ROCK & ROLL NEWS

ROCK & ROLL NEWS

Rats to Crewe

The Rationals, who have put out two of the world’s best white rhythm and blues singles (I Need You and Respect) without ever having a hit, recently signed a contract with Bob Crewe’s Crewe Records, although Crewe will not be producing them. According to Larry Feldman, the Rats’ manager, an album is due within a month. Called The Rationals, it will feature the group’s previously independently released single, Guitar Army and Sunset.

Detroit area rock entrepeneur Joe Solaka is opening a rock club in Puerto Rico. He’s booking several Detroit acts into the Caribbean club including the Frost, Mitch Ryder, and Third Power. The Bob Seger System will open the club this month.

Rumors come from Britian of a televised supersession which will feature, among others, Fats Domino, Little Richard, Jack Bruce and Dick Heckstall-Smith. The show is still in the planning stages.

Spencer Davis quit the Spencer Davis Group. After the group’s return from their last American tour, Spencer began work as a solo act while guitarist Ray Fenwick continues on with the remnant of the SDG.

Ex-Animal Zoot Money is back in Britian attempting to collect enough members for a new group. He will release a British single, The Man Who Rides the Wind, sometime this month.

Jack Bruce and a new ten-piece band may go on tour in this country around January.

The New York Rock and Roll Revival, with Sha-Na-Na-Na, The Coasters, Bill Haley and all them old dudes may be going on tour.

Now Rock groups play federal penitentiaries — Country Joe and the Fish did an hour and a half show October 12th at San Quentin.

Don “Dorn de Wilde” Preston, of the lamented MOI, will go to New York City to direct a three part theater cantata called Juice.

Free John /

Work goes on in the fight to free John Sinclair. On the legal front, the John Sinclair Defense Fund has expanded the range of its activity via the newly formed International Committee to Defend John Sinclair, which will be coordinating nationwide efforts on brother John’s behalf.

A benefit concert of avant garde jazz is planned at Ungano’s in New York for the near future. Initial overtures have not been made in all cases, but the organizers hope (and it seems likely) that people like Pharoah Sanders, Sun Ra, Cecil Taylor and Archie Shepp will be playing. Also in New York, Ed Sanders, who is one of the key members of the Committee, is organizing a poetry benefit which will feature himself, Allen Ginsburg, and others.

The International Committee’s address is: P.O. Box 444/Planetarium Station/New York, New York 10024.

Contrary to what one may read in a certain West Coast magazine, Rob Tyner did NOT cop Kick Out the Jams from Brian Wilson. “Actually I stole it from Brian Hiland four years ago,” Tyner told CREEM. As for the similarities between certain Beatles/MC5 titles, Rob noted, “Well, his lyrics are pretty good. He’s got ‘toejam football’. But then I’ve got ‘nipple stiffener’ so we’re even.”

CLB Enterprises has started recording an album to be released in mid-December: The Detroit Folk Scene - 1970. If contract hassles can be resolved, the first volume will include such people as: Andy Cohen, Marc Chover, Paul Bowles, Ted Lucas, Charlie Lattimer, Phil Esser and Custer’s Last Band. That’s right, first volume. CLB plans a whole series, if all goes well. The records will be distributed nationwaid by CLB it self.

The Pentangle are arriving in Toronto on Nov. 3, to start taping on their CBC special. They will also be starting their American tour sometime after that. Their new album has been released in England and will be available in the U.S.A. in a matter of weeks.

USA Stoned

The Rolling Stones will be doing eighteen gigs in thirteen cities over the next four weeks. They long-awaited tour has begun in Los Angeles, and will end in Palm Beach, Florida, on November 30. They’ll be in Detroit on the 24th, so save your pennies, kids.

Blue Horizon plans a super-session ala Fathers and Sons. Called Blues Jam at Chess it will feature Fleetwood Mac, Willie Dixon, Otis Spann and Big Shakey Walter Horton. A two-record set, of course.

Elvis Presley will appear at the Houston Astrodome for four days in late February and early March. He’s getting $100,000 a show plus a percentage.

Skip James, in every way but one a blues immortal, died October 3rd, having spent the last year and a half of his life in the hospital. His rediscovery was one of the high points of the blues revival that brought so many great first generation blues musicians back to public notice.

