Roadrunner 2(10) November 1979

SPECIALS

FLOWERS ALIENS THE DOTS '

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, W A N N A M E M B E R S ^^LBIITM?

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Yo, Clint!!

Just want to say Thanks for the swell words in RR New M usic p iece.

Thanks!

R ecords in route to you now. . Regards, Jay Clem, Ralph Records.

" Dear Roadrunner, Subject — Models/Boys N ext Door Crystal Ballroom — O ct 20th.

Well, this is a rarity, I says to m yself in a very Orstralian a ccen t the day I read about the fact that a free record will b e given away at the M odels/Boys N ext Door gig at the Crystal Ballroom.

M e b ein g a person who will Jump at the chance o f getting som ething for nothing, strolled downward to Collins street where M issing Link R ecords is situated. I n i go over to the counter and strike m e handsome, it's the g eezer who bashes the skins with the B.N.D. Anyw ay I say, four tickets thanks mate. A t this poin t in time I felt p retty good, I mean in early, g et a free record and cx^tually b ein g served b y on e o f the guys, oh shit.

W ell it com es Saturday and we're all there early, first time I've b een there [Crystal Ballroom that is] what a p ox Joint; th ey sure do fool you with the name. I n otice that the gear set-up on stage is not that belon gin g to the M odels. I am surprised, I would have thought that the Boys N ext Door would gain the top billing, but who cares, I think at the time.

8.45 approxim ately and yep, it's the Boys N ext Door, crash, bang, DISTORTION, oh shit, oh fuck, this is SHIT, what the fuck are these poofters trying to do, blow our fucking heads o ff with tuneless distortion th ey might call an attempt at som e new wave rock ?

Anyw ay the sin ger and h e sure as h ell wasn't doing that, tells us all, that was the short set and the M odels will b e on next, no wonder th ey must have known them selves how bad they were. For a group who w ere cracked up to b e on e o f the b est bands in Australia, they went dovm like a b a g o f soggy skunk shit, the audience were unresponsive and equally bu ggered at their awful first set. • A fter all that, m y mates and I were recoverin g on the floor, up the back som ewhere, when on cam e the M odels. If they're as bad as the last lot I'm pissing off, one o f m y friends yells, whoa, h ey ho, h ee har, ho what's this I hear, a couple o f numbers go b y and this band is going o.k ., in fact they're on fucking fire. The M odels are great, this is unbelievabl, they are putting those other fuckers where th ey belong, down in the sew er. To think this band haven't even got a record contract. Must b e becau se they do not have the manager o f M issing Link Records as Manager.

I'll say this, the crow d loved 'em, scream ing loudly for an en core and they do Just that, then they're off and som e poofter says we can't give you anymore M odels. The crowd, pissed off with that statement, leave to get sandwiches and get drunk, b efore the Boys N ext Door com e back again to b ore everyone again with their tuneless racket, and sure enough that was exactly what it was.

I'm glad to say the four o f us d ecid ed to depart after about three numbers or was it four or five, they sounded the same and they all sounded shithouse. A nd it was in your paper that I think Clinton Walker called the M odels trite and contrived. Well I'll say The M odels are the b est group in Australia bar none, so all o f you interstate twats don't know what they're in for yet.

A s for Clinton Walker, a m essage. Andrew Duffield used his head leaving Whirlywirld to Join the M odels. His only blemish is that h e played on the Boys N ext Door album.

— Vanessa Redgrave.

P.S. Prediction — The M odels b y the en d o f 1980 will b e Australia's b iggest act.

W ot's th is? P a y o la ? I'm su rp rised a t you C linton W a lker! W hat w as th at a b ou t n o free lu n ch es? — ED,

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P.P.S. I'm not really Vanessa Redgrave, Just her brother.

Dear Roadrunner, Enclosed is a letter addressed to Clinton Walker, in relation to an article written b y him about the Sydney band. Tactics. It, however, can b e applied to many review ers, [without m entioning names] and o f course m any ban d s — V oigt/465, Thought Criminals, XL Capris, Ih-oducts etc. to name a few in Sydney — and 1 therefore ask you to publish it.

The extract from the Snoo Wilson's Everest H otel [I su ggest you read it] can b e d eleted if necessary, but I naturally would prefer not!

R oadrunner...[B eep, B eep], "Right there above the voices I s ee another view Look up and I se e another view Twice the building Twice the room When I go ou td oors...." from O utdoors — Tactics I would like to suggest [dem urely] that Clinton W alker go outdoors and relieve a little o f his fashion-induced claustro-phebia.

Snappy-frap-tap drums, decid ed ly nonnugent guitar punctuation [when you can hear it], a voice like N eil Young on laughing gas and base-bass.

A nd you're still dribbling about originality.

These blokes fe e l things. There's songs in there that mean stuff to the normal Australian R§Roll attendant [and it's not mutton dressed as lamb like that flying dag, Dave Warner].

Ditties about abos, wide open spaces and dark longings.

You covered yourself p retty well with that slap dash interview ... but on closer examination, there are so m any halfinvestigated semi-truths in your p ie c e that the whole affair smacks o f a S w iss-C he^e cover Job. [Now raise your right hand and froth at the mouth].

I b eliev e that bands o f this calibre deserve m ore than on e night's casual listening before formulation o f opinion [BE IT PRAISE OR DAMNATION[.

They are com m itted to what they do, but can the same thing b e said o f you.

Yours phonetically, [and pass the shallowly rom anticised smack].

N eb N ebdekker, Mt. Pritchard/No Mans-land.

Clinton Walker, It is unfortunate that your preoccupation with past events, particularly English Punk c.

1976, should'lead you to conclude "a Tactics' set sounds like it could/should have been played in England three years a g o ." [R.R. O ct. p .l7 ] For as you are obsessed with the past, so this band is obsessed with the present, and b y implication, the future: "Australia needs bands that are interested in the FUTURE, rather than b ein g totally pessim istic and copyin g things from the p a st..." _ [Dave Studdert, R .A .M ., Oct. 19, p .8] Could it b e that Tactics are Just as aware o f the irrelevance of popular reiteration as you are? Not only is this the case, but also their awareness o f the pitiful concepts which perm eate Australian culture — som ething which is reflected in their lyrics — something you happened to miss!

There is not a single point in your article which I would not refute — Tactics' tedium, obsession with drug culture, lacklustre covers, and so on — but such is a matter o f opinion.

The point to n ote how ever, is that assessing a band, one should not hold up the past as if a filter to allow faint glimmerings o f light to pass through, whilst also ignoring that which can not b e interpreted in the context o f the post.

H opefully, although o f them no mention was made, the implications o f the lyrics was not totally wasted upon you.

"Inquisition: Do you want sinners to b e good ?

Mary: I don't know.

Inquisition: Don't know ?!?

M ary: Yeah, I do [si/ence]" The Everest H otel b y Snoo Wilson.

D eaf R.R., Just writing to all the Adelaidians to remind them that A delaide is the arse-hole o f the Universe. When are the p eop le o f A delaide going to appreciate the excellen ce o f the musical talents o f the many A delaide bands — what the fuck do th ey have to do to g et recogn ised b y the peasants o f Adelaide.

In the nine months that Fiasco operated we saw many fine bands [e.g . Innocents, UBombs, Immigrents, Dagoes, The Units[?] etc.] em erge from the cesspool. W e will probably see these bands leave this state like so many others in the n ext year — or bust up.

W here does the fault lie — the prom oters, the pubs or the p eop le. W e can speak for Fiasco when we say that we, asprom oters[?], busted our arseholes and our wallets to give th& e bands [and others] a fair go. What did we g et — [apart from many sleepless nights] — fuck all. The pub's fault? — now hasn't this been thrashed about b efore!

It's now the p eop les' turn. If p eop le becam e m ore actively involved in the music, e.g . b y supporting their favourjte band b y going to see them, then the City o f Churches may Just manage to scrape itself out o f the shit it is in.

With this little letter. Fiasco bids Adelaide a fond farewell, but rem em ber we w on 't b e back.

Regards, John, Mark, Jim, Rob & Mark The Fiasco Quins Havana, C uba.

Dear Roadrunner, Look, I'm getting SICK reading bloody letters that com e in EVERY month knocking the writers of ROADRUNNER. Obviously you can't agree all the time with what is said, but you can't p lease everyone.

Frankly, I'm also sick o f the fucking foul language used. Why d on 't. you mindless disco-heads Just slide back into your shells and let the p oor rock'n'roll mag. do its stuff?

I love you Roadrunner.

S incerely yours, A nnie Morrell.

P.S. Does that deserve a free T-Shirt?

I knew it'd b een relea sed h ere but was really pleased and surprised that som eone had bought a cop y already. Then it got even better: The song finished and the B.B.C. Radio O ne D.J. cam e on, arm ounced the song and the band and then said it was his hit p ick of the week. [I think it was Kid Jensen, but I'm not sure]. I Just hope it works out for you Joe. It Just could take off. G et M ichael to send over a film clip to Top O f The P ops im­ m ediately — it'd help. A n d good luck. I like it anyway.

Keith Shadwick, London.

Dear Toby Creswell, It's raining in Sydney as I m ake m y daily pilgrim age to the dingy office in Pitt St. Behind the new spaper stand on the corner, a man stands d e je c t^ , the rain running down his back. I n otice that h e has the O ctober issue o f Roadrunner on the stand [it wasn't there yesterday] and so I bu y three copies, one for Barbara, on e for Lisa and on e h r me.

Usually I only bu y on e cop y but the words "Mental A s A nything" on the front dover persuade m e to do otherwise.

Mr. Creswell, I love you. Your article today made m e forget that the weather is dismal, m y Job is dismal, in fa ct it m ay even have p reven ted an attempt at suicide. [I say at­ tempt beca u se I don't really think I'd have the nerve to seriously try]. In case you were wondering, Barbara, Lisa and I, h geth er, in conjunction with Regular Records, run the Mental As Anything Fanclub. Unfortunately, as popular as the Mentals are, there are only about tw enty-three m em bers. Perhaps you can suggest a reason for that. W e can't understand it at all. You see, the arms o f the fanclub can't b e ach ieved without m ore recruits. Plans such as "Members O nly" dances, record pressings, p icn ics and all types o f fun activities can't b ecom e realities without the support o f m ore M entals fans.

Perhaps you would like to Join? If not, then you might b e able to see your way clear to "spread the word" [lots o f p eop le b elieve in Dear Donald, Roadrunner]. You may have gathered that Just to let you know how disgusted we all are I'm a desperate sort o f person. P lease! I'm at there only b ein g on e mention o f Jane A ire b eggin g you! Tell m e why we have so few in the O ctober issue. m em bers. Is it ignorance, or scorn, or This Just isn't good enough, Roadrunner1! som ething naive, little m e hasn't learned o f You've b een w arn ed about this before. yet? And please, Mr. Creswell, don't shatter Admittedly, it's an im provem ent on the la st. m y illusions o f you b y not replying.

1,316 issues, when there w ere n o mentions o f Remember, you saved m y life today.

The N am e; however, I w ant m ore.

I remain eternally indebted, I mean, you wouldn't like your lawn set on Judith Hailey. fire, would you, D onald??

For a ll o f you th at m a y b e in terested in [s/gnec/] join in g th e M en ta ls' Fan C lub, th e a d ­ A Friend. dress to w rite to is: M .A .A . Fan C lub, d o P.S. Can I have a record token, p lea se? ■ P .O ., B irrong, N .S .W . 2143. H ow d o you No, Tim you ca n 't — ED. fe e l T ob y? C h u ffed ? M mmm — ED.

ROADRUNNER

November 1979

EDITOR AND PUBLISHER: Donald Robertson.

BUSINESS MANAGER: Robert James.

DESIGN AND LAYOUT: G eo/f'tfi/ford, Trudy Hayter.

MELBOURNE: Adrian Ryan, Clinton Walker.

SYDNEY: Stuart Coupe [02] 569 8964.

Stuart M atchett [02] 519 2896.

BRISBANE: A nne Jones, Scott M athesdn, 69 Ellena Street, Paddington, Qld.

Dear Donald,.

I was wandering down O xford St., the busiest street in London, on the first bright afternoon o f O ctober, when I paused in front of on e o f thousands o f small shitty clothes shops selling exclu sively to p eop le from H em el Hem pstaed and tourists. This in itself vms quite rem arkable — it's no mean feat to actually com e to a com plete halt in Oxford St. at that time o f day. But there was a reason. It was two chords and a riff. I recogn ised it. I walked into the shop and yes, it was a son g I knew well. But that still didn't explain why it should b e on there, unless the shop was run b y A ussie expatriates. B ecause the son g was So Y oung b y Jo Jo Zep. Yes, the same.

Stunned, I stood in the middle o f a woman's clothes shop looking very stupid, and listened to the end, m y arms getting g oose pim ples.

PERTH: Kim W illiam s, 129 10th A venue.

Inglewood, W.A, LONDON: Keith Shadw ick [01] 736 4413.

Chris W illis.'

NEW ZEALAND: Jenny Rankine.

PHOTOGRAPHY: Eric Algra.

CONTRIBUTORS: Peter Paul Bakowski, Larry Buttrose, to b y Creswell, Goose, Span Hanna, M ichael Hope.. Richard McGregor, Peter Nelson, Suzie Walton, Clinton W alker, Peter Page, Adrian

HEAD OFFICE: 133a Glen Osmond Rd., EASTWOOD, S.A. 5063

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Ma/J. z i Welcome to November's collection of hot, steaming, succulent rumours. I've got a virtual smorgasbord for you this month, so sit back, relax and INGEST. The Mental as Anything album is out! After numerous delays, interruptions and other hold ups the actual vinyl is spinning on my turntable at this very moment. Festival Records who are Regular Records' Big (distribution) Brother are going to launch it as well! The album will be launched at a swimming bath in Bondi on November 1st.

There will be swimming races and numerous people will be dunked into the pool (ac­ cording to the band). Festival will also be giving away seven swimming pools and lotsa sprinklers for the forthcoming summer. The album is called G et Well. Hatta.

However, both the album and the single.

The Nips are G etting B igger will not be released in the U.K. until January next year.

Virgin, Regular's English connection are afraid that if they-were released now, or any other time this year, they'd get swamped in the Xmas vinyl avalanche.

No such overseas blues for the Sports however. Who Listens To The Radio is presently No. 54 with a bullet on the American Billboard chart and No. 46 on Cashbox.

The album. Don't Throw Stones was the fourth most added album to EM stations across the country late last month. Arista, the band's American distributer are getting behind the album in a big way too. There was a full page, full colour ad for the album (which features a new cover, the band walking towards a plate glass window with a hole in it) in Billboard the same week. The rapid rise of the single is surprising many people in the Australian muzik biz, but not Festering Mick, oh, no. I always knew they had the goods. (Smug bastard — Ed.) And you can expect announcements about the future of both the Angels and Cold Chisel's recording deals early this month, as both Rod Willis (Chisel's manager) and John Woodruffe (Angels co-manager) will be finalising worldwide record deals early this month in Los Angeles. Cold Chisel will have a new single released on November 12th to p reced e the P ooled R esources' Tour featuring. Chisel, the Angels, Flowers plus selected supports in each capital city. The first 5000 Chisel singles will be 12" affairs with a new song. Choir Girl on the 'A' side and a live version of Khe Sahn on the flip.

The single will come complete with a full colour sleeve and when the 5000 are all gone, the single will revert to a 7" form and instead of Khe Sahn, will have a live version of Confrontation on the flip. Of course the Angels already have their full colour sleeve 12" single. Out O f the Blue, in the shops.

In case anyone hasn't heard as yet, the Ramones will not be coming to this country this year. The official line from the promoter is that they couldn't line up dates in Japan to co-incide with the Australian dates and that they will be here in January. One band that will definitely be here this month though, is the Members from England. The tour will be along similar lines to the XTC tour earlier this

ALBUMS

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year, i.e. clubs, pubs and the occasional if he'll get any royalties? ballroom. Supporting the Members will be Those of you who caught any of the Cheap the Hitmen and Th' Dudes (a new Kiwi im­ Trick concerts lately would have seen port), except in Adelaide where Mental As guitarist Rick Nielson dispensing plectrums Anything will be replacing the Hitmen for the like confetti into the crowd. When Festering date at the Arkaba. It will probably be the Mick cornered him after* the Adelaide first time that two Virgin acts have played on concert, he said that he has two million the same bill in this country. plectrums made per year. Say Cheap Trick M-Sex, currently on tour with Cheap Trick, do 300 concerts a year — that means he can had some good news about their single. get rid of 6,666 per concert. Festering Mick Computer Games, recently. Apart from was also witness to one of the great meetings hitting the number one spot in Canberra they of the decade when Nielson fronted Greek have heard that the top FM station in New giant Demis Roussos at the apres gig bash at York WNEW is very excited about the song, Adelaide's famous Toucan Club. With^ after a couple of D.J.,'s heard it at a New York Roussos resplendent in a brown caftan and disco called Privates, and the station's music Nielson wearing his usual peaked cap and director is hassling Epic Records to release it Cheap Trick sweater, it was guite a bizarre as soon as possible in the U.S. As soon as a sight. publishing deal is concluded the single and One of the forthcoming releases from album will be released over there. Graffiti Missing Link Records (where if.the hits get too Crimes, the album was released in the U.K. big they offload them onto someone else) is a on November 1st. single that has the dubious distinction of Hoyts, who are distributing the Who movie. winning a recent 'Worst Record Ever Made The Kids A re A lright, held a special showing Competition' on Melbourne's 3RRR radio of the film in Sydney last month and invited station, The_ song is Paralysed by The

all, and that means ALL, of the city's rock bands along. Such is the healthy state of the Sydney scene that the theatre was over half full. A good time was had by all.

The latest single from the Sex Pistols has run into controversy. So what's new you may ask.

The single, R ock'n 'R oll Sw indle/R ock Around the C lock, went out in a picture sleeve with a slightly altered American Express credit card on the front. The card had been altered to include Sex Pistols instead of American Express. A couple of weeks after the single hit the shops Virgin Records boss Richard Branson received a phone call from American Express' lawyers. As Branson was out of the office at the time, the lawyer left his message on Branson's telephone tape machine — something to the effect that American Express were taking out a High Court injunction against the sleeve and Virgin better not print any more etc. etc. The single will go out in a different sleeve when the first pressing is sold out, and as a special bonus the lawyers recorded message will be included on the A side of the single. I wonder

Legendary Stardust Cowboy. Missing Link secured the rights by writing to the producer, a Major Bill Smith of Houston Texas, who was only too happy to dispose of the master tapie.

Other releases forthcoming from Missing Link include a Peter Lillie single. Samurai Star/The Man From Brashers, a new Whirlywirld single and the Boys Next Door 5 track 12 inch, which is presently being mixed in the U.K. In Adelaide the local home grown releases are looking healthy this month with the forth­ coming releases of the Sputniks single and the Nasty Nigel Lawrence punk opus Jonestown Suicide (remember the Reverend Jim Jones? 900 suicides? Got It?) which will be launched at a special dance at the Nor­ wood Town Hall on November 9th with a line up that as well as featuring Nasty Nigel and the Teenage Hellcats will have the debut performance of the Raincoats who comprise Wilson Main, Geoff Gifford and Andy Soka, Arnold Strals of Systems Go and Rod Cor­ nish, lately of Clean Cut.

Another new band soon to appear on a lacklustre Adelaide scene are Ice Nine who comprise ex Terminal Twister, Peter Tesla, ex-U-Bomb drummer Roy Ezringer and exLemmy Cautioners Ted Thornbury and Nigel Sweeting. In case you are wondering if those three bands have broken up lately, the an­ swer is Terminal Twist — No, U-Bombs — Yes, and Lemmy Caution — No. The UBombs will leave behind them a VERY limited edition cassette (about 30 copies) which features a great little song entitled The Cover of Roadrunner. If you'd like a copy of this cassette, write and let me know. The address is below.

And Canberra is emerging onto the home grown recording scene with the release of an E.P. by the Young Doctors this month on the Dull label. The E.P. will comprise three tracks. Bronze Portrait, The Multitude and Eclyptic M irrors. It will have a picture sleeve and will sell for $2.50 outside Canberra (It'll be a bit cheaper in the capital). ExCanberrans, Tactics, will also have a single released sometime this month.

