The Yardbirds

The Yardbirds at San Jose Civic. 1966. I was 15. My friends and I were looking forward to the show thinking Clapton would tear it up. To our initial disappoint Paul Samual Smith had been replaced on bass by Chris Dreja (normally rhythm guitar), Jeff Beck on lead and done new guy we'd never heard of, Jimmy something Page. And then... we realized this new guy was a ringer. Jimmy swapped leads and solos with Beck with mastery. We were in shock. This guy was great! We soon forgot about Clapton as we watched in Awe. This was music to inspire any budding wanna-be guitarist.
Sadly, that would be the last time we would see that fine lineup. I still love music at San Jose Civic Auditorium. It's a great venue to hear music. I like the acoustics and never feel too far from the stage.

The Jaguars and The Chosen Few opened. Eric Clapton had sprained his finger (if you play you know this is a very real reason) and couldn't make the gig. What did we know? We had to settle for two people we never had heard of: Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page. Needless to say...

The first time I went to the carousel, and with a british band! But Jeff Beck recently quit the band, Chris, the bass player, was playing lead. We were 6 feet from the stage and the feed back was killing us. Met 2 nice girls. We spent the summer going to the Longshoreman's hall and the Fillmore, it is one of the few concerts I remember from that summer. That & the Rascals.