http://www.dailytribune.com/articles/2010/07/17/entertainment/doc4c42094c47d5b546197300.txt
July 17, 2010
By Joe Ballor
"Detroit's Fillmore was the Grande," Alice Cooper says in the trailer
to "Louder Than Love The Grande Ballroom Story," filmmaker Tony
D'Annunzio's new documentary about Detroit's legendary rock venue.
Loud rock music, psychedelic light shows, a haze of cigarette and
marijuana smoke, and an anything goes attitude made the Grande, on
Grand River near Joy on Detroit's west side, the place to be if you
were a rebellious young person in the city in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
D'Annunzio's documentary about the Grande is a labor of love.
"I have been in this (broadcast) business for over 20 years, and at
the 20-year mark I looked back and realized I had never done a
production where I produced and directed it on my own," said
D'Annunzio, 44, who is a production manager, engineer and audio
engineer for Jeff Moon Productions, which has an office in Royal Oak.
"My interest in music is why I got into production in the first place.
"I started thinking about what kind of music I like. I grew up in
Detroit, not during the age of the Grande, but the music I heard all
went back to the great rock music of the '60s and '70s.
"All my research took me back to the Grande Ballroom. The more I
researched, the more I realized what incredible bands had played
there. I asked myself, 'What made this place so special? What was the
reason behind it?' I found out it was more than music. There was
incredible poster artistry and the whole '60s era. It was the birth
of a culture."
The Grande was built in 1928 as an upscale ballroom and hosted
concerts by famous big bands during the World War II era. The venue
later was a roller rink and even a mattress warehouse before "Uncle"
Russ Gibb leased it after visiting San Francisco's Fillmore
Auditorium and experiencing the counterculture scene there.
The Grande's rock 'n' roll era debuted Oct. 7, 1966 with a show
featuring the MC5 and the Chosen Few. Over the next six years, the
venue hosted virtually every important rock act of the time,
including Jimi Hendrix, Cream, Jeff Beck, The Who, Janis Joplin,
Jefferson Airplane, Pink Floyd, Joe Cocker and Led Zeppelin; as well
as B.B. King, Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker and Chuck Berry. It was
also an important proving ground and a stepping off point to national
prominence for local bands like the MC5 (the Grande's house band),
The Stooges (with lead singer Iggy Pop), the Amboy Dukes (with
guitarist Ted Nugent) and The Rationals. It closed with a final show
by the MC5 on New Year's Eve 1972.
"Louder Than Love" takes a close look at the history of the Grande's
rock era and its effect on future rockers through countless
interviews with such musical luminaries as Cooper, Nugent, B.B. King,
Roger Daltrey, Don Was, Tom Morello, Lemmy, Mark Farner of Grand
Funk, Scott Morgan of The Rationals, Slash, Wayne Kramer and Dennis
"Machinegun" Thompson of the MC5, and more.
"It's a retrospective," said D'Annunzio, who grew up in East Detroit,
moved with his family to Troy in seventh grade, graduated from Athens
High School in 1984, and now lives in Lake Orion with his wife and
two children. "It looks at why, at that time, all the great bands and
artists came through here."
D'Annunzio recorded over 60 hours of high-definition, full-broadcast
interviews over the past three years. He started by interviewing
Nugent and then Was. Others soon followed.
"They all gave props to Detroit," said D'Annunzio, who hopes to
release the film later this year. "They kept saying how Detroit music
inspired them. To hear Lemmy say without that without the MC5 there
would be no Motorhead was pretty substantial.
"Roger Daltrey took time out of his tour to sit and talk with me. The
Grande meant a lot to those people."
--
Fundraiser benefit
WHAT: Benefit concert to raise money to cover music licensing and
legal fees for the self-funded independent documentary "Louder Than
Love The Grande Ballroom Story."http://vimeo.com/7712066. Be sure
to play it loud!
WHO: Performers include Warhorses, Dead City Prophets and Psychild
(Robert Noll).
WHEN: 8 p.m. Friday. Doors open at 7:30 p.m.
WHERE: Magic Bag, 22920 Woodward, Ferndale.
TICKETS: $10 through TicketMaster or the Magic Bag.
OTHER: Auction offering items such as a Reverend Guitars Jetstream
290 guitar; gift certificates to Andiamo's restaurants; a signed copy
of the book "Travelin' Man: On the Road and Behind the Scenes with
Bob Seger," by writer Gary Graff and photographer Tom Weschler; and
more. Poster artist Carl Lundgren will be selling "Louder Than Love"
T-shirts and signed and numbered posters.
INFORMATION: (248) 544-3030. Check out the trailer at
--
Contact Associate Editor Joe Ballor at (586) 783-0250 or via e-mail
at Joe.Ballor@dailytribune.com.
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