The Stranglers ran into a bit of bother recently when they released a track from their new album The Raven called Nuclear Device. The song is about Queensland Premier Jo Bjelke Petersen and in the U.K. featured a Larry Pickering cartoon of the Peanut King'. The thing was that the Stranglers didn't ask Mr. Pickering's per­ mission before using the cartoon and he slapped an injunction on them pretty guick smart. As a result we won't see the cover over here.

Channel Ten in Adelaide had a telethon recently to raise money for the International year of the Child. You know the type of thing — a whole lot of T.V. stars and recording artists donate their time and do silly things on the screen so people will watch, be en­ tertained and send in money for a worthy cause. And if the viewers are really lucky then they might even get their name read out over the air. One of the people reading out people's names was 5AD personality. Bob IraxiCiS. As he was reading out donations, he came across one from 'two punk rockers from Salisbury' who har! donated $10.. "Oh no, we can'+ money from punk rockers" said wise ol' Bob. The Channel 10 switchboard was immediately deluged by calls from irate punk rockers who wanted to know why their money wasn't good enough for handicapped kids, and if Mr. Francis was going to apologise. W ell, Mr. Francis didn't apologise, (Johnny Farnham did it for him) and he took no further part in the show. Is Punk still a dirty word? I thought it was dead.

And now history making time. Instead of one needle wrecker of the month, this month we have FOUR. No, not two, or even three, but FOUR. Wowee! How about that? The four discs that have been wearing out the Roadrunner needle are, in no particular order. M oney by the Flying Lizards, Com­ puter Games by Mi-Sex, Message fn a Bottle by the Police and Video Killed The Radio Star by the Buggies. All I can say is listen to 'em all.

That's all from me. See you next month.

Festering Mick.

ROADRUNNER CHARTS im i t m i i t i i n m i i i i i i i i i i i ] SINGLES TRAX

1. (-) Drums and Wires .................................................... XTC 2. (12) The B S P 's...............................................................B-52's 3. (7) Screaming T argets.......................................... Jo Jo Zep 4. (1) Graffiti C rim es....................................................Mi-Sex 5. (-) fnflammable M a terial.................... Stiii Little Fingers .

(-) The U ndertones...................................The Undertones 7. (-) N ever Mind The B ollock s............................ Sex Pistols

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8 . (15) Wo E x it........................................................ The Angels 9. {8) Labour o f Lust ...................................... Nick Lowe 10. (-) Eat To The B ea t...................................................Blondie 11. (5) All M od Cons ................................................... The Jam 12. {-) A Different Kind o f Tension ................The Buzzcocks 13. (-) Candy-O .........................................................The Cars 14. (-) Love B ites...............................................The Buzzcocks 15. (6) Fear O f M usic ................ ......................Talking Heads 16. (4) Repeat When N ecessary ....................Dave Edmunds 17. (-) The Raven ...................... ......................The Stranglers 18. {2) New V alues...................................................... IggyPop/^ 19.(18) The Sound O f Sunbathing...................... The Sinceros/ 20. (16) Germ Free A d o lescen ts............................X-Roy Spex Chartbusters is compiled entirely from readers' votes. If you want your vote to count next issue, send a list of your ten favorite tracks (not necessarily just those that have been released

1. (1) 2. (13) (-) (8) (3) {-) (2) (-) (5)

The Nips A re G etting Bigger . Mental As Anything Gotta Getaway ..................... . . . Stiff Little Fingers Computer Games .................. ........................... Mi-Sex G a n gsters................................................ The Specials f Don't Like M ondays.......................... BoomtownRats D u ch ess................................................ The Stranglers Didn't Tell The Man .................................. The Hitmen Early Morning Brain .............................. The Models Cruel To Be K in d .................................... 'ad.Nick Lowe

(-) Teenage Kicks ................................ The Undertones (-) Making Plans For N ig el.......................................... XTC 12. (-) Masguerade .................................................. The Skids 13. (-) Love You M o re............................ ......... The Buzzcocks 14. (-) M on ey.............................................The Flying Lizards 15. (-) ffarm ony fn My f f e a d .......................... The Buzzcocks 16.(16) AnofAer Girl, Another P la n et............ The Only Ones 17. (4) S hivers.......................................... The Boys Next Door 18. (-) S ister.................................................................. Flowers 19. (-) Spanish G ardener...................... Mental As Anything 20. (-) Killing T im e............................................ The Members as singles) and your top 10 albums NOW, to: R oadrunner C hartbusters, P.O. Box 90. Eastwood, S.A. 5063.

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NOVEMBER - APOLLO STADIUM MELBOURNE:25th NOVEMBER - FESTIVAL HALL CANBERRA;29th NOVEMBER -

SUPPORTS: BOYS'NEXT DOOR and LA FEMME

SHOWGROUND PAVILION

SYDNEY: 1st DECEMBER - MARCONI STADIUM NEWCASTLE:2nd DECEMBER -

SWiPpIfl^: t l i

SUPPORT: THE ROYAL FAMILY

SUPPORTS: HITMEN, ROSE TATTOO and DAVE WARNER

INTERNATIONAL MOTORDROME

SUPPORTS: THE MOTELS and DAVE WARNER

ART YOU CAN DANCE TO Graham Parker has been around for awhile and although he is still the critic's pin-up boy (as indeed he has been since his first L.P. Howling Wind was released in 1976) he hasn't really cracked through to the higher echelons of the superstar bracket. Meanwhile artists who admit their debt to Parker are, to use Mr. Meldrum's favourite cliche, 'racing up the charts'. (Ones that immediately spring to mind are Elvis Costello and Joe Jackson). He's had his problems with record companies, particularly in the U.S.A. but that seems to have been solved by signing to Arista over there (the same label that picked up the Sports lately). And it seems that finally the public taste (which in that country as in this is largely controlled by the electronic media) is catching up with him.

So Parker is guite optimistic about his future. And with good reason. Squeezing Out Sparks his latest album (before the Greatest Hits package High Times released to co­ incide with the present Australian tour) is considered by many to be his best. His songwriting, is never less than excellent and he has one of the best rock bands in the world, the Rumour, behind him. What more can he ask for except perhaps the recognition he deserves. In Sydney before the start of his second Australian tour, Graham Parker talked to Stuart Coupe.

SC: That's a great T shirt (GP's adorned in a T shirt which says FUCK ART LET'S JUST DANCE...)

GP: It's from a group called Madness who are on Stiff — a ska bluebeat group. I don't agree with it but sometimes I do.

SC: Why don't you agree with it?'

SC: One thing I'm interested in is how GP: Well it iiiisssart. MY ART.... I ; suffer you come out and sing emotional songs for it (much laughter). For God's sake it can't like Can't Be Too Strong every night... be completely true. I don't dance when I write GP: Well we did three months of it in songs, I suffer. But it's true to a certain extent America and every night I got off singing I think. For the group Madness it's definitely that. It was great b ^ a u se the audience loved true because it is a dance group — ska, it. Girls cried and stuff which kind of gets you reggae, which is dance music. into it but you're bound to go through some SC: I guess the idea is to make art that nights when you're not really into it but you're you can dance to. professional enough to go through the GP: Yeah — that's about it. Art that you can motions and nobody knows any different dance to. including yourself. Other nights you just SC: Have you just been touring? really get off on it.

GP: No we've been off for guite a bit. In SC: I assume Can't Be Too Strong is August we did some Scandanavian dates. We about an Australian experience? did the Tivoli Gardens in Finland, the open GP: Yes, it is. air festival in Finland with the Clash who SC: You know everyone's going to ask supported us. (laughs). you about it 'cause of the Australian SC: What are they like live? reference.

GP: They're great live. They're really good. GP: Yeah, and T'm going to say, 'how They weren't so good that day as they hadn't boring for you to ask me that'. I'm sure been playing all that much and we'd had everybody's read things I've said in The three weeks off after a 3 month American tour Melody Maker and stuff when I was in­ so we were well on top— we blew 'em away terviewed about it then. completely (Laughs). It was great fun. They SC: What did you say? are good. They've improved a lot. They GP: I'm not going to tell you (laughs). I'm haven't been 'ere yet? I'm sure they'll get fed up with the whole bloody thing. It was an over 'ere soon.

Australian experience... I heard Luna Park SC: Is the brass section gone for good? burnt down recently... Sydney Luna Park... I GP: I don't know. I may use them on the won't sing any songs with Luna Park in them next album or I may use some brass if a song again. Well, I never said what Luna Park it needs it but having them on the road we was. found we relied on them and now that we SC: No. but you stuck d picture of it on haven't got them... we were dead worried the album cover. about going on the road without them at first GP: I know and I stuck the wrong... well I and I said 'no. I'm going to stick to it — we ain't going to say. (laughs) That's the closest don't need them — they're not on the LP, I'm going to tell you. they're not on the new songs — we're going to SC: What ore you doing on stage? Is it be playing most of the new songs. Squeezing mainly greatest hits?

Out Sparks — so we ain't going to have them GP: There's not much new stuff because we — no brass section' and we did it and it haven't had too much time to rehearse worked great. It worked fantastic. The band because I was in LA for a long time hanging played much better. Much, much better. about. W e've got a couple of new songs, but Everything's much more compact. Much mostly it'll be Squeezing Out Sparks stuff and more dynamic.

Howling Wind, Heat Treatment, Soul Shoes SC: Are The Rumour actually touring? off course. We've got a lot of material to Do they go on the road when you're choose from now so it's easy... well it's not having a break? easy to pick a set but we've got all our stuff.

GP: No. They tried it but it's really hard SC: Are you writing much? because they haven't got the kind of stature GP: Yeah, I've been writing most of the new that I've got and they've never really sold all stuff. It's going pretty well but I don't want to that many records. People always ask why bring it all on the road and rehearse it all they don't do a set with me but you can't do because we'll get into the studio and we'll that because if you're doing some of my songs have to go through the big trauma of realising and then suddenly The Rumour do a song, it's it doesn't sound good in the studio like it did going to change the vibration of the gig and onstage and change it all again. it's going to be hard to get the momentum' SC: Have you heard about Jack Nitzgoing. sche? (While in Sydney, Cheap Trick SC: Is your guitar playing getting any drummer Bun E. Carlos told Stuart that Jack better?

Nitzsche (producer of Neil Young and GP: (Laughs )My guitar playing is in­ Graham Parker among others) had burst into credible (More laughter). When I'm on me Neil Young's wife's house, beaten her up and own in a room, my guitar playing is raped her). staggering. I keep it to myself. I play the solo GP: He told me all about it. I was in LA in Mercury Poisoning. recently and he told me about it but he didn't SC: You don't have Brinsley hiding tell me the whole thing. Then I saw it in the behind the speaker.... paper. She's dropped the charges now I GP: He plays the old Farfisa organ on it think. because we do have brass on Mercury SC: Is Neil Young married, or living Poisoning when we recorded it. I play a bit of with Nicolette Larson? rhythm on Japan and Local Girls but I just GP: He used to be married. She's got his don't need to because with the keyboards and kid, Ziek, or something. Carrie Snodgrass is two guitarists there's enough going on her name, but he's not with her now. He was anyway.

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with her for about 6 years and Nitszche was knocking her off for a bit.

SC: So what actually happened. He just broke ipto the house?

GP: Some bloody thing. He hit her around with a pistol or something and she exagerated it somewhat... but he did hit her around a bit.

He's a bit of a nutter sometimes.

SC: How'd you come to have him producing Squeezing Out Sparks?

GP: I dunno. I just thought of it after he did Mink de Ville which sounded good. That was the only reason. He worked out really good, it's just that he's hard to handle. He's just a very emotional person. He's a brilliant person and brilliant people tend not to be very stable. He thought it was impossible to work with our band. After being used to working with American session guys who play like machines to find The Rumour who play very individual — to pull them together as a band he thought was going to be impossible. After three days he said to me 'this isn't going to work' so I just had to talk to him for about three hours and convince him that he was the producer and he was supposed to tell them what to do. He was too sorta shy to do it. I mean, I had to be heavy with him and say 'look, fuckin' push 'em around — tell 'em what to do — and tell me what to do with these songs. We don't know, we're a bunch of idiots. We just stumble into studios, make a record and hope for the best. We wanted this big American producer that we're paying a lot of money for and you're telling me you don't know what to do!' It was like that. It was like dealing with a child and then it turned out O.K. He had a few beers and loosened up and he was great. He was really great.

SC: I heard stories about him telling you to. get serious.

GP: (Laughs) Yeah, he was going on about things like that. 'What do you mean love gets you twisted? Do you mean it?' Well I suppose so. 'Well why are the band playing dinky, dink dink?' I said I dunno. I don't want them to. I want them to be serious so he said 'Play it like this' and he got on the piano... demonstrates powerful, aggressive piano playing... jing jang jing... serious, slow, meaning. 'That's great Jack' I said, 'Now tell the band'. That's what it was like and sud­ denly you hear this stuff coming out of the speakers and it's like fuckin' magnificent and I realised then it was right and that we were doing a good thing. So it only took 11 days.

SC: Is he going to do future albums?

GP: No. (laughs extra loudly). No. I'd like him to. I don't know who's going to do our next one. We're tossing around three or four names at the moment. I dunno. I haven't decided yet. I went and had a talk with him recently when I was in LA and he'd heard that I didn't want him to do it and he was a bit disappointed. What he did, his idea can lead us onto something else I think and I don't need him to do it. 1 can get someone to do it for less money probably.

SC: What was the reaction to M ercury P oison in g? (the single aimed at G.P.s exdistributor — Mercury Records) GP: Great. Yeeeahhhh. It was a great reaction actually. The public like it anyway

and Arista (GP's present American label) liked it a lot (laughs). They thought it was great fun.

SC: Was there any pressure put on you not to release M ercu ry P oisoning?

GP: Well, we wanted to put it out in England but Phonogram wouldn't let us. I didn't want it on the album at all . I just wanted to put it out as a single but they wouldn't let us. It was silly really because it's just a song.

It's not going to break down a whole business — a massive conglomerate. It's not going to do anything really. It would actually have done them a lot of good if they'd put it out whereas now Phonogram in England — my greatest ambition is to fuck them up like I fucked up Mercury which is a bit of a shame really because they were OK until the last record when they realised that I wasn't going to sign with them again. We did a whole tour without any support from Phonogram. That was on the last tour of England with the Sports.

SC: And they just pulled everything out?

GP: Didn't do a thing. Nothing in the shops.

You'd be lucky to find the new album in the shops.

SC: That's like the situation in America.

You were saying last time...

GP: Yeah, with Mercury? Exactly you'd go into a shop and you might find some stupid cut out with a terrible picture on it but that's all there was.

SC: How did you find Japan? Did you get screaming like Cheap Trick?

GP: Yeah, we're not big there but the audience are very strange. They.'re really subdued and really guiet. The first gig we did was in an afternoon. An afternoon show in Tokyo. We went on stage yelling and it was silent. We thought, oh no, the place is empty.

There's no-one here. We got on stage and the show was sold out completely and they were all sitting there silently (demonstrates ultra polite clapping). We played about eight numbers and there was still this quiet clapping. I thought, they're a weird lot, so I went out and tried to tell them jokes about giant flying moths and things like that. I started going on about Japanese horror films — 'this song's about a giant flying moth that eat giant dinasour' — and they went (demonstrates Japanese laughter) — they couldn't understand a word — 'this song about ufo's' — (more laughter) — and I said 'come on — get excited — cpme here' and suddenly they went woooooo and charged the stage. There's all these bouncers there (demonstrates bouncer using karate) — there were people delivering karate chops to members of the audience but that didn't stop them. They rushed the stage and I thought great. I'll shake a few hands and they grabbed my hand so tight and started pulling me off the stage. It was like the Western God cometh. They grabbed Brinsley's foot and started undoing his shoe laces and ripping them out and stuff. They changed com­ pletely from completely servile, oppressed dumbies to maniacs. That's what they changed into so you can imagine if you're a massively popular group they're going to rip you to pieces. They really do go apeshit.

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Thursday morning. My review copy of Midnight Oil's new album, Head Injuries, arrives. Inside the front cover is a note, written in scrawny handwriting on official RCA notepaper. It reads; GOOD REVIEWS OR HEAD INJURIES. COUPE. S ROADRUNNER AND SUNHERAND (I READ THEM ALL THE TIME). HEREIN MIDNIGHT OIL ALBUM •HEAD INJURIES' DO THE RIGHT THING OR ELSE - LOVINGLY SIGNED THE GIANT JOURNALIST HATING LEAD SINGER. PETE GARRETT (No.l).

Ya see Midnight Oil and my good self have had a rather torrid relationship over the past year. It all began, many moons ago, with my review of their debut album.

The boys were obviously proud of their efforts and phrases like "They're an in­ consistent lot — often lifeless but just as frequently in sp ired ... he won't be remembered as one of the great vocalists... unfortunately the band sound is a little dull... too many of the songs are extended more than is necessary" were not received enthusiastically. No-one was saying it was a BAD album but these things needed to be said, I thought.

That was in the Christmas RAM but joy, happiness and good will did not prevail.

Band were not impressed. Road crew promised savage beating "if this Coupe bastard ever shows his face at another of our gigs".

The follow up feature in RAM calmed things down. The important point made was that when you're confronted by a band so star­ tlingly original and exciting as Midnight Q1 one tends to nit pick to extremes 'cause you want them to be better than great. Often this desire is misinterpreted.

It's now a year later and like all supergroups (Fleetwood Mac, Eagles, LRB, etc.) Midnight Oil have unveiled their new album for Christmas time.

It's pleasing to be able to say that Head Injuries is superior to the first album in almost every area. But more about that later.

A large number of ROADRUNNER readers are probably unfamiliar with Midnight Oil. Over the past three years they've stayed close to Sydney, occa sion a lly venturin.g to Melbourne and once to Adelaide. Up 'ere in Sydney they're in the top bracket of live bands with a drawing power not far behind The Angels and Chisel.

And if you've never seen them live there's one thing you need to know about Midnight Q1 — they make it their business to never give anything but their best. According to drummer, Rob Hirst (the closest Australia's got to a drummer of the late Keith Moon's ferocity and power) Mother Goose are part of the reason for this attitude.

"I remember once when Mother Goose were playing at Sydney Uni. at lunchtime and all these young school kids had turned up. They must have thought it was a Mother Goose pantomine. The Geese came out and started doing their whole trip. It was quite loud and I was stunned. I'd never seen anything like it Because in their early days they were just so spontaneous. They put on the whole act that they did later to the pubs with 1,000 people in front of a dozen of us.

"Anyway, the school kids left after the first song and I'll never forget Craig's face as this trail of school kids vanished out the door leaving literally six of us. But they did their whole show in costume and makeup and after I saw that I thought fuck, if the Geese can do that in front of six people we will NEVER EVER do a lacklustre gig just because people haven't turned up.

"It was a real lesson in professionalism, something like that, and that's why those guys did so well. I'm sure. It's one thing getting up and putting on your stage suits or whatever but it's another thing getting up in that sort of costume and make up and doing the whole choreography in front of a handful of people. It t^kes real guts 1 think".

Two aspects of Midnight Oil I was interested to explore with Rob during our brief record company organised interview, is the band's involvement with political issues like the AntiUranium and Save The Whale Campaigns, plus their performances at Death To Disco concerts. Singer Peter Garrett was advertised as the person who would light a bonfire of disco records at the recent day long concert at the Castlehill Showgrounds.

According to Rob it's "because the promoters recognize Midnight Oil as the band who has done most in that area. In many ways it's becoming a dead issue and as the '70's end it is a dead issue but it was mainly because, in its earlier days Midnight Oil had played the Black Friday — Death To Disco concert at the Stagedoor Tavern. They saw Peter as a spokesman for that point of view.

"But let's face it. It was just a copy of the overseas thing where they burnt all the disco records.

"Frorn our point of view it was simply a good gig to do".

But is there any anti disco feeling within the band that motivates them to play those sort of concerts?

"If you're speaking personally, as a drummer I find the disco thing so limiting rhythmically. In a way the same thing could be said about reggae. Whereas rock'n'roll covers, from a rhythmical point of view, a huge number of styles and complexities both disco and reggae are locked into a beat, a single beat. In other words you play the same beat all night — you slow it down and speed it up but rt's just like a tape loop. You might as well just record two bars and repeat and repeat and repeat it.

