The Vulcan Gas Company

The Vulcan Gas Company was Austin's first underground community night spot. None of the founders had any experience in this business. They had very little money to finance the operation. The authorities were lined up against them. Had they possessed more maturity or had the times been different, the operation would not likely have succeeded. But in their high-spirited naivete, they made the place work. The original partners who put the Vulcan on the air were: Houston White, Sandy Lockett, Gary Scanlan, Don Hyde, and Mescalito. All except the latter were longhairs in their 20's. They had found an antique, run-down, but distinguished building at 316 Congress, obtained a lease by having Hyde's father vouch for their authenticity, and set about changing it into a night club. Volunteers from the community of "freaks" assisted in this operation. Some of them were skilled in the building trades. The venture represented the first time Austin and U. of Texas youth had turned their backs on the entertainment establishment and built their own facility. From the beginning the intention of this cabal was to present the kind of music they appreciated, namely San Francisco style rock and vintage blues. These were friends of the 13th Floor Elevators and it was intended for this group to serve as the house band. It was also intended to bring the San Francisco style to town with light shows and long hair and a different dress mode and psychedelic posters. All of this came to pass with the exception of the Elevators' participation. By this time the band was beyond repair. A sad tale, now that there was a place for them to play in Austin, there was no longer much of a band. There were, fortunately, other longhair bands in town now who would fill the void.

The Vulcan was opened under some fanfare in October 1967. Its image featured excellent graphic design supervised and often created by the house art director, Gilbert Shelton. The posters, created by Shelton and friends, were distributed weekly at sites mostly around the campus, and they were first rate, as good as those in San Francisco. There was a platform built some eight feet above the floor for the Jomo Disaster Light Show which covered the walls of the high-ceilinged room with colored images, pulsating to the rhythms of the bands. In the otherwise dimly lit room, dancers took over the floor and introduced the free form gyrations from San Francisco, the likes of which had never been seen in Texas before. The combination of sound, images, and dance was hypnotic. The only seats were church pews lined up near the bandstand. Most of the crowd milled around or danced. When the acoustic blues legends performed, their fans sat quietly and respectfully on the floor. It didn't take the U. of Texas students and local youth very long to catch on to the social scene. The beautiful hippy chicks who danced with an attractive abandonment were as much a feature as the bands. Within weeks the club had become the "in" place to hang out in Austin. Since it served no alcohol, the Vulcan was immune from the regulators of this substance. But it was not immune from regulation. By day, this same room that served as an exotic center for the avant garde, was a bleak, old, and decaying building. The wiring in particular was very old and not up to city code. In the beginning, when the bands were blaring and light show blazing, the electrical supply had a habit of browning out the hall. The city inspectors were aghast at the initial setup which had been hastily thrown together by the hippy entrepreneurs. Also alarmed were the fire inspectors. On a given night the vice police might arrive and thoroughly shake down the band and other suspicious looking functionaries. Not particularly bound by rules, the staff managed to conform to the extent necessary to keep from being shut down, but never far beyond this standard.

Everyone knew that the Vulcan was a place where drug users gathered. Word of this oasis soon spread around the state and on a given night there might be all kinds of seekers from out of town at the place. But there was never a bust at the club simply because most of the revelers got high before they went out, and no one in their right mind brought drugs into the Vulcan. It was not unusual, however, for the out of town buyers to meet someone at the Vulcan and arrange a deal. Thus began Austin's reputation as a place to score marijuana (in particular) and psychedelics also. Legal capacity of the club was about 800 but the crowds often exceeded this number. Bands were given most of the gate. It was a real shot in the arm for the musicians who made up the motley personnel of the local longhair bands. The "employees" were nominally volunteers from the underground community who worked for little or no wages. Noteworthy among them were Joe Brown, Lieuen Adkins, Steve Plasky, Neva Lockett, Marilyn Todd, Camille Taylor, David and Betty Oeschli, and an ever rotating roster of others. Foremost among the bands was The Conqueroo. Now settled into a four man group, this band was adopted by both the fans and the functionaries formerly associated with the Elevators. Charlie Pritchard was still the lead guitarist. He was joined by Ed Guinn on bass and Farfisa organ, Bob Brown on rhythm guitar, and Steve Petrovcik on drums. Electronics whiz, Don Taylor, kept the equipment in working order, and teamed with Sandy Lockett to create a powerful (for the time) PA system which featured large plywood horns painted flat black. The repertoire of the Conqueroo was divided between blues, soul, and the original compositions of Brown and Guinn, who also provided the vocals. The sound was psychedelic (LOUD), but this was in line with the San Francisco style. Brown was a recently elecrified folk singer who was still a teenager when he made his debut at the Vulcan. His compositions were in the folk vein and noted for their clever lyrics. Guinn, a striking presence at over 300 pounds with a great Afro, wrote in a style close to the blues but with visionary lyrics. The band did not play "turn on" songs as the Elevators had done before them. Perhaps their outstanding feature was the ability to take off on long, free-form improvisations in the manner later popularized by the Grateful Dead. Ed Guinn was the designated leader of the Conqueroo. He had been one of the first Black students to enroll at the U. Of Texas, and one of the first to play in the Longhorn band where he performed briefly on the clarinet. Pritchard also featured a great hair-do in the afro style, although his hair was blond. He was also a U. of Texas dropout. Petrovcik was a teenager from New Jersey, a solid drummer but a troubled young man. By the end of the year, he had been replaced by Gerry Storm, formerly of the jazz group The Blue Crew. Storm was an experienced hand in small combos and lent his abilities to creating arrangements of the group's material. By early 1968, the Conqueroo was a formidable group. They held their own on the same bills at the club with famous bands of the day such as The Velvet Underground, Canned Heat, and the Steve Miller Band. In addition to playing at The Vulcan, they also played various events around town in support of political movements and bust benefits. They liked the tag of "the people's band". In this spirit they toured major Texas cities, taking the Austin scene to far corners of the state and on one occasion as far as Denver.

