Sources (and do I trust them)

One of the first things taught to historians is how to evaluate sources when reasearching their subject.  The same goes for those of us researching rock history.  Today I'll talk about evaluating sources in the specialized field of rock concert research. 
I generally lump sources by their type and then according to their reliability.  Here are the categories I use:

Listing -  This is usually a newspaper line item announcing a show. Usually in a entertainment section and taken from a press release. Depending on the proximity of the show date, I tend to rank this as moderately dependable. Here's an example of what I mean.

Ad - A newspaper or magazine advertisement with venue, promoter and ticket information.  Often has a promo photo of at least one of the bands.  This rate a bit higher in dependability for me since these are paid for by the promoter.  If he's spending money, there's a good chance the show happened.  Like this one:

Poster - Posters used to be a pretty dependable source for concerts but with the growth of eBay and the market for counterfeit posters, this now needs some investigation of their own validity.  I now rank these as low in terms of dependability. Like this fake poster from 1964.

Handbill - Handbills are a bit like posters in that they are more of a starting point, rather than a confirmation.  However, there isn't quite the counterfeit market for them so you don't see as many bogus ones to lead you down the wrong path. Here's one from 1965 Asbury Park Convention Hall.

Ticket stub - A bit above moderate in reliability but tickets were often printed for shows that where cancelled at the last minute.  But they are great for identifying dates in the first place.  Here's one from 1967 Hollies' show in Hawaii that was subsequently cancelled along with their entire U.S. spring tour.

Review - A show review in a newspaper or magazine is generally the confirmation I look for to ensure that a show actually took place.  But they too can be misleading.  Especially in the '60s and '70s, newspapers who did review rock concerts (and there weren't many) had a relatively early deadline for their morning editions.  So many times, the headliner got little notice since the reviewer often left before they went on to file their story.  Occassionally there was outright deception.  Poco was to play the Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto on New Years Eve, 1970 and the review contained a brief description of their set amongst six other bands.  Problem was...Poco never made it through customs into Canada and missed the show.  I might never have figured that out except that the reviewer was fired when fans called him on it.  Turns out the entire review was fiction!

Tour Itinerary - Official tour itineraries are gold for what was originally booked for shows but often do not reflect shows that were cancelled or postponed.  Wish there were more of these around but most band members just tossed them once the dates were completed.  Thankfully Poco's Road Manager Denny Jones kept copies from all the tours he did with them and noted changes on them too! 

Fan recollection - Much like law enforcement, I take eyewitness testimony with a grain of salt.  It's great additional confirmation when they give you enough details to make sure they were actually there.  But more often, dates are several years off, bands are mixed up, and other details don't mesh.  Hey, if you can remember the '60s, you weren't really there, right?

That Elusive First Show

    I think one thing that surprised me when starting out researching various bands was that being able to confidently identify the first time they performed before an audience proved to be more difficult than I expected.  Now, you would think that the first time you performed would have impressed itself on your mind if you are a musician and it does...just not the details.  And that's why I do what I do.

   So let's turn to a band that I've done several decade's worth of research on - Poco.  This is a photo from their early days when they were known as Pogo...or R.F.D....or whatever they felt like that given night if you believed latter-day interviews (which I didn't).  Check any given rock history and the Poco entry will tell you they made their debut as Pogo at the Troubadour in Los Angeles in November 1968.  More detailed interviews with the band in the early 1970s revealed that their first performance was a hoot night - meaning they weren't billed, they went on as one of a number of unknown groups.  This was clearly going to be difficult unless anyone with the group remembered the date...which they don't. Plowing through November  1968 issues of every Los Angeles newspaper also didn't provide any new information.
   In delving through some early promotional material, I came across a press release from Epic Records that quoted several newpaper concert reviews...and one was a review that my research had not uncovered.  Since I'd looked at every November issue, I expanded my search into October and sure enough, a review for a performance by R.F.D. on October 24th that included an early promotional photo of the band appeared.  The writeup noted that the band had filled in that night for a band who had cancelled.  The review also noted R.F.D. had debuted earlier at a hoot night under the name Pogo but they had since changed it.  So October 24 was not their first show.  But it did show that all the previous sources pointing to November as their debut were incorrect.
   Additional research showed that Monday nights were traditionally hoot nights at the Troubadour so the best I can do is that October 7, 14, and 21 were the Mondays and on one of those nights, the band to ultimately become known as Poco made their debut.
   
  

Consider The Source(s)

Perhaps the greatest challenge or frustation for a historian is the lack of sources or the lack of definitive sources.  This is especially true in the area of pop culture like rock n' roll.  You'd think that there would be definitive biographies, release dates for records, tour itineraries, recording sessions, and the like.
But the fact is, in most cases, there isn't because no one felt that rock music or rock musicians would be around for more than a couple years.  They were the equivilant to the vaudeville animal act.  An documentation that is still around must be taken with a grain of salt.  Many a press release contain outright falsehoods - such as the initial press release by ATCO records for Buffalo Springfield that stated that the band was so poor it rehearsed by the side of the road and that's how they spotted the Buffalo-Springfield steamroller doing road work and that's how they came up with the name.  It's amazing to see how many teen magazines quoted that press release word for word in their initial coverage of the band.
So what's left for the rock n' roll  historian is scattered documentation tucked away by a band member or road crews, newspaper articles and trade publications that tell part of the story but it's up to us to piece it together.
Next up...I'll talk about some stories of how that's been done for my research into Poco.