SMALL STUFF

Rip It Up, Issue 32, 1 March 1980, Page 2

SMALL STUFF

Above, AC/DC, Bon Scott on extreme right.

The Meatloaf follow-up to the mammoth Bat Out of Hell will be released in May, at the same time as Bad For Good, the debut by his writing partner, Jim Steinman ... Bob Dylan is back in Muscle Shoals Studio with producers Jerry Wexler and Barry Beckett, just like when he made his last album, Slow Train Coming ... Devo have taken to opening their shows disguised as 'Dove, The Band of Love'. Highlight is Boujie Boy’s rendition of "Gotta Serve Somebody” ... flip of new Blondie single "Atomic" is their live recording of Bowie fav, "Heroes" ... the evening after hi&'Sell-out gig at the 18,000 seater Los Angeles Forum, Tom Petty gigged at an LA club. Fans queued overnight. The second half of his two hour Whiskey show was ‘solid gold’ including "Something Else” (Cochran), "Shout" (Isleys), "Anyway You Want It” (Dave Clark), "Don’t Bring Me Down" (Animals) and "I Fought the Law” (Bobby Fuller) ... next from Styx may be a live album, as they recorded two concerts on their US tour ... Costello and band have guested at Rockpile gigs in Liverpool and Bradford under the name The Horace Barlow Experience. Costello newie Get Happy has ten tracks on each side. NME claim that the influence of the Memphis soul sound is apparent and that immediately after producing The Specials debut, Elvis dived into a London oldies shop and purchased 50 British bucks worth of Stax and Atlantic label recordings, by Sam and Dave (and others), then headed for-Holland with Nick Lowe ... The Members have completed their new album. It’s titled 1980 The Choice is Yours ... romance is in the air. Though Kisser Gene Simmons and Cher have called it quits, Lou Reed has announced his engagement to a lucky lady, Sylvia Mora Jes. Not to be outdone, Irish lad Phil Lynott (Thin Lizzy) has married and so has Skids man Stuart Adamson ... by the way, Skids have two new members. Moore and Simpson have left. New players are Mike Bailey (drums) and Russell Webb (bass) ... The Buzzcocks have quit live work. A new album is due soon plus two albums on Peter Shelley's

Groovy Records, featuring Pete’s electronic compositions ... New Orleans singer/pianist, Professor Longhair died last month shortly after completing an album produced by Allen Toussaint entitled Crawfish Fiesta on Alligator Records. Tinklers to learn their stuff from Longhair include Dr John and The Specials’ Jerry Dammers. In fact The Specials caught Longhair's final gig, after opening for Police in New Orleans ... selling line for the Pistols’ Flogging A Dead Horse, is “14 Great Hits From Those Loveable Spikey Tops". The cover design has a ‘l4 Truckers’ Favourites’ flavour. Pure pap ... all girl sensation, The Slits have left Island Records ... some soul news Mr Funk, James Brown has recorded a live album, not at the Apollo but, you guessed, in Japan. Aretha Franklin is signed to Arista Records. The proposed Temptations reunion album (with Eddie Kendricks and David Ruffin) fell through ... rock’n’roll critics writing books include Lester Bangs (a book on Blondie for Viking Press) and Robert Christgau who is writing 'A Consumers’ Guide to the Seventies’ ... Bon Scott (30) the AC/DC lead singer was found dead in a car in London. There were no suspicious circumstances ... this month's 'Zany Name Awards' go to Virgin signingsi Holly and the Italians and Martha and the Muffins ... bad taste ace, photographer Helmut Newton shot the poster inside the new Van Halen album. It’s entitled Women And Children First ... in the studio soon are Barbara Streisand (producer Barry Gibb), Shaun Cassidy (producer Todd Rundgren), Temptations (producer Berry Gordy), Gladys Knight (Ashford and Simpson producing) and Grace Jones (producer is Island boss Chris Blackwell) ... Brian Eno and Robert Fripp are in the studio ... albums to look out for include J. Geils Band Love Stinks, B.A. Robertson Initial Success, TRB live double, Peter Gabriel’s third solo (guests include Fripp, Jam man Paul Weller and Larry ’Synergy’ Fast), Patti Smith live double, Patti Labelle Released (producer Allen Toussaint, remember "Lady Marmalade”?), Joe Ely live album (wi'th a bonus Clash/Ely 45), Bob Seger Against The Wind, from the prolific Jules and the Polar Bears Fenetiks and Bad For Business, PIL Metal Box (and conventional package of the same a double album Second Edition), a Stuff live album, Stephen Bishop Red Cab To Manhattan (first Warners album).