Loading Zone Performance List 1972 (Loading Zone cont III)

 

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.

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.

 

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.

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.

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.

January 31, 1972 The Boathouse, Sausalito, CA: Loading Zone/Abel (Monday)
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.

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. 

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).

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).

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)

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)

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)

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.

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. 

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.

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)

Palo Alto Times, July 27, 1972

July 27-29, 1972 El Rancho Club, Palo Alto, CA: Loading Zone/Bishop Mayfield Revue (Thursday-Saturday)
The El Rancho club was at 3901 El Camino Real in Palo Alto, well South of downtown, amongst the hotels.The 50-room El Rancho Inn had been sold in early '72 (the owner had died in 1970). Starting in July, the hotel booked performers on weekends, but this seems to have only lasted about a month. The room would get a liquor license in mid-73 (presumably it only served beer before) and became a Card Casino (Poker etc) in Summer '74. It is currently the site of a Comfort Inn. 

Bishop Mayfield did not play Thursday night (July 27).  

The marquee at Keystone Korner in San Francisco, at 750 Vallejo Street (probably from the early 70s)

 August 16-17, 1972 Keystone Korner, San Francisco, CA: Loading Zone with Linda Tillery (Wednesday-Thursday)
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. 

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.

 

Aftermath

The Loading Zone only released two albums while they were an active band, their 1968 debut and their independently released '69 album. Yet there were an important band, the first one to bridge the gap between psychedelia, jazz and soul music. They kicked open the door, long before other bands even knew there was a hallway. Groups like Sly and The Family Stone, Santana and Tower of Power were the ones who walked through, while the Loading Zone stayed stuck at the entrance.

 

Excellent musicians went through the Loading Zone. Tom Coster and Doug Rauch were anchors of the Santana band at one of its peak periods. Players like Paul Fauerso, Frank Lupica (aka Davis), Steve Kupka, George Marsh, Wendy Haas, Bruce Conte, Tony Smith, Paul Jackson and Mike Clark are highly regarded by their fellow musicians, with armloads of credits. I have done my best to capture what could be recovered from the Loading Zone's early 70s period, but I have only managed to produce a fragmentary picture. Anyone with additional information, insights, corrections or speculations should include them in the Comments.

Resurrection

And yet the Loading Zone did not quite disappear after 1972. They reformed at least twice, that I am aware of. Around 2000, late 60s Zone drummer George Marsh was teaching at UC Santa Cruz. He reformed the Loading Zone with organist Paul Fauerso and bassist Mike Eggleston. They played one gig at UCSC, at least--I don't know if there were other shows.

In 2005, Fauerso, Marsh and Eggleston did some recording. They released a few tracks, along with some tracks from the 1969 album, as the album Blue Flame. It was released on the (appropriately named) Elder Funk label in 2008. By that time, the Loading Zone were over 40 years old, and were like a form of traditional music from the Oakland of our childhood.

August 14, 2008 Freight And Salvage, Berkeley, CA: Loading Zone (Thursday)

What better place to perform traditional music than Berkeley's venerable Freight And Salvage club, which had been celebrating folk traditions since its 1968 opening? In this case, the tradition was from around West 7th Street rather than Appalachia, but it was still tradition. Flautist Matt Eakle (part of the David Grisman Quintet) joined the Loading Zone for their Thursday night performance at the Addison Street club.

 

 

 

960 Bush Street (Downstairs), San Francisco, CA: The Boarding House Performance List: August-December 1971 (Boarding House II)

An ad for the Boarding House, from San Francisco Good Times, December 10 1971

The Boarding House, 960 Bush Street, San Francisco, CA
The Boarding House, at 960 Bush Street, remains one of the most fondly remembered San Francisco rock clubs of the 1970s. The intimate, bowl-shaped room, seating barely 300, was the site of many great shows. In the mid-70s, when record company support was at its peak, the Boarding House was the prime location for booking acts on the rise. The club only barely broke even, but record company economics were more about finding a club that appealed to writers and tastemakers, in order create some buzz.

Jerry Garcia, Neil Young and others played memorable shows at The Boarding House. The Tubes played two weeks there in the Summer of 1975, ensuring that their soon-to-be-released debut album got maximum attention. Comedians like Steve Martin would play the club just as they were approaching stardom. Every month would feature acts with new albums, rising stars with some real (if sometimes manufactured) buzz and constant attention from reviewers in the San Francisco daily papers.

Yet the Boarding House did not at all start out this way. Initially, the building at 960 Bush Street had been purchased and renovated by Doug Weston, the operator of West Hollywood's premier club, The Troubadour. The SF outpost of the Troubadour was only open for 4 thinly attended months, starting in August 1970. The West Hollywood formula did not work in provincial San Francisco. The manager of the Troubadour, David Allen, who had managed the Hungry i, then took over the space. The Boarding House opened in March, 1971, nearly six months after the last Troubadour show on October 30, 1970. Allen leased the space from Weston, who apparently still owned the building.

The Boarding House, at 960 Bush Street in San Francisco, some time in the mid-1970s

The Boarding House, Year 1
960 Bush Street was in Lower Nob Hill, in-between Union Square and Chinatown. It was about six to eight blocks from downtown, depending on the direction you went. San Francisco is hilly and cold, so there wasn't going to be a lot of walking traffic. Although the neighborhood was pleasant, there weren't convenient parking garages nearby. All of these problems had plagued the Troubadour, and the Boarding House didn't really solve any of them.

Bay Area rock fans of a certain age may recall the Boarding House, or may have seen photos. In fact, those recollections do not apply. Although the Boarding House was always at 960 Bush Street, initially the club was in the basement, rather than the theatrical bowl of later years. Doug Weston had purchased and renovated the building, and he had opened the Troubadour in the ground floor. The second floor, formerly a theater and restaurant, and formerly a recording studio, had remained unfinished. Later in 1971, the second floor of the Boarding House started advertising theatrical events as the Boarding House Theater. In early 1972, a few rock shows were put on at the Theater, and ultimately the entire operation moved upstairs. The address was always 960 Bush Street, but patrons would eventually go up the stairs rather than down. The initial Boarding House configuration was apparently a flat room with extended "family-style" tables. In later years, the downstairs would be used for some lower-profile comedy shows, and sometimes as dining room. 

