From the first public Mime Troupe events in 1965 to his untimely death
in 1991, Bill Graham set the standard for excellence in concert
presentations and in doing so, redefined the art of communication for an
entire generation. To honor Bill Graham, Steve Kahn and Melissa Gold,
the Bill Graham Presents staff organized a free concert in Golden Gate
Park for Sunday, November 3, 1991. Mother Nature cooperated and provided
a comfortable and cloudless day as 300,000 people gathered in the Polo
Field of Golden Gate Park. Sad circumstances aside, it was truly a
celebration of Graham's life, filled with Laughter, Love, and Music.
Teach Your Children
A
memorial service, called 'Laughter, Love & Music', was held
for Graham, Gold, and Kahn, at the Polo Fields in San
Francisco's Golden Gate Park on November 3rd, 1991, attracting a crowd of
350,000, one of the biggest
crowds the park had ever seen. Many of the bands Graham had been
instrumental in supporting played the venue, Santana, a reunited Journey,
Los Lobos, a reunited CSNY, the Dead (with guests John Fogerty, John Popper and
Neil Young), Robin Williams, the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, Bobby McFerrin, Jackson
Browne, Joe Satriani with Randy Jackson, Tracy Chapman, Aaron Neville with
Evylyn Cisneros of the SF Ballet, and Joan Baez.
Some Bay Area residents still refer to the crash as "the Night the Music Died."
Love The One You With
Bill Graham (January 8, 1931 – October 25, 1991) was an American
impresario and rock
concert promoter from the 1960s until his death in 1991 in a helicopter crash. He fled from Germany and, in 1941, from France to escape
the Holocaust. At age ten he settled in a foster home in
the Bronx, New York. Graham graduated from
DeWitt Clinton High School and from
City College with a
business degree.
In the early 1960s, he moved to
San Francisco, and, in 1965, began to manage a theater troupe. He organized a
benefit concert,
then promoted several free concerts. This eventually turned into a
profitable full-time career and he assembled a talented staff. Graham
had a profound influence around the world, sponsoring the musical
renaissance of the '60s from the epicenter, San Francisco. Graham made
famous
the Fillmore and
Winterland Arena; these turned out to be a proving grounds for rock bands and acts of the San Francisco Bay area including the
Grateful Dead,
Jefferson Airplane, and
Big Brother & the Holding Company with
Janis Joplin.
Southern Cross
Graham was killed in a
helicopter crash west of
Vallejo, California on October 25, 1991, while returning home from a
Huey Lewis and the News concert at the
Concord Pavilion. Graham had attended the event to discuss promoting a benefit concert for the victims of the 1991
Oakland firestorm. Once he had obtained the commitment from
Huey Lewis
to perform, he returned to his helicopter. Flying in severe weather,
with rain and gusty winds, the aircraft flew off course and too low to
the ground over the tidal marshland north of San Pablo Bay. The
Bell Jet Ranger flew directly into a 223-foot high-voltage tower near where
Highway 37, which runs between
Vallejo, California and
Marin County, California, crosses
Sonoma Creek.
The helicopter burst into flames on impact, killing Graham, pilot Steve
Kahn and Graham's girlfriend, Melissa Gold, ex-wife of author
Herbert Gold. The charred remains of the helicopter hung grotesquely in the tower for more than a day.
Long Time Coming
Following his death, his company, Bill Graham Presents (BGP), was taken
over by a group of employees. Graham's sons remained a core part of the
new management team. The new owners sold the company to SFX Promotions,
which in turn sold the company to
Clear Channel Entertainment.
The BGP staff did not embrace the Clear Channel name, and several
members of the Graham staff eventually left the company. Former BGP
President/CEO Gregg Perloff and former Senior Vice President Sherry
Wasserman left and started their own company, Another Planet
Entertainment. Eventually Clear Channel separated itself from concert
promotion and formed
Live Nation,
which is managed by many former Clear Channel executives. In 2014 one
Miss. Shelley Jo Verena Shuford of San Francisco long time friend of the
late Bill Graham is now the legal owner of both Winterland and
Winterland Productions (name and company) and is promoting music
artists, artists of California and the world.
Only love Can Break Your Heart
Bill Graham (January 8, 1931 – October 25, 1991)