"That's just a personal opinion. The others must have their reasons for disliking it".

And what about politics? It's not particularly common for Australian bands to have the slightest interest in anything more than the next gig but Midnight Oil.are an exception.

"The uranium thing's been a bit of a disaster. W e combined our interest in the uranium issue with the desire to put on good concerts. It's a two way thing, obviously. We weren't just doing it for the movement.

"As it's turned out, nothing much has been achieved.

"Powderworks, from our first album, was about the uranium issue but the issue has obviously declined in the public eye. It's still something I'm extremely interest^ in but I feel some despair about the whole business now.

"The whales thing was a bit of a coup. That was a success.

"Uranium, in any sort of political per­ spective has to be seen as a disaster. I still defend what the band did but the huge sway of public opinion is against the uranium issue".

OK, cut the philosophising and talk about the music mate.

Right from the opening bars of Cold Cold Change it's obvious that Head Injuries is a major development for Midnight Oil. This really sounds like the band live — soaring guitars, relentless thrashing of drums, keyboards rising over the guitars, Peter's strong voice... gee wiz he's learnt how to pronounce words. You can understand the lyrics without referring to the lyric sheet.

With the first few playings it's not so easy to remember distinctive tracks but that comes with repeated listening. Unlike the situation with the first album most of these songs haven't been previewed hundreds of times in Sydney pubs.

And shock of shocks. "You notice the track we've.put in for you especially?"

Look of wonder and query of which one.

"You mean you didn't pick it? Power pop afficianado of Sydney. Back On The Bor­ derline. We sat down and wrote a song for you and you didn't even pick it you bastard.

God. I'll tell you yhat we set up for you".

Rob goes on to list piles of authentic sixties equipment actually used to record the track which also includes "a hook, verse, chorus, verse, chorus, middle, chorus — the perfect pop set up and plenty of energy and put it down in one take... and you still didn't pick up on it!!!"

"The next track. Koala Spring, goes back even further than that. We thought, we've done mid-sixties. Who likes the fifties? So we took it down to a Searchers, Hank Marvin kind of thing and the guys did use mainly fifties and early sixties amps and gear.

"We spent a lot of time in the studio with this album and each song we built up from the word go. We thought what combination of

amps, drum kits, sticks, strings, was going to make each song the way we wanted it to sound. So we had this warehouse full of gear all piled up. It looked like a rummage sale.

Half the studio was taken up by every amp imaginable, all the guitars and three drum kits. W e just begged, borrowed and stole it for the four weeks we were there".

How do the rest of the Midnight Oil's feel ^oout Head Injuries? "The band's reaction is that this is the album we've wanted to make.

The first album was, admittedly, a rushed effort but it had its point.

"The point with the first album was to record the band in the raw at that period of time — the four day rush. It was for a reason — first takes and all.

"The second album's philosophy was dif­ ferent. It was one of keeping the energy of the band — which we still see as the main thing that distinguishes us from most bands — with, as I said before, this thing of building up each song on its own merits and treating it as a seperate unit, whilst getting a producer like Les (Karski) who could take an objective look at the band and push up its strengths and subtract some of its... we tend to be a bit verbose at times... " "Les spent a month with us before we even went into the studio. He was a producer in the true sense of the word. He wasn't a guy who came in and had a quick listen to the demos.

We spent a long time with Les before we went in.

What Les has come up with is an album that captures Midnight Oil's live impact better than the raw, 'let's put it down live in the studio' attempts of the first album.

"A lot of the tracks were done at 3 in the morning and often we didn't even know if the tape was running but we'd listen to it the next day and think, fuck, that's great, let's keep it — it's a bit rough round the edges but it's still got that energy."

All the songs on H ead Injuries, with the exception of Stand In Line ("a re-vamped relic") have been written for the album. The band started working on the idea of the album in November last year after they'd finished the first album — in other words, as soon as all the old stage favourites were safely preserved on vinyl.

Turns out that Midnight Oil worked on the songs live during their recent New Zealand tour. "W e tested them out in New Zealand to ; see what sort of reaction they'd get. The songs people will hear when we go back on the road, although we're thinking of not doing as much road work now, have been developed in New Zealand.

'P roliteers, for instance, on the album is a bit faster than what we do it live but live it's an amazing song because it's really stark live and our sound guy really pushes up the biggness of the drums so it becomes really menacing. All the songs, except N^aked Flam e, we're playing live now in the new set".

"We've started writing already for the next album but what we're doing live is basically a compilation of the best from the first and second albums".

As far as live work goes Peter Garrett was recently reported to have suggested that now Midnight Oil has reached the top as a live band in Sydney they might take a break for 6 months and go back to working small venues.

"The point about it is that the band has always been fortunate in that the original goal of the band was not to be a one hit wonder band like The Knack or anything like that — to come in in a big way for a while and then disappear.

"The band's always seen longevity as its goal. Building crowds slowly and not pushing things and not being too greedy too early and I think we've done that. In Sydney we're obviously now one of the most popular bands and in the other states there are people who know about us by the records.

"N e v e avoided \he Countdown's and the hit singles and it's worked for the band because we're about the only Australian band I can think of that's retained its original line-up, its joy for making music and hasn't had the pressures put on it that cause other bands to break up, i.e., being worked constantly as a road band, to make someone elses album.

Like if we signed with a big company we'd have to make the house producer's album not ours.

"All those pressures have been removed and here we still are with an increasing popularity, still cooking, which is great.

Q h er bands — your Dave Warner's — have come and gone".

Midnight Oil's future • plans are based around a series of one off concerts around the country — they're sick of the constant roadwork syndrome and the problem of over exposure.

They've survived those early, formative years and are in a position where they can call the tune. They're also hoping for overseas release for Head Injuries.

You'll do well to listen to the album at the-’ first available opportunity... is that OK boys, do I escape head injuries?? Are there any qther superlatives you'd like me to use??

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George Thorogood Move It On Over, SI09 Also available on cassette, STC 109.

Dutch Tilders D/recr.

When Dutch appeared at Sydney’s Hero Of Waterloo hotel, the pub ran dry. Good music always makes you thirsty. And this is the album that captures Dutch acoustic and Dutch electric on the only direct-todisc album ever to chart in the world. Available now at aU good record retailers.

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The debut album that brought new life to the roots of rock. Chuck Berry, Howlin’ W olf and all the rest like you hadn’t heard them for years. If disco, art-rock and keyboard whizkids aren’t your cup of tea, try a spoonful of the real thing. Avmlable now at aU good record retailers.

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from eureka records.the independent company th at always does it better

Distributed by RCA.

allow them to perform a new original song until everybody is completely satisfied with it.

This policy has led to frustration on the part of Ray Hearn and John Woodruffe of Dirty Pool, not to mention some of the more well known music writers in the country, who'are mightily impressed with the original material that Flowers play, but just wish they would do Tnere I was in the McDonald's in Bondi some more.

Junction (and I must state straightaway that it Flowers are doing about three new originals since they went around the country with XTC, was the first (and last) time I will ever be seen in a McEbnald's anywhere). The reason I was and during the week I was in Sydney, singer and main songwriter Iva Davies was working there was that Ray Hearn from Dirty Pool on some new songs that keyboardist Adam chain-eats Big Macs and had to dash out of the Dirty Pool offices down the road for his Hall had written.

I must admit that I find Flowers' renditions of afternoon fix. So I decided to tag along and such songs as Marc Bolan's One Inch Rock find out if the things were as bad as I'd read. and Jeepster totally wonderful, but there They were, but as this is not a story about comes a time when every band must stand on multinational junk food outlets. I'll leave it at it's own creative legs and I think that time is that. fast approaching for Flowers. That they can The reason I've set the scene above is that write great songs is beyond question. Sons o f while Hearn was wolfing down his half pounder (and while I was cautiously nibbling Decay, Boulevard, Walls and Fatman are proof enough that the band have something at a quarter pounder) he managed to splutter exciting and original to offer. But no-one is out a request that I interview the babes going to push the band faster than they want (financially speaking only) of the Dirty Pool stable. Flowers. Having sat in on an interview to go.

Anyway getting back to McDonalds. The that Chris Coleman did with the band in interview was arranged for the following Adelaide a couple of months ago (what did afternoon, Ray Hearn finished his burger and happen to that tape, Chris?) I thought, yeah, that should be O.K. Especially as Flowers I finished mine (I WAS hungry) and then all along with the twin Dirty Pool jugger nauts, the way back to Dirty Pool H.Q. he browbeat the Angels and Cold Chisel are setting out on me about this report in Nation Review that a national tour called the 'Pooled Resources said that McDonald's burgers were just as Tour', this month. (Incidently the dictionary nutrional as steak. Just goes to show you can't definition of Juggernaut, if you are interested believe everything you read doesn't it popis, "Idol of Krishna dragged yearly in pickers? procession on car under whose wheels So the next afternoon, Keith Welsh, Flowers' devotees, •it is said, formerly threw them­ tall bass player, rocked up to Stuart Coupe's selves". The kind of devotion and rapture that palatial Stanmore abode, where I was the Angels have been inspiring in audiences staying, only to find I wasn't there. Shock! all this year makes that description extremely Horror! National Magazine Editor Late For Interview! Actually I was only 20 minutes late apt.)Flowers are a band that at the moment are so it wasn't too bad. I blamed it on the Sydney havering on the fringes of the Australian big traffic. time (although most bands that make the Flowers have the reputation of being rather Austr^ian 'big' time find that it's not really ashy band offstage, prefering, as Keith put it, that big). They are Sydney based and do to 'let the music speak for itself'. But having quite nicely, thank you, in the Harbour City. met the band three or four times previously, They've just done a tour to Melbourne where the ice-breaking time was minimal. Having crowds are increasing and while they haven t been in Sydney for three days, I was im­ been to Adelaide or Brisbane since they pressed by the number of posters and spraysupported XTC in those cities, they left quite painted band names that I had seen in my a favourable impression. travels. I asked Keith about the kind of frenzy The only thing they lack at the moment is a and devotion to hard-edged rock'n'roll that is record. They . have cut some demos with becoming associated with Sydney rock fans.

Angels' drummer Buzz Throckman twiddling "I dunno. Audiences in Sydney seem to get the knobs but as Keith Welsh pointed out. drunker and rage harder than anywhere else Flowers are still basically a touring band and in the country. Like even if it's the first time when you're playing, it's very hard to find they've seen a band and they like them, time to rehearse properly, let alone spend a they'll show that. Audiences in Melbourne week in a studio, recording. The search is are a lot more cautious. Sydney bands have currently under way for a record company always tended to have a heavy, distorted but, as is the case with the Angels search for a sound while Melbourne bands tend to go for a worldwide recording deal, nothing will be cleaner sound. Whether that kind of decided until the right kind of deal comes heaviness is a product of the environment or whether that creates the kind of audience that along.

That kind of philosophy — don't do anything goes totally beserk, I don't know".^ until it's RIGHT — permeates the whole Do you find it hard when you don't get that Flowers operation. The band are famous (or kind of incredibly enthusiastic reaction that infamous in some people's eyes) for the bands get in Sydney?

•number of cover versions they do on stage.

"If we're not getting any reaction then we But there is this incredible internal quality do wonder why. If there's no reaction to what control operating within the band that will not we're doing then you can feel the band as a KEITH WELSH FROM FLOWERS, YOU KNOW THE TALL ONE, TALKS ABOUT DIRTY POOL, ROCK PHILOSOPHY, SYDNEY AUDIENCES AND ER, YES, FLOWERS.

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whole make a conscious effort to tighten up".

There's never any attempt to incite the crowd verbally in order to get some sort of reaction?

"No, we never really get into saying things to the audience. I think most people going out to see a band at a pub are there primarily for the music. Have you heard Lou Reed's Take No Prisoners album?" I nod. "Well I mean those twenty minute raves about how he wrote Walk On The Wild S id e.... That's just the funniest thing I've ever heard, but if it was anyone else apart from Lou it would be just totally boring. No, we stand or fall on our music".

The question that had to be asked, and it's one that Keith says he gets asked a lot, is "Are Flowers' being signed to Dirty Pool, coasting along in tlie slipstream of Dirty Pool's Juggernauts (I like that one). Cold Chisel and the Angels?"

"I don't think so. Most people who came along to one of our gigs probably wouldn't even be aware that we were in any way tied up with Chisel and Angels. They come along and if they enjoy it they'll tell their friends and the next time we play in that area we probably get a few more people along."

How do you feel about this upcoming Pooled Resources tour, which will put the Angels, Cold Chisel and Flowers on the same bill for the first time?

"I'm really looking forward to it. I think it's a really exciting idea. It's something that hasn't really been tried before, unless you count that Mushroom concert here a couple of months ago: And like, it's not just going to be Angels, Chisel, Flowers*— there are going to be local supports in each city. It's going to be great."

Flowers recently (well a couple of months ago) changed drummers when Don Brown was replaced by John Lloyd, who numbers the Dots and the High Rise Bombers amongst his previous bands. How is John settling in and what difference has he made to the sound of the band? I asked.

"Well, he's obviously made quite a dif­ ference to me as I'm the bass player. He's a much stronger character than Don was, and he's contributing quite a few ideas to the band. Like one of Iva's new songs is more or less completely based on a rhythm that John came up with."

Is there one character that dominates Flowers or are all the members pretty strong?

"Well Iva obviously has quite a lot of say as he writes most of our songs, but Adam is writing a swell now. We all have a say. Like we have been taping most of our gigs lately and we all have a listen to the tapes sometime after the show and make comments and suggestions on how the songs can perhaps be improved.'.'

You have this reputation of being very reluctant to air a new song until the band is completely happy with it. How much does a song change after you start playing it on­ stage?

"It usually takes about two months for a song to settle in. I don't think any of the songs that we do have changed radically after we've started to do them. It's more like a final

polish."

That will obviously stand you in good stead when you get round to recording them?

"Yeah."

One thing that is perhaps not that well known about Flowers' singer/guitarist Iva Davies is that he is a sheet music wrher. As Keith explained, what happens is that whenever a new record comes out, a copy of it is put on Iva's doorstep, he sits down and listens to it and from that listening, he writes the sheet music. Probing Keith about what job he did when he too was a wage slave, elicits the answer that he worked for John Sands, the greeting card manufacturers, 'Working with computers.' I've heard of Computer Games, but Computer Greeting Cards? Hmmm. I let that one pass 'cos from there we got onto what it's like, financially, to be in a rock band.

"W e're flat broke all the time, like just about everyone else. It can be kinda frustrating cos there is a lot of money turned over in this game. It costs Flowers between two and three thousand dollars a week to stay on the road and cover expenses. If anyone is under the impression that they're walking into money when they start playing rock'n'roll, then they're way off the mark. Like when you read about McCartney getting $30 million record deals then you have to realise all the shit and hard work he's gone through to get to that position."

It seems a lot of people in their twenties are adopting the attitude that it doesn't matter how much money you're making, if you aren't enjoyjng what you're doing then it's not worth doing.

"Yeah, right! Like when I was working at John Sands I was only doing it until the time that the band could go professional. It was just a vehicle. And the same with Iva. W e could be making a lot more money writing sheet music than he earns in the band. I think the classic example of the kind of sacrifice that musicians make is Terminal Twist. Those guys have left everything that they had back in Adelaide, come up here and they've got to start right at the beginning again. That's a huge step for them to take. And say you're in a band and it falls apart and you try to re­ enter the work force. Can you imagine walking into your C.E.S. and the guy behind the counter asking you what you've been doing for the last three years, and you tell him, 'Er, I've been in a sorta, er, rock band.'

(Laughs) No, it takes a real commitment to be in rock'n'roll."

Flowers have that commitment. And when they are next year's 'overnight' success, or when anyone is an 'overnight' success, you shouldn't forget all the sweat and hard work that has got them to the point where they can make that breakthrough. All the niglds in pubs earning $50 a night while the hotel owner rakes in thousands over the bar, the long crushingly boring car trips from capital city to capital city, the less than delightful hotel rooms, the countless hours of rehearsal and practice, the nights of playing your heart out to audiences that basically couldn't care less. It's a gruelling course to the top of the pops and only the dedicated make it. I think Flowers will be one of those few.

— Donald Robertson

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For anyone interested in bands that play interesting, original music, the music, scene in Sydney over the last few months has been uncompromisingly bleak and boring. 79 began with lots of promise — bands like Tactics and Voigt 465 made the idea ofhopping on the next flight to London in search of new musical pastures a, little less app)ealing. Yet for the last 5 or 6 months there has been no new band that has produced any reaction more significant than a stifled yawn.

This is despite the fact that at present it is easier for new punk and new wave bands to get gigs than it ever has been (thanks to Doublethink Prom otions). W hile easier access is undoubtedly a good thing. I've found myself sitting through countless dire bands who should never have ventured out of Dad's garage — or even into it for that matter.

But perseverance, as they say, shall be rewarded. Popular Mechanics stand out like a hippy at the Grand Hotel.

'The last band to make me sit up and take notice was Tactics (yeah, it's been that long) and while Popular Mechanics don't have the originality of that band, partly because their influences are less well-disguised, they still manage to weld the different strands into a sound that is’definitely their own. You could say they sound like a less jazzy version of the Reels, with bits of Elvis Costello and Graham Parker popping up here and there. Some XTC influences also show up in the jerky, rhythmic structuring of the songs (you know, lots of stops ^ d starts and time changes). In fact the b ^ d admit to liking all these people though naturally enough deny that they consciously set out to emulate them.

The band is a basic five piece of the type that seem to be proliferating of late. Frontman Mark Foster is simply great to watch. He's been blessed with an uncommonly large amount of stage presence and moves around on stage like he's been doing it all his life.

And he can sing as well! Since he relies very much on positive audience feedback to get going, make sure you see them at the right venue.. Mark found keyboards player Russell Handley through an ad. "What I was looking for", explains Mark, "was someone who could play little trashy fills in short songs". Russell ("I was the only one who answered!") and his cheapo Farfisa organ fitted the bill perfectly.

In keeping with the band's desire to stay away from songs dominated by guitar heroics, Gary Doyle plays a discrete, restrained guitar. Bass player Garry Manly ha-ving no such restrictions, lets loose with some superb bass lines. He apparently learnt his in­ strument by playing along to old King Crimson albums at home. At least it shows the old Crimson still have their uses! Together

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POPULAR MECHANICS

with Beck, the drummer, they make up a tight and bouncy rhythm section, which, when they're firing (and that's most nights), you've just gotta dance to.

Although Popular Mechanics have only been together for about four months they've already got around to recording an E.P. And while I would dispute their choice of songs at least two of them have the makings to be pxjp classics. "G ee Why" is the most effective at insinuating its way into your brain with an intro that sounds suspiciously familiar though I can't guite recall where I've heard it before.

Maybe it's just one of those instantly memorable riffs. Flamingo Hoad definitely grows on you — in fact it's my favourite — but

the other two don't quite cut it. However, bear in mind that I only heard a rough mix; maybe some miraculous transformation took place when they remixed it. But $2.50 for two excellent pop songs and two that almost make it is better value than you'll get most places these days. If you want a copy, send your money to P.O. Box 403 Darlinghurst, 2010.

At the moment the Mechanics are (^ing the same circuit as the Doublethink punk bands whose following, not being fames for tolerance of anything that deviates from 1977 British punk, often respond to the Mechanics with verbal abuse or stand there waving hands Countdown style (this being con­

sidered the greatest insult one can give a band). Hopefully by the time you're reading this they'll have been picked up by one of the larger agencies and will be playing to a more consistently appreciative audience. They write great little pop tunes with enough hooks to support a Darlinghurst trendy's entire wardrobe, they play with energy and they sound terrific. What more can you ask for?

I've been caught out quite a few times going to see a band after some writer's hyperbolic outpourings but b e lie v e me. Popular Mechanics are good. If you live -within 200 kilometres radius of Sydney, go and see them. You won't be disappointed.

— Marie Ryan

THE THOUGHT CRIMINALS 'Until th e y Become conscious th ey w ill n ev er r eb el, and until a fter th e y h a ve reb elled th e y ca n n ot b eco m e co n scio u s.'

— George Orwell — 1984.

W hen Orw ell p en n ed his 'futuristic' masterpiece-'he could hardly have imagined that its heroes would lend their name & ideals to a young musical group some 30 yrs. later.

