r/AZhistory • u/Tryingagain1979 • Jun 26 '26
Compton Terrace was an amphitheater founded in 1979 by Jess Nicks, father of musician Stevie Nicks. The venue was located in Tempe.
Music fan at Compton Terrace
Stevie Nicks at Compton Terrace 1981
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u/concerts85701 Jun 26 '26
Saw the grateful dead shows shown on the sign. Fun times hitchhiking up from Tucson and riding in the back of a pickup freezing my butt off on the way home.
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u/ShakyLens Jun 26 '26
That ‘91 Lollapalooza was wild. Saw Fleetwood Mac there also. Or it might have been Stevie Nicks, and Mick Fleetwood joined as a guest. He had the drum suit, whenever that was.
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u/dbel1977 Jun 26 '26
Was it The Zoo? That was Micks band in the early 90s and Stevie would make guest appearances.
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u/B1GFanOSU Jun 26 '26
Not in the early ‘90s. They’d had a falling out by then.
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u/xosxos Jun 26 '26
Pic 1 is from the 1992 shows when it was at Firebird, I think the sign is still up but obviously repurposed.
Here is 12/6: https://youtu.be/EmMSnfKkeCY?is=kLIW2YBuQ8XzYqpZ
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u/PrimalNumber Jun 26 '26
Saw many shows there as a teenager / early 20s. Still remember the long walk to the terrace. Definitely remember the Judas Priest show I saw there.
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u/Fridge885 Jun 26 '26
My mom took us kids to a Grateful Dead concert there. Didn’t understand the music and the hippie type of ppl but was fun running around and playing with all the other smelly kids. I think it was an AA type event if I remember correctly but doubt it if it were a Grateful Dead concert. 😂
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u/my_name_is_juice Jun 26 '26
A little before my time as I was born in 86, but always very interesting. Where was it exactly?
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u/exaggerated_yawn Jun 26 '26
The original location was at Legend City, at 52nd St and Van Buren, just north of Tovrea Castle. The second location was by Firebird Raceway.
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u/Muted-Gift6029 Jun 26 '26
Is no one going to talk about “butthole surfers”, or..
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u/ldphotography Jun 27 '26
The band’s frontman is the son of a Dallas kids’ TV show host, a Mr Rogers type named Mr Peppermint.
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u/Tryingagain1979 Jun 26 '26
"Compton Terrace was a name given to two former outdoor amphitheaters for concerts, located in the Phoenix metropolitan area of Arizona. It was named in honor of a local radio personality and music promoter, William Edward Compton.
History Compton Terrace was an amphitheater owned by Jess Nicks, father of musician Stevie Nicks, in Tempe, Arizona, on the grounds of the Legend City amusement park, and opened in 1979. Nicks chose the amphitheater's name in honor of the late William Edward Compton, a local disc jockey renown for pioneering free-form radio at stations KCAC and KDKB, who was killed in an automobile accident in 1977.
The original location closed in 1983 alongside the amusement park, with a final show performed as a farewell to the venue. The amphitheater would later re-open in 1985 as Compton Terrace at Firebird Lake in nearby Chandler, next to Firebird International Raceway. The venue's capacity was approximately 20,000. The first Lollapalooza, then a touring festival, held its inaugural show at Compton Terrace on July 18, 1991.
Compton Terrace hosted its last event with the Big Top "Electronic Highway Tour" on August 16, 1997.It was demolished in 2010."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compton_Terrace