Handbill / Card Design GARY GRIMSHAW

 

FEBRUARY 1967

3 Friday / The Wha? , Little Sisters

4 Saturday / MC-5 , Raven , Harvard Street Blues

*Grande Ballroom* Detroit , MI

     DANIEL O'CONNELL, former 'WHA?' bassplayer remembers :

     As I recall the ONLY reason The Wha? 'headlined' was because the MC5 could not do the Friday. I'm certain they [MC5] didn't play that night. It was a sucky night for attendance. Bad weather.
Russ [Gibb] used us regular but we were always on hind-tit and never on a poster or card. We played at least 10 dates with the MC5 and they liked us because we were kids that were good-enough but not competition.

     Rob Tyner was such a lovely and kind man. I remember he would spend heaps of time having wonderful conversations with my father Bernard. My dad served in India so he had a much more different kind of mind than most 'grown ups'.. he understood much of what was going on at the time. Rob and him would have wonderful talks. Rob was also very nice to me.

     I saw Rob just a few days/weeks before his death. He came to one of my history shows at Oakland Uninversity (Michigan). Completely unrelated to music. He had a great mind.

     On the Grande Ballroom's opening night (October 7 & 8, 1966) : "The Saturday night of the 'first' Grande date, The Chosen Few were headlined, but they broke-up/reorganizing as SRC and couldn't make the date."

[The SRC was called the Scot Richard Case, hence the initials SRC. The group formes from members of the much-appreciated Detroit bands, the Fugitives and the Chosen Few. Gary and Glenn Quackenbush and E.G. Clawson were members of the former, and Scot (along with future Stooges member, Ron Asheton) was from the latter... - Excerpt from the book"SRC-Wizards Deeply Missed" by John Orlich, available at jandaorlich@aginet.com]

     "At Northland Russ was passing our the already printed Seagull posters and got us to replace them. Of course we didn't headline, we played second or third place that night.
I "think" the MC5 added the Saturday night to their schedule, pretty sure about this.
But we played the "Saturday" of the first date/Seagull Poster.
Crickety!!!: Russ gave us at least 40 Seagull posters to pass out. We kept at least 30 or them and stapled them to my basement ceiling joists! Not one survived into the late 60's.... kick me HARD!"

     Daniel O'Connell's current musical activities : I'm playing bass in The Gang which was the Wilson Mower Pursuit. Stever Farmer is still playing with us along with Jim Butler and Donny Henderson. I'm replacing bassist Greg Arama who died in the 80's. Odd.. when I was 13-14 I would literally stand at the edge of the stage watching Greg play. 60% of my style IS Greg Arama. When I played at the first rehearsal it sort of freaked-out Steve Farmer.
     We are playing special dates for The KNIGHTS OF THE GRANDE, a promotion that Jeff Vail put together. Jeff played drums with Fred and Rob after Dennis. Jeff and his partners call these promotions Knights of the Grande as well as Dreamtunes. (www.dreamtunes.com)
     Just amateur enough to be fun. Always a different variation every promotion. Usually one every 3 or 4 months. We play December 4th next with the Jagged Edge. This variation I'm playing with my partner from Barooga doing Grande-60's tunes as the opener act.

Posted on November 2004 - Daniel O'Connell