Talkin About My Generation!

Fillmore East

20 Comments

1. 

   nancy strakosch gross

   February 1 10 at 8:24 am

   In the late 80′s the Fillmore was The Saint, myself and friends threw a huge benefit for Covenent House.We turned the club into a circus, with guests like Robert DeNiro, Thompson Twins etc. They did an article about my friend Catherine and I in the Daily News and the party got mentioned in WWD and Interview, what was the great after hours club around the block????
2. 

   Richard Torrence

   February 1 10 at 7:56 pm

   I was Virgil Fox’s manager, and the producer of the two Heavy Organ concerts, December 1 and 14, 1970. Thanks for mentioning them. The published book about the Fillmore East doesn’t list the second concert, but it does list me as the producer of the first.

   Great, great concert hall. Strangely enough, Virgil said (walking to Ratner’s after his first rehearsal), “I’m home!”

   RT
3. 

   David Gross

   February 1 10 at 9:02 pm

   Thanks Richard! I remember listening to the Heavy Organ LP’s. Great to have you onboard!
4. 

   David Gross

   February 1 10 at 9:13 pm

   Do I know you?
5. 

   steve arthurs

   February 14 10 at 3:13 pm

   Hey david! never had the chance to go to Fillmore East, but I feel like I did! Humble Pie is still my favorite band, and probably always will be! Stevie Marriott and I were dear friends from 1980 until his passing in 1991. Stevie, Frampton and Jerry Shirley have all told me that was their favorite place to play. Please tell me more about their performances! Thanks.
6. 

   David Gross

   February 15 10 at 9:09 am

   Hi Steve,

   It was their launching pad so I am certain that could have been a major reason for their feelings about it! I was managed by Leiber Krebs during the last days of Humble Pie so I ran into him at the office occasionally.
   Being a Small Faces fan, when As Safe As Yesterday came out, I went to the record store and picked it up. Down in the West Village there were a few import shops so I picked up Town and Country. I wish they would re-release the first A & M record just called
   Humble Pie
7. 

   David Fulton

   February 26 10 at 5:56 am

   What a trip – down memory lane – such as it this. I certainly need a four drive these days. I am having an argument with a friend that maybe you can help with. I could have sworn I saw KISS at the Fillmore about the same time that Renaissance was there – at least as I remember it. Could that be or am I still halucinating
8. 

   David Gross

   February 26 10 at 6:27 am

   Hi David, And yes you should take off your psychedelic glasses! The Fillmore closed the end of June 1971 and Kiss was formed from the ashes of Wicked Lester in 1972. I was at their 2nd show at the Diplomat in 1973 when the were signed by Bill Aucoin, who actually managed a group that I was in in the 80′s, and two weeks later they were signed to Casablanca Records. Hope that helps!
9. 

   Deborah

   July 12 10 at 4:32 pm

   AH, such wonderful memories! Procul Harum, Argent, Jeff Beck Group, Joe Cocker and the Grease Band, Moody Blues, thinking back, it’s hard to remember it all. But I DO remember the wonderful accessibility of it. One could actually afford the tickets; I remember getting front row center for Procul Harum for $7. One would just line up at the box office, which opened promptly at, was it noon? Then, wonder of wonders, you got your tickets. Steppenwolf, Butterfield Blues Band, John Mayall and the Blues Breakers..I’m sure there were others. Is it only I who think and feel that the enormously talented musicians from that whole era out-do BY FAR any these days? Spirit, Jefferson Airplane….
10. 

    chris

    May 17 11 at 3:09 pm

    Went to high school in the early 7os on 2nd st. and remember the last bands that were up on the marquee were Joy of Cooking and Mahogany Rush.Also my best friends bro got the F.E. banner that hung outside when the place closed down.
11. 

    Alex Milstein

    May 22 11 at 10:29 am

    I was a NY kid but spent my college and grad school years in St Louis, and only made it to the Fillmore East once. But what a night it was.

    It was January 1970. I had left grad school and was preparing to go bum around Europe. While wandering thru the Village I bumped into an old high school buddy who had become something of a wunderkind playwright whose work was already being produced in NYC. We decided to go to the Fillmore. Quicksilver was headlining, with Country Joe and the Fish and a guy named Eric Mercury also on the bill.

    Back in those days, St Louis was truly the backwoods, and anyone looking even slightly hippie-ish was considered suspect by the cops. So when we walked into the Fillmore lobby, which was filled with a great cloud of pot smoke, I panicked. We’re gonna get arrested! But the times were indeed a-changin, and the Fillmore, I guess, was ignored by the NYPD.