The business model of the Boarding House was that patrons would buy dinner, and perhaps some beer, wine or coffee, and afterwards see a show. Patrons could of course skip dinner and just see the show, but the best seats would have been reserved for the diners. One entree was served each night. Initially, the Boarding House just booked acoustic acts. There wasn't a prohibition against electric music, but the economics of the club was for smaller ensembles, mostly local, and drummers were rare.

There were plenty of coffee house and nightclub gigs for acoustic performers in the Bay Area, but they were hardly premier bookings. Either they were tiny coffee shops, or perhaps the Sunday night at a rock nightclub in the hinterlands. The calendars would usually just say "Sunday--Folk Music," which just meant "one or two performers singing and playing acoustic." A few clubs played actual folk music, mainly the Freight And Salvage in Berkeley, but that was a specialized endeavour. Rock had gotten louder and louder in the 1960s, but had reversed itself somewhat in the 1970s. Popular artists like James Taylor and Cat Stevens were selling records now, and Elton John, another big star, was introspective amidst all his rocking. 

David Allen, proprietor of The Boarding House, probably around 1980 (photo: Mike Maloney, SF Chronicle)

The Boarding House had opened on Friday, March 26, 1971. An article in the March 24 San Francisco Examiner described it as "an acoustic music salon." The club served dinner, with one seating each night, at a cost of $3.25. The Boarding House was run by David Allen, who had been Doug Weston's house manager when the venue had been the Northern outpost of The Troubadour. Prior to that, Allen had been the house manager for the legendary 60s nightclub The Hungry i. So Allen was well-connected to the local press and the ways of San Francisco. 

San Francisco wasn't Los Angeles, so the Boarding House didn't get big stars on the verge of success, like the Troubadour in West Hollywood. In 1971, though, the Boarding House was perhaps the premier local booking for acoustic acts and singer/songwriters, since it was in San Francisco and actually devoted to that kind of music. Of course, many fine acts played the Boarding House, but it hardly led to success. The performers we recognize now had to go somewhere else to make it, New York or Los Angeles usually, or wait for a few other turns of the wheel. In my previous post, I reviewed the initial months of the Boarding House,  giving a useful snapshot of the songwriters in the Bay Area in 1971. This post will review the performers at the Boarding House for the balance of 1971. In the second half of the year, there are more singer/songwriters touring behind new albums, a sign that the record companies liked having a place to showcase acoustic acts.

 

Diane Sward Rapaport's 1979 book How To Make & Sell Your Own Recording was a critical text for the independent musician. The book has sold over 150,000 copies. Rapaport (1939-2020) had been a band manager for Bill Graham from 1969-74.

Singer/Songwriters in San Francisco, ca 1971
The dilemma of Bay Area singer/songwriters was aptly summed up by manager Diane Sward (later Diane Rapaport). Sward was an aspiring band manager, and had talked her way into the Bill Graham organization's management wing. Sward managed the group Lamb and singer Pamela Polland, and also helped to book various acoustic acts as a sort of local package. Sward (1939-2020) had a remarkable blog, well worth reading for any fans of old San Francisco music days, and indeed well worth reading in general. In one post Sward described what faced local singers who weren't in a loud rock band:

Gigs in Bay Area coffeehouses were easy to get, but they didn’t make a lot of money for anyone, including the performers. They were able to get a few gigs in clubs at 8 or 8:30 p.m., prior to when many rock bands began setting up for a 9:30 show. I told club owners that my band would help warm up the audience, didn’t need a big stage setup (no drums, no big amps, no stage monitors) and would make them enough extra bucks selling drinks to pay us.

However rock fans and acoustic music fans didn’t always mix well. More often than not the audience would start getting impatient around 9:15. “We want Jerry (Garcia); we want Elvin (Bishop) and so on.”

I attended a lot of Lamb gigs and saw such other Bay Area acoustic performers as Lambert & Nuttycombe, Jeffrey Cain and Uncle Vinty. They were all bucking up against rock ‘n roll. The audiences for rock bands were larger; and that meant more money for the club owners.

Sward went on to find unique bookings for her acts, and helped them record as well. The Boarding House was intentionally designed as a different kind of club than clubs like Berkeley's New Orleans House, or Palo Alto's Poppycock, which were miniature Avalon Ballrooms with a light show and a dance floor. Or, to put it another way, miniature Avalons if the Avalon had sold beer. The Boarding House would remain distinct when clubs like Keystone Berkeley, the Long Branch and the Orphanage gained prominence in the next few years. The Boarding House had no fear of electric instruments, but the more theatrical club appealed to a more reflective audience.

Record Company Support
The sixties had been the era of self-contained rock groups, writing and singing their own music and playing their own instruments. The sixties had also brought forth the rise of FM rock radio, and the much broader playlists of those stations opened the door for a wider variety of music. As the 70s dawned, record companies were discovering there was a huge appetite for artists who wrote and sang their own songs, but weren't part of a group. The 1970s were the era of the singer/songwriter and record companies figured out quickly that there was a lot of money to be made. The heart of this was at West Hollywood's Troubadour club, hard by all the LA record companies. Bands who were a hit at the Troubadour could spring forth with record company backing that could make them into stars.

For rock bands, 60s touring had been more of a profit and loss proposition. Bands played where they had a following, so they could come home with more money than they started with. FM radio had started to change that. Record companies' new goals were to spark FM airplay, which could lead to substantial sales. The typical singer/songwriter wasn't going to go over well if they were third on the bill to a couple of noisy rock bands. It was in company interests to ensure that solo artists got heard at smaller places like The Boarding House, so that they would get good reviews and the most committed fans could go back to work or the dorm and say "you gotta hear so-and-so's new album."

What evolved was system where record companies provided "tour support." This meant that the record company laid out some money to get there artist on the road: buying airline tickets in advance, for example, or renting equipment. The performer then just had to break even on the road to pay for food and lodging. It made a smaller place like The Boarding House more financially viable, since artists weren't committed to huge paydays in order to tour (it's also possible the Boarding House provided traveling artists a place to stay, but I'm just guessing). Now, this wasn't charity--any cash laid out by the record company for tour support was recouped from future royalties. But if an album hit it big, that was small change. 

From looking at the bookings of the first four months of the Boarding House, it's plain that the record companies saw a lot of value in the venue. In April and May, the acts headlining were mostly local. By the beginning of the Summer, almost every headliner was an out-of-town band with an album. This meant the record company was likely buying ads on the local radio stations, or other promotional support, and helping both their own act and the venue itself.

