In a lightning move, Elektra Records signed the MC5 and the Stooges to long-term recording contracts in New York September 26.
The move was engineered by Elektra’s publicity director, Danny Fields, who flew out to hear the bands last weekend at the Grande Ballroom in Detroit and the Union Ballroom in Ann Arbor, where the 5 and the Stooges were playing a benefit for the Children’s Community School.
Fields returned to New York on Tuesday morning and sent for John Sinclair and Jimmy Silver of Trans-Love Energies the next day. The two young rock and roll magnates conferred with Elektra president Jac Holzmann, played tapes and films of the groups, and quickly reached agreement with the company.
The MC5’s first album will be recorded live at the Grande Ballroom late this month or early in November, as soon as Elektra can get an engineer out to Detroit. The recording will be produced by Holzmann himself and coordinated by Trans-Love Energies.
After the live tape is recorded Elektra will fly the 5 to Los Angeles to mix the tapes and do some studio recording in Elektra’s new west coast studios.
A single release is tentatively scheduled for early December, with the album itself due around Christmas or early January. A 16-mm color film of the 5 will be produced by Trans-Love Energies for release with the single, which will probably be “Kick Out the Jams” (“Rocket Reducer No. 62.”
The Stooges will be recording in Los Angeles in late winter, with their initial album release tentatively scheduled for Spring 1969.
The MC5 recording session will be held on a Wednesday and Thursday night at the Grande Ballroom and will be open to all the band’s friends and neighbors—free! Details will be released in the next issue of the Fifth Estate.
Elektra also plans to introduce the two Ann Arbor groups to their New York audience around Christmas-time in a dual concert, as soon as they can arrange the proper facilities in the city. The MC5 are planning a road tour to coincide with the release of their first Elektra single and will be in the Detroit-Ann Arbor area until then.
Their itinerary includes dates at the Peek-a-Boo Club, Westland, Oct. 4th (Friday); The Cellar in Chicago, Oct. 5th; an outdoor festival in Grand Rapids the 6th; at the 5D in Ann Arbor Tuesday the 8th, with the Stooges; Benton Harbor, Huilabaloo, Oct. 9th; Amherstberg, Ontario, Oct. 11th; Saginaw Auditorium, Oct. 12; at WSU in a benefit for the Black Panthers, Oct. 18th; Silverbell Hideout, Oct. 19th; Sebewaing, Mich., Oct. 25th; Findlay, Ohio, Oct. 26th.
