1972 is generally regarded as year one in the BOC calendar (though, of course, they were touring under this name in 1971).
The year kicked off with the release of their eponymous debut album in January and in April/May BOC struck promotional gold when they got to support Alice Cooper on a number of dates on the "Killer" tour.
A lot of the dates on this page come straight from Bolle Gregmar/Gary Aschliman's 1972 gig lists for boc.com. With most of this site's gig pages, I've been able to use their invaluable research as a starting point and then investigate further. However, with the years 1972-4, this has proven a difficult task.
1972 has been the hardest of all- solid definitive info on gig dates for this year is very hard to come by - even the Alice dates are open to much debate and trying to firm out this schedule is very frustrating, so please chip in if you know anything.
Have you got anything to contribute to this page? Reviews, missing info, ticket stubs, posters etc etc - if so, let me .
The first time BOC played here in Atlanta was January 72 in the old Municipal Auditorium... they played between White Witch and Alice Cooper... The show was broadcast on the radio but only White Witch and ALice were broadcast... no BOC...
None of the Alice gig lists have BOC on this bill, although alicecooperechive.com says that Dr John and Spirit both cancelled.
The name of the town where the Action House was is Island Park, NY, not Rockville.
Some sources have placed this gig at the Centrum, but, thanks to a helpful email from Marc Miller which pointed out that the Centrum didn't open until 1982, a more likely venue would seem to be the Harrington Auditorium (part of the Worcester Polytechnic Institute).
Stop Press: Check out the stub above which I found on Sick Things - seems like it was the Harrington Auditorium after all!
This show is generally regarded as the opening gig of the run supporting Alice Cooper.
In a Classic Rock Revisited interview, Eric Bloom said this:
"We were signed to a booking agency called ABC. Alice Cooper was their biggest act. Alice Cooper was on a tour and Redbone was opening... there was some sort of problem between their management or between Alice Cooper the band and their band or something... it's still a foggy story. Anyway, our first album wasn't even out yet. Our agent came to us and said, "If you do one show with Alice Cooper and they like you, I'll get you the remainder of the tour."
It was at Worchester, Massachusetts and we went over. Alice Cooper was happy. We were happy, and we got 15 shows with Alice!"
So it looks fair enough to say that this Worcester gig is the first BOC/Alice gig - even if it was an audition of sorts.
I was interested in the mention of 15 gigs - I wonder if Eric meant this as an actual number or a rough approximation? Also, Eric didn't say whether or not Redbone played on any of the gigs BOC opened...
The recording from this gig resulted in the famous "official bootleg" disk, Fantasy Distillation of Reality/Live in Montreal (!!)/Live in New York 1972 etc (it had a number of names). My copy was in a nicely printed glossy black sleeve featuring the famous Bethesda Fountain promo shot...
Here's the History to what the Early Presskits written by Columbia Publicist Arthur Levy, told of this Item.
In 1972/3 as a pre-release to Tyranny & Mutation Columbia issued this 4 Track 12" single/EP called the BOC Bootleg EP. It did contain: Side One: The Red & The Black, and Buck's Boogie. Side Two was: Workshop Of The Telescopes, and Cities On Flame With Rock & Roll.
It was a 4 Track Live recording from a Radio Station (WCMF-FM) broadcast in an edited format a week after the day of the recording 72-04-03, from The Nugget's Pizza Parlour in Rochester, New York.
The Full Broadcast was 36 minutes long and actually didn't include Buck's Boogie as that song lacked Publishing copyrights security at the time of the broadcast.
The Radio Show did have the following setlist though: The Red & The Black, Stairway To The Stars, Transmaniacon MC, The Came the Last Days Of May, Before the Kiss, A Redcap (Strange attempt at a re-arrangement), Workshop Of the telescopes, Cities On Flame With Rock & Roll, and Born To Be Wild.
Backline Power fuse blew just as they started that last song, but the power came back and the band went through the song and then some.....
The Vinyl History of "The Bootleg EP" COLUMBIA AS-40 is as such... the 12" was only released to radio Station as a White label promo EP. Then it was Bootlegged in 1976 by Vicky Vinyl company Idle Mind Productions as IMP-1106 and presented as "In My Mouth Or On The Ground" in a 10" format on Blue Vinyl and Black Vinyl on re-issues.
Two different covers were issued for this release, One artwork the other a Photograph from the Famous Publicity shoot in 1971 at "Needles Park" in New York.
Using that Photo and some great artwork the record was released in Europe as another 12" Vinyl in a deluxe packaging with a special Presskit fold out inner encosure with Lyrics to the first albums and the fantastic promo pic from Secret treaties called "Max Effo:rt" (supposed to be read as a diacritic) and became commonly known as The Soft White Underbelly record, thus creating massive misunderstanding and a popular misconception of what the real SWU was all about...
This all due to the fact that the labels on the Vinyl read Soft White Underbelly... this was issued in 1976. In 1978 TKRWM released "Fantasy Distillation...." which had a rubber stamp with the erroneous info of "Live In Montreal" on the cover sheet. and included a poorly centered SFG single on that 12" vinyl and more people got this rare collectible than ever before....
CD age and French semi-legal label SkyDog re-issued the EP and just called it Live in New York 1972, and actually issued a Vinyl to go along with it and to complete the story of its release. So there you have it...
Save this explanation and use it whenever somebody gives you any shit or whatever about this recording and its various CD or Vinyl releases.
OK - this is where matters start to get murky... the Alice tour!!
Both sickthingsuk.co.uk and alicecooperechive.com confirm this gig, and both mention Redbone/BOC as being on the bill.
