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| Eric Burdon and The Animals at La Loco 1966 |
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| La Loco 1966 |
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| La Loco 1966 |
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| Cream at La Loco 1966 |
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| The Hollies at La Loco in 1966 |
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| The Who at La Loco in 1966 |
I was wearing my favorite outfit, a cream-colored pantsuit made of fine wale corduroy, with a longish fitted jacket and slightly bell bottom pants. I loved it. As were were sitting there enjoying the show, suddenly I felt a stunning hit to my head, on the front, just behind my hairline, and just to the right of my part which was in the middle. The next thing I knew, I was lying on the dance floor, Yves looking down at me, and the owner of the club pressing a napkin to my head. The band had stopped.
When I was finally aware of what was going on, the owner took me upstairs to his office suite and made sure I was all right. He took me to his bathroom and helped me wash all the blood off my face. There was blood all over my turtleneck and a few drops on the lapel of my jacket. There was quite a bit on the pants. I was traumatized by the blood. When he got the bleeding pretty much controlled, he told me there was a fairly deep cut in my scalp. He asked if I wanted him to take me to the hospital and I said absolutely not. I had noticed some blood on Yves so I asked how he was. Apparently, he just got a glancing blow on the shoulder - the blood was mine!
The owner made me drink some kind of alcohol and told me to lie down on his couch and he would send Yves up, which he did.
Yves told me that Chas' amp had fallen over right onto my head. The band immediately stopped playing and after they hauled me upstairs, they moved the equipment and started again (after they cleaned the blood off the lighted floor tiles of course).
We stayed upstairs for about a hour, then went back downstairs. The Animals were done by then, and we sat at a table and took it easy. When the club closed, the owner got me a cab and paid for it. When I got home around 2:30 am, everyone was asleep of course. I probably spent an hour in the bathroom trying to see my injury but I really couldn't so i went to bed.
The next morning, I had my sister look at it and she thought it was bad. My mother said I needed stitches and that I should have let the owner take me to the hospital. My dad just shook his head. I had a headache for a few days, but otherwise, I was fine.
My corduroy pants were ruined, but we were able to save the jacket. In fact, David used to wear it on stage when he played with his band.
One added benefit was that I had free admission to La Loco for life!
About a year or so after this happened, I noticed something strange with my hair; in the area of the scar it was growing in white! I loved it. It was a permanent reminder of that night. Ever since then, I have had a white streak in that spot. I started parting my hair there, because it made a nice effect. Now,even though my hair has a considerable amount of gray, I can still see my white streak.
In an odd twist of fate, Eric Burdon played at the one and only music festival held here in 2010. I was excited, because I wanted to ask him if he remember that episode at La Loco. The concert was good, and after he came offstage, I couldn't wait to go backstage and meet him. My friend Jody and I stood in line to get into the tent they had set up, and we met one of the other bands who had played, Wishbone Ash. They were very nice. But then everyone was told that Mr. Burdon would not be giving autographs or talking to fans. I asked for a special visit because I wanted to see if he remember something that had happened close to 45 years prior, but they weren't having it. I was horribly crushed.
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| Eric Burdon 2010 |
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| Wishbone Ash 2010 |