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Brown Moses
The Dead played three sets and the show can be d/l from places such as btetree and expands to 4 cds.
This must relate to about 5 hours of music.There would have been breaks between sets.

Right 3 sets plus two Encores. They even did interviews (Weir & Hart) between sets. One of the reviews said they started playing at midnight and stopped about 7AM when champagne and breakfast was served.

I have the two DVD set - The closing of Winterland. The second DVD has some extra features...

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2000 LYFH
What else is up there with the Stones?

Up there with the Stones? Only Elvis.

Slightly beneath the Stones....too may to mention.
Today its John Hiatt and Dale Watson...and thanks to that other thread its liable to be a great Eagles weekend...

A comment by someone claimed that around 3am when people were burning out and some falling asleep, the Dead rolled out a cannon noisemaker on stage and fired it off scaring the crap out of the lightweights. Anyone hear of this?

Well, since I am apparently the only one here who was at this show, let me clear up a few inaccuracies. First of all, Winterland was just Winterland, not "the Winterland" like "the Fillmore." Winterland was the last of the three "grand dames" of the San Francisco music scene, along with the Fillmore and the Avalon Ballroom. Bill Graham operated Winterland alongside the Fillmore, using Winterland for larger shows. It had a capacity of a little over 5,000 people, compared to the Fillmore, which was less than 2,000.

Winterland was orignally built as a theatre, converted to an ice rink for skating shows, hence its change of name to Winterland. By the 60s, when Bill took it over, it was just a large concert venue.

By 1978, it was coming apart at the seams, having been built in the 20s. When they announced the closing, I was determined to get there, even though I was just a college student living in St. Louis. It was about the single toughest ticket, adjusted for inflation, of any show I have ever been to, and I have been to many very difficult shows. People were flying in from Europe and Japan, without tickets. They held a lottery, that you had to line up for at various locations, and if you won, you could buy two tickets. Obviously this was long before the internet, or any paper mail order. So, the first problem was getting a ticket. By an amazing stroke of my musical fairy godmother's wand, a kid I went to school with heard we were planning on going, and asked whether we had tickets. The lottery had not even taken place yet, so I responded "No." He then asked if we needed ticket, to which I answered "Yes." He then asked how many, I told him three, and I was almost starting to get aggravated, but then he said "no problem." I then asked what he meant, since these were impossible tickets, and he then told me that his uncle owned BASS tickets, a precursor to Ticketron/Ticketmaster. We were in.

We planned a multi-week trip over winter break, through National Parks, Las Vegas, the California coast, skiing in Colorado, etc., all centered around the show. We were in my roommate's parents' Ford van camper. After a number of mechanical issues before we even got on the road, we got to San Francisco five days before the show, and joined the beginning of the line as numbers 6-8. We spent the days taking turns watching our spot, but with our camper across the street, so we could actually take turns getting some real sleep. In the video, during the street interviews that were broadcast during the intermissions, I am interviewed on line.

Bill Graham had his sister set up a little hut, and had hot coffee, soup and sourdough rolls and butter available to anyone on line. He would also come out and visit with us at some point each day. The night before the closing show, Tom Petty was playing there, and he needed everyone out of the way, so they passed out carnival ride "Admit One" tickets to establish everyone's place in line, and Bill gave us free tickets to the show.

When New Years Day finally arrived, we were let in a little after noon. I was at the stage, directly in front of Jerry, in full clown make-up and costume [it had been advertised as a masquerade ball]. At around 5;00 p.m. a movie screen was set up, and they showed Animal House, which had just recently been released.

The New Riders came on around 8:00 p.m. They were followed by the Flying Karamazov brothers, a juggling and circus act. Then the Blues Brothers came on around 10:00 or so, and played until 11:30.

On the video, you can hear Dan Akroyd doing the New Years countdown, as Bill is coming across the room in a giant flying joint. As soon as he got to the stage, the Dead broke into Sugar Magnolia, and the show was on.

They played three sets, with breaks in between. The third set started a little after 3:00 a.m. and went until almost 4:30. There were the two encores shown on the video, and then when the crowd kept clapping and screaming, for another ten or fifteen minutes, even after music was playing over the PA, the band came out and did a final a cappella version of "We Bid You Goodnight."

