WHO WAS CHET ??
Chester Leo “Chet” Helms (August 2, 1942 – June 25, 2005), often called the Big Brother of San Francisco’s 1967 “Summer of Love”, was a music promoter and a cultural figure in San Francisco during its Psychedelic period in the late Sixties.
Chet was the founder and manager of Big Brother and the Holding Company and recruited Janis Joplin as its lead singer. He was a producer and organizer, staging free concerts and other cultural events at Golden Gate Park, the backdrop of San Francisco’s Summer of Love in 1967, as well as at other venues, including the Avalon Ballroom.
He was the first producer of psychedelic light-show concerts at the Fillmore and the Avalon Ballroom and was instrumental in helping to develop bands that had the distinctive San Francisco Sound. Helms died June 25, 2005 of complications from hepatitis C. He was 62.
But there is sooo much more than just the Cliff Notes ……………………………
**** And the “Psychedelic Scene” — Stories you’ve never heard
How it all came together …
Do you know what was REALLY happening in the Haight during the early sixties ???
For those who’d like to take a Haight Street History Tour, here is a list of who lived where:
710 Ashbury St. — The Grateful Dead
719 Ashbury St. — The Hell’s Angels
635 Ashbury St., 112 Lyon — Janis Joplin
638 Ashbury St.— Country Joe McDonald and The Fish
1090 Page St. — Big Brother and the Holding Company
639 Gough St – Chet Helms/Family Dog headquarters
1550 Page St. — “Hippie Temptation” house (site of CBS documentary)
1828 Page St.— Ron Donovan (psychedelic concert poster artist)
1524 Haight St. — Jimi Hendrix
879 Haight St.— Flipper (famous punk band)
636 Page St.— Charles Manson
731 Buena Vista West — Graham Nash (and several owners later) Bobby McFerrin
264 Downey St.— Michael McClure (Beat-era playwright, poet)
1235 Masonic Ave.— Patty Hearst hid in Symbioses Liberation Army safe-house here
32 Delmar St. — Sid Vicious (site of non-fatal overdose after last Sex Pistols show).
2400 Fulton St. — Jefferson Airplane Rehearsal Space, house and office ✈
200 Downey St.- George Hunter and the original home of the Charlatans.
225 Downey St. #1 – Michael Wilhelm in the early ’70’s.
318 Parnassus St. — Hunter S. Thompson’s Apartment (where he fired his shotgun at the Hell’s Angels)
THE MUSIC .. THE MAGIC .. THE MEMORIES …
What was REALLY going on in the West Village of New York ???
What was REALLY going on in Chicago?
What REALLY happened at the Red Dog Saloon in Virginia City, Nevada?
What was REALLY going on in Port Arthur, Texas?
What was REALLY going on at the Family Dog in Denver, CO?
Denver Family Dog was located at 1601 West Evans Street, Denver, CO
Light My Fire – The Doors Live At The Family Dog, Denver, CO. September 30, 1967. Possibly the only audio from the Family Dog in Denver. Video by Michael Stelk, Archivist
What was REALLY going on in LA?
What was REALLY going on in London?
and now for a GATHERING OF THE TRIBES
“The Human Be-in (which we were all involved in the creation thereof) drew at least 35,000 people with virtually no conventional publicity, mostly word of mouth. We realized that by the time school let out in April or May that we would be inundated by literally tens of thousands of young people from all over the world.”
Tim Leary, Allen Ginsburg, Gary Snider, Big Brother and the Holding Company; The Gathering of the Tribes !!
Drop out, turn on , but definitely stay tuned in.