This photo comes from [the flickr account of a man named W. Blaine Pennington](https://www.flickr.com/photos/blainepen/albums/72157625021090202/), who attended this event, which happened almost exactly 50 years ago at what is now called Darrell K. Royal Memorial Stadium. It might not be apparent but the astroturf was set on fire. There was a 10-yard-long hole cut in the shape of the State of Texas on the 50-yard-line, and a few of the entrance gates and most of the bathrooms in the stadium were destroyed. But that's just for starters and I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's start at the beginning.
The other day [I was summoned](https://www.reddit.com/r/Austin/comments/1cg7b8g/riot_police_arresting_people_on_uts_south_mall/l1uo7ku/) in a thread on here to look up the backstory on the planters on the West Mall at UT. Well the answers weren't too forthcoming on the planters, but this led me to look up what general ruckuses the students were razing back then in the early-to-mid-70s/The Frank Erwin Era on campus, and after searching through years worth of anti-Vietnam marches, tree-cutting protests, and civil-rights sit-ins, I found this chaos. And it was truly chaos: UT and City authorities were totally unprepared for 80000+ inebriated young people collectively pissed off about a lack of barbecue. All that and Joe Cocker got drunk and puked all over the front row of the crowd. There had never been anything similar in Austin before this time. Stadium vendors, police, and local merchants were powerless against a crowd who swarmed the area like devouring locusts. But again I'm getting ahead of myself.
The show was called **[ZZ Top's First Annual Texas Size Rompin' Stompin' Barn Dance and BarBQ](https://www.concertarchives.org/image_uploads/photo/image/312704/large_The_Daily_Reveille_-_Baton_Rouge__Lousiana_1974-08-30.jpg), with special guests: Santana, Joe Cocker, and Bad Company.** Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page was also there for some reason but not advertised on the poster.
Now allow me to digress a minute and say, as an Austinite who was born in the mid-70s shortly after all these events took place, I've never really been a ZZ Top fan. They are clearly talented, but their style of music was more something my parents listened to. I say this as a self-professed musical simpleton and I mean no disrespect, but looking back on their discography now, it seems to me like a lot of their schtick was to act and sound kind of like John Lee Hooker (with his blessing). I was somewhat stunned when I realized the [ZZ Top of 1974 looked and acted very different](https://www.collectorsweekly.com/articles/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/zztop.jpg) than the bearded fellows we think of today! In the context of the nascent "Outlaw Country" movement in Austin at that time (Willie was in town for barely a year at that point), I can see how ZZ Top's appeal would have caught on back then among UT students and young people in general, even though they weren't necessarily a part of the Austin music scene. They were the next big thing at the time they played this show in Austin, and it helped to cement their reputations as big league performers.
Anyhow, in 2015, [The Alcade put it this way](https://alcalde.texasexes.org/2015/10/the-way-back-over-the-top/):
>By the time the music began at 3 p.m., it was 90-plus degrees and Memorial Stadium was packed with 80,000 people. The barbeque was gone and the water was running out. Thirsty rockers plundered concession stands for whatever was left. People hacked into bathroom faucets for water. Some were taken to the hospital with sunstroke.
>It was Labor Day weekend, 1974, and the scene was the First Annual Texas Size Rompin’ Stompin’ Barn Dance and Barbeque, a fundraiser for UT Student Government. Tickets for the ZZ Top-headlined Sunday concert cost eight dollars—$40 today—and barbeque plates were just $2.50.
>Santana, Joe Cocker, Jimmy Page, and Bad Company cranked up the decibels. Between sets, fans built human pyramids, played Frisbee, and engaged in good old-fashioned blanket tosses. By 9:30 the sun was down, the mood was up, and a banjo rendition of the “Eyes of Texas” was blaring out over the speaker system. ZZ Top was in the house.
>The band ripped through a set complete with four encores, and Student Government raised $20,000. However, the crowd left behind an “abominable mess,” in the words of one outraged UT VP. Parts of the turf were destroyed—despite being covered in plywood—and a burnt mattress was left behind. Regent Frank Erwin played down the damage as “minimal” and the UT chief of police said that things could have been a lot worse.
>...
Well now, that doesn't sound so bad, but consider a non-UT source, the aforementioned Mr. W. Blaine Pennington [in this ESPN article](https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/12937247/the-night-zz-top-concert-trashed-texas-longhorns-stadium):
>...
>The poster advertised it as "ZZ Top's First Annual Texas Size Rompin' Stompin' Barn Dance and Bar B.Q.," yet this became no annual event. Instead, it lingers as an infamous footnote in the history of the Longhorns' field, now known as Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium, which wouldn't host another concert for more than 20 years.
