and Van Morrison. By this time, Hooker lived in Redwood City, a Peninsula suburb of SF. I don't know who might have been in Hooker's touring band.

.

The Troy (NY) Times-Record article from Saturday (August 25) told the tale. The event was a modest success, and a good time seemed to be had, but attendance wasn't up to expectations. 

Quiet Night At Speedway 'Blues' Concert (Bill Rice, Troy Times-Record, Saturday, August 25, 1973)
WEST LEBANON-It might be the first and last, and it might be the first of many.

Some 4,700 young people attended the first country blues concert ever held at Lebanon Valley Speedway here last night.

On the program were the New Riders of The Purple Sage, John Lee Hooker and The Star Spangled Washboard Band.

Promoters of the concert, National Student Productions and Radio station WGY-WGFM were not hoping for another Watkins Glen or Woodstock. A crowd of around 6,000 was anticipated by Bill Brina of National Student Productions.

The crowd was quiet and orderly, as The Star Spangled Washboard Band did the opening act.
Brina said there were no problems with gate crashers. A Lebanon Valley security officer said

"The kids are minding their own business and playing it cool. What they do someplace else doesn't interest us. We have had more trouble with Saturday night race crowds."

He did say about 200 youngsters tried to go over the fence, and half made it without paying the $5 admission fee

The New Riders concert at Lebanon Valley Speedway clearly wasn't a failure, but it apparently wasn't enough of a success, either. As the Times-Record reporter suggested, it seemed to be the first and last.

But--not quite.

The Monday, July 18 '77 Berkshire Eagle, from Pittsfield, MA, mentioned the 87-dgree temperature at the J Geils/Blue Oyster Cult concert at Lebanon Valley Speedway, The concert drew at least 17,000 and perhaps as many as 30K.

July 15, 1977 Lebanon Valley Speedway, West Lebanon, NY: Blue Oyster Cult/J Geils Band/Black Oak Arkansas/Dictators (Friday)
The live rock concert market had been expanding in 1973 when the New Riders had played Lebanon Valley Speedway. Four years later, the market had only gotten larger. There were major bands touring all over the country, and thanks to FM radio, there were fans everywhere. But there simply weren't enough venues. Bands could book great-paying gigs in the big markets, but once they were out on the road the economics required that they book a paying gig somewhere. In secondary markets. promoters started to look around at other sites. A band on the road didn't have to make a killing at every show, just enough to tide them over to the next profitable booking. So yet another concert was booked at Lebanon Valley Speedway, once again on a Friday night. All the bands were regular road dogs, on the way up or on the way down.

This flyer and the ticket below are from the great BOC historic site

In the Summer of '76, Long Island-based Blue Oyster Cult had released their 4th album Agents Of Fortune. It included the epic single "Don't Fear The Reaper." They toured relentlessly behind the album. Their follow-up album Specter would not be released until October 1977. BOC was never bigger than this moment, save for their amazing "More Cowbell" redux on Saturday Night Live.

The J Geils Band, out of Boston, seemed to be on a plateau, although quite the opposite turned out to be the case. The band had just released the album Monkey Island. They would spend much of the Summer opening humongous stadium shows for Peter Frampton, so gigs at places like Lebanon Valley Speedway kept the wheels turning. Of course, after J Geils treaded water into the 1980s, MTV would arise, and "Centerfold" and "Love Stinks" brought the Geils Band's bangin' stage show to huge masses of teenagers. Playing gigs like this over the years had kept the band rolling, even if playing second-up to BOC in upstate New York might have seemed like a chore at this time.

Black Oak Arkansas, a boogie band who really were from Black Oak, AK, on the other hand, were still a popular act on the road, but definitely on the downward slide. Back in late '73 Black Oak had released their fifth album on Atco, High On The Hog. The album would be the high water mark for the band, reaching #52 on Billboard. The album included the single "Jim Dandy" (with the chorus "Jim Dandy to the rescue"), which itself went to #55. Black Oak Arkansas had been among the initial wave of Southern rockers, even though they sounded quite a bit different than the somewhat jazz/R&B influenced Allman Brothers. Black Oak Arkansas' twin-guitar attack was pretty much straight boogie. It's actually harder to play high-speed shuffles than it appears, so the band may have been better than they were given credit for, but they did not have the reputation for musical virtuousity like the Allmans and their peers. 

