Northwest Dance Halls
Retinal Circus
1024 Davie at Burrard
Vancouver, British Columbia
Some of the bands that performed at this place during those great years of NW music were:
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Allmen Joy The Animals Black and White Power Black Snake Charlatans Collectors Corky Siegel Blues Band Country Joe and The Fish Country Weather Band Don Thompson Trio Easy Chair Fast Freight Country Show Family Tree Fat Jack Floon Frumious Bandersnatch Genesis Good Shepherds Graeme Waifer Grass Harp Hydro Electric Streetcar John Handy Junior Wells La Troupe Grotesque Led Zeppelin |
Mock Duck Mother Earth Mother Tucker's Yellow Duck Muddy Waters My Indole Ring Notes From The Undergound Pacific Nation Painted Ship Paisley Rain Papa Bear's Medicine Show The Paupers Peanut Butter Conspiracy PH Factor Jug Band Pretty Broos Seeds of Time Siegel Schwall Blues Band Tom Northcott Tommorrow's Eyes United Empire Loyalists Velvet Underground Wanda And Bruce Wildflower Winter's Green Yellow Brique Road Youngbloods |
I attended a concert at the Retinal Circus on Davie Street in my late teens. The band that night was Country Joe MacDonald and the Fish. Most of the band made it, but as I remember the drummer got held up at the border over drugs or something. This was a very strange place. They used overhead projectors to project swirling colored water and oil images on the walls.The Fish started their show with there trademark give me an "F" rant and it didn't spell FISH. There were other strange visual effects as well but I don't remember those images.
The hall still exists and is now a bar named Celebrities. It was completely refurbished in the last 5 years and is a designated heritage building, not because of it Retinal Circus fame, but because it is the oldest dance hall in the West End of Vancouver.
Vancouver was a big show town. As a young person I saw groups like the Fifth Dimension, Diana Ross and the Supremes and even Jimi Hendricks. Jimi played the Pacific Coliseum, a hockey rink with no acoustics to speak of. The opening band for Jimmy was The "Vanilla Fudge". They deafened us for about 45 minutes before Jimmy came on stage. He played 2 songs and said "F**k it, I've got a cold" and left. My hearing has never been the same since.
Judith Cole, May 2006
I just thought I would mention an impromptu drop-in performance by Eric Burden and the Animals one night when I happened to be at the RC in 1967 or '68. They were playing a gig in another club but stopped by the RC to play "House of the Rising Sun" for "the people" ... an unexpected pleasure.
Andrea Mikulan, Abbotsford, BC, August 2007
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Last
Update: 6 May 2008
Credits:
Garry Gramm, Ross Hannan, Judith Cole, Andrea Mikulan,
Rick
McGrath Website, Gunnar Roger Stomperud