Singles Singles Singles...

Rip It Up, Issue 11, 1 May 1978, Page 18

Singles Singles Singles...

Francis Stark.

It seems that the Nouvelle Vague is' commanding more and more interest among the singles releases these days partly because of the abysmal quality of most of the competition, but also because those surfing on it put more faith in the singles market than the rest of the (white) rock business. Consequently, if you want more than the-single-from-the-album-of-the-same-name syndrome you are going to have to look to the punks for salvation, however much it grates. Ironically, the first company to have the distinction of firing the Sex Pistols has now released a record by the band formed by the first musician to have the distinction of being fired by them. Glen Matlock fell out with the other Pistols because of his publicly-stated affection for sixties pop, and this single shows it. If "Rich Kids" by Rich Kids is (ahem) New Wave at all, it is in the American idiom Richard Hell, Tom Petty et al. but apart from the obligatory buzz-saw guitar, it is really Pure Pop for Now People. If the New Zealand release of the Rich Kids album depends on the success of their single, I can't see it taking much more than a month.

The Tom Robinson Band second release, featuring "Sing If You're Glad to be Gay" has plenty of the expected sloganeering and clenched fist rock and roll, but there is also an almost vaudevillian taste for a singalong. "Glad to be Gay," which I imagine you won’t be hearing on your transistor, has a tune which Kurt Weill would have been proud of, and the sloganeering is carried off with more wit than likes of the dreary Clash will ever manage. Of all the so-called punk bands, The Stranglers got off to the quickest start into the limelight, and have come closest to establishing some kind of cross-over audience. Even if their macho posturings make them fair game for taunts of being the Bad Company of the safety pin set, it still can’t be denied that they have a real flair for well-constructed, hammer and anvil rock and roll. "Five ’ which is not on No More Heroes, slams its way into the subconcious very quickly, and it is obviously its obsessive drive which has made it into a stage favourite. I haven’t got the faintest idea what it’s all about, and even less about the flip, “Rok it to the Moon” which may well

be an advantage. Of course, punkdom is not a movement it’s a market and some of the strangest things wind up popular. Bob Marley and the Wailers released one of the several potential singles off Exodus, "Jamming" which gives physical overtones to the word that I don't think the Allman Brothers had in mind. Not particularaly notable you’d think. On the B side, however, is an obsure little ditty called "Punky Reggae Party” which has become quite a fave amongst London punkers I am told, and even locally has been racking up plenty of play on the juke box in the Globe. It is a description of a mind-boggling shindig where spike tops rub against dread locks, the Wailers fraternise with "The Damned, The Jam,The Clash", and "No Boringoldfarts will be there". It must do wonders for the self esteem of your average punk. But, despite their pre-emption of the interesting end of the singles market, the New Wavers haven't got it entirely to themselves. Some of the oldest warhorses can still pull off a good one now and again. Elton John, who has always had more re-

spect for singles than most of his contemporaries, has chosen to make his comeback on the hit parade rather than with an album. The rest certainly seems to have done him good. "Ego" is a more convincing attack on the pop world than he has managed for some time. The hooks are catchier, the pace more frantic, the words less self-indulgent. In fact, if I didn’t know better, I'd say he'd been listening to Split Enz. The flip is notable too, It is a song (with real words) that is credited simply, 'E. John’. Perhaps he’s finally shaking off the eminently disposable Bernie Taupin. If you listen to “I Can’t Hold On,’’ you notice the oh-so-solid rhythm vocals, the immaculate harmonies by the gentleman back-up singer, the instantly-memorable hook-line. It just has to be Fleetwood Mac. But it isn’t Karla Bonoff is one of a small collection of women singers who are currently scuffling in Linda Ronstadt’s shadow, and on the evidence of this record, she has chosen the Mac Method for Making Good. There are worse wavs to make a mint.