Newsday (Nassau Edition) from Hempstead, New York • 64

ffiwfeOD NrwnUy Photo bv Jim Pi-nok-r Tina Turner would have been better spotlighted but got everyone going anyway CHltlSTGAU Maybe $10 Is Too High for the Beach feedback Memory lived up to its power-boogieing reputation and Commander t'-ody and His Lost Planet Airmen veering crazily to the far Bides of rockabilly all the way from pseudo-trucking songs to provided one of their notorious and literally off-beat triumphs The Airplane seems finally to have coalesced around Paul Kantner and Grace Slick with all the newcomers guitarist David Freiberg fiddler Papa John Creach and drummer Johnny Harbata locked into the most cerebral antifunk hard-rock format this side of Jethro Tull But the most gratifying revelation was provided by the return of Stephen Stills from artistic limbo The double album that Stills recorded with his new group Manassas is mostly filler but in concert he and Chris Hillman provide a complete reinterpretation of the Los Angeles rock tradition to which they are so central setting great songs from the Byrds and the Burritos and the Spring-field and more recent ventures into a perfectly conceived multi-percussive context Stills seems to have outgrown some of his old arrogance He even danced a little for the loople a significant trend and it was fitting for him to join the Airplane on their Continued on next page Nassau County Police Department (also at the behest of the Raceway) march in when the fence came down during Jefferson climactic first-day set But festivals thrive on adversity some have even survived an almost total lack of music The Festival of Hope had nothing to thrive or even survive about It was just there all by its unpretentious self For when the music was over everybody went home Forget the smattering of out-of-town campers forget the locals who would have liked to crawl into their sleeping bags between programs this was a gathering of commuters Commuters we know simply don't form fertile communities and a successful rock festival is about community in all its exuberance and garbage So it a rock festival not really Yet it just a concert either not even in the festive post-Woodstock sense of ail enormous audience -joined in loose fellowship for an evening of music The day was too long and the ecstatic release that is the aim of almost all rock events had to be achieved gradually organically Musically the festival was superb esje-cially on Saturday Janies Brown and Berry were both below their incomparable best probably because they went on first and didn't get anything like their fair share of By Robert Chrlstgau The rock event called the Festival of Hope which took place at Roosevelt Raceway last Saturday and Sunday was at least as pleasant as a weekend at the beach It was also somewhat more exciting and somewhat more expensive Which sounds like a left-handed putdown and The festival was fun and I hope I can attend again next year We gathered in little enclaves of chairs and blankets met new friends we may or may not meet again and participated in a large common experience We played frisbee we made out we got high we feasted on all manner of junk and every once in a while we were immersed in something as thrilling as the briskest surf I belabor the metaphor because it is apt The Festival of Hope was a lot of things most of them good but because it took place in Nassau County it was not a rock festival it felt more like an outing This distinction is not about those nasty old urban (or suburban) vibes Sure it was a small bummer to see all the blankets and sleeping bags spread over an expanse of asphalt when the green grass of the infield was on the other aide of the brand-new 12-foot cyclone fence the Raceway had insisted that the festival construct It was a big bummer to observe the liners Tickets are $13 at Ticketron and Madison Square Garden Casi Fan Amato There are a lot of fans who might not have realized it but the Amato Opera Company has been upholding the operatic tradition in lower Manhattan for 25 years now The 25th season opens with a champagne gala and performance of Cosi Fan Tutte Sept 15 at the tiny house at 319 Bowery More opera stars in the classroom: New York School of Continuing Education has lined up a fall program called with The singers you can converse with include Norman Treigle Patricia Brooks Martina Arroyo among others Other courses cover music styles ranging from Gregorian Chant to blues For information call 212-598-21 11 lock Quarry Jerry Quarry who was last seen in June wincing after Muhammed Ali hit him a lot in Iis Vegas has announced he is quitting the ig at 27 to join Reb Foster Associates in a somewhat vague executive capacity Foster plans to add a sports division to his management complex but for the moment it says here Quarry will act as liaison between the firm and its musical clients including Three Dog Night Heavy Three Dog meanwhile will air its first television special on ABC at 7:30 PM Thursday Produced by Dick Clark featuring Roberta Flack Heavy heavy IN SHORT for Willowbrook John Lennon and Yoko Ono whose deportation proceedings should be decided sometime in mid-September will make at least one public appearance in New York before that Strictly speaking not supposed to perform at all but even the Blue Meanies would think twice before slopping a benefit concert for the oppressed retarded ix'ople of Willowbrook The benefit sponsored by newscaster Geraldo Rivera and actress Geraldine Fitzgerald will be at 8 PM Aug 30 in Madison Square Garden Stevie Wonder Sha Na Na and other attractions will also appear but John and Yoko are the head Sunday August 20 1972 Part 1117.