 

The Boarding House Performance List: August-December 1971

 

Maggie and Terre Roche's 1975 Columbia debut album Seductive Reasoning, some years before younger sister Suzzy joined to make them a trio

August 3-8, 1971 Boarding House, San Francisco: CA Maggie and Terre Roche/Uncle Vinty (Tuesday-Sunday)
Modern fans know The Roches as a unique trio of singing sisters--Maggie, Terre and Suzzy--linked to Paul Simon and the Greenwich Village folk scene. The trio released their first album in 1979. It turns out, however, that there was a backstory. The two older sisters, Maggie and Terre, not only were a singing duo in 1971, but they played the Boarding House so much that I suspect they were based in California. The duo was first booked to open at the Boarding House from May 26 through June 6. They would return later in June (June 22-27), so it must have gone well. Now, in August the duo was returning as headliners, so they must have developed a following.

Maggie and Terre Roche were from suburban Park Ridge, NJ. They had dropped out of high school to become a folksinging duo. Maggie wrote original songs, and they played guitars and harmonized together. By the late 70s, The Roches would include Maggie, Terre and their younger sister Suzzy. The Roches never became huge stars, but they were well-known in a New York way, and they certainly had a unique sound that only sisters could have. But the narrative of the Roche sisters seems to simply leave out any time spent in San Francisco as a duo.

I don't know for a fact if the two Roche sisters spent the summer in San Francisco, or they were just touring around and kept coming back to the Boarding House during this time. In either case, any references to this time seems to be forgotten from their stories. By 1972, the Roches had returned to New York City, where they sang on a Paul Simon album. They would manage to parlay bartending jobs into a chance to audition at the famous Gerde's Folk City club. By 1975, the pair had released their only album as a duo, Seductive Reasoning. Suzzy would join a few years later, and the first Roches trio album was released in 1979.

A live tape of Maggie and Terre floats around, a short set from a coffeehouse in Eau Claire, WI, on January 16, 1975. It's the best available hint for what the duo might have sounded like at the Boarding House back in 1971. If they were just 75% as good as the tape (which was 4 years later), no wonder the Boarding House liked them. The Roches had a successful career when they were based out of New York, but 1971 San Francisco had nothing for a pair of singing sisters with acoustic guitars.

Uncle Vinty (Vinton Medbury, 1947-94) was essentially a performance artist who played the piano. He sang and played the piano, told jokes and did magic tricks. He often performed in a Viking hat. Originally from Rhode Island, he had come out to San Francisco around 1971. He ultimately ended up in Milwaukee, although he continued to tour around. He died early, but is fondly remembered on the internet. Uncle Vinty didn't fit into any pre-existing box, however, and San Francisco music scene didn't really know what to make of him.

August 10-15, 1971 Boarding House, San Francisco , CA: Peter Tork/John Brandenburg with Chris Campbell (Tuesday-Sunday)
Without a doubt, the most famous performer to play the Boarding House in 1971 was former Monkee Peter Tork. Tork had left the Monkees in 1968, when they had disintegrated. Tork had originally been an aspiring  folk singer, and had returned to that, doing some recording in 1969 that had never been released. By 1970, he was in an only-in-LA circumstance, hugely famous, generally popular but not particularly respected as a singer or performer, since the Monkees were the epitome of "plastic." He had played the West Hollywood Troubadour, and played around some elsewhere. I don't think Tork embarrassed himself as a performer, but he wasn't memorable, either. By this time, the Monkees were old news and no one reviewed his shows.

John Brandenburg played guitar, but I don't know anything else about him, nor Chris Campbell.

 

August 17-22, 1971 Boarding House, San Francisco, CA: Taj Mahal/Mississippi Sam Chatman (Tuesday-Sunday)
Taj Mahal (b. Henry Saint Clair Fredericks in 1942) had been raised in a musical family in Springfield, MA. He played in various musical ensembles in high school and in college (at U.Mass). By 1964 he had moved to the West Coast, and he formed a pioneering R&B combo called The Rising Sons, with Ry Cooder on lead guitar (a cd of their recordings was finally released in 1992). By early 1968, Taj had already signed and recorded his debut album with Columbia, with both Cooder and Jesse Ed Davis on guitars, although it would not be released until later in the year.

Taj Mahal's equally excellent second album, The Natch'l Blues, still with Davis but without Ry Cooder, had been released later in '68. Later in 1969, Taj Mahal would release his memorable Columbia electric/acoustic double album Giant Step/De Ole Folks At Home. Taj Mahal's initial sound had been an electrified version of country blues, rhythmically a little different from the Chicago sound, but just as rocking. De Old Folks At Home explored a different, quieter approach to the blues.

Taj Mahal released two albums in 1971, The Real Thing and then Happy To Be Just Like I Am. While Taj Mahal was too inventive to be contain himself with a "solo blues performer" label, his newer work was more intimate. While in the 60s, Taj Mahal had been backed by a great trio featuring Jesse Ed Davis, in the 70s he tended to tour as a solo performer, or at least in an acoustic configuration. In that respect, the Boarding House would have been a better place to show off his new music, as opposed to opening at Winterland. 

Mississippi Sam Chatmon (1897-1983) was a Delta Blues guitarist and singer. He had been a member of the Mississippi Sheiks, and may have been Charlie Patton's half-brother. He had been "rediscovered" in 1960, and had started recording for Berkeley's Arhoolie Records soon after. Chatmon played all the major folk festivals in the 1960s and 70s, and toured regularly.

August 24-29, 1971 Boarding House, San Francisco, CA: Bola Sete/Chet Nichols (Tuesday-Sunday)
Bola Sete (1923-1987, born Djalma de Andrade) was a Brazilian jazz guitarist who had been prominent in the 60s. Bola Sete (which means "Seven Ball"), after a substantial career in South America in the 1950s, had ended up playing at the Sheraton Hotel in San Francisco, where he captivated Dizzy Gillespie (it turned out that Gillespie's piano player, Argentinian Lalo Schifrin, had played with Bola Seta in Rio). Brazilian jazz was hot at the time, and Bola Sete had recorded and toured with both Gillespie and Vince Guaraldi. Guaraldi and Bola Sete had made some very popular albums for Fantasy Records in the mid-60s. After about 1968, however, Bola Sete had reduced his presence and largely stopped recording and performing, although he hadn't actually retired.

