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| The debut album of The Loading Zone was released by RCA in June, 1968 |
The Loading Zone-Performance List 1972
The Loading Zone, while obscure, are a uniquely important group in Bay Area music history. The Zone have a singly dizzying history. Loading Zone had initially been formed out of the ashes of a Berkeley group called The Marbles (who played the first Family Dog Longshoreman’s Hall Dance on October 16, 1965). The two guitarists from The Marbles then joined with organist/vocalist Paul Fauerso (formerly of Oakland’s Tom Paul Trio, a jazz combo) and played a hitherto unheard mixture of psychedelic blues and funky R&B.
Loading Zone were based out of Oakland, in a house
on West 14th Street, and while they had played the original Trips
Festival and many dates at the Fillmore and Avalon, they also played
many soul clubs in the East Bay. They added horns, and after some false
starts, a powerhouse vocalist named Linda Tillery, and released an
under-rehearsed album on RCA in 1968. The band also had a brief national
tour, and played all the clubs in the Bay Area.
The Loading Zone
thus laid the blueprint for the progressive soul music of Bay Area
bands like Sly and The Family Stone and Tower of Power. Indeed, a Zone
roadie, high school student Steve Kupka, played baritone sax with the
band’s horn section, when there was room on stage and he was allowed in
the club. At one such gig, he met a Fremont band called The Motowns, and
they joined forces to create Tower Of Power.
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| The Loading Zone, ca. 1968 |
The unique status of the Loading Zone led to a major research project on their history. Besides creating a log of all known performances, based on the information available to us at that time, Ross created a spectacular Loading Zone Family Tree. The Tree gives a well-articulated picture of how the band was formed, and what it created. In retrospect, we did a really good job on the 1960s Loading Zone. Our information on the band in the early 1970s, however, was very limited, and some of it was actually incorrect.
With new information sources easily available, I have now completed a series of posts about the performance history of the Loading Zone from 1970 through their breakup in September 1972. The logging of the band's gigs, large and small, also acts as a survey of the different types of bookings available to a working rock band in the Bay Area at the time. I have previously published a post on all the known performances of the Loading Zone during 1970. In a subsequent post, I reviewed all the known information about every show that the Loading Zone had played during 1971. In this post, I will review all the known information about every show that the Loading Zone played during 1972, after which they broke up (well, save for the occasional reunion).
Anyone with updates, corrections, insights, recovered
memories or flashbacks with respect to the Loading Zone is heartily
encouraged to put them in the Comments.
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| Loading
Zone guitarist Pete Shapiro on the front porch of the Loading Zone
house on 14th Street in West Oakland, sometime around 1967 (the house
was identified by Shapiro's then-girlfriend) |
The Loading Zone-1960s
1966-The
Loading Zone were formed out of the ashes of the Tom Paul Jazz Trio and
The Marbles, a British Invasion-styled rock band. They debuted on
January 14, 1966. The band pioneered a blend of rhythm and blues with
psychedelic guitar solos, showing that the blend worked in both hippie
ballrooms and regular R&B dance gigs. The Loading Zone played the
Trips Festival and many other foundational ballroom events, while
playing dance clubs at the same time.
1967-The
Loading Zone expanded their membership, experimenting with a female
vocalist, and adding a horn section on occasion. The band played gigs
all over the Bay Area, particularly in the East Bay.
1968-In
early 1968, the Loading Zone added the dynamic young vocalist Linda
Tillery. Female lead vocalists for San Francisco bands were hot, and the
Zone was signed to RCA. The band recorded their debut album, probably
too soon, and went on a National tour when the album was released around
June. The band continued to improve and got better and better notices,
although the album did not reflect that (for a good representation of the '68 Loading Zone, here is a mis-dated tape from September '68).
1969-At
the end of 1968, Linda Tillery was signed to a solo contract by
Columbia Records. The Loading Zone marched on, with Paul Fauerso taking
over the lead vocals from the organ chair. In May '69, some original
members left the band and the group was reorganized around Fauerso. The
new members had more sophisticated jazz backgrounds. The mid-69 model of
the Zone mixed the original funky drive of the band with some advanced
jazz sounds. Tillery, meanwhile, released the Sweet Linda Devine album on Columbia, produced by Al Kooper in mid-July. She toured around the Bay Area with a trio.
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| The Loading Zone's second album, One For All (Umbrella Records early 1970) |
1970-1970 was a year of change for the Loading Zone.
