Monday, February 13, 2017

Letter from Jon Hammond Member AF of M Local 6 Musicians Union San Francisco, Subject: permit for the summer of Love 50th - June 4th 2017 in Golden Gate Park Commissioner Mark Buell, President Commissioner Allan Low, Vice President Commissioner Kat Anderson Commissioner Gloria Bonilla Commissioner Tom Harrison Commissioner Eric McDonnell

Dear San Francisco City Hall Commissioners and Permit Management Team: It has come to my attention that the permit for the free concert event in honor of the 50th anniversary of the Summer of Love produced by Boots Hughston has just been denied on the grounds that it could put the public at risk. I would like to vouch for Mr. Hughston’s m.o. in organizing and handling security and all aspects of a large public concert event as a member in good standing of our Local 6 Musicians Union of San Francisco. Boots Hughston has already demonstrated that he can do this event safely, his team is well coordinated and experienced - I attended the 40th Anniversary of Summer of Love and it came off without a hitch - it was totally peaceful and everybody pitched in and cleaned up afterwards - fun for all ages, a real Family Event you could attend with your own children without any fear. This is an important part of the legacy of San Francisco - I have toured all over the world and everybody I meet who has never been to San Francisco tells me that they want to come to San Francisco and ‘wear flowers in their hair’ - this is one of the things that as City Administrators you should be greatly proud of and by all means support at the highest levels of the City and County of San Francisco, no doubt about it. We are lucky that many of the original musicians and participants in the original Summer of Love are still alive and have agreed to participate in the enactment of this 50th Anniversary of Summer of Love - free of charge, by and for the People. Please kindly reconsider your revocation of the permit and move forward to allow this very special event to take place on the appointed day of June 4th 2017, which has already been marked down on many calendars. Sincerely, Jon Hammond Member AF of M Local 6 Musicians Union of San Francisco #ActualSetList from 40th Anniversary Summer Of Love West Fest backstage photo taken by Jon Hammond: Member AF of M Local 6 Musicians Union San Francisco, Subject: permit for the summer of Love 50th - June 4th 2017 in Golden Gate Park Commissioner Mark Buell, President Commissioner Allan Low, Vice President Commissioner Kat Anderson Commissioner Gloria Bonilla Commissioner Tom Harrison Commissioner Eric McDonnell "We will file an appeal and refute all the allegations presented at the Park Commission meeting on Feb 16th in Room 416 at 10am, City Hall. All of us need to show up, we need everybody including friends etc. We need to make our voice heard. Letter from Boots Hughston: " Hi everybody, The permit for the summer of Love 50th has been denied on the grounds the event is unsafe sighting allegations that are totally fabricated and untrue. We will file an appeal and refute all the allegations presented at the Park Commission meeting on Feb 16th in Room 416 at 10am, City Hall. All of us need to show up, we need everybody including friends etc. We need to make our voice heard. Please send emails to the people listed below, very important it happens immediatly: Remind them how safe our events have been, how orderly and well run the production is, support my creditability as a producer, how this historic event has worldwide prominence, how San Francisco is seen worldwide as the father of the hip movement etc you get the drift. Please be respectful. Also remind them that the Golden Gate Park is for people of San Francisco not just for use of corporations to earn millions of dollars. We need to jump on this immediately. Please send them out with me BCC so I have a copy I will print them and take them to the meeting. We can win this but we need to jump on it now!!. we only have 7 days. Please also send it out to your friends list and ask them to send emails as well. Just draft one email and them copy and past to each address listed. Please send them to: Please send emails to: Tobius.L.Moore@sfgov.org Dana.Ketcham@sfgov.org diane.rea@sfgov.org phil.ginsburg@sfgov.org Sandra.Fewer@sfgov.org Mark.Farrell@sfgov.org Aaron.Peskin@sfgov.org Katy.Tang@sfgov.org Breedstaff@sfgov.org Jane.Kim@sfgov.org District 7 Norman Yee Norman.Yee@sfgov.org Jeff.Sheehy@sfgov.org Hillary.Ronen@sfgov.org Malia.Cohen@sfgov.org Ahsha.Safai@sfgov.org SF Park Commission All of the commissioners are at the same email address recpark.commission@sfgov.org in the Subject line Please put the their name send the emails to” Commissioner Mark Buell, President Commissioner Allan Low, Vice President Commissioner Kat Anderson Commissioner Gloria Bonilla Commissioner Tom Harrison Commissioner Eric McDonnell We need to move quick we only have until 16th - NEXT WEEK." West Fest Pt 2 of 2 by Jon Hammond HammondCast KYOU

