ROCK & ROLL NEWS

ROCK & ROLL NEWS

detroit memphis experiment

Steve Cropper, lead guitarist for Booker T and the MG’s, noted producer for Stax Records and author, with Otis Redding of Respect was in town recently to finish, with Mitch Ryder, the DETROIT-MEMPHIS EXPERIMENT album at Tera-Shirma Studios.

Mitch Ryder is reappearing on the local scene with a new band with the old name, the Detroit Wheels. The band will be a return to the old rock, rhythm and blues style of Mitch’s mid-60’s sucesses. “We had to come back home to Detroit to find what we’d lost in New York”, commented a happy Ryder.

HIT PARADER editor Jim Delehant has left that magazine to go to Atlantic Records and work in their A and R department. Delehant edited perhaps the most under-rated and under-exposed magazine in the rock field, reaching thousands of kids every month for years with an intelligent magazine. His replacement at HIT PARADER is Richard Robinson, formerly of GO and the Pop Wire Service.

Holland Dozier Holland, the Motown writing team, have signed a multimillion dollar contract with Capitol Records after their riff with Motown was finally settled. As Jon Landau commented, “If they even wrote four of the songs they claim they’ve written, they’re geniuses.”

Poppersonalty/club owner Steve Paul, who has been busy all summer managing Johnny Winter, has been forced to close and attempt to sell his mid-town Manhattan roek club, the Scene. Steve is selling the club' “due to the responsibility of other commitments”. Substantial financial requirements as well as integrity are necessary” to make the club a success, according to a lA page ad in Billboard. Anyone interested in purchasing the club can call Paul’s attorney, Mr. Phillip Kaplan, at 212-D14-2040. The lamented loss of the Scene leaves New York with very few places for rock musicians to jam after hours.

GRANDE

MOVES!!

The Grande Ballroom, with the ensuing closing of the Fillmore West, the oldest rock ballroom in the country, will be moving September 26 th, to new headquarters at the Riviera Theatre. The Riviera, located about a block and a half further down Grand-River, is owned by the Nederlander Bros, of Fisher theater fame.

Jann Wenner, proprietor of Rolling Stone, has turned record producer. His first effort will be producing Boz Scaggs, ex-Mother Earth guitarist. Jann seems to be following in the footsteps of his former co-hort Jon Landau.

A revolutionary breakthrough for rock in the TV media has occured without as much fan-fare as might have been expected. On Tuesday August 19th the Dick Cavett show featured Joni Mitchell, Crosby Stills Nash and Young (replacing Jimi Hendrix whose Experience is over) and the Jefferson Airplane and THAT’S ALL. That’s the first ti me ever that a show other than documentary types, has featured just our music, rock and roll. Let’s hope it’s not just a one-shot affair.

On the very evening upon which his latest bit of journalistic experitise appeared in the Detroit New’s TEMPO Magazine, ace reporter Tony Reay was unable to find any of the ultimate high. Other inferior sources were found, reports the Ozone Underground.

Jan and Lorraine, Detroit Folksingers, will have an album out on ABC Records shortly.

The Wild West Festival, according to whom you listen to either the greatest binge of free music or a new way to exploit rock artists, has 'jr^d to cancel itself due to hostility from certain segments 'f the San Francisco community. The Wild West Festival was to have happened the weekend of August 22nd-24th, with free music in the parks, other art show and concerts in Kezar Stadium in the evening. Those concerts, priced at $3 a head, along with the fact that a movie which could have made millions was planned were the main points of dissension. According to spokesman for the Festival any profits would have gone to help struggling artists. According to the opposition, it was all a ruse to make money.

RADIO

It’s been a bad month for disc jockeydom in Detroit. At WABX, the Kokaine Karma duo, Bob Rudnick and Dennis Frawley have been doused by the station for what Rudnick called “general insubordination”. Bob and Dennis came to WABX after being fired from WFMU, New York where the interim MC5 manager Danny Fields is about to lose his show.

As a gesture of support to the Karma Kings, Detroit’s highest rated nighttime disc jockey Danny Carlisle of ABX has resigned at Keener FM-Uncle Russ will go on with a daily show after his return from the British Isles.

