Reno Gazette-Journal from Reno, Nevada • Page 44

David Clayton-Thomas at Harrah's, Tahoe Rock star got tired of travel it? (56611 tfeiP and mobs of screaming groupies By FOSTER CHURCH So how is Elvis this time? After last year at the Sahara Tahoe when the King was sick and looked barely able to hoist his guitar one wondered if he wasn't over the hill. Well, he's 100 per cent improved, looking good (although still a few pounds overweight) and apparently in good spirits and humor. As if to prove his good mood, he'll give an extra third show for his last night at 3 a.m. (that's the morning of May 27). Elvis at 39 doesn't take himself very seriously, mocking his own sexy image and kidding the gaggles of females who still stream to the stage, hoping to snatch a scarf or a kiss.

They say Elvis gives out some two dozen scarfs at every show. Some are on his neck for only a second before devout Elvis worshippers pull them away. As if an Elvis visitation wasn't enough, the Sahara Tahoe also had to cope with a rumor opening night. It is said that a San Francisco radio station got the "scoop" that Elvis had I 1 always written much of his own material. He admits that in todays' market, there's not much to choose from when it comes to other writers.

"There was a slump for about six months last year bubble gum, icky sticky goo all over the radio. I don't know what it was, whether the state of the economy or for what reason, but the record and music market went very bland. All you heard were wishy washy, kind of formulated tunes. Everyone was playing it safe." The bad music reflects society, he believes. "I think that any art form only reflects what's happening.

Right now is a baffling time. No one knows what's going on. Everyone seems to be waiting for what's going to happen. It's not a positive, exciting time. The mood of the country is kind of weird.

For Clayton-Thomas, it's all a letdown since the wild innovative sixties. "There's not a lot of fresh exciting things happening now. Just a few years ago there was the jazz-rock merge and before that there was Jimi Hendrix and The Beatles. It was a furiously creative era." The music world may be duller. And Clayton-Thomas is certainly not as famous nor as prosperous as he was a few years ago.

But he says he's happy. And he sounds positive. "In some ways I regret the breakup of Blood, Sweat and Tears. It was a fine band, I had some dear friends in it, and I was sorry that I had to be the one to break it up. But it was something I felt I had to do and live with.

I never would have been satisfied. I've always wanted to be a solo artist. I never would have been contented unless I knew I could be one." David Clayton-Thomas has had what many young men dream of: adulation, power, fame, glamor. He was the "voice" of the jazz-rock group Blood, Sweat and Tears, a group that until 1970 was just about the biggest thing-going. They played one niters for months at a time, always before thousands of screaming fans.

For a while it looked like the cheering would never stop. It did end abruptly when Clayton-Thomas left the group. He's back with a smaller combo, now playing Harrah's. And he says he's never missed his days of glory as a rock superstar. For one thing, there was the constant, grueling, grinding travel.

"We used to go through concerts like wind-up toys," he says. "Things are very mellow now, very satisfactory. I tel! you what I really enjoy. I'm 32 now and I'm looking forward to having a career in show business, not just having a number one record and having groupies chase you. I'm doing something I've always wanted to do and that's working nightclubs.

There's something impersonal about concerts the audience is 20 feet away. You never meet them and you're out of town in 12 hours." Blood Sweat and Tears was one of the most widely traveled groups in rock history. They spent almost five straight years on the road. And when it was all over, Clayton-Thomas made it a point to vanish from sight. "For the first year I wanted to relax and get my head back together.

Five years on the road is emotionally, physically and psychically shattering. It's a whirlwind and the first year out of the group I concentrated on writing for other people, got my house Relaxed David Clayton-Thomas, formerly lead singer of the super rock group, Blood, Sweat and Tears is back on the road and making it as a single. He's appearing in May at Harrah's Tahoe and later at Harrah's, Reno. been taken ill and that (you guessed it) Prank Sinatra would sub for him. Speaking of Sinatra, the deluge has already hit Harrah's which is coping with reservation requests at an unprecedented rate for his July 31-Aug.

6 appearance at Tahoe. Explaining their policy that all requests are handled through the casino, Press Relations Director Mark Curtis says, "Any business has preferred customers and your first concern is trying to accommodate them. The first crack at a show like this will always go to known, consistent, proven customers. People who are known in the casino should contact those people by whom they are known." Assuming capacity business (a reasonable assumption in this case) some 13,000 proven friends will see Sinatra, and no, judging by the present rate of requests, it doesn't look likely that reservations for the show will be thrown open. And if you're thinking of going to work for Harrah's in the chance of getting a preferred crack at a reservation, forget it.

Harrah's management has asked employes "not to see the show so that we may accommodate our customers." You'd think Americans would have their fill of President Nixon's defensive television speeches he's on regularly enough to qualify for an Emmy in the Best Performance by an Actor In a Continuing Series category. But, like "I Love Lucy" reruns, there's no such thing as too much of a good thing. On June 14 15, a California group will show a film of the original kinescope of Nixon's "Checkers" speech. Also on the program are more comic gems from the early days of tv, including complete shows of "You Bet Your Life," "Superman," "The Lone Ranger," "Amos and Andy," and "Sergeant Bilko." The two-and-a-half hour programs will be shown in Thompson Education Bldg. at 7 and 9:45 both nights.

The Ponderosa keeping up its country tradition for the summer. Opening June 3 is Johnny Western, followed by Guy Nelson and the Common People on July 1. Rusty Draper, one of their favorite performers, is skedded for July 16-Aug. 3, Barbara Perry next through Aug. 31.

Helen Long and the Longshots play through Sept. 28 and J.R. Williams and the Boll Weevils are signed for Sept. 30-Aug. 26.

The Williams group was formerly the late Tex Ritter's band. Billy Eckstine, now at Harrah's, Tahoe appearing across the street from Earl "Fatha" Hines (working Harvey's). Hines gave Eckstine one of his first jobs and the two will be touring Europe this summer, their first time on the road together since 1941. Harrah's new revue, "Kanpai," set to open May 30, promises to be a dazzler. They say somewhere, deep in Harrah's darkest recesses, artist Cherk Chang is engaged in enlarging some elegant Japanese paintings into larger than life background panels for the show.

"Kanpai," will be a mix of old and new Japan, produced entirely in that country with an international novelty act thrown in. David Clayton-Thomas felled with Tahoe throat at Tahoe Ray signed for the Stateline Cabaret of Harrah's, Tahoe June 11-24 and then moves to Harrah's, Reno through July 7 also at Harrah's, Tahoe, Clint Holmes (he made a hit of "Playgrounds In My appearing July 23-29 in the Cabaret Ed Ames, now at the Nugget, recently divorced from his wife of 26 years. together, raised a couple of dogs and got life together again. It's very difficult to have any kind of sane life on the road." He's been back on the road with his present act for seven months, playing nightclubs and concerts in the United States and Great Britain and recording. His show includes old Blood, Sweat and Tears hits such as "Spinning Wheel," and "Lucretia McEvil" and a large helping of new material.

Clayton-Thomas has or I fS7 VEE SOOTHE This Week's Specials: WAS REGAL CROHC3 ROYAL Thru May 30 Reno Sparks Lake Tahoe entertainment Editor Fosier Church Published weekly by the Reno Evening Gazelle and Nevada Siale Journal, P.O. Box 280, Reno, Nevada, 89502. Mail subscription prices for Friday Nevada State Journal, which includes $4.50 for six months, 'payable in advance 'Advertising representative. BdbleGoy. 323-3161 Ext.

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