OWN CLONE

Rip It Up, Issue 17, 1 November 1978, Page 7

OWN CLONE

With his skateboard clutched under his arm and his sun-bleached bounciness, Leif Garrett seems the epitome of mobile Californian youth. He could have skated out of a Brian Wilson surf anthem. Garrett was in Auckland on a busy round of public appearances, television and Press interviews, all in the interests of self-promotion. He covers a wide field. At the moment he has a TV series, a new album, and a movie, Skateboard, for the public to digest. Although he has been acting since he was five, appearing in movies, television and commercials, Garrett’s principal ambition now lies with singing. His promotional trips to South East Asia and New Zealand are aimed essentially at furthering the musical side of his career. At first glance, it’s tempting to regard him as some sort of clone, another in the David/Shaun Cassidy mold. The impression doesn’t do him justice. He has a quick intelligence and a surefooted approach to his career. Most of all, he seems to be in control. Even if his music suggests disposable nursery rhymes for the older child, Leif Garrett doesn’t intend to be a throwaway. At the moment, his audience is around his own age (he’s 17 on November 8 and says the people who come to see him in person are aged 12 to 17), but as he leaves his teens he hopes to develop a more mature appeal. His present repertoire is teen dream stuff, a throwback to the early sixties. He’s had hits with re-makes of the Beach Boys’ “Surfin USA” and Dion’s “Runaround Sue.” On his new album Feel the Need he sings the Beach Boys’ “Fun Fun Fun” and Tommy Roe’s “Sheila". The songs are suited to Garrett’s adolescent voice. “That’s the beginning of rock and roll. I want to start out like those guys, Dion and the Beach Boys, did and build on that.”