On the AM half of your tuner, WJBK dj Lee Sims has been canned for what was termed “disputes of taste”. Sims got in trouble for being one of the few disc jockeys anywhere to openly support John Sinclair in his recent hassles with the local law enforcers. He also made the mistake of asking his listeners to send him “stuff, not resents, stuff’ on his birthday.

Quote from an unnamed Atlantic Records executive: “When Jac Holzman (president of Elektra Records) hars the new MC5 album, he’ll stick his head in the oven.”

September 5th is a big day in local rock circles. Besides the movement westward of the Grande, Meadowbrook and Oakland University will host Paul Butterfield and Steve Miller’s bands. And at U of D, the Student Government is presenting a killer bill with the Stooges, (whose album is moving up on the charts), Cat Mother and the All-Night Newsboys, the Frost and the Bob Seger System. For 3 bucks, that’s an out of sight bill considering that all of the groups have released an album within the last three of four months.

MR Picnic

For the last ten ot fifteen years the Benedictine H.S. Dad’s Club has put on a carnival over the Labor Day weekend, with games, hot dogs, ice cream and the like. This year they put on a Rock and Roll Picnic, with the Stooges, Frost, Keef Hartley and the like. With the combined help of all the local rock and roll magnates they pulled it off, to the satisfaction of most of most of those in attendance. Hundreds pulled down fences and got in free while Grande rent-a-cops did a typical Keystone Kops routine; twenty kids would attack one section of fence, only to be repulsed, while another group would attack that portion of the barricade vacated by the security people, and when the protectors wheeled to deal with the new intruders, the section they abandoned would come under siege, and so on and so on and so on. Meanwhile, Benedictine Priests were moving among the crowd when they came upon the customary Backfield Gropers moving freely and happily under their regulation Pop Festival blankets. Apparantly disapproving, they tried to reason with the kids in an effort to dissuade them from their pastimes, but, alas, to no avail.

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Cont. from page 3

Cosmic Rooster

John Angelos, crazed local rock and roll criminal, has, left his job with the Gold Bros, to form a new band with the legendary Son-Roy, dopefiend guitarist. The new band, Cosmic Rooster will be playing their own killer brand of “action music” according to the crazed duo. A frantic search for a bassist and drummer continues.

Mike Ouatro seems to be having a little trouble gettin’ it together with the pop fest. The Mount Clemens Festival was, according to those who Were there, a) swamp, b) disatrously underorj^anized and c) ran until 4 a.m. uniy about 250 people were left for the MC5’s set and when the Five play to that kind of audience on their own turf something truly strange has gone down. As Rob Tyner commented, “Rock and roll is supposed to re-sensitize you but after all day like that it has the opposite effect.”

The Sarnia Music Festival at Kenwick-on-the-Lake was highlighted by harassment of the bands at the Canadian border. Ted Nugent, property of the Amboy Dukes, had his rectal regions searched for narcotics and most bands were held up for several hours. At the Fest itself about 200-300 people made it Sunday '•after Friday’s show had drawn 500 and Saturday’s was mercifully rained out. MitchRyder and the! MC5 both ended up being owed money by the more than slightly beset management.

The Kinks, who said, several years ago, that they’d never set foot in the U.S. again are' about to rescind that declaration and begin an American tour.

The Bump, local recording artists, have recently finished their first lp at Woody Schwartz’ Pioneer Studios. The heavily Beatles-influenced group is now looking for a record company.

Motown has a new record label, Rare Earth, which will feature “underground” sounds. First record is by Rare Earth, formerly the Sunliners, a Lansing bar band.

Carlisle-ABX Split

Dan Carlisle has left WABX under circumstances that were not too pleasant for either Dan or the station. “Quitting was a rush” said Carlisle;“we didn’t part on good terms.”

“ABX is pissed. They feel that my leaving hurt the station. Because the air staff was really a team, so of course breaking up the team is going to effect the overall program; Their concern seems to be more money wise than soundwise, though.”

