I never get tired of that story Dave. It's precious and unique.
Well...they didn't come out of a vacuum exactly but not as they appeared when you first saw them for sure:
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They had been around the block for quite a few years before we met them. We just weren't in the circles, being in Macon. Macon was the place where you saw Wilson Pickett, Otis Redding, and the Motown types. Later came the Southern Rock era. All those guys were in and out of Bibb Music Center, which was right down the street from Capricorn's office. The club we were playing shared a back parking lot with Bibb Music. You could walk out the door of one, cross a parking lot, and go in the back door of the other.
I think the first impression was the greatest. They drove up in two delivery trucks that looked like bread trucks and started unloading equipment up a fire escape in the back, behind the stage. After they unloaded the first truck, the dance floor was packed and one of the roadies said, "I guess we don't need to unload the other truck, do we?". We just looked at each other and grinned. I guess the other truck had the rest of the sound reinforcement equipment.
We had Fender Bandmasters and a Bassman and a couple of column speakers with a small PA head, a set of Ludwig drums, and a Farfisa organ with a small amp. They brought in a music store with a long row of double stack Marshalls, two sets of drums, a B3 organ and two 145 Leslies, huge triple stack PA cabs and rack mount amplifiers for micing the instrument cabs, a big mixing board with a snake, and a sound guy. Twiggs Lyndon was walking around making suggestions in between going back and forth to the phone back in the bar area. We were slack jawed just ogling the equipment and all the goings on with the roadies setting everything up.
Our summer '69 club gig turned into a semi-permanent gig that went into the first half of 1970. They came and went on tour and used the place to practice when they were in town. They stored a bunch of equipment in a storage room and came in and out to get what they needed for gigs. They later found a warehouse somewhere and used that as a home base for rehearsals and equipment storage. I remember when they announced in January 1970 that they were headed to New York to play some gigs. We didn't know it, but in February 1970 they would play the legendary Fillmore East gig that resulted in the live album. They were in and out of the club and the roadies came in one day to pick up some equipment and told us that Twiggs was arrested for stabbing a club owner.
April 30 1970, Twiggs Lyndon, the road manager for the Allman Brothers Band, was arrested for murder after he stabbed a club manager during an argument over a contract.
These stories were all considered true locally and some appeared in our local newspaper. Scooter Herring worked at a local garage/gas station about 3 blocks from my parent's home. He pumped gas and did tune-ups, installed racing parts that people bought and brought to him. It was right next door to a restaurant where Little Richard worked. Little Richard bussed tables and swept up, singing as he worked. That restaurant is where he was discovered.
The Allman Brothers Band Funny Trivia
