Records

Rip It Up, Issue 64, 1 November 1982, Page 14

Records

Chris Knox

Madness ; JUT Complete. Madness ; Stiff : : ■ Finally, some nine months after UK release (withheld misguidedly waiting for Madness to have chart success) comes this year's definitive pop compilation. Pick any track on this album and it's guaranteed to be" superior to anything on the last Solid Gold disaster. A track fisting is really superfluous, it being sufficient to say that the album contains all the obvious 'singles, plus' a few bonuses, these being the original superior 2-Tone release of The Prince', which later appeared as a different recording on One Step Beyond, and 'ln The Cfty', the de-Honda- version of. the Japanese car ad they made in Tokyo some time back. -... In the past, Madness have never had the local success which they enjoy in Europe. They have suffered from record company apathy and New Zealand's hopelessly ignorant and backward programme directors. Maybe this album will rectify that. What a bloody wonder it would be to hear Madness on the radio, instead of Bertie Higgins and the Eagles. Madness, Madness, they call it Madness, If this is Madness, Then I'm full of gladness. Simon Grigg Alastair Riddell Positive Action WE A I must have played this album close on 20 times and I'm still discovering new things. The fact that it's still fresh and interesting is a tribute to a very talented and persistent man. Riddell seems td have settled down and found his niche after drifing unhappily and without direction in the post-glam limbo following the demise of Space Waltz. Positive Action is as assertive as its title suggests and Riddell has never sounded so confident. The synthesiser plays a major role, both percussive and melodic.

■ \ -• . . v . The ever-present danger.of overindulgence is. neatly avoided. Riddell is relatively new lathe instrument and thus treads .carefully, much to his credit,. He's ably assisted with some deft program-' ming by Paul Crow!her. l Most of these songs should work even better on stage. The opener, 'Do You Read Me' is one of his best ever, a pacey number with a mighty chorus and crashing synth percussion. The album's other rocker, 'Finest Dream', is heavier on the guitar and •features another strong hookline. The familiar 'Zero' is a re-recorded and much superior. version. Riddell's romantic soul finds its expression in the new single, 'Let Her Know', a good radio shot and the sentimental Passion & Love'. 'Future.' and the title track are both bouncy and optimistic, reflecting Riddell's new-found energy, while.'We All Take Off' and 'I Saw The World' are more reflective. Lessons have been learned. 'Have A Heart' is Riddell's best vocal performance, a dark and broody song with a lot of tension! Positive Action is a return from the wilderness by a much-under-rated performer. The forthcoming concerts should confirm his status as one of our premier talents. And not before time, either. ' Duncan Campbell Go Go's Vacation Illegal Records You would be forgiven for believing that the Go Go's are a manufactured all-girl Monkees. Last year they emerged out of the L.A. blue and quickly made inroads into the lucrative American Top 40 industry. But in effect these five dames have been, sluggin' away since 1978 and it wasn't until last year that they got any sort of record deal. "My initial scepticism melted after the great first side pop of their Beauty and the Beat album and it's no surprise, but a little of a disappointment, that Vacation can't match that. They've continued to celebrate and,. at the same. time, satirize kitsch American stardom on their album sleeves and they've kept up their fusion of streamlined pop with its associated gift-wrapped romanticism. And that's OK to a point.

Again the first side features thy best tunes 'Vacation', 'Girl of 100 Lists' and "We Don't Get Along' are custom-made hits, refined glossy magazines full of true confessions. Flip over and another version -of 'Cool Jerk' we don't need but Get Up and Go' and the best moment, 'Worlds Away', make some amends. Fine, fun, but already’the whole thing's too slick and this is only their second album. Nobody wants them to become the female equivalent of the Fall (although that wouldn't be too bad) but on Vacation there's a feeling that the Go Go's are beginning to give the people what they want rather than what they need. George Kay Joe Cocker Sheffield Steel Liberation Joe . Cocker's recording career never seemed to recover after the apparently shattering experience of the Mad Dogs and Englishmen tour with Leon Russell. He made some fair, even quite good, records, but it didn't seem to be there , any . more. I'm pleased to report that Sheffield Steel is a return to the great form of the past.