Dan had been with WABX for more than a year and a half. He was the first disc jockey to renounce his pseudonym (Terry King) on the air, a move which set the tone for “honest radio,” a characterization which has been the cornerstone of WABX’s success as a community cultural outlet.

He indicated two reasons for his resignation: “The unwillingness of WABX to offer a competitive salary, and the dismissal of Rudnick and Frawley. In that order.” When asked to comment on the station’s announcement of his resignation, made on the Carlisle-originated Rock and Roll News show, in which it . was stated that WABX couldn’t bring itself to wish him luck, he sat silently and made a, face. It was apparent that he found the episode distasteful.

Asked about his plans for the future, Carlisle said that he wasn’t at liberty to discuss his immediate prospects, but commented more or less obliquely: “I have . been in Rock and Roll since Be-Bop-a-Lu-La and I will continue to be. I also, have been in every major. city in the country and 1 keep coming back to this one, so I guess I plan to stay.”

Dan had been the major impetus behind most of the community-oriented project for which ABX is renowned. He was the instigator cf the Jackson Prison, rock circus, he coordinated the free concert series and just before leaving, produced (with Ann Arbor, rock magnate Jeep Holland) the/ station’s unique “History of Michigan Rock and Roll,” two shows which delved deep into the dark past of the local music scene.

About the station’s decision to drop Rudnick and Frawley’s Kokaine Karma show, Carlisle commented: “1 really thought their show was valid even though I wouldn’t play most of the music they played. They weren’t disc jockeys and they weren’t hired because they were. 1 think firing them was a mistake, and it was something that made my own resignation happen. But 1 want it clear, that wasn’t all of it.”

Dan summed up his feelings about departure by stating: “I really don’t think that I want to stretch this into any sordid weird affair. It’s a waste of time. I think we should end the whole thing right now.”

The Rationals have an album due to make its appearance in late September. Cut for Metromedia at Tera Shirma in Detroit, it will feature both sides of their recent single, “Guitar Army" and “Sunset”.

The GTO’s, truly bizarre girl “band”, have a record called (more GTO’s) “Circular Circulation” on Zappa’s Straight label. Zappa has a talent for drawing people like that, you know.

Bob Dylan played before 150,000 at the Isle of Wight Pop Festival in Britain, Aug. 31st. His three hour sfyow was worth $84,000 to the onetime soothsayer; it was his first major appearance since his motorcycle wreck 27 months ago.

fax on Stax

Stax Records, previously consisting of an all black list of artists, recently recorded their first three white artists. Delaney and Bonnie were the first group signed though the first'album released will probably be that of Detroit r’n’b vocalist, Mitch Ryder. Ryder’s album, tentatively entitled The Detroit Memphis Experiment was produced by Steve Cropper, author of Respect (with Otis Redding) and lead guitarist for Booker T. and the MGs. Ryder’s lp will be released around the end of September. Meanwhile, the label’s third white act has been announced - Janis Joplin

A band that has been sadly missed on the local scene, the Jagged Edge, are returning to resensify us with their own killer brand of Detroit rock. (Even if they didn’t make their initial appearance at the Ballroom).

Graham Nash, exHolly now with Crosby, Nash, Stills, Young and whoever else has joined them lately, is seriously ill and won’t be performing for a couple of weeks. An operation is expected to be needed to enable him to continue singing.

The mad UP, freaxy Trans-Love band, are rumored to be working on an oscilloscope which will reportedly do some far-out things to ther listeners minds and bodies.

Alice Cooper, the Los Angeles based Frank Zappa crew, is rumored to be moving to the Midwest. All of the band’s members have their roots here (Alice him/herself was once born in Detroit) and the people in the area seem to relate well to the band’s music.

The Soul Sextet, local bar band, formerly with vocalist Rodney Knight who left a year ago, have changed their image. Coming nearly full circle from stone greaser soul to a big band rock sound the seven piece group has changed its name to the Tribal Simphonia. The Tribe’s sound is perhaps the best in the area among those bands which features horns in a hard rock setting.

