LIVE AID II IS ROSE BOWL BOUND : Pasadena Homeowners May Oppose the Locale of Anti-Drug Benefit

Live Aid II looks like it’s about to land in the Rose Bowl, but opposition to the locale is anticipated from several Pasadena homeowners who live nearby.

Come April 26, the folks who telecast last July’s Live Aid concerts plan to team up with Nancy Reagan, Princess Diana, Madonna and four dozen major rock acts in the Rose Bowl to fight drug abuse.

If all goes as planned, “The Concert That Counts,” as it has been dubbed, will last from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m., will be telecast via satellite to more than 150 nations and will raise a lot of money for the Nancy Reagan Drug Abuse Fund and other nonprofit drug-awareness organizations.

A talent lineup sheet obtained by The Times shows that the Pointer Sisters, Aretha Franklin, Mr. Mister, the Beach Boys, Sheena Easton and George Michael of “Wham!” are among 16 pop acts that have already confirmed--along with Madonna--that they will be on hand.

Another 27, including Whitney Houston, the Dream Academy, Sting and Starship, are on the “expected” list.

David Bowie, Diana Ross, Michael Jackson and Mick Jagger are listed under the “strong interest” column of the talent lineup sheet.

At present, the only roadblock appears to be the ofttimes militant homeowners who live near the Rose Bowl and who have a long history of opposing any rock concert--even a wholesome one sponsored by the First Lady.

For the last six months, Marina del Rey-based Global Media Ltd. has been planning this show-to-end-all-shows as a nonprofit musical sermon against drug and alcohol abuse--not just in the United States, but worldwide.

Concert organizers have not only solicited the aid of Mrs. Reagan but also other First Ladies around the world, including Princess Diana. They also have obtained agreement from the U.S. State Department, the United State Information Agency and the Agency for International Development to “provide us with the most up-to-date accurate global information concerning the drug abuse issue, which they will formulate especially for the youth of the world,” according to a confidential Global Media brochure the company produced to promote its plan before the Pasadena City Council.

“Rock stars and entertainers have more influence on the habits and life styles of our teens and pre-teens than anyone else in the world,” reads a portion of the 26-page brochure. “Just these artists making an appearance at the Concert will help deglamorize drugs. Using drugs will no longer be the ‘in thing’ to do.”

What makes “The Concert That Counts” more than some dewy-eyed promoter’s pipe dream are the two principals who formed Global Media six months ago. Live Aid’s co-executive producers, Hal Uplinger and Tony Verna, who created Global Media expressly to launch the ambitious “Concert That Counts,” are generally credited with the telecommunications and logistical wizardry that made Live Aid an international success.

“And it’s a very positive, very wholesome concert for a very good cause,” said attorney Bill Thompson, one of seven city directors for the city of Pasadena who will have to decide in the next two weeks whether to allow the 11-hour concert to be held at the municipally owned and operated 105,000-seat Rose Bowl.

Several local homeowners are expected to oppose the concert, as they did Michael Jackson’s 1984 Victory Tour.

“I don’t have enough information on it to say one way or the other,” said Roberta Brathanal, president of a Rose Bowl neighborhood association that has traditionally been opposed to any kind of rock concert at the nation’s largest outdoor arena.

Idelle Cowles is another Rose Bowl-area resident who spoke out against the Jacksons a year ago when the group wanted to climax its “Victory Tour” in the predominantly white upper-middle-class neighborhood of the Arroyo Seco section of Pasadena.

“There were racial overtones then, but the issue has always been rock, not race,” Cowles said. “You can’t say it’s race when we oppose Nancy Reagan bringing rock to the Rose Bowl.”

City director Thompson reluctantly confirmed that the First Lady is the major public sponsor of the program. He said the shroud of secrecy surrounding the project was at the urging of Global Media which wanted the first public announcement of the project to be made by Mrs. Reagan and other celebrities from the steps of the White House.

“We were told that there is going to be an announcement made directly from the White House very soon about it,” Thompson told The Times--perhaps as early as Feb. 28.

It was because of this confidentiality that Thompson and two other city directors--who constitute the public enterprise committee of the city council--quietly approved a proposal last week to have the city staff look into Global Media’s request to use the Rose Bowl for the world’s biggest anti-drug variety show.

Under California’s open meeting law, a majority of an elected municipal body such as a city council cannot meet and take formal action in private.

Because Pasadena has seven elected city directors, three at a time may meet privately as a committee of the full council and not stand in violation of state law.

When the matter comes before the full council, however, several Rose Bowl area residents have vowed to appear in opposition to any further city action that would bring 11 hours of rock ‘n’ roll to their neighborhood.