Shake Summation

Rip It Up, Issue 86, 1 September 1984, Page 32

Shake S ummation

DD Smash Whaling (Mushroom) A foretaste of the upcoming Smash’album, produced by Charles Fisher, and featuring various guest musicians. ’Whaling’ is a typically well-constructed Dobbyn song, as mildly quirky as you’d expect. Our Dave gets all romantic about the whalers of last century and the song should go down well on radios up and down the country, but the song fails to deliver on the promise of the interesting guitar/violin intro and ends up just a well-crafted rock song. Good singing, though. You’re A Movie Charlene (CBS) The opportunity to record this single was part of the prize for (as Karate Nuns) winning the Auck-

3nd Battle of the Bands and no loubt a few ears will be inquisiively turned towards it. Unfortulately a nice basic idea limps along under a bad production and rather predictable (down to the guitar break in the middle) treatment. Kelvin Parkes is a technically excellent singer but he needs to inject more individual personality into his voice. Likewise, the rest of the band members have talent but here there doesn’t seem to be the intuitive ability to tie it all together. The Actors (Jayrem) The Actors are tight, my word yes, but they appear to have neglected certain other aspects of making good records. Like subtlety and originality for a start. The boys from Blue Rock present America FM-style rark overlaid with utterly incongruous keyboard twiddling and they're an effort to listen to. Russell Brown