Roadrunner 3(2) 22 February 1980

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B ib n iaiy 22nd 1980 " r S ic it s - ^ ';

DAVE W a r n e r CLASH PT 2 COSTELLO IN N X FU U FESTIVAL REPORT K * :

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ALBUMS

SINGLES 2UE

AUST

1. P lea se Don't G o_. ..................... ........... KC & Sunshine Band 2. Don't S top . Michael Jackson 2. B lam e It On T he B o o g ie . The Jacksons A. E sca p e ......... Rupert Holmes 5. Message In A B o t t le ..............‘ ............................... The Police 1. P lea se Don't G o ......................................................

6. C a r s ..................................Gary Numan •• ...........................K.C. & The Sunshine Band 7. V ideo K illed T he R ad io 2.

Don t S t o p .....................................MichaelJackson S t a r ..................................... The Buggies3 .

E scap e ..............................Rupert Holmes 8. Do That To M e O ne M ore 4. B lam e It On T he B o o g ie ...................... Jacksons Tim e ........... Cap. & Tennille 5. C razy L ittle T hin g C a lled L o v e ............. Queen 9. B a b e ..................................Styx 6. D ream in g M y D ream s ..............Colleen Hewett 10. H ot Town ........... Jon English 7. M essag e In A B o t t le ..................................... Police 8. B a b e ........................................

Styx 9 •V ideo K illed T he R ad io S tar ................Buggies 10. S tay W ith M e Till D a w n ..................Judie Tzuke (no particular order) 11. Do That To M e O ne M ore T im e ........................... ................................................. Captain & Tennille S tran g er On A T ra in ..............

12. C a r s ................................................................... Gary Numan ........................................ Sports \3.H ot Town ..............................................Jon English I f You B rea k I t .........................

14.

C'mon A u ssie C 'm o n .................................... Mojo Singers ...........................Moving Parts 15. S u re K now S om eth in g ...................................^ s s / G ot You ................Split Enz 16. N o M ore T ears ........................................................

D ream , B aby , D ream ........... ............. Donna Summer and Barbra Streisand ...................... Suicide Dream 17. C om pu ter G a m e s ....................................... Mi-Sex R egatta d e B lan c . . . . Police 18. R ain bow C on n ection .................................Kermit T he W all ..............Pink Floyd 19. You're O nly L o n e ly ......................... J.D. Souther L on don C a llin g ........... Clash 20. S a r a ............................................... Fleetwood Mac TV ..................Flying Lizards

2JJ

P re te n d e r s ........... Pretenders P earl H arbou r & th e Ex­ p losion s .................................... . .. Pearl Harbour & The Ex­ plosions

4ZZZ-FM (most played)

1. R egatta d e B la n c .........................................Police 2. T he W a ll............................................... Pink Floyd 3.

D ynasty ................................................ Kiss 4 .2 0 G old en G reats .................................................... ...........................Creedence Clearwater Revival 5. ELO's G reatest H its ....................................... ELO 6. O ff T he W a ll............................. Michael Jackson 7. T u s k ............................................... Fleetwood Mac 8. S ep tem b er M o r n ........................... Neil Diamond 9. T he L on g Run .............................................. Eagles 10. The B est O f S ky h ooks ..........................Skyhooks 11. B e e G ees G r e a te s t................................Bee G ees 12. D iscovery ......................................................... ELO 13. L ife O f B r ia n ....................................... Soundtrack 14. T he B ^ t O f T he S olo A lb u m s .............................

•■•....................................................................... Kiss 15. W elcom e To T he C ru ise ................ Judie Tzuke 16. T he B est O f K en n y R o g e r s ......... Kenny Rogers 17. R od S tew art G reatest H it s ............. Rod Stewart 18. T\k)7Vi/kes ...................................... Various Artists 19. The D o s e ....................Soundtrack/Bette Midler 20. W e t ............................................ Barbra Streisand

UK

1. P lea se Don't G o ......................

1. C ow ard O f T he C o u n ty ........................................ .........K.C. & Sunshine Band .......................................................... Kenny Rogers 2.

D ream in g M y D ream s With 2. Too M uch Too Y ou n g/G u n s o f Y o u ................Colleen Hewett N avaron e .................................................. Specials 3. S tay With M e Till Dawn . . . .

3. I'm In T he M ood F or D a n c in g .................Nolans ..............................Judie Tzuke 4. S om eon e's L ookin g A t You . .. Boomtown Rats 4. C razy L ittle T hing C a lled 5. C aptain B e a k y ................................Keith Michell L o v e .............................. Queen 6. Amd T he B eat G oes On ...................... Whispers 5. Don't S top . Michael Jackson 7. It's D ifferen t F or G ir ls ....................................... Joe Jackson 8. B lam e It On T he B o o g ie . . . .

8 .1 H ear You N o w ........................... Jon & Vangelis ...........................The Jacksons 9. B a b e .................................................................... Styx I . L o c o m o tio n ........................Ritz 10.

M y G ir l...........................................Madness 8.

B a b e .....................Styx 11. Save M e ......................................................... Queen 9. E scap e .........Rupert Holmes 12.

Dock With You ............. Michael Jackson 10. C'mon A u ssie C'mon ...........

13. C arrie ................................................ Cliff Richard ...........................Mojo Singers 14. L iv in g B y N u m bers ...........................New Musik 15. T T een ............................................................Regents 16. T h ree Min u te H e r o ...................................Selecter 17.1 Can't S tan d Up F or F allin g D ow n .................... ........................................................... Elvis Costello 1. T he M otels ..................Motels 18. So G o o d To B e B a c k H om e A gain ....................

2 Jieg a tta d e B lan c . . . . Police ..................................................................................... Tourists 3. E P /S in g le ................................

19. Drass In P o c k e t ..................................... Pretenders . . . . Boys Next Door/Kevins 2 0 .B a b y IL o v e You ....................................Ramones 4. O ne S tep B e y o n d .................. .

3RRR

4BK \. K night In B la ck L ea th er . . . . ............................. Bette Midler 2. Don't S top . Michael Jackson 3. R ain bow C on n ection . Kermit 4. C'mon A u ssie C'mon ........... ...........................Mojo Singers 5. B lam e It On T he B o o g ie . . . . .......................... The Jacksons 6. Stay With M e Till Dawn . . . . ...............................Judy Tzuke 7. E scap e .........Rupert Holmes 8.

Do That To M e O ne Time . . . . Captain & Tennille 9. V ideo K illed The R adio S t a r .............................Buggies 10. Q ueen O f H earts ......... Dave Edmunds

US

1. C ru isin '............................. .. Smokey Robinson 2. C razy L ittle T hing C a lled L o v e ........... ............... ........................................................................Queen 3 . C ow ard O f T he C ounty ............. Kenny Rogers 4. Do That To M e O ne M ore T im e ........................... ................................................. Captain & Tennille 5.

R ock With You ...........Michael Jackson 6. S a r a ................................................Fleetwood Mac 7. Yes I'm R e a d y ..................................Teri de Sario 8. L o n g e r ........................................... Dan Fogelberg 9. This Is I t ......................................... Kenny hoggins 10. On T he R a d io ...............................Donna Summer 11. De/a V u ...................................... Dionne Warwick 12. R om eo's Tune ............................... Steve Forbert 13. Don't D o M e L ik e T h a t........................................... ................................................................. Tom Petty 14. An A m erican D ream ................. The Dirt Band 15. W orking M y W ay B a ck To Y ou /F orgive M e G ir l..............................................................Spinners M ore16.7 W anna B e Your L ov er ...............

Prince 17.

D e s ir e ................................. ; .Thidy Gibb 18. S ep tem b er M o r n ........................... Neil Diamond 19. W hy M e ....................................

Styx 20. D aydream B e lie v e r .................... . T^ne Murray

P/VGE ,2 — .BgAORUNN£R,FEBRUARY. 22 J980

SAD 1. Ti A m o ........... Umberto Tozzi 2.

D ream in g M y D ream s With You . . . . . . . . Colleen Hewett 3. P lea se D on't G o ....................... ......... K.C. & Sunshine Band 4. E sca p e ......... Rupert Holmes 5. B lam e It On T he B o o g ie . . . . ...........................The Jacksons 6.

Don't S top . Michael Jackson 7.

R ain bow C on n ection .Kermit 8. S ara .............Fleetwood Mac 9. I f It's L o v e You W an t.............. ................

Edith Bliss 10. A n oth er B ric k In T he W all [Pt. 2 ] .................... Pink Floyd

5MMM-FM

3XY

....................................Madness 5. H ead In ju ries ......................... ........................... Midnight Oil 8 .G e t W e t .................................... ............. Mental As Anything 7.

Damn T he T o r p e d o e s .......... .........................

TomPetty 8. The R e e ls ............................The Reels 9. T he C r a c k ................The Ruts \0. Lon don / N ew York / P aris / M u n ic h ..................................M

F l e x ................ Lene Lovich R ep rod u ction ......................... ...................... Human League L on don C a llin g ........... Clash M ad L o v e . . . Linda Ronstadt Jane Aire & The Belvederes P r e te n d e r s ........... Pretenders True C olou rs . . . . . Split Enz The E ssen tial .. Jimi Hendrix S a b o ta g e /L iv e ....................... ..................................John Cale

1. T he L ast D a n c e ..........................................Various 2. P reten d ers ............................................Pretenders 3. O ne S tep B ey o n d ...................................Madness 4. S h ort S tories ................................Jon & Vangelis 5. P erm an en t W aves ........................................ Rush 6. G old en C o lle c tio n .....................................Charlie Pride 7. S p ecia ls .....................................................Specials 8. R egatta d e B lan c .......................................... Police 9. K e n n y ............................................. Kenny Rogers 10. O ff T he W a ll............................. Michael Jackson 11. G reatest H its Vol. 2 .................................... Tlbba 12. I'm T he M an ....................................... Joe Jackson 13. The W a ll............................................... Pink Floyd 14.

E n d O f T he C e n tu r y ..................Ramones 15. The N olan S isters ....................................... Nolans 16. Dee G ees G rea test H it s ...................... Bee G ees 17. Ju st F or You ..................................Des O'Connor 18. L on don C a llin g .............................................. Clash '23. F le x .....................................................................Lene Lovich

W rong W ith Y o u ..................... ................Street Corner Jack L ittle D a r lin g ............ Hounds M a in street................... Redeye L on don C a llin g ............ Clash S tran g er On A T ra in .............. ......................................... Sports P r e te n d e r s ............ Pretenders B a d L u ck S t r e a k .................... .................... .... W arren Zevon C om in g Up F or A ir ................ .............................. Penetration S p e c ia ls ..................... Specials E gypt ......................................... ............. Mental As Anything

6PM 1. P lea s e D on't G o ....................... ......... K .C. & Sunshine Band 2 . R apper's D e lig h t.................... .......................Sugarhill G ang 3. Don't S top . Michael J ackson 4.

R ain bow C on n ection .Kermit 5. E scap e ......... Rupert Holmes 6. B a b e ..................................Styx 7. S u re K now S om eth in g .. Kiss 8. S he's In L o v e With You . . . . ............................. Suzi Quatro 9. M essag e In A B ottle .............. ............................... The Police 10. P ilot O f T he A irw a v es........... ...........................Charlie Dore

1. The W a ll............................................... Pink Floyd 2.

Damn T he T orp ed oes ...........Tom Petty 3. O ff T he W a ll............................. Michael Jackson 4. The L on g R u n ...................................... The Eagles 5. P h oen ix .................. ...................... Dan Fogelberg 6. On T he R a d io /G rea test Hits Vol. I & I I ........... ......................................................... Donna Summer 7. K en n y .............................................. Kenny Rogers 8. C orn erston e .....................................................Styx 1 K sca p e .........Rupert Holmes 9. Tusk ......................................... Fleetwood Mac 2.

Please Don't G o .........

10.

F reed om A t P oint Z e r o .............................. ......... K.C . & Sunshine Band .....................................................Jefferson Starship 3.

B a b e .................... Styx 11. S ep tem b er M o r n ...........................Neil Diamond 4. Don't S top . Michael Jackson 12. G old a n d Platin u m ....................................LynyrdSkynyrd 6 M oon light & M u z a k ............ M 13. The Dose .............................................. Soundtrack 6 .D o ItT o M e ..............................

14.In T hrough T he Out D oor .................................... ........... Captain and Tennille .......................................

LedZeppelin 7 M essag e In A B ottle .............

15. Dee G ees G r e a te s t............................... Bee Gees ..........................................Police 16.

TVb N u kes ........................... Various Tlrtists 8.R olen e .............Moon Martin 17. The W h is p e r s ......................................... Whispers 9. E very D ay H urts ....................

18. K eep The F i r e .............................................. Kennyhoggins ............................. .... Sad Cafe 19. L iv e Rust ....................................................................

16.C razy L ittle T hing . . .Queen ............................... Neil Young and Crazy Horse 20. M idnigh t M a g ic .............................. Commodores

6UVS-FM

Midnight Oil and Mi-Sex. Both will be doing showcase gigs in London in the coming months and Mi-Sex will also be fitting in a few dates on the American West Coast.

I?w

Two tours of interest coming up are Gary Numan and Devo. Wonder if they’ll be on the same bill?

A lot of people have asked me about the source of The Clash by Chris Salewicz in the last issue of ROADRUNNER. Because it is from an English journalist who is also on the staff of Britain’s top selling music weekly, New Musical Express (or as it is commonly called, N.M.E.,) most of them assumed that the article was reprinted from the New Musical Express, through arrangement with their publishers, IPC Ltd, (a large British publishing group.) Most people assumed this because the other three national music papers. Rolling Stone, RAM and Juke do reprint (or have reprinted) stories from writers overseas through this channel.

But in the case of Chris, and his Clash articles (Part two of which along with his first UK Sleeze column) appear in this issue) the articles were NCT reprints from overseas magazines. The article was sent direct to me from Chris and not through an overseas publisher.

So what has all this got to do with the price of eggs? I’ll tell you. It means that RCADRUNNER is RCADRUNNER. It’s not a bit of N.M.E., a bit of Melody Maker a bit of.

Sounds and a few original articles, thrown together under another name. It’s a fact that the writers who write forthe British papers are not paid a cent when one of their articles is reprinted in an Australian magazine.

If Roadrunner wants a story on a particular band, Australian or overseas, then we have to go out and get it. As we have done with bands like Specials, the Sinceros, the Clash, Rockpile, the Members, XTC, the Records, the Flying Lizards, John Cooper Clarke, the Who and The Police, not to mention the ones we have coming up on John Lydon (exRotten) The Skids, Magazine, The Pretenders, Joe Jackson and Bruce Springs­ teen (well we can hope can’t we?)

We can’t, and don’t want to, lift stories from overseas magazines. It’s unfair to the reader, as most of the overseas magazines in question are available on Australian newsstands (even if they are three months behind.)

Roadrunner is an Australian magazine. Cf course we run stories on American, British and New Zealand bands. We would be putting our head in the sand if we didn’t. But our commitment is to the music available in this country and relevant to this country. The fact that at long last significant numbers of Australian groups are making an impression overseas shows, we feel, that this commit­ ment is more than justified. And, we guarantee that you won’t get the feeling of Tve read that somewhere before . . .’ when you read Roadrunner.

Donald Robertson.

M

A

Phew! It’s hot. As I write a bushfire is ripping the heart out of the Adelaide Hills (about 10 miles away) and I read in todays paper that a huge tidal wave has demolished half of Hollywood. Maybe this Armagideon Time stuff has got something to it after all.

But this is a music/youth culture paper after all, and this is Malicious Gossip so lets get on with it shall we?

Marc Hunter was spotted in Paris recently sporting a new skinhead hair cut. He is over in Europe with his brother Todd trying to set up some thing for the XL Capris single, ‘My City O f Sydney/Dead Budgies’. He was spotted by ex-RCADRUNNER journalist Ross Stapleton, who was on his way back to London after taking Tangerine Dream to play in East Berlin. All part of his new job as a press officer for Virgin Records. Angels manager John Woodruffe, in Los Angeles to tie up the final details on the Angels debut album (out over there on Feb 25th) and tour, caught the first performance of Pink Floyd’s 5 date world tour. Apparently as soon as the band started playing an army of roadies (130 in all) started building a brick wall in front of them. The wall building continued the first half of the sePuntil, by intermission the thing was 120 feet long and 60 feet high. Then, having finished this task (effectively conceal­ ing the band from the audience) the roadies left the stage, returned with one piece of equipment each, and proceeded to set up a whole new set of equipment, in front of the wall, in three minutes flat. The band walked

O FFIC E: M elin d a Jones.

SYDNEY EDITOR:

Stuart Coupe

(02)

569 8964.

MELBOURNE ED ITO R : A drian R y an (03 ) 347 3991.

BRISBANE: Scott M atheson, Anne Jones.

PERTH: Kiiii W illiam s.

The dispute that threatened to hold up Costello’s new album. Get Happy, has been resolved and the album will be released on manager Jake Riviera’s F Beat label. The single from the album, an old Sam & Dave Bside called / Can’t Stand Up For Falling Down, backed with El’s version of ‘Girls Ta/k’ entered the British charts at no. 19.

And before I forget two other Aussie bands due to venture out into the big wide world are

The death of BON SCOTT, lead singer of AC / DC, came as a shock to most people. Scott 33, was found dead in his car in London on February 20th by a friend, Alastair Kinnear.

Kinnear had gone to Scott’s flat earlier in the evening and had found the singer very drunk. They decided to go to London’s Music Machine venue where, ac­ cording to Kinnear, Scott was drinking four straight whiskies to the glass. On leaving the Music Machine Kinnear drove Scott back to his fla t When they arrived Scott appeared to be asleep so Kinnear covered him with a blanket and left him to sleep it off. When he returned a couple of hours later, he said he realised immediately that something was wrong. He called an ambulance, but by the time Scott got to hospital, he was dead.

Police say there are no suspicious circumstances surround the death. It is not generally known that Scott was an asthmatic. This, combined with his heavy drinking in the past few weeks, could have contributed to his premature demise.

Scott had been drinking heavily in the weeks prior to his death because AC / DC were having a break from touring and recording. According to one source Scott looked ‘terrible’ when the band appeared on the British pop show 'Top Of The Pops’ recently.

ROADRUNNER EDITOR & PUBLISHER: D pnald R ob ert­ son.-: j 'V BUSINESS MANAGER: R obert Jam es

Skyhooks Bongo Starkie investigating the possibility of becoming a conscientious objector. No he’s not being drafted, he just doesn’t want to remain a member of the Musician’s Union, claiming that it istrelevant to the rock musicians lot. The final showdown . G has been delayed due to the 'Hooks recent Countdown appearance (all musos appear­ round the wall and started playing again. And ing must be union members) but ’twill be interesting to see what happens. Meanwhile that’s when the real fun started. The wall was in S.A. the Musicians Union is pushing for a gradually demolished by projectiles hung from wires crashing into it. Woodruffe said the bill that would require all discos to employ live whole thing was so stunning that he couldn’t bands. Good on ’em. remember one song that the band played. Virgin Records have run into even more Now you know why the Floyd are only doing 5 trouble with the new Sex Pistols album, a compilation called ‘Flogging a Dead Horse’. dates on the tour!