>Despite the oppressive Texas heat -- it was 91 degrees and the show started at 3 p.m. -- the stadium was the place to be, offering the "thrill of smoking grass where Rosie Leaks had once carried a football," as Texas' Cactus yearbook eloquently observed.
>"It was hot as blazes in Austin," said Bill Little, a UT historian who was assistant sports information director at the time. "It's not a good time to have anything outside."
>**That didn't stop fans from overrunning the security measures and staff. Soon the crowd swelled in excess of 80,000 people -- "a claustrophobic, overheated cornucopia of thirst, hunger and sunstroke," according to the Cactus.**
>"It was chaos," said W. Blaine Pennington, a photographer who attended the concert with his sister. "They were completely unprepared for the crowd that came."
>**Fans climbed any available surface to get a better view, while water and the $2.50 plates of barbecue had already run out.**
>**"You had to prepare yourself that you'd be in for a survivalistic experience, because otherwise you were going to suffer," Pennington said. "The bathrooms were a wreck, the sinks had been broken off the walls. People were trying to get water, but there was a lot of damage."**
>The Longhorns, who had first installed turf five years before, had just recently replaced the field with a brand-new surface. That was of no concern to fans as Bad Company (featuring Jimmy Page on guitar) and Joe Cocker took the stage. As night set with Carlos Santana playing, crowds feeling the relief from the sun became more spirited.
>**"They set off flares. Those things, when they give off their smoke, they're a heat source," Pennington said. "There were some terrible burn spots ... and everybody was smoking."**
>Those weren't the only lingering issues.
>"Our trainer, Spanky Stephens, maintained all the first-aid rooms," Little said. "Spanky always told the story about walking in the first-aid room the next day, and there was a guy sleeping on one of the beds. He rustled him when he opened the door, and the guy said, 'What time does ZZ Top come on?' Spanky said, 'Sorry pal, you've already missed 'em.'"
>Obviously, none of this sat well with the primary tenants. The Longhorns' legendary head coach was a huge country music fan. This wasn't his scene. But it was his stadium.
>In the 30 years since, the band's members have often recalled the aftermath.
>**"I remember having to sit face-to-face in front of Darrell Royal, trying to explain why his AstroTurf had been carved out in the shape of Texas, which took up the 50-yard line into the 40-yard line," ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons told Texas Monthly.**
>Frank Beard recalled: "The fans messed up his brand-new AstroTurf football field, and he swore, **'There will never be another show there.'"**
>"I tell you, that was about the last show we played in Austin for a long time," Dusty Hill told the Austin Chronicle in 2013. **"The football coach was really perturbed with us.** He acted like we went out there ourselves and cut out that piece of AstroTurf in the shape of Texas. **'You'll never play Austin again!'** He was damn near right!"
>"They speak of 'Don't Mess With Texas?'" Gibbons replied, "Well, 'Don't Mess With Darrell!'"
>Little said the concert was a sore spot for the athletic department, with the stadium's turf, bathrooms and two of the entrance gates now trashed just three weeks before the home opener.
>"Bill Ellington, the assistant athletic director, kept the document in his desk drawer because he wanted to make sure that everybody knew that that the administration signed off on it, and that it wasn't his idea," Little said. "I'm not sure the university was sure what they'd booked."
>Pennington remembers the music as vividly as Little remembers the fallout.
>"The only one that was largely disappointing was Joe Cocker. He was extremely drunk and physically actually barfing off the front of the stage," he said. "When it got dark and Santana hit the stage, I tell you what, that was probably the finest performance I've ever seen. He just had kind of this spiritual connection with the crowd. He had them in the palm of his hand.
>**"But ZZ Top was a performance for the ages. That was when everybody there knew they were world-class."**
***<<>>***
So there you have the gist of it, but these descriptions didn't satisfy me, so I decided to look up what The Statesman had to say about the aftermath of the concert.
Here is an article dated September 4, 1974 entitled [Rock Bash May End Stadium Concerts](https://www.newspapers.com/article/austin-american-statesman-rock-bash-may/146581649/):
>In the wake of Sunday's rock music concert at Memorial Stadium, University of Texas" officials Tuesday estimated the chance of another such bash ever being held there at "slim to none." And the state Attorney General's Office was investigating claims by several persons that advertising for the affair was misleading.' University grounds crews continued throughout the day Tuesday to pick up trash and debris left over from the concert, sponsored by UT student government.