SRC in SF&LA

Recently returned from the West Coast, the SRC received only the same blase, complacent response which now seems to characterizes the once vital center of rock.

“The audiences didn’t ever have the rock and roll maturity to really get into it” said Pete Andrews, SRC manager. Admittedly, crowds are not expected to rave over every group that enters a ballroom but, according to Pete, Fillmore audiences come to “camp out” bringing along such zany equipment as lawnchairs and sleeping bags. “And I’m not kidding” added Andrews. In any other context, such a scene would be ludicrous but San Francisco is supposed to be the lair of the avant-garde of rock and roll.

In addition to the bogus Frisco rock palaces, the SRC also played the “super-trippy, plastic hip scene” known as Los Angeles. Thee Experience, LA’s largest, most prestigious club holds only about 400 (less than most Detroit area teen spots) and caters to “All sorts of degenerates and Sunset Strip hippies’’ Andrews stated. The pseudo-hip L.A. shikies applaud only if they don’t dig you. Pete calls it “Grown-Up High School Confidential”

While on the coast, the SRC did manage to work out some of the major hassles they had with Capitol Records. “They admitted to us that they were the bumbling company we expected” Andrews explained. Results of the California negotiations mean that SRC will have far more freedomin producing their next album. That record’s release is not due until January in order permit them full time to reach the pinnacle of their own sound. In the interim, the group will be releasing a pair of 45’s Outside of recording, the group will

have very little contact with Capitol. At present, they’re handling their own publicity and promotion.

“We’re going into seclusion for about six weeks” reports vocalist Scott Richardson. No appearances in Detroit are slated until October 3rd,at the East own

Rising from what many considered a mediocre rock group to a major force on the Mid-Western rock scene, SRC continues to put its own distinctive sound together. The vital energy of this music has as yet remained uncaptured by their recordings but doing production at their own pace and with their own people could be the essential factor in the SRC’s rise to success.

Bob Seger’s drummer, Peppy, is recording an album called Humor Nucleosis “Live and In Person”. It’s called a live album, according to manager Punch Andrews, because “It’s little better than him going out and being dead.” Emphasis on the album should be placed on the first word since no one around here knows what nucleosis means anyway. Peppy’s vocals are reported to be reminiscent of a cross between Wild Man Fisher and Everett Dirksen.

Blind Faith’s tour has been full of bizarre happenings. The Detroit appearance was hampered by the unbelievably atrocious acoustics of Olympia Stadium. In New York, cops assaulted two frenzied members of the audience who were sucessful in reaching the stage in an attempt to touch the stars. And, in Portland, Oregon, their appearance was cut short when Ginger Baker went into what the local gendarmes considered an over-frenetic drum solo.

The Blind Faith appearance in Detroit also featured former Traffic guitarist Dave Mason playing lead with Delaney and Bonnie. The finale of that appearance, featuring Blind Faith, Delaney and Bonnie and their Friends and Taste, this reunited 2 ex-members of the sorely missed Traffic. Mason was also involved in producing at that time the Family’s album which

included Blind Faith bassist Rick Grech. From his unique viewpoint, Mason commented, “It’s a good group, it had to be a good group. It’s good, it’s really good, but I mean ...” Mason indicated that he’d like to do the Traffic thing of going off into the country again but, “You can have too much freedom and it gets abused in the end.”

The Blind Faith finale with Delaney and Bonnie is undoubtedly the high point of the group’s live show. For a brief moment the incredibly electric atmosphere that Cream often generated and occasionally harnessed was again realized. It made the entire night worthwhile in many ways, especially since the rest .of the show was so lackluster. Whatever the problem was with the sound system or just the band remains to be seen.

Blind Faith in Detroit

The Sunday Funnies, who recently recorded an album at Something Different, are being stared at by both Capitol Records and ABC Probe.

Joe Cocker can be heard doing the backing vocal on Lee Michaels new 45 “Height'y Hi”. Chris Wood of the late lamented Traffic, is now with the famous Night Tripper, Dr. John.

