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H.O.R.D.E. More: The Later Years (Allman Brothers Band, Black Crowes, Wilco, Ziggy Marley, Neil Young…)

The current issue of Relix looks back 20 years to the inaugural H.O.R.D.E tour in 1992 which featured Blues Traveler, Phish, Widespread Panic, Spin Doctors, Col. Bruce Hampton and Aquarium Rescue Unit and Bela Fleck & The Flecktones. Here’s a look beyond, with some memories from subsequent years, including thoughts from the late Jay Bennett. To view all of our special H.O.R.D.E. content, which we will post over the coming weeks, visit www.relix.com/HORDE .

Plans for 1993 began much earlier, with groups such as Big Head Todd & the Monsters and the Samples, joining Panic, Traveler and ARU on the main stage while the Dave Matthews Band made some appearances on the new second stage. Phish also returned for two of the gigs.

Dave Frey (Blues Traveler manager, H.O.R.D.E co-founder) We’d done eight shows that had been more or less successful so there was less of us calling and trying to sell it and more promoters calling us and making offers. Also there’s the amphitheater phenomenon that has taken over the concert business over the last 25 years. Amphitheaters had three months to pay their bills, and they needed to book shows because they were underwritten by sponsors who were promised a certain amount of shows. I remember the promoter in Columbus Ohio had 28 shows and he needed 2 more to keep his Coca Cola money intact so he bought H.O.R.D.E.

John Popper Especially in the days before SFX consolidated them, you realized the promoters were like local mafias guys except they didn’t get to kill anyone.

Nigel James, Production manager 1993-5 We used to allow the people in the lawn to come down to the seats up until Blues Traveler. We convinced all these operators of the amphitheaters to allow the kids down. You can’t do this today because then it was basically a two ticket price, one for the lawn one for the seats and now there are six different prices for everything, different tier ratios even in the 100 level.

The Allman Brothers Band appeared twice in the summer of 1993.

Dave Frey The Allman Brothers Band joined us at SPAC and we nearly broke the Grateful Dead attendance record. The next show was scheduled for Stowe Mountain Vermont but Dickey Betts fell off the wagon. The band had an agreement about what would happen if that happened so Dickey was grabbed and sent away to rehab.

Butch Trucks, Allman Brothers Band It started out horrid but it was crazy because we had so much fun. Jimmy Herring was there playing with Aquarium Rescue Unit and we just grabbed him and said, “You’ve got to play with us tonight.” So we stuck him on the stage and we started jamming. It was so much fun, people who were there will tell you it was an incredible night. The jamming was ethereal. It was through the roof.

In 1995 the Blues Traveler welcomed Ziggy Marley and the Black Crowes, along with second stage bands as Wilco, Morphine and Medeski Martin & Wood. The tour was marked by a loose camaraderie both on stage backstage (in addition to an odd moment in which Marley’s bus was stuck in traffic requiring forcing Frey to send a police escort: “I explained this to their tour manager and there’s just this profound silence on the other side because we realize what we’ve asked them to do, because in other circumstances the state trooper would be leading them somewhere else.”)

Nigel James We’d have the likes of John Popper and various people reenacting knights on horseback except it was knights on golf carts in parking lots.

Jay Bennett, Wilco Our first day on the tour Chris Robinson drove over in a golf cart to see our gig and gave us the extra secret Black Crowes backstage passes which of course said “All Excess” rather than “All Access.” Steve Gorman turned 30 on the tour and he was the first Black Crowe to turn 30. I remember that being a blow out night where everybody jammed backstage until the janitors had to mop us out.