Boots which operate a chain of retail outlets Before departing on their first o/s tour the in the U.K. .refused to stock the album Angels are going to be doing a mini tour of because it features a picture of a turd on the S.A., Vic., N.S.W. and Queensland. At the back cover. The position as to who is actually moment they are ensconced in the studio going to release Sex Pistols and Public Image with producer John Boylan putting down the records in this country is still unclear, follow up to ‘No E xit’, which will be released although it seems that Missing Link, who sometime in June. leased the Flying Lizards ‘Money’ (Virgin in JoJo Zep and the Falcons also in the studio the UK) to 7 Records, could be the favourite. with producer Peter (Don’t Thro Screaming Missing Link will be releasing some of their Targets Suddenly) Solley. Could be that the great little singles in the U.K.' soon, and the Falcons will be making their U.K. and Little Murders single on Au Go Go will be out European debuts as support to Elvis in the U.K. sometime next month on the Costello. The bespectacled one has ap­ parently been ‘vibing up’ WEA in Europe and Rough Trade label. played the Falcon’s ‘So Young’as an encore at the Sweetwaters Festival in N.Z.Iastmonth (for full report see centre pages.)

ADELAIDE: C o llette S n ow d en .

LONDON: Keith S h a d w ick , C hris W illis, Chris S a le w ic z , Terry D arling .

NEW ZEALAND: Jen n y R a n k in e.

CONTRIBUTORS: L arry Buttrose, C lark C a su a l. Toby C resw ell, G oo se, R ich ard G u illio t, S p a n H an n a, D avid L ang sam , R ich ard M cG regor, Adridh M iller, P eter N elson,: C linton W a lk er, S u zie W alton.

ADVERTISING: MELBOURNE - Robert Jam es (03) 528 5693,- SYDNEY - Stu art

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Eleven policemen took an axe to singer JOHN LYDON’s front door in London last week. After turning the house over (presumably in search of drugs) the police confiscated a can of what they claim is tear gas. Lydon says that the can contains ‘security spray’ and was on the premises for the purpose of discouraging intruders. Apparently it is the seconc time in a month that the long arm of the law has seen fit to disturb Lydon’s home life. Lydon’s publicist was heard to say, after the second visit ‘Is this really a free country?’

POSTAL ADDRESS P.O. Box 90 Eastwood S.A .5063 W h o lesale N ew sagen cy, 33 L onsd ale St., M elbourne, Vic< 3000; S.A . & N.T. - B.J. & K.L. F u ller, 105 M ain S t., B ev erley S.A .

50 0 9 ; . Q u e e n s l a n d — R ip tid e D istribution, 69 E lle n a S t., P addington, Q ld .; W estern A u stralia — W hite Rider, Rm. 39, P adbury B uild ings, Forrest PI., Perth W .A. 6000; T a sm a n ia — D iscurio — 58 A rgyle S t., H obart; U nited S ta te s —Box 7112, Burbank, C alif.

PRINTER: Bridge Press, Sev en th St., M urray Bridge, S.A . 5253.

Bomp.

'R0ADRUNNER F£BRUARy22 1980 — PAGE 3

m CONCERT

THE COMEDY THEATRE MELBOURHE 6TH-7TH-8TH* 9TH MARCH APOLLO STADIUM ADELAIDE 11TH MARCH CAPITOL THEATRE SYDHEY 13TH-14TH MARCH

Recent Songs

i

Death Of A Ladies' Man

New Skin For The Old Ceremony

LEOKABD-aOHEaCUTI s S |

j"' i

Live Songs

PAGE 4 â&#x20AC;&#x201D; ROADRUNNER FEBRUARY 22 1980

Songs From A Room

Songs Of Leondard Cohen

Songs Of Love And Hate

But there's some who take the political situation very seriously and consider that rock'n'roll, or just music, is a socially potent form that can be used to counter various forms of repression. The Rastas and our friend Marley are good examples here. But with a name like The Police I wondered what these three think about the state of the nation, the wider context and whether it has anything whatsoever to do with rock'n'roll.

"I think a lot of English bands that play reggae play reggae as a statement and they to align with the Third World and all that stuff".

Sting says.

"I don't really feel the need to do that. We play reggae because we're good at it. A lot of those bands who play reggae and use it as a statement can't actually play it", he says.

"As far as politics go we're very political but not in terms of standing on soapboxes and delivering political statements. I think a lot of groups who do that have badly conceived, shallow political ideas.

"I don't think the pop song is a very good ^^ehicle for political thought. Anyway, if we were to discuss politics as a group. . . we have such diverse opinions it wouldn't be at all coherent. I'm left of centre, Stuart Copeland is right of centre and Andy Summers is an ecologist or something strange like that".

Sting says.

Well, Sting, if we meet in Australia we'll have a great argument about the pop song as a vehicle for political thought 'cause I kinda disagree pretty strongly but this is my phone bill so you'll k eep .. .

Boring, journalistic query. What sort of show are Australians going to see The Police give? A standard answer. "It's very much th© same as what we've done in Am^ica''/ Slili? says. "Just three guys playing cwstag©. singing and dancing. It's definitely tuft a leproduction of the albums. W e «K:tuaUy sound better live ■— much fuller and much nostalgia." noi^er. W e're a noisy bunch. There*s a few The P o lic e 's b reak th rou g h to mass new songs mad we're thinking of covering popularity is a CUriOUS thing because they, som eA uiftraliaason^ qpecftdiy forftie tour", along with |oe Jacksori, ^ e an E n g li^ group He's expecting someone called G eorge to Back to the last American tour. Sting who broke fti America before England., God, not anofcer musician ring. claims it's their most successful visit to Traditionafty ft's the -other way rosind and jokes about his colonial I ask him what he's doing at the moment. America. It's also their fifth. He says fiiat English groups have to work extremely hard fudkin' A u stralian ' s o n ^ , you He decides to be smart and specific: "I'm they've been playing venues that average to be tak^n to American hearts, eat- h ^ a r d ? Well Bruoe, ^e sitting down in the A & M office talking to 4,000 —•5»0QC) seats. "It's not huge fiadiums plains it this way "In 1978 there was a kind of something of Rolf Haxfi^ it's BeB$je<M)le" he says.

Australia." Very clever. But he a band explo^cn mtd there was so much new li^ ild a ". Horribly amuiftag, friendly, talkative, confident, and suooesjrful. v4th InjSi ft you've read & is qi»)te talent sproifttng out everywhere ftiat ft was try'ihrowing a flattened ca n at in a reostft interview wjfti The Police aren't touring at the m o m ^ . very hard for the media to grasp", h e says. ftiA phone receiver. ^ "W e're at the end of an Ame 's recerft ft you still buy th e s e a mall "By gcang to An»frica guraeives we took ^ H e says he's sorry. "I ^ e s s ; Hitsksal Etp-ess^ Hlch Kent im bull hy the hom s. W e Just stood out like a sore gf those jokes". h e d p ^ 't work for made the clever and p ercep ® ^ ^ thumb in Am adcs whc»reae ftii we , ^'-^’■point th a t,th e Fci^:»s a re i^lo^^‘p^at of main­ .were one of a'ttftillcai groiips. , ’ - ' I ask about Miles Cgjgelana* stream roi(:^VjeoH. Kent p u t - f t Sits way: "But by being English and playing an have been crucial to 'Taking as 'db§ective a n o v j^ ie w as p o ssft^ Bnglish style of nmsto obv^nufty W e the band* ft ^f$>ear^ faidy tmigue in America. atement of^Kft t h e B?H[Ce have ^ h e media p e ? ^ e Inmiedialely latched e ranks of Cheap T riqk / Ihe Chm. Bmnc&e Olfto us and the remsrd Was a gcxxl one so it d The Knadk of of MViaTT'm told 'ftraa a hit. It was really Just a case of standing •w Wave' — basically the music that from ftm crowd. coming back to my 15 minutes is up. There's a stack mOTe oely d e s e r t to b e ocmsidsced new wave EniQ^andj having had the cftsiftKftimi of being calls to in 'innovative' car 'origanaT bift tiwtead iftg in An^rioa — we Just had so muchmore Sting impresses me over the phone, the l^iiiotions on the of pafting off a strong, caredibility". Sting says.

-Police film clips make them look very ex­ agreeable image with, what can osily The l^ iic e have alap established a citing. The records ARE very exciting. I'm o o n s i^ e d as 'l i g h t l y , weft-crafted late '70s reputation for spedially selecting the support looking forward to seeing them lots. But will reiftele with strong hockhnes and a acte ftiey tour with. In the past they've used Mary marry Bill? Is there a message in a sense d lecturing.' The end re«ilt, popularity to expose The Camps and bottle and what does Outlandos d'Amour whilsl tarely ft <sertainiy very clever and Wazmo Nariz. On the last tour "we just had mean? Do The Police dye their hair? Are they 'devili^ly catchy."

The Specials on tour with us and they went as old as what they say? What's Kevin Ayers th a o h you hfe K ^ i '' down a storm". Sting says. got to do with this? Who are Frontier ' O w r i o you M r:Sti*^ for a reaction. "I like Tis a little bit of a shame the policy of Promotions? Who was/is Roxanne. . .

It" saYS^'hfr'Stihg. "The fact that we're a c­ support selection wasn't enforced in Australia And does any of this matter? cessible doesn't mean that we're com­ where a mixture of great and awful supports promising. The fact that it is commercial is acts are being used. The Aliens are a sensible purely an accident. We don't feel com­ choice. Ward 13 would be a bad support for promised at all. It is accessible. anything.

"I would say we're a pop group in the Next it's reggae and as these chaps are fine traditional sense of the word — not in the exponents of its white forms I'm interested cynical '70's style of the word where pop who they like. "I suppose Bob Marley is the means mass produced rubbish. I think we're a most influential artist". Sting says. "I think very caring pop group", he says. he's got to be my main influence vocally and V ^ o would The Police align themselves on my songwriting. He's the most accessible with in that area? "I think pop is becoming reggae artists and we're the most accessible more respectable with the better artists, the ; new wave group", he says. better songwriters and the return to singles".

And Sting doesn't think that Marley has Sting says. "People like Elvis Costello, sold himself short in the quest for more Graham Parker and Joe Jackson. I would popularity. He's been criticised by a lot of align myself with these people", he says. people b e c a u s e .. ."W ell a Tot of people will Those are all very recent names. Sting has criticise anybody". Sting interrupts. "I en­ been frequently quoted speaking admiringly joyed his last album. Not quite as much as his of The Beatles. I wonder if he would align The previous one but he's an artist and I un­ Police continuing a line of music that reached derstand that he has problems like a lot of its zenith with The Beatles? "I admire The people do to constantly come out with better Beatles a lot but for the same reason as the and better albums. But I still respect him very other people — because The Beatles were an much." extremely commercial group, probably the Stock question; Have The Police made any most commerrcial group ever, and they made moves towards doing another album? 'Well what I consider to be high art". Sting says.

I'm worrying about it", says Sting.

"In the past pop music had been something Does he think they might have problems that was aimed a the lowest common following up the last two or is he just worried denominator but I feel there is a way of ap­ about people's reactions to it? "Well doing pealing to a lot of people on a slightly higher any album is a problem". Sting says. 'It's level than that and that's the level we aim something you have to take very seriously. I tor", he says. was very worried about the last album and The obvious question is how does he react REALLY worried about the first one", he says. to the zillions of bands presently playing who He doesn't sound very worried. His voice try and re-create or re-capture the spirit, positively exudes confidence. essence and/or content of the greats of '60's English bands especially are known lor rock'n'roll. Sting is brief: "I don't have much being involved in politics. For some it's just respect for them at all. I think music has to try espousing various causes and screaming and sound new. I have no sympathy with blind dogma because it's the right thing to do.

It's sometime in 1978. The Police release O utlandos d'A m our (still don't know what it means). There's a lot of new albums being released. White groups experimenting with black reggae rhythms are a dime a dozen.

Most aren't very good. I pass The Police over.

A few months later I'm speeding home from a pub late at night. The radio is tuned to 2JJ. H ole In M y L ife blares through the small sp eakers. It sounds fa n ta stic. C atch y , powerful, and racing like a 100 mile train.

"Who's that?" I ask.

"The Police'", I'm told. "You're supposed to know about these things".

I decide to go back and have a proper listen to The Police. I like. Then they're in Rolling Stone. They're on 2SM. Even Sound Unlimited. I struggle against hip trendiness and still like them as they tear towards the tops of charts.

R egatta d e B lan c is released. M essag e In A B ottle lays claim to the title of best single of late '79. The new album is the equal of the first. The Police are BIG .

A concert tour is announced. In Sydney they sell out one concert — then a second — then a third — and a fourth — and . .. this is getting boring.

My brother rings from Tasmania. He's such a fan of The Police that he wants to fly to Sydney or Melbourne to see a concert. Can I get him tickets? And, by the way, he's got five other friends who also want to come — from Tasmania.

The Police are REAL big.

As a usual part of pre-tour promotion the record company arranges for a few media people to telephone members of The Police.

Idea being that it'll help sell records and tickets. In this case the exercise is un­ necessary but I still ring the Los Angeles headquarters of A & M Records where Sting is positioned behind a telephone to answer any queries I have.

What's all this then? asks Stuart Coupe.

ROADRUNNER FEBRUARY 22 1980 — PAGE 5

FLEETWOOD

PAGE 6 — ROADRUNNER FEBRUARY 22 1980 / r

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musical 'proficiency. Comparisons are pretty odious but Meo-245 are definitely a band in theMi-sex vein. I don't likemaking remarks like that but most of what I saw and heard of them was obscured by some . idiot standing next to me who insisted on shouting in my ear. The guitarist and lead CRYSTAL BALLROOM 10/2/80 Downstairs at the ballroom a small crowd vocalist in the band commands attention listens intently to the Kevins. The band are and,once they acquire more experience Mep-245 wifi be a force/to reckon with. a .motley collection bohemian-types whose only'attempt at style is hone at all.; Upstairs at the Ballroom Bush Turkey got Yet these five unpretentious people play proceedings underway. Although the quite - stylish music. Their songs are crowd was small at this stage, they rhythmic and very catchy although no- seemed to enjoy the folk/jugband/good one dances except two hippy ladies who time sound. Bands like Bush Turkey keep whirl around the dance floor, (yes. they the folk tradition alive and it was good to still exist.) The most interesting feature of see them at a 'rock' gig, even if so few the Kevins is their harmonies. It's pretty people did see them. rare for a band to have four good vocalists The second band on upstairs were the and even rarer for them to harmonize well. Boys Next Door. The Crystal Ballroom is It certainly makes a change from almost home territory for the Boys, but for somebody ripping their vocal chords some reason most of their fans, didn’t apart.' Even though „ The Kevins - are, come along this time. Maybe it was the interesting they are not particularly Sunday, maybe the weather was too inspiring, perhaps it was too early in the warm, maybe . . . Whatever, the Boys night or the crowd was too small b ut they played their usual manic set, treading the just didn't /seem to be enjoying thin line between order and chaos, but themselves. It's a shame because without always coming u p ^ w ^ something that spark of passion or something as well thoughtful and interesting, and yea, as the music they miss the mark. original. People either love the Boys Next Meo 245 /are up next and seem very Door or' they hate them: they polarise nervous! They are a relatively new band opinion like perhaps ho other group in the but have a lot to offer. Unfortunately a lot country! I think what they are doing is of the audience had drifted out after the TOO different for the musical climate in Kevins had finished playing and most of this country, but I’m sure that therewill be them didn’t return. It never helps anyone more sympathetic ears in the U.K. On this to play to empty chairs. A band needs the night most of the crowd seemed to be audience just as rhuch as^ the audience there for Sports and didn't seem familiar needs the band. Still, Meo-245 performed with the Boys sound, but the band played their set with feeling and a great deal of well and impressed a few people anyway.

The fun part of the evening came between the Boys and the Sports. Yup, it was the Roadrunner Rock Awards,, presented by two leading figures of the Melbourne scene -— Red Symons and Wilbur Wilde.

And didn’t they do well! Both dressed immaculately for the occasion, in suits no less, and carefully concealed the various awards in their numerous pockets. Of course this caused some confusion when the winners came up to accept their awards, but it also gave the Dynamic Duo plenty of time to nail the hapless winners with their keen wit.

Michael Gudinski was the first up on stage to accept an award on behalf of Nightmoves (Best T.V Show). Red introduced him thus; Now here's a man who some people would give their right arm to work for. And some people have!

OOOOh. Various members of Sports came up onstage to accept their battery of awards.

Best Band, Best Album (Don't Throw Stones') and Best Songwriter (Martin Armiger). No-one from the Angels could attend as the band were recording in Sydney on the night, so Red Symon graciously accepted the award for best

live act on their behalf (and then did his impression of . Doc Neesoh getting poleaxed by a bottle on the steps of the Sydney Opera House). Drummer Wayne de Lisle accepted the two Mental as Anything awards Besfsingle — The Nips Are Getting Bigger and Tip For 1980) and last but certainly not least a swaying Joe Camilleri accepted his award for best male vocalist. Joe couldn’t have played for awhile as he seemed to enjoy holding onto the microphone, but eventually he and Wilbur introduced the headline act — the Angels! Actually it was the Sports. Nice one Joe (gerrim off . ; .) And when the Sports did hit the stage the smiles on the faces of the crowd grew even larger, yes. the Sports were back — with a vengence!

The new line up has a cutting edge, a power and precision that the old never quite achieved. New drummer Ian McLennan fitting in like a glove and throughout the set the smiles flashing around the stage were as broad as those being beamed in from the audience. It sounded good and everyone knew it. The band powered through some old favourites. Who Listens to the Radio' and Live Work and Play' being stand outs, but (t was the new material. Suddenly'.

‘Perhaps I tried to Love Her' and Strangers On A Train' that really cooked.

A most promising debut.

There was just time to catch the last 15 minutes of Lemmy Caution's set downstairs! before the evening ended.

Lemmy Caution are an Adelaide^ band Who have already turned a few heads in Sydney with their distinctive band of pop and reggae styles and although it was unfortunate that their performance coincided with the Sports, they did enough in that fifteen minutes afterwards to be called back for an encore. A band to watch, out for.

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ROADRUNNER FEBRUARY 22 1 9 8 0 ^ PAGE 7 '

m

by Chris Solewicz.

Christm as Eve. The C lash are rehearsing in the Acklam Hall off Netting Hill's Portobello Road, directly beneath the Westway flyover that was such a vital symbol in the early mythology of the group. On Christmas Day and Boxing. Day The Clash are playing two "secret" gigs at the hall that will act as an antidote from the seasonal holidays for the audience (tickets fifty pence a g o .) and as warm-up dates.

Round about 10.30 Paul Simonon, Joe Strummer, Topper Headon and myself walk up to Simonon's basement flat a couple of blocks away.'Living far closer to the venue than any of the rest of the band the bassist had been the last to arrive, turning up lor the rehearsal an hour late.

