The Bammies,
celebrating music in the Bay Area, had its ups and downs through the decades after its founding in 1978.
“No city in the country — perhaps the world — has a music scene with a stronger sense of community than San Francisco.”
San Francisco Chronicle critic Joel Selvin, not one to give praise lightly, wrote that about the Bammies in 1983. It was the arguable high point for the show, which had its ups and downs between its original run in 1978 and when it changed to a different kind of show in the late 1990s. Now, after more than two decades, the Bammies is staging a reunion concert on Saturday, March 24.
The first Bammies was at the Kabuki Theater in 1978, with Sammy Hagar and the Greg Kihn Band capturing the two big awards, and the Steve Miller Band, Carlos Santana, Grace Slick and Boz Scaggs also receiving awards.
The event kept getting bigger, moving to the Warfield and then to the Civic Auditorium. By 1980, the host was Howard Hesseman of “WKRP in Cincinnati” (and a former member of the Committee improv group), and guests included Dianne Feinstein and director Francis Ford Coppola.
San Francisco 49ers quarterback Joe Montana dropped by after his Super Bowl win in 1982, the same year that Tom Johnston made a surprise return to the Doobie Brothers, his first in five years. Huey Lewis and the News debuted their hit “I Want a New Drug” in 1983, six months ahead of the release of their powerhouse 1980s album “Sports.”
“It is a tribute to the growing credibility of the Bammies that only four of the 20 winners failed to pick up their awards in person,” Selvin wrote in 1982. “Winners appeared truly moved by the recognition. All the members of superstars Journey, big favorites with the partisan crowd, hugged each other ecstatically onstage, picking up the nod for best album.”
The attendees weren’t limited to popular rock acts. Jazz legend Herbie Hancock showed up at a Bammies, and punk bands Dead Kennedys and the Mutants plugged in to perform, as did 1980s New Wave band Romeo Void.
By the 1990s, attendance was low, even if the musical output of the Bay Area was still strong. In 1994 and 1995, artists including Green Day (“Dookie”), Counting Crows (“August and Everything After”) and Rappin 4-Tay (“Don’t Fight the Feelin’ ”) were honored.
But the events started to become lackluster, according to Chronicle coverage. A low point occurred in 1995, when Green Day and Counting Crows won seven awards total, and sent their bassists to accept the awards. The headline on Selvin’s Chronicle story that year was “Not With a BAM but a Whimper — Bammies a predictable yawn fest.”
“I guess you’ve all figured it out,” Green Day bassist Mike Dirnt said, picking up his second of four Bammies in 1995. “We all drew straws and I lost.”
Selvin noted that the 20th annual Bammies in 1997 played for a half-empty Civic Auditorium, even though Tracy Chapman, E-40, Cake and Too $hort performed, along with now-elder statesmen of the Bammies Huey Lewis and the News.
“They could have been handing out awards at a pharmaceutical sales meeting for all the color and vitality of the event,” Selvin wrote in The Chronicle.
In 1998, the Bammies expanded to include Southern California — Rage Against the Machine, the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Coolio were honored — before continuing for a few years as the California Music Awards.
As the Bammies return as a reunion show in 2018, they will no doubt be trying to recapture the 1983 vibe instead.
“One night a year, the people who came about the music bring it all together,” Selvin wrote. “That’s what the Bammies are all about. Some people may take it all too seriously, and parts of it may be insufferably hokey, but Wednesday at the Civic, it felt like family.”