who's on first?

Rip It Up, Issue 47, 1 June 1981, Page 1

who's on first?

It is ironic that some: .ng which represents one of the highlights of a New Zealand rock and roll career should so often be seen as an annoyance or distraction by the public. The first thirty, minutes or so of the show on international tours to this country is generally given over to a local act. As people arrive locate their friends in the crowd, disappear

to the foyer for a smoke or show allegiance to the stars by chanting their name, a hometown band fights for attention on the stage. Often with no sound-check,! only part of the PA, and the most mundane section of the lighting rig, why do local bands fight for the privilege? Anyone who might think that all that was a thing of a

past need only have gone to the recent concert by Madness at the Logan Campbell Centre. The sight of the Newmatics struggling through their opening set without a soundcheck, and with lighting that went from one footlight to a rapid flick through every colour combination on the rig, was enough to chill the most blase. The Newmatics themselves

are pretty philosophical about it. The small English road crew and the band themselves were as helpful as they could be. Unfortunately, the roadies provided by the Australian promoter were less obliging. Still, they say, it was worthwhile to play to that many people, and to play with Madness. The Newmatics' sound, with its strong ska links, was

the logical complement for Madness, and it is to the credit of promoter Arthur Williams that he put the two together. There have been enough cases of gross mismatching to make it remarkable that there are no recorded cases of an audience lynching a support act. Another well-balanced bill

though this time more by accident was the pairing of Penknife Glides with the Police. The promoter of the tour, Hugh Lynn, was managing Penknife Glides at the time, and this went quite some way towards ensuring that they landed the spot. Their experiences were very much the same as those quoted by the Newmatics. Allowing for the weariness and strains of the closing stage of a very long tour, the band and their personal crew were pleasant and unobstructive. The Australian road crew were less willing to acknowledge the needs of the support act.

Still, Penknife Glides did get soundchecks in all but one case.

The lights were no problem because of the confidence of their lighting man. The band is convinced that the presence of experienced, professional crew of your own goes a long way to gaining the respect of the main act's technicians.

If they survived the Police tour, they thrived on the Split Enz tour they did a few months later. There, not only were the crew much more helpful, but the band were more interested in the performances of their guests. Blam Blam Blam, also on that tour, echo those comments.

In strict contrast with their experience with Australian metal group, Midnight Oil, which were pretty much the same as the Newmatics with Madness, the Blams enjoyed their five dates on the Waiata tour. Raewyn Turner, the Enz' lighting designer, helped out on the board for them, and the main act stood in the wings to watch their set. In the past, Enz have toured

with interesting,. but ' nonthreatening openers like - a magician, Red Mole and budding solo artists Geoff Chunn and Neil Finn. This year they ■ went out ' with the best local acts they could get a measure both of their own confidence, and of what they think New Zealand audiences demand. By all ■ accounts the . result\ was mutually beneficial the Enz got audiences who weren't restless after forty-five minutes of something they didn't want to see, and the support bands got a feeling of being more than a necessary evil.. jSPSBHSPH On the Police tour, Penknife Glides, although booked well in advance, went unadvertised and that undercut their basic reason for doing l it in the first place. Like all the acts we spoke to, they were not interested in the money, which was minimal, but in the chance to get their name heard out of town, and to play to large audiences. ■ Blam Blam Blam found the diversity of the Enz audience staggering. The wide age range, and variation in style amongst the audience meant that the bands who supported Split Enz were playing to listeners far outside the usual pub and club circuit. It's difficult to gauge how much bands are kidding themselves about the value of doing supports. Penknife Glides say they've done their last one.’ The Blams have at least one more in mind, and the Newmatics are keen to do more. All the bandsacknowledge the impediments to a good performance that they face on someone else's stage, but all feel that they did what they set out to do.'

Whether it was Penknife Glides in Tauranga, Blam Blam Blam in Palmerston North or the Newmatics in front of more Aucklanders than they had ever played to, each was reaching more people, trying to make contact with whatever proportion out there was going to come back next time to see just them. And that's as good a description of the whole starmaker process as you'll get. Francis Stark