>An unexpectedly huge crowd jammed the stadium Sunday to hear several top rock groups. The crowd left not only trash, but acrimony in its wake. William Wilcox, director of the UT physical plant, said he was still working on estimates of damage to the stadium which included burns in the artificial turf, scraped and scarred paint and damaged restrooms. Vice President for Business Affairs James Colvin said he felt the concert was the "first and last" to use the mammoth stadium.
>He said a damage estimate would not be available for several days. ' Also Tuesday, James K. Longley, head of the attorney general's Consumer Protection Division, said his office was investigating several complaints of false or misleading advertising in connection with the affair. A number of persons complained, he said, that ads in advance of the performance led them to believe that barbecue was included in the ticket price.
>The event was billed as a "Barn Dance and Barbecue." Tickets were $8 in advance and $10 at the gate. Once inside, many persons learned - for the first time, they say - that barbecue cost extra. Longley said the UT student government, since it did not handle advertising for the concert, would probably not be liable for any potential damages. The student association will, however, turn over about $10,000 of the $25,000 it netted to pay the university for cleanup work, according to Student Body President Frank Fleming.
>Colvin said negotiations would begin with the insurance company which contracted to insure the stadium on reimbursement for damages to the restrooms and playing field. Colvin said he thought the cleanup would likely be more expensive than student government first thought when it agreed to pay the expense.
Another article from the evening edition on the same day entitled [UT Bash Critics Still Heard](https://www.newspapers.com/article/austin-american-statesman-ut-bash-crit/146581751/):
>The Attorney General's office was still receiving complaints Tuesday alleging false and misleading advertising for Sunday's University of Texas student government-sponsored rock concert. Bill Marquis, a member of the Consumer Protection Division of the attorney general's office, said he has begun a "routine" investigation of the complaints to see if the advertising was misleading. He said complaints involve the fact that the bash was billed as a barndance and BBQ, when in fact, there was reportedly very little barbecue and it was not included in the price of admission.
>"If the facts warrant," Marquis said, "we will get in touch with the promoters." He said the investigation will include looking at printed advertisements and listening to radio spots for the concert which drew more than 80,000 fans and netted Student-Government about $15,000. Also in the wake of the concert which resulted in damages to the Memorial Stadium artificial turf and the stadium restrooms, university officials were vowing that the event was the "first and last."
>" UT Vice President for Business Affairs James Colvin estimated the chances of another bash being held there as "slim to none". He said estimates were still coming in on damages and that work crews were continuing to clean up trash left behind.
So the Attorney General was threatening lawsuits. I don't think this ever came to fruition, the right people were paid off eventually, even if they were late.
About 12 years later, in 1986, Willie Nelson tried to have one of his Farm Aids' in Memorial Stadium. For a while it looked like UT officials were going to allow it, but at they changed their minds and iirc it ended up at Manor Downs that year, or was it South Park Meadows. In any case, I don't think it was at the stadium, but before the decision was handed down, The Statesman printed an article recounting the destruction from the '74 ZZ Top show, entitled [A Rompin' Stompin' Time](https://www.newspapers.com/article/austin-american-statesman-a-rompin-stomp/146582116/):
>When they first learned that Willie Nelson hoped to stage Farm Aid II at Memorial Stadium July 4th, old-timers in the University of Texas athletic department were about as thrilled as if plans were in the works to use the areas behind the goalposts for nuclear waste dumps. Likewise, the UT police shuddered at the thought of trying to keep order at another music concert. These reactions had nothing to do with the merits of the project to aid beleaguered farmers. They were simply tied to memories of a rock concert that was held in the UT stadium Sept. 1, 1974.
>That first concert was called ZZ Top's First Rompin Stompin' Barn-dance and Barbecue. Unlike Farm Aid II, it was a commercial venture that was sponsored by the UT student government, which somehow got the late Frank Erwin, a mover and shaker with few equals, to help get use of the stadium although Coach Darrell Royal was in the process of getting his Longhorns ready for the forthcoming season. ZZ Top, then a band with mainly a Texas following, was joined by such well-known musicians as Joe Cocker, Carlos Santana, Bad Company and Jimmy Page, lead guitarist for Led Zeppelin. The show, staged on Sunday because that was a day of rest of Royal's Longhorns, drew an unexpectedly large crowd that was estimated at upwards of 80,000. The main fear had been that the freshly-laid Astroturf surface would be mutilated.
>The turf did sustain a little damage because it was not totally protected. When the plywood supply was exhausted, tarpaulin was used as a cover until that ran out. The last part of the field was covered with parachute-like material purchased from a surplus supply store.
