San Fran's Fillmore West To Reopen After 45 Years As SVN West

The once iconic Fillmore West in San Francisco was until recently a Honda dealership. Well, it is going to be a music venue again.

On June 14, 2018 a benefit concert will take place in the building at 10 South Van Ness Avenue, San Francisco for the first time since 1971.

The Fillmore West final show was on July 4, 1971. Promoter Bill Graham closed the venue after five nights of acts including Creedence Clearwater Revival, Grateful Dead, Boz Scaggs, Elvin Bishop Group and Santana.

From those concerts, a live album ‘Fillmore: The Last Days’ and the documentary ‘Last Days at the Fillmore’ was released in 1972.

One time resident Frank Andrick tells Noise11.com, “Jeff Godoy and I actually lived there after Bill (Graham) had retired the venue and a guy named Clint Wilson reopened it as ‘The Resurrection’ between high school and college.

Jeff and me took over the old ‘Mallaird Agency office’ great wood floors, Turkish tapestries ballooning from the ceiling, two giant water beds, stereo/TV. We used the 12 burner stove in the venue kitchen, had our own shower, and used the walk in fridge.free rent.

“We would wake up to Carlos and Jorge Santana jamming, Dave Mason with The Pointer Sisters, The Doobies, Louis Gazca and other bands who rented it out during the weekdays for practice.

“Our ceiling to floor window overlooked Van Ness and market and we parked our cars in the private parking lot on top.

“Gotta see it open again. It was such a rush going to the Fillmore auditorium years after Bill had closed that. Where I once saw/heard Hendrix, Blue Cheer, QMS, etc. I was now hanging out with Bauhaus.

“My how times change and stay the same”.

The first incarnation of the building was as the Carousel Ballroom in the 1960s. It was taken over by a consortium from the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Quicksilver Messenger Service and Big Brother and the Holding Company for six months in 1968. Then Bill Graham took it over and renamed the venue Fillmore West to match his existing Fillmore East.

Artist you have played Fillmore West include:

Grateful Dead
Jefferson Airplane
B.B. King
Aretha Franklin
Credence Clearwater Revival
Pink Floyd
Miles Davis
Aretha Franklin
Boz Skaggs
Van Morrison
Frank Zappa
Santana
Fleetwood Mac
Chuck Berry
Chicago
J. Geils Band
The Kinks
Little Richard
Joe Cocker
Janis Joplin
The Who
Led Zeppelin
Carole King
Jeff Beck
Deep Purple
The Moody Blues
The Staple Singers
Sly & The Family Sone