The Fillmore East New York City's Legendary Music Palace

New York’s Fillmore East only operated three years,  but it hosted some of the greatest Rock Legends the music industry has ever known.

It became the “Church of Rock” with it’s two show triple bill concerts several nights a week.

The Best Live music on Earth.

Those fortunate enough to experience it first hand will never forget the Fillmore East.

During the late sixties,  the rock world revolved around the larger than life Bill Graham, the greatest rock and roll promoter of all time.

He had already helped make San Francisco the center of the Music Revolution at the Fillmore and Wonderland Arena.

Having survived a harrowing escape from Germany to France as a child, losing his parents in the Holocaust and growing up in a foster home in the Bronx,  Bill Graham was more than a worthy match for ruthless operators in the cutthroat music business.

Graham operated a tight ship, demanding nothing less than excellence from his staff and the artists who inhabited his stage.

Those who condemned him for his infamous habit of raising his voice and dropping choice expletives to make a point in negotiations, often missed the fact that underneath the rough Bronx exterior, Graham was a fair-minded individual who preferred a more gentlemanly manner of conducting business.

To him everything was about “The Fan Experience” and he went out of his way to provide the best kind of atmosphere to take in a life performance.

From the ornate hand rendered posters he printed up to announce the gigs,  the lavish psychedelic visuals he commissioned the Joshua Light Show company to provide behind the stage, the 35,000 Watt 26 speaker sound system custom designed by Bill Handley and even the barrel of free apples he left out for people departing at the end of the night, no detail was too small for Graham’s notice.

As a result, the bands and artists who played the Fillmore East, as well as its San Francisco counterpart typically went the extra mile for $3, $4 or $5,  you as a ticket holder we’re granted a pass to be taken someplace truly magical.

Bill Graham’s innovations in concert promotion gave New Yorkers and San Franciscans easy access to the best live music on Earth for a few precious years.

The Fillmore East opened on March 8th 1968, to stand as an East coast outpost for his burgeoning live concert empire.

Located at 105 2nd Avenue in the heart of the East Village, next door to the NYU Film School and the famed kosher dairy restaurant Ratners, the Fillmore East seated about 2700 people in an ornate repurposed Yiddish theater built in 1925.

For the first performance at the Fillmore East, Graham decided to bring a bit of the West coast sound out to the East coast and tap Big Brother and the Holding Company for the honor.   A ballsy blues rock band fronted by a singer from Texas named Janis Joplin.

The second set which kicked off at nearly two o’clock in the morning, garnered a standing ovation and in the course of one night, the entire city was put on notice – the Fillmore East was the new place to be.

The Fillmore East had only been open two weeks, when the two night sold out performance of one of the most iconic rock bands the Doors, reached near mythical status in March of 1968.

The 24-year-old lead vocalist Jim Morrison was already famous for his outrageous stage behavior and was featured in a sensational Life Magazine pictorial shot during the shows called “Wicked Go the Doors – And Adults Education by the Kings of Acid Rock”.

Miles Davis opened for Neil Young and Crazy Horse and the Steve Miller Band, another example of Bill Graham’s pension for mixing genres on his Fillmore bills.

“If there ever was a time when a rock audience was willing to open their ears and hear some great modern Jazz, like the kind Miles was creating, it was at the Fillmore from the late ’60s and to the ’70s and 71”.  – Carlos Santana

The Fillmore East was widely regarded as a palace of blues and rock, but every once in awhile the place could get downright funky, like with Sly and the Family Stone in October of 1968.

Sly who keeps the energy high and the groove moving,  had the crowd on their feet the entire show.

Bill Graham’s Fillmore East changed the music industry.

With the appearances there generating Big Apple buzz and FM AirPlay that spread rapidly across the country, artists and their management clamored for bookings.

For the artist,  The Fillmore was the high octane gig to play in New York over anywhere else.

It was a great sounding room, with a great crowd.   There was no curfew and you could play all night.

Breaking new talent and creating rock legacies, the Fillmore East was prime to rock to even greater heights in 1969.  and establish itself as one of the world’s premier concert halls for contemporary music.

in 1969 BB King kicked off an All Blues Show with Johnny Winter.   King needed to play venues where rock audiences would be exposed to his music.   He had to win over a tough New York crowd with his inimitable vocal style and guitar virtuosity.   Thanks to this appearance, King would soon accompany the Rolling Stones on their 69 American tour with the Ike and Tina Turner Review.

In January 1969,  Led Zeppelin’s debut album had just bowed and New York was electric with the anticipation of seeing this hot new English band live, as Bill Graham booked them as the opening act for Iron Butterfly.

