Indie Release [Level 4]
Has anyone seen this? Is it any good?
Chart Hit [Level 6]
Yes, I have! The documentary is just primarily interviews with people, many that worked at Trocadero. Several people involved with the Remember the Party events are included. Each person attempts to describe the magic and the reason the Trocadero experience truly left us "Wrecked For Life" - not an easy task, but they do a pretty good job. :D
Advance Promo Copy [Level 3]
I used to go to the Troc. It was magic, those were special times. I always imagined it was a bit similar to what Studio 54 must have been like. We'd sometimes dance there till the sun came up, especially on holiday weekends. Other times we'd go to Oil Can Harry's, or Buzzby's. Oooooooooooooh, the world was so much fun then!
Chart Hit [Level 6]
Hey olskinflint, I remember being at a Trocadero's holiday party from 11 pm to 11 am! I think it was a Black Party and the music was soooo good, we just couldn't go home. Plus I was young and hyperactive! :lol:
Oil Can Harry's in it's early days was a blast - great sound system and dancefloor - until Troc came along and blew it away!
*** Forum Leader / Moderator ***
You can see beautiful colour pics from the Trocadero and other venues like The Saint at:
http://www.hyperactivemedia.com/5am/
Indie Release [Level 4]
In this documentary is it only staff and clubbers interviewed or are there any with djs like bobby viteritti and such? also is there any footage or photos of the club?
Chart Hit [Level 6]
One of the club's original DJs, Gary Tighe, and a post Viteritti DJ, Craig Morey, are interviewed. I seem to recall Bobby Viteritti told me the producer of the documentary wasn't able to locate him at the time of production.
The main thing missing from "Wrecked" is footage and photos of Trocadero! Fortunately, at the Soul Recharge party, Dick Collier's (the original owner of Trocadero Transfer) niece showed us tons of photos and posters from her late Uncle's collection of Trocadero memorabilia. Maybe one day some of this stuff will be scanned and placed on a website for all to see!
Hey olskinflint, are you coming to the 4th Trocadero reunion dance on Sunday, October 9th?? It's a Black Party theme!
Indie Release [Level 4]
Were these guys anywhere near as good as Viteritti?Originally Written by keefelc
Chart Hit [Level 6]
Conor, they had different styles, but the one consistent factor is that all three were innovative and all three believed in what Robbie Leslie calls "disco drama." I think the fact that Trocadero was an after hours club allowed them the time to experiment with the crowds. Well, of course, the "vitamins" people took back then also had alot to do with it. :lol:
Of the three, I would say Bobby knew how to manipulate our moods and emotions the best.
The documentary tries to explain Viteritti's and the Troc's magic, but it's hard to describe if you weren't there to experience. That's why the Remember the Party events are so moving to many of the attendees that originally went to Troc. A way for them to share the experience in a small way with others that missed out.
I suspect the same thing is happening on the East Coast with Love Parade's Souvenirs parties.
Hey, you former Troclodytes, help me out here. What do you think?
Double Platinum Record [Level 9]
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It's gotten somewhat hazy now ... but here's how I recall it . My earliest club would have been Buzzby's. Then Oil Can Harry's and I would have sworn Oil Can's was long gone by the time The Troc came along . Maybe it was a member's club and I didn't join at the time . I liked Alf 's ( which was also The Mineshaft ?) and The I-Beam. And then there were many bars with live DJs and small dance floors and many bigger clubs that came and went .
By the way .... can anyone help me with this ..... I used to go to a club ..perhaps on Sutter St. ..up some steep stairs ...several blocks toward the Embarcadero from Polk ..but not too far ... I used to walk between it and Buzzby's all the time . If I were to guess ..I might say The Rendevous ....?? ....
As for the Troc ..it was everything you'd want a disco to be .... what a sound system ... plenty of dance floor and an interesting one too... not just a rectangle ..it had angles that sort of divided the crowd up into groups . The lighting was given as much importance as the music and one of my favorite effects was when the club would become awash in bright yellow . There was a dark , roomy upstairs with bleachers where we cooled down and looked down over the floor ..and descreetly partook in refreshments we shared ... I guess alcohol was served there... seems like there was a long bar upstairs too ..... ...but I don't really remember that ..
