Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, May 6, 1994 TAG: 9405070004
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: EXTRA1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: KEVIN KITTREDGE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The annual Class Reunion Party, featuring golden oldies for the definitely grown-up, has been scuttled this year in favor of an alternative-rock format aimed at under 25s.
The Progressive Music Spectacular - featuring area bands Visible Shivers and The Mosaics, as well as Fullstop from Atlanta - will take place from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m. Saturday at Tower Plaza, next to Billy's Ritz.
It is free.
``We decided we were not doing anything to appeal to young adults,'' said E. Laban Johnson, Roanoke's Special Events Coordinator, of the change. ``We're just not doing the job with the 18- to 21-year-olds.''
Besides, said Johnson Class Reunion was losing steam. Crowds hadn't dwindled at the 11-year-old event in recent years. But they weren't getting any bigger, either.
And the faces there were getter younger anyway.
``It was beginning to get kind of threadbare,'' Johnson said of the Class Reunion concept.
The same could be said of the boomers, of course. But as Johnson points out, the older crowd gets plenty of attention anyway, what with The Roanoke Beach Party, Festival in the Park and Fridays at Five. ``There's plenty of other places where they can go,'' Johnson said.
The same could not be said about the newly grown.
Without efforts such as this, Roanoke may continue to lose its young adults to other cities that offer more to do, Johnson said. A onetime schoolteacher, Johnson has noted an alarming trend: He frequently meets former students who graduated in 1973 or 1974, but later graduates almost never.
Though people of all ages are welcome Saturday, planners hope the event will appeal especially to those too old for high school parties, but too young for the bars.
``They're pretty much a lost age group,'' Johnson said. ``We feel like somebody's got to make the effort to hold onto them - to show we're trying.''
So, good-bye Class Reunion. Hello the Progressive Music Spectacular - also to be known, perhaps unfortunately, as PMS.
``So people won't forget it,'' Johnson said of the name. Feminists may not, anyway.
Not only the music will be new at PMS.
``We have the first upscale beer ever to sponsor an event in Roanoke'' - Samuel Adams, Johnson said. WROV-FM (96.3) also is sponsoring PMS.
Speaking of beer, i.d. will be required. Refreshments will include an upgraded menu of non-alcohol drinks, Johnson said.
The music menu, meanwhile, should prove popular with the college crowd. Two of the bands - Visible Shivers and The Mosaics - are well-known to music fans in the New River Valley.
The Mosaics were Radford University students who have scattered recently to day jobs throughout the state but still get together for gigs, band member Jeff Phillips said. Some 90 percent of the band's music is original. ``Some of it's mellow, some of it has an edge to it,'' he said.
Visible Shivers, based in the Blacksburg area, plays what WROV's program director Ellen Flaherty calls ``ear candy ... It's all really great to listen to. They pay close attention to lyrics,'' said Flaherty, who helped the 50-something Johnson select the bands for PMS.
Atlanta's Fullstop plays ``funky reggae rap rock crunch,'' according to a release. The band lists influences ranging from Bob Marley to Bad Brains to Stevie Ray Vaughn.
As for the older folks, Johnson believes they've lost little by the demise of Class Reunion. ``They're over served, if anything,'' he said of the age group.
Still, anyone upset about it can take heart: Johnson said a ``very large new event'' will soon be announced, intended for older audiences and their families. Stay tuned.
Progressive Music Spectacular: Saturday night, 7-11, at the First Union Tower Plaza in downtown Roanoke. 981-2889.
by CNB