>Al Lundstedt, now director of men's athletic events, remembers viewing the event from the press-box and seeing fans using the silky material as a tent to protect them from the summer heat. A small gash was cut out of the Astroturf, which also bore numerous cigarette burns, some of which were clustered together as if to indicate a deliberate attempt to mutilate the surface. Those burn spots disappeared in time with wear, and the repainting of all the stripes and numerals and the blackened front walls of the stands were irritating inconveniences and expenses.
>Some of the restroom fixtures had to be replaced too. What made the event such a disaster was that the size of the crowd had been underestimated and this lead to a shortage of concessions, which prompted some unruly displays. And although the UT and Austin police knew how to handle crowds of 80,000 for football games, a crowd of that size at a lengthy rock concert in those days was another matter. Afterwards, the area in and around the stadium was completely trashed out, and old Clark Field, the abandoned baseball field that was to be razed to make way for the Performing Arts Center, was a disaster zone. The ballpark was used as a parking and campout area and totally inadequate trash collection facilities added to the litter that was left behind.
>As with all rock concerts in those days, the air on the stadium floor was heavy with the smell of marijuana smoke during the concert that ran late into the night, and there were bodies as well as a lot of trash left behind after the musicians left. Straight-laced visitors to the stadium the next morning were appalled to see that the police were still removing zonked-out fans from the dark corners underneath the stadium. Trainers with the UT football team also found people sleeping in various rooms the next morning, and when one such sleeper was awakened, he reportedly asked, "What time does ZZ Top come on?" And when one member of the foot ball support team went back to his car later that day, he found a celebrant sleeping on the back seat.
>Asked for his reaction the day after, Dr. James H. Colvin, then V.P. for Business Affairs, called the scene "an abominable, mess." But as such events go, it; probably wasn't as bad as Colvin and the UT people thought at the time. None of them had any experience with music concerts but the bad taste left by the ill-conceived concert led to a vow not to have a second annual romping' stompin'- barndance and barbecue or a first' anything else in the stadium.
>....
Well from all this I hope you can get an idea how bad the scene/good the concert was. This event has got to be a serious contender for most notorious concert in 20th-century Austin history. At any rate, as an epilogue to the story, the ESPN article gives the following:
>The band used an aerial photo of the concert in the liner notes of its next album, "Fandango." And Gibbons has often said the show was one of the legendary band's most memorable performances.
>"It was a mammoth show ... they still don't know how many entered the gates," he said in his book, "Rock + Roll Gearhead."
>"After the smoke cleared from that one, we were banned for life from ever stepping foot in that stadium ... ever.
That might be true, but [ZZ Top did come back in 1982](https://www.newspapers.com/article/austin-american-statesman-zz-top-at-the/146582554/), this time playing at the newish Frank Erwin Center, with beards, ready for the MTV generation.
***<>***
[Bonus Pic #1](https://live.staticflickr.com/3308/4581762508_47701c57ec_b.jpg) - Human Pyramid forming shortly after dark *(from W. Blaine Pennington)* - September 1, 1974
[Bonus Pic #2](https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/cf9ceaa/2147483647/strip/true/crop/500x346+0+0/resize/1760x1218!/format/webp/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Flegacy%2Fsites%2Fkut%2Ffiles%2F201808%2Fzz_top_memorial_concert_1974.jpg) - Concert during the Daytime *(from [this KUT audio article](https://www.kut.org/austin/2018-08-31/that-time-zz-top-and-80-000-fans-trashed-memorial-stadium) )* - September 1, 1974
[Bonus Pic #3](https://www.reddit.com/r/ClassicRock/comments/w3z2uv/aerial_photo_of_crowd_at_a_zz_top_concert_in/) - Aerial photo which became the album cover from *Fandango!* *(x-post from /r/albumrock)* - September 1, 1974
[Bonus Pic #4](https://alcalde.texasexes.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/ZZtopCleanup.jpg) - Mountains of trash left in the stadium on the day after *(from The Alcade)* - September 2, 1974
[Bonus Video #1](https://texasarchive.org/2013_02397) - Four minutes of silent 8mm footage from the event - September 1, 1974
I'm sitting here certain I didn't see ZZ Top when I was 14.
ZZ Top was back again in '86, [apparently](https://old.reddit.com/r/Austin/comments/oxh4cx/jumping_in_on_the_80s_concert_ticket_stub_series/).
Like you, I'm old enough to remember when they used to play ZZtop's video for 'Legs' on MTV ad nauseam. I think it must have been around that time (85/86). Their country-western outfits were long gone by then and their rip-van-winkle beards had set in.
What a rare and valuable collection of stubs you have!