The clientele was terrific .... serious dancers /clubbers basically ... mostly men .... but not only, and I never hesitated to take women friends with me . In all the times I went there , I never once saw one act of violence or any fights. There probably were some .. I never saw it though . The fashion .... shirts off .... it got hot and sweaty ...
We never really went any earlier than midnight and there were those anxious times where much time passed waiting in line on the sidewalk out front . You didn't want to get there too late ...say around one or two becaiuse then you really had to wait to get in .. the club seemed to peek in numbers around two am and then after three the numbers dwindled as the earliest crowd departed .... but many many times I stayed until sunrise when the big sky light in the ceiling was pulled back and you realized a new day had begun in the outside world as its natural light flooded in .
Bobby was the consummate DJ.... he really understood momentum .... it was almost impossible to leave the floor once he got you going.
Craig .. I think really was every bit as good .... he had a tough act to follow & he was just working in a different era .... high energy dominated about then ...
I've been to many clubs like The Saint and Studio One ( which maybe is my all-time favorite club) but the Troc ... that is where the best memories prevail ...
Magic? ..... yep.
I'll have to see this documentary ...... :D
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Chart Hit [Level 6]
Remicks, Oil Can's was around for awhile but I seem to recall after Troc opened, it started catering to a more mixed and Asian crowd (and those who couldn't get into Troc). When I moved back to SF, Buzzby's and N'Touch were the popular Polk Street dance clubs. Talk about postage stamp dance floors!
As for Alfie's on Market Street, I'll alway remember the plastic snow they would sprinkle on you around the Christmas and New Year holidays. That stuff would cling to your clothes and shoes forever. I would continue to find the stuff in July! :x
Not sure which club you're talking about on Sutter Street. The clubs I remember walking up stairs to get to were the I-Beam, Sutter's Mill and, I think, the City. Maybe Marky can recall?
As for Troc, I also loved the bright yellow effect on the mirror balls with the touches of orange and red to represent sunrise. Especially effective when taking the room out of a set of the darker, druggier "spacy" music.
Weren't there two bars upstairs?? One as you walked up the stairs and behind the upstairs bleachers and then the one between the office and private party room? I didn't need to drink much alcohol to get in the party spirit in those days (if you know what I mean).
Like you, we would go with our women friends all the time. They would always dress to impress all their gay boy fans! Those in the know with their music (such as us Aloha Record employees) would never get to Troc earlier than midnight. In fact, our preference would be the music after 3 am - after all the popular **** was out of the way! We wanted to hear the new stuff we had been turned on to earlier at the store as well as Morning music. As we've talked about on this site before, that's when the Troc DJs really showed their talents!
You do need to check out the documentary! I think you'll recognize Chris, Bob and Carla from the Soul Recharge party (Bob and Carla were two of the primary people working the lights that night).
Indie Release [Level 4]
No one seems to have mentioned Billy Langenheim, is he still alive?
Chart Hit [Level 6]
I'm pretty sure he isn't. :(
However, his legacy lives on. Carla, who's works her magic on the arc lamps at the Troc reunions (and worked the arc lamps back in Troc's heyday!), told me they were given Billy's notebook filled with tips on lighting the mirror balls. Certain colors are used for certain themes in a song. If you're at one of the future Remember The Party dances, see if you can catch the patterns (an easy example: shades of red when "love" is mentioned in a song).
Double Platinum Record [Level 9]
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Keefelc .... sounds like we share some similar history !! :D
When I first arived in SF I was 20 and not yet old enough to get into the bars ( I know 'cause I tried) . But Polk St. was the place to hang out . I remember POLK being the street they closed off for Halloween ..... before switching to Castro. There was the P.S. Restaurant ( and their Mexican restaurant "CASA DE CRYSTAL" ) , a bar on each block almost ( often two ) ...and we're talking a street running some 15 blocks . Grammaphone records .