Felix Pappalardi, noted producer of Cream’s fantastic (?) studio cuts on their last three albums has recently formed a group, with N.D. Smart II and Leslie West, called Mountain. The trio features guitar, bass (Pappalardi) and drums. Their album is called Mountain and as the press release states, “the ability he has shown with Cream, The Youngbloods, Richie Havens and Jack Bruce is abundantly evident here”. Yup.

More album releases due:

Jan is Joplin’s (also negotiating to work at Stax’ Memphis studios) Cosmi Blues

The Band, who hopefully will include some of their old rock and roll.

And Creedence Clearwater.

Hank Ballard and the Midnighters, ancient r’n’b legends, (Work with Me, Annie, Annie Had A Baby, Cherry Pie) are rumored to be reforming for an assault on the rock field.

Sky Saxon has put the original Seeds back together again. Another super group?

The Third Power should be thanked for the use of their p.a. and amps at the last WABX free concert at the Library. Maybe Ted Nugent of the Dukes will fix or replace the amp he blew up in his enthusiasm for long high notes, if he remembers what it was like to save so long for an amp and still have to make payments until a record company comes through.

There is now a Stooges fan club. Write to Josephine at Elektra if you dare.

Fleetwood Mac has left Epic Records to record for the London group.

Little Sonny, Detroit/blues artist has recently cut an album for Stax.

New Heat

Canned Heat has gone through some personnel changes. Lead guitarist Henry Vestine walked out on the group after a battle “live at the Fillmore” West. He has been replaced by Harvey Mandel (whose new is “Righteous”). Canned Heat also horns now. But Bob Hite is still the leading American Boogie Man.

Beset with weirdness, the Kokaine Karma duo of Rudnick and Frawley has, at least temporarily been rent asunder. Dennis is back on the air while the righteous Rudnick, hassidic healer, resides in the Trans-Love Energies commune in Ann Arbor for the moment. Rudnick and Frawley were offered their program back by WABX shortly after they were fired for what Bob termed “general insubordination”. Frawley is on the old Karma timeslot but according to Dennis “This doesn’t mean the dissolution of the Karma. Rudnick just doesn’t want to do radio right now.” Frawley has moved back to the Motor City. Dennis is an expert on historic rock and roll so his program should be extremely popular at this point.

Cont. on Page 24

R&R News

The easy atmosphere of Ann Arbor clubs has produced countless fine jamming bands of all kinds. The name which springs first to mind, of course, is that of the infamous Commander Cody and his Lost Planet Airmen, a band which was so loose on stage that a tune would often end in mid-chorus just because everybody had stopped playing to take a hit off the bottle of wine. Anyway, the CARNAL KITCHEN is a jamming band from Ann Arbor too. They don’t play tunes as such; they have some*lines that they use regularly to start a jam, but most of the time they just trade riffs on stage until something happens.

Recently they raised some money, found a cat with tape equipment, set up a four-night gig at the Canterbury House in Ann Arbor, and recorded an album. They expect to press 2,000 copies on their own label, Aural, sell 1500 locally and send 500 out to people in the Biz in hopes of lining up some jobs and a recording contract with a major label.

Their music is kind of hard to describe. They use horns,

sometimes two drummers and no vocalist. Kitchen Manager and Informed Source Michael McClatchey described the band as: “Detroit beat, Blues guitar and Albert Ayler - not so schlocky, though - horns. A little like Booker T. and the M.G.’s, except with horns instead of organ. That’s not it either, though.”

A lot of Ann Arbor musicians have passed through the group and the band has come to be kind of a fixture on the Ann Arbor .scene. At present it consists of: Steve Mackay, whose cartoons appear elsewhere in this issue oi Creem, on tenor and soprano saxes as well as drums; Pete' Kahn on alto and baritone saxes, Joe 0‘Doherty on guitar; Dave Johnskausal on bass; and Marc Lampert on diums.

A new teature will soon be added to the fare at the Grande in the form of Comix, done by local artist Hap, to be distributed free inside the Ballroom. The 2-inch square booklet will feature stories on the inside and advertisements on the back page.