Bill then served a champagne breakfast, with omelets, bacon, toast, fruit and other items to the entire crowd. We were allowed to stay as long as we wanted, and left around 9:00 a.m. to finally crash. One of the greatest musical adventures I have ever had, and I have had many.


And no, there was no cannon before the third set.

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Munichhilton
six hours of the Grateful Dead must've been hell...not even the Blues Brothers could have made that endurable...

who is the guy next to phil lesh ? could it be Jorma ? the guy next to donna jean is bob weir

"The Last Waltz"

The Jimi Hendrix Experience Winterland.
On Thursday, October 10th 1968, Jimi Hendrix walked on stage with his Experience, bassist Noel Redding and drummer Mitch Mitchell, for the opening set of a long weekend at Winterland in San Francisco. The trio would play six sold-out shows over three nights at the 5400-capacity hall, originally built in 1928 as an ice- skating rink and turned into the city's biggest psychedelic ballroom by Fillmore impressario Bill Graham.
Original Location Recording by Wally Heider, Bill Halverson, legendary Sound Engineers!

I would like to hear someone his experience of one of these Jimi Hendrix Experience concerts in Winterland?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2014-01-15 19:04 by runaway.

I was at the Springsteen show on 16th December. QUite the show it was too...



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2014-01-15 18:59 by ChrisM.

Nevermind the hippies, - here's the Sex Pistols

The Sex Pistols - soundcheck of the winterland show, rare recording !!

January 14, 1978 the Sex Pistols played their last concert.
This soundcheck was recorded in the KSAN remote truck on a cassette that still plays 35 years later!
Most enjoyable are Johnny's comments to the monitor mixer
to "turn Sid down"





The Sex Pistols concert at Winterland-







Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2014-01-15 23:20 by seitan.

Janis Joplin, big Brother & The Holding Co., Winterland 1968

The list of bands that played in Winterland is just amazing including The Rolling Stones in 72


[www.chickenonaunicycle.com][/

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TheGreek

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Munichhilton
six hours of the Grateful Dead must've been hell...not even the Blues Brothers could have made that endurable...

who is the guy next to phil lesh ? could it be Jorma ? the guy next to donna jean is bob weir

The late John Cipollina of the great band Quicksilver Messenger Service. This must of been during the 2nd set where he played on Not Fade Away -> Around & Around.

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gratefulphish
Well, since I am apparently the only one here who was at this show, let me clear up a few inaccuracies. First of all, Winterland was just Winterland, not "the Winterland" like "the Fillmore." Winterland was the last of the three "grand dames" of the San Francisco music scene, along with the Fillmore and the Avalon Ballroom. Bill Graham operated Winterland alongside the Fillmore, using Winterland for larger shows. It had a capacity of a little over 5,000 people, compared to the Fillmore, which was less than 2,000.

Winterland was orignally built as a theatre, converted to an ice rink for skating shows, hence its change of name to Winterland. By the 60s, when Bill took it over, it was just a large concert venue.

By 1978, it was coming apart at the seams, having been built in the 20s. When they announced the closing, I was determined to get there, even though I was just a college student living in St. Louis. It was about the single toughest ticket, adjusted for inflation, of any show I have ever been to, and I have been to many very difficult shows. People were flying in from Europe and Japan, without tickets. They held a lottery, that you had to line up for at various locations, and if you won, you could buy two tickets. Obviously this was long before the internet, or any paper mail order. So, the first problem was getting a ticket. By an amazing stroke of my musical fairy godmother's wand, a kid I went to school with heard we were planning on going, and asked whether we had tickets. The lottery had not even taken place yet, so I responded "No." He then asked if we needed ticket, to which I answered "Yes." He then asked how many, I told him three, and I was almost starting to get aggravated, but then he said "no problem." I then asked what he meant, since these were impossible tickets, and he then told me that his uncle owned BASS tickets, a precursor to Ticketron/Ticketmaster. We were in.