But he would've been proud.

The Thought Crimin^s, since their for­ mation in late '77, have never followed a punk party-line like the vast majority of their Aust. contemporaries. The New Wave didn't give them an identity, it gave them a label — and labels are made to be peeled off. The identity is the four individuals in the band who, in late '79, are among that inspirational minority who can declare that they have no intention of being absorbed into the lucrative music industry without making the listener giggle his head off. There's this constant, com­ mendable struggle to keep prices down, keep quality high, keep in touch with their audience and each other — and in the bitter Commercial Break they express their con­ tempt for the bands who have betrayed these original ideals.

But there's no way to revive or relax in sleepy Sydney Town for one of the most ridiculously underrated bands in the land.

You think I'm exaggerating? Listen — their Saturday night residency at a city hotel last year often attracted only a few dozen people, but they were always treated to 2 hours of contagious, intelligent music that was '4 of the price and 4 times as exciting as an-ything else going. Fans and strangers alike used to stare at each other in amazement ... "so where is everybody, then? ... is this really happening or what?" One thing was certain — we were the privileged few.

After a break of some 3 months, March '79 saw The Thought Criminals make an utterly triumphant -return to live performance that proved beyond a doubt last year was no dream. This is the Real World, kids, and The Thought Criminals are a Real Modern Band.

Not Modern = nostalgia, or Modern = cold, sterile, mechanical but Modern = clever, unconventional, ' FUN. New material (We

10

Promise You, Victory, The Lonely Ones, Limits) shows their ideas to be diversifying, redefining. Music with sharp edges and gaps that twists and startles. Restless music that jumps and starts spontaneously then con­ tradicts itself by being grippingly controlled.

What? You'd like to meet the band? O.K. then — this is Bruce, Ken, Stephen & Roger — all rather attractive in an intense, low-key way. There's nothing dumb or ritualised about their onstage actions either — macho?? what's that, mummy?^Yet despite a certain appealing vulneraility. The Thoughties don't take too kindly to a] moronic violence or b] people trying to rip them off — and those foolish few who've attempted either have been on the receiving end of an anger that is as swift as it is accurate.

Well, if this is Sydney's most underrated combo then who could be out front than the legendary, enigmatic Mr. Bruce Warner.

Bruce looks mildly surprised to find -himself on stage, and even more surprised that there, are people in front of him. He gazes beyond them, grips the microphone as if it were the only thing between him and annihilation, then lets it drop to the floor and stares at it with a puzzled frown, as if he hasn't the slightest idea what it's there for. His movements are not so much poetry in motion as a fly stuck in amber — clockwork camera dancing, designed to look good in print ...

Click.Frame.Click.Frame... a full revolution of jerky poses with accompanying facial grim aces — awkwardness, surprise, irritation, amusement, boredom. And he sings just the way he looks, vocals that inspire and intrigue without being self-consciously 'zany'.

There's a deceptive grace in the calm way this band face their audience — they have sufficent confidence in their ability not to assault people with the obligatory contrived 'punk' belligerance. The Thought Criminals flatly refuse to pander to the punters, but they won't patronize them either. Rather, they draw their audience's attention to the mundane reality of city life — dreary and terrifying: H ilton B om ber, C onfusion, Termination, M ore Suicides Please:

'Office workers queue, two b y two, the queues are getting longer b y the hour, downstairs the vultures from alternative cultures watch the lemmings jump off from the tower ... Yes everyon e's a hit at Australia Square Key Doyle, the drummer, met with a nasty accident last year when he encountered a not-so-friendly bouncer who broke his wrist.

Luckily, the effects were not permanent, and together with founder m em ber Roger Grierson on bass they form a fast and witty rhythm section that explodes and unsteadies at every turning. While capturing all the conciseness and speed of the punk style, Ken also displays a refreshing control of dynamics that only a really competent and innovative dmmmer could master.

Similarly, Roger's bass-lines form patterns that are idiosyncratic, abrupt and clean.

Roger is something of an underground hero in Sydney, where he has just bequri an in­ dependent agency with friend Mark Handley (Doublethink Management). The agency is also involved in record production and promotion and organising work lor a variety of bands including XL Capris and Popular Mechanics. Obsessed with, the fear that the band will someday be tempted to (Gasp!)

Sell-O ut, Roger also has a more than passing interest in 1984 which finds its full expression in such wonderfully original songs as '80's L ove, the devastating, climactic Oceania, Oceania, plus (of course) the truly magnificent [/ Want To Be Like] Winston Smith J-J-Julia! W- W- W inston!He's our hero, she's our heroine ...' stammer Bruce and Roger together — and as we head out of control into the '80's who could find more fitting heroes than these??

anything about posing or aggression or any of those dumb things most guitarists are con­ cerned with. Over the jagged bass and drums he cuts short, sharp, savage flicks of the plectrum giving The Thought Criminals a sound that is rich, rhythmic and addictively repetitive. In probably their most ad­ venturous number O.K. 767, the band show a willingness to experiment and take risks, together with the ability to pull it off. With the possible introduction of a keyboard player, this is a course I can only hope they continue to pursue.

Record companies? Who needs 'em?

Following the Desperate Bicycles message of It was easy, it was cheap — go and do it', The Thought Criminals have released two E.P.'s Hilton Bomber in '78 and Food For Thoughtcrimes in '79) on their ‘very own Doublethink label. Setting a precedent among their peers (as usual) an actual Thought Criminals L.P. looks likely to become a long-awaited reality within the next month. (Er, Julia, don't look now but the Voight 465 album is out — ED) Some people regard The Thought Criminals' stance as almost hopelessly idealistic, others accuse them of merely flirting with rebellion.

Shot by both sides — b-^ the people who wave Hags and the people who burn them. The Thought Criminals just shrug their shoulders and remain in the line of fire — like lunatics, or children. Here they have achieved the fine, fascinating balance between simply emptily entertaining and strongly stimulating; betw een pam pering and proposing. Thought Criminals' music is urgent and unfussy — dance to it/think about it. Everything about them — their irregularity, in d ep en d en ce, incisiveness implies a continuing development of change and resistance.

For while other bands moan on about 'lifeon-the-dole' etc.. The Thought Criminals have a firm grasp on the essential social , Like Julia and Winston they are quietly problem facing kids today — that of personal defiant, and can carry the description freedom. It's not the freedom to choose that 'human b ein g ' without con trad iction .

Orwell's anti-heroes desired, but freedom not Someday, they may also learn to love Big to choose, freedom to reject all alternatives Brother, but right now they couldn't even and create one's own. spell the word 'compromise'.

And fourth, but not least, we find guitarist And they smile at each other on stage.

Stephen Philip. Stephen doesn't know — Julia de Meyrick

The Aliens have four members who wear black and white uniforms and create a sound that's sometimes shiny, sometimes dark, and could be termed pop-rock without stretching a point.

They grew up in Adelaide, playing for love and money, "always keeping pretty much in our own scene". As with many other directionless musicians throughout the western world, they were convinced that there was a place in the sun waiting for them if they could work hard enough to cut through to an expectant audience.

The Aliens pay a lot of attention to visuals and "image" and have made a rapid impact on a Melbourne "rock industry" which has had its troubles in extracting consumer dollars in recent times. Agency support,-a national tour and a record contract have all arrived in guick succession. My part in their progress is to be sitting in an office at Mushroom Records, on a grey afternoon, talking to two selected members of the band.

G eoff, Stapleton, the band's balding lead guitarist, is voluble in a strained sort of way on the subject of the band's past and future.

"After playing for so many years, we just wanted to be in a band where we could have a chance of making it".

His conversation is sprinkled with references to 'music for the masses' (the ph latter phrase uttered with an innocent grin), eyed abut the realities of the music business.

In the laissez-faire context of Australian music, his attitude is as mildly overwhelming as the band's stage act. He's well aw ^ e that the band have a stance that sets them apart and seems prepared to take the resulting admiration or derision with eguanimity.

With some difficulty he can be steered away from the topics of cash-flow and the Aliens' 'total audio-visual impact' toward the subject of the band's music. He and drummer Rob Grosser talk proudly about how rapidly the band are 'coming together', how they're expanding in commercial and experimental directions simultaneously, and how songs financial advisers, and the need to be clearbased on simple hook lines and catch phrases are arriving with inconvenient rapidity.

Ah, Pop Music.... we all love it, don't we?

But it's a different thing to >that shabby, spirited beast called rock'n'roll which is as much about the romanticising of failure or success. The Aliens aren't interested in failure in any shape or form.

They tell of heart-to-heart sessions with their omnipresent and totally dedicated manager Kerry Hood, during one of which Rob Grosser was convinced that he too should

the

play a part in the band's visual image. "Don't you want the lights to shine on you too, Rob?" she asked. "That got me thinking," he admits.

Now he has a cut-down, ^non-audience distracting drum kit which sits on top of a riser, and he grimaces as determinedly as any other member of the band.

"The uniforms were really important to us, especially in the beginning, when we could look around on stage and see we were all in this together". The band, however, have no intention of being branded with any one image; though the Jam may have refused to abandon the mod suits that annoyed American headbangers, the Aliens have no such inhibitions. "If we were told we had to

PUETB

wear T-shirts to make it over there, we'd order T-shirts by the thousand", says Rob. Point taken. â– "We aren't gualified to be anything else but musicians. It's the only thing we've got".

Much exhilirating pop has been constructed from the simple desire to own a house, a car and the freedom to keep playing. The Aliens are totally unevasive about their ambitions and also provide some excellent music.

Their songs can be fierce, enjoyable and they're specialists at delivering a sincere if somewhat rigid energy. Confrontation the band's debut single, is far from their most inventive moment, but it's as rocking and trivial as any B-grade Chuck Berry song.

held together with grinding chords and typically inventive Stapleton guitar. Geoff and Rob may be vaguely downcast because 3XY won't put it on high rotation, but the band's ultimate triumph is probably assured.

There's nothing at all controversial apart from some past accusations of male chauvinism, which in the context of everyday rock'n'roll are rather like scorning a pig because he has a curly tail.

If the Aliens are disposable, it's because they accept the nature of the rock industry and their part in it. And if you avoid them merely because of rumours of contrivance, you're probably missing half the fun. — Adrian Ryan

Following up a standout Australian tour THE

d ik c i W t r e s

ALBUM

"DRUMS AND WIRES" 37059 featuring "MAKING PLANS FOR NIGEL", "LIFE BEGINS AT THE HOP", plus 9 more ^ XTC ORIGINALS.

on record &tape 11

Coventry is an industrial city a short drive north of London straight up the Ml motorway.

It is a place that has popped up on the historical hit parade a number of times over the past few centuries. Who will forget Lady Godiva's naked protest ride through the streets those eons ago? More recently it achieved fame on a grimmer note when during World War Two it was flattened by German bombers. Now 30 years on, the fickle finger of fate is pointing at Coventry once more and fame of a sort is about to descend again; This time as the home of a group of lads known as the Special AKA, the chief purveyors of the latest musical fashion to sweep Britain. They are calling it Ska-blue beat, which for those of you whose memories stretch back to the 60's, will bring to mind a danceable music with a reggae-type rhythm.

The critics are also calling it a revival, which really isn't true as The Specials' music in­ volves more than a straight steal of the music of a decade ago. But we are getting a little ahead of ourselves here. First, some in­ troductions.

The Special AKA are (Jerry Dammers, Horace Panter, Lynval Golding, Roddy Byers, Terry Hall, Neville Staples and John Bradbury) who've been playing in different bands in and around Coventry for the past 10 years. They also know what they want and know how to get it.

The nucleus of the present band has been around in several forms since 1977, but was only finalised at the beginning of this year.

Since then things have happened in a rush.

They cut a single. Gangsters, on their own Two Tone label which initially languished around the bottom of the charts. Although highly regarded by the critics, and their audiences, things really broke through on a mass scale after they supported Rockpile at their London gig in June. The single suddenly got a lot more airplay, shot into the top ten and has now sold more than a guarter of a million copies. An album is now being cut with the inimitable Elvis Costello twiddling the knobs.

The reason for the excitement is a com­ bination of a cleverly crafted sound and an egually cleverly constructed stage act. Both borrow from the musical influences of the past decade, but undoubtedly the major influence

12

is the Ska-blue beat music of the 60's. It gives the music the steady dance beat that is so much a part of the band's success, and it gives the stage act a visually devastating effect. With the exception of the lead singer ^he band rushes on stage dressed in natty suits, thin ties and the occasional trilby. One Special stands to the side of the stage playing the part of Ska's "Rude Boy" (translation: sharp streetwise person). While he carries on a banter with the audience the rest of the band bop madly away, a singer holds centre stage proving the perfect counterfoil by singing in a flat, monotone. All this backed by relentless dance music. The whole thing is a knockout and more importantly infectious.

It takes only two songs at a Specials gig before the entire crowd is dancing the night away. But the exhilaration and general abandon of the crowd should not hide the fact that up on stage it is a different ball game: everything has been carefully worked out.

After all, as the band's drummer John "Prince Rimshot" Bradbury says: "Image is as im­ portant as the sound itself. We picked the Ska beat because of its accessibility and danceability". The rude boy stage act came into being because quite logically the band decided the image, so strongly United to Ska, was the best possible way to project the music. But there is more to it than a group of people sitting down and calculating the best formula for success like some junior Robert Stigwoods. All the band has an affinity and love for the music they are drawing on. Says Bradbury: "The whole soul thing (which incorporated Ska) never really died in the north. And we've been playing in soul bands since the early 70's and late 60's. And this rude boy thing is more germaine to us as individuals than say psychedelic rock or any other form". Indeed, if the Specials did not have any feeling for the music, they would not be able to generate the excitement and enthusiasm they do.

Another aspect of the Specials' music that shouldn't go unmentioned is the lyrics, which rise above the standard of the average rock lyrics. One in particular. It Doesn't Make It Alright, is a blunt but effective denunciation of racism. Another hammers away at elitism by telling the listeners Woboc/y's Special. Both

songs are overtly political, although not of the single by another Coventry band. The party persuasion, but Bradbury is quick to S electer, will be issued on the label before scotch any suggestion that they are a the end of the year. Despite the fact the "political" band, and the obvious limitations contract with Chrysalis is innovative and very that can bring. "Those songs are about the shrewd, Bradbury says there was really only political statements in the music", he nothing to it. "We knew what we wanted and says. "On stage we don't want to mix politics we held out till we got it. And that's advice I'd with music. We just want to have a good time. give any young band".

For the Specials the present is as rosy as Anyway we don't need to carry any banners.

There are black guys in the band, there are anyone would want. But what of the future? white guys in the band. We live, sleep, eat Gangsters is to be released in Australia and and breathe life and music together, so we America, and the album being cut with don't have to push that aspect. We just hope Costello (who rates Gangsters the single of that appearing that way on stage we can the year so far) should be out in England convince people you can get on together." before (Christmas. A national tour is also The determination of the Specials to get underway. When asked what sort of future he what they want is apparent in the record deal sees for the band, Bradbury's answer is quick they have just signed with Chrysalis. Their and simple: "W e want to keep playing for first single Gangsters was recorded on their ever". He says they also consider it important own Two Tone label and distributed by the to break through in other countries because independent Rough Trade. For some time they have developed a distinctive British before its release they'd been courted by all sound, as distinctive as the beat groups of the manner of labels; some major, some minor. 60's. He also says they would like to tour (One report even has it that Mick Jagger, one Australia (a diplomatic comment that one) time rock singer, but now full time jet setter,, and America. And he says there's no reason tu rn ^ up at one of their gigs with a view to why they shouldn't succeed in those places signing them to his label). The Specials could because it's dance music first and foremost.

"We'd like to see ourselves as the alternative see the advantages of joining the majors, particularly in the distribution and marketing to disco. We think we appeal to the people areas, but the disadvantages — viz., loss of who want to dance, but can't get into disco control over the product — were equally music because it's so dead and heavy". apparent. While on the subject of distribution The Specials should succeed. For a start and marketing, it's interesting to note that they are highly intelligent business people, when Gangsters clocked up its quarter and they are first rate musicians and per­ million sales, more had been sold by the small formers with a genuine love of the music and Rough Trade than by the Chrysalis respect for their audience. They are old conglomerate. enough to know exactly what they want, The Specials got around the dilemma by experienced enough to know how to get it, concluding an extremely unusual deal with yet young enough to be able to identify with Chrysalis. The company gives them a budget the fans and not take them for granted. In­ to cover the recording on the Two Tone label deed it could be said the reason for the of an open ended number of singles or LP's, breakthrough of Gangsters was the strong which are then distributed by Chrysalis. But audience base they had built by constant the recordings given to Chrysalis don't have gigging. Even though their appearance on to be The Specials. As long as they're on the the Rockpile gig showed their incredible Two Tone label, they can be any group. So appeal, they only made it to half a dozen the Specials have the ideal: total artistic radio playlists around the country, and still control of their own recordings, and the managed to sell a quarter of a million. But opportunity to develop new talent. Already when it comes down to the bottom line, the another single on the Two Tone label. The real reason for their success will be that they Prince by Madness, a London Ska group, is are playing interesting, original music. on the charts, and Bradbury says a third" — Chris Willis

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After the success of the recent XTC club/pub/ballroom tour it was inevitable that Virgin (who were heavily involved with the tour) in association with M.M.A. (who promoted the XTC jaunt in association with Dirty Pool) would try to repeat the success.

The next candidates fo r . the Virgin/MMA 'Let's See Australia' Four Week Package Tour are the Members, presently in the process of conquering the United States. The concept is an interesting one. Usually when an act comes into this country they come in with at least one and preferably more, hit singles or albums under their belt. The Members have got an album out (Af The Chelsea N ightclub, Vt' is its name) but it can hardly be classed as a major success. Neither could the three singles so far released here, Sound O f The Suburbs, Offshore Banking Business and the recently released Killing Time. All of them have picked up scattered airplay, par­ ticularly on the dtemative radio circuit, and h there has even been some T.V. time on their clips. But it's definitely small scale stuff.

V So to the general public the Members are an , unknown quantity. But then so were XTC before they came, and now it looks as if they will have their first single hit with the classy Making Plans For Nigel. If XTC do have a hit then it can be directly attributed to their tour.

The same tactical blueprint is being adopted Jor the Members. Instead of coasting in on •star level and coasting out again, the band ; will have to work to create their success here, just as Aussie bands like the Sports, Kevin Borich Express and (soon) the Angels have to do when they go overseas.

This kind of tour can only be healthy for the Australian music scene. Australian rock fans will have the chance to compare overseas talent with local product ON THE SAME GROUND. And I've got a feeling that out of that kind of direct comparison our local people ain't gonna be found wanting. The sooner Australian bands AND audiences lose the attitude that music produced overseas is inherently SUPERIOR to music produced here, the better things will be for Australian rock.

Anyway, end of sermon. Who are these mysterious Members and what can Australia expect when they arrive Down Under? In the Virgin Records office in Noo Yawk City are singer Nicky Tesco and bass player Chris Payne. Even over a crackling trans-Pacific ':m telephone line Mr. Tesco's exuberance and excitement comes across. Chris Payne is more subdued but still chips in with some interesting comments.

I asked Nicky Tesco how he first started singing. ”It was in July 1977. I gatecrashed a party at this rehearsal studio in East London that was run by these two guys who thought that they were the Svengalis of the New W ave..." Not Malcolm McLaren and Bemie Rhodes (ex-managers of The Pistols and the Qash)? "...Nah. Just two guys who were trying to hitch onto other people who could make 'em a lot of money. (Sure it wasn't Taky Malcy and Bemie?). Anyway, they asked me if I had a band and I said 'Course I got a band'. So I got a few people together and we did one number. I played harmonica and the rest of the guys stood up behind me and we just made a noise. It was great! But that didn t work out — the drummer left. W e auditioned for a new drummer and after a few try-outs Adrian (Lillywhite) came along. He had really long hair and played in a heavy rock band when I first met him. The second time he came along he'd cut all his hair off so we hired him. No, he's really good. He's the best drummer in the New Wave in my opinion.

He's like a young Keith Moon".

So how did the other Members' members join i 'Chris and Nigel (Bennett - guitarist) were with me right from the beginning, but the big change came when J.C. (Jean Marie Carroll) joined. J.C. is what I'd call an erratic genius.