Often sharing the bill with the Conqueroo was Shiva's Head Band, a five piece group with origins from the folk sings. The leader was Spencer Perskin, perhaps the first psychedelic violinist, certainly the first in Austin. A fine musician, he was also a fellow of formidable physique and worked as a model at the U. of Texas Art School. Material of the band was almost exclusively his original compositions. He had Kenny Parker on electric bass, Bob Tom Reid on rhythm guitar, Sean Siegel on keyboards, and Jerry Barnett on drums. These musicians were even less experienced than the Conqueroo when they debuted in 1967. By the next year, however, they had matured into a fine group and signed a contract with Capitol Records. The scene around the Vulcan in the winter of '67-68 had been augmented by a Christian organization devoted to saving runaway children which rented the building next door. They got plenty of clients from the kids who flocked to Austin to get in on the scene at the Vulcan. This neighborhood had formerly been the wino zone of downtown Austin, and this group was quite curious about the new arrivals in their territory. Throw in a few right wing crazies determined to cause grief for the hippies, narcs, soldiers from Ft. Hood, airmen from Bergstrom Air Force Base, the local gendarmes in and out of uniform, and a regular group of former residents who came in from San Francisco for visits, and you have what was a most bizarre and exciting scene. Most of the time, good vibes dominated the gatherings and it was not unusual for trouble makers to become converts. By the summer of '68, there were major moves among the original cast at the club. Gary Scanlan had accepted a job with the Family Dog in San Francisco. He found an open spot for the Conqueroo on the schedule at the Avalon Ballroom. The band left town in June headed west. Many of the regulars joined this exodus. Art Director Shelton moved with the flow. The Jomo Disaster Light Show, operated by a cast including Doug Brown, Joe Fish, and Belmer Wright, soon followed and also performed at the Avalon. By the end of the summer, Shiva's Head Band too had set up in San Francisco.

The Vulcan spotlight in the wake of these departures fell upon one Johnny Winter, the albino blues phenomenon. Winter had connected with the Austin family while playing on the same bill with the Conqueroo in Denver. He created quite a sensation in the capitol. Simultaneous with his Vulcan appearances, he was featured in an article in the underground music's number one publication, Rolling Stone. Before the year was ended, Winter would land a major recording contract with Columbia records. Another blues legend appeared at the club that year, Freddie King. His name was added to the roster of previous performers, such as Lightnin' Hopkins, Big Joe Williams, Muddy Waters and Mance Lipscomb. Shiva's Head Band returned from San Francisco in top form and drew large crowds to their performances. The drift toward country rock was in their favor, and their new compositions reflected this. After a highly successful summer in '69 they obtained the afore-mentioned contract with Capitol Records and then proceeded to fall apart in the wake of an internal feud. The record was made but it did not feature the personnel who had built the reputation of the band. Notably missing from the sessions were Bob Tom Reid and Jerry Barnett, the heart of the rhythm section. The record was a great disappointment to their fans but the band would continue for a few more years, always featuring Perskin with various lineups. The Conqueroo? After a promising beginning on the coast they drifted apart. Widely scattered about the Bay Area they found it difficult to communicate and find a suitable place to rehearse. When it was clear that their journey west had reaped all the immediate benefits available at the time and that they needed to return to Texas to regroup, they procrastinated. The great reception afforded Shiva's Head Band upon their return from the coast was not repeated by the Conqueroo. Years later, Guinn and Brown would return to Austin and put together another band using the name, but it never got off the ground. One of the problems which plagued the Vulcan was the lack of a decent air-conditioning system. Summers in the club could be downright miasmic. Initially, with the spirit of the vanguard so strong, this problem was overlooked, but later it hounded the operation. Eventually the regular employees demanded a larger share of the proceeds. With the defection of so many of the founders, much of the spirit of the club seemed to disappear. Jim Franklin took over for Shelton and the reputation for quality graphics continued for awhile. Houston White and Sandy Lockett continued to operate well into '69, sometimes sporadically. Before the end of 1969, the Vulcan Gas Company was history, and quite a profound history at that. It would soon be replaced by the Armadillo World Headquarters, a more venerable institution which lasted much longer and completed the process of making sleepy ol' River City the freewheeling Capitol of Texas.

History of Austin Music 65-69 {part 3} © Gerry Storm 2000