TEXXAS JAM # 1 Summer 1978

The first TEXXAS JAM was held July 1st 1978 at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas during a brutal heatwave. The all day and most of the night show cost $12.50 a ticket. It was co-headlined by Aerosmith and Ted Nugent. The rest of the lineup consisted of Blackstone(winners of a local battle of the bands to open up the show), Walter Egan, Van Halen, Head East, Eddie Money, Journey, Atlanta Rhythm Section, Heart, and Mahogany Rush. The TJ was mc'd by Cheech and Chong. The heat caused alot of problems, especially for the people on the field. Large firehoses were sprayed on the fans near the stage to help them cope with it. Blackstone played for about 30 minutes, and the non-headliners each played about 45 mins to 1 hour. The headliners played about an hour and a half each. There are some bootleg videos from this show that are circulating around. Most of them are from Aerosmith's performance. I have seen an official Aerosmith hits vhs video that includes scenes from this performance included in one of the songs on the tape. I can't remember which song it is, but its the one where several women are flashing their breasts.
    There were at least 3 TEXXAS JAMS, possibly 4. I attended the first and third ones. There will be another post for the third one later. The acoustics at the Cotton Bowl were horrible, but overall the shows were great. Cheech and Chong were perfect as meecee's. One of the more entertaining sights during the day involved some fans climbing up some of the PA speaker poles that surrounded the field level. They were climbing to swipe some banners(flags) that were flying from the top of these poles. The poles were at least 20 feet tall. Luckily no one fell or appeared to get injured. The police did confiscate the banners from the ones they could catch, but they didn't get them all. There must have been about 10 or 12 swiped while the crowd cheered them on. When it comes to bang for your bucks this show was the best....

KISS alive 1975

KISS performed live at UTA's (University of Tx,Arlington) Texas Hall 11/8/1975. This show occurred about the time that the first "Alive" album was released. The tour through Texas was promoted as "The eyes of Texas tour" featuring posters of the first album cover artwork. The backup act was "Mott" who were carrying on after Ian Hunter had left "Mott the Hoople". They were promoting the album "Drive on" which is out of print these days. It's actually a pretty good album.
  The setlist for KISS was exactly the same as on the "Alive" album. This was before KISS was big news in the rock and roll universe. I was only familiar with the "Hotter than Hell" album when I attended the show. I liked it , but it wasn't a favorite of mine; however I had heard that they were great live and had to be seen to be appreciated. The show that night was AWESOME. These guys really understood how to entertain an audience. I was a senior at Arlington High School at this time and a fellow classmate was in the first or second row center stage. He had put on a white T-shirt he bought at the venue and got it covered with the blood that Gene Simmons barfed as part of the show. I remember this guy running around after the show proclaiming that he would never wash that shirt as long as he lived. Later in the school year he and 3 of his friends re-created this concert by lip-synching a stage show for the annual Colt County Fair. They re-created the show really well with homemade costumes and everything except the fire, blood and rising drum kit. It took alot of courage to face your fellow classmates and risk ridicule, but they pulled it off nicely. Back to the real concert.
   The real show was jaw-dropping visually and musically. The rock critics used to slam the band for their musicianship, but I never agreed with them after this show. The fact that the band is still touring and more popular than ever 39 years later validates that they are one of the best rock bands ever!!!!! I will go to my grave remembering how much I enjoyed this show.

A FLYING SAUCER INSIDE A BIGGER FLYING SAUCER 1978

Electric Light Orchestra(ELO) performed at the Tarrant County Convention Center arena on 9/1/1978. They were promoting the "Out of the Blue" album and had a stage shaped like a flying saucer. This struck me as ironic since the TCCC arena resembles a large flying saucer in downtown Ft Worth TX. There was no backup band so they played for about two and a half hours. Great show with really good sound system. I really enjoyed this show. Jeff Lynne and company were amazing. They are the only rock band that sounded good with strings. I also enjoyed Bev Bevan's drumming. Since that time I have really come to appreciate just how much of a musical genius Jeff Lynne really is. The show's encore including "Roll over Beethoven" was rock and roll at its finest. Bar None....