Bola Sete did continue to play periodic Bay Area shows. I believe he lived in the North Bay, as well. Bola Sete did have a 1971 album on Fantasy, called SheBaba. It's an anomaly, and may have been released for contractual reasons. Probably Bola Sete just accompanied himself.

Chet Nichols was a singer/songwriter who would release an album on Kama Sutra Records in 1972. Nichols was from Chicago, but he had gone to college at Kansas University. He made friends with the local all-night DJ, one Stephen Barncard, who became an engineer and producer in San Francisco. Nichols ended up getting signed in '71 and recorded a little with Barncard in San Francisco. Later, some tracks were recorded with Nick Gravenites and various local heavies, like Pete Sears, Dave Garibaldi (Tower Of Power drummer) and Nicky Hopkins. The collected tracks were released by Kama Sutra as the Time Loop album. 

This week's appearance by Nichols was probably facilitated by Barncard or Gravenites. Gravenites had produced both Brewer And Shipley and Danny Cox, both Kansas acts who shared management with Nichols. Nichols himself has had a long, successful career in the music industry, in commercials, movies, songwriting and his own recording. Once again, however, San Francisco wasn't really the place for solo artists to achieve success.

September 2-5, 1971 Boarding House, San Francisco, CA: Dee Higgins/Will Pate (Thursday-Sunday)
I believe that Dee Higgins and Will Pate played the entire week (from Tuesday August 31 through Sunday September 5). Since my only source, however, were Boarding House display ads from the San Francisco Good Times (posted throughout), I have to guess. An earlier ad had James And The Good Brothers and Dee Higgins, and the later ad had Higgins and Pate, with James And The Good Brothers later. I have gone with that sequence. 

Dee Higgins was a Canadian singer. She had played the club when it was the Troubadour. Will Pate is unknown to me.

September 7-12, 1971 Boarding House, San Francisco, CA: James and The Good Brothers/Uncle Vinty/Chris Williamson (Tuesday-Sunday)
The last act to play the San Francisco Troubadour, on Sunday, November 1, 1970 had been the Canadian trio James And The Good Brothers. Whether by plan or luck, the same trio were the headliners for the opening weekend of The Boarding House. They returned again in April. After apparently leaving town for a while to record in Toronto, the band returned in September.

James And The Good Brothers were a Canadian acoustic trio who were an extended part of the Grateful Dead family. Guitarist James Ackroyd had teamed with twin brothers Brian and Bruce Good, on guitar and autoharp, respectively. All sang, and their music was in a country-folk style, but without a pronounced Southern twang, somewhat like a laid back version of The Band. The trio had met the Grateful Dead when they played on the infamous Festival Express cross-Canadian tour. The Dead invited them to San Francisco, and the trio came down to San Francisco, where the Dead office had helped them get gigs. 

James and The Good Brothers sang original songs, more or less in the vein of Crosby, Stills and Nash or America. They were more country than either of those bands, but since they had Canadian accents rather than Southern ones, their music had a different resonance with listeners. Also, since the Good Brothers used an autoharp, a rarely used instrument, their music had a different feel to it. It's no surprise that James And The Good Brothers were signed to Columbia, since record companies were snapping up any band in the CSN vein.

Early in 1971, James And The Good Brothers had recorded at Wally Heider Studios with Grateful Dead engineer Betty Cantor. Jerry Garcia and Bill Kreutzmann likely played on the initial sessions, although they were not used on the final album. Ultimately, parts of the album seems to have been re-recorded in Toronto. Columbia would release the James And The Good Brothers album in November, 1971.

When James And The Good Brothers had played at the SF Troubadour in 1970, they had just arrived in town. By March, 1971, however, the band had opened a weekend for the New Riders Of The Purple Sage at Fillmore West (on February 25-28). When they had played there, Jerry Garcia (pedal steel guitar), Jack Casady ("balalaika" bass) and Spencer Dryden (drums) had joined the trio. The band returned in September and played a number of local shows, including a KSAN live broadcast on September 5. The band toured nationally in early 1972, but the album never took off (ultimately, James Ackroyd would stay in California, and the Good Brothers would return to Canada, where they had a successful musical career along with their banjo-playing younger brother Larry). 

Cris Williamson's 1971 debut album on Ampex Records

"Chris" Williamson was also advertised for this week at the Boarding House. She had headlined the Boarding House in May. I have a suspicion that Williamson and James And The Good Brothers split up the headlining duties this week (with Uncle Vinty as the opener throughout), but I have too little information to go on at this time.

Cris Williamson would go on to a unique, hugely successful career, but the Bay Area scene had no mechanism at this time for getting an artist like her heard by more people. Opening big rock clubs was a poor choice for serious songwriters (to Diana Sward's points above), and playing clubs in San Francisco didn't really get acts signed or played on the radio. A singer might get a little following, and make a little coin, but San Francisco wasn't the place to break out of the box. The Boarding House listings for this period show numerous interesting artists who only got somewhere when they moved on from the local rock scene. Williamson may be the case in point.

Williamson (b. 1947) was from Deadwood, SD, of all places.  She had released three obscure solo albums on Avanti Records in 1964-65. By 1971, she had resurfaced in the Bay Area. Williamson had released an album on Ampex in 1971. It had been recorded in New York (with Eddie Kramer, at Electric Lady Studios) and in San Francisco (at Wally Heider's, with Jim Gaines). An army of session men, some well-known, were on the record. It went nowhere.

In future years, Williamson would assert that there should be a record label run by women, for women, and that would lead to Olivia Records. Olivia released Williamson's 1975 album The Changer And The Changed. Besides being a fine album, Olivia was in the forerfront of DIY releases, fitting in nicely with Beserkely Records and numerous punk labels. The message was, if you want albums of a certain type, release 'em yourself. Once again, there were good acts at the Boarding House, but San Francisco didn't know what to do with them.

Revolting, the 1970 debut album by Congress Of Wonders, released on Fantasy in 1970

September 14-19, 1971 Boarding House, San Francisco, CA: Congress Of Wonders/Charlie Blue (Tuesday-Sunday)
Congress Of Wonders were a comedy trio from Berkeley, initially from the UC Berkeley drama department and later part of Berkeley’s Open Theater on College Avenue, a prime spot for what were called “Happenings” (now ‘Performance Art’).  The group performed at the Avalon and other rock venues.

