Who's Who: Local Blogger Shares British Rock Memorabilia

Name: David Miller

Age: 57

Occupation: Banquet service of the

I’ve heard you followed the 1970s British rock scene in San Francisco. The main blog is “Brit Rock by the Bay,” which has all of our memoirs. My personal one is “David’s Rock Scrapbook”; the two are linked together. You can see ticket stubs, autographs, whatever I can pull together to give a general history of the band, and some links to YouTube so you can hear them.

How did you start getting autographs from British rock groups? Bill Graham, after he closed the Fillmore, opened up Winterland. It was my friend Michael Morton’s idea to get there at 6 a.m.; that was the only way we could get to [spots] in front of the stage. It was a pretty crazy idea, but we were 21. We [then] got the idea that we could stand outside the door and wait; we got The Kinks and Fleetwood Mac that way. They might even come in early for a soundcheck. That’s how we got Peter Gabriel’s autograph.

Peter Gabriel was one of our more interesting ones. We’d occasionally see people who tried to dress up like a rock star. [While waiting] Michael said, “Look at that idiot trying to look like Peter Gabriel. Oh my God! It is Peter Gabriel!” He has these wooden clogs on, and he starts kicking the door. My friend Gary walks up to him and says, “You can kick at that door all you want, but the entrance is over there.” We somehow got his autograph that day. After [the concert] he ran out and literally dove headfirst into the waiting station wagon.

The funniest one was Wishbone Ash. When we were waiting in line, we got the idea that they might be staying at a local hotel. We went to the lobby, called the front desk and asked, “Is Michael Turner [band leader] staying here?” They said, “Yes, he’s in room…. I’ll connect you.” We called, and he invited us up to his room. He was still up in bed watching Leave It to Beaver.

Where was Winterland? Winterland was near Japantown, in a residential area; now it’s torn down. Previously it was an ice rink.

Did you set out on purpose to hear British musicians? Not at first. Our first concerts were Judy Collins, The Youngbloods and Joan Baez. [My friend] Michael was born in England and was almost fanatical about British music. Michael became the real leader in talking us into going to hear them – he knew the whole history – he was a walking encyclopedia of British rock.

There was a lot of mixing and matching between the [British] groups, probably because England is so small, and there’s a lot of traveling around. It’s like putting a family tree together: this guy started here and went there and started up that group….

Do you have any contact with the musicians now? Michael does a lot of that; we try to get a link from their website. Steve Winwood’s personal archivist contacted us and said he wanted to put our photos on his website.

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