We argue a lot although we're really good friends. V/hen he joined it was no longer my band. But the one thing about the Members is that it's been a gradual and natural development. We haven't been put together by anyone. We've made our own audience.

We were actually the first white band to do reggae music on stage. Even before the Clash started to do it".

Ah yes, the reggae connection. Anyone familiar with the Members' second single, Offshore Banking Business will be aware that the Members' style of reggae is not the watered down and wimped-out brand per­ petrated by firebrands like Eric Clapton and Paul Simon. It's reggae with guts and quite often a Members song will start off at 300 kilometres per hour, slip effortlessly into a bass dominated reggae groove and then just as suddenly move up about 12 gears and recommence it's headlong rush to the ,hole in ;■ the centre of the record. I asked Chris about this seamless melding of rock'N'Reggae.

"Well I never really got into reggae till I lived next door to a reggae shop in Notting Hill Gate. I guess the sound coming through the wall must have had an effect on me".

And how did the idea of incorporating both

"I dunno, we were just mucking about I guess and it sounded interesting. J.C. probably instigates about 60% of our material but he very rarely completes a song. Like he'll write the tune and maybe the chorus and maybe even a couple of lyrics, and then Nicky will take over and finish the lyrics. I probably contribute about a quarter of what we do".

The Members are currently in the middle of an American tour. Nicky Tesco says that they are going over well where they expected to , go over well i.e. the East Coast cities — New York, Boston, and Canada where they played a few dates supporting Joe Jackson. And what does the singing Member think of the land of the free and the brave? "I like it a lot. I didn't know if I would because my attitude and the attitude of the band has been ‘ coloured by people who have come over here and who

musical styles in the same song come about? have told the British press how horrible it is.

Like 'Oh, it's just a big sewer' and 'They don't know about this and they don't know about that. 'But that kind of typical British attitude is just going to get the American's hackles up, you know? If you're going round telling people they don't know nothing then why should they like you?"

What sort of audiences have you been getting?

"Mostly over twenties and students which is quite different to what we get on the London club circuit. In London we would play to people mainly between the ages of 14 to 20.

Actually one of our biggest fans over here is a professor of History at a university in New Haven. We met him a couple of nights ago.

He's English and he got our album about a year ago and he played it to his students and

none of them liked it. I don't like playing to students. They are so conservative and most of their musical tastes are about 8 years old.

But it was great meeting the professor!"

It seems that the British new wave bands who have been accepted in the States, as far as radio airplay and record sales go arv/way are those like Joe Jackson and the Police who have an occasional reggae flavour. Now you have that flavour too although you have a rougher feel than those other bands. Why do you think that is? Is reggae very popular there? Are American blacks into it for in­ stance?

and call black people "niggers" and get them to laugh but at the same time confront them with that, that is just amazing".

Do you believe in confronting an audience then?

"No they don't seem to be. We've had a couple of dreads along to see us, but most American blacks still seem to have that Superfly idea — that ideal that the best position you could hope for would be as a

"Oh, yeah. If we're playing on stage and we're getting no reaction at all then I try to get a negative reaction from some of the crowd — you know a few boos or something.

Then all the people who are thinking, 'Hmmm, they're not bad...' will react to that negative reaction and respond positively. I know that's how I react if a band I think is O.K. is getting a bit of a rough time from an audience".

And on that comment it was time for me to break the connection. Where do the Members fit into the current scheme of things? I mused staring at the mute

pimp or a bar owner. They seem very negative. Reggae hasn't cut across here like it has in England. It's still basically a Jamaican thing. Maybe that's why the white reggae is getting through. It's easier to take".

In Suzie Walton's review o iA t The Chelsea Nightclub in last month's Roadrunner she said that the album came across as a sort of musical Woody Allen film. I asked Nicky Tesco how he felt about being compared to Woody Allen. '...........Really?... er.... That's quite a complement! But I don't think I'm as introspective as he is, or as cynical. What I'm trying to put across is something more direct, more related to the problems of society which are problems that people face. I think I'm probably more like, or would like to have the same effect as Lenny Bruce. Woody Allen is sort of like a disinfected Lenny Bruce. The way that Lenny Bruce could get up on stage

telephone. Possibly they could be said to fall in the third wave of the punk new wave. The first being Pistols, Clash, Damned, the second being Buzzcocks, Sham 69 Siouxsie & the Banshees and the third including the Skids, Stiff Little Fingers and the Undertones.

What does set them apart from the fretboard thrashers is their sense of humour which often has a biting edge, and that amazing seamless rock'n'reggae'n'roll transition that bands like the Police are using, althouth no-one uses the technique as abruptly as the Members do.

'Come and see a gig', Nicky Tesco told me.

"Then you'll know what the Members are about". O.K. Nicky, I'll do that. In the meantime dear readers, have a listen to At The Chelsea Nightclub and have a read of Keith Shadwick's live review below. Oh, I'm sure Nicky's invitation applies to you lot too.

— Donald Robertson.

13

r

m

Paul Kelly is sitting by an open fire in his rambling &uth Yarra flat, talking about the rewards and dissatisfactions of playing in a Melbourne rock'n'roll band.

"It does get depressing playing the same old round of places week after week, and I suppose it does show sometimes. If I was touring America in front of twenty thousand people every time I'd turn it on without fail every time. So far the Dots just haven't been touring enough. When we've been to Sydney we've been booked into dives where no one gets to see us. I've heard there's a Paul Kelly cult following up in Brisbane but we haven't been able to afford to get up there yet. They'll just have to wait a bit longer..."

As 1979 creeps to a close, Paul Kelly, mercurial performer and possessor of a classic talent for writing rock'n'roll songs that smoulder in the memor^ from first hearing, is poised on the edge of a wider fame. His band, the Dots, are undisputed kings of the innercity Melbourne venues where Skyhooks, Jo Jo Zep and Sports held sway before them, and the final push shouldn't be too long in coming. There's a contract signed with Mushroom and an album promised for the new year, a national tour with Split Enz due, and the band have finally honed the razorsharp soul of their attack down to a point where they can deliver no matter what the circumstances.

"My friends have all come around/and they're drinking/I'm inside the sound... the worst are all inspired/the best are all

to n gu e-tied /th ey've seen too m any sights..."

I W ant You Back A gain Paul Kelly, a young man with the gypsy looks and the taciturn charm that are highly suitable attributes for someone who o c­ casionally pushes a reckless troubador lifestyle beyond reasonable limits, arrived in Melbourne in 1976 from his hometown of Adelaide. His possessions consisted of a guitar, a burning desire to play electric music and little else, and after six months of trying, he finally cajoled a rough and ready band into existence. 'T could see that Melbourne had much more of a musical tradition than Adelaide, not that I'd known any musicians tliere, but all the bands seemed too clever. No one else was writing songs about things like falling in love..."

The band called themselves the High Rise Bombers and they gave a formidable line up of Carlton musicians the opportunity to dispense with artistic pretensions. They included Martin Armiger, at a loose end after the Bleeding Hearts' demise and ex-Cruiser Chris Dyson, both contributing songs and guitar to a manic sound that resembled the result of some unlikely collision between Bob Dylan and the New 'York Dolls.

Bolstered by an innovative brass section (starring another ex-Bleedinq Heart, Keith

show me lyrics they've written, but usually they're too literate... you can see where everything joins. What they forget is that the words have to be sung".

Looking at his neatly typed lyric sheets, it's obvious that Kelly has taken a considerable lyrical gift into rock'n'roll. Lines are weighted for unpretentious effect, packed with images and oblique metaphors that recall Australian poets of the drug life like Vicki Viidikas and the great Michael Dransfield, dead of heroin at the age of twenty-four.

Kelly writes love songs, almost exclusively.

Sometimes they're simple comic tales {"Got To Be There In The M orning", which sounds like an A C /D C tribute), other times they offer scenarios of narcotics and ambiguous heartbreak that are subtle and stark as anything Lou Reed provided in his great days.

Lyrical insights mean nothing if they're not applied to the music, and Kelly can write a mean tune. The melodic rush of Only The Lonely Hearted (lately recorded by Jo Jo Zep) is evidence enough of his sharp ear for the radio hook, though Kelly acknowledges the assistance of the Dots and bassist Gadsby in particular in the channelling of his songs. "I couldn't see myself as a solo star. I'm just not a good enough musician to tell anyone where a drum beat should go".

Through the afternoon, people drift in and The band released one private-issue EP out. Terry Williams, lead singer of Sydney's which provided a pale representation of their late lamented Uncle Bob's band brings his power, but the Dots remain a live band par guitar and sings Chad Morgan songs in

Know Love Could Be Mine that rouses the dancers. Lowdown crashes to a halt and there are no encores; the magic will have to wait for another night.

"Never take a partner in crime/he's not the one that's going to have to do your time/you pour out all your secretdreams..."

When The Girl's Not Even^ngUsh Down in Studio 2 at Armstrong's in South Melbourne, there's a portrait of Ned Kelly stuck up between the monitors, perhaps to remind engineers of their duty when they're mixing outlaw music. Martin Armiger, looking as ever like some intense German philosophy student, is bending over the console in his role as Dot's producer as Lowdown repeats itself through the speakers and synthesiser and polished harmonies wind out of an echoed mix that's the gap between technology and live exhiliration.

A dub of an instrumental track is op­ timistically taken off for possible use on Countdown, and the en gin eer sternly suggests that the band learn the recorded version so there won't be any mistakes when they're miming under the garish lights. Out in the night, a million potential consumers of Dots product sleep on, unmindful of plots being laid.

'If I had the sun and the moon/and all the start of the brightest night/I'd make your every hour high noon/but you never did like the light..."

Lowdovtm.

between checking Dylan bootlegs with fellow Zimmerman fanatic Kelly.

When it's Kelly's turn lo take the guitar, he provides a sombre version of the folk ballad Streets O f Forbs ai'd a song recently co ­ written with Chris Langman. Called Leaps And Bounds, it's an infectious rocker aboutfeeling good on a sunny day, a song that should be playing in living rooms everywhere.

"Cherry, queen of the back streets/ we cruise on down the street/to set the night on fire/slow nights go b y... the dream grows fat/begins to split at the seams..."

Cherry It's Wednesday night at Bombay rock, and the Dots come on just as Thursday begins. A few dozen people are sitting in the shabby gloom with the only hint of glamour being provided by wizened American tennis player "Vitas Gerulaitas, who's drinking beer and staring intently into a Space Invaders machine.

Tony Thornton, fresh-faced and muscular Adelaide percussionist, has been giving ritual warnings not to expect too much from the night's entertainment, and the band play with efficiency but not much more. Kelly goes through his moves, twisting and turning with the sly grin of an altarboy who's just seen Elvis Presley on TV, the guitars ring through and the songs are present and correct, but it's only the grinding Stones raunch oii I Didn't

The weekend starts here. Down at the Bottom Line in Richmond, the girls are crowding the front of the stage and there's a premonition in the smoky air as the Dots stride on stage and proceed to set the night in action. Tony Thornton's hitting with maximum force, Paul Gadsby is prowling to the beat and on either side of the stage the two gaunt guitarists are getting down to business. At the Bombay, Chris WorralTs raucous chords had dominated but tonight Chris Dyson's playing is the fire in the sound as his liquid solos wind around the beat.

Paul Kelly's diffident at first, but starts to smile as the songs hit home one after the other. Cherry uncoils like a summer night full of promise, Paul's voice hesitant but hopeful, and the rockers see him method acting with face and hands, a performer who makes you smile while you dance.

On Would Not B e In It For The World the band stretches out as the guitars shudder against a singing bass solo and then crash back into formation. By the i\meHighway 61 Revisited and the pounding Got To Be There In The Morning arrive there's no time at all to reflect in the crush of sweaty bodies.

Lowdown is the tinale and the lights come up too soon, leaving just imperfect memories of ' how fine the music can be when the time is right. The Dots will be playing in other cities beside their grey hometown, very soon; don't pass them by.

Shadwick) the Bombers provided the first and only Melbourne eguivalent to the manic rush of the Saints and Radio Birdman, but their grab-bag of images and sounds was as un­ marketable as it was exhi lirating and they ran out of potential when Armiger left to join Sports. Kelly departed soon afterwards and began laying plans for a more streamlined backing band. "Performing's just as im­ portant to me as writing songs. When I left the Bombers I thought I'd just sit back for a while, watch other people and write, but it was only a few weeks before I got the itch again".

CXat of shifting eddies of the Carlton musicians' pool, Kelly brought a new band together. John Lloyd, the delicate looking drummer who hits with all the force and exactness of a Charlie Watts, stayed for the ride, an unknown talent called Paul Gadsby was recruited to play bass, and Chris Worrall and Chris hangman, from Stilletto and Parachute respectively, lined up on swit­ chblade guitars. From the start, the band was punching out a sound full of hot potential, but there were more than a few stones in their pathway. Management hassles and line up changes succeeded each other, and it's only been in the last few months that stability has arrived in the persons of drummer Tony Thornton and the return of Chris Dyson to the Kelly gang.

excellence, five musicians whose playing never offers even a hint of programming but who create a spontaneous storm of rhythm and melody that can be the epitome of whatever you want' from rock'n'roll.

"I suppose we could be called a derivative band", Kelly admits. "When I take a song along to rehearsal and one bit turns out like the Stones and another like Roxy Music, I don't necessarily think that's a bad thing. I don't claim to be that original. If I've got any talent at all, it's that I don't have any talent..."

There mightn't be many new components in the Dots' attack, but the synthesis of sixties and seventies styles they provide is the result of a rare empathy for the rock'n'roll pulse.

Examine the sound closely enough and you'll hear hints of the Stones, Lou Reed, Springsteen and vintage "Van Morrison, with the reggae of Chris Dyson's False Chances and Kelly's Touch You Babe more recent additions to the mix. But overriding them all are Paul Kelly's own sonqwritinq obsessions.

'Taster than light our love/purer than a Greek sk y/sk ip ping on a phone wire/what was I thinking/when I fell from grace..."

Faster Than Light Our Love With one bottle of wine gone, Kelly's talking about the tenuous connections between literature and rock'n'roll. "Sometimes writers

Lyrics copyright Paul Kelly, 1979.

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MEMBERS

live at the MARQUEE Thursday and Friday late September, was 'Members' night at the Marquee. Courtesy of Virgin Records, we arrived late, just in time to smile our way past the bouncers and poor punters outside who didn't have guest passes and just in time to see the suport act disap­ pear off stage to enthusiastic applause.

The Marquee was the same as ever — smokey, hot and filthy, with a few coats of new paint and rubber-bubble floor since I was last there. A vain attempt to brighten up the place which was doomed to failure from the start.

We waited for the band, standing in the midst of a varied crowd off mods, punks (well, a couple anyway), threepiece suited WestEnders and Vidal Sassoon haircuts. It was an ...interesting looking crowd. The canned music, a mixture of disco and powerpop, pounded out. With the announcement of Sham's Hersham B oys, the crowd let out a roar and spiritedly sang along with the chorus, pogoing a bit to loosen up for the main event. It was good to drink beer too.

I was wondering how the Members would go, as they have been having a bit of a hard time lately, what with their last single (Killing Time) disappearing without trace (love that hackneyed phrase) and their bass player, Chris Payne suffering a form of nervous breakdown. They haven't been the happiest of bands.

All this idle pondering was suddenly shattered by the in-house D.J. announcing the Glen Matlock studio demo version of the Pistols' G od Save The Queen'. It came on and there was an immediate rush of adrenalin through the entire audience. People started pogoing like crazy and Johnny Rotten's vocals were almost entirely drowned out by everybody singing the complete song in unison. It was a suspension of normality, a real banding together.

Rotten's vocals on this version are so much sadder, less aggressive — as if he really sensed the loss of the fabric of English society that the song attacks. Then that last magical chorus... the whole place was submerged in the singing of the audience and it was so much like an anthem for doomed youth (in Wilfred Owen's words). An incredible sensation. The song ended and something came on — The Prince by Madness, I think (Melody Maker's latest rave) and it was back to normal.

It made you realise yet again how people loved that band. The aura remains. It's still that strong. It's so strong in fact that you don't know what to do about it. How can you break the spell? The only other thing 1 can think of, that had that sort of effect on me was watching Ali losing to Joe Frazier in that first title fight comeback in 1971. When"he^lost, you just knew everyone was wrong. You knew Ali was

16

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there, that he w b the best; but he'd lost and it was all over. Disbelief in the face of the facts.

Same with the Pistols. All you can do about it now is buy .Public Image singles or sift through the stulified remains of a great band on Rock and Roll Swindle and wonder where to go next. 1 mean it's all absurd — the perspective is completely wrong. It's 1979 and the Pistols are dead and buried (sorry, Sid), and it was probably a good thing that they did break up. But when it all comes back in a circumstance such as this, time is warped again and nothing else makes much sense.

I guess it's some sort of tribute to the Members that when they bounced out on stage about 15 minutes later, to ac­ companying ecstasy from the crowd, they still made sense.

They started with an instrumental warmer and the sound was full and the songs were hot. You could tell straight away that it was going to be a,great evening. You could tell even more when singer Nicky Tesco made h'is

entry for the second song to a frenzied roar from the crowd and the obligatory sudden rush for the stage.

What the Members did with their set was actually quite admirable. They took chances, of a sort, they played their hits catch-ascatch-can, scattering them through the set {Offshore Banking Business coming at Number 5) and played about six new num­ bers that no-one, apart from those that had seen them the previous night, could possibly have heard.

For me the stand out number was one of those new ones. Called simplyAomance it is a complex and hard hitting song about a subject that has been worked to death, but it still managed to capture something fresh and unique.

It wasn't just the music that was happening though, the whole thing was firing visually as well. The band actually looked good on stage and worked their bollocks off. Charisma?

Yup,^it was all there. I'm not sure how much was actually due to the band and how much

was due to the crowd willing it — I mean ik's hard to pull a real bummer when you work like hell on an S.R.O. crowd that's fired up and ready to go before you even come on.

Still the Members did it well.

I must admit that ennui and aching ears started to set in towards the end of the set when the habitual deafness of all sound engineers pushed the volume up past the pain register in what is, after all, a pretty small place. And it was so hot that people were fainting. What's more some idiot kept letting off rotten egg gas bombs which made you feel like puking. Put that lot together and you might forgive this indefatigueable reporter for not wading through the encores, but escaping into the humid Soho air instead.

After all the last batch of six songs (they did sixteen in all) were virtually indistinguishable from each other — all fast, loud with lots of yelling and good solos and all that sort of thing. Great if you've got a good stomach and nowhere else to go.

— Keith Shadwick

Primitive caiculators

all, a beats' a beat.

It was the fifth time I'd seen them, and finally being able to really hear all the instruments in a better balance led me to discover just how pretty and delicate, dare I say subtle, the Primitive Calculators can be with their melodies and rhythmic arrangements. The beats worked out by Frank are now more complex, lending more character to the songs, without being overbearing, and I began to more properly appreciate the drum machine I used to view as sterile and a bit of a cop out. David in particular seems to have matured in the time since I saw them last (having witnessed none of their recent debacles) appearing a great deal more confident and the picture of concentrated effort. And he also seemed to have fun.

Denise, who often plays with an expression of amused and mild confusion on her face, sways gently in time, her instruments emitting a series of complementary/contradictory sounds — harsh/pretty, atonal/melodic but never overdone, never indulgent. They play with complete economy; there's never anything that distracts from anything else.

Stuart, unquestionably the Calculators frontspiece and the only one who stands up or talks in between songs, is the one you just have to look at. In a manner lacking any of the dramatic posturing of, say, Nick Cave, he pours his body, heart and soul in a most physical way into every moment of per­ formance. Projecting utter conviction he propels the group through, thrashing with all manner of abuse at his instrument, stepping to the side at the right times to acknowledge the group as a whole, and seeming not to enjoy it at all. But I'm sure that he does-after it's over. His rasping, disciplined, voice complements his guitar playing and the two blend ideally with the contrasts of the group as a whole.

They play a number of covers and apart from the bbeat G oes On, they have done versions of Nothing (Fugs) and White Cat Heat (Godz, first record).... if that gives you any indication. It shouldn't. They have one disco number, and a truly rivetting song ’ called Square Dance. I tend to forget the names of songs, because the'Calculators come on more as an onslaught of feelings and ideas, laying down challenges to the very structure of pop songs. Yes, Virginia — Pop Songs.

