Memorable Shows
TOM PETTY
(FATHER KNOWS BEST)
((( Homecoming ’81 )))
Gainesville Sun
Tom Petty played the O’Connell Center (as he had in his first Homecoming in 1981) in 2006, on his 30th Anniversary Tour. It would be the last show Petty would play in Gainesville. A highlight was his doing “Stop Dragging My Heart Around,” also as they had in 1981.
On Aug. 16, 1969, Sly & the Family Stone turned in a sonic-blast performance at the Woodstock music festival in Bethel, New York. Their appearance included a blisteringly frenetic medley highlighted by “Dance to The Music” and “I Want to Take You Higher,” both of which were immortalized on the “Woodstock” album and film that followed.
And where did the group known for its groundbreaking funk-rock mashup and mixed-race membership play exactly nine months later?
On May 16, 1970, the band on a bill with Grand Funk Railroad and eight other acts worked their way through a performance in the outdoor environs of Ben Hill Griffin Stadium at the University of Florida.
In what became part of a three-decade stint of pop-and-rock superstars holding musical court in the heart of Gatorland at Florida Field from the ’60s through the mid-’90s, a stunning array of huge names performed for students and locals alike, with just a sampling including:
Jan. 27, 1980 — The Eagles and Jimmy Buffett with the former featuring Gainesville hometown hero Don Felder on tunes such as “Hotel California” and “Already Gone.” (Bernie Leadon, who had lived in Gainesville in the mid-’60s, and later co-founded The Eagles in California, had left the band five years before the show.)
Nov. 27, 1994 — The Rolling Stones on the group’s “Voodoo Lounge” tour, which featured stalwart hits like “Tumbling Dice,” “Satisfaction” and “Brown Sugar” along with the rarely performed “Monkey Man” and others.
And that sampling from Gainesville’s largest venue is just for starters. From the 1960s through the 1990s, a mind-numbing array of musical stars — literally hundreds of national and international acts in every conceivable genre — have done their musical thing in Gainesville.
1981 — Blondie at the UF Gym
1982 — Talking Heads at The Bandshell
1991 — Living Colour
1993 — Smashing Pumpkins at the Florida Theatre
So many acts have performed at least once in the live performance capital of North Central Florida that we asked lifelong musicians of Gainesville and others who have spent most of their adult lives in the area to weigh in on their favorite concerts over the years.
Singer/guitarist Mike Boulware, who is a member of The Beatles-tribute band The Impostors and also organizes some of the “Free Fridays” Concert Series’ annual tribute performances, pointed to the Southeast Music Competition at Gainesville High School in 1969 — which featured the Allman Brothers — for starters.
“I had never seen them. Nobody had ever seen them, and that was just life-changing,” Boulware said. “Second to that, I think it was in the mid-’80s, George Jones, Conway Twitty and Merle Haggard at the O’Connell Center. That was huge for me because I got to meet all three of them backstage, and Merle signed a ’56 Telecaster for me. I walked up and said, ‘Mr. Haggard, sir?’ He said, ‘Boy, do I owe you money?’ I said, ‘No sir, but would you sign my guitar?’ and he did.”
Boulware’s greatest praise is for none other than Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers’ 30th Anniversary Concert at the O’Connell Center on Sept. 21, 2006. The concert, which marked the last time Petty and the Heartbreakers performed in Gainesville, also featured guest vocalist Stevie Nicks and is available on DVD.
“I was backstage at that and saw everybody except Tom, who never came out (to meet people backstage), but I sat next to (Mike) Campbell’s sister in about the 10th row,” he said. “I always rejected how great they were just because knowing all those guys when they were growing up, but that was one of the greatest live bands I ever saw including the ‘real Allman Brothers’ and the ‘real Grateful Dead,’ and all those bands you think are great.”
A circa-1980 performance by Bonnie Raitt early in her career at the Great Southern Music Hall is pointed to by both singer/songwriter and producer Bob McPeek, who founded the Mirror Image Recording Studio and is now a partner in the Heartwood Soundstage, as well as singer/songwriter Elaine Mahon, who is involved in presenting concerts at the Prairie Creek Lodge.