Benefit concert. Featured acts: Cirith Ungol (a three-member group), Upstart/Up-Start (six-member group), Mr. Skin (five musicians play), Gary Mandell, Fat Back (five-member group), Ted Green and Utopia (four musicians who have recorded).
CONCERT TO BENEFIT HOTLINE A concert Sunday at noon in Foster Park, Oak View, Ventura, will benefit the Ventura County Hotline. Tickets are $1 and are available at the door. Local and Los Angeles musicians who will perform including Fatback, Ted Green, Gary Mandell, Mr. Skin, Upstart, Cirith Ungol and Utopia. Barbeque sandwiches, soul food and soft drinks will be sold at the park.
Ventura County β Star*Free Press (Sun 20 May 1973)
Foster Park rock concert today Fat Back, Mr. Skin, Utopia, Up-Start, Cirith Ungol and guitarists Ted Green and Gary Mandell are the musical units which will play today for a folk and rock concert at Foster Bowl, in Foster Memorial Park. The concert beginning at noon and ending at dusk is a benefit for Ventura HOTLINE. Tickets cost $1 and may be pur chased at the gate. This is the second benefit concert of this type to be held for HOTLINE at Foster Park, said director Betty (Mrs. Robert) Elder, Ventura. Food, prepared by Miss Kitty’s Oxnard Barbecue Kitch- en, will be sold at “low, low prices,” said Mrs. Elder, and will include beef sandwiches, “soul” food and cold drinks. The benefit actually has a two-fold purpose to raise funds for the continuation of the listening-service called HOT- LINE, and to provide Sunday afternoon entertainment for young people who have request ed an “encore” of the first con- cert, said Mrs. Elder. Green, who is author of a book named “Chord Chemis try,” and Mandell will combine their efforts for the concert, Fat Back is a five-member group which has played profes sionally in San Francisco and Monterey, The group has recorded several numbers and is engaged currently at Ox. nard’s King Arthur Cirith Ungol is a three-mem- ber group; Utopia is four musi- cians who have recorded: Up- Start is a six-member group: and five musicians play as Mr. Skin. Assisting concert chairman Cheryl Meyer with arrange- ments are Mrs. Gudrun Ander- son, Laurie Leonard, Mike Gwinn, Sam Meyer, David Anderson, Lenore Olson, Sal Lucido, Mark Thomson, Kent Elder, Jim Chappel, Linda Smith, Dana Lovell, Kathey Meyer, and Sue Hoctor. HOTLINE is funded partially by the City of Ventura, and by private contribution. In its fifth year of operation, it receives about 250 calls a month from people, young and old, who need someone with whom to discuss their problems. All call- ers and answerers remain anonymous. The telephone numbers are 648-HELP and 643- HELP Foster Park may be reached from the Ventura area by the Ojai Freeway, exiting on the Casitas Vistas offramp. Signs will point the way from there.
Another gig (flyer attached) was a benefit for the Ventura Hotline, a phone service for at-risk youth to ring up for drug, alcohol and mental problems (suicide prevention, etc.). Kinda ironic for guys who were always blazin’ up some weed before rehearsals in the 1970s. π – Perry Grayson
What is the setlist for all of the bands? What are the members then? Do you have photos, music or video that we can see or hear? Any more fun facts at that time? What is the short story around the scene, or what is the link to Upstart and Gary Mandell?