*WATCH THE VIDEO HERE:

http://ia341312.us.archive.org/3/items/JonHammondWestFestPt2of2byJonHammondHammondCastKYOURadio/WestFestPt2of2_512kb.mp4



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVDGftJpps0


West Fest Celebration of 40th Anniversary of Woodstock free concert in Speedway Meadows Golden Gate Park Oct. 25, 2009 covered by Jon Hammond HammondCast KYOU Radio releasing of the doves, Jefferson Starship, Lester Chambers, El Chicano, Paul Lobster Wells, Bruce Lattimer shots by Mr. Hammond backstage and from crowd going to #29 bus © http://www.HammondCast.com special thanks Boots Hughston, Terence Hallinan

West Fest, Golden Gate Park, Speedway Meadows, Woodstock, Jon Hammond, Boots Hughston, HammondCast, KYOU Radio, Jefferson Starship, Lester Chambers http://ia311034.us.archive.org/3/items/JonHammondWestFestPt1of2byJonHammondatCelebrationofWoodstockinGoldenGateParkOct/WestFestPt1of2.m4v


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgEqSQtD7v4


West Fest Celebration of 40th Anniversary of Woodstock free concert in Speedway Meadows Golden Gate Park Oct. 25, 2009 covered by Jon Hammond HammondCast KYOU Radio with Freddie Herrera, Zero Nylin, Narada Michael Walden, Annie Sampson, Dr. Eugene Schoenfeld special thanks Boots Hughston, Terence Hallinan


*LISTEN TO HammondCast HERE:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzxbtNsPovo


HammondCast 129 KYOU Radio, special guest BOOTS HUGHSTON organizer of Summer of Love 40th and West Fest Sunday Blues And Jazz Session NAMM Show 2017 White Onions Hammond Organs Stand 5104 Jon's archive https://archive.org/details/SundayBluesAndJazzSessionNAMMShow2017WhiteOnionsHammondOrgansStand5104 Youtube https://youtu.be/BzDK39Xiz1g Facebook video https://www.facebook.com/hammondcast/videos/10154075375652102/ Vimeo https://vimeo.com/200668711 Anaheim CA -- 2017 NAMM Show​ Sunday Blues and Jazz Session with Jon Hammond and Friends "White Onions" - Koei Tanaka​ on Suzuki Harmonica - Official Facebook Page​ chromatic harmonica, Chuggy Carter​ (GON BOPS​) percussion, Joe Berger​ guitar (TV Jones), Jon Hammond​ at the Sk1 Hammond organ - camera: Jesse Gay​, Special thanks Steve Simmons​, Ray Gerlich, Scott May​, Suzuki Musical Instruments​ Team - in memory of Gregg Gregory Gronowski​ http://www.HammondCast.com Producer Jon Hammond Language English Published January 23, 2017 Usage Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Topics Blues and Jazz, Hammond Organs, Suzuki Chromatic Harmonica, Koei Tanaka, Onions, NAMM Show, Jon Hammond, Chuggy Carter, Joe Berger, TV Jones, Sk1 organ, Sunday Jon Otis: "Nice to see my pal keyboardist Jon Hammond at the NAMM show!!!" NAMM Show -- Great to see my old friend Jon Otis great drummer/percussionist at NAMM on last day, we go way back folks! - Jon Hammond NAMM Show: Jon Hammond This is an absolutely priceless shot Koei Tanaka, Wow...Big Congratulations!!! - Jon Hammond - Suzuki Musical Instruments - Stevie Wonder - Koei Tanaka / 田中光栄 - fan site #StevieWonder #KoeiTanaka Sunday Blues and Jazz Session in Hammond Organ USA Stand 5104 NAMM Show 2017 10AM sharp! Camera credit: Jesse Gay Koei Tanaka - Suzuki chromatic harmonica Chuggy Carter - Percussion Joe Berger - Guitar Jon Hammond - Sk1 Organ Uwe Petersen in the house! NAMM Show 2017 -- Heinz Lichius & Joe Berger, Jon Hammond & Heather from EARasers earplugs - Michael Turner Kate Hathaway Heather & Don of EARasers earplugs - Ray Gerlich of Hammond Organ USA & Jay Valle Viscount Organs Corporation - Heinz Lichius & Stephen Ferrone - Brian Larsen Gator Cases new Transit Series gig bag/cases - Seymour Duncan lends some hair to a friend! - Jon Hammond I want the Official NAMM Show Plastic Poncho Salem from the NAMM Show Crew, thanks Salem! - NAMM Show 2017 -- I love playing with these cats, it was a huge disappointment for our scheduled NAMM Show concert to be canceled without notice - Heinz Lichius flew all the way in from Hamburg for the hit, Koei Tanaka all the way from Tokyo Japan - Joe Berger from 43rd Street and Chuggy Carter (not pictured but was there) from New Jersey - big thanks to Jim Roberts and his wife for coming, thanks Jim! Photo Credit: Lawrence Gay co-producer of West Coast Live Radio Show Heinz Lichius and Jon Hammond on shut-down CenterStage L to R Chuggy Carter, Heinz Lichius, Jon Hammond, Koei Tanaka, Joe Berger link to the 2017 NAMM Industry Memorial Tribute video: https://www.namm.org/library/oral-history/namm-memoriam-industry-tribute-2017 Very sadly this year our dear friend Lutz Büchner was memorialized, but we will keep Lutz' Spirit! Big Thank You to my good friends in Bespeco Professional! From beautiful Castelfidardo Italy! Jon Hammond - NAMM Show — with Bespeco Professional Showtime! - Jon Hammond Funk Unit NAMM Show Jon Hammond Band - photo by the great photographer Lawrence Gay co-producer of West Coast Live Radio Show https://www.namm.org/thenammshow/2017/events/jon-hammond-funk-unit — with Pioneer DJ NAMM's John Riddle! - #NAMMShow Priceless NAMM Show shots by my friend Lawrence Gay co-producer of West Coast Live Radio Show! - Jon Hammond — at NAMM Show: Nico Teng and Jon Hammond at Superlux Avlex Super Nico! - #NAMMShow Priceless NAMM Show shots by my friend Lawrence Gay co-producer of West Coast Live Radio Show! - Jon Hammond Superlux — at NAMM Show Jon and Bernard Purdie! #NAMMShow Priceless NAMM Show shots by my friend Lawrence Gay co-producer of West Coast Live Radio Show! - Jon Hammond — with Bernard Purdie at NAMM Show: Now with Heritage Guitars folks!: Rich Severson and Gail Meyer Severson! - #NAMMShow Priceless NAMM Show shots by my friend Lawrence Gay co-producer of West Coast Live Radio Show! - Jon Hammond My friends Bernard Purdie and Lawrence Gay