The poster above shows Alice played here on this date. Redbone are also mentioned on the poster. In view of Eric Bloom's contention that BOC replaced Redbone, it remains to be determined if Redbone actually played or not...
BOC.com also mentions that BOC played here on this date.
Ergo: it seems fair to say that this is the second BOC/Alice gig.
I attended the April 14, 1972 concert in Charlottesville, Virginia. Yes indeed, the posters around town promoted Alice Cooper, with Redbone opening. However, on the day of the concert, I heard the rumor that BOC would also be on the bill. I was really into their first album, so this was exciting news.
Redbone definitely did NOT play that night. I can remember BOC taking the stage, followed by an emcee announcing that "This band on stage is not Redbone. Redbone cancelled on us..."
Eventually he introduced BOC, and they just blew a storm! Alice Cooper were fine, but they could have cancelled, too, and I would have been totally satisfied with just BOC.
Actually, I'll mention that I found your site after searching for info on the Columbia AS40 "BOC Bootleg EP." I have a cherished copy of this item, and was just listening to it over the weekend. Per your site, I see that those tracks were recorded just the week before the Charlottesville show that I saw!
Honestly, I can't remember a single track that BOC played that night, which kills me. I'm sure the set list was close to what they played at Rochester a week earlier. Aside from the emcee introducing the band, what I remember is that near the conclusion of their last song, Eric Bloom did his version of the Chuck Berry duck walk: Bloom was near the center of the stage, put his arms over his head, and went "Wooooooooooo" as he somehow propelled himself across the stage to the very edge. Crazy!
BOC have played locally a few times in recent years, but for some odd reason, I don't want to "contaminate" the memory (however vague) I have of seeing them in their prime. Oh, and one more memory: I don't think the girl I took to that concert ever went out with me again; I guess BOC and Alice scared her off!
BOC.com has this gig down as "Raleigh Unc" in Atlanta GA which obviously must be a mistake, so I can only assume that Raleigh is the town and the University of North Carolina is the venue.
This concert was part of what was called "The Day" at NC State University in Raleigh, NC. It took place on the Lower Athletic Field on campus.
It was a free show to students and whoever else could sneek in (which wasn't hard)
Great times - Free music, Free Beer, Free women. A great day was had by all!!!!
While conversing with a friend of 25 years today, the subject of Alice Cooper came up and we discovered we both attended, and sat near each other at one of his concerts in 1972. The event was called On Campus Weekend which took place in early May of 1972 on the campus of North Carolina State University in Raleigh, NC.
This type of all weekend concert was typical at the time for many colleges and universities. I was trying to remember who else was on the bill and all I could recall other than Cooper was Blue Oyster Cult and Tom Rush. I came across a photo I got of Tom Rush just recently.
Rush performed in the afternoon so there was plenty of light for pictures. My cheapo camera was not adequate for pictures of Cooper or BOC since they performed after dark.
I was searching the internet to see if I could find something that might tell me who else played this concert when I found your site and saw some of the information surrounding the N.C. venues was a little confusing. For people from outside the state it is understandable.
The state has one of the nation's best state supported programs for its university system, thus lots of universities called UNC at Asheville,at Chapel Hill, at Charlotte, at Wilmington, etc. The university in Raleigh, where BOC performed, is in the same state system, but simply called North Carolina State University.
Hope this helps.
Well these two posts would appear to be referring to the same show simply because they share the same location and time frame... ish. I notice, though, that JaCeLewis says his gig was early May. It's also odd that Paul doesn't mention the presence of Alice Cooper...
Anyone got any more info?
I want to make some corrections to the 4/15/72 concert in Raleigh, NC. Yes, it was April the 15th but the name given for the event every year at NC State university was All Campus Weekend. I have the Ticket stub to this day. The funny thing about it was that on the ticket it was AC 72 and I thought that was cool because Alice Cooper was playing.
I also have the ticket for AC 73. The first one I believe was in 1970. I was 15 yrs old at the time and what I saw flipped me out. It was Steppenwolf and then Jefferson Airplane. I remember the guys up front near the stage were wearing German military Helmets and those big crosses.
Getting back to 1972, Redbone cancelled and for some reason I want to say the word BloodRock, the band. Either they were there or supposed to be there.
Also, I saw the Byrds but not sure if that was then or the next year with J. Geils and Steve Miller. There is something bothering me about BloodRock and also The Byrds. I will look into it further.
Yes, a of people did get in free by pulling the bottom of the fence up but, it was not free. The cost for a ticket was 5 dollars for a day or the whole weekend.
They stopped the concerts at NC State (All Campus Week-end) because people were building fires all over the place to stay warm during the night because it was April and it gets cold at night here. They were getting out of control and many had to be put out by the fire Department.
Hope that helped you.
Both sickthingsuk.co.uk and alicecooperechive.com confirm this gig, and both mention Spirit/BOC as being on the bill.
I have no other evidence for BOC being there, and BOC.com doesn't mention this show.
Both sickthingsuk.co.uk and alicecooperechive.com confirm this BOC/Alice gig - sickthingsuk.co.uk also mention the existance of a ticket although it's not displayed on the page.
BOC.com mentions this show as having taken place on this date.
Only alicecooperechive.com confirms this BOC/Alice gig and gives this info: "Alice dropped the doll for Dead Babies in the audience and it had to be retrieved by a roadie, as Alice performed the song".
BOC.com mentions this show as having taken place on this date.
This was the date that Phil King, who was an early promoter for BOC, was shot in the head and killed, apparently as the result of some gambling dispute.
