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Tina Turner reminds Poles of the good life

By RUTH E. GRUBER

WARSAW, Poland -- American rock star Tina Turner swept into town last week and with hard-driving rock and spectacularly skimpy costumes, made her Polish audience temporarily forget about strikes, shortages and crises.

Her performance Thursday coincided with the Solidarity union's latest strike threat but inside a cavernous Warsaw sports hall, she reminded a crowd of 6,000 what the good life and glamour are all about.

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In a pre-concert news conference Miss Turner claimed she had no idea of what has been going on in Poland. But her British promoter, Bryan Miller, said he booked the engagement toward the end of a tour that started in the Middle East to provide release for Poles facing a winter of hardship.

'She came here to entertain, to bring joy and happiness,' Miller said in an interview. 'For the hour or so we are here, the audience is in a different world, they can forget the problems. If I can do this, that's great. And the money doesn't matter.'

Miller, who specializes in bringing Western stars to Eastern Europe and has promoted Polish tours for acts like Boney M, Gloria Gaynor and Petula Clark, said he takes payment partially in dollars and partially in the non-convertible Polish zloty.

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'This time,' he said, 'I took most of the fee in zloties, as I wanted to bring Tina to Poland ... I didn't want to neglect the Poles because of the hard times.'

Poland's shortage of hard currency has cut down drastically on the number of foreign acts. The annual August international song festival at Sopot -- which usually draws top acts from the West -- was canceled this year.

Tina Turner's concerts in Warsaw and Katowice were the first by a major rock star since the Sopot festival in August 1980, which coincided with the big strikes that rocketed Solidarity to world prominence.

Miss Turner wowed her audience 90 minutes with such old favorites as 'River Deep and Mountain High,' 'Acid Queen,' 'Nutbush City Limits' and 'Proud Mary.'

She also gave gutsy versions of Rolling Stones and Rod Stewart hits and a stunning slow version of the Beatles hit, 'Help,' which she has just cut as a single.

She danced with her trademark frenzy in sparkling brief costumes that included a gold-fringed backless mini-dress, an elongated loincloth with gold wings and skin-tight pedal pushers with blouson jacket.

She did not make the Polish crisis disappear completely. At one point, Miss Turner tossed back her hair, hitched up to the microphone and growled, 'What do you want?'

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'Food,' came the reply from somewhere back in the crowd.

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