Let’s Talk About Accuracy

With the re-launch of DELIVERIN’ – The Poco Concert Archive/Database, I think it’s worth taking a few moments to talk about the philosophy behind the hundreds of listings of concerts on the site.

I started researching Poco concerts long before there was such a thing as the Internet. It involved hours going through microfilm reels in local libraries to find concert ads. It was making friends via snail mail for shows that fans recalled attending. There was a lot of effort with very little certainty of whether a concert actually took place. During that pre-Internet time, I developed an accuracy scale that I used when assembling my lists of shows.

Listing –  This is usually a newspaper line item announcing a show. Usually in a entertainment section and taken from a press release. Depending on the proximity of the show date, I tend to rank this as moderately dependable. Here’s an example of what I mean.

Ad – A newspaper or magazine advertisement with venue, promoter and ticket information.  Often has a promo photo of at least one of the bands.  This rate a bit higher in dependability for me since these are paid for by the promoter.  If he’s spending money, there’s a good chance the show happened.  Like this one:

Poster – Posters used to be a pretty dependable source for concerts but with the growth of eBay and the market for counterfeit posters, this now needs some investigation of their own validity.  I now rank these as low in terms of dependability. Like this fake poster from 1964.

Handbill – Handbills are a bit like posters in that they are more of a starting point, rather than a confirmation.  However, there isn’t quite the counterfeit market for them so you don’t see as many bogus ones to lead you down the wrong path. Here’s one from 1965 Asbury Park Convention Hall.

Ticket stub – A bit above moderate in reliability but tickets were often printed for shows that where cancelled at the last minute.  But they are great for identifying dates in the first place.  Here’s one from 1967 Hollies’ show in Hawaii that was subsequently cancelled along with their entire U.S. spring tour.

Review – A show review in a newspaper or magazine is generally the confirmation I look for to ensure that a show actually took place.  But they too can be misleading.  Especially in the ’60s and ’70s, newspapers who did review rock concerts (and there weren’t many) had a relatively early deadline for their morning editions.  So many times, the headliner got little notice since the reviewer often left before they went on to file their story.  Occasionally there was outright deception.  Poco was to play the Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto on New Years Eve, 1970 and the review contained a brief description of their set amongst six other bands.  Problem was…Poco never made it through customs into Canada and missed the show.  I might never have figured that out except that the reviewer was fired when fans called him on it.  Turns out the entire review was fiction!

Tour Itinerary – Official tour itineraries are gold for what was originally booked for shows but often do not reflect shows that were cancelled or postponed.  Wish there were more of these around but most band members just tossed them once the dates were completed.  Thankfully Poco’s Road Manager Denny Jones kept copies from all the tours he did with them and noted changes on them too! 

Fan recollection – Much like law enforcement, I take eyewitness testimony with a grain of salt.  It’s great additional confirmation when they give you enough details to make sure they were actually there.  But more often, dates are several years off, bands are mixed up, and other details don’t mesh.  Here’s a new example. Homecoming 1971 at Colgate University. I listed Poco’s show at taking place on September 23rd based on a newspaper listing.. But several years later, I had a fan tell me the show had been postponed for a week. So, I changed the date to September 30th. I just received a review from the Colgate University student newspaper that confirmed the show actually took place on September 23rd. Showing that fan recollections can be helpful, but…Hey, if you can remember the ’60s, you weren’t really there, right?

But I wanted DELIVERIN’ to be a co-operative site. Sure, I’d do the heavy lifting of research to confirm shows, but I wanted you to share your Poco experiences even if you didn’t have all the specifics. So, I have routinely listed shows on the site BEFORE confirming that they happened on that date. Why? Because I have found that you fans can be great sources of information and can sometimes confirm or lead me towards shows I had no idea took place. Where shows are listed, I will generally mention if the source is a fan recollection or a less-than-reputable source. But my intent is to ultimately confirm the details of all the shows that I list. 

Jerry