SINGLES

Rip It Up, Issue 13, 1 July 1978, Page 18

SINGLES

Francis Stark

This month it seems most appropriate to arrange the new singles in descending order of punkness (or curliness if you subscribe to the New Wave theory). The only difficulty is the steadily increasing numbers of performers who are knocking out either imitations or parodies (sometimes it’s hard to tell). Still, here goes. We’re on safe ground with “She’s So Modern” by the Boomtown Rats. It has the right words although perhaps a little too right to be ahead of the fashion the guitars go chunka-chunka and they should love it on the jukebox down at Zwines. Still and all, if “Looking After No. One”, complete with neat T.V. clip, couldn’t make it, it may not be able to see much action against the Bee Gees. Also in the easy category are the Tom Robinson Band. Their words are well and truly in the style not to mention extremely appropriate, and rather amusing in a black sort of way. "Up Against The Wall” is not quite the MCS rant you might expect, but rather a wry look at the problems facing Britain’s leaders, and a few tips on how to make them worse. The guitars here don’t just confine themselves to going chunka-chunka, there is also a very fine guitar solo which clocks in well inside the allowable maximum. I suspect that this will get the airplay that the

closeted ones didn’t dare give the TRB’s last effort. We step onto shakey ground with the normally dependable Motors. Where their previous releases have been a little too close to Status Quo to win the hearts of the true punk (I hear there’s one left living in Remuera with his mum and dad) “Airport” is a different kettle of vinyl. Piano and string synthesiser don’t augur well, and when the acoustic guitars and da-da-da-das come in, you just have to face it. It’s pop music of the minor key kind and damn good too. Mink De Ville have credentials all right, but they got theirs rather differently from their English competitors. Here the Marty Robbins arrangement, and the production by Jack Nitzsche give the record an indefinable air perhaps it will remind you of Gene Pitney. And just for the hell of it, listen to the harmonica solo and see if you can convince yourself that it isn’t Bob Dylan. This has been an instant rumour. Our very own Neville Purvis comes next neatly straddling the line between Disco and Punk, in a shameless attempt to sell out. The main trouble with “It Takes Money”, is that somebody forgot to tell the drummer that it was the New Wave side of the record he was playing on although I suspect if Boney M get to hear it they could make a mint out of the style. Meanwhile, over on side two, Neville and the girls whoop up a storm of ‘Get Downs’, ‘Right Ons’ and ‘Whassa Guts’. "Disco on My Radio" the morals of the BCNZ allowing might be just the sellout Neville is looking for. The British Lions may have seemed like a clever name in 1977 but the All Blokes soon put a stop to that. Unfortunately the sight of a lot of ageing Welshmen trying to keep up with the flower of New Zealand manhood is closely paralleled by the performance of their namesakes in trying to foot it with the punks. Despite the title, (and almost the right amount of chunka-chunka) "One More Chance To Run” is not going to score in the corner. I'd say it was comprehensively out-scrummed. Finally, amongst all the sickly outbreak of ‘Power Pap’, I’ve sneaked insomethingfrom somebody who knows better. Todd Rundgren made the all-time best pop album, Something/Anything (gunna argue?) and after all that Utopia drivel it is good to hear him do it again with ‘‘Can We Still Be Friends”. This is my record of the month all the rest sound like ashtrays on my turntable by comparison.