Cocker is in fine . .voice. - He sounds inspired as he rides on top of the rhythm bed of Sly V unbar and Robbie Shakespeare. They're the fulcrum for the album and it's interesting that where once the drums and bass were'bottom of the personnel order, Dunbar and. Shakespeare are listed, just behind Cocker. The material is strong, songs by Bob Dylan ('Seven Days'), Randy Newman ('Marie'), Jimmy Cliff : ('Many Rivers to Cross'). Andy Fraser’s 'Sweet Little Woman' is a strong single, but it's Meters' guitarist" Leo Nocentelli's 'Look What-You've Done' that is my personal favourite!JH2^qH The songs are the sort of thing Cocker is best, at, a song of emotional depth couched in simple terms. Cocker seems' to. stumble on the "poetry" of the Steve Winwood/Will . Jennings song, ‘Talking Back to the Night' on Sheffield Steel. On the other hand, he turns what seemed a throwaway, Dylan's 'Seven Days', into a tour de force, transforming ' the cliched "she'll be coming home / I'll be waiting at the station" theme into a sermon of longing. Echoes of AI Green's Take Me to The River', or do my ears deceive me?. -

. For a while it looked . as if Cocker would remain one of his period's most pathetic, ' visible casualties. ' Sheffield Steel will confirm the loyalty of those who hadn't quite ’ written: him - off. Ken Williams , ‘ Fashion - Fabrique Arista - There's a smart designer at work here. Birmingham group Fashion, after one poorly received album (unreleased here), were simply not being noticed. Until that is, they recruited singer/guilarist/song- • writer De Harriss. Harriss wrote and sang every number here and was also behind the move to cut Fabrique at studios in. Paris and Cologne. As a result, : Fashion's lean and rangy electro-funk takes on the coolly precise distancing often associated with - teutonic productions. By and large such an atmospheric approach suits the band's sinuous, uncluttered arrangements. Unfortunately, beyond the dance floor, only four or five tracks have sufficient “. melodic strength .to stand repeated exposure. Two of the best tracks are the least danceable the slower numbers that close each side allow producer Zeus Held (love that name) to indulge his majesty for. romantic mood-making. Otherwise, the- current single, 'Love Shadow', pretty much exemplifies the best of Fashion appeal. -- Considering Harriss' pivotal position on the album, his recently announced replacement by ex Teardrop Troy Tate undoubtedly augurs changes for ' the ensuing season. Peter Thomson Various Artists The British Pop Collection EMI lust (about, the best Christmas gift you could . give . anyone, especially if they need educating on the subject of pop music. This beautifully packaged three-album' set, compiled by Bruce Ward, says it all. For those who grew up in it, the sixties was an unforgettable era. The seeds of rebellion sown in the middle to late 1950's grew into a fully-fledged youth culture, with its own styles, image and language and above all, its music. The

sixties spawned the greatest groups of all time. There was a matchless optimism,' -a. .timeless sense 'of euphoria, lost forever in • trie cynical seventies. ’: ’ . Sixty tracks here, every one a hit. Everyone will query some of the selections, according to their .likes (I, for : one, . will never be convinced that T en Guitars had any aesthetic value as a pop song). But for me, the collection is worth its price just for'Blackberry. Way' by the' Move, the Casuals' 'Jesamine' and Spencer Davis' 'Gimme Some-Lovin'. / Wallow in some nostalgia. Sure, there are plenty : of tracks missing. Where do you start, .with all that incredible music to choose from? Anyway, they, can always issue another compilation. I would beg for the: honour'.of putting it. together. Dufican Campbell The Birthday Party •Junkyard Propeller. . :.. . Junk junk junk dead girls junk junk blades and blood and junk; arid dead girls and junl Westside Story, and John Cale and JUNK. You think maybe I overstress junk junk junk junk junk and the dead, girl? You ain't heard nuthin'.yet:; Orstralis 'got no problems, got ■ no wars, you don't need your brain no more' (The Saints). 'Only Saints say such things as these' (Birthday Party). Jesus gets his.. Jesus, what a country! Little River Band and this! Hoohah! This is a big giggle. This is a big giggle! Piss in a bottle. Bleed in a Darlinghurst. gutter. Old ladies in kleensaks and 'there's a garbage in honey's sack again.' Pow pow pow pow lomo loca wow wow wow. Hamlet gets his. • Sounds like: someone you hate - screaming at you from the depths of a school hall/public swimming pool! Extreme negativity masquerading as negative extremity: a sales rep on acid writing 'Do not buy this product' in 100-foot high letters: someone you love dying in your lap, shitting their pants and -. drooling .in your, averted - ear, about to rot. Doesn't sound like: Prayers On Fire: Oz rock: much. • This is s'posed to be 200 words, but I'll just start repeating, repeating pow . pow pow repeating myself.