A little rock and roll nostalgia

[dixiehack]

This was well before my time, but a very nice article on the Brennan family, which owned some of the biggest AM stations in the South in the 50s and 60s and staged incredible concerts in Alabama and Florida.

The Beatles, Rolling Stones and Elvis: For Alabama radio pioneer Dan Brennan, life was a Shower of Stars

The lede is about the Beatles playing the Gator Bowl in the aftermath of a hurricane, but my favorite part is about a show they produced in Birmingham. Where are you ever going to see a lineup this diverse?

One of the most powerful Shower of Stars events happened on May 7, 1965, when WVOK brought the Rolling Stones and the Beach Boys to Legion Field. The 7 p.m. show -- billed as a music battle between the England and the United States -- also included the Righteous Brothers, Marty Robbins, Sonny James, Skeeter Davis, Del Reeves, Archie "Rindercella" Campbell and Cannibal and the Headhunters.

"One of the the things we had to do, in order to provide bathroom facilities for all of the artists, we had a bunch of RVs, recreation vehicles, and they were all over the field out there," Brennan says. "I remember the Rolling Stones came up to me, and they said, 'You don't really expect us to get into the same RV that the Beach Boys are in, do you?' I said, 'Well, you've got a choice here. You can either do that, or you will not have a place to change. If you have one, it's going to be way down the other part of the field.' They agreed to do it, but they were on one end of it, and the Beach Boys were on the other end of it. There was a little jealousy there."

 

[Riptide]

Archie Campbell?
Hee ****in' haw!