Records

Rip It Up, Issue 79, 1 February 1984, Page 22

Records

Joan Armatrading

Track Record A & M

A sort'v .'Best Of so far'. Nothing wrong with that .except there's a lot of us who think that such a package would necessitate a double album at least. As it is we get a smattering of singles and others drawn from her third album (the eponymous 1976 breakthrough) to last year's The Key. There’s also a couple of new Steve Lilly white-produced numbers which probably date from the Key sessions. Both are fine additions, yet - besides performing the function of suckering the many fans who already own all Armatrading's work and now have to weigh up spending eleven bucks for two tracks the new songs do tip the balance of Track Record towards her more hard-edged, rockier material.

Sure, the gorgeous delicacy of Willow' and the swinging exuberance of 'Show Some Emotion' are here too but good grief! there's nothing at all from To The Limit (which some folks regard as her best ever, certainly her most flowing and spontaneous

rSIMm Enough complaining. Every track drawn for this record is a wonderful song and performance by a very special, very talented woman. One of the great singersongwriters in fact. . Peter Thomson

SINGLES

Tina Turner Let's Stay Together 12" (Interfusion) It's sort of sad that one of the great vocalists of all time has had so . few hits. Tina's . last one was Nutbush City Limits’ and we all know how long ago that was. The Heaven 17/BEF boys put this one together for her. Originally one of A 1 Green’s finer moments, only

someone of Ms Turner's capabilities could get away with it. This better be huge or there's gonna be trouble.

Frankie Goes to Hollywood Relax (Zang Tumb Tuum) Funny how funny boys always get away with shock tactics. The ad in the UK music press said "music to fuck too" and they really mean ; it. Thumping great everything, lots of r moaning, chains, leathers, innuendos. What there's most- of though is Trevor Horn's production. There might even be a song in there somewhere. Grandmaster Flash and Melle Mel White. Lines (Don't- Do It)- 12" (RCA) Song of the year so far. Intense but fun babeee. Flashy G spreads a healthy line in anti-cocaine propaganda over a bass line that almost shatters your spine. Irresistable dance music with more laughs than Richard ' Pryor freebasing. ' ' r . : v . Blancmange

That's Love That Is (London) Last year's debut album from these two certainly had its merits but subsequent singles seem to

have lost that spark. 'Blind Vision' went on too long and 'That's Love' is sadly lacking in the tune department. Extremely average. Lotus Ea terTBUPm You Don't Need Someone New r.,-.w- . r-wnHjgMMMgMMagyMHfl (Artist a) Two more young wimps. Not as sickly sweet as 'The First Picture of : You', which • probably means more people will take notice of it. A good choice 1 for China Crisis lover^HSOlilfiMHl The Assembly Never Never 12" (Mute) Vince Clarke's third working ensemble in almost as many years differs very little from his last. If you. can. imagine” Yazoo's 'Only You' with the Undertones' fearless Feargal Sharkey warbling away then you've got | the picture. ' Mark Phillips

BRIEFS

Monte Video (Mushroom) The trouble with "good fun" records like this is that if you don't like them you end up as the party pooper. Aw, come on, can't you enjoy yourself? Monte video is the Kiwi Cockney spiv who's sold a few records with his 'Shoop Shoop' novelty item and followed ! it | up) with the equally] irritating 'Sheba'. Even "straight" songs like Hypnosis' and 'All Night Long' make Joe Dolce sound like paradise. - Sale bin silliness, piss off Monte. I'm only joking. ’GK Bauhaus, 4AD (4AD) Let's make this brief. Bauhaus were a pretentious, pithy little band remembered for a brace of singles of varying quality ('Bela Lugosi's Dead', 'Telegram Sam', 'Ziggy Stardust', etc) rather than for their indulgent, boring albums. In this respect you will probably find this assortment of six songs digestible because' it includes 'Rosegarden Funeral of Sores', the aforementioned 'Telegram. Sam' and two versions of its B-side, Terror Couple Kill Colonel' -

one with the menacingly cryptic, strangulated vocals and, by the same token, one without. It's all quite unnecessary and it's,on that wretched 4AD label. Enough said. lan Dury SJT 4000 Weeks' Holiday (Polydor)

The Billericay Kid seems to be floundering these days. Lord Upminster was a brave attempt to try a fresh approach, using Sly

and Robbie, and Dury would have done better to capitalise on the better parts of that experiment. Instead, he seems to have been put off by the generally negative and unfair reaction. This has sent him back to try and recapture the old glories of the Blockhead days, assisted by various up-and-coming musicians, who also co-write all the material. Still the odd flash of lyrical cleverness, but no decent melodies to speak of, and the whole thing smothered in a morass of slushy orchestration. Even lan sounds bored. DC

LIVE

Robert Plant Mt Smart, Jan 26. This concert provided an interesting: contrast with Led Zeppelin's gig at the Springs 11 years ago. Gone was the blistering bombast and in its place was a sound which was relatively lowkey, anchored by a strong rhythm section. Robbie Blunt's staccato lead guitar style was similar to Jimmy Page's but the volume was down. Plant's voice sounded as majestic as ever, but the hysterical sound of the past was nowhere to be h^dS|faßii|Hii

