Neckties Required/No Blue Jeans
Saturday, March 3rd, 1975

By the time Mahogany Rush hit the SFS High School Gymnasium in March of '75, the Frank Marino led power-trio had two LPs in the shops and a third on the way: 1973's Maxoom, 1974's Child of the Novelty, the release of 1975's Strange Universe pending. All three LP's were initially released on former Warner Bros. promo man Robert Nickford's Kotai Records and are reissued sporadically on a variety of imprints.

PDGB is curious regarding the circumstances that led to the booking of guitarist Marino, bassist Paul Harwood and drummist James Ayoub at the all-male preparatory high school, where cover bands were the norm. Just three weeks earlier, Mahogany Rush played a gig the Toledo University* Student Union Auditorium, located just down the street from SFHS. And in August of the same year, Mahogany would be opening the World Series of Rock Festival at Cleveland's Lakefront Stadium-see update below. Even by the comparatively innocent music-biz standards of the 70's, a bona fide recording act taking a gig at a high school must have been perceived as a step backwards. As the old show-biz adage goes, "Any gig as long as the check doesn't bounce," I guess.

Or had the tie-dye elephant on Mahogany's stage simply grown too large for the jaded college-age crowd to ignore? A skilled player to be sure, the riff on 70's-era Frank Marino was, uh, he sounded a lot like Jimi Hendrix. Like in a “I wanna wear your skin after I kill you in a bizarre ritualistic ceremony” kind of way. So perfectly did Marino's guitar and vocal work capture Jimi's unmistakable tone, technique, and laid-back urban soul, rumors began to spread regarding a spiritual, supernatural or biological oneness shared by Jimi and Frank. So much so, many listeners were stunned to discover that Marino was, in fact, Canadian.

UPDATE:

Recently unearthed Cleveland World Series of Rock (presumably unauthorized) commemorative T-shirt, confirming the appearance of Mahogany Rush. Note heedless rearrangement of billing order and subtle artistic license taken with Aerosmith type in order to maintain designers thematic "pyramid-power" statement. Actual order of bill was (top to bottom) Rod Stewart and The Faces, Uriah Heap, Aerosmith, Blue Oyster Cult, Mahogany Rush. Second "A" in Mahogany replaced with "O" due to totally lame Chartpak rub-on lettering sets including no more than eight of any single character except for "S." Pfffft.
-toke!

*Lovingly and consistently referred to as “Bancroft High” and “High School with Ashtrays” by guidance counselors and other supposed figures of authority and influence I encountered during the totally-gross ME! decade, TU concerts were legendary. Hendrix, Joplin, Springsteen, CSNY, Pink Floyd and Badfinger are but just a few of the A-list performers who performed at the University in their prime. Later, Toledo University would earn the right to officially change it's name to The University of Toledo (UT) in exchange for removing some of the ashtrays. Sexy.

It Might Get Loud DVD & Blu-ray release, December 22nd, 2009

Just the thing for all the middle-aged white guys on your Christmas list.

According to the official press kit: "It Might Get Loud tells the personal stories, in their own words, of three generations of electric guitar virtuosos – The Edge (U2), Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin), and Jack White (The White Stripes)."

PDGB sees it like this:
Jimmy Page: Aided in no small part by his like-minded Led Zeppelin band mates, James Patrick Page essentially created the genre of bombastic, riff-based arena-rock by regurgitating the blues through cranked-up VOX AC30's and Marshall stacks, making each lick his own along the way.

The Edge: In a quest to create an unmistakable musical voice worthy of U2's ambitious lyrics, Mr. David Howell Evans cleverly combined sparse, syncopated guitar rhythms with the latest available signal processing technology, inadvertently spawning an entire sub-genre of copycat guitarists more concerned with the effects rack than the fretboard in the process.

Jack White: Choosing to go low-brow right from the start, John Anthony Gillis created an instantly recognizable tone to call his own by combining inexpensive instruments with uniquely configured analog gear, confirming what ol' Pagey has known about white boys playing the blues all along: It's what you've got to say that matters, not the amount of words you can cram into a sentence.

Now, how about that sequel spotlighting
Ron Asheton(RIP),
Robert Quine(RIP),
Johnny Ramone(RIP), Tom Verlaine, Greg Ginn, and Josh Homme?

Toledo Pop Festival-This Week In Toledo, Ohio, 1969:

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So Happy Together!  
Sunday, September 14th 1969
Four short weeks after Jimi Hendrix closed the generation-defining Woodstock Festival with a soul-stirring, whammy-bar laden performance of the Star Bangled Banner, Toledo fans got a homegrown opportunity to air out their freak flags courtesy of the daylong Toledo Pop Festival.Culled primarily from the S.E. Michigan/N.W. Ohio axis of high-energy rock'n'roll, the day's slightly disparate line-up featured a virtual who's who of Rust Belt axe-slingers: Brothers Wayne Kramer and the late-great Fred "Sonic" Smith from the MC5; Ted Nugent from the Amboy Dukes; The Frost's Dick Wagner, who would later go on to co-write, record, and tour extensively with the likes of Alice Cooper and Lou Reed, among others; Ron Koss of Savage Grace; Gary Quackenbush of SRC; Steve Correll of The Rationals; and, the soon-to-be-known-as “Leather Tuscadero” in the persona of one Miss Suzi Quatro, performing bass, vocal and jail-bait duties for the Pleasure Seekers, a band consisting chiefly of her brothers and sisters.

PDGB wonders if the concert promoter’s somewhat curious decision to place feel-good hit-makers The Turtles atop a bill filled largely with outfits known for their aggressive, potentially incendiary histrionics was -at least in part- a conscious decision intended to serve as a musical blow-off valve, The Turtles cheery melodies and infectious lyrics helping to ease the attendees transition from frenzied jam kick-outing to the parking lot slough that awaited them. Then again, maybe they just needed a big name to sell some tickets.

Either way, we’re sure the inevitable twenty minute-plus live rendition of “Happy Together” didn’t go unnoticed, reshuffling the synapses of numerous first-time psychedelic users so completely that even now, some forty-years later, the simple act of hearing said melody errantly whistled by passerby is capable of triggering intense psychotic episodes of such severity that even immediate medical attention followed by years of therapy can't guarantee the return of normal brain activity. Way to go Boomers!
Held at Toledo Raceway Park (which we assume is the Horse racing facility of approximately the same name that still stands in North Toledo today) the $5.00 admission ($4.25 Advance) was an unbelievable bargain, even adjusted for inflation.
If you attended the Toledo Pop Festival and have a recollection you'd like to share about it -or any like event/concert/happening in the N.W. Ohio/S.W. Michigan region- click that comment button and tell it!