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Show Page Eight Blue Suede Shoes Delaney and Bonnie survive By VAL NESS Chronicle Staff Wednesday night's Delaney and Bonnie concert came off well, especially considering all the factors that could have ruined the affair. John Hammond put forth magnificient solo acoustic performance that covered the rather noisy concert atmosphere like a net, eventually getting to all but the most insensitive in the audience. Delaney came out to jam with Hammond on several songs, but it was evident who the teacher was on that set. Hammond Ham-mond played his National steel guitar more confidently, with orginality and sincerity than many other blues guitarists I've seen. Billy Preston was surprisingly good. He was a great showman, rocking and reeling behind his organ, then dancing across the j 1 .arww.rwpMC'S , j j ? 3 :-T stage, always in perfect control of the music. His songs were lyrically lyric-ally as good as anything Elton John might sing-he could put them all together and have a nice humanist hymnbook. I can now see why the Beatles liked him so much as on organist; he knows his ax well. Although it was not not directly their fault, Delaney and Bonnie's set was disappointing. Three factors messed it up: First many people in the audience audi-ence took it upon themselves to show everybody else how groovy the whole scene was by whistling loudly and obnoxiously at every note held for more than three beats. Delaney spoke several lines to to the audience, about this situation, but apparently appar-ently no one was listening. Second, the acoustics were generally gen-erally rotten. Although Delaney and Bonnie had a total of 10 people peo-ple on stage (plus, at times, Hammond Ham-mond on harp), their act is largely based on vocals, which were badly distorted by the high volume vol-ume set on the mikes. They would do well to consider turning the volume down on everything the audience might mellow out and the vocals might be a lot clearer. Third, the act was disappointing because it was just that an act. Whereas Hammond and Preston were clearly deeply involved in their music, Delaney and Bonnie didn't seem to have the musical substance behind it that turns good entertainment into artistic communication. Two doll dancers from Thailand are featured in Ken Wolfgang's "Legendary Siam," replacement film-lecture on the University Travel Club series. The film will be screened in Kingsbury Hall, Monday at 8 P-m., filling in for h0 Pollard's "Houseboat Florida." Mr. Pollard's iilrr cancelled because he unexpectedly taken ill. Students will be admitted it cents, staff and faculty fo |