The Grateful Dead playing the Dane County Coliseum in Madison, Wisconsin on February 15, 1973.

March 8, 2020

Taking a look back at the Steve Miller Band in 1978, performing at the Dane County Coliseum in Madison, Wisconsin.

Steve Miller's first band was started in 1966 and has had many transformations throughout the years. He is still playing! He was Wisconsin born and his Godfather was the great Les Paul!

The version shown here has two personal favorite musicians in the band.  They are Norton Buffalo who passed in 2009 and Leslie West who passed just last year.

This band was always having a fun time filling halls, arenas and what ever festival they played.

Steve has sold a lot of records and his greatest hits 1974-1978 album, that was released in 1978, sold over 13 million copies! One of them is downstairs and was recently played!

The photo with Leslie West is not the greatest but he was an amazing player so I had to include it.  He and Steve had a lot of fun playing together at this show. They also played together a year earlier at Milwaukee's Summerfest.

Enjoy a look at the guys in 1978.

Thanks,

Rich Zimmermann

March 9, 2020

On March 4, 1973, Pink Floyd arrived at the Dane County Coliseum for a show that would become a favorite show for a lot of people.

The "Dark Side of the Moon" album had just been released and the show centered around that music.

A large rotating disc with fog behind it rotated behind the band for some nice lighting during some of the show.

I remember driving in my 1972 Volkswagen Squareback with some friends from Milwaukee to Madison for the show. Loved that car and it had a great heater but we all froze waiting outside for the general admission show doors to open!

Then we ran inside when the doors were opened to get as close to the stage as possible.

The original film of black and white negatives were given to a friend years later who was doing a book on the band. She didn't look after my kids (the film), and they were never seen again!!

Recently, I found a few 5 x 7 prints and the proof sheets from the show!  It's better than having nothing at all but hard to duplicate the original film.

I photographed the 5 x 7 prints and they came out alright considering they were printed on matte finish paper in 1973. Matte paper shows a lot of grain in the fibers unfortunately.

We are working on the proof sheets but they are stuck in plastic and also printed on matte paper!

Check out what I have so far and maybe more photos will happen down the road.

Thanks,

Rich Zimmermann

October 30, 2017

I have been busy this past week rescanning the Grateful Dead show from February 15, 1973!

In doing the research for this show, I found a few other shows from that time period that will be coming up soon.

What I remember most about this show is the red spotlight and it went on for HOURS!

Did you ever know that Jerry Garcia is missing a finger? I didn't until looking at these photos.  Still photography is great in that it gives us that moment frozen in history forever!

Enjoy a look at the band in 1973.

Thanks,

Rich Zimmermann

June 16, 2014

Our blog today is about a Grateful Dead show at the Dane County Coliseum on February 15, 1973.

Starting today, my photographs on my website will have a watermark on them for many reasons. The biggest one being that I am in this whole business to sell some photographs and not be a starving artist!!

I never knew that Jerry Garcia was missing part of a finger until someone mentioned it and I looked at my photographs of this show. This proves that you don't need all of your fingers to play great guitar!

Enjoy some photographs from a great show that I remember being a very long performance. The Grateful Dead was known for playing long shows.  They frequently went into long jam sessions.

If my memory serves me correctly this was a two night show.

Have a great week.

Thanks,

Rich Zimmermann

June 9, 2014

On December 5, 1973, The Beach Boys headlined a show with The New Riders of the Purple Sage at the Dane County Coliseum in Madison, Wisconsin.

It was a cold, wintery, snowy night in Wisconsin, but The Beach Boys turned up the heat! It was a great show for a big crowd.

Enjoy some photos of that evening. Next week we will have the opening act of this show, The New Riders of the Purple Sage!

Have a nice week and join me on Facebook at Rich Zimmermann Photography if you haven't already.

Thanks,

Rich Zimmermann

The Beach Boys at the Dane County Coliseum on December 5, 1973.

Linda Ronstadt at the Dane County Coliseum in 1980

Neil Young at the Dane County Coliseum on November 14, 1976.

December 3, 2012

On March 13, 1976, The Who came to the Dane County Coliseum in Madison, Wisconsin.

After waiting in line outside with a very large crowd, for a very long time, my friends and I made it inside and ran to the front of the stage as soon as they opened the doors.  We ran because we had to secure a good spot with our cameras since it was a general admission show and we had no backstage passes.  We were glad to have made it inside because outside we were pushed into the glass entrance doors to the point that we could not breath!  I remember being very scared that day.  

The show was great! It was after all The Who, so the waiting and getting crushed outside was worth it! 

They were on tour in Chicago this past week so I thought it was a good time to dig up these images from 1976.

The present tour of course does not have Keith Moon on drums or John Entwistle on bass, unfortunately.  I was lucky to see and photograph The Who with the original band.

The photos featured on the blog each week are for sale at $30.00 for an 8 X 10 or 8 1/2 X 11.

Thanks,

Rich