THE SCORE....

Rip It Up, Issue 79, 1 February 1984, Page 4

THE SCORE....

The MAORI CONCERT PARTY got things off to a good start, even if their audience was small. The singing, especially the boom of male voices, was impressive and would have benefited greatly from a more efficient miking arrangement. But then I suppose that wouldn't have been convenient.Rß MARTIAL LAW played traditional but invigorating rock to an appreciative crowd. The best moments usually involved Sonya Waters' inimitable wailing but the whole set was rather good. RB NEIGHBOURS didn't quite seem to get across as well as they have to previous festival audiences it was hard to pinpoint what was wrong but itt was just a little flat. 'A highlight was their cover of the Temptations' 'Get Ready'. RB BODY ELECTRIC very sensibly

dispensed with 'Pulsing' early in their set and they seem to be working away from that song's silly legacy. The show as a whole was still too pompous but towards the end they hit a genuine electric dance groove here and there. Shame they blew it by coming back and fiddling with their machines for five minutes trying

to play an encore. RB PEKING MAN sounded impressive but I'd have to opine that was more to do with the mixing than the music. Still, they were popular with the crowd and they are getting better at what they do. RB LEGIONNAIRES: Graham Brazier certainly looked and sounded right, the snake-hipped dude in black leather, with four tight and very professional Legionnaires behind him. He has enough of his own songs to leave the past behind and the retread of 'Latin Lover' will probably soon disappear. A hit single wouldn't hurt now, to turn a survivor into a winner. DC

SANDii & THE SUNSETZ: "Japanese saki-drinking disco music." Sandii said so. Well, more a high precision, techno-funk bounce-around actually. All good, energetic, if slightly silly fun. Or else irritatingly arid cleverness, depending on how drunk and/or wet you were getting at the time. And the Debbie Harry comparisons certainly were there in some of Sandii's vocal phrasing early in the set. The touches of musical Nippon didn't offend, seemed quite novel in fact, but then I know nothing about Oriental music. However, nearly all the numbers went on too long, as did the between-song chatter. Encoring with a saki-ed up 'Jimmy Mack' I found an enjoyable giggle; not so the similarly treated 'Dancing In The Streets'. PT EURYTHMICS. Friday was the night many people found out that their 'waterproof' coats were about as much use as a negligee. The heavens opened during the first

two numbers of the Eurythmics' set, and Annie Lennox praised the hardiness of those out front. The burythmics then proceeded to dry everybody out with a set that was nothing short, of stunning. .Their

meticulous recordings give little hint of their onstage power. Lennox : is supported by three backup vocalists, while Dave Stewart heads a formidable sixpiece band that includes ex AWB saxist- Molly Duncan. The live

sound is rich and full-blooded, boosting the considerable strength of their songs, and Lennox is a captivating performer. Highlights? Cool Blue' and the spellbinding 'Jennifer', with a gut-wrenching guitar solo from Stewart. Worth

getting wet for. DC MARCHING ORDERS have changed their tack somewhat and I'm not certain . I like the new Thompson Twins-ish sound. There didn't seem to be enough meat on some of the songs. On the plus side, however, they still have Jacqui Clarke's sheer on stage ami-, ability (which got them out of a sequencer malfunction with a good deal more grace than the Body Electric the previous day) and some neat pop songs. RB MOCKERS: Fourth time on the main stage and Andrew Fagan was funnier than a piece of string. Articulate and amusing, his between-song banter was the festival's best. Some of the other bands could have done with songs half as good. AC

NETHERWORLD DANCING TOYS: Relaxed and in high spirits (very high spirits later on!), NDT bounced along admirably, though

Malcolm Black's vocals weren't as forceful as usual. At last the originals overshadow the covers and if they continue to write songs like 'Can We Get Away With It' (no relation) their future is assured. AC NARCS: What game are the Narcs playing? At one stage you knew exactly where they were headed with songs - like 'No Turning Back'. But these new attempts at love songs are as dumb as the gumboots on Andy Dickson's feet. They played well enough but it's songs they need

badly. AC AUSTRALIAN CRAWL: Standing in the pouring rain isn't the best way to judge any band but Australian Crawl made it easier by at least trying to enjoy themselves. It's' a shame they too haven't enough standout songs to substantiate their strong claims. 'Reckless' excepted, their set never scalded any great heights. AC

