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In very poor taste
The firecracking antics at the California Jam were to the great amusement of a great many people, and to not-so-great amusement of the local authorities. Here is a reproduction of a letter sent by the City of Ontario Fire Chief to the ABC Entertainment in the aftermath of the event (click to enlarge).
Thanks to Yvonne for bringing this piece of memorabilia to your attention.
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
Well done for digging up that letter. And there we have it, ‘that band will never work here again’ or words to that effect. Also, ‘we hope that you will look into this in the same light’ etc etc, etc. Poor ole Blackers, he was influence by Guy Fawkes a little, he he. It was very serious incident though, and as I have said, maybe it tarnished that trouble making bands name a little, eh? Cheers.
March 31st, 2021 at 21:10BOOM, BABY!. 💥🎸 😆😅😂🤣 💜
March 31st, 2021 at 23:54Not to mention Ritchie’s disdain for the camera!
April 1st, 2021 at 00:34This turned up on my browser just now & it put me in mind of a young RB…
April 1st, 2021 at 11:40Can’t imagine why!
https://youtu.be/NEqniZcaU6Y
The long forgotten typewriter. Those were the days……
April 1st, 2021 at 12:26oooh,whatahelluva memory… for me personnaly (for I saw live Purple for the very first in the dawn of videorecorder in 1986 – in my country then) marvelous MKIII gig, young an´ enthusiastic DC, higher than life GH, first of the musketeers JL, phenomenal IP an´ that one! RB a little bit theatrical, end extempore ruined my whole view of that gigantic event.
April 1st, 2021 at 12:42And anyone…. do/did you see the magic of performance of your loved band between the sundown an´ beginning of the night?) There were not so many chances an that was the ONE.
I keep on talking about CalJam every minute. Please stop me… but wasn´t it phantastic gig? I mean till the start of the moment when some bloodyhell guitarist woke up an´ thought of some stupid revenge on “those mediabollocks”.
Swallow your flies. I surrender and thank the band that i could taste it so many times!
Needless to say, playing with fire is playing with doom. From some stupid with a flare gun, to Marshall gasoline tanks, to the oh so sad tragedy at the Great White gig at The Station in Rhode Island. The released footage from the moment the ceiling went ablaze is beyond heart wrenching. Careful, careful, careful……
Peace,
April 1st, 2021 at 13:36Ted
MacGregor @1 – yes that incident at Ontario Speedway, only about an hour from Warner Brothers’ Headquarters in Los Angeles must have caused a fair amount of consternation in the head office. I can’t imagine that Purple endeared themselves to the corporate types that day.
April 1st, 2021 at 14:08Thumbs up to DP!!
April 1st, 2021 at 14:52Only one minor typo correction, not bad.
April 8th, 2021 at 14:50Might’ve been dangerous but gee it was spectacular. Reminds me of a very stupid thing we did as kids with a fire crackers and glass bottle.
We used to fill our mouths with gasoline, light and blow out hard, spectacular indeed.. and put our hands in gasoline and light, oh, oh. Saw it done by “artists” at the very big market tivoli and had to do the same of course.
April 15th, 2021 at 15:43@ 11…We used to pull our pants down, use a bic lighter and blow farts at parties.
April 20th, 2021 at 12:19I have the original letter. This is from my archive.
October 9th, 2021 at 22:41