1990 ORANGE COUNTY : Depth of Commitment to Be Measured : POP MUSIC

Having become accustomed in the ‘80s to seeing some of the biggest names in pop music play under the stars at Irvine Meadows and the Pacific Amphitheatre, Orange County concert-goers may get the chance in the ‘90s to see some of those same big names under a roof.

“I think a new Anaheim arena will be the No. 1 concert arena in the greater Los Angeles market,” says Alex Hodges, vice president in charge of West Coast concerts for the Nederlander Organization, which is a partner in the proposed Anaheim venture. Of course, in what has shaped up as Orange County entertainment’s version of the Great Race, a rival consortium of would-be arena builders is hoping those big shows will be playing under a different roof a little ways down the freeway in Santa Ana. Stay tuned for developments.

In the meantime, the biggies will still be stopping at Irvine Meadows and the Pacific Amphitheatre, whose competition for talent will continue but, according to Hodges, on a “more sensible” level less prone to the high-dollar bidding wars that the two venues have waged in the past.

More and bigger is also the word--or at least the hope--on the club scene as county pop promoters look to the ‘90s. Gary Folgner, whose 380-seat Coach House has been the dominant Orange County concert club for the past four years, says he is looking for “a larger situation” that would seat 600 to 800 people. “With the real-estate market taking a turn to the worse, you’re starting to see ‘For Sale’ signs on properties that you never saw before,” Folgner said.

Such a mid-level venue might allow Orange County fans to stay closer to home for newer, more intriguing but middle-drawing rock and folk acts such as the Waterboys, the Pixies and Sinead O’Connor. Such performers typically play Los Angeles venues including the Wiltern Theatre, but they seldom seem to make it to Orange County.

The Celebrity Theatre, with 2,500 seats in the round or 1,500 with a proscenium stage, remains the logical county venue for acts such as those (at least so long as the Poobahs of culture at the Orange County Performing Arts Center continue to look down their snoots at popular music--in contrast to the policies of such high-culture stages as Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center in New York City and the Wang Center in Boston).

The Celebrity’s booker, Nick Masters, says the theater will continue its eclectic rap-to-rock-to-country offerings in the ‘90s, with additional emphasis on theater productions and continued efforts to persuade agents that acts that play such venues as the Wiltern won’t see their Los Angeles shows suffer if they also play Orange County.

Observers including Ken Phebus, the Coach House’s booker, and David Hayes, president of Orange County’s grass-roots alternative-rock label, Dr. Dream, hold out hopes, or at least wishes, that smaller venues catering full time to original music will arise in the ‘90s, serving as a spawning ground for indigenous Orange County talent. Rising local bands with high creative aims now must rely on Bogart’s in Long Beach as their most conducive and constant nurturing ground.

Another big wish is that one of the existing Orange County radio stations would try something new: namely the sort of adventurous rock format that can’t be found elsewhere on commercial radio in greater Los Angeles. Phebus said that the presence of such a station would help local venues attract the sorts of rising, acclaimed acts (Tracy Chapman, Suzanne Vega, Melissa Etheridge) who so far have bypassed one of the nation’s wealthiest, most populous counties because an Orange County show doesn’t generate radio airplay.

“There could be a leading Orange County station if they just got wise,” Hayes said. “If we had a good station and a good club, people would take Orange County a lot more seriously.”