The band had taken on a much jazzier approach by the end of 1969. Yet
Linda Tillery, despite her talent, had been dropped by Columbia and had
returned to the Zone in early 1970. In June, however, founder and
organist Paul Fauerso dropped out of the music business, and the Loading
Zone disintegrated. Shortly afterwards, however, Linda Tillery and some
new band members reorganized the band. Tillery was the voice and face
of the band, and they probably played much of the same material, so it
wasn't invalid. Still, it was a new band. Only bassist Mike Eggleston
remained from any earlier incarnations.
1971-In 1971, the Loading Zone was still an evolving ensemble. They began the year as a quartet, with Linda Tillery on vocals, supported by Tom Coster on organ, Mike Eggleston on bass and Al Coster on drums. By year's end, Bruce Conte, from Fresno, had joined on guitar. At some point near the end of the year, bassist Dougie Rauch replaced Mike Eggleston. Details about the group are so murky, it's hard to be certain. Rauch had been the bassist for a New York group called Voices Of East Harlem, and he had become friends with drummer Mike Shrieve when they had opened for Santana. Rauch took Shrieve up on his recommendation to move to the Bay Area.
In 1971, the Loading Zone still played all the rock club circuit they had played since the 1960s, emphasizing their own material and arrangements. They also played various dance clubs around the area. At this time, more information is available about clubs booking rock music (like Berkeley's New Orleans House or Cotati's Inn Of The Beginning) than dance clubs, although the dance clubs were probably better paying gigs. Since the Loading Zone jammed on a lot of songs, their material may not have been that different at either kind of venue, but dance clubs were almost never reviewed in local papers, so it's hard to say.
Loading Zone Performance History 1972
In this post, I will review all the known information about every show that the Loading Zone played during 1972, after which they broke up. Because of the current limits on available information, I have far more details about original rock clubs than dance venues, but I am certain that the Loading Zone was a regular working band throughout the first 9 months of 1972, even if we don't have details on many of their bookings.
To the best of my knowledge, the Loading Zone at the beginning of 1972 was
Linda Tillery-vocals
Wendy Haas-vocals, piano
Bruce Conte-guitar
Tom Coster-organ, keyboards
Dougie Rauch-bass
Tony Smith-drums
There had been some turnover in Loading Zone between the middle and end of 1971, and I have no markers to say when precisely that occurred. I will summarize the background of the 1972 band members here:
Linda Tillery-vocals Linda Tillery, from San Francisco, had been the lead vocalist for Loading Zone in 1968, had left for an unsatisfying solo career in 1969 (she released an Al Kooper-produced album as Sweet Linda Devine) and returned to the Zone in 1970. She was also a pretty good drummer, but I'm not sure if she ever played drums or percussion on stage with the band.
Wendy Haas-vocals, piano: Wendy Haas had been the bass player in the Freudian Slips in 1966, a Peninsula "all-girl" band who had gotten their picture in Life magazine (Haas, later: "we weren't very tight"). They had broken up when some members of the band went on to college. Haas had become the lead singer in an R&B band called Western Addition. Haas is a good piano player, but I don't know how much or even if she played piano on stage with the Zone. Haas and Tillery must have killed it together as singers.
Bruce Conte-guitar: Conte was from Fresno, and had been reasonably successful in a band called The Road Runners. Moving up to Loading Zone was tapping into the San Francisco mainstream. He had joined the Loading Zone by May, 1971 (based on promo photos).
Tom Coster-organ, keyboards: organist Tom Coster had an extensive jazz background. He had been playing in Oakland clubs in the late 60s, often in a trio with saxophonist Jules Broussard and his brother, drummer Al Coster. Loading Zone had broken up, sort of, in 1970, but Linda Tillery had reformed it around the Coster brothers (along with bassist Mike Eggleston). Coster also played jazz gigs when he had the opportunity. I know he periodically backed guitarist Gabor Szabo, which is how Carlos Santana first heard Coster's playing.
Dougie Rauch-bass: At some point in late 1971, Santana drummer Michael Shrieve had invited
his friend, New York bassist Dougie Rauch, to move to California. Rauch
(1950-79), the son of an opera singer, had played with numerous bands.
He was part of a group called Voices Of East Harlem, a choir of mostly
school kids singing over a funky rock band. The Voices had opened for
Santana a few times, and Shrieve and Rauch were friends. Now, the
Santana band had serious problems at this time--at one point in 1971,
Carlos himself had actually quit the band--and among other things were
looking for a new bass player, so Shrieve probably had it in mind to get Rauch into Santana, which he ultimately did (along with Tom Coster).
By early 1972, Dougie Rauch had
joined Loading Zone as their bass player, replacing Mike Eggleston. I do
not actually know when Rauch joined the Loading Zone. I am still searching for evidence as to exactly when Rauch
moved to California and joined the Zone. Rauch also worked with Coster when he backed Gabor Szabo.