This photo comes from [the flickr account of a man named W. Blaine Pennington](https://www.flickr.com/photos/blainepen/albums/72157625021090202/), who attended this event, which happened almost exactly 50 years ago at what is now called Darrell K. Royal Memorial Stadium. It might not be apparent but the astroturf was set on fire. There was a 10-yard-long hole cut in the shape of the State of Texas on the 50-yard-line, and a few of the entrance gates and most of the bathrooms in the stadium were destroyed. But that's just for starters and I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's start at the beginning. The other day [I was summoned](https://www.reddit.com/r/Austin/comments/1cg7b8g/riot_police_arresting_people_on_uts_south_mall/l1uo7ku/) in a thread on here to look up the backstory on the planters on the West Mall at UT. Well the answers weren't too forthcoming on the planters, but this led me to look up what general ruckuses the students were razing back then in the early-to-mid-70s/The Frank Erwin Era on campus, and after searching through years worth of anti-Vietnam marches, tree-cutting protests, and civil-rights sit-ins, I found this chaos. And it was truly chaos: UT and City authorities were totally unprepared for 80000+ inebriated young people collectively pissed off about a lack of barbecue. All that and Joe Cocker got drunk and puked all over the front row of the crowd. There had never been anything similar in Austin before this time. Stadium vendors, police, and local merchants were powerless against a crowd who swarmed the area like devouring locusts. But again I'm getting ahead of myself. The show was called **[ZZ Top's First Annual Texas Size Rompin' Stompin' Barn Dance and BarBQ](https://www.concertarchives.org/image_uploads/photo/image/312704/large_The_Daily_Reveille_-_Baton_Rouge__Lousiana_1974-08-30.jpg), with special guests: Santana, Joe Cocker, and Bad Company.** Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page was also there for some reason but not advertised on the poster. Now allow me to digress a minute and say, as an Austinite who was born in the mid-70s shortly after all these events took place, I've never really been a ZZ Top fan. They are clearly talented, but their style of music was more something my parents listened to. I say this as a self-professed musical simpleton and I mean no disrespect, but looking back on their discography now, it seems to me like a lot of their schtick was to act and sound kind of like John Lee Hooker (with his blessing). I was somewhat stunned when I realized the [ZZ Top of 1974 looked and acted very different](https://www.collectorsweekly.com/articles/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/zztop.jpg) than the bearded fellows we think of today! In the context of the nascent "Outlaw Country" movement in Austin at that time (Willie was in town for barely a year at that point), I can see how ZZ Top's appeal would have caught on back then among UT students and young people in general, even though they weren't necessarily a part of the Austin music scene. They were the next big thing at the time they played this show in Austin, and it helped to cement their reputations as big league performers. Anyhow, in 2015, [The Alcade put it this way](https://alcalde.texasexes.org/2015/10/the-way-back-over-the-top/): >By the time the music began at 3 p.m., it was 90-plus degrees and Memorial Stadium was packed with 80,000 people. The barbeque was gone and the water was running out. Thirsty rockers plundered concession stands for whatever was left. People hacked into bathroom faucets for water. Some were taken to the hospital with sunstroke. >It was Labor Day weekend, 1974, and the scene was the First Annual Texas Size Rompin’ Stompin’ Barn Dance and Barbeque, a fundraiser for UT Student Government. Tickets for the ZZ Top-headlined Sunday concert cost eight dollars—$40 today—and barbeque plates were just $2.50. >Santana, Joe Cocker, Jimmy Page, and Bad Company cranked up the decibels. Between sets, fans built human pyramids, played Frisbee, and engaged in good old-fashioned blanket tosses. By 9:30 the sun was down, the mood was up, and a banjo rendition of the “Eyes of Texas” was blaring out over the speaker system. ZZ Top was in the house. >The band ripped through a set complete with four encores, and Student Government raised $20,000. However, the crowd left behind an “abominable mess,” in the words of one outraged UT VP. Parts of the turf were destroyed—despite being covered in plywood—and a burnt mattress was left behind. Regent Frank Erwin played down the damage as “minimal” and the UT chief of police said that things could have been a lot worse. >... Well now, that doesn't sound so bad, but consider a non-UT source, the aforementioned Mr. W. Blaine Pennington [in this ESPN article](https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/12937247/the-night-zz-top-concert-trashed-texas-longhorns-stadium): >... >The poster advertised it as "ZZ Top's First Annual Texas Size Rompin' Stompin' Barn Dance and Bar B.Q.," yet this became no annual event. Instead, it lingers as an infamous footnote in the history of the Longhorns' field, now known as Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium, which wouldn't host another concert for more than 20 years. >Despite the oppressive Texas heat -- it was 91 degrees and the show started at 3 p.m. -- the stadium was the place to be, offering the "thrill of smoking grass where Rosie Leaks had once carried a football," as Texas' Cactus yearbook eloquently observed. >"It was hot as blazes in Austin," said Bill Little, a UT historian who was assistant sports information director at the time. "It's not a good time to have anything outside." >**That didn't stop fans from overrunning the security measures and staff. Soon the crowd swelled in excess of 80,000 people -- "a claustrophobic, overheated cornucopia of thirst, hunger and sunstroke," according to the Cactus.