Our Final Week - The Closing of the Fillmore West, Fillmore West, San Francisco, CA, 7-3-1971, Part 1: Sons of Champlin

Here's the first set from the fourth day out of five days of concerts that closed the Fillmore West venue in San Francisco in 1971. (See my write-up on the Boz Scaggs set for general information about the closing.) This set features the Sons of Champlin. 

Here's the Wikipedia introductory paragraph about the band:

"The Sons of Champlin are an American rock band, from Marin County, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area, formed in 1965.They are fronted by vocalist-keyboardist-guitarist Bill Champlin, who, after leaving the group in 1977, joined the rock band Chicago from 1981 to 2009, reforming the Sons of Champlin in 1997. They brought to the late '60s music scene in the Bay Area a soulful sound built around a horn section, Hammond B3 organ, sophisticated arrangements, philosophical themes, Bill Champlin's songwriting and blue-eyed soul singing, and Terry Haggerty's unique jazz-based guitar soloing. They are one of the enduring 1960s San Francisco bands, along with Jefferson Airplane, the Grateful Dead, and Moby Grape."

Here's the link to the rest of the entry:

Sons of Champlin - Wikipedia

I have a bit to add about what the band was doing around the time of this show. The band was pretty unstable in their early years. For instance, they broke up in 1970, only to get back together and break up again in 1971. Then they got together again. Each time, the personnel changed, though Bill Champlin remained a constant. After their 1971 break-up, which happened in April, they soon reemerged, but with the name "Yogi Phelgm." A pretty bizarre name, even for that era! So that technically was their name during this concert. However, it was only a few months before they went back to being called "Sons of Champlin," so that's what I'm calling them here.

One song, "Poppa Can Play," appeared on the "Fillmore - The Last Days" album. (Note, by the way, they're billed as "Sons of Champlin" on that.) Everything else here is unreleased.  

This album is 40 minutes long.

01 Back to Macon [Bulldog] (Sons of Champlin)
02 talk (Sons of Champlin)
03 Who - Heaven Only Knows (Sons of Champlin)
04 Poppa Can Play (Sons of Champlin)
05 Beside You (Sons of Champlin)
06 Healthy Woman (Sons of Champlin)
07 Right On (Sons of Champlin)
08 talk (Sons of Champlin)
09 Without Love (Sons of Champlin)
10 Cold Sweat (Sons of Champlin)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/mBgpUfVg

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/nHoxeUIAjc0dHie/file

I couldn't find any good photos of this band in concert from 1971 or thereabouts. The best I could come up with was a video of a song they did on a TV show in 1968. I took a screenshot of Bill Champlin from that, then used the Krea AI program to improve the details.

The Sons of Champlin - Live at the Record Plant, Record Plant, Sausalito, CA, 6-17-1973

One reason I've started posting albums from the "Live at the Record Plant" and "Ultrasonic" radio shows is that those generally consist of quality musical acts, but I'm not that familiar with many of them. So it's a good opportunity for me to expand my musical interests. This album is a case in point. I had vaguely heard of the Sons of Champlin as a Bay Area act in the late 1960s and early 1970s, but I'd never really heard their music. So if you aren't familiar with their either, I hope you'll give this a try.

The Sons of Champlin formed in 1965. They were led by Bill Champlin, who was the main singer and songwriter. Here's what their Wikipedia entry has to say: "They brought to the late '60s music scene in the Bay Area a soulful sound built around a horn section, Hammond B3 organ, sophisticated arrangements, philosophical themes, Bill Champlin's songwriting and blue-eyed soul singing, and Terry Haggerty's unique jazz-based guitar soloing." Unfortunately, they never made it big. They broke up in 1977. Then Champlin joined the very popular band Chicago a few years later, and stayed with that band until 2009. However, he reformed the Sons of Champlin in 1997, and they continue to perform until today (writing this in 2025).

Here's their Wikipedia entry, if you want to know more:

Sons of Champlin - Wikipedia 

While getting ready to post this album, I discovered that one reason some people believe the band didn't become more popular is that their concerts were very good, but they didn't fully capture how good they were on their records. So this is a good opportunity to fix that, especially since there are no official albums from them (except for way later reunions), and almost no live bootlegs. This concert took place around the time they released the album "Welcome to the Dance." 

This album is 54 minutes long. 

01 talk (Sons of Champlin)
02 Day Tripper (Sons of Champlin)
03 No Mo (Sons of Champlin)
04 talk (Sons of Champlin)
05 For Joy (Sons of Champlin)
06 Without Love (Sons of Champlin)
07 Fat City (Sons of Champlin)
08 talk (Sons of Champlin)
09 Welcome to the Dance (Sons of Champlin)
10 All and Everything (Sons of Champlin)
11 talk (Sons of Champlin)
12 Learn How to Swim (Sons of Champlin)
13 talk (Sons of Champlin)
14 Right On (Sons of Champlin)
15 talk (Sons of Champlin)
16 Linda Lou (Sons of Champlin)
17 talk (Sons of Champlin)
18 Lightning (Sons of Champlin)
19 talk (Sons of Champlin) 

https://pixeldrain.com/u/9kF9T4Xk

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/Z8yvI7et4tSMFmY/file

I had a heck of a time finding a good image for the cover art. It's a sign of how they have mostly been overlooked to not be able to find a single good color photo from their prime years, other than album covers. I did find a good black and white one though. I don't know the year it's from, but I'd guess the early 1970s. I colorized it with the help of the Kolorize program, plus some Photoshop work.