Bill Graham And The Rock & Roll Revolution At The Skirball

Bill Graham And The Rock & Roll Revolution show opens today at The Skirball Center. If you are a lover of the rock and roll, you want to check this one out for sure.

We heard a little speech from the Skirball people, who introduced Graham's sons, David and Alex, as well as Graham biographer, Robert Greenfield, and Bonnie Simmons, who runs the Bill Graham Memorial Foundation.

It was excellent to have these Graham insiders there to peruse the exhibit with, as any time you had a question, they were all right there with the real story. There is also an app that you can tour the exhibit with, with all these wonderful rock stories told in Graham's own voice. As Greenfield said at the start of the tour, "Bill's voice is on the wall."

Graham was a survivor of the Holocaust, and was an social justice activist all his life, which is one of the reasons this show is opening at The Skirball Cultural Center (before traveling on to San Francisco, Chicago, New York ...).The first thing you are greeted by at the start of the exhibit is a barrel of apples like Graham always had at the Fillmore, with a sign to "Take one, or two". "White Rabbit" was playing - perfectly - when we strolled in, instantly transporting us back to the days of peace, love, and total upheaval.

Graham left Nazi Germany on a kindertransport train to France - where he and his friend would steal apples in order to survive (and maybe why he always had those apples at The Fillmore). Those children were then shipped to New York, where they awaited adoption. Graham was the last child chosen, which may have added to his empathy for others, and also to his grit and determination to get things done. Graham himself was never musical, but soon began a lifelong love affair with the American genre of rock and roll.

Graham never liked his original name (Wulf Wolodia Grajonca), as it was so hard for Americans to pronounce, so he chose "Bill Graham" from a Bronx phone book ... and never liked that either. Young Graham always wanted to act, so he found himself joining a mime troupe in San Francisco. In 1965, the head of the mimes was arrested, and Graham decided to set up an "Appeal Party" starring Jefferson Airplane to raise funds and awareness for getting the guy out. This would be the start of Graham's legendary concert promotion career - and also the start of all the great concert posters he was behind.

The exhibit is divided up into decades, 60's, 70's, 80's ... with the treasures on display from each era. The 60's are all about The Doors, Jefferson Airplane, Janis Joplin, Bob Dylan, The Band ... it's just awesome. To see all the original posters of those legendary shows ... Man.

The guitars on display from Graham produced shows were just sacred. A guy near me was so overcome by Jerry Garcia's Doug Irwin Wolf guitar he kept saying how he felt lightheaded and had the chills. Rock and roll can do that to you.

I felt almost the same when I saw one of Janis Joplin's show outfits on display ... and I was dressed pretty much the same, sans the boa.

There is a piece of Jimi Hendrix's guitar, which is probably all that was left after he destroyed them with his genius.

The Fillmore East and West were Graham's concert venues on both coasts, in New York and San Francisco. He maintained them both, flying back and forth every week, until 1971. With all the epically huge shows Graham put on, he would always say the best one he ever saw was Otis Redding. Hence, Graham was one of the first - if not THE first - to put both black and white artists together on the same bill. His goal was to have audiences that were 50/50 as well, and was a real pioneer in that area. Graham again pushing the social justice envelope.

A highlight of the Fillmore East shows was always the Joshua Light Show, a trippy liquid light show that would transport revelers into a psychedelic space. They have recreated a Joshua Light Show in a room of the exhibit, and it was funny to hear an older woman comment, "It's not really the same, is it?" to her friend. I bet.

A trip through the 70's was up next, through the good times and the bad. The next venue Graham opened up was The Winterland Ballroom, again in San Francisco, and again the place to be for the very best rock shows.

The 70's were also all about The Rolling Stones for Graham, as he managed their tours. There was a cool display of all the Stones concert tickets Graham was responsible for ...

...As well as a huge photo of a massive crowd at a Stones show, along with the shorts and hat Graham would wear, and the broken heeled boots worn by Keith Richards.

