POP MUSIC / THOMAS K. ARNOLD : Mum’s the Word, Mayhem’s the Reality for ‘Secret’ Show

It was supposed to be a secret, but it wasn’t a very well-kept one: The Yard Dogs, a last-minute add to the Bonedaddies show last Saturday night at the Belly Up Tavern, were actually heavy-metal superstar David Lee Roth and his road band, warming up for their impending U. S. tour.

“A few weeks ago, I was contacted by David’s manager, wanting to know if David could do an undercover gig at the Belly Up to practice some new songs in a dance-type environment,” said Kevin Morrow of Falk and Morrow Talent, which books the Solana Beach nightclub.

“He had tried it in Los Angeles about a month before, but word got out so quickly that it became the hottest ticket in town and everyone just stood there and gawked at David instead of having a good time,” Morrow said. “So he decided to try it again in San Diego, and he wanted it to be real low-key.”

A date was picked and tickets were hastily printed up the Monday before the show, which was billed simply as “The Bonedaddies with special guests the Yard Dogs.” Belly Up staffers were instructed to keep mum about who the Yard Dogs really were; still, the rumor mill got buzzing, and, by Thursday, all 550 tickets had been sold.

Then, on Friday, the grim specter of a mob scene reared its ugly head when a deejay on North County radio station KGMG-FM (102.1) informed listeners that “a major league recording artist will be at the Belly Up Tavern tomorrow night.” Roth wasn’t mentioned by name, but the deejay followed his announcement by playing five of the singer’s past hits, either with Van Halen or on his own.

“We immediately called the station and said, ‘Look, guys, you can’t be doing this--the show’s already sold out, and we can’t have 500 or 1,000 people standing around outside, trying to get in,’ ” Morrow said.

“Still, over the next hour we got something like 60 calls, and, while we denied everything, we were pretty worried.”

Roth’s road crew was alerted, and on the day of the show security was a lot tighter than originally planned. As it turned out, the envisioned mob scene never materialized, but Morrow is far from pleased.

“We’d like this to happen more often, for bands to test their new material at the Belly Up,” he said. “So, next time, we’re going to be extra careful that nobody says anything to anyone.”

The Paladins, the San Diego trio whose rootsy blend of rockabilly and blues has won them a small but loyal cult following all over the world, will be making two hometown appearances this month: Friday night at Iguanas in Tijuana’s new Pueblo Amigos shopping center, and June 23 at the Belly Up Tavern in Solana Beach.

The Iguanas show will be the Paladins’ first with new drummer Brian Jones, who has just replaced five-year veteran Scott Campbell. Jones previously played with the Hoodoo Kings, a rhythm and blues band from Phoenix.

“We know Brian from a long time ago, when we used to play out in Arizona and see him around in various clubs,” Paladins bassist Thomas Yearsley said. “We haven’t seen him in two years, but when Scott told us he wanted to quit to spend more time with his family, Brian immediately came to mind because we remembered how much we liked his style.”

The Paladins have been back in town since April 1, when they returned from a monthlong tour of Europe. Tour highlights include two television tapings, one for Germany’s “Ohne Filter” and the other for Holland’s “What Time Is It?” as well as an appearance at the Amsterdam Blues Festival before more than 50,000 people.

Since their return, Yearsley said, the Paladins have been making periodic jaunts up to Los Angeles, either gigging at the Palomino or working on their third album at Eve Jim Sunnyside studios. The album, as yet untitled, is scheduled to be released Sept. 2 on Alligator Records.

On June 30, the Paladins will begin another monthlong European concert tour that includes appearances at the Pier Music Festival in Belgium and the World Music Festival in London. Then it’s back to the States for more Southern California concert dates and some final session work on the album, which Yearsley promises will have “a lot more of a classic rock ‘n’ roll sound than our first two records.”

LINER NOTES: British pop starlets Big Bam Boo are in the midst of a weeklong promotional tour of six Hard Rock Cafes. But, when they arrived at the San Diego Hard Rock in La Jolla last Sunday evening, they discovered the club’s liquor license doesn’t allow live music. So, instead of plugging in their amps and playing their usual 40-minute set, group leaders Simon Tedd and Shark brought in a pair of acoustic guitars and performed three songs as a duet, accompanied by a portable stereo “boom box” that supplied the missing rhythm tracks. . . .

Guitarist Jake E. Lee of Imperial Beach, who spent four years with heavy-metal pioneer Ozzy Osbourne’s band, now fronts a band of his own, Badlands. The group’s debut album has just been released by Titanium Records, distributed nationally by Atlantic. . . .

Dr. John returns to the Belly Up Tavern in Solana Beach tonight for the first time in more than five years. Backing him will be the Dirty Dozen Brass Band.