Venue Address: 3601 S Broad St. - Philadelphia, PA 
Promotion: Spectrum/Spivak
Event: In Concert
Also Performing:
The Staple Singers
Blues Image
Setlist:
House Announcer (Bill Siddons)
House Announcer (Larry Magid)
Roadhouse Blues
Break On Through
-Don't Fight It
Back Door Man
-Love Hides
Ship Of Fools
Universal Mind
When The Music's Over
Mystery Train
-People Get Ready
-Away In India
-Crossroads
Wake Up!
Light My Fire
Maggie M'Gill*
Roadhouse Blues (Reprise) >*
Been Down So Long >*
-Slippin' and Slidin'
Rock Me**
Carol >
Soul Kitchen
-Pray The Lord
House Announcer (Larry Magid)
* Featuring Ray On Guitar & Robby On Bass
** Featuring Robby On Bass
Recordings / Film:
Multi-track Recording (Absolutely Live) (See Below)
Amateur/Audience Recording
Photographers:
Sonny Casale (Backstage)
J. Paul Simeone
Unidentified (Amateur & Professional)
Reviews / Info:
-This performance is tentatively scheduled for May 5th.
-Promotional flyers for this performance are known to have been distributed by mail.
-8:00pm scheduled start time.
-Approx. 14,000 in attendance.
-Lights by Festival Group.
-This performance is recorded for Absolutely Live! on a remote truck provided by Fedco Audio Labs.
-Jim Morrison is in Mexico City on the morning of this show.
-An escort is sent to Miami to meet Jim Morrison to ensure his appearance at this concert.
-Bill Siddons and house announcer Larry Magid plead with the audience to move back before the show can begin.
-Ray Manzarek switches from guitar back to keyboard halfway through Been Down So Long.
-Baltimore Sun journalist Bob Grover interviews The Doors entourage following the show.
-The Doors return to Philadelphia in 1971 following Jim Morrison's death.
FIRST-HAND REVIEWS:
"My fifth and final show was at the Spectrum in Philadelphia, with an audience capacity of 14,000. My bright green ticket showed a $6.00 price. Once I arrived there, I hung around outside the arena talking to a security person. He told me if I stayed there with him long enough, I would eventually see the band return from dinner in their limo. Sure enough, he identified their limo approaching, and it sped right past us and into the building. I then raced to get inside to my seat. I missed the Staples Singers opening act, but I didn't care. I knew that I had gotten a glimpse of their arriving limo, and I was thrilled.
This show is partially featured on Absolutely Live, where the announcer says the Fire Marshall will not allow the show to go on until the aisles are cleared. I was in that audience; it was bedlam. No one was in their seats, the aisles were clogged. I worried that the Fire Marshall really would shut the show down; I didn't know if it was a bluff, or if that really could happen with an arena-full of 14,000 rabid, chanting fans. For some reason, I cannot remember what Jim was wearing."
Ida Miller
Los Angeles, CA
Copyright © 2011 Ida Miller
A Special Thanks to Ida Miller for providing her ticket stub & memories of the concert to MildEquator.com!
TICKET:
"I saw them at The Spectrum in Philly with Blues Image and the Staple Singers. The Spectrum show was held up for about 45 minutes because the fire marshall wanted everybody to move away from the stage. Nobody moved. It's been a long time but I can still remember the unbelievable anticipation of them coming on stage. It was dark but you could see some movement on stage then hear them picking up their instruments and tuning them up, the intensity was building up to a fever pitch when they started up with Roadhouse blues in the dark. When the lights came up Jim was walking toward the microphone and the place exploded.
My biggest regret was that they didn't play longer. If I remember right, they probably played for about close to an hour and a half between the show and the encore. Jim also called Philadelphia the Music Capital of the World.
I was lucky enough to be born during a time of tremendous change musically and civic change, it was a magical time and The Doors changed me forever. I was 18 and I looked at them as larger than life. Having met Ray and Robby over the years numerous times, I now realize they're just regular guys that happened to make some of the best music ever with a front man that will live on forever."
Gary Mahon
Philadelphia, PA
Copyright © 2019 Gary Mahon
A Special Thanks to Gary Mahon for providing his memories of the concert to MildEquator.com!
"I love The Doors! I saw them May 1st, 1970. I'm in that crowd on the fade-up on Absolutely Live, opening track. 10th row floor seat. It was a deep green ticket. I think someone stole it along with my other concert tickets (including a Ringo autographed Beatles stub for Atlantic City) sometime around 1999-2001. I had also brought a Panasonic cassette/radio player/recorder with me to The Doors concert. I had an external mic hooked up. I wanted to pay more attention to The Doors than to the recorder, so I put it under my seat. I had the mic on top of the unit. When I played back the recording, all I heard was the motor whrrrr. I think I can hear myself in the crowd noise on the fade up to Absolutely Live. I shouted "Larry... hey Laaaary!" to my friend at our floor seats. I was standing at the foot of the stage, checking out the instruments and Sun amps. I saw he was looking for me. And then, the announcer that you hear on Absolutely Live, telling us we had to go back to our seats, came on. You hear it on the record.
