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Main Street Blast jump-starts holiday
By BARBARA L. FREDRICKSEN, Times Staff Writer Greater New Port Richey Main Street will kick off Independence Day celebrations in the Tampa Bay area from noon to 9 p.m. Saturday with Main Street Blast. The events in Sims Park and around Orange Lake include a flea market, car show, festival food and live entertainment from noon to 4 p.m. At 5 p.m., the gates reopen for a concert by Blood, Sweat and Tears and David Clayton-Thomas ($10 general admission, $15 special seating, rain or shine). Everything culminates in a big fireworks display at 9 p.m. "This should be a great time for the entire family," said Laura Turner, executive director of Main Street. "It's a hometown-style celebration of America's birthday." Things start to roll at noon, when the classic rock group the Bendys start playing music from the 1960s and '70s in the Sims Park amphitheater. After the Bendys come the Satellites, who have appeared with rock legends Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, the Drifters, the Coasters, the Platters and Pink Floyd. Meanwhile, the Main Street Blast "Fire Sale" will be set up in the park, where individuals, groups and organizations sell garage sale-type merchandise. Around Orange Lake will be a classic car show. Gates close at 4 p.m., only to reopen at 5 p.m. for the Main Street Blast concert. Opening act is the Navy Band Southeast's rock group at 5:30 p.m., followed by headliners Blood, Sweat and Tears featuring Clayton-Thomas. The original BST came together in 1967 in New York City as a rock-jazz-blues-classical-folk music group with a distinctive (for the time) brass sound. Clayton-Thomas joined the group in 1968 and is the only member left from that era, though original member Bobby Colomby still co-owns the BST name and catalog with Clayton-Thomas. The group's self-titled album, Blood, Sweat and Tears, held the No. 1 spot on the charts for seven weeks in 1969 and produced three gold singles: You've Made Me So Very Happy, Spinning Wheel and And When I Die. The next album, Blood, Sweat and Tears 3 (there was no BST2), went to No. 1, but subsequent albums did not fare as well. Clayton-Thomas went solo for a couple of years in the early 1970s but rejoined the group for good in 1974 and has been touring almost solidly -- and to rave reviews -- since 1975 with various band members. The Saturday night Main Street show is sandwiched between gigs at the Dubuque Diamond Jo Casino in Iowa tonight and a holiday show in Hurst, Texas, on July 4.
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From today's Pasco Times Letters |