I was lucky enough to meet someone really great on Polk , a fellow studying opera, after our initial introduction ( me stopping him & asking him if he'd buy me some booze from the corner liquor store :roll: ) we went on to become friends. He's the one that initially would take me to that upstairs club I want to call "THE RENDEVOUS" .
Once I turned 21 it got better .... Buzzby's was always my ultimate destination ..but there were several places to hit along the way ...even a cowboy bar (The CINCH ?) . For some reaon, I didn't care for the 'N TOUCH ..although it's forever burned into my brain that that's where I first heard Maxine Nightingale's "RIGHT BACK WHERE WE STARTED FROM".
As for Buzzby's itself ....it just had a certain something ... that disco energy . This is where I first witnessed the floor mysteriously vacate when a certain song came on ... and a select few took over to dance what they all knew how to do .... THE BUS STOP. What a cool site ... all these fellows working the dance floor in unison...clapping their hands ... then changing direction....
I don't think there was even a cover charge. You had to wade through the bar drinking types , who remained postioned within the first half of the place ..... to get to the rear where the dance floor was wall to wall. Anyone going to the bathrooms had to cross this dancefloor! I think the DJ was not visable ..up above the dancefloor. Another particular memorable element about Buzzby's..... the kid running the drinks from the bar to the dancefloor area ... he wore roller skates.
I don't know when/how it became this disco dance club do you ?? From my experience .. .. it semed to have always been there ..... although I always felt like the front half crowd was a bunch of regulars that predated the disco conversion . They semed very uninterested.. and perhaps resented the way the place got louder and louder and they way a certain bunch of useased our way past them to get to the back ..... (They finally partitioned and quieted the back half with a glass wall ... you passed through glass doors to enter ..... making it feel like a fish bowl.... :( .......) not good ....
Here's another exciting part of doing the John Travolta walk heading up Polk Street ... on the way to Buzzby's on a busy Friday /Saturday night.... ... besides just passing everyone else out on the street .... on the same block, I believe, was some kind of a dinner club where Sylvester and the Two Tons Of Fun performed. You could not walk by without hearing them belting out their stuff from inside . Although shielded with curtains , if you stood just right, you could see them on stage and the door guy would let you look in ... for just a bit . Part of his duty was to keep the sidewalk clear of people hanging around in front ... Sadly, I never went in...... I was a limited income college student .....
Do you recall this nightclub Keefelc? It's name?
Oil Can's was Polk's street's serious disco ... my hang out once I became familiar with it. I knew Johnny Hedges (DJ) to a degree and Bruce who did the sound system for them and many other clubs in SF . You're right... the clientele shifted there ...... but it was around for a long time . I stopped going to that part of the city as much once I got my car and wasn't as dependent on MUNI .
No doubt .... The Troc was the best .... the best designed club ..good circulation you could wind around through it and go upstairs from both ends . Places to retreat.... places to be center stage ... including the stage itself ..... Ya, Keefelc I remember now ..... about there being two bars upstairs.... one ran the length of the wall and another was more toward the offices... and the main one downstairs where the DJ booth partly is now ( don't care for that) ...... what did they do after 2 ....shut down the bars ? ... serve water/soda ?
I don't think Sutter's Mill was upstairs?? It was in an alley .... seems like there were a handful of places clustered right there in the Financial District.... (names?)
"THE CITY " was upstairs ....after you entered below ... I guess that club was the place when disco first broke out. I never got up that way much ... I associate
"I FEEL LOVE " with it ..... it really stood out as something new one night I was there and it played .....
Another "up the stairs" experience was going to Aloha Records !! :D Always fun . It was like a small club ....the music constantly changing because everyone was requesting something to be heard in order to get their new favourite identified. :D
.............. great memories .................
