Bill Graham Presents handbill, Kezar Stadium, Golden Gate Park, 1973
Kezar Stadium
- Led ZeppelinHeadliner
- Roy HarperSupport
- The TubesSupport
- Lee MichaelsSupport
The show that changed everything — and nearly ended everything. Two years before their first record deal, The Tubes walked onto a stadium stage in their own backyard ahead of Led Zeppelin at the peak of the band’s powers. Fee Waybill went out as an early version of Quay Lewd, hurling flour and candy into the crowd as “cocaine” and “pills,” and the crowd threw it back. Bill Graham was furious, telling manager Herbie Herbert the band would never play San Francisco again. He got over it: within a year Graham was booking them at Winterland for New Year’s and Halloween.
The handbill tells you exactly where the band stood that spring. It advertises Led Zeppelin, Kezar Stadium, Saturday 2 June, gates at ten, Zeppelin on at two, six dollars in advance and seven at the gate — and underneath, in place of a lineup: “plus supporting acts to be announced.” The Tubes were one of those unannounced acts. Four hours later they had played to fifty thousand people and Bill Graham was threatening to run them out of San Francisco.