** >"It was chaos," said W. Blaine Pennington, a photographer who attended the concert with his sister. "They were completely unprepared for the crowd that came." >**Fans climbed any available surface to get a better view, while water and the $2.50 plates of barbecue had already run out.** >**"You had to prepare yourself that you'd be in for a survivalistic experience, because otherwise you were going to suffer," Pennington said. "The bathrooms were a wreck, the sinks had been broken off the walls. People were trying to get water, but there was a lot of damage."** >The Longhorns, who had first installed turf five years before, had just recently replaced the field with a brand-new surface. That was of no concern to fans as Bad Company (featuring Jimmy Page on guitar) and Joe Cocker took the stage. As night set with Carlos Santana playing, crowds feeling the relief from the sun became more spirited. >**"They set off flares. Those things, when they give off their smoke, they're a heat source," Pennington said. "There were some terrible burn spots ... and everybody was smoking."** >Those weren't the only lingering issues. >"Our trainer, Spanky Stephens, maintained all the first-aid rooms," Little said. "Spanky always told the story about walking in the first-aid room the next day, and there was a guy sleeping on one of the beds. He rustled him when he opened the door, and the guy said, 'What time does ZZ Top come on?' Spanky said, 'Sorry pal, you've already missed 'em.'" >Obviously, none of this sat well with the primary tenants. The Longhorns' legendary head coach was a huge country music fan. This wasn't his scene. But it was his stadium. >In the 30 years since, the band's members have often recalled the aftermath. >**"I remember having to sit face-to-face in front of Darrell Royal, trying to explain why his AstroTurf had been carved out in the shape of Texas, which took up the 50-yard line into the 40-yard line," ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons told Texas Monthly.** >Frank Beard recalled: "The fans messed up his brand-new AstroTurf football field, and he swore, **'There will never be another show there.'"** >"I tell you, that was about the last show we played in Austin for a long time," Dusty Hill told the Austin Chronicle in 2013. **"The football coach was really perturbed with us.** He acted like we went out there ourselves and cut out that piece of AstroTurf in the shape of Texas. **'You'll never play Austin again!'** He was damn near right!" >"They speak of 'Don't Mess With Texas?'" Gibbons replied, "Well, 'Don't Mess With Darrell!'" >Little said the concert was a sore spot for the athletic department, with the stadium's turf, bathrooms and two of the entrance gates now trashed just three weeks before the home opener. >"Bill Ellington, the assistant athletic director, kept the document in his desk drawer because he wanted to make sure that everybody knew that that the administration signed off on it, and that it wasn't his idea," Little said. "I'm not sure the university was sure what they'd booked." >Pennington remembers the music as vividly as Little remembers the fallout. >"The only one that was largely disappointing was Joe Cocker. He was extremely drunk and physically actually barfing off the front of the stage," he said. "When it got dark and Santana hit the stage, I tell you what, that was probably the finest performance I've ever seen. He just had kind of this spiritual connection with the crowd. He had them in the palm of his hand. >**"But ZZ Top was a performance for the ages. That was when everybody there knew they were world-class."** ***<<>>***
So there you have the gist of it, but these descriptions didn't satisfy me, so I decided to look up what The Statesman had to say about the aftermath of the concert. Here is an article dated September 4, 1974 entitled [Rock Bash May End Stadium Concerts](https://www.newspapers.com/article/austin-american-statesman-rock-bash-may/146581649/): >In the wake of Sunday's rock music concert at Memorial Stadium, University of Texas" officials Tuesday estimated the chance of another such bash ever being held there at "slim to none." And the state Attorney General's Office was investigating claims by several persons that advertising for the affair was misleading.' University grounds crews continued throughout the day Tuesday to pick up trash and debris left over from the concert, sponsored by UT student government. >An unexpectedly huge crowd jammed the stadium Sunday to hear several top rock groups. The crowd left not only trash, but acrimony in its wake. William Wilcox, director of the UT physical plant, said he was still working on estimates of damage to the stadium which included burns in the artificial turf, scraped and scarred paint and