Khatru
08-19-2008, 12:17 PM
While performing with my busy cover band "Canyon" in the early 1970s, we once helped cause a minor riot in the small town of Idabel, Oklahoma by playing a high-volume and rather unappreciated set of Deep Purple, Alice Cooper, and Jimi Hendrix music directly at a country and western audience -all without a protective screen of chicken wire and without attempting any impromptu covers of "Rawhide".
Seems one of our fans had contacted our manager a while back and had booked the show without telling us this was not a rock and roll club. After driving all day to get there and loading in, our first hint that all was not well was when the club owner (who looked like Norman Fell) told our keyboard player to remove his hat. Keyboard player replied that there were lots of folks wearing cowboy hats in there. Owner said, "that ain't no cowboy hat boy, that's a freak hat!"
Adopting the "this is war" theme which became evident at this point, we proceeded to revise our set list and performed our loudest and most edgy stuff (ca. 1974).
The club owner was furious and did not want to pay us afterward, even though some of the crowd seemed to dig us. The singer left the building and went out to the trailer where I found him jacking bullets into his hunting rifle. We had a little talk about calming down, thinking things through, and visiting our mental "happy place" for a while and he finally agreed to relinquish the weapon. Disarming lead singers was a routine part of being in a band in the midwest in those days.
Someone (maybe our keyboard player) negotiated a settlement with the club owner and we got enough cash to make it back to Norman, our hometown, but I'll never forget the day we got the salad in Idabel.
FAIL
http://67.171.231.21/canyon/idabel_sign_01.jpg
Seems one of our fans had contacted our manager a while back and had booked the show without telling us this was not a rock and roll club. After driving all day to get there and loading in, our first hint that all was not well was when the club owner (who looked like Norman Fell) told our keyboard player to remove his hat. Keyboard player replied that there were lots of folks wearing cowboy hats in there. Owner said, "that ain't no cowboy hat boy, that's a freak hat!"
Adopting the "this is war" theme which became evident at this point, we proceeded to revise our set list and performed our loudest and most edgy stuff (ca. 1974).
The club owner was furious and did not want to pay us afterward, even though some of the crowd seemed to dig us. The singer left the building and went out to the trailer where I found him jacking bullets into his hunting rifle. We had a little talk about calming down, thinking things through, and visiting our mental "happy place" for a while and he finally agreed to relinquish the weapon. Disarming lead singers was a routine part of being in a band in the midwest in those days.
Someone (maybe our keyboard player) negotiated a settlement with the club owner and we got enough cash to make it back to Norman, our hometown, but I'll never forget the day we got the salad in Idabel.
FAIL
http://67.171.231.21/canyon/idabel_sign_01.jpg