We planned a multi-week trip over winter break, through National Parks, Las Vegas, the California coast, skiing in Colorado, etc., all centered around the show. We were in my roommate's parents' Ford van camper. After a number of mechanical issues before we even got on the road, we got to San Francisco five days before the show, and joined the beginning of the line as numbers 6-8. We spent the days taking turns watching our spot, but with our camper across the street, so we could actually take turns getting some real sleep. In the video, during the street interviews that were broadcast during the intermissions, I am interviewed on line.

Bill Graham had his sister set up a little hut, and had hot coffee, soup and sourdough rolls and butter available to anyone on line. He would also come out and visit with us at some point each day. The night before the closing show, Tom Petty was playing there, and he needed everyone out of the way, so they passed out carnival ride "Admit One" tickets to establish everyone's place in line, and Bill gave us free tickets to the show.

When New Years Day finally arrived, we were let in a little after noon. I was at the stage, directly in front of Jerry, in full clown make-up and costume [it had been advertised as a masquerade ball]. At around 5;00 p.m. a movie screen was set up, and they showed Animal House, which had just recently been released.

The New Riders came on around 8:00 p.m. They were followed by the Flying Karamazov brothers, a juggling and circus act. Then the Blues Brothers came on around 10:00 or so, and played until 11:30.

On the video, you can hear Dan Akroyd doing the New Years countdown, as Bill is coming across the room in a giant flying joint. As soon as he got to the stage, the Dead broke into Sugar Magnolia, and the show was on.

They played three sets, with breaks in between. The third set started a little after 3:00 a.m. and went until almost 4:30. There were the two encores shown on the video, and then when the crowd kept clapping and screaming, for another ten or fifteen minutes, even after music was playing over the PA, the band came out and did a final a cappella version of "We Bid You Goodnight."

Bill then served a champagne breakfast, with omelets, bacon, toast, fruit and other items to the entire crowd. We were allowed to stay as long as we wanted, and left around 9:00 a.m. to finally crash. One of the greatest musical adventures I have ever had, and I have had many.


And no, there was no cannon before the third set.

thanks for this nicely written first post and recollection, gratefulphish!

I saw every Grateful Dead New Years Eve show from 1976/77 Cow Palace (Daily City- near S.F.) to the last one- I think was 91/92 (with Bruce Hornsby and Branford Marsailes (sp?)). I enjoyed the closing show, but not my favorite. All the shows in 1977 at Winterland was magical! The shows in the 'Grateful Dead Movie' from shows at Winterland in October 1974 were All very long shows. They let you in early, showed roadrunner cartoons until the show started, then played 6 hour shows. Came on early, stayed late and no opening act. Everybody thought those might be the last shows ever.

It was so hard to get tickets to closing night at Winterland, Wherehouse Records had a lottery for tix. I had family and friends go down at the particular time, and my dad's lottery number won! My dad also won mail order tickets for the first Bridge School Concert with Springsteen,CSNY and many more. My dad was lucky.

Most all NYE shows were 3 sets. Some special shows in 1980 in Oct. at the Warfield in S.F. and Radio City in New York were also 3 sets- special opening acoustic sets that ended with the song Ripple (one of my favorite songs and only time I saw it).

My favorite NYE's were 77/78, 81/82 Oakland Auditorium and the last one at Oakland Arena. Most we're not very good shows. Some of the other shows between Christmas and NYE were awesome though. I think NYE was a party for everyone. I heard some 'whoa' gossip about John Belushi and Jerry Garcia back stage on NYE.

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gratefulphish
Well, since I am apparently the only one here who was at this show, let me clear up a few inaccuracies. First of all, Winterland was just Winterland, not "the Winterland" like "the Fillmore." Winterland was the last of the three "grand dames" of the San Francisco music scene, along with the Fillmore and the Avalon Ballroom.

I think we get it, but for the record the title has a lowercase "the" which is not the title which would have been in uppercase "The" if it was part of the name.

Further if Fillmore is singular as you say why did you write "the Fillmore" if the name is Fillmore West?

Thanks for the information anyways.

