I think most of you folks will appreciate this. I’m running a list of every rock show that happened at the Academy of Music from 1964 to 1979.
A few thoughts about this project. First I have to say that the Academy Of Music was one of the most repulsive theaters ever to host concerts. I had the good fortune of attending the Fillmore East in 1970 and 1971. If Bill Graham was anything he was obsessive. The Fillmore was no treat when Bill Graham acquired it. However when he was done with it, he turned it into a palacce, a neat and clean environment that was perfectly appropariate for the audience who patronized it.
The Academy was a disgusting pig sty on a good day. The sound was generally awful. The shows offered no production value of any consequence. The back of the orchesta was a holding area for the lost and wandering acid heads, beer guzzlers and sick people who often couldnt make it to the bathroom. And the floors, wherever you sat, were like Elmers glue. To its credit, you could always wander the orchestra after the show, sift through the garbage on the floor and put together a nice little stash.
Bill Graham' Fillmore East defined the wonderous and magical experience of concert going. Howard Stein reduced it to its crudest level of acceptability. Greg Allman said in an interview (and I paraphrase) “we tried the Academy, we tried Radio City, but when we went into the Beacon we felt like we were home. It smelled like the Fillmore”.
And despite the indigestion I get thinking about the Academy, I still feel the need to document the succesful run of shows tha went down there. There were Alan Freed shows that took place in the 50s, but they were not concerts as we know them. Sid Bernstein promoted the first true Rock N Roll shows at the Academy starting with the Beach Boys and Rolling Stones in 1964 and Hermans Hermits, the Dave Clark 5, The Kinks, Moody Blues and the Stones again in 1966. But the theater did few more concerts till 1970 and 1971, when it competed (poorly) with The Fillmore. The Academy replaced the Fillmore in earnest starting in 1972.
So for the purpose of putting together a respectable and often intriguing list of shows, I’m starting with the Academy at 1964 and ending with the renamed Palladium in 1979. Many of you have rough memories of shows and ballpark ideas of when they occurred. I however needs dates, exact dates. I’ve documented about 200 shows so far but there are hundreds more that are yet to surface…..your help please. For those of you who would prefer to write to me directly I can be emailed at I will however continue to report my progress and post the master list right here.
Thanks all
Somoman
I think most of you folks will appreciate this. I’m running a list of every rock show that happened at the Academy of Music from 1964 to 1979.
A few thoughts about this project. First I have to say that the Academy Of Music was one of the most repulsive theaters ever to host concerts. I had the good fortune of attending the Fillmore East in 1970 and 1971. If Bill Graham was anything he was obsessive. The Fillmore was no treat when Bill Graham acquired it. However when he was done with it, he turned it into a palacce, a neat and clean environment that was perfectly appropariate for the audience who patronized it.
The Academy was a disgusting pig sty on a good day. The sound was generally awful. The shows offered no production value of any consequence. The back of the orchesta was a holding area for the lost and wandering acid heads, beer guzzlers and sick people who often couldnt make it to the bathroom. And the floors, wherever you sat, were like Elmers glue. To its credit, you could always wander the orchestra after the show, sift through the garbage on the floor and put together a nice little stash.
Bill Graham' Fillmore East defined the wonderous and magical experience of concert going. Howard Stein reduced it to its crudest level of acceptability. Greg Allman said in an interview (and I paraphrase) “we tried the Academy, we tried Radio City, but when we went into the Beacon we felt like we were home. It smelled like the Fillmore”.
And despite the indigestion I get thinking about the Academy, I still feel the need to document the succesful run of shows tha went down there. There were Alan Freed shows that took place in the 50s, but they were not concerts as we know them. Sid Bernstein promoted the first true Rock N Roll shows at the Academy starting with the Beach Boys and Rolling Stones in 1964 and Hermans Hermits, the Dave Clark 5, The Kinks, Moody Blues and the Stones again in 1966. But the theater did few more concerts till 1970 and 1971, when it competed (poorly) with The Fillmore. The Academy replaced the Fillmore in earnest starting in 1972.
So for the purpose of putting together a respectable and often intriguing list of shows, I’m starting with the Academy at 1964 and ending with the renamed Palladium in 1979. Many of you have rough memories of shows and ballpark ideas of when they occurred. I however needs dates, exact dates. I’ve documented about 200 shows so far but there are hundreds more that are yet to surface…..your help please. For those of you who would prefer to write to me directly I can be emailed at I will however continue to report my progress and post the master list right here.
