“THESE GUYS ARE JUST LIKE HELLS ANGELS. THE ONLY DIFFERENCE IS THAT they don’t have motorcycles, they have their instruments.”
So says Gut, a former Hells Angel now co-manager of San Francisco’s most successful hard rock trio, Blue Cheer.
With more than $20,000 worth of equipment, including six Marshall amplifiers, twenty-four speakers, and a “Coliseum” PA system, Blue Cheer bombards its listeners with a truly mind splitting sound.
Leigh Stevens on lead guitar, Dickie Peterson on electric bass, and Paul Whaley on drums make up the trio, which works basically out of a rhythm-and-blues bag.
“Actually, we just use some of the stuff that’s been prevalent in R & B and put it into our own music,” says Dickie. “But we are really just starting to get into it.”
Blue Cheer is a loud, hard and “heavy” group. They play that way because, as Paul puts it, “The music goes through our bodies, and when we can feel music, it’s much easier to experience it.”
And, adds Leigh, “We are just saying we feel good by putting as much as we physically can into our music. There are no hidden messages as such in our sound. When anyone listens to a message, it generally gets all twisted around, just like when you whisper something from person to person around a crowded room.”
Blue Cheer’s first LP, Vincebus Eruptum (which means we conquer chaos), is currently number fourteen on Billboard’s album chart. The group’s single, “Summertime Blues,” an old Eddie Cochran hit, is one of the six songs featured on the LP. It’s number nineteen and still rising on Billboard’s singles chart.
Blue Cheer is working on its second album now and it’s recording some of the cuts outdoors at Muir Beach, near San Francisco.
Even before the release of Vincebus Eruptum, a DJ on KMPX, San Francisco’s underground station, said to his listeners: “If I played all the Blue Cheer requests, I wouldn’t have time to play any other records.”
Due to the tremendous popularity of the group on the West Coast, their records are finally getting much deserved airplay in the East. This has also resulted in a tour of the East, which will take the group to the Fillmore East, New York, April 26 and 27; the Electric Factory, Philadelphia, May 3 to 5; the Action House, Long Island, May 10 to 12; and Kennedy Memorial Stadium, Philadelphia, May 18.
“I’ve been following audience reaction very closely,” says Gut, “and now when Blue Cheer comes on, there’s a far-out response. They’re the only band I’ve seen that’s gotten everyone up from sitting on the floor of the Avalon (a psychedelic dance hall in San Francisco) and into dancing.
“It’s just outrageous,” says Gut. “The reaction is no longer one of just applause. The kids just can’t control themselves.”
Says Gut about the group’s success: “This whole thing has just blown our minds completely.”