PRETENDERS: Those fortunate enough to see the Pretenders last time little realised how lucky they were. Two months later, James Honeyman-Scott and Pete Farndon were dead. Musicians of that

calibre are never easy to replace, so Pretenders Mark Two had some proving to do. No complaints about replacements Rob Mclntosh and Malcolm Foster; the band sounded as tough as ever and Chrissie still looks great, if a little reserved this time. The problem lies with the new songs, or lack thereof. 'Chain Gang' and 'Middle of The Road' are mere echoes of the past, and it was the

old standards that stood out

Given the traumas they've suffered, maybe the Pretenders deserve the benefit of a doubt. A good effort then, but must try harder. DC TALKING HEADS: David Byrne on a bare stage. Psycho Killer. Tina Weymouth gorgeous pixie. I think this will be Heaven. By 'Slippery People', four songs in, the nine-member line-up have all filtered on. Five back-up musicians including long-time explosive percussionist cum crowd pleaser Steve Scales.

The songs from the latest album are routinely brilliant except for This Must Be The Place' which I'm sure does not need to be screamed. Not enough songs from Remain in Light for a fan but 'Once In A Lifetime' is remarkable. Furious funk is 'I Zimbra', 'Take Me To The River' and the encore 'Life During Wartime'. The Tom Tom Club make a brief appearance with 'Genius of Love'. It's a wonderfully loose performance. But David Byrne defies description. At once he is a demented schoolboy,-a guitar player and singer, a maniac stalking a domain where his whim is his command, a victim crouching in terror and amazement. The intensity is watered down with unfathomable angst. I am happy to find out he • is beyond my. comprehension. ME The JOBOXERS play live because it’s their profession. There's no star kick here. They know they're unknown to most of this audience and launch into 'Boxerbeat'. to give us a general idea. The song's far too basic to be representative of their sound and soon they've moved on to mixing and matching as-they dip and swerve between jazz, R & B, soul and especially swing. 'Crosstown Walk Up' and 'Johnny Friendly' have the crowd feeling for the different levels and finally 'Just Got Lucky' rouses everyone and must rate as one of

the best' songs performed at Sweetwaters.

Dig Wayne as frontman has his coolly restrained rambling down pretty well. The rest of the band bristles.with energetic poise and generally give us an object lesson on working for a living. And doing it damn well. ME DIATRIBE had some dirty weather to contend with but they were never quite extinguished, ' even if they did look a little uneasy at times. 'Gift of Cruelty' was the standout for me. . RB The ' new HERBS, with. Willie Hona, somewhat removed from the band of two years ago but they appeal in different ways. They were sunny under the grey skies and as long as they play songs like Them's The Breaks' they'll never lose that hard edge. . RB HAMMOND GAMBLE: Helped, out by one of the best sounding bands at the festival, Hammond Gamble surprised a few people. A safe enough set. but played with the necessary feel. Highlights were 'Should I Be Good', and 'Leaving the Country'. There's life in the old boy yet. AC ALL STARS: No surprises here. ,Playing obvious covers, the All Stars were as predictable as Little River Band and about as exciting. These matey reunions might be okay at the Windsor on a Monday night but not at Sweetwaters when bands like the Miltown Stowaways are left at home. AC If the MACHINATIONS don't want to be called a one-hit band they shouldn't play their-one hit (‘Pressure Sway') twice in one set. Elsewhere, song quality seemed embarrassingly/ thin at times. Singer Freddy Loneregan's dive into the mud was entertaining but this was one set that seemed to last a long, long time. RB DANCE EXPONENTS got the best response of the local bands and they did so without really trying. Lively love songs played by faces straight from your sister's bedroom wall'. Two newish songs, 'lf Only I Could Die' and 'Sex and Agriculture', promised a slightly new direction but the main thing was that for 45 minutes these chaps made me feel -like I was 14 again. AC COCONUT ROUGH had the crowd at their fingertips but somehow lost hold of them. The songs are good enough and individually

the playing is superb but collectively it still didn't quite come together. An unexpected treat was Phil Judd's 'Magic Hour', which came across better than some of the originals. AC