The three day Aquarian Exposition and Pop Festival held in White Lake, New York is a testimonial to the fact that the alternative culture can live up to its promises; that music, dope, sex and all the artifacts of our culture can be shared freely in a peaceful atmosphere. That is the importance of Woodstock to the growing community of rock-oriented freaks that inhabit this country. Woodstock was a generation proving to itself and to its critics that it could indeed do everything it said it could. That there were no crimes of violence committed in the three days, that the people present did not panic when deprived of most creature comforts and that they were all brought together through largely underground media all tell America what we’ve been maintaining; that there really is a potential for change for the better in what the youth of the nation are doing.

All About Dhobi’s Itch

The most bizarre new band to appear in the rock & roll field of Detroit since the Stooges emergence two years ago has made its debut. Dhobis Itch is a collection of nubile young weirdos designed to craze and delight the perverted among us.

“You can get arrested for most of the stuff we’re doin’ ” says dopefiend guitarist George “Bogart” Dubrish. “Can you feel it? Can ya feel it???”

The youthful rock and roll criminals, all of whom at one time or another have belonged to the Mickey Mouse Club, are already famed for their zany antics on the heavily greaser Northeast side which they call their home. Gigs being scarce at the moment, as they are for all young bands in this age of super-pop festivals, the group has

concentrated its talents on playing

a series of free concerts for their brothers and sisters in Heilman Park.

The weird minds and weird bodies of the band receive their efnphasis in the name. Dhobis Itch is the medical term for jock rash. As Bob says, “Well, it sorta grows on ya”. The band was torn between several names, including The Crabs, before coming up with the Itch during an excursion through a battered copy of Funk and Wagnalls.

“Compared to where we are, the music’s sort of sane,” guitarist Dumpy John Daniels commented. But vocalist Hank Petrucci, an

WOODSTOCK

Italian ninny and world citizen, disagrees. “It’s obscene in that it’s electric and it’s rock and roll.”

The Itch has suffered from equipment trouble ever since bassist Bobby Conner threw his bass at the wall during the initial rendition of the group’s tune, “Horny”. Bobby, who features Monster Music, enjoys entertaining houseguests in his mother’s old dresses. Audiences are

often enthralled by Bobby’s and Hank’s impromptu version of the minuet. It’s Bobby’s goal to acquire a farm for the band “with chickens ‘n’ cats ‘n’ dogs ‘n’ stuff.”

This goal may be subverted by weirdo Hank who has an equally strong desire to “get a chicken and put it on stage in a cage”.

Terming their music “religiously horny”, youthful drummer Tom Nistor, 16, describes the sound as full of “animal joy”. Tom, who doesn’t bathe much is a noted thief and also enjoys ripping off odds and ends for the crew of bizarre dudes. Dumpy John, sensually crazed by bestiality, notes “Inately, we’re very obscene people” and Nistor bears this out with his propensity for moonshots along east-side highways.

Hank, sex symbol lead singer, enjoys watching “One Step Beyond” and dressing the group in 1940’s female clothing. As a part of

his act he is “required , according to Dumpy John, to walk like a malformed deviate. For Hank, who is a former star soprano in his church choir (“Our message is ‘Go to church on Sunday’.”) and enjoys twirling the baton occasionally, this is undoubtedly a trying experience.

If it’s true, that is. The band, at one of their better gigs, a cheerleader benefit, claimed to be a San Francisco group. Unfortunately, they were reveals by a groupie," of which they possess two and a half. But “We’re gonna go into debt” promises George, a strapping six footer who prefers his mescaline in suppository form.

With the advent of the Itch of the Detroit rock scene, we’re certain that many heads will be scratched. But, as Hank notes, the band’s slogan has always been;

“You’ll be glad you’ve got Dhobis Itch!”

Quack Sacked

The SRC, moving' in new directions musically, have fired lead guitarist Gary Quackenbush and replaced him with Ray Andrews, formerly with Blueberry Jam. Ray had played with the band when Gary was ill and according to SRC manager Pete Andrews Iris “fine ability overshadowed everything else”. Pete feels the SRC are moving into a “new era” musically and that the addition of Ray will make the difference necessary in the band’s sound.