AT RIGHT — Grass space was at premium last night in front of Tanglewood's big shed. Photo was taken 45 minutes before rock concert began.

22,000 at Tanglewood Rock Concert

By Lewis C. Cuyler

TANGLEWOOD literally exploded last night with frenzied sound, swirling colors and thousands of young people who came to hear two top rock groups, a blues singer, and a spectacular light show.

When the four-hour concert was over the box office counted an attendance of approximately 22,000, easily exceeding the previous top attendance figure of 15,242 at a concert in 1965.

The crowd, overwhelmingly under the age of 30, heard B.B. King, a top blues singer, The Who, a rock group from England, and The Jefferson Airplane, another rock group which originated in San Francisco.

The most spectacular part of the program was the Joshua Light Show which accompanied each piece, flashing swirling colors on a huge screen behind the groups, in time to the music.

The colors represented virtually every shade in the spectrum and they never stopped. As the beat became intense, so did the color show, so that during the loudest, most frantic moments, the audience saw swirls, blobs and bubbles of color, contracting, expanding, or bouncing off of each other as they were literally assaulted by the sound. But sometimes the colors became things, such as a big blowup of a garish pinball machine in action, during a number by The Who about a pinball machine.

The groups were introduced by Bill Graham, who was described as "The Evangelist in the Rock Field." His reputation stems from his founding of the original Fillmore Auditorium in San Francisco, predecessor of the Fillmore West, where he began production of rock concerts. Eighteen months ago, he founded Fillmore East in New York City.

B.B. KING and his red guitar, "Lucille," with superb accompaniment by saxophones and a trumpet, set the tone for the evening. The crowd, which by this time jammed the aisles, hardly let him off the stage as he returned for several encores between chants of "We Want More."

The Who, a group of four Londoners who have been known to break their instruments at the climax of a concert, didn't do that last night, but did about everything else. Led by a barechested singer with a wild head of hair, the group turned up the gigantic amplifiers to a deafening pitch, drawing a shouting response from the crowd.

The Jefferson Airplane, a bit more subdued and somewhat more casual, was introduced with a film scene from the movie King Kong where double-wing vintage airplanes divebomb the huge gorilla as he clasps a woman atop the Empire State Building.

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THE CROWD started to arrive almost two hours before the concert began to fill the lawn so that 45 minutes before it all began, grass space in front of the shed was at a premium.

The event was the final in a series of Tuesday night Contemporary Trend Concerts organized Gunther Schuller, head of the Berkshire Music Center, with the object of recognizing other than classical types of music, the traditional Tanglewood fare.

Earlier Trends concerts this year have included appearances of The Iron Butterfly, a rock group, the rock singer Janis Joplin, the gospel singer Mahalia Jackson and the folk singer Joni Mitchell.

Rock music certainly isn't for everyone, but its followers are as enthusiastic as any jazz or Dixieland buffs were in earlier years. Last night's response was a clear indication that Tanglewood can play a significant role in the development of contemporary music.