THE THIRD TEXXAS JAM DALLAS 1980

 The third Texxas Jam(real name: Texxas world music festival '80) was held June 21st 1980 at the Cotton Bowl at Fair Park in Dallas Texas. The lineup for the all day festival had The Eagles as headliner with Foreigner, Cheap Trick, April Wine, Sammy Hagar, Christopher Cross, Point Blank and Le Roux preceding them. It was a hot day but not bad, and not anyway near as bad as the first Texxas Jam in 1978. I was working on an oil pipeline near Beaumont Tx that summer and drove to Dallas early that morning with a co-worker. The tickets cost $16.50 each and were printed in a large, multi-color format. I'm going to try and include a photo of my ticket in this blog. It's really artistic for a concert ticket. The Eagles show(including Joe Walsh and Don Felder) was definitely the highlight of the festival. They came onstage after dark and opened with "Hotel California". I was surprised by this being an opener instead of an encore song, but it worked out great. Before they took the stage there was a huge trash fight at the southwestern end of the stadium between fans in the upper level and field level below them. Someone in the upper level started throwing junk at the lower level and  the fans below started throwing trash back at the upper level. Before long everyone in those areas joined in and the trash was flying fast and furious. It was hilarious to watch from a distance. The upper level won because they had gravity on their side. As far as I can tell no one got hurt, and I didn't see any fistfights(there may have been some I didnt see). Foreigner was good and Cheap Trick and Sammy Hagar really put on high energy sets. Christopher Cross had a tough gig though. He was soundly BOO'ed during his act and actually cut his set short after throwing up on stage due to heat exhaustion. I'm not sure why he was billed on this festival. He was a talented musician with several radio hits at the time, but was not a Rock and Roll act!!! Point Blank and Le Roux were good, but I was not familiar with their songs at that time and spent most of their sets obtaining beer and weed.
Found alot of both. Yum Yum...... All in all a great festival and lots of sunburned fun, but the drive back to Beaumont in the early morning hours was less fun... There's always some price to pay.......

DEEP PURPLE 1974 My First Concert

My first concert was Deep Purple at the Tarrant County Convention Center arena on march 30th 1974. They were touring right around the time the "Burn" album was released. The show was originally scheduled for 2/15/74 but was postponed till march 30th. Deep purple was my favorite band and the first album I ever bought was "Machine Head" in 1972. I had to ride my bicyle(Schwinn Stingray- purple color) to Budget Tapes and Records on Cooper st in Arlington TX to purchase this album. The ride was approximately 5 miles each way. As a result I was surprised at the band's lineup at this concert. I was expecting the lineup with Ian Gillan and Roger Glover. I was  able 

to recognize Glenn Hughes from TRAPEZE, but I had no idea who David Coverdale was. The opening act was Tucky Buzzard with Savoy Brown as the middle act. Before the show and in between the acts the audience members were throwing frisbee's, wing rings and tennis balls all over the arena. There were so many of them that they were hitting each other in mid-air. This was an amazing sight because of the huge size of the TCCC arena. This was not to be repeated at any concerts afterwards because they were banned from all future shows at all venues in the DFW area and would be confiscated at the door. Deep Purple showed everyone what hard rock was all about. They put on a fantastic show and played about half the songs from "Burn" and alot of the songs from "Live in Japan".  The volume level was beyond LOUD and my ears were ringing for about three days afterwards. I really don't remember much about Savoy Brown and Tucky Buzzard. About a week after the show I hopped on my purple stingray and rode to Budget tapes to buy the "Burn" album. It's still one of my favorite albums.  Post script: I finally did see the MKII lineup with Ian and Roger in 1985 at the Summit in Houston TX. That was a great show too.....

The First Of Many RUSH's

While working near Port Aransas TX in the summer of 1976 I was able to attend the first of many RUSH concerts in the 1970's. The show was at the Ritz theater in Corpus Christi TX on 7/8/1976. It's located on chaparral in downtown. It was originally a movie theater that held approximately 200 seats. For concerts the floor seats had been removed, so i'm guessing that this show had about 300 fans in attendance. In other words; its was a small venue. The backup band was "TOO SMOOTH" from the Beeville TX area. RUSH was touring for the 2112 album. This tour is documented on the "All the Worlds a stage" album. The set list was exactly the same as on that release. To see this band in such a small venue was pure heaven. The sound quality was very good and there were no bad seats in the theater. I was amazed at how professional these guys were. Geddy Lee sang high enough to be heard in the stratosphere, and his bass playing was mind-boggling. Alex Lifeson mesmerized everyone with his style and range, and Neil Peart flabbergasted the audience with his ability. He and Keith Moon have surely influenced more drummers than anyone else in rock history. (No offense to Carl Palmer)... This was the first of many RUSH concerts that i attended. They all were excellent shows, but this one is my favorite because of the RITZ being the venue. I hope the theater has been restored, because it's a real Texas treasure.....