By 1977, however, only lead singer Jim (Dandy) Mangrum remained from the original lineup. On stage, various hired guns ran through their most popular album tracks, but record sales has cratered. Their most recent album was 10-Year Overnight Success, on MCA, which had been released back in 1976. Now, of course, we know that this was the future of just about every popular 70s rock band--a few early hit albums, followed by declining record sales while fans continued to see live performances with increasingly few band members from the golden days. Some version of Black Oak Arkansas has continued to tour up until the present day, mostly (though not always) fronted by Jim Mangrum. 

The Dictators were known as a seminal New York City punk band, but in fact they had formed at SUNY New Paltz back in 1972. New Paltz was midway between New York and Albany, not too far from West Lebanon.  The Dictators had released their first album of short, hard-rocking songs back in 1975. The Dictators Go Girl Crazy! was promoted by Epic as a sort of cartoonish, fun pop band, since punk rock didn't really exist yet as a genre.

By '77, the Dictators had broken up and reformed, yet with most of the same members. The lead singer was the muscular "Handsome Dick" Manitoba, Ross "The Boss" Friedman was on lead guitar, and the  keyboard player and main songwriter was Adny Shernoff (yes, the spelling is correct). Since The Dictators were from New York, they got a lot of press for a band that didn't sell may records nor ever get much radio play. Their second album, Manifest Destiny, had been released in 1977 on Asylum, but the band would break up in 1978 (only to reform many times).

A weekend round-up from the nearby Berkshire (MA) Daily Eagle tells us that the concert was pretty successful.

Heat, crowds, power outages mark weekend (By Robert M. McDonough (Berkshire Eagle, Monday, July 18, 1977)
Two days of record-tying temperatures and a weekend full of special attractions drew thousands of area residents out of their homes for one of the busiest Berkshire weekends yet this summer.

Meteorologist George J. Bulgarelli said that high temperatures of 87 Friday and 86 Saturday tied the records for those days...

The single largest-drawing event of the weekend was outside the county. A rock concert at Lebanon Valley Speedway in New Lebanon, N.Y. drew a crowd of music enthusiasts that was estimated anywhere between 17,000 and 30,000 people. The attractions were the groups J. Geils, Blue Oyster Cult and Black Oak Arkansas.

Police reported that the crowd was orderly during the concert, and only one arrest was reported by Columbia County Sheriff's Department deputies. Arrested was 21-year-old Leo Robillard of 1 Lowden St, Pittsfield. He was charged with driving while intoxicated, and criminal possession of a controlled substance. Police arrested him after he had backed into one of their police cruisers at the concert.

The crowd was pretty substantial. I'm not sure why the estimate was so broad (between 17,000 and 30,000), since promoters are usually eager to tout what a success they have had. Nonetheless, given that none of the bands were (at the time) major attractions, even 17,000 would have been a fine crowd. The weather cooperated, and the crowd was pretty well-behaved. Yet, once again, there was a three-year break before rock shows reappeared at Lebanon Valley Speedway.

July 18, 1980 Lebanon Valley Speedway, West Lebanon, NY: ZZ Top (Friday)
In the Summer of 1980, there were two concerts at Lebanon Valley Speedway. I couldn't find any reports about the first one, so it probably went OK. The second one, well---when a concert in Upstate New York is written about in the New York Times, it usually isn't because everyone had a wonderful time.

The July concert featured the legendary Texas trio ZZ Top, on their "Expect No Quarter" tour, behind their album Deguello. ZZ Top had been very successful in the early 70s, but they took a break from their heavy touring schedule in 1976. They reconvened in 1979 with the new album, and the hit single "Cheap Sunglasses." ZZ Top were great in concert, much beloved by their fans. I have to assume that the reason they played Lebanon Valley Speedway was that they had an open night in the Northeast, and wanted to fill it. 

I'm sure there was at least one opening act, but I don't know who it might have been. ZZ Top were in a sort of trough of popularity. They weren't as big an act as they were in the mid-70s, but they were nowhere near as big as they would become once MTV caught on to them. ZZ Top probably drew a pretty good crowd, probably 10-15,000 people, and probably it went as well as the J Geils show a few years earlier.

August 8, 1980 Lebanon Valley Speedway, West Lebanon, NY: Blue Oyster Cult/Black Sabbath (Friday)
The last concert at Lebanon Valley Speedway was on August 8, 1980. Blue Oyster Cult returned, behind their album Black And Blue. BOC was still popular, but as we have noted, they had begun their long decline.

