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The bummer about re-releasing old music is that there's no tour to drive album sales. Dead, broken-up and washed-up artists just don't move product.| Rhino Records has lived with this truth for its twenty years of existence, and has nevertheless made a sound living out of dusting off and shining up toys from rock and roll's attic. But for their next trick, Rhino is doing the unthinkable: three days of live music.
For the First Annual Retrofest (Aug. 13, 14 and 15 at the Santa
Monica Civic Auditorium in Santa Monica, Calif.), such ghosts of
rock & roll past as new wavers Missing Persons, pioneering
rappers the Sugarhill Gang and Sixties mop-topped rockers the
Turtles will take the stage.
Also on hand will be yesteryear TV stars like Jerry "the Beaver"
Mathers, Barbara "Jeanie" Eden and Fred "Rerun" Berry.
Festival-goers can play old video games, see exhibits and eat retro
food (hopefully it's been refrigerated).
"Originally we had been talking about doing some sort of Seventies
festival, since we had been doing so well with various products of
music from the Seventies," said Rhino Marketing Senior VP Garson
Foos. "Then the more we thought about it we realized nobody's
really done a festival that's all things retro entertainment."
Bo Donaldson and the Heywoods will host the "Have a Nice Decade
Revue," serving as the backup band to various one-hit wonders,
including Al Wilson ("Show and Tell"), Bobby "Boris" Pickett
("Monster Mash") and Tony DeFranco("Heartbeat (It's a Lovebeat")).
Donaldson and the boys also promise a tear-jerking rendition of
their No. 1 hit "Billy, Don't Be a Hero."
Donaldson says he never gets tired of playing his biggest hit, and
America never gets tired of referencing it, as it's popped up in
Stephen King's book The Stand, Quentin Tarantino's film
Reservoir Dogs and TV shows like Alf and
Friends. "It's almost like the song gained its own life,"
he said. He is hoping to further capitalize on that life by taking
the Revue on the road after the Fest.
Berlin, who headline the first night, are less retro than most of
the participants, as their hits are only a decade behind them. Even
though the band released an EP this year and are working on a new
record deal, they don't mind being associated with "retro."
"It's nice to have been around long enough to have a lot of songs
that people automatically like," singer Terri Nunn says. "I don't
have to seduce people every night anymore. When we first started, I
remember hundreds of people with their arms crossed looking at us,
going, "Who the f--- are you?"
Retrofesters won't have any problem remembering Leif Garrett, but
they might not recognize the harder sounds of his new band
Godspeed. Because the teen idol's songs were thrust upon him by his
then-managers, he is not about to sing them, and will stick to new
material.
"I've been offered to go back on tour, like what they did with KC
and the Sunshine Band, Gloria Gaynor and the Village People, and I
just couldn't do it," Garrett says. "It's not because I hate my
past; it's just that artistically that's not what I'm doing."
Garrett, who plans to hit L.A. clubs with Godspeed after the
Retrofest, cherishes the opportunity to play live gain. "The
coolest thing about back in the day, even though I wasn't really
into the music, was being onstage," he said. "The immediate
response and feedback was the thing that excited me and kept me
going -- it certainly wasn't the thrill of doing 'Surfin' USA' or
'I Was Made for Dancin.'"
BILL CRANDALL
(August 5, 1999)