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The 1975 Florida Jam was held at the old Tampa Fairgrounds / Plant Field and was hosted by Sid Clark & Marquee Promotions. Plant Field was the first major athletic stadium in Tampa. It was originally built by Henry B. Plant, owner of the Tampa Bay Hotel and Railroad Tycoon, in 1899 next to the University of Tampa as an area to provide various activities for his guests. Plant Field drew Tampa residents and visitors to see baseball games, horse racing, car racing, entertainers and politicians.The stadium hosted the first professional football and first spring training games in Tampa.
With a crowd of 40,000 strong the 1975 Jam was blistering hot and security was not letting anyone into the covered stands until the crowd rushed it and started climbing the fence. Then they brought in two water tankers so people could cool off. In fact it was so hot the stage was melting and when Gene Simmons of KISS did his fireball during 'Fire House', the stage actually caught on fire. You were allowed to bring in an ice chest because it was summer time and hot. Booze was allowed in (possibly inside the ice chest!) but had to be in a plastic container. People were buying plastic milk jugs and pouring it out to fill it with beer.
The concert started around 12 noon with The Atlanta Rhythm Section, Pure Prairie League, Kiss, The Ozark Mountain Dare Devils, War, The Marshall Tucker Band, Johnny Winter and ZZ Top. That's a red hot bill.
Some people were walking through the crowd naked - as you do - and a young couple having fully clothed sex right in front of the stage. Yeah! Get it on!
Don Kirshner kicked out the Tampa Police Department and said there were enough people here to be a small town, and he was the mayor and he had his own security. Can you really just evict the cops like that?
But security was low and the crowd was high, baby, so if you got in trouble, the Don Kirshner security dealt with you first, but if you didn't cooperate you had the Tampa Police Department to deal with.
I'd have hoped this was all recorded for a live album but it seems no-one bothered. Boo. What a bill.
