May 6, 2024

John Mayall turned 90 a few weeks ago and is being awarded the Rock'n Roll Hall of Fame Musical Influence Award in 2024. About time he gets put into the Hall of Fame after so many musicians he helped start out are in there after being part of the John Mayall and his Bluesbreakers band.

Had the pleasure of photographing John and many of the musicians he had with him in his band in the early 1970's several times.

We can thank John for bringing us Mick Fleetwood who would then do his own band Fleetwood Mac with another Bluesbreakers musician John McVie.

Eric Clapton and Jack Bruce who would form Cream. Keef Hartley the drummer seen below, Mick Taylor, Harvey Mandel, John Almond and so many others I could mention but John Mayall really influenced the blues and music starting in 1963 and still going!

The photos here are all from Milwaukee in 1971, 1972, 1973 and 1975 when I was working for the Bugle American newspaper and had my photo studio.

John Mayall influenced my taste of music greatly I believe starting with his most famous tune "Room to Move".

His harmonica and guitar playing are really, really good and checkout the harmonica holder he wears and his guitar full of holes. Very cool plus he always seemed to have a Fox tail hanging around his belt!

Enjoy a look at the master and influencer WAY before there were influencers.

Thanks,

Rich Zimmermann

A little tour of John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers in 1971, 1972, 1973 and 1975 in Milwaukee.

April 22, 2024

The weekend of September 11, 1994 at Road America, the CART Indy Cars raced in the the Texaco Havoline 200.

That was a big year of change in CART because of the formation of the IRL series starting up. It was trying to take over the series. That is a whole story in itself someday for another blog, book or movie, but 1994 was a great year of CART racing.

On that nice Fall weekend at Road America we got to see a Canadian in the front row with Paul Tracy in the pole position and a young superstar named Jacques Villeneuve right next to him.

Nigel Mansell was on his last visit to Road America and had the fastest lap of the race but Jacques Villeneuve won it that day.

Team Penske showed up with Emerson Fittipaldi, Paul Tracy and Al Unser Jr. who won the Indy 500 that year with the very secret Mercedes Benz 500I engine that had 1,100hp! Al would end up winning the 1994 championship.

Michael Andretti came back to CART after a year in F1 that didn't go so well. Michael came back driving for Chip Ganassi's new team and won the first race of the year. This was also the last year of Mario Andretti racing in CART and Indy Cars.

Some other great racers you will see here in my photos are Stefan Johansson, Raul Boesel, Arie Luyendyk, Teo Fabi, Adrian Fernandez, Willy T. Ribbs, Scott Goodyear, Mauricio Gugelmin and Bobby Rahal in his beautiful Miller Genuine Draft race car.

Nice to see and remember Dick Simon who was a great team owner for several years for multiple drivers.

Notice the top of Al Unser Jr.'s helmet full of tire rubber and someone else's oil leak!!

Enjoy a look and some beautiful sounding and great looking Indy Cars.

Thanks,

Rich Zimmermann

On September 11, 1994 the CART Indy Cars raced the Texaco Havoline 200 at Road America. A young 22 year old Jacques Villeneuve won the race.

The CART Indy Cars at the Milwaukee Mile in 1994.

April 8, 2024

I've been a music and rock'n'roll photographer since I was 16 years old (1970) for several newspapers, bands, record companies, Summerfest and more. I wanted to work for Rolling Stone Magazine as a music photographer but it was never meant to be apparently.

An album cover was another item that I ALWAYS wanted but never achieved until this week! I have done photos inside of albums, books and several publications but have never gotten the elusive album cover until now.

On June 3, 1973 at Milwaukee's Performing Arts Center, Foghat played with the Thomas Jefferson Kaye band as the opening act. I photographed the show for the Bugle American newspaper here in Milwaukee.

Bearsville Records Inc. along with Rhino Entertainment Company, a Warner Music Group Company, contacted me a few months ago for usage of my photos for a Record Store Day Foghat album release on April 20th.

Thanks to using metadata in all of my photos on my website, they found me.

The album called Foghat-Permission to Jam-Live in New Orleans is from a show they recorded on September 1 and 2, 1973. This is my first ever album cover and they used three other photos on the back cover. It is a huge honor and only took me 54 years of photography to get'er done.

The album cover is a nice full photo of the band in black and white and the three photos of mine on the back cover were color but they made them black and white.

Lonesome Dave Peverett was the vocalist, leader of the band and a character. Dave was a lot of fun and had the energy to ROCK!

So enjoy a peak at the only copy that is in our house here but you can pick one up soon at your record store.

Thanks,

Rich Zimmermann

March 25, 2024

So, was that an interesting Indy Car race at The Thermal Club with the Million Dollar Challenge?? Interesting but crushed for Pietro Fittipaldi with his team not giving him enough fuel!!! Congratulations to Alex Palou who now has some extra money for diapers and drinks he said!

This week we take a look back at the 2018 Road America Indy Car race and the Indy Lights racers. During these old times IMSA ran with Indy Car for a fun filled weekend.

Interesting to see the young Pato O'Ward, Aaron Telitz and Colton Herta back in their Indy Lights days. Pato and Colton are in Indy Car now doing well. Aaron Telitz is racing in IMSA doing well in Jimmy Vasser's, Vasser-Sullivan Lexus team.

There are a couple interesting photos of Colton Herta pushing it and spinning out in turn 5 during qualifying. Will Power had an interesting off the track move in turn 6 coming in a little too fast I believe, also during qualifying.

See if you can find the super hot glowing front brakes on Alexander Rossi's car towards the end of my photos here.

For 2017 Indy Car Champ Josef Newgarden, the 2018 race at Road America was great with winning the pole position and the race!

Ryan Hunter-Reay finished second and Scott Dixon finished third.

Enjoy a look at some interesting young men and the days when Robert Wickens was still running Indy Car before his accident. Now he is back in IMSA racing and getting better every day.

Have a wonderful Easter.

Thanks,

Rich Zimmermann

March 11, 2024

On June 15, 1977 Pink Floyd brought their Animals/In The Flesh tour to the Milwaukee County Stadium for another great show in the rain!! Their last show here in 1975 for the Wish You Were Here tour was also a rainy event.

It was another amazing show and a lot of work for their team to set up and protect all the gear from the rain. The rain stopped the show a few times, but no one cared.

Notice the photo of The Pig before it was inflated for the show and traveled about via a cable.

Enjoy a look at the setting up and rehearsal plus a bit of the show.

The setlist consisted of;

1. Sheep

2. Pigs on the Wing 1

3. Dogs

4. Pigs on the Wing 2

5. Pigs (Three Different Ones)

6. Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Parts I-V)

7. Welcome to the Machine

8. Have a Cigar

9. Wish You Were Here

!0. Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Parts VI-IX)

11. Money

Thanks,

Rich Zimmermann

Pink Floyd doing their "Animals Tour" June 15, 1977 at the Milwaukee County Stadium.

February 26, 2024

On June 22, 1975, the Pink Floyd "Dark Side of the Moon" tour came to the Milwaukee County Stadium for a show.

Milwaukee County Stadium was not real happy to have their nice grass baseball field messed up, so I was hired for insurance purposes by Daydream Productions to photograph it before and after! One of the weirdest photo jobs I've ever had but I also got to photograph the setup and rehearsal for the show.

That is why you see a friend holding a board that has 21 on it for the June 21 field condition on the day before the show.

It took two days to set it up and the field survived well enough that more shows were allowed like the Rolling Stones a few months earlier when I also photographed the grass.

Fun to look at the old days and the gear that was used for the show. An airplane they made that flew on a wire over the crowd was one of the more interesting things used.

For the show it rained and I didn't risk the photo gear getting soaked but the crowd didn't care. The show started and stopped a few times and ended at 12:30am with the crowd still wanting more!

Enjoy a look at the setup, people, cars and staging on a very hot couple of days! It makes you appreciate all the work it takes to setup a major show and notice the $0.65 beer!

Also take a look at the guy with the long curly out of control hair parted right down the middle. That would be me!

Here is the setlist from the night.

1. Sheep

2. Dogs

3. Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Parts 1-5)

4. Have a Cigar

5. Speak to Me

6. Breathe

7. On the Run

8. Time

9. Breathe (Reprise)

10. The Great Gig in the Sky

11. Money

12. Us and Them

13. Ant Colour You Like

14. Brain Damage

15. Eclipse

16. Echoes

Thanks,

Rich Zimmermann