Here’s a picture of a Cream concert ticket from April 27, 1968 at the Chicago Coliseum. Cream held two concerts at the Chicago Coliseum that year. They played this show in April; the opening band was the Mothers of Invention featuring Frank Zappa. Almost six months later, in October 1968, Cream played the Coliseum again on their farewell tour. That concert was bootleg recorded and a bootleg exists but it is not widely available. The Chicago Coliseum was a building of great historical significance. Located on Chicago’s near south side at 15th and Wabash Avenue, it was in its waning years when Cream played there in 1968. The building was dedicated in 1900 by President William McKinley and was the main convention/exhibition/arena in Chicago until the Chicago Stadium opened in 1929. The Coliseum seated about 9000 people and had an adjacent north wing that seated another 4000 for boxing matches. Several U.S. Presidents were nominated in the Chicago Coliseum, including Taft, Wilson, and Harding. Jackie Robinson played in a UCLA basketball game there in 1939 and Joe Louis fought in the Coliseum in 1934. The NHL Chicago Blackhawks called it home for three years before the Chicago Stadium was built. By the mid to late 1960′s, larger events in Chicago were being hosted at other venues and the aging Coliseum was used less and less. By the late 60′s, it was primarily used for rock concerts and as a meeting hall for social activist groups. In his autobiography “Composing Himself”, Jack Bruce specifically mentions this concert in Chicago. He recalls that it was after this show that Cream decided to break up. They continued on their tour through June and came back to the United States for their farewell tour in October, 1968 when they again played at the Chicago Coliseum. Around that time, the Coliseum also hosted concerts for many other famous artists. The Doors, Jimi Hendrix, Three Dog Night, Uriah Heep, and The Grateful Dead all graced the stage at the historic Chicago venue. In fact, the final event ever at the Chicago Coliseum was a concert. James Taylor and Carole King played there on March 12, 1971. The next day, the Chicago Fire Department slapped numerous code violations on the building and it was closed to the public. The historic arena was then used mostly for boat storage until it was demolished in May, 1982.
Posted on: Sat, 16 Aug 2014 04:14:22 +0000
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