When they had finished, I was left feeling very happy, and with the question in mind, "Why do people make music like that?" As I see it, no great (intentional) statements about Art, but a genuinely uncontrived and completely honest performance and some quite stunning sounds.

They are a very aptly named group.

The Primitive Calculators. Think about it.

— Alan Bamford.

M yL E^ord Hotel Wed. 26th Sept.

Actually this is half a review as My L have broken up. A group fraught with inconsistancies and uneveness; I felt they showed promise, but they are now defunct and their singer, songwriter and guitarist, Mick McBride, is now out in the cold.

UNLIKE MOST, I await with some an­ ticipation whatever he gets up to next.

But on to the support group.

"Our recent efforts have all been complete disasters." With a wry grin that seems to say, "Um, yes, well, it's us", while at the same time

assaulting people with "Well, we're ready, are you?". Stuart (guitar/vocals) opens the evening.

An overwhelmingly unique group, with no obvious reference points, the Primitive Calculators have recently been plagued by bad luck, sound and equipment. In par­ ticular, unsympathetic mixing, with Stuarts' guitar pushed right over the top, has resulted in onlookers gaining entirely false im.pressions of the band. Stuarts' playing recalls that of few others, except perhaps Lydia Lunch (Teenage Jesus and the JERKS).

However, with Stuart in his right place, the

CHEAP TRICK LIVE AT THE HORDEN PAVILION — SYDNEY 26/10/'79.

It w as all a cheap trick and most were pleasantly fooled.

Cheap Trick's first Australian concert was both very good and very bad. As a rock'n'roll concert in the classic sense it had everything — screaming, wildly excited fans, great lighting, a sense of pacing and dynamics, spunky lead singer, a repetoire mostly familiar to the majority of the audience, a flashy, visually exciting stage show, constant movement from band members, a sense of audience/performer involvement, and a guitar hero appealing to every macho/male fantasy. What else do you want?

snappy run-through of all their hits pretty years Status Quo concert. The audience was much as recorded. What I got was extended similar. versions of almost all of 'em, each with a The material was largely the same as A t gigantic bit of soloing from Rick Nielson.

Budokan, with highlights from Dream Police That sort of thing I don't accept from Led plus an encore of the Fab Four's Day Tripper.

Zepplin so there's no reason to accept it from Hello There, Ain't that A Shame, N eed Your Cheap Trick.

Love, I Want You To Want M e, Surrender, BUT as far as the audience was concerned. Dream Police, etc. Only Dream P olice and Cheap Trick did EVERYTHING right. From Surrender were missing the Nielson guitar start to finish t'was the perfect kids' rock'n'roll hero antics. show. Very American, very flashy and ap­ pealing to the same instincts that get kids off For his part, Nielson's the perfect showman, on Kiss, ELO, Aerosmith, etc. It was in­ swaggering, running, jumping, holding his teresting to see that the audience wasn't dull guitar in the air, jumping on his special power pop afficianado's but young en­ stand; playing with three guitars round his thusiastic kids — the kids who turn up at 2SM neck, smiling, pointing at the audience, and concerts, and the like. Many were actually getting 'em to sing along, clap and cheer. sporting Kiss badges and mouthing words to And a fine guitarist he is too — technically the majority of songs. excellent..... and quite keen to exhibit his The reaction was more enthusiastic than last prowess ad naeseum.

What was disappointing for jne (not for the majority of the audience, I hasten to add) was the guitar hero antics which generally amounted to filler. As a fan of Cheap Trick's records, principally because of their powerful pop songs, con cisen ess and overall memorability, I guess I was expecting a

guitar 'just there', the group as a whole positively shine.

The Primitive Calculators are Denise Rosenberg and David Light on key boards, with David laying rhythms on a Wasp syn­ thesizer instead of the now discarded bass guitar. Frank Lavise is responsible for the beats, utilising a drum machine, and Stuart Grant sings and plays guitar. Frank also provides back up voices. There used to be a conventional drummer, but he wanted to Billy Cobham all over the place, so I imagine they decided to assume complete control in that department and install a drum machine. After

Robin Zander faultlessly played the roll of teen idol, wet dream fantasy. Except for not originating in New Jersey, Randy Newman's Pretty Boy is the perfect description. Zander is the archetypal pretty boy from the Cassidy, Garrett, Frampton mould. He also sings real well. Bun E. Carlos, constantly smoking, pounded out the rhythms whilst Tom Peterson played a fairly insignificant part plodding away on the 'ol 12 string bass and singing choruses — active but the least obvious showman in the band.

All considered. Cheap Trick's concert was the definitive popular rock'n'roll concert. It was, like all mass appeal rock'n'roll, cheap, nasty, crass, exploitive, sensational, flashy, obvious and damn exciting.

Cheap Trick know what they're doing.

They're professionals. They won't fall.

— Stuart Coupe.

UNWANTED: ^greatest undiscovered rock’n ’Toll band in the world, cu rren tly Starving to death in a sea of selfserving money-mad.twisters, fools and human scum. Please help them and yourself. Bring feet to dance to

LITTLE ASHLEY and THE INCURABLES

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THE SOUND AND THE FURY Welcome to a new ROADRUNNER column.

After last issue we thought it wise to in­ corporate the majority of capsule reviews into one column. It saves spiace, allows records to be bracketed together and... well let's get started. This column will not include com­ ments and the majority of records reviewed in other p»ages.

And just to throw you little, complaining letter writers right off the track, I'll start with some favourable reviews. It ain't true that I hate everything I review, you little bastards.

Now, as any self t’espjecting hipster knows, the next big thing is going to be a mod revival and with that I guess we get a soul revival. So you can be first on the block with four great Stax reissues currently available locally. Now it's not as good as having those lovingly scratched original Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett, Sam and Dave sides but the albums in this series are Rufus Thomas and Carla Thomas, Eddie Floyd, The Staple Singers, and The Emotions (all Stax). They don't in­ clude all their 'greatest hits' but are fantastic introductions to some of the cornerstones of soul. Like many reissues, the annoying habit of having virtually no cover information is continued. Don't know about you but I'm interested to find out about p)eople like this.

The best reference book I found is The Soul Book, a paperback published by Methuen and including essays by four ejqDerts on soul music. Great reading.

As far as music history goes, this month's Sound and Fury award goes to Glenn A Baker for Monkeemania (Arista), a double album of '40 Timeless Hits from The Monkees'. Album contains all the obvious, expected hits plus unreleased material, a rare long version of The Porpoise S ong, interview snatches, and even The M onkees Theme sung in Italian. Zowee you say. Life is now com­ plete. Ya also get the most exhaustive cover notes imaginable, Monkees comic strip, photographs and a complete discography.

Immaculate, zany, and fantastic.

Two movie soundtracks turned up in the mail box. The Wanderers (Warner Bros.) is from the latest streed kid movie. The music was selected by Richard Price who wrote the book and includes stuff from Dion, The Four Seasons, Shirelles, The Angels, etc. but 12

tracks for the price of a full price album is a The D ooley's (GTO), a manufactured Abba bit steep. I'd also have liked Pipeline to have soundalike. Carlene Carter's Two Sides To been included as it's the accompanyment to Every Woman (Warners) is fantastic. Hubby one of the movie's most inspiring scenes.

Nick Lowe has written a few tunes and she Am ericathon (CBS) includes stuff from The covers Costello's Radio Sweetheart superbly.

Beach Boys, Costello, Lowe and Eddie 'gee Q arence Clemons plays a sax solo on Lies I'm fantastic' Money. Nothing much new and the whole album's delightful. And on the except It's A B eautihl Day from The Beach wet dream front Shaun Cassidy has a good Oldboys that was recorded at same sessions studio album. Room S ervice (Warners) and a as their last album, and an unreleased pretty dreadful live one. That's Rock'n'Roll Costello — Crawling To The USA. The rost (Warners) that shows that Shaun should stay ain't all that exciting. I'm still waiting for safely inside a studio. The album does in­ Eddie to make a decent 3 minutes worth of clude a colour booklet AND some previously rock'n'roll. unrecorded songs. Pheeew. Pink Lady are Gene Pitney's Australian Tour Souvenir two attractive Japanese women who make (Interfusion) album includes 16 Pitney killers. loads of money there. Their album (Elektra) is Old clenched fist is back. Awful cover. Ian pretty insubstantial stuff — disco rhythm, Uoyd, ex Stories singer has a solo album out string arrangements and occassional flashes (Scotti Brothers). Includes guest appDearances d Abbaness. Produced by same guy who made Shaun what he is today... rich. by p3eople from The Cars and other oddments.

Only killer track is a version of Goosebumps As for this fuckin' jazz that's got no place in a which leaves Christie Allen back in Perth. true blue rock'n'roll paper, there's a few Lloyds is a great singer but he rarely stret­ interesting items. The Best O f The Big Bands ches out on this. But now that he's label mates (CBS) is twenty classics from Benny with Leif Garrett, it's looks that count mate, Goodman's Orchestra. Tommy Dorsey, Artie not vocal chords.

Shaw, etc. Good, mostly white and an ex­ Ex Fleetwood Mac brains and guitarist Peter cellent introduction. Those people at IRI Green has released his first album after 9 whose address I gave you last issue have years of giving away all his Fleetwood Mac released another Jean-Luc Ponty album. royalties, finding C^d, and the inside of Sonata Erotica (IRI). It isn't. And two mar­ mental institutions./n The Skies (Creole thru vellous Ornette Coleman albums — Who's 7 Records) is a beautiful album. Green sings Crazy Volumes 1 and 2 (IRI). These are well and his playing is as good as ever. soundtrack albums from a movie in 1966 and Accompanied by ex Van Morrison, Santana, were recorded in Paris. This is the first time Pink Floyd, etc. etc. sidekicks it's octhey've been available and it's Coleman at his cassionally reminiscent of Santana's playing very best. There is more to jazz than Dave and there were days when that was a com­ Brubeck ya know. G ood, mostly black and an pliment. excellent introduction. Send 'em the money Blue Oyster Cult'sMirrors (CBS) is their first and they'll send you the records. To mark 50 for a while without Sandy Pearlman. Backup years in Australia RCA has released 50 vocals from Genya Raven and Ellen Foley. Immortal Jazz Classics, most of which aren't Worth it for side two which mixes Byrds like’ immortal and as a bonus you get a 12" single harmonies with gut wrenching rock'n'roll of of the original jazz recording — The Original DixieLand Jazz Band doing Dixie Jazz Band the Black Sabbaff galvanising riff variety.

One Step and Livery Stable Blues.

Recommended.

R ecent Songs (CBS) is Leonard Cohen And as for this awful pop music stuff, well minus Phil Spector. Neat album. Cohen at his The Last have an excellent Byrds inspired mournful best, tasteful backing and even a album called, LA Explosion, (Bomp) in song sung in old French. If you still import shops. 15 killer tunes — no im­ remember the days when you discovered life provement on the original genre but ■light, to the sound of Songs O f Love and Hate and delightful and summery. The Shoes Present Songs From A Room you'll love this kids. Me, Tense (Elektra) I hated at first but it's I do too. growing. They write great teen love and Other passable efforts include The Best O f romance songs but frequently don't do them Now friends, seriously, Numan calls that a song. The music is all the same as well, dull, repetitive, all that fake minimalism mix stuff he must have already used in 'Army' songs.

There's even an instrumental that sounds like the Army's hit single A re 'Friends' E lectric.

The fact of the matter is that these are just excuses for songs. This is just an excuse for music. The real reason this record has been released is that someone thinks (probably rightly) that this Toyland Fascist figure is a marketable commodity. And they're probably right. And they'd cancel his contract if he ever smiled.

Larry Buttrose nils lofgren Nils

GARY NUMAN The Pleasure Principle (Atlantic) I remember when Keith Shadwick filed a story from London a few months back, about a band called 'Tubeway Army' he'd seen on television. Talked about someone as a "little wooden-faced Devo Clone". Said a few other nasty things about the band. But if you've read Keith's columns, then you'd know that he is a very nice person, always trying to say the right thing, never wishing to malign want only. What he didn't say about "Tubeway Army', and about this wooden clone Numan in particular, is that the apparent success of this kind of music represents a nadir of culture in our society. That, my friends, is the hole you dig to shit in when the toilet cistern breaks and flows all over the floor. Nadir. Low Point. Lower even than the Beach Boys. At least they've honestly cracked.

Gary Numan, from the lyrics he so foolishly, so brazenly, presents with his vinyl offering, is an intellectual ant. No-one else would put their name to songs like these. If'you are not convinced, allow me to quote his song Tracks... "where are the tracks?/where are the lines?/where are the tracks?/where is the time?/(verse)/you were so cold/you were so slow/you were so old/and we were un­ sure/(verse)/And I want your lines/And I want your time/And I want your face/And you can have mine".

Records like this make me cry. When a potential rock great continues his progress from sensitivity to slop, when a sneer turns into a whimper, what else can you do?

From Grin through to the first solo album featuring the prophetic Keith Don't G o, and Cry Tough, Lofgren had it. A fragile voice which sparkled, snapped, pleaded and wavered with raw feeling, backed by sharp distinctive guitar and songs to match.

The rot set in around the time of / Came to Dance and plagued Night after Night, a senseless double liver which suggested that all Lofgren wanted to do was to be a com­ mercial success. M7s sorta confirms this — it's in the same diseased tradition — but there are a few brief moments in No M ercy, the story of a ruthless boxer, and in Steal Away that let you know Lofgren hasn't gone all rotten. As for the insidious disco t5eat and soul sounds that creep through a number of songs, the less said the better. Not that there's anything wrong with disco per se — I mean who could seriously deny that / Was Made For Loving You by Kiss is the single of the year — but it just ain't Lofgren's medium.

There's been worse records this year. But Nils deserves every bad word said or written about it because it's mud in the eye for everyone like me who continues to hold out for the great things Lofgren's capable of. Bob Ezrin's production stinks by the way, and all in all. Nils just drives more nails into Lofgren's coffin. Nils Lofgren a MOR artist?

The sun may not have set on this boy yet, but it's sure going down fast.

Richard McGregor"^

C2IEAP TRICK Dream P olice (CBS) If rock and roll were a circus (which it often seems to be) then Cheap Trick would be the clown. Don't get me wrong. Not the bumbling fool, but the entertainer with the clearest perception; the entertainer with a totally individual make-up.

Cheap Trick's make-up is not startingly different, but it is distinctly theirs.

The rotund, chain-smoking "Venezualan" drummer. Bun E Carlos, looks as much a rock'n'roller as a taxidermist. Rick Nielson, who ironically often plays a 'guitar hero', apart from looking like a Bowery Boy, is one of the quirkiest characters around. Robin Zander and Tom Peterson are such full on suave-dogs and sim ultaneously stately princes and lovable paupers, that it's almost ridiculous.

I'm probably more Venezualan than Carlos, and Rick Nielson is merely as mad as the next person. Peterson and Zander simply couldn't survive if they had to continue their im­ personation of Trent Nathan in the Antarctic twenty-four hours a day. Connecting album covers by subtle back reference adds to the image. Rick Nielson, on each album, carries some reference to previous efforts. Like the face of a clown, the image of Cheap Trick creates a distinctive part of their music.

Dream P olice continues in what is developing into a fine tradition. Tom Werman, producer of the last two studio albums, seems more in tune with the band than ever before. ' Designer Paula Sher and photographer Reid Miles have honed their perception of the band to produce the definative Cheap Trick cover.

Nielson's songs on Dream Police are strong.

The title track opens with the almost identical over the top organ that figured in Surrender, the band's stunning single that launched the third album. Heaven Tonight. It nevertheless builds into a mountainous power-pop fantasy.

Cheap Trick's turbo-charged rhythm section bores ahead, picking up Nielson's am­ phetamine-laced lead lines, throughout side one.

Gonna Raise H ell, the sides closing track, is one of those Cheap Trick songs that fascinate me. It reminds me of A uf W iedersehen off Heaven Tonight. The latter is a darkly amusing ;jgke and Gonna Raise Hell tries to pull, offj^,si^lar coup. It misses the mark...

justice with their musical arrangements.

20/20's first album on Portrait is disap­ pointing. Pop music is about power, dynamics, catchiness and memorability. I'll buy a 20/20 album again when I'm convinced they've discovered at least one of these elements — all of which are missing on this album.

AC/DC's Highway To Hell (EMI) — whatdidyaexpect? You guessed it.

For the time being Bob Marley has re­ discovered politics and Survival (Island) is his best, most politically conscious album for ages. Maaan, maybe he stopped the weed and took another look at the world outside... and discovered the times are a changin'.

Steel Pulse's Tribute To The Martyrs (Island) has a unifying theme (I resist 'concept') in that it looks at various black martyrs — George Jackson, Steve Bilko, Malcolm X and is a valuable lesson to many white musicians in that it shows you can be overtly political whilst still making music that ROCKS. Politics and music CAN mix and when they do the result is truly inspiring. So there.

Pheew this is getting tiring. I could go on about the relative and various merits of Herman Brood, the new Chuck Berry, Cliff Richard, G e o rg e T h orogood , Bishops, Rezillos Dutch Tilders, Kevin Coyne, Jimmy Buffet, Sinceros, Leo Kottke, and KC albiim's, all of which are pretty. OK — nothing to change lives but interesting.

Actually for a SOUND AND^FURY column, there hasn't been much fury has there? V/ell it's better to be positive than negative but just you tell me if there's an undiscovered masterpiece amongst the new albums from Mark Williams, REO Speedway, Steve Kipner, The Eagles, Rany Edelman, Russell Morris, MG, Patrick Hernandez, Santana, Chicago, Christie Allan, OC Smith, etc., etc., Just tell me there's a redeemable moment amongst 'em. I dare you.

And whilst we're on the subject of reedemable moments. Van Morrison's Into The M usic is filled with them from start to finish. A lengthy review was requested but words can't do it justice. One of the ten best albums of the year.

OK, until next time.

Stuart Coupe ______________ (alias The Intruder In The Dirt)

slightly. I mean, I imagine these guys raising little hell, but with A uf W iedersehen I half believed that saying goodbye to a suicide case in five languages was quite reasonable.

Gonna Raise Hell has those lovable in­ congruities though; like the E.L.O. soun­ dalike flash.

Side two contains a batch of typically jangly Cheap Trick love/desire songs — not par­ ticularly fulfilling, but immensely satisfying.

In other words, great driving eighties' pop songs.

Compared to the band's previous efforts (including the overrated Budokan offering) Dream P olice stands up well. Compared to much of the music flowing into this country, it's streets ahead. What Dream P olice lacks though is accuracy. Cheap Trick humour depends on accuracy. With Dream Police all the Cheap Trick credentials are present. But having set such high standards previously, some of the songs (there are quite a few exceptions) sound more formula than the combination of twisted humour, tongue in cheek macho stances and joyous pop anthems that we're used to from this band.

Dream P olice is still an excellent album. The music is as faultless as the production is appropriate. The humour and exuberance is still to be found. Ayer's Rock would have to hit Adelaide before you'd hear better rock'n'roll. Nielson is by no means exhausted.

I'll be looking forward to Cheap Trick's next album if it's half as good as Dream Police.

— Paul Dufficy.

19

THE EAGLES The Long Run (Asylum)

MENTAL AS ANYTHING G et Wet (Regular) Are Mental As Anything trying to start a beatnik revival? The band certainly have a lot in common with the beatnik philosophy. Take these lines {romBusiness and Pleasure, which could almost be the band's manifesto: We can b e professional But business and pleasure don't mix.

Mental As Anything are a band that firmly believe in having fun and giving other people fun. But they're not a joke band or a novelty outfit, their songs are too close to the truth for that.

Toby CreswelTs comment that the band's songs 'are set in the Australian experience in the same way that Ian Dury's or Wreckless Eric's are clearly English' (RR, Oct.) is very relevant. And like Dury- and particularly Wreckless they excell in portraits of social pathos. These guys are losers! They are on the outside looking in, but they manage to retain and express a sense of humour and a delight in life's simple pleasures. When Martin Plaza sings 'I'm gonna see my sheilah tonight' he sounds as if nothing else matters.

And probably nothing else does.

Spanish Gardener is a tale of a lonely council worker who fancies a Paddington trendy and gets ribbed by his mates at the pub who reckon he doesn't have a show.

