Post by duckbarman on Jul 17, 2019 16:43:21 GMT
Buck - just for a change, I've got a 50 year-old SWU query to run past you to see if you have ANY memory of it... :-)
Actually, it's sort of contemporaneously relevant because fans have been talking about the recent anniversary of your landmark Fillmore East gig back on 3rd July 1969, and this query concerns the immediate run up to this gig.
I've already asked Eric about it and he says he "honestly has no recollection of this" but that I should "check with the others to see what they think", hence this query.
The context: Les "left" around mid-May 1969, and EB was subsequently drafted in as lead vocalist. There was this prestigious Fillmore East gig looming large on the horizon in about 6 weeks time, and there were two clear priorities:
(a) you had to get EB ready to front this very important gig
(b) you had to get a lot of "pennies" glued to your trousers #SeemedLikeaGoodIdeaAtTheTime
Fortunately, there was already a warm-up gig in the pipeline - a deb's party in CT with Lester Lanin, and that apparently went very well, according to R Meltzer, but as he was apparently in a state of - let's call it - heightened perception at the time, it's hard to be objectively accurate on that score. It certainly sounds like a pretty surreal event which I'd love to have witnessed....
Anyway, the current story goes that there were no other gigs on the calendar before the "big one", but I've found indications that SWU potentially could indeed have played (at least) two gigs at the end of June 69 (but which have never been previously mentioned)...
Here are the couple of SWU gig ads for O'Briens (Clayton) that appeared in the "Watertown Daily Times" which prompted this query:
This first ad appeared three days running on 25, 26 and 27 June 1969 and it advertised that the SWU would be playing on Friday 27 June 1969 at O'Brien's "summer opening".
The next day's edition, on Sat 28 June 1969, also had the SWU playing there on that Saturday night also.
So I was wondering if you had any memory of these potential warm-up gigs - either to confirm the possibility of them taking place or to say, "Nope - they deffo did NOT happen. There was just the one warm up gig, and that was the deb's CT party. SWU have NEVER played O'Brien's.... Case closed. "
Obviously, I don't know one way or the other, but if I had to guess, my inclination would lean towards them having taken place just because of the context of where the ads appeared.
The "Watertown Daily Times", as the name suggests, comes out every day (except Sundays) and I've trawled through six years of their gig ads looking for Bouchard Brother gigs as well as Lost & Found etc, and what I've noticed is that if a previously advertised show suddenly got cancelled then, being a daily paper, the Times was able to update the ads for the next edition to let people know what was happening.
So - if say that Friday night SWU had been cancelled - for whatever reason - then the Saturday edition could have picked that up and would be unlikely to be still advertising the band for the Saturday evening show... instead, they'd have printed details of whatever act was going on as a replacement...
But like I say - that's just a guess, so I'm therefore interested in finding out if you have any memories of this whatsoever...
BTW: "SWU as a Southampton (L.I.)-based band"...? I wonder what prompted that...? Maybe it made the band sound exotic...
Actually, it's sort of contemporaneously relevant because fans have been talking about the recent anniversary of your landmark Fillmore East gig back on 3rd July 1969, and this query concerns the immediate run up to this gig.
I've already asked Eric about it and he says he "honestly has no recollection of this" but that I should "check with the others to see what they think", hence this query.
The context: Les "left" around mid-May 1969, and EB was subsequently drafted in as lead vocalist. There was this prestigious Fillmore East gig looming large on the horizon in about 6 weeks time, and there were two clear priorities:
(a) you had to get EB ready to front this very important gig
(b) you had to get a lot of "pennies" glued to your trousers #SeemedLikeaGoodIdeaAtTheTime
Fortunately, there was already a warm-up gig in the pipeline - a deb's party in CT with Lester Lanin, and that apparently went very well, according to R Meltzer, but as he was apparently in a state of - let's call it - heightened perception at the time, it's hard to be objectively accurate on that score. It certainly sounds like a pretty surreal event which I'd love to have witnessed....
Anyway, the current story goes that there were no other gigs on the calendar before the "big one", but I've found indications that SWU potentially could indeed have played (at least) two gigs at the end of June 69 (but which have never been previously mentioned)...
Here are the couple of SWU gig ads for O'Briens (Clayton) that appeared in the "Watertown Daily Times" which prompted this query:
This first ad appeared three days running on 25, 26 and 27 June 1969 and it advertised that the SWU would be playing on Friday 27 June 1969 at O'Brien's "summer opening".
The next day's edition, on Sat 28 June 1969, also had the SWU playing there on that Saturday night also.
So I was wondering if you had any memory of these potential warm-up gigs - either to confirm the possibility of them taking place or to say, "Nope - they deffo did NOT happen. There was just the one warm up gig, and that was the deb's CT party. SWU have NEVER played O'Brien's.... Case closed. "
Obviously, I don't know one way or the other, but if I had to guess, my inclination would lean towards them having taken place just because of the context of where the ads appeared.
The "Watertown Daily Times", as the name suggests, comes out every day (except Sundays) and I've trawled through six years of their gig ads looking for Bouchard Brother gigs as well as Lost & Found etc, and what I've noticed is that if a previously advertised show suddenly got cancelled then, being a daily paper, the Times was able to update the ads for the next edition to let people know what was happening.
So - if say that Friday night SWU had been cancelled - for whatever reason - then the Saturday edition could have picked that up and would be unlikely to be still advertising the band for the Saturday evening show... instead, they'd have printed details of whatever act was going on as a replacement...
But like I say - that's just a guess, so I'm therefore interested in finding out if you have any memories of this whatsoever...
BTW: "SWU as a Southampton (L.I.)-based band"...? I wonder what prompted that...? Maybe it made the band sound exotic...
