The net effect of this Star Sound was galvanizing. In the Portuguese town of Setúbal, for example, response to Star Sound proved so dramatic, a normally staid crowd actually rushed the stage in a literal gesture of togetherness. (That the stage collapsed beneath their collective weight dampened no one’s enthusiasm.) Elsewhere, response was equally dramatic. A charity benefit for a Tenerife orphanage, for example, inspired yet another unbridled rush to a stage, while a performance before several thousand Funchal residents inspired a veritable riot. As a matter of fact, virtually every Apollo Troupe performance sparked what amounted to a riot of enthusiasm; hence, the increasing requests for Apollo Troupe performances -- as many as four or five separate venues a week -- increasing requests for recordings (the band was actually to enjoy fairly regular air play on regional stations) and increasing concerns on the part of local authorities over crowd control problems. It was also at about this point that Apollo musicians regularly found themselves besieged for autographs, mobbed for photographs and otherwise living up to their name.
With the Stars thus firmly established as the nucleus, the formation of several specialized groups commenced. In keeping with local tastes, these groups included a Flamenco ensemble, replete with dancers, a Middle Eastern inspired vocalist and the contemporary Marineros offering then-popular Progressiva -- far-out pop. In no way, however, was the creative scope of this period limited to local influences. Case in point was the formation of the Rangers, offering what L. Ron Hubbard described as authentic country western, “per about 1870 tone quality.” To achieve that sound, performers employed the “sharply Ozarked” mandolin, harsh fiddle and beats suggesting horse gaits: “walk, trot, canter, run and also single-foot, dance and park walk.” Likewise drawing from his very personal musical vocabulary, L. Ron Hubbard saw to the formation of the Troubadours, offering a distinctly Oriental sound -- or more accurately, Oriental music as it would have naturally evolved if not constrained by primitive instrumentation and caste restrictions. (In preparation, however, the Troubadours were required to not only familiarize themselves with various Asian cultures, but also replicate traditional Asian melodies.)
Also intrinsic to the Troupe’s success was their employment of key LRH discoveries relating to performer-audience rapport. Most simply described as “keeping the audience with it,” L. Ron Hubbard defined that rapport in terms of “relationship, especially, one of mutual trust or affinity.” Thus, “An audience in rapport is different than an audience of spectators. An audience in rapport PARTICIPATES in small or large ways with the performer or the artist or work of art, often by vocal or body motion.”
Key to the attainment of rapport was, of course, L. Ron Hubbard’s discoveries pertaining to rhythm; for it was the rhythm, and particularly predictable rhythm, that most immediately invited audience participation. By way of illustration, yet another member of the troupe tells of L. Ron Hubbard developing a predictable rhythm for a given piece, and then actually choreographing band members’ movements to further invite audience participation. The result was described as an entire hall in rhythmical rapport, “so that all of us became part of the performance: musicians, audience, even the security forces and stagehands.”
Utilizing this same principle, L. Ron Hubbard addressed audience response to dance -- which typically led him to an entire study of choreography as yet another medium by which one might successfully invite: “clapping, stamping, yelling, even dancing.”
Again, the net effect proved galvanizing -- particularly when the musicians were joined with L. Ron Hubbard’s choreographed and costumed dancers. For suddenly, and very dramatically, Apollo performers were presenting not only concerts but whole theatrical displays, as in “The Dancing Tiger of Bali,” a musical rendition of a Balinese folk myth. No less dramatic were the Star dancers in highly evocative “Space-Primitive” garb with futuristic silver lamé suits and decorative bones for an LRH piece of the same name. Then there was L. Ron Hubbard’s “Rain Dance.”
“There is actually an amusing story connected with that rain dance,” recalled another, and went on to explain how L. Ron Hubbard had been working quite intently on choreography. “There had been his ‘African Dance,’ inspired by earlier research in Rhodesia, a uniquely primitive ‘Amazon Dance’ and finally ‘The Rain Dance,’ drawn from actual Blackfeet dances L. Ron Hubbard had witnessed as a youth.” Essentially a dance that said, bring on rain, “The first time we performed that dance it happened to take place during a period of weeks of dry, insufferable heat. The dance was not only a hit with the locals, all of whom joined in, but coincidentally or not, it also rained later that day!”
Then again, with the Apollo ’spassage to the Caribbean, came L. Ron Hubbard’s elaborately performed calypso and reggae-inspired dance and music, also well in advance of later international trends.
“One has to accept the fact that music itself can communicate,” L. Ron Hubbard wrote, and, in that regard, “it also can influence.” How pervasive was that influence is difficult to gauge. Certainly his Apollo musicians earned much in terms of local appeal: L. Ron Hubbard’s tribute to the Spanish port of Cadiz very literally stole the show at that city’s annual Gran Baile de Gala, while his musicians were routinely mobbed at all other regular ports of call. Then, too, when a new Sea Organization vessel, Freewinds, appeared at Curaçao some twelve years after the last Apollo performance, local residents approached ship’s officers to ask, “Have you come back to play for us?”
Yet considering all else that L. Ron Hubbard had to say about music through this period -- his delineation of rhythm, his analysis of musical presentation, and his uncanny ability to anticipate trends years in advance of the fact -- his influence clearly extended much further.
Some of the many Apollo Troupe performances.