When we arrive at his modest two-room flat — decorated/throughout in various shades of red that are totally appropriate for the firesign person that Simonon is — he's a Sagitarrius whilst Strummer's a Leo; Jones is a Cancer and Headon a Gemini — the other two d ash ers call for cabs to take them home and Paul and myself sit down in the kitchen with some rum and my tape recorder as his American girl-friend and her friend watch a Gene Kelly film on one of the two TVs that are switched on in the front room.

Like Strummer and Jones, Simonon is a former art student. The offspring of a broken marriage, as are also Strummer and Jones, he used the first real money he earnt with The Clash as a deposit on the flat. He badly needed a place of his own after years of sharing bedrooms with his brother and living in squats. He bought his flat very cheaply indeed. "It's great in this neighbourhood," he says, "because there's this black family next door and really early in the morning they're playing all this dub. I don't even need to put on anything myself to listen to when I'm getting up."

One of the places he squatted in was with Joe in Paddington, a couple of miles to the east: "Squatting's a good idea. But you can't really enjoy living in squats. It's just a place to put your head down.

PAGE 8 — ROADRUNNER FEBRUARY 22 1980

I ask Paul if the second Clash US tour in the summer was better than the first one in the early spring of last year.

"I dunno." he pauses for a moment or two.

"In some ways it just seemed the same, really.

It was more interesting because we just travelled to more places and to places we really wanted to go to, like Texas. That was great.

"But the first one was good becuase we had Bo Diddley supporting us and it was only about eight days long. But the second one was almost thirty dates."

America does seem to be becoming more accessible to New Music at last . . .

"Yeah, slowly. Something seems to be stirring over there.

"I think all those other groups like The Police — and whether I like them or not is another thing . . . Well, anyway, you do hear them a lot on the radio, so in actual fact it does help us in some ways. Makes them a bit more open to our music.

"New York's really great for us. It's probably about the only place in America I really enjoy. It's actually a bit more lively — though then again it's got all its bullshit side attached to it. / "I think that for someone from England coming up against all that stuff for quite a lot of people it's really easy to be taken in by it and just like sink with it. Everytime I go over there Tm aware of that.

"Funny thing is, after a while it gets boring."

"The G uns O f B rixton ", which closes side two of "London C allin g " is the first number the bassist has written for The Clash. It's the first song he's sung with the group too. Paul wrote it, he tells me, a couple of weeks before the album was started: "I always knew right from the beginning of The Clash that I should start writing stuff sometime and I just thought, 'Oh well. I'll do a song for this dlbun/ and that's just what happened.

"It was good making "London C allin g " , though. Usually I get really bored because the producers and people aren't really in­ teresting, But Guy Stevens is really different from the others. He's much more than a

the memory of the ridiculous Bem ie. "He's producer, really." going to dread seeing me — I always really Very different from Sandy Pearlman?

"Oh yeah. Well, Guy's crazy . .. and that's overdid things to him.

"There was one time when we were all the way to be, to do what he's trying to do. 1 wish I was as crazy as that . .. though waiting to go off to Paris to play a concert.

Bem ie's sitting there in the garden in his sometimes I feel like that anyway."

Yeah, I think it was Mick who said that G uy deck-chair, reading the Sunday papers in the absorbed into himself all the nuttiness and sun.

"And I'm pissing about in his house whilst tensions within the band.

"Yeah. You could just pour it all out. Mick and Joe are moaning and wandering around. So I went out and got this hose and Great!"

"Blackhill, our new management people, they're all saying, 'No, don't do that!!' And I seem okay so far, — but we've got our eyes turned the hose on Bernie and sprayed him more open than we had before, in terms of all over. And he hates his hair getting wet — signing things and stuff like that. Especially if it rains he runs down the road with his signing things you don't know what they're leather jacket over his head.

"So he just ran off, leaving the Sunday for.

"W ell, I suppose that shows stupidity ■— papers all crumpled up in the mud.

"Another time in Sweden he was in his though it's good in a way that happened to us because we'll actually tell people about it." hotel room sleeping and me and Topper went Part of the positive punk legacy in the- UK up to his room and poured a bucket of cold has been the growth of not only independent water all over him!"

Oh Bernard! Why didn't you get the record labels but also of — the stumbling block until now — an efficient alternative message. record distribution set-up. The British major But hark! It's Christmas Day. Outside the record companies were highly troubled church bells are ringing out midnight. Kate when, last March, the first Stiff Little Fingers Simon and Bob Gruen arrive. The interview album on the Rough Trade label entered the ends as we partake in more seasonal pursuits.

After two superb Acklam Hall shows The charts at number fourteen. In fact, Kosmo Vinyl suggests that when The Clash finally Clash climax their festive gigs when they play are free of Trade label entered the charts at at Hammersmith Odeon on December 27th as are free of CBS they might well get the "Mystery Act" on an Ian Dury-topping hold of a shop, stick a studio in the back and benefit for Kampuchea.

Some twenty minutes or so before the Clash release their records as often as they wish.

"I think all that is really great." smiles are due onstage Tm in the backstage bar Simonon. "I think that guy Geoff who runs drinking and talking with Guy Stevens, the Rough Trade is really okay. A good bloke. man who in addition to his splendid What he's doing with groups is really great. production work, was also p ersonally It'll be interesting to see what happens, responsible for getting released in Britain though, when he starts encountering big about half the classic r'n'b we heard in the business. I hope he can keep that certain mid-sixties. freshness about the record label.

It's highly precious stuff to Guy is music, "It's great the way groups can just go in and he deplores its bastardisation by large there and get a record together. It's like a record conglomerates for the sake of mere meeting-place that shop." profit. The Clash, he knows, are true to the The phone rin g s. It's New York cause. The Clash are part of The Quest. photographer Kate Simon. She and fellow "Listen" he suddenly sighs excitedly the photog Bob Gruen have just come across the passion of a true fan in his voice, as he grabs dreaded Bernie Rhodes in a nearby pub! my arm and shouts in my ear, spraying the "Corrr!" Paul laughs quite affectionately at entire right side of my face with spittle, "Did

you see Joe Strummer in the dressing-room "G oing past Babylon." he breaks off for a just now? Down on the floor, ironing his moment, pointing out a cruising police-car to stage-clothes on a towel? the other spliff-smokers in the bus.

"G en e Vincent would've done that! Eddie "Ah, I really love this one." he laughs, as Cochran would've done that! Jerry Lee Lewis another slice of reggae starts up on the -would've done that!" cassette deck. "I've forgotten what it's called. ^ He loosens my arm and slumps down on a I just love it, that's all. It's really mad. ;seat, trance-like, to contemplate this perfect "Here they go now." he chuckles again, as rock'n'roll image. the patrol-car overtakes the bus and heads off Midway through The Clashes set I look up up the fast lane of the motorway. "Quidc, from my sea t. and see a sguirming Guy ^ e r them," shouts out Topper from the front Stevens being carried up the centre aisle by seat. four "security m en". Fearful he may be Anyway, I continue, it's very interesting kicked out of ^ e theatre or even worked over, that a rock band should be singing a song I go in search of him at the rear of the telling girls not to take the pill when part of auditorium. the rock'n'roll ethos has always seemed to be He's okay, really. O ne of the guys carrying that absurd stud number . . . him has recognized him and is mildly "W ell, it's only common sense, really. scolding him for causing them any bother — Especially i f . . .like the Chinese have been carried away by The Clash's music Guy'd doing with_ it for years. It's a bit of a poor been dancing in front of one of the cameras .reflection on W estern man." that was filming the event. He's very drunk.

With a fine bit of synchronicity going on I negotiate a swaying journey with him Joe sings along to the chorus-line on the down the side of the auditorium to the reggae song: "'He's got barbed wire in his backstage door. underpants'."

"The B ig h t P ro file" , the second song on Suddenly someone rushes up behind us side two of "London C allin g " , is about and throws his arms about Guy. It is what seems to be an egually pissed Montgomery Clift. Guy Stevens had told me that he lent Joe his copy of a paperback on Pete Townshend!

Guy Stevens seems to be in good hands. Clift that was published last summer.

"I read two of them ." nods Joe. "It's quite I wend my way back to my seat.

Eight days later I'm sat in betwen Mick and interesting to read two books about the same Joe on the middle seat of the mini-bus. person because they both give you a com­ The Clash have rented to take them to gigs on pletely different picture.

"You read one and you think, 'Oh, that's the British tour. It's about midnight and we're travelling up the Ml to Birmingham where how the guy really was!' If you read another .the band are appearing the next morning with the same detail you get a totally different (Saturday) in a kids TV show called "Tizwoz". colour to the bloke, and you think, 'Was he Hard Jamaican sounds pour out of the like that, or like that?'

"And you realise he was probably like Simonon portable cassette player and fill the neither." rather too warm vehicle.

I know you're very into reading. You been The intention is to discuss specific details of "London C allin g" with the self-contained, reading a lot of other stuff of late?

"I been reading Homer's 'XDdyssey" . " strong, and highly romantic (a compliment, Yeah, I'm not very good on Greek of course) Strummer. After a while, though, conversation drifts away from the record and mythology. It's something I want to read up onto other matters, though that's no big on.

"It's pretty funny. It's the first book ever problem because that's just the way things written — or suppxssed to be. turned out.

"They have like a formula. If someone gets We start off, though, discussing "Lover's R o ck " , the song that opens side four, up he puts on his sword and his sandals and brilliantly using the form of Lover's Rock (a he looks like a young god. And that's reggae sub-division particularly popular in repeated throughout. The same when the England over the past couple of years that dawn climbs over the east and she puts on her favours the voices of what sound like twee pale pink robe. Something similar happens tourteen-year-old girls and generally has the throughout. syndrum as a heavily featured instrument) to "Maybe that was just how they remembered discuss just how Lovers should Rock, in­ it, because apparently it was all oral before voking Tao-ism in the shape of quotes from a they wrote it down." book entitled "The Tao Of Love" ("He can Well, I'm sure that in the proverbial An­ make a lover in a thousand goes."), and cient Teachings there's some pretty good stuff decrying the subtle Babylonian oppression "W ell, it must've come from somewhere. that is The Pill.

"It's been misunderstood that song, you That's what's in te re s tin g .

Som eone, know. You have to be a bit gone in the head," somewhere, dreamt this stuff up . .. half-grins Joe, wryly self-mocking, "to try and "It's interesting the way the Romans and the Greeks had the same gods, only with get that over." different names. I find it interesting they even But The Pill definitely is Babylon . . had a god of thieves. Imagine that: Christians "Oh, it is."

And "The Tao Of Love" seems a pretty don't now. They had a god for everything: a god for strangers, a god for war. Imagine a reasonable book . . .

"And its pretty unreasonable to make god of war."

The Egyptians had the same gods, too .. . somebody horribly depressed all through her "W ell, I read somewhere that the Basque life or make her fat or suicidal . . . " It doesn't seem really on to try altering your peoples are supposed to be Atlanteans. body's mechanism in such an extreme way They're supposed to have gone there.

"I'm sure you can pick it out in 'The "They're delving in . . . They can't really Odyssey'. Just imagine, if there's an island view what they're doing. Knowharramean? sinking they'd all fuck off to the first decent place. They all had ships.

How can they tell it's safe?

"And the Basques are really independent.

They had their own language and no-one can suss out how it came there. It's not rooted in anything around there. And they're the ones who're the ETA who're blowing things up with bombs in Spain to try and get independence.

There might be some memory there.

"I've been reading a lot about dreams — Jung."

Yeah, he's good.

"And what he says about the unconscious memory. How it's inherited. It must be true: if I hear a bagpipe band I feel tremendously moved, though I've never lived in Scotland — but my mother was from right up there in the North. I believe I've inherited that Celtic thing . . . if I hear Irish music, too, I feel really moved."

It was after I'd been reading Jung that I started to get into Egyptology .. . Have you heard of a bloke called Edgar C ayce?

"Oh yeah. I know all about him. The guy who between midnight and four in the morning wrote 'The Aquarian Gospel'. He's all tied in with Atlantis, too. He had an amazing gift. He could diagnose anybody while they were in a trance.

"You know, in Edgar Cayce's version of the Bible Jesus goes to India and then to Egypt and gets all sussed.

"But you've got to sit back with that book and think 'Oh, no man can just take all than and .. . .' But he wrote it between midnight and four, which are the quietest hours."

I also think that the Rasta thing can be seen as being very similar to, say, Athenian society. Like, with the great tradition of oratory Rastas have where you can see a load of Dreads standing around and reasoning .. .

Joe: "Yeah, I know."

Also, the Rasta's opposition to Catholicism is in the tradition of Gnostic sects like the Cathars .. .

"They don't like Catholics, huh?"

No, they don't like the Pople.

"But then again Haile Selassie was a crook."

Yeah. Well, this is always what's said, but do you actually know that for a fact?

"Yeah. Definitely. He had a load of dough stashed away in Switzerland."

But Rasta believes that it was under the aegis of the Pope that Mussokini invaded Ethiopia in the thirties, Because Haile Selassie was planning world church unity which would've made the Catholics the second largest church in the world . . .

"Y ea h . That's probably true. But why do you suppose they're so keen on Ethiopia?

Because it's in the Bible?"

If Alex Haley's great-great-great-great grandfather was taken from the Congo delta tfien that's where West Indians must come from, too. Or around there.

"So where does Ethiopia come in? .. .

Anyway, it must be in the Old Testament."

Sometimes I wonder if Rastas shouldn't get a bit -more militant . . .

"But, basically, there's no reason for Rastas being militant or anything — tliey don't want to do anything: just smoke a bit of charge and sit back.

"But at least they've got is sussed out what they want to d o."

In fact, the prevailing mood on "London C allin g" seems to be saying people should just step forward and get on with it and blow out their apathy.

"Yeah, but . . . It's very hard to deal with apathy. You know, making like you've got the

WHEN YOU’RE HOT YOU’RE..

answers to everybody's problems — which is impossible, ‘of course. I mean, everybody must sort out their own problems — that being the key to everything.

"The energy to sort your problems out comes from when you sort them out. You sort the problem out and you get the will to go on and sort another one out.

"But you can't expect any help, I don't think."

"Mainly, though, we were thinking about people accepting shit as gold.

"Like just a little while ago we heard a record on the radio which was pure shit, and this guy goes, 'Mmmm .. . that's good'. And it's just the Emperor's new clothes again and again. Of course, it ain't good. It's just a load of fuckin' shit, y'know."

Well, I've never particularly thought that The Clash were trying to present any solutions. But just that — via its very positive spirit — it was giving people a prodding in the areas where they're most uncomfortable. .. . And I am inclined to think in terms of the likelihood of impending apocalypse.

"But every age has the vanity to believe that it is. In 1888 everyone was waiting for the world to blow up."

Well, maybe people need some sort of ultimate terror to struggle against .. . although possibly it is more serious now — there are nuclear bombs etc.

"Yeah, but I think nuclear arms is no longer such a black and white thing: all blown-up or not blown-up at all.

"Now they deal with it at strategic levels. .They talk about sm all-zone n u cle a r warheads. They can have soldiers in forests with nuclear warheads small enough to destroy just one small target.

"I think if there's any nuclear holocaust most of the place will be blown to bits but life will still go on for those who get through it.

Even if it's only some happy natives away from the industrial zone. • "And all those cunts down the shelters. The cream of every country is ready to be whisked down the shelters whilst we lot are all left on the surface."

Did you ever actually say that you wouldn't tour America?

"Nah . .. They're too much like fans in the States. What you're brought up with and all that.

"That "B ored With T he USA" song has always been misconstrued. We say 'W e're so bored with the USA' having to sit at home and have it pumped into us.

"Like the second you turn on the TV you know it's in America somewhere and there's this bird and this bloke who's probably a detective and then a car's gonna roll over a cliff . .. you know all the plots off by heart.

"And like TV viewing has gone down this year in America by eight per cent, and they attribute that to duff shit on the box. So that's what "I'm S o B o red With T he USA" was all about — the importing of culture.

"As for a quick spree round the States taking in all the sights and buying all the crap you can lay your hands on — that's what we call fun.

"So long as we don't have to live there."

The next afternoon, arriving at the gates of the Aylesbury Civic Hall for the first date of the tour, Joe Strummer gazes out of the windown of the mini-bus at the street filled with punks and punkettes.

"S e e ." he turns to Paul. "We've sold out again. And we said we'd never sell out."

HOT!

MIKE RUDD & THE

W

c j^ s r

Aiithafiat fadi Ptairi ROADRUNNER FEBRUARY 22 1 9 8 0 — PAGE 9

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TODDRUNDGREN BACK TO THE BARS

la ‘HERMIT OF MINK HOLLOW” TODD RUNDGREN 36981

“W ARM ER” RANDY VANWARMER 36982

“ BACK TO THE BARS” TODD RUNDGREN 70125/6 A 2 RECORD SET

‘ADVENTURES IN UTOPIA” UTOPIA Features TODD RUNDGREN 37154

OOPS! WRONG PLANET UTOPIA 37040

“ I LIKE YOUR S T Y L E ” TONY WILSON 36992

Nick Jamesonj^^ Already Free 1 .

“ A TOUCH ON THE RAINY SIDE” JESSE WINCHESTER 36983

“ A LR E A D Y FR EE ” NICK JAMESON 36991

‘FOGHAT LIV E ” FOGHAT 36990

BOOGIE MOTEL" FOGHAT 37106

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TO G H AT" 37029

P^ L BUTTERFIELD

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ELIZABETH BARRACLOUGH 37107

“BETTER DAYS” PAUL BUTTERFIELD 36984

AVAILABLE ON RECORD A ND TAPE PAGE 10 — ROADRUNNER FEBRUARY 22 1980

‘NORMA JE A N ’ NORMA EAN 36993

\\

I'm Glad it's Now

The Ray Davies Update.

As I sit down to begin work on a rough draft of this piece, th o se lines waft across the air from my 2JJ-tuned radio; 'It is time, For you to stop, All of your sobbing.'

It's the Pretenders' first English single, a reworking of the Kinks' S top Your S obbin g .

I've never been terribly enamoured by it, but Ray Davies likes their Spectoresque interpretation of the song he originally wrote in 1964.

"And they're a good group too," he adds.

"I'd like to write new stuff for them. 'Cos I think they're going to be a big group this year. Now that Debbie Harry's got into superstardom. . . " Davies is relaxing, as best he can, in a room at the Sebel Townhouse. He's just finished his breakfast — it's a little after nine on a mild Sydney morning — and Stuart Coupe and myself are already putting questions to him in the first of I-don't-knowhow-many interview sessions planned for the day.

The Kinks' main-man is in Australia to look into the possibilities of a tour here in a few months' time (and also, apparently, to visit his sister, who lives in Adelaide. In what seems to be a killing-two-birds-with-one-stone move, Davies is also meeting the media during his stay here, to promote the Kinks' latest album — their twentieth, and most successful ever — L ow B u d get.

When cub reporter Coupe and myself enter his room, Davies is pacing about, awaiting delivery of a glass of orange juice, with which to wash down some pills.