Mention of Phil would later turn up in BOC songs "Hot Rails to Hell" and "Deadline".
An interesting anomaly:
Joe Bouchard says that Phil King was "shot to death in a gambling dispute, we were on tour in Rochester NY at the time at a gig he booked when it happened. It was at a club called The Funhouse in Rochester - it was a week long gig with mostly bikers and pool players."
If BOC.com is right about the Funhouse shows being 4-9 April, then it's hard to square the circle with Phil King's death being on April 27th.
Only alicecooperechive.com confirms this BOC/Alice gig and also mentions that Edgar Winter's White Trash were on the bill.
BOC.com mentions this show as having taken place on this date and it's listed on the Rolling Stone advert.
A tape of this gig appeared on dimeadozen recently - looks like the guy who went there to tape Alice taped BOC as well. Must have had some spare batteries. I salute him/her for their good taste and foresight!!
Anyway, check out the clipping above from the 11 May 1972 issue of Rolling Stone. It was from a full page advert for the first BOC LP, and at the foot of the page it gave the dates as you see them.
As it was dated 11 May, which is right slap bang in the middle of the quoted dates, I tend to give it a fair bit of credence as good contemporaneous dating evidence. Like an archaeologist finding a bit of a dateable pottery at the bottom of a trench they've just dug, I will attempt to cling to this during the next series of so-called Alice dates...
But it's not that easy - as per bleeding usual...
Blue Oyster Cult? Man! They fucking RULED in the early 1970s!
I saw them for the first time at the New Haven Arena at the concert that changed my life forever... Blue Oyster Cult, Edgar Winter and Alice Cooper. Blue Oyster Cult was good, but not great... On the other hand--Alice Cooper changed my life that night! It was the single greatest concert I've ever seen in my life and this concert is why I started PUNK magazine!
Later on, I saw Blue Oyster Cult at the Schaefer Festival in Central Park--when I almost got my head kicked in because I attempted to grab one of their drumsticks--this was the first time I failed to get a souveneir...
Then, in 1977, I saw The Ramones open in Long Island for Blue Oyster Cult at the height of BOC's popularity... "Don't Fear The Reaper" and all that... Man, the Ramones sucked that night. I mean, they put on a good "Ramones" concert but their flaws as an arena act were exposed for all to see. They never did figure out how to be a good opening act, and I think this is part of the reason why they never made it... Well, that's a long story.
Anyhow, seeing BOC that night with their laser lights and all was awesome! But still, I liked them much better at the Schaefer Festival, that concert was impossible to top.
This gig gets a mention on the brown.edu (Brown College) site.
I don't remember much about that Brown College bill except our performance.
In those days, folks liked diverse booking with all sorts of acts. I do too. I know I like all those acts.
I'm a huge Bonnie Raitt fan, she sings and plays as well as anyone.
Neither of the Alice sites mention this show, but BOC.com mentions this show as having taken place on this date.
Check out this blog link by Bob Lefsetz:
At the end, he confirms that BOC shared the bill with Alice Coooper at this show:
"I saw Blue Oyster Cult open that spring for Alice Cooper at Boston's Music Hall. What a double bill! Alice killed.
But the audience... it wasn't familiar with the boys from Long Island. The guitarist was wearing a white suit. Live, they were sans charisma, and the vocals were less than perfect, far from dominant. But that first record, I've never gotten over it."
BOC.com gives the following details for this date:
3 May 1972: Unc University Of North Carolina, Ashville, North Carolina
They also have this:
9 May 1972: College, Wilson, North Carolina
This last would seem to be a typo - maybe the wrong info went into the wrong fields in the database?
Anyway, if you check 9 May below you'll see that Alice played "Warren Wilson College, Asheville NC" on this date.
Putting 2 and 2 together - and making 3.14 - I'm attaching BOC to the 9 May Asheville NC gig, thus making this 3 May Asheville gig a non-starter.
OK - time for the confusion to start.
The advert above clearly says "May 5: Dallas". However... both sickthingsuk.co.uk and alicecooperechive.com say Alice played "Hemisphere" in San Antonio on this date - see stub above, and both mention BOC as being on the bill.
I'm not sure where "Hemisphere" comes in, as the stub says "Convention Center Arena"
Just to confuse matters even more, BOC.com has BOC in Jacksonville FL!!
Work that one out!!
I'm a little concerned that the stub isn't torn, indicating it may not have been used or a possibly cancelled concert, but in the circumstances - for now I'm willing to take this stub at face value.
OK - well, you guessed it - more confusion!! The advert above says "May 6: Houston"
Again both sickthingsuk.co.uk and alicecooperechive.com have Alice and BOC in Dallas on this date.
Again, BOC.com adds to the confusion by placing BOC in Pirates Cove, Miami FL.
However, this gig is down as "Dallas Memorial Auditorium (Dallas, TX) - May 6, 1972" on Don Thompson's excellent LookAtStubs site. Because Don gets his dates from actual stubs on his site, it can reasonably be assumed that this date comes direct from an actual stub and so is more likely than not to be correct.
Stop Press: See the stub above showing Alice played Dallas Memorial Auditorium on the 6th May. Just goes to show that Rolling Stone Advert was a load of old bollocks...
Once more - both sickthingsuk.co.uk and alicecooperechive.com disagree with my lovely dating evidence and have Alice and BOC in another Texas town - this time at the Sam Houston Coliseum, Houston TX on this date.
BOC.com at least has BOC in the correct state, this time, only they reckon it was in San Antonio.
Bugger!!
Stop Press: See the stub above showing Alice played Houston Hofheinz Pavillion on the 7th May.
