Diamond Head Crater Festivals

[JKane]

Re: Diamond Head Crater Festivals

I was the drummer vocalist for the Jasper Rose Band (1970s) and The Delta Band (1980s). I also helped with stage set ups and posted Sunbums posters in storefronts for free concert tickets in the 1970s. The Jasper Rose Band did some recordings at Audissy and we played at a few of their annual parties in the studio parking lot, along with groups like Shnazz who were good friends of ours. I was sorry to hear that Sam Holt passed away. These two bands I was in also did concert warm-ups at the HIC or NBC arena for the Elvin Bishop band, The Manhattens, and Rick Springfield (Jesse's Girl tour). Those were great times!

[JKane]

Re: Diamond Head Crater Festivals

I was the drummer vocalist for the Jasper Rose Band (1970s) and The Delta Band (1980s). I also helped with stage set ups and posted Sunbums posters in storefronts for free concert tickets in the 1970s. The Jasper Rose Band did some recordings at Audissy and we played at a few of their annual parties in the studio parking lot, along with groups like Shnazz who were good friends of ours. I was sorry to hear that Sam Holt passed away. These two bands I was in also did concert warm-ups at the HIC or NBC arena for the Elvin Bishop band, The Manhattens, and Rick Springfield (Jesse's Girl tour). Those were great times! I will check back to see if you remembered us or at least those bands.

[na alii]

Re: Diamond Head Crater Festivals

I remember Shnazz well. I recently went to Jelly's and converted the Shnazz LP to CD. It brought back memories. Burnin' Vernon Sakata is still playing these days.

[dave pearlman]

Re: Diamond Head Crater Festivals

Hello everyone. I have enjoyed reading all of the comments about the Sunshine Festival. I was fortunate to be part of the festivities in 1974 when I played pedal steel guitar on stage with David Carradine and then Dobro with Ramblin' Jack Elliot. We came over as part of a film documentary (that was never finished) that also included Bonnie Bramlett. We stayed and rehearsed in Hana for a few weeks at Red Shepperd's ranch where he had a stage built for us to perform for a few friends before going to Diamond Head. ( I have a picture or two of that stage). What I don't have is any pictures of myself on stage at the Festival and would really love it if anyone has those and would be willing to share. All I have (to go with my memories) is a big yellow button and a now worn tank top with the Sunshine "poster" on it. Also, I have read here about Journey's 1977 appearance but I am pretty sure that they played after us in 1974; Neil Schon's amp blew and he used my Fender Twin Reverb amp (which I still own) to finish the show. I went on to tour with Dan Fogelberg for a few years (and others), opened a recording studio in Los Angeles and now manufacture microphones. Again, if anyone has pictures of the acts I worked with I would appreciate any copies. Mahalo... Dave Pearlman rtndrascal@aol.com

[johmbolaya]

Re: Diamond Head Crater Festivals

An emailer to the Star-Bulletin today, revved up by the Linda Ronstadt article, was quite upset that the newspaper website does not contain a database of every concert ever held in Hawaii. Well, SORRY, but that's not the newspaper's job. But it might be a website project for somebody out there...

There was a time when someone from Jelly's was trying to do this on their website. I had inquired way back when and actually offered to help with what I could find from all of my old "Rolling Stone" magazines. Of course there are easier methods, but has anyone ever moved on with something like this?

[johmbolaya]

Re: Diamond Head Crater Festivals

This has been a topic I've always been interested in, especially since I was too young to go to the festivals (although the first concert I remember too was one of the last Loggins & Messina shows at the HIC, 1976 in support of their Native Sons album. I have the ticket stub somewhere.

Outside of the Carlos Santana/Buddy Miles album, there was an album by a psychedelic or prog rock band from one of the festivals at FreakEmporium.com, a British website which catered to fans of obscure and trippy rock bands from the 60's up until today. I wish I remembered the name, but it was the first time I had ever seen a Crater Festival live album other than Santana/Miles.

I was wondering if any of the live sets from the 70's had been recorded, or would that have been something the artists would have coordinated. I always liked that photo of Sunday Manoa that's at the Star Bulletin website, I wonder if their set was recorded, or any of the other local artists who were able to afford the service. While releasing them and having them as MP3's would be one option, there are a lot of us out there who still buy CD's, and if mastered and mixed properly, they would sound great.

BTW - has anyone ever put together a book on the festivals? I know this thread has been here for awhile, but while I am on the mainland, I would not mind doing this as a way to say yes, we had festivals in Diamond Head, at least before they returned and got a bit pricey.

Or any of the other festivals. I'll have to do a search here to see if anyone remembers that Hawaiian concert they had out in Makaha in the late 70's/early 80's.

[pzarquon]

Re: Diamond Head Crater Festivals

I attended the 1970, 1971 concerts, was a stage hand/electrician on the 1972 and was the original site manager for the 1973 event but resigned prior to returning to New York. Bob Peyton and Bruce "Buddha" Bickley were the main organizers for stage/site security and later the whole event. I don't remember too many details, such as what musical groups played, but Peyton and Bickley, if you can find them, might prove to be very knowledgable.

Bruce "Buddha" Bickley has found his way over to the "Diamond Head Crater Festivals" section of the HawaiiBase wiki, and has typed up his own remembrance of the event. As bobcoia suspected, he provided a lot of other names from those days. Any of them ring a bell or stir up more memories worth recording?

He provided a little biographical information on himself, and corrected the entry on his brother Brian Bickley.

[Repercussion]

Re: Diamond Head Crater Festivals

[quote=scrivener;6731] I'm toying with the idea of assembling in one place as much info about the old Diamond Head Crater Festivals as I can. Please--any details at all, whether objective or subjective, would be most appreciated.

