Sunshine '72 Festival

Diamond Head State Monument, City and County of Honolulu, Oahu, State of Hawaii 96815

Saturday January 1, 1972

About the Show

The Venue

Santana Dates: January 1, 1971 - January 1, 1972

Back in the ’70s, Diamond Head on Oahu was the outdoor venue for a big music festival that was Hawaii’s equivalent to Woodstock. Remembered broadly as the Diamond Head Crater Festivals, sometimes called the Sunshine Festival, these concerts brought out heavyweights of the era like Carlos Santana, America, Styx, Journey, War and Tower of Power, alongside Hawaii talent like Cecilio & Kapono and the Mackey Feary Band. Throughout the years they became synonymous as local New Year’s Eve/Day and Fourth of July events, attracting more than 75,000 people, dancing and chilling out under the hot Hawaiian sun to some of the most influential music of the period. In 1976 and 1977, the concerts grew into a two-day event. Eventually that popularity led to its cancellation by the State Department of Land and Natural Resources over community noise and environmental impact concerns.

A year before, on January 1, 1971, the full Santana Band played at the same festival, but on January 1, 1972, only Carlos Santana plus 3 former Santana Band members play with Buddy Miles and friends. Gregg Rolie can be seen on stage, but it is not confirmed that he actually played with that band. Although Michael Carabello is credited in the album, he only did some studio overdubs. The recording of the concert is supposed to be released as "Carlos Santana & Buddy Miles! Live!". The LP liner notes lists the recording date as “January 0, 1972”, a nonexistent date, suggesting the show never happened, but it actually took place in Hawaii on January 1, 1972, during the Sunshine ‘72 Festival. Supporting that fact is a collage of 14 photos from the concert itself shown on the inner cover. However, the music featured on the LP is not a live recording of that show. Due to an electrical failure of the recording truck, the songs were later re-recorded in a San Francisco studio.

Unverified info from Discogs: The concept of this album came to Carlos Santana as a favor to Buddy Miles after a drug bust that Buddy was caught entering the U.S. with the goods. To help with his huge legal bills, Santana/Miles decided to perform a concert at Hawaii during the Christmas holidays. The plan was set Columbia Records would release the record and certain members of Santana and Buddy Miles Band would perform. The Master Tapes were handed over to the Executes at Columbia Records San Francisco offices. After a few days the Tapes were rejected because it sounded lousy. Neal Schon who played second guitar, said that everyone was pretty stoned during the performance and it account for the bad concert. So Carlos and Buddy decided to rerecord the record in the studio live! So the album was not recorded in Hawaii but in Columbia's San Francisco Studios.

Carlos Santana. The Universal Tone 2014

Doing this concert was like imagining what Santana on steroids could be. It felt like it was the last part of the parade, and it was fun. (p300)

Greg Errico. P.J. Padilla Facebook's Page June 2022

Everyone on the record with the exception of myself (and my live drum tracks), went back into Columbia Studios on Folsom within several weeks of returning to the mainland to overdub all the performances! I was fine with my performance and felt, damn, if this is a live album it’s got to have something on there and from the moments!

Memorabilia

Music

Musicians

Carlos Santana (g/perc/vo), Buddy Miles (ds/vo), Ron Johnson (b), Gregg Errico (ds), Coke Escovedo (perc), James “Mingo” Lewis (perc), Victor Pantoja (perc), Robert Hogins (org), Neal Schon (g), Hadley Caliman (fl/sax), Luis Gasca (tp)

Incomplete Set List

Band Introduction/Gumbo - Layla - Little Wing - ? - ? - Sing A Simple Song - ? - ? - ? - Marbles (1) - ? - Lava (2) - Evil Ways (3) - Faith Interlude (4) - Them Changes (5) - Free Form Funkafide Filth (6)

Selected (alleged) Formats

(1)(2)(3)(4)(5)(6) "Carlos Santana & Buddy Miles! Live!" on June 7, 1972 on LP (gf) (CBS USA/Canada KC 31308) (CBS Europe S 69016) (CBS UK S 65142) (CBS/Sony Japan SOPL-110)

(1)(2)(3)(4)(5)(6) "Carlos Santana & Buddy Miles! Live!" in 1972 on LP (quad) (CBS/Sony Japan SOPN-39)

(1)(2)(3)(4)(5)(6) "Carlos Santana & Buddy Miles! Live!" in Jan 1973 on LP (quad) (CBS USA CQ 31308)

(1)(2)(3)(4)(5)(6) "Carlos Santana & Buddy Miles! Live!" in 1974 on Best Rock Collection - 29 LP (quad) (gf/quad/repress) (CBS/Sony Japan SOPN-89)