He greets us with a friendly, if somewhat shy handshake. He's big, bigger than I'd expected — over six feet tall, and solidly built — well groomed and neatly dressed in corduroy trousers, track shoes and a sports shirt. (Not every rock star conforms to the mythological, Keith Richard-style wasted outlaw image, you know — and a bloody relief it is too; it's a rare please to meet someone in this business as affable, in­ telligent, articulate and honest as Ray Davies.) He bears all the tell-tale signs of a healthy, happy man. In fact, he very much resembles the Ray Davies pictured on the sleeves of those early Kinks' albums.

He's 35 years old now, and for 17 of those years he's been at the helm of the Kinks.

The Kinks, who surely need no in­ troduction — simply, one of the greatest English rock'n'roll bands ever. And not only that, one of the few to have survived (the 60's and the 70's) with their integrity and credibility intact. (Only the Who, however boring they might be, and John Lennon, however inactive he might be, have done the same.)

Although it'd be very easy for Davies to rest on the Kinks' laurels, he wouldn't be content doing so.

"I did about fifteen phone calls to radio stations yesterday," he said, "and the-first thing some of the guys say is, 'I've been a fan of yours for fifteen years, I remember seeing you play. ..

And I said 'yeah, that's great, but this is now!';

"I'll tell you. I'm not very pleased with the 60's. They didn't knock me out."

Even so, I counter, in many ways the Kinks didn't represent the 60's in the same fashion as, say, the Beatles or the Stones. They pursued their own obsessions and ideals, and at times even questioned the values of the swingin' London scene of the Beatles and the Stones.

Davies stared silently into space, as he occasionally does, searching for the righ', words. "I think I had a bit of vision," he said finally, "knowing that it had to go further. I believed it ought to . . .

"I've been doing a video of the Kinks, and there's a lot of old footage, that we're cutting into it, and it's really lame stuff. . . I'm glad it's now!" He smiles that characteristic, lopsided smile.

Ray Davies is no longer trying to write another W aterJoo S u n set or V illage G reen P reservation S o ciety . He's put the past where it belongs — in the past. Nowadays he writes songs like A ttitu d e: The 80's are here! I know 'cos I'm staring right at 'em . . .

Take off your headphones, hear what's going on.

You can't live in a time zone, you gotta move on.

It's all in the music, it's all in your brain.

You've used all the old licks, now it's all gotta change. . .

Change your attitude!

While these words may lack the singing perception of Davies' best work of the 60's, they're undeniably true, and sincere in their intent.

Davies considers A ttitu de the 'theme song' of Low B u d g et.

Low B u d g et is the third album the Kinks have p ro d u ced for A rista, follow ing

/#

by Clinton Walker.

S leep w alker and M isfits. Since joining this new label, the band have returned to making song-by-song format albums, in contrast to the flawed, overambitious concept albums, like P reserv ation A ct 1 and A ct 2 , S oap O pera and S ch oolb oy s in D isg ra c e, that characterised their term with RCA, between 1971 and '7 8 .1 asked Davies how he regarded his output over that period.

"Great ideas, but there was no way I could do it, application wise. I listen to those records, and I think, 'yeah, if everyone had been into it, it would've been great'. But they just did their bit. Tknd it shows."

Low B u d g et is a more cohesive collection of straightforward songs, including the reggaeinfluenced N ation al H ea lth , G allon o f G as (which points out it's almost easier to obtain drugs than petrol these days), the marvellous flop of a single [/ W ish f C ou ld F ly L ike] Superm an , the aforementioned A ttitude and the title track, in the klassic Kinks' mould.

'I think the reason w e've got this success now is that we're a happy group," Davies explained. "Say, from around '72 to '78, there were a few people in the band who weren't totally into it. I was too busy writing to notice.

It didn't really come to a head until '78, when they walked out, in the middle of M isfits (although he doesn't name names, Davies is obviously referring to bassist John Dalton and pianist John Gosling); So we got Jim Rodford, on bass, and finally we found Ian Gibbons (incidentally, the other three Kinks, Davies himself, his younger brother Dave and drummer M ick Avory have rem ained together since they formed the Ravens, with bassist Pete Quaife, in 1963). The fact that we can sustain a four-month tour of America is because we've got a group of guys who can work together.

"We knew we had a big tour lined up, so , we had to make the album in seven weeks.

Write it.

"What happened was; we did a tour of England, in January, did a tour of America in February and March, wrote the album in April, then recorded it, and went on tour in June.

"It made it really hard work, but I think it's finally put more 'oomph' onto record."

It's hard to avoid making a connection between the Kinks' return to this simpler, more direct, more aggressive style, and the emergence of the new wave. I asked Davies if he'd felt 'threatened' by the new wave at all.

"No, because Lwanted it," came his quick reply. He went on to explain how he'd tried to promote an artist like Tom Robinson, on his own Konk label, but was foiled by RCA. "In England, in that horrible period bet­ ween '75 and '76, I said to the band, 'the only music I can relate to is reggae music.'

Because I found they were singing about something I was. . , "In '77, the only thing that worried me was the fact that I could see a lot of people who were knocking the music industry were signing to b ig companies.

"And curiously, at the end of the new wave the music business is even more established.

It's more controlled by corporations, more controlled by press agents."

Davies himself, however, has managed to maintain his ideals and his credibility, even within this corporate structure.

"Yeah, I don't know," he mused. "I un­ d erstan d the music business." He paused, and eventually found a way to illustrate his relationship with it. "Last night, I went out to dinner with some very nice people, and we went to a really posh restaurant, and I didn't belong there, I felt wrong there, and possibly I was one of the most successful people in the room. But I didn't belong there."

Coht P 23'

UK 5LEEZE The other Friday night, I started off the evening by going along to a 'secret' Elvis Costello gig, put on at an Irish dance-hall in Hammersmith as the prize for all the entrants in an NME competition.

Certainly it was the finest Costello gig I've ever witnessed. Previously when I've seen the Costello band onstage the stellar attraction himself has often appeared weary and wiredup, and the music scrappy and ill-played.

For this gig, though, all of the four-piece were grinning and joking and tension-free and the music they made was accordingly confident, considered and cool, the texture of the sound taken right down by the insistent presence of Steve Naive's increasingly Staxlike organ.

Several songs from the new G et H appy album were played.

Good numbers: intricate, poetic, adept...

The audience loved them — though adulation was guaranteed from this audience, of course.

I was bored and unsatisfied.

Afterwards, in the car on the way to The Venue, I meditated on the Costello matter.

I've never really bought it, I suppose. There's something too harsh and abrasive about EC, a sense that somewhere down the line he became conscious of having over-reached himself — becam e harassed by the hype, maybe — and compensated by becoming almost all front with a hyper-belief in the power of his ego and his ability to will his success. It's all a bit too obvious — niggling doubts appear about Elvis's oh-so-public baring of the soul.

Sometimes one feels that Elvis Costello may have as much arrogant, cynical contempt for his audience as Led Zeppelin appear to possess.

At The Venue, a Virgin Records attempt at New York's Bottom Line, The Gladiators were just coming onstage.

The Jamaican harmony trio of Albert Griffiths, Gallimore Sutherland and Clinton Fearon have had four impressive LPs issued on Virgin's Front Line label — Trenchtow n M ix U p, P rov erb ial R eg g ae, N atu ral!fy, and S w eet S o Till. Like so many great Jamaican artists. The Gladiators were first reared and ripped off by Studio One, and their finest

work was for that label, much of it available on a pre album. P resen tin g T he G la d ia to rs.

I'd only seen them perform once before: in the bedroom of their manager's house in Kingston when, unaccompanied, and with all the correct poses of a street corner acapella group, the threesome performed for me the entire N aturality album!

This time. The Gladiators had a backing band, and the trio were equally dynamic, equally ethereal, with Albert Griffiths' im­ passioned lead vocals stirring within you, heady murmurs of times long gone, the epitome of roots reggae.

R oots doesn't just have near-metaphysical implications, of course. Just the way in which reggae bands come together is from the roots — from the bass and drums, the antithesis of the manner in which most white rock bands come together.

After The Gladiators' set had ended, I found myself up by the bar talking with Pig Youth (sic), the Sid Vicious lookalike bassist in his own innovative, interesting Killing Joke, and also in The Dodgiest Band In The World, The 4 Be 2 s, Jimmy Lydon's group.

The gist of what Pig was saying was citing the power of reggae sound systems and echoing my feelings about the redundancy of the guitar here — that the bass would be the true rock instrument of the eighties. TUso, we agreed that, though silicon chip synthesizer sounds would certainly be more prominent, just the current ska revival alone attests that the wind instrument, with all its possibilities of expressing what is truly emerging from the heart of the musician, is as likely to become a powerful force within The Noise. . But the day of the guitarist as mythic, chosen figure is a pretty duff concept these days. Its elitist stance is hardly in sympathy with a musical mood that — in England, anyway — is beginning to stridently reject the idea of the need to work within The Musical Corporate State ....of the inferior kind, anyway.

Elvis Costello, for one, ought to wise up to that.

Besides, I can never forget that Costello first came to the public's attention in the same year that the real Elvis died.

Chris Salewicz ROADRUNNER FEBRUARY 22 1 9 8 0 — PAGE 11

A mid-afternoon feature were two Enzed Mammoth m u sical e v en ts lik e New Zealand's three-day Sweetwaters festival are : poets, and Sam Hunt. more a matter of endurance than musical McCormick, an extrovert who professes to appreciation. Forty groups and performers dislike hawking his poetry b o o li in public for $20 is good value in mo^ people's "like a common prostitute" but has a,good language, especially given the high ^andard time doing it, has published one that would make a good thematic rock album. Called of Enzed music. ,But the trouble lies in surviving through "Poems for the Red Engine", it features the whole thing — coping with gueues for several poems tying love and orgasm to smelly chemical toilets, and more queues for screaming fire engines and associated water which often dries up, huge amounts of imagery.

Last on before dinner was the three piece scattered litter and broken bottles, three days} of exposure to cloudless Antipodean heat, six Auckland band The Swingers, formed in hour sitting stints on hard moist ground, your early 1979 by ex-Enz songwriter Phil Judd. own charred meat or expensive Westernised His new songs are grittier than the crazy ones ethnic fast food, and some 45,000 others of Split Enz days, and his individual guitar trying to do the same.. style was b a c k ^ by a solid driving rhythm Another irritant is the semi-civilised nature section, ex the Auckland punky band of such events. You're living in a tent, but Subarban Reps. They have recorded several you're not escaping. Instead of the clean­ original songs and are in the top rank of smelling dirt of a tramping track, your cracks exclusively home-known groups.

Time for tea. The organisers had cannily and crevices fill up with greasy dust and you th e e a ts b etw een cam tread litter underfoot with every step. One of p la ced the greatest pleasures afforded by life in an paign/cultural/craft areas and, the main stage. Stalls costs $5(X) for several Auckland instant tent city is the bath when it's all over.

One is also taken in by the apparent lack of vegetarian/wholefoods restaurants and other outside interests, but nominal rents for locals. effort involved in listening to the music.

Merely to sit listenina for three days, turning (Farmer Ray Little, on whose land the festival my tape recorder on and off, seemed simple was held, had a daughter selling pizzas she'd and unenergetic. But the combination of the been making for two months and two k>ns heat during the day (30 to 35° C ), the cold at selling watermelons. Making money in their night, the pain of sitting uncushioned, and own back yard, so to speak.) The slick Supertooth Food Fantasy Factory was offering the continuous music until the wee small hours made mincemeat out of tougher stock three meals a day for alx)ut $10 (ham'n'eggs, than I. O ne reaches a point of exhaustion french stick crammed with salad and bar­ where all music, no matter how good, sounds becued steak), but lower prices elsewhere reduced them to advertising a rush-produced the same. dagwood sandwich for a buck-something.

W hen I came to that pxsint, I reneged and First on after tea was John Martyn, prolific took in the other aspects of the festival. On Englidi folk rock stylist and author of nine offer was the craft area, with about 20 stalls, albums. He played songs from his most recent and a public awareness area with displays by as well as a few from environmental groups. The only demon­ albiam. strations during the festival were held daily other albums. May , a simple folky tune with acoustic

by Friends of the Earth in front of the stand promoting the Dairy Board's controversial guitar, was well received. But later in his set with an echoplex he was able to sound like a Zap flavoured milk. A spiritual healing area (where several pairs of fingers must have group of electric guitars and keyboards all by been worn to the bone demonstrating ad­ himself. His guitar provided waves of vanced therapeutic massage techniques) and background tone and electronic modulations and a solid wall of a spiritual mela area were also sporadically over busy. That last and the much-touted alter­ echoing notes repeating themselves anything Manipulating native technology area was very token — from 4 to 14 times one technology display stand and a few the effects with skill and delicacy, Martyn scattered tents belonging to Christian and provided a great start to the festival's first night.

Asian religious sects.

After a short break (stage hands excelled Sweetvraters, the biggest single musical event in the southern hemisphere, was themselves during the festival and most organised to make money for a company (not groups got on quickly and with a minimum of fuss) came Citizen Band, one of the for an alternative charitable trust as was the country's more popular groups, fresh from huge Nambassa festival early last year). The several months in Oz. The gig was their last focus for this festival was definitely the huge main stage, while the music at Nambassa was with bass player and co-founder Mike Chunn (ex-Split Enz). They played a fast driving seen more as a drawcard to get suburbanites power pop bracket of songs from their two into an environment of alternative ideas. albums, with their cover of Parker's Golden Valley Productions, consisting of the only song sung by Mike. His three men and one woman, used more than share of the vocals has dropped markedly ten months, 180 workers and about $500,000 over the last year, but it is his excellent bass organising the festival. It was held on 160 playing that the band will miss most. The fans hectares of hill country farm near savoured the performance, knowing it to be Ngaruawahia in the North Island's King the last one before the band's mana* changes Country. Thirty thousand people were needed for the event to break even, but with with new personnel.

Gone are the days when the band lacked an eye on the tax department, organisers good pacing in gigs, undersold their own were reticent about the total attendance.

Department of Transport calculations put it at songs and had no visual focus. My main gripe is the absence of new material in the several between 45,(X)0 and 50,000. months since I last saw them. C B finished the A few more statistics: the hospital, staffed by four nurses and six doctors, treated about set with a high energy version of which left the screaming audience primed 400 people, mainly for sunburn, cuts and and ready for the evening's high spot. upset stomachs. Police arrested about 30 Split Enz occupies a special niche in the people for drug- and theft-related offences, and kept a low profile (So low that one un­ hearts of Enzed rockgoers. There's a general expectation that any month now this band will dercover cop was indecently assaulted by a re^ ly hit the international big time. Their man.) A 17-year-old boy drowned in the place is special because they almost singleflood-swollen Waipa River running through handedly gave Kiwi rock its international ring the site. Traffic flowed smoothly, although some cars were delayed for up to two hours on of confidence. The dawning Kiwi realisation of their rock fecundity and quality will be the way out. dealt a big blow in the solar plexus if they The whole festival was about to be called off after seven weeks of site preparation due to fade without ever having got past almost making it. At Sweetwaters, they were un­ two weeks of rain near starting time. But doubtedly the best group to watch and the Friday January 25 dawned dry and hot and one most open to crowd participation. the weather continued that way, making small Their first song from their fortunes for enterprising sunshade and new album flowed into sunburn cream retailers.

by Neil Finn. During a The people in the bus with me from Auckland were all young worldly idealists (if clapping break, Tim Finn adroitly made immediate close friends with the audience. you can imagine that combination) who The band's visuals were a mixture of orange wanted to hang a banner out of the windows proclaiming our destination, and to sing and shocking green, with ultra violet to show songs. This and my first night in the enormous up the day-glo on their zoot soots, and strobes crash tent did not augur well. I was and mirrorballs to add effect and visual periodically woken up with torches by groups rhythm.

A long, lush and magnificent version of looking for friends or enemies, stoned people followed, with Noel spattering glow tube fluid over everyone, the cold seeping up from the ground or groups of Crombie on Jews harp and Eddie Rayner shooting laser guns on the synthesiser. The drunk men outside. Fortunately, I met a friend, shared her tent and eliminated at least sweat flicked off Finn's face as he prowled the stage looking like a cross between an animal the first two annoyances. on two legs and a sleepwalker.

Saturday, the first official day, got off to a Two more songs off their new album: the slow start following a traditional Maori climactic with the welcoming song. It was hot, bright and early, organ clawing up and down the keys; and a not exactly an ideal rock environment, but all the bands were received enthusiastically. A ballad called

by Tim about "the sad part of these highlight was Rick Steele and the Hot Biscuit Band, an inveterate country rock brief affairs that usually begin at summer touring group which soon had the audience parties."

Neil Finn sang the recent single / in a jiving frenzy and yelling for more. The which he wrote. It didn't have the more timetable was strict so no encores.

down]

One W orld, You Never [lay your head

Precious Baby, on. Solid A ir.

Protection,

Big Bad Dan

Shark A ttack, True Colours, the M atter with You?,

What's

Hermit McDermott

again]

I W ouldn't Dream o f It, I Hope I N ever [have to cry Got You

PAGE 12 — ROADRUNNER FEBRUARY 22 1980

complicated rhythms of his older brother's songs, but it had more of a new pop sound.

During a singalong and a cover of the spot lights picked out the clapping hands of the huge crowd standing in front of the stage and the silhouettes of their flying hair and jigging bodies flashed momentarily in front of our eyes.

Twist A nd

Shout,

The set had ben manic, but really started to hot up near the end. and (dedicated to the Russians) released the band's reservoirs of crazy energy and set ihe 30,000-plus audience yelling along.

Crombie and Rayner waved huge red flags, red skyrockets shot up and the set finished with a surge.

See Red

Give It A \^ ir l

I

out M y Mistake

For first encore they belted and then Finn called ex-Enzer Mike Chunn on stage for a rendition of their 1975 song a showcase for his bass expertise and a farewell. The set finished with featuring Crombie's much-loved spoon solo (and a handstand) only an hour over time.

Time For A Change, The Women Who Loves You,

On last after midnight was Hello Sailor, an Auckland favourite also just back from Oz. This band has generated great, possibly unrealistic expectations over their five years, but failed to measure up both in a Los Angeles visit and their stint in Oz. Their gig at Sweetwaters was routine and couldn't rate with the energy given off by Enz. New member Paul Hewson, Dragon's writer and keyboardsman, added spice and experience in a short appearance and should provide a lift and new direction for their forthcoming trip to America. The let down was Graham Brazier, lead singer, whose performances were so good he had been offered a place with a top American group. He bumbled about the state, dropping the mike twice and once completely misjudged a leap onto the drummer's platform. His versions of their well-known songs

W alking Through the Streets of Ponsonby, Disco is Dead and Boys From Brazil lacked the punch they have on vinyl and had live; and the band will need lots of work and luck to retain its momentum.

There endeth Saturday.

In M y Car, "

teenage interaction. with honkytonk piano, used obscure but per­ ceptive lyrics to comment on the three sides of the modem male's life:

by Jenny Rankine

Five Gears In Reverse,

was titled had a danceable organ hook, a frantic beat, nihilistic lyrics and a guitar solo building to a big volume climax. cover made i use b rB ru ce Thomas' bass and Elvis' voice came across deeper and less breathy. was hailed with cheers; Naive had a brilliant solo break halfway through, his abrupt stops making silence do as much rhythmical work as notes.