Both sickthingsuk.co.uk and alicecooperechive.com confirm this date as an Alice gig, but neither mention BOC as being on the bill.
Furthermore, the Rolling Stone advert doesn't mention this date either.
However, BOC.com mentions this show as having taken place on this date so that's two independent sources placing the two groups together in this town on this date...
Neither of the Alice sites mention this show. Nor does BOC.com.
My only reason for including it is my faith in the Rolling Stone advert!!
Again: Help!!
Both sickthingsuk.co.uk and alicecooperechive.com confirm this date as an Alice gig, although the former doesn't mention any support act whilst the latter reckons Todd Rundgren was on the bill.
Still, there's a used ticket stub showing the date, so that's something at least...
BOC.com is no help again with this one, and so - again - I'm relying on that Rolling Stone advert...
OK - my Rolling Stone advert is starting to get it's arse kicked in the evidence wars as the poster above demonstrates.
Both sickthingsuk.co.uk and alicecooperechive.com confirm this date as an Alice gig but place the gig in Greenville SC! They also make no mention of BOC. Instead, they both say Todd Rundgren was on the bill - although the poster also says Free played too.
I don't know what to make of this - this gig is 3 days after that Rolling Stone issue came out - you'd think they'd have the most up-to-date gig info...
Again - BOC.com doesn't mention this gig...
May 15, 1972: "Arie Crown Theatre", Chicago, IL with SPIRIT (headliner), CHASE (middle), BOC (opener).
At last!! Agreement!!
Both sickthingsuk.co.uk and alicecooperechive.com confirm this gig, and both mention Chambers Brothers/BOC as being on the bill.
Helpfully, BOC.com mentions this show as having taken place on this date.
Hooray!
Now this is nice - more agreement.
Both sickthingsuk.co.uk and alicecooperechive.com confirm this gig, though neither mention BOC as being on the bill.
Not to worry, though, as BOC.com mentions this show as having taken place on this date.
This is how all the gigs should be...
Bollocks!! That agreement mentioned above didn't last long, did it?
Both sickthingsuk.co.uk and alicecooperechive.com confirm this date as an BOC/Alice gig, only they both reckon the gig took place at the Boutwell Auditorium, Birmingham AL.
As for BOC.com, they reckon this show was in Birmingham Al (venue unknown).
Despite my Hampton VA advert mention, it looks like this show might just have taken place in...
Boutwell Auditorium, Birmingham AL...
My faith in that Rolling Stone advert has suffered a real battering...
It did spark back into life the other day when I noticed this extract on mattbarrett.net:
"Alice Cooper: 1972. Hampton Roads. Va. If you were going to see Alice cooper then this was the show to see. It was during their Schools Out Tour which was by coincidence the year me and several million other people graduated from highschool. This show had it all, the snake, the gallows and a band that despite their reputation of being a bunch of drunks, was musically flawless. Maybe it's because I was young but this was one of the most amazing shows I have ever seen and it had nothing to do with the props. This was a great band at that moment in time."
So, this was an Alice gig in Hampton VA in 1972 - none of the Alice sites had such a show listed - could this be the mysterious BOC/Alice gig from the advert?
I decide to email Matt to ask if he knew the date of the show, the venue and the support act - was it BOC??
He replied: "BOC did not open the show that I recall. It had to be in July or August of 72. It was at the Hampton Roads Colliseum."
Oh well...
Both sickthingsuk.co.uk and alicecooperechive.com confirm this date as an BOC/Alice gig, and BOC.com also confirms it.
This would appear to be the last gig on the tour, if it indeed took place.
Both sickthingsuk.co.uk and alicecooperechive.com confirm this date as an BOC/Alice gig, and they feature the poster above. However, I don't like the look of that poster. It sort of looks "wrong" to me - but it's nothing I can put my finger on. And there are a number of fake Alice posters about.
BOC.com doesn't mention this gig.
Well, there you go! Eric Bloom mentioned in the 3 March entry that BOC did 15 gigs on top of that Worcester date - making 16 in all.
My current reckoning is - any help you can send to help me get a more accurate idea of what happened on that tour would be gratefully received.
This is the tour I would most have liked to see if you gave me my own time machine (this and the MC5/Stalk Forrest Group at Stony Brook gym - or maybe the SWU/Dead gig at the same venue) - anyway, I love BOC and I loved Alice (especially the Killer period) - and seeing them both on the same bill would have been too fantastic for words, and so that's why I'd especially like to get a handle on these dates. It was an important tour and I'd like to see it documented properly and accurately.
This was the date of Buck Dharma's marriage to Sandy and was marked by Richard Meltzer's interesting take on how to behave at a wedding...
This gig is confirmed by bbhc.com, the official Big Brother site as the first in a short mini-tour with BOC.
Unfortunately, they didn't have any specific dates for these shows but it might have been around 12 June (see below).
Those Big Brother dates were my honeymoon! Right after our wedding on June 10, Sandy and I flew to Chicago to spend our honeymoon playing those shows around Northern IL and IN area. Not much of a getaway!
Big Brother was OK, it was the band minus Janis. The new gal was pretty good, but of course, no Janis. I believe those Big Brother gigs started on the 12th. It was 3 or four, I can't remember...
Small world: The drummer David Getz' then wife Nancy years later managed Sandy Pearlman's recording studio in San Rafael CA, where BOC recorded Harvest Moon, The Horsemen Arrive and Still Burning.
Yes, we played with Big Brother and the Holding Company at some high schools in the suburbs of Chicago. Really small time gigs, we were desperate for any gigs at that time.