Another Man is about somebody whose girlfriend is getting chatted up by a smoothie: He's giving m e a look that says well I'm gonna punch you if you don't go away , Everyone has been in situations where they feel stupid, small and inadeguate like those above. But not everybody would realise that most of the people around them feel exactly the same at times. That's the value of songs like these. A person is a person no matter who they are or what they do.

A word about the Mentals music. It's simple, often naive but totally effective. The production is exceptional — clear, never overbearing and providing character to what is a snappy collection of songs.

Congratulations, Mental As Anything. You have produced the album for the next Australian summer. It's going to be 34 degrees in Adelaide tomorrow. I think I'll go to the beach, and if I go to a party tomorrow night I know which album I'll be taking along.

— Donald Robertson BOB MARLEY AND THE WAILERS Survival (Island) I and I Mean Business Whitey. Alright, you honkeys out there, if you never got Bob's message on Exodus, but went out and bought the commercial syrup of Kaya because of the cute clip on Countdown, Bob Mar ley is going to make sure that on Survival he hits you between the Dreadlocks.

From the cover, with all the African Tribes flags, to the last lyric, the album blatantly spells out the message that the black man is oppressed and it's time he was treated egually and given his share, i doubt whether all the curios who trotted out to catch Marley's Australian tour, will appreciate or buy this album. It's a bit too close to the bone (as Camiliri would say) to digest lyrically.

Survival is obviously an album that Marley bled over. The Man's convictions are rampant on every song:catch: W ere the survivors a black survival in this age o f technological inhumanity were the survivors black survival, scientific atroicity were the survivors atomic misphilosophy were the survivors [from the title track Survival] Essentially this is an angry album. Marley the black power leader, leading his people to new awareness. He has now his audience, Kaya ensured this, and he can get his points across. The music, although superbly executed is of secondary importance to Marley on this album. This is all the weeks and weeks of Roots parts 1 and 2 en­ capsulated on a single powder keg album.

— Michael Manos.

20 ft.

This is a very disappointing record.

Disappointing in that although the Eagles have been heavily criticized by a lot of people from the Nouvelle Wahve, they've produced some really great music. From Desperado to Lyin Eyes and One of these Nights, then to H otel California and The Last Resort, the band have produced listenable songs that occasionally even said something. Said more than most punk bands even dreamt.

But if you're loobn g for great songs, forget this album. They waited a while for the New Wave to break, before surfacing after Hotel California. Now they've done it, they come into a new musical world. A world ruled by disco and funk. Foolishly, they've tried to follow the dictates of that musical regime, and have come up with an album that's guite direction less. There's funky tracks, discoeague tracks, a bit of rock. And in the last song. Sad C afe, there's even a hint of the old Eagles. But basically the record says nothing, does nothing. Never gets moving.

The songwriting is pretty appalling. It's amusing to note that it took four people — Don Henley, Glen Frey, Bob Seger and J.D. Souther — to write the single. Heartache Tonight. They must have written three words each.

Eagles, return to the desert. Find something to say, and play it.

Larry Buttrose

EDDIE MONEY Life For The Taking (CBS) Eddie Money is so obsessed with being a Rock'n'roll star that he has forgotten that it is necessary to produce rock'n'roll to be one.

His problem seems to be that he tries too hard and takes himself too seriously. The result is that he comes across as an insincere and conceited jerk.

I wonder just how-concerned someone can be about rock'n'roll when they have string and horn arrangements, especially on a song titled Rock'n'roll the Place. I mean, really?

The man seems to have a more than com­ petent band, in particular guitarist Jimmy Lyon (who according to the liner notes has to take some of the responsibility for this second rate attempt at a rock'n'roll album) but he just can't get past the posturing and sheer wank that his (American) success has caused.

Fair enough he had a hit first off and no doubt that was a big thrill but if Money really wants to earn his place in Rock'n'roll he's got to do more than rest on his laurels. He's got to do more than sing sentimental, trite little songs that attempt to explain what life is all about (Li/e for the Taking and Gimme Some W ater]. He's got to do more than sing crummy love songs like Love the Way You love M e and M aybe I'm a Fool. It's all been done before — many times and by people whose range of musical abilities surpass Money's. I wouldn't go as far as to say that he was talentless because he certainly has a unique voice and he knows something about writing songs. Save a Little Room In Your Heart for M e on his first album proves that and shows that beneath the smug exterior there is some sensitivity. Perhaps if he cultivated that instead of pursuing his hokey 'hippest guy on the block' image he might come up with something decent. Rock'n'roll stud maybe, but Rock'n'roll star? Who's he trying to kid??

— Collette Snowden CHRISTIE ALLEN ‘ M agic Rhythm (Mushroom)

First Gudinski signed that "sultry, brooding broad of blues and funk, Renee Geyer and as times changed and the new conservatism set in, another face emerged; the Golden DRAGON Girl of Pop and Poll, Christie Allen — Power Play Mushroom's "Miss Australia".

(CBS) Christie Allen is the "SPORTSGIRL" dream.

She's both "Cosmos" and "Cleo", and now Dragon are a salutary example of what she's got a hot little album that embodies all happens to fallen Australian stars. A year ago the calculated engineering of the male they were sharks in a small pond, the darlings dominated world that constructed that image of young girls and sentimental critics, a local in the first place. band who could actually string a seguence of The album Mag7c Rhythm has been entirely hits together. Now they're scrabbling again written and produced by Terry Britten, (exwhile their label pushes the ridiculous Mi-Sex Twilights, ex-patriate). It's of the "easy as their successors and a new album that listening variety" with each track demon­ ranks with Don? Throw Stones and Door Door strating format com p eten cy. Certainly, as the most inventive Oz release of the year Britten knows how to write successful pop languishes unpromoted. music. Three of the tracks have been hits Being a Dragon album. Power Play is in­ already and the others no doubt are on the consistent, though there are none of the gaps way. Just one guestion: why does an that used to appear when energy couldn't Australian living in England write songs overcome absent invention. The saxophone about convertibles and apartment blocks? and violin recruited to cover Marc Hunter's Does he think he's in America? disappearance provide useful filling for what All the songs are about LOVE except for one is a band very different to the former in­ glaring exception. Called A ll Australian carnation, with Billy R ogers' playing Fem ale, it's a guasi-feminist number that must providing melodic twists that the old rank as this year's most insulting musical keyboard/guitar attack couldn't muster. irony. It's about an unhappy Shiela who gets As usual, there's a glossy sheen to the conned into marriage and finds it's nothing production, though there aren't many radio but "a ball and chain". hooks to be reinforced. Paul Hewson is "I was educated I was tame avoiding the obvious these days; his lyrics are Graduate to someone else's name as stark as ever, but the images can't be fitted And you lost out, crossed it out, tossed it into love songs for the masses. These are out darker songs that you won't be hearing on Australian Female.

Countdown. 'I shot a dealer at the Junc- When the option fell for wedding bells tion/guess I'll never see his face again...'

I knew I'd say "I do" [Crooked Highway]; he's writing about I chose my life to be a model wife personal and urban desperation, but the And I met my Waterloo. clanking melodies are as sure footed as ever, The days are passed when we can blame with It's The Time O f The Year ringing out naivite and the marriage institution for the like a song from The Band's great days. injustices that women feel. In short, the song Guitarist Robert Taylor may have been is bullshit. But Christie sings it with heart felt winning Dragon's personal power, games sincerity (visions of a flagging little Aussie when this album was recorded; ’ he has the singer in a Mayfair studio, being told "can lion's share of the songs, including the most you give it a bit more soul sweety?"). In a immediate track. For F ree, a typically recent SKA midmorning talk show, I heard aggressive diatribe that rolls on a galloping Christie being interviewed about the song; it melody. The band's third song writing axis, went something like this: "I wouldn't sing the Todd and Jenny Hunter, don't have anything song unless it meant something to me. I feel here to match O Zambezi's scathing highlight that Australian men spend too much time Politics. M otor City Connection and 3.33 are boozing and playing sport. They should simply rock songs, one of them literary and ^ e n d more time on their women. We've got a the other one dumb, but both of them played lot to offer, you know". v/ith confident ease.

Christie Allen is by no means alone in the Powerplay is not an album of sudden impact, world of the total product, but she has yet to other than that provided by the kick of Kerry display anything of herself. She mouths Jacobson's superb drumming; colours and cliches, she sings cliches and worst of all, it's suprises only gradually escape a sometimes all the work of some grand plan in which she bland surface. Dragon live will never again seems to take no hand. have the wayward power that made success However, it's early days and Christie is inevitable as it was temporary, but they've young enough to grow up, and put all this survived to become the first Australian band down to experience. Perhaps some time in the to record four consistent, intriguing albums. future we will be able to say "Yes... Christie One hopes that this won't be the last; ' Allen... she is this..."

— At3rf&ri^^ry; ■„.. J — Mandy Salomon

RUSSELL MORRIS BAND Foot In The Door (Mushroom) At last one of the best voices in Oz Rock gets some good songs on vinyl. Russell Morris has a long history in the Music business but that has not prevented him from progressing! Not for him, the sad, pathetic tumble to the club circuit and three piece suits. At least you know where the man's heart belongs.

This is his first album with this band and his first since his return from the U.S.A. It's a fine showcase for his distinctive voice with its curious inflection and plaintive gualities but it's definitely a band album not simply a vehicle for Russell Morris.

The single Hot Love is fairly representative of the material on this album but is by no means the best of the bunch. Russell Morris writes excellent songs and the band provides the necessary musical interpretation of them.

The album contains all of the necessary qualities for good rock'n'roll — a strong, steady backbeat coloured with fine melodies and harmonies as well as some fine solos from guitars, keyboards and sax. I would have preferred the guitars and keyboards more up front because some of the songs sound a bit too laid back and restrained, but they are right up front on Love Stealer which is a real indication of what this band can do. It's real dance-around-the-living room material.

Most of the songs on the album are love songs which is a shame because I think Russell Morris is capable of writing far more perceptive material. I'm Just a Writer and Neixt Exit prove that he can do it.

Russell Morris' style incorporates the simplicity of his pop past with some of the oblique qualities of the psychedelic period (in which The Real Thing and Part 'Three Into Paper Walls were produced) and the grit­ tiness of rock'n'roll. As well as that, his time in America seems to have given his writing and singing a sharper edge. I think if he cranked it up a little more, he could really cut it. Foot In The Door? I think he's right.

— Collette Snowden

BLONDIE Eat To The Beat (Chrysalis) Another powerpop masterpiece from Ms Deborah Harry, her fellow Blondies and producer Mike Chapman. What does a band follow up a multi-platinum killer like Parallel Lines with? Well as they say in the classics, when you're on a good thing, stick to it. And that's basically what Blondie have done, although Eat To The Beat rocks just a little harder thanZmes — a commendable piece of fine tuning in my opinion.

What makes Blondie continue to stand out from the hordes of similar power poppers presently preening themselves in preparation for the early eighties pop explosion is that they are not afraid to extend the boundaries of their style. Their biggest asset in this quest is the superlative drumming of Clem Burke.

Drummers are not usually singled out for special praise but that is probably because most of them are quite content to hold down the beat and don't have the musical capabilities to experiment. Rock/pop is basically beat music and therefore any ex­ ploration of the beat is bound to be in­ teresting. But Blondie are much more, than a one-man or one woman band (despite the posters you see in TV Week) — they are a bloody tight unit.

One thing'that struck me about the album is that whereas a lot of records have a strong first couple of tracks, fade away for the middle and then come in with a rush at the end. Eat To The Beat has its five strongest tracks {Rat To The Beat, A ccidents Never Happen, Die Young, Stay Pretty — a won­ derful honky reggae cut — Slow Motion and A tom ic) positioned at the end of side one and the start of side two. It's hard to pick a fault with this album. I've played it many times already and I'm sure I'll play it many more before the summer it out. G ood for parties, good for the beach, barbeques, for when you're feeling low, in fact just about any time.

And isn't that what pop music is all about?

— Donald Robertson

GRAHAM PARKER AND THE RUMOUR High Times (Vertigo) A special Australia-only 'greatest hits' compilation to co-incide with the diminutive one's Australian tour. And a very solid, no nonsense affair it is. Every track a winner, but then the number of duff tracks on G.P. & The Rumour's four studio albums can be counted on one finger. If you -haven't got Howlin' Wind, Heat Treatment, Stick To M e or Squeezing Out Sparks then I advise you to get them! If you can't afford them all then get High Times. This is rock and roll at its grit­ tiest, 'cos when Parker sings 'Sometimes I feel like pouring it all out' that's exactly what he does. It would be very hard for me to put a best-of Parker compilation together, but whoever has done this one has done it pretty well. All non-converts investigate at first opportunity.

— Donald Robertson BABBLE Kevin C oyne and Oagmar Krause (VIRGIN L37056)

resulting, no doubt, in many people's in­ troduction to the songwriter in an unrepresentative-of-his-talent disc. But redemption is at hand! BABBLE is up there with his previous triumphs, such as Blame it on the Night (not locally released), Marjory Bazorblade (a double, but released out here as a single album: They also cut a verse out of Eastbourne Ladies!), and in fact all the rest, except as I said before. Heartburn : of which he himself says "You can tell by the title it wasn't up to much".

Babble's one of those 'concept albums' (though don't shudder, as here it works out well) that tells of a couple's love story — ’i.e. falling in love and out again. Put like this, the album sounds on a par with Mills and B oon, but let me assure you that it's handled a mite more passionately than the aforementioned works and doesn't rely on mawkish sentiment.

Anyway, all the songs were written by Kevin, who sings them as he knows best.

Alongside, he has a collaborator, DAGMAR KRAUSE, a lady whose voice adorns half of the tracks, and lest ye be wondering perfectly complements Mr. Coyne's, in other words, she leaves your Patti Smith's and such likes in the shade for guality of tone and depth of feeling.

Now here's the controversial aspect. It was "inspired by Myra Hindley and Ian Brady, the two English moors murderers" — Kevin's own words. However, this point seems-to be rather inconseguential to the message, as no mention of it is made on the album, which is billed as 'Songs for lonely lovers'.

So how do I end this review? Let me say that any of you who have experienced the heave- ’ ho or the wrong end of the stick in a relationship is bound to see- some part of themselves in Babble!

Go and buy it.

— Robert Tilley TELEX Looking Eor St. Tropez (RCA)

seems that the country that brought you plastic punk in the shape of Plastic Bertrand has now created plastic electronic disco music. B ock Around The Clock, Twist A Saint Tropez and their version of Cd Plane Pour Moi are worth a listen for a bit of fun, but otherwise, for robots only.

— Goose SANTANA Marathon (CBS) Just recently, W oodstock was aired on television screens across Australia. Why, I'm not guite sure — perhaps it was to co-incide, and thus cash-in on the release of Hair: the movie, or even the staging of the new Woodstock; but that's getting away from the point.

Never having seen it before, W oodstock was guite an education.

Among the other acts appearing was Santana. Now I've never liked Santana much, but their p erform an ce on W ood stock suggested that they weren't all bad — certainly Carlos Santana himself playc<i with a fluid elegance, and the band never faltered.

But by now — and I'm not really sure what's happened in the interim because I've never been interested — Santana have lost what spark they did possess at Woodstock and entered the same league as the ELO's and Chicago's of the world.

Marathon — with it's incongruous com­ bination of Greek and Latin-American imagery — is yet another product of that Californian genre, 'product' being the operative word.

It lacks commitment, vitality, imagination, and above all, personality.

— Clinton Walker.

procured with great difficulty, and for not a cent under twenty dollars.

On the cover, he grimaces .slightly, like a morose Confederate soldier. On record, he sings as a soulful Southern poet, with melancholy and homeless craving: songs like Yankee Lady, and Brand New Tennessee W altz. All this is very ironic because at the time, Winchester was in fact self-exiled in Montreal dodging the draft, and his longing for his American homeland was as factual as it was mythic.

Eight years later, the legend, durable as it was, wears a little thin. Black D og and the aforementioned songs are, ahem, touching but there's really very little that lasts the distance. A deeply felt and genuine piece of vinyl for sure, and cheaper these days too, but I doubt I'll ever catch myself playing it again.

— Richard McGregor QUASAR Nebular Trajectory (Australian Creative Recording) I saw Ouaf?ar onoc, m a y b e ^ven a few times, if my hazy memory serves me correctly. The band is almost an Institution in Queensland, where they still reside, and as such they're kind of hard to avoid.

I w^s living in Queensland a few years ago, and my guest to relieve the boredom that's intrinsic there often found me in the most unlikely situations.

That's how I stumbled ('stumbled' being the operative word — you've got to drink, or take drugs, just to survive in Queensland) across Quasar.

Apart from knowing that I always hated them, my only vivid recollection of Quasar is of one of the goose-necked guitarists an­ nouncing a song called Entropy. Entropy\1 They've gotta be kidding', I thought. But no....

TODD RUNDGREN Back To The Bars The least I expected of Quasar was that they (Bearsville) might gracefully retire from the public eye FOGHAT and, say, become session musicians (which "Fantastic, unbelievable, an outstanding After that great clip on Countdown and then N ightshiit they'd competently do, considering the artistic success": terms that would have hearing their truly bizarre rendition of Bill (Bearsville) nature of the Queensland recording in­ cropped up more than once in this review, Haley's B ock Around The C lock I expected dustry...) But no, again.

JESSE WINCHESTER had I not tempered my gushing PRAISE with great things from this album. A slightly Quasar have made an album, and it's called A BIT of semi-literate ability. poppier version of Kraftwerk? Unfortunately Jesse W inchester Nebular Trajectory.

(Bearsville) B abble follows close on the heels of Kevin not! The opening trackM oskowDiskow sets a So what can I say? The album's music Coyne's previous album Millionaires and pace that is maintained throughout the Long ago, on Albert Grossman's Bearsville matches the hollow pretension of it's title, and Teddy B ears, a work I thought (along with album. It's a pity because the humour of this label, Todd Rundgren produced the first half it's individual song titles, like Entropy (yes, Heartburn, just locally re-released), to be album is overshadowed by the boring, of the first Foghat album. He also engineered it's there). Images Erom The Abyssal Plain, Kevin's worst effort so far. Unfortunately it repetitive and melody-lacking music. Isolate and M ysteries o f Elevsis. had the distinction of coming out when Kevin one or two tracks and they're great but it's Jesse Winchester's recording debut. All 3 have re-releases through Festival this month, It's missing everything that the sleeve notes was finally getting the attention he deserved, impossible to play a whole side through. It and I'm pleased to preside over their in- claim it possesses — 'feel, passion, reflection . significant reunion in a record review. and that essential ingredient: madness'.

You can forget Foghat straightaway. They Quasar's music is purely a calculated are just another dumb rock group with ab­ technical exercise, and even then it's solutely nothing 'to say. No doubt they've inadeguate.

PTY. LTD. worked hard and given a lot of pleasure to a The afore-mentioned sleeve notes make it lot of people, but our world would be just the obvious that Quasar are out to out-do their same if they never existed. idols, which is shallow enough in itself, but One of the largest Hire Services for Amplifiers, A c e -p ro d u ce r and carrot-head, Todd then, who wants to out-do redundant P.A.’s, M icro^ones, Guitars, Drums, Electric Rundgren should command a lot more technicians? Admittedly, the band do cite Pianos, Echo-Units. respect. On Back to the Bars, he comes alive some real stars, like drummers like Max Sales of Fender, Gibson, Ibanez Guitars Altec, Etone Speakers. Fender, Acoustic, for the duration of 4 sides of music, but Roach, Elvin Jones and Art Blakey, as in­ Peavey Amps. unfortunately, the listener isn't inspired to do fluences, but the all-important element — the the same. A few moments of musical majesty spirit — with which these people played is WE’RE BIG IN FENDER (see Black & White, Beal Man, Love in absent within Quasar.

SPECIALISTS IN A ction ) do not compensate for the lack of pop Another note on the sleeve states that, 'THE sensibility he's capable of. .

REPAIR WORK PRODUCTION OF THIS ALBUM HAS BEEN Compared with his best. Back to the Bars is ASSISTED BY THE MUSIC BOARD OF THE tedious, bloated and overblown. In short, it's AUSTRALIA COUNCIL': Haven't they got a bad album. Diehard fans will allow Todd anything better to spend their efforts on? this indulgence, and they probably did so by RANGE OF T/SHIRTS & JACKETS In Queensland alone (while we're in the buying it on import many months ago.

