R & R Crusader

R & R CRUSADER

One of the most beautiful happenings lately has been the change in the Grande Ballroom. Uncle Russ took a trip to San Francisco last month and blew his mind out there. He came back determined to make the Grande into the scene it was meant to be from the beginning a year ago but which never really happened until just now. Starting with a booking by the Grateful Dead the week after Russ got back, continuing with a Saturday night coupling of the dangerous MC -5 and the powerful Scot Richard Case, then this weekend with the importation of the Chambers Brothers (with the MC-5 Friday night, and the Thyme Saturday night), and into September and October with bookings like the Case of E.T. Hooley (a Cleveland band), the CREAM of London featuring Eric Clapton, the Paupers of Toronto, Je se Colin Young and the Youngbloods, the James Cotton Chicago Bines Band, etc, the Grande is becoming THE place to be on the weekends --something I really couldn't say a month ago.

My point all along has been that the ballroom scene offers a lot of unique possibilities, and now they're just starting to be exploited. In San Francisco the ballroom scene made it possible for good music to be heard and established -- they took rock music out of the realm of "entertainment" per se and made it a total experience, and the really great bands established themselves through their work in the Avalon and Fillmore. After the local scene was firmly established, the ballrooms started bringing in groups from outside the area and playing them on bills with the best SF bands. Standards were created and refined, and bands knew that they had to be DOING IT ín order to work at the ballrooms.

This hasn't been the case in Detroit until now, with Uncle Russ' new policy. In the future only the top Detroit bands will be featured at the Grande, and they will be coupled with good bands from outside the Detroit area so that people here can hear what is going on around country. As it has been the Grande, just about any band could get a gig there, and consequently no standards of excellence were set -- all you had to have was four or five or six pieces and a funny name and you could play there. Now bands will have to prove themselves worth listening and dancing to or won't get the jobs. Bands will know that they have to have the originality and power of the MC -5, the strength of the Scot Richard Case, the diversity and excitement of the Spikedrivers, the polish of the Rationals, etc., in order to get work at the Grande. Then we'll have some decent music in town all the time.

Russ is also working out an exciting deal with the musicians union, the exact details of which we don't have at this time, but which will insure that all bands who play there receive at least union scale (something like a minimum $20 per man) for their work. The existing scene in the teeny-bop "young adult night-clubs" and other plastic emporiums has the plastic disc jockeys receiving a fee for being at the club, and the DJ's con some teen bands into playing for free in order to get "exposure," etc. As it has been, and band can play for years and still not receive anything for playing jobs in these places. The union apparently has devised a plan by which bands can join the union on an "apprentice" program, pay $10 a month until their initiation fee is paid up, and the places that feature live music are being urged to work with the union so that all bands are paid scale if they are in the union.  The Grande is the first teen place to sign the union contract, and if other clubs follow suit the stranglehold of the disc jockeys will be broken. The drawback is that the union may get a stronger hold on the scene than the club-owners and disc jockeys have, but at least people will get paid for their work. We'll try to have the whole story in the next issue of the SUN.

There is some weird shit going on at a place called the Northland Mummp, or Middle Earth, or something like that. The owner, a Mr. Weinstein, has tried a number of different exploitation tactics and is apparently now filling some energetic young workers with a bunch of bullshit about what he is trying to do so they will do it for him. He bills the Middle Earth as a hippie haven and has hired Bud Nelson and some other people to work for him, and is telling them and everyone else that he is bringing in the Mothers, the Cream, Paul Butterfield, etc. The Crusader talked with the Cream's agent, and the Mother's manager, and found that they knew nothing about these alleged bookings. This kind of shit is really a drag. Watch out for these people.

Still no decent radio shows in town, unlike San Francisco where Larry Miller (formerly of Detroit) and others carry on 24 hours a day playing nothing but the grooviest rock music, mostly album cuts. Stan (Mouse) Miller was in town for the state fair and told the Crusader that people don't even need record players out there any more - the radio plays all the records they would play in their homes anyway. In Detroit we have WKNR and CKLW, or plastic soul on WCHB and WJLB -- but no ROCK stations. Some people are getting interested in real rock radio, though, so maybe we'll have something before too long. The commercial potential is overwhelming, but the money people aren't hip to it.

BAND NEWS: Scot Richard Case left Jeep Holland's A2 Productions, as did Jeep's partner Pete Andrews. Scot & Co. are now managed by -- Pete Andrews, and all seem happy. ... Billy C and the Sunshine have split up; rumor has it that Boot is now playing piano with Sam Lay's Chicago Band, and that Billy may join the band too. Meanwhile, Billy's moved to Ann Arbor and a whole new group. Details next issue. . . . the Mighty Seventh Seal of Ann Arbor split up a couple of months ago in one of the tragic break-ups of all time. What a drag that this group wasn't recorded before it disappeared. Bill Kirchen and Danny Cheslak are planning a new group it seems and are looking for a bassist and drummer. Rumor had it that the two would join with Pete Koerner and other elements of the defunct Urban Roots, but that seemed not to work out, Meanwhile, Ron Miller and Steve Ellipit of the Seal formed an electric jazz band, the Pigfuckers, with flutist Arthur Fletcher and pianist Bob Sklar and got into some amazing music now talking of leaving the country. . . . the Prime Movers of Ann Arbor left the area for San Francisco to seek their fortune. . . . the MC -5 signing a management contract with Russ Gibb and are newly furnished with fuil Sunn equipment. Their old (Vox) equipment was repossessed at the Jefferson Airplane concert June 30 and they were unable to play together for a month and a half as a result. Now everything is groovy and they working out a whole new book, featuring many new Rob Tyner compositions. Negotiations are still under way for an album with ESP Disc, the avant-garde New York Label, to be produced by Trans-Love Energies of Detroit, cover by Grimshaw. . . . Mouse will do the cover of the next Cream album. . . . .the Spikedrivers got shafted last month with a trip to Lima, Ohio, for a gíg--poor promotion, no guarantee, and the band received $13 for the trip and a night's work. On the trip their newly acquired schoolbus broke down and cost $450 to repair. Spikes have their own recording studio at home (see ad in this issue) and do demo tapes real cheap. Go to them. Spikes now writing a music column for the FIFTH ESTÁTE, and Spikedriver Marshall Robinotf, writing for the SUN (see his column this issue). They leave for Vermont next week for a two-week gig and return for a September 30th job at the Grande with the MC-5.

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