No, Janis Joplin. They had another singer who wasn't bad, but no Janis.
I have been given anecdotal evidence of a 1972 BOC gig at the Illiana Speedway, Schererville, Indiana, (not Illinois) so maybe that's this gig?...
If not, then that means there could be TWO gigs in Schererville in 1972!
I was at the Illiana Speedway gig, which was in Schereville, Indiana. The only info I can add is that it was M.C.'d/"Hosted" by Bob "The Bear" Hite from Canned Heat, who were in town to do a gig at the Sherwood Club in Schereville.
Was this Speedway gig with Big Brother? And have you any idea of the date of the show you saw?
I have ZERO recollection of the exact date or any other bands that were on the bill... and I'd LOVE to find out. There was only one event of this kind, ever, at the Illiana Speedway. (I lived only a few miles away from it).
I remember there were quite a few bands on the bill... enough to keep the music going through the day and into the evening. I think they were mostly local groups from the Northwest Indiana area. I don't recall the date, but it WAS in the summer (I remember that the weather was nice and warm for sitting outside and getting "baked", as it were.
To be honest, I don't recall BBHC on the bill at this show. BOC was the headline act.
I was crazy about Janis, and would have been as excited about seeing BBHC as I was at seeing BOC. Perhaps BBHC was making an appearance at the Sherwood Club in Schererville (where Canned Heat was making an appearance). Maybe BBHC was on the bill with Canned Heat?
Schererville was a rather small, undeveloped town at that time, and were VERY few "venues" at which to play. In fact, Illiana Speedway and the Sherwood Club were about the only venues at the time that COULD or WOULD host rock bands.
The closest other venue in Northwest Indiana would have been the Hammond Civic Center in Hammond, Indiana (midway between Schererville and Chicago). LOTS and LOTS of big-name rock bands appeared there during this period.
OK - if BOC were the headline act, then this DOES look like a second Schererville show in that Summer of 1972! One at an unknown venue (possibly a high school) with Big Brother and one headlining a multiband line up at the Illiana Speedway - and I don't have an effing date for either of them!!
Help !!!
This gig is confirmed by bbhc.com...
This gig is confirmed by bbhc.com...
June 23, 1972: A gig was scheduled at the "Aragon Ballroom", Chicago, IL with Spirit, It's a Beautiful Day and BOC.
However, BOC cancels at the last minute for some unknown reason, and is replaced by a local band called Ever.
Blue Oyster Cult was scheduled to play June 23, 1972 at the Aragon Ballroom on a bill of: It's A Beautiful Day, Spirit, Blue Oyster Cult. The June 23, 1972 Chicago Tribune noted that Blue Oyster Cult had cancelled and been replaced by a local band Ever. The interesting part is that this would be around the dates of the Illinois shows in Niles and Romeoville that you have listed without dates (above). I have found no references to BOC playing in those cities in June 1972.
Cheers for that info Greg - though I do believe the dates for those currently undated Illinois shows are likely to be in the week immediately following June 10 (see Buck Dharma's comments regarding the dating of the shows under the Schererville entry above).
I saw a gig (not listed on your site) in which Blue Oyster Cult opened for Quicksilver Messenger Service at Constitution Hall, Washington DC.
As for specifics, the 1972 DC show was definately june 72. I was in 11th grade, that year was when I started going to shows. I had just seen Led Zeppelin 6/11/72 in Baltimore, winning tickets from a radio station... I know that the BOC/QMS was within 2 weeks after.
A lot of tickets from that year were printed and torn so that sometimes the date and/or band are gone, so I cannot confirm the exact day of June, just that it was June 1972.
I noticed that BOC.com list a gig at this same venue at about the correct date (24 June), except they say it was 1973!
I was wondering if the year was just a typo and this is the same gig?
Anyway, all I can say for sure is that BOC/QMS definitely happened at Constitution Hall, Washington DC in June 1972!
I saw this show - but I thought the gig I saw was at Atlanta Civic Center with Steppenwolf as headliner
In any event, BOC was the opening act. As they came on, I said to myself, "Sheesh! Get these guys off, I wanna see who I paid to see". As BOC started to play, I was mesmerized. By the time they finished, I was totally blown away. I totally forgot about the headliner and was begging for more BOC. They obliged with an encore, and I spent the rest of the concert talking to my date about great BOC was. It is a compliment to BOC that I can no longer remember who was headlining.
This gig is burned in my memory because the summer of '72 was my break between high school and moving to Atlanta to attend Georgia Tech. I came down in the summer to see that concert at the Atlanta Civic Center on Piedmont Avenue. Back then, we graduated high school in mid June, so the Atlanta gig was somewhere between the middle of June and the end of August '72, cause school started back then the first week of September.
I had a look on Black Sabbath's web site and could find no trace of an Atlanta gig that year, so that makes me think it was definitely Steppenwolf that BOC opened for at the Atlanta Civic Center, and not Sabbath.
This has gotten under my craw, so I am going to look at Atlanta newspaper archives at the library until I find the concert announcement. I will inform you when I get the facts.
BOC.com doesn't mention this date, but this gig was confirmed on the now offline Sabbathlive.com:
"07/22/72: Atlanta Municipal Auditorium, Atlanta GA - Confirmed by Artists Calendar in ROLLING STONE - 7/72"
This actually falls into your Summer timescale...
At the time, I was eighteen and moving to Atlanta to attend college. There was a lot on my mind, and I had not been to Atlanta before. I took a girl to the show I had met at a Beta Club convention earlier that year in Atlanta on a "field trip". The more I think about it, the show I saw musta been the July 22nd show with Black Sabbath at the Atlanta Municipal Auditorium.
