RECORD WORLD MAGAZINE (1978)
BILLY THORPE AND LASER IMAGES PREPARE TOURING PLANETARIUM SHOW
By Sam Sutherland

LOS ANGELES - With a fall bumper crop of hit single and LP product from superstars impeding broader airplay for their "21st Century Man" conceptual album, rocker Billy Thorpe and manager/producer Spencer Proffer are taking their music "out of this world," via a new association with Laser Images, Inc., which produces such planetarium-based laser/music extravaganzas as Laserium and Laser Rock. Thorpe and Proffer are turning their current space opera and its related predecessor, "Children of the Sun," into the first conceptual musical piece tailored to Laser Images' sophisticated laser light technology.

With initial plans calling for both a touring planetarium show built around Thorpe's recordings, as well as a special theatrical version that will include Thorpe himself as a live narrator, the new collaboration is already being groomed for possible video disc production. In an interview here with RW last week, the musician, his producer and Laser Images sales director Joe Sarchet outlined their year-long plan for turning Thorpe's saga of extraterrestrial visitation, Earth's destruction, and a human odyssey to a new planetary home into landmark stage entertainment.

Album As 'Movie'

For Thorpe, the decision to pursue the two-stage sequence of limited-run theatrical presentations of the album followed by the touring planetarium show marks a novel and ambitions alternative to a conventional live stage show, now seen as the third and final step in taking "21st Century Man" to fans without relying entirely on conventional radio exposure. The idea of adapting his two-album saga into a laser show had been formed prior to the album's release this fall, and talks with Laser Images had begun even as Thorpe and Proffer previewed the finished LP for executives at Elektra/Asylum.

"In our discussions, Billy and I felt we had a movie in sound, and that it was a very visual work," explains Proffer, who stresses the record's lyric content as "heavily referenced" to lasers and "crystalline" light forms. "We'd gone to some planetarium laser shows, and felt that what we saw had very little correlation with what was being played. They were playing rock, but they were random selections of progressive music."

With "21st Century Man" boasting a sci-fi storyline, complete with laser references, the pair felt the abstract three-dimensional effects that had generated strong ticket business for planetariums could be put to even more striking effect when adapted to their concept. They decided to pursue Laser Images and its founder, Ivan Dryer, as "the state of the art in that medium, and the most qualitatively oriented of the laser shows."

According to Sarchet, his firm was already mulling the potential for such a show, having already scored with instrumental classical music programs and later rock. After hearing the Thorpe album, initial plans called for development of a laser-choreographed presentation to be unveiled concurrent with the album's fall release, but when delays foiled an attempt at premiering the LP in a laser extravaganza at a broadcast convention, the partners decided to shift their plans to prepare for a regular planetarium run.

At the same time, Sarchet and his associates began developing an alternative theatrical format, similar to that used for their shows on such non-planetarium sites as college campuses. In lieu of a taped narration, providing spoken plot links between the songs, Thorpe himself would be on hand, appearing at one point onstage in a cone of laser light.

Laser Images and Proffer's Pasha Music Organisation have already begun holding previews of their laser choreography for the Thorpe project to interest video disc firms, and, according to Proffer, the piece will receive its first major viewing during the upcoming Burkhardt/Abrams convention in San Diego on January 7, when delegates will attend a private presentation at the Reuben Fleet Space Theater.

Following that, a full-scale theatrical presentation, with Thorpe himself as narrator, will be tested in a limited run here, possibly in a local college venue, before the planetarium version makes its initial bows in Denver, Seattle, San Francisco, St. Louis and Toronto. According to Sarchet, the Thorpe "21st Century Man" show combining both that album and songs from its Capricorn/Polydor precursor, "Children of The Sun," would then move into other Laserium markets including New York and Los Angeles. With Laser Images sponsored for shows at up to 40 college campuses, the theatrical version could also "go on the road" with Thorpe himself.

For the regular planetarium run, Proffer envisions a close cross-marketing link between planetariums, retailers and radio stations, with participating retail outlets setting up special Thorpe displays, where album buyers can receive a special discount coupon for ticket purchases when buying the record. Similarly, patrons of the planetarium production would receive a promotional packet outlining the story and a discount coupon for the Thorpe LP. Radio stations would be able to program the full, narrated soundtrack and could give away albums and tickets.

Video Disc: Next Step

Both Sarchet and the album's principals are already viewing the next Thorpe album, planned as the final installment in the trilogy started with "Children of The Sun," as a venture that will see laser imagery and music developed side by side. But even before Thorpe heads back into the studio, or on to a planned live tour at the end of the year, talks are underway for a videotape version of the up-coming laser show.