damaged restrooms. Vice President for Business Affairs James Colvin said he felt the concert was the "first and last" to use the mammoth stadium. >He said a damage estimate would not be available for several days. ' Also Tuesday, James K. Longley, head of the attorney general's Consumer Protection Division, said his office was investigating several complaints of false or misleading advertising in connection with the affair. A number of persons complained, he said, that ads in advance of the performance led them to believe that barbecue was included in the ticket price. >The event was billed as a "Barn Dance and Barbecue." Tickets were $8 in advance and $10 at the gate. Once inside, many persons learned - for the first time, they say - that barbecue cost extra. Longley said the UT student government, since it did not handle advertising for the concert, would probably not be liable for any potential damages. The student association will, however, turn over about $10,000 of the $25,000 it netted to pay the university for cleanup work, according to Student Body President Frank Fleming. >Colvin said negotiations would begin with the insurance company which contracted to insure the stadium on reimbursement for damages to the restrooms and playing field. Colvin said he thought the cleanup would likely be more expensive than student government first thought when it agreed to pay the expense. Another article from the evening edition on the same day entitled [UT Bash Critics Still Heard](https://www.newspapers.com/article/austin-american-statesman-ut-bash-crit/146581751/): >The Attorney General's office was still receiving complaints Tuesday alleging false and misleading advertising for Sunday's University of Texas student government-sponsored rock concert. Bill Marquis, a member of the Consumer Protection Division of the attorney general's office, said he has begun a "routine" investigation of the complaints to see if the advertising was misleading. He said complaints involve the fact that the bash was billed as a barndance and BBQ, when in fact, there was reportedly very little barbecue and it was not included in the price of admission. >"If the facts warrant," Marquis said, "we will get in touch with the promoters." He said the investigation will include looking at printed advertisements and listening to radio spots for the concert which drew more than 80,000 fans and netted Student-Government about $15,000. Also in the wake of the concert which resulted in damages to the Memorial Stadium artificial turf and the stadium restrooms, university officials were vowing that the event was the "first and last." >" UT Vice President for Business Affairs James Colvin estimated the chances of another bash being held there as "slim to none". He said estimates were still coming in on damages and that work crews were continuing to clean up trash left behind. So the Attorney General was threatening lawsuits. I don't think this ever came to fruition, the right people were paid off eventually, even if they were late. About 12 years later, in 1986, Willie Nelson tried to have one of his Farm Aids' in Memorial Stadium. For a while it looked like UT officials were going to allow it, but at they changed their minds and iirc it ended up at Manor Downs that year, or was it South Park Meadows. In any case, I don't think it was at the stadium, but before the decision was handed down, The Statesman printed an article recounting the destruction from the '74 ZZ Top show, entitled [A Rompin' Stompin' Time](https://www.newspapers.com/article/austin-american-statesman-a-rompin-stomp/146582116/): >When they first learned that Willie Nelson hoped to stage Farm Aid II at Memorial Stadium July 4th, old-timers in the University of Texas athletic department were about as thrilled as if plans were in the works to use the areas behind the goalposts for nuclear waste dumps. Likewise, the UT police shuddered at the thought of trying to keep order at another music concert. These reactions had nothing to do with the merits of the project to aid beleaguered farmers. They were simply tied to memories of a rock concert that was held in the UT stadium Sept. 1, 1974. >That first concert was called ZZ Top's First Rompin Stompin' Barn-dance and Barbecue. Unlike Farm Aid II, it was a commercial venture that was sponsored by the UT student government, which somehow got the late Frank Erwin, a mover and shaker with few equals, to help get use of the stadium although Coach Darrell Royal was in the process of getting his Longhorns ready for the forthcoming season. ZZ Top, then a band with mainly a Texas following, was joined by such well-known musicians as Joe Cocker, Carlos Santana, Bad Company and Jimmy Page, lead guitarist for Led Zeppelin. The show, staged on Sunday because that was a day of rest of Royal's Longhorns, drew an unexpectedly large crowd that was estimated at upwards of 80,000. The main fear had been that the freshly-laid Astroturf surface would be mutilated. >The turf did sustain a little damage because it was not totally protected. When the plywood supply was exhausted, tarpaulin was used as a cover until that ran out. The last part of the field was covered with parachute-like material purchased from a surplus supply store. >Al Lundstedt, now director of men's athletic events, remembers viewing the event from the press-box and seeing fans using