California Jam (also known as Cal Jam) was a
rock music
Rock is a Music genre, genre of popular music that originated in the United States as "rock and roll" in the late 1940s and early 1950s, developing into a range of styles from the mid-1960s, primarily in the United States and the United Kingdo ...
festival
A festival is an event celebrated by a community and centering on some characteristic aspect or aspects of that community and its religion or cultures. It is often marked as a local or national holiday, Melā, mela, or Muslim holidays, eid. A ...
co-headlined by
Deep Purple
Deep Purple are an English rock band formed in London in 1968. They are considered to be among the pioneers of heavy metal music, heavy metal and modern hard rock, although their musical style has varied throughout their career. Originally for ...
and
Emerson, Lake & Palmer
Emerson, Lake & Palmer (informally known as ELP) were an English progressive rock Supergroup (music), supergroup formed in London in 1970. The band consisted of Keith Emerson (keyboards) of The Nice, Greg Lake (vocals, bass, guitars, producer) ...
, held at the
Ontario Motor Speedway
Ontario Motor Speedway was a motorsport venue located in Ontario, California. It was the first and only automobile racing facility built to accommodate major races sanctioned by all of the four dominant racing sanctioning bodies: United States Au ...
in
Ontario, California
Ontario is a city in southwestern San Bernardino County, California, United States, east of downtown Los Angeles and west of downtown San Bernardino, the county seat. Located in the western part of the Inland Empire metropolitan area, it lies ...
, on April 6, 1974. It was produced by
ABC Entertainment,
Sandy Feldman and
Leonard Stogel. Pacific Presentations, a Los Angeles–based concert company headed by Sepp Donahower and Gary Perkins, coordinated the event, booked all the musical talent and ran the advertising campaign. Don Branker
worked for Leonard Stogel and was responsible for concert site facilitation, toilets, fencing and medical. The California Jam attracted 250,000 paying music fans.
[ The festival set what were then records for the loudest amplification system ever installed, the highest paid attendance, and highest gross in history.][ It was one of the last of the original wave of ]rock festival
A rock festival is an open-air rock concert featuring many different performers, typically spread over two or three days and having a campsite and other amenities and forms of entertainment provided at the venue. Some festivals are singular eve ...
s, as well as one of the most well-executed and financially successful, and presaged the era of media consolidation and the corporatization of the rock music industry.
Performers
In order of appearance
* Rare Earth
*Earth, Wind & Fire
Earth, Wind & Fire (abbreviated as EW&F or EWF) is an American band formed in Chicago, Illinois in 1969. Their music spans multiple genres, including jazz, R&B, soul, funk, disco, pop, Latin and Afro-pop. They are among the best-selling ba ...
*Eagles
Eagle is the common name for the golden eagle, bald eagle, and other birds of prey in the family of the Accipitridae. Eagles belong to several groups of Genus, genera, some of which are closely related. True eagles comprise the genus ''Aquila ( ...
, joined by Jackson Browne
Clyde Jackson Browne (born October 9, 1948) is an American rock musician, singer, songwriter, and political activist who has sold over 30 million albums in the United States.
Emerging as a teenage songwriter in mid-1960s Los Angeles, he had his ...
*Seals and Crofts
Seals and Crofts were an American soft rock duo formed in Los Angeles, California in 1969 by James Eugene Seals (October 17, 1942 – June 6, 2022) and Darrell George "Dash" Crofts (born August 14, 1938). They are best known for their hits " Su ...
* Black Oak Arkansas
*Black Sabbath
Black Sabbath are an English rock band formed in Birmingham in 1968 by guitarist Tony Iommi, drummer Bill Ward (musician), Bill Ward, bassist Geezer Butler, and vocalist Ozzy Osbourne. After adopting the Black Sabbath name in 1969 (the band ...
*Deep Purple
Deep Purple are an English rock band formed in London in 1968. They are considered to be among the pioneers of heavy metal music, heavy metal and modern hard rock, although their musical style has varied throughout their career. Originally for ...
*Emerson, Lake & Palmer
Emerson, Lake & Palmer (informally known as ELP) were an English progressive rock Supergroup (music), supergroup formed in London in 1970. The band consisted of Keith Emerson (keyboards) of The Nice, Greg Lake (vocals, bass, guitars, producer) ...
The event was MC'd by New York DJ Don Imus
John Donald Imus Jr. ( ; July 23, 1940 – December 27, 2019), also known as Imus, was an American radio personality, television show host, recording artist, and author. His radio show '' Imus in the Morning'' was aired on various stations and di ...
.
