What was the first arena/stadium tour to use modern amplification?

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by Brother Maynard, Mar 12, 2018.

Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. Brother Maynard

    Brother Maynard Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Dallas, TX
    Cream? Stones? Someone else? By "modern" I simply mean the group could be heard, screams or no screams.
     
    squittolo likes this.
  2. dkswaff

    dkswaff Forum Resident

    Location:
    Badstreet, USA
    I heard recently by a Hendrix biographer about him implementing huge speakers and amps at his show, and that it was trend setting.
     
    squittolo likes this.
  3. At the arena level, Wiki says it was the Stones 1969 American tour.
     
  4. Hardy Melville

    Hardy Melville Forum Resident

    Location:
    New York
    That would be my vote as well.
     
  5. That would be in smaller places, at least at the outset. I think he got the idea to go full Marshall stack from one of the British guitarists. Clapton and Townshend were both using Marshalls by mid-1966. The Who and the Yardbirds were already cranking it up loud before then, using overdriven Hiwatt and Vox amps in little clubs.

    I think the acquaintance with the extreme touch sensitivity and feedback of superloud amplification gave Hendrix the opportunity to implement a lot of ideas he already had percolating, like tuning his guitar dramatically downward and bending strings with the whammy bar on the Strat. The guitar turned into an entirely different animal, at that point. And he started treating feedback as a feature instead of a bug.

    It's common for guitar players to get a "Hendrix sound" by playing in drop D tuning. But that's only a simplified version. Hendrix often tuned all of his strings down, starting with the low E tuned even further down than D. And starting from there, however he felt like later on. Compensating for any subsequent irregularities by string bending. He could get away with it, because of his acute sensitivity to pitch. Didn't always work, but for most guitarists, it would never work. Like, don't even try it.

    It's funny for me to listen to Hendrix. It seems so apparent that he has all the standard blues licks and string-bending tricks down, he's been there and done that, while his contemporaries are still marveling over achieving basic competence at it. For Hendrix, it's no longer primarily about which string and what fret. Those are just relative suggestions.
     
    Last edited: Mar 12, 2018
  6. dkswaff

    dkswaff Forum Resident

    Location:
    Badstreet, USA
    I can verify that he played the fieldhouse at the University of Oklahoma and that only seated approximately 3K. So yes probably not the arenas the Stones would've been playing.
     
    joshm2286 likes this.
  7. On the 1966 American tour, the Stones often played venues smaller than that. 1969 was their first arena-sized tour, at least in the USA.
     
    Fullbug and joshm2286 like this.
  8. Oatsdad

    Oatsdad Oat, Biscuits, Abbie & Mitzi: Best Dogs Ever

    Location:
    Alexandria VA
    If Wiki is correct, the Stones' 1966 tour was mostly 15,000-ish seat arenas:

    The Rolling Stones American Tour 1966 - Wikipedia

    Definite exceptions in there, but mainly the same kind of places they'd play 3 years later...
     
    Panama Hotel likes this.
  9. oops, I stand corrected. Thoughts without research. Or insufficient research, anyway- my recall from memory of details in the Keith Richards bio I recently read, by Victor Bockris.

    That's something like the third time I've put my foot in my mouth in three days, on such scholarly points. I need to step up my game to keep up with the Analytical Branch here.
     
  10. Oatsdad

    Oatsdad Oat, Biscuits, Abbie & Mitzi: Best Dogs Ever

    Location:
    Alexandria VA
    I'm not sure Googling "Stones 1966 tour" and finding a page on Wiki makes me analytical, but thanks anyway! :D
     
    Panama Hotel likes this.
  11. Arnold Grove

    Arnold Grove Senior Member

    Location:
    NYC
    The opening date of the 1966 Stones tour was at the Manning Bowl in Lynn, Massachusetts. Sounds like it didn't get off to a great start:

    The concert was cut short due to rain and police had to use tear gas bombs to quell the angry crowd.
     
  12. Arnold Grove

    Arnold Grove Senior Member

    Location:
    NYC
    The majority of the arenas listed had a capacity of about 10,000. Some might have been more, and some were less. But most were closer to 10,000.
     
