Cumberland County Civic Center / Cross Insurance Arena
Maine’s known for lobsters, clams and blueberries, all of which can be found in other parts of New England, but its musical menu has always been unique, going back over 12,000 years to the songs of the Wabanaki. Traditional folk tunes and sailor shanties arrived from the British Isles and Europe in the early 17th century, lumberjack songs sprouted from there and classical entered the mix in the mid-18th century. Operas were staged in theatres, town halls and granges in the late 19th century, by which time the Pine Tar State’s fiddling and bluegrass traditions had taken root and church choirs were a big part of the sonic smorgasbord.
As for Maine’s 20th-century musical history, it can be divided into three distinct periods: pre-Maine Turnpike, post-Maine Turnpike and post-Cumberland Civic Center. In a nutshell, the freeway transformed the scene in terms of attracting national acts in the late ‘40s and the Civic Center turned the volume up to 11 in the late ‘70s by becoming a regular stop for big-league acts touring the region, like Boston Garden, Providence Civic Center, New Haven Veterans Memorial Coliseum, Hartford Civic Center and Springfield Civic Center. While many have bemoaned the fact that the arena was the death knell for smaller venues in the area, it’s hosted dozens of world-famous bands, icons including Frank Sinatra, Diana Ross, Muddy Waters and Tina Turner, and Evis Presley was scheduled to play two nights in August 1977 that were canceled following his death the day before the first show.
PRE-MAINE TURNPIKE, POST-MAINE TURNPIKE ERAS
Before the opening of the Turnpike, relatively few national acts performed in Maine, especially in the winter. Jazz combos and big bands tended to play at Boston clubs like The Hi-Hat and Cocoanut Grove, the leading big bands appeared at Boston Garden and practically all of them headed to New York City after that, stopping for gigs in Providence, Worcester, Springfield, Hartford and/or New Haven. In the summer, however, orchestras led by Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Glenn Miller and others appeared regularly at the 4,000-capacity Palace Ballroom in Old Orchard Beach, opened in 1926.
The post-Turnpike era started in December 1947 with the completion of the Kittery-to-Portland section, which drew significantly more national acts to the state. The real game changer came in December 1955, however, when the Portland-to-Augusta extension opened, putting Maine’s two biggest cities, Portland and Lewiston, within hour’s drive from its capital, Augusta. Since the region included a number of small venues and was home to five colleges and two University of Maine campuses (Bates, Bowdoin, St. Frances, Westbrook Junior, Nasson, UM Portland and UM Gorham), it was perfect for acts playing the youth-centered new genre called “rock ‘n’ roll.” As a result, a slew of top names appeared in the area between the mid-‘50s and mid-’70s, among them Bill Haley & His Comets, Buddy Holly & The Crickets, Chuck Berry, The Supremes, Simon & Garfunkel and Jimi Hendrix (at Lewiston Armory in March 1968). “When rock stars of the day were planning tours, Southern Maine was a sort of an ‘off Broadway’ stop before hitting the big cities on the East Coast,” according to Ford Reiche, author of 2023’s A Long, Long Time Ago: Major Rock and Roll Concerts in Southern Maine, 1955-1977, calling it “a stroke of luck for young Mainers.”
CIVIC CENTER OPENING, 1970S APPEARANCES, ELVIS CANCELLATIONS
The next big bang came in early 1977 with the opening of Cumberland County Civic Center in Portland, which held some 9,500 for concerts, making it Maine’s biggest indoor venue and the fifth largest in New England at the time. Owned by Cumberland County and built on the former grounds of the E.T. Burrowes Company, it established itself as a top rock spot on March 3rd by having ZZ Top play the first show, opened by local rockers The Blend; it’s also hosted hockey, basketball, football, wrestling, tennis, ice shows, circuses, bull riding, political rallies and various other events.
Between April and July of ’77, acts included Boston, Foreigner, Alice Cooper, Lynyrd Skynyrd and James Taylor. Donovan, Neil Sedaka and Yes appeared in August, the month that included the venue’s most historic happening: Elvis’s scheduled two-night stand on the 17th and 18th was canceled following his death on the 16th. Presley had played his first show in Maine just four months before (at the 6,700-capacity Augusta Civic Center on May 24th), which became his one-and-only performance in the state. The Portland Herald reported being “besieged with calls” following the official announcement of his death “from people who, disbelieving what their radios and televisions told them, sought verification”; hundreds of others rushed to the Civic Center “to ask if Elvis was really dead,” the paper said.
