THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, August 2, 1995 TAG: 9508020046
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E6 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY RICKEY WRIGHT, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 65 lines
WHEN GARY ``U.S.'' Bonds reached 50 a few years ago, he vowed to slow down. Doing fewer live performances, he reasoned, was a fitting move for a man of his age, even one who as a youngster had churned out dance-party hits like ``Quarter to Three'' and ``New Orleans.''
Each of the past few years has seen the former Gary Anderson of Norfolk playing between 60 and 80 shows. The number is edging back up, though.
With little more than half of 1995 gone, Bonds is ``up to about 55'' gigs, he says from his Long Island home this week. Laughing, he adds that his wife recently confronted him with the number and asked, ``Are you slowing down?''
Not to hear him tell it. There's the live work around the country and in Europe, where both his locally bred '60s classics and the Springsteen collaborations of the '80s albums ``Dedication'' and ``On the Line'' are well-remembered. And there's also Friday's Beach Music Awards, a presentation that brings Bonds back to Hampton Roads for a much-hyped premiere of a new song, ``Virginia Beach.'' It will also host Bill Deal and Ammon Tharp, Chuck Jackson, O.C. Smith and, in a somewhat odd connection, author Pat Conroy, whose latest family saga is titled . . . ``Beach Music.''
The invitation-only show is part of a plan by Beach promoter John X. Aragona to position the city as the ``Home of Beach Music.'' Bonds' recording will serve as part of the campaign, which is slated to include production of a syndicated beach-music TV series and attempts at drawing tourists to the area. Bonds sounds enthusiastic about it all. In fact, he says, he hopes to buy a second home here before the end of the year.
``This is really close to me,'' he says, noting that a completed adult-contemporary album sought by two labels is on hold until the TV project is in place.
``It always bothered me when I lived there. They never had anything to be proud of except the beach,'' he says of the city. ``Little towns had big teams, Detroit had Motown. Now Virginia Beach will be the beach-music city.''
Bonds' affection for Virginia Beach contrasts with the ``bitterness'' toward Norfolk he described to a Virginian-Pilot interviewer in 1990. A habitue of the hip, bustling Church Street scene of the late '50s and early '60s, Bonds became the main exponent of ``the Norfolk sound'' after entrepreneur Frank Guida's founding of Legrand Records.
He laughs again while recalling his family's move north in the early '70s. Wife Laurie had wanted to return to her home, Brooklyn.
``They were two of the scariest years of my life,'' says Bonds. ``She was comfortable because she knew all those crazy people, but I wasn't. I finally said, `Let's try to find somewhere that has trees and sidewalks and birds and animals and things I can look at.' '' Thus, Long Island.
And soon, again, Virginia.
``We got a bunch of friends there,'' Bonds says, a touch of satisfaction in his voice. ``Actually, the TV show and the Beach Music Awards came about after I had made the decision'' to return.
While his sound has never been strictly beach music, Bonds has found a place for himself in the scene.
``My music is fun music,'' he stresses, ``summertime music. So I guess I was a part of it.''
For Bonds, there's one more very personal reason he's happy to come back to Virginia Beach this week.
``I love golf. They have some great golf courses down there,'' he says.
``I got a couple of friends I haven't beat on in about 10 years.'' by CNB