California Jam 1974 (festival)

California Jam (also known as Cal Jam) was a rock music festival co-headlined by Deep Purple and Emerson, Lake & Palmer, held at the Ontario Motor Speedway in Ontario, California, on April 6, 1974. It was produced by ABC Entertainment, Sandy Feldman and Leonard Stogel. Pacific Presentations, a Los Angeles-based concert company headed by Sepp Donahower and Gary Perkins, coordinated the event, booked all the talent and ran the advertising. Don Branker worked for Leonard Stogel and was responsible for concert site facilitation, toilets, fencing and medical. It attracted 250,000 paying fans. The festival set what were then records for the loudest amplification system ever installed, the highest paid attendance, and highest gross in history. It was the last of the original wave of rock festivals, as well as one of the most well-executed and financially successful, and presaged the era of media consolidation and the corporatization of the rock music industry.



California Jam 1974 - INTRO:

On February 17th, 1974 an ad appeared in southern California newspapers announcing California Jam, a twelve hour rock concert to be held at the Ontario Motor Speedway located fifty mile by freeway from Los Angeles.

Several weeks before the event the anticipated audience was expected to exceed 100,000 people. A stage large enough to support the many tons of equipment and personnel of eight major rock groups had to be built from 500 sections of scaffolding, and covered with 23,000 square feet of plywood.

To support a 54,000 watt sound system capable of covering a square mile, four sound towers were erected to a total height of fifteen stories. To move all the stage equipment around, sections of the stage were built over 600 feet of railroad track.


A million watts of power were generated to light up everything from the stage to the parking lot. Six-thousand feet of temporary fence, a million and a half gallons of water, first aid centers, 1500 employees, artists, stagehands, ticket takers, security people, hot dog sellers all coming together to have everything ready for the morning of April 6th.

https://youtu.be/m5dHVpD4jVQ :

Audience Compilation / 1974 California Jam:

Camera shots of the audience at the Ontario Motor Speedway, drawn from the four 1974 California Jam broadcasts: 

https://youtu.be/tj9uH3iUp48 :

8mm film / California Jam 1974 / Ontario Motor Speedway:

Ten minute 8mm film of the 1974 California Jam. Filmed by Blair White over a three day period, April 5th, 6th, and 7th at the Ontario Motor Speedway. Blair worked as stage manager on the "In Concert" series for ABC television. At the California Jam Blair White helped roadies expedite sound gear on-and-off the two stages used at the Jam for the first seven acts, ELP had their own stage. In moments between this three day work cycle, Blair aimed his 8mm camera and captured amazing slices of the California Jam, showing what it was like during those three days with ABC at the Ontario Motor Speedway. 

https://youtu.be/lV2KRoWv380

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Saturday, April 6, 1974

Performers: 

Acts that performed at the festival in order of appearance:

* Rare Earth
* Earth, Wind & Fire
* Eagles
* Seals and Crofts
* Black Oak Arkansas
* Black Sabbath
* Deep Purple
* Emerson, Lake & Palmer


Rare Earth:

setlist (incomplete):

- I Just Want to Celebrate
- Hey Big Brother

https://youtu.be/a5LIDNbFadU :

https://youtu.be/Wne6z05rWH4 :

Earth, Wind & Fire:

setlist (incomplete):

- Keep Your Head to the Sky
- C'mon Children
- Time Is on Your Side

https://youtu.be/e1FvkElSXDc :

https://youtu.be/bKZ7O8202gU :

Eagles:

setlist:

- James Dean (with Jackson Browne)
- Midnight Flyer (with Jackson Browne)
- Already Gone
- Take It Easy

(no videos on YouTube)

Seals & Crofts:

setlist (incomplete):

- Windflowers
- The Gate
- Unborn Child
- Ruby Lee & Billy Lee
- Ridin' Thumb
- Standin' on a Mountain Top
- High on a Mountain
- Diamond Girl
- Hummingbird
- The Fiddle Song

https://youtu.be/Q97QecyanZw :

https://youtu.be/JtNSyJdijpc :

https://youtu.be/Bigqpv0vWnc :

Black Oak Arkansas:

setlist (incomplete):

- Up
- Mutants of The Monster
- When Electricity Came to Arkansas
- Dixie
- Jim Dandy

https://youtu.be/lOZ__idpmNk :

Black Sabbath:

setlist:

- Tomorrow's Dream
- Sweet Leaf
- Killing Yourself to Live
- War Pigs
- Snowblind
- Sabbra Cadabra (with Jams),  Guitar Solo,  Drum Solo
- Sometimes I'm Happy
- Supernaut
- Iron Man
(with "Sabbra Cadabra" reprise)

Encore:

- Paranoid
- Embryo
- Children of the Grave

https://youtu.be/UogPgnYoJ0M :

https://youtu.be/lff9H_Nrx4A 

https://youtu.be/LlEjafWIq_c?list=RDlff9H_Nrx4A 

https://youtu.be/P7V3pEGZz64?list=RDlff9H_Nrx4A :

Deep Purple:

setlist:

- Burn
- Might Just Take Your Life
- Lay Down, Stay Down
- Mistreated
- Smoke on the Water
- You Fool No One
- (excerpts of Lazy and The Mule are performed)
- Space Truckin' (includes Mandrake Root instrumental jam which includes Richie      Blackmore smashing his guitars and set)

https://youtu.be/mttKiO9Up14 : 

Emerson, Lake & Palmer:

setlist:

- Hoedown (Aaron Copland cover)
- Jerusalem (Sir Hubert Parry cover)
- Toccata
- Tarkus
- Take a Pebble
- Still… You Turn Me On
- Lucky Man
- Piano Improvisation (including Tiger in a Spotlight)
- Karn Evil 9

Encore:

- Pictures at an Exhibition (Modest Mussorgsky cover) (excerpts)

https://youtu.be/ThLDMI_-wO4 : 

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Ritchie Blackmore discussing the California Jam in 1974 (Part 1).

https://youtu.be/2dUsL9Q6EJw :

Ritchie Blackmore celebrating The California Jam (Part 2) :

https://youtu.be/3fFlvPYpdNI :

Jon Lord and Glenn Hughes talk about their experience, and what it was like at the1974 California Jam.

https://youtu.be/Lap_MTfuh6g

Sources: YouTube, several internetsites