1988 THE YEAR IN REVIEW : Pop

W as 1988 the year of the dead in the Orange County arts scene? Well, it was the year Pacific Symphony conductor Keith Clark was termed “a dead fish,” the year William Shakespeare was nearly a dead duck in Garden Grove and the year the rock zanies in Oingo Boingo held yet another “Dead Man’s Party” at Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre.

Jokes notwithstanding, there were encouraging signs of life locally. South Coast Repertory Theatre won major national recognition with the 1988 Tony Award as best regional theater in the country. The Grove Theatre Co. triumphed over considerable civic adversity that threatened for a time to shut down the county’s only annual Shakespeare festival. The Pacific Symphony demonstrated new enthusiasm , with concerts led by guest conductors vying for the soon-to-be-vacated music director post.

Local rock bands seemed to flourish, live and on record, despite a paucity of clubs in the county that would book them or radio stations that would air their music. The Improv in Irvine paved the way for a significant increase in the quantity and quality of stand-up comedy in the county.

With that in mind, in the following four pages critics for The Times Orange County Edition offer compendiums of the best--and in some cases, the worst and the silliest--that the county had to offer during the year in art, music, dance, theater, pop and comedy. *BEST CONCERT: Midnight Oil at Irvine Meadows.

*TASTIEST CONCERT: The James Harman Band paused during a show at the Coach House to serve everyone in the house a sample of ribs from Burrell’s Rib Cage, the Santa Ana barbecue house credited with providing “inspirinment” for Harman’s album “Extra Napkins.”

*BEST ONE-PERSON SHOW: Jonathan Richman at the Coach House.

*BEST CLUB FOR ORANGE COUNTY HOME-GROWN ROCK BANDS: Bogart’s (it’s in Long Beach, which says something about the club scene within Orange County borders).

*BEST RECORD LABEL FOR LOCAL MUSIC: Orange-based Dr. Dream Records.

*MOST FOOLISHLY SEXIST LOCAL ALBUM COVER: “Fallin’ In Lust . . . ( . . . Again)” by the Noize Toys; album design by David Hayes, president of Dr. (Wet) Dream Records.

*MERITORIOUS DEVOTION TO REALISM IN ART: Rather than simply record the sound of a tattooing gun for his band’s song “It’s Tattoo Time,” Rikk Agnew of the Fullerton-based Adolescents had an actual tattoo done on his arm in the recording studio--bringing his personal tattoo collection to 32.

*BEST FOLK MUSIC VENUE: The Shade Tree in Laguna Niguel.

*MIKE TYSON AWARD: Chad Forrello, guitarist of National People’s Gang, jumped off the stage at Night Moves to duke it out with a skinhead who was taunting the band.

*GOOD NUTRITION AWARD: Chad Jasmine, singer of National People’s Gang, made a custom of bringing fruit or vegetables on stage to share with audiences. The night of the Night Moves fiasco, he joined the fray by hurling two cartons of lettuce from the stage, littering the premises with tossed salad.