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Show I i I I Friday, May 'Roboto' success surprises Styx By MARY CAMPBELL AP Newsfeatures Writer Styx brought out its new album, Kilroy Was Here, and the first single from it, Mr. with a lot of Roboto, kids in the neighborhood just like Styx. In the 80s, economic conditions are terrible and Everett Righteous, a failed rock musician from a wealthy family, buys a cable TV station and becomes very influential. He blames the economic problems, drugs, Vietnam, trepidation. Rolling Stones said it was Styxs combination of smooth pop melodicism and hard-roc- k muscle that earned the band a large following over the past five years. The Los Angeles Times said, Everyone figured they would play it safe and simply enjoy their status as the most popular American band. Dennis DeYoung, 35, leader, permissive attitudes illustrated by rock n roll. He gets legislation passed to ban it. player and main composer, had an idea for something different and talked the rest of Styx into it. He had in mind more than a concept album and not quite a rock opera. He calls it rock theater. DeYoung says, There was fear, in terms of stepping out of our traditional rock n roll roles, which are playing concerts as yourself, and becoming other characters. There was a reluctance since that had never made money. After the album was made came the question of what to put out as the first single. The group picked Mr. Roboto. We used to sit around and say Whos going to understand what its about? We got our new suits from Paranoia Brothers. We remixed it five times. We were looking for the thing that maybe isnt even there. You have so much riding on it, you want the concept and the story to work. Dennis DeYoung story about censorship, using rock n roll as something the Styx audience could relate to, after watching a TV show about robots working, in the dark, in a Japanese factory. He got the name for his hero from Kurt Vonneguts character Kilgore Trout. That made me think plained. In the story which is very the couple autobiographical has a child three years after he comes home, named Robert Orin Charles Kilroy. He grows up in the 60s, gets in a very successful rock n roll band of best-sellin- g Kilroy challenges the law and gives a rock concert. They arrest him. Theres a riot where people are killed. He goes to a prison run by Japanese robots. Ten years passes. Jonathan Chance grows up, starts a movement to bring back rock n roll, slips some footage of Kilroy performing into the Morality Hour on TV. Kilroy sees it. It inspires him to break out of prison and find this kid. When they meet, Jonathan asks if Kilroy really killed the kid he was sent to prison for killing. Theres a flashback to the concert. It becomes a Styx concert from that moment, as if Kilroy is Styx. The story is interwoven through the concert. Righteous appears and you see what happened. This years Styx concerts film open with an of the the first showing part 11 tour The March started story. in San Diego, will run to October. DeYoung started playing rock music with drummer John Panozzo and his twin Chuck Panozzo, a bassist, 20 years ago theyve ever been in. Chicagoan James Young, joined when it became a band, on guitar and vocals. Tommy Shaw, from Paradise Theater was about a theater built in Chicago in the 1930s and torn down in 1958. DeYoung wanted listeners to think about preserving, rather than throwing away, such things as cars, theaters and marriages. Grand Illusion pointed out that working hard to make your dreams come true may not work if your dreams are happiness as materialism through fostered in TV ads. Still, DeYoung says, the band puts the melody ahead of the words in importance. He adds that most of Styxs hit songs have been love songs. Thats how were able to have such dedicated fans. If we just were doing the history of the world, part 27, I think nobody would care. We touch them on a personal level. Styx can make intelligent lyrics fit into great melodies. And if people dont care about the lyrics, I hope they like the melodies. The melodies are Journey Frontiers Columbia sold over five million Journey copies of their album Escape last year while Shout Out the Lights by Richard and Linda Thomas sold only a fraction of that. This year Journey will sell of their album Frontiers while others by the Roches will go unnoticed. Through the years Journey has become one of the giants of the heavy metal scene. In a way, the sheer force and energy of their music demands awe and recognition, and after so many years Journey have paid their debt to the business. But Frontiers shows little that is new and surprising, and millions bone-jarrin- g, a magic formula and it doesnt matter what we put on the record, people buy it and we become richer. I dont know what could be further from the ' truth. io DeYoung got his .idea, for .a the lyrics are little more than y electronic, space-agwith silly love ballads thrown in every now and then. Why so many people buy their albums is beyond me but then again, why do so many people choose elevators over taking the e, g records of the week based on Cashbox magazines nationwide survey: 1. Lets Dance, David Bowie 2. Beat It, Michael Jackson 3. Flashdance ... What a Feeling, Irene Cara 4. Come On Eileen, Dexys Midnight Riders 5. She Blinded Me With Science, Thomas Dolby 6. Overkill, Men at Work 7. Der Kommissar, After the Fire 8. Little Red Corvette, Prince 9. Mr. Roboto, Styx Best-sellin- Solitaire, Laura Branigan mm ALL -- , IP3flS Cousins plan piano recital YTTrrrn :Tl Iff ( Fence 320 Ft. Rolls Two Carbon County cousins will perform in a piano recital Wednesday, June 1, sponsored by the music department at the College of Eastern Utah. Karen Bunnell, daughter of Judge and Mrs. Boyd Bunnell, and Matthew Powell, son of Mr. and Mrs. James Powell, will perform at the 8 p.m. program in the CEU Music Building. The program will include solo selections from several stylistic periods as well as two delightful numbers written especially for two performers at two pianos. Miss Bunnell and Powell have been studying piano with Janis Siggard. Both are high honor students at CEU where they are members of the Concert Choir. Powell is a French homist and keyboard player in the college bands. He completed a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-da- y Saints in the Porto Mission. He has Alegre-Braz- il studied one year at Brigham Young University. Miss Bunnell has been a member cheerleading Blue Deb. Utah CEU of the squad and is a sets fcirio Rolls (1320 from 'oung throughout Utah will ipete in the annual Miss pageant Sept. 23 and n the Salt Palace in Salt Lake com-niti- ft.) es Over A 200 he winner of the Miss Utah- V pageant will compete in the Miss USA ionally-televised eant. Each state pageant ner participates in the Miss pageant for the chance to resent the United States in Miss Universe pageant contestants iss Utah-USin judges inparticipate views, a fashion show, msuit and evening gown for ging, and a special dinner rants and their guests, or ticket or entry tarnation, contact pageant ces at 3732 N. 600 East, wo, Utah, 84604. 66.19 75.60 87.67 Corrugated iVletal 80 Rod pageant women 32 in. high 39 in. high 47 in. high Rolls in stock I Hor Roofing Over 000 sheets in stock 1 26"xl0' 26"xl2' 26"xl4' 26"xl6' 26"xl8' 26"x20' 5.96 7.16 8.35 9.55 10.73 11.93 V A , - A A mmsmm G&M&B whicky-whack- stairs? top lO 10. great. f by ron vogel MfflflgSGi expectations, DeYoung says, I dont know why. Theres a misconception that people who are successful have i of Kilroy was here in World War II and my father coming home from World War II, he ex- charts, Mr. Roboto was No. 3 and Kilroy Was Here was No. 4, both still climbing. It turned out better than our highest sexual revolution and feminism on the keyboard On the April 16 the Watergate, Sun Advocate, Price, Utah for the record in Chicago. This is the only band Alabama, joined in 1975, on guitar and vocals. After four albums on Wooden Nickel Records, Styx signed with A & M in 1975. The first two albums, Equinox in 1975 and Crystal Ball in 1976, didnt sell especially well. But the last Pieces four, Grand Illusion, of Eight, and Cornerstone Paradise Theater, have each sold 3 million copies. 27, 1983 GzD)GIiraic)fiia)Ctia mftnfVi.1 |