O ne joker near the stage, who seemed to have an inexhaustible supply of red smoke flares, put a pall of smoke between the hill and the stage at this point. his new single, already a hit for Dave Edmunds in England, was next, followed by In between that and was an unidentifiable very upbeat number, where Costello's voice was unfortunately drowned out by the bass and drums. A very good rhythm combination whatever it was. was marred by a string of b\im notes from Naive. Costello said nothing but if looks could kill. . . In a change of pace the band performed Jim Reeves' g o ].

A surprisingly tender version of one of his earliest and best followed.

Two songs later some intrepid soul tried the egg throwing trick again. With Cockney b rag g ad o cio , Elvis an n o u n ced : "So m e people down the front have been gettin a bit aggravated. If you want me to come down and sort you out just say so." A reggaefied had the crowd in full swing. He returned for two encores with flares, flashing red lights, cylume sticks and torches all waving through the smoke. Elvis' suit was drenched with sweat when he finished with just within his 1 hour allocation.

Immediately after his disappearance the audience was wrapped in a $2000, 30-minute display of fireworks on a nearby hill, which totally overshadowed the previous audiencelit attempts. A moving carpet of upturned faces was illuminated by multicoloured starbursts every few seconds.

Mi-Sex not only had to convince people to stay on after the fireworks and the big overseas act, they had to overcome the Kiwi dislike for permanent expatriates. And they did it brilliantly.

The band's lush keyboard/synthesiser sound and an expert lighting show ended up making Costello's visual act look static, the band waded into three songs off the album — and The sound started off a little scratchy but improved to be some of the best of the fetival. Murray Burn's new Prophet synthesiser has extended the band's range, and Kevin Stanton's ex­ traordinary fund of lyrics should see another album on the way soon. Futuristic organ riffs featured on a new song. .

Back to the album for a long version of with film themes building it up to 15 minutes plus. the runaway single on the strength of which they're touring the States, and another newie, followed. If Mi-Sex make it at all in America, they'll be enshrined next to Split Enz as proof that Kiwis Have Got What It Takes.

A disappointment for the night was Renee Geyer who found it impossible to arouse the stragglers with an exclusively soulful blues set. She tried hard, but exhorting the burntout listeners with a "Jive, you motherfuckers" didn't help, and nor did an exist after 30 minutes. Geyer gave a long onstage rave about money, something along the lines of Randy Newman's. It seemed a criminal programming error to put a solo singer of her calibre on last instead of first in the evening.

And so endeth Sunday.

A Little Sister

In m y car you travel very fast.

Through the night and even through Chelsea the p a st . . .

In m y bed I lie upon m y back, play dead I know it's just a game but I'm scared I don't want to die in m y bed.

The two singers combined best on On Our First Day [c/ our honeymoon], a sad song about two adolescents trapped in an un­ workable marriage by a pregnancy.

Crocodiles are off overseas and I wish them luck. They're mining a slightly dated but still golden lode of adolescent dilemmas and behavior, but they'll need more depth in guitar and keyboards for solid gigging.

After that honkytonk harmonising. Toy Love's grittiness came as a big contrast. Not only was their stage act engagingly rough, but Chris Knox exudes a kind of grotty unrepentent rebel aggression. Their was fast, tight and gritty — no other word for it. The South Island band had a hit single last year, when the more established homegrown (Th'Dudes, CB etc) singles didn't even take off. Known for using props in imaginative ways to liven up a set, Knox this time terrorised a movie cameraman with a watermelon, which should improve the film of the festival if it's included.

The spoken intro to their song sounds just like that: “Walking down the street and feeling really neat — you'd like to put your foot in somebody's e y e .. .the man comes up to you and says 'Hey boy, wanna score some scaaaag?' " This and another song featured a mechanical style of singing a la Lovich, with robot-type gestures from Knox.

On returning to the stage for an encore Knox confessed that the band has been requested many times to clean up its act, and starts sweeping the stage with a broom. Old and corny, but he made it funny. They were just getting into Venus when something went wrong and everyone stopped abruptly. A few discordant chords, Knox laughed "Oh, that'll do", and the band walked off. One of the few bands able to stay loose, enjoy their music and convey that attitude infectiously. Big things ahead.

Off for tea again and back to find a place to rest my butt for the big night. Streetalk, a five-year-old band with a much-hyped debut record, were on first. Their blues tone was much more pronounced than on the album (already released in Japan, Kuala Lum­ pur, Singapore and Hong Kong). The band will be recording a second album in Auckland this month with Californian ace producer/songwriter/publicist Kim Fowley.

The band played a few new songs but their tight set was largely made up of well known about ones from their album the money side of divorce, and the excellent

Don't

Know What I'm Gain' To

Crazy

Girls Talk,

Oliver's Arm y

Will You Tell Her [she'll have to A lison,

Watchin the Detectives

What's So Funny Bout Peace, Love and Understanding, Vi

Graffiti Crimes Wot Do You Want, Inside You I Wanna Be With You.

Poison Letters, Camera Kazi Record with Pictures from New Zealand.

Hammond Gamble and Mike Caen had a wow of a time on the 10-minute-plus guitar break at the end of the set, riffing around one another, and the audience made appropriate mincemeat of their coy “thanks for putting up with us".

Th'Dudes came on powerhousing with a five minute jam by the whole band, with no instrument having precedence for a change.

They played their hit single, and album title track. a great dancing number with strong guitar hooks and hard rocking harmonies. Th'Dudes is a very hard working band in performance, sold very aggressively by manager Charley Gray (also owner of Auckland rock venue Island of Real). That might account for the fact that they were the only band booed in the mor­ ning's announcement of forthcoming acts. A tight hard rocking set failed to disperse the antagonism in some sections of the audience.

After being pelted with raw eggs, one of which hit Lez White's bass guitar, singer Peter Urlich yelled “Why don't you cunts in the front come up here and say t h a t . . .you should be drafted." Issuing from 30 tonnes of speakers at 80,000 watts, his remarks had some force and gained support from the mass of the audience on the hill. Urlich's vocals found a showcase in which The'Dudes do superbly, although the spoken part in the middle was a bit forced.

Last number called slowed right down and went to low volume in the chorus, with lots of wow and echo.

High from the hard rocking and an­ tagonism in the air after that set, the crowd applauded all the skyrockets and flares let off in the audience while waiting for Elvis

Right First Time,

;. , No question that Sunday was THE DAY — 'lall the $20 day trippers headed in and by p.m. the hill in front of the stage could not ^be seen for bodies.

But several good groups enthused the afternoon crowd. Midge Marsden, longtime r Kiwi music personality, talented guitarist and •last year a member of Melbourne's Phil ' Manning Band had assembled a Kiwi Connection that laid down a solid hour of : rock and blues numbers.

Alex Jam es, folksinger ex-England and now of Ponsonby, gave a varied single performance ranging from well-received comic songs to some slightly overdone soul searching stuff.

For a complete change of pace, the next band was Auckland's punkish Sheerlux (name taken from an old satin sheet brandname), debuting without their singer for the last year,, Paul Robinson. They started in late '78 with covers of Sex Pistols, Ultravox and Iggy Pop. Current influences include Talking Heads and XTC with mostly original material.

Their first song was already

.1,

Fat Boys,

Going

Through the M otions.

Oliver's Arm y

Living in Septem ber

Computer Games, Space Race,

Monday afternoon, aside from the noise of half the crowd leaving, was only noticeable for the last performance of Wellington women's rock band Wide Mouthed Frogs.

Audience members think they have the band typed into covers of early bopper songs and women's group numbers;

recorded at Auckland's Mandrill studios. It has the same tone as — expressing the perennial distaste of ttiose slim, whether pimply and pinned or satin and sequinned, for ^ e less fortunate adolescent barred from coping by layers of cellulite. etc — but Despite a clarion need for more subtlety they also have some originals and a few and colour in lyrics and vocals, I think different covers up their sleeves. Their Sheerlux have potential and bear watching. version of Costello's was After comedian Neville Pervis (a sort of frenetic, gutsy and boasted excellent har­ Enzed Norman Gunston), it was the turn of monies. KeytxDards player Bronwen Murray recently re-formed Wellington band The produced several innovative and imaginative Crocodiles, with a 1979 album called solo breaks. Jenny Morris and bass player to their credit. They wish to Tina Matthews have both joined the Costello. be known as a pop band and have recently Crocodiles and are going to the United States A huge roar greeted the Cockney's en­ acquired a female singer and bass player in search of the elusive pop dollar with from disbanding female rock group Wide trance. Fresh from a day spent cruising on a producer Kim Fowley (who's been a trifle luxury yacht in Auckland's Hauraki Gulf, Mouthed Frogs, of whom more later. busy in New Zealand lately). Morris has a Crocodiles' harmonies were a bit shakey as and free by helicopter transport from press great future in front of her — an excellent Jenny Morris had had little practising time and public harrassment, he started off voice, stylistically capable of blues, rock and with the band, but her gutsy voice added a lot relaxed and low key. During ballads, and a strong stage presence. he found his feet and Steve Naive on of style and depth to the group's rather sparse Highlights of WMF's gig were sound.

Week, and the organ provided a fluid backing sound. A (Cont. Page 21.) dealt with the minutae of new song from his latest album, Gef

People

Don't Want No Short

Wall Sharkskin

A ny Day of the Don't Be Shy

Runaway, Come on snd do the Doobie Doobie, Doing the That Look In Your Eyes, Locomotion, Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Yellow Polka Dot Bikini, Peppermint Twist You Can Make Me Dance M ystery Dance

Wall to

Perfume

Happen,

Accidents Will Happy,

Love Don't

ROADRUNNER FEBRUARY 22 1980 — PAGE 13

£

Before meeting Dave Warner for an in­ terview, I was adarmnt that I would confront himwith the aspects of his Ocker artistry that appall me. I was going to parry and thrust with unswerving verbal attack. I was certain that he would throw mg out. But as it happened, I arrived at the Warner household to find Dave's lady, Jenny, doing the ironing while the Suburban Boy read the evening paper.

And he's hard to tear down because he has the look of a little kid whenyou're about to launch an offensive, yet he has the blue-eyed confidence to articulate his stance.

So it went sorrething like this...

Okay, Dave. What did you do on your vacation?

“Started to play a bit of tennis. Got sick like I usually do on rry timgs off and wrote some songs."

Why the vacation?

"I was thoroughly tired of touring and playing after all of that time. And it was more than a vacation. It was a temporary retirement. I wanted to see if I wanted to come out and do anything more again. And that in part was decided for me by Mushroom Records who expressed an interest inme doing another album".

I think it was a calculated marketing manoeuvre.

"Not really, because I was fairly tired of the whole thing. It was calculated in the sense that I didn't want to continue on with what I was doing. I couldn't see myself doing any better in popular terms ...I couldn't see myself being any happier continuing with what I was doing".

What about the unconguered overseas markets?

"I'd like to go but there's no point until you get a record contract in either the States or Britain. Particularly the States. Britain is a real pseudo-market. You can sell lots of records there but it doesn't do you any good.

You still have to make it in the States in order to survive. It would be nice to have some sort of tour like The Sports did. A fairly reasonable tour supporting a major artist. But I've no intention of taking a band over there and battling away just trying to get somewhere".

(Note: Warner has since left the sweltering shores of Perth to explore the possibilities of a Stateside connection).

What attitude do you have towards your audience?

"I don't have a defined attitude. I try to please them as much as I can without selling out to myself".

I can't see how you can have any respect for your audience. I remember a concert that you gave at the Universitf of W. A. When you did Mug's G am e everybody present ap­ plauded the sentiments expressed in the song, yet many of the predominantly male audience will be driving Celicas themselves in a couple of years, going into discos in search of 'loose women'.

"That's a fair comment. But I'm self critical in many of the songs. I'd like to change things m M ug's G am e. I just take it that if someone comes along to hear the stuff, then they're not going to go out and do exactly what you'd expect them not to do in relation to what the song has just said".

Huh? Oh, er yes. I remember a couple of years back, you and a band miming on the back of a stationary truck to Johnny Young and Gerry Humphries records. What were you trying to do?

"That was Dave Mod and the Lambrettas. It was a combination of two bands. When I came back from England, I wanted to do something that hadn't been done by bands in Perth before. I wanted to have an extensive repertoire for a start, and be a lot more professional in approach to what people had seen before".

Dave went on to explain how The Lam­ brettas were ideal for economy shows, allowing the management three bands for the price of two and a half. The group was also formed in an attempt to combat over ex­ posure in a relatively small market, and to stay one step ahead of the Beatle revival by doing old Australian mod songs. I then put it to Warner that the concept of 'the suburban boy' is a fake. There are either people in the metropolitan area or people from country areas. No one lives in the city. It's just a place where 'metro area boys' flock to.

"My concept of the song was to compare people in places like Perth, or Tulsa with people in big cities like New York, London.

When I went East, it was taken much more literally there. Say, in Melbourne, people from Carlton and Richmond would consider themselves city people, and people from Ivanhoe considered themselves suburban, although I didn't see any distinction between them. They still all had laminex tables and ate Cornflakes. In Sydney, the people thought ihaiS u bu rban B oy was an angry song for kids from the Western Suburbs.

"All the songs from The Who that I really

K/m Willioms serves up admired were all big city songs, and I didn't think that I could sing pop songs with any conviction about big cities. I wanted to sing songs about guys who were 19 or 20, who came home and Mum cooked them chops for dinner. And girls who sat in their rooms, watched Countdown, and went to the pub for the night. They were the people I wanted to sing for".

Okay. Tell the readers about your new album.

"I just wanted to do an album on which I liked all the songs, and not done as a live album. I wanted to have something on record so I was on egual terms with Sports, Jo Jo Zep who had studio productions.

"The songs don't have any central theme through them. The point of A rlott M akes M e C h u ckle is to try and give an insight into a person's character in the space of two and a half minutes. The same vf\\h Jo e y B la c k . It's what De Bono would call a lateral thinking look at the way society breaks itself up these days. The other songs were either what I thought were nice little melodies for pop songs, or were just things I wanted to write about".

I think what separates your music from the music of your contemporaries is not so much the melodies but the lyrics and vocal delivery.

"Yeah. Obviously the lyrics are very

PAGE 14 — ROADRUNNER FEBRUARY 22 1980

o few hot ones to Dave Warner.

important to me.^I write pop songs but try to put something in the lyrics to make it a bit unusual. Joe Jackson's interesting. I like .his stuff as pop music but I think it's very tran­ sient. I don't think it will last at all. I don't think it's got anything to offer. It's just good pop songs. It won't stand like Graham Parker's things will, or Elvis Costello's, where they're talking about important issues".

There are a number of attitudes expressed in your music, particularly towards women, that I find most disagreable. You may just be capturing certain attitudes in the songs or you may actually subscribe to every sexist doctrine you portray. If the former is the case, you run the risk of television stars who an audience will only see as the character before them. Not as people who are simply role playing.

"Someone else has said that to me. It's a problem that anyone in this popular arts faces".

You're not giving much away concerning your attitudes.

"It's for the listener to decide".

There's a song on your latest album about the Australian rock industry, something you've been very critical of in the past.

Especially in The M onster's B a c k ....

"The whole critical Australian attitude towards music has only come from vir­ tually the time 1 started playing. I'm not

saying I caused it. I'm saying I was coin­ cidental to it. Juke, Ram were not major sellers until '75 or '76. Everytime you swit­ ched on telly, all you'd see were Sherbet or Ted M ulry.

I'm q u ite sure that they were unrepresentative. The Australian public didn't think that they were the be all and end all of Australian rock. If they were, when I did T he M onster's B a c k people would have booed me down and thrown stuff at me on stage, but they didn't.

They loved it and jumped up and down.

Clearly, I was expressing what a lot of people felt. But there w as no vehicle for that ex­ pression. Now, things have changed. There are a lot of bands with recording contracts who are doing fairly interesting stuff. There are lots of papers like Juke, Roadrunner, Ram, and Live (Perth mag-Ed) who have attitudes in written things. It's harder for those commercial bands to get away with it anymore because the people from TV Week and The Women's Weekly cease to be the only people writing about pop music. Two years ago, that's pretty much what the situation was".

Well, that was what De Bono might call a lateral thinking look inside the mind of a su ccessfu l (but p erh ap s not ty p ica l) Australian rock star. One who has h e lp ^ to make Australian rock what it is today.

book, n. a number of leaves of either written or printed JMM paper, on, fastened together and bound in cover; a literary composition made available for reading in such manner; main division of

JMM are a tight knit 3-piece band wary of 4th mertbers, all rmnagers, and choosy about conrrittrrEnts of any kind beyond therrselves and their rrusic. They consist of John O'Brien (J) on bass, and Mark and Micheal Gerber (MM) on guitar and drums respectively, and the only change that this line-up will be going through in the forseeable future is in the nan® of the band.

Its effective sinplicity is probably lost on the band n®rrbers, but they want to discard it.

They think it's unirraginative and unoriginal, and JMM are very bent on originality. You can tell by the way they sneer at other bands. But thank­ fully, you can also tell in a more first hand manner by going to hear them play, because they are a remarkably original band with a tough abrasive sound all of their own.

Nothing new in that description, I know, but read on.

The band started out in a G lebe garage in early 1979 with Mark G erber and another guitarist. John O'Brien was procured through an ad (- and not, as idle rumour would have it, after he bought Mark a shandy at Palms in Osford St.) A couple of drummers were tried and found wanting, so Michael G erber was recruited from school (he was in fact the band's drummer before he'd ever drummed) and September 1979 found the band playing round Sydney. Unlike their music, they trod worn paths; Garabaldi's, the Stagedoor, and that paragon of inner-city virtue, French's Wine Bar and Tavern. Immediately the band's gualities - their forthright youth­ fulness, tight jagged rhythms and the astounding and startling sharpness of their sound - stood up and out. And unlike the thin stench of glamour that surrounds so many half-witted serious bands, they obviously had some substance. Their music has an aggressive cerebral quality like nothing I've ever heard live before, and it works because of a straightforward approach to material which is nearly always complex, but never tediously progressive.

"W e play rock'n'roll," says Michael G erber. "W e're part of the development of it as opposed to the pop-rock'n'roll which is not really a development of it at all. It doesn't get it anywhere which is why I don't like it."

Visually, the whole band looms large on stage. They dress in sombre clothes, wear big boots and present an imposing earnest image.

Mark G erber is the dominating figure on guitar, and with his jaw set rock hard in concentration, he has little time or inclination for accompanying histronics. John on bass is mere free-flowing, but very skillfully con­ trolled, whereas Michael G erber is still a little rough and rattlely round the edges. Put it down to inexperience. He's hardly been playing for a year .

JMM could be criticised for the uniformly heavy-handed and lengthy approach to their songs. The singing, which is frequently shouted, has, when combined with the music, a definite proletarian edge. Stylistically, it owes a lot to the U.K. new wave bands, the Q ash and the Jami and the soccer chanting choruses that inhabit many of those bands songs. But the Clash and the Jam have lyrics to match this anger whereas JMM nearly always sound eingry but don't have the content to natch. You could say that the music overflows in emotion but lacks sensitivity.

