When ego is not a dirty word

Rip It Up, Issue 7, 1 December 1977, Page 11

When ego is not a dirty word

Jeremy Templer

Skyhooks The Skyhooks Tapes Mushroom Records Radio Birdman Radios Appear Trafalgar Records America may never understand Skyhooks but their wide appeal to Australians has always seemed obvious; a combination of catchy, often simplistic songs with lyrics relevant to Australian youth, that dealt with such as VD, dope, homosexuality and ego. In America Skyhooks have been compared with the Tubes, 10cc, Roxy Music, Kiss, the Rolling Stones . . . even the Bay City Rollers. The inclusion of Skyhooks’ “Horror Movies" on Vertigo’s compilation album New Wave - among songs by Patti Smith, the Damned, Talking Heads, the Ramones and the New York Dolls can only cause further confusion. The Milwaukee Journal came closest in describing Skyhooks as “.. . defiance, pure and simple. Even by the more liberal standards of the US, this has got to be the most blatantly rebellious group since the MCs’’. That was last year, before the New Wave. Skyhooks are back in Australia at present, recording a new album with a new guitarist before returning to the States in the new year. The Skyhooks Tapes is a “best of” selection that summarises the band’s career to date and includes five tracks previously unreleased on album with

a re-recorded version of “Whatever Happened to the Revolution?”. “Revolution" was recorded at the same time as the third album, Straight in a Gay, Gay World, at the Record Plant in California, but it has lost its simplicity in the remaking. That loss of simplicity and, in turn, the loss of aggressiveness was the main failing of Straight in a Gay, Gay World. With Bob Spencer as replacement for Red Symons, with a new album that includes several new Greg Macainsh songs with promising titles like “Megalomania”, “Bedroom Eyes" and “Why Don’t You All . . .?”, Skyhooks may yet have the new confidence that’s needed before America accepts them probably as part of the New Wave. Sydney’s New Wave group Radio Birdman have always insisted on their own independence. Radios Appear was originally distributed in Australia by the group, their studio and by mail-order throuaj? their fan club, at a discount price. Thishasn’t endeared them to the record industry but has led to run-ins with promoters and media, with the group branded as too arrogant for their own good. Arrogance is okay if you've got the goods to match, and the album's only fault is a too obvious debt to the Stooges. Radios Appear includes a version of the Stooges' “TV Eye”, more exact than the original and, while the band obviously loses some of the excitement it is supposed to have when playing live, the songs are tight, the production clean, the album more in common with New York’s New Wave than England’s.