Austin has a great music history from it's '60's origins with KAZZ FM and Sonogram Records spinning The Thirteenth Floor Elevators and The Sweetarts to The Vulcan Gas Co., Janis Joplin and Johnny Winter. The 70's saw that sweet mingling of cowboy and hippy called "Outlaw" at The Armadillo and Oat Willies to the early punk scene at Raul's, Duke's Royal Coach Inn, Club Foot, Studio 29. It's been a great ride and made Austin the live music capital of the world. Enjoy a memory or two from our ticket archives. A paper testament to Austin's music history.
| Date: | Sunday, February 20, 1977 |
| Artist: | Spanky & Our Gang w/ Shivas & Head Band |
| Venue: | Armadillo World Headquarters , Austin, TX. |
| Ticket Price: | $ 3.00 |
This Sunday show featured "the new" Spanky and Our Gang. "Spanky And Our Gang" was a vocal/instrumental group, popular 1967 - 1969. Their folk/rock style was similar to that of the Mamas & the Papas. Their biggest hit (and it was big) was Sunday Will Never Be The Same (1967) As far as I've been able to determine, there is no connection between anyone in this group and anyone involved in the "Our Gang" comedies of the 1920's - 30's. The original group formed in 1966 and disbanding in 1969. Two members of the original group re-formed the band in 1975 and put out "Change," a country-western album.The group reformed for a while in 1975 - 1977. This show was a part of that reformation tour. Members of the group included Elaine 'Spanky' McFarlane, Oz Bach, Malcolm Hale, Nigel Pickering, John Seiter, Kenny Hodges, and Lefty Baker (real name Eustace Britchforth). Spanky and Nigel were members of the 1975 re-formed Spanky And Our Gang. According to a note in the CD version of "Spanky's Greatest Hit(s)", Spanky joined the new Mamas and Papas in 1981. This show was a good 10 years after the original band was in it's heyday and was likely promoted as a nostalgic show. I've heard they played their old hits and some country tunes.
Interestingly this ticket is miswritten. It should have been titled Spank & Our Gang and Shiva's Headband. Not Spanky and Our Gang - Shiva's and Headband. The misprint is suprising as Shiva's Headband was an Armadillo regular and was the band that opened the venue.
Shiva's Headband
Storming into the growing Austin music scene in 1967, the group became the house band at the Vulcan Gas Co. and the first group to perform at the renowned Armadillo World Headquarters. Shiva’s Headband ’s quickly rose to a leading position in the new Austin music scene and built a large following of loyal fans all over Texas—from Dallas to San Antonio and the Valley, to Corpus Christi, to Houston and Nacogdoches! As the Headband’s reputation grew, both locally and world-wide, its appearance became a must on shows featuring national acts. They played with such luminaries as Spirit, Steppenwolf, ZZ Top, Janice Joplin, Canned Heat and Steve Miller. Contract offers arrived from RCA, CBS, Electra, Fillmore and others. Finally, they signed with Capitol and released the first LP from the Austin scene (Take Me To The Mountains, produced by Spencer Perskin with Fred Catero ).
The often imitated but never duplicated sound of leader and founder, Spencer Perskin, is undoubtedly the backbone of Shiva’s Headband. Perskin began his career at age 8, and by age 9 was accepted as a special music student at Southern Methodist University in Dallas where he studied for eight year. During his high school years, he played with the Hillcrest High Orchestra, the Hillcrest Band and the Dal-Hi Orchestra. Following high school, Perskin attended North Texas State University where he, along with fellow classmates Michael Murphy and Steve Fromholz, was a member of the school’s Folk Music Club. Perskin also played with the N.T.S.U. Orchestra.
Three years later, in Austin, he and his wife, Susan, and friends founded the soon-to-be- famous Shiva’s Headband. In 1969 Perskin released the Shiva’s second single on his new Armadillo Record label, after the Capitol release in 1970 he founded, with a lot of help from his friends, the now-legendary Armadillo World Headquarters—the institution most responsible for placing Austin, Texas firmly on the World Music Map! Leading the group for almost three decades today Perskin fronts a rejuvenated Shiva’s that is as much a part of the new millennium as it was the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s.
Archives: Ticket Stub 1 Ticket Stub 2 Ticket Stub 3
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