Archival Buffalo News feature articles

  To take the full measure of the mania for these tartan-clad teen idols in concert, I brought along three of the neighborhood kids from Auburn Avenue . Aug. 31, 1976 Bay City Boys ‘Think Straight,’ Roll Along With Hysteria             Up on the sixth floor of the Sheraton Inn-East – their second hotel here – the Bay City Rollers are winding down from Monday night’s screamfest in Kleinhans Music Hall .           They’ve hung up their trademark tartan plaid for the evening, but there’s no loud partying, no liquor, no groupies, no drugs.           Not many Rollermaniacs either. Few of the ‘70s successors to the Beatlemaniacs have found their way out here. Plus there’s obstacles like cops and Mike Klefner of Arista Records, who’s hefty as the security crew that hauled teenage girls back to their seats during the show.   ...

  In which our time capsule back to the 1970s touches down beside still another time capsule from 20 years earlier.   Aug. 21, 1976 Slick Grease – a ’50s Band Comes Back to Life   HERE IN THE FLASHING DISCO splendor of the Three Coins on Niagara Falls Boulevard , the professional rock revival watchers are getting a little uneasy about Slick Grease & the DA’s.           They shake their styled heads and adjust the floral shirts unbuttoned down past their neck medallions and say things like: “They play like a high school band” and “They make everything sound like Elvis.”           The pros, you must remember, have grown content with the simple, unthreatening pleasures of the first wave of the ‘50s comeback.           It’s all right to be a neatly-wrapped impersonator like Elvis Wade or a safe, nostalgic parody like Sha Na Na...

  Spotlight on a little-recognized corner of the music biz: July 24, 1976 Fate of Jingle Writers and the Lone Ranger: ‘Who Was That Masked Man?’ RON LOMBARDO’S BEEN a rock singer around Buffalo since 1971. Norm Wahl has been on the local coffeehouse circuit for almost as long. Chances are you’ve heard them on the radio. Chances are you also don’t know it’s them. “We were sitting in the studio the other day,” Norm relates, “and one of the radio stations called up and wanted to know who was singing on the new Dan Creed Chevrolet jingle. They really liked the voice.” That’s the problem. In their anonymous stock in trade – making jungles for radio commercials – it’s all exposure and no recognition. Which is why they’re both here in Norm’s apartment near UB, listening as that same voice (which is somewhere between Glen Campbell and David Gates of Bread) illuminates an old Paul Williams song, “Waking Up Alone.” “People say it was a minor hit for Paul Williams,” Norm says...

  Now that all the organizational issues for Rich Stadium concerts were ironed out, Mother Nature decided to throw a curve. August 9, 1976 Elton John Pours It On For Rain-Soaked Fans Elton John was amazed. “I thank you for standing out in the rain and sitting out in the rain,” he remarked as he strode out in a Stars & Stripes Uncle Sam outfit in Rich Stadium Saturday afternoon for the first of three encores. “You deserve a medal of honor.” Instead of medals, the drizzle-soaked, wind-chilled crowd of 52,560 got a whale of a concert from the supermost superstar of the ‘70s. In fact, such was the energy of that first encore – everybody shouting along to the chorus of “Saturday Night’s All Right for Fighting” – that the rain faltered and it seemed like the sun would awaken for a guest appearance. But it didn’t. It was miraculous enough that Superfest 10 beat the deluge. The promoters rushed to fit it all in, forestalling an epidemic of rockin’ pneumonia and the boog...

How suddenly did Peter Frampton skyrocket to superstardom in 1976? A mere three months after opening for the J. Geils Band in Memorial Auditorium, he was back  –  this time  as a headliner in Rich Stadium.  July 12, 1976 Superfest 9 – Predictable and Satisfying             Perhaps the most striking thing about Superfest 9 in Rich Stadium was the predictability of it.           The promoters, Buffalo ’s Festival East in conjunction with Belkin Productions of Cleveland, are going into their third summer of rock music on the tarpaulin-covered Astroturf, and between them and the kids the scenario is down to a science.           Everything went pretty much as planned – from the opening of the first parking lot (at 7 a.m., an anticipated two hours ahead of schedule) until early Sunday when the cleanup crew scooped the last one-...

  These folks had some killer weed.   July 9, 1976   Starship Cuts Loose From ‘Airplane’ Aura             Up early to look at the Falls and stuff are the four musicians who’ve provided the underpinning that’s refashioned the ruins of San Francisco ’s old Jefferson Airplane into the high-flying success of Jefferson Starship.           As three of them talk in bassist-pianist David Freiberg’s hotel room, it’s clear that the Starship has cut free from the slippery psychedelic moorings of Airplane’s past.           “This band has nothing to do with the Airplane,” says drummer John Barbata. “It’s a new band. Everybody contributes to the music. Think of us as the Starship.” * * * THREE STARSHIP albums (“Dragonfly” in 1974, the million-selling “Red Octopus” and their newest, “Spitfire”) will dominate their concert tonight at...