PORTLAND, Maine — Walking into the Expo lobby Wednesday morning, Ford S. Reiche glanced up at the timeline mural on the wall, which brags The Beach Boys played their first East Coast show at the building in 1965.
“That’s actually wrong,” Reiche said. “They were at The Palace in Old Orchard Beach in 1963.”
Take his word for it. He knows what he’s talking about.
Reiche’s new book, “A Long, Long Time Ago: Major Rock and Roll Concerts in Southern Maine, 1955-1977,” is an exhaustive chronicle of every big-time act who ever graced a stage in the lower half of the state between rock’s birth and the year the Cumberland County Civic Center opened.
Organized in chronological order, the book features photos, posters, exact dates, ticket prices, interviews with people who were there and even set lists from some of the shows.
Those were golden years, before corporations bought out rock and roll — when you could see Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis and Buddy Holly in a single night at the Lewiston Armory, the twisting and shouting Isley Brothers at St. Francis College in Biddeford, or Tina Turner at the University of Southern Maine gym for $5.
Reiche’s luxurious, 182-page tome, published by his own imprint, is available online and at local bookstores now. He’s donating all proceeds to the Maine Historical Society. A successful and retired railroad shipping businessman, Reiche previously published a book about restoring Maine’s Halfway Rock lighthouse station, which he owns.
A 1972 graduate of Falmouth High School, Reiche definitely remembers his first rock concert.
“It was The Youngbloods at the State Theatre in 1969,” he said, “with 1,500 people.”
That show was produced and promoted by local hippies, including Herb Gideon and Michael Kelly. The pair were associated with Erebus, a notorious combination head shop and fashion store on Center Street — which was also the first place in Maine to sell bell bottom trousers and waterbeds.
In those days, there were no national concert promoters like Live Nation or ticket sellers like Ticketmaster. All big time Maine rock shows were organized by local, music-loving promoters, such as Gideon and Kelly. Tickets were sold at local record stores or through the mail.
“Some of the promoters were radio DJs, and all of them were working day jobs, as well,” Reiche said.
Bobby Selberg was Maine’s first and most prolific rock promoter, Reiche writes. Selberg started out presenting big bands in the 1930s and put on Maine’s first genuine rock and roll show in 1955 when he brought Bill Haley and his Comets to The Palace in Old Orchard Beach.
Dan Blaney, who was there that night, describes the scene in Reiche’s book.
“The place was out of control,” Blaney said. “The kids were trying to dance but there wasn’t any room. It seemed like the building was going to shake, rattle and roll right to the ground.”
Selberg went on to present hundreds of other rock acts, including Ray Charles, Brenda Lee, the Kingsmen and Duane Eddy. He was the only rock and roll promoter in the Portland area until 1969. He did it all while working a day job in the Sears and Roebuck shipping department.
Selberg died in 1992, but Reiche tracked down many other surviving promoters and concert goers from the era still living in the area. Many shared their personal memories, memorabilia and ticket stubs for the book.
Reiche reckons so many amazing early rock acts found their way to Old Orchard Beach, Portland and Lewiston — where Jimi Hendrix played the Armory on March 16, 1968 — because of the Maine Turnpike.
The year Bill Haley came to the Pine Tree State, the Turnpike was extended to Augusta, via Lewiston. It had previously stopped in Portland.
“The turnpike united a quarter-million people and six colleges,” Reiche said.
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In other words, it made Maine a convenient destination — full of young, rock-hungry ticket buyers — for acts already playing shows in Boston or New York.
Leafing through Reiche’s book, it’s hard to believe the superstar acts who played Maine’s small venues, for reasonable prices, back in the day.
Tickets for a 1958 show at the Lewiston Armory featuring Danny and the Juniors, Frankie Lymon, Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis and Buddy Holly went for $1.50 to $2.50 per head. Bob Seeger came to Portland twice in 1970, first playing at the Expo and then, later in the year, outdoors at Fitzpatrick Stadium. Tickets were less than $5.
In 1970, Black Sabbath played the gym at what is now known as the University of Southern Maine Portland campus. They were billed third, after Mungo Jerry and Badfinger. The Ike and Tina Turner Review played the Gorham campus gym in March 1974. Students got in for $4.
Reiche’s book ends in 1977, when the Cumberland County Civic Center opened.
“When it opened, it shut all the other venues down,” he said, “It could seat thousands more than any other place.”
By that time, multi-state corporate entities were getting into the rock and roll business, booking entire east coast tours for bands, handling logistics and ticketing, driving small, local promoters and halls out of the game.
Those halcyon days of old-time rock and roll may be gone but Reiche hopes his book will remind folks that those performers were real, they were awesome and they were here.
“Rock and roll started with Bill Haley and the Comets in 1955,” Reiche said, “They were on Ed Sullivan — then, five days later, they were in Old Orchard Beach. People have forgotten it, but Maine was on the map back then.”