Promoters offered refunds to the 17,000 ticket holders but many kept their tickets as mementos and the venue became the site of an ad hoc shrine, with fans piling up flowers, photos and other tributes. Dick Edwards, the president of Maine’s unofficial Elvis fan club, True Fans for Elvis, persuaded officials to hold a memorial service in lieu of the concerts, so on August 18th they put a giant portrait of him on the stage and played Elvis’s songs over the PA while ticket holders grieved. Reporters from national and international news outlets flooded to the city, filling local hotels, restaurants and bars for nearly a week.
The final months of ’77 included shows by Queen, Jethro Tull, Cheap Trick, Tom Jones, Jackson Browne and Harry Chapin, and during the last two years of the decade they ranged from Frank Sinatra, Billy Joel and The Doobie Brothers (with opener The Fools) to The Village People, Gloria Gaynor and The Charlie Daniels Band (with opener NRBQ). Among others were Muddy Waters, Johnny Cash, Eric Clapton, KISS (with opener New England), Livingston Taylor, Kate Taylor, Sha Na Na, The J. Geils Band, Aerosmith, The Cars and Bob Dylan.
NOTABLE 1980S, 1990S APPEARANCES
In 1980, newcomers included Tom Rush, Taj Mahal, Frank Zappa and The Stompers (who opened for The J. Geils Band at the New Year’s Eve show), and among those that debuted in ’81 and ’82 were The Police, Ozzy Osbourne, Earth, Wind & Fire, Bryan Adams and Rod Stewart. The J. Geils Band played on New Year’s Eve in ‘81 (with opener Jon Butcher Axis) and the day before New Year’s Eve in ’82 (with opener Berlin Airlift). In the mid-‘80s, the roster ran the gamut from Diana Ross, Willie Nelson, Crosby, Stills & Nash, Linda Ronstadt, Iron Maiden and Stevie Nicks to Iggy Pop, Tina Turner, Waylon Jennings, Hall & Oates, AC/DC and REM. Others included The Pretenders, Neil Young, Billy Squier, Dire Straits and Talking Heads and the last two years of the decade saw shows by Sting, Metallica, The B-52’s, Extreme and New Kids on the Block.
The first half of the ‘90s featured era-defining acts such as Fleetwood Mac, Elton John, The Ramones and Guns N’ Roses in addition to younger ones like Alice in Chains, The Black Crowes, Jane’s Addiction and Sonic Youth; others included Garth Brooks, Julio Iglesias, Michael Bolton, Bonnie Raitt, Aztec Two-Step and Phish. Among those who appeared in the second half of the ‘90s were Dwight Yoakam, Stone Temple Pilots, Smashing Pumpkins, Korn, Alannis Morisette and B.B. King.
NOTABLE 2000S APPEARANCES, NAME CHANGE
The Civic Center presented a wide assortment of top talent in the first part of the new century, including Dolly Parton, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Cher, Guster, Godsmack, Rob Zombie, Staind, Ray LaMontagne and Elvis Costello, and in late 2014, Maine-based Cross Insurance paid Cumberland County $2.5 million for the naming rights, rebranding it Cross Insurance Arena. Since then, and the venue has continued to host household names on a regular basis, but not as many as in previous years. Among those who’ve appeared in the past decade are Luke Combs, Jack White, Dropkick Murphys and Killswitch Engage.
Asked why his book about Southern Maine’s rock history begins in 1955 and ends in 1977, author Reiche explained that ‘55 was the year Bill Haley & His Comets debuted on The Ed Sullivan Show (16 months after their rendition of “Rock Around the Clock” became the first rock single to hit #1 in the US and the UK), and that the Civic Center’s opening in ‘77 transformed the local scene and put many small venues out of business. “Bill Haley played on a Sunday in 1955, late summer, on The Ed Sullivan Show. To show you how significant Maine was, they were at Old Orchard Beach the following Thursday. So that was an easy beginning point,” he told Irwin Gratz of Maine Public Radio in July 2023. “My cutoff point of 1977 arrived because that’s when the Civic Center opened. It could seat almost 10,000 and it was called a ‘rock palace’ because there were very few venues in New England besides Boston Garden that were that large. Music was changing in ’77, and the Civic Center basically shut down all the other venues in Southern Maine.”
(by D.S. Monahan)
