POP MUSIC / THOMAS K. ARNOLD : For Comeback Concerts, Let the Buyer Beware

One night last May, a band billed as the Guess Who was busy playing at the Bacchanal nightclub in Kearny Mesa. The audience, meanwhile, was busy guessing who was actually up on stage. Neither of the veteran Canadian group’s two key members, singer Burton Cummings and guitarist Randy Bachman, was present. The only link with the Guess Who responsible for such golden oldies as 1970’s “American Woman” was the bass player.

A few months earlier, 1960s “girl group” the Shirelles had been booked to headline a New Year’s Eve concert at the Sheraton Grand Hotel on Harbor Island. When the four singers walked out on stage, none of them looked older than 30--quite strange considering that their last big hit, “Foolish Little Girl,” topped the charts in 1963.

These two examples illustrate a disturbing trend on the concert scene. As more and more oldies groups from the annals of rock history hit the comeback trail in an attempt to cash in on their past glories, fewer and fewer of them include more than one original member--if that.

“A lot of these bands’ key members are no longer around,” said local promoter Malcolm Falk. “Maybe they’ve gone on to bigger and better things, or maybe they just want to bury their past, for one reason or another. So whoever is left has to make a choice: tour as Joe Blow who used to play with Foghat and be worth nothing, or tour as Joe Blow and Foghat and be worth a lot.”

In the case of the Guess Who, Bacchanal owner Bob Speth was fully aware that he wasn’t getting the real thing.

“Generally, we won’t book any oldies group unless most of their members are original,” Speth said. “But with the Guess Who, we felt the show was strong enough to make an exception. We advertised the band as the Guess Who because the bass player had legal rights to the name. But if anyone called up and asked who was in the band, we told them that only the bass player had been around in their heyday.”

In the case of the Shirelles, however, program director Jim LaMarca of oldies radio station XTRA-AM (69 XTRA Gold), the show’s co-sponsor, was taken by surprise.

“We had been assured by the booking agent that at least one or two original members would be with the group, including lead singer Shirley Alston,” LaMarca said. “And when we discovered, the night of the show, that we weren’t getting what we had been promised, we offered refunds--although we ended up with only one taker. Later, when we called the agent to complain, he said, ‘The real Shirelles were playing somewhere else that night, so I plugged in these guys instead. I didn’t think you’d mind.’ ”

Sadly, scenarios such as this appear to be the rule rather than the exception in local nightclubs and concert halls:

--When pioneering country-rockers Buffalo Springfield headlined the Bacchanal last year, two bit players were present: drummer Dewey Martin and bassist Bruce Palmer. The three stars--Neil Young, Stephen Stills and Richie Furay--were not.

--The only thing that the Coasters who played the Wild Animal Park a few years ago have in common with the Coasters who recorded such doo-wop hits of the late 1950s as “Yakety Yak” and “Charlie Brown” is their manager.

--The Tubes performed all their satirical cult classics from the 1970s and early ‘80s last month at Rio’s in Loma Portal. Missing was Fee Waybill, the man who wrote and sang the songs on record.

So the word is, buyer beware--both those who buy talent and those who buy tickets. But sometimes, even that isn’t enough. Three years ago, Belly Up Tavern owner Dave Hodges booked legendary ‘60s soul duo Sam and Dave into his Solana Beach club. He got Sam and Dave all right. But only Dave was familiar. There was a brand new Sam in place of the old one.

So you want to be a rock ‘n’ roll star: Last Sunday night at the Belly Up Tavern, local singer-songwriter Mark Putnam threw a record-release party for his debut album, optimistically titled “Over the Top.” The collection of 11 originals and one cover--”Get Together,” a big hit for the Youngbloods in 1967--marks the latest stage in Putnam’s metamorphosis from journalist to musician.

Several years ago, while working as a reporter for the San Diego Daily Transcript, Putnam bought a guitar, started writing songs and began performing around town in tiny nightclubs, like Casey’s Pub in Pacific Beach.

As his confidence, and his artistry, continued to grow, he decided to quit his job and spend 18 months--and $8,500 of his savings--in the studio producing and pressing an album on his own Avocado Records label.

“A lot of the album’s themes revolve around pursuing your dreams, working hard and taking control of your life,” said Putnam, who cites as his influences the Beatles, Elvis Costello, Donald Fagen, Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen. “And that’s essentially what I’ve done.”

Who’s Johnny?: John Stewart was a member of the Kingston Trio from 1961 until 1967. He later wrote the hits “Daydream Believer,” for the Monkees, in 1967, and “Gold,” for himself, in 1979.

But according to a press release from the Bella Via nightclub in Cardiff, where Stewart will perform July 2, all of that is secondary to his real claim to fame. “John Stewart, who toured and performed with Robert F. Kennedy extensively during his 1968 presidential campaign,” the press release read, “appears at the Bella Via . . . on the heels of his revitalized recording career.

“Stewart’s current tour coincides with the increased interest in the vision of Robert Kennedy, following the 20th anniversary of his assassination in 1968. Stewart recorded an entire album, ‘The Last Campaign,’ featuring songs he wrote on the campaign trail with Kennedy . . . “