Gusto Stories 1978

  For my astrological twin Jack Dumpert’s daughter Sam (a/k/a Dawn), this was her first rock concert. Jack has a story about running into Elvis Costello the next morning. March 23, 1979  Elvis Costello Survives Success           Will success spoil Elvis Costello? Well, it’ll take more than a couple weeks amongst the Top 10 albums, judging from what went down in Shea’s Buffalo Thursday night. All that acclaim has done is cloak the British singer-songwriter sensation’s harsh manners with a thin veneer of civility. And when it came to the music, there were no holds barred.           After being bowled over by last year’s model, one savored this year’s Elvis Costello for the nuances. No longer was he quite such a stiff, anxious figure. Decked out in his black-and-white checkered “My Aim Is True” jacket, black shirt and thin pink tie, he commanded the stage with an easy sort of assuran...

  Bob Geldof before he became the guy we all know from Live Aid. March 16, 1979 The Boomtown Rats           “I don’t know about you guys,” singer Bob Geldof said somewhere in the middle of the Boomtown Rats’ set Thursday night, “but this is the first time we’ve been in a disco, let alone played in one. Now what you people really ought to do is move into the center there. I find this place kinda inhibiting.”           England’s newest hitmakers were not at all at ease as they inaugurated Festival East’s fresh rock showcase arrangement with Uncle Sam’s in Cheektowaga, which most nights is a giant suburban disco. Though Geldof gave disco all due contempt, it wasn’t really the fault of the club.           If anything, this was a rock showcase as rock showcases should be. First of all, there was plenty of elbow room, more than sufficient for a ...

  Nothing beats the rush of a breakthrough moment. March 16, 1979  Spyro Gyra’s new album           Jay Beckenstein’s living room on Buffalo’s West Side has been transformed into an office for Cross-Eyed Bear Productions, which is the force behind the jazz-rock group Spyro Gyra. The advent of secretaries and filing cabinets, however, has not displaced the room’s central fixture – Beckenstein’s record and tape playing units. Back before the band went on tour, it was the one place to catch previews of Spyro Gyra’s second album, “Morning Dance” (Infinity INF-9004 MCA), which has just been released.           “I have no excuses on this one,” Beckenstein said one afternoon, lighting up a smoke as the music began. “This time we had the resources to go get the right player to do a particular thing. I’d like to think we’ve kept the identity. Conceptually, it’s still Jeremy and my and Rich...