Meet the Wastrels

Rip It Up, Issue 68, 1 March 1983, Page 12

Meet the Wastrels

Christchurch's Next Big Thing will be the Wastrels. That's pretty generally agreed. They're probably the only band with the right balance between mass appeal and integrity around at the moment. If it happens it won't have been a Dance Exponents-style rush to stardom. The Wastrels' rise to the top will have been an unusually twisted one. The early part of last year was a good time for the city's pop kids the Exponents were just getting

big, the Wastrels shared many a bill with them and seemed to be set to follow them to success. But something went wrong. The Exponents buggered off to be stars and Jordan Luck's favourite band, the Wastrels, was left behind playing to diminishing crowds. A Wastrels gig could be a depressing place to be what a paradox! A second place in the Battle of the Bands brought a trip to Auckland and recording time at Harlequin, but after the fuss had died down they still hadn't cracked it in their home city. ’ It seems people got tired of going to see the Wastrels have a good time and fall over and laugh and play out of time and get pissed and ... The main problem with all the onstage hilarity and sloppiness was that it hid the band's main strength a batch of great Beatlestype pop songs. But things have changed a bit recently. They've got a manager and, with perfect confidence, are shopping around record companies for the best record deal. They already have a track on the new Propeller compilation. "For a long time we were just fucking around," Jenner explains. "We were doing it mainly as a fun thing, an extension to being on the dole. But now I'd like to get a bit more serious and I think everyone, feels that way.. "But it's still going to be fun. Like I've always said, when it stops being fun that's when 111 stop being in a band." Guitarist Peter Cooke, the main songwriter, feels the songs and the way the band plays them, are improving markedly. •./•• "We're spending a lot more time arranging things, there's a lot more

input of ideas. My songwriting's maturing." "It seemed to me that it used to be quite tightly tied to a Beatlestype formula but it's more Wastrels now," Jenner adds. 'The majority of the songs are love songs ..." Cooke begins. "Lust songs, songs of jealousy .. Jenner interjects, smiling. "Yeah the word love is kept tightly under control, but they're love songs," Cooke finishes. The band has been rebuilding a following this year with regular Saturday afternoon gigs at the Hillsborough. It's called "The Wastrel Show" and it's very casual anyone can get up and have a go. It's great fun. Of late they've had their own South Island tour and they'll be supporting the Troggs around the island. They play Auckland's Mainstreet next month. But all this won't change their values about playing, they hope. They are a good-time band, they enjoy playing, people should enjoy seeing them. Are they worried about falling into the pub circuit "tight 'n' ragey" (and tedious) stereotype? "We're a ragey band. You can rage to us if you want to, but it's not so restrictive that you have to," Cooke says. "I mean, I don't write songs for people to dance to." "Some bands are designed as dance-pub bands and there's very little else. We're not one of those bands." In the near future the Wastrels' aim is to put a single in the charts. Beyond that, things aren't so clear, but the usual aim of getting overseas doesn't figure particularly highly. "I think New Zealand is just big enough and small enough to just travel around as a sort of roadshow, if it could work that way without people getting too tired of you. You know, just make enough money to live, have a good time, get some recognition from people. You don't have to go overseas," Jenner says. "My aim is to put out a record like 'Gutter Black'. It was released years ago but people are still listening to it and thinking it's good. That's what it's about for me," says Cooke. Very old-fashioned ideas in some ways. But them the Wastrels

don't have a synthesiser. They also don't sound like anybody else at the moment?flEHßflfe|^fl While the Wastrels are together, being a Wastrel will be "a way of life". So what does being a Wastrel mean? Anton: "Just being totally into pleasure without regard for the consequences, I suppose." They haven't changed that much. RB