Sunset Strip: End of rock rainbow
By Jane Scott (Sunday Plain Dealer-Akron, Ohio - August 27,1978)

No one thought anything of it at the time. Four men in white outfits got up on scaffolding and painted Sunset Boulevard's biggest billboard during the evening rush hour. When they got through, the $1,500-a-week sign looked like a giant postcard. There was a look-alike stamp in the upper right-hand corner. And in the middle were the words: "Rubber City Rebels, Akron, O. 44313."

"Frankly, it was just too tempting to pass up," said the Rebel's manager, Michael K. O'Brien. "There was this giant white blank billboard up there, near the Casablanca office, with nothing on it." The group members had bought white jumpsuits at the Army-Navy store.

In some cities, the sign stunt would have got the painter's jailed. In Hollywood, they got signed to a label.

The sign was up there five days. One night, Seymour Stein, president of Sire Records of Warner Brothers, drove by, saw the billboard and decided to catch the bands act at the Whisky A Go Go. Today, the Rubber City Rebels have left Akron behind and are ready to record their first record for Sire in Los Angeles. "You know, it probably couldn't have happened anywhere else but on the Strip and in a Hollywood-hype atmosphere," decided O'Brien.

Sunset Strip, a two-mile street between plush Beverly Hills and a sleazy side of town, is the hub and the heart of the rock field. True, it doesn't have the elegance it did in the 1950s. But it has survived the rebellious '60s, when tons of teens gathered in the flower power and acid revolution. Now Sunset is the street of rock success, with RSO Records, (Robert Stigwood Organization), Chrysalis, Casablanca, Island, Arista, MCA, Motown and Mercury as well as Billboard magazine and such top public relations firms as Solters and Roskin. Sunset Blvds. many billboards have been called the height of hype. The current Electric Light Orchestra's flashing space ship will cost $50,000 for a four-to-six-week run, reports Foster and Kleiser. Somehow, it symbolizes the Hollywood rock scene. Flash. Money. Power. But not much time to make it in. Everything is out there, the big record company and conglomerates, the trade magazines, 74 radio stations.

But bands which come out from the Greater Cleveland area have found that there aren't as many places to play. They don't have the many dance clubs that throb along in the Cleveland-Akron-Kent area. And there is no big, comfortable place like the Cleveland Agora. "Places seem to open and close here all the time," said Marty Sobol, a Clevelander who now manages the rock department of Tower Records, "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart Club's band."

"But they once said this Strip would go dead. It's alive again. Punk is doing pretty well here." The big two on the Strip are the Roxy and the Whisky A Go Go. The Starwood club is down a few blocks on Santa Monica Blvd.

The Roxy is the club you play when you've made it on a good label. Record companies often bring their acts here. Manager Mario Maglieri, 54, a grandfather and former municipal court bailiff, led me through the crowds down a wide aisle to the side wall. Lee Ritenour, a rock-jazz band, was playing and the club was sold out. "We let anyone of any age in, but we can only serve alcohol to those 21 and over," Maglieri said. None of that beer at 18 in California. Fans sat at tables in front of the stage or in a reserved section behind the aisle, which was kept free of standees. "We play everybody here. Bette Midler, Stanley Clark, George Duke, Chuck Mangione, Al Jarreau, Bad Company. Teddy Pendergrass sold out three days. We tried to get Bruce Springsteen," said the manager.

When the Roxy show is over, it's over. A curtain is pulled completely covering the stage. There's a disadvantage, though. The club only holds 500, half the amount of the Agora, and the stage is much smaller. Upstairs is a private key club, On the Rox, started by record executive Lou Adler. Linda Ronstadt is supposed to be the star among stars who go there. "You'd play David Johansen or Elvis Costello at the Whisky, but Lou Reed would be here," said Maglieri.

The Whisky is the old-timer of rock clubs --- where Chicago and Aerosmith played and where the Doors were once booked as the back-up band. The club is now high on punk and new-wave groups. Shock, a local punk formation, was opening the show for Dyan Diamond the night we were there. Shock lowered a white banner with its name on it as it started. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't a standout in any way. Up on a wall was a picture of Kim Fowley, founder of the Runaways, a girl rock group, with the sign, "The Dorian Gray of Rock 'n' Roll." Another sign said: Warning: State law prevents minors from buying alcohol with a fake ID. Courts are compelled to levy a $100 fine, with a maximum of $400 or five months in jail or both. "We check purses to see if they contain bottles or drugs. If we're busted, it's our fault," said a door guard.

The Whisky has a mezzanine with a bar. Two tough-looking girls with leather jackets and spiked bracelets seemed to be the queens of the upper section. The Whisky also has a menu in keeping with its style. It has the Joan Jett Take-off drink, a Runaway best seller, the Cheap Trick Bun E. Burger and a Mumps (fresh fruit) cocktail, all referring to new wave groups. There is also the Rodney Bingenheimer special (Tab). Bingenheimer has a Sunday night show on KROQ and is considered a punk authority. "I'd consider the Dickies the top punk band around here now," he said.

But the Starwood had the bash of the month. The marquee said Peter Tosh and the Roots of Creation. But word spread like wildfire that the Rolling Stones would come down for the second show. Wasn't Tosh on the Rolling Stone label? And doesn't he play on the Stone's gigs? Right. An ambulance was parked in the driveway. A special gate was set up. A total of 74 Los Angeles city police and 140 security guards were out. A portion of the boulevard was blocked off. Those of us in the ../media or record companies were escorted upstairs to a crowded VIP section. A kind Atlantic official let me sit at his table. TV cameras hovered all around. Fire marshals came by, and for a minute, we were afraid they would clear us all out. They should have. Tosh played his reggae music well, doing an even more spirited set at the second show. Fans stood on their feet downstairs like lovesick sardines. It became increasingly apparent that Mick Jagger would never plough through such a tight crowd. The Los Angeles Herald Examiner summed it up nicely in a headline the next day: "What If They Gave a Party and Nobody Came?"

"Just like L.A. After awhile, you begin to believe the rumor and the hype yourself," said a philosophic record salesman. "It's harder for a regular rock band to make it here," said Sobol. "But would you believe that we have sold out all of the record 'Akron' on Stiff Records?" That's a collection of new wave bands in the Rubber City area. Sobol notices that there is a clean new wave called power pop out there, not as rough as the Dead Boys-Sex Pistols school. There is also art rock, which is almost surrealistic and unreal. Sobol believes that Devo of Akron belongs in this category, although he doubts if the band would like this label. "But I'll tell you, people like Cleveland groups such as Pere Ubu and Devo. I play them a lot in the store, and their records are really selling. People here seem to like the factory, industrial sound these groups have.

"But in Cleveland or Detroit, you can play longer and build up a following, then go to Los Angeles or New York. The pace here is so fast, you can't just take the time you really need," said O'Brien, the Rebel's manager.

Incidentally, the Rubber City Rebels weren't the only group to fix up a billboard to suit themselves. Bruce Springsteen, some band and crew members, raced to the top of a seven-story Sunset Blvd. building and spray-painted "Prove It All Night," one of their songs, across a Springsteen billboard that they didn't like.