ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, November 19, 1996 TAG: 9611190061
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DAVID BAUDER ASSOCIATED PRESS
The bar was well stocked - with orange juice and croissants. Truly, 9 a.m. is a ghastly hour for rock 'n' roll.
Yet rock's over-the-hill gang struggled to the Hard Rock Cafe anyway, eager to plug their new jobs as camp counselors.
Stealing an idea from baseball, where overgrown boys pay big money to pull muscles with their youthful heroes, some impresarios are starting rock 'n' roll's first fantasy camp.
For $4,495, participants can spend a week at a hotel learning guitar, playing golf or hearing stories from classic rockers like Ringo Starr, Felix Cavaliere of the Rascals, Mick Jones of Foreigner and Nils Lofgren. For a couple, it's $3,995 per person.
``We've gotten a lot of calls from doctors, lawyers and Wall Street people,'' said John Phillips, an Arkansas supermarket magnate who helped develop the idea after meeting rock promoter David Fishof at a health spa.
This being rock 'n' roll, most of the scheduled events at the week-long fantasy camp are parties. Promoters also promise serious instruction in things like recording techniques, keyboards, drums and singing.
Mostly, it's a chance to hang out with the stars.
``This is not going to be so structured that people will feel like they're shuffling from class to class,'' said Phillips' wife, Marsha. ``This will be a more personal experience.''
Two one-week sessions each are scheduled for next year in Los Angeles, Miami, Atlanta and New York.
Fishof is a promoter who helped piece together Ringo Starr's bandwagons in recent summers. Many of his camp counselors, like The Band's drummer Levon Helm, Billy Preston and the Who's John Entwistle, were veterans of that tour.
Their target audience is the wealthy 30- to 50-year-olds who grew up with rock's old guard.
The counselors are at that age, or beyond. Yet a dozen of the rock 'n' rollers managed to make it on time to a news conference-performance that began at an hour most were unacquainted with. The exception was Foreigner's Jones, who slipped in 40 minutes late.
After singing ``Nothing from Nothing,'' Preston joked that the only other time he'd played the song at such an early hour, he'd been up all night.
LENGTH: Medium: 51 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP. Mark Farner (left) of Grand Funk Railroad and Felixby CNBCavaliere of the Rascals are on the faculty at the Rock n' Roll
Fantasy Camp. color.