Tony Smith-drums: Drummer Tony Smith replaced Al Coster sometime at the end of 1971 or beginning of 1972, replacing Al Coster. Smith had a stellar career after the Loading Zone--as many musicians did--but I don't know what pedigree he had before that.
Loading Zone Performance History: 1972
Our knowledge of the performance history of the Loading Zone in the early 70s is somewhat skewed. The Zone played in both original rock clubs and dance clubs. The band had always played a certain number of covers, and while they were regular jammers, they always had a good groove going on. They might have varied their sets slightly in dance clubs, perhaps adding a few more covers, but in general there's good reason to think that the Loading Zone could thrive in both an original club and a 'Top 40" dance club.
The skew in our historical record comes from the fact that we have access to listings of bands who played original rock clubs. The local clubs that booked original bands advertised in local daily and weekly papers, and also submitted their press releases for "Entertainment Listings." Conversely, "dance clubs" were more oriented toward the bar, and did not regularly list their acts in the paper. The audience for a dance club was looking to have a good time on a Friday night, not circling their calendars in order to catch the So-and-Sos.
Some local dance clubs may have had flyers, but they have rarely been preserved. The likely reason is that the flyers for original rock clubs, like the Keystone Berkeley, often had famous names on them, like Jerry Garcia or Van Morrison. Thus fans preserved at least some of those flyers from the beginning. Dance clubs did not obviously have historical material on them, so any local flyers have disappeared.
I have collected information on every Loading Zone performance from 1972 for which I can find evidence. The record leans almost exclusively to the local rock clubs that presented original music. The Loading Zone probably worked almost every weekend and many weeknights at various dance clubs, but we don't have a historical trail. Based on information from 1971, it's likely that they would play residencies where they would play a given night of the week at a club for a month at a time (like every Tuesday in March, or something similar). I just haven't been able to find that evidence yet. Anyone who recalls anything, or can point to some links, please Comment.
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| The building at 8201 Old Redwood Highway in Cotati that housed the Inn Of The Beginning. In this 2010 photo, the name of the club is still visible on the upper part of the building (the club had closed many years earlier) |
January 6, 1972 Inn Of The Beginning, Cotati, CA: Loading Zone (Thursday)
To illustrate the above point, the Loading Zone was playing a Thursday night at the Inn Of The Beginning, a small club that booked original music. It seems likely that they would have had a dance club gig booked for the weekend.
The Inn Of The Beginning, at 8201 Old Redwood Highway in Cotati, had opened in 1968.
It only held about 200, but most Bay Area bands liked to play there to
fill in the gig sheet. Calling Cotati, in Sonoma County, just "bucolic" does
it a disservice. Since Sonoma State College had opened in nearby Rohnert
Park in 1966, the area was starting to move from purely agriculture to a broader community.
January 28-29, 1972 Bo Jangles, San Francisco, CA: Loading Zone/Is (Friday-Saturday)
Bo Jangles also booked original music. The club was in the Tenderloin district in San Francisco, at 709 Larkin (near Ellis), and had opened in late 1971. It was near to the site of what would become the Great American Music Hall (at 859 O'Farrell).
The group Is was a local San Francisco area band, but I don't know anything else about them.
Sausalito is on the tip of San Francisco bay, the nearest Marin town to the city. Up until the opening of the Golden Gate Bridge in 1937, it had been an important transit hub. Railroads brought lumber and crops to Sausalito, and ferries took them over to San Francisco (along with some passengers). Because of the peculiar geography of Sausalito, being very near to San Francisco yet still isolated, the little town was reputedly a thriving drop-off point for bootleggers during Prohibition. After Prohibition, and the Golden Gate Bridge, Sausalito "de-industrialized" and became more of a bohemian artist's hangout, which it remains to this day.
There was (and still is) a boat ramp in Sausalito. The Boathouse was at 300 Turney (at Bridgeway) I believe the Boathouse was the bar and restaurant right next to the ramp (right now it is a beer hall called The Joinery). Abel may have been blues guitarist Abel Zarate, who had gone from his band Naked Lunch to Malo. Perhaps this was a solo gig for him.
February 4-5, 1972 On Broadway Theater, San Francisco, CA: Sylvester and His Hot Band/Loading Zone (Friday-Saturday)
The On Broadway was right in the heart of North Beach's entertainment district, on Broadway. In the late 1950s and early '60s, North Beach had been at the center of a thriving Latin Jazz scene, and a bohemian hangout. Lawrence Ferlinghetti's City Lights Bookstore was a central nighttime attraction. By the mid-60s, however, Broadway was dominated by topless clubs, and few clubs booked music without dancers. Still, the On Broadway was an exception to the trend.