Quote
runaway
The Jimi Hendrix Experience Winterland.
On Thursday, October 10th 1968, Jimi Hendrix walked on stage with his Experience, bassist Noel Redding and drummer Mitch Mitchell, for the opening set of a long weekend at Winterland in San Francisco. The trio would play six sold-out shows over three nights at the 5400-capacity hall, originally built in 1928 as an ice- skating rink and turned into the city's biggest psychedelic ballroom by Fillmore impressario Bill Graham.
Original Location Recording by Wally Heider, Bill Halverson, legendary Sound Engineers!

I would like to hear someone his experience of one of these Jimi Hendrix Experience concerts in Winterland?

Jimi's first appearance at Winterland was in February '68. He had blown America away at the Monterey Pop Festival in June '67, and Bill Graham, who was there, immediately signed him to play the Fillmore the following week, having bare typewritten handbills made up to give to festival-goers. At that show, Jimi was the first of two opening acts for the Jefferson Airplane



Then Bill signed him for four nights in February, in possibly the most famous rock poster out there, Rick Griffin's Flying Eyeball. Two of the shows, Thursday and Sunday were at the Fillmore and Friday and Saturday were at Winterland. This is the image.



Jimi came back again in October, for the run of shows that you were referring to, and this is the poster image for that show, by Victor Moscoso and Rick Griffin.

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2000 LYFH


The late John Cipollina of the great band Quicksilver Messenger Service. This must of been during the 2nd set where he played on Not Fade Away -> Around & Around.

Correct.

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duke richardson


thanks for this nicely written first post and recollection, gratefulphish!

Thank you. You're welcome.

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The Sicilian


I think we get it, but for the record the title has a lowercase "the" which is not the title which would have been in uppercase "The" if it was part of the name.

Further if Fillmore is singular as you say why did you write "the Fillmore" if the name is Fillmore West?

Thanks for the information anyways.

Because they were two different venues. The original Fillmore was the Fillmore Auditorium on Geary Street. When shows began to outgrow that small venue, Bill took over what was the Carousel Ballroom on Market Street, and named it the Fillmore West, because he had already started up the Fillmore East in New York by that time. The Fillmore West remained until Bill closed it, along with the Fillmore East, in 1971. When Bill first re-opened a Fillmore in San Francisco, it was at the old Fillmore West location. But, there was a fire that burned it down, and as fate would have it, the original Fillmore was put back into service, and is what is still operating as the Fillmore today.

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Munichhilton

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2000 LYFH

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Munichhilton


I bet you like Phish too, eh?

eh no!

They usually go hand in hand...glad to hear it. This is where I would add a few words about Phish but I'm not allowed.

Well, as my username might indicate, I am a fan of both bands, but nothing could be further from the truth. I am the rare Deadhead who also became a Phish fan. Most of my Dead friends would never listen to Phish, the Stones, no problem, but they looked down at Phish as a perceived Grateful Dead wannabe band. Phish is not a Dead cover band [although they played a few Dead covers at the very inception of their career, they then never played one until after Jerry died.]

Phish is an amazingly talented group of musicians, and they love the Stones. As someone noted out of context, on Halloweens, they have done musical "costumes" of other bands' albums, including the White Album, Quadrophenia, Remain in Light, Loaded, and then Exile in 2009. They also covered Waiting for Columbus the following year. Songs like Loving Cup, Torn and Frayed, Shine a Light, Sweet Virginia and a few others still show up in rotation.

Link: Torn and Frayed

Does anybody know the reason the Stones played Winterland in 1972 rather than the larger Bay Area venues like the Oakland Arena or the Cow Palace?

