New Local Group in UCLA Pop Show

by Pete Johnson
April 25, 1967

A dull concert at UCLA was perked up Saturday night by the debut of a new local group, the Ballroom, which appeared after seemingly endless musically antique antics by the Lively Set and Tim Morgon.

The Lively Set is a gleamy-toothed hoot group whose jokes and routines date back farther than the era in which the septet might have been popular.

Audience Divided

Tim Morgon has a dramatic streak which made him, at times, amusing, but his voice is overmannered and underranged and his repertoire lackluster.

The audience was clearly divided into two camps: those who enthusiastically applauded the Livelies and Morgon and walked out on the Ballroom and those who sat stolidly through the first two acts and cheered the Ballroom.

This quartet has come up with an interesting gimmick: it records instrumental and vocal numbers in a studio then replays the stereo tapes, adding final live voices when it appears.

Group Edgy

Through this they escape the traditional flaws of pop music concerts and gain vocal flexibility and clarity. But the polish is at the expense of excitement. Despite the exquisite reproduction of the tape, one wonders why, if they are going this far in preparation, they do not also finish off the vocals in advance to insure perfection.

With the exception of one number—"Baby Please Don't Go"—the quartet, which was obviously edgy, did not utilize its presence for visual effect. It might as well have been on television lip-synching the songs for most of the performance.

Curt Boettcher, a producer who has worked with the Association and Tommy Roe, leads the Ballroom, complemented by Jim Bell, Sandy Salisbury and Michelle O'Malley.

Its sound is an interesting overlay of complex vocals and vital arrangements using electronic music and momentarily jarring melodic shifts.

The effect is sometimes heavy and confused but generally strikingly new and good, as in "Spinning, Spinning, Spinning" and "Five O'Clock in the Morning."
All have good voices, especially Miss O'Malley, who sang a duet with herself on "It's a Sad Old World".