POP MUSIC : Outdoor Concert Promoter Hopes 3rd Time Is a Charm

In the past three years, there have been two unsuccessful attempts at staging a major outdoor concert series in North County. Promoter Rick Tupper is hoping the third time will be the charm. He has announced tentative plans for a 10-show series next summer at Palomar College in San Marcos, in a natural amphitheater behind the school, with room for 5,000 people.

The Oct. 14 Palomar Music Festival is something of a trial run. Tupper is producing it with campus radio station KKSM-FM (98.9, cable only) and the Associated Student Government.

The concert, to start at noon and end shortly before sundown, will feature performances by Jimmy Cliff, the Untouchables, Psychefunkapus, local reggae band the Cardiff Reefers, and two other acts to be named later.

“Depending on how well the show does,” Tupper said, “the idea is to do an entire series next summer, with as many as 10 shows.”

Good luck. Two previous attempts at producing an outdoor concert series in North County, both at the Sammis Pavilion in Carlsbad, were dismal failures.

In 1988, promoter Bill Silva had big plans for the 7,000-capacity amphitheater: a dozen concerts, if not more, by summer’s end. As it turned out, only two shows, by Bob Dylan and Basia, were actually held before Carlsbad city officials yanked his conditional-use permit due to insurmountable traffic and security problems.

The next year, the owner of the Batiquitos Lagoon Educational Park, in which the pavilion is located, decided to give it another shot on his own, only to give up a few weeks before the series was scheduled to start.

Tupper, however, is confident he will succeed where others have failed. The Palomar amphitheater is on a college campus, with much easier access, and a lot more parking than Sammis Pavilion, which is smack-dab in the middle of a residential neighborhood.

“Plus, San Marcos is one of the fastest-growing areas in the county,” Tupper said. “And there’s a real need for somewhere to go, something to do, for entertainment.”

Tupper is no stranger to the Palomar College facility. In the early 1980s, he produced several concerts there until the welcome mat was withdrawn in 1982.

“At that point, a different set of trustees came in, and they had a whole changeover of school officials, who didn’t want to have concerts,” Tupper said.

“But now, largely due to the efforts of the campus radio station and the student government, they have decided they want to put the area in back of the school to good use, once again.”

In the late 1970s and most of the ‘80s, singer-songwriter Rob Lamothe fronted a succession of San Diego hard-rock bands that played school dances and parties and occasionally ventured into the studio to cut some demos.

Nothing ever became of those demos, however, and in 1986 Lamothe, like so many other frustrated San Diego musicians before him, decided to try his luck in Los Angeles.

Well, it took awhile, but Lamothe has finally arrived, as they say. He’s the lead singer of the Riverdogs, a hot new L.A. rock band that also features Vivian Campbell, formerly with heavy-metal giants Dio and Whitesnake, on lead guitar.

The Riverdogs’ debut album was released by Epic Records last June. Sales have been quite good for a first album, and the reviews have been great. With good reason: The band’s bluesy rock ‘n’ roll packs a real punch, the musicianship is top-notch, and the 10 songs, all either written or co-written by Lamothe, have a lot more passion, substance and lyrical integrity than the typical hard-rock ear-splitter.

One interesting aside: In a recent interview with national metal-mag Screamer, Lamothe talks about his local rock ‘n’ roll roots. “In 1979, I went to high school with Warren DeMartini and Robbin Crosby (currently with Ratt), and played with them in different bands.”

The poor lad’s memory must be failing, or else he’s trying to hide his real age. In the fall of 1972, Lamothe and I both began our freshman year at University of San Diego High School in Linda Vista (we were enrolled in the same honors math class). I graduated in 1976, and I would assume he did, too.

LINER NOTES: Playscool, the granddaddy of San Diego’s nomadic nightclubs, celebrates its fourth anniversary Friday night with a big splash backstage at the San Diego Sports Arena. There will be four dance rooms, six deejays and three bands--San Diego’s If Tomorrow and Burning Hands, and Mary’s Danish from Los Angeles. . . .

The Beat Farmers left town last Wednesday for a six-week, 40-date U.S. tour. The first stop was Dallas, two days later. The trip is scheduled to end Oct. 31, with a Halloween-night performance in Boulder, Colo. . . .

Another celebrated local rock band, Robert Vaughn and the Shadows, will make a rare hometown appearance Saturday night at Winston’s Beach Club in Ocean Beach. . . .

Twenty-two years ago this week, Iron Butterfly’s notorious “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida” entered the national Top 40. The band had been formed in San Diego as the Palace Pages; the name change came after their 1966 move to Los Angeles. . . .

Tickets go on sale: Friday at 3 p.m. for the Indigo Girls’ Nov. 4 concert at Symphony Hall downtown; Saturday at 10 a.m. for Billy Idol’s Oct. 26 show, with Faith No More, at the Sports Arena; Saturday at 2 p.m. for Bad Manners’ Oct. 19 appearance, with the Skatalites, at UC San Diego’s Price Center Ballroom. . . .

Best concert bets for the coming week: Joe Satriani with Eric Johnson, Friday at San Diego State University’s Open Air Theater; the Nashville Ramblers with the Bedbreakers, Friday at the Casbah in Middletown; the James Harman Band with the Blonde Bruce Band, Friday at the Belly Up Tavern in Solana Beach; Linda Ronstadt with the Neville Brothers, Sunday at SDSU Open Air Theater; Johnny Clegg and Savuka, Monday at the Price Center Ballroom; and John Conlee, Tuesday at the Circle D Corral in El Cajon.