Furthur Festival was hot ticket

A huge concert draw in 1996, the Furthur Fesival was a hot ticket in more ways than one.

Named after the uniquely spelled destination shown on Ken Kesey and The Merry Pranksters' bus during their 1964 journey across America, the festival evolved from the death of Jerry Garcia in 1995.

Garcia's passing led to a decision by the surviving members of the Grateful Dead, that the long-lived psychedelic band would call it quits rather than replace their beloved leader with a new lead guitarist.

But the 30-year-long Grateful Dead trip didn't end with the band's announcement. In the following months it was revealed that singer and guitarist Bob Weir, drummer Mickey Hart, and a line-up of other bands would stage a summer tour.

The performers included Weir's Ratdog, Hart's Mystery Box, Bruce Hornsby, Los Lobos, Hot Tuna, Alvin Youngblood Hart, John Wesley Harding, and to add to the carnival atmosphere many fans expected, the Flying Karamazov Brothers.

My wife Sue and I quickly set about getting tickets for a show at Alpine Valley in East Troy, Wis. scheduled for June 29. While we were elated to get tickets for the concert by mail order, we were disappointed we had to settle for lawn tickets rather than the reserved seats we wanted.

Still, our excitement mounted, as did the temperature, on the morning of the show. Leaving Escanaba, we traveled south as the mercury continued to climb. By the time we reached Milwaukee it was well over 90 degrees, and in a car without air conditioning, we were beginning to suffer.

Our outlook improved in the early afternoon as we neared our motel room in the resort community of Lake Geneva, where we expected to find cooler conditions. But, their air conditioning didn't work.

So, after a brief respite, we headed to the Alpine Valley amphitheatre to take our lawn seats under the stifling sun.

To our surprise, at the gate we discovered that reserve tickets were indeed still available. We quickly sold our original tickets, got the better ones and prepared to take out seats in the covered pavilion area in front of the stage.

We had precious shade and great seats for the 4 p. m. show, only the seventh of the tour.

With such a mammoth concert and so many performers playing in different combinations, it's difficult to remember what order they appeared in, but highlights of the show are easy to recall.

Ratdog was clearly under Weir's leadership as they performed some classics and a few Dead covers, such as "Good Morning Little Schoolgirl," "Wang Dang Doddle," and "Throwing Stones." Weir had a special piano player in his band in Johnnie Johnson, the person refered to in Chuck Berry's immortal song, "Johnny Be Goode." Seeing Johnson perform the tune he inspired was a sentimental high point.

Hart's Mystery Box, a 12-piece band, brought percussion to a new level with "Fire on the Mountain," complete with a group of female singers called the Mint Julips.

Bruce Hornsby, who occasionally sat in with the Grateful Dead following the death of keyboardist Brent Mydland and had a No. 1 hit with "The Way It Is," gave his all with "Spider Fingers," "Western Skyline" and "Jack Straw."

Los Lobos, the East Los Angeles outfit fronted by David Hildago and Ceasar Rosas, paid their respects with "Angel Dance," "Evangeline," "Cinnamon Girl," and Dead favorite "Bertha."

Jorma Kaukonen and Jack Casady, who dropped out of Jefferson Airplane in 1972 to form Hot Tuna, entertained the crowd with a memorable version of "Keep on Truckin'."

Other performers included bluesman Hart, who did a Robert Johnson styled set; British singer-songwriter Harding, who performed "When the Beatles Hit America;" and the Flying Karamazov Brothers. The acrobatic troupe seemed to need a little additional practice, flubbing many of their stunts.

But, the show wasn't about acrobatics anyway, and the crowd knew enough to supply its own circus-like tone to the procedings.

As midnight approached, many of the performers grouped on stage as the show ended with a half-hour jam before an appreciative, if sweaty, audience.

Sue and I remember it as a hot show, no matter how you look at it.

Badfinger's tragic past revisited

There is no more tragic story in rock than Badfinger, the promising band decimated by a pair of suicides despite having a handful of hit singles.

Given that, seeing surviving member Joey Molland perform in 1996 was a bittersweet experience.

The original band, guitarist Pete Ham, bassist Tom Evans, drummer Mike Gibbins and Molland, also on guitar, recorded four albums for Apple Records and two more for Warner Bros.

They came away with five significant hits. Between 1970 and 1972, the band struck gold with some of my favorite songs, including "Come And Get It," "No Matter What," "Day After Day," and "Baby Blue." In addition, Harry Nilsson polished a Badfinger album track, "Without You," written by Ham and Evans, and recorded a version which topped the charts for four weeks.

Having a connection with the Beatles didn't hurt either. John Lennon named the group, Paul McCartney wrote "Come And Get It," and George Harrison produced and played guitar on their biggest hit, "Day After Day."