As for Black Sabbath, they were on the second of their many lives. Since their 1970 debut, they had established themselves with endless touring and best selling albums that sold a lot, despite receiving relatively little FM (much less AM) airplay. In 1978, however, after 8 albums, lead singer Ozzy Osbourne had left the group. This was usually the beginning of a long decline for any 1970s group. Not for the Sabs, however.

Replacing the seemingly irreplaceable Ozzy was Ronnie James Dio, who had come to fame in the mid-70s as the lead singer of Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow. Dio, today a somewhat legendary singer himself, was actually from New York State. Dio was from Cortland, NY, just south of Syracuse and a few hours West of Albany. Dio's band Elf had opened some dates for Deep Purple around 1974, and when Blackmore left that band, he scooped up Dio. Dio had a powerful, almost operatic voice, and was one of the proto-metal performers most responsible for the fantasy element of wizards and demons in metal song lyrics. Dio had left the hugely successful Rainbow in 1978, as Blackmore wanted to veer away from fantasy-oriented lyrics. Dio was then invited to join Black Sabbath by guitarist Tony Iommi. 

Black Sabbath's 9th album for Warner Brothers, Heaven And Hell, featured Dio's vocals along with other three original Sabs (Iommi, bassist Geezer Butler and drummer Bill Ward). Heaven And Hell ultimately went Platinum. Black Sabbath only got bigger. Eventually, Ozzy would return in glory to the band, and Ronnie James Dio himself would go on to become a huge star (Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow, in turn, remained huge throughout the 20th century as well).  The 1980 Sabbath/BOC tour was known as "The Black And Blue Tour," for obvious reasons.

In later years, as Dio became bigger and bigger, along with Sabbath, fans must have enjoyed recounting how they saw him with the Sabbath during an Ozzy hiatus. Drummer Bill Ward, beset with health problems, would play his last gig with Black Sabbath on August 18, so the show was near the end of the line for that lineup. Black Sabbath, Ozzy and Dio had a complicated subsequent history of joining, leaving and re-joining, but Black Sabbath (and Dio) remained phenomenally successful.

Over the decades, rock fans in big cities chuckle at the various rubes and preachers who declare that Black Sabbath or Ronnie Dio are "demonic" and "dangerous influences." It seems naive. When you read about the Lebanon Valley Speedway show, however, maybe the labels aren't so wrong. Based on news articles, and some comments from the great Blue Oyster Cult history site, the show at Lebanon Valley Speedway represented everything that could go wrong at an outdoor rock concert. Let's summarize:

• At least 20,000 fans showed up, packing the track, mostly young men wound up on liquor and drugs of all kinds.
• The narrow highway leading to the Speedway was backed up for at least five miles, and cars were parked along the side of the road for most of the way. Many patrons were late, which added to the chaos.
• Security used baseball bats to protect the stage, and the bands kept asking people to please step back to protect the crushed fans up front
• Besides the drugs and fighting, numerous bonfires were set, and several cars were burned, for no particular reason
• Two teenagers died in traffic accidents after the event
• Many patrons were unable to leave after the show, presumably due to traffic, and ended up spending the night in the parking lot
• The owner of the track wanted nothing to do with another rock concert, which was fine, since the town of West Lebanon banned all future concerts
• Here are some eyewitness tales from the Blue Oyster Cult history site

Mark D: I went to this concert with my brother and 3 other friends in an orange VW bus from our house in eastern Massachusetts and it was the most memorable concerts I have ever been to.

We got an early start that AM and I remember parking the van in a field with hundreds of other vehicles and thousands of people.

The concert was absolutely fantastic. I can remember trying to get to the chain link fence with my buddy and you would literally be lifted off your feet from all the people pressing against you. In the thick of it, the crowd split (somehow) and made a path for a person who was pretty badly hurt coming from the very front. His/her head was wrapped with a white t-shirt wet with blood.

We continued our fight for position and eventually made it to the fence where the roadies used bats and sticks to hit the knuckles of anyone trying to hold onto the fence. Blue Oyster Cult then played Godzilla and it was definitely the climax of the concert. I'll never forget the drum solo.

The event was "marred with violence". As I recall, three people were killed... one I know was hit by a car. I was only 17, so I was completely shocked by what some people were doing. After the show, one guy was pushing anyone that walked by him just for a fight while about a dozen others flipped a car in a pit and torched it. Everyone was whacked out on mushrooms, acid, mesk, weed... you name it.

I now live about 20 miles from Lebanon Valley Speedway and I have spoken to some that lived in the area and he said the guy that owned the speedway didn't realize the concert would be so huge and crazy and refused to attempt anything like it again.