They had the suit Peter Frampton wore on his Frampton Comes Alive album cover, and was also worn in a show he did for Graham. It looks so crazy dated now, but at the time could not have been more fresh.

Graham saw a great deal of need in the San Francisco Public Schools, so did a massive concert for  his organization, SF SNACKS (Students Need Athletics, Culture & Kicks!), raising over $600,00 with everyone from Bob Dylan to The Grateful Dead playing for the kids. That was the kind of draw Graham had, and the kind of social awareness he raised.


This was also the time of Days On The Green - one day outdoor festivals at the Oakland Coliseum, featuring acts like Led Zeppelin, The Eagles, Fleetwood Mac, The Who, The Grateful Dead ... all on one bill! Wow. Those were the DAYS.

The 80's saw Graham keeping up with the times, and in fact, helping to create them. He produced the Live Aid show, that was broadcast to more than a billion people. This was the genesis of the huge modern day benefit show as we all know them.

He grew with the artists, and actively booked all the latest acts, while staying true to the people that got him where he was. Soon his shows featured the likes of Madonna and Prince, as by now, Graham had created such a name for himself that everyone wanted to play his shows.



Graham was celebrated also for the killer New Year's Eve shows he would throw, always with the best bands, and always with an elaborate costume for Graham. One year he flew into the party on the back of a big Grateful Dead butterfly ...

Another year found Graham lording over the festivities as Father Time. You can tell as you walk around these wonderfully curated memories of the man's life, that he'd be a really good time to hang out with ... and a really good friend.

Graham was also righteous in his beliefs about the world and social justice. He wrote an open letter criticizing Ronald Reagan for visiting Berlin at the time. A few days later, a molotov cocktail was thrown into Graham's offices, destroying much of his priceless memorabilia. You can see his melted telephone on display, as well as a blackened, destroyed menorah Graham had in his offices. Extremism is still sad, and still doesn't do any good, yet still goes on. Sigh ...

The concerts never ended for Bill Graham, as he was out producing them under the "Bill Graham Presents" banner until his last breath. On October 25, 1991, Graham caught a chopper ride back from a Huey Lewis concert to save time. There was bad weather, and they hit an electrical tower, killing them instantly. I listened to this story, and got kind of choked up watching Graham's sons, David and Alex, listening too, knowing that this was the moment that they lost their father. Graham was 60 years old, stopped short, with a lot of shows yet to envision.

The outpouring of love at the Memorial for Bill Graham was overwhelming. Over 300,000 people attended the "Laughter, Love and Music" show that featured all of Graham's friends and colleagues like The Grateful Dead, Carlos Santana, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young ... all there to celebrate the man who loved music. A story was told about how Graham taught the words to a Yiddish song called "I Love You Much Too Much" to Santana, who then played it at the Memorial. It was extra touching. As the sign at the end of the exhibit says, "It was the first time in history that so many people had turned out for a man who played no instrument, could not really sing, and had not written a word to any song. At long last, the crowd had finally come for Bill."

I foresee a crowd continuing to come for Bill, as this show should be visited in droves by music lovers from around the world throughout its run at The Skirball until October 11, 2015.

The Skirball Cultural Center
2701 North Sepulveda Boulevard
310.440.4500
Skirball.org

*Special mention must also be made about the great installation also up at The Skirball now ... The Singing Posters: Poetry Sound Collage Sculpture Book - Allen Ginsberg's Howl by Allen Ruppersberg. It's the entire Howl poem printed phonetically on posters, mixed in with pop culture posters, and meant to be read aloud. It is awesome, and should not be missed.

**Photos courtesy of the Skirball Center (pro) and Me (phone).

Big Shots - The Work Of Guy Webster

After being extra impressed with his work at his In Heroes We Trust book party, I wanted to know more about the story of Guy Webster, Venice's own famous rock photographer. I found out that he worked just a couple blocks away, so a meeting was set up and we got to have a nice, neighborly chat.