Ultimately a duo, Karl Truckload (Howard Kerr) and Winslow Thrill (Richard Rollins) created two Congress of Wonders albums on Fantasy Records (Revolting in 1970 and 1972's Sophomoric). Their pieces “Pigeon Park” and “Star Trip”, although charmingly dated now, were staples of San Francisco underground radio at the time.

Charlie Blue is unknown to me.

Lane Tietgen had been the principal songwriter for The Serfs, a Kansas band that released Early Bird Cafe on Capitol in 1969. Organist Mike Finnegan was the lead singer

September 21-26, 1971 Boarding House, San Francisco, CA: Lane Tietgen/Mike Wilhelm (Tuesday-Sunday)
Lane Tietgen was also a returning headliner to the Boarding House. He had headlined in late April (April 29-May 2, 1971), soon after the Boarding House had opened. It must have gone alright, since he returned.

Lane Tietgen (1946-2020), from Topeka, had been in a Kansas band called The Serfs. The lead singer of the Serfs was organist Mike Finnegan, and the band had released a 1969 Capitol album called Early Bird Cafe. The album was quite obscure, and Finnegan moved to the Bay Area. Finnegan became the organist and lead singer of The Jerry Hahn Brotherhood, a jazz-rock band built around native Kansan guitarist Hahn. Jerry Hahn Brotherhood had released a highly-touted but unsuccessful album on Columbia, prior to breaking up in early 1971.

In the meantime, Tietgen seems to have played around San Francisco, at least temporarily. The Brotherhood album is now obscure, too. Nonetheless, many of the songs on the album were written by Tietgen, and two of them were covered a few years later by Manfred Mann. Manfred Mann, while not a major pop star, isn't obscure. Tietgen's songs "Captain Bobby Stout" and "Martha's Madman" have been part of the Manfred Mann Earth Band repertoire for over 40 years.

Mike Wilhelm had been the lead guitarist in The Charlatans, the band that had been the very first exponents of the so-called "San Francisco Sound," back in the Summer of '65. The Charlatans had since broken up, reformed and broken up again. Wilhelm led a band called Loose Gravel, but based on the booking I think he was playing as a solo. Wilhelm played in older blues style, appropriately modified for San Francisco sensibilities.

September 28-October 3, 1971 Boarding House, San Francisco, CA: Jeffrey Cain/Ellen Jo Yester (Tuesday-Sunday)
Jeffrey Cain had headlined the Boarding House in late July (July 27-August 1). Clearly, the Boarding House was developing a rotation of bookings that fit the club. It probably fit the artists, and their record companies, too, since there were few other viable options for non-rocking club acts.

Jeffrey Cain was a singer/songwriter who was associated with the Youngbloods, though I'm not quite sure what the original connection had been. Cain had released an album on Raccoon Records, the Youngbloods' imprint on Warner Brothers. For You (1970), had been produced by future luthier Rick Turner, before he focused exclusively on building guitars. Cain would go on to release a second album on Raccoon, Whispering Thunder (1972), produced by Jesse Colin Young.  

Jo Ellen Yester was a local singer. Yester had been singing in various ensembles since the early 60s, but had not been a full-time professional musician since then (she had been married to Jim Yester of The Association). In 1971, she was re-starting her active career again, and she would go on to have a lengthy performing history.  Yester had opened at the Boarding House in April (Apr 4-6, 1971), and now she was back. She wasn't a headliner, but at least it must have gone well enough to earn a return.

RJFox was an acoustic trio recorded for Atlantic by Stephen Barncard in 1971. Their shelved album was released in the 21st century

October 5-10, 1971 Boarding House, San Francisco, CA: Lambert & Nuttycombe/RJ Fox (Tuesday-Sunday)
Folk duo Craig Nuttycombe and Dennis Lambert had been in the Eastside Kids in Southern California. Their album on A&M Records had been recorded at Nuttycombe's home. By this time, the duo seemed to be based in the Bay Area.

RJ Fox was a vocal trio with songwriters Joel Siegel and Richard Hovey, along with singer Sherry Fox. The trio apparently had remarkable harmonies, and had somehow talked their way into Wally Heider Studios in 1970 when David Crosby was recording. Crosby and producer Stephen Barncard were so impressed that they got them signed to Atlantic. Barncard would produce an album, scheduled for Fall '71, but due to politics at Atlantic the record was scrapped (it was eventually released some decades later). RJ Fox would split up, and Sherry Fox would go onto become the lead singer of the band Cookin' Mama. In 1973, Siegel and Fox would reunite as Oasis.  

Around October 1971, some theater productions are advertised for The Boarding House Theater at 960 Bush Street. The Theater was in the same building as the nightclub, but upstairs. Former Troubadour owner Doug Weston likely still owned the building, and renovating the theater had been part of his original plan. In the past, the "Theater" had been not only a theater, but a restaurant and a recording studio (Coast Recorders, in the early 60s). Weston seemed to have had a plan to make it into a Television Studio. In any case, there were ads for various theater productions in the fall. The "Boarding House Theater" was the room that would become The Boarding House in mid-1972, and it is the room that most Bay Area rock fans recall as the club.

October 12-17, 1971 Boarding House, San Francisco, CA: Jim Kweskin/Kajsa Ohman (Tuesday-Sunday)
The Jim Kweskin Jug Band had formed in 1963 in Cambridge, MA, and they had been unusually influential. Besides playing fairly authentic "jug" music, then a fairly unknown style, the Kweskin band had a significant influence on young musicians. The band's late 1963 debut on Vanguard single-handedly made jug band music nationally popular. More importantly, in the early 60s, musicians in all styles were supposed to be "entertainers," wearing matching stage clothes while they performed their "show," and had scripted "patter" between numbers. Certainly The Beatles, truly revolutionary musicians, had the matching clothes and acted like entertainers on stage.

The Jim Kweskin Jug Band appeared on stage in their regular clothes, played whatever songs they felt like at that moment, and casually chatted with themselves and the crowd between songs. This was what folk music was like in the living room, and the crowd was just invited in with them. Jerry Garcia and his friends had seen the Jim Kweskin Jug Band in Berkeley (on March 11, 1964) and instantly decided that was how it was going to be: play what you want, when you feel like it, and wear whatever. David Grisman and other young musicians had the same reaction.

