This blurry but worthy slice of music of history is of The Blues Brothers Band (Closing of Winterland NYE ’78-’79), from house right seats. This was the original ensemble [from top center down: Paul Shaffer, Donald ‘Duck’ Dunn, Steve Cropper, Matt ‘Guitar’ Murphy, Jake Blues (Elwood bending over downstage of Paul), the Tom Scott Horns (Tom Scott, Alan Rubin, Lou Marini, ?unknown?), drummer believed to be Steve Jordan.] which was disbanded not many gigs after this one.

Confetti covers the early morning stage of 1979 with the Grateful Dead fully in control. [From left to right: Lee Oskar, Jerry Garcia, Greg Errico, Phil Lesh & John Cipollina (both back to). Keith & Donna Godchaux, Mickey Hart out of frame.]

See Winterland history roster: HERE’S WHAT YOU MISSED.

~Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers @ Winterland Arena-San Francisco, CA December 30, 1978~

There’s just not enough places in the world where the owner of the joint flies over the crowd…IN A GIANT DOOBIE! … dressed as Father Time and sprinkles them with fairy dust and actual doobies, hitting the stage at the stroke of the New Year (1978-79) in a cloud of smoke, confetti, & balloons as the Grateful Dead strikes up “Sugar Magnolia”, then plays for five and a half hours with breakfast served at dawn for 5500. Winterland’s Bill Graham made a habit of it every New Years Eve, sometimes delaying New Years an hour so he could do it cross town at another venue. Now THAT’S dedication to theater. Not enough places like that.

If you missed San Francisco’s Winterland Arena, HERE’S WHAT YOU MISSED.

[In the bottom pic, Bill/Father Time crashes into stage while Jerry Garcia & Bob Weir look on and Elwood Blues (Dan Aykroyd) exits stage right (in top of pic).]

“Billy’s Boogie” now runs Friday’s 4-6pm (pdt).
Bill Frater grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and was present during the magical birth of “free-form” FM radio with KMPX/KSAN and the psychedelic music scene of the 1960s. Starting in the mid ’70s, as a respite from his day job delivering mail in San Francisco, Bill began volunteering at stations like Berkeley’s KALX (one of the first stations to play punk music) and weekend shifts at KTIM before eventually moving to Sonoma County, where he hosted a 2-hour roots music show on KRCB for over 20 years. He then took his show to commercial station KRSH in Santa Rosa, which at the time was one of the few remaining stations giving DJs freedom to construct their own music sets in the classic free-form model.
Now retired from the Post Office and living in Salem, Oregon, Bill still hosts radio shows on a few stations nationwide; he is excited to be a part of the Jiveradio family and to continue to celebrate the magic of free-form radio.

Join us for “Billy’s Boogie” and please pass the Jive!