POP & ROCK

There were only about 400 people in Georgia’s Augusta-Richmond Civic Center on Sunday to witness James Brown’s performance of certain terms of his probation for recent weapons and drugs convictions: singing during a “Wrestle-Rock ‘88” concert and wrestling show. Brown’s spokesmen had said prior to the benefit concert that it was costing the singer, known as the Godfather of Soul, about $40,000 to stage the event. Appearing at a charity event was a condition of the probation Brown received in May when he pleaded guilty to charges of carrying a pistol and resisting arrest and no contest to a charge of possession of the hallucinogen PCP near his home in Beech Island, S.C. “The thought was the message. . . . The turnout didn’t bother me,” Brown said Sunday, adding he would concentrate more on being “advertised, not criticized” if sentenced to perform another such service.