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-entertainmen Band comes By Bruce B. Ritchie Aftor turn uparc of nloirinn In nnn?U> . ~ JV??ki ui piu; nig in iicai 1^ every other bar in Columbia, the Corbett-Urquia Band will play for the first time at the Golden Spur tomorrow and Friday. The Corbett-Urquia Band, named after band members Jim Corbett and Susan Urquia, mixes mellow rock 'n' roll with high-energy heavy metal. Urquia's vocals lend a soft touch on songs such as "How Real Is Your Love?" and "Love Will Still Survive," while Corbett's energetic guitar playing gives the band an overall hard-driving sound. THE BAND received radio airplay this summer with a song called "Friday Night War," which was played on WNOK-FM and WUSC-FM. The song is about the Falkland Islands War between Argentina and Great r? ?: a. ~? 1 *?* 41 * oil tain, anu iea lures me sounds ot battle: helicopters, missiles, bombs and machinegun fire. Those sounds are produced by the band's synthesizers. Chip Cannon plays the regular synthesizer and the clavinet synthesizer while Corbett operates an Avatar synthesizer, which is triggered by an electric guitar. F& tiP^^ES^'v1 " mm/St / - ] I "" ' Hj|p " :'" $ mi ' j -L-'^ - ~ -1 rnoio oy Drue* Ritchie Guitarist Jim Corbett said he enjoys playing in Columbia. Comedy draw: By Doug Bell To those born too late to witness the initial era of broadcast television, the comedy in "My Favorite Year" may seem loud, oldfashioned and simnlp-minHpH But reruns of Sid Caesar, Jackie Gleason or Milton Berle variety shows reveal those comedians relied not on subtlety and polite domestic jokes, but on broad, obvious gags just short of (and sometimes including) the >A The alcoholic, swashbuckling Alan Swann (Pe Linn-Baker) for a wild ride in "My Favorite Yeai ; to Spur aft 'Anytime you play for a college ormaiil ikn nn<l>nMMn '~ J:XX ? * uiuvvu, me auuicnbc 15 umertsni. You get people from all over the cousitry; you get a good crosssection/ ? Corbett-Urquia drummer Steve Klinck The airplay helped the band gain attention in Columbia, C rbett said. "That lends a lot of credibility to a band. Somebody could have heard you before and liked you, but then when they hear you on the radio, you're immediately somebody (more important) to them," he said. All the members of the Corbett-Urquia Band demonstrate a superior knowledge of music, contributing to the band's diverse sound. CORBETT RULES his guitar, producing a variety of sounds from George Thorogoodstyle blues to reggae. He has full, clear vocals, demonstrated on the sones "Guaranteed to Please" and "Screamin' at You." Urquia can play all of the synthesizers, I but only does so on a couple of songs. She mainly plays rhythm guitar and delivers polished vocal work. Drummer Steve Klinck gives the band good rapport with a crowd. He frequently chats with members of the audience, urging them to dance or to get rowdy. Klinck solos on drums during "The Rest Is Up to You," adding play on the chimes. He also sings lead on several songs, including "Damned If I Do," a song made famous by the Alan Parsons Project. "DAMNED IF I DO" begins with a Corbett soln on the Avatar and is one of the few songs performed by the band not iirriffon ifo nni.vv.llUJ 1 LO 111CD1UC1 di The Corbett-Urquia Band also plays a pair of original reggae songs, titled "Please Tell Me" and "Off On the Roof." The wide range of music played by the group makes it difficult to classify into a category such as New Wave or Southern rock. "I hate to put a name on it because it's us," Urquia said. "It doesn't sound like anybody else." The band has built a local following since its beginning almost two years ago. Klinck, Corbett and Cannon were members of the Columbia bands Nappy Patch and Roadwork in the late 1970s. When Roadwork split up, uoroeu became interested in playing original material. COHBETT HEARD Urquia, who was performing alone at the time. She was ins style from e pie in the face. They aimed for the belly, not the brain. "My Favorite Year" takes place in 1954. The film, a boisterous backstage comedy about the hectic days of live television, has a style similar to early live TV comedy. Style is one thing; laughs are another. BENJY STONE (Mark Linn-Baker) is a junior writer for the fictitious NBC program, "Comedy Cavalcade." Young, f r ter O'Tooie) takes young Benjy {Mark r." :er 2 years ii [Si' j s. f WBSh - IHHi r ;.