Deep Purple's performance was one of the first with their third line-up, which included vocalist David Coverdale
David Coverdale (born 22 September 1951) is an English singer and songwriter, best known as the founder and lead singer of the hard rock band Whitesnake. Coverdale was also the lead singer of Deep Purple from 1973 to 1976; he has had a solo car ...
and vocalist/bassist Glenn Hughes. Deep Purple was given the choice of when to go on stage, and chose sunset, thus pushing Emerson, Lake & Palmer to the last performance. Having assumed that, as with all festivals, the show would run late, they nonetheless delayed their appearance even when the festival ran ahead of schedule. Angry organizers tried to force Purple onstage, and threatened to cancel their performance. A quick thinking announcer told the crowds that Deep Purple would be on "soon". The band made concertgoers wait nearly an hour until near dusk. Guitarist Ritchie Blackmore
Richard Hugh Blackmore (born 14 April 1945) is an English lead guitarist. He was a founding member and the guitarist of Deep Purple, one of the pioneering bands of hard rock. After leaving Deep Purple in 1975, Blackmore formed the band Rainbow ...
said the agreement was always for Purple to go on stage at dusk, and that the promoters were violating that signed agreement. In spite of this delay, the show did not end up running late.[
] At the end of Purple's set, Blackmore threw a guitar and a small speaker monitor into the audience, and suddenly attacked one of the network's video camera
A video camera is an optical instrument that captures videos, as opposed to a movie camera, which records images on film. Video cameras were initially developed for the television industry but have since become widely used for a variety of other ...
s (the camera had been getting between the guitarist and the audience) with a guitar. Later on, a mishap with a pyrotechnic effect caused one of Blackmore's amplifiers to explode, which briefly set the stage on fire. Purple left the concert area by helicopter
A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which Lift (force), lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning Helicopter rotor, rotors. This allows the helicopter to VTOL, take off and land vertically, to hover (helicopter), hover, and ...
to avoid a possible confrontation with Ontario fire marshals and ABC-TV executives. The damage to the ABC video camera, estimated to be $10,000, was settled by the band's managers.
The weather on the day of the Cal Jam concert was unusually warm for April. At one point in the late afternoon, thousands of plastic gallon jugs were handed out to the audience, who were able to fill the jugs up at the many drinking fountains set up on the grounds. During the prolonged delay waiting for Deep Purple to hit the stage, restless concert goers began tossing their water jugs in the air. More and more of the audience joined in, until the air above the crowd was filled with hundreds of water jugs flying around, spraying water over the audience.
Deep Purple's performance, along with some of the performances by other bands, was broadcast on TV and radio nationwide in the US. It was at this festival that the footage of Keith Emerson
Keith Noel Emerson (2 November 194411 March 2016) was an English keyboardist, songwriter, composer and record producer. He played keyboards in a number of bands before finding his first commercial success with the Nice in the late 1960s. He be ...
playing a grand piano
A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...
spinning end-over-end 50 feet above the ground was taken.
For the Eagles' set, Jackson Browne
Clyde Jackson Browne (born October 9, 1948) is an American rock musician, singer, songwriter, and political activist who has sold over 30 million albums in the United States.
Emerging as a teenage songwriter in mid-1960s Los Angeles, he had his ...
was deputized for absent guitarist Don Felder, whose wife was giving birth to their first child.
''Circus
A circus is a company of performers who put on diverse entertainment shows that may include clowns, acrobats, trained animals, trapeze acts, musicians, dancers, hoopers, tightrope walkers, jugglers, magicians, ventriloquists, and unicy ...
'' reported that Emerson, Lake & Palmer were "angry with the Deep Purple boys, who refused to come onstage until darkness fell. ELP subsequently couldn't begin their set until after one a.m."
Attendance and technology
The concert set a record for the largest paid attendance at such an event. (Although more people attended the festival at Woodstock in New York, only a few thousand had purchased tickets.) ''Circus
A circus is a company of performers who put on diverse entertainment shows that may include clowns, acrobats, trained animals, trapeze acts, musicians, dancers, hoopers, tightrope walkers, jugglers, magicians, ventriloquists, and unicy ...
'' reported that there were "more than 175,000 paid admissions" and that "the price was $10 in advance or $15 at the gate".
Another record established at California Jam was for the largest (most powerful) concert sound system ever assembled. This arose from the demands of Deep Purple, who were identified as the " loudest band in the world" by the ''Guinness Book of World Records
''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a British reference book published annually, listi ...
''. Tycobrahe Sound Company combined the touring systems of Purple, Black Oak Arkansas, Black Sabbath, Earth Wind and Fire, and Rare Earth (each manufactured by Tycobrahe), plus bass horns from Phoenix Sound and a complete array of folded bass horns from Flag Systems. Total power was 54,000 watts RMS, provided by a number of BFA-2000 amplifiers, manufactured by Tycobrahe. ''Circus
A circus is a company of performers who put on diverse entertainment shows that may include clowns, acrobats, trained animals, trapeze acts, musicians, dancers, hoopers, tightrope walkers, jugglers, magicians, ventriloquists, and unicy ...