Before I finish with this picky rock criticisiu let n® make the inevitable comparison with the Jam. JMM do sound like the Jam, There, I've said it. When I held this bone out to the band nenbers, Mark rejected the comparison. John said it was 'just because we're a 3-piece and we look cute'.

"You could say there's a definite in­ fluence," Mark relented," but then there's another influence from another band and another band and another band — It's more a concept of composing........

In any case, JMM's music is, for want of a tag, decidedly English rather than American.

"An®rican culture," says Mark, "has got as much to do with its own music as the U.K. hai to do with its music, and its U .S. culture that I don't like. I like a lot of U .S. bands but I don't like what it's derived from".

As musicians, JMM have little desire to travel between Sydney and Melbourne for the next 10 years. They should have a few tracks — S e e S h arp and U pright — on a for­ thcoming Doublethink compilation album but their ambition naturally leads them to the U.K. where they hope to be in almost a year.

Fat chance, I suppose, of that coming off in so short a time, but the fortunes of the Boys Next Door will at least provide an interesting example of what a band of their type oan achieve.

Richard McGregor

the spirit and essence of rock'n'roll like few other writers. He's disullusioned with what he's seen for the past ten years and clings senaciously to the hope that spirit and ex­ citement will return to rock'n'roll — oh, if dreams did come true ......... or might come true.

And every page of JBorn To Run is amazing.

"My reasons for writing the book go beyond Stories, anecdotes, passages of anaylsis, its role in rationalizing my Springsteen lyrics, more anecdotes, interviews, quotes, fanaticism (which justifies itself). As did Jon comparisons —- all written by a rock'n'roll fan Landau, when I saw Bruce Springsteen, I saw about another such creature for anyone else my personal rock history flash before my eyes who feels the same way.

— the dreams and hopes of what might have Reading B orn To Run I felt a tinge of ex­ been were suddenly restored. For me this is citement on each page — a feeling of 'here's not a story about just Bruce Springsteen. It is a writer who manages to capture in words also a chronicle of rock in the Sixties — and something of what this music is all about'. in the Seventies, as its innocence curdled into And I'd like to quote pieces from every page cynicism". but here's a few real favourites.

So writes Dave Marsh in the introduction to "Raymond Chandler once write that the B orn To R u n , his biography of Bruce Springsteen. And his book is more than mystery novelist, Dashiell Hammett, had used Springsteens story - it's the story of rock'n'roll his hard-guy realism to "give murder back to and its cultural, political and sociological the people who committ it for reasons, not just to provide a corpse." Springsteen did implications during the past 20 years.

Marsh uses Springsteen as a jumping off som ething sim ilar for ro ck , althou ah G reetin g s From A sbu ry P ark, N ew Je rsey point for numerous lengthy discourses on subjects as wide ranging as disco, the only hinted at it. Just as Hammett exposed the development of the musio business and the empty cliches of the drawing-room detective story, Springsteen's flood of images ^and changing nature of youth culture.

Springsteen serves as an example of all the characters were an assault upon the dry of contem p orary rock things Marsh values in life. He follows conventions Springsteen from birth, through his early songw riting. Like Hamm ett, a form er bands, being disoovered, making records, Pinkerton agent who used his esq^erience •legal troubles with manager Mike Appel among hoodlums and cops to add realism to finding Jon Landau, and concludes at the end his stories, Springsteen did not have to invent from scratch the reckless innocents of his of th e D arkn ess On T he E d g e O ff Town tour.

It's most definitely a premature biography, songs. Because he lived among the real as Springsteen still hasn't shown just how people — rather than the rock star jet set — good he oan be and is far from finished with such persons were his most natural subject rock'n'roll. But Born To R u n , like T he B u ddy material".

H olly S tory movie is an inspiring study of a "But over the past decade, rock has kid who wants too play rock'n'roll and knows betrayed itself. It gnaws at my marrow to there ain't nothing that's gonna stop 'im.

B orn To Run is a large format book recall a hundred sellouts, from the rock opera illustrated with over a hundred extraordinary movies that were all glamour and no heart, to the photos of rock celebrities with in­ photo's — definitely some of the most compelling shots ot a rock'n'roll performer ternational jet-set fugitives. The inevitable ever taken. T h e re 's. a complete listing of result was records that were made not with every song Springsteen's written, a mind feeling but because there was a market demanding product, and concerts performed boggling list of every song he's ever covered with an eye only towards the profit margin onstage (Santa C lau s Is C oin in g To Town thru ... .Rock saved my life.It also broke my heart. to M acho M an !) and, yep, something we've all been Waiting for - a complete list of EVERY So the advent of Bruce Springsteen, who made rock and roll a matter of life and death live performance Springsteen has played!!!!! again, seemed nothing short of a miracle to I guess I should come clean. I consider Springsteen the finest rock'n'roll artist - full m e." stop - the finest ever. I play his records twice Then there's the story about Springsteen as often as anyone elses and everything playing in Memphis and trying to meet Elvis comes back to his music. And I'm also a huge after the show, climbing the gate late at night fan of Dave Marsh who's possibly one of the and getting thrown out by a security guard. top 3 rock'n'roll critics in the world (the And the picture of him and The E Street Band others, in my opinion, are Lester Bangs and at the highpoint of a show — every one of 'em Simon Firth). leaping in the air — no foot closer than two M arsh w rites alm ost e x clu siv e ly for foot to the stage, and the one of his mother ROLLING STONE. He grew up in the Sixties onstage at Madison Square Garden in 1978 along with critics like John Rockwell, Paul demanding another encore, and Springsteen Nelson and Robert Christgau. These critics onstage with Robert Gordon, and Patti Smith, have been described by Christgau as 'The and with his first band, and the lyrics to +he so Rock Critic Establishment and as Marsh far un-released (but oft bootlegged) In ­ points out, Springsteen was made to order for d ep e n d en c e D ay. As Marsh writes; "And at the end, what I remember is not one of the these writers and for anyone else (you and me?) who identify with Christagau's statement happy songs, but one of the saddest. When that; " . . . the early 60's were a rich if Bruce sang it that night at the Roxy, he dedicated it to his father. It made me think of somewhat silly period that nurtured both the mine, and how desperately I've always soul style. . . and a wealth of not-sowanted to communicate to hirn what's hap­ ephemeral pop rock and roll, consumated in pened in a world he will never know. But the en lig h te n ^ hedonism of The Beach Boys tonight, that song also brings back to me the and the great production machines of Motown whole story of rock and roll itself. It is called and Phil Spector. This is Springsteen's era — he may talk Berry and Presley, but his encore In d ep en d en ce D ay. is Gary 'U .S .' Bonds. I sometimes wonder "Poppa go to bed now, it's getting late Nothing we can say can change anything now whether half of Springsteen's (critical) fans Because there's different people cornin' down aren't delighted by his music because they weren't lucky enough to have been glued to here now their radios in 1963; clearly, the other half And they see things in different ways are delighted to experience the most And soon everything we've known will just be unequivocal pleasure of their adolescence all swept away over again ...The stock explanation of why So say goodbye, it's Independence Day successful media professionals identify with Poppa now I know the things you wanted that an idealized youth rebel like Springsteen is you could not say that they want to preserve their own youth, ^ y goodbye it's Independence Day but this is stupid. Say rather that they want to I swear I never meant to take those things preserve their rebellion". away".

I guess that's why 1 like both Springsteen Born To Run concludes with Marsh's a c­ and Marsh. The latter has the ability to write count of the tour to promote Darkness On The the most amazing lines — his words capture Edge of Town. He writes of Springsteen's

BORN TO RUN — The Bruce Springsteen Story

by Dave Marsh Published by Angus and Robertson 176 pages - soft cover - very illustrated $9.95 Reviewed by Stuart Coupe

interest in rockabilly which resulted in him covering such classics as Not F a d e A w ay (Buddy Holly), S um m ertim e B lu es (Eddie Cochran), H igh S ch o o l C on fiden tial (Jerry Lee Lewis) and H ea rtb rea k H otel (Elvis P) ...."B u t the greatest rockabilly moment came one night at Madison Square Garden; "I hear you got a newspaper strike in town", Bruce said as he stepped to the mike for the first song. "Well, have you heard the news?" The band roared into Elvis' milestone G ood R ockin ' T onight that could have lifted the roof".

What I'm getting at is that Bruce Springsteen captures what rock'n'roll is all about — a sense of triunph, excitement and the feeling that rock'n'roll important.

Contained within his vision is the best of rock'n'roll from 1956 to now.

And in B om To R u n, Dave Marsh captures the spirit of what Bruce Springsteen is all about.

How can you go wrong?

BOB DYLAN : A RETROSPECTIVE Revised edition, edited by Craig McGregor

Angus and Robertson 236 pages — paperback $6.95 Reviewed by Stuart Coupe Dylan books. Besides The Beatles, The Dim Zim has inspired more books and writing than any other rock'n'roll artist. There's been stacks of illustrated discographies, Scaduto's comprehensive biography, Michael Gray's scholarly S on g A n d D an ce M an , Toby Thompson's trivial P ositiv ely M ain S treet, Step h en P ick e rin g 's serie s of o b scu re treatises that contain magnificent pictures and a text , that probably only the author understands, and there's Daniel Kramer's photo book containing photos of Dylan with Emmett Grogan, etc, etc. The list is immense.

Most of them aren't very good and don't contribute much to understanding Dylan.

The best writing on him has been in magazine articles and some of the finest have been collected in Craig McGregor's B ob D y lan : A R e tr o s p e c t iv e (A ngus and Robertson; $6.95 — 236 pages — illustrated — paperback). This volume was first published in 1972 but has just been revised and updated.

What you get is all the original essays plus some new photos, a slightly altered intro from McGregor and 4 new essays — Jonathan Cott's RO LLIN G STONE interview , McGregor's interview from Dylan's Aust. tour, and two more short career sumations.

And the revised edition is $4 more ex­ pensive than the first.

But what's most frustrating is that A R etrosp ectiv e still cuts out before S low Train (Coming — there's no discussion of the last album, Dylan's conversion, and his recent tours. In fact it's kinda ironic to find on page 224 McGregor asking Dylan if he's got into religion since they last met and Dylan replying; "No, no dedicated religion, I have not gotten into that. No dogma. I don't usually do that, I usually play my guitar. I don't know why. I've never gone on any of them guru trips. I've never felt that lost".

The times have a-changed eh Bob? But aside from that, A R etrosp ectiv e contains a superb selection of writing about Dylan — the earliest piece coming from Robert Shelton in the New York Times in 1961. There's selections from people like Nik Cohn, Jann Wenner, Paul Nelson, Studs Terkel, Nat Hentoff, Lillian Roxon, Jon Landau, etc, etc — each one a gem.

And not all the articles are favourable, which is great — there's some heated ex­ changes from the period when Dylan went electric, a piece of disillusionment from A.J. Weberman, and an attack from Ewan MacColl.

A R etrosp ectiv e is a fascinating collection — well worth purchasing if you don't have the first edition — if you do I'd suggest getting the back copies of ROLLING STONE and NATIONAL TIMES (or Nation Review/ McGregor's piece) and reading the other two essays in the shop.

ROADRUNNER FEBRUARY 22 1 9 8 0 — PAGE 15

726 992 747 215m m x 280m m 144 pages Paper $8.95*

• The most sensational Elvis book ever published • Never-before-seen photographs • Too shocking, too ■ revealing, too private to be shown till now Taken by a master photo­ journalist, this powerful . collection of 116 candid shots reveals the youthful Elvis the way he really was.

ELVIS’56

In the Beginning

Alfred Wertheimer

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PAGE 16 — ROADRUNNER FEBRUARY 22 1980

For just $8.95 (plus 55c postage & packing) we will send you a copy of Elvis '56, featuring photos of the lad before he becam e King. C heques/M oney orders to Elvis '56, P.O. Box 90, Eastwood, S.A. 5063.

by Keith Shaiiwick

"Just Can't B e H ap py T oday", was in­ trod u ced , and Dave V an ian played Of all the concerts to see out the '70's with, keyboards all through. Keyboards?, you ask?

I had to go and see The Damned. . . . Christ, Yes, folks. New Wave discovers the piano (or what a choice. And what a venue. The some distant relative). And it sounded good.

Electric Ballroom, in Camden Town: a It's a great song. And Vanian is an ace natural cesspit for all that's distinctly singer. All through the maelstrom of the gig, unengaging about the human race if ever he had perfect timing, delivery, and his pitch there was one. Perhaps there's worse. I have was phenomenal. And he meant it when he sang. After the relative peace of the single to think hard.

So that was the scenario. How about some and the perfect opening, one was beginning action? Well, as is typical of budding music to wonder whether The Damned were actually journalists in bad need of a reputation, 1 trying to be professional: which is different to arrived late enough to miss the support acts taking oneself seriously, folks. They never did — but not late enough to avoid standing do that. Anarchists of fun to the end. But the around for 45 minutes waiting for the band to fears were soon allayed. After a staggering appear. After 15 minutes of checking out the and exhilerating rendition of N oise N oise audience, the next half-hour was sheer N oise, where that punchline "Music is for ennui. Definitely a bent gig, this one. The zeroes, noise is for heroes" was greeted with place was 95% punks — I mean. Punks. God ecstatic showers of gob, things took their knows where they came from. I haven't seen more natural course, and Captain Sensible, so many in one place since The Clash over a quite overcome with all the energy about, year ago. Punks of all ages — the ones who started talking all over the top of Vanian's were around at the time, and the ones who intro, only to turn to him and say "o.k., were too young then are are vicariously living Vanian, when are you gonna come and shut the thrills now. Punks. All those clothes, all me up." Rat, obliviCus to this raillery, stared that dyed hair. Young, pretty faces; wild at the liggers on the side, waited for the colours; tartans; kilts; no bondage gear Captain to drop his guitar and Vanian to get anymore. Passe. Even for this lot. And a the intro over with, counted four and they pretty quiet, controlled audience, too. No were into the next fusillade, clean as a fights. The place was packed to the rafters, whistle. Order out of chaos. Beautiful.

The fantastic thing about it all was that at and waiting.

At last some roadie came out and yelled at no stage did you feel like wilting under the everyone that the band would be on and let's barrage and letting it blur, one song into the all cheer — and the boys walked out, all but next. Each number had its point and topped Dave Vanian, looking like they were on a the last for sheer cutting edge and ex­ busman's holiday. Captain Sensible, after citement. And the Captain was taking some plugging in, immediately assaulted the mike pretty mean little lead breaks, too: really nice and the audience with a stream of insults, and solos. He gradually softened in his attitude to the spittal showers commenced. It was all the audience, too. A bit past the halfway good-humoured, affectionate stuff, in the best mark, he came up to the mike and said "Look, Damned tradition: "you fucking bunch of you arseholes — I don't want you to get it stupid bastards — you actually paid to come wrong. I'm really pleased, really glad you all and see us?" Not waiting for a reply. Rat came tonight. I'm really glad you were all so counted the first number in, and they were off stupid as to pay 3 pounds to come and see us. like a runaway train, with Vanian lunging out It'll keep us going for a while." Words of true of the wings and coming in with the vocals feeling from the Captain. By the way he was dead on cue. A huge, huge wave of adrenalin rolling all over the stage and sticking his feet rushed through the whole crowd and the up in the air in "H elp", I'm sure he meant it. place went beserk. Lights flashing, smoke Soon after came his most straightforward pouring out of canisters on stage, people statement of the night, after Dave Vanian had pogoing and spitting. The Damned were beautifully handled a rather severe break in back. Vanian, in his vampire's outfit, looked the action when the Captain's amp finally lean and compelling, and the band were tight temporarily succumbed to treatment beyond tight tight. I can't explain it. It was a barrage. the call of duty. The Captain came up to the It wasn't noise. It was music. It was great. It mike, fiddled with his guitar knobs, struck a was loud — in fact, in between songs, the chord, and said "This song's for Marc Bolan".

Captain's guitar howled constantly with He immediately kicked off the long and really feedback, he had it cranked up so far. But it quite beautiful intro to Sm ash It U p, which wasn't so loud that it hurt. It just blissed you isn't on the single — only on the l.p. version. out. The advantages of having an OK sound Him saying that gave a completely different meaning to the lyrics: made them both a wake crew.

It was nice to hear them start with a whole and a celebration at the same time. Poignant, barrage of stuff from the new. Ip, M achin e if that word could ever apply to The Damned.

After the roll call of people who'd come in for G un E tiqu ette. The opener, 'Love S on g, slaggings and tongue-in-cheek dedications wasn't just numbing: it brooked no reply.

They were so hot, and so tight, even with Rat from The Captain, it was a strange sort of Scabies standing on his drum stool to smash thrill to hear them pay their musical respects the cymbals at the end. Three songs in a row to the bloke who gave them their first decent with less than a gasp in between. I could see tour in this country, on his very last one. And what Rat had been talking about in an in ­ it was humble and brave of them to show it so terview on BBC Radio One a little while back, openly when Bolan is still very much someone when he said they'd only got back together with no really fixed position in the current when they'd decided they could be rock Parnassus. Most rock writers, at least, musicians, after the point of being unmusical seem still too embarassed by Bolan's glitter had been made and gone stale. "I don't need excesses to admit that, in his music at least, to knock my drums off the stage any more, he was godfather to the New Wave just as 'cause I can play the things now." Well, he much as Iggy ever was. The Damned knew it. did everything but knock them all over, One up to them.

Meanwhile, back in planet X, somewhere before the night was through. But let's not in London, The Damned were pummelling anticipate too deeply.

Time for a change of pace. The new single. the shit out of all such notions as they tore through N eat N eat N eat with nary a slip.

Unbelievable though it may seem to You Who Were Not There, they played it faster than ever and still managed to articulate perfectly all three Neat's of the title in the chorus.

Magic. For God's sake buy their new album.

Don't be too hip for The Damned. They're

real. You can't get hipper than that. Even Beethoven was real, once. And Elvis.

I'm wandering. And I'm wandering because I really don't know how to get across to you the end of the concert. I'll do it in plain, dull description. They did Wew R o se.

They didA/ew??ose so hot it hurt. After it was over, there was nothing to do but leave, stunned and delerious and Believing in rockas-bedlam again. End of essay. Plus ap­ pendage: this was not a significant concert of cutting, relevant statements, meant to change the course of history. It wasn't Significant. It wasn't even a good time. But it was worth it, and something to treasure. Real madness from human beings. As such, it had value.

Informed, significant comment is for zeroes.

Live music is for heroes. And after it's over, it's gone, in the air. You can never catch it again. And that's fine by me.

COLD CHISEL 25/1/80 Nightfall and sea-breeze brought little relief from the searing temperature of the day. Inside the Manly Vale hotel, airconditioning was a welcome and unexpected respite from the humidity of the night air. I got the distinct impression, however, that the management was varying the air-conditioninc controls throughout the night — another facet of crowd manipulation?

