Rock Musician Finishes His Campus Act--Barely : Performance: Singer strips during band’s lunchtime performance at Cal State Northridge. School administrators apologize to students for the group’s behavior.

When it comes to naked lunches, novelist William Burroughs could learn a thing or two from the punk rock group Leaving Trains.

The band was nearing the finale of its lunchtime performance outside the Cal State Northridge Student Union building Wednesday when singer Whitey Sims took off his pants and continued singing. He already had removed the rest of his clothes.

Voila! The rebirth of a campus fad with a new touch: Musical streaking, defended on religious and political grounds, sort of.

Sims’ strip brought shocked gasps and jubilant cheers from students, which was a plus of sorts for the band. Before that, the audience had been paying little attention. Word spread quickly, and other students on their way to class crowded into the quad to see the naked singer.

The finale was definitely more than administrators could bare. College officials unplugged the group’s sound equipment and campus police were summoned, but Sims managed to put his pants back on and slip away in the crowd before he could be caught, police said.

Members of the band were questioned by police, but there were no arrests, campus police said.

Several administrators and leaders of Associated Students/Student Productions and Campus Entertainment (AS/SPACE) offered red-faced apologies on Thursday for the band’s behavior.

“Who would have thought (he) would have stripped in front of 200 students?” exclaimed AS/SPACE executive director Susie Shannon. “I’m completely shocked. We’re going to make a public apology to the students in the campus newspaper. I mean, we don’t book bands like that.”

In addition, the band will not be paid its $200 fee, said David Weiss, president of Associated Students.

“In the contract, there’s a clause that says you must abide by university guidelines and regulations, which they clearly did not do,” said Weiss.

The response to Leaving Trains’ performance brought a bemused reaction from the group’s co-leader, Falling James, who defined the band, as a “very educational, physically beautiful, musically trying performance combo.”

He kicked the blame upstairs.

“Nudity is a victimless crime,” said James, 30. “If God thought nudity were bad, he would have made us born clothed. So I blame God. We’re only doing what feels natural.”

Also, nude singing is . . . well, politically correct for those who don’t believe in either politics or correctness.

“We are the point men for the anarchistic revolution,” James said.

He added that Sims has performed nude on stage in other shows: “It depends on the mood and the weather conditions.”

Peter Egeghi, the Associated Students noontime concert director who booked the group, said he was dressed down by administrators unhappy with the group’s manner.

Egeghi said he had heard of the band, but was unaware of its fondness for nudity. He signed up the band after listening to a tape provided by its booking agent. Sims began removing his pants during the band’s six-minute original song, “I’m OK,” which James said is about a mental patient being released from a hospital.

Asked why Sims stripped, James replied: “The character is unbalanced.”