co-producer of West Coast Live) Radio show! - #NAMMShow Jon Hammond — with Bernard Purdie and West Coast Live at NAMM Show: -- RIP my friend Ron Polte - manager of Quicksilver, Ace of Cups, Wild West Fest - Jon Hammond (my band opened for Copperhead on one of the very few live gigs they played in 1972 at The Longbranch Saloon) Tam Junction and Piatti Mill Valley Restaurant - Breakfast with Ron, rest in peace Ron Polte - Jon Hammond : *Note: We had a lot of fun in the old days at 759 Harrison Street San Francisco when we shared rehearsal space with The Quicksilver Messenger Service at Bruce Hatch's San Francisco Radical Laboratories aka SF Rad Lab in years 1968 / 1969 (not to be confused with radiation lab folks! I am still in touch with QSM guitarist Gary Duncan, sending my condolences Gary! - JH *Note: This was Ron's big project some years ago folks: http://jonhammondband.com/blog.html/jon_hammond_reflections_on_wild_west_festival/ JON HAMMOND REFLECTIONS ON WILD WEST FESTIVAL - LINK: http://kernelpanichammondcast.blogspot.com/2016/09/wow-folks-i-was-there-jon-hammond.html Wow folks, I was there! This was very nearly the biggest Rock Music Festival that almost happened - it was very close. I went to many meetings with Ron Polte and a lot of very heavy San Francisco Rock bands were down to play the "Wild West Festival" (1969) Posters were already made up, we had meetings in the Zoetrope building now owned by Francis Ford Coppola and The Straight Theatre on Haight Street - Ron Polte was part owner of Straight Theatre in addition to being the manager of Quicksilver Messenger Service, Ace of Cups and for a time Sons of Champlin as well. I highly recommend watching and listening to this very rare footage of the press conference with Big Daddy Tom Donahue speaking about the project - Jon Hammond Band​ photo by Jon Hammond​ - breakfast with Ron I just saw Ron's obit by Paul Liberatore​ in the Marin IJ: http://www.marinij.com/article/NO/20160916/NEWS/160919827 "Quicksilver Quicksilver Messenger Service - Band​ manager Ron Polte dies in Mill Valley at 84" " By Paul Liberatore, Marin Independent Journal Posted: 09/16/16, 5:53 PM PDT | Updated: 6 hrs ago Ron Polte, who managed the psychedelic rock band Quicksilver Messenger Service and the all-female quintet the Ace of Cups during the glory days of the San Francisco Sound, died Wednesday at his longtime home in Mill Valley. He was 84. Mr. Polte had been suffering from multiple health problems and had been under Hospice care since May, said his wife of 20 years, Sally Robert. “He was a good man,” said Quicksilver band member David Freiberg, speaking by phone from Florida while on tour with the Jefferson Starship. “I could always trust him to do what he thought was right.” Born on the south side of Chicago into a family of nine children, Mr. Polte had a tough childhood, but managed to turn his life around after being in and out of trouble with the law as a teenager, his wife said. In Chicago, he became friends with blues singer-songwriter Nick Gravenites (“Born in Chicago,” “Buried Alive in the Blues”) when they were teenagers and followed him out to San Francisco in the early 1960s. They were the first of the Chicago blues crowd, including Mike Bloomfield, Elvin Bishop and Mark Naftalin of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, to relocate in the Bay Area, most of them settling in Marin and Sonoma counties. In 1967, Mr. Polte took over management of Quicksilver and the Ace of Cups after their original manager, Ambrose Hollingworth, was seriously injured in a car crash near Muir Beach. “When we needed somebody, there he was,” Freiberg said. Quicksilver was the last of the San Francisco hippie bands to ink a major label deal when they signed with Capitol Records in late 1967. “He took it slow and steady and wouldn’t take a deal if he didn’t think it was right,” Freiberg recalled. “It took a while, but we got a really good deal with Capitol.” Mr. Polte was known as a dutiful and resourceful manager who did what he could to meet the needs of the young musicians in his bands. Freiberg remembered that when he and his Quicksilver bandmates were living together in a house in Mill Valley, they informed him of their desire to move onto a farm in the country with a barn where they could rehearse. Mr. Polte wasted no time making that wish come