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Benefit concert aids guitarist
by Louis Hilgartner
Battalion reporter
The British Invasion, a
gathering of England's finest
rock musicians, completed the
first leg of its four-city North
American tour in Dallas last
Tuesday night.
The concert honored Ronnie
Lane, former guitarist for the
English band Small Faces, who
suffers from multiple sclerosis.
All proceeds from the concert
will be donated to M.S. re
search. The idea for a tour by
this group started with a benefit
concert in London.
Now friends and neighbors,
shows like this don't come along
every day.
Assembled in one band are
the three original guitarists from
one of Britain's greatest bands
— the Yardbirds: Eric Clapton,
Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page.
Maybe you haven't heard of the
Yardbirds, but do the names
Cream, Blind Faith, Derek and
the Dominoes or Led Zeppelin
ring a bell? Those are just a few
of the bands these guys are re
sponsible for.
Performing in the rhythm
section are The Who drummer
Kenny Jones, and Rolling
Stones bassist Bill Wyman and
drummer Charlie Watts.
And the roll call continues:
Bad Company singer-guitarist
Paul Roagers; Jan Hammer,
keyboardist extraodinare; singer
Joe Cocker; and guitarist Andy
Featherwood Low.
The Reunion Arena stage in
Dallas was covered with ampli
fiers, drums and keyboards.
Most of the sound system
speakers were hung from the
ceiling, as well as a huge video
screen. Roving cameras kept the
audience in touch with the show
from all angles.
After a 20-minute delay, the
second night of the British Inva
sion commenced.
First to take the stage was Eric
Clapton. Performing with him
were Wyman, Watts, Jones,
Low and others.
Clapton began his set with
well-known cuts from his "Slo-
whand" album: "Lay Down Sal
ly" and "Wonderful Tonight."
Although it's been almost two
years since a major Clapton
tour, he showed he still had the
stuff which inspired the "Clap
ton is God" grafitti on London
streets in the late '60s.
He played with the tasty,
laid-bacx sound that has made
him famous as one of the
world's premier blues guitarists.
Once he warmed up, Clapton
cut into a hard-core blues med
ley featuring "Have You Ever
Loved A Woman" from the
"Layla" album and another
song entitled "Sad Day."
Clapton was joined by singer
Joe Cocker. Although Cocker
looks older and more tired every
S ear, his voice is still strong and
is rendition of "You Are So
Beautiful" almost was touching.
Clapton and Cocker closed
the hour-long set with "Peelin'
Groups unite
in concert
by Nicole Williams
Battalion reporter
"Dashing through the snow
in a one-horse open sleigh, o'er
the Gelds we go, laughing all the
way."
Aggies may not be dashing
through any snow in Aggjeland
this year, but they still can get
into the holiday spirit by attend
ing the annual Christmas con
cert held Sunday.
The Singing Cadets, The Re-
veliers, the Century Singers and
the Women's Chorus will per
form a variety of Christmas
songs at the fifth annual concert.
Music ranging from the serious
classic, "Silent Night," to the
not-so-serious "Sleigh Ride"
will be featured.
Robert Boone, director of the
Singing Cadets and The Re
vellers, says the concert is the
vocal music department's way
of sharing the Christmas spirit
with everyone.
"Let's turn 'em on to Christ
mas," says Boone. "This is a
night of all kinds of music."
He says the groups will per
form individually until the final
presentation, which will include
all 230 members of the four
groups.
The Singing Cadets will begin
the two-hour program with "It's
the Christmas Time of Year."
They will be followed by the 55-
member Women's Chorus sing
ing two Negro spirituals in addi
tion to the well-known "I'll Be
Home for Christmas."
The Century Singers will per
form last and will present a vari
ety of Christmas melodies.
The Reveliers, a vocal-jazz en
semble of seven women and 13
men, will entertain the audience
between the numbers by the lar
ger groups.
The final piece will be Hand
el's famous "Hallelujah Chor
us" from "The Messiah," sung
by all four groups.
Boone says this is the only
time during the year that the
groups sing together.
Patricia Fleitas, director of the
Women's Chorus and the Cen
tury Singers, says this is the
highlight of the evening. The
audience is invited to sing along
with the groups.
"It's very powerful ... very
moving," says Fleitas. "The au
dience is standing, and almost
everyone in the auditorium is
singing."
The concert will begin at 7
p.m. in Rudder Auditorium.
Tickets are on sale at the MSC
Box Office and are $2 for stu
dents and $2.50 for non
students.
Alright," during which the
crowd screamed enthusiastic
ally.
The sound mix throughout
the show had been very good.
So often it's easy — in a show of
this size—to turn up everyone's
volume to the point of distor
tion. You could hear the people
you needed to hear, when you
needed to hear them.
After a short intermission,
Jeff Beck took the stage accom
panied by a different group of
musicians featuring keyboardist
Jan Hammer.
Review
Beck had more stage energy
than Clapton, but the styles of
music are different.
Beck's relatively short set was
highlighted by cuts from his
album 'There and Back." Prob
ably the most popular of these
was "The Pump," a song now
on the soundtrack of "Risky
Business."