SIMPLE MINDS: Jim Kerr jumped! ran! crouched! danced! talked! sang! had fun! He did all these things and the rest of Simple Minds joined in to make this a concert of express good humour. Said good humour wasn't achieved at the expense of hardness, though. ‘The American' and Love Song' were surging’ examples of the biggest in Big Dance music and 'New Gold Dream' and Someone, Somewhere in Summertime were rousing and graceful. Perhaps the only reason this performance wasn't truly brilliant was the sound - all scratch and no boom. But Simple Minds proved that they deserve better than to be lined up alongside the pale Bowiephiles who make much "modern music." The moves are derived from enthusiasm, not cool. And one more thing the audience contact was quite phenomenal. OK? RB ROSE TATTOO ensured that Sweetwaters 'B4 ended with a bang rather than a whimper. Marred only by Angry Anderson's prattish verbosity, the Tatts wall of noise smashed into (and gradually won over) a largely unsuspecting crowd with a furious onslaught of riffing and guitar solos that stunned even the most hardened eardrums. Ideal festival fare. AC/DC next year perhaps? CC

MOCKER: " my my "

The Mockers used to be an unassuming band who played likeable pop songs. Singer Andrew Fagan w'ore baggy shirts, bare feet

and tousled hair

Then there was a lineup change. In the new Mockers, Fagan took the stage with heavy makeup, tall hair ... and a bright pink feathered suit. Some people liked it, some people got upset, some people thought it was funny. Why did he do it? "We'd just done the Alvison Park' tour, I was pissed off with doing the pubs again, I felt like a prostitute. I dressed like a prostitute." Were you pleased with the reaction? "Well, there wasn’t much aggro, which was a bit of a let down in a way. I thought guys would abuse me and call me a queer, make it interesting ... "But seriously, a lot of people misconstrued it, I felt. They took it on face value, that it wasqust someone jumping round in a chicken suit, they didn't really appreciate why I was doing it, because I felt that way." With hindsight, would you do it again?

"Yes, it was what I wanted to do at the time. But I'd make it a lot more clear as to why I was doing

it. I thought people would take that in but obviously they didn't." Do you like the idea of intimidating an audience a bit? "Yeah, I enjoy it. It's good to stir them up. For me, we play the same songs every weekend and I enjoy playing but it can get a bit boring. The part that interests me is getting a reaction." Russell Brown

EXPONENT: "my hair

In that sounding board of social action, that very focus of radical youth culture, the Rip It Up letters column, one issue last year dominated all others. More letters than we could print streamed in on this hot topic. And what was it that our readers felt so strongly about? The Jordan Luck Haircut. We bailed up lordan in the backstage bar at Sweetwaters to quiz him on the controversial coiffure. Did he anticipate the reaction to the new style? "I never really expected the out-

rage that was sparked off, I just grew my hair really ... " ,/' . ',.T Has this made you reluctant to experiment further with your hair? "Well, no it's actually given me the motivation to carry it on, just take over ... And how has the reaction been live? "In a live sense, basically the hysteria it's created is phenomenal. I just never anticipated it ... " How did the haircut actually evolve? It obviously grew during the hiatus in the band's career last year? "Yes, it was mainly in Australia. It was sort of a mixture of influences ... skiing, surfing, boots, an amalgam of all those different things." So you did have the surfie idea in mind? t "Oh, yes, I mean seeing surfies in Sydney, and of course the Timaru influence there are a lot of surfies in Timaru. Of course, I mixed that.with the ski set from Mt Hutt thing ... / Ski set? Was that an attempt to go upmarket? "Yes, a definite move on our part." Heading for the Metro crowd? "Exactly." And what is the actual hair process? What was the secret? . "Let me {ell you, it was quite hard really.. I started off with a growth tonic, Williams I think it was called ... no, McWilliams, and I mixed that with Free and Lovely and a new dressing based on kangaroo shit that I was introduced to by some Melbournites. It took a long, long time and I was very proud of it. But I think it's reached its peak." . So where does the hair go next? "I think, perhaps a 1967-68 look, a little longer perhaps ... " Perhaps dropping the bleach? "Perhaps dropping the bleach ... but if I go back to black I'll look like Ron Wood." • So you're a natural brunette? "Rat brown, rat brown ... "./

And finally, Jordan, how do you see your hair in terms of Rock's Rich Tapestry? "Oh, right up there with Solomon as far as influence is concerned. I think it was a wealth of talent. I have very talented hair." Thank you Jordan. A nation of schoolgirls awaits you.

