Changes in Store for ’92 Version of Music Awards

Though it is several months away, the second annual San Diego Music Awards program is already taking shape, and early indications are that it will differ in some important ways from the first installment.

For starters, founder-director Kevin Hellman recently distributed a questionnaire to many of the local concert promoters, talent buyers and media members who participated in last year’s nominating process. Hellman is seeking to expand on what many felt was a non-comprehensive and, in some cases, confusing list of 12 musical categories.

Even before that questionnaire went out, Hellman had realigned the event’s charitable affiliation. The first awards show, held Aug. 19 in La Jolla’s Sherwood Auditorium, benefited the Mary Lou Clack Center for Handicapped Children in Vista, an outfit with whom Hellman has been affiliated since he helped produce the now-defunct North County Entertainer Awards.

Proceeds from the August, 1992, edition of the San Diego Music Awards will go to the San Diego Unified School District’s Music Education Department, primarily to offset the effect of budget cuts on the purchase of instruments and other musical equipment for elementary schools.

But Hellman’s vision of the awards show itself has also expanded since summer, and he has been scouting around town to find somewhere to accommodate a larger audience and better production values. Under consideration are various theaters, ballrooms and the Humphrey’s bayside venue.

In the 1991 competition, artists voted on by local music fans were given awards at a 2 1/2-hour affair that also featured live performances by some of San Diego’s favorite musicians. The show sold out the 500-capacity Sherwood at $10 a pop, netting about $4,800 for the Clack center.

To underwrite what is expected to be a more expensive undertaking this summer, Hellman has been negotiating with several potential sponsors, including local beer and soft drink distributors and a major record store chain.

Although his maneuverings might seem prescribed by the usual logistics involved in producing such an event, long-range goals are also a motivating factor. One of them is to replicate the size and success of the Bay Area Music Awards, at which “Bammies” are bestowed on Bay Area artists by the widely read music magazine BAM.

“I’ll be attending the ‘Bammies’ in San Francisco in March with my co-producer, Ron Neifert of Coconut Productions,” Hellman said earlier this week. “Hopefully, we’ll come back with some solid ideas for our own show. The Bammies are celebrating their 15th anniversary this year, and I see no reason why the San Diego Music Awards shouldn’t be just as big in 15 years.”

Hellman is using the Bammies as a model in other ways. The Bay Area Music Awards organizers publish a 72-page program similar to an actual issue of the magazine. Although Hellman’s sights are a little more modest for now, he nonetheless hopes to publish a high-quality program--featuring staff credits, photos and highlights of the first event--in advance of this year’s show. The program will probably be inserted into one or more local publications.

If Hellman has one regret about prospects for the 1992 gala, it is the change in beneficiaries.

“I feel really bad about eliminating the program’s affiliation with Mary Lou, because I’ve been doing stuff for them for a long time, and it’s a great cause,” he said. “But I just think it makes more sense for a music program to benefit a music organization. Somehow, though, I’m determined to find other ways of generating funds for the Clack center.”

Meanwhile, prospective nominees in the 1992 balloting have been given another incentive to win. One of the presenters at last year’s show, promoter Rob Hagey, has agreed to book two of the winners to play at the Michelob Street Scene.

Local folk enthusiasts and labor-movement types are gearing up for a special music and spoken-word program Jan. 31 billed as “The San Diego Labor Heritage Tribute to John L. Handcox.”

Headlining the four-hour program are folk-singing luminaries Pete Seeger, Joe Glazer (who runs the national Folk Heritage office out of the AFL-CIO offices in Washington) and Sam Hinton. Other local performers include singer-songwriter Peggy Watson and Ernie McCray (a local high school principal and actor, who will read original poetry and sing).

In 1930s Arkansas, Handcox (now a San Diegan) was the most famous songwriter and poet of the Southern Tenant Farmers Union, the nation’s first racially integrated farm workers union. He was 80 when Seeger found out he was still alive, and was astonished to learn that such of his songs as “Roll the Union On,” “Mean Things Happenin’ in This Land,” and “Raggedy Raggedy Are We” were being performed by folk artists all over the world.

After he was “discovered” by Seeger, Handcox himself began singing at folk festivals, union gatherings and events honoring Martin Luther King Jr. He’ll turn 88 a couple of days after the tribute, which will kick off African-American History Month in San Diego.

“The San Diego Labor Heritage Tribute to John L. Handcox” will be held at the Laborers’ International Hall, 4161 Home Ave. (between Interstate 805 and California 94). The sponsor, Grass Roots Events Inc., is asking for admission donations of $5 to $500. For more information, call 232-2841.

GRACE NOTES: (Tickets for the following concerts will be sold at all TicketMaster outlets unless otherwise specified).

A program combining computer-generated dance music with a state-of-the-art light show will bring Shamen, Moby and Orbital, plus a guest deejay mixer from London, Mr. C, to downtown’s SOMA club Jan 26. For more information on the Avalon-Ozone-Playskool co-production, call 277-PLAY. . . .

The bill bringing Guns N’ Roses and Soundgarden to the San Diego Sports Arena on Jan. 27 was selling so well last week that a second show has been booked, for Jan. 28, also at the arena. Tickets are on sale now at all TicketMaster outlets except the May Co. stores. . . .

Iguanas will begin 1992 with a bigger-than-customary booking when the Cramps perform there Feb. 1. The L.A. band Dumpster will open (tickets on sale Friday at 3 p.m.). . . . Leo’s Little Bit O’ Country is bringing in Ronnie Milsap on Feb. 2 and John Anderson on Feb. 16 (for tickets, call 744-4120). . . . Fans can enjoy “An Evening With Rickie Lee Jones” at the Spreckels Theatre on Feb. 10 (on sale now). . . . Tickets for the Feb. 21 double bill of Michael Bolton and Francesca Beghe at the San Diego Sports Arena go on sale this Sunday at 10 a.m.

CRITIC’S CHOICE: HALF-SPIRITED BUT STILL WORTH A LISTEN

In the late ‘60s, the group Spirit gave rock a unique sound that incorporated jazz, Latin, Eastern and classical influences.

The version of Spirit that will play at 9:30 Saturday at Sound FX features original members Ed (Cass) Cassidy on drums, John Locke on keyboards and Randy California on guitar, but bassist Mike Bunnell replaces Mark Andes (who’s making big bucks in the band Heart), and vocalist Jay Ferguson recently abandoned this reunion project for unspecified reasons.

Ordinarily, such a reconstituted lineup might encourage a caveat, but my last experience at a half-Spirited concert was satisfying. On Saturday, blind faith should reward the loyalist.