Beck also demonstrated his
unique playing style combining
tasteful playing with good use of
effects and well-controlled feed
back.
Beck closed his set with the
classic "I'm Coin Down." The
crowd joined in full force as Beck
and Hammer traded guitar and
keyboard solos.
The house lights stayed down
and the crowd cheered wildly in
anticipation of an encore.
They were disappointed, but
in a bittersweet way as Jimmy
Page strode onstage.
Page was greeted by a stand
ing ovation from the 14,000-plus
spectators. Another ovation
went up as he strapped on his
guitar and walked to center
stage.
However, he had played for
no more than a minute when his
guitar was suddenly silenced by
a technical malfunction. Page
fought gamely, but he was
drowned out by the rest of the
band.
By the time he started his
second tune, "Who's to
Blame?", the problem had been
fixed, and Page was joined by
Paul Rodgers.
One of the liveliest songs of
the evening was a tune intro
duced bu Rodgers as "Boogie
Mamma." Rodgers vocals were
red hot and Page ripped out a
killer lead.
But the evening's highlights
were still to come.
Page strapped on his famous
doubleneck guitar, one neck
with 12 strings and the other six,
and played an instrumental ver
sion of "Stairway to Heaven."
This proved to be too much for
the audience who already had
been chomping at the bit all
night long. The crowd rushed
the stage and the security
guards jumped behind the barri
cade at the front of the stage.
At the lead break toward the
end of the song, Page was joined
by Clapton and Beck. The trio
swapped leads as they finished
"Stairway."
The last regular "set" song of
the evening was Clapton's
"Layla."
This one number was more
than enough to give the audi
ence its money's worth. Bri
tain's finest musicians were
playing— together—one of the
greatest rock tunes ever re
corded. Upon finishing
"Layla," the superstar band was
saluted with another standing
ovation.
It may have seemed nothing
could top "Layla," but the two
encore songs that followed came
close.
Joe Cocker sang his smash
rendition of the Beatle's "A Lit
tle Help From My Friends."
The camaraderie among the
musicians was evident as Beck
and Clapton had an impromptu
exchange of each other's parts.
The house lights came up
again, and Ronnie Lane was
helped onstage as the crowd
came to its feet again. In a voice
that sounded almost desperate,
he sang "Goodnight, Irene."
Lane received another ovation
as he was escorted offstage.
One of the unique aspects of
this concert was the lack of com
mercial concerns usually associ
ated with big concerts. No one
was trying to sell any albums,
and the musicians all seemed to
enjoy the show just for the sake
of playing together, especially
considering the charitable
cause.
None of the artists made a
dime from this concert, nor will
they make any on the rest of the
tour — scheduled for San Fran
cisco last night, today and Satur
day; Los Angeles on Monday
and Tuesday; and New York on
Thursday and Friday.
Technically, the show might
not have been the best the world
has ever seen, and the musi
cians may have had better per
formances in the past, but it was
more than memorable. It was in
spiring.
Christmas parade rolls
Sunday, rain or shine
by Cathy Smith
Battalion reporter
Studying frantically for
those last-minute tests, fight
ing the wet and chilly weather
and recovering from turkey
leftovers can leave anyone
feeling like Scrooge. Why not
take a break and get into the
spirit of the coming holiday
season by watching the
annual Bryan-College Station
Holiday Parade on Sunday.
"Christmas 2000" is the
theme for this year's parade.
In keeping with the theme,
the grand marshal will be Col.
Donald Peterson, who flew in
the maiden voyage of the
space shuttle Challenger.
Between 3,000 and 4,000
people will participate in the
parade — on floats decorated
for Christmases of the future,
in bands and drill teams, on
horseback or in Christmas
clothes of the future — parade
chairman Rodger Lewis says.
The floats have been de
signed and built by small and
large businesses, adult and
youth groups, elementary,
junior high and high school
students and university stu
dents. Artists, media person
nel and chamber of commerce
people will judge the floats
according to originality, use of
design and color, relevance to
the "Christmas 2000" theme
and overall entertainment
quality.
All entries except bands
will be judged and prizes will
be awarded in each float
category and to the two most
outstanding units in the mar
ching, mounted and specialty
categories. Those selected will
receive a framed color picture
of their entry taken at the re
viewing stand. First place
winners also will receive cash
prizes.
Although cash awards are
given, Lewis says that the
money is not important to the
participants. Most people
want to make a good showing
and have a good time, he says,
and being in the parade is not
only fun, it's also good public
ity and good for the morale of
those involved.
The Aggie Band and the
Ross Volunteers will lead off
the parade, but other students
at Texas A&M are not as in
volved in the parade as would
be expected, Lewis says. They
are part of the Bryan-College
Station community too, he
says, and it's a shame that
more students aren't in
volved.
This year's parade will be
gin at 3 p.m. Sunday at Texas
Ave. and University Drive in
College Station and end at Vil
la Maria Road in Bryan. The
route will be closed to traffic
from 2:30 p.m. until the end of
the parade, between 4 p.m
and 4:30 p.m., Lewis says.
And what happens if it
rains on the parade? The show
will go on, Lewis says. If there
is a downpour, the starting
time will be delayed, he says,
but otherwise things will go
according to plan.