POP MUSIC : David Peck’s Bushel of Rock Footage in Heavy Demand

David Peck picked up a program from last January’s annual Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony in New York City and proudly pointed to his name in the production credits.

“I gave them footage of Simon and Garfunkel, the Four Seasons, the Kinks and the Platters,” Peck said. “They called me up a few weeks before the show; I guess they got my name from somebody who’d heard of me and told them I’d probably have what they were looking for.”

None of this is very surprising. After six years of avid collecting, the 23-year-old San Diegan is considered one of the foremost rock ‘n’ roll video archivists in the country. He’s got more than 1,000 hours of vintage tapes, ranging from TV appearances and movie outtakes to promotional films and concert footage.

Peck trades with, and occasionally buys from, collectors all over the world. From time to time, he puts on public screenings--in San Diego and other cities around the country--focusing on a particular era, genre or artist.

Coinciding with the Warner Brothers Records release on compact disc of several old Jimi Hendrix albums, Peck has assembled a 90-minute program of the late guitar master’s infrequent TV appearances.

“Hendrix Live on TV: 1965-1970” will screen Thursday and Friday at San Diego State University’s Backdoor. Among the dozen-plus clips included are a 1967 performance on Belgian television of “Stone Free,” a promo film of “Burning the Midnight Lamp” that aired on a French music show in 1968, and an eight-minute interview on the Dick Cavett show from 1969 in which Hendrix defends his controversial rendition of the national anthem three weeks earlier at Woodstock.

“We’re going to start out with a rare clip of Hendrix playing guitar with Little Richard’s band on a 1965 episode of ‘Night Train,’ a local Memphis rock show,” Peck said. “That was before anybody knew who he was. He was a nobody, so they didn’t really focus on him, but still, there are a few good shots.”

“Another rare clip is his appearance in 1969 on a British TV show, in which he refused to stop playing. It was a live broadcast, and he was told he could only perform ‘Voodoo Child’ and ‘Hey Joe.’

“But in the middle of ‘Hey Joe,’ he stops and goes, ‘Hey, we’re gonna stop playing this rubbish and dedicate a song to Cream,’ and then he goes right into ‘Sunshine of Your Love.’

“Now, you can’t see the cameramen waving him off, but they are, and at one point he looks right into the camera--you know he’s making eye contact--and says, ‘Na.’ He keeps playing, and then he leans over to (drummer) Mitch Mitchell and you can see him mouth the word slow .”

Peck’s first public video show, “Rock on TV,” took place in July, 1987, at the La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art. The program consisted of TV footage of the Beatles, the Kinks, the Who, the Rascals and other 1960s bands on such long-gone series as “Shindig,” “Hullabaloo” and “The Ed Sullivan Show.”

Peck has since produced six more shows at the museum: “Soul on TV” in December, 1987; “The Beatles: Rare Tapes” the following April and again in June; “Rare Stones: 1964-1974” in September, 1988; “Progressive Rock” last April, and “Troubadours of Rock” last June.

In conjunction with the museum’s film curator, Greg Kahn, and Reader pop music writer John D’Agostino, Peck has put on three rock-video shows at the Northwest Film and Video Center in Portland, Ore., and one at the Scottsdale Center for the Arts in Arizona.

Peck recently decided to go it alone.

“The museum isn’t really that much into doing the shows anymore, because they’re primarily an art museum, and John’s real busy doing writing and stuff,” he said.

Peck said he already has several shows lined up, including a Rolling Stones-James Brown double-header at Webster University in St. Louis, a James Brown show at the Kennedy Center in Washington, and a blues and “Rock on TV” shows at the Athens (Ohio) Center for Film and Video.

“I’m sending out resumes right and left, and once they read my resume, they’re usually interested on the spot,” Peck said. “I’m also getting a lot of calls from TV production companies, asking for footage.

“There’s only so much of this stuff around, and I’m fortunate to have as much as I do.”

LINER NOTES: Five more dates have been announced in this year’s annual Del Mar Fair grandstand concert series: the Charlie Daniels Band, June 17; Donny Osmond, June 20; Expose, June 22; Johnny Rivers, June 23, and Willie Nelson, June 26. All shows start at 7:30 p.m. . . . The upcoming Allanah Myles concert at the Bacchanal in Kearny Mesa has been pushed back a day, from May 1 to May 2. Tickets will still go on sale April 6 at 10 a.m., as previously announced. . . .

Best concert bets for the coming week: Warren Zevon, tonight at the Bacchanal; Millie Jackson, tonight at Smokey’s in Mission Valley; Dan Hicks and His Acoustic Warriors, Thursday at the Bacchanal; Charlie Musselwhite with Hook and the Hitchhikers, Thursday at the Belly Up Tavern in Solana Beach; the Marshall Tucker Band with Cross-Bowen, Friday at the Bacchanal; Overkill, Friday at Iguanas in Tijuana; Don McLean, Saturday at the Bacchanal; Michael Tomlinson with Deborah Liv Johnson, Sunday at the Belly Up; Sweethearts of the Rodeo, Sunday at Leo’s Little Bit o’ Country in San Marcos, and Pat Travers, March 26 at the Bacchanal.