Webster was born and raised in Los Angeles, in a privileged upbringing. His father was Paul Francis Webster, Oscar winning songwriter of such gems as "Love Is A Many Splendored Thing" and "The Shadow Of Your Smile", and his mother was his editor. Because his dad was so well known, the house was always full of interesting people, like his dad's best friend, Duke Ellington. A house full of music and opportunity led Guy Webster to lead a similar life once out on his own.

While studying at UCLA (with Jim Morrison), Webster decided to join an exchange student program abroad in Copenhagen, mainly to see what else there was besides Beverly Hills. Webster learned his true love for art while in Denmark, where he was exposed to - and met - greats like Chagall that made him think, "What a great world!" That solidified his path, though he knew not yet what it would be.

Returning to California during the Vietnam War meant that Webster had to do a stint in the Army. Family friends pulled some strings and as Webster was a Quaker/Conscientious Objector, he got cushy jobs like decorating Christmas trees. Then someone asked him if he could take pictures. He said/lied he could, ran to the library, read about it, and was mixing chemicals for photo development the next day. He only took 36 photos over the three months of the project, as he would wait for just the right shot, developing both his eye and his patience. He showed the photos to the faculty at The Art Center, and they told him he had to attend their grad school - not the Yale that Webster's father had hoped for. Dad went nuts as he saw the seat on the Exchange fall away, and his hippie son bucking the system.

Undeterred, Webster knew only that he wanted to work with people, like a Penn or an Avedon, and that if he could live and sell his work out of a studio in Big Sur, that would be it. He'd be happy with that. But then he got so much more ...

Playing basketball one day with his friend and music executive, Lou Adler, Webster showed him some of his photos. Adler immediately invited him to come and be the Art Director for his music company, Dunhill Records. Webster quit school, and that was that. He shot iconic albums and Sunset Boulevard billboards for The Mama's And The Papa's, word soon got out that he was the guy, and Webster was off to the races, shooting hundreds of album covers, at a time when this was still a real art.

Hollywood soon called, and they wanted Webster to shoot their luminaries too. Then came friendships with Hopper and Nicholson, and all the trappings that went along with that. Webster realized the impact his work had, and became a bit of a workaholic, sometimes fitting in three different shoots in a day.

With so many legendary photographs to choose from, it took Webster and his team two years to compile the recent collection of his work, Big Shots: The Photographs Of Guy Webster. This book contains all those great Webster images of icons in both the music and film worlds. It is something to behold.

Having completed that massive project, Webster just keeps working. Though he says, "I'm 75. All I want to do is ride motorcycles and be with my friends," it's hard to believe him, The volume of his current work surrounds him everywhere at his Venice studio.

His latest project is a big one, 50 women and 50 men, all of whom Webster considers very interesting, and very talented. "I'm attracted to talent. This is talent. I don't care if it's a tap dancer or Picasso, or young artists that haven't made it yet. I love that." He says great things like, "Capitalism is a Ponzi Scheme," and money seems not to be something that means anything to him (which may be because he has plenty of it). This gives him the freedom to pursue work that means something to him, or he's just not gonna do it.

The series portrays artists in their working environment, and ranges from his studio assistant, Lisa Gizara (a painter) to Michael Gittes (also a painter) to his own daughter, Jessie Webster, who is also a photographer, with a great blog, Sweet Thing. It promises to be a great show once it's completed, replete with men and woman, certainly interesting, and definitely talented.

All of this worldly chatting begged the question of how did Webster come to create his studio in Venice? Back in the day, the Boardwalk was basically a Jewish retirement community, and Webster's dad would bring him down to visit a family friend when he was little. He loved it. He thought it was beautiful. When he returned from studying abroad, he came back artsy and a hippie. Venice was perfect. He and some like-minded friends created a magazine called Wet, of and about Venice, featuring great shots like the one below. Good times, those 70's in Venice must have been!

