TORONTO SHUCKS!
Ever been in Toronto at 12 midnight with 55¢ (Canadian funds 54¢, U.S., 1¢) and two (Canadian) cigarettes? That’s the upshot of what Toronto Pop 1969 did to me. The two day fiasco will probably be remembered in the music industry & the hype of the century.
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TORONTO SHUCKS!
DAVE MARSH
SOUTH END
Ever been in Toronto at 12 midnight with 55¢ (Canadian funds 54¢, U.S., 1¢) and two (Canadian) cigarettes?
That’s the upshot of what Toronto Pop 1969 did to me. The two day fiasco will probably be remembered in the music industry & the hype of the century. The promoters alone should win dozens of awards for everything from “most overhyped acts’1 to “least professional arrangements,” to “most insulting to a crowd.” Compared to. the Toronto shysters, Russ Gibb and Bill Graham look like the patron saints of street people.
The first day, Saturday, started off with a real bang when we found out that the tickets the South End was to have had reserved, weren’t. “Never heard of you.” Luckily we then ran into Dan Carlisle of WABX and he laid some tickets (regular, net press) on us.
I talked to Carlisle, Kramer, and John Detz (WABX station manager) Sunday and they, voiced concern for the people. If the promoters in Toronto had one tenth of that concern, things would have been 1007c better,,
Jhe first name band to appear after the fiasco'was resolved was die AI
Kooper Orchestra* Now l don’t know WHO booked the acts at the Festival, but apparently his idea of “progressive” rock Is listening to INNA GADDA VIDA for six Hours a day.
Kooper, with his orchestra sounding like Stan Kenton’s did 15 years ago, is hardly the freshest “pop” sound around. But the crowd loved it. Kooper performed his little hits (one could tell which Had been released as "hits” from audience response). This set the pattern for the following ads.
Apparently, what the crowd wanted was groups who could play the “hits” so they could dap and-cheer. It was CK twinspln weekend. Solid gold. Nobody listened. What they should have done was (for most groupsjUplayed thenrecords and just stood there—-most of them did that, in effect, anyway. Few acts put on any sort of a “Show”: those who did were generally received in a stupor.
The only Detroit group at the Festival, SRC, did a killer set but the crowd managed not to react at all
Low keyed acts, such as Eric Anderson’s, ,could hardly be heard. The crowd was there for the hits and couldn’t care less about musical qua-
lity. Besides this, toe groups were separated from toe crowd by a snow fence about twenty feet in front of toe stage. Most Detroit groups Would have flipped out.
AFTER DARK, some of the better arts appeared. Velvet Underground did a great set that most of the crowd, again, wasn’t ready for. Then Johnny Winter, the fantastic albino blues guitarist,' came on and played fantastic blues-rock for almost an hour.
The crowd was then forced to wait almost an hour for the final act, Sly and the Family Stone. Sly went through his hits and finally the audience was moved to respond.
They played for over an hour going through “Stand,” “Dance to the Music,” “Everyday People,” and ended up with a half-hour version of “Higher.” Most of the crowd could dig that, thank God.
SUNDAY was even more of a fiasco. After getting absolutely NO sleep Saturday night, I, for some bizarre reason, decided to go to mass with Aloma from WABX. Our people then decided to'go into the stadium but the Pinkerton guards wouldn’t let Aloma in because they had ripped off both halves of her two-day ticket on Saturday.
I managed to miss Teagarden and Van Winkle’s set. They, I am told, got a standing ovation. Tien Procol Harum came on. Due to more promoter screwups, Procol Harum were forced to play a shortened set.
They went through their hits without any of the energy Detroit crowds are used to, and ended with “Repent Walpurgfa” for about three minutes. Even on records “Repent** lasts five minutes, and on stage I’ve never before heard them do it for less than fifteen, but they could hardly be heard.
Procol Harum wan followed by three Black acts, Slim Harpo, Chuck Berry, and Carla Thomas. With the crowd facing to relate to most of the great music these performers laid down, we gave up, went to the cor, and went to sleep until 11:00, (10:00 Detroit time) when we left for home.
Perhaps toe Detroit Rock and Roll Revival spoiled us (there were over 600 people from Detroit tu attendance). Maybe it was toe Toronto crowd which consisted primarily of Toronto MODS who were afraid to get their $75 costumes dirty. But in toe last analysis, it was toe promoter’s fault.
Carlisle told us that on Saturday Al Kooper couldn’t get in. The acts were delayed and Shortened. Conditions were rank. Drugs were high priced. The only way one could leave was to have has hand stamped; there was one hand stamper for the entire 30,000. There was only one telephone for the whole mess.
Promoters had better get hip to the fact that this is something they can’t get away with. Merely booking a lot of “names” and then having exhorbitent prices, insulting the audience, insulting the performers,and generally showing a lack of concern for anything but money, money, money would have gotten the promoters burned in Detroit. Most of tiie Detroit people left early anyway. All in all, Toronto Pop fizzled.