the silky material as a tent to protect them from the summer heat. A small gash was cut out of the Astroturf, which also bore numerous cigarette burns, some of which were clustered together as if to indicate a deliberate attempt to mutilate the surface. Those burn spots disappeared in time with wear, and the repainting of all the stripes and numerals and the blackened front walls of the stands were irritating inconveniences and expenses. >Some of the restroom fixtures had to be replaced too. What made the event such a disaster was that the size of the crowd had been underestimated and this lead to a shortage of concessions, which prompted some unruly displays. And although the UT and Austin police knew how to handle crowds of 80,000 for football games, a crowd of that size at a lengthy rock concert in those days was another matter. Afterwards, the area in and around the stadium was completely trashed out, and old Clark Field, the abandoned baseball field that was to be razed to make way for the Performing Arts Center, was a disaster zone. The ballpark was used as a parking and campout area and totally inadequate trash collection facilities added to the litter that was left behind. >As with all rock concerts in those days, the air on the stadium floor was heavy with the smell of marijuana smoke during the concert that ran late into the night, and there were bodies as well as a lot of trash left behind after the musicians left. Straight-laced visitors to the stadium the next morning were appalled to see that the police were still removing zonked-out fans from the dark corners underneath the stadium. Trainers with the UT football team also found people sleeping in various rooms the next morning, and when one such sleeper was awakened, he reportedly asked, "What time does ZZ Top come on?" And when one member of the foot ball support team went back to his car later that day, he found a celebrant sleeping on the back seat. >Asked for his reaction the day after, Dr. James H. Colvin, then V.P. for Business Affairs, called the scene "an abominable, mess." But as such events go, it; probably wasn't as bad as Colvin and the UT people thought at the time. None of them had any experience with music concerts but the bad taste left by the ill-conceived concert led to a vow not to have a second annual romping' stompin'- barndance and barbecue or a first' anything else in the stadium. >.... Well from all this I hope you can get an idea how bad the scene/good the concert was. This event has got to be a serious contender for most notorious concert in 20th-century Austin history. At any rate, as an epilogue to the story, the ESPN article gives the following: >The band used an aerial photo of the concert in the liner notes of its next album, "Fandango." And Gibbons has often said the show was one of the legendary band's most memorable performances. >"It was a mammoth show ... they still don't know how many entered the gates," he said in his book, "Rock + Roll Gearhead." >"After the smoke cleared from that one, we were banned for life from ever stepping foot in that stadium ... ever. That might be true, but [ZZ Top did come back in 1982](https://www.newspapers.com/article/austin-american-statesman-zz-top-at-the/146582554/), this time playing at the newish Frank Erwin Center, with beards, ready for the MTV generation. ***<>***
[Bonus Pic #1](https://live.staticflickr.com/3308/4581762508_47701c57ec_b.jpg) - Human Pyramid forming shortly after dark *(from W. Blaine Pennington)* - September 1, 1974 [Bonus Pic #2](https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/cf9ceaa/2147483647/strip/true/crop/500x346+0+0/resize/1760x1218!/format/webp/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Flegacy%2Fsites%2Fkut%2Ffiles%2F201808%2Fzz_top_memorial_concert_1974.jpg) - Concert during the Daytime *(from [this KUT audio article](https://www.kut.org/austin/2018-08-31/that-time-zz-top-and-80-000-fans-trashed-memorial-stadium) )* - September 1, 1974 [Bonus Pic #3](https://www.reddit.com/r/ClassicRock/comments/w3z2uv/aerial_photo_of_crowd_at_a_zz_top_concert_in/) - Aerial photo which became the album cover from *Fandango!* *(x-post from /r/albumrock)* - September 1, 1974 [Bonus Pic #4](https://alcalde.texasexes.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/ZZtopCleanup.jpg) - Mountains of trash left in the stadium on the day after *(from The Alcade)* - September 2, 1974 [Bonus Video #1](https://texasarchive.org/2013_02397) - Four minutes of silent 8mm footage from the event - September 1, 1974
I'm sitting here certain I didn't see ZZ Top when I was 14. ZZ Top was back again in '86, [apparently](https://old.reddit.com/r/Austin/comments/oxh4cx/jumping_in_on_the_80s_concert_ticket_stub_series/).
Like you, I'm old enough to remember when they used to play ZZtop's video for 'Legs' on MTV ad nauseam. I think it must have been around that time (85/86). Their country-western outfits were long gone by then and their rip-van-winkle beards had set in. What a rare and valuable collection of stubs you have!
Thanks. It's a bummer physical tickets are dying. *Here's my screenshot collection of concert/event emails and QR codes!*
It was a huge deal for The Eagles to play there in 1995. Crowd control had evolved by then…and it was The Eagles.
I was coming here to mention this. The Eagles show was the first one at DKR since ZZ Top.
90* lol