Eelman sights Pelicans with Krazy Legs!

Rip It Up, Issue 92, 1 March 1985, Page 2

Eelman sights Pelicans with Krazy Legs!

Duncan Campbell

“ln 1984, we had the two best horn sections ever, we didn’t have a practice room for three months, which was bad for morale, and we wrote some of the best songs we’ve ever written.” So speaks Pelicans frontman Bill Lake. Despite the ups and downs, they’re still a very happy band, having successfully recorded and

released their second LP, weathered lineup changes and financial storms, and with still more ideas in the pipeline. One thing hasn’t changed: the band’s semiprofessional status. Three of them are still doing postie runs and retain their aversion to the hassles of running a fulltime group. Krazy Legs is actually a much bet-

ter record than the rather-mixed reviews it’s received would suggest. Certainly it’s derivative (there’s more than one unabashed Lowell George disciple in the band), but the songs are well written, intelligently arranged and played with p'enty of confidence. “We’ve learned it’s better to write

songs that the whole band plays," says Bill. "I think a lot of the songs on 8 Duck Treasure were songs I’d written myself and then presented to the band. Some of them worked, some didn't. This time, nearly all the songs have their origins in jaming we’re doing or a riff that somebody comes up with. That’s a much better way to write songs for a band. "We took more care of the recording and the mixing, we went to Marmalade for the rhythm tracks because we wanted to get a good live feel, then back to Broadcasting (Radio New Zealand studios) for the overdubs." "There’s better playing overall, too" says bassist Nick Bollinger, "All those things which come from another year of experience. The > reviews haven't been as unanimously favourable as they were of 8 Duck

Treasure, but we still think this one is better." Three of the songs on Krazy Legs, the title track, 'The Big Picture' and 'Everybody Says’, were written within weeks of recording and the band is especially pleased with their freshness. 'Working' and 'Path Of Least Resistance', with its Afro steel drums, were both added because they're live favourites. The band isn't quite so happy with 'Story of a Love Affair', but Bill wanted it included because of the lyrics, courtesy of the infamous Arthur Baysting (Neville Purvis, as was). The Pelicans are a self-effacing bunch, highly critical of their own performance and under no illusions about the problems associated with recording music in this country. They quite openly admit that the gigs they’ve been playing recently will mostly go towards paying off

the costs of recording Krazy Legs. But despite his reservations about some parts of the album. Bill Lake is still generally happy with it. "After 8 Duck Treasure was released, I was quite embarrassed with the way some Qf those tracks came out. That’s not so with this one. I still don't listen to it that much, but I still think it’s pretty good." More changes can be expected in the Pelicans sound this year. They're planning to take a break from playing with a horn section and concentrate on working with the band’s four-piece sound, possibly augmented by a solo saxist or keyboards player. "To me, a horn section is rather rigid," says Bill. ''You’ve got to play the same arrangements, where if you have a single player, they can hopefully be flexible enough to see what’s happening and improvise

with it. Also, it's very difficult to find horn sections." The Pelicans have already got new songs which they’ve rehearsed without horns. It's harder work, but more satisfying for the guitarists, Lake and Stephen Jessup. "We've been so dominated by the horns that the fact that we're actually a two-guitar band has been lost," says Bill. "My guitar is hardly ever heard. Stepen’s is sometimes not heard, so we're trying to make it a little bit more brash, more gritty.”

Mention must also be made here of Andrew ‘Clyde’ Clouston, saxist to the stars, who has now left our shores. He played his last NZ gigs with the Pelicans in early March, and is now in Sydney, looking for whatever work is going. He shouldn’t have much trouble