The building, at 435 Broadway (between Kearny and Montgomery) dated from 1919, and was originally an Italian men's social club called Garibaldi Hall. The upstairs held boxing matches and other sporting events. In 1945 the building was sold to the Caballeros de Dimas Alang, a
Masonic-style Filipino fraternal organization. They called it the
Dimas-Alang Temple. The On Broadway had opened as a theater in 1962. It seated about 400. It mostly had musical revues and the like, and its North Beach location allowed some racier productions. Oh Calcutta, for example, was first presented in San Francisco at the On Broadway, in 1969.
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| Sylvester and The Hot Band would release their debut album on Blue Thumb in 1973 |
The weekend headliner was
Sylvester and His Hot Band. Sylvester was a powerful R&B singer, in a
contemporary vein, but with a gay sensibility and a very high-pitched
vocal style. A handsome black man, Sylvester appeared on stage in thrift-store sequined dresses and heavy makeup. Sylvester had a following in gay clubs in San Francisco at
the time. Performers could make good money playing gay clubs in SF
(Bette Midler was doing so at the time) but they needed to be heard in
"regular" nightclubs to get signed. While much of Sylvester's audience was probably gay men who lived in the city, by playing the On Broadway, "regular" fans could get a chance to see him (read that how you like--it was 1972). I think that by putting a "real" rock band like the Zone on the bill, it made Sylvester and His Hot Band seem more like a serious band (which they were) and not a novelty act.
Sylvester (Sylvester James Jr), had a background in church music. He had moved to San Francisco in 1970 and joined an infamous San Francisco performance troupe called The Cockettes. James had gone with the Cockettes to New York City, but ultimately returned to SF. Sylvester and The Hot Band played what would be called "Heavy Soul," although Sylvester's stage appearance was not mainstream.
Sylvester would go on to release two albums on Blue Thumb in 1973 and '74, and then he would break up The Hot Band. Sylvester went on to have a successful disco recording career in the late 70s.
In the basement of the On Broadway was a Filipino restaurant called The Mabuhay Gardens. A few years later, when the "New Wave" hit San Francisco, the Mabuhay (known by punks as the "Fab Mab") put on punk rock shows after the restaurant had finished serving dinner. Both the Mabuhay (with an address of 443 Broadway) and the On Broadway were important venues in the punk/New Wave history of San Francisco from the late 70s through the early 1980s.
February 11, 1972 Alameda County Fairgrounds, Pleasanton, CA: Tower Of Power/Loading Zone/Snakeroot (Friday)
The Alameda County Fairgrounds was at the Southeastern edge of the county, in Pleasanton (at 4501 Pleasanton Avenue, near where I-580 meets I-680). Although now suburban and well-to-do, at the time, that end of Alameda county was more rural, and residents from that direction were more likely to attend the County Fair than those in suburban Oakland. At this time in 1972. Tower Of Power and Loading Zone shared management and a rehearsal hall.
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| The July 13, 1968 Oakland Tribune previews the last weekend of the Alameda County Fair. Opening act The Motowns would evolve into Tower Of Power once they added Loading Zone roadie Steve "Doc" Kupka on baritone sax. |
Back on July 13, 1968, the Loading Zone had been the headliners for the dance on the final Saturday night of the Alameda County Fair, and they had a new album on RCA. One of the openers was a Fremont band called The Motowns. At the time, one of the roadies for the Zone was high school student Steve Kupka, known as "Doc" (his father was a doctor). Kupka also played baritone sax with the Zone, when there was room on the stage and if he was allowed to get into the club. Kupka hit it off with the Motowns, and ended up joining them. By 1970, they were the Tower Of Power, signed to Bill Graham's record label and booked by his Millard Agency, so they had also signed up with Loading Zone manager Ron Barnett.
By 1972, however, and the return of the two bands, Tower Of Power had released their debut album East Bay Grease, on Fillmore Records (distributed by Atlantic). A second album (the immortal Bump City) was in the works. The Loading Zone, had no record contract, and none seemed to be on the horizon. Here in February 1972, the two bands were again playing the Country Fairground together, but this time Tower were the headliners.
February 12, 1972 Inn Of The Beginning, Cotati, CA: Loading Zone (Saturday)
Although we have only the scantest of information about the Loading Zone in 1972, the fact that they regularly returned to the same venues is a sign that they put on a good show, and people would come out to see them.