In fact, Badfinger was the first group signed to Apple and easily the most successful, outside the Beatles themselves.

The group played acoustic guitars during Harrison's high profile charity event, "The Concert for Bangladesh," held at Madison Square Garden on Aug. 1, 1971.

But all was not peaches and cream for Badfinger, despite their success.

By the mid-70s, Apple Records was collapsing and the band was increasingly plagued by financial woes. Badfinger's finely-crafted Warner albums didn't alleviate their money problems.

Unable to receive royalties, broke and broken, Ham hanged himself in his garage studio on April 24, 1975, three days before his 28th birthday.

Following Ham's death the band broke-up, but Molland and Evans reformed the group three years later.

After recording some material with moderate success, including "Love Is Gonna Come At Last" and "Hold On," Evans also became increasingly depressed over financial concerns and in a replay of Ham's death, hanged himself in his garden on Nov. 19, 1983, age 36. The tragedy happened after Evans and Molland argued over the telephone, allegedly about royalties.

Surviving members of the band continued to suffer financially until a 1985 court settlement, including the estates of Ham and Evans, resolved differences over those royalties.

In the years since, Molland has toured as Joey Molland's Badfinger and appeared at a fan convention at Chicago's Hyatt Regency O'Hare Hotel on Aug. 16-18, 1996.

My wife Sue and I were present when he performed Badfinger's hits that weekend, although faithful re-creations were impossible due to the absence of original vocalists Ham and Evans. Certainly, Molland and the audience were both painfully aware of the obvious loss.

Today, Badfinger's influence continues to be felt. Songstress Mariah Carey also fashioned a monster hit with her take on "Without You," and Def Leppard mined "No Matter What" for a standout track on their "Yeah Yeah Yeah" album released earlier this year. Several posthumous Pete Ham demo collections have been released, pointing to his genius as a songwriter.

But, bad omens have continued to haunt Badfinger.

Like Molland, Badfinger drummer Mike Gibbins also attended fan conventions at the Chicago Hyatt, including Aug. 17-19, 2001 when he was selling a compact disc he recorded called "More Annoying Songs." Unfortunately, Gibbins died in his sleep at his home in Florida on Oct. 4, 2005, age 56, leaving Molland as the sole surviving original member of Badfinger.

Molland lives in Minnesota with his wife Kathie and is reportedly working on a definitive history of the band. But, like the song says, "no matter what" he writes, it's bound to be a tragic story indeed.

Concert nuisances explained

Certainly, if you've been to many concerts, you've encountered a few annoyances, irritations or nuisances along the way.

I know I have.

I'm not talking about poor sound, dirty toilets or expensive vendors, either.

It's people.

Not everybody, of course, but some specific types.

For your convenience, I've distilled the troublesome folks into categories: the dancer, the shouter, the smoker, the drinker, the singer, the cheerleader, the taper, the sleeper and the talker.

Who are these these party animals, determined to ruin your good time? I'll explain, so you can avoid them, if possible.

Determined to shake her booty, the dancer pops up in front of you, obscuring your view of the performer you've paid hard-earned money to see. The dancer has endless energy, rarely sits down, and usually has way too much booty shaking.

Making his presence known by hollering insane things at the stage, the shouter can also take aim at no one in particular. A classic example is the fan who yells "Free Bird" even though, to his amazement, he's not at a Lynyrd Skynyrd show. He'll also scream "Detroit" or "rock 'n' roll" for no apparent reason.

The smoker comes in degrees. The Marlboro man usually takes just a few minutes and a small portion of your lung capacity. The cigar aficionado, with a 99 cent special, is determined to let everyone in the general area catch a whiff of him, but never fires up a quality Cuban number. Nobody, however, seems to mind the old hippie puffing on a "funny" cigarette.

Just looking for a good time, the drinker tries and tries to soothe his parched pipes. Unfortunately, these Budweiser buddies work with the smallest bladders, requiring you to get up from your seat every five minutes so they can to go to the restroom or make another beer run. Oddly, they never sit on the end of a row, only in the middle. Closely related is the drunkard. You're happy if he doesn't fall on you, vomit nearby, or drive himself home.

Assuming he or she is as talented as the performer on stage is the singer. Thus, you get Paul McCartney singing the melodic "Hey Jude," in your left ear, while a vocally inept fan croons an off-key version in your right. Making it even worse, these musically challenged individuals seldom know the lyrics, so they have to make them up.

Compelled to wave her hands, her hat, a sign or flag, the cheerleader is an overly enthusiastic fan trying desperately to attract the attention of the performer. They rarely do, but manage to quickly annoy you.