I think they did Roadhouse Blues twice, in the beginning and at the close. Not 100% sure of that. Incidentally, one of my friends who went with us (Larry is Larry LiMato; we were all from Ewing, New Jersey), was Sev (Pasquale Severino). About 3 months before the concert, I think, I was driving with Larry in the car. It was nighttime. I was driving past a hitchhiker in our town, and Larry said why don't you give him a ride. (the hitchhiker on the side of the road, lol). So I pulled over, and the guy gets in the back seat. Before I resume driving, the guy taps me on the shoulder. I turned around, and it was Sev! I was shocked and surprised! He had been in Vietnam, and I had no idea that he was back. He and Larry set this whole thing up in advance! So then, I get a second surprise. Sev reaches out and hands me something. I take a look at it, and it is a dark green ticket that says on it, The Doors, May 1, 1970. $6.00. I can't quote you the row and seat numbers now, as the ticket is missing, but I found when we went to the concert that we were about 10 rows back from the stage on the floor. It was unbelievable! Both were incredible - seeing the ticket in my hand, and then, on May 1st at the Spectrum, seeing where our seats were! Oh, man, Jim freakin' Morrison, right in front of us!"
Bob Jones
Philadelphia, PA
Copyright © 2020 Bob Jones
A Special Thanks to Bob Jones for providing his memories of the concert to MildEquator.com!
MULTI-TRACK RECORDING
On July 21st, 1969 The Doors set out to record what was originally intended to become their live album at the Aquarius Theater. The following day before the equipment is torn down, a rehearsal by the band with no audience present is also taped. The band gives two impressive live performances at the venue, however producer Paul Rothchild decides upon playback of the tapes that more work is needed to be done in order to present The Doors to the public as they should be heard. Further plans to record the band live are made, and in 1970 they record their performances in New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Detroit. The resulting tapes make up what is known today as the Absolutely Live! album released in July of 1970.
BOB GROVER BACKSTAGE AT THE SPECTRUM:
Contributed By: Bob Grover
While working as a desk chief for the Baltimore Sun, Bob Grover travels to Philadelphia to attend The Doors performance at The Spectrum and write an article on the events taking place for readers back home in Baltimore. He returns home and prints his review in the Sun on May 10th, the day The Doors are scheduled to arrive and perform in his hometown. MildEquator.com is pleased to feature here, Bob's original Baltimore Sun article and backstage press pass for the Philadelphia show. We'd like to give a special thanks to Bob for his commentary and unique contribution to the site!
"At the time of The Doors concerts, I was the copy desk chief at the Baltimore Sun, writing occasional articles on music on the side. Morrison's people wanted to assure parents that his Baltimore show would not be indecent, so they brought several Baltimore writers up to Philadelphia, where The Doors performed a week or two prior to their Baltimore date, to preview the performance. I remember Morrison, whom we met backstage, being friendly and chock full of charisma, his handlers doing a lot of the talking. I was given two things: a photographer's pass, and a business card from The Doors press agent, Leon Barnard."
Bob Grover,
Baltimore, MD
Copyright 2010 Bob Grover
Big Cam & the Lifters - http://www.theLifters.com
PRESS/PHOTOGRAPHER'S PASS:"A photographer's pass for the 1970 concert in Philadelphia at The Spectrum. I don't know why it was a photographer's pass rather than, say, a reporter's pass. There were no photographers present backstage." LEON BARNARD'S BUSINESS CARD:"The Doors press agents' business card, marred by scribbling, to get a ballpoint pen writing." |
NEWSPAPER REVIEW:
"I still have the submitted handwritten copy in my files. The article ran pretty much as I wrote it."
Publish Date: May 10th - 1970 in the Baltimore SunMICHAEL OBERMAN INTERVIEWS THE DOORS BACKSTAGE:
Contributed By: RFritts
Writer for the Washington Star, Michael Oberman, interviews The Doors backstage following their performance at the Philadelphia Spectrum on May 1st, 1970.
Publish Date: May 9th - 1970 in the Washington Star
Copyright © Michael Oberman
ARCHIVE/MEMORABILIA:
REVIEW #1:
Newspaper: The Evening BulletinAuthor: S. Robert Jacobs
Publish Date: May 4th - 1970
Copyright © Evening Bulletin
Contributed By: MildEquator.com
REVIEW #2:
Newspaper: The Philadelphia InquirerAuthor: Jack Lloyd
Publish Date: May 2nd - 1970
Copyright © Philadelphia Inquirer
Contributed By: jim4371
ARTICLE:
Newspaper: Philadelphia Daily NewsAuthor: Charles Petzold
Publish Date: May 4th - 1970
Copyright © Philadelphia Daily News
Contributed By: MildEquator.com
PRINT AD #1:
Contributed By: jim4371
PRINT AD #2:
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PROGRAM AD:
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TICKET #1:
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TICKET #2:
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TICKET #3:
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TICKET #4:
Contributed By: Rockaway Records - http://www.rockawayrecords.com
FLYER:
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