Syracuse Herald-Journal
Entertainers that draw ‘rowdies’ being barred
Monday, May 30, 1983
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UPI) – Interior Secretary James Watt may
h a ve s t a r t ed a t r e nd w h en he
banned what he considered unwholesome entertainment from the
Washington, D.C., Mall.
Watt said the July 4th concert at
the Mall the last few years had attracted the “wrong element,” a remark that was considered a slap at
the Beach Boys, who have played at
the Mall two years in a row.
An avalanche of bad vibrations,
some coming from first lady Nancy
Reagan and Vice President George
Bush, caused Watt to rescind the
ban shortly after President Reagan
presented him a symbolic statue of a
foot with a hole in it.
But Watt’s idea seems to be catching on.
Country rocker Charlie Daniels,
Grammy Award-winner Toto, develish Bette Midler, the punky Clash
and costumed Kiss are among the
entertainers who have been banned
from performing at the 67. Miss
Midler was axed from the bowl because of her reputation for using
spicy language. Toto was banned
because lead singer Robert Kimball
has been ordered to stand trial on a
cocaine charge. The Clash, Kiss and
the Cha r l ie Daniels Band we re
barred because Burbank officials
and members of the citizens advisory committee feared those acts
would attract a “rowdy crowd.”
The Los Angeles Times quoted an
unidentified spokesman for Miss
Midler as expressing “bemused dismay” and suggesting sarcastically
that perhaps a revival of “Shirley
”¢Jones in ‘Oklahoma'” would be acceptable.
An angry Daniels suggested the
Starlight Bowl hire James Watt as
its entertainment director .
“It’s a f u n ny thing to me that
every time there is a ditch to be dug,
you expect these ‘rowdy people’ to do it,” Daniels said, “and ever,y time
there is a war to be fought you people in the three-piece suits always
go looking for rowdy people.
“I resent you i n s i n u a t i ng t h at
some p e o p le a re j u st not good
enough to come in your damn place.
These people are our fans, God bless
them. As long as they are not allowed at the Starlight Bowl, sir, you
yourself have been banned by the
Charlie Daniels Band.”
Un i v e r s i ty of Texas o f f i c i a ls
blamed the prospect of a “disaster”
in crowd control – not a fear of
“undesirables” – for the cancellation of a Willie Nelson concert in his
hometown of Austin, Texas, to open
the Texas Special Olympics last
Wednesday.
“He was not barred by the University of Texas at Austin,” said Dr.
Ronald M. Brown, vice president of
student affairs at UT.
Nelson agreed to perform free of
charge at the event for mentally retarded athletes, but UT officials said
the concert was canned because the
Special Olympics could not afford
the $12,000 tab for security that
would be needed to avoid a “disaster
in crowd control” that oc cur r ed
several years ago when the rock
b a nd ZZ Top p e r f o r m ed in the
80,000-seat Memorial Stadium.(Editor’s Note: Nelson will be one of the
headliners. in an all-star concert at
Carrier Dome July 2.)
Denis Poulos, executive director
of the Texas Special Olympics, said
UT officials told him that in addition
to concern about crowd control at
the stadium they also feared the
conc e rt w o u ld dr aw “unde s i rables.”
“It’s a great disappointment to
us,” Poulos said. “We weren’t anticipating the kind of crowd university officials were anticipating. We
did not anticipate a crowd control
problem or any undesirable elements participating.”