I definately need to research this at the library's newspaper archives.
BOC opened for Sabbath not Steppenwolf on Saturday July the 22nd at the old Atlanta Municipal Auditorium. While I don't have documentation, I know this is correct as it was the first concert I ever attended and it was an event that I would not be "gray" on.
I recall BOC performing "Born to be Wild" as an encore, and Black Sabbath only performed for about 30 minutes, as legend has it, Tony Iommi was pretty messed up.
Rob Dwyer's now sadly offline Sabbathlive.com confirms this gig took place on this date and mention BOC/J. Geils Band as both being on the bill.
BOC.com doesn't feature this date.
Also: this gig gets a mention on the heband.hiof.no site in the guestbook section. A guy called VT says:
"First concert? hmmmm.. how about Blue Oyster Cult, J Geils (stealing the show) and Black Sabbath Nassau Coliseum circa 1972"
I can confirm that this show took place, I was there. BOC opened, I had never heard of them. They played first and the house lights were still on when they started playing. People were moving about in the isles and finding seats for the first couple of songs.
J. Geils played next and were high energy, bring the house down unbelievable! Black Sabbath closed and were so loud and the sound was terrible, very muddy and muffled.
When the show was over, the parking lot was full of J.Geils converts. In typical NY fashion the chatter was Black Sabbath sucks, J.Geils is great. Sorry, I can't remember the set lists....LOL
In July/August 1972, BOC opened for Black Oak Arkansas and Black Sabbath at Cole Field House, Univ. MD.
Sorry i dont have an accurate date but i can tell you that boc should have headlined and it was definitely late July or early August.
I checked Rob Dwyer's Sabbathlive.com (now offline), and they confirmed this gig but had Argent down as openers!! BOC weren't mentioned.
The bands were definately as i said: Black Sabbath headlining, Black Oak Arkansas in the middle and BOC playing first.
As for Argent, I do not recall if they were originally supposed to be on the bill or not, maybe they were switched at a later date?
They definitely did not play, nor were they supposed to when we went. We knew the 3 bands we were going to see. I simply don't remember anything about Argent in connection with this...
Regarding the College Park, MD gig from 7/28/72, it's highly possible that Blue Oyster Cult shared the bill with Sabbath that night. And given that B.O.C. opened for Sabbath on the previous night in Uniondale and on the 30th in Providence, I'd say it makes perfect sense.
During the 1st leg of their VOLUME 4 tour, Sabbath had a revolving door of opening acts. They didn't nail down a stable opener until the 2nd leg, when they chose Gentle Giant. WHY they chose Gentle Giant is beyond me, because they were a very odd pairing. Maybe they didn't want any competition?! This was admitted by Ronnie Dio during their '81 tour, when they chose Southern Rock acts like Johnny Van Zandt and Doc Holliday to warm up for them!
As for Argent, they did play with Sabbath at a few odd shows during that leg (confirmed by 8mm film too), but these things are always subject to change. I'd go with B.O.C. / Black Oak Arkansas theory, regardless of the handbill. Ticket stubs and handbills are often printed up weeks before a show, so they can still be wrong.
When putting this page together I checked the relevant Sabbathlive.com page at the time and was surprised to find this show no longer listed there.
Instead, it had been moved to their cancelled gig page!!
It said: "Conflicts with confirmed show at Gaelic Park. Cancelled?"
Steve seems very sure of his facts - if there definitely was a confirmed Sabbath gig at Gaelic Park, then maybe the original date for this Cole Field House gig (which I got off the now offline Sabbathlive.com) was wrong and it took place on another date?
If you know one way or the other, please let me know.
Yes, I was at this show in July, 1972. My best friend pulled me there to see this new band from NYC. Argent canceled a few days before. The concert was advertised on local radio as the "Black & Blue" show.
The band opened the show, with Black Oak Arkansas and Black Sabath headlining the bill. Of the three bands, B.O.C. blew everyone away. Black Oak Arkanasas was pretty much boo'd and made an early exit. Sabbath was road weary tuning a whole step down so Ozzie could sing.
It was the first time I saw Buck and Eric's pyrotechnic display with crossing guitars and letting the sparks fly. Stairway To the Stars was particularly memorable with Eric's swinging arm during the lyrics - "On your cast, you're broken arm..."
"Before The Kiss" was another highlight with the Long Islanders getting down into a rolling boogie. It was a night to remember. That night made me a die-hard fan for many years to come. Still am!
There was no Ritz Theatre in NYC 'til much later...
The Ritz was a rock venue in Greenwich Village from sometime in the late-70's/early-80's til some time in the 90's when it was renamed Webster Hall (which was its original name when it was a Polish dancehall, then an RCA recording studio in the 50's and 60's.
If Marc's right - and he probably is as he comes from there - then that means I'm short a venue name for this gig. Anyone know?
I can confirm that the July 29, 1972 show was at the Ritz Theater, in Staten Island, NY, owned by the Unganos folks. BOC opened for Cactus.
Check out my tour archive sites for Mountain, Ten Years After, Humble Pie and Procol Harum as well as a few venues, like Capitol Theater Port Chester, NY, Aragon & Kinetic in Chicago, Boston Tea Party and Hampton Beach Casino:
This gig was confirmed on the now offline Sabbathlive.com (it mentioned BOC/Bedlam were on the bill).
The 1972 show on July 30 in Providence RI (with Bedlam and Black Sabbath) was NOT at the Palace Concert theater... it was at the Providence Civic Center (now known as the Dunkin Donuts Center). I know... I was there!
