6
Monday, July 3, 1978
University Daily Kansan
Staff Photo by DAVID LINK
Concert perch
in an effort to rise above the crowd, one girl at the Wilhelie Nelson picnic Saturday climbed up on a friend's shoulders to gain a better view of the Graterdeal Dead's performance.
Willie's picnic serves hot music
By DAVID LINK
Staff Writer
Barry Fey was physically and emotionally spent. He and his people from Feyline Productions in Denver had brought 43,000 people together in Arrowhead Stadium to help Willie Nelson celebrate the Four of July.
The annual affair, making its first appearance in Kansas City, was billed as a Fourth of July picnic featuring beer, barbecue and lots of music.
Never mind that it was only July 1. Never mind that the only thing that got barbecued was people's backside. There's no indication of an annexation of the musical program.
Nothing would keep the pink-fleshed partisans below from enjoying themselves, but nothing would cheer up the crowd in his box on the stadium's club level.
At 3:30 p.m. the show was half an hour behind schedule. You just don't hurry such big time musicians as Jerry Garcia and The Grateful Dead.
Carol Walden, one of Feyline's production assistants, was telling a story about Fev' 18-year-old son, Alan.
it seems that when Nelson began the concert, an exuberant fan took off her shirt right in front of the stage, in the right show Willey her heart was in the right
When someone suggested to Alan that he keep his eyes directed toward the stage, the young Fey replied he was watchcapping a much better show.
That evoked only a momentary crack in his father's gloomy countenance. Walden's suggestion that perhaps a wet T-shirt contest was in order moved him
Fey had deeper worriers. Would the beer run out? (Yes. By 8 p.m., concessionaries had run through 900 kegs and were forced to order more.)
Would the musical marathon go to the planned nine hours without any nasty incidents? (Yes, more or less)
Would the air conditioning in Feyline's executive box ever come back on? (No. Occupants of boxes on the press level endured about the same temperatures as those in the stands, although the pretty dust could make Chief's hostesses helped ease the pain.
Heat was the largest common denominator among those in the stadium Saturday. Afternoon temperatures rose to the upper 90s. The temperature on the stadium floor was about 20 degrees above that.
Most of the audience was stripped down to the bare essentials in an effort to
"This is easily the smoothest running outdoor concert I've seen in a long time," MacCabe said. "With the parking lot opening at 7 and the turnstiles at 11, there were no major jumps at all. People just kind of tricked in as they got here."
Staring straight into the late afternoon sun, Jerry Garcia showed little of his 40-odd years when he delighted the crowd with his acid rock-based guitar, accompanied by guitarist Bob Weir and the rest of the Dead, in a 1/8-hour set that contained only two or three numbers at the most.
Nelson led things off at 1 p.m. Jerry Jeff Walker followed close behind. The Grateful Dead took the stage two hours later.
Another two-hour break followed the Dead's appearance, broken at 8 by
Joe MacCabe, doing remote broadcasts for KYYS, a Kansas City radio station that was one of the concert's cosponsors, gave credit to Cline and the Kansas City Chiefs' organization for their handling of the day's craziness.
As testimony to stadium manager Russine Cline's forestry, a fire hose on the 60-yard line was trained on the crowd between acts, helping fans to regain their
For the diehards who remained, Jessi Colter performed an abbreviated set while stage hands kept a watchful eye on the lightning-punctuated sky over the lake.
More rain followed Colter's performance. Then outlaw country and western singer Waylon Jennings was interrupted twice by the linening rain.
Jennings, who for some mysterious reason is known to his fans as “Ol Waylon,” was joined eventually by Nelson and the two managed to bring the sun-weary, rain-drenched crown to its feet with such outclass classes as “Up Against the Wall, Red-necked Mother” and “Whisker River.”
The day's only opportunities for confrontation seemed to occur when spectators would attempt to muscle their way into the hose's range.
Security personnel said there were few real problems throughout the day.
Jerry Bash, staff supervisor for security at the stadium, said that there had
A cloud of steam rising from the plastic turps just in front of the stage added an eerie effect. About half of the audience could be shaken, a better part of valor and left the stadium.
been some concern over possible clashes between the rock fans and the country and western fans but that the fears had proved unwarranted.
"Things have been very calm, more so than we thought they would be," Bash said.