true. “Within a week and a half, we were living on an old dairy farm in Olema,” Freiberg recalled, chuckling. “He really cared about making sure everybody was taken care of.” Diane Vitalich of Novato, drummer for the Ace of Cups, recalled that when she and her bandmates needed transportation, Mr. Polte went to an auction of state vehicles at San Quentin and bought cars for all of them. “He bought us five 1963 Dodge Darts,” she said. “They were all blue and all looked the same.” During this time, Mr. Polte started Westpole, a booking agency that handled Big Brother and the Holding Company with Janis Joplin, the Sons of Champlin and other seminal Bay Area rock groups. He’s also credited with inspiring the name of the band Electric Flag, a short-lived supergroup formed by Bloomfield, Gravenites, keyboardist Barry Goldberg, bassist Harvey Brooks and drummer Buddy Miles. According to Gravenites, Quicksilver had somehow come into possession of a light-up electric flag after a gig at a veterans hall. “He brought it over to where we were all living and rehearsing in Tam Valley,” he recalled. “We plugged it in and it lit up and started waving. We said, ‘Hey, look at that. Let’s call ourselves the Electric Flag.’” Eventually, Mr. Polte escaped from the hard living and tumult of the music business, spending time on a remote lodge in the New Mexico wilderness owned by Frank Werber, the charismatic manager of the Kingston Trio and owner of the Trident, a legendary Sausalito restaurant. Through it all, he never lost the values that defined the ‘60s generation in San Francisco. “All the altruistic thinking that came out of that era he agreed with a thousand percent,” Gravenites said. “He remained a firm defender of all the idealism from those years.” In addition to his wife, Mr. Polte is survived by two daughters, Pamela Polte of Sutter Creek, Amador County, and Patti Ann Lindecker of Chicago; two sons, Thomas Polte of Chicago and Jeremy Polte of Dunsmuir, Siskiyou County, and two sisters, Marilyn McMinn and Nancy Brunanchon of Pine Grove, Amador County. A private memorial service is being planned. " JON HAMMOND REFLECTIONS ON WILD WEST FESTIVAL - LINK: http://kernelpanichammondcast.blogspot.com/2016/09/wow-folks-i-was-there-jon-hammond.html Wow folks, I was there! This was very nearly the biggest Rock Music Festival that almost happened - it was very close. I went to many meetings with Ron Polte and a lot of very heavy San Francisco Rock bands were down to play the "Wild West Festival" (1969) Posters were already made up, we had meetings in the Zoetrope building now owned by Francis Ford Coppola and The Straight Theatre on Haight Street - Ron Polte was part owner of Straight Theatre in addition to being the manager of Quicksilver Messenger Service, Ace of Cups and for a time Sons of Champlin as well. I highly recommend watching and listening to this very rare footage of the press conference with Big Daddy Tom Donahue speaking about the project - Jon Hammond *long-time member Local 6 Musicians Union (but not then!) *LINK: https://diva.sfsu.edu/collections/sfbatv/bundles/201631 **From KQED piece: " KQED News report from 1969 featuring a press conference by Tom Donahue (1928-75), who discusses the Wild West Rock Festival that was to have taken place in Golden Gate Park but was cancelled due to protests by locals. Donahue believes that even though the concert never happened, this was a positive experience for the San Francisco community. He states that: "We also felt that a great deal of the good things that have come out of the artistic community in this country have originated in San Francisco. That it's a starting point. Thay may sound chauvanistic but I also think it's the truth." Ends with brief comments from another spokesman, who refers to the "unecessary and ... unwarranted paranoia" that the Wild West project had to deal with. It is worth noting that Donahue was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996 as a non-peformer, one of only three disc jockeys to receive that honor to date (2011). Tags: golden gate park, kqn 486, news cameras, rock concerts, ron polte, tom donahue, wild west festival Added to San Francisco Bay Area Television Archive on November 18, 2011. " Tom Donahue on the Wild West Festival (1969) (Updated over a year ago) #HammondCast #GoldenGatePark #HammondOrgan, Big