The Jim Kweskin Jug Band had a fairly successful run in the mid-60s, although ultimately rock music and its fans passed them by. Lots of good musicians had been in the Jim Kweskin Jug Band, and many of them would end up in Marin, including Geoff and Maria Muldaur and Richard Greene. More unsettlingly, however, by around 1968 one member of the band, harmonica player Mel Lyman, had taken on an outsized role in the bandmembers lives. The whole story of the Lyman Family, as they are known, is quite unnerving, and you can google it yourself if you have an interest.

In 1971, Reprise Records had released a Jim Kweskin solo album with the ungainly name of Richard D Herbruck Presents Jim Kweskin's America Co-Starring Mel Lyman And The Family. I presume that a tour had been arranged in support of the album. The "Jim Kweskin Jug Band" name was probably used bcause it was familiar. The whole Mel Lyman saga is not for the faint, and there has been little reflection on Kweskin's musical activities at this time. 

For this tour, however, Kweskin had returned to his roots and was playing solo. Kweskin had come through town earlier in the year billed as "Jim Kweskin Jug Band" (he had played the Lion's Share in San Anselmo on May 6-8, 1971), but I don't know who had been in the band. Phil Elwood reviewed the opening night show (in the Wednesday October 13 Examiner) and approved of Kweskin's warm, engaging style.

Elwood had a few good words for the opening act, too: "The evening began with the beautiful singing of Kajsa Ohman, a Baez-Collins-Sylvia Tyson-Jone Mitchell sort of performer." Elwood praised her rich voice and unpretentious manner, singling out her song "God Bless The Hippy." Ohman would release an album in 1980. And guess what--she's still out and about. How exactly she ended up touring in 1971 isn't clear. 

October 18, 1971 Boarding House, San Francisco, CA: Audition Night/The Residents/others
Like many local nightclubs, the Boarding House used Monday as an "Audition Night." I think bands were actually scheduled, but almost never listed in the paper. According to legend, the debut of The Residents--Northeast Louisiana's Phenomenal Pop Combo--happened on this night at the Boarding House.

Possibly this is the Polydor album by a Japanese group called The New Frontiers, released in 1971 or '72, but I'm not certain.

October 19-24, 1971 Boarding House, San Francisco, CA: New Frontiers (Japanese folk)/Maggie and Terre Roche (Tuesday-Sunday)
Maggie and Terre Roche returned for another week. It's plain they had built a following at the Boarding House.

New Frontiers was billed as "Japanese Folk." I assume this was the band on Polydor that released an album around 1971 or '72, playing some kind of hybrid of American folk and Japanese music. It's possible I found a picture of their album, or not. In any case, San Franciscans loves new things, particularly if they think they are discovering it before anyone else.

Lamb's second album, Bring Out The Son, released on Warner Brothers in 1971

 

October 26-31, 1971 Boarding House, San Francisco, CA: Lamb/Kendall Kardt (Tuesday-Sunday)
Lamb had played the Boarding House in July (July 6-11). Kendall Kardt had also been a headliner, back in May (May 11-16). The Boarding House had moved up in the ranks, however, as record companies were signing more acoustic singer/songwriter acts. By the second half of 1971, the acts headlining a week at the Boarding House had an album, were being supported on tour by a record company and might even have been getting FM airplay. An act like Kardt, signed but still without a record, was now relegated to second on the bill.

When Lamb had formed in 1969, it had essentially been the songwriting duo of Barbara Mauritz and guitarist Bob Swanson. Mauritz played piano and sang, so she was out front, but they were a team. By the end of 1969, they had added a bass player, and after a while they were an outright rock band. Diane Sward (see above) had taken on the role of manager for them, and got them assigned to Bill Graham's Fillmore label, distributed by Columbia. Sward had taken Lamb from the penurious coffee houses to the more lucrative rock circuit.

Lamb had released their Fillmore Records debut A Sign Of Change in 1970. The band was subsequently signed to Warners, but considering that Graham had connections to both, that wasn't an unlikely switch. By 1971, Lamb had added David Hayes on bass. The band's second album was Bring Out The Sun, and their third was Cross Between. Both were released in 1971, but I'm not sure of the exact timing. By the third album, Barbara Mauritz had taken on a much more prominent role in the band, and Bob Swanson was in the background. Because of the Bill Graham connection, Lamb had been broadcast live on FM radio for the closing of the Fillmore West, and ultimately got included on the memorial Last Days Of The Fillmore album.

Once again, the Boarding House was featuring a band with an album and management support, although in this case it was local. Lamb manager Diane Sward had married Lamb producer Walter Rapaport, and they remained married into eternity.  Barbara Mauritz would produce a solo album in 1972 (Isn't It Just A Beautiful Day, on Warners). She went on to a career composing film and commercial music

Kendall Kardt (b.1943) had been in the group Rig, who had been booked by the Bill Graham organization. Rig played the Fillmore East, and opened for a variety of National acts.  Rig released an album on Capitol in 1970. The band broke up, however, and Kardt moved to the Bay Area to be nearer to the Graham team. Kardt recorded a solo album for Capitol, with help from the likes of Jerry Garcia, Ronnie Montrose, Pamela Polland and Spencer Dryden, but the album was shelved. He would record an album for Columbia in 1972, but it too was shelved.Ultimately, Kardt moved to Chicago. He continued his career as a songwriter, and his songs were recorded by Montrose, Jim Post and others.

November 2-7, 1971 Boarding House, San Francisco, CA: Dan Hicks and His Hot Licks (Tuesday-Sunday)
Dan Hicks and The Hot Licks had been an opening act at 960 Bush in 1970, back when it was The Troubadour. The band had headlined the Boarding House in the week of June 29-July 4. The Fillmore West had closed the same weekend, but ironically enough Hicks had played no part in the proceedings.

Dan Hicks had been around the San Francisco scene as long as there had been one. He had been the drummer in the Charlatans, the band that started the psychedelic ballroom revolution in Virginia City, NV (along with Mike Wilhem--see above). Later Hicks had switched to guitar, so he could sing more. The Charlatans played loud, psychedelic blues, however, and Hicks had other interests. He formed a "side group" with local violinist David LaFlamme to play a sort of modified swing music. When LaFlamme left to form It's A Beautiful Day, Hicks left the Charlatans and formed Dan Hicks And His Hot Licks.

