Ken Emerson here- That was epic- we went up Timberline and drank a gallon of red mountain, smoked numerous dubois and headed into town for that last Hendrix gig. That was a full moon at the Shell and I’ll never forget it either, he said F the foxy lady stuff and played a lot of blues that night, an epic Red House, nearly 1/2 hour long. At some point we realized some dude was sitting inside a speaker on one of the big towers… I saw every gig he played on O’ahu, and had seen him in San Francisco prior. It was a shock to lose him right after, we sat on a roof and blasted his music that day. I have a big collection of stuff from that time period- remember Sunbums magazine? We had a band called Rock Bottom, 1968/9, then Dave Rorick and a couple friends had a rock-a-billy trio called Al Poe & the Fleas… they were punk ahead of it’s time. We did gigs at Barbers and on the west side at the army R&R rec center- that was dicey- those guys were right from the battle zone. My Pop was commander of VP4 at Barbers. I designed the logo for the squadron, and every P3 Orion had a big dragon on their tails. He flew in WW2, Korea, and 3 tours of Vietnam, and will be 91 next month, a big Hawaiian music fan, plays ukulele and has always been an advocate for Hawaiian sovereign rights. He helped stop the use of Kaho’olawe as a bombing range. In the old days he would come in from flying and say, 'Hey, I saw a really nice red surfboard today- about 5 miles outside of Sunset Beach!
Hendrix Waikiki Shell '69
Very cool poster my friend! I went to Saturday nights performance and met Guy Kamaka there. The next night we went to see the movie 2001. We were listening to the radio and the fellow on the radio said that Jimi Hendrix was giving a free concert that night to make up for the shortened concert on Friday night, when Guy heard that he threw the drive inn speaker out the window and drove like a crazy person to the shell and we got in free and heard him again! It was fantastic! Trojan 62
tearing down the old Civic Auditorium, 1977. Many a fine rock 'n roll show there!
[quote="$1"]
Hendrix Waikiki Shell '69
I have this original poster; well, actually it's more like a flyer. printed on a thick poster type paper. I remember them being pastered all over the place back then when they were promoting it; store fronts, music stores, telephone poles... The concert dates were May 30 - 31 1969. I bought this from a poster collector at a flee market in Florida about 10 years ago. A few of us piled in a car and drove to Kapiolani Park and staged ourselves to jump the fence, but never made it in. We sat on the ground outside and listened and saw what we could through the fence and bushes. I was 15 years old at the time.
This info came with the poster when I bought it. Great concerts back then.
Aloha from Bali,
Mike Bell
[quote="$1"]
tearing down the old Civic Auditorium, 1977. Many a fine rock 'n roll show there!
One of the last concert I saw at The Civic was Led Zeplin in Sept. 1971. I went with Rob McDonald, Shirley Rogers, Richard "Murt" Murton, Dave Cueva, a few others. We sat on the floor right in front of the stage. We were pretty buzzed. When Jimmy Page came out with the double necked guitar I though I was hallucinating. I found these photos on the internet from that concert. I remember that poster in the background. Crazy daze!
Here’s a late 60’s photo from around that time period when they were building the new Sate Capitol building. We had a '63 convertible Karmann Ghia and a 65 vw bug. Steve Spinelli had a rusty '57 Chevy we cruised in. I learned to drive on the old Marine air strip on the base at Barbers in '68 when I was 15. I was right next to you guys at the Zep show. We had a girl with us that was the Admirals daughter. She got sh*tfaced and we had to go through the car wash and left her on her front porch… well, we were kids afterall. I left the island Oct '71, my grad year. Rob McDonald was a good friend & glassed nearly all of my surfboards, David was a friend & in my classes at Campbell. Shirley lived around the corner at Iroquois Point. I lived on Albatross Ave and surfed tank traps a lot on my Mctavish V bottom tracker model… there were lots of concrete pill boxes to hang out in, out in the bush. We also dodged 50 cal rounds when the wind blew us down to Pu’uloa rifle range. Chocolate Beach was a party zone. They showed films out at West Loch, I remember they weren’t gonna show Arlo Guthrie’s Alice’s Restaurant because of it’s anti-war vibe, but they relented. Man, there’s a million memories from that time…
Zepp