Thanks all
Somoman
Hey LuisV – you mentioned the Jefferson Theater as one that sat idle until destroyed. There was a short period of time that “The Jefferson” was opened as a dance club. I remember the year to be 1982 or 1983. The club opened at 1AM (we used to party at my apartment till about 2AM, then we’d cab there). The club stayed open till about 8AM, and the DJs played an incredible mix of rock and roll, and r&b dance music. Because the theater was small, and it “flew under the radar”, we’d always run into Belush and Akroyd after the broadcast of SNL. The Jefferson was the antidote to it’s over-the-top all disco glam clubs of that time. Like every bright light, it burned out quickly.
Somoman
Those who know the Ritz, and more speciically the demographics of Staten Island, understand why the major rock bands of the early 70s played there. First, at 2000+ seats, it was smaller than the Fillmore East but not by much. More importantly, Staten Island had a very passionate crowd of extremely hard rockers who were fiercely independant of the Manhattan scene. And that crowd was large enough to easily fill the Ritz with 2000 fresh new faces, ready to buy LPs, tee shirts, and soda from the refreshment stands. And no, these folks did not attend New York City concerts.
Today there are thousand and thousands of Staten Islanders who travel to their jobs in NYC daily for work, people who otherwise have nothing else to do with Manhattan.
Hey guys, a little kindness please. Here we are… chasing our fondest memories and sure enough it’s become a pissing match. Thank you both for your generous efforts to supply us with more cinema treasures.
Al, you are correct. I am a collector of concert tickets circa 1964-1971. In one of my acquisitions, included in the lot were a pair of ticket stubs to that Bachman Turner Overdrive show at the NFE. I sold them on Ebay as they fell outside of the range of dates I colllect. The stubs included the concert promotors' names but I can’t seem to recall them now. Ironically I was a patron of the Fillmore East, yet only recently learned of the New Fillmore East (NFE) when I came upon ths stubs.
If my memory serves me well, the Fillmore east sat approximately 3000. Perhaps that puts a perspective on the Anderson Theater. And while we are at it regarding the Anderson, I got hold of a ticket stub from the Anderson dated Feb but there is no year on the stub. The name of the event that appears on the stub is “The Evolution of R……..and the stub is torn right after the letter "R”. Does this mean anything to any of you concert goers?
Hey East Coast Rob…the other venue on 2nd Ave you are referring to is the Anderson Theater. Many great great shows there, although the venue always flew under the radar. Fillmore patrons remember the Anderson. I saw the Dead at the Anderson..the show was a Hell’s Angels benefit, and they supplied the security AND an incredible amount of acid (dare I say it on this site). Overtly handing it out to willing takers. As for Allison Steele, she was not a natural beauty, but from where I sat in Wollman Rink Central Park (The Byrds concert) she was the most beautiful thing I’d ever heard.
I actually collect pre 1970 ticket stubs, and I call them “theatrical” tickets as opposed to the Ticketron or Telecharge tickets. About 99% of my collection are theatrrical style stubs, as computer generated simply did not exist until 1970. Many of my stubs glow like the day they were printed. One thing is for certain, the theater style stubs have so much more character than the computer ones, so relating to the event is much more tangible. By the way, I was going through a bunch of unidentified stubs yesterday, looking to match venues and dates to bands. I came across one ffrom the 46th St. Theatre in Brooklyn, the date Novemebr 13, 1970. Thanks to the Cinema Treasures message board (for the 46th street theater) I was able to identify the stub, which turned out to be the Grateful Dead. An awesome and rare find.
Hey folks…I’m a ticket stub collector of rock concerts, and so by default a theater maven. In fact more than 50% of my ticket stubs have NO BAND NAME on them, so I must google myself silly until I succeed at matching the band to the date and venue. If anyone is especially knowledgable about concerts that occured at the Academy of Music and other New York City venues, I can throw out a whole bunch of dates and venues, and would welcome any incite as to who performed at those those particular shows. And East Coast Rob, I have a hunch you could be a trememndous resource for me. If you’d like to contact me try me at
I think most of you folks will appreciate this. I’m running a list of every rock show that happened at the Academy of Music from 1964 to 1979.
