The year 1970 was a tumultuous one for area fans of rock concerts. Merriweather Post Pavilion, the outdoor music venue in Columbia, was not spared from its share of tumult. Pre- and mid-season upgrades to the venue and human security enhancements, including a partnership with the underground press, showed its willingness to hold big name concerts and keep the peace.
Rock On!
The Rouse Company announced a considerable upgrade to the three-year-old amphitheater immediately prior to the start of the 1970 season, bowing to the lure of attracting big acts and big profits. About 2,000 seats under the covered pavilion were added to bring the venue’s capacity to 10,000, including the 5,000 lawn spaces.
As Ben Segal, Merriweather’s executive producer, told the Baltimore Sun, they hoped “to accommodate larger crowds and meet the competitive market for big name stars.” The superstar who precipitated the upgrade was Welsh sensation Tom Jones. Gladys Knight and the Pips opened his five-day run.
And while rock and pop concerts drew bigger crowds, they cost more and naturally drew a different audience than the National Symphony Orchestra, ballets, and theater performances that were initially intended to perform at Merriweather by James Rouse and his Columbia designers.
However, around the District, Maryland, and Virginia, rock concerts were being banned due to the disturbances and vandalism occurring in and outside their sites. The mayhem included fights, gate crashing, vandalism, stage rushing, drug use, and huge traffic jams, causing headaches for local police departments.
Some venues used reports of prior incidents or disorderly concertgoers to determine whether to accept or reject rock acts. DAR Constitution Hall and University of Maryland’s Ritchie Coliseum had experienced vandalism and suspended rock shows indefinitely. Some cancelled at the mere threat of unruly crowds.
By mid-summer, Richard Harrington of WoodWind, a D.C. underground newspaper, said that “The Pavilion is one of the last showcases for rock in the Baltimore-Washington area. All the others have shut themselves off from this market.”
Back-to-back concerts—Procol Harum on June 28 and The Who on June 29—presented an opportunity to save rock performances.
It was not a great start. A large crowd of “perhaps a thousand people had combined to break through the fences [into the venue] and from the lawn to the seats (which cost more)” during the Procol Harum concert. In the end, only 3,000 attended the show, Harrington reported.
The next day, Merriweather Administrators, executive producer Ben Segal, and managing director Norman Israel “called a hasty meeting with representatives of the underground press: Harry from Baltimore, and WoodWind, Quicksilver Times, and Third Ear from Washington,” to prepare for The Who concert that night. Merriweather had received “telephoned threats of violence and arson, plus the obvious threat of gate crashing,” according to Harrington.
The threats centered on high ticket prices. Segal sought to get ahead of the threats by bringing in the underground press to address the issue with the public and to enlist their support as volunteer peace marshals for the show.
Segal showed the group The Who’s contract demanding an exorbitant fee, noting that groups set top price admissions to guarantee the highest compensation. He indicated that he had contacted several agencies, which agreed, as a starting point, to lower ticket prices for some acts.
The underground press on behalf of the public sought lower ticket prices, benefit concerts for their newspapers, and donations from the musicians to support free clinics in Baltimore, Washington, and Howard County.
Harrington believed the meeting was an important step, as “[t]he press community would also be working to see that these concerts are fairly run and will particularly seek to avoid the self-destructive violence that sometimes occurs.” In a later meeting, Segal agreed to the benefit concert and would match donations from the acts for free clinics.
After the concert, Harrington wrote, “unreported in the ‘straight press’ was the fantastic behavior of the people at [The Who concert,]” which went off without incident. He promised to “be there to keep thin[g]s together, because the Pavilion is the last place for us to enjoy our music. That’s a heavy thought. If we lose it.”
The Baltimore Sun reported, however, that Pavilion authorities were forced to open gates and admit hundreds of people without tickets when the crowd, estimated to be 20,000–25,000, surrounded the venue. Following The Who concert, Merriweather added additional turnstiles to forestall the gate crashing.
Rock Off!
One month later, on July 29, Richard L. Anderson, the general manager of Columbia, announced “no more hard rock music shows” would be booked at Merriweather for the remainder of the season “and probably not next year. The groups drew too many people.”
Anderson cited a crowd 3,000 above the pavilion’s capacity “...that tried to break into the show” during the Steppenwolf concert the night before, as the reason for the decision.
Merriweather managing director Israel and county police chief G. Russell Walters, met with Anderson prior to the announcement. Walters was in favor of the decision, noting the difficulty in policing large crowds for the size of the county force. Israel noted that “the reported incidents of violence were nothing we consider major.” His position had been to consider shows on a case-by-case basis and not cancel them all outright, noting that five previous rock shows, though not sell outs, had been peaceful and without incident.
Peace Marshals and Rent-a-Kids
A Sun reporter described the scene at the Steppenwolf concert from the inside. It was at times chaotic. “Rent-a-kids,” twenty-five youths hired at $1.60 an hour by Merriweather from the “Columbia Youth Association” to help prevent gatecrashing and other unwanted activities, were trying to stop the fence jumpers. Rent-a-cops were attempting to push concertgoers back under the fence they were breaching.
Once the show started, there was an appeal to the crowd from the stage, where WoodWind’s Harrington had taken to the microphone to implore the crowd, “We have to show them we can have a good place for rock without disturbances.”
Steppenwolf’s lead singer, John Kay, also made attempts to calm the scene: first by playing a “slow, quiet blues” song that only temporarily stopped the stage-storming, then by pleading with them to get off the stage. The rent-a-kids pushed the rushers off the stage, and simultaneously “formed a protective semi-circle around the band.” At last, Kay offered to “open up” the wings, if the crashers left the stage. They did and Steppenwolf closed with “Magic Carpet Ride.”
Rock On a Case-by-Case Basis?
In August, Harry reported that its peace marshals would be “out in force” outside of Merriweather on August 15 for the John Sebastian benefit concert, passing out leaflets warning concertgoers to behave or lose future rock shows. The show offered lower, single price tickets and was to benefit four area underground papers. The Sun reported that, “Efforts by promoters to avoid disorders this weekend is a reflection of a nationwide concern for the future of live rock concerts.”
Kevin Leonard contributed to this story.
Angie Latham Kozlowski is a staff writer and member of the Board of Directors for the Laurel History Boys. In addition to her investigative reporting, her articles frequently spotlight Howard County.
Comments