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Triple Platinum Record [Level 10]
remicks,
your story sounds very similar to mine. Buzzbys' was the place to go in 1975. (I moved to SF on 1/4/75.) I lived on Polk & Geary (starting in Sept. '75) til 1979--when I moved to the Castro area. We musta crossed paths at one time or another.
I remember the Rendezvous. I went there a few times. It was on Sutter off Powell, I think. Very close to where I first lived on Bush & Powell.
Double Platinum Record [Level 9]
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:D :D :D 8) 8) :D
Marky ! Share more !! How did you arrive there ? Choose your place ? Alone ?? Describe your Polk Street ....
:D :D 8)
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Double Platinum Record [Level 9]
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Marky .....Bush and Powell ! You must've had the cable cars clanging right outside your window ......... how cool is that??
I moved into the dorms at SF State September 1975. I spent that first semester exploring SF and getting oriented ........( oh ya and going to classes, studying ) ........ By Spring semester 1976 , I knew my way around ... and that March .... I turned 21 in the City . Lordy ! What a situation to be in !!! 8) 8) :P :)
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Chart Hit [Level 6]
Hey Remicks! I moved back to the City in 1978 (I was born here but grew up in the South Bay). I first lived on Bush & Leavenworth (in the apartment complex next to the hospital), which was perfect for my weekly record shopping trip to Gramophone Records!!! Back then, I read Billboard's dance charts religiously and shopped for the new 12 inch and album releases accordingly. Since I was a regular customer, the folks at the store told me about obscure new tunes that eventually became rare, out of print disco classics. Tower Records on Columbus and Bay was my second favorite, but due to location, I didn't go there quite as often. Record Factory (next to Buzzby's) and Rainbow Records (in Financial Center) were my next choices.
We used to love Casa De Crystal, Carlene of Maui (for brunch!) and the Giraffe (do you remember they used to play reel to reel tapes mixed by Bobby Viteritti?). And remember that hole in the wall restaurant that had great fish and chips???
I didn't like the N'Touch much either (too small!), but the rest of my friends did. They had that hideous cocktail (was it called a Blue Moon) that made your mouth all blue, especially under a black light. My that was attractive! :-?
The DJ booth at Buzzby's was over the dance floor, so you could see the DJ when you first walked in. Buzzby's is where I first heard in a club the Walter Gibbon's remix of Gladys & The Pips, "It's A Better Than Good Time." Didn't hear that version anywhere else until Trocadero! I forgot about the bathrooms being way in the back and I don't remember the drink server on roller skates (maybe at that point that was deemed just a little too hazardous).
I think Sylvester & Two Tons used to sing at Kimo's. I don't remember seeing them there but I think somebody told me that info. Marky, was it you??? I do believe Kimo's is still there!
Did you see John Hedges at Soul Recharge? I recall chatting with him very briefly early in the evening.
The original Sutter's Mill was indeed on a small street - close by to Trinity Place and on Trinity Street. I used to work right by there so the gang would all meet for early evening cocktails and caberet at Trinity. Remember Sutter's Mill then move over to a huge 3 story building on Kearny Street? Damn! How did my liver survive all those cocktails??! :o
The City was way out by Broadway, so I never went there much (wasn't that where Charles Pierce used to perform his pricelessly hilarious show?).
After 2 years of the Polk area, I, like most everyone else, moved over to the Castro area, then Noe Valley, now I'm out near Stonestown and SF State.
Finally, I'm glad you thought Aloha was always fun. For the most part, I found working there pretty enjoyable. Met some wonderful friends at that store. :D Wouldn't it be just a trip if it turns out I know you???
Double Platinum Record [Level 9]
*****
Keefelc ..great information ....you are igniting various memories...
When in '78 did you return & from where?
Grammophone was such a great store .....I did not even know what a twelve inch single was until I went there .... first place I found them ..and I frequented record stores a lot. I found just a partial bin of these curiously formated singles. The very first ones on the market . At this point .... much of the store was classical and show tunes and soundtracks . Then within a few visits the 12" section had exploded and it extended into row after row and there was a display of the hottest ones in the order of their ranking on the wall behind the register . Disco had overtaken Grammophone. And Grammophone was brilliant to so quickly embrace it . Way ahead of anyone else.
