Episode 15: Why 11 Fans of The Who Died in Cincinnati in 1979
PLAYLIST
1. “Under My Thumb (live)” — Rolling Stones (1969)
2. "I’m Your Captain”-- Grand Funk Railroad (1970)
3. “Rock and Roll All Nite”-- Kiss (1975)
4. Do You Feel Like We Do (live)” -- Peter Frampton (1976)
5. “Lovin Touchin Squeezin” -- Journey (1979) -
6. "Bennie and the Jets (live)” -- Elton John (1976)
7. “Who are You”--The Who (1978)
SHOW NOTES
01:35 Amy give an overview of the tragic deaths of 11 fans who went to see The Who in Cincinnati on December 3, 1979.
02:18 If you wanted to see live rock and roll in the Fifties, you went to a revue. Many acts played their hits for 15 or 20 minutes. If you wanted to see one really popular performer, you didn’t go to a stadium or arena. You might be in a high school auditorium.
02:53 The Beatles pretty much stopped touring because they were too popular to play small venues and they didn’t have the technology to hear themselves sing in big stadiums. They were broken up by the time the Rolling Stones figured out how to do an arena tour.
04:00 The Rolling Stones 1969 tour set the standard for the tours to come in the Seventies. They figured out how to take control of things like merchandising and lighting. They also got money up front to help pay for the tour. Here are some amazing photos from that tour by Ethan Russell, the official tour photographer.
05:15 Was this business or was this rock and roll? Eight dollars to see the Stones was outrageous, to many people.
06:05 In addition to being the 40th Anniversary of the deaths at The Who show in Cincinnati, it is also the 50th Anniversary of the rock and roll disaster, almost exactly 10 years earlier. Amy discusses how The Grateful Dead wanted to put on a West Coast rock and roll festival with zero idea of where it would be. It was bad from the beginning, even before Meredith Hunter was killed by one of the Hell’s Angels. This was no Woodstock. You can read more about the rock and roll disaster at Altamont here.
08:45 Amy plays a clip from the documentary, “Gimme Shelter.” The version of “Under My Thumb” that the Stones play is eerie and very fitting for what was happening around them. If you watch the video clip below, you will see a bad acid trip and you will also see Meredith Hunter in his lime green suit. He died at the hands of The Hells Angels while this song was in progress.
11:28 No band would agree to play at an event like Altamont even 10 years later. It left the impression that all rock concerts were like that. However, a bigger legacy of that 1969 tour was the blueprint that the Rolling Stones created for making money and festival seating was part of that. Having actual chairs in a venue meant fewer ticket sales. That was not as desirable as cramming as many bodies into a building as possible.
12:50 Amy quotes from Fred Goodman’s book, “Mansion on the Hill,” which discusses the transition of rock from art to commerce. Rock and roll records made media companies a lot of money in the Seventies.
14:45 Grand Funk Railroad was one of the best live bands of the Seventies. They also bragged about how much money they made selling out Shea Stadium in 1971. Amy is rightfully impressed that the band put out five albums in less than two years. Critics may not have liked Grand Funk Railroad but the fans did. Check out the video below for proof.
18:00 Guys stuck in Vietnam found a connection to “I’m Your Captain (Closer to Home)” even if the critics weren’t as fond of it.
19:15 Bands began to make music that was specifically designed to be played in large arenas or stadiums. And, again, festival seating is an important part of this equation. Fans loved and so did the bands. In fact, many bands refused to play a show that did not offer festival seating.
21:02 All of this fuels the popularity of live albums. The Stones set the standard for that, too, with Get Your Ya Ya’s Out. Kiss made the most of this desire for theatrics and loud music. Amy played a clip of “Rock and Roll All Night” from Kiss Alive.
24:25 Peter Frampton’s live album, “Frampton Comes Alive,” sold eight million copies in 1976. It is a classic live album but some bad marketing decisions just about ruined Frampton’s career, despite the amount of touring he did.
Maybe not the best career move for Peter Frampton if he wanted to be taken seriously.