Setlist from NYE 78:


Winterland Arena - San Francisco, CA

Set 1:
Sugar Magnolia
Scarlet Begonias
Fire On The Mountain
Me And My Uncle
Big River
Friend Of The Devil
It's All Over Now
Stagger Lee
From The Heart Of Me
Sunshine Daydream


Set 2:
Samson And Delilah
Ramble On Rose
I Need A Miracle
Terrapin Station
Playin' In The Band
Drums
Not Fade Away
Around And Around


Set 3:
Dark Star
The Other One
Dark Star
Wharf Rat
St. Stephen
Good Lovin'


Encore:
Casey Jones
Johnny B. Goode
And We Bid You Goodnight

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gratefulphish

Quote
runaway
The Jimi Hendrix Experience Winterland.
On Thursday, October 10th 1968, Jimi Hendrix walked on stage with his Experience, bassist Noel Redding and drummer Mitch Mitchell, for the opening set of a long weekend at Winterland in San Francisco. The trio would play six sold-out shows over three nights at the 5400-capacity hall, originally built in 1928 as an ice- skating rink and turned into the city's biggest psychedelic ballroom by Fillmore impressario Bill Graham.
Original Location Recording by Wally Heider, Bill Halverson, legendary Sound Engineers!

I would like to hear someone his experience of one of these Jimi Hendrix Experience concerts in Winterland?

Jimi's first appearance at Winterland was in February '68. He had blown America away at the Monterey Pop Festival in June '67, and Bill Graham, who was there, immediately signed him to play the Fillmore the following week, having bare typewritten handbills made up to give to festival-goers. At that show, Jimi was the first of two opening acts for the Jefferson Airplane



Then Bill signed him for four nights in February, in possibly the most famous rock poster out there, Rick Griffin's Flying Eyeball. Two of the shows, Thursday and Sunday were at the Fillmore and Friday and Saturday were at Winterland. This is the image.



Jimi came back again in October, for the run of shows that you were referring to, and this is the poster image for that show, by Victor Moscoso and Rick Griffin.

Thanks for Your great inside story and info and posting these great posters.
Winterland must have been a hot spot for musicians and fans at the time.

I wonder if our good friend DaveG made it to any of these shows.

while weir at it.
March 30, 1980 - Capitol Theatre, Passaic, NJ, Belushi on cartwheels and vocals>

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TornAndFried
Does anybody know the reason the Stones played Winterland in 1972 rather than the larger Bay Area venues like the Oakland Arena or the Cow Palace?

According to Robert Greenfield ( STP) the Stones wanted to have some good shows in the Bay Area, after Altamont and the Oakland Coliseum 69 shows which were also somewhat of a fiasco. I don't know if that is why or not. But Winterland was really THE place to play in the Bay Area in the 1970s and it was more or less Bill Graham's building. Since he promoted all the Stones show in CA on that tour it was only natural that he wanted to have it in his own building. Just speculation on my part, for I have always wondered the same thing.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2014-01-22 15:38 by tornnfrayed.

I don't mind the Dead, but I much prefer the Jerry Garcia Band.

Garcia was the Dead, as far as I'm concerned. Bob Weir makes my ears hurt most of the time, with only a couple exceptions.

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JimmyTheSaint
I don't mind the Dead, but I much prefer the Jerry Garcia Band.

Garcia was the Dead, as far as I'm concerned. Bob Weir makes my ears hurt most of the time, with only a couple exceptions.

I understand where you are coming from, but the Dead overall were such an amazing music production piece of machinery, that Bob Weir was unable to detract from most of it.

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GRNRBITW
They often went to hell - usually in a bucket - but I guess you wouldn't enjoy that ride, munich....

How many keyboardists did they go through in the six hours?

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71Tele

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GRNRBITW
They often went to hell - usually in a bucket - but I guess you wouldn't enjoy that ride, munich....

How many keyboardists did they go through in the six hours?

good one . very funny . on a more serious note , to respond to your question 3 at least ?do you know the story about when vince welnick took over he was using brent mydlands bench untill the first show when he went to sit on it and it broke apart . true story . they say it was brent's ghost having a ha ha at the new guy !



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2014-01-28 15:22 by TheGreek.

My step-dad saw The Band twice. Their first concert as The Band and their last concert as The Band, both at Winterland. My mother too was at the Last Waltz (and my father & family friends). They all claim that I was too young to attend at 9 months old. I cry ageism!

A good friend's brother opened for The Sex Pistols at Winterland. His band was called The Nuns (Alejandro Escovedo).

How long before they turn The Warfield into a Target store or a condo?