Craig Murto
Late Model Racer magazine
I assume it was the "classic" lineup with the Bouchards. I had never heard the band before that - a friend of mine who'd read some good things about them was all hot to go & I was always ready to go along.
It was a long subway ride from the Village where I lived all the way up thru Manhattan & into the Bronx. It was an outdoor nighttime show, right on the soccer (football) field. You could either stand around on the field or sit in the stands off to the sides, we hung on the field.
Unfortunately I really remember very little in the way of detail about the show. Couldn't tell you what the guys wore or looked like, tho I'm under the impression that one of them (Joe or Allen would be my guess) wore a knee-length black raincoat.
I was mainly impressed by the way they played their instruments & constructed their songs - couldn't make out much of the lyrics. Their playing made me an instant fan tho, & I bought the album as soon as I could. (I'd like to say I ran right out & bought it the very next morning but my memory isn't that good either!)
Gaelic Park was also the place that I saw Jefferson Airplane, my favorite band during the late 1960s, with their "classic" lineup for the last time. So it was really a kind of watershed place when the music was in transition from the 60s to the 70s.
Gaelic Park is still there & still a soccer/football field - there was an article about it in the NY Times a year or 2 ago that I posted on BDTE.
Thanks to Anton, I discovered that there is a review of this gig on rocksbackpages.com but you have to pay to see the full thing.
The review is entitled: "Jeff Beck/Blue Oyster Cult/Flash/Argent: Gaelic Park, New York NY" and it was written by Jon Tiven, Phonograph Record, October 1972.
Thanks to Peter Greendale, I've been sent the two paragraphs which relate to the BOC performance:
"BLUE OYSTER CULT had a real bad time at the big park and oh boy did they know it... one of the guys backstage connected wit Da Cult said "They blew the drum solo" and they may have caused a near-riot in Oswok, Wisc. and a full-blown craze in Virginia, but in their own home they blew it..."
"Heavy metal is their cause, and they got chains and flash guitar and when it's good it's great, but like in Providence last December it didn't go so good. Sandy Pearlman was spotted moaning at the side of the stage, being comforted by Murray S. Krugman and R. Meltzer."
I wonder what was so bad about this show, then? The text above doesn't really give any clue - and as for the mention of "they may have caused a near-riot in Oswok, Wisc. and a full-blown craze in Virginia", what the hell does that mean?
BTW - I also noticed a mention of this show on b15sentra.net where a guy gives the band running order as "BOC/Flash/Argent/Jeff Beck"...
I was at this show, though all I remember about it was that Jeff beck was playing with Beck, Bogart and Appice at the time. He came on very, very late . In fact, many people had left already.
There was an 11 PM curfew at the stadium which was strictly enforced. There were a lot of apartment buildings in the area and the people had made many complaints about the shows, so they had to stop at 11 on the button. They would actually kill the power on stage.
Anyway, I remember Beck only played about 4 songs and then had to stop, which really pissed people off. Sorry I don't remember anything specific about BOC, but I know I had a great time that night!
The only evidence I have that this gig occurred is the above poster off eBay.
Here is a new gig to add to your lists. The information comes from the Chicago Reader weekly newspaper dated August 4, 1972 and gives the band running order as Argent, Blue Oyster Cult and Jeff Beck headlining.
Check out my tour archive sites for Mountain, Ten Years After, Humble Pie and Procol Harum as well as a few venues, like Capitol Theater Port Chester, NY, Aragon & Kinetic in Chicago, Boston Tea Party and Hampton Beach Casino:
See below for info on the gig I originally had down for this date...
I saw BOC open for Emerson, Lake and Palmer at the Minneapolis Armory on 8/10/72. I still have the ticket stub - somewhere. It was a general admission show, $4.50 per ticket. It was also the day I bought my 2nd car - a '68 VW bug - and we drove to the gig in it. Good memories.
I saw both BOC and ELP several more times (mostly in the 70s) and am still a fan of both. The '72 show was my first time seeing BOC and they definitely made an impression on me and my friends. We were soon turning lots of people on to this cool band and their music.
Because of the existance of the handbill giving an Arlington Heights gig down for 10 Aug, I've re-dated this gig for now as just "August". If I subsequently get some dating evidence for this Minneapolis Armory gig, I'll amend that...
The venue was Charlotte Park Center, and they opened for The James Gang.
James Gang was the headliner, I believe, and the venue name - Charlotte Park Center - is correct. I lived there then and remember that show.
This would have been the first time I would have been much-anticipatedly able to see them live, and thus the date is seared into my memory.
I remember hearing Cities on Flame, Born to be Wild, the drum solo with Eric and Buck(?) helping out.
I was definitely at a concert there, with those two bands, and the date fits for me because it was the summer after my college freshman year. I'm sure you would need more verification, and my ticket stubs are long lost.
This gig was held at a Chapel Hill dance club on E. Franklin Ave. called The Electric Company. Unfortunately, I don't remember any other details. I was a freshman at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill that fall.
This gig gets a mention on the runet.edu (Radford University) site.
I was in the warm up band that played before BOC at both the Clinch Valley concert and also the 27 Jan 1973 Johnson City TN gig that replaced the scheduled 23 Sept Kingsport concert mentioned below. (It was an indoor stadium, connected to some school, I think. It was pretty packed and a great audience).
I played lead guitar in a band called Mulberry, we out of Martinsville, VA and later Fort Lauderdale, FLA.
Blue Oyster told us they would fly out from NY area for every gig - booked like tours, but they didn't tour at the time. This was better for them from the personal side, although it probably cost them to do it. They also said they were on their second rise -- they had sort of made it many years before, but faded, then in the seventies they were coming back after so many years.