Russell Brown

ROSE TATTOO Thinking and drinking

Rose Tattoo were quite outrageous at Sweetwaters. They were twice as loud as anyone .else for a start. The Eurythmics, Talking Heads and Simple Minds coped with the size of the event with power tempered with intellect, dynamics, pacing ... the Tatts turned the fuckin' amps up.

But still more excessive than the sheer wonderful noise was the behaviour of singer Angry Anderson. Beginning appropriately by coming out and telling a joke, he went on to raves about drink and drugs, repeatedly drank to our health and told us if we didn't like rock'n'roll we could fuck off. He just couldn't shut up. Quite the behaviour of a man doing what he bloody well wanted and to hell with restraint. He's not much different on the phone from Sydney. Getting answers is no problem asking questions is.

"I sometimes can't keep my mouth shut," he admits. "But that's just a natural fact of life." So that's the way you always act?

'Yeah. Well, I've always believed in the old 'no business like show business' and a lot of things that I hold as truth I learned from movies and biographies. I've been to Las Vegas, New York and all the supposedly hjp places and the real pros I've seen knew not to change the basic realities of the business, the rules that were established years ago in theatre and vaudeville.

"I think once you stop talking to an audience on an intimate level, an affectionate level, you've lost not only part of yourself but a really, really lovely thing. Not everyone can get away with it the way I can. Some guys have to almost barter with the audience before they can establish some kind of rapport. Whereas I can go out and verbally bludgeon someone into listening or abuse them into paying attention. People accept that that it's partly the bravado of the image and partly my good-natured bully way of getting them to warm up to the situation."

You talked about drug laws during your Sweetwaters gig is that something that concerns you? "Oh yeah well I smoke drugs. There's a lot of things like social welfare, national funding for cancer and leukaemia research,

national funding for sending our teams away, the hypocrisy of the courts and the law that concern me personally. "I'm lucky in that I can write about it if I want to, in precisely the kind of language I want to use. But I don't profess to be spokesman for everybody, I just write what I feel. Like we got criticised over 'Revenge' on the last album, which people said was bigoted and abused Asian culture but I can only write what I think." Do you think the way you express your feelings might stop you becoming as big as, say, AC/DC?

"Well you've just got to accept the fact that I can't shut up sometimes. But we do look at the lyrics when the album demos are finished and prune out the odd 'shit' or 'fuck' that gets into it. I always say 'okay, okay' and change the word or the outright false accusation or whatever for the sake of the rest of the band or the management or the publishers or the record company ... or the sensitivity of the whole race.

"But what you've got to be able to do is live with what you've recorded. If I've got to compromise a little and not say some of the things I want to because I want the rest of the band to eat for the next few years then that's not selling out or being a coward. That's being realistic and practical." People have predicted very big things for Rose Tattoo if you can crack it. Do you think there's such a thing as becoming too big?

"Yeah, I've talked about this at length and I think you'll never really know until you experience it. I think megastardom would certainly destroy a part of what makes Rose Tattoo tick at the moment but I think if it happens gradually you can accommodate the changes. But I'm a little bit old now to change my values and the way I feel about the world and people that'll never change. ''But I think if it happens your friends should allow you the room to become a bit obnoxious for a while and buy an expensive house and two cars and a boat you don't really need and throw ridiculous parties and flaunt your wealth. I mean; if you get $500,000, so long as you keep your head about you, you've got a right to act like a two bob laird you owe it to yourself. You've taken years of obscurity and hardly any money." V / What stage do you think you're at now?

"We're in that really scary transition from being a total cult band, loved and revered by the people who reject all that kind of thing because they've never had it. They find in their own consciousness and values that they can still like Rose Tattoo because they've never made a cracker. They're a famous band, everyone knows Rose Tattoo, but they're still struggling. "When we do get more than comfortably off, which people are saying is going to happen, I think most of those people are going to turn around and say we weren't much good anyway. But I think the kids who've stayed with us

