Bill Graham (promoter)

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Bill Graham (promoter) : biography

January 8, 1931 – October 25, 1991

One of the early concerts Graham sponsored(with Chet Helms hired to promote) featured the Paul Butterfield Blues Band. The concert was an overwhelming success and Graham saw an opportunity with the band. Early the next morning, Graham’s secretary called the band’s manager, Albert Grossman, and obtained exclusive rights to promote them. Shortly thereafter, Chet Helms arrived at Graham’s office, asking how Graham could have cut him out of the deal. Graham pointed out that Helms would not have known about it unless he had tried to do the same thing to Graham and advised him to "get up early" in the future. Later after several years of promotion Bill gave V.P. Michael Ludwig his own Concert Hall,The Family Dog. Booked and operated by Michael with his father Michael(quasi-manager of the Grateful Dead at the Family Dog Presents,Monterey Pop Festival and Altamont Concerts)the Concert Hall was located between Balboa and Fulton on La Playa below the Cliffhouse Restaurant. Michael wanted to call it Dog,but his father thought Family Dog sounded better with Bill Graham agreeing,stating "that we were all family" thus Family Dog Presents was born in 1965,which was to have many successful shows at various venues before Bill located and opened the Family Dog Concert Hall next to the Great Hwy. Later Chet Helms was hired against both Michael’s wish’s to promote at the Family Dog Concert Hall, but rarely showed up and was released later when the concert hall closed, which more or less ended Chets music career/promotion days(especially after legal problems from Bill over the Family Dog provenance). Michael took over again and booked/promoted Bills concerts at the Fillmore, Winterland and Family Dog Presents shows with his previous use of the grassroots movement through Bills free Rag newspaper placing popular psychedelic posters inside to promote each upcoming concert. Passing them out by hand, he hitchhiked throughout Berkeley and S.F.(although many despised Bill editorials most would take it for the poster)doing away with costly radio and newspaper promotions that had previously been used. Michael’s formula for a successful concert was simple: that the band should play their hits or hit first, then the rest of the songs sounded better. Many fans complaining they had to suffer through all the bad songs till they finally played the one or two hits they had been waiting for. This formula was very popular with the audience and was strongly encouraged backstage at all of Bill’s shows by his V.P. personally,part of his legacy in the industry that later promoters have yet to equal. Strangely,Bill rarely showed up to any of his Bill Graham Presents/Family Dog Presents Concerts that he sponsored during the 1960’s,even though he was often encouraged too.

A charismatic but often difficult personality, Graham produced shows attracting elements of America’s now legendary counterculture of the time such as Jefferson Airplane, Big Brother and the Holding Company, Country Joe and The Fish, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, The Committee, The Fugs, Allen Ginsberg, and, a particular favorite of Graham’s, The Grateful Dead. He was the manager of Jefferson Airplane during 1967 and 1968. His staffs amount of resourcefulness, success, popularity,and personal contacts with artists and fans alike was one reason Bill became the top concert promoter in rock music in the S.F Bay Area. Michael started when he was only 5 years old in 1965 ending in 1971,his only payment for the historic work produced was to be number one on the backstage list to every Bill Graham concert he promoted. Bill’s secretary was his only actual paid employee, which wasn’t very much. They were responsible for managing Bill’s famous venues Fillmore West,Winterland,and the Family Dog(all in San Francisco) with his stepbrother starting the Fillmore East (in New York City), where like S.F. the best and up-and-coming acts would come to play.In the early days Bill prefer’d to work on his editorial’s in the RAG(he was a journalism major in college),and left the concerts to his staff as long as they made money, which they did. Many countless benevolent volunteers and specialists must be remembered contributed to Bills early success, laying a foundation for his later work. Bill Graham also owned a record label, Fillmore Records, which was in operation from 1969 to circa 1976. Some of the artists who signed with Graham were Rod Stewart, Elvin Bishop and Cold Blood, although of these it seems only Bishop actually issued albums on the Fillmore label.