Archival Buffalo News feature articles

  After all these years, my mind still rings with the choruses of practically all of the songs on Randy Newman’s setlist.   Oct. 3, 1977   Newman-Prine Concert Is Tailored for Cynics              “I’ve never felt like the target of a song before,” an associate laments after Randy Newman finishes his second encore in Kleinhans Music Hall Sunday night. She’s just heard Newman’s new “Short People” for the second time in an hour and, since she stands slightly better than five feet, she doesn’t like it.           The cultural schizophrenia that gives Newman’s odd little songs their crackle may backfire on him this time. Despite the brotherhood-of-man interlude in the center, the message can’t be hidden: “Don’t want no Short People/ ‘Round here.”           What’s more, Buffalo may be making a hit of it. WGRQ-FM’s John Velchoff has played i...

  If I recall correctly, the real reason I signed up to review this concert was to see Melissa Manchester.   Sept. 1, 1977 Melissa Misses It, But Donna Saves It             The Leo Sayer-Melissa Manchester show arrived at the Century Theater Wednesday night without Melissa Manchester. Exhaustion, said co-promoter Corky Berger in the lobby as her replacement, Buffalo ’s Donna McDaniel, struck up a sharp band called the Navigators.           Manchester , the former Bette Midler Harlette who went on to ballads like “Midnight Blue” and commercials for cassette tape, had gone on stage Tuesday night in Saratoga Springs against doctor’s orders. The new prescription: Cancel your next three dates.           McDaniel has become a more commanding performer as a result of her summer of success with the European disco hit, “Save Me.” That ...

  In my book, one of the best Rich Stadium concerts.   Aug. 22, 1977 A No-Nonsense Fest Bathed in Sunshine, Compliments of ‘Yes’             Superfest 12 Saturday was a sunfest too.           British singer-songwriter Donovan, blinking into the brightness, sounded the first amplified notes of the day at high noon, earliest start ever in the history of rock concerts at Rich Stadium.           The headliners, progressive rock quintet Yes, encored and exited well before they needed to switch on the stadium floodlight towers. Mother Nature threw in her own encore: A brilliant sunset for the drive home.           Yes was responsible for the daylight show. It was their request that moved the starting time ahead from the original 3 p.m. They hadn’t wanted to perform partly in sun and pa...

  Fleetwood Mac at their absolute max. “Dreams” had just given them their first and only Number One single and their popularity was so immense that their one sold-out show at Memorial Auditorium wound up turning into two. July 5, 1977 ‘Mac’ Is Memorable In Two Super Sellouts            “This is a song about a witch.” Stevie Nicks murmured it into the mike, still saying it a year after “Rhiannon” went Number One, talking over the tawny riff of Lindsey Buckingham’s guitar intro.           She was all flowing black and she stood absolutely still as the music rose into the first verse. She sang it with her arms folded under a pair of sheer black scarves: “Rhiannon rings like a bell through the night/ And wouldn’t you love to love her …”           The spotlight illuminated half her face and most of the frizzy blonde abandon of her hair. This song, more than...

  One of my favorite assignments – the annual pilgrimage to Centre Island in Toronto Harbor . June 25, 1977 At Mariposa Fest Individual Ingenuity Reigns Here            TORONTO – The bad news came moments after arrival in this magical metropolis – Kate and Anna McGarrigle would not be at the 17th Mariposa Folk Festival this weekend.           The McGarrigles from Montreal are little known to the world at large, but with two albums on a major record label they’re closer to stardom than almost anyone else in this smorgasbord of folk music.           Their high-school-girl harmonies were expected to provide some of the rarest moments in these three days of picking, singing, storytelling and dancing on the island park in Toronto Harbor .           Their cancellation came at the last moment. The reason: A...

  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...