(1)(2)(3)(4)(5)(6) "Carlos Santana & Buddy Miles! Live!/Love Devotion Surrender" in 1976 on CBS Gold Serie 2LP (gf) (CBS Netherlands 22019)

(1)(2)(3)(4)(5)(6) "Carlos Santana & Buddy Miles! Live!" in 1977 on CBS/Sony 10th Anniversary Limited Edition LP (repress) (CBS/Sony Japan 15AP 636)

(1)(2)(3)(4)(5)(6) "Carlos Santana & Buddy Miles! Live!" in 1978 on Rock Best 100 LP (repress) (CBS/Sony Japan 25AP-1221)

(1)(2)(3)(4)(5)(6) "Carlos Santana & Buddy Miles! Live!" in 1983 on Nice Price LP (repress) (CBS Europe CBS 32271)

(1)(2)(3)(4)(5)(6) "Welcome/Carlos Santana & Buddy Miles! Live!" in 1988 on 2LP (gf) (Castle Communications UK TFOLP 14)

(1)(2)(3)(4)(5)(6) "Carlos Santana & Buddy Miles! Live!" in 2013 on LP (gf/remastered/180gram) (Speakers Corner Records Germany KC 31308)

(1)(2)(3)(4)(5)(6) "Carlos Santana & Buddy Miles! Live!" in 2013 on LP (remastered/180gram) (Columbia/Friday Music USA FRM-31308)

(1)(2)(3)(4)(5)(6) "Welcome/Carlos Santana & Buddy Miles! Live!" in 1988 on That's Original 2CD (Castle Communications UK TFO 141/1 - 141/2)

(1)(2)(3)(4)(5)(6) "Carlos Santana & Buddy Miles! Live!" on March 1, 1992 on Nice Price Line - 16 CD (Sony Japan SRCS 6184)

(1)(2)(3)(4)(5)(6) "Carlos Santana & Buddy Miles! Live!" on July 27, 2005 on Limited Edition CD (remastered/papersleeve) (Sony Records Int’l Japan MHCP 819)

(1)(2)(3)(4)(5)(6) "Carlos Santana & Buddy Miles! Live!" in 2008 on CD (remastered/repress) (Columbia/Legacy USA CK 66416)

(1)(2)(3)(4)(5)(6) "Booger Bear. Carlos Santana & Buddy Miles! Live!" on Dec 18, 2019 on 2SACD (quad/remastered) (Vocalion UK 2CDSML 8560)

(1)(2)(3)(4)(5)(6) "Carlos Santana & Buddy Miles! Live!" on Sept 21, 2022 on Limited Edition DP Master Sound SACD (quad/remastered/papersleeve mini LP) (Sony Records Int’l Japan SICP 10141)

Photos

Photos by Robert Knight

Raised in Hawaii and based in Las Vegas, Robert Knight is one of the most prolific rock photographers in the business. His career spans from 1968 to the present. Robert is best known for his “Guitar Legends” archive, and has worked with everyone from Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton to modern songsmiths like John Mayer, Slash, and Sick Puppies. Robert’s rock and roll archive contains over 250,000 images! Robert is also part of Guitar Center’s Hollywood RockWalk team having inducted over 400 major artists since 1985. Robert and partner Maryanne Bilham have an exhibition of Rock Stars on the exteriors of the more than 220 Guitar Centers around America, one of the largest outdoor gallery shows of original photographic art. Robert has published the books “50 Rock Guitarists” Japan release; Hollywood’s RockWalk, The First Decade; Rock Gods, Robert is the founder of “Brotherhood of The Guitar” a web site that is devoted to the showcasing the next generation of young guitar players.

Photos by Richard Upper

Photographer Richard Upper got his start taking pictures in Hawaii in the late 1960s. As a teenager he began shooting rock concerts for local concert promoters. He soon branched out into a career that would include many album covers, magazine spreads and poster art. He had his first album cover at 16, Steve Miller's "Rock Love." In time his photography began appearing regularly in magazines, billboards, advertising and more album art. At age 19, Richard moved to L.A., where he was hired by a number of record companies to document their artists' concerts and publicity. He was immediately thrust into the concert scene, photographing bands for all the labels including Rod Stewart & The Faces, Van Halen and Blondie to name a few. Upper's resume also includes album covers for Santana, The Faces, Rory Gallagher and Rod Stewart, as well as a 30-minute rockumentary on Blondie which he shot in 1977 at the Whiskey A Go Go on the Sunset Strip.

Uncredited Photos

Photos from the Crowd

From San Francisco,

Please Welcome... SANTANA!

Bill Graham

© 1999 Santanamigos