Archival Buffalo News feature articles

  The heaviest Rich Stadium rock show to date. June 20, 1977 Superfest Survives Bad Omens              The Superfest 11 rock concert in Rich Stadium Sunday proved all the ominous forecasts wrong.           First there was the weather. Saturday’s prediction of thundershowers changed into bright midsummer sunshine, perfect for getting a tan.           The skimpy advance sale, which had the promoters, Festival East and Belkin Productions, bracing for a new low in Superfest attendance, swelled into a healthy 28,600.           The hordes of hard-guy rockers expected for the hard-rock lineup of Blue Oyster Cult, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Ted Nugent and Starz turned out to be pretty much your basic crowd of late teens and early adults, free from parental supervision and out to have a good time.    ...

  This Crosby , Stills and Nash tour lit the fires in us old hippies. Plus they finally released a new album for the first time since their break-up in 1970. June 11, 1977 Stills Still Energizes Threesome From ‘60s              It’s been a long time coming, this Crosby , Stills and Nash revival. Their best tunes, the ones that everybody knows, date back to those furtive years around Woodstock when the world closed in on the youth culture of the ‘60s.           They begin by invoking that era Friday night in Memorial Auditorium. Hotels and midnight coaches. High harmonies and tinkling triple guitars. It all comes back with a vengeance.           When one considers the personality clashes that mark the history of this happy threesome, it’s significant that the second tune belongs to Steve Stills. No football jersey this time. He wears faded denim a...

The folks at locally-based Amherst Records were distributing this funky Texas guitar wizard’s records for the DJM (Dick James Music) label out of England in the mid 1970s and promoting the hell out of him. For this date, they gave him the royal treatment. June 4, 1977 Fans Love Watson’s Sassy Style             Johnny Guitar Watson brought his gangster jive to town Friday and the fans loved it.           They oohed and aahed over his gold Rolls Royce (police escort, of course).           They just adored his monogrammed glasses and his color-coordinated three-piece suits with the matching shoes and hats.           And they cheered like crazy as he came out to get the first two gold records of his 22-year career in nearly-full Shea’s Buffalo before his evening concert.    ...

  The man who gave us “Shake, Rattle and Roll” in the twilight of a career that began in the speakeasies of Kansas City . May 28, 1977 Blues Man Big Joe Turner Makes a Legend Come Alive            Big Joe Turner, the legendary blues shouter, wears a coat and a satiny shirt and he sits at a table by the stage, a red drink in his hand. Bloody Marys. It’s about his fifth.           Big Joe Turner doesn’t so much sit at the table as lean. His right elbow is down and he’s planted at an angle, massive in his chair. Big Joe Turner is big, all right.           It’s his first night of three at the Tralfamadore Café, 2610½ Main at Fillmore. His first night in at least 10 years in Buffalo . WBFO-FM, the publicly supported radio station, brought him back Friday for a benefit. He’s on again tonight and tomorrow at 9:30.        ...

  Not every night can be a winner. May 21, 1977 Two Bands Search For a Real Headliner             As a rock concert billing, the combination of the Outlaws and the Stanky Brown Group seems like two warm-up bands in search of a headliner.           The Outlaws are a Tampa , Fla. , quintet with a touch of Allman Brothers in their guitars and a Top 40 hit to their credit – “There Goes Another Love Song” in 1975.           There’s prospects for more now in their tuneful third album, “Hurry Sundown,” which was produced by the man who produces the Eagles. In other words, the Outlaws have reached that precarious point between the minor leagues and the majors.           The deciding factor is radio airplay. The show sold out for Harvey & Corky in Pittsburgh , where stations are playing the ...

  Even though I hadn’t moved into the Features Department just quite yet, I was already assimilating into the corps of critics. May 20, 1977 Satire on Conventions, Group Strikes Nerve              Mrs. Watchanna Scruggs, having already established herself on the side of style and progress, has more on her mind than just telling her sister delegates that the treasury contains the grand total of $2.           “It cost me $3.75,” she says amid righteous sniffs, “to get here and report this $2.”           She’s answered by a solemn chorus of “Amens.”           The scene: A Black Baptist convention – deepwater Baptist – sometime in the early years of this century. What makes it so familiar is that the jostling for power, the gossip, the speeches and the complaints are a rite as ageless and inexplicable as ...

  Underneath it all, Chuck Mangione was still a guy from the neighborhood. April 14, 1977 Mangione Orchestra, Quartet at Home Here             It’s all in the family Wednesday night in sold-out Kleinhans Music Hall for Chuck Mangione.           Brother Gap, his Fender Rhodes piano and his synthesizer sit smack in the center of Chuck’s 16-member wind orchestra.           Out in the lobby is Chuck’s father, the words Papa Mangione embroidered on his Chuck Mangione T-shirt. The shirts are $4. The albums are $5. And Chuck will sign them for you after the show.           Which means that many spiffily-dressed couples inundate Chuck for autographs when the lights finally come up. Chuck doesn’t mind. Buffalo gave him his break.           “Unle...