Cont. on page 10

Sam Charters has corralled another group into Vanguard’s stables. This time it’s the Third Power who expect imminent work on recording. And the Sky, another local band, are negotiating with Polydor.

Dukes Move

Amboy Dukes are moving to Long Island where they will base themselves while recording their first Polydor album. The move is being made solely ; for business reasons according to Dukes lead guitarist and p.r. man Ted Nugent.

Keith Relf and Jim McCarty, two more ex-Yardbirds, have formed a new group Renaissance. The group will be aided in its “classical interpretations” by John Hawkins, formerly of the Nashville Teens of Tobacco Road fame. The other members of the group are Louis Cennamo, on bass and Jane Relf, Keith’s sister, also doing vocals.

The groups producer will be Paul Samwell-Smith, who produced and played bass with the early Yarbirds. The album should be out this month.

The first UP recording venture is about to become a reality as October 24, 25, 26 and 27 were set as studio recording dates for Be My Tootsie Roll, Hassan I Sabba, and other songs being considered for the Ann Arbor band’s initial single release. Ann Arbor’s SRC studio will be the site of the effort. A pre-Christmas release is planned for the stereo 45, which is destined, according to Upster sources, to become a landmark in Rock & Roll history, and an East Coast tour to promote the record is In The Works.

Dewey Martin, who used to be with the Buffalo Springfield, just signed with UNI Records.

The Wilson Mower Pursuit has come full cycle with the recent replacement of guitarist Paul “Wheatgerm” Koschtial, the last remaining member of the original Pursuit. Completing the metamorphosis is Dave Bonski, first guitarist with the now defunct Red, White and Blues. The usual but legitimate reason for the change being a difference between the musical directions of the WMP and their former guitarist.

WCAR is the latest Motor City radio station to turn to rock programming. One of their disc jockeys will be Dave Prince, who used to be on WXYZ before it was sent into the clutches of Dick Purtan.

The Stooges may release another forty five off their album. It’ll probably be No Fun. Is this a last ditch attempt by a certain CREEM writer to get a Stooges story in this issue? Michigan rock and roll certainly has been winding up in some strange places. Mike Gormley and WABX, third world radio in the Motor City, took Mitch Ryder, & the Savage Grace (now cuddled in the arms of Warner Bros./Reprise), to Ionia State Training Unit last month. And WKNR will be going to Jackson, under the direction of the crazed Carlisle, on the ninth of November.

AlewBeatle Myth

“The Beatles wealth is all a myth. The only expensive things I’ve ever owned are my house and my cars and I just haven’t got anything else,” John 1 Lennon told the British music paper Melody Maker.

“The problem is that two years ago our accountants made us sign over 80% of all our royalties to Apple,” Lennon complained. He called the situation “ridiculous” and added that he^ feels Apple is “scared” of the films and records Yoko One and himself have ■ been making.

Lennon has asserted that he is financially overburdened for quite some time. But this is the first time that his remarks have been directly pointed to Apple. “1 still feel part of Apple and the Beatles but they tend to ignore Yoko and me.”

The real extent of the Beatles wealth will not be known until the late Paul McCartney’s estate is finally settled.

As for Beatle recording plans, Lennon : said that they actually are in-possession I of an overabundance of material. “Now that George is writing a lot of material we could put out a double album every ^ month but they’re so difficult to produce. After Get Back is released in a January, we’ll probably go back into the g studios and record another one. It’s just 2 a shame that we can’t get more albums ^ out faster.”

Aretha Franklin has an album due out in January which will feature her new single Eleanor Rigby and Paul McCartney’s Let It Be of the Get Back Beatles’ album. The Sweet Inspirations, by the way have given way to a new back up group.

And on...

Capitol Records, scene of Gene Vincent’s 1950’s smashes, is re-releasing all that old stuff on Gene Vincents Greatest Hits. Ah, the rock and roll revival goes on . . . and on . . . and on . . .

Halloween is Zenta New Year, the anniversary of the night the MC5 recorded their first album and the Black Art Festival at Olympia. Happy Year 2 ; of the Rock Explosion.

The Cosmic Circus, Dave Dubay’s rock and roll/menagerie approach to a pop festival, did come through with the animals and Milky the Clown during the daylight hours. Unfortunately, Dubay was robbed of $6,000 by two masked marauders. As a consequence, the MC5, Grand Funk Railroad and Joe Cocker didn’t get payed, though they all did their shows.