28:00 While Amy is not trying to prove that Peter Frampton is responsible for the sing-a-long songs in arena rock with the memorable chorus, she does point out that when he had success with these types of songs (see: Do You Feel Like We Do), other acts soon followed. Amy plays a clip of Journey’s “Lovin’, Touchin’, Squeezin’” from 1979, which has a very sing-a-longable “na na na na” section of its chorus. It would have cost you $7.50 to see Journey and Thin Lizzy in 1979.
31:15 The festival seating system was designed to squeeze as much money as possible out of the fans who made the industry possible. Safety was secondary, if it was a concern at all. She reads a quote from an article from a Vancouver newspaper that refers to rock fans as “animals.” Even the police in Vancouver didn’t want reserved seating because he believed rock fans were such animals that they would fight over previously purchased tickets for good seats.
33:15 Elton John was the highest paid rock performers in the Seventies. He also, according to a promoter named Tom Hewitt, would not pay a show that didn’t have festival seating. Elton put on great shows, though, and his fans were willing to camp put for tickets. Amy tests her audience: Can they name that tune in one note? Probably. (It is “Bennie and the Jets.”)
33:35 Riverfront Coliseum in Cincinnati attracted problems from the beginning. it opened in 1975 and there were many problems at concerts in the years that followed. Tickets to see The Who in 1979 sold out in 90 minutes. The Who was touring in support of it’s Who are You album from 1978. The title song was one of the few from that album that the band actually played on the tour. Amy plays a clip.
39:20 Eleven fans, most of whom had been waiting on the Riverfront Coliseum concourse all afternoon, were killed when the thousands gathered on this winter night heard The Who begin their soundcheck. A police officer told the Coliseum director and tour promoter to open the doors because there were too many people pressing up against the glass doors. The police were told “no.” It was no stampede, despite what the news reported. It was not an issue of drug-crazed or drunk kids. It was a crush of too many people in too small of a space who had nowhere to go. The people who died suffocated. Read more about it here.
44:40 Amy places the blame for the deaths of these 11 fans on the industry that created this culture of chaos at rock concerts and were most interested in profits. Even after the tragedy, many bands and fans still accepted those deaths as part of the culture and an unfortunate incident. If towns banned festival seating, bands bypassed those towns. And it happened again in 1991. Three teenagers were killed in a crush at the stage of an AC/DC concert in Salt Lake City.
47:30 Amy reads the names of the people who died at the concert in Cincinnati. Here they are.
Eleven young fans died while trying to get into Riverfront Coliseum in Cincinnati to see The Who on December 3, 1979.
Sources
Ferris, Timothy. “Grand Funk Railroad: Is This Band Terrible?” Rolling Stone, August 19, 1971. https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/grand-funk-railroad-is-this-band-terrible-41111/
Flippo, Chet. “Rock & Roll Tragedy: Why 11 Died at the Who’s Cincinnati Concert.” Rolling Stone. January 24, 1980. https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/rock-roll-tragedy-why-11-died-at-the-whos-cincinnati-concert-93437/
Free, Cathy. “The Crush at an AC/DC Concert Brings Death to Three Fans.” People. February 4, 1991. https://people.com/archive/the-crush-at-an-acdc-concert-brings-death-to-three-young-fans-vol-35-no-4/
Goodman, Fred. The Mansion on the Hill. New York: Vintage Books. 1998.
Lewis, Randy. “When pop music got big: 1968 and the Birth of Arena Rock.” Los Angeles Times. April 20, 2018. https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/music/la-et-ms-1968-arena-rock-forum-madison-square-garden-20180420-story.html
Maysles, Albert and David and Charlotte Zwerin, dir. Gimme Shelter. 1970; New York, NY: Criterion Collection, 2000. DVD.
Nager, Larry. “Band Bypass Cincinnati over Festival Seating Ban.” The Cincinnati Enquirer, November 10, 2002.
Nager, Larry. “The Who Tragedy: Can It Happen Again?” The Cincinnati Enquirer, November 10, 2002.
Time. “The Rolling Stones: 1969 Tour: Photo Essay.” http://content.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1710013_1529137,00.html
Uncle Cathode. “1979 ‘In the News’ Cincinnati Who Concert.” YouTube. August 15, 2007. Video, 1:28. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFzXzBQCzjc