Entertainment
Page 6 University Daily Kansan, November 21, 1980
---
The Debs spurn profits, play for the fun of it all
By BLAKE GUMPRECHT Staff Writer
staff Writer
KANAS CITY, Mo.-Terry Cone is a ticket seller in a movie theater. Katie Coffman works in a record store. Kristrephan and Peggy Smith are college students.
On weekends, though, they're fast becoming one of mid-America's most popular bands. They're the Debs from Springfield, Mo., and, yes, they're all female, in that sense, are the girl groups that Paul Spector made famous in the 60s.
Last weekend, they packed the DOWNliner—Kansas City's rock rattshaller—as full as the tiny midtown club has ever been. On Friday, 225 people packed the bar, barely twice the size of most living rooms.
"It's like something I dreamed," says Peggy, the band's sly drummer.
A week earlier, the Debs packed Lawrence's Off-the-Wall Hall two straight nights on their four visit there.
The Debs, shortened from the Debutantes, have been at it about two years, but things have only begun to pop in the last six months.
THEY'RE YOUNG—Kris and Katie are just 19—and all but Terry, who is 25, still live at home with their parents.
It's the first regular band for all of them. Peggy, in fact, bought her first drum set on a lark less than three years ago and joined the band just a few months later. When she was 18, another month, more was still taking lessons when the band began to form.
But from a band that played just 15 songs, none of them original, and was strictly a support act for local Springfield bands, the Debs have grown into a band that plays at the bill in clubs from St. Louis to Tulsa every weekend and boasts a 55-number song list, including 11 "Debs' songs."
"It's kinda like 'Oh, we get paid, too?' " says bassist Terry, who shares lead vocals with Kris, as the band finally gets a moment's respite while the profits are divided up shortly before 2 a.m. in the Kansas City apartment of a friend. "I just want to make a little money and have fun."
The Debs play pop.
Oh, radio types probably would call them 'new wave.' After all, their crowds include a scattering of circa-1977 punks, some complete with Nazi regia, chains and studded dog collars, and fashionable wavers dressed in miniskirts, leopard-skin shirts and wrap-round sunglasses. The Debs' exhausting set includes covers of Blondie, the Rammones and Undertones' originals.
BUT IT'S JUST basic fun, danceable rock'n'roll—no politics, just a dancebeat. Their two-and-a-half hour set of covers and originals has the dance floor filled before the first chorus begins.
The Debs are best at performing updated versions of
50s and 60s classics such as Elvie "All Shook Up," the Renettes "Be My Baby," the Changnell-Las "Leader of the Pach" and "Easier Said Than Donne," by the Essex.
Dabs' originals are in the same light, with titles like "Girl Crazy," "Waiting for the Weekend" and "New Boyfriend," complete with irresistible lyrics, simple catchy hooks, Terry and Krys do most of the writing.
It's all faceless but fun.
"It's the kind of music we've been exposed to," says lead guitarist Katie. "It's all rock'n'roll. That's just an album."
Kris and Terry are the veterans among the Debs. They knew each other from playing in various pick-up bands around Springfield. Kris knew Peggy from a group together at Southern Missouri State University.
"We heard she had drums and an amp," Terry recalls with a grin. "She had drums, a P.A. and a place to practice; that's a gold mine. We asked her to join."
KATIE, MEANWHILE, had just begun taking lessons on her father's guitar. Her oldest brother is the guitarist for Fools Face, one of Springfield's best bands. As it turned out, Katie's guitar instructor was a bandleader.
"He said, 'God, she's good, You ought to get her to play.' "Terry says. "So we did."
play. Ferry days. So dua.
The Debs are as unpretentious as they are good.
They're friendly, share beers with people in the crowd between songs and have no lofty goals or large egos. They're not above trading a couple Ds' T-shirts to friends who shoots of Wild Turkey, when they did before a recent show.
A grin rarely disappears from Peggy's face as she pounds relentlessly on the drums; Katie often bursts into a blushing smile after completing a demanding guitar line.
says guitarist Kris, "I don't even think about the crowd; I'm just worried about what chord I'm playing. If I paid attention to the crowd, I'd probably get paranoid."
Their nervousness still shows on stage.
The Debs, furthermore, have not cut a single and have little desire to. No album is planned. They have yet to even spend time in a recording studio.
"All that stuff about what we want to do—it's ridicu-
lous." says Katie, "that too far off to talk about."
SIMPLY, they don't think they're good enough, yet.
"All that stuff about what we want to do — it'ridsicu-
mary."
Meanwhile, the Debs are happy with their part-time role, playing in places like the Downliner, the Blue Note in Columbia, Mo., and Humphrey Klinker's in Springfield.
They'll return to Lawrence Dec. 11, when they'll play at the Opera House with the Morels, another Spring-
"It's all happened so fast." Terry says. "We make a lot of mistakes. We have a lot to learn. There are a lot of songs we'd like to play, but we can't because we don't know how to play them.
"We're still beginners."
Top: The Debs in concert at Kansas City's The Downliner. Left: Terry Cone, bass/lead vocals.
Above: Kris Trephan, guitar/lead vocals.
KEN COMBS/Kansan staf
386 students perform Sunday
By VANESSA HERRON Staff Reporter
Almost 400 KU music students will perform in a combination student concert at 3:30 P.M.
in the concert, a 300-voice choir and the 88-
piece University Orchestra will perform Mozart's "Requiem" and igor Stravinsky's "Symphonov of Palms."
The two works were chosen because they represent the best of the classical and neo-classical periods of music, and have a similar charm. The professor of fine arts who will conduct the concert.
Soloists at the concert will include William Warfield, this year's Langston Hughes Visiting Professor, and members of KU's faculty quartet.
"I like to program Stravinsky and Mozart together whenever the occasion arises," he said.
Warfield has recorded Mozart's "Requiem" with the New York Philharmonic, Orchestra, Ballet.
The "Requirement" is a somber mass for the
Mozart wrote for chair, solo quartet and
tenor.
The "Requiem" will be preceded Sunday afternoon by "Symphony of Psalms," an austere choral and instrumental work that Stravinsky wrote in 1929; during his neo-classical period.
For the symphony's text, Stravinsky chose Psalms 39, 30 and 150 from the King James Bible. The psalmus, he set in three, unbroken and uncontained, tails of despair, hope and thanksgiving.
"Symphony of Psalms" is considered to be one of Stravinsky's most important works, Ralston
to master the works included in Sunday's 90-minute program, which was rehearsed from the beginning by Ralton. Relation said,
Student choral groups that will perform Sunday include the KU Chamber Choir, Concert Choir, Concert Chorale, University Singers and two University choruses.
Ralston said the number of students per classroom the fall concert was one of the largest in KU's history.
"I's marvelous music and I hope we have good crowd," he said. "We all worked hard."
The fall combined concert is free and open to the public.
Chinese exhibit at the Nelson Gallerv
By ELIZABETH MORGAN
Staff Reporter
Two collections of Chinese paintings, those of the Nelson Gallery-Aktins Museum and the Cleveland Museum of Art, have been combined in the best collection of Chinese paintings in the U.S.
The changes in Chinese paintings in the collection of approximately 350 works, which are one display until Jan. 4 at the Nelson Gallery.
"It is staggeringly huge and overwhelming," said Stephen Addis, associate professor of art
history. "There is an entire range of painting development."
Bev Haskins, publicity director for the Nelson Gallery, said that the dynasties ruling China affected the art. For example, when the Mongols invaded China, the artists rejected the Yuan Dynasty, and the paintings became more introspective.
"It depends on the painter and the particular court's views of what art was or wasn't," Haskins says. The dynasty's interest was美术, the artist wanted to take a black seat. Art either flourished or fell."
Haskins said people expecting paintings that all looked the same with black ink on bamboo
The subjects of the paintings vary from landscapes to smoky pictures of dragons to pastoral scenes of birds with intricately painted feathers. Many paintings require close scrutiny to see the finer detail in what might otherwise seem an insignificant object.
were in for a surprise. She said that the museum incorporated background information into the exhibit but that a person didn't have to be敢驾驭able with Chinese art to enjoy the exhibit.
"This is not an exhibition that you have to understand an awful lot," she said. "It's like looking at any other painting. If it's beautiful, it's beautiful."
Many of the paintings have color, some very rich, with blues and jade greens. All are painted with brushstrokes.
Haskins said the Nelson Gallery and the Cleveland Art Museum had two of the four largest collections of Chinese paintings in the United States. The other two, the Boston Museum of Art and the Freer Art Museum in Washington, D.C., do not loan their collections.
Some of the paintings are on scrolls as long as 50 feet, according to Haskins, although they could not be displayed completely. Often the scrolls tell parables. The subject matter may be small compared to the entire scroll, but the story is told by following the scroll.
Addiss said the Chinese artists tried to portray the inner life or inner vitality of a subject, the deeper rather than outward aspects.
Haskins said that by coincidence the Nelson Gallery was stronger in earlier Chinese painting, while Cleveland primarily had later Chinese paintings, giving the collection a broad range of styles.
Haskins said that since its opening on Nov. 7, unexpected 20,000 people had visited the exhibition.
Spare Time
TODAY
MUSIC: Powerglide, 9 p.m. at G.P. Loyd's West
Hosek, Inge Theatre Series, 8 p.m., Inge Theatre "Same Time, Next Year," presented by the Lawrence Commu-
MUSIC: Powerhouse, p.91n. at Bentley,
Crystal Caye, 7:30 and 10 p.m. at the Uptown Theatre, Kansas
(Mo.)
Bugs Henderson Group, 9 p.m. at the Lawrence Opera House
THEATER: "Now Appearing" a new play by Laurie VanderPool
"Same Time, Next Year," presented by the Lawrence Community Theatre, 8 p.m. at the Lawrence Arts Center
ART: Ruth Bowman, Libers, and Jon Havenier, metals, at the Lawrence Arts Center
Si en
Jan Guarnitz, watercolors, and Betty Lessdenn, ceramics, at the gallery, 745 New Hampshire St.
KU student photography contest winners, Union Gallery
MOVIES: "The Onn Field," 3:30 and 9:30 p.m. "A Little
Martin Cheng, watercolors, at Kellia Gallery, 7. E Seventh St.
"Likeness": Portrait Photographs from the Collection, "Takako
Hara."
SATURDAY
By DIAN Staff Re
Adventures on the Road in IRON SAILOR" and "THE HATCH Collection" at the Helen Foster Spencer Museum at Auburn.
Invitational Glass Exhibit, Art and Design Gallery, Art and Design Building
The n over. W and cle restaurant
Bill their se
Romance," 7 p.m. and "Frakes" and "Mondo Cane," mid-
night, at the Kansas Union
"I wa laugh. dressed
"I th it, and said.
Powerglide, 9 p.m. at G.P. Loyd's West
Oh r Jeannie
MUSIC: Jack Bruce and Friends (Billy Cobham, Clerm Clempson and David Sancluo), 8.p.m. at the Uptown Theatre, Kansas City
John Williams, countertenor, and Friends, 8 p.m., Swarthout Recital Hall
a stra a T-shir asked to no more on a ka an anni waitres
Lynch and McBee Band, 9 p.m. at the Lawrence Opus House
THEATER: "New Appearing," a new play by Laurie VanderPoll-
er
Accre
increa
started
now av
day.
Acco ASTA the na recalle
"Same Time, Next Year," presented by the Lawrence Community Theatre, 8 o.m., Lawrence Arts Center
The deliver telegra Lisa K Park j
KAN when City, messa
MOVIES: "The Onion Field," 7 p.m. "A Little Romance," 3:30 and 6:00 p.m. "and Freaks," and "Mondo Cane," midnight, at 10 p.m.
*ralims*, *performed by the KU Combined Choir, Choruses and Orchestra, James Riston, conductor, and William Warfield*, *performed by the KU Combined Choir, Choruses and Orchestra*.
Why "It said. bigge:
MUSIC: Mozart's "Requiem" and Stravinsky's "Symphony of
Palms," performed by the KU Combined Choirs, Chicago
and Orchestra, James Ralston, conductor, and William Wa
field, bass soloist, 330 p.m. Hoehldorium, Milwaukee
Minute Opera.
THEATER: "Now Appearing," a new play by Lauree VanderPol-Hosak, iNose Theatre Series, 8 in. iNose. iNose
Hoské, inge i Mettele Series, 8 p.i.h., ihre mireane "Same Time, Next Year," presented by the Lawrence Commu-
"Same Time, Next Year," presented by the Lawrence Community Theatre, 2:30 p.m., Lawrence Arts Center MOUNT VERNON
Kris from ]
MOVIES: "Bound for Glory," 2 p.m. at the Union
MONDAY
MOVIES: "His Girl Friday" and "Bringing Up Baby." 7:30 p.m.
the Union
THEATER: "Now Appearing," a new play by Laurie Vander-Poik, Inge Theatre Series, 8 p.m. Inge Theatre.
MOVIES: "Phantom Lady" and "Gilde," 7:30 p.m. at the Union
1
WEDNESDAY MUSIC: Ian Gillian, with Missouri, 8 p.m., Uptown Theatre, Kansas City, Mo.
/