Musical Reminiscing

Most every day I peruse the Pittsburgh Post Gazette on line to keep in touch with the old home town. Thursday's edition had a interview with Eric Burdon because he is headlining tonight (July 24) the Pittsburgh Blues Festival at Hartwood Acres. Those of you old enough may remember him as the lead singer of the 1960's group the Animals. The Hartwood connection, the demise of the Civic Arena and the on-going email discussion of music and the reunion reminded me of when I saw the Animals on June 25, 1966 at the Civic Arena. There were only two groups playing that night; the Animals up first and the Rolling Stones. It is hard to call the Animals a warm-up group especially since they almost stole the show. We (Dave Graham, Ken Vistein, Steve Bulick and myself) dressed in our best madras outfits and sat in the 9th row which is just far enough back so that you were almost level with the stage. Both groups were really sensational but two events happened that made it hard to forget. During the Animals' set, Hilton Valentine, their guitarist broke a string in the middle of a song. This is a fairly uncommon event when playing electric guitar with steel strings. The Rolling Stones' set was also interrupted when Mick Jagger got shocked by one of the microphones. He was taken off stage for a few minutes but then returned and finished the set. All in all it was a memorable evening.
This was the second of three times that I saw the Rollings Stones. They also played the Civic Arena on November 24, 1965. This was an all day affair with lots of groups: The Byrds, We Five, Bo Diddley and others I no longer remember as well as the Rolling Stones. The last time was at the University of Illinois Assembly Hall on November 15, 1969. They were backed up by English blues guitarist Terry Reid and the amazing BB King. Believe it or not, on the first Rolling Stones tour of the US, they also played in Pittsburgh at Westview Park Danceland on June 17, 1964. I really wanted to go to that one as well but you had to be 21 to go.

Summer Reunion-AUGUST 2010

Our summer reunion will take place August 12-16 with a full overlap expected for Sat & Sun. Some of the ideas currently being considered are: Touring some of the houses on the street, kick ball on the flat top, field trip to Giel and the boy's ballfield, hike in Lawrence's, a tour of Hartwood mansion, a square dance, pasta dinner at the Fisher's, a custom-made Green Valley trival pursuit game, a "talent optional" nite, Pirates game, Heinz Historical Museum, dinner at Hartwood Inn, a secret event after dark,lunch at the shady tree and more but I forget everything.
Come one, come all. No invitation necessary.