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THE MUSIC WORLD GETS READY TO RAP

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William Gladstone, the man behind this week’s Music Business Symposium at the Ambassador Hotel, likes to think of himself more as a maverick than a mogul.

“When people say buddy to me, my reaction is to cover my pockets,” said Gladstone, 38, sitting recently in his Santa Monica office beneath Indian and Egyptian artwork. “I don’t go out for drinks or lunch. When I would rub elbows with the industry, I found it dirty.”

If Gladstone doesn’t talk like your typical industry insider, his background is also a bit unusual. He has been a professional sitar player and a manager and/or consultant with such varied artists as Ravi Shankar, Nigeria’s Chief Ebenezer Obey and new-age flutist Paul Horn, who is his current client.

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Yet his symposium, now in its third year, is evolving into something of an industry institution. Last year’s program attracted nearly 1,000 people. Gladstone projects that this year’s session, which opens Thursday with keynote addresses by Westwood One chairman Norm Pattiz and former MTV president Bob Pittman and a concert at the Beverly Theatre, will attract an even larger crowd.

The heart of the program is a series of panel discussions scheduled Friday through Sunday. Topics range from such general-interest matters as censorship to more formal business strategies.

“Those of us who are purveyors of music have a great effect on the society around us,” Gladstone said, pointing to the effect of the U.S.A. for Africa and Live-Aid charitable campaigns. “If we get together and talk, we may be able to channel some of that (influence) for other purposes.”

The centerpiece of the symposium will be the Friday evening discussion of rock’s influence on society. Gladstone will moderate a panel whose lineup includes outspoken musicians Frank Zappa and Jello Biafra, Spin magazine publisher Bob Guccione Jr. and Al Menconi, whose Christian-oriented Menconi Ministries/Media Update has warned of the harmful effects of some rock music.

Gladstone became especially impassioned when talking about this issue, equally critical of such artists as Ozzy Osbourne, who Gladstone says presents a “warped vision of the world,” as he is of such would-be censors as TV evangelist Jimmy Swaggart, who turned down an invitation to join the panel.

But the symposium isn’t all talk. The affair, open to the public at a registration fee of $250, also includes several musical activities. Thursday’s opening session at the Beverly Theatre will feature performances by Paul Horn and neo-rockabilly singer Chris Isaak. The symposium is also sponsoring Friday’s concert by the rock group Golden Palominos’ at the Palace and a series of other shows at local clubs this weekend.

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