"Uncle Russ" Takes "Slow Hand" Out for a Day of Shopping

In October 1967 Cream played the Grande for three nights in October.

The Grande, Then and Now

This video shows the Grande Ballroom mostly in it's present ruinous condition, but there are also shots from it's heyday. There's a shot of the front on opening night, the people from Magic Veil Light Company, the crowds, and the bands. Oh the bands that played there! The Frost, whose song "Rock 'n' Roll Music" you hear throughout the video were as musically air-tight solid as any band that played the ballroom, local or national. There are also shots of Cream and the Who playing one of their favorite venues. It's a little known fact that Cream did most of their touring Stateside and the Grande was the venue they played the most. In fact, they recorded an album there.

A Night Never to be Forgotten

It's Saturday October 12, 1968. Cream, who are on their "Goodbye Tour" have just finished their concert at Olympia Stadium (the Old Red Barn for all you fellow Red Wing fans out there). It's still early, so the band makes the short trip down Grand River to catch Clapton's friend and mentor John Mayall at the Grande Ballroom. Well, it just so happens that your friendly correspondent was at the Grande on this particular night and at some point you could sense a buzz running through the crowd...over and above the buzz most of us came there with! (When the Grande first opened in 1966 there was no stage entrance for the bands to enter through...they had to walk through the front door like everybody else!) I don't know if this had changed by October of '68 but it might explain why the crowd sensed that something memorable was in store. Memorable doesn't do the night justice. Eric borrowed Mick Taylor's Les Paul Bigsby Burst (see pictures above) and sat in with his old band mates. The crowd ate it up. Me...I thought I had died and gone to heaven. BTW, that's Ginger Baker in the background with Eric in the next to last photo. I have no idea who the bloke (I'm guessing he's from the UK) facing the camera is. The last photo is of the guy who loaned EC his guitar and a guy who was and is massively talented, yet almost always overlooked or an afterthought when discussing Rock's greatest guitarists...Mick Taylor.

Mission Statement

This blog is dedicated to what I consider to not only be the seminal period in Detroit Rock History, but the history of rock 'n' roll in general. The fact that this period coincides with my formative years is mere happenstance. Most people with more than a cursory knowledge of rock and it's history would surely agree. At the same time, many people seem to have forgotten just how special and unique the Detroit music scene was in those days. From the great local bands like the MC5, the Stooges, the Frost, SRC, Savage Grace, Bob Seger, and I could keep going, to the awesome and groundbreaking free-form progressive format of WABX and it's stable of Air Aces (deejays). Then there were the clubs like the Hideout East & West, the Crowsnest, The Red Carpet, and culminating in the crown-jewel of music venues...the Grande Ballroom. I think over the years, Detroit, the Grande Ballroom, and the music scene in general has been given short-shrift by the national media. San Francisco and the Fillmore West, LA and the Whisky, New York and the Fillmore East, and others... Always get top billing when writing about that period. I think the bands that came through Detroit realized what was going on though. You had to be on top of your game or it was a safe bet that your opening acts (local bands) would blow you off the stage! The MC5, in particular, were not averse to "heckling" headlining bands they felt were "mailing it in". They did this particularly to British bands. Wayne Kramer, guitarist for the band, claims that this was the origin of "Kick Out the Jams". Detroit audiences were knowledgeable about music and were accustomed to bands that "took no prisoners". The mission of this blog is to celebrate this period, roughly 1965 to 1975. You're welcome to come along for the ride if you'ld like. Maybe you might even have a story to share.