Bill Graham Archives

Wolfgang was Bill Graham, the man whose genius for bringing performer and audience together shaped the rock concert as we have come to know it.

Born Wolfgang Grajonca in Berlin in 1931, he escaped Nazi Germany to grow up in a foster home in the Bronx and anglicized his name at the age of 18. Bill Graham, who would come to be known as the midwife of the modern rock concert, was smart and forward-thinking, an opportunist and a listener, fair and ferociously demanding, and he remembered his roots: in the 1980s he opened a small San Francisco club and named it Wolfgang’s.

The promotional art inspired by the performers, the intimacy of the venues and the energy of the audience all combined to create experiences that are indelible in the minds of those who were there. This era was the true genesis for the years of great concert art that followed, as rock concerts evolved from their dance hall roots to the clubs, arenas, amphitheatres and stadiums of today.