6 Pop Shows Planned at the Bowl : Concerts: Michael Bolton is the only announced act on a lineup that would be the largest number of pop-rock shows in nearly two decades.

Michael Bolton will perform at the Hollywood Bowl on July 13 in the first of six pop-rock concerts promoters Bill Silva and Andy Hewitt hope to stage at the facility this summer.

The other performers in the series have not been named yet, but the number of events would mark a slight expansion from last year’s four pop concerts, which in turn was the most pop shows at the 18,000-seat facility since the late ‘70s.

The pop events will be in addition to the 65 concerts produced by the resident Los Angeles Philharmonic this season and the annual Playboy Jazz Festival. Tickets for the Bolton show will go on sale Sunday.

Over the years, the Bowl has hosted such top rock acts as the Beatles, the Doors, Jimi Hendrix and Pink Floyd, but complaints from neighbors about loud music, traffic congestion and occasional rowdiness of the fans made pop a rarity there in the ‘80s.

Last year, Sting and Paul Simon gave concerts that served to test the waters for a return of a higher pop-rock presence.

“We’ve tried to tighten control of selling alcohol at the Bowl, and kept the sound level down and asked people not to make noise when leaving,” said Bowl general manager Ann Parsons. “It’s important to keep doing these shows and it would be a shame if we weren’t able to. The people of Los Angeles deserve to come to a variety of music in the Hollywood Bowl, not just classical and not just middle of the road.”

Neighborhood representatives said that traffic and noise remained problems even during the relatively conservative, adult-oriented shows held in the last two years. And there were complaints after a Jimmy Buffett show last summer about people loitering in the area, urinating on lawns and throwing bottles.

Hewitt said that as promoters and fans learn to deal with such things as the limited traffic access to the Bowl, these problems can be minimized.

“We’ve come a long way already and the more shows we do, the better it will get,” he said. “If we educate people about the park and ride and shuttle availability and to come to the shows early, we’re going to be able to do it.”

Guidelines for the non-Philharmonic events were drawn up last year by a committee of neighborhood association members and John Webber, the assistant director of the Los Angeles County Parks and Recreation Department, which oversees Hollywood Bowl operations. Webber said that no criteria have been established yet as to what kind of rock acts would be acceptable, but he doubts hard-rock concerts are likely.

“The neighborhood and the county are working closely together to determine what the appropriate mixture (of music styles) is,” he said. “It’s our intent to be able to conduct activities at the Bowl that are not going to cause a significant negative impact on the community, and what we’ve been doing the last two years is trying to determine where that line is.”

But neighbors are generally taking a cautious, wait-and-see attitude toward the future of pop and rock and the Bowl.

“As we make progress on the issues we may feel it’s possible to expand the program (of pop concerts), maybe not,” said Jeff Chusid of the Hollywood Heights Homeowner Assn. “But we feel there are better venues for some events and we encourage them to be used instead. Basically, the Bowl is expanding because it needs the money and we understand that, but we have to make sure that as they increase their revenue, they don’t do it at the cost of the community.”