'Big Log' drew The greatest response from an audience which appeared to be unfamiliar with his current repertoire. Sticking to his policy of playing no Led Zeppelin covers, despite the calls from the audience, the band worked its way through material from the two albums plus a couple of covers including Bob" Marley's 'Lively Up Yourself'. A thoroughly professional act but Plant has some way to go in taking the audience with him in his new direction. Here's hoping he returns. David i Perkins . ‘ ■•••■;* ■ .* .- ' . '. f - Blam Blam Blam Netherworld Dancing -Toys Mainstreet, Jan 27-28 Tim's Going Away Party Hobsonstreet, Feb 8. The Blam Blam Blam reunion wasn't starting something again it was - winding up something unfinished. . Doing, it properly, with style. Like a happy funeral. Two gigs at the Gluepot worked admirably, with good crowds, but the real. excitement was to be

focused on Mainstreet the next weekend.

Netherworld Dancing Toys played last but let's deal with them first. Their confidence is growing, and well it might they're getting better and better. Their biggest asset is indigenous soulman Malcolm Black. He's learning how to use his voice - and when he wraps it around songs like 'Change to the Contrary' and the new ballad 'Can We Get-Away With It?', wellllll ... ■

Friday night was supposed to be the big night but the presence of the cameras on stage made things a little uptight. That's not to say it wasn't good but Saturday night was better. It was a weird feeling seeing the three come on stage and hearing the old songs. 'Marsha' sounded as good as ever, so did 'Last Post'. It was good to shake to the rollicking Battleship Grey' again too. The PA was bigger than those the Blams used two years ago and the sound was good and the playing was often more sophisticated but the songs were still the songs. Horn-blowing guests Scott Calhoun and Andrew Clouston were used with far more verve and imagination than they ever were in DD Smash and Ivan Zagni's guitar antics on 'Call For Help' defy description. With the guests came new songs. These songs were a revealing pointer to the way the Blams would have gone had they carried on they were different in character, inextricably linked to the larger lineup. 'Here At the Agency' was elegantly ironic and the cover 'Joanne' (about a young woman in America sentenced to life imprisonment for killing a prison guard who raped her she later escaped) was quite stunning. That said, the performance perhaps lacked some of the edge of the ones back then but that's understandable. It was still a better weekend than you've got a right to expect.

Of course the other aim of the reunion was to raise some money for Propeller Records. After all the costs had been paid, Simon Grigg's dad received S3OOO dollars towards the loan he made to pay the company's debts.

Of course, after the funeral came the wake. On a Wednesday night a whole lot of friends gathered in the Blams' practise

rooms to send Tim and Carol Mahon off to merry England. They laughed, danced, drank, talked, played music and did other things. The ghost of Blam Blam Blam rose and played a spirited, chaotic Greatest Hits, with Don McGlashan, Yoh and Ben Staples spraying themselves over two kits. The songs still shone through and in some ways seemed better, more touchable, this way. Sure beats moaning and rattling chains ...

Anyone who thought they could play or sing (including the odd Simple Mind) had a bash at every old standard in the book or just participated in horrendous, hugely enjoyable drunken jams. Paul Rose celebrated Propeller's impending windup by falling over and cracking two ribs. They had to carry Syd Pasley out. Greg Blanchett good-naturedly abused Simple Minds in an outrageous Scots growl. People smiled. Damn fine way to go.

Russell Brown

Accoustic Performance

Old Jewish Synangogue, February 5. A deserted church, flickering candlelight, a toy piano, performers in dress-up evening clothes. For about 55 people it had $3 of romance. We haven't really had this sort of thing since Warwick Broadhead went bush.

Zed Pig begun with poetry and guitar accompaniment. 1 missed this.

Marie and the Atom, Gill Civil and Sarah Westwood, played with viola, accordian, percussion, voice and help from Patrick Waller (cello), Caroline Somerville (violin), Brett Mason (percussion). Marie and the Atom have the impact of a perfect Lascaux cavedrawing on a demolition site wall. They give masterly work sketches of musical compositions, precise harmonious tone poems, despite Satie-like random factors (broken glass and door keys, watering can) and raw edged rendition. Very interesting.

Next: Damon Drugperson declaims dreadful poetry eg The Cutlery of Intent'. Dreck. Also a soundtrack and movie worse than your mother ever took of the 10 Art Beats at AK University Mardi Gras 'B3 with Warholian time exposure. Very comparable to NZ First Films Festival offerings. Brent Hayward and Julie Cooper, The Kiwi Animal, gave a quiet, reflective sample of most of the material on their forthcoming album. Their songs are concerned with language expressing ideas and the meaningfulness of experience, the gaps between what we say and what we do. This is Absurd Theatre and reaches people on a level below conscious rationality. Brent Hayward's comic presence is stronger, timing and intonation developed, Julie Cooper's voice finer and more ethereal. Like Talking Heads they communicate the ills of a lost civilisation (ours). My reservation is that unlike TH their rarified mode of persentation may reduce

their channel of communication to whispering in a corner. < - Marie and the Atom and the Kiwi Animal plus accompanists give fine performances, distinguished by wholeness of concept,and purity of intent. A little Night Magic.

Jewel Sanyo