The band had released an album in 1969 on Epic, Original Recordings. The group wore Edwardian clothes, and it looked like a repackage of an old album. While the band played acoustic swing music, kind of, Hicks' wry, cynical lyrics were a striking contrast to the music. The album included future Hicks' classics like "How Can I Miss You When You Won't Go Away" and "I Scare Myself." Nobody sounded like Dan Hicks and His Hot Licks. By 1971, the live band was probably Hicks on lead vocals and guitar, Sid Page on violin and Jaime Leopold on bass. "The Hot Licks" personnel varied sometimes, but at this time I believe it was Maryann Price and Naomi Ruth Eisenberg. 

In February 1971, Hicks had recorded what would be his most famous album, Where's The Money at the West Hollywood Troubadour. The album was released on Blue Thumb in mid-1971. So although Hicks was a local favorite--he had played 960 Bush when it was the Troubadour the year before--by now the band had an album getting airplay on FM radio, just like the touring bands form out of town.

November 9-14, 1971 Boarding House, San Francisco, CA: Judy Mayhan/David Patton (Tuesday-Sunday)
Judy Mayhan wrote and sang songs and accompanied herself on piano, somewhat in the style of Laura Nyro. She had appeared at the SF Troubadour for two weeks in October, 1970, when the outpost was on its last legs.

David Patton is unknown to me.

November 16-21, 1971 Boarding House, San Francisco, CA: Robbie Basho/Nirmala (Tuesday-Sunday)
Robbie Basho (1940-86) was a unique solo acoustic guitarist. His profile was a little different than many of the other acoustic songwriter types playing the Boarding House this year. Basho (born Daniel Robinson Jr.) was from the Washington DC suburbs. As a teenager, he knew John Fahey and ED Denson. He got interested in playing steel string acoustic guitar, but followed his own muses. In particular, he was influenced by Indian music. Fahey and Denson had started their own independent label in 1959, Takoma Records (for the DC suburb of Takoma Park, MD), to release an album by Fahey. Fahey and Denson both relocated to Berkeley and released additional albums on Takoma.

Basho, influenced by Fahey but with a different approach, released his first album on Takoma in 1965. By 1971 Basho had released seven albums on Takoma, his most recent being Song Of The Stallion. In 1970, Basho had also released an album on Blue Thumb in 1970 (Venus In Cancer). So Basho was a well-established artist by 1971, if one with a narrow cult following.  In later years, Basho would release albums on Windham Hill Records. Musical listeners caught up to his innovations and great technique, which most people had not been ready for in the 60s. At this time, Basho was sort of well-known, in that many music fans recognized his name, but few had actually heard much of music.

Nirmala is unknown to me.

November 22-28, 1971 Boarding House, San Francisco, CA: Sopwith Camel/Lambert and Nuttycombe   (Monday-Sunday)
The Sopwith Camel was an original San Francisco psychedelic band, with roots going back to the Red Dog Saloon in Virginia City, NV and 1090 Page Street. The Sopwith Camel had been one of the first Fillmore bands to sign a recording contract, and they had one of the first hit singles of the scene, as well, with "Hello Hello" in February 1967. That record was in the Lovin' Spoonful jugband style, which has hot at the time (and the Camel were produced by Spoonful producer Erik Jacobsen). The Camel had to face the grumblings of locals who felt that they had "sold out." The band had ground to a halt in late 1967.

However, Sopwith Camel had reformed in 1971. Their first gig seems to have been at the Matrix on March 5. The re-formed group had 4 of the 5 original members. The original songwriting partnership of guitarists Peter Kraemer and Terry MacNeil was intact, along with bassist Martin Beard and drummer Norman Mayell. In the meantime, Beard and Mayell had played on the hit single "Spirit In The Sky" with Petaluma's Norman Greenbaum.  

I assume the booking began on Monday (November 22) because there was likely no show on Thursday night (November 25), as it was Thanksgiving. Some of the ads in SF Good Times note that Monday is "Open Mike Night," so the club was probably usually open anyway.

December 2-5, 1971 Boarding House, San Francisco, CA: John Stewart/Harmony Tycoons (Thursday-Sunday)
John Stewart (1939-2008) had headlined at the San Francisco Troubadour in August 1970, soon after it had opened. Stewart had been a member of The Kingston Trio from 1961 to 1967. The group had been very popular, but they were passed by when the likes of The Beach Boys and The Beatles came along. Stewart had gone solo, and released a variety of well-received albums, such as 1969's California Bloodlines. Although he had written a hit for The Monkees ("Daydream Believer"), Stewart was well known at this time. but not particularly successful.

Stewart had released three albums on Capitol Records from 1968-70. Clearly, Capitol felt Stewart was ticketed for success in the new world of singer/songwriters. The albums hadn't done particularly well. Stewart had switched to Warner Brothers, and his 1971 debut for the label was The Lonesome Picker Rides Again. It was largely solo, and produced by his brother Mike Stewart, famous from the We Five. I think John Stewart had moved to the North Bay this time, but he still had an active recording and performing career, so he wasn't seen as a local act. Stewart actually had a fairly productive career into the 21st century, but in the early 70s he did not have the success that his talent would have foretold.

The Harmony Tycoons are unkonwn to me.

December 7-12, 1971 Boarding House, San Francisco, CA: Mickey Newbury (Tuesday-Sunday)
Mickey Newbury (1940-2002) had a modestly successful recording career, but he was mainly known as a writer. In the 1960s, he wrote some huge hit songs, such as "I Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In" for Kenny Rogers And The First Edition (it would reach #5 in 1968). In 1970, Newbury broke away from his RCA contract and began to record for Elektra Records. Although Newbury's writing was firmly country, he also separated himself from the Nashville studio machine, and recorded his music more simply, with more control in his own hands. Newbury's approach was a direct influence on Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson, as they too stepped aside from the Nashville studio production line. 

Newbury's first album for Elektra was Frisco Mabel Joy, released in 1971. It was produced by guitarist Wayne Moss, a Nashville Studio veteran (he was in Area Code 615), but Moss had built a studio in his garage. The album had a simpler sound than contemporary country albums. It included the song "American Trilogy," most famously performed by Elvis Presley. Newbury also performed by himself, with just an acoustic guitar. This was common in rock--common at the Boarding House, certainly--but all but unheard of in country music at the time.