There was also another little record store on the next street that opened sometime in this period... Leavenworth ?? ...Eddy ??? ..only about disco .... & disco music period ...very small at first I'd say a twelve by twelve foot store front ...then he expanded into an adjacent room ..... "Ernie's " ...recall it? Ernie was the first to do imports..
Ya Record Factory was right next to Buzzby's ... never very good ... Tower was always the best place to go ....more focused on rock though .. very slow to catch on to disco ..... but they had the greatest 45 section ... an entire wall that was racked with Billboard's HOT 100 ....one after another .... all 1 thru 100 and then the same thing for the soul chart 8) :D ....I think they carried every 45 released .... but there were many empty "sold out" slots too. . Tower is where I once bought these two new releases at the same time ..... The Ohio Players "HONEY" album and the new " Al Green Is Love" LP ... how great a purchase was that :D ?
And in the financial district was located on the same block: Rainbow , Banana and Odyssey records .... where I would soon be working ...
Casa De Crystal had a terrific fresh fruit Sangria they'd bring to the table in a cold , fat pitcher ....ever have that?
The Giraffe was pretty good .. I would play pinball in there and listen to the music ... I do remember the music being good .. I thought they had a DJ?? For awhile ?? and a dance floor? Bobby's tapes were played there ??
Speaking of bars playing tapes, that was a big thing for awhile there , each bar had a reel to reel player going .. ..... my partner and I did that .. made reel to reel tapes for various bars including the P.S. and Sutter's Mill... we mixed up the content ...disco ... hits... old stuff ...camp ... We'd compete .... he'd do one side ..... I'd do the other . It was fun and pretty good money ... .. ... It was more his gig , he'd take these tapes to different bars on Folsom , Castro ... the bars were always ready for a newer one ... It was kind of a kick to go to Sutter's Mill after work and sometimes hear my "mixes" being played ....
Buzzby's ..... I agree .... you only saw the DJ up above as you first entered ... and he , the DJ, could not see the dance floor...? That had to be a frustrating set up ...
Ya , the bar hop wore roller skates .... and later he was briefly at Alf's ...also w/ those roller skates !!
If Sylvester & TTTof F did sing at Kimo's ..that was later ..... Kimo's arrived later and was across the street. The place I recall was just south of Buzzby's toward Market and this was before Sylvester had released "DISCO HEAT " .. only a local name then ... .
No I did not not see John Hedges .... I would have enjoyed talking to him ....
I'm glad you mentioned Trinity Place. I am sure that is where groups of us from Odyssey Records would go have lunch some times ... a little fancy .... white table clothes ....waiters wore black bow ties ... yep, Trinity Place ... maybe that was it in that area ....Sutter's Mill and Trinity Place ..
..... I went to Aloha fairly regularly Keefelc .....so yes our paths have crossed .... certainly there (and The Troc.) But Aloha was a busy little store, with lots of people coming and going. ... I was a rather anonymous purchaser ... .... although I believe I recall the faces of people that worked there ..... 8)
I hope you enjoyed working there . I'd like to learn more about it ... how it operated .... the purchasing .... sometime maybe you'll get into that .. or is it discussed on this board somewhat already ??
Did you have two turntables there to work from ? Seems like the turnatable(s) was right at the register.... behind it ..which all of it got reconfigured along the way . I vividly remember going in there once and wanting "BARK BARK , IN THE SKY " and walking out with Gino Soccio's "LES VISITORS "
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Chart Hit [Level 6]
Hey Remicks, I was back in SF around June of 1978. With all the trips I was making to go to Tower Records at Columbus and Bay and to Trocadero (little did I know I was already Wrecked For Life! :lol: ), I decided I should be living here again. Plus, I loved the relief of the cool SF fog!
Fortunately, employment opportunities opened up and friends beckoned - it's now 27 years later.
