The Daily Times from Salisbury, Maryland • 50

A A A MUSIC Movie House To Host Concerts A New Liverpool Rock Movement? By Paul Bedard Of The Times Staff DAGSBORO It's a gamble, Ron Wilkins admits. But he believes that featuring live musical acts on the stage of the Clayton Movie Theatre here could revolutionize entertainment on the Eastern Shore. For less than the price of a movie the owner of the old style movie house, which he said is similar to the Boulevard Theatre in Salisbury, will be sponsoring live concerts. The first is scheduled for Dec. 20 and will feature the Baltimore rock trio the Packett Brothers.

And, in keeping with the personality of the small movie house, concert-goers will find the concession stand brimming with hot, buttered popcorn, sodas and extra large boxes of candy awaiting them. "We would like to every month if possible," said Wilkins who, along concerts, local bands are lining up their with his son, operates the movie house and lobbying efforts in hope of playing the arcade next door. Clayton. The reason being that it may be the only concert atmosphere available on LIVE ACTS AT the Main Street theatre the Shore where a local band can play. will be nothing new.

It was built with an Other concert houses, such as the unusually large stage in front of the curtain Wicomico Youth Civic Center in to feature traveling cowboy acts, then the Salisbury, rarely ask local bands to open rage in Hollywood movie promotion (once, for the big name headliners. cowboy Lash LaRue popped his six-shooter on the Clayton's stage). Wilkins said TICKETS FOR THE Packett Brothers booking musical acts is only natural. concert are priced at $4 for the main floor And who could disagree? as well as the balcony. Made up of brothers Already, a number of tickets have been Bruce, Steve and Wayne, the trio will play sold for the upcoming concert.

Wilkins in the Baltimore the driving rock that has made them described early response as good. Additionally, disc jockey Rick Allen of the The popular area. theatre contains 457 velvet-covered seats. radio station WSEA will If the first show goes well, Wilkins said as emcee. Georgetown serve the following concert will feature a country band.

Tickets for the 3 p.m. concert are Just hearing the news of the movie house available at the Clayton Theatre box office. Rolling Stones: The Price We Pay By Dick Fleming a roar goes up as the PA plays a familiar Entertainment Editor song. Every now and then, someone thinks they recognize a celebrity milling among LANDOVER It is with a mixture of the stage crew and begins a chain reaction anticipation and apprehension that I stand of excited shrieks that circle the arena and in line on a cold, windy Wednesday night settle back into an excited murmur. of their three concert appearances at the stage an unusual cloverleaf design waiting to see the Rolling Stones in the last Finally, the house a lights go down, the Capital Centre here.

The current Stones featuring a raised circular platform that U.S. tour has been rumored by some to be can be rotated around the main floor is their last, and said by many to be their awash in colored lights, and the Stones best. Scalpers are getting upwards of $100 begin to play the opening strains of "Under for tickets to the sold-out performances, My Thumb" as Mick Jagger prances out, and the night before a young man had been throwing kisses. The crowd goes wild over shot to death in the nearby fields, a song that was first recorded 15 years ago. reportedly by someone attempting to steal The Stones are rolling again.

a ticket he didn't even have. For over two hours I sit mesmerized as The tour, their first in three years, may the Stones put on a breathtaking display of well be the most well-organized venture in showmanship, complete with Jagger's rock history. Concert receipts are running elaborate theatrics as he teases and taunts into the millions of dollars, and the Stones' the crowd. The light show and stage design well-oiled musical machine is smoothly match anything I've ever seen, and the relling across country. Stones effectively capsulize their 20-year And young fans are turning out by the career with an excellent choice of thousands to see these five musicians who material.

are old enough to be their fathers, yet still epitomize the rebelliousness of youth. DRUMMER CHARLIE Watts drives the songs from his elevated platform while the THE STONES ARE, after all, "the stoic Bill Wyman pushes the bass line, world's greatest rock 'n' roll and moving nothing but his hands. Guitarist their infrequent concert tours have come to Ron Wood and Jagger playfully nudge each be THE major rock event of any given other about the stage, at one point coming year. together on a corner of the stage that So fans camp out for hours to buy their showly rises 15 feet into the air. Keith tickets.

And some show up on concert night Richards, appearing a bit strung out at empty-handed, but with a pocketful of first, comes to life, building up momentum hope. And still others come ready. to use and urging the others on with his churning violence, if necessary, to see this rock 'n' rhythm guitar work. roll phenomenon. The band moves through "Let's Spend Walking across the parking lot, I am The Night Together," "You Can't Always stopped repeatedly by desperate people Get What You Want." Jagger throws a with pleading eyes and outstretched hands.

bucket of water into the audience; makes Stones tickets?" "Got extra tickets?" his way deep into the crowd, surrounded by And there are others the post-hippies security men. He dons a Washington generation, children of flower children who Redskins jersey; rolls down a ramp during have returned to society's fold, part free "Tumbling dances about the stage spirit and part free enterprise: "Wanna among the soloists, including guest sax buy some pot?" "Need some papers?" player Ernie Watts. "Want any LSD?" ROLLING ALONG. Rolling Stones lead The band heads down the home stretch Some are pathetic, others add an singer Mick Jagger fronts the band during with a rousing finale that consists of ominous chill to the already raw night air. a concert appearance at the Capital Centre frenetically-paced versions of "Miss Waiting in line, as uniformed mounted in Landover, this past week.