Webster has created here ever since. He has homes all over the place (and a famous motorcycle museum in Ojai!), but when he's working late, he stays in his Venice studio, which he and his sister, Mona, have owned for decades. We talked about Venice ... the good and the bad. The good is that now there are great restaurants, great coffee shops, most crack houses are gone (to be big cracker boxes so that goes in the bad column too), there are no more gang wars really, and the dog park is no longer a "needle park." The bad part that comes with that stuff is that "Venice is losing its soul ... or it's misplaced." Whenever I have conversations like this, with people like this, I always emerge feeling like that soul can still be easily found.

"The Artists's community means everything to me ... the musicians, the poets, the sculptors, the artists, all of them ... we can't let them get pushed out. Hipsters can grow a beard and wear tight pants and a fedora, but what else can they do?" Yeah.

Guy Webster reflects that interest and talent that so fascinates him, in his work and in his persona. He can spin tales for hours, and you won't even have scratched the surface. And they're all good ones, believe me.

Webster's next show of rock photography is this coming Saturday (February 28) at Forest Lawn Cemetery, called Revolutions 2. Check it out. You might just get a story or two out of him.


*All photos by Webster, except the ones OF Webster, by Gizaraarts.com

Happy 70th Birthday, Bob Marley! The Photographs Of Dennis Morris

There was really no better way to celebrate the 70th birthday of Bob Marley than to attend the opening of the "Revolutionary Dreams" exhibit of Dennis Morris's famous and definitive photographs of the reggae legend.

The Known Gallery on Fairfax was packed with fans and collectors of Marley, and the vibrations were definitely that of One Love.

That was helped greatly by the Marley and friends tunes being spun by my old friend, Native Wayne Jobson, natty in his gold headphones.

The photographs are all classic, and all so beautifully capture the spirit of Bob Marley, both the man and the musician.

They were all works by Morris, except for the great big one by Shephard Fairey, done in his trademark style.

It was hard to choose a favorite, as each photograph was greater than the next, but I think my heart might belong to Soul Rebel 3 ... it's just such pure happiness.

Each image was meant to portray one of Marley's iconic songs, and the labels were as true and heavy as the photographs. Words matter.

It was great to see so many people come out on a jam-packed Grammy weekend Friday night to celebrate the life and work of someone who's music and messages only intensify in meaning as each year passes.

"Revolutionary Dreams" will be on display at the Known Gallery through February 22, 2015.

Known Gallery
441 North Fairfax Ave.
LA, CA 90036
310-860-6263
www.knowngallery.com

Big Shots In Venice - A Celebration Of Guy Webster

There was another fun party at In Heroes We Trust last night, this time to celebrate the work of renowned rock photographer, Guy Webster. The man who has recorded so many of the legends and icons of the rock and film worlds was there to sign his new book, Big Shots: Rock Legends And Hollywood Icons, and to be congratulated on his decades of capturing that rich history.

It was a packed house, with revelers spilling out on to the sidewalk, clinking a beer, and toasting our still relatively new year.

Gracious hostess, Neely Shearer, has added a whole lot of good stuff since I'd last visited IHWT, so there was plenty to look at while you waited to have your gorgeous book signed by Mr. Webster.

It was great to see friends old and new, and you could feel a kind of unanimous and palpable excitement at all there is in store for everyone this year. Lots of good stories, lots of great events upcoming, lots of laughs, and lots of style.

As more and more people crammed in the store, things got a bit more loose. At one point, I turned around to see Webster donning a pair of underwear - on his head - to the amusement of those standing around him. I didn't catch that story, but it looked like a good one. I was happy to find out that Webster is a Venice local, so I'll look forward to finding out more about him and his stories soon.

Also known as an avid motorcycle enthusiast, it was perfect that a big posse of Venice Vintage Motorcycle Club members rolled up in a storm of noise, and parked out front to come inside and pay their respects to a fellow biker rock and roller. It was great.

I turned around as I left to head to the next thing, and had to smile at the scene outside In Heroes We Trust ... Street art, motorcycles, hula hoops, folks waving down friends passing by to join in ... and thought how lucky we all are here. Where we all feel like Big Shots, just to be here.