Sunday Break -- any old Austinites got stories?

[GhostOfTomJoad 9442]

Anybody make it to either the first one in May '76 off I35 and 290 (financial success) or the one 4 months later at Steiner Ranch that bankrupted the producers? A 60-something buddy of mine was telling me last night about how he & his buddies drove down from Wichita Falls to see The Band and Fleetwood Mac at the September show & how ridiculous the traffic was. He thought Chicago put on the best set, but we don't exactly see eye to eye on all things musical. 

Four Points News story

 

Edited March 1, 2020 by GhostOfTomJoad
Pics added

[jimmyjazz 46502]

This is literally the first time I've ever heard of this.  Fascinating.  I hope some old-timers have some stories.

[Guest Lobo]

The Band, Chicago, Steve Miller Band, and Fleetwood Mac all played Austin during their peak years?  That's awesome.  I've only hear distant rumors about this thing.  But first off-it's insane that it worked out given the lack of infrastructure out that way 45 years ago.  I love the bands having to be delivered by boat.  I dig the photos but would love to hear somebody describe exactly where the stage was in modern day, and how the lake thing worked.  I'm sure the soundboard tapes are lost to time, but you never know in this day and age of shit like Preservation Project, Nerve App., et. al.  Need to go dig up that Texas Monthly article from Levy, too.  

Wow, just wow.  That lineup...at that particular moment in history.  

[Red Five 41090]

Where exactly by 35/290?

[GhostOfTomJoad 9442]

52 minutes ago, jimmyjazz said:

This is literally the first time I've ever heard of this.  Fascinating.  I hope some old-timers have some stories.

Yeah, I'd never heard of it but was telling my buddy over beers last night about the new Robbie Robertson doc. He casually threw out "oh yeah, we saw The Band, Fleetwood Mac and bunch of others at a festival around Labor Day of '76 in Austin.' I had no idea what he was talking about. A few more details he shared.

• He was a sophomore at Midwestern State but was dating a girl from Wichita Falls who was a freshman at UT. He and 5 frat buddies loaded up in his '73 Chevelle before dawn and drank plenty of beer along the way
• He had a CB radio in his car & they were hearing reports from miles away about how the traffic into the festival wasn't moving but they didn't believe it & figured people were just trying to scare people away. Said 620 was just a 2 lane parking lot
• Chicago made the biggest impression on him because they sounded just like their albums; the other bands "were either stoned, drunk, or wasted by the heat (or maybe all 3)."
• His lasting image was after sunset when the area had gone dark & all of a sudden the stage lights came up & Fleetwood Mac started their set
• When it was over he said it took over 2 hours just to get their car out of park. CB radio chatter was full of people trying to buy & sell food, water, basically anything you could drink

Pretty amazing that they could put on one huge successful concert in Memorial Day and totally go tits up 4 months later. 

[GhostOfTomJoad 9442]

Here's some shaky 8mm video of the May concert:

 

And here's some from September (NSFW--brief tan lined young titties are visible). Bunch of stoned kids chatting plus footage of Chicago.

 

[Biff Tannen 45778]

Awesome.  Nice tits too.

[GhostOfTomJoad 9442]

I'm going down the google rabbit hole here. According to wikipedia, the first concert in May included America, Peter Frampton, Santana and Gary Wright.  They tried to get Joni Mitchell, Jefferson Starship, Neil Young and the Beach Boys, but they were on separate tours. Paul Simon and Bruce Springsteen turned down offers to play. Over 56,000 fans attended.

The success of the first event brought in the bigger acts 4 months later, but the location change resulted in a financial disaster. Is this this the great lost forgotten music festival in Austin? I think The Band only played about a dozen more gigs. And in the picture above of Stevie Nicks signing a promo sheet for Rumours, that album wasn't released until early '77.

Maybe the musicians just went through the motions, but I can't believe there isn't more history available about these concerts. 

