Concert review which includes an interview with Jimmy Page and the rest of the Yardbirds, by Gary Bainbridge, The Elyria Chronicle Telegram, 30 April 1968
Pandemonium prevailed backstage at the Palace Theater in Cleveland last Thursday night as showtime rolled around and only one — The Yardbirds — of the three starring groups for Doe Nemo's "Mind-Blowing Concert No. 1" had arrived.
Decked out in a multi-colored satin cape and looking like a superman who'd forgotten to remove the glasses from his Clark Kent disguise, Doc leaped onstage with a single bound to quiet the 3,000 very restless natives.
A roar from the crowd and the curtain went up simultaneously on The Blue Cheer who, with their 10 amplifiers blasting om all 1,000 watts, went right into their big hit, "Summertime Blues."
At one point it looked as though the group might leave the stage. This was after they had trouble with electronic equipment plus an interruption by representatives of the musician's union checking to see if they had an out-of-town permit and their fees were paid.
After calm was again restored they did "Satisfaction" and "Please Doctor." Frankly, after hearing their hit single and LP, I found their personal appearance disappointing.
Meanwhile six city police had their hands full backstage trying to keep out teen autograph seekers who kept oozing in from just about everywhere. As fast as they evicted a dozen or so, about another dozen sneaked in.
Since representatives of some college newspapers were also there, it was nearly impossible to tell who was who without a score card
No tempers fared and nobody was hurt, however, and Cleveland's finest earned the title of The Valiant Six for keeping order in the midst of chaos.
Dick Peterson, lead singer of the Cheers, told me they almost didn't make the concert, He'd just been released from a New York City hospital after major surgery.
All of the group, which also includes Leigh Stephens and Paul Whaley, are San Franciscans, where the hippie movement was born, Dick says.
Of their music be says: "We sing about love or the lack of it: escape from an unbearable reality: against war, all war, and also a turning towards mysticism."
Why mysticism? "Because we believe the only answers to man's inhumanity to man lie in getting to know yourself: by putting your focus on the contemplative as against the materialistic."
The second concert group, The Traffic, lean heavily on blues type music and scored a hit with both teens and press.
Their new LP, "Fantasy," on United Artists and their new single, "Round the Mulberry Bush," on the same label have just been released in this area.
Steven Winwood, guitarist who writes most of their material, told me they were still a little shaky in concert. Although they've been on the current tour for five weeks, it is their first tour of the United States.
They're English and find this country something of a shock.
"We'd always beard how liberal Americans are, therefore, we were really shook when people stared at us on New York streets like they wished they could make us disappear."
Steve says underground is "one of a few good things creeping through this sick, damp, dirty society. The world as a whole has grown sick with hatred. It is especially prevalent in America because in your fantastic drive for wealth the family system and the love it provides have broken down."
Other members of The Traffic are Jim Capaldi, percussionist, and Chris Wood, who plays flute, saxophone, bass and organ.
The best of the concert groups, both in singing and in person, were The Yardbirds.
This is the group which five years ago in London put together what has come to be known as the underground sound.
They sang their new release, "Sweet Josephine," and some of their biggie hits, "For Your Love" and "The Shape of Things." Their music is wild and free, loud, pulsating, almost primitive.
During a Teen Page interview member Keith Rolfe said: "Long hair has become a kind of status symbol. Five or six years ago it was different and exciting, but only an attention-getter."
The Yardbirds love America and don't think it's sick or backwards.
Says Jim McCarty: "America has been independent for only about 300 years. It hasn't had time for much of anything but growth. What people call sickness is nothing more than growing pains."
(Whereupon Keith and Chris Dreja started waving an American flag that was standing in a corner and shouted "Hear! Hear!")
Jim Page, lead guitarist who is one of the best in the business, believes underground is more of a fad in England than the U.S. Europeans have had bohemian characters for centuries and are more or less used to underground types.
In this country the underground represents frustration of the younger generation, he thinks.
"It's the inability of youth to communicate their ideas to those in the older generation whom they love. The whole idea of the underground movement, in art, theater, movies and music, is to shock people into taking a look around them and discovering that all is not right with the world."
Jim calls their music a "psychedelic collage" more than underground. Chris is bass, Jim McCarty, drummer, and Keith, lead vocalist.
The Yardbirds brought the house down. They proved you can be underground and not sell sex or dirty words to make a living.
Teens got a lot of concert for their money and Doc Nemo 'blew his mind.' This reporter considers it the best rock show in a long-long time