Rick wrote, "The most memorable was the July 3 & 4, 1977 Sunshine Festival" and I concur.

I was there, on the Band Stage, as the drummer with The Bright Eye Band: Martin Samuel (drums), Chuck DeFrancis (lead guitar & vocals), Jim Kesilika (bass guitar & vocals), Chris Bovard (lead guitar & vocals).

Journey had a fellow-Englishman on drums, Aynsley Dunbar, and I believe it was vocalist Steve Perry's first gig with them.

The Bright Eye Band lived over on the windward side in Kailua ~ I will never forget driving a van full of equipment through the tunnel into the Crater ... and, I still have my (Ninth Annual) stage pass!

[LikaNui]

Re: Diamond Head Crater Festivals

I was there, on the Band Stage, as the drummer

In which case I clearly like the screen name you chose here!
And if only there was a thread called Percussion, the second post (and on) would be Re: Percussion.
(I know I'm gonna hear repercussions groans.)

[anapuni808]

Re: Diamond Head Crater Festivals

My brother was one of the skydivers who did the exhibition jump into the crater during the 1977 festival. I still have a poster from that one, along with a photo of him just as he was landing in the middle of the crowd. According to him - it was a really cool jump!

[anapuni808]

Re: Diamond Head Crater Festivals

as an update to the above - I just sold the poster to a really nice guy who had been at the Sunshine Festival and had lost his own poster. He just happened to be looking at Craigslist when I put the posting up.

I'm glad she went to a good home

[Frankie's Market]

Re: Diamond Head Crater Festivals

My baby brother just got back from Coachella Festival, which is held annually in Indio, California. The aggregate attendance for all 3 days was an all-time record of 225,000, with a gross of over $20 million. Driving the ticket sales were some 130 acts, with headliners like Jay Z. and the Gorillaz. And for the old farts, you had Sly Stone and Devo.

But my bro commented to me about the economic boon that festival was to the local area. Stores were doing brisk sales and were oftentimes sold out of food and beverage items, even as the merchants stocked-up on inventory in anticipation of the festival.

I was then thinking to myself: At a time when Hawaii is struggling economically, tourism from the mainland is down, and the state is struggling to hang onto marquee events like the Pro Bowl, wouldn't it be great if you could have a Coachella-like festival right here? Yeah, a 2-3 day event with multiple performing stages and a lineup designed to draw a younger crowd, not the age 50-and-up demographic (Steve Miller Band and Earth, Wind, & Fire as headliners) and where attendance was restricted to something like 7,000 people. The old Craterfests attracted as much as 70,000 back in the day, which is about the same size crowd that Coachella draws in on a single day.

Yeah, I know that neighborhood opposition was what killed the Craterfests. But with the state now in dire need of whatever tax dollars it can get (Furlough Fridays, hello???) and unemployment being what it is,.... I wonder if community attitude towards a true Craterfest revival might have softened. I believe the last concert was in '07. That was before the economic recession hit.

[Kalihiboy]

Re: Diamond Head Crater Festivals

I'm not sure if I would go see Jay Z. for free, but that is beside the point. I think it is always amazing that in dire economic times lots of money is still spent, look at AVATAR, the most successful film of all time, now you point out the Coachella Festival has its biggest draw ever. Could we ever have a Lalapalooza type event in Honolulu?

I went to Wrestlemania last month in Phoenix and it actually had more attendance that the Superbowl had two years earlier at the same venue!

Go figure!

[Ron Whitfield]

Re: Diamond Head Crater Festivals

I was then thinking to myself, wouldn't it be great if you could have a Coachella-like festival right here? Yeah, a 2-3 day event with multiple performing stages and a lineup designed to draw a younger crowd.

Only if Iggy and The Stooges headlined every day, with a week of free Stooges concerts on the front lawns of those Diamond Head 'it's too loud' crybabys.

[Frankie's Market]

Re: Diamond Head Crater Festivals

When the Rolling Stones had their last concert here in '97, it almost didn't happen because the Aloha Stadium authority said that on the weekend date that the group was available to come here, the facility could not host the concert because of preperations for the upcoming Pro Bowl. Then-Gov. Ben Cayetano intervened and twisted some arms to get the stadium authority and NFL officials to relent and allowed for the Stones to perform two shows. And he did this, even as he publically mentioned that he wasn't a fan of the music. One has to hand it to Cayetano. Although he likely didn't attend the show, he was open-minded enough to realize that the event would draw in visitors from around the world and be an economic boon.

So it is with a Coachella or Lalapalooza-type festival. I realize that many folks here are still into the artists who had their heyday during the 1960s -'80s, as I am too. But the truth is,... it's the younger audience with little in the way of family responsibilities (no kiddies to drag along and feed) who have the disposable income to travel here and to spend at least several days on a trip. So even if you don't care for the festival itself and you would never attend it in a million years, it can still be of economic benefit for everyone in this state.

I mean, not everyone here is a long distance runner, right? But I think everyone pretty much understands the economic importance of having an event like the Honolulu Marathon.

And hey, if you don't like the headliners, as I said, a Coachella-like event has more than 130 acts in total, with 5 different concerts simultaneously going on at any given time. Needless to say, there's a lot of genres to choose from. (Hip-hop, alternative, punk, reggae, etc.) For many fans, the problem is that oftentimes, it's hard to decide which concert to go to. (A good problem for a music lover, BTW.) And if you're watching a certain show and you're just not getting into it, you can always leave and head off to another stage. That's the beauty and attraction of Coachella.