As I mentioned in my first post, the Moondog Coronation Ball on March 21, 1952 is generally accepted as the first rock n' roll concert. It was unique in that the performers were racially mixed and performed before an integrated audience. Remember, this was 1952 and most of society was segregated and would remain that way for years to come. Cleveland DJ Alan Freed promoted this show and he is credited by many to have coined the expression "rock and roll." He had no trouble filling the 10,000-seat Cleveland Arena for this show at $1.75 a ticket. Tickets sold out the day they went on sale. Freed would have a troubled career and die way too early. But in the formative years of rock, Freed was a solid promoter of the genre.
As for the show itself, it proved to be a disappointment. An additional 6,000 fans showed up hoping to get in. When they were refused admission they began pounding on the doors. At 9:30 pm, they managed to enter the Arena by overrunning police and knocking down four doors. With 16,000 crammed into the venue, the police and fire marshall called a halt to the show without the opening act finishing their set. Ah...rock n' roll.
At the beginning....right? But the fact is, I actually started somewhere in the middle when it comes to rock n' roll history. My interest in history began when I was young. I was born and raised in a small foothill town in California surrounded by Gold Rush history. My family had already lived in the area for four generations. So history is part of my DNA, I guess.
Fast forward to the mid-70s and I'm in college and reading Rolling Stone religiously and I'm collecting them. Not as collectibles, but as sources for concert dates. I started making lists of concerts and record releases for the groups that I liked. Those never-ending lists. I'm still making them.
So that's how I started. And quickly found that using the Stone was incredibly limited. So I've broadened the scope of my sources.
Microfilm....miles and miles of microfilm. That was the next resource I discovered and I've spent literally years hunched in front of readers squinting at indistinct text and blotchy photographs.
And the internet...a virtual miracle! An incredible resource but frustratingly scattered and notoriously incorrect at times.
My journey has not been without some focus. Long before computers I had compiled a pretty comprehensive list of Buffalo Springfield concert dates and I had started on a list of Poco concert dates. That has blossomed into a website devoted to Poco concert dates and associated members solo work. More on that later. I've also supplied research for other people's books and websites and have much more in the works. So let's see where this takes us.
Oh, and the beginning...most people say it was this:
As I mentioned in my first post, the Moondog Coronation Ball on March 21, 1952 is generally accepted as the first rock n' roll concert. It was unique in that the performers were racially mixed and performed before an integrated audience. Remember, this was 1952 and most of society was segregated and would remain that way for years to come. Cleveland DJ Alan Freed promoted this show and he is credited by many to have coined the expression "rock and roll." He had no trouble filling the 10,000-seat Cleveland Arena for this show at $1.75 a ticket. Tickets sold out the day they went on sale. Freed would have a troubled career and die way too early. But in the formative years of rock, Freed was a solid promoter of the genre. 