The "Honky Tonk Women," "Brown policeman sean the crowd and security Stones played to sold-out crowds for three "Start Me Up" and "Jumpin Jack Flash," personnel search for smuggled objects, 1 nights at the arena. (AP Laserphoto) during which Jagger rides above the crowd overhear a young woman calling for in a cherry picker. assistance from the police. A man weilding of the girls holds a ticket for my seat. An The band disappears momentarily, then a knife has just stolen her tickets.

I wonder usherette examines our tickets and turns to Richards struts back out on the stage, if perhaps it is a ruse just to get in. I doubt the young girl. "This one's been fixed. You playing the opening riff to "Satisfaction," it will work. can either take a walk, or I can have you and the rest of the band follows.

The house thrown lights come on as thousands of balloons IF THE SCENE outside is chaos, inside The girl sheepishly moves on. cascade from the ceiling upon the ecstatic is Pandemonium. Lines form to buy I settle into my seat to start waiting crowd below. souvenirs, to buy drinks and snacks, to use again. It's been three hours since I left Then it's over.

the restroom an exercise that involves Salisbury. It will be another 45 minutes up to a 30-minute wait and nearly as much before the opening act will come on. And WALKING OUT into the parking lot, I maneuvering as it takes to exit the parking nearly hours before the Stones hit the find my car surrounded by other vehicles. I lot. stage.

start the engine, wait for the warmth of the Young people with vacant stares wander heater, and settle in for what looks to be aimlessly through the circular corridors THE OPENING ACT, Bobby Womack, another long wait. I'm tired and it's late while adults, some with children of their gives a lacklustre performance in a half- and I have a long drive ahead of me, but own, look on in bewilderment as they make filled hall. Many take advantage of the lull it's all been worth it. their way to their seats. to go stand in line somewhere.

Then I glance across the field to the Inside the arena, the crowd is slowly During the more than one-hour wait woods that surround the building, assembling. The excitement in the air is as between Womack's set and the Stones' the night before a young fan lay bleeding, thick as the smoke. opening, fans occupy themselves by and think: I locate my seat, which turns out to be standing in lines, wandering through the one of a block of six occupied by two young corridors or listening to the taped music But it wasn't worth a killing. I girls with a large homemade banner. One broadcast on the PA system.

Occasionally Nothing is. LOS ANGELES (AP) A rock movement in Liverpool? Uh-oh, we all know how crazed things got the last time that happened. But don't call in the riot squad yet. So far, the latest collection of rock 'n' rollers to emerge from the British seaport that spawned the Beatles and a host of Mersey-beat groups hasn't quite elicited the hoop-la of the '60s. It may be that American adolescents have forgotten how to go nuts.

Or that radio so far hasn't proven overly interested in the doings of these new Liverpudlians, who bear such fanciful names as The Teardrop Explodes, Wah! Heat, and Orchestra Maneuvers in the Dark. Or it could be the music itself danceable stuff, sometimes even darkly witty (Orchestral Maneuvers, for example, recorded a bouncy tune called "Enola but definitely more moody and complex than your average Top 40 fodder. Anyway, if the mob scenes haven't yet materialized, the cult followings certainly have. The critics also have been receptive, and so when one of the most acclaimed bands of the bunch Echo and the Bunnymen came to town recently, a visit to their West Hollywood hotel seemed in order. One of the first things you learn about this band besides the fact that their two U.S.

LPs, "Crocodiles" and the recently released "Heaven Up Here," have been lauded in such diverse publications as People and Sweet Potato is that there's no such person as Echo (there's that offbeat sense of humor). Echo was the name founding Bunnymen Ian McCulloch, guitarist Will Sergeant and bassist Les Pattison gave to the rhythm machine that stood in for a drummer until Pete De Freitas was recruited. As for the Bunnymen part, "Why not?" asks lead singer-songwriter McCulloch, a 22-year-old whose pale, lanky frame is topped by a rumpled thicket of dark hair. "A bit of Liverpudlian humor," he adds dryly in that unmistakeable accent made so famous by John, Paul, George and Ringo. Much has been written about Echo and the Bunnyman, most of it quite complimentary.

But an interview with McCulloch tired from touring but game and quite articulate turns into a quasigripe session about much of what's been said previously. there's this business of a Liverpool sound. "Each band has their own sound, it's not a Liverpool- sound, McCulloch says. "We're the most Liverpudlian band, 'cause we use the Liverpudlian humor, which is important to Liverpool. Everybody notices it when they go there, that everybody's a natural comedian." Americans might get a taste of Bunnymen humor when the band's halfhour video a sort of latter-day "Hard Day's Night" is released here in clubs and to pay TV.

Meanwhile, there's McCulloch's poker-faced description of the title of the Bunnymen's latest LP, "Heaven Up "I think it's the best album title I've ever had." Rock singers are notoriously put off by comparisons with other groups and singers, but no matter how much he may not like to hear it, McCulloch's drawling singing voice evokes memories of the late Jim Morrison of the Doors. "There's bound to be singers that the sound of the voice recurs over a gap of 10 years," McCulloch shrugs. "I've got a deep voice. Maybe the spirit of Jim Morrison is in my body, who knows." Finally, McCulloch takes strong issue with the label most frequently applied to the Bunnymen and other Liverpool bands, that of neo-psychelic rock. On the surface, it seems to fit the band's eerie discombobulated sound and lyrics.

But, McCulloch wonders aloud, "Why does something that sounds atmospheric have to be drug-induced and not braininduced? "Psychedelia wasn't real, it was about escapism and fantasy, and we're not," he adds. "We're about real things. "I hate the word psychelia. When it happened it was bad, all that mass psychedelia. Mass anything is bad.

It's supposed to be mind-expanding and it's the opposite.".