I originally did most of my record shopping at Tower. I would read about all of these new disco and soul releases each week in Billboard (I used to subscribe). Most of those records were nowhere to be found in the San Jose area, but they sure were at Tower! Remember back then, Tower would give you their large plastic shopping bags with red handles if you bought $100 or more of records? I had a collection of those bags in SJ.
Once I moved up to SF, one of my "musicoholic" friends introduced me to Dean, Clive, Brad and Jennifer at Gramophone. The store quickly became my favorite SF record store and I soon my twelve inch single and album collection outgrowing my studio apartment!
The same friend mentioned above also told me about Ernie's but the store was already closed when I arrived in SF.
How could I have forgotten about Casa de Crystal's delicious sangria??? That was a reason to go to that restaurant.
Remicks, is the club you heard Sylvester & the Two Tons be The Mocambo? What a wonderful cabaret. Pretty large stage especially for the Polk area where most of the clubs were small.
I don't recall ever seeing DJs or a dance floor at the Giraffe. They should have had a dance floor with Bobby Viteritti's tapes playing! It was hard not to move your feet. Lion's Pub over in the Fillmore also played Miss V's tapes.
Trinity Place was at the edge of the street by Sutter. Remember they had cabaret acts on the second floor? Glad you reminded me of the name of the other stores besides Rainbow. I did indeed shop at Odyssey! Who knows, you could have helped me back then. I always wondered who made the tapes for the other bars and clubs I frequented. Isn't it ironic I'm finding out 25 years later.
Looking back, Aloha was a hoot to work at. Certainly is one of the highlights of my life and who knew people and events at the store would still be a part of my life today? That little store started out with just the owners, Rick and Donald, selling a modest inventory of new records but a huge inventory of used records, many promotional twelves from DJs. The store slowly grew until Michael Neuman came on board (do you recall Michael - he was tall with curly hair, smoked cigarettes and drank either Coke or Pepsi Colas constantly :o ) and got them to start carrying import disco records. The store's popularity then exploded and started influencing the music at Trocadero. I'll have to tell you more another time.
I sent you an Email to the Yahoo address you posted the other day. Hope you received it!
Double Platinum Record [Level 9]
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Hello Keefelc!
No I never even knew of those special Tower bags .... Since I wasn't anywhere near being a member of the $100 dollar plus club ! :(
Remember those hand painted billboards that framed Tower's exterior ....real oil duplications of chosen current album covers ..... each larger than life ..probably 12X12 ft .... Also inside …the record racks each were headed with hand drawn art work expressing in some clever way that particular artist or title. They had full-time people in each store that just sat in the back endlessly sniffing those ink markers while making those personalized in-store placards . ( probably all just thrown away...)
Odyssey shamelessly copied that idea ..which I was happy they did , because it was very cool .... and it was a sad day when they switched to photocopies of one drawn original that was then sent to all the stores .... but by then Odyssey was growing to some 40+ stores ... a lot of art work to put out …
Ernie was a clever quiet guy (you'd never meet him and think "DISCO" ) ...I remember such albums as Madleen Kane's "ROUGH DIAMOND " J TAIMES "J TAIME" and "THE OTHER SIDE OF MIDNIGHT " Marsha Hunt each leaving in my bags from there. He went on to work within RCA .... I visited his office once on the twelfth floor in the RCA building in Hollywood.
Mocambo .... that could be it... sounds right ..... I'm going to ask an old buddy about it ... next chance I get .... Then there was the Mabuhay on Broadway ..where I saw… ANDY GIBB !!!!
Making those tapes was good fun .... we had two QRK turntables set up in our flat and the reel to reel . Others were doing it too of course .. but the bars were hungry for tapes to be able to change out regularly ... the next best thing to a DJ was tapes ... but you didn't want your regulars hearing the same stuff over and over...