Because ot the size of the venue, overheads must be considerable, and the northern beaches' crowds have built a deserved reputation as glass-smashers. Even allowing for this, the bar sales of beer with no choice of taste, in soft plastic cups of less-than-middy size for 60 cents, and spirits in rather smaller cups for $1.20 is a bit rough, especially having paid a cover charge of $5. But, I s'pose you've got to bleed the rich ....

Another definite minus was the conduct of the bouncers, who were only induced to venture away from the safety of the exit to discipline several over-vigorous dancers, while ignoring a pretty large fight which broke out at the same time.

To the m usic.... ....A nd the quality of the music made up for any inadequacies on the part of the proprietors.

Promising band Matt Finish drew an en­ couraging response from the crowd. Their set

XL CAPRIS Watching the XL Capris at their first gig of their Melbourne tour resembled viewing the struggles of a tiger caught in a matchbox. A disinterested crowd ensured that the band never quite escaped from their restrictions by a blase crowd, but Hearts later in the week was a very different story.

The energy flew in all sorts of unpolished directions as the quirky quintet showed a grasp of songw riting and perform ing essentials .can be an effective counterweight to roughouse playing.

And the songs, for the most part, are worth hearing; the subjects may be obvious but the wit is present and correct on H igh R ise H earts and On The B ea ch (you don't look like Ava Gardiner/I don't feel like Gregory Peck!)

consisted mainly of reggae-tinged powerchorded originals.

It was Cold Chisel, though, who everyone wanted. Nor were the punters to be disap­ pointed.

Cold Chisel manage to maintain a streetlevel credibility without resorting to ripped black t-shirts and the like. They make it obvious that their sole purpose is to give the crowd a good time — and have one them­ selves. They, the Angels and Midnight Oil enjoy enormous popularity or the northern beaches of Sydney. Cold Chisel equals the other two in power, musicianship and material, while being more accessible than the Oil and less commercially pretentious than the Angels.

In a surprisingly long set, they spririkled impressive new songs among favorites (which improve with age) such as C on versation s en d M erry-go-rou n d. Songs like K h e S ahn and B reakfast at S w eeth earts were included, of course, while their choice of covers was astounding. S h akin 'A ll O ver might well have been lifted straight off The Who's L iv e at L e e d s , but it must have disturbed the hotel's foundations. The conscription issue was touched upon by singing K n ockin g on H eaven's D oor — and beautifully so. Having ensured everyone's tops were soaked (if they were still wearing them) with a blistering version of G o o d b y e A strid, there was no way they'd get away without an encore.

Eton Walker and Ian Moss came back out to perform G eo rg ia , and then the rest of the band joined them for an amazing rendition of H anky Tank W om an. I'd have to see the Stones in a pub (with Nicky Hopkins in fine form) to be convinced they could out-do the Chisels' effort. Had Cold Chisel called it a night then, everyone would have been satisfied. But no. C hoir G irl followed, and then Moss powered into the obligatory W ild T hing, with Jim Barnes crawling over the speaker stacks, and, not content, walking along a partition several metres above the enraptured audience, onto the bar, then back through the crowd to the stage. No wonder he's been experimenting with a chordless mike: Oz rock's quality is unquestionable and Cold Chisel are one of the legion of Aust. bands whose value-consciousness has not been affected by commercial success.

Peter Mudd

Bassist Jo delivers C ity D ivorce fo r a Country B rid e with Tamworthian passion, and the beat is thumped out efficiently with Nancy Serepax on drums hitting skins as though her life depended on it. This tiger roars in tune.

D ead B u d g ies en d My C ity O f S y d n ey , the two sides of the band's Todd Hunter produced single, draw the expected cheers of recognition; if the record is the only example you've heard of XL Capris' work, rest assured that it's fairly accurate in its representation of their sound. The roughness is indicative of their brief twelwe months together, but they've always been ambitious conceptually and are extending their skills with com­ mendable enthusiasm. Don't miss the op portunity to be stalked and captured by this wild cat from the harbour city.

— Jeni Years ROADRUNNER FEBRUARY 22 1980 — PAGE 17

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37155 PAGE 18 — ROADRUNNER FEBRUARY 22 1980

CHARLIE PRIDE T ravellin' (RCA)

JAHKEAIRE A m TH E B E LV E tm iE S

THE SPORTS exclusive THE SPORTS S u d d en ly (Mushroom) With this, their third album, the Sports have definitely arrived as a world class act.

For perhaps the first time the band have fully realised their potential in the studio (a problem that is becoming less and less of a problem for Australian groups). They sound confident and with the help of producer Peter Solley, have reached for and achieved a balance between a multi-layered sound and a directness and bite that was perhaps a bit lacking on their previous outing with Solley, Don't Throw S ton es. It's a winning com­ bination.

Quite simply the Sports sound like no-one else. They have evolved into a multi-styled band, egually at ease with rock, reggae or ballad (sometimes including all three in one song). S u d d en ly is a busy record with something different happening all the time, but the music doesn't becom e cluttered; it's too well structured for that.

The album opens with an exuberant rush and closes with the same. B oth.S u d d en ly and W hat's T he T rou ble W ith T he G irls feature the guitar interplay and tight, fast har­ monising that seems already to be one of the features of the new 2 guitar/no keyboards line up. There isn't a lot of keyboards on S u d d en ly at all, and when it is in evidence it m erely seem s to p ro v id e b a ck g ro u n d colouring. Throughout the album the guitars carry the melody, Andrew Pendlebury providing smooth, fluid runs and Martin Armiger punctuating them with jagged bursts of chording or manic lead.

N o M ania N o is the first reggae tinted track.

It's taken at guite a brisk pace and has some interesting tempo changes. Drummer Paul Hitchens who, with bassist Rob Glover, forms a solid underpinning rhythm section, really excells on this one. The song is about a mother who forces her son to dress up in female clothes.

B etw een Us is a tough but tender love song, the first of four on this side: B etw een us th ere's a s p e c ia l b o n d a n d it won't b e torn ap art.

The pace slows for G o, which opens with violin. This time things have slipped

somewhat and have almost reached the point of no return. Steve Cummings really piles on the anguish and you can almost hear his heart tearing underneath his voice. S tran g er On A Train finds Cummings with a problem that keeps 'twisting round in my brain' while It H urts finds him 'outside on the cold cold g ro u n d '. A lthough d iffe ren t sty listica lly {Train is rollicking pop-rock, w h ile It Hurts is rougher and even bluesy in feel) both are set in the twilight zone of deteriorating relationships, an area that seems to weigh heavily on both lyricists, Cummings and Armiger, on this album.

M adn ess which opens side two, is a very busy, strange and disjointed track. The lack of melody is disconcerting especially with such a strong melodic feel to the rest of the album, but it does show the band's willingness to experiment, a tendency that has always stood them in good stead. Reggae rears it head again at the start of / T ried To L o v e H er but the chorus is very beaty and fast paced. A good combination of styles with rather frantic lyrics on top.

B lu e H earts is more your traditional Sports song, rather subdued with female vocal chorussing and vaguely soul feel.

P erh ap s P erh ap s is my favourite song on the album. It's immediately catchy, boasts a hookline you could catch a whale with, superb drumming and sweet sweet har­ monies, and an oh so fluid guitar break.

Groo-vee. F or th e L ost & th e L o n ely is the most sparse track on the album. Its beat is basically reggae again, but reggae with space, and its topic (continuing the Sports' fascination with the radio) is a late night D.J. playing songs f o r ...y e s , the lost and the lonely. There's a great line that goes, 'She wants to hear G ene Pitney/She's got to hear G ene Pitney. I'm sure we can all identify with that.

The wistful atmospphere is swept away by W hat's T he T rou ble W ith T he G irls cos it's 'Another Saturday Night' and no-one needs to be told what that means.

S u d d en ly isn't going to change the face of rock'n'roll — it doesn't aim that high. But it is a polished and exciting musical offering with its own definite character. And in these days of farming the past to provide the present, that is something. Listen.

— Donald Robertson

P

Charlie Pride hit town last week and in between slicing golf balls down the fairway with the local pros and smiling at small aboriginal girls he took time off to tell us, with that engaging smile of his, that he no longer cl ips cotton, he owns the field. Smattering of applause. Score one to him in performance for acknowledging an important sound balance and trying to rectify it. "We ain't here to blast people's heads off, we're here to play good country m usic." Louder applause.

Nothing so unprofessional on this album.

Charlie Pride fans will love it. A bit bland for me and rather predictable but there's a good version of S ix D ays On T he R oad and a somewhat over-produced, but nonetheless effective, version of R hin eston e C ow boy. JANE AIRE & THE BELVEDERES Thunderous applause. Ho hum.

Ja n e A ire & T he B elv ed eres FOOTNOTE: I disagree with writers who say (Virgin) he redefines Robby M cG ee. We all know who did that best.

Jane Aire was discovered singing along to — Chris Jackson a jukebox (pretty legendary, eh?) in her hometown of Akron, Ohio, the infamous city ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ that has given us the likes of Devo and Rachel Sweet. Stiff Records' producer Liam Stern­ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ , n berg has taken her under his wings ever since, producing and writing the great debut single Y an kee W heels in 1978. Last year saw a switch to Virgin lor both parties and the release of the disappointing C all M e E v ery n ig h t. Finally the album has been released featuring neither of the previous singles but not really any the worse for'it.

Sternberg seems to want to produce the 80's answer to the golden girl groups of the 60's, but I'm not too sure he's found the right star. Aire's voice seems to have matured in the last two years but the background vocals of Rachel Sweet, Kirsty MacColl and Joan 7\shley feature so heavily it makes one wonder how good she'd be on her own, Cbr^salt: outside the studio. N o M ore C h erry Icin g and THE SPECIALS T ake It To T he N ext W ave are fine songs in a T he S p ecia ls soul inspired rock vein, whilst her version of (Z-Tone) HoUand/Dozier/Holland's C om e S e e A bou t M e is a real display of Tamla Motown-in­ First album from ska/bluebeat revival band fluence, and excellently done as well. Not an the Specials shows the style that has them outstanding album by any means but it has its currently setting the pace in the U.K. In­ moments of excellence. fectious, defiant dance music — no dear, not — Goose disco slush — this self-titled disc boasts a generous fifteen tracks (more party per side), and features the added attraction of Elvis Costello's name on the cover, credited with the production. With the live E.P. Too M uch Too Y oung doing very big things in the British charts it will be interesting to note whether similar activity will automatically follow over here. Seen briefly on Australian TV screens with clips of G an g sters and A M essag e To You R udy (the track which should take off here if anything does), the Specials are a peculiarly British phenomena. To update this form of music, a precursor and close relative of reggae, popular in England during the Mod era, and apparently kept alive by isolated skinhead support, the Specials inject their lyrics with punk-like snarl (and reluctant latent violence) that makes them very close to the bone in a scene where'' political and racial feeling is increasingly ten se. T h eir m ix e d -ra cia l lin e u p , for THE NAUTS example, immediately draws them attention The N auts not necessarily related to their music. In spite (Wizard) of all this, the emphasis is firmly placed on Whatever happened to Supernaut, one delivering a good time, and the music is intended to be experienced live. Taken out of time regulars on Countdown and darlings of this context, it is likely that any acceptance in the pre-teenies? Well one thing that hap­ Australia will be as a result of the novelty pened to them was that in response to the value of the music and as a result, shortlived. unversal pressure to stay relevant, par­ Judged on musical content alone this album ticularly with the onset of the new wave, they does becorre repetitive and even a little changed their name to the Nauts. There — tedious, particularly as the tracks included much more relevant. Another thing they've are uneven in guality and interest value. In done fairly recently is to record an album to this case the Specials might have done better prove it. It's called apty T he N auts and it's to have been a little less generous. Still, if in available now. The cover is in very relevant the past you've been able to listen to a reggae black and white. Judging from some of the album right through without coming up for music inside the cover the Nauts really have air, or if Mod revivals are your thing, or even been doing their homework, particularly in if your record collection just craves that the keyboard department. All songs have something a little different, then the Specials been written under the collective group name, and some ain't half bad, but it sounds might do it for you.

— Adrian Miller like they recorded before they had a real

DUCTIO

bromides •i^pro* film •video 240 RUNDL^ ST 0 8 2 2 3 4 2 0 6 ROADRUNNER FEBRUARY 22 1980 — PAGE 19

chance to weed out the weak, songs. As a result the album sounds like an attempt to catch up rather than to take any kind of lead.

Full credit to the Nauts for picking up the challenge, but there are still too many others who are kilometres ahead.

— Adrian Miller

web of lawsuits over non appearances, then I Numan and Human League song). When guess it's nice to have friends like Waylon Kraftwerk did it, it was fresh. No longer so.

But don't get me wrong, the Human League Jennings, W illie Nelson, Linda Ronstadfand Emmy-Lou Harris. Not to mention Johnny have much more to offer than that detestable features Paycheck, Elvis Costello and an ex-wife little Numanoid. called Tammy (Wynette) all of whom are some beautifully mellow synthesiser, and prepared to sing along on your album, supply their version of the Righteous Brothers' is effectively their own backup band and not charge a stark and chilling. nickle for royalties.

Tbid that's what particularly stands out by avoiding the lack of is all about. 10 excellent tracks featuring mBlody too often a part of electronic nusic.

Jones with each of the artists mentioned above Phil Oakley's vocals put little Mr Numan to plus James Taylor, Dennis Lecorriere and Ray rmch shame, too. A pity that it has that air of Sawyer (Dr. Hook) and the Staple Singers. having been done before, but pretty good Most tracks feature the guest artist's band; the nevertheless.

Hot Band on Emmy Lou's track, Paul English — Goose and Bobby Nelson etc on Willie's track plus some well known Nashville pickers.

Costello fans be prepared to fall about a lot; this is a country album down to the last dying Boomtown Rats strain of the pedal steel, but Costello holds his "The Fine Art of Surfacing" own with the best. And this album certainly (Mercury) has the best. Highlights for me include Emmy Any album with on Lou and Jones on Rodney Crowell's Jones and W illie singing the W illie it. is bound to sell well. But the interesting thing about this one from the Irish Boomtown classic / NicQ touches include playing "match the Rats is that the hit single merely highlights star to the chair" on the cover and checking the good qualities of the rest of the tracks.

Musically, it's quite a big step away from out the backup personnel. Choice of song holds a few fun moments too. Such as ex wife the punk material the band played earlier.

Tammy singing a duet that goes something But, then again, haven't all the good ones made at least some progress? (Or is it just the like. new elite settling in after the revolution?)

"The Fine Art of Surfacing" is good pop m usic, co m p eten tly p lay ed , in te restin g enough. But the music itself is not the strong point of the album. The focus of the offering And with any luck this group of friends as a whole is singer Bob Geldof's voice, and should help Jones back to where he should his songwriting. be. With them at the top.

His voice is intruiging. At various points it's — Chris Jackson Bowie, Holly, Costello, and Williamson (Robin) ((obscure)). For a pop singer's voice, however, it's quite expressive — and not­ withstanding the above comparisons, it's reasonably distinctive. Needless to say, his voice combined with the good looks he displays in the "Mondays" film-clip mean that Geldof is in great danger of becoming the latest new wave sex symbol.

But he's not just a pretty boy in a check jacket. This album shows that he can write songs better than virtually any that have come from the new wave (although that's not really saying a hell of a lot). , of P course, is an example. But so too- is the pleasant , the cute and

Circus O f Death

M y Very Special Friends

A re, GEORGE lONES

My Very Special Friends (CBS George Jones talked of the album M y Very Special Friends as early as February 79. And here it is; exactly a year later.

'79 wasn't a very good year for Jones. First he was arrested for 'assault with intent to murder' songwriter friend Peanut Mon­ tgomery, then he was arrested for beating up long time girlfriend Linda W elbom . At one pxDint he couldn't set foot in Tenessee, Virginia or Alabama due to court actions ranging from assault to non-payment of child support; not forgetting the "assault with intent". So when you're down on your luck, coping with fierce depression and drinking bouts; when your lawyers are untangling a

iTAGE 0

P.lL t LIGHTING SERVICE ARTIST MANAGEMENT PROMOTIONS

BERTIE COX BLADES DIAL'X EMERGENCY INNOCENTS JUMPERS LEMMY CAUTION UMTS

Liz Hogan

You've Lost That Loving Feeling Empire State Human

"I Don't Like M ondays"

Here We

Gotta G et Drunk.

We don't know what it was But we had it We don't know where it went But we lost it.

"Mondays" "When Night Comes" "Diamond Sm iles" "W ind Chill Factor"..

Brian Thomas Chris Loft PH: (08) 42 5070

ending, but it does provide a break from the otherwise over dramatic feel of a lot of the songs. More of an interesting than an exciting album. Worth buying for 'Love Don't Help' and some nice guitar work.

"You know when winter comes to visit tiiese big cities.

THE HUMAN LEAGUE

Reproduction (Virgin)

I've always greatly respected the work of Brian Eno, Bowie, foaftwerk, the Residents and countless European rock bands for their contributions to synthesiser based electronic music. Over the last seven or so years these people have pioneered a form of music initially begun by people like Karl Stock hau s^ in the late 1940's, a form which in the early seventies becam e misnamed as 'Kraut rock'. Recently it has taken people such as Gary Numan to water down the genius of the aforementioned to make an u n o rig in a l, sy n th etic and co m m e rcia lly palatable product. The Human League display the emotion and feeling Numan took out of electronic music, but unfortunately their similarities in being the, dare I say, 'new wave' of that genre make it all seem so cliched. Not that unoriginality is always a bad thing. It's just that those same synthesised sounds are getting so hackneyed now (particularly the crashing sound of syn­ thesised percussion found in just about every

And the wind starts howling through the elevator shafts.

Well our love is like one of those older, colder buildings."

"Nice N ' Neat".

Also of interest if This song is about a dialogue with a religious friend on the topic of eschatology. Nice one. Rats.

It's good to see a nation who've contributed so much to western music again contributing well to a musical form so often degraded yet listened to by so many.

Larry Buttrose.

The Motels (EMI)

DARYL HALL AND JOHN OATES

X-Siatic (RCA)

O .K . I confess. This is the first Hall and Oates album I've ever listened to, let alone reviewed. I have been impressed by their singles and the film clips I had seen of them, but not enough to buy any of their previous albums. Therefore, in the interests of ob­ jectivity (?) I listeiied to this album many times before reviewing it. At first I was disappointed because it seemed like another attempt at a crossover into the discomarket.

But closer listening reveals this album to be a blend of musical styles which form an en­ tertaining pop album.

Of course one of the features of is the vocal work of Daryl Hall. This man must shake one of the most competent set of tonsils anywhere. Not only does he have excellent phrasing and inflection and a good dynamic range, but he can also give life to lyrics such as.

Oh the woman comes and goes W hen the morning com es she goes Yeah the woman comes.

And goes when she's satisfied.

What Puns! (Could Hall and Oates be kirelled f^ n s R ockers???) Ahem, Hall & Oates' harmonies are a feature of the album, as they are with what I have heard on their earlier wca’k , e tc .)

And it's Just as well because they are working with some pretty banal lyrics (which I wouldn't really have noticed if it wasn't for the fact that they are written on the inner sleeve).

