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 they 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...
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 and use it whenever somebody gives you any shit or whatever about this recording and its various CD or Vinyl releases.
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.
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!!!!
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 audienceŠit 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!!
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.
Help!!
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!!
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...
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?...
This gig is confirmed by bbhc.com...
This gig is confirmed by bbhc.com...
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 is confirmed on 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.
Sabbathlive.com confirm 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.
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"
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, 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 and was surprised to find this show no longer listed there.
Instead, it is now on their cancelled gig page!!
It says: "Conflicts with confirmed show at Gaelic Park. Cancelled?"
Steve seems very sure of his facts - if there dfinitely was a confirmed Sabbath gig at Gaelic Park, then maybe the original date for this Cole Field House gig (which I got off Sabbathlive.com) was wrong and it took place on another date?
If you know one way or the other, please let me know.
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?
This gig is confirmed on Sabbathlive.com and mentions BOC/Bedlam were on the bill.
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 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.
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 gets a mention on the runet.edu (Radford University) site.
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...
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 | Kinetic Playground | Chicago | IL |
I don't remember the dates, but after the first album, BOC headlined at the Kinetic Playground in Chicago with Jo Jo Gunne, Flash and Glencoe. It was sometime in the fall of '72, I believe.
| 002 | Mobile Civic Center | Mobile | AL |
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.