Daddy, Jon Hammond, Local 6, Musicians Union, Ron Polte, San Francisco, Tom Donahue, Wild West Festival Jon's archive https://archive.org/details/JonHammondPartyBarge_2SONSofCHAMPLIN_JONHAMMOND Views 542 #542 Youtube https://youtu.be/inzkjTzdecs 7,373 views #7373 Boots Hughston put this on Facebook the other day: "From Boots Hughston In Answer to the denial of our Permit and demeaning letter questioning my credibility I have been a promoter for over 40 years in San Francisco and although I am not Bill Graham or Chet Helms I have promoted and produced hundreds if not thousands of shows in San Francisco and its parks. I will let my accomplishments speak for themselves. We’ve never had any problems with events we’ve produced; our production is tight, well oiled and very professional. Our production teams are the best in the industry and have pulled off the impossible many times such as having 21 bands and 17 speakers in 7 hours – with no performers being late. There are very few production companies in the industry able to accomplish this. The amazing thing is it’s done by volunteers’, professional people in the industry volunteering their time and expertise. Even the artists and musicians donate their services; no one gets paid - not even me. Because we are volunteers does not mean we are incompetent. We choose to be a part of this event, we do it out of love for our culture and the principles this event stands for Peace, Love, and Compassion. Now, if I had no creditability do you think musicians would play for free? Or the production people would work for free?, Believe me they wouldn’t. It is precisely the opposite; they want to be a part of this event because I have creditability and they respect the event and its history. All the people donate their services because they know our events are produced and managed professionally and above all are peaceful. My background as a promoter goes back many years - do you think I would mislead the Permits people or the Police Department? I would not, those are amateur promoter mistakes. They have taken statements out of context and twisted the meaning to benefit their own purpose. We will present our appeal this Thursday at 10am in RM 416 at city Hall. Please attend we need your help and participation. We will show documents proving I filed the Department of Emergency Services plan on time; we have Rock Med handling medical and they will refute the Parks statements. We also have email exchanges showing the statements they have taken out of context. Do not believe their slanderous statements. The question is Why: The parks have become a cash cow for the city and they don’t want events like ours – they want it to be corporate. They receive millions of dollars from fees charged; Outlands paid 3M dollars. They are ignoring non-profit groups like ours. They forget the Golden Gate Park and the Parks system is for citizens of San Francisco not for corporations to make money. It is important we honor our culture; the world sees this event and San Francisco as where a positive change came over our cultures, where creativity and spirituality became more important than money. This event gives us the opportunity to come together as one, in harmony showing the world we can unite under the banner of peace while respecting Mother Nature and our Earth. This event is seen around the world as the spear head of cultural change and represents San Francisco in a positive light internationally. Our last event had thousands of international press writing about San Francisco. It would be smart for the city to embrace this event not only to allow the permits to go forward, but take this event under its wing making it a reoccurring celebration of San Francisco and its Citizens. With Respect, Boots-2b1 " Awesome photos by Lawrence Gay - Joe Berger playing in Hammond Organ USA Stand number 5104 at NAMM Show traditional Sunday Session, Jon Hammond at his trusty Sk1, Jon and Dr. Lonnie Smith counseling - we'll all be playing Feb. 22nd Memorial bash in memory of Gregg Gronowski at Arcada Theatre - hope to see you there! http://youtube.com/jonhammondband Anaheim, California -- Jon Hammond and Bernard Purdie at NAMM Show Photo by Lawrence Gay Letter from Jon, Permit Summer of Love, Boots Hughston, Golden Gate Park, City Hall Flowers in Hair, #2b1 #HammondOrgan #Festival