Their first set that evening absolutely slayed, ripping up the house so thoroughly that Iron Butterfly flatly refused to go on after them for the second show.

So Zeppelin headlined the 11:30 show, never again to be an opening act.

The English band Jethro Tull would play The Fillmore East seven times, when they opened for Blood Sweat and Tears in January of 1969.

Often considered one of the first hybrid jazz rock groups, Blood Sweat and Tears had a distinctive sound that was essentially blues and soul, influenced by pop rock with horns.

Tull would rock the Fillmore audience with their fat full sound, perfectly mixed and blasted to the back of the balcony with shimmering clarity, as the Fillmore East, then state-of-the-art sound system, with stacks of Marshall amps the British groups brought from Europe, with a hard heavy booming rock sound.

On October 25th 1969, with the album Tommy scheduled to release the next day,  The Who sent the Fillmore ablaze by premiering Pete Townsend’s highly anticipated rock opera in its entirety and brought 45 speakers along with them for six standing room only teeth gnashing performances.

Jimi Hendrix and his Band of Gypsies rang in the new decade on December 31st 1969 and launched into an inspired version of “Auld Lang Syne” complete with blues licks,  whammy bar and feedback for an historic night to remember.

It’s 1969 schedule packed with world class talent delivering incredible must see performances, would cement its legacy as New York’s legendary Rock Palace.

Elton John performed four shows November 20th and 21st 1970 at the Fillmore, as Bill Graham booked John at Leon Russell’s suggestion.

“I’ve never worked for anybody as professional as Bill Graham or his staff”, John told the Rolling Stone.   “It’s the musicians dream gig.   If you don’t make it at the Fillmore West or East no matter what the audience is like, you’ll never make it anywhere.  Bands take it for granted they’re playing the Fillmore.  They don’t think about the fact they’re getting the best PA system, the best sound and the best lights.   The lighting is incredible”.

The Allman Brothers on Friday December 26 1969, made their Fillmore East debut featuring a seductive brand of Southern Blues Rock, the impressive lead guitar and slide mastery of Duane  and the keyboard artistry of his brother Greg on Hammond organ

Their first two studio releases had stalled commercially and their double live album would be the artistic and commercial breakthrough they had struggled toward for the previous two years.

Gregg Allman and Dickey Betts on why they recorded their first Live album there “we realize that we got a better sound Live and that we’re a Live band and we realized the audience was a big part of what we did”.

The iconic cover for the album shows the band lounging against the wall, with road cases in the alley behind the venue, while the music burned with an intensity that would cement the band’s reputation as a major rock act.

To cut the record, the band played for three nights on March 11, 12 and 13 1971, and we’re paid $1,250 a show.

The album was selected in 2004 for preservation in the Library of Congress,  a tribute to one of the most important music venues of all time.

The music business had changed radically since the Fillmore East opened in 1968.

Woodstock was the wake-up call that rock concerts were big money.

Headliners were not content to play a 2700 seat venue, the bands wanted control.

Graham’s handshake agreements were long gone as musicians had lawyered up with negotiators,  talent agents and managers.

Graham had had enough and announced the Fillmore East was closing.

Chief among his complaints was the unreasonable and totally destructive inflation of the live concert scene, and the exploitation of the gigantic hall and stadium concerts with high priced tickets, which lacked intimacy.

Fittingly The Grateful Dead gave a final five night stand from Apri 25th through Thursday April 29th.  The Dead ruled supreme in the city that never sleeps, extending their infamous marathon sets until dawn.

The final epic weekend on June 25th through the 27th 1971 featured the Allman Brothers Band,  J Geils Band, Albert King,  Edgar Winters White Trash, Mountain,  The Beach Boys and Country Joe McDonald and was simulcast on New York City radio stations WPLJ and WNEW FM.

“That was a special show” said Dickey Betts.   “We played until daylight that morning.  I remember it was dark in there and when they opened the door the sun about knocked us down.   We didn’t realize we had played until 7 or 8 in the morning.  Bill Graham just let us rattle and nobody said ‘we gotta cut time’.  It was just a rally free kind of thing”.

They had played for seven hours straight. Duane Allman dragging his guitar said “damn it’s just like leaving church”.

Almost fifty live albums were recorded at the Fillmore East, the most famous being the Allman Brothers.

Pretty much every legendary 1960s band except the Beatles, The Rolling Stones and Bob Dylan graced the stage.

in December 1971 Graham had the Grateful Dead at Madison Square Garden and went on to produce tours with Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones and George Harrison.

Graham was killed on October 25th 1991 when his helicopter hit an electrical tower near San Francisco.