The Texas International Pop Festival was a music festival held at Lewisville, Texas, on Labor Day weekend, August 30-September 1, 1969. It occurred two weeks after Woodstock. The site for the event was the newly-opened Dallas International Motor Speedway, located on the east side of Interstate Highway 35E, across from the Round Grove Road intersection. The festival was the brainchild of Angus G. Wynne III, son of Angus G. Wynne, the founder of the Six Flags Over Texas Amusement Park. Wynne was a concert promoter who had attended the Atlanta International Pop Festival on the July Fourth weekend. He decided to put a festival on near Dallas, and joined with the Atlanta festival’s main organizer, Alex Cooley, forming the company Interpop Superfest.
Artists performing at the festival were: Led Zeppelin, B.B. King, Canned Heat, Chicago (then called Chicago Transit Authority), Delaney and Bonnie and Friends, Freddie King, Grand Funk Railroad, Herbie Mann, Incredible String Band, James Cotton, Janis Joplin, Johnny Winter, Nazz, Rotary Connection, Sam and Dave, Santana, Shiva’s Headband, Sly and the Family Stone, Space Opera, Spirit, Sweetwater, Ten Years After and Tony Joe White. Attendance at the festival remains unknown, but is estimated between 120,000 and 150,000. As with Woodstock, there were no violent crimes reported. There was one death, due to heatstroke, and one birth. (ucoz.com)
And here´s a group called Spirit, live at this festival:
Spirit was a highly regarded rock band that achieved modest commercial success, charting 11 albums in the U.S. between 1968 and 1977. Founded in Los Angeles in 1967 by musicians who had a mixture of rock, pop, folk, blues, classical, and jazz backgrounds, and who ranged in age from 16 to 44, the group had an eclectic musical style in keeping with the early days of progressive rock; they were as likely to play a folk ballad featuring fingerpicked acoustic guitar, a jazz instrumental full of imaginative improvisation, or a driving rhythm tune dominated by acid rock electric guitar playing.
The diverse tastes of the original quintet produced a hybrid style that delighted a core audience of fans but proved too wide-ranging to attract a mass following, and at the same time the musicians’ acknowledged talents brought them other opportunities that led to the breakup of the original lineup after four years and four albums, then kept them from committing fully to regroupings as their music began to be recognized in later years. While two bandmembers, singer/guitarist Randy California and drummer Ed Cassidy, maintained the Spirit name, the others came and went as their schedules allowed, such that the group never fulfilled its early promise, although, as a vehicle for California’s songwriting and guitar playing, it continued to produce worthwhile music until his death. (by William Ruhlmann)
Spirit, another California rock band, were relative newcomers in 1969. At the time of the festival they had one album out, “The Family That Plays Together,” and a hit single entitled “I Got a Line On You.”
So … enjoy the early Spirt … A year later, their lead singer, Jay Ferguson, would leave to form a new band, Jo Jo Gunne.
Randy California drowned in the Pacific Ocean in 1997 at the age of 45 while rescuing his 12-year-old son Quinn from a rip current near his mother’s home at Molokai, Hawaii. He managed to push Quinn (who survived) toward the shore. (wikipedia)
The Randy Craig Wolfe Trust was established after his death and, using royalties from California’s recording contracts, financially supports the Randy California Project, an after-school music education program for underprivileged elementary school children in Ventura County
Recorded live at the Dallas International Motor Speedway,
Lewisville, Texas, September 1, 1969
Personnel:
Mark Andes (bass)
Randy California (guitar)
Ed Cassidy (drums)
Jay Ferguson (vocals)
John Locke (organ)
Alternate front + backcover:
Tracklist:
01. Rehearsal Theme (Ferguson) 3.07
02. I’m Truckin’ / Fresh Garbage / Poor Richard (Ferguson) 6.21
03. Caught / Jams () 10.51
04. Groundhog Day (Ferguson) 4.11
05. Policeman’s Ball (Ferguson) / Drums (Cassidy) / Mechanical World (Andes/Ferguson) 11.33
06. I Got A Line On You (California) 3.26
07. Aren’t You Glad (Ferguson) 3.37