Steve Del Signore: I made a road trip to this show, about a 2 hour drive, with a carful of crazies. AC/DC's Back In Black had just come out and we blasted it on the way out to the show.

We actually left our city with plenty of time to spare, planning to get there an hour before showtime. Well, the speedway is out in the cornfields and had a single lane road going to it. This caused a huge bumper to bumper traffic slowdown and we crawled along for miles and miles.

As we neared the site, we were still about an hour earlier than the advertised start time. I could hear music coming from inside and I remember panicing because it was Sabbath already playing.

So by the time we got inside and parked, walked to the grounds and got our beers it seemed to take forever before we could watch the band. So missed a good half of them. Beers were selling by the thousands as it was a hot, humid evening and the place was full of yahoos wanting to go off.

I do remember at least 2 deaths, possibly 3 after the concert. We nearly made it 6 or 7 when our car approached a Y, 2 roads turning into 1 and came upon another car speeding along on the left to merge onto this sudden one lane road. Neither driver thought to ease up and let the other pass and we came within a hair of a major accident, two cars barrelling along side by side for a couple hundred feet until one pulled ahead. Like I said, they sold a lot of beer that day.

This racetrack is actually named Lebanon Valley SPEEDWAY and not Raceway, as can be seen on the ticket scans. It is called the Albany stop on the tour but is located about an hour southeast of Albany, NY in West Lebanon, New York.

Richard Morsa: i went to this show with a few friends of mine from Williamstown Mass. i was 14, we ate lots of acid, we wound up in the back bleachers, it was crazy...

there was a fire in the bleachers, and i remember there were about 5 or 6 bonfires in the center of the speedway, people had poles with flags with the boc symbol and someone brought in a cross about 30 ft tall painted black,

during sabbath i saw the cross lowered into one of the bonfires and brought back up... then it fell over into the crowd...
I saw countless people being dragged out by us as we were close to the exits, i remember the guy "mark d" mentioned with the bloody shirt wrapped around him being carried out, they stopped the show a few times and the bands kept saying to step back from the stage or they would leave.

as we left to go to our car there were a bunch of people standing on a ridge throwing rocks into a ditch, me and my friends got closer and they were yelling" fuck iran" as they were throing the rocks, we went to the edge of the ditch and there was a cadillac down there, someone went down and lit a rag in the gas tank, and i remember the car exploding and people still throwing rocks at it,

remember this was the time of the iran hostage crisis, and in willimastown where i lived the shah's son went to school there, so it might have been one of his guards or something, people said he hit some girl with his car, thats why they flipped it in the ditch, i remember a few cop cars coming in the lot and people threw rocks and bottles at them and they just left.

as we left we saw the accident where the guardrail was bent, and the emt's were pulling up a gurney and i remember it was soaked with blood, i thought it was a red sheet, but i saw a few spots of white and realized it was soaked in blood. we got home and it was all over the news, they cancelled all shows at the speedway after that show.

quite the experience!

For the record, one Bolle Gregmar had a Blue Oyster Cult Setlist

80-08-08: Lebanon Valley Speedway, Lebanon, New York Setlist:

    Dr.Music
    ETI
    Lips In The Hills
    Unknown Tongue
    Cities On Flame
    The Marshall Plan
    Divine Wind
    ME262
    Hot Rails To Hell
    Black Blade
    Godzilla
    Bass Solo
    5 Gtrs - Mark III - Golden Age
    Born To Be Wild
    (Don't Fear) The Reaper

An AP Wire story published in the New York Times on August 13, 1980

September 1, 1980 Lebanon Valley Speedway, West Lebanon, NY: J Geils Band/Fools (Monday) canceled
One more concert was booked at Lebanon Valley Speedway, for J. Geils Band to return on Labor Day. 250 people turned up at a town meeting--10% of the town's population. They got the town to ban the forthcoming concert and there was never another one at Lebanon Valley Speedway. The reason, ironically, was that the rock concert market had expanded too quickly for the tiny speedway. 5000 for the New Riders was great. 10,000-plus for J Geils was still manageable. 20,000 for the Cult and the Sabs--very much not OK.

The track remains open, and has generally thrived (given the financial uncertainty of auto racing venues). Over the next decade, new rock venues opened in Albany and Western Massachussets, so rock fans in Columbia County still saw bands, but not at home. Lebanon Valley Raceway still drops the green flag every Saturday night, starting in May, but Friday nights are quiet.