NETHERWORLD DANCING TOYS: As the gates opened at the same time as Netherworld Dancing Toys began their set I had to be content with listening from the frustrated queues. Despite the distance, the band sounded fine; fiery with punch in the right places. DT DANCE EXPONENTS: Now that they've learnt their way round a large stage. Dance Exponents can foot it . with anyone. They're assured, professional and entertaining (qualities assisted by being able to work with a superb sound system and a home crowd). And as they're still on the up their weaker material ought soon to be WTEEded .V3BHnHDTj ■ SIMPLE MINDS: "Like a glittering prize, I saw you up on a (nearly) clear day.'.' Simple Minds have proved to be masters of the recorded moment . with their past three albums and in Christchurch fast set about establishing that their unique talents are not studio bound. Jim Kerr shone in the limelight; enthusiastic and entertaining, while the others more than minded their roles. The music shimmered and soared, driven hard by the Forbes-Gaynor rhythm axis. Twin peaks were 'New Gold Dream' (which included snatches of 'Light My Fire') and the sole

encore, The Kick Inside of Me'. A dream, I only wish it had lasted longer. DT JOBOXERS were the first of the starring overseas acts to take the stage. Their music and stage Eresence lurched and skanked etween Madness and ÜB4O and songwise, they had excess baggage. But on the plus side they had vocalist Dig Wayne, the wonderful 'Just Got Lucky' and trousers like Coco the Clown. They just got by. GK THE PRETENDERS at 7pm, effectively opened for Talking Heads, a less threatening prospect for Byrne and Co as Simple Minds were originally drawn to play in this slot. Still, Chrissie Hynde is gangly and packs a guitar well. Weaned in the age when guitar heroes were gunslingers, she led the band on a hard rockin' (euphemism in these parts for heavy metal) Greatest Hits. The highs were her best songs: 'Back on the Chain Gang', 'Talk of the Town', 'Brass in Pocket', etc. Tight, clean and professional the ideal support band. Jim Kerr liked them andso did most people.

GK TALKING HEADS: Since their tour this band have changed an hour to prepare the stage proves that much. And. Byrne has changed. In five years he has gone from the haunted man to the confident, blue-suited metropolitan- neurotic. Everybody's hidden twitch. But there's humour there. The nine-piece band squirts beer, Frantz pops balloons, the Tom Tom Club gets to play 'Genius of Love' and Byrne wears a stuffed suit. There's fun in psychotic funk. There are new songs no titles known and from the old songs, 'Once in A Lifetime', 'Burning Down the House', Life During Wartime', 'Slippery People' and This Must Be the Place' win the honours. Watch that lamp. Talking Heads may be part of the established face of rock'n'roll but Byrne remains an outsider. His delivery of songs, like his solo spot on 'Psycho Killer', may have lacked the desperate sting of the early days but his feeling or personal disorientation remains genuine. And that's the core of the band's credibility. So, 'B4 Talking Heads were mayhem, rhythm, colour, pain and joy. All that David Bowie should have been and more. GK

ROSE TATT FROM PACE 28 through the years will be delighted that it does happen, that we do get something back. "When we get back from overseas they're rap't that the band they've believed in is finally getting somewhere and kickin' ass and telling people. When you're into a thing like Tattoo as a punter it's like a passion. They've really got to be staunch we're socially unacceptable to like. I've talked to schoolgirls who say 'we've got Rose Tattoo written on our bag or something and all the other girls have Moving Pictures or Duran Duran on theirs and they put shit on us but we tell 'em to get fucked because at least these guys are real men'. That's what they see in us."

Angry reportedly had a spot of trouble coming into the country he abused customs officers, policemen, the car hire people who wouldn't give him a car to get into Auckland city because they didn't like the look of him ...

"We get that everywhere we go, I think it's like judging a book by its cover. But it's been delightful going back into Australia the past few times. We got a real hard time at first but now they say 'How's it going Ang? Ya killin' em? Got a pound of coke in your ,suitcase have ya?' and I say, 'lf you can find it, it's yours'. The customs got to know that we were more renowned for our drinking prowess than our drug taking I mean, no one in the group has been publicly busted for drug offences but just about everybody has been put in jail for drunken brawling and so on. We have a fairly strong and colourful image as a heavy drinking band. Which we are 1 mean, we drink an awful lot."

That's as good a way as any to close on Angry Anderson, thinking drinking man. He's the sort of guy you'd expect to be hiding a university degree somewhere underneath the tatts and he does; in soil biology or something equally obscure (I didn't get a chance to ask the exact details). But he'll never be at home in a research lab or an academic lounge he's charmingly loud and verbose and indelicate and he drinks far too much.

But as he might say himself if ya don't like that ya can just fuck off.

Russell Brown