HEAVY numbers

Rip It Up, Issue 68, 1 March 1983, Page 24

HEAVY numbers

Rose Tattoo

Scarred for Life Alberts Third great album from Oz's Tatts. With Vanda and Young at the helm the production vagaries on Assault and Battery have been eradicated; resulting in a rock hard album that packs a punch labelmates AC/DC would be proud of. Once again Angry Anderson's lyrics demonstrate a genuine rock 'n'roll sensibility so many bands pretend to possess. From the classic opening title track to the last bars of the bluesy 'Revenge', this is a rocking anthemic boogie album unlikely to be surpassed in sheer brute clout this year. Chris Caddick Y & T, Black Tiger (A&M) Tygers of Pantang The Cage (MCA) Two HM (7) albums from either side of the Atlantic, though one „ could easily mistake their origins here. The Cage is an alarmingly disappointing affair, though it's highly touted in the UK for - reasons I'll never understand. Gone is the raw power of the excellent first album, Wildcat, replaced by a wimpy American Mid-West type sound in the Styx, Kansas vein. All gloss and no balls. The bottom end is flaccid, voicebox guitars and synths make things even worse. Y&T, a veteran and virtually unknown American band, have enlisted ace English producer Max Norman (Ozzy Osbourne, Bad Company) to oversee this barrage and deliver the goods in no un- ; certain terms. ToPs sound like a bunch of angelic choirboys in comparison. If you like bad ass rock'n'roll, this is the one. No . worries. Greg Cobb Deep Purple Live in London (Harvest) Rainbow Straight Between The Eyes (Mercury) Status Quo l+9+ 8+ 2 XX (Vertigo.) April Wine " Power Play (Capitol) First things first Deep Purple Live in London is a motley collection of tracks culled from various concerts in the UK several years ago. It's apparently gone to number four in the charts there, .. which just goes to show how sentimental the British public can be (Love Me Do' being No .1). Turgid, boring, self-indulgent, flaccid, excessive, etc, etc. Records like this really shouldn't be released. Straight Between The Eyes is Rainbow's seventh outing. The ' same words expressed above could

cover this also, enough said. Status Quo, the masters of English boogie, come up with some solid licks of good old honest workmanlike fodder, but lack the raw excitement of the newer English HM outfits. It almost sounds like they're going through the motions these days, with a bit of a yawn at that:i^gpfg£ April Wine seem to be suffering a similar fate to Status Quo at present. Power Play is pretty pallid, compared with The Nature of the Beast, their last album. Apart from a couple of tracks, 'Anything You Want' and “Enough Is Enough', there is nothing on here to get too excited about at all. A pity! Greg Cobb Saxon The Eagle Has Landed (Carrere) Saxon and Iron Maiden have emerged as popular favourites in the new wave of British metal. The Eagle Has Landed, a live album, shows clearly the reasons for Saxon's success. Great rock songs performed with feel for the genre and an ability to communicate with an audience. This is the band's fifth album, but only the second released in NZ. Ten tracks recorded in Europe 1981 and taken mostly from Wheels Of Steel and Strong Arm of the Law make up a veritable tour de force in state of the art heavy metal. CC Free, Completely Free (Island) Shepherds Bush, London, early seventies, sitting in my squalid basement flat listening to Tons of Sobs and Fire and Water, I thought 'Allright' Now' was the greatest song committed to vinyl. Now, years later, listening to this excellent compilation I'd almost forgotten what a wonderful band Free were. So simple, so effective. 'Allright Now' sounds as raunchy as ever, not to mention 'Mr Big', The Hunter', 'l'll Be Creeping', etc. A faultless collection. Eat. your hearts out, Bad Company. GC Gary Moore Corridors of Power (Virgin) With the opening 'Don't Take Me for a Loser' this album sounds Titanic. But, like the said liner, it sinks without trace into a stumbling hotchpotch of poor man's Robin Trower, HM guitar cliches and all. A duff, pompous version of Free's classic Wishing Well' doesn't save it from the quagmire. Ho-hum.GC Rush, Signals (Mercury) Huge everywhere except Downunder and the Falkland Islands,' it's hard to see this album changing things. As with previous Rush albums, it's technically superb, cold and clinical, but unlike earlier efforts, it's gutless. The old power and punch has been subdued and buried under washes of synth squiggles. A weak selection of songs that meander aimlessly doesn't help. The band is capable of so much more. In the hope of hearing another Caress of Steel or A Farewell To Kings, I'll forgive them this one aberration. CC