They were interested in us because our originals were somewhat 'cosmic' - more like Yardbirds and Moody Blues. We used the harmonica as well. Rocket-fast leads but not as heavy or dark as they were. In other words, we probably reminded them of musical roots in their past. I was of course pleased to play with anyone who had a big audience. We had played before Alice Cooper and the Allman Brothers, etc. so we had some experience but it was always a big deal and a thrill to be on the bill with a professional group. Fun times.
Lets see, I think both gigs were booked by a guy named Dick Winstead. He booked a few other jobs for us.
At the Clinch Valley gig they used Red Wheeler sound - they had these huge base bins.
In Tennessee, the monitors were Altec A7 (Voice of the Theatre) hung off the front of the stage. Nice.
I was in awe of BOC's amp set: stacks of Hi-Watt, Marshall, Orange.
They used the same guitars we did that were popular at that time: Gibson SG, Gibson ES335. Buck Dharma had a switch on his SG guitar to select between two amp stacks. One was set clean, the other overdrive. They had the industrial style that became known as metal. We were trying to be more of a Brit style, I guess.
Funny thing, at the VA gig, we got an encore, and although we had played originals, we came out with Gimme Shelter by the Stones for the encore, and management had a cow about this because you can't play a big gig like that and just do other bands music - they can demand royalty payment right then. We- did not realize it till they told us afterwards, but no harm done - it worked for the crowd. We opened the show with Fleetwood Mac's "Oh Well" before going to the originals, but they may not have noticed that one because it was an underground fave at the time.
Another funny thing - at the Tennessee gig, I was surprised to see all this stuff being thrown up on stage - it was like grasshoppers or something. A bit later I realized it was a shower of joints. They were throwing reefer up on stage. Of course nobody picked it up because security was standing around but still it was wild. Nevertheless we always tried to play straight because we wanted to be in tune, and getting high hurt the quality of the music.
Following these jobs, we were supposed to front the band Argent (Hold Your Head UP) but that got cancelled because the band folded before the gig. That may be the cancellation the other poster remembered (see 28 July further up the page).
The club in Greenville was called the Music Factory. It's still standing but it's an office now. There were 2 other bands with them, but I don't remember their names. They were locals and not well known.
There was a group of 20 or so fans from my hometown who took over the front of the stage for the show. We had never seen any pictures of the band before that night, so we didn't know what any of them looked like, but we knew all the songs.
I am pretty sure the 1972 Kingsport TN date did not occur, as if my [smoky] memory serves me at all, we heard about tickets going to go on sale, but the show was canceled before they went on sale.
It was going to be at the Dobbins Bennett HS football field, and there was something about noise levels [imagine!].
I remember being very excited when we heard they were gonna play East Tenn. State Univ to 'replace' that gig - then it was 6 months before it happened (see 27 Jan 1973).
My home town is Bristol Tenn, between K'port and JC. It was my first year of college...
Your excellent database lists the date and town for this concert but not the venue or other bands which appeared.
Over the years I have been compiling a concert listing for Wishbone Ash and my records have Wishbone Ash and REO Speedwagon supporting BOC at the Electric Park Ballroom Waterloo Iowa on the 30th Oct 1972.
The book 'Blowin' Free - Thirty Years of Wishbone Ash' by Gary Carter & Mark Chatterton contains a listing of Wishbone Ash concerts and on the 30th October 1972 they were playing in Waterloo Iowa. The venue is given as Electric Park Waterloo.
I'm afraid I don't have a reference for the source of my info which included REO Speedwagon at this concert but I am fairly confident the details are accurate.
Best Wishes on collecting the missing info.
I only know of the existance of this gig thanks to research done by Jill Atwood who unearthed the above advert...
Camel were the openers for this show, but as they are described in the newspaper report above as being from Stamford CT, then clearly this is a different Camel to the better known English prog rock band from Canterbury UK...
This date is confirmed by the motorcitymusicarchives.com website.
I think also that these date(s) were played in 1972 - if you have any info, please let me know:
| 001 | Mobile Municipal Auditorium | Mobile | Alabama |
I attended a BOC concert in Mobile, Alabama in Fall 1972 or Spring 1973, Mobile Civic Center. A fight or something broke at the end - I had not stayed 'til the end ( had an early curfew!) but read about it the next day in the paper (parents were very upset that I may have been there during).
Hope this helps. Newspaper would be Mobile Press Register, can't remember month or time of year.
This gig was at the Mobile Municipal Auditorium, which has been torn down and now, at the same spot, is the Civic Center. I'm not sure of the date though - it may have been in 1971 or 1972. I was 16, my birthday is in September, I was born in 1955.
Dr John played, then Blue Oyster Cult - Spirit was the headliner. I recall lots of kids with painted faces in the fountain out front.
There was such a small turnout, most of the fans were on the auditorium floor, after BOC, there was a too long wait and people started chanting, "Spirit, Spirit, Spirit, etc". Then the announcer finally came out and said the concert was over, they were sorry but not enough tickets had been sold for Spirit to play.
Everybody yelled obscenities and some folks grabbed their metal chairs and slung them about until there was a pile of them, people started leaving, then someone slung a chair into the glass doors.
Mobile is the home of the America's Junior Miss pageant. The crown and scepter was displayed in a glass case in the outer hall of the auditorium. Someone cracked it open and disturbed the relics, whether they were just mislaid or stolen, I don't recall.
I walked out and there were cops chasing kids and kids throwing bottles at cop cars. I imagine they arrested quite a few. That's all I recollect.