The Plain Brown Wrapper has signed a production contract with Bill Traut’s Dunwich Production. Dunwich also handles the Coven and Crow.

J.A. Flick

Another rock group is about to commit a movie. The Jefferson Airplane, previously involved in a Jean-Luc Godard flick, are now negotiating with Rip Torn. Torn wants to cast them in a “hippy” Richard the Third.

Jimmy Witherspoon Brownie McGhee, Sonnie Terry, Earl Hooker, and Charles Brown will be performing on an upcoming Bill Cosby tv special. Witherspoon’s next album will include a song written by Cosby specially for the program.

The management of Detroit’s Savage Grace are filing suit against the management of Silver Bell for advertising an appearance of the band when the band was not contracted and they knew full well that the Grace had a previous commitment.

Noel Redding, ex-Jimi Hendrix Experience bassist, will bring his new group, Fat Mattress, to America for a November and December tour. The new group will make their initial appearance at Detroit’s Eastown Theatre Nov. 21st. Appearing in the group with Noel are Neil Landon (vocals), Jimmy Leverton (keyboards, bass, flute) and Eric Dillon (drums and vibes). Redding is playing guitar with the new group.

Gey da, a Ypsilanti-based rock contingent, has signed a contract with LBJ Records (a division of the Motown/Rare Earth group). The pact calls for four singles.

Amerika Pop

The government, in a last ditch attempt to save itself before it crumbles, is throwing a festival of music and imperialism. Called the “1070 United States Peace Festival,” it’ll feature American acts only. The Piece Festival will be co-sponsored by the war machine corporations (e.g., AT & T, General Motors, Coca-Cola) and will be a free week-long event. Whether they’ll let the freaks out afterwards or not isn’t mentioned.

Oh, by the way, they’re holding it on Indian land in Arizona. What’s the matter, Dick, ain’t you got no land of your own? Hopefully Jimi Hendrix will be there to do the Star Spangled Banner and Little Richard to follow with Rip It Up.

In reporting the article Billboard noted that “preliminary promotion is underway on Toronto’s CHUM-FM. Maybe they’re planning to declare an amnesty. Right on.

Who’s there?

Strange news from the Who last time they were in town. Seems the guys don’t give interviews anymore, since “All they ever ask about is Tommy Tommy Tommy”. (That’s according to their road manager, by the way; they really don’t give interviews. No picture either.) The gentleman did inform us that the next Who will be recorded in London this month. And the reason Abbie Hoffman got kicked off stage? “Didn’t belong there in the first place, did he?”

British musicial tastes are surprising. So much English music is fawned over in America that it’s interesting to see who wins the poll Melody Maker annually conducts among its readers. This year, for example, the top British male singer was Tom Jones; Mick Jagger and Stevie Win wood, who are the subject of more raves than anyone on this side of the Atlantic ranked only seventh and sixth respectively. Similarly, in the international division, Boxer, the Simon and Garfunkel single, was rated no. 1.

The results weren’t all that surprising as a whole, at least in the topspots. The top girl singer was Christine Perfect for England (she was lead vocalist with Chicken Shack until she retired a couple months ago), the top group the Beatles, of course. What is surprising in the British groups category is that Jethro Tull came in second with the Stones dropping to third. Best musician in both British and international groupings was Eric Clapton, followed by Keith Emerson (Nice organist) and Hank Marvin among British musicians and by Hendrix, Zappa and Dylan on the international chart. Brightest hope in both sections was the recently demised Blind Faith. And, infuriatingly enough, Goodbye was the number one album. Top 45 was Get Back with Fleetwood Mac, of all people, having two singles in the top five (Man of the World and Albatross.)

Other international winners were; top male singer, Bob Dylan (Elvis second, ^cott Walker third; Mick didn’t even make the top eight internationally) Janis Joplin as top female vocalist, followed by Grace Slick, (Aretha was . fourth, under Dusty Springfield), of . course the Beatles were number one here too supplanted by the Beach Boys at two over the Stones (3). Dylan’s Nashville Skyline was top lp, followed by The Beatles, Goodbye (Cream), and Elvis’ TV Special album.

Watch for local drummer Steve Booker (who used to be in the Spikedrivers back in the days when Larry Miller was with the Southbound Freeway) to appear on the Johnny Carson show shortly. Steve will do one of the renowned drum solos which have captivated Chess Mate audiences for years.

