BS: Grove Avenue Republic...

Subject: BS: Grove Avenue Republic...
From: Bobert
Date: 12 Aug 10 - 07:46 PM

I am accutely aware that no one here has any idea what the Grove Avenue Republic was but I figured that if I started a thread on it that it would make it to Google and then if someone who knows what it was will perhaps come here and share their experiences and I'll perhaps hook up with some folks who I've lost along life's journey...

Nevermind...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Grove Avenue Republic...
From: Rapparee
Date: 12 Aug 10 - 08:44 PM

Oh, fer....

Yeah, I know what it was. One of your hippy fascist pinko free-love communes, right?

Subject: RE: BS: Grove Avenue Republic...
From: Bobert
Date: 12 Aug 10 - 08:56 PM

Not really, Rap...

It started out a small little block party in Richmond and ended up as a massive block party with bands setting up on porch roofs (drums, amps and all...) and then the cars couldn't get thru and then the cops showed up and the riots began... Lotta folks got hurt that night...

That started it... Within a couple days the name was created, the tee shirts designed and silk screened, the bands lined up and...

Round 2!!!

Round 2 was the shits!!! (Georgian for awsome...) The cops had gotten such bad press the week before that they just let it happen and it was the block party of all block parties...

Yeah, it was short lived but alot of fun... BTW, for every GAPer the date of the riots will never be forgotten: 4/10/70!!!

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Grove Avenue Republic...
From: GUEST,Jim M
Date: 20 Oct 15 - 12:20 AM

I was there 4/10/70, 1104 Grove Avenue. Before we silk screened, we spray painted shirts with a cardboard stencil. Think I may still have stored away somewhere.

Subject: RE: BS: Grove Avenue Republic...
From: GUEST,#
Date: 20 Oct 15 - 03:59 PM

http://www.styleweekly.com/richmond/richmonds-aural-history-the-1960s/Content?oid=2036706

Subject: RE: BS: Grove Avenue Republic...
From: GUEST,Sarra the Fletcher
Date: 24 Mar 16 - 12:06 AM

I was there, too. It was a cop riot. The police were very much on edge, had very bad relations with the mostly kids who lived in the VCU neighborhood. It was a very arty, forward-thinking neighborhood, but it was under deep surveillance all the time. 4-10-70 was an unusually warm night, and people had been sitting on the porch roofs all up and down Grove Avenue all day. As evening fell, the neighborhood turned into a big spontaneous block party. The police moved in and rounded up several hundred kids and took them downtown to book them. I heard that a day or two later, when the judge asked the first person to have a hearing (I believe his name was Emory something) how he pled, and he replied, "Your honor, I have diarrhea!" and the judge dismissed the whole bunch of them. The shirts appeared for sale to raise money for bail.

A day or so later, there was another more formal outdoor multi-band concert on the VCU campus. The mood in the audience was electric, tense, and angry, and at the end of a particularly rousing heavy metal set, my husband suggested that we leave because it felt as if a real riot was going to break out. The next performer was a big black guy with a deep, marvelous voice and an acoustic guitar. He played "Get Together" (Come on people now, smile on your brother..." and "Bridge over Troubled Waters." By the end of his short little set, the mood had completely changed and the crowd began to dissipate. I credit that guy for keeping a really nasty riot from breaking out. I wish I could remember his name!

Subject: RE: BS: Grove Avenue Republic...
From: GUEST,Sarrathe Fletcher
Date: 25 Mar 16 - 10:32 AM

I finally remembered the acoustic guy's name! John Bassett. Does anyone else remember him?
Getting old sucks.

Subject: RE: BS: Grove Avenue Republic...
From: GUEST,#
Date: 25 Mar 16 - 11:22 AM

I think the spelling is John Bassette. There is a song called Weed and Wine on YouTube.