ADMISSION: Orchestra $5.50 - - Grand Tier $5.00 - - Balcony $4.50 ----- Tickets on Sale at: THALHIMER'S, Downtown, GARY'S Willow Lawn, MUSIC CITY, Southside Plaza CHURCHILL RECORDS - BARKEY RECORDS BILL JONES, Petersburg
The poster was published by the Globe Poster Company of Baltimore known for their "colorful boxing style concert posters promoting the top R&B, Blues, and Rock & Roll touring acts" of the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. Heritage Auctions described the window card as a "fabulous presentation of Day-Glo pink and yellow, as was Globe Poster's trademark."
Steel Mill was formed by Bruce Springsteen in November of 1969. The excellent fan site BruceBase describes the band's history:
Steel Mill initially consisted of Bruce Springsteen (guitars & vocals), Vinnie Roslin (bass), Vini Lopez (drums) and Danny Federici (keyboards) and were formed in November 1969. Previously named Child, they decided to change to Steel Mill when another band released a record under the same name. In February 1970 Roslin left the band (his last performance with the group was on February 28) and was replaced by Steven Van Zandt, while vocalist Robbin Thompson joined on August 25, 1970. Thompson was previously lead singer of Mercy Flight. During September 1970, Mercy Flight drummer Dave Hazlett also substituted for Lopez while the latter sorted out legal issues. Springsteen announced his decision to leave the band in December 1970, and they played their final gig in January 1971 at the Upstage in Asbury Park. Springsteen went on to form The Bruce Springsteen Band later that year.
The concert at the Mosque where Steel Mill opened for Ike and Tina Turner is described by BruceBase as:
One show, double bill, with Steel Mill opening for headliner The Ike And Tina Turner Revue. A soul band and a progressive rock group were a strange billing combination, consequently, it’s perhaps not surprising that less than half the tickets to the 3,000-seat Mosque were sold. Former Back Door Club owner John Richardson, who orchestrated the event, has stated that he lost a fair chunk of money on this show. As undercard Steel Mill would have played about 60-70 minutes. The audio evidence supports reports that the venue was half empty. The crowd reaction to Steel Mill is polite but indifferent, an indicator the band wasn’t headlining. "Why'd You Do That" includes a customized refrain mentioning the town of Woodland Falls that seems to have been used only when playing in Virginia. "Goin’ Back To Georgia" features Bruce and Robbin Thompson alternating the lead vocal.
The band at the Mosque concert included Springsteen, Danny Federici, Vini Lopez, Robbin Thompson, and Steven Van Zandt.
The website NJ.com quoted Springsteen talking about Richmond when he played a concert in May of 2014 at the Farm Bureau Live at the Virginia Beach (known to most as the "Virginia Beach Amphitheater."):
Back when New Jersey was where we could get paid, there was one other place. We would come down to Richmond, make a few dollars to keep us going.
So just a few months ago, we were at my godson's graduation [at VCU], got to spend a few days in Richmond. It's still very lovely, I went by the old Mosque. I opened for Ike and Tina Turner at the Mosque (with Steel Mill), many years ago, opened up for Chicago and Iron Butterfly (in Richmond). We had many, many shows of our own, that were supported very deeply by the audience in these parts.
Springsteen's early band Child is known to have played at least 4 shows in 1969 in Richmond. Steel Mill played at least 16 concerts in the Richmond area from November 1969 through October 1971.
When Tina Turner jumped on the stage last night at the Mosque while she danced and wailed, "Do You Like Good Music," she sent a crowded audience into a frenzy. And that's just what the Ike and Tina Turner Revue wants to do, said Ike before the show. "When we go on stage, we put our heart, body and soul into the audience. It's the people we want to please, not ourselves," he said.
The group, complete with three writhing Ikettes and the Kings of Rhythm orchestra, are more than a soulful, dynamic group. They've made the record charts for more than 10 years now, and they know how to please an audience.
"Feel the Vibrations"
Tina Turner makes the audience respond. When her raspy voice sung out Aretha Franklin's "Respect," the audience went wild clapping. According to Ike, who rages all of their songs, "When Tina sings, you can see her expressions and feel the vibrations she send."
Tina's voice quivered when she sang the bluesy, "I've Been Loving You Too Long." But the most powerful of the group's numbers was its newest single, "I Want to Take the Ikettes prancing the stage You Higher," with Tina and in sexually suggestive dance routines.
Tina even put big name groups to shame with her versions of the Rolling Stones' "Honky Tonk Woman," Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Proud Mary" and the Beatles' "Come Together."
Ike, who said the Revue is trying to be a generation gap between rock and blues, doesn't like loud amplifiers for the group's music. "Our volume isn't close at all to the Steel Mill's [who came on earlier], but you'll be able to feel the vibrations as if the amplifiers were loud."
Steel Mill's music was too loud, although otherwise the group put on a fantastic hard rock show.
But the Revue caused the excitement.