'' commented on "two 50 feet high speaker towers" that transmitted Black Oak Arkansas singer Jim Dandy's "hot and nasty growl to swarms of people spread clear across the speedway".
The Goodyear blimp
The Goodyear Blimp is any one of a fleet of commercial airships (or dirigibles) operated by the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company, used mainly for advertising and capturing aerial views of live sporting events for television. The term blimp itse ...
hovering overhead was a first for a music festival. Deep Purple arrived in their own chartered jet, the ''Starship'', with the band's name painted on the sides. This was the first time a major band arrived specifically for a music festival in their own aircraft.
Another first was the setting of the stage sets for each band on rails, allowing rapid changeover to the next band, thus eliminating delays and allowing the rock festival to run on time; in fact, ahead of time.
Emerson, Lake and Palmer's touring sound system was set up about half a mile from the stage and timed with a tape delay to coincide with the sound from the stage.
Broadcast, telecast and record releases
Unlike other rock festivals such as Woodstock
The Woodstock Music and Art Fair, commonly referred to as Woodstock, was a music festival held from August 15 to 18, 1969, on Max Yasgur's dairy farm in Bethel, New York, southwest of the town of Woodstock, New York, Woodstock. Billed as "a ...
, the concert was not planned for release as a film or sound recording
Sound recording and reproduction is the electrical, Mechanical system, mechanical, electronic, or digital inscription and re-creation of sound waves, such as spoken voice, singing, instrumental music, or sound effects. The two main classes of ...
. However, the ABC television network (which was also a sponsor of the concert) broadcast several portions of the show as part of its '' In Concert'' series several months later. The audio portion of the show was also broadcast in stereo on FM radio
FM broadcasting is a method of radio broadcasting that uses frequency modulation (FM) of the radio broadcast carrier wave. Invented in 1933 by American engineer Edwin Armstrong, wide-band FM is used worldwide to transmit high fidelity, high-f ...
stations, an early example of simulcast
Simulcast (a portmanteau of "simultaneous broadcast") is the broadcasting of programs or events across more than one resolution, bitrate or medium, or more than one service on the same medium, at exactly the same time (that is, simultaneously) ...
ing. KLOS FM (then owned and operated by ABC) promoted and broadcast the concert around Los Angeles.
Deep Purple
Deep Purple are an English rock band formed in London in 1968. They are considered to be among the pioneers of heavy metal music, heavy metal and modern hard rock, although their musical style has varied throughout their career. Originally for ...
's California Jam performance was the first full-length music concert recording to be released and sold on video tape in the early 1980s.
Several performances from the show were eventually released on CD and video, both in bootleg and authorized form. One of the more notable bootleg recordings was from a fan who tried to pass off his recordings of a recording from the radio broadcast as something he created. His web site was shut down after he tried selling his unauthorized products without creative approval from the artists involved and the producers of the festival.
Authorized releases include:
* '' California Jamming'', CD of Deep Purple
Deep Purple are an English rock band formed in London in 1968. They are considered to be among the pioneers of heavy metal music, heavy metal and modern hard rock, although their musical style has varied throughout their career. Originally for ...
's performance (also released under different titles)
* '' Live in California 74'', DVD of Deep Purple's performance
* ''Beyond the Beginning'', Emerson, Lake & Palmer
Emerson, Lake & Palmer (informally known as ELP) were an English progressive rock Supergroup (music), supergroup formed in London in 1970. The band consisted of Keith Emerson (keyboards) of The Nice, Greg Lake (vocals, bass, guitars, producer) ...
DVD including 44 minutes of their California Jam performance
Cultural impact
A sequel concert, California Jam II, was held March 18, 1978.
Book
A special limited edition photo book of 1,000 copies (some with band autographs and purple vinyl) was compiled by Simon Robinson and released as ''Deep Purple at The California Jam'' and published by Rufus Stone Limited Editions in 2013.
See also
*List of historic rock festivals
A rock festival is an open-air rock concert featuring many different performers, typically spread over two or three days and having a campsite and other amenities and forms of entertainment provided at the venue. Some festivals are singular eve ...
* List of jam band music festivals
References
Bibliography
*
External links
The Official califorinajamfanclub.
*
{{Rock festivals
Concerts in the United States
Folk festivals in the United States
Rock festivals in the United States
1974 in California
Music festivals established in 1974
Jam band festivals
Ontario, California
April 1974 in the United States