^^pw^Hj|^g [ : -- iWlll JllC";":jjMur . i ~I; '- HPf: Jlmmm Wm PHWBr ^ ,Ml;p ^S- BBBBlWillilH L : ^Hf-:-:- -Wf^tr JMn IpBm *jSt _ h^bsbh^^HHB^BBR*. w * h ." . : , ' w;' - '' v '"" ^ iijriGi:! Jim Corbett and Susan Urquia, founders of t Stridors. After two years of playing the Colum the Golden Spur tomorrow and Friday. vited to join the group, which became the Corbett-Urquia Band in January 1981. Since then, the group has grown from playing for a dozen people at The Lobby last winter to a successful three-night appearance at Stridei s Concert Hall last week. "We've got a good following, and the kind of people that come out to see us are really good people," Urquia said. ' We really enjoy our fans." The band has hoped for an appearance at the Golden Spur since last winter. "It's exciting," Klinck said. "Anytime you play for a college crowd, the audience is different. You get people from all over the country; you get a good cross-section." CORBETT DESCRIBED the Golden Spur as "a wnrlH nil tn iteolf" onrl ^" i? ^ ww >v? mai vu ivov/ii U11U OCllU UC 1UU1VD forward to playing for students. "At other places, people will come and stay in groups to themselves. In the Spur, people mesh real well," he said. tarly days of li odd-looking and boundlessly enthusiastic, Benjy writes a sketch to feature his all-time hero of the silver screen days, Alan Swann (Peter O'Toole). Swann, known for his dashing appearance and eloquence, has succumbed by the 1950s to his ravaging affection for wine, women and song. Benjy's co-writers, particularly a rasping, anxiety-ridden type (Bill Macy), are aware of Swann's reckless reputation, and they vote to drop the sketch. Benjy resists, finally winning them over by promising to steer the great star clear of the booze during rehearsals and up to showtime. Swann, a graying charmer with John Barrymore's celebrated appetite for booze and sex, Errol Flynn's swashbuckling zeal, and a sophisticated, cynical wit reminiscent of George Sanders, grows quite fond of his eager young wet nurse. THE ALCOHOLIC idol and the ardent i HaI o ? - 1Uv.ai?! aimit; many a zany scene: wrecking a restaurant, breaking bread with Benjy's outrageously silly family (Lainie Kazan is the Jewish mother to end all Jewish mothers) and dropping into a cocktail party uninvited (by rope, via the roof, onto a balcony). All of this shows the film's comic style. Much of it is really funny, but, on the whole, it brought me more groans than laughs. Some of it is horribly written. The scene in which Benjy and his girlfriend eat Chinese food and ramble about the art of joke-telling should have been cut. Some of it is way, way overplayed, even given the type of comedy it is. But what I find most distasteful about tho ? ' ** 1S tne shallow, didactic moral tone set i local bars t Photo by Bruce Ritchie le Corbett Urquia Band, perform at I' I " ? uiu our scene, ine nana will perform in The band members disagree on the opportunities for success in Columbia. Corbett said he favored Columbia as a town in which to start off, but Urquia said it was hard to be successful here. "I've been here almost 10 years, and I've seen a lot of good talent in this town, but I've never seen anybody go anywhere with it," she said. "The clubs here support their local bands better than they do in most lareer cities hut a larger city has more opportunity. There's more chance that somebody with influence or connections will hear you and pick you up," she said. The band has worked overtime rehearsing for the past two weeks, since bass guitarist Robert Kirkland left the band to move with his wife to Oregon. Ken Mouzon will play for the band at the Spur, but a permanent replacement has not been found. The Corbet t-Urquia Band will perform at rk.orv ? 4 * ? * ' v.ov p.111. tomorrow ana F riday. Admission is $2, with beer specials both nights. ive TV film review by Linn-Baker's Benjy. Near the end of the film, Swann balks on learning he is to appear on live television ? meaning he must accomplish his entire performance at once, without re-takes. He threatens to quit, but Benjy stops him in his tracks with a trite, petty speech about heroism and responsibility. THAT SPEECH, and most of Benjy's moralizing, is jarringly out of tune with the " ...... a generally rough rhythm. Significantly, "My Favorite Year" is the first directorial project of actor Richard Benjamin, whose film persona in films such as "Diary of a Mad Housewife" is strikingly similar to Benjy/Linn-Baker's: tedious, garrulous and sermonizing. I've saved the best for last. Peter O'Toole is the heart of the film. From the elongated hack-cough he emits in his first shot to his last gracious bow, he is a delight to watch. His decadent, irreverent personality and his ability to convey with utmost conviction the opposite sides of human nature (arrogance and humility, snobbery and generosity, a touch of rogue and a touch of royalty), make ] Alan Swann the most pnoauinn UI1U S pealing performance in any movie playing. 1 While a year of movies like "My Favorite S Year" would result in a far-from-favorite | year for this reviewer, the film is a decent diversion for one night. By the way, to see what O'Toole can really do, don't miss "The Stuntman," playing at Russell House Theater Nov. 7. j