‘The Doors’ Fires Interest in Band : Pop Music: Oliver Stone’s new film spurs radio play and sales of records and books. Just ask Doors’ imitators Wild Child.

Donna Mills--a nurse, not the actress--saw the Doors in concert twice in the late ‘60s.

So she said it felt a little strange going to see a veteran Los Angeles-based Doors tribute band that was playing at Bogart’s in Long Beach on Friday. She said that she’d long had a curiosity about the act, but had resisted friends’ attempts to take her to past Wild Child shows.

“It really seemed a weird idea, trying to bring somebody back to life,” she said.

“Somebody irreplaceable,” said Craig Phillips, 31, one friend who had tried to get her to see the band before.

“But,” said Mills, 40, “the movie changed my mind.”

The movie, of course, is “The Doors,” Oliver Stone’s spectacle about the late Jim Morrison, his band and his times. And it has apparently changed, or at least tweaked, a lot of minds.

Bogart’s was packed well before Wild Child’s set, with the audience about a 50-50 split between those who had seen the band before and those who hadn’t. In line outside the club, a couple of people traded lines from the film; inside, people hummed Doors songs and sported Morrison and Doors T-shirts.

It’s the same throughout the Doors sphere: Interest in the Doors has been steady since a resurgence about 10 years ago (remember the Morrison cover in Rolling Stone magazine: “He’s Hot, He’s Sexy, He’s Dead”?), but the film’s release has taken it to a much higher level.

“We’ve gotten requests to use their songs in commercials by the dozens over the years,” said Doors attorney John Branca, whose clients also include other L.A. ‘60s rock greats the Byrds and the Beach Boys, and who has worked with Michael Jackson and the Rolling Stones. “But in the last three or four months (in anticipation of the film), we’ve gotten 30 or 40 requests. They always come in and we always turn them down.”

Major record chains are reporting the 1985 “Best of the Doors” double CD/cassette package among their top sellers these days, and the rest of the Doors catalogue is also reportedly doing well. The movie soundtrack, featuring original Doors recordings, just shipped “gold” (more than 500,000 copies).

At the Glendale Galleria over the weekend, the Wherehouse music, B. Dalton book and Suncoast video stores all said Doors items were among their hottest.

“Every other customer asks for something about the Doors,” said Pam Probst, a sales clerk at B. Dalton, noting that the store had sold out its stock of Danny Sugerman’s Doors biography, “No One Here Gets Out Alive,” and “An Illustrated History of the Doors.”

Los Angeles radio stations KLSX-FM and KLOS-FM--where the Doors have long been staples of their “classic” and album-oriented rock formats, respectively--noted a huge surge in Doors interest last week. Rosemary Jimenez in KLOS’ programming department said that the station is playing four or five Doors songs a day, about double what it played before the movie. The most popular cut: “Break On Through,” which is featured in the movie’s trailer and TV commercials.

As for the three surviving Doors themselves, the phones have been ringing off the hook, though offers for interviews and appearances related to the movie are being turned down.

Keyboardist Ray Manzarek is shopping a movie script he wrote based on the song “L.A. Woman,” overseeing the preparation and release of a video featuring the Doors’ last television appearance called “The Soft Parade,” and is planning to record a solo album.

Guitarist Robby Krieger has just debuted his new band (which includes his 17-year-old son Waylon, also on guitar). “We got more inquiries about Robby in the first day after the movie came out than we’d had all last year,” said Krieger’s agent, Geoffrey Blumenauer, who said that the group’s sets are about three-quarters Doors songs. Southern California dates include Thursday at the Belly Up in Solana Beach and April 12 at the Palomino.

Drummer John Densmore, who had a bit part in the Stone movie as a recording engineer, is promoting his book about the Doors, “Riders on the Storm,” and, according to Sugerman, plans to write some fiction soon.

The Doors’ record producer, Paul Rothchild, is also in demand for interviews. “Reporters are trying to get a different spin on the ball harder than I’ve ever seen before,” he said. He’s currently working on production of a live Doors package and doing preliminary work on a Janis Joplin project, as well as being “in discussion” for two film projects.

There’s more to come. Besides the two-CD live album planned for summer release, Elektra is preparing a special boxed set retrospective for 1992. And the Doors will also be eligible for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame next year.

So how did things go for Wild Child at Bogart’s Friday--its first show since the release of the movie? Could lead singer Dave Brock’s performance stand up against the splendid film characterization by Val Kilmer, let alone the Morrison of legend? And could Bogart’s in 1991 recapture the vibe of the Whisky in 1966?

The answer to both: No.

“Seeing the movie was one thing,” Mills said after Wild Child opened with a version of “Break On Through,” virtually note for note to the Doors’ original. “But seeing someone act it out (on stage) is not the same.”

Indeed not. Brock’s resemblance to Morrison is uncanny. The voice and the poses are so on that the trademark clothes (white shirt, black leather pants and silver conch belt) seem almost unnecessary superficialities. To the band’s credit, the other three members kept their imitations musical, not visual--no Manzarek glasses on keyboardist Ron Allen, for example.

But what made Morrison the Lizard King was that he could--and sometimes would--do anything. There were no boundaries in his performances--at least so goes the myth. Brock’s imitation, as good as it is, is by definition bound and restricted, a snapshot of a history that most in the lyric-chanting audience know only from such snapshots.

No magic . . .

No madness . . .

No mystery . . .

No Morrison.

But Morrison is what people want right now, and for many this substitute will do. According to Wild Child’s manager, John Cuda, the band’s performance fee has doubled since the release of the movie. Clubs that would have paid $2,000 a night before are now paying as much as $4,000, he said. And the number of bookings has multiplied.

Upcoming area shows are scheduled for Friday at the Green Door in Montclair, Saturday at the Bacchanal in San Diego and March 31 at the Palomino. After that, Wild Child will embark on a North American tour.

“We used to do four to six shows a month,” Cuda said before Friday’s performance, as he monitored the take at the door. “Right now for March we already have 14 lined up, and more are coming in.”