transport had been sourced, including a bus bearing the legend “We Have Come For Your Daughters” painted on the front of it. The caravan was finally ready to roll.


The Medicine Ball Caravan


“Deirdre La Porte and I had been living together, in San Francisco, and the first time I got together with Stoneground”, remembers Valentino. “I had picked up Lydia Moreno, or Lydia Phillips as she was called then, and drove her out to Walnut Creek where we were all meant to meet up. This was to work out what we might do for songs as Tom felt that each of the women and Tim should have a song each to sing as a lead vocalist. There was at least two occasions when we came together to work these details out before leaving the Bay Area and joining the caravan. This was only talk


lousy way things were going I was pissed-off about how we were unable to get together as a band and get comfortable with each other in order to play to the best of our abilities. Remember, I had not sung in public for quite a while and that started to loom large as I drove on until we finally unloaded our equipment for the first time in Placidas, New Mexico. When I looked across the stage to my right I could not believe what I saw. A large audience and there were 150 or so, right down at the front, really getting into our appearance, all dancing and clapping. Unknown to us we were in the right place at the right time I guess. We had not played on a stage in any form at all until we hit the stage for the first time that night. It was like a homecoming. We were contagious, with people everywhere willing to come along with us. It was shocking to me in more ways than one, mostly pleasantly. For some reason I was uncomfortable about it too and I’m sure


unorganised, laced with drugs and did not represent my finest hour. There were times I would have rather been back with The Sandals playing Bar Mitzvahs That should tell you how bad it could be at times. I remember being in Placitas, New Mexico watching one of the film crew filming the front of the stage. Of course, Tom Donohue had put acid in the crews coffee that morning... well, this guy was filming forever and one of his mates eventually came up to tell him that he had run out of film. The guy filming opened his camera and there was no film in it! The cameraman said a few words to his comrade, closed the camera and kept filming. There are many of these kinds of stories throughout the making of the movie. In Washington DC, however, there were 10,000 people on hand to witness and applaud our band.”


Stoneground was the only band who


Brian Godula


though, we were not actually rehearsing together at that point. Later, when Lydia was running a rehearsal of ‘May The Circle Be Unbroken’ she noticed that Deirdre was there as well and asked her to join in.


“When we all –and there were almost 200 of us –left San Francisco in August I had no idea that three months later we would be planning to record an LP in London. From the time we left that parking lot one morning we couldn‘t rehearse the band. We were always on the move. It seemed that we were either trying to catch up with the rest of the caravan or trying to figure out where we were meant to be going. What I really remember is that we drove thousands of miles to get from one concert to the next. There was usually a week between concerts taking place because that was how long it took to move us all around. The days were long and the nights enchanting. I can’t recall ever spending time with members of the band and having time to talk about songs or a set list. I think they were travelling on a bus. I was driving a little mail van with Deirdre La Porte in it. She slept sometimes and I drove, sometimes standing up to keep awake. Vehicles started to break down from the first day of travelling. I was sure we’d all wind up in jail but there were lawyers available to help minimise that eventuality. That was organised, but when I wasn’t confused and pissed-off about the


40


Lynne Hughes


Blakeley must have been uncomfortable also. We were the old guys: cautious and experienced. The younger guys in the band ate it up like candy and were anxious to do it again. They felt really positive and delighted with what we had somehow miraculously pulled off. The women in the band were also a bit older and certainly wiser than some and they began practicing their harmonies during the days off.”


He continues. “From that first concert together we drew bigger crowds and got better reviews as we made our way through the middle of the country, through incredible thunder storms, mis-directions and getting lost. Highway patrolmen and forgotten Indians and French camera crews who were always on the look out for a hippie orgy to take place! Some of the Grateful Dead’s road crew did come on the trip and I use the word ‘trip’ with good reason. The members of the road crew were dosing that camera crew and anyone else that they could, with Sandoz LSD. It was one of the things that the road crew did for fun. At the time it was all fine by me, I have to say.”


Different band members also have different perspectives on the nature of that tour and how it affected them. John Blakeley again. “In a few words, as a musician it was mostly awful. Suffice it to say that it was


Sal Valentino


travelled as part of the caravan as the tour crossed the country. They were certainly the only band who played at every show. All of the other bands were flown in for each gig by Warners. What Warner Brothers originally had in mind for The Medicine Ball Caravan was that The Grateful Dead would be the house band and that Ken Kesey and The Merry Pranksters would be a part of the caravan. Then, somebody at Warners had a change of heart, and dropped the idea of the pranksters taking part, allegedly because they thought that the Pranksters would be too much of a liability. Warners then approached Wavy Gravy and a commune called The Hog Farmers to be part of the caravan. Then The Grateful Dead dropped out and the search for a tour band was on. Tom Donohue suggested Stoneground and that was that.


Sadly, for Stoneground, also on the bill that night in Washington was an upcoming band going by the name of Alice Cooper. The Warner Brothers label rep somehow managed to persuade Stoneground to leave the stage after playing a truncated set in order to get Alice Cooper onstage before the 9PM deadline for closing the event arrived. Remember, this was a crowd in excess of 10,000. That is a lot of free publicity. Needless to say, Donohue was livid at this turn of events, as were The Alembic Sound Crew. Bob Mathews is rumoured to have


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