A few thoughts about this project. First I have to say that the Academy Of Music was one of the most repulsive theaters ever to host concerts. I had the good fortune of attending the Fillmore East in 1970 and 1971. If Bill Graham was anything he was obsessive. The Fillmore was no treat when Bill Graham acquired it. However when he was done with it, he turned it into a palacce, a neat and clean environment that was perfectly appropariate for the audience who patronized it.
The Academy was a disgusting pig sty on a good day. The sound was generally awful. The shows offered no production value of any consequence. The back of the orchesta was a holding area for the lost and wandering acid heads, beer guzzlers and sick people who often couldnt make it to the bathroom. And the floors, wherever you sat, were like Elmers glue. To its credit, you could always wander the orchestra after the show, sift through the garbage on the floor and put together a nice little stash.
Bill Graham' Fillmore East defined the wonderous and magical experience of concert going. Howard Stein reduced it to its crudest level of acceptability. Greg Allman said in an interview (and I paraphrase) “we tried the Academy, we tried Radio City, but when we went into the Beacon we felt like we were home. It smelled like the Fillmore”.
And despite the indigestion I get thinking about the Academy, I still feel the need to document the succesful run of shows tha went down there. There were Alan Freed shows that took place in the 50s, but they were not concerts as we know them. Sid Bernstein promoted the first true Rock N Roll shows at the Academy starting with the Beach Boys and Rolling Stones in 1964 and Hermans Hermits, the Dave Clark 5, The Kinks, Moody Blues and the Stones again in 1966. But the theater did few more concerts till 1970 and 1971, when it competed (poorly) with The Fillmore. The Academy replaced the Fillmore in earnest starting in 1972.
So for the purpose of putting together a respectable and often intriguing list of shows, I’m starting with the Academy at 1964 and ending with the renamed Palladium in 1979. Many of you have rough memories of shows and ballpark ideas of when they occurred. I however needs dates, exact dates. I’ve documented about 200 shows so far but there are hundreds more that are yet to surface…..your help please. For those of you who would prefer to write to me directly I can be emailed at I will however continue to report my progress and post the master list right here.
Thanks all
Somoman
I think most of you folks will appreciate this. I’m running a list of every rock show that happened at the Academy of Music from 1964 to 1979.
A few thoughts about this project. First I have to say that the Academy Of Music was one of the most repulsive theaters ever to host concerts. I had the good fortune of attending the Fillmore East in 1970 and 1971. If Bill Graham was anything he was obsessive. The Fillmore was no treat when Bill Graham acquired it. However when he was done with it, he turned it into a palacce, a neat and clean environment that was perfectly appropariate for the audience who patronized it.
The Academy was a disgusting pig sty on a good day. The sound was generally awful. The shows offered no production value of any consequence. The back of the orchesta was a holding area for the lost and wandering acid heads, beer guzzlers and sick people who often couldnt make it to the bathroom. And the floors, wherever you sat, were like Elmers glue. To its credit, you could always wander the orchestra after the show, sift through the garbage on the floor and put together a nice little stash.
Bill Graham' Fillmore East defined the wonderous and magical experience of concert going. Howard Stein reduced it to its crudest level of acceptability. Greg Allman said in an interview (and I paraphrase) “we tried the Academy, we tried Radio City, but when we went into the Beacon we felt like we were home. It smelled like the Fillmore”.
And despite the indigestion I get thinking about the Academy, I still feel the need to document the succesful run of shows tha went down there. There were Alan Freed shows that took place in the 50s, but they were not concerts as we know them. Sid Bernstein promoted the first true Rock N Roll shows at the Academy starting with the Beach Boys and Rolling Stones in 1964 and Hermans Hermits, the Dave Clark 5, The Kinks, Moody Blues and the Stones again in 1966. But the theater did few more concerts till 1970 and 1971, when it competed (poorly) with The Fillmore. The Academy replaced the Fillmore in earnest starting in 1972.
So for the purpose of putting together a respectable and often intriguing list of shows, I’m starting with the Academy at 1964 and ending with the renamed Palladium in 1979. Many of you have rough memories of shows and ballpark ideas of when they occurred. I however needs dates, exact dates. I’ve documented about 200 shows so far but there are hundreds more that are yet to surface…..your help please. For those of you who would prefer to write to me directly I can be emailed at I will however continue to report my progress and post the master list right here.
