Archival Buffalo News feature articles

  Rochester ’s maverick music merchant makes a move on Buffalo .   Sept. 21, 1974   Prison Rock Opera – Step to Freedom   “YOU WANT GET TO THE PEOPLE , you oughta try a billboard,” Armand Schaubroeck proposes.           Billboards work for Schaubroeck. His first ones in Rochester in the mid ‘60s got him pictures in papers from here to Seattle . It was an answer to the “Beautify America – Get a Haircut” signs. It said: “Grow It Long.”           “Today it sounds corny,” he says, “but then it was a big thing. I got a lotta radio things, debate things. The store made it on the publicity. My customers were the freak type and they dug it.”           Presently he has 25 billboards in and around Buffalo . “The Warden’s Circus now in town,” they proclaim next to a picture of Schaubroeck peering from behind the wire mesh of a prison cell. * * * “THIS MUST BE a pretty big town,” he estimates. “I wanted 25 percent exposure, so 25 percent of the people would see it and it took 25

  Many musicians come up through the Buffalo scene, then go and seek their fortunes elsewhere. Here’s one who did it right here at home.   Sept. 7, 1974   John Brady Communicates With Songs             You’d figure him for a craftsman. With that set of coveralls pulled over his broad frame, he looks like a carpenter or maybe a bricklayer, a guy who builds all day and washes it down with a couple beers.           In some ways John Brady’s craft is tougher. It doesn’t always leave him with a sense of accomplishment that a fresh wall or cabinet does. And it doesn’t always give him the money for a couple beers.           “I try to write somethin’ every day,” he says. “Last week I came up with three songs and all of ‘em I’m doin’. But the week before that – nothin’. I’ve probably got pieces of 600 songs stuck away upstairs. * * * “I REALLY get into lyrics, you know. I want to tell people things with music. I don’t think I’m breaking any ground as far as how to save the world

From a personal perspective, I figured this last Rich Stadium concert of 1974 would be my least favorite of the four – unlike the other shows, I wasn’t a big fan of any of the bands – but it ultimately  proved to be a pleasant surprise.   Aug. 25, 1974   The Doobies Do It In Summerfest Finale             The fourth and final rock show in the Summerfest ’74 series at Rich Stadium opened nervously and closed on a musical high.           The Doobie Brothers were the ones who took it there, lifting the entire crowd of about 34,000 up onto their dancing feet while the stage exploded with smoke, confetti and fireworks.           The most ecstatic moment of all the Summerfest concerts came with the Doobies’ return after an 85-minute set – longest of the night – for the first of two encores, their three guitars bursting rhythmically into their 1973 hit, “China Grove.”           It was enough to erase those thoughts that made the evening edgy at first – the fear of wholesale drug

  The high point in the four Summerfest shows at Rich Stadium in 1974:   Aug. 11, 1974   Summerfest Takes Huge Throng On a Magical Tour of the Past   It was somewhere near the second hour of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young’s 2½ hour set in Rich Stadium Sunday that the rationale of the day became clear, all laid open in the chorus of the five-year-old “Déjà Vu:” We have all been here before. An opportunity to relive the past was what drew the crowd of 60,000-plus to the third Summerfest ’74 concert in the first place. And whenever the past showed its face, it was welcomed enthusiastically. The memories of CSN&Y, reunited for this tour after a four-year split, were particularly sunny and comfortable. Ideals of love and happiness sketched out in sweet high harmonies, ideals from 1969 and 1970. * * * AND SO IT was that the brightly aware tunes of that period – “Our House,” “Helpless,” “ Ohio ,” “Teach Your Children,” “Carry One” – overshadowed the numerous selections

  The second Summerfest show in Rich Stadium in 1974 was a triumph, technically and musically.   July 26, 1974   ELP’s Gargantuan Gadgetry Tests Audience’s Endurance             “We couldn’t possibly tour with any more equipment,” the man from Emerson, Lake & Palmer’s management company was saying. “We’ve got four tractor-trailers. This is it. We’re at the limit.”           So it came to pass that Rich Stadium was decked out in 36 tons of assorted ELP electronics Friday night for the second of four concerts in Festival East’s Summerfest series.           “Welcome once again to the show that never ends” was the theme for this megawatt extravaganza. ELP’s intention, however, is summed up in another line further along in the same song: “It’ll blow your head apart.” * * * THE QUADRAPHONIC sound system took care of that. Its clarity and purity were an audio fanatic’s dream – all Rich Stadium concerts should be quad – and its sheer power was enough to rock you out of you

  This was the summer that rock ‘n roll came to the brand new Buffalo Bills stadium in Orchard Park . There was a lot of official nervousness about this kickoff event.   July 6, 1974   Hassle-Free Clapton Concert Scores a Pleasant Success             Rich Stadium got its baptism in rock ‘n roll Saturday evening and it all went off so well that the home of the Buffalo Bills football team should be bouncing to the big beat for many summer nights to come.           It was a star-studded event – stars above and stars on the stage. The Band, honed to near perfection as a live act, cranked out a happy, raucous set. And guitar idol Eric Clapton, who announced that he was drunk (indeed, he was very drunk), took a laid-back set that left many of his worshippers perplexed.           But the real heroes of this show – the first of four in the Summerfest ’74 series at the stadium – were promoter Jerry Nathan and his Festival East organization. * * * THEY TURNED the near-impossib

  A group that’s now legendary among free jazz cognoscenti.   Aug. 24, 1974 Birthright – Aiming for Jazz Frontiers   “YOU HAVEN’T READ our brochure?” Paul Gresham is saying. “I think you’d better read it first. It’ll answer a lot of your questions.”           He’s right. This is no ordinary star-struck organization casting about for an updraft in the music biz firmament. Birthright is a way of life. To grasp it, you’d best dig a little on the philosophy.           “The spirit of Coltrane,” the brochure announces. “The moods of Miles. The soul of Herbie Hancock. The climate of Weather Report.           “The group’s underlying objective,” it continues, “which is to explore the ‘truth in art’ that is missing in much of today’s music, has subsequently led to adding the music of many outstanding contemporary composers … to the Birthright repertoire.           “E.g., Wayne Shorter, Miles Davis, Joe Henderson, McCoy Tyner, Herbie Hancock, Freddie Hubbard, Sam Rivers and John Co