I inquired men and women We visited college or university with – although some just who grew up in Athens or decided to go to UGA – to generally share their most favorite performance memories from the let you know. Listed below are some ones thoughts:
My classmate Tom Hodgson said the latest Coliseum show the guy seemed give on the very was Jerry Butler singing their strikes out-of “Brand new Ice Guy Cometh,” in addition to “Just the Strong Endure.” Tom told you the guy remembers “Jerry, putting on a light suit with a good quartet off stunning female singing harmony about. Really don’t contemplate which my personal date is, however, she desired I found myself since chill as Jerry Butler, and i also however wanted she was just like the very hot given that the individuals singers.”
Likewise, Sam Heys said that “my favorite and more than long-term memory is the fresh new Jerry Butler Homecoming performance toward Oct. 24, 1969, just like the my personal blind date, Tap Finley, remains beside me more than a 1 / 2-century afterwards.”
Betz Tillitski keeps vivid memory of this 1973 show by the Allman Brothers, claiming the within of your own arena resembled a giant bong. “We got resting together with lighting dimmed and you may, boy, is We stunned to see this type of unusual flickers regarding light most of the along the put. For example tobacco but the flames stayed brighter lengthened. I didn’t know I found myself viewing joints are illuminated. Not ever been near a mutual ahead of. People were passage all of them up to. After that one strange but sweet smelling are everywhere. From the in hopes my moms and dads failed to smelling they on my dresses while i had household.”
Karen came out and talked to a few of one’s kept crowd and you will told me that they had become on the road and you will had been worn out
However,, she told you, “more enjoyable performance We went to there clearly was from the spring season away from 1974, and i also saw the newest Coasters, The fresh new Platters additionally the Tams. Endured on to the floor prior to the phase moving the entire day. Finished up toward an excellent guy’s shoulders seeing the amazing tell you.”
I was thinking I was in the Woodstock
Not that all reveals at the Coliseum were good success. Dan Pelletier remembers the evening Karen and Richard Carpenter “were stinking up the shared while the crowd booed, thus Richard went from the stage inside a huff. I recall thinking, ‘Ok, so might be your probably reimburse the bucks you used to be repaid to have an increase you’re not providing?’ No reimburse got.”
My personal later pal Rusty Gunn, whom grabbed a few of the pictures associated that it bit, told me a couple of years back one 1st show within this new Coliseum try as he try a junior into the senior high school, in which he and some household members took dates to see Nothing Stevie Ponder and also the Temptations. (Helen Castronis recalls Ask yourself nevertheless is actually charged since “Little Stevie” during the time, and this appeared like “he starred all of the appliance towards phase.”)
Rusty could have been the fresh king off Stegeman concertgoers, as he saw the newest Relationship, new Righteous Brothers, Metal Butterfly, brand new Four Tops (“these people were later however, making upwards, it let’s climb and you may get up on the side of the new stage”), il, the fresh new Allman Brothers, James Taylor, the fresh Seashore Boys, Elton John, Creedence Clearwater Renewal, About three Puppy Night, Mountain (“Leslie West’s electric guitar looked like a great ukelele with the his massive trunk area”), Yes (“We heard these were appalled there is certainly zero all-natural food considering at Holiday Inn”), Badfinger, the brand new Carpenters, B.B. King and you may Billy Preston on a single bill, and Stephen Stills with Manassas (“he used an excellent UGA jersey”).
Betz, simultaneously, got a chance to see Tull, but chose to not ever, no matter if she had a citation. “I experienced for the a quarrel for the guy I was heading which have, and i strolled back once again to the automobile once we was in fact in line to vakre Litauisk jenter for ekteskap enter,” she recalled.
