That's what the headlines in the Quad-City Times read on July 14, 1978. Two days later, the long-awaited rock fest on Credit Island came to fruition.
This fest was four years in the making. Multiple promoters tried and failed to get approval to bring rock and roll to the outdoor space on Credit Island. But Midwest Concerts was the group to finally get it done.
The lineup was even bigger than surely many local rock and roll fans could have anticipated. The headliner was established rock act The Doobie Brothers, who had brought a crowd of more than 10,000 people to the Mississippi Valley Fairgrounds just a few years earlier.
"Little needs to be said" of their fame, wrote Scott Noecker in the Quad-City Times festival preview.
Then there was Atlanta Rhythm Section, a southern rock group in the wake of their second Top 10 Billboard hit, "Imaginary Lover," released earlier that year. The group had spent much of the summer of 1978 playing festivals worldwide, sharing stages with Aerosmith, Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers and more before coming to Credit Island.
Somehow, with the gift of hindsight, the opening bands managed to be the biggest deal of all. First off, there was Journey, who had already played with KISS a few years before at Davenport's RKO Orpheum Theatre.
At this time, Journey was a band on the rise. It was their first full year with new frontman Steve Perry, and the group had charted their first Billboard Hot 100 hits "Wheel In The Sky" and "Anytime." Just three years later, they'd be one of the biggest rock bands in the world.
Then, there was the "smallest" band on the lineup: Van Halen. The group had just released their first album, the self-titled "Van Halen," which featured emerging hits like "You Really Got Me" and "Runnin' With The Devil."
The Quad-City Times repeatedly described the group as "raunch and roll," noting that their style was a perfect fit for an outdoor rock fest.
Well, as long as they can get up on the stage.
'Let's really ham it up'
The show was scheduled to start on July 16, 1978, at noon. By 6 a.m., there were already thousands in line. That was around the same time Van Halen's equipment finally got in from their show the previous night in Cleveland.
With such a late arrival, the entire schedule was thrown off-kilter. They didn't take the stage until 2 p.m.
"Okay, let's really ham it up!" Van Halen frontman David Lee Roth said to his bandmates before taking the stage.
After two hours of waiting (or eight for the most loyal concertgoers), Van Halen only played for a half hour. Asked by Noecker about the short set, Roth was tight-lipped, blaming the late equipment arrival.
"My department is sex, drugs and rock and roll," he said.
Tickets to the Mississippi River Jam sold for $10 in advance, or $12.50 at the door, and over 25,000 are estimated to have attended. Those who persevered through the two hour delay before Van Halen had to wait once more.
It took a full hour to set up the stage for Journey. By the time the California rockers took the stage, they played for just 45 minutes.
As they left the stage, temperatures approached 90 degrees. Over 25,000 pounds of ice had already been sold, Noecker reported. No outside beverages were allowed to be brought in, and there were no alcoholic beverages sold at the fest either.
As the heat went up, distributor Coca-Cola was dishing drinks on overdrive.
Atlanta Rhythm Section's set brought even more heat — 5heir 50-minute concert was interrupted after some of their equipment caught on fire. When it was repaired, the crowd burst into applause.
Because of all the heat and delays, a few thousand attendees left the show early and never even saw The Doobie Brothers, who played a less-than-an-hour set, Noecker reported. Many of their hits were left on the chopping block.
The clean-up
But during the set, The Doobie Brothers drummer Keith Knudsen praised the crowd's tranquility.
"The city fathers are looking at you tonight," he told the crowd. "The police are happy, we're happy, and we're gonna be back to do this again."
He was right on all fronts. The Doobies came back to the Quad-Cities to play the Mississippi Valley Fair in 2006. And during the long-controversial first Mississippi River Jam, the police were indeed happy.
All in all, there were zero violent arrests and zero drug overdoses reported. A few fans knocked over a stage barrier as the day started, and that's about all that was reported to the Times.
"We haven't even had two of them out there fighting," a spokesperson from the Scott County Sheriff's Office told Noecker and the Times. "This crowd could have just walked all over this place, but they didn't."
The biggest issue of the fest was parking.
Around 40 cars were towed for parking illegally. Those who parked legally paid a different price — $2 to park in the closest lot. Those attendees later learned that the show's promoters had no authorization to charge for those spots, and a police commission told the Times that they suspected the parking lot salespeople were scalpers not associated with the show's promoter.
Another problem, like with many of the rock fests that came before, was the garbage.
Wayne Boyer, then the director of the Davenport park system told the Quad-City Times weeks later that he'd be reluctant to let another rock show come to Credit Island, after "considerable damage" came to the park. Boyer said that the grass on the island would take a year to grow back.
The Mississippi River Jam came back the next summer, but in a new setting.
Credit Island may not rock and roll, but Davenport still will.
This story is part of a series called "Timeless Tickets," where we're aiming to find the most notable concert in the Quad-Cities, every year from 1960 to today. Do you have a story or photo to share from an iconic local show? Send it to entertainment reporter Gannon Hanevold at ghanevold@qctimes.com.
To read more "Timeless Tickets" stories, click here.
Photos: Remembering musician Eddie Van Halen, 1955-2020
At the peak of hair metal, Col. Ballroom attendees got a dose of Metallica in 1986.
Journey played to a sea of faces at Credit Island Sunday, July 16, 1978. Although the concert was delayed frequently by technical delays, the crowd waited patiently for each of the four bands to play. (Bill McConnell/Quad-City Times)
A crowd that promoters estimated at 20,000 to 25,000 filled a portion of the Credit Island golf course Sunday, July 16, 1978, for a six-hour rock concert. Security forces reported few problems despite the heat, large crowd and interminable delays in the music. (Bill McConnell/Quad-City Times)
Authorities banned liquor and coolers from the island concert, and many rock buffs simply plunked down outside the gates, drank their fill, then discarded the containers. Sunday, July 16, 1978. (Bill McConnell/Quad-City Times)