My working in a record store gave us an advantage ... we included a lot of album stuff I was able to review ..... especially cuts that were covers of already known stuff ( popular then) ..or anyone brand new but lesser known … like High Energy or Enchantment or even Natalie Cole at that time ...besides the obvious, must-include , disco that was hot off the presses .... My partner had a good knowledge of more cabaret type stuff that would go over ...he'd include on his side Barbra Streisand ( that was a bold stretch!! :P ) …. Julie London … and Judy Garland and I couldn't believe it one time he used Marilyn Monroe's "WE'RE HAVING A HEAT WAVE " which he segued into .... Sylvester's "DISCO HEAT " :o
;We would splice stuff too... using razor blades .... and I had access to the sound labs at SFSU . I took the line "STAYING ALIVE " and taped it over and over and spliced it over and over until it became 'STAYING AL -I -I -I -I -I -I- I- I -I -I -I -I -I -I -I -I -I- I -I -I -IVE " ( each "I" being yet another edit ) I thought it sounded really cool ...almost like the tape was somehow stuck, just long enough to get your attention ... before breaking back into the song ..... But part of what making those tapes so fun was trying to make them stand out from the competitions … and the mixing had less to do about matching beats ....although just as with live DJing you couldn't have any crashes or off beat noise ..even more unforgivable within such a controlled medium…and you didn’t want bad mixes distracting a yakking bar crowd deep in their discussions of world politics ....
..I don't remember getting promos and such at ALOHA...... ( I think you all were more in tune to what you had and therefore priced them accordingly ) I went to Recycled Records a lot out on Judah and the one on Haight. There were lots of great record stores .... on Grant Street .... Market ...
I'd be intested in reviewing the various record stores you frequented as a vinyl junkie ...Keefelc.... Also , do you know of any web sites that review or document an older SF --the seventies .....the eighties ....especially the bar /club scene or The Castro ...?
--- And then this , Keefelc ..... please tell me more about this Michael Neuman ......This could be most interesting .....he didn't by any chance once live in Hawaii did he ...????
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yes ... ... I got your email thanks ... and am polishing up a response ....
Chart Hit [Level 6]
And let's not forget the Boarding House (I primarily went when they were located on Columbus - why do I think the club used to be Dance Your Ass Off??! I saw Lily Tomlin there.), Bimbo's (got to see Bette Midler there) and Great American Music Hall (Marlena Shaw and Lily introducing "The Search For Signs Of Intelligent Life" in a work in progress form!).
I recall my pal, Bobby, had the import of Madleen's "Rough Diamond" a considerable time before the US version was released. I do believe he told me that came from Ernie's so he must have been pushing that album.
I am sooooooo glad to hear you did the bar tapes that didn't have "train wreck" mixes :o on them!! I used to wonder who would have so little pride in their work or would be so delusional as to inflict those tapes on the unsuspecting bar patrons! :P As drunk as we could get, we still heard bad mixes. :lol:
Remicks, did you keep copies of any of those tapes??
Aloha had tons of cheap and rare promos when they first opened. Either Rick and Donald didn't know what they had or they didn't have time to go through all the used collections they would buy. Of course, once the store started expanding, the promos became more rare and much more expensive.
BTW, Aloha's co-owner, Donald, came from Hawaii rather than Michael (do you remember these folks?). I'll never forget the disastrous Aloha Records float at one of the Pride Parades. Donald had beautiful leis shipped to SF from Hawaii for all of us to wear. Plus, he lent all of us his Hawaiian shirts to wear. Wish the rest of the float was that nice, but that's a story for another day.
Tower still has the hand painted album covers on their exterior walls. Part of the fun of going to that store was to see what albums would be on the wall! We also had our custom album placards at Aloha also. Two of us, Ed and myself, did the bulk of the signs to whittle way the hours when the store wasn't busy (weeknights). Of course, I would have to create some elaborate artwork for my favorite artists!
Remicks, I have found a few websites with tributes to the bars and clubs of the Castro (just via Google). but none of them are very complete. That's why it's so much fun when I find somebody else to compare memories of SF in the late 70s and early 80s (before AIDS hit in full force).
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