ZZ Tops traveling zoo 1975

On November 28th 1975 I attended a ZZ Top show that included a small animal menagerie on the stage. It included a longhorn steer, buffalo, two buzzards and possibly one or  two rattlesnakes. WEIRD. The show was at the end of the "Fandango" tour. The texas shaped stage was surrounded by a wood fence corral. The vultures were standing on two cow skulls at the front of the stage/corral. Whenever the band played these guys would spread their wings and then fold them up between songs. I always wondered if they were trained to do this or was it a natural reaction to the soundwaves. The snakes were under a plexiglass dome in the center of the stage. I dont remember the longhorn or buffalo crapping on the stage, but I assume it was a definite possibility. The backup band was Point Blank. The concert was really good. Billy Gibbons and Dusty Hill had short beards back then.

Lynyrd Skynyrd before the airplane crash

Some of my most cherished concert memories are of a show by Lynyrd Skynyrd about a year before the 10/20/1977 plane crash in Gillsburg Mississippi. They headlined a show at the Tarrant County Convention Center in Ft Worth TX on 11/25/1976. The opening act was Blackfoot and the Climax Blues band was the middle act. Skynyrd were touring for the live album "One more from the road", and the setlist was the same as on that album. They were in fine form and put on a great show. I do remember that some crazed fan tried to make a bonfire out of beercups in the aisle. In those days a large beer was served in paper cups that resembled a milk carton, and he poured lighter fluid on  a pile of them. Needless to say, the security and fire dept officials were not amused and arrested him on the spot while putting out the fire. Absolutely the stupidest thing I ever saw someone do at a concert.
    Sadly, less than a year later the band were flying in a Convair CV-300 twin prop charter aircraft when it ran out of fuel and crashed in a wooden area near Gillsburg. Ronnie Van Zandt, Steve Gaines, Cassie Gaines , their tour manager and both pilots were killed. The band was enroute to Baton Rouge LA from Greenville SC when it encountered engine trouble. Normally this airplane can fly on one engine if it's not overloaded. It appears that the co-pilot may have accidentally dumped the remaining fuel while trying to shift fuel from one tank to another during the emergency. It's a wonder that anyone survived. I was at a large house party the night of 10/20/1977 when the radio station announced the crash and deaths. The whole house stayed quiet and subdued the rest of the night. Everyone was shocked and sad..The next night I attended a RUSH concert at Will Rogers auditorium in Ft Worth TX and the band did a moment of silence. Really nice thing to do....

Did DFW TV news stage a concert incident?

I attended a Journey/Montrose/Van Halen concert on April 14th 1978. It was held at Will Rogers auditorium in FT Worth Texas. Van Halen was the opening act and Journey was the headliner. A very strange incident happened during the Journey set. A wild-eyed white guy wearing white pants and no shirt stormed onto the stage and grabbed Ross Valory's Bass guitar neck in the middle of a song. Several roadies grabbed the guy and pried his fingers loose from the tug-of-war he was having with Mr Valory. Normally; anyone who did this would have suffered a beat-down that they would remember forever, but this time the guy was treated gingerly. Either the roadies were very well trained or were very aware of a TV camera crew's presence in the wings. One of the band members remarked to the audience "I guess he wanted to play Bass", and the show was restarted without any more incidents. Several weeks later I was watching the Channel 5 news in Ft Worth when they showed a very quick clip of the incident from the camera I had seen in the wings. The news report concerned violence occurring at local rock concerts. At the time I thought something didn't seem right about the actions of everyone involved. It just felt like it was staged and not true. I don't believe that this incident and camera presence were coincidental. It didn't pass the smell test then or now.
Van Halen played for about 45 minutes, and Montrose for about the same time. The Halen were touring for their first album and were not headlining yet(They soon would be). Montrose was touring for the "Jump On It" and "Open Fire" albums. RIP Ronnie Montrose. You had an amazing talent....