California Jam, also known as Cal Jam, was a rock music festival concert held at the Ontario Motor Speedway in Ontario, California on April 6, 1974. It was produced by ABC Entertainment, Sandy Feldman, Don Branker[1] 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. It attracted 250,000[1] fans that paid, which at the time, set the record for the highest paid attendance and highest gross in history. It was one of 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.
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Acts that performed at the festival in order of appearance:
Emerson, Lake & Palmer and Deep Purple co-headlined the California Jam Festival.
Deep Purple's performance was one of the first to feature their third line-up, which included vocalist David Coverdale and vocalist/bassist Glenn Hughes. Deep Purple were given the choice of when to go on stage, and chose to go on before ELP. Figuring that as with all festivals, the show would run late anyway, they stalled and made everyone wait until after dark before they hit the stage. Regardless of this, the show didn't end up running late.[2] At the end of the show, guitarist Ritchie Blackmore threw multiple guitars out into the audience and attacked one of the network's video cameras (which had been getting between him and the audience) with a guitar. A mishap with a pyrotechnic effect caused an explosion which briefly set the stage on fire. The group is said to have left the concert via helicopter to escape possible arrest from angry fire marshals and ABC executives.
ELP's California Jam performance was broadcast nationwide in the US and is often seen as the summit of the band's career. It was at this festival that the famous footage of Keith Emerson playing a grand piano spinning end-over-end 50 feet above the ground was taken.
The concert set a record for the largest number of paid attendance at such an event. Although more people attended the festival at Woodstock in New York, only a few had purchased tickets.
Another record established at California Jam was for the largest (most powerful) concert sound system ever assembled. Tycobrahe Sound Company combined the touring systems of Black Oak Arkansas, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Earth Wind and Fire, and Rare Earth (each manufactured by Tycobrahe), plus 16-ft bass horns from Phoenix Sound and several folded bass horns from Flag Systems. Total power was 54,000 watts RMS, provided by a number of BFA-2000 amplifiers, manufactured by Tycobrahe.
Emerson, Lake and Palmer's touring sound system was set up about 1/2 mile from the stage and timed with a tape delay to coincide with the sound from the stage.
Unlike other rock festivals such as Woodstock, the concert was not planned for release as a film or sound recording. However, several portions of it were broadcast live on the ABC television network, which was also a sponsor of the show. The audio portion of the show was also broadcast in stereo on FM radio stations, an early example of simulcasting.
Several performances from the show were eventually released on CD and video, both in bootleg and authorized form. One of the more notable bootleg recordings was from a teenage fan who tried to pass off his recordings of a recording from the radio broadcast as something he created. His web site was shut down after he tried selling his unauthorized products without creative approval from the artists involved and the producers of the festival.
Authorized releases include:
A sequel concert, California Jam II, was held in 1978.