Control Geek

OK, since I put up modern pictures of 1970's speaker technology, I figured I'd share some some of my own original pictures of 1970's technology shot, well, in the 1970's.

The first concert I ever saw was Led Zeppelin, at the Capitol Center in Landover, MD (since torn down to make way for a shopping mall):

My father had once said, "if that Led Zeppelin ever comes around, I'll get tickets".  And so, when they went on tour in 1977, I nagged him until he did.  He was probably the oldest person at the show (the Capital Centre was two hours away, and I was too young to drive).  My friend Jim Stuart and I were probably some of the youngest.  Tickets were a whopping $7.50!

And even at that early age, I was an entertainment technology geek. And I have proof--see the photos below (sorry for the quality, I took these using a 110 camera, the negatives are beat, and the prints were on my wall for many years).  Boy have we come a long way!  PAR cans, DC300's, tons of horns aimed all over the place, hand made dry ice foggers, all provided by Showco, if I remember right.  Years later, I actually applied to Showco for my senior project, and I thought it was so cool that they actually responded to some high school kid, so I proudly kept the letter for many years (it's probably in a file around here somewhere).  I don't honestly remember how it sounded, but I knew every song inside and out.  I do remember that someone threw a sparkler onstage (there used to be tons of (audience) fireworks at shows!) and Robert Plant kicked it down into a flash pot and it blew up pretty much right under him.

Anyway, here's the PA:

 Monitor world:

And I have more photos on 1977-05-30-LedZeppelin