The Palladium, which used to be the Birmingham Teen Center, will be opening up November seventh, according to proprietor Punch Andrews. The bill will be Bob Seger Friday and SRC Saturday with the renowned Jagged Edge both nights. Week after that it’ll be Pacific Gas and Electric, with Christian guitarist Glenn Schwartz, and then Little Richard.

Kim Fowley, that lovely young musician about Amerika, is planning to produce an all girl group called The Intricate Blend.

WABX is now able to broadcast constantly, 24 hours a day with no breakdowns or low energy transmitting hassles. The super-transmitter has arrived, according to station manager John Detz, and is completely installed.

Wight on?

The bootleg phenomena continues; John Carpenter reported in the Los Angeles Free Press, that Columbia had recorded the Isle of Wight concert but “Dylan has nixed plans to release the lp. Don’t think you won’t be able to get it though — someone has plans to have a bootleg version in record stores by Christmas. Look under the counter and you’ll no doubt find it.” Carpenter also reported that the price of the Great White Wonder set had fallen to $4.95 in the L.A. area.

The Dillards, Elektra’s bluegrass group, are slated to be regulars on the new Harper Valley PTA tv show. Delaney and Bonnie will also appear on the initial NBC program.

Incest Suits No. 2

The firm of Glanz-Gibb-Quatro-Andrews and Goulson has taken in a new partner, Aaron Russo, owner of the Kinetic Playground in Chicago and the Eastown Theatre in Detroit. It seems the terms of the rock war in the Motor City have been changed. Instead of the promoters versus other promoters, it seems it might now become the promoters vs. the bands and the people.

Strangely enough the very weekend the merger of the Grande and Eastown was announced rock fans were packing the Eastown, Cobo Arena and Olympia for three different rock shows. But apparently two ballrooms can’t survive.

At this point it is clear that Punch Andrews is partners with Russ Gibb on some things but with George Goulson on all things. Gabe Glanz is partners with Russ on some things but Gibb is partners with Punch, Mike Quatro and now Aaron Russo on some things.

Without indicting these various incestuous relationships amongst Detroit rock and roll entrepeneurs one must admit that the element of competition seems to have collapsed. But, of course, there is still a chance that the integrity of some of these people may still shine through (i.e. lots of good shows at a reasonable price). If not, the people should burn the fuckers down.

Polydor, already tracking the Sky and in possession of the Amboy Dukes, are also looking at the Sunday Funnies with passion. Brownsville Station, another group with a Hideout recording, is getting good sales and airplay, according to Punch Andrews.

Old Joe,

Fresh Fish

Country Joe and the Fish just resigned with Vanguard for a new five year contract. It’s not the old Fish though — only Joe and Barry Melton remain from the group that tingled your ears with Electric Music for the Mind and Body..

Joe is releasing a solo lp called Thinking of Woody which is a collection of Woody Guthrie tunes. The album, and another solo effort not yet released, was recorded in Nashville.

Another Detroit album is due out this month, on Epic. The album, by Catfish, is called Get Down.

Watch for new albums in the next couple of weeks from Johnny Winter and the Byrds. The ByrdsTecord will be called Easy Rider and will contain some previously unreleased Bob Dylan material. Winter is also doing a Dylan tune, Highway Sixtyone Revisitied, along with some Little Richard tunes and Johnny B. Goode. But the really interesting thing about the Winter album is that it will be three sided. The set contains two discs, the fourth side of which will be blank.

London, where famed composer Peter Townshend gained his initial response, has produced another operatic wonder. This one is called Arthur (sort of a cousin to Tommy?) and was authored by Ray Davies who, with the Kinks organic orchestra, has also authored such famed tone poems as You Really Got Me and A Well Respected. Rumor has it, however, that the Kinks will not be wearing tuxedos when they perform at the Grande/Riviera on November 7th.

Bob Seger, noted criminologist, guitar picker and singer was married October 28th.

Aaron Russo, proprietor with Bob Bageris, of Detroit’s Eastown Theatre is starting a new program in Chicago. Kinetics for Kids offers special entertainment for youngsters every Sunday.

Have you noticed that Dan Carlisle’s voice still signs WABX-FM off the air? Danny always did sound good on that station.

There’s a new, black-owned radio station in Saginaw, home of the Frost. The new soul station WWWS-FM will also feature jazz and gospel shows.