HIGH QUALITY INSTRUiWENTS area) there's bands like the G o Betweens, Jesse W inchester is an older and more who are making what is the truly vital music TERMS & CONDITIONS AVAILABLE AGENTS FOR OVEREEM worthy Bearsville re-release. Produced by (if of another genre, which is irrelevant EQUIPMENT Robbie Robertson in 1971, it marked Win­ anyway). But of course they can't play like OTHER b r a n d s AVAILABLE chester's recording debut. Sadly for him, it Quasar, can they?

FREE INFORMATION & QUOTES was relegated to the bargain bins on release.

After Hours No, but they feel what they play, and they 263 3773 or 47 5952 or 46 2338 Then it disappeared altogether. And when know what they're playing, and they know 231 WAYMOUTH ST., ADELAIDE the word spread, and Winchester became a what they're not playing. cult hero (yawn), the record could only be — Clinton Walker.

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21

sound format so well that the song still carries Well after some of the comments I received emotion. It's human's versus machines and about Clive Dorman's singles reviews last isn't that what Computer Games are all month, I think I'd better do them myself this about? An excellent single. month.

First up the new single from the Police, .The Numbers EP on Local Records is fairly M essage In A Bottle. I don't usually award representative of the band life. Loud, frantic singles of the month prizes, but I think I'll and exuberant. On the A-side, Govt. B ay, the make an exception this month. This has got guitar rules the sound and the bass and drive, beat, a catchy hook and the most off­ drums struggle valiently to keep up. If Chris beat drumming I've ever heard in a powerpop Morrow wasn't in such a hurry he- might get classic: T'll send a SOS/To the world/I hope somewhere. As it is the whole thing sounds that someone gets my/Message in a Bottle'. like The Jam at 78 r.p.m. OK, if you are into All the instrumentation is wonderful. The speeding but not recommended for those with pumping bass. Sting's plaintive vocals (and weak hearts, (and you'd have to be a maniac the harmonies from the rest of the band) the to dance to it.) jangly guitars and. not least the unigue It wasn't obvious on listening to albums but The Aliens are also trying to sing about drumming of Stuart Copeland. It's the only siTiaW-^bat-L...Qan p lf^y five times in a row something that people will understand with Life During Wartime [This Ain't No Disco, without getting b o r e d ^ the~irhorKe«^-«^i~::aa:. .thf^ir. first single, CorJrontation but they This Ain't No Fooling Around] is the perfect reggae rock? The Police prove that it's havenTr^Il^gdH be^ imaginatiQn4Q:.Gany_it_ single from Talking Heads' Fear O f M usic. off. For a band that is billed as having one' L ik e /fe a r/£ ¥ G ig^ it's,.a critique of disco possible and more than that, it's wonderful.

The song that knocked the Police from the foot in the sixties and one in the eighties they couched in disco terms. Whether people whosound terribly fifties to me. There's no doubt will dance to it and buy it will actually listen U.K. number one spot is Video Killed The that they are tight, but where's the spark to it is a moot point but at least the message is Radio Star by the Buggies. Incredibly catthy, there if people do want to listen. Subliminal with thudding bass drum and breathless girly boys?

Apart from a really fuzzy mix there's nowt advertising? Fifth column? Whatever, it's chorus and enough production effects to sink wrong with the Headboys, who are the first great to strut the funky chicken to. the Titanic. Should be a big hit.

Another 45 that should be a big hit is the British band signed to Robert Stigwood's RSO Jane Aire and the Belvederes have label in 2Vi years. Keyboards, the soaring newie from Jo Jo Zep and the Falcons, Shape I'm In. Again that looping reggae beat but tuneful type, predominate on Shape Of resurrected the old Tamla Motown sound predominates and the choon even features a Things To Come but they never depart too far classic. Breaking Down the Walls of Hear­ genuine honky-reggae dub break. Should be from the riff or the beat. There's some heavy tache . With the current revival of interest in inciting disco-goers to action all over the chord riffing as well lor those who like that ska/bluebeat in the U.K. (The Specials and country and spurring everyone else to sort of thing. Nothing new but guite pleasant. Madness) it could be that the Tamla sound it The Flying Lizards have had a No. 2 hit in going to be the next sound to be exhumed. If loungeroom dancing. As a special bonus the U.K. with M oney. When you hear the' so then Jane will be right on the crest of the there is a re-recorded version of the Zep's single you will probably ask yourself. How? wave. If not, she'll have egg on her face. I major non-hit of last year. So Young (which ain't as good as the original, but still ain't There's no denying that the Lizards have a don't care 'cos it's great to hear these old wonderfully naive sound (not surprising since classics having life breathed into them again. bad) on the flip plus a dub version of Shape both their singles. Money and Summertime I'm a sucker ffor soul and Jane does it well.

I'm In (the first Australian dub folks!) Any of Blues cost less than 6 each to record) but Deserves airplay. the tracks should be enough to propel the can it be that many people's cup of tea? single to the No. 1 spot so it shouldn't be that Obviously yes. RCA have leased this from Black Market World from The Nauts sounds hard for the three combined to make- it.

Missing Link so it could even be a hit here. If fuzzy and jaded but the flip /D o n ? Want To it is then it will be the most improbable hit this Be Like You has a lot more light and shade year. What? SAD are playing it? Ye Gods, is and is (shock?) actually quite creative. Good this the start of the revolution? chorus, sparse backing and even some Ah, Making Plans For N igel. By XTC. I like harmonies. Could almost be The Police (what greater recommendation do you need?). this. Nowhere as outrageously poppy as Life Begins A t the Hop it features a beat that can The Mekons, ex-Fast Product people, have a only be described as a thudding shuffle and new single out on Virgin. It's called Work A ll vocals that mirror the sparseness of the W eek. It's rough and ready, beats along and subject of the song — working for British has the kind of dumb chorus that insinuates Steel. Post-industrial romanticism? No, quite itself in your memories. That certain kind o f the reverse. A look at the system from some something/That certain kind of life. Simple individuals who managed to escape. No-one but effective. makes plans for XTC, not even Virgin The first release on Crystal Ballroom Records. Buy the single and you'll also get Records is probably not worth reviewing as two other wonderful non-hits (live) versions of the only copies available were given to Are You R eceiving M e and This Is Pop. people who attended the October 20th gig at I must admit I find The Reels a little hard to Loaded Dice's first offering on WEA is the Crystal Ballroom which featured The Boys take. Their brand of pop is a little too con­ Mam'selle a lustful little ditty about a young Next Dx)r and The Models. However as the trived for my taste. And those uniforms! Too woman who looks just like a 'picture in a record features the first recorded offering much like aural candyfloss — yummy looking Playboy magazine'. Oh yeah, what's new? from The Models it's worth a mention. Early on the outside but basically unsubstantial. Rocks along a la Sydney Sound de 1979 but Morning Brain has a good melody and good Love Will Find a Way may find a way into the don't the band know that bad French is the beat and enough quirky keyboards to qualify lower reaches of the charts but it ain't got exclusive province of rock journalists (and it as a 'modern' pop record. It's a little too selfstaying power to these ears. Bubblegum Blondie)? The trebly guitar is quite belle but conscious to be totally successful but Devo. overall it sounds like a band going nowhere nevertheless it's a promise of things to come.

The Members are touring this country next fast. , Scatterbrain from the Boys Next Door has month and to coincide with the tour there is a What was the last Australian No. 1 single? I been a stage favorite for some time and is not special picture sleeve version of their latest can't remember but I reckon Mi-Sex's included on their Abor, Door album so I guess angle Killing Time out at the moment. It's a Computer Games will go close tp being the it must rate as a 'collectors item'. In fact, song about killing time on a Tuesday night next one. Pinball and Video Games are so what's the bet that when the BND are rich and down at the launderette (that's English for a much a part of modern teenage life and this famous this little piece of vinyl will change laundromat). It rocks along and reggae's a bit song captures the atmosphere of the fun hands for large sums of money. It's not bad and continues the fine tradition of writing parlour so well that it has a really wide ap­ but it's not that good folks! (By the way the about things that most people can un­ peal . The band's use of the rhythm sequencer BND track was recorded in Phil's bedroom.) derstand. is really effective, and is worked into the The Thoughtcriminals from Darlinghurst

THE REELS

9

INDEPENDENT RECORDS Since starting this column I've had a lot of enquiries from various radio stations, in­ dividuals, newspapers, and even libraries asking for information on how to get their hands on the records mentioned. It surprises me that groups could put out a record and then not send copies to obvious places such as the FM radio stations that are keen to play them. It would take too much space to list all the places that should receive copies of in­ dependent records but if you're releasing a record write to me and I'll put you on to them.

A newly formed Melbourne label. Raven Records, is about to release five EPs by 60s Australian groups. I'm not sure of the release date but here's a list of what to expect: EASYBEATS (RV 01) Mean Old Lovin, I'm Happy, H ey Babe, I Don't A gree, K eep Your Hands O ff and No One Knows.

PURPLE HEARTS (RV 02) Early In The Morning, You Can't Sit Down, Tiger In Your Tank, Chicago, I'm Gonna Try and Hopes and Dreams.

RAY BROWN & THE WHISPERS (RV 03) 20 Miles, Pride, Fool, Fool, Fool, Go To Him, Ain't It Strange and Midnight Hour.

MISSING LINKS (RV 04) Wild About You, A ll I Want, We Two Should, Some Kinda Fun, Speak No Evil and Don't

22

Pop Art Give M e No Friction.

A small English label is currently THE THROB/THE WILD CHERRIES negotiating with for the release of their Throb: Fortune Teller, Black and She Is EPS in the UK. M ine.

The Lipstick Killers' single has been selling W.C.; That's Life, Krome Plated Yabby and very fast. Of the 1000 pressed only a very few Gotta Stop Lying. remain. Their 'comrades-in-war', the Visitors, Apart from the news of the Raven releases, the other nice surprise of the month was the are about to release their first single. I don't have any information about it, though.

Slugfuckers' single which appeared out of nowhere (Well, Sydney). The tracks are D eaf Raw Deal are a Melbourne based 'pop/rock' Disco and D eaf Duo. As you may have group (according to their press release) who guessed, it's a pisstake of Public Image. The have a single out on Cleopatra Records. The single is very imaginatively packaged with A-side is a Todd Rundgren track. You Cried lots of eritertaining reading inside. Deo/Dub W olf, and the B-side is an original entitled/ is the first record to be recorded in Tri-Phonic Am A lon e. A Raw Deal album is also out this month. Contact: PO Box 121, Elsternwick, (mono and stereo at the same time). Contact; 3185, Vic. 87 Hordern St., Newtown, 2042, NSW. Laurie Richards, who runs the Crystal El Pifco's single. Bananas/Meltdown, should Ballroom in Melbourne, has started his own appeal to anyone who likes funky rock. The record label, clev erly named C rystal band is from Wollongong but are about to Ballroom R ecords. None of the Crystal move up to Sydney. Contact: 58 Squires Ballroom records will be for general release Cres., Coledale, 2513, NSW. but are to be given away free on special I don't know how the Local Label manages it occassions to patrons of the Ballroom. So far but they seem to have a new record out every one single has been released — the Boys Next month. Last month they released an EP by the Door's Scatterbrain backed with the Models' Shieks which comprises of three original Early Morning Brain. It was given away at the songs and a version of Dylan's Leopard Skin door when both bands played together on Pillbox Hat. Each copy has a hand made and October 20th. The next free Crystal Ballroom drawn cover. Contact: P.O. Box 45, Doonrecord will be given away on November 15th . side, 2767, NSW. when Man & Machine and headline. The The posthumous Voigt/465 album. Slights tracks are The Bath (Man & Machine) and Unspoken, came and went last month. All of

(that's Sydney, all you non-N.S. Welshmen) have a super little EP out called Food For Thoughtcrimes. And it's wonderful. Musically reminiscent of the Buzzcocks (now can that be bad?) but lyrically exceptional with songs about jaeopje jumping off tall buildings in I dunno, but it did make me- lari, all those other sorts of things that make life in the end of the seventies so, er, exciting. If the Thoughtcriminals co u ld find a record company that would come to terms with them they would be huge, but I don't think their kind of company exists in Australia (yet).

Meanwhile if you're gonna buy an indie single this month, buy this one. It reveals the reason why people put up the money to put their music across.

Death Disco by Public Image is a horrible noise. Disposible rubbish. Roxy Music at least have a tune on A ngel E yes. It's disco but classy disco, some nice sax and the old groanef Brian Ferry goes through his paces with style. The Bing Crosby of the Eighties maybe but at least you can shake your butt to it. Midnight Oil crank out some Sydney Sound riffs on their new single Cold Cold Change and manage NOT to sound like The Angels. Marvellous. A good rocky bop number. And speaking of The Angels, they have a 12" newie. Out O f The Blue (from the No Exit album) which features live versions of two songs on the flip plus a rerecorded version of their first single. Am I Ever Gonna See Your Face A gain . A must for everyone who is going to see the Pooled Resources Tour.

First release from Melbourne band Raw Deal is a remake of the old Todd Rundgren song You Cry W olf. It does nothing to distinguish itself from the original. Australian Crawl's Beautiful People has had as much media exposure as any new band could hope for.

Yet it's still not racing up the charts. What's the matter people, don't tell me that you all think it's a rip off of the Sports too? The Armchairs also from Melbourne at least have the decency to rip off obscure artists from the fifties and what's more they do it with STYLE and HUMOUR. I mean who can seriously resist a song that proclaims / wanna b e a dining room ? Especially when it positively drips with authentic OCKER BILLY feeling and has girl choir interludes. Songs about Brian Henderson (remember Bandstand, you ageing teenagers?) and Elvis Presley just drive the point home. What's the point? Jeez, I donnu, but it did make me larf.

In case you've forgotten the single of the month is still M essage in a B ottle. I think I'll listen to it SIX times in a row and see if I still like it.

— Donald Robertson PS; I do. the 200 copies that were pressed sold out within days of reaching the shops.

Brisbane's Able Label have another release — a single by the Apartments. At present, it's only available in Brisbane but copies should start to filter south this month. Contact: P.O Box 633, Toowong, 4066, QLD. Tactics are supposed to have an EP out in Sydney. I've yet to see a copy in Melbourne, Missing Link have leased the Flying Lizards M oney to RCA who will be releasing it throughout Australia. Future Missing Link records include the News single I mentioned months ago, a double single Whirlwirld, and another Peter Lillie single (Samurai Star/The Man From Brashs/Dangerman Them e).

In Perth, the Scientists are recording an EP and the Manikins are recording another single, this time with the financial and p reduction aid of the /hngels.

In Adelaide the Sputniks and Nasty Nigel will both be releasing self-financed singles this month, while Canberra will be exploding onto the indies scene with the first release by Dull Records, a three track E.P. by the Young Docteurs.

I think that wraps it up for another month. If you have any information on independent records, please write (P.O. Box 318, Hawthorn, 3122, Vic.) Bruce Milne.

■■

i

Days of Heaven by Peter Lowrance.

In 1973 Badlands emerged as the first feature from film maker Terrence Malick. On the basis of that alone he achieved an en­ viable reputation. In fact had he given film making away aiiev Badlands it is quite likely that he would be slotted into the p>antheon of American film Etiakers of the seventies.

Though ^ocyoncfe did not receive a great deal of publicity when it was released, it is one of those interesting films which have built up a solid following ever since.

Considering that five years separate this and Malick's next film, the recently released of H eaven , it is interesting to note the way film critics (in Melbourne at least) from both newspaper and the electronic medias have flocked to his praise. Interesting because it indicates that obsession among 'buffs' to follow the relatively obscure names, praising them regardless. Though B adland may deserve all the acclaim it gets, it is questionable w hether D ays o f h ea ven deserves the praise that the Melbourne journalese lavished on it.

With Days o f H eaven we see some of the characteristics Malick brought to Badlands, especially in composition, acting (use of non­

COMPETITIONS This month, folks, we have ten double passes to give away to the A delaide Pooled R esources C oncert at the A pollo Stadium on the 23rd o f Novem ber. The con cert lineup will b e Lemmy Caution, Flowers, The A ngels and Cold Chisel. Just write in and tell us which city The A ngels and Cold Chisel originated from. A s we will not have a new issue out until after the con cert all winners will receiv e notification b y mail b efore the 23rd. G et your entries in quick.

Now, winners o f last month's Sham 69 competition. The answer to the question "Who was the lead singer o f Sham ?" was, o f course, Jimmy Pursey. The first 12 winners, drawn out o f a hat, w ere: David Williams, 818 High St., Epping, Vic; Tim Hughes, 5 Princes St., St. Kilda, Vic; John Wilson, 16 Borrell Cres, Baulkham Hills, NSW; Karl May, 23/211 Wigram Rd., Glebe, NSW; Barry Smith, 26 Eyre Ave., Whyalla Norrie, S.A.; Vic Zbar, 63 Turner St., Abbotsford, Vic; Kath Lambert, 1 Young St., Springvale, Vic; Brett Curotta, 22 Spencer Rd., Mosman, NSW; Glyn Williams, 1 Valley View Close, Roseville, NSW; P. Alwan, 60 Hawksview St., Guildford, NSW; Garth Adam, 3 Valleyside Drive, Crafers, S.A.; and A. Goi, 50 Alpha Rd., Willoughby, NSW. A ll winners please allow two weeks for d elivery o f your prizes.

actors) and a concise, collcquial dialogue.

But where Badlands is both tight and lucid in its narrative. Days o f Heaven is a long drawn out film about work and love.

The first half of the film establishes a weak story about a relationship between first, a young man and woman seeking work and posing as sister and brother, and then the young woman's marriage to their boss, who does not understand the situation he is a party to. Once this is established, one feels Malick forgets about the story's development. Instead he seems intent on showing the auciience how hard people worked during the time the film is set, (1914 — 1916) and also presenting the spectator with some kind of moral notion, to the effect that the apparently easy way out, his protagonists find, is not as easy as it seems. In this case, work should be a reward in itself.

The film does have redeeming features, however. Though the cast is small it is nevertheless dynamic. Richard Gere plays a strong, determined young man leading his family across America. Though he is not generally given to conversation, at least where s^angers are concerned, he is not afraid to hit out at what he regards as undue criticism. As a character he is presented as a

hard worker, though it is not difficult to sense a degree of repressed fear (or is it frustration with those who weild power?) which finds a release in the violence which explodes towards the end of the film.

Brooke Adams as his girlfriend and the eventual wife of the wealthy landowner is strong on the screen too. For a time, she represents that strong, silent pioneer wife typified by the Western, standing by her man as he brings civilization to the wilderness. But as thd film progresses she drops her monogamous role and takes on two lovers. It is in the manipulation of the two, one a husband, the other her real love, that the complexity emerges and filmic world is thrust into turmoil.

Linda Manz has been hailed recently as a new child star to watch out for. In this film, she certainly lives up to those expectations.

Her dual role, as the little sister and as the narrator work together splendidly. However, the odd point is that, of the three main characters, she is the one who can perceive succinctly. Through the narration she often suggests, humourously, a course of action most suited to their predicament.

Basically the film consists of a series of loosely constructed sequences held together

by Manz's story telling/narration. At times however, Malick adopts a completely dif­ ferent perspective. One case in particular springs to mind. The film suddenly jumps from a scene with the lovers to a time-lapse sequence where we see a seed push through the soil and unfold in all its glory. This may be a significant visual metaphor but as far as the narrative is concerned it is quite jarring.

Visually Z>3ys o f H eaven is a splendid film, but its sheer beauty is just not matched by the story. The music too, works, quite well. There is a range which goes from a classical score for the overall mood of the film to some lo­ cation playing pieces using a fiddle and foot tapping. My only wish being that there was more like it.

OverallDays o f Heaven is a pleasant enough film to watch, but it is just not satisfying in the way that Badlands was. Perhaps one should not judge too much on the basis of a directors previous work, but in this case Malick seems to be inviting the spectator to do just that.

Expecially since the final section of the film recallsBacfonds so clearly. It is like an echo of that film and that is not good enough, despite some of the other outstanding features of tiiis film.

Richard Lawrance

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