The Philadelphia Spectrum

All Hail The Spectrum! Currently undergoing a not-so-successful demolition because that bad ass building is as tough as the Broad Street Bullies, the Philadelphia Spectrum will forever live on for fans of sport and music.

We went to so many events at the Spectrum we could never count them. Season ticket holders for both the Flyers and the Phantoms hockey teams saw us there sometimes 5 times a month.

We were too young to attend the games where the Flyers won the Stanley Cup and the never-to-forget games where the Flyers beat the hell out of the then indomitable Red Army. In fact, at that game, the Flyers slammed the Russians so hard, the entire Red Army walked off the ice saying "they don't want to even play hockey, they just want to fight." This was years before the Miracle on Ice game at the Olympics and in the hey day of the Broad Street Bullies.

Kate Smith made the song "God Bless America" cool again there and there was and still is a movement to make that song our National Anthem. God Bless Kate Smith.

The Philadelphia Wings won most of their Championship Tournaments there.

We did however, see the Phantoms win the Calder Cup there, TWICE!, and that was AMAZING! Have you ever hugged and partied with 23,000 strangers that became instant friends?

We also saw so many AWESOME concerts there including the great Iron Maiden concert with the giant sailing ship constructed just for "The Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner" and we swear that thing was 100 feet long if it was one.

Not to mention the great censorship concert by Rage Against the Machine in which the band stripped down naked, putting duck tape over their mouths and just stood there for half an hour. Classic!

But there were so many more concerts: The Who, Cream (playing their last show ever), The Doors (It was recorded and released as Doors Live in Philadelphia 1970), Yes played 32 times there!, Aerosmith 23 times!, Bruce Springsteen practically made it his home and the night after John Lennon was killed he played a marathon 3 1/2 hour concert dedicating it to John and ending the show with a one time performance of "Twist and Shout", Genesis with Phil Collins played there frequently in the 1980's, Kiss, Billy Joel (he played there so often he had a banner hung from the rafters), AC/DC, Adam Ant, Skid Row, Alice in Chains with Van Halen, Anthrax, The Beach Boys, The Beastie Boys, Chuck Berry, Black Sabbath, Tina Turner, Boston, Quiet Riot, David Bowie, Johnny Cash (played twice in the '70s), Ray Charles (6 times!), Snoop Dog with Eminem, The Scorpions with Bon Jovi, Pink Floyd, THE GRATEFUL DEAD, and of course, the great Ronnie James Dio. EVERYONE PLAYED THERE!

Here is the full list and dates of the ALL the Spectrum concerts

We were fortunate enough to see Dio there in '87. The concert with the giant fighting robots. You just don't get that kind of show anymore.

In tribute to The Spectrum and the Great Ronnie James Dio we will be posting his 1984 Spectrum concert footage - ALL DAY.

God Bless America and Long Live The Spectrum!


REMEMBER THE SPECTRUM