Michael Stanley Band
Blossom Music Center
Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio
August 12, 1980
(PreFM Master)
(JoeRay Master Volume 22)

Transfer: Pre-FM tape > CDR > .wav > Peak Pro 6 (post production) > xACT 2.39 > FLAC

01 Midwest Midnight
02 Misery Loves Company
03 Back In My Arms Again
04 What’cha Wanna Do Tonight
05 Last Night
06 He Can’t Love You
07 Working Again
08 Rosewood Bitters
09 Promises
10 I’ll Never Need Anyone More
11 Slip Away
12 Why Should Love Be This Way?
13 Save A Little Piece For Me
14 Don’t Stop The Music
15 Hold Your Fire
16 Independently Wealthy
17 Let’s Get The Show On The Road
18 Baby If You Wanna Dance
19 All I Ever Wanted
20 Strike Up The Band

Known Faults:
-None

Michael Stanley – guitar, vocals
Gary Markasky – lead guitar
Kevin Raleigh – keyboards, vocals
Bob Pelander – keyboards
Michael Gismondi – bass
Rick Bell – saxophone
Tommy Dobeck – drums

Welcome to Volume 22 of the JoeRay Master Series. Michael Stanley Band played two back to back sold out shows at the Blossom Music Center on August 11 & 12, 1980.

Joe Ray gives us more details around the show.

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The Michael Stanley Band began at the Cleveland Agora in 1974. During the next six years, MSB had been playing night clubs and small theatre’s, usually opening up for bands outside of their Cleveland Area roots.

During the summer of 1980, on August 11 & 12th MSB played two shows at the Blossom Music Center, both shows had immediately sold out selling over 42,000 tickets. By 1980, MSB had developed a huge following around Cleveland and the Midwest, but after releasing five solid albums in 5 years, had not scored much national success or notoriety. And that lack of breakthrough success resulted in being dropped from two record labels and had lead to turnover within the band. As Gary Markasky took over on lead guitar, Michael Gismondi was now on bass, and Kevin Raleigh was brought in on keyboards, vocals, and as an additional songwriter to Stanley. Stanley and drummer Tommy Dobreck were the only members left from the original 1974 Agora debut lineup. But in 1980 the band released perhaps their strongest album, Heartland, which included their highest charting single, Kevin Raleigh's "He Can't Love You".

First a little history about Blossom music Center. Blossom was built by Dudley S. Blossom and family as the Summer Home for the Cleveland Orchestra and opened in 1968. This is how Blossom received its name. The venue was built between Cleveland and Akron along the Cuyahoga River and today, is located in the Cuyahoga River Valley National Park. The official attendance record for Blossom is Blood Sweat & Tears 1968 of 24,000. Not official was the attendance for Pink Floyd in 1973 of 32,000. MSB holds the attendance record for a 4 night residency playing to over 74,000 fans. MSB played Blossom starting in 1980 and each summer till the band broke up in 1987.

WMMS FM 100.7 would often broadcast the concert over the air without commercial interruption. This concert from August 12, 1980 was the first time any live performance at Blossom was broadcast. The concert was special to Cleveland music lovers, their hometown heroes, MSB was playing at Cleveland’s favorite outdoor venue in the middle of a National Park. How fucking special does it get? I made sure my home stereo was set to 11 when the concert started. I had friends Jimbo, Bill and Terry over for the concert as the four of us attended the concert the night before and sat in the 4th row in front of Michael. For this special first time ever live broadcast by WMMS from Blossom, we all joined together at my home for this historic broadcast.
This release comes from the WMMS preFM master transferred for me and ripped from CD. I sure hope you all enjoy this trip down memory lane of MSB on the big stage...ENJOY!

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The official release "Live From Blossom Music Center" comes from the 1983 series of shows, to our knowledge nothing from this 1980 shows has been released.

Huge thanks to JoeRay for Volumes 1-22 and all future releases which would not be possible without his ongoing generosity and his amazing archives.

As he does for all our key releases Prof Goody worked his pitch magic to ensure this was released meeting his high standards.

Artwork included...

mjk5510 and JoeRay

Images for all shows as well as full size images for this show.

Images for this show: