Fifty Photographs: selections from SCUA collections

UMass music scene in the late 1960s

by Jeff Drucker, Sept. 30, 1967

Stevie Wonder was only 17 years old when he graced the stage in Curry Hicks at UMass. The “cage,” an unglamorous multi-purpose space, rose to the occasion with the addition of a sparkly lame backdrop. Partition nets hang above like swags, and a few grinning spectators watch from the mezzanine. Wonder and his band, along with Wilson Pickett, performed to a sold-out crowd that night.