Taking great satisfaction in gaining entry to the show with forbidden gear is the taper. These industrious types bring in recording equipment so they can capture the concert for posterity. With machines tucked into their arm pits, tapers usually produce a recording that preserves whole bunches of whispering and distant sounding guitar solos. So much for posterity.

Partying so hard in advance to a show he's been hoping to see all his life, the sleeper burns out early and dozes through the performance. If he's lucky, he dreams about the concert and someone wakes him up when it's over.

The talker, meanwhile, is the guy in the row ahead of you who gets together with some mindless yappers behind you to catch up on the latest news or reminisce while you're trying to appreciate the concert. Impossible to ignore, these verbose characters have no idea what "shh" means. They show no respect for their neighbors or the performer and don't shut up until they're walking out of the venue after the event. Apparently, these chatterboxes can't walk and talk at the same time.

If you've ever sat near me at a concert, don't be offended, I'm not grumbling about you. It's the other guy.

But, if you actually are that guy, cut it out, I'm trying to enjoy the show.

Blues Fest was 'superior' event

If you want to put a tag on the third annual Blues Fest, which took place Sept. 2 and 3 in Marquette, call it superior, just like the big lake next to the event's main stage.

Held at Mattson Lower Harbor Park, the program featured top name entertainment, including Bernard Allison, Saffire- The Uppity Blues Women, Reverend Raven, and Ana Popovic in a setting where the Upper Peninsula's natural beauty complemented first-rate musical performances, delighting several thousand festival-goers.

Superbly organized by the non-profit Marquette Area Blues Society, the event has grown into a regional attraction over the Labor Day weekend, putting a musical bang into the traditional end of the summer tourism season.

As well run as any such festival around the country, Blues Fest also offered competitive food vendors (Cajun catfish, anyone?), various blues-related workshops, and an opportunity to meet the performers.

Saturday's audience saw performances by Alberta Adams, Saffire, and the horn-driven Chicago Rhythm and Blues Kings.

Adams, grand dame of Detroit blues, commanded the stage with the seasoned experience of a singer who has performed for more than 60 years. Born in 1925, the Cannonball Records recording artist ably recalled some of the classic blues divas of earlier decades. She became a sentimental favorite with an endearing performance of her song, "Remember Me."

The historical perspective offered by Adams was carried on by Saffire, which took the stage next. A popular attraction on the festival circuit, Saffire includes pianist Ann Rabson, guitarist Gaye Adegbalola and mandolin player Andra Faye McIntosh.

During a crowd-pleasing set, they performed a quirky mix of risque originals and interpretations of blues gems from the pre-World War II period by the likes of Bessie Smith, Memphis Minnie and Lucille Bogan.

The day was capped-off with the big sound of the Chicago Rhythm & Blues Kings, formerly known as the Mellow Fellows. The six- piece combo, built around saxophonists Terry Ogolini and Gene Barge with trumpeter Don Tenuto, put a little jazz, some swing and a bit of soul into their version of the blues.

While Saturday was fine, Sunday's line-up was even better.

Reverend Raven, born and raised in Chicago, but based in Milwaukee, is familiar to U. P. audiences, having made numerous appearances in the area, including Marquette, Gladstone and Escanaba. Referring to a recent illness, Raven said, "I had a bad incident in Memphis about three years ago, but I'm back now."

Along with his Chain Smokin' Altar Boys, he put on an inspired performance, including two tracks by songwriter Jim Liban, proving why this outfit was named best blues band in Wisconsin three times.

Next up came an unscheduled surprise guest in Canadian bluesman Anthony Gomes. Gomes, who was a headliner at the first Blues Fest, put on a rousing acoustic performance. On tour through the end of the year, the Toronto native was supporting his new album "Music Is the Medicine."

An appealing blues/rock combination, by way of the former Yugoslavia, followed with the appearance of the vivacious Ana Popovic, a talented singer, songwriter and guitarist. Born in Belgrade, Popovic was introduced to the blues via her father's record collection, and now, at age 30, is signed to Ruf Records, a German label.

Singing with the slightest accent, Popovic played songs from her three CD's, including a stunning tribute to her blues heroes, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Ronnie Earl, with the instrumental "Navajo Moon."

Popovic has also been influenced by Bernard Allison, another Ruf recording star, who, coincidentally was headliner for the day. Son of blues great Luther Allison, the lead guitarist showed the audience that he learned a thing or two from his famous father.

In his set, Allison played a tribute to his dad, made his six-string "talk," and wandered through the crowd, guitar ablaze, driving his performance to a frenzied end.

All in all, my wife Sue and I enjoyed an entertaining weekend along the beautiful Lake Superior shoreline in Marquette in what for us has become an annual excursion to Blues Fest.

The fourth Blues Fest will arrive before you know it. Don't miss it. We won't.