  13. Wombat Reynolds

    Wombat Reynolds Jimmy Page stole all my best riffs.

    Location:
    Atlanta, GA, USA
    I've always heard the Stones 1969 tour of america was the first to use a modern wedge monitor playback system.

    I dont know if that defines "amplification".
     
  14. Oatsdad

    Oatsdad Oat, Biscuits, Abbie & Mitzi: Best Dogs Ever

    Location:
    Alexandria VA
    Point taken - I just noticed the ones I already knew, which were in the "bigger" category and figured most of the arenas were similar.

    Definitely surprised they played some places like the Asbury Park Convention Hall in 1966 - that place is dinky! Maybe they couldn't play all big arenas in 1966 but I wouldn't have expected a shoebox like the APCH!
     
    ModernDayWarrior likes this.
  15. ModernDayWarrior

    ModernDayWarrior Senior Member

    Convention Hall has one of the worst acoustics out of any venue I’ve ever been to. They were better off playing at the Paramount Theater which is attached to it next door.
     
  16. bmoregnr

    bmoregnr Forum Rezident

    Location:
    1060 W. Addison
  17. Lownotes

    Lownotes Senior Member

    Location:
    Denver, CO
    An interesting thread!!
     
  18. bostonscoots

    bostonscoots Forum Resident

    Location:
    Boston, MA
    I believe it was the 1969 Rolling Stones American Tour - I remember Mick Jagger on the old 25 x 5 documentary about how that was the first tour that "hung" the sound...

    I had a photo stashed somewhere of the stage and there are two modest looking speakers looming from the rafters. Still - at the time, this was state-of-the art concert sound. I started going to concerts in the early '80's and plenty of acts - Rush, for example - still had their sound gear stacked on both sides of the stage.
     
  19. bhazen

    bhazen ANNOYING BEATLES FAN

    Location:
    Deepest suburbia
    bmoregnr and hi_watt like this.
  20. Glenn Christense

    Glenn Christense Foremost Beatles expert... on my block


    In 1966 I saw the Stones at the old McCormick Place Arie Crown Theater (Chicago), which I want to say held maybe 5,000 people. There was no "professional" rock sound system.

    In 1969 I saw the Stones at the International Amphitheater which held around 13,000 and as others have mentioned, , it was the first concert (in my area anyway) that had pro sound.
    I can't speak about the West Coast , because I wasn't there. :D
     
    Last edited: Mar 12, 2018
  21. ODShowtime

    ODShowtime jaded faded

    Location:
    Tampa
    Wow I didn't know the Stones played there. I knew Led Zeppelin did in '69 and Black Sabbath's best bootleg was recorded at the Convention Hall. I saw Stone Temple Pilots there myself, and it is a small room. It's like a high school gymnasium sitting on a boardwalk next to the ocean.
     
    hi_watt likes this.
  22. Kassonica

    Kassonica Forum Resident

    Hendrix was the 1st artist to take out his own PA on the road.

    It consisted (from memory) of a Pair of altec A7 bins (one a side) a horn on top, possibly a 600watt amp and a small mixer of 6 channels.

    He was fed up with the sound systems found in venues of the day.

    It was enough to get the vocals over and put some drums through, mainly overhead and sometimes the kick drum

    Amps were not needed to be put through
     
    joshm2286 and tedhead like this.
  23. Kassonica

    Kassonica Forum Resident

    I always thought the Grateful dead were the 1st band to take PA's to the modern level
     
    Fullbug and pool_of_tears like this.
  24. Oatsdad

    Oatsdad Oat, Biscuits, Abbie & Mitzi: Best Dogs Ever

    Location:
    Alexandria VA
    I've been to APCH twice: Bruce Christmas show in 2003 and Bruce rehearsal in 2006. I don't remember the sound as being terrible, but maybe I was too excited about seeing Bruce in a small venue to care! :D
     
  25. Oatsdad

    Oatsdad Oat, Biscuits, Abbie & Mitzi: Best Dogs Ever

    Location:
    Alexandria VA
    Yeah, APCH really is dinky. Website claims it holds 3600 but man, that seems optimistic - feels way smaller than that!
     
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.

Share This Page

molar-endocrine