Thanks all
Somoman
Hey LuisV – you mentioned the Jefferson Theater as one that sat idle until destroyed. There was a short period of time that “The Jefferson” was opened as a dance club. I remember the year to be 1982 or 1983. The club opened at 1AM (we used to party at my apartment till about 2AM, then we’d cab there). The club stayed open till about 8AM, and the DJs played an incredible mix of rock and roll, and r&b dance music. Because the theater was small, and it “flew under the radar”, we’d always run into Belush and Akroyd after the broadcast of SNL. The Jefferson was the antidote to it’s over-the-top all disco glam clubs of that time. Like every bright light, it burned out quickly.
Somoman
Does anyone know if the New Theatre in Baltimore was ever used as a concert venue?
Those who know the Ritz, and more speciically the demographics of Staten Island, understand why the major rock bands of the early 70s played there. First, at 2000+ seats, it was smaller than the Fillmore East but not by much. More importantly, Staten Island had a very passionate crowd of extremely hard rockers who were fiercely independant of the Manhattan scene. And that crowd was large enough to easily fill the Ritz with 2000 fresh new faces, ready to buy LPs, tee shirts, and soda from the refreshment stands. And no, these folks did not attend New York City concerts.
Today there are thousand and thousands of Staten Islanders who travel to their jobs in NYC daily for work, people who otherwise have nothing else to do with Manhattan.
Hey guys, a little kindness please. Here we are… chasing our fondest memories and sure enough it’s become a pissing match. Thank you both for your generous efforts to supply us with more cinema treasures.
Al, you are correct. I am a collector of concert tickets circa 1964-1971. In one of my acquisitions, included in the lot were a pair of ticket stubs to that Bachman Turner Overdrive show at the NFE. I sold them on Ebay as they fell outside of the range of dates I colllect. The stubs included the concert promotors' names but I can’t seem to recall them now. Ironically I was a patron of the Fillmore East, yet only recently learned of the New Fillmore East (NFE) when I came upon ths stubs.
can anyone attach an exact date to any rock concert that occured at the ritz in staten island?
If my memory serves me well, the Fillmore east sat approximately 3000. Perhaps that puts a perspective on the Anderson Theater. And while we are at it regarding the Anderson, I got hold of a ticket stub from the Anderson dated Feb but there is no year on the stub. The name of the event that appears on the stub is “The Evolution of R……..and the stub is torn right after the letter "R”. Does this mean anything to any of you concert goers?
Hey East Coast Rob…the other venue on 2nd Ave you are referring to is the Anderson Theater. Many great great shows there, although the venue always flew under the radar. Fillmore patrons remember the Anderson. I saw the Dead at the Anderson..the show was a Hell’s Angels benefit, and they supplied the security AND an incredible amount of acid (dare I say it on this site). Overtly handing it out to willing takers. As for Allison Steele, she was not a natural beauty, but from where I sat in Wollman Rink Central Park (The Byrds concert) she was the most beautiful thing I’d ever heard.
I actually collect pre 1970 ticket stubs, and I call them “theatrical” tickets as opposed to the Ticketron or Telecharge tickets. About 99% of my collection are theatrrical style stubs, as computer generated simply did not exist until 1970. Many of my stubs glow like the day they were printed. One thing is for certain, the theater style stubs have so much more character than the computer ones, so relating to the event is much more tangible. By the way, I was going through a bunch of unidentified stubs yesterday, looking to match venues and dates to bands. I came across one ffrom the 46th St. Theatre in Brooklyn, the date Novemebr 13, 1970. Thanks to the Cinema Treasures message board (for the 46th street theater) I was able to identify the stub, which turned out to be the Grateful Dead. An awesome and rare find.
Hey folks…I’m a ticket stub collector of rock concerts, and so by default a theater maven. In fact more than 50% of my ticket stubs have NO BAND NAME on them, so I must google myself silly until I succeed at matching the band to the date and venue. If anyone is especially knowledgable about concerts that occured at the Academy of Music and other New York City venues, I can throw out a whole bunch of dates and venues, and would welcome any incite as to who performed at those those particular shows. And East Coast Rob, I have a hunch you could be a trememndous resource for me. If you’d like to contact me try me at