CAROLE ROPER
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Music
By BARBARA GREEN
THE FLASHIEST, sassiest show within recent memory played last night at the Mosque in the Ike and Tina Turner Revue. It's a combination of good rhythm and blues music and frantic choreography executed with precision. Star of the show is lead singer Tina Turner, who must be among the top three contenders for the title of "Sexiest Woman Alive."
She has a voice that ranges from a crooning caress to a husky growl, and she struts, stomps and shakes with wild abandon. Ike Turner, her guitar playing husband, is as cool as Tina is hot. He stands, tall and thin, in the background, occasionally feeding her the lyrics to songs or making jokes.
Tina is accompanied on songs and dances by the Ikettes, a female trio who somehow manage to keep up with the frantic pace she sets. Aided and abetted by a competent backup band, the principals did some of the most exciting renditions around of "Honky Tonk Woman," "Come Together." "Proud Mary" and "Land of a Thousand Dances." Tina even managed to make an old rhythm and blues classic "Oop Oop a Doo". sound fresh and new.
A final professional touch. was added in the lighting for the show and special effects. The lighting went from spots to backlights and more, and a strobe effect at the end of the show when Tina and the Ikettes undulated off stage leaving a trail of smoke fantastic.
On the bill with the revue was Steel Mill, a band that is quite popular locally.
The five members of the group are proficient rock musicians, but sometimes their music grows monotonous, with its incessant hard rhythm and repetition of phrases. Except for their hard-core fans in the large audience last night, most people bided their, time until Ike and Tina came on.
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A final review of the show is from the student newspaper of Randolph-Macon College located in Ashland, Virginia, about a 30-minute drive north of Richmond. Steel Mill played at the gymnasium of Randolph-Macon College on two dates in November of 1969. There was no review or advertisements for the Ike and Tina Turner 1970 concert at the Mosque in the Richmond Afro-American, the city's black newspaper at the time.
The review of the concert from The Yellow Jacket, the student newspaper of Randolph-Macon College published Oct. 21, 1970. The text reads:
Tina Turner Tantalizes Throng
By R. A. Rankin, Yellow Jacket Associate Editor
A reviewer for the Richmond News-Leader referred to Tina Turner as being "... among the top three contenders for the title of Sexiest Woman Alive." After experiencing her performance, one wonders what the other two unnamed sex symbols would do for an encore.
Tina Turner is the featured performer for the Ike and Tina Turner Revue which appeared in Richmond at the Mosque on Sunday, October 11.
The single show, scheduled to begin at 7:30 p.m., finally got underway when Steel Mill took the stage at 8:15 p.m. The driving, churning music of this locally popular hard-rock group was undermined by a faulty sound system which alternately overpowered the audience with thunder or failed to pick up all of the musicians. Rather than warming up the audience as intended, Steel Mill's volume and the extended length of their performance forced many spectators to seek refuge in the lobby until the main show started.
Following a brief intermission during which the sound system was repaired, Ike-Turner brought the fans back to their seats with the smoothly pulsing rhythm of soul music as the Ikettes sang several short Supreme-type songs.
Finally Tina Turner exploded on stage at 10:15, and the audience felt a collective rush as she and the Ikettes unleashed a furious, fast-paced display of tightly coordinated movement. Tina's presence on stage turned the atmosphere to electricity; at last the show had begun.
Tina Turner on stage is the evocative incarnation of man's most erotic dreams. She commands the attention of every eye in the audience as she pours her soul into song, and as she churns the stage with erotic dynamics of dance.
With a voice that ranged from throaty, moaning, suggestions to vibrant, wailing, overwhelming power, she gave new meaning to work from the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Otis Redding, and Ike Turner.
Tina Turner is not your average soul singer. Her style is her own, and inimitable. It is more than soul, it is part deep blues, and it is all sex. The message projected by Tina and reflected through the Ikettes is undisguised and unmistakable. You are in the presence of erupting WOMan.
There is none of the tinsely, superficial, put-on sex appeal of a Raquel Welch in Tina's approach... Hers is earthy honest outfront yet unoffensive. She conveys the image of a woman of deep passion through her performance who is proud of her emotion and her sex and enjoys being open and forthright about it.
The audience enjoyes it even more. Throughout her performance encouraging yells of "Right On, Tina" and "You Tell It, Sister," punctuated her message. A standing ovation from an entranced and exuberant packed house at the climactic finale testified to her power.
Without Tina Turner the Ike Turner Revue would just another soul show, good, solid, but indistinguishable from a hundred others. With her, a ticket to their concerts becomes an invitation to an audio-visual extravaganza with sex as the theme.
The October 1970 concert at the Mosque was one small step in the respective histories of Bruce Springsteen and Tina Turner. Decades later, both musicians would find themselves described as cultural icons. In 1989, they were each inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, one of many shared honors. In 2024, Springsteen toured again and will begin another world tour next year. Turner retired from performing in 2009 and died in May of 2023.
In concert, Springsteen often covered the Ike and Tina Turner song "It's Gonna Work Out Fine." Let's end this blog entry by listening to his performance with the E. Street Band from a concert in Atlanta on August 23, 1975.
- Ray, Dec., 2024
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