5 excellent moments from Electric Factory founder's memoir

Larry Magid, founder of the Electric Factory venue and promotions company, started booking concerts for college venues and clubs while a student at Temple University; he’s since produced more than 16,000 shows. In 1968, he opened the first Electric Factory in an old warehouse on 22nd and Arch, which closed in 1973 and reopened at its current 7th St. location in 1994. He has presented shows at Spectrum, Bijou, and Tower, RFK and JFK Stadiums, and is responsible for 1969’s Atlantic City Pop Festival, Live Aid, and Live 8. From free shows in Fairmount Park to some of the biggest music festivals in the world, and from performances by Nina Simone and Lady Gaga, Magid’s role in the evolution of Philadelphia’s music landscape is inestimable.

His accomplishments are the topic of a recently published coffee-table book, My Soul’s Been Psychedelicized: Electric Factory: Four Decades In Posters and Photographs, the subject of a Free Library author event this Thursday, June 23 . The book is Magid’s intimate and insightful account of Electric Factory Concerts’ history, and is packed with photos and posters documenting over 40 years of shows: Neil Young chillin’ backstage at the Spectrum with a Schlitz, the recently deceased Gil Scott-Heron commanding the stage at the Bijou, a backstage hang at Live Aid with Keith Richards, Bob Dylan, and Jack Nicholson. 

“When you’re at a show, and you feel a magical moment, you actually get goose bumps,” Magid writes. “Being at a show, listening to the performers, watching the audience—those are the moments, the seminal moments, when you say: ‘This is what I’m here for. This is what I’m supposed to be doing. This is why I’m in the business.’” 

But despite all the big names and politics (early struggles with a city government afraid of rock music and his recent falling out with LiveNation ), what the book gets across most clearly is Magid’s love of live music and its capacity to have a profound, positive impact on our lives. For this edition of High Five, we present five moments from the first few years of Electric Factory Concerts as described by Magid in My Soul’s Been Psychedelicized .

February 2, 1968: Opening night with the Chambers Brothers

“The warmth that fell over us broke the coldness of that evening.

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, Follows the rich history of the Electric Factory through concert posters, photos and writings from Robert Huber and the venue founder, Larry Magid.

The book serves as a virtual time capsule, providing a unique perspective on the history of such great acts like Billy Joel, The Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix and Pink Floyd. One of the more notable sections of the book is an excerpt on the then unestablished group, Pink Floyd, getting stranded in the states and needing $1750 for a flight back to England. The Electric Factory quickly put them on a bill with Savoy Brown so they could make enough money for the trip back home. A wise investment given that something like 7% of America own their subsequent album, Dark Side of the Moon.

It’s stories like these that make the book more than just a collection of old photos and posters; it’s more like a general behind the music of all the successful acts that passed through Philadelphia at more humble points in their careers. Younger readers who are fans of the infamous acts that passed through the factory will realize the illustrious history that’s not as apparent when you frequent A New Found Glory shows and the like.

The book was published by Temple University Press and is available in book stores and on Amazon for an unexpectedly low price considering it’s a quite large paperpack.

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My Soul's Been Psychedelicized, Electric Factory: Four Decades in Posters and Photographs

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