Hall and Oates' melding of various musical styles says a lot for their creativity but it could also b e their greatest flaw as it's hard sometimes to establish what they are trying to achieve. I get the impression that Hall and Oates are trying to b e intellectual and say something. The album has something to do with radio. Exactly what, I don't know.

Perhaps it's an attempt to appeal to radio programmers, or even a comment on the state of the medium. The biggest clue must surely be in the track which also best summarizes the album. At first it appears to be a straightforward disco track with its heavy bass and sonorous drums. Yet, it also contains jazz influences, vocal work that is a pastiche of radio jingles and some interesting synthesizer.

The major fault with is the prominence of the drums. They're very heavy and monotonous (rather like an army of grape headers) and tend to obliterate the organ and synthesiser. That probably explains why it

X-Static

(Rich Girl, Sarah Sm iles

Portable Radio,

This is a five-piece American band dominated by guitar/vocalist Martha Davis' catchy tuned, love/hate (one day someone will find something else to sing about) lyrics and powerful sob-in-the-throat vocals. The cover pushes a vaguely new-wave image, but the music has much more of an American than a British influence. Songs vary from the ballady 'Total Control' to the Little Feat-ish 'Love Don't Help'. The latter suffers like many others on the album from a power failure

55] Nicholson St, Carlton

PAGE 20 — ROADRUNNER FEBRUARY 22 1980

X-Static

takes a while to appreciate anything else about the album. It also says a lot about how much a bias against disco effects my judgement (and if it's true for me, well............). I'm afraid that as soon as I hear that bang-click, bang-click, bang-click, I autromatically go oh-oh disco. I'll have to think twice in future. Hall and Oates do provide something more than a beat you can dance to; it may not be deep or even very impressive but it gets to you after a while.

Hey, just like the radio.

N.Z.S Sweetwater Festival

K m

THE METAL BOX / PIL ARTIFACT (Hoax or Fraud?)

In re-establishing the essential cultural components of our eccentric planet's history there is still much work to be done. Perhaps the strangest legacy of our mysterious past is the apocryphal object discovered by ar­ chaeologists of the Uranian Institute of Pataphysical Studies during a fresher's camp Collette Snowden in the infamous and much-discussed London Crater, which has spawned so much endless debabe during the past hundred and. fifty years.

The story of this discovery is well known.

All but buried in a pile of debris, the MB/PiL Artifact (as it has come to be known) was found through the sharp observation of a blank spot in the radioactive spectra of the area one winter's dusk. It proved to be a circular metal container, approximately 12" in diameter, containing three sirrilarly sized black vinyl discs.

Thirty years or so of dedicated study led to Dr. J. Lydon's reception of the Nobeloid Prize when he established that the black discs within the container were magical talismans designed to protect the settlement believed to exist in the London Crater from disaster, a conclusion which was upheld by most people in our profession for many years after.

Mike Oldfield Platinum It is now generally accepted that Dr. Lydon, with the best of intentions, falsified his (Virgin) data to suggest a tenuous connection bet­ This is not music for punks, or even new- ween himself and one of the five Public wave polka dot clean cut kids. This is not Image Ltd. managerial personnel whose music for 1980 — brave-new-world Gary names appear on a scrap of paper inside the Numan all-things-bright and beautiful-ice- box. (The other names — Keith Levene, blue neo-fascists. This is not music for burnt Wobble, Jeanette Lee, and Dave Crowe — out hippies or jazz-folk-rock fusion af- like John Lydon — are otherwise unknown in ficionadoes. This is not music for 2 CH or crustacean history).

5AA. It may not even be music for 3RRR, When an obscure device bearing the 5MT4M or 4ZZZ. This is music for a species bizarre inscription Sony (thought to be an which might be gone. This music is for people ancient sun worshipping cult) was unearthed who have a sense of humour. Mike Oldfield at a later date, it was not long before a has gone from the sublime to you know brilliantly gifted mythologist concluded that where. And it's great. the minute sacrificial knife (the first object Don't be put off by what you've read in your ever to give us an indication of the previous local syntheNews Press or seen as you gape at Earth civilisation's size) attached to an arm of the Lies Service on the Vid about this kid this object (called the SCNYist altar) was having gone bananas with potentiality fashioned to fit exactly within the complex courses and that stuff, he's still there playing grooves of the discs which would then spin Tubular Bells. I mean it. After 5 years he's around. still playing "Tubular B ells" , but with even At first it was thought the whole business more tongue stuck in cheek, more gall, and was a popular allegory of the cyclic journey he even (almost) covers it up with disco beat through life, a widespread image indeed, as and Gershwin. the two artifacts were found half a world Gershwin. Composer of the 20's and 30's apart! Now,however, we know that these and on. American. Set for the big push with artifacts were intended to reproduce sound.

80's fash. ("Ragtimes" and "M agazine") but It is at this point that the sceptics step in.

Mike Oldfield has started the new wave When a culture like ours, they insist, clicking rolling with a version of "I G ot R hythm ", sung their mandibles irritably, has only recently

by Wendy Roberts. And there's also Phillip discovered these unusual vibrations, thought Glass, the composer of the amazing 3 hour to be the rhythm of the universe, how could a opera "Einstein on th e B each " . Mike Oldfield primitive culture such as that of Earth's early has arranged pieces by him on Side 1, with days possibly have a conception of such a help from disco beat and a band of musos with thing? Nothing remotely resembling the foreign names. They all probably started out gigantic sound Generators which we need to life playing electric violin in jazz combos. study this phenomenon has ever been found Side 2, besides the sweet Gershwin track, in any archaeological diggings. also has a haunting funny song called Whatever the case, the METAL BOX/PIL "Sally". It's very moving after 3 beers. Artifact was a work of religious nature, even Perhaps not even that many. A nice arty prophetic, as it was designed and packaged piece for the Rundle Street East-Darlinghurst to survive a nuclear holocaust. It may have world is " W oodh en g e" (yes, they did use^ been intended as an aid to the reintegration wood as well as stone when building that of Earth's scattered peoples, long since switchboard of a by gone age), while vanished.

P u n kad id d le combines the vocal effects of a The only resolution of these contradictions Christian day out at the Colosseum with is through individual experience, which in guitar raw as lion chow. my opinion is worth the trouble. The cost of This record is a must. There are even using the artifact rnay be prohibitive to some, tubular bells on it. A delightful, haunting but I believe few people could disagree that musical offering from a genius. the METAL BOX speaks for itself.

Professor A rthur O 'Pod Larry Buttrose from "O u r In sect A n cesto rs"

C om e E asy, Rickie Lee Jones' E asy M on ey , F u rn an ce o f L ife and M y B est F rien d's G irl F rien d.

The highlight of the Monday night main stag e p erfo rm a n ces, seen only by Aucklanders because it was their provincial holiday, was returned weird and wonderful rock/theatre group Red Mole. They had 11 people on stage, bizarre and freguent changes of costume, poetry, recitation, rock, fires and elaborate props. First song: W e're a ll liv in g in h y steria [x2] W e're a ll liv in g in A m erica, But o f co u rse w e're fr e e .

The song started with a piercing siren. That was preceded by a story about a primitive tribe, spoken over another voice reciting the names of animal and primate species, all set to a gentle insistent heartbeat rhythm.

The next bracket started with a long sowrd and scorcery story set to drum beats and a wandering spacey organ and recited by one of the two women who founded the group: It was illustrated at one point with people in masks and costumes marching across the stage on stilts. The recitation took about 15 minutes and by that time the speaker was also yelling above guitars, a permanent organ tone and three backing singers in full monastic voice.

After that followed an exhortation to the Sweetwaters sinners drowning in the mire of drugs, booze or sex to repent. More along the same vein guite took in a segment of Jesus freaks not far from us. They stopped yelling Hallelujah brother after the rave from the male singer turned into a rock song complete with flaming torches and swords, a flaming altar on a hill half a kilometre away, all white costumes with huge crazy hats and another solo rage. "God is waiting for your call.

Reach him at Room 27 of the Ngaruawahia pub." Magnificent theatre and the rock all the more effective. Red Mole, which evolved from a multitalented group of Welling uni students will follow their tours of the U.S. with one of Enzed, wowing the provincial centres, I have no doubt.

And that, with the exception of a couple of no-name bands, was it.

Surveys showed that festival-goers were attracted as much by Split Enz or Mi-Sex as Costello. The signing of Costello to Sweetwaters did not make the decision for many people, and it seems that the festival would have been a success without him. And therefore that Kiwis appreciate their own musicians enough to pay $20 to listen to three days of their music, plus a few eguivalent O/S attractions (Mi-Sex, G eyer, Martyn and CB were exclusive to Sweetwaters.).

But whether this situation can continue is moot. Expenses for staging an event of Sweetwaters' magnitude are skyrocketing, especially if big O/S attractions are included.

Golden Valley Productions was guarded about the possibility of future festivals, but there have been at least seven middle-sized ones in the last decade, including the massive third Nambassa festival, and they have a place in a country with limited pub circuits, a shortage of good performing venues and small population centres.

People kept asking me what Sweetwaters was like. Although many images of the crowd and the best bands flashed into my head, the overriding feeling was my own totally exhausted physical state. You can only enjoy 40 bands if you're awake to see them, not too tired to appreciate them and, paradoxically, don't try to hear them all.

Davies keeps his distance from the business, but he needs it as much as it needs him. Tlnd somehow he always manages to get what he wants.

He's met with Australian promoters, and is keen to return, with the rest of the band, to play here.

• Davies remembers the Kinks' last tour of Australia, in the very early '70's, as 'a total cock-up'. At the time the band were at a particularly low ebb.

Last year, the Kinks were slated to support Peter Frampton (who?) on a tour of Australia, but it didn't eventuate. Why not?

"You know, something happens," Davies said, as he tried to carve his meaning into the air with his hands, "...it's a chemical thing, and you know, you get a feeling it ain't right.

7\nd I just didn't have th e . . . 'courage' to withstand a tour with guys who didn't want to do it."

Is touring still exciting?

"Oh yeah, it is. We've toured non-stop since February, and it's been great. It was hard work, but the band got together, and we did it."

Davies is in the process of mixing a live album, recorded over 10 dates of the Kinks' most recent ibnerican tour.

A videotape of the band on stage during that tour reveals them to be in top form. To be honest, I was surprised to see the Kinks playing with such vitality and commitment.

The band have tightened their act (it was certainly no drunken shambles), and ob­ viously they're revelling in their new-found success. Particularly Davies, who was prancing from one side of the stage to the other in a sassy, almost Jagger-Iike fashion. It came as no surprise to learn that the 'oldies' the Kinks include in their set nowadays are songs like You R eally G ot M e and A ll D ay an d A ll O f T he N ight.

So when can Australian audiences expect to see all this?

"It depends on: a) when I can finish this record, which I'm half way through, and b) if the venues are right."

Ideally Davies would like to play before no more than 3000 people, in seatless halls, but whether or not such a venue can be found in each capital city in Australia remains to be seens. I hope so.

With that, our session concluded.

As Coupe and myself file out of his room, Davies' organge juice finally arrives, after a half-hour wait, and he washes down his pills.

And lo and behold, he turns into a superman, and leaps out of the window, and flies off to right all the wrongs in the world.

Tlfter all, was it not Ray Davies who said, 'I wish I oould fly like Superman?'

But no. This flight is one purely of my imagination.

Ray Davies is a man with his feet planted firmly on the ground — indeed, he once said, 'I still write from ground lev el.. . maybe that's what keeps my perspective okay.' But at the same time, .he's a man who has h o p e. Tbid that's why he can sing a song like [/ W ish f C ou ld F ly L ike] S u perm an with some con­ viction, that's what makes the difference.

The Pretenders'Stop Your S ob b in g isn't the only Kinks' song that's been recorded recently and received airplay on 2JJ — there's also the Jam's D avid W atts, the Raincoats' L ola and, at worst, Jimmy and the Boys' I'm Not L ik e E v ery bod y E lse.

But if there is to be a revival of interest in the Kinks, why not let the Kinks lead it themselves? Surely L ow B u d g et is en­ couragement enough.

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mimrsiinTiisiiiiTiiP Interesting batch of seven inchers (and a couple of superb 12"-ers too) this time around. Single of the week (OK I know we’re fortnightly but who's counting?) is H olly and the Italians ‘Tell That G irl To Shut U p’.

(Oval).

Calling and Amagideon Time) on one side and a nine minute dub version of Arm agideon Time on T ’other. The dub version, produced by the Clash themselves, is the blackest roots reggae (as opposed to the sort of pop reggae most white musicians get into) you’re ever likely to hearthis sideof Jamaica.

Paul Simonon’s bass and Topper-Headon’s drums power the track along while Blockhead Mickey Gallagher slips in just the right amount of keyboard kolouring. There’s a dash of scratchy guitar, tinkling percussion and enough echo on the vocals to spread them over the rhythm. For make no mistake, the Clash are one of the few modern masters of rhythm, and Arm agideon Time shows them at the height of their very considerable powers.

O.K. Onto home grown platters that matter.

Anc once again groups are showing the majors that Australian talent CAN produce interesting, fresh and, yes Virginia, Relevant singles. Two in particular this week, The Riptides (Flat) and Moving Parts (Muzart).

‘Well you got a girl and she lives with you And she does just what you want her to When I call you on the phone she says you’re not there But I know you’re home You’d better tell that girl to shut up You’d better tell that girl I’m gonna beat her up.’

— goes the opening verse and from there on young Holly (a mere 16 from alt reports) proceeds with the catchiest character assassination in recording history. The brash playing of the Italians complements perfectly Holly’s sassy, swaggering singing. ‘I just can’t staaaand her’ she sings, with feeling plus. I’m sure glad I ain’t that lady that got in the way.

Big sound and deserves to be a big hit (if it’s ever released here.)

And single of the week No. 2 comes from last issue’s darlings The Clash. Wot, another single so soon you ask? Well, yes-. . . .and no. The vinyl in question is a 12" import with both sides of the Australian 7" (London

I The Riptides (from Brisbane) display con­ siderable grasp of the basics of sixties pop, right down to the production which is clean and clear. There’s a hint of the surf in the guitar licks, a great double shuffling drum beat and even a touch of rinky-tink piano. Oh, the song’s called ‘Tom orrow’s Tears’ and with true pop sensibility the chorus, ‘You know that I can’t cry-Tomorrow’s Tears’ is repeated 10 million times before the record ends. The flip, ‘Some Other G uy’ sounds like the Easybeats. And it’s good. The Riptides are an Australian pop band. Thank God the breed didn’t die with Young Modern.

Moving Parts are a young Sydney outfit who have produced a startling original debut E.P. The three tracks are ‘How Could I? ’, ‘If You Break I t ’ and ‘Chevy’. ‘Chevy’ is the stand out. It puts me in mind of a young Talking Heads. Moving Parts have that same dynamism through spacing the various elements of their music. Production is excellent too.

And last, but certainly not least. The Boys

chorus that goes ‘Australian girl-the best in the world.’ Pretty trite in black and white, but this is a catchy song, well executed and boasts a superb piano line from Tony Slavich.

Could very well be Rudd’s first hit for ages.

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Linda Ronstadt has discovered a new wave and on ‘How Do I Make You’ she raps her platinum tonsils around an upbeat rocker.

And by god, she sounds pretty good too.

There’s actually some feeling in these grooves. The band don’t mess about ether.

There’s some neato guitar, meaty drumming and, if you don’t believe me listen yourself, the big R comes on with a few Beatlish ‘ooh’s’ and at one point, screams. Shock, horror.

Daq-tUfi. Angie is a Pete Townsend protege. Pepper-

'

Next Door. On the eve of their departure for the mythical U.K. rhusic scene Missing Link have released a record only available at the door of Melbourne’s Crystal Ballroom on the 16th Eeb. (of course if not all of them were sold you might find one or two popping up in your local independent record shop.) The two tracks are ‘Riddle House’ and ‘Happy B irthday’. Like the Boys recent output (the excellent and bizarre ‘Hee H aw ’ E.P.) this is complex, sectional and sometimes distur­ bing music. However the lyrics (printed on the cover) add another dimension. That of decicedly absurdist humour. The hero of ‘Happy B irthday’ for example is a DogChair(?) which goes woof woof woof X 10, then times 11 (the ‘song’ is about a little boys eleventh birthday.) I like it a lot.

Black humour with a moretraditional musical backing can be found on the M onty Python single ‘Always Look On The B right Side’, (WEA) from the equally w onderful ‘Life Of B rian’ soundtrack of the equally wonderful ‘Life O f B rian ’ movie. I’ll just say that it’s one of the greatest statements made on the human condition this century (or any other for that matter.) and leave it at that. Jean Paul Sartre? ‘Oc’s ‘E?

ming Lump (Stiff) is strange. Imag ine the Who with an eleven year old girl singing lead vocals. Very twee. Is this from the man who once said ‘Hope I die before 1 get old’? A novelty.

And talking of proteges. The Beat were discovered by Eddie Money. They are one of the ever growing L.A. powerpop fan club.

Comparisons with the Knack are perhaps inevitable, but on repeated listening, they don’t really stand up. The Beat are more in the tradition of the Raspberries and other early seventies bands who kept the powerpop flag flying through the dark days of heavy metal. But there’s nothing really outstanding about this single. It’s one of many competent pop singles around. Maybe the album will reveal more.

T. V. the new Flying Lizards single (Virgin) is nothing like ‘Money’. For one it sounds as if it was recorded in a proper studio. For two it hasn’t got a jagged disco beat. In fact it’s rather smooth. But it’s definitely weird. It seems to be a ‘lovew’ song to a sugar daddy.

There’s also a bit of French and an ending that goes 'very . . . very . , . very . . . very . . .’ Hmm, yes.

The Inmates are one of the new bands in the R&B revival stakes. Oh, no not ANOTHER revival you may say. Yup, ‘fraid so, I reply.

‘D irty Water’ (Radar) like the early Stones, and if that’s your bag, go for it. One thing it’s NOT, is modern.

Led Zep have released ‘Fool in the R ain’ (Swansong) from the IN Through the Back Door album. A ploy to gather airplay no doubt, but isn’t it a bit late? With the number of Zep fans around it could be a hit and it probably merits it — it’s better than 50% of the top forty.

Compared to David Johansen’s ‘M elody’ however it sounds pretty turgid. This latest offering from Johansen has all the swing and bounce that characterises the best of 60’s Motown. Johansen has a strong, vibrant voice and his band are excellent throughout.

A little gem that deserves to do big things this.

Australian Girl, the first single from Mike Rudd & The Heaters (Mushroom) has a

Donald Robertson.

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This issue we have something rather unusual to five away to our first thirty new subscribers. It's a new album for Mike Batt and Friends and it's called The album is based on Batt's in­ terpretation of the 22 cards in the Major Arcana of the Tarot (an ancient pack of cards used mainly for divination or fortune telling). His 'friends' include gu itarists Rory G a lla g h e r & C hris Spedding, vocalists Roger Chapman and Cblin Blunstone (ex Zombies), Ray Cooper (Elton John's percussionist) and the London Symphony O rchestra. Is this the start of the psychedelic revival?

Suite'.

'Tarot

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