Wysp Be-in '86/wmmr At Troc

It's not enough that we have to contemplate 25 years of folk fests this weekend. Noooooo.

WYSP (FM/94.1) also insists we dredge up memories of the late 1960s and early '70s counterculture - of flower power, free spirits and free music - with its recreation of the first "Be-In" to hit these parts in more than a decade.

Get out your tie-dyes and earth shoes! Paint your face! Kiss a stranger! But don't eat the brown acid!

Scheduled for Sunday afternoon next to Memorial Hall - not far from the Belmont Plateau location where the original hippie happenings took place - the Be-In '86 gathering of the tribes will feature performances by the Greg Allman Band and Dickey Betts, alone and together, plus an opening (2 p.m.) set by the Upsetters, featuring WYSP air personality Rick Allen.

If my memory isn't deceiving me, Greg and Dickie actually played one of those original Belmont Plateau freebies circa 1969, when they were just getting the world acquainted to the Allman Brothers Band.

What goes around, comes around.

Designed as a family event, Be-In '86 also features the Bentley Brothers Circus Clowns, jugglers and other street performers. Food trucks will be plentiful when you need to feed your face.

'YSP is footing the bill for the show, with the hopes you'll think kindly of them (despite Howard Stern) and will check out their new "classic rock" format, which dwells in the past like there's no tomorrow.

Buying an audience with a free show is nothing new. The Be-Ins of bygone days likewise were sponsored by radio stations in conjunction with a freelancing promoter named Larry Magid, who has since done more than OK for

himself as a partner in Electric Factory Concerts.

I also recall, first-hand, that WMMR (FM 93.3) suddenly caught fire in 1979 (and started challenging the then ratings champ WYSP) after it rallied the troops at a South Street concert freebie.

Will history repeat itself? Will every local radio station be scheduling free concerts before long?

Is it mere coincidence that WMMR is throwing a free concert at the Troc Thursday night with John Eddie?

JON MEETS EDDIE

"Actually, the free show was my idea, my way of saying thanks to the local people who've supported me through the years," says a very modest John Eddie, in a phone chat earlier this week from "the worst motel in Portland, Maine."