I was in the Band Al Poe and the Fleas with Vic and Dave Rorke and Steve Wooford and I forget who da drummer was, maybe Steve Kendall. I played second lead. God stage fright a week before they played backup band for Led Zeplin concert at Civic. Lucky cause I would have messed them up big time, but Steve Wooford took over my place and did the band justice. Steve could play me under the table anyday. Best thing to ever happen for the band. I am proud to have been a part of it all and to have witnessed such talent first hand and played with the best. Lost track of Vic. Dave Roark showed up later singing O Akua I think thats the name of the song written by John Kalani Lincolin, and Steve Wooford went on and on and is still going on. Beautilfully natural talented musician. Steve Kendall played and jammed with a lot of name groups but has slown the pace since I seen him last. Vic used to like the Beatles music. Been in some really good places at the right time with the right people. From such a small place, so many good things in our lives. Paul
Still gotta say, the most impressive band I seen in Ewa Beach was Jesse Morgan and the Moptops. In the back room at the bowling ally. Jesse stompt a hole throught the stage floor singing Louie Louie, and the band played on. A small room, loud sound, and very moving Ewa Beach dance hall. How you say, lucky was der dat time. Good time remembered old time. No goin see dat again. Paul Shepard…
Michael Nakasone played with the Moptops, he is head of Royal Hawaiian Band now I think. David Rorick is still in Nashville, he went on to play with Jerry Reed, Dwight Yokum and did the last 10 years with Johnny Cash before Johnny passed away. Barny was the fleas drummer that I remember from the rock-a-billy trio days. Vic Burke I heard played for the Miami Symphony. He was the only guy I ever saw do a backflip off a super reverb amp…
Ok my braddahs I tink we gotta geeve one nod to Ed Francis, Lord “Tally Ho” Blears, along with Curtis “The Bull” Iaukea, “Handsome” Johnny Barend, “Gentleman” Jim Hady, Ripper Collins… Da Civic was da place!
[quote="$1"]
I was in the Band Al Poe and the Fleas with Vic and Dave Rorke and Steve Wooford and I forget who da drummer was, maybe Steve Kendall. I played second lead. God stage fright a week before they played backup band for Led Zeplin concert at Civic. Lucky cause I would have messed them up big time, but Steve Wooford took over my place and did the band justice. Steve could play me under the table anyday. Best thing to ever happen for the band. I am proud to have been a part of it all and to have witnessed such talent first hand and played with the best. Lost track of Vic. Dave Roark showed up later singing O Akua I think thats the name of the song written by John Kalani Lincolin, and Steve Wooford went on and on and is still going on. Beautilfully natural talented musician. Steve Kendall played and jammed with a lot of name groups but has slown the pace since I seen him last. Vic used to like the Beatles music. Been in some really good places at the right time with the right people. From such a small place, so many good things in our lives. Paul
[/quote]
Paul, I remember 2 brothers that played with AlPoe and the Fleas, John and Barney. But I can't remember their last names. I don't think Kendall ever played with them. Dave Roarick used to jump all over the stage and tangle himself in an extra long guitar cord, then untangled himself again. Good days!
Wayne “Barney” McGhee, he lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico now, still plays drums
Remember how crazy it was when they were filming ‘Tora Tora Tora’. It was surreal to watch the planes come in droves just like Dec '41. I have 8mm movie of them filming on the beach near our house. Here’s some stills from an Kodak Instamatic. Those guys were flying close to the beach…
In the early 60’s we made these out of toothbrush plastic handles and gave them to our girl friends I develope a process and start these proto type any comments…
https://swaylocks7stage.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/IMG_0833.jpg
Aloha Bradas! Paul & Mike, Great memories and pics. Paul, Steve Wolford also played with “Country Comfort”. They stopped on Maui came to my house. All except Steve were drugged out. Came in my room neva ask and did all my stash which was more than just Pakalolo. Was rabid, was going pound them if not for Steve. He is ohana on moms side. A bunch of them was from “Nalo” (Waimanalo) made comments how bad ass they was cause dey was from there. Steve rolled his eyes cause he knew what was coming next. Luckily he intervened so i restrained myself but kicked them out of my house just the same. Made some phone calls to family in friends on Oahu to check their connections (cause of threats they made to me inadvertly). Funny now and yes Steve still going.
Cleigh Eaton
Guy Kamaka, Norman Nauka said HI! He lives in Vegas.
Troy, This is Dan Bilderback. I went to the October 5, 1968 Hendrix concert, and still have the ticket stub (forty-five years and I still have that one and many others including the Doors, Jefferson Airplane, Led Zepellin, Canned Heat, CCR, Vanilla Fudge, Richie Havens, and these shows were all before Woodstock!!). My Hendrix ticket cost $5.00. After the show Hendrix and his pals went over to the park across South King Street (directly across from the Blaisdell Concert Hall) and played a few songs to several hundred people who heard a rumour he might show up there. My brother, Jack, was also there with Steve Kendall. Steve jumped up and shook Hendrix’ hand.