He said the 185-man security force had encountered no real drug problems and that most of the 30 or so people arrested were being charged with trespassing.
humor had it that there had been some busts for drug dealing.
Most of those seen being led away in handcuffs certainly did not appear to be in any condition for fence climbing.
The fragrance of cocoa butter competed most of the day with the pungent odor of a certain mind-expanding herb being burned within rolled cigarette paper, particularly on the field and high in the stands.
And the half dozen or so Kansas City undercover narcotics agents who were in and out of the photographers' press box all day, while reportedly there merely to observe, did not encourage one to flash his stash.
The rain hit hard and fast, effectively clearing the playing fields of spectators. Winds whipped up the accumulated trash and dust from the stadium floor into miniwirlswhirl the roads rushed around covering electronic gear.
Attendants at the stadium's two first aid stations said they had treated about 300 people by 9 p.m. Most of the symptoms were heat induced.
The hard-rocking Missouri carried the concert into the nighttime hours until the clouds opened up at the end of their set.
"I couldn't begin to tell you how much ice, aspirin, salt tablets and Band-Aids we've handed out," one of the nurses said.
beat the heat, some getting even more essential than others, as witnessed by Alan Fey.
"I just wish they'd hurry up and get this thing over with."
Missouri, a local Kansas City group that has done well.
Staff Photo by DAVID LINK
Utility strike yields self-service
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (MUI) - Kansas City Power and Light Co. has placed 500 management and nounion personnel on 12-hour shifts and will ask its customers in 23 Missouri and Kansas counties to read their instructions as a strike by several thousand employees.
Don Landes, vice president of communications for KCP&L, said yesterday that 8,000 customers are online today on to read their meters, as well as a card to fill out and return to the company. He said customer access is required at the rate of 8,000 a day for its 330,000 customers.
On Saturday, 2,100 union members, represented by three union locals, began a strike against the company. Workers began picking after a breakdown in contract negotiations at reopening in the final year of a three-year agreement.
CATHAY
Landsed the substitute personnel had handled repairs connected with about 30 power outages in the Kansas City area caused by thunderstorms late Saturday.
"Our supervisory, management and nonunion personnel are working 12-hour shifts, six to seven days a week, in order to extend manpower to provide the service.
"It was kind of rough, though, because we are just getting organized to handle the task."
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onto the playing field in front of the stage were subjected to temperatures of 115 degrees and above.
Packed house
--federal mediator. No further talks have been scheduled.
A crowd estimated 43,000 filled Arrowhead Stadium for the Willie Nelson Fourth of July picnic Saturday. Music fans who jammed
"Lawyers are driving trucks, vice presidenta are climbing poles and engineers
"still it is not possible for 500 people to perform all of the work of 2,100. All staff work has been set aside and nonessential work as far as service is concerned will be taken up in the form of concentrated on those functions that pertain to the normal service of our customers."
He said some large commercial customers would continue to have their meters read. The company can estimate usage for residential customers if necessary and make adjustments during the next billing period, he said.
Fred Farner, a spokesman for one of the three unions that represent striking employees, Local 412 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, a union owned by company, had refused to improve pension plans and that it had failed to bargain in good faith.
The key issues in the talks are wages and benefits and health and life insurance benefit programs. One of the issues that brought an end to the talks was the compromises with the agreements with the three locals, Vic Poier, a company spokesman, said.
The union officials say workers are prepared to remain off job until the company recovers from the strike.
N negotiations, which began in mid-June, were held last week under the auspices of a
Lew Rumpeltese, president of Local 1613, which represents clerical and office employees said that union members had made the company's offers were unacceptable.
Farrer said that a strike, while not an entirely effective weapon against a utility, could cause serious injury.
Western Open delayed by rain
Bill Rogers, the third-round leader at 6-under-par 210, is in one of the last groups to start, along with Hale Irwin, who is tied for second with Mac Mckendon, 2 strokes off the course and Bob Gilder, who is alone at 213, are to tee off in the group before Rogers and Rogers.
OAK BROOK, il. (AP)—Nagging rains that dripped intermittently on the Western Open Golf Tournament for two days turned into a storm, leaving the final round scheduled for yesterday.
The 18-hole windup was pushed back until today, when the forecast called for mostly sunny skies and lower humidity. The 80 golfers remaining in the $25,000 tournament are scheduled to tee off at the same place that they would have yesterday, about 11 a.m.
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