Hello Sailor LP Review

Rip It Up, Issue 6, 1 November 1977, Page 4

Hello Sailor LP Review

Francis Stark

Hello Sailor Key Records

Receiving this record gives rise to a quick mental review of its competition New Zealand conceived and recorded albums of the last few years. Quite honestly, I can’t find anything in them to make me believe any the less that this is the best local album I have heard.

Hello Sailor have been gigging around the country for the last two years or more, building up an impressive personal following, and an unequalled log of playing hours. It is a tribute to them and their material that Hello Sailor shows none of the professional lethargy which afflicts so many of New Zealand’s experienced musicians.

Quite a proportion of the material on the album will be familiar to avid T. V. watchers, radio listeners and habitues of the pubs of Auckland,

A great deal of the record’s appeal stems from the range of styles of the different writers (there are five different credits combined and individual for the eleven cuts) and also from the different effect created by the three lead singers used. While they are very much a two guitar band, they have none of the limitations which that formula can give rise to, nor do they seem to feel the temptation to use the studio to radically alter their live sound. What you get on Hello Sailor is substan-

tially the same as you might get at your local on a night when things are running hot.

The degree of sophistication which they pack into their tight format is obvious throughout, but most obviously on ’’When Your Lights Are Out”. With the addition of piano, by John Mitchell, they put together a classic rock and roll song, no more than four minutes long with a neat guitar solo, a raunch sax honk and a fading hook that just won’t die. Coupled to this are words which throughout the record don’t disgrace their place on the sleeve: Can’t outclass the classy Can’t out mean the nasty You can't do nothing when the lights are out.

Song after song is reeled off in this fashion, all of them in the style but not defined by it. Guitar music has always been the heart of rock'n'roll (and the reason Elton John doesn’t rock’n’roll) and Hello Sailor is as much an affirmation of that fact as any other mid-seventies album I can ntme. It soaks up its influences well, from Jimmy Cliff to J. Geils, from Graham Parker to Steely Dan, but comes out as definitely 1977 as any more overtly New Wave effort. I suppose you can say that skilful farming of influence was as rriuch a credential for rock’n’roll success an feny other. The rhythm section is as sweaty tight as you have every right to expect from such an accomplished bar band, with the two

guitars carrying everything between them and making a suitably nasty background for Brazier’s often inspired singing. Even in their less than auspicious days as the fag end of ‘Vamp Rock', the band had a giltedged asset in Brazier’s voice, which has paid off handsomely.

Brazier has developed as a singer to the extent where he can effectively throw in one line references to other singers’ styles a little Bowie in ’Big Bum”, a touch of Gabriel in ‘‘When Your Lights are Out", Fagan in "Hooked”, Rotten (or is it the Scavs?) in "Last* Chance to Dance". The leavening provided by McCartney’s two lead vocals and Lyon's one, as well as their harmonies not only extends the range of the band but it also highlights Brazier’s contributions.

It is usual, at the end of a review of a record you like to hunt around for some strong point of the artist or recording to hang the approval on. In this case there is an embarassment of riches. Everything about Hello Sailor from the cover, through the songs, the bionically interwined guitar lines, the so tough rhythm section, the singing and the swagger with which it is ail carried off, spells out success.

This record is sitting beside Ideal Treatment and Period of Transition as my favourite new record for 1977, and who am I to say that come Christmas it won’t have outstripped them?