Bill Graham has done for live music what Jimi Hendrix did for the electric guitar. Had it not been for Bill Graham live music as we know it would not exist. Graham created a successful business model by which musicians could make a living playing live music and music fans could see their favorite acts at an affordable price.
Wolfgang’s Vault (Wolfgang was Bill Graham’s first name) contains high quality audio and video, hand bills, photography, vintage tickets, posters, t-shirts and so much more memoriabilia from Bill Graham’s vault. Graham’s vault contains 8000 recordings from hundreds of musicians that were recorded by Graham during his thirty year carreer. The vault contains recordings from some of the greatest musicians of the 20th century including Jimi Hendrix, The Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin, Jefferson Airplane, Led Zepplin, Johnny Cash, The Who, The Rolling Stones, U2, Miles Davis, Santana, Elton John, Pink Floyd, Bob Dylan, Marvin Gaye, Eric Clapton, Van Morrison, Aretha Franklen, Neil Young, Chuck Berry, The Allmann Brothers and many many more.
Entrepreneur Bill Sagan purchased Bill Graham’s archive in 2003 from Clear Channel Communications for $5 million and has converted it from analog to high-end digital format, remastering almost every song. The vault also includes a plethora of high quality video of performances. Some of the greatest moments in live music history exist in the archive, including the Sex Pistol’s last performance and the historical The Who performance at Cow Palace where Keith Moon fell into his drum kit. Its very exciting to hear that many of these performances will now see the light of day!