The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • 397

CALENDAR POPLINE off on some secluded shoulder of the road and watching the portable TV with which the car is equipped. "I'm an observer," he concluded. L.A.'S ITALIANS A HIT IN ENGLAND BY ART FEIN Needless to say, the Police aren't exactly a household word in India. "I don't know if there are any fans out there or not," Copeland confessed. "But there's gonna be now.

How else can they find out about us unless we show up?" NUMAN: ENGLAND'S BEST OR WORST? BY TERRY ATKINSON course, nobody in the band is Italian," explained Holly in Vincent ngland's newest pop sensation says he knows why readers named him both Brightest Hope and Creep of 5 the Year in the 1979 British pop polls: That how it always is. If you re different and interesting, people either love you or hate you." Gary Numan may not be Mr. Modesty of 1980, but the 21-year-old singer-writer stands an excellent chance of becoming one 2 of contemporary music's outstanding figures. The fragile-looking Londoner and his band, Tubeway Army, released two albums whose stark but accessible, synthesizer-based electronic rock took England by storm last year. Some are calling Numan the new David Bowie.

"That's a load of bollocks," commented Numan during a call from Providence, R.I., where he's in the middle of a three-week tour that ends next Sunday at Santa Monica Civic Auditorium. "The people who compare me to Bowie are those who don't like me." Still, Numan admits that the Thin White Duke was an inspiration. "But not an influence," he specified. "His main effect on me has been in how to use visuals." Another quality shared with Bowie is a rather ambivalent sexuality; some of Nu-man's songs mention "boys that love only boys" and related characters. "The world seems to be heading toward bisexuality," observed Numan, who wears eye makeup lead singer of Holly the Italians.

"It just sounded like a good name." Like Sparks and the Dickies before them, Vincent's band is a Los Angeles group making it in England while remaining unknown in its home town. Formed a year ago in Hollywood, the band moved to London in March and was signed by Oval Records. Its first single, "Tell That Girl to Shut Up" bw "Chapel of Love," was released there in November, and the group now reportedly is on the verge of signing with a larger company, Virgin Records. "Things are happening a lot quicker than they did in L.A.," Vincent said. Speaking by phone from London, she described, in a meticulously acquired English accent, the Italians' rise: "I was in several bands in L.A., and I worked in an parlor," she said.

"Some nights I hit, some nights I got hit. It wasn't much different than being in a rock 'n' roll band." After graduating from Taft High School in Woodland Hills in 1973, Vincent joined a series of bands, among them the all-female Backstage Pass (whose other members included Marina Del Rey, now of Vivabeat, another L.A. band doing well in England, and Che Zuro, now of the Orchids, recently signed to MCA.) She also was briefly in Myrick the Mannequins, and the shortlived Brothel Creepers, a rockabilly band fronted by the then 15-year-old Gerard Taylor, son of one-time Beatles press chief Derek Taylor. After forming Holly the Italians with drummer Steve Young, formerly of the Tremors, they played a few dates in L.A. and San Francisco before moving to London where they added bassist Mark Henry.

By fall, the trio was headlining in clubs. The band's music is straightforward '60s girl-group-oriented pop music, much different from the jarring sounds that dominate the new-wave scene in England. "My biggest influence is the Ronettes," she said, "and all the Phil Spector groups. "They say he was ahead of his time and I think that's right. I think the world is ready for that sound right now.

And we've got it." McGuinn and Hillman EX-BYRDS CHANGE THEIR BILLING BY RICHARD CROMELIN Compared to rock's reigning stars, the sales of McGuinn, Clark Hill-man's debut album last year were n't spectacular. But its showing on the charts was enough to quiet skeptics who saw the teaming as just another in a long line of ill-fated endeavors regularly undertaken by these ex-members of the legendary Byrds. But there's been a change in billing. It's now Roger McGuinn Chris Hillman featuring Gene Clark. Soon, it will be a less cumbersome McGuinn Hillman.

What happened to the third Byrd? Clark was unavailable for comment, but during a recent break from rehearsal, McGuinn said, "Basically, Gene just wasn't comfortable touring." "As he wasn't 15 years ago," chimed in Chris Hillman. "He's just the kind of guy who gets very claustrophobic, I guess. He doesn't like to go out on the road or stick to a tight schedule. When he left the Byrds in '66 it was the same situation. I think he's happier on his own, where he's not tied to something as confining as a group situation." McGuinn and Hillman (who headline the Roxy Thursday through Saturday) foresee no commercial repercussions.

Hillman: "Gene was feeling so uncomfortable in August that he didn't show up for a tour. Out of a total of 80,000 people we played for, only 40 people wanted a refund, so it wasn't that big a deal." And since Clark's musical involvement was limited primarily to the songs he wrote and sang (two on the new album, hence his "featured" billing), McGuinn and Hillman maintain that the music won't be affected. "It's really not any different," said Hillman. "It's just a matter of changing titles." McGuinn offered a comment on the new album: "On the first record, we made a conscious effort to be as little like the Byrds as possible. On this one we inten- tionally put things like the Rickenbacker 12-string and other Byrds-type sounds back into the picture.

So that legacy is still going strong. We're coming up with things that we would have come up with if we had continued to be the Byrds from the begin- Police lead singer, Sting POLICE ON ROAD TO HONG KONG BY PATRICK GOLDSTEIN If any band ever deserved the motto, "Have Guitar Will Travel," it's the Police, England's bleached-blond rock ambassadors. The globe-trotting rock trio is in Tokyo this week, where it'll kick off a nine-week sonic blitzkrieg that will take the group to countries that probably haven't seen any pop crooners since Bing Crosby sold Bob Hope into slavery on the "The Road to Morocco." Officially dubbed "The First Anglo-American Police Action Since World War II," the tour includes stops in such exotic Third-World ports as Cairo, Bangkok, Bombay, Hong Kong, Manila and Taipai. According to the group's management, three of those cities Taipai, Bangkok and Bombay have never before hosted a concert by a major rock band. (And only the Grateful Dead ever made it to Cairo.) "There's nothing more boring than doing the same old places," said Miles Copeland, the band's indefatigable manager.

"And it keeps up the excitement level for the group. When everyone else is worrying about market shares and ARB ratings, we're going to be at the top of the Great Pyramid, singing The group's management company, Fir-stars will also bankroll a tour film either for an hour-long BBC TV special or a feature-length, movie. "It won't just be concert footage," said Cope-land, who arranged the group's concert last Thanksgiving at Terminal Island Prison. "The band will act out a lot of bits, using locales like Bombay and Bangkok as backdrops." Unable to find a promoter in Cairo, Cop-eland flew in himself, booking the group a date at an hall at the local American university. "Bombay was even easier," Copeland boasted.

"The British consulate found me an organization of little old ladies who sponsor classical and jazz programs. They were glad to have us." Despite the offbeat itinerary, Copeland predicted the tour would make money, since the group has also scheduled numerous shows in more traditional pop strongholds like Japan and Western Europe. Holly Vincent a 2 5 Gary Numan and an earring. He declined, however, to reveal his own inclinations. "I'm interested in that scene.

But I'm interested in people who commit murders, too, and that doesn't mean I do it myself." The general mood of his music is far from cheery. "Gloomy" is how Numan himself describes it. However, he points out, his bleak sketches are not meant to be prophecies: "It's just one view of what may happen." Following the L.A. date, Numan a loner never comfortable in crowds will happily return to London and his white 79 Corvette, in which he spends considerable time. There's nothing he likes better, Numan insists, than pulling the sleek machine.