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Thanks to my co-worker Jill Jensen-Matelski, I saw this cool Summerfest 1970 poster that you can see above. She found it on the Facebook group "You know you are from Milwaukee WI if you remember..."
My eyes immediately went to "Roland Kirk" and I was blown away. Then I saw Sly and the Family Stone, James Brown, Sarah Vaughan and so many other amazing acts.
And teen idol Bobby Sherman. On the same grounds as Roland Kirk? I can only imagine how a meeting between the two of them would've gone.
I also noticed "Sidewalker Skippers," who I wrote about here.
But the real story comes from Gary Christensen, bassist and director of the All-Star Super Band, who, incidentally, celebrates his birthday today. Back then, Christensen was a member of Yesterday's Children.
"As the opening act for Sly Stone, Yesterday's Children began a tight, rehearsed 30-minute tribute to James Brown," Gary posted on Facebook. "Ninety minutes later we were still on stage covering for Sly, who refused to come out. The security fence was gone and the audience had their elbows on the stage. The band eventually stopped performing and ran into our bus parked next to the stage. At one point, Sly walked out on stage, promptly received a shock from the microphone – on the lips – exited and again refused to perform. The booker came on our band bus and begged for weed.
"He said Sly refused to perform unless more weed was provided. We all said we had none. Then one of our guys provided a couple of hand-rolled j's. I left when the beer tents were being invaded by the crowd. I thought it was 230,000 people, but the MPD estimated 190,000. Lots of angry people. Scary night. Summerfest does not talk about this night."
A few years later, in 1973, angry crowds trashed the grounds when Humble Pie played, leading Joel McNally to later quip (and I paraphrase), "it was the most frenzied response in rock history to a band containing Peter Frampton" (though it's worth mentioning, Frampton had left the band by then).
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
