Last Stand for Ned Kellys

Rip It Up, Issue 16, 1 October 1978, Page 8

Last Stand for Ned Kellys

Bruce Belsham

Members of Australia’s Little River Band admit to staging a last-ditch stand. They are, they say, indulging themselves in their final effort to earn a crust in a working band. When The Little River Band folds the boys will go their separate ways, disappearing into the bowels of Australia’s recording studios and entertainment industry. But. as final efforts go, Little River Bands is a remarkably productive one. At present they hold the record as Australasia’s most successful rock and roll export; at last count the band had sold over a million and a half albums, had four singles reaching the Billboard top forty and had made three full American tours. The latest LRB album Sleeper Catcher has sold 650,000 copies in the States and is shifting fast enough for Capitol to withhold its due gold award in anticipation of the million sales mark and a platinum disc. The second single from the record ’’Reminiscing” is positioned at fifteen on the American Top 40 and continues to make progress. The success of this Melbourne band is responsible for their interest which is more commercial than musical. LRB provides another example of the process Aussie filmmakers have already mastered, tailoring product for a consumer market. Their style, a studio-polished, hybrid of California pop and boogie, is accomplished, but never innovative. During their first, 1976 American tour LRB were criticised as a poorman’s Eagles, a not unfounded contention. Guitarist/songwriter Graham Goble admits they keep an ear to popular formulas, but denies that

they have become as stylised as bands like the Bee Gees. He adds that they haven’t heard the Eagles comparison for some time. Nevertheless local musicians could learn more from LRB’s tactical approach to international fame than from their musical approach. LRB hold one or two lessons. They are adamant that essential factors in their success have been patience, luck and good management. The rigours of the American scene are stressed. "You can’t be naive,” says lead singer Glenn Shorrock, "The States are like nowhere in the world. We’re only just becoming a part of it. It’s such a big machine.” Not being naive adds up to being prepared to work hard and to lose money on tours. The band pay tribute to Glenn Wheatley, their manager who ensured they were working for exposure from the onset of their first American excursion. Each year since 1976 has seen a major tour for them. On their first they ran to a $60,000 deficit, on their second they broke even. The accounting has still to be done for the three month tour that ended in Auckland on September 7th, but this time a profit is expected. That, in the terms of U.S. touring economics is good progress; a daunting reflection. If nothing else, Little River band’s American acceptance is return for a hard slog, not merely with LRB, but in 34 year old Shorrock’s case with countless earlier bands. (He visited N.Z. once previously in 1967 with the Twilights). The undoubted slickness they showed in their Auck-

land gig is born of long service as is, I suspect, their certain tendency to blandness. Nowhere is the proficiency of LRB more obvious than in the opening of their set. House and stage lights cut, the three vocalists, Shorrock, Goble and guitarist Beeb Birtles sing three part acapella harmonies strong, confident harmonies that stretch out in the darkness with stunning effect. In Auckland, after Rick Steele's shoddy support set, it seemed an act of dazzling competence. If Steele was embarrassing, the show promised instantly to redeem itself and even if it never fulfilled the promise, the contrast was a timely blow for professional standards. The undistinguished series of boogie numbers which followed were frankly a disappointment of early hopes. Not until the wind up, when LRB strung together half a dozen of their more immediate pop songs, did the image of a goodtime band start to suit. And not before they had displayed that three guitars, however well played, cannot do all the things LRB use keyboards and strings for in the studio. However, rarely ones to despise a decent tune, the Town Hall and I warmed to "Reminiscing”, "Shut Down, Turn Off", and an encore of the old "Return to Sender”. Meanwhile there was that comforting if predictable feeling that Auckland had been treated with a scrupulous similarity to each of the other 66 venues on Little River Band’s tour. Which pretty much typifies this sample of Ocker rock.