BG-82 The Byrds 1967 Fillmore Auditorium Concert Poster Graded 9.8. ...

Description

BG-82 The Byrds 1967 Fillmore Auditorium Concert Poster Graded 9.8. First-printing San Francisco concert poster for The Byrds, the Loading Zone and the LDM Spiritual Band playing at the Fillmore Auditorium on Thursday thru Saturday nights, September 7-9, 1967. Handsomely designed by Jim Blashfield and known as BG-82 in the Bill Graham numbered series, this poster was graded a high-flying 9.8 Near Mint/Mint by CGC (the Certified Guaranty Company).

Roger McGuinn, David Crosby & company sure had a good year in 1967. They started the year off with a couple of Top 30 hits, "So You Want to Be a Rock 'n' Roll Star" and "My Back Pages." They would chart three more singles in Billboard before the year was out. In addition, they released Younger Than Yesterday in March and Columbia Records released The Byrds' Greatest Hits in August, which was a big seller for them.

The Loading Zone were a five-member Berkeley rock band together from 1966-1971. Guitarists Peter Shapiro and Steve Dowler had been a member of The Marbles, also from the East Bay, whose name had appeared on the very first psychedelic concert poster in S.F. history... the Family Dog's Tribute to Dr. Strange dance-concert at Longshoreman's Hall in October 1965.

The first major Loading Zone gig had been at the Trips Festival in January 1966, also at Longshoreman's Hall. They then became a fixture on S.F. concert posters by opening shows for the Grateful Dead, Big Brother & the Holding Company, Cream, Howlin' Wolf, the Byrds and even The Who. They had started off as an R&B outfit before leaning into psychedelia, so they were also happy to open for Sam & Dave on one occasion.

The Loading Zone released one self-titled album on RCA Records in 1968, featuring covers like the Miracles' "Shop Around" and Billie Holiday's "God Bless the Child," plus four originals. But the album failed to find any success.

The third-billed act, the LDM Spiritual Band, was a group of five musicians from Calcutta, India that at this moment were managed by the powerful Albert Grossman (Bob Dylan, Janis Joplin, Peter, Paul & Mary). Grossman even had them signed to Elektra Records, home of The Doors. This was all in the upsurge Indian music was enjoying among western rock musicians, including George Harrison's frequent use of the sitar, especially on "Within You, Without You" from that summer's Sgt. Pepper album. So the five-member group of Bengalese performers did a brief tour of America, including opening up for the Paul Butterfield Blues Band at Town Hall in New York.

But wait, it gets better. Attached to Albert and his wife Sally Grossman, after their short tour the band of baul musicians moved in with the Grossmans in Bearsville, New York near Woodstock. They ended up hanging out a bit with Bob Dylan and members of The Band during no less than the Basement Tapes year. In his book This Wheel's on Fire, drummer Levon Helm wrote, "They were real gypsies and real players, happy to get high and sing all night. We invited 'em to Big Pink one night... they wanted to jam, Garth [Hudson] wanted to record, and Rick [Danko] and I were maybe gonna sit in."

And you say you've never heard of the LDM Spiritual Band? That's OK, that moniker was very short-lived and dreamed up just to fit into San Francisco's hippie ethos of the day. Notice artist Blashfield even felt compelled to explain them on his poster, "A group of Indian musicians." For the record, it stood for the Loka Dharma Marashram Spiritual Band. You'll be quizzed on this later.

Measures 14 1/8" x 21". From the David Swartz Concert Poster Collection. COA from Heritage Auctions.

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