 

[Guest Lobo]

Well, oddly enough...most of these bands/personnel are still around and playing.  

Sunday Break 45rpm...reminders per moment.  Spring or Summer of 2021...in Austin.  Either out at that lakeside amphitheater by Lake Travis or back in town at COTA or somewhere.  But 45/7" record commemoration of this thing.  Steve Miller Band, Chicago, some members of Fleetwood Mac, some of the bands from the first festival (still unclear who those acts were from the article), pepper in Dead & Co., ZZ Top, et. al.  C3 could produce the shit out of that without even trying.  I guess it'd have to be near Memorial Day to avoid conflict with ACL Music Festival.  But c'mon.  This wouldn't be that hard.  How has this remained such a little secret for decades?  Let's at least have Linklater make a movie about when it did happen...

[UTCzech III 2917]

11 hours ago, GhostOfTomJoad said:

And in the picture above of Stevie Nicks signing a promo sheet for Rumours, that album wasn't released until early '77.

 

 

That's actually a poster for "Fleetwood Mac" (Rhiannon, Monday Morning, Say You Love Me, etc), came out in '75.

[GhostOfTomJoad 9442]

Good catch. My bad. Saw the B&W upside down Mick was tea bagging Stevie in the pic.

[Guest Lobo]

11 hours ago, UTCzech III said:

That's actually a poster for "Fleetwood Mac" (Rhiannon, Monday Morning, Say You Love Me, etc), came out in '75.

Or, maybe Stevie Nicks can time travel...and she can even bring back one chronological sojourner with her so that I can bang 1975 Stevie Nicks resulting my own birth in '76.

Wait, that got weird.  But seriously, May 2021...45year/45rpm anniversary of this somewhere out near Lake Austin/Lake travis.   

[horn4life 3819]

So the essence of the story is that you don't need a CB radio to know today, that if you are going out to Steiner Ranch you are fucked on traffic.

[abuelo gringo 323]

A little off topic, but I didn't want to start another.  Sometime in the '70s, there were some smaller, progressive country music concerts at Steiner Ranch.  Not sure if before or after the Sunday Break concerts, as I don't remember them.  Wish I had seen the Band live, though.

One of these had Willie, Billy Joe, Alex Harvey (wrote Delta Dawn, played LA swamp rock), and the Wheel.  The other had Waylon, Jimmy Buffett, and Rusty Wier.  I know Tommy Steiner performed at one of them.  Other performers were there, but I can't remember who or recognize in what photos I had.

All I have are contact sheets, as I lost any original photos and the original negatives in a flood in 2015.

Only stories I have are that some hippies went skinny dipping in Bull Creek, but we stayed away as we had our young kids (under 10 yo)  with us.  I also missed what could have been the best photo I could have taken.  Willie had come out and sat in the audience, apparently chatting up some cutie.  One of our party told my 5-6 year old daughter to go give Willie a kiss, which she did.  All of us thought it was great, but sitting there with a camera in my lap, I didn't even think to capture the moment.  Lotsa beer that day.

I do have some old scans, however.

 

 

[jimmyjazz 46502]

Damn!  Solid contribution!

Edited October 11, 2023 by jimmyjazz

[GhostOfTomJoad 9442]

Now THAT'S how you bump an old thread. Bravo

[K. Roesler 1]

I also remember, when Steiner was a beautiful natural ranch. One of my fond memories was attending Sunday Break II there, in September 1976. As "Fine Arts" Editor (ha ha ha) for the SWTSU University Star, I finagled a reporting gig to cover the outdoor concert there featuring Fleetwood Mac, Peter Frampton, Chicago, Steve Miller Band, & England Dan & John Ford Coley (with backstage pass). The night before the concert they had a "press party" at the Driskell Hotel where I got to meet the members of Fleetwood Mac. The next day they took the press in speedboat shuttles right to the site of the concert. I wish my life had continued to be as exciting as it was in my college years!

[CooterBrown 18099]

AI is getting better at sounding human.