February 18, 1972 [Gym], Napa High School, Napa, CA: Loading Zone (Friday)
The Napa Register noted that the Loading Zone would be playing the High School dance. The fact that the Zone had appeared in San Francisco with major names carried clout out in the countryside (at this time, Napa was largely agricultural, not yet the tourist destination it would become).
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| SF Examiner, February 24, 1972 |
February 24-March 4, 1972 El Matador, San Francisco, CA: Gabor Szabo (Thursday-Sunday)
Gabor Szabo was a legendary Hungarian jazz guitarist who had played with Chico Hamilton and many other fine players. His latest combo had more of a rock orientation. The El Matador, at 492 Broadway, had been a topless club, but it turned into a full-time jazz club at the end of 1970. Szabo's lineup at this booking had Tom Bryant on guitar, Spider Rice on drums, Tom Coster on organ and Doug Rauch on bass.
Per an Examiner writer some months later, Carlos Santana dropped in a few nights to jam. With flux in the Santana band at this time, the opportunity was there for Coster and Rauch to start recording with Carlos. In the meantime, Coster and Rauch would continue to perform and tour with Szabo.
February 25, 1972 North Beach Revival, San Francisco, CA: Loading Zone/Is (Friday)
I don't know much about the club North Beach Revival. The club was 1024 Kearny Street, between Broadway and Columbus. It had been open since at least 1964. The club started to book rock shows around this time, but those bookings did not continue much beyond '72. The booking may have been canceled or changed, however, since Rauch and Coster were playing with Gabor Szabo.
February 25, 1972 The Sextant, San Francisco, CA: Loading Zone/Is (Friday)
The
Sextant was at 2215 Powell. I don't know how this fit in with the Gabor
Szabo gig, nor North Beach Revival.
February 26, 1972 Redding Civic Auditorium, Redding, CA: Cold Blood/Loading Zone/Syndicate Of Sound (Saturday)
In contrast to the Sextant gig, the Redding show would have paid better than the El Matador. Redding was in far Northern California, 2i5 miles North of San Francisco, and "real" Fillmore rock bands could draw a crowd. I have no idea whether it was Szabo or the Zone who had substitutes.
San Jose's Syndicate Of Sound had broken up around 1967 when most of the members went on to college. Some members reformed and played a little bit a few years later (presumably after graduating).
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| Berkeley's Long Branch Saloon at 2504 San Pablo, as it appeared in 2009 |
March 5, 1972 Long Branch, Berkeley, CA: Loading Zone/Dennis Geyer Band (Sunday)
The Long Branch was at 2504 San Pablo Avenue in Berkeley, about 2 miles West and South of the UC Campus. The location had been a music venue since the early 1960s. As the Cabale Creamery, It had been an important stop on the "folk circuit," back in the days when espresso coffee was an exotic commodity By the end of 1965, it had become The Questing Beast, and it was there that Country Joe McDonald and Barry Melton had first "gone electric." At the time, the room probably held 150-200 people at most.
The venue went through some more incarnations (Tito's, Babylon) before becoming The Long Branch in May, 1971. New owner Malcolm Williams had doubled the size of the room to around 350, and they sold lots of beer. The club booked original rock bands, most of them from the East Bay. It was aimed at regular patrons who probably lived nearby and came to the club on a regular basis. The Loading Zone had played the Long Branch a few times in 1971, and their return in 1972 indicated that things must have gone well enough.
Dennis Geyer had been the guitarist in the original incarnation of the AB Skhy Blues Band.
March 23, 1972 Inn Of The Beginning, Cotati, CA: Loading Zone (Thursday)
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March 28, 1972 Yuba-Sutter County Fairgrounds, Yuba City, CA: Tower Of Power/Country Weather/Loading Zone (Tuesday)
Yuba City was about an hour North of Sacramento.
March 30-April 1, 1972 North Beach Revival, San Francisco, CA: Loading Zone/Is (Thursday-Sunday)
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| The Recreation Center at 6300 Moraga Way in the Montclair district in Oakland. Rock shows were held here on Saturday nights from September 1970 through April 1972. |
April 8, 1972 Montclair Recreation Center, Oakland, CA: Loading Zone (Saturday)
As the 1970s dawned, many Bay Area parents didn't really object to rock music, but weren't necessarily enamored of the idea of their children traveling to San Francisco or Berkeley at night just to see rock bands. In the Fall of 1970, the parents in the Montclair district of Oakland arranged to have rock shows on Saturday night at the local recreation center. The idea was to give kids something fun to do in their own neighborhood. There were rock shows most Friday nights for the next year. The bands were local, but they were good ones. Many of them had played the Fillmore West, and a few of them even had albums.
The Montclair Recreation Center was at 6300 Moraga Way, on the main road through Montclair, but just outside the district shopping area. The Rec Center was just above a Fire Station, and there was even a light show. The shows were listed in the Oakland Tribune, and supposedly there were flyers as well (although I've never seen them). The shows seem to have started on September 19, 1970 and the Loading Zone played five weeks later.
The Loading Zone played the Montclair Recreation Center several times during the 1970-72 period when rock shows were being produced there, so things must have gone well. This booking was one of the last shows, as the rock business had regionalized. Teenagers were interested in seeing larger rock shows at bigger places, rather than dancing locally.
April 8-11, 1972 Mandrake's, Berkeley, CA: Gabor Szabo (Thursday-Monday)
Mandrake's, at 1048 University in Berkeley, was a jazz and blues club. The Loading Zone had played there many times over the years. In this case, Gabor Szabo had a four-night booking. We know for sure that Coster and Rauch were in the band because Chronicle writer Dennis Hunt enthusiastically described the gig.
At some point, Coster and Rauch toured nationally with Szabo, and a new configuration of Loading Zone was formed. I have somewhat arbitrarily placed that in June 1972 (see below), but it could have been much earlier. Montclair isn't that far from University and San Pablo, so Loading Zone likely could have played the Oakland dance on Friday night, and then Coster and Rauch would have zipped down to play with Szabo. Conversely, Coster and Rauch could have left the Zone already.
April 20, 1972 Bo Jangles, San Francisco, CA: Loading Zone/Full Moon (Thursday)
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| The marquee of Keystone Berkeley, at 2119 University Avenue, as it appeared ca 1982 |
April 22, 1972 Keystone Berkeley, Berkeley, CA: Loading Zone/Linx (Saturday)
The Keystone Berkeley, at 2119 University Avenue, at a central corner in downtown Berkley (at University and Shattuck Avenues) was Berkeley's premier rock club throughout the 1970s. It was just a few blocks from campus, but (at least In The Day) there was adequate parking at night, so fans could come from not only Berkeley and Oakland, but Marin and San Francisco as well. The club had been known as the New Monk since about 1968, mostly presenting bands on weekends, and generally being a fraternity beer joint during the week. In mid-1971, Frediie Herrera, the owner of the San Francisco rock club Keystone Korner, took over the booking, and ultimately the club itself. Herrera opened the club as the Keystone Berkeley on March 1, 1972. It booked original rock bands most nights of the week, some well-known and some not so much (I discussed the first year of the Keystone Berkeley at great length in this post).
Herrera had been booking the Loading Zone at the Keystone Korner for some time, so they were a known commodity. Herrera surely knew that the Zone could put on a great show, keep people dancing and sell a lot of beer. Still, although the Loading Zone were a "known" band, they hadn't released an album since 1970, and they weren't as high profile as they had been before.
Linx was a local band, probably based in the East Bay. They regularly played East Bay clubs like the Long Branch and the Keystone Berkeley, even if mostly as an opening act.
April 26-28, 1972 In Your Ear, Palo Alto, CA: Loading Zone (Monday-Wednesday)
Downtown
Palo Alto had had a little music scene in the 50s and early 60s, and
the Kingston Trio and some early 60s folkies--like Jerry Garcia, Janis
Joplin and Jorma Kaukonen had arisen from it. University Avenue was
right across the train tracks from Stanford University, so there was a
sort of built-in audience for young people's music. 'The Sixties" got to
Palo Alto early, thanks to the Beatles and Ken Kesay, and a little rock
scene had developed on University Avenue. Besides regular free
concerts, the main club had a been a place on the corner of University and High (at 135 University Avenue) called The Poppycock. The Loading
Zone had headlined at the Poppycock a number of times throughout 1968
and '69.
The Poppycock, which only held about 250 patrons, had closed by Spring, 1970, sized out by larger clubs in the booming Bay Area rock scene. The venue had re-opened as In Your Ear in May, 1971, with a novel booking policy. In Your Ear was more of a jazz club, but with generous helpings of blues and some kinds of rock, too. The basic assumption of In Your Ear was that a jazz audience wasn't hostile to electric rock music, but wanted something to listen to rather than just to dance. In that respect, In Your Ear anticipated the booking policy of San Francisco's much larger Great American Music Hall by a few years. The Loading Zone were a good fit for In Your Ear, in that they played pretty sophisticated music, even while they kept up a nice groove.
May 12, 1972 Sand Castle, Los Altos, CA: Loading Zone/3rd Street Annex Band (Saturday)
An ad in the Stanford Daily (May 11) promoted the Zone at a place called the Sand Castle, in Los Altos. The club was at 2nd and San Antonio, just across the Palo Alto border and down near the freeway. Such places rarely advertised in the Daily.
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| An SF Examiner ad (Sunday May 14 '72) for bands playing North Beach Revival at 1024 Kearny St. Note that The Beans have just changed their name to The Tubes. |
May 16, 1972 North Beach Revival, San Francisco, CA: Loading Zone/Blue Mountain (Tuesday)
May 17-18, 1972 North Beach Revival, San Francisco, CA: Tower of Power/Loading Zone (Wednesday-Thursday)
Blue Mountain was a Palo Alto band.
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May 19, 1972 Redding Civic Auditorium, Redding, CA: Stoneground/Norman Greenbaum/Loading Zone (Friday)
Stoneground were on Warner Brothers, and Norman Greenbaum had scored a big hit single ("Spirit In The Sky"). This triple bill counted for something in Redding.
May 20, 1972 The Orphanage, San Francisco, CA: Loading Zone (Saturday)
The Orphanage was at 807 Montgomery, between North Beach and the Financial District. The site had been clubs of various types over the years, but it had recently opened as a rock club. Based on its advertising, the Orphanage seems to have had a slightly different business model than some other clubs. It was near enough to the well-heeled Financial District that it served lunch and happy hour, and also put on rock concerts at night, so night-time rock shows were not its only source of revenue. The Orphanage mostly booked Bay Area bands, but it was a relatively high-profile club.
May 25, 27 1972 Long Branch, Berkeley, CA: Loading Zone/Linx (Thursday, Saturday)
The missing Friday night here (May 26) is a hint that Loading Zone had plenty of bookings that I can't track down. Now, granted, the Friday night booking at the Long Branch was Earth Quake, who pretty well played every Friday night there and packed the house. Still, you have to figure the Zone was booked somewhere.
May 28, 1972 In Your Ear, Palo Alto, CA: Loading Zone (Sunday)
June 8, 1972 Napa County Fairgrounds, Napa, CA: Tower Of Power/Loading Zone (Thursday)
Napa County was (and remains) a primarily agricultural area. The County Fair would have been a big event, even if grapes had as much prominence as cows. I assume that this booking was part of the County Fair, or a similar event. The County Fair would have been a week or two long, with music bookings several nights a week. Tower and the Zone probably played what is now called Chardonnay Hall, with a capacity of about 1000, but that's just a guess. The Napa County Fairgrounds are in the town of Napa, at 575 3rd St.
Somewhere around this time, the Loading Zone disintegrated, as many of its members went on to more successful groups. After touring with Gabor Szabo, organist Tom Coster and bassist Dougie Rauch joined the reconstituted Santana. The Santana band had been having personnel upheaval for the previous 18 months. After firing original bassist David Brown, the group had borrowed a jazz friend of drummer Michael Shrieve. Tom Rutley had played bass with Shrieve in the College Of San Mateo big band. Rutley seems to have only been temporary. Sometime in 1971, Shrieve had invited Rauch to California, no doubt with an eye for him to join Santana. As Santana wasn't working at the time, Rauch seems to have gotten a gig with the Loading Zone.
Rauch had also joined Tom Coster when he would back guitarist Gabor Szabo. Supposedly, Carlos Santana first heard Coster with Szabo. Carlos would have already been familiar with Rauch. When Gregg Rolie finally left--or more precisely, did not choose to return to tour with--Santana, that left open an organ chair. Both Coster and Rauch started recording with Santana on the album Caravanserai, and began touring in September 1972.
There were many social and musical connections between Santana and Loading Zone, a sign of the high esteem in which the Zone were held by their peers. Wendy Haas joined the new group Azteca around June 1972, mainly as a singer. Azteca, organized by the Escovedo brothers (Pete and Coke), was a forward-looking band that merged Latin, jazz and rock music in a huge 15-piece ensemble. Drummer Tony Smith, meanwhile, joined the group Malo, which included guitarist Jorge Santana (Carlos' brother). Both Azteca and Malo had management and record company ties to the Santana band.
June 8, 1972 Long Branch, Berkeley, CA; Loading Zone/Linx (Thursday)Presumably, the Zone played in the afternoon in Napa and later that evening in Berkeley.
