POP MUSIC / THOMAS K. ARNOLD : Promoter Finds Promising Rock Acts on Soviet Sojourn

Back in March, Soviet pop singer Laima Vaikule arrived in San Diego for a month of rehearsals in an oceanfront mansion in Leucadia. A few weeks ago, San Diego concert promoter Scott Pedersen arrived in the Soviet Union for a 12-day talent hunt in Moscow and Leningrad.

Pedersen returned to town May 5 with a suitcase full of demonstration tapes and videos of Soviet rock acts he’s thinking about booking here, perhaps during this fall’s San Diego Soviet Arts Festival.

Of the more than 40 bands and performers who showcased for Pedersen, courtesy of the government-run Gosk concert bureau, the one who impressed him the most was Vladimir Kuzman, a popular Soviet singer, songwriter and bandleader.

“He was absolutely fantastic,” Pedersen recalled. “His music is sort of a cross between Sting, Kenny G and progressive Journey, with a lot of good hard-rock guitar.”

Pedersen caught Kuzman and his six-piece band at the Youth Palace in Moscow.

“It’s about the size of our Civic Theatre,” he said, “and the place was packed. The whole thing was like a normal rock show at the Civic. There were a couple of black backup singers, the horn and saxophone players were hoisted up in the air, they had smoke, they had explosions, they had lasers.

“There were even a bunch of groupies hanging around outside the back door, waiting for him after the show. They were all dressed up as much as fashion would allow--no Spandex, no miniskirts, nothing risque, but they definitely stood out from the other people at the show.”

Among the other acts Pedersen enjoyed were Mister Twister, a rockabilly group from Moscow, and Avtograf, a Soviet heavy-metal band that toured the United States last year.

“The overall level of talent is unbelievable,” Pedersen said. “And with American interest in the Soviet Union and in Soviet culture at an all-time high thanks to glasnost, I think the appeal many of these bands have to Soviet audiences would transfer over to American audiences.”

He said the low point of his tour was attending a rock festival in a 14,000-seat arena in which all eight bands were lip-syncing to their records.

“But the crowd either didn’t notice or didn’t care. It was rock ‘n’ roll and they loved it.”

Pedersen’s Soviet sojourn was arranged by Don Hughes of La Jolla, whose International Attractions regularly imports Soviet dance troupes, choirs and puppet theaters to the United States for national tours.

“Don is highly respected in the Soviet Union, and we were taken care of like I couldn’t believe. Everywhere we went there were interpreters, buses and front-row seats,” Pedersen said.

“Still, the Soviet Union is not a place to go on a vacation. The bare necessities are just not there. Getting a drink of water, a cup of tea, takes hours, and the whole time I was there I only had three Pepsis because they’re practically impossible to find.”

The biggest local rock event of the year promises to be the Aug. 22 performance by legendary British super group The Who at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium.

Tickets for the show, the first concert at the stadium since 1983 at which people will be allowed on the field, went on sale last Saturday at 8 a.m. More than 1,500 eager fans were already waiting behind a chain-link fence in the stadium parking lot, wearing numbered wristbands they had picked up the day before. Box office workers called out numbers in groups of 100 to limit the length of the ticket line.

Meanwhile, thousands of other Who fans were snapping up tickets--priced at $22.50 apiece--at 11 Ticketmaster outlets throughout San Diego County.

By the end of the day, the total ticket sale tally stood at 30,000. And Kevin Stapleford, creative services director with progressive-rock radio station XTRA-FM (91X), which is co- producing the concert with Colorado promoter Barry Fey, is confident the remaining 24,000 seats will soon be sold as well.

“We’re sure it’s going to sell out,” Stapleford said of The Who’s first San Diego appearance in six years. “It’s a real special concert. They’re on their 25th anniversary reunion tour, and, since there’s no opening act, it will be a three-hour concert celebrating a quarter-century of what they’ve done.”

LINER NOTES: An ad in last Thursday’s Reader for a concert the next night at Club Mirage in Mission Valley really built up the star of the show. Quotes from six national music magazines tell us he’s “a phenomenal guitarist who can do things most only dream of,” “the greatest thing on guitar since frets,” “the next big thing in the gallery of guitar gods,” and so on. Conspicuous by its absence: the star’s name. . . .

Country legend Buck Owens’ June 17 concert at the Bacchanal in Kearny Mesa appears headed for a sellout. Tickets are now on sale for a newly added second show, June 18. . . .

Rod Stewart has just been booked for a July 28 appearance at the San Diego Sports Arena. Tickets go on sale June 17.