Phil Elwood had a very positive review of Newbury's opening night show (in the December 8 Examiner). He reported that Joan Baez dropped in and joined Newbury for two songs.

December 14-19, 1971 Boarding House, San Francisco, CA: Cleveland Wrecking Company (Tuesday-Sunday)
This week's booking was a small but significant change in booking. The Boarding House had been designed as an "Acoustic Music Salon." It wasn't for purists, and there were certainly electric guitars and amplifiers many nights. Still, the focus was on acoustic music, even if there were trap drums and Fender basses for various acts. But up until this time, the Boarding House hadn't really booked a straight rock act. So the week headlined by Cleveland Wrecking Company was different, because they were a loud dance band with a horn section.

Cleveland Wrecking Company was an interesting band who had been playing Bay Area clubs since 1968. The band, a 7-piece with horns, and often a female singer, had a completely different business model than every other hippie rock band in the Bay Area. Other bands were interested in making albums, and only played dances and the like when they were starting out, just to make ends meet. Cleveland Wrecking Company had the opposite approach.

A google search of Cleveland Wrecking Company will net you pictures and references to playing huge dances for teenagers and young adults on late '60s and early 70s weekends. There was clearly real money to be made, and we have to presume they played their share of covers. During the week, however, and on some weekends, Cleveland Wrecking Company played rock clubs, and opened concerts for the Grateful Dead and others, presumably emphasizing original material. Bandleaders Jim Lowe (organ) and Norman Beale (lead guitar), had made a demo, to help book gigs, but they had no interest in making a record. They were, in effect, a Dance Band that moonlighted as an original rock band, instead of the opposite. Cleveland Wrecking Company would break up in 1972.

December 20, 1971 Boarding House, San Francisco, CA: Stoneground (Monday)
The rock trend continued with Stoneground. I assume the booking patterns were different for Christmas week. I don't know if Stoneground just played Monday, or a few more nights (since I can't find an ad). But Stoneground was a loud rocking band, too, with 9 or 10 members.

Stoneground had been put together by KSAN impresario Tom Donahue in 1970 for an intended movie about a "traveling Woodstock" called Medicine Ball Caravan. The Grateful Dead were booked for the movie, but backed out at the last minute. Stoneground had just released their self-titled debut album on Warner Brothers.  Among the key members of Stoneground were singers Sal Valentino, Lynne Hughes, Annie Sampson and Deirdre LaPorte. Guitarist Tim Barnes also sang. Pete Sears had been the pianist for the album, although he had been replaced by Palo Alto pianist Cory Lerios.

December 24-26, 1971 Boarding House, San Francisco, CA: Congress Of Wonders/Ronnie & Lulu (Friday-Sunday)
I assume there was no Christmas Day show, even if it was Saturday night. Ronnie & Lulu are unknown to me.

December 28, 1971-January 2, 1971 Boarding House Bola Sete/Hue (Tuesday-Sunday)
Hue was a jazz quartet, but is otherwise unknown to me.

Aftermath
The Boarding House had opened on March 26, 1971 on a shoestring, presenting mostly local acoustic acts in a venue that had already flopped. By the end of 1971, musical winds were blowing favorably for the club, and the acts that played the Boarding House had albums with major record companies and were supported on tour. There were some local acts, sure, but most of those had albums, too. Even so, the Boarding House seemed to be developing followings for some unsigned acts, like Maggie and Terre Roche. The club was finding a foothold in the local music scene. The Freight And Salvage in Berkeley held down the folk purists, and some other rock clubs like Keystone Berkeley, the Long Branch and Keystone Korner were places for people who liked it loud and long. The Boarding House wasn't folk, but it was serious music and it was mostly not loud. The club was still on a shoestring, though.

San Francisco Examiner Sunday Datebook listing for January 9, 1972

In early 1972, the club would change dramatically. The Boarding House started booking rock bands, popular ones, and they booked them at the upstairs theater. The first full week of 1972 featured folksinger Ramblin' Jack Elliott, by now a North Bay resident. For the second week, however, Spencer Davis played Wednesday and Thursday, and Van Morrison on the weekend. Morrison was a huge star, of course, and could play large places, but he very much liked the Bay Area rock tradition established by Jorma Kaukonen, Mike Bloomfield and Jerry Garcia, where stars played local clubs when they felt like it. Phil Elwood reviewed Morrison's show enthusiastically in the Examiner (January 17 ‘72).

A few weeks later, Jim Kweskin returned to the Boarding House, and the listing said "Boarding House (downstairs)," a sign that shows in the upstairs Theater were already common. At some point in mid-72, all shows were moved upstairs, and the Boarding House came to mean what had previously been the Theater. The old, downstairs Boarding House was used on occasion, I think mostly for comedy acts, but after 1972 "The Boarding House" meant the upstairs theater.

The upstairs theater was a sort of sunken bowl, with excellent sightlines and nice sound, and the room was much beloved by rock critics and serious fans. The room was small, and didn't have a liquor license, so it still favored smaller acts rather than big bands. That said, plenty of rock bands played showcases at The Boarding House. The Tubes played the Boarding House for two weeks in summer 1975, right before their first album was released. I went twice--it was epic, and at the Boarding House you were Right There. The writeups in the paper were shimmering, and when the debut album came out the pump was well primed. Record companies particularly liked the club because it could draw attention to acts who deserved a good hearing.

Demise
960 Bush, at Taylor, was in a mainly residential neighborhood, and in San Francisco that meant a lot. The Boarding House always struggled without liquor license. It was also a long way from downtown office buildings and any sort of drop-in crowd, plus San Francisco is cold, and parking was always difficult. Finally, in early 1980, there was a fire that closed down the club. 960 Bush Street, which had always had a few apartments anyway, was sold to the expanding condominium complex next door. Doug Weston had purchased the 4-story building for $400,000 in 1970. I don't know if he was still the owner by 1980, but it turned out that San Francisco real estate was always a good investment. So after 80 years as an entertainment venue, 960 Bush, already a burned-out hulk, was demolished for a large residential building. Sic Transit Gloria Musica.

David Allen moved the Boarding House over to 901 Columbus Street, near North Beach (previously The Village and then Dance Yer Ass Off). The newer Boarding House folded, too, to be taken over by Bill Graham for his club Wolfgang's.

The July 15, 1980 SF Chronicle article had a story on the razing of 960 Bush Street