Saturday, December 31, 2022

JGB at the Auditorium Music Hall, Memphis, TN, November 18, 1975 (CXL)

Here's an ad from the Memphis Commercial Appeal billing Jerry Garcia Band (JGB) at the Auditorium Music Hall in Memphis, TN, November 18, 1975.

Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN), November 2, 1975, p. 5

The show must have been canceled, because I have never seen other record of this *and* the Garcia Band played the Keystone Berkeley this night.

I have a question about the venue, for which no address is given.

For his only Memphis gig outside the Dead on March 28, 1976, Garcia played what we list as South Hall, Ellis Auditorium, Memphis, TN. (see also JGBP). Is this the same room? I think so, as we give capacity for that space at 2,200 and the ad says 2,000 tickets available.

Would just love to hear any thoughts. In the meantime, I think I am going to list this with the same venue.

4 comments:

  1. Yes. The same building. The convention center had opened in 1974. It was attached by a concourse to the freshly remodeled "The Auditorium". It was demolished in 1999.


    The opening
    https://www.newspapers.com/clip/115521800/convention-center/

    Here is the cancellation notice.
    https://www.newspapers.com/clip/115518801/jgb-cancelled/

    Here is the 1976 review
    https://www.newspapers.com/clip/115519861/jgb/

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  2. Nice work finding this. What a pain to return all the mail order tickets. I would like to visit Pop-I's for sure. The ad ran NOV 2 so the must have cancelled last minute?

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  3. My mind noted Garcia being hospitalized for an infection, yet played a gig that night? Where's the truth that lies in the middle there? Did he get a bad cold or something in late 75? Did he heroically escape the confines of a hospital bed to throw on a last minute gig?

    In Greenfield's Oral Biography MG talked about how resilient Jerry was and how he would always bounce back from these bad colds and flus they seemed to especially get around NYE runs. It seems like something would get him every year, of all the band members he's the one most noted or written about for having laryngitis or some illness. I don't think he ever played with "the" sickness so to speak but it seems like he didn't have the best immune system. Not surprising I guess, heavy smoker constantly traveling and eating a road diet at best, and to put it gently his nasal cavities probably never got much time to recover. I wonder how much has been written about the hells of having a job where you can't call in sick? I suppose Waters covered that in Comfortably Numb.

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