After a pair of low-budget releases from the 77s and Vector in 1982, both of which garnered surprising airplay on college and public radio stations, Exit was signed to a national production and distribution agreement with A&M Records.

Along with that arrangement, the Exit label, including the power rock band First Strike and British songwriter Steve Scott, were included in a management pact with powerhouse promoters Bill Graham Productions, the giant management firm which helped stage Live Aid and also manages megastars such as Bob Dylan and Carlos Santana.

Arnie Pustilnik, a spokesman for BGP, says he likes what he sees coming out of Sacramento. "San Francisco has a long-standing tradition as a hotbed of progressive music. So it's only natural that we would take an interest in what's happening within earshot up in Sacramento. The level of musicianship is incredible. And the reason we're so keen on them is because these guys are out there writing hits. We're not going to paint their images as Christians first, then musicians. We're going to introduce them to the public on the merit of their music. I think that in the next few months you'll see two or three top name bands rising out of Sacramento."

In fact, BGP is interested in assembling Peacock, Bourgeois Tagg, Vector, and the 77s into a "Sacramento Sound" package and putting them on tour together. Until then, though, Sacramento's first real shot at the door to the pop wonderland is Vector's single "I Can't Help Falling in Love," a funky. Paul Young-ish rock ballad that Exit/A&M released to Top 40 and Adult Contemporary radio stations across the country in late February.

That single was worked and reworked by Griffith and Abegg who spent several long nights in the studio fine-tuning the song after A&M gave the okay. The result is a power guitar riff merged with a slick wall of synths and centered around Griffith's emotive vocals.

The album titled Town Hall, produced by British studio-whiz Nigel Gray who has turned the dials for The Police and the infamous Sex Pistols, is an assortment of sparkling clear and cleverly melodic pop/funk tunes with a few brooding numbers tossed in to spice things up. "Charlie's songs are very strong," Gray comments. "Very melodic. It takes time to present a new artist to the public, but I think he'll be around a long, long time."

Supporting Gray's prediction are songs like the effervescent "Forever Strangers," a unique and radio-bound hybrid of jazz and white funk, and "Down in the Lowlands," a track that typifies Peacock's knack for merging styles into one indivisible whole. The cut mixes an incredibly danceable beat-box rhythm with stunning guitars and a jazzy keyboard riff. And, of course, Peacock's voice, a sort of cross between Joe Jackson and Green of Scritti Politti, provides the centerpiece.

After recording the album at Exit's Sangre Studios, Peacock and Gray took the finished work back to Gray's Surrey Sound Studios for the final mixdown and the reworking of the title track from Peacocks self-produced first album, Lie Down in the Grass.

Several independent British labels are courting Peacock on the release with Rough Trade being the major suitor. It all has Peacock grinning. "Things are really starting to happen."

Things that boggle Mike Roe's mind. He still can't believe that someone would lack enough presence of mind to actually call Sacramento a bustling music community. "Personally," he snaps, running his hand through a super-moussed head of hair, "I was shocked when I woke up one morning and found myself a part of a scene. It just sort of happened. It must be because California is so completely devoid of culture. We have to turn to this."