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| The great Oakland drummer Mike Clark joined The Loading Zone in late 1972 |
June 22, 1972 The Boathouse, Sausalito, CA: Loading Zone (Thursday)
Nonetheless, the Loading Zone did not entirely disappear. Very recently, I read an excerpt from a 2019 Jake Feinberg interview with guitarist Bruce Conte (RIP), who mentioned that there was a final version of the Loading Zone with an entirely different lineup. I have somewhat arbitrarily assumed that the last version of the Loading Zone played from this Sausalito date until the band's demise in September, but that is just an educated guess on my part. The new lineup, per Conte, was
Linda Tillery-vocals
Bruce Conte-guitar
Pat O'Hara-trombone
Steve Funk-keyboards
Paul Jackson-bass
Mike Clark-drums
Paul Jackson and Mike Clark were roommates, and also heavy hitters in the Oakland jazz scene. They would become very well known in musical circles within a few years as members of Herbie Hancock's amazing funky jazz ensemble the Headhunters. Trombonist Pat O'Hara had been in the Loading Zone in the 60s. Conte did not mention a saxophonist, although having a trombone as the only horn would be an intriguing sound. O'Hara was an established Bay Area jazz and session man. Keyboardist Steve Funk was another experienced studio hand, best known for being in the band Southern Comfort (who had released a Columbia album in 1970). I'm sure this lineup just jammed out on some well-known songs, but with all this talent they probably sounded great.
June 26, 1972 In Your Ear, Palo Alto, CA: Loading Zone (Monday)
June 27, 1972 Long Branch, Berkeley, CA: Loading Zone (Tuesday)
David Kramer-Smyth also found a June 26-27 listing for The Boathouse in Sausalito.
June 29, 1972 Inn Of The Beginning, Cotati, CA: Loading Zone (Thursday)
July 14, 1972 Inn Of The Beginning, Cotati, CA: Loading Zone (Friday)
July 15, 1972 Long Branch, Berkeley, CA: Loading Zone/Frank Biner (Saturday)
July 28-29, 1972 El Rancho Club, Palo Alto, CA: Loading Zone/Bishop Mayfield Revue (Friday-Saturday)The El Rancho club was at 3901 El Camino Real in Palo Alto, well South of downtown, amongst the hotels.
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| The marquee at Keystone Korner in San Francisco, at 750 Vallejo Street (probably from the early 70s) |
The Keystone Korner, at 750 Vallejo Street, had been one of the first clubs in San Francisco to exclusively book original rock music when it had opened in late 1968. Still, the club was too small (around 250-300 patrons) and too far from the suburbs to really thrive in the booming rock market. Owner Freddie Herrera had taken over the much larger New Monk and re-named it the Keystone Berkeley. In August of '72, Herrera sold the Keystone Korner to Todd Barkan. Barkan kept the name but turned it into San Francisco's premier jazz club.
The Loading Zone played the Keystone Korner shortly after Barkan officially took over. While Barkan made the Keystone Korner a club focused on jazz, part of its appeal was it's broad-mindedness. Funky groovers like the Loading Zone certainly counted as jazz.
August 25-26, 1972 Inn Of The Beginning, Cotati, CA: Loading Zone (Friday-Saturday)
August 27, 1972 Keystone Berkeley, Berkeley, CA: Loading Zone (Sunday)
Loading Zone seems to have replaced Cold Blood, who had been listed in earlier ads.
September 6, 1972 Keystone Berkeley, Berkeley, CA: Loading Zone/Kimberly (Wednesday)
Kimberly was a soft-rock band associated with Santana management.
September 9, 1972 Civic Auditorium, San Francisco, CA: Ray Charles/The Impressions/New Birth-Nighliters/Aaron and Freddie/Taj Mahal/Gary Bartz/Loading Zone/Black Light Sound/Bayette (Saturday) Black Expo 72: 2nd night of 3
The end of the line seems to have come at San Francisco's Civic Auditorium (now the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium), at 90 Grove Street (near Market St). There was a three-day event called Black Expo '72, with concerts every night. Loading Zone was booked on the middle evening, under an impressive bill that included Ray Charles and the Impressions. If the Zone even played this show, they probably played much earlier in the afternoon.
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| Oakland Tribune, Friday, September 29, 1972 |
September 30, 1972 Keystone Berkeley, Berkeley, CA: Loading Zone (Saturday)
I can find no trace of any Loading Zone bookings after this Keystone gig, if the Zone even played it. Bruce Conte moved over to Tower Of Power--remember, they shared a rehearsal hall--and Linda Tillery went solo. Paul Jackson got into Herbie Hancock's Headhunters, and (when Harvey Mason couldn't tour) got his roommate Clark in on it. O'Hara returned to the studio, but I've found no trace of Steve Funk after this.
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