Monday 6 September 2010

FISH FOR FIRST HIP FAIR

Not for the first time Country Joe and The Fish needed some funds to keep themselves in business. The Pretentious Folk Front had been created in the fall of 1965 by ED Denson and others for the sole purpose of getting access to a University venue, using bassist Richard Saunders (then a student) as a front man.

It is interesting to see that two weeks work had recently been lost due to "alcoholic club owners". The week of April 18 to 23 had seen a cancelled series of shows at the Rock Garden with planned support from Larry Younger and The Epics. No other shows had been known to have been scheduled between the 24th and the 28th when Country Joe and The Fish and The Fugs played a free show in Golden Gate Park's Panhandle (with $180 raised by passing the hat).

HAPPINESS IS A PORPOISE MOUTH. The First Annual Hippy Fair and Dance Festival will be held 8 pm Saturday evening in Hearst Gym on the Cal. Campus, the sponsoring Pretentious Folk Front announces.

No problems are anticipated from university authorities despite the controversial, nature of several of the featured attractions. The event will provide the campus community a chance to see what the hip artists are currently up to.

The Festival is a benefit for Country Joe and the Fish who have lost two weeks work because alcoholic club owners have cancelled their engagements. Fear of risking the Fish's performances was the reason given.

Selections will be screened from the group's in-progress film "How I Stopped the War", a documentary of their triumphant progress from Market Street to Pax Pisces during the recent Peace Demonstrations. Country Joe will perform.

The S.F. Mime Troupe, itself involved in socially provocative events lately, will bring their bodies east of the Bay for dancing and skits of social interest. Individual improvisers of choreography will also perform, as will the Haight-Ashbury Neighborhood Agit-Prop Truck Theatre.

Early in the evening Berkeley's own Cleanliness and Godliness Skiffle Band will do some takes by arrangement with the Jabberwock. Several films will be shown, a former Fug will construct a six-foot godseye on stage, and the first campus showing of the paintings of the controversial Russian artist Gershon Ikovsky Gershovitz will be opened.

All hip craftsmen, artists, and artisans are invited to display their work, bringing blankets or whatever showcase they feel suitable. If you are one of the above and wish to participate contact the Front Festival Committee at their temporary office phone 548-1513. Donations at the door, $2.

Berkeley Barb Volume 4, No 17 - Issue 89 (April 28, 1967 to May 4, 1967)

1 comment:


  1. Very strange statement here by the late George Inskeep: Rich Wilbur's family name is very definitely Wilbur. not "Wilbun" as George asserts. No idea where he got that idea!

    ReplyDelete