    Quicksilver was amazing. This was the ‘Shady Grove’ era.
12. 

    Beth

    May 25 11 at 2:16 pm

    I was an almost 15 yr old music-lovin’ baby beatnik-flower child-hippie when I first walked mesmerized, down the long aisle to the front of the F.E. to absorb the music of The Doors. It was the second show presented there in March ’68. I spent many hours of the next 39 months in the place that I thought of as my second home. Hanging around the Fillmore, I became friendly with many of the people working there, getting treated to “comps” (complimentary tickets), eventually working there for a short while (upstairs selling candy).
    The Fillmore East would give each of it’s patrons a type of “playbill” upon entry, to read about the bands being presented, see their picture, and advertise upcoming shows. In it were ads bought by hip and groovy local stores as well as record companies and radio stations. I was at many of the shows that you have listed above and have saved a number of those little magazines, although over the years and a couple of intercontinental moves later my collection has been reduced to only 56. My favorite issue was the special gold-colored one from the last shows–it contains pictures of all the staff at the time, from the front offices to the backstage to the ushers to the maintenance crews. Other items given out at the final shows were t-shirts, tile trivets with an imprint of the ad for the closing show, a poster naming all the groups that had played there from the very beginning until the end, and a rose on each seat of the theater. A classy ending to a funky place of joy and sweet, sweet music!
    I was a cute young thing back then and became a groupie as I was seduced by the musicians making the music that seduced me! I have a bag full of backstage passes stashed around here somewhere.
13. 

    David Gross

    May 25 11 at 3:22 pm

    I would be interested to see those backstage passes and post them on the site

    Thanks again Beth
14. 

    Beth

    May 25 11 at 5:27 pm

    When I find them again I’ll scan them and post ‘em over to you. I have a bumper sticker too…and I think I have a pin-on button (badge). A lot of my old mementos got “misappropriated” (that’s me being nice and not saying STOLEN) when I moved … from New York to London and then moving around different locations in London. When I see something on Ebay that I used to have, I wonder if it was originally mine… Oh well, I still have my memories
15. 

    Fred

    September 14 11 at 12:24 pm

    I’ve been to many concerts as a teenager in the 70′s, a young adult in the 80′s and my last concert I attended was an Allman Brothers Band concert at the Virginia Beach Ampitheater in 1999. Comparing the audience of way back then and now is so different. I’ve stopped going to concerts because all I could hear was the audience. The audience drowned out the music. As far as sonic quality, The Allman Brothers Band at Fillmore East will be always tops to me. I wish I was a bit older during the 70′s to be able to go to the Fillmore East.. It must have been quite an exerience. I do not blame Bill Graham for closing down the Fillmore East back in June, 1971. Yes, rock has become way too commercialized! Keep the Fillmore East website going! You guys are doing a great job!
16. 

    David Gross

    September 14 11 at 2:03 pm

    Thanks Fred! Glad you found the site.
17. 

    g3msp4

    September 23 11 at 4:52 pm

    Great site. My first Filmore show was Dec 27 or 8th, Crazy World of Arthur Brown plus Super Session. I remember Johnny Winter played a song or two, but believe it or not I do not remember the BBB. I did see em, but I do not recall this show.
    Best shows I saw: Procol Harum, Laura Nyro. Quicksilver Messenger Service. Grateful Dead ( any number of great Pigpen shows ). I can swear I saw Allmans, Dead, and Cippolina, or Peter Green all playing together once. Then again, was so long ago.
    Just look at that photo of the Mothers. Last time you saw a stage like that?
    I will say that Marilyn Manson had a very cool light show when I saw him last.
18. 

    David Gross

    September 23 11 at 5:26 pm

    Thanks for taking a look! The Fillmore was such a great place to see bands
19. 

    Marlene Dunham

    January 28 12 at 6:06 pm

    My first Fillmore East concert was on 6/21/1968 – The Vanilla Fudge (ha) and spent the next two years seeing everyone I could see. The last concert I saw (as I had no invitation) was June 26, 1971. It was a night I’ll never forget. Thanks for the memories.
20. 

    David Gross

    January 28 12 at 6:16 pm

    Thanks for posting Marlene! The James Cotton Band were on 2nd and a group from the West Coast who I had never heard of before or since were the Loading Zone.

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