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| The Zoo became the house band for the Charix Coffeehouse in the basement of the Unitarian Universalist Church in downtown Portland, Oregon. You might think of the band as the bait to bring "troubled youth" within outreach range... Or you might think of the band as the bait to bring church members within drug dealers' range ... (pssst! Acid? Speed? Lids?) |
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This is an article from 12/1/67 issue of the Vanguard, the Portland State
College newspaper. All the people pictured are identified except for
those in the largest picture; it shows Peter singing, Sharyle playing
guitar, and Fred Corbett's left hand fretting his Hofner "Beatle Bass."
They had to crop Fred out of the picture because he was wearing his
flowered pants. The article says:
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Well, speak of the devil! There are those pants now...
 Photo courtesy of the Corbett Collection
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This is from an article in the 12/17/70 issue of the Willamette Bridge,
a local underground paper.
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This is probably the Zoo's most famous poster -- drawn by Kelly of Mouse Studios (San Francisco). |
| Another one of many colorful animal-themed Portland Zoo posters, this one from 1968 is for a dance at the Pythian Hall on Yamhill in downtown Portland, Ore. |
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Check out the demented zoo keeper in this one... Roxy had just changed its name to (or was it from?) Roxy Music. |
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The Portland Zoo was just the kind of band that the folks at Zap Comix could
understand. Here's a stock flyer, all ready for the local information to be drawn in... |
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 left to right: Denny Jackson, Bass · Sharyle Patton, Guitar · Pat Coffey, Drums · Peter Langston, Guitar | The band takes a little break from rabble rousing in Lair Hill Park. We were protesting something that park commissioner Ivancie was doing... closing down the parks, maybe? So we threw him a party! |
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This is Peter with his favorite electric guitar,
a 1952 Les Paul with trapeze tailpiece.
It was stolen along with all the band's equipment,
but we recovered the other equipment (everything but this guitar)
by tracking it to San Francisco.
Apparently the guitar had already been sold to someone in Vermont...
You might wonder how a caterpillar managed to crawl onto Peter's lip without him noticing it! |
| One of a series of buttons drawn by Dutch artist Henk Pander for the Band. Each button represented one of us (note my stylish hair-do in this one). We gave these out at concerts and dances to highlight the important role of the audience in the band's music, thereby making everyone an honorary member of the Portland Zoo Electric Band. |
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| If you can decipher this ornate type face you'll see that this dance was being put on by one of California's most notorious police departments. It's a long story how we ended up playing a dance for the Weed Police and winning $50 in a bet with a motorcycle patrolman... |
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| We're keeping an eye out for other bits and pieces left behind by the band. | ||
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If you have any Portland Zoo + Pictures + Posters + Recordings + Anecdotes please let Peter know via e-mail. | ||
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The Zoo recorded two songs but they were never released -- "Alligator Man"
by Floyd Chance and "Lie Down" by Peter. We have the acetate test pressings
of those two recordings and we also have some reel-to-reel tapes from
performances.
We hope to be able to assemble an hour of PZEB material and make it all
available as a CD someday soon. Watch this space! | |
(psl@acm.org )