Cradle Songs

Rip It Up, Issue 111, 1 October 1986, Page 6

Cradle Songs

A Little Night Music with Shriekback

Shriekback — cult heroes and would-be supergroup. They were supposed to be here late last year, but line-up changes and a new record company meant the tour down under got postponed for a while. Now with a new album Big Night Music to promote, they’re wending their way across Australia on the coat-tails of Inxs, heading for New Zealand, playing Christchurch, Wellington and Auckland this month.

Barry Andrews is the little bald one — you may have seen him in Shriekback videos, wearing beads and jumping around, things like that

... It was with ex-Gang of Four bassist Dave Allen that Andrews formed Shriekback in 1981, after various projects following his departure from XTC. But supporting Inxs in front of thousands of 13-year-old Australian girls — are they masochists or what?

“Well,” says Barry, “it’s been good, but not fantastically easy, cos their audience are lots of little girls basically, so it’s an exercise in being swift and to the point, demonstrating everything with lots of visual aids. The thing is not to wear out your welcome... “The set for the Inxs support is a couple of greatest hits, a couple of things off the new album, the single ‘Gunning for the Buddha,’ and a couple of things no one would’ve heard. On our own in the Sydney club gigs, it will be predominantly the new album with lots of things thrown in, like golden oldies and covers.” Shriekback are now a trio — Andrews, King and drummer Martyn

Baker. They’re augmented on tour by the Shriekback Big Live Band — keyboards, percussion, guitar and two backing singers. Andrews principally cavorts round on stage and sings. How’s he enjoying the new role of sole vocalist in the band, now that Carl Marsh has gone?

"Before I started full-time, I had a lot of trepidation. I always used to have Carl to lean on when things were not going well. But on the first US tour, after three days I wondered why I hadn’t done it before — it’s much more fun than sitting with a bunch of furniture, playing keyboards.”

The new album appears to be their most fully-realised effort to date — listened to at lam, it also reveals itself to be a logical progression of ideas, almost a fable-like record...

“It always has been our intention when we make an album, that it can be listened to as a complete thing, but we always put certain obstacles in our way — using live drums and computer drums, and mainly having two songwriters. But now we’re much more coherent as a threepiece — I write all the words, Martyn plays all the drums... it’s a seamless thing and really this album is the realisation of something we’ve been trying to do for a long time. Also, when it was recorded there

were no bad vibes or weirdness — it’s quite joyous isn’t it...” The sound is probably as close to “rock" as Shriekback will ever get — is this influenced by playing live? “Yeah,” says Andrews. “We’ve done more gigs in the past year — taken on ambitious things like supporting Simple Minds in Glasgow and Inxs in Melbourne t 00... A sort of musical suicide squad, but the band has risen to the challenge and is quite happy. We can fill up a huge stage, no problem at all.” ‘Gunning for the Buddha’ seems an odd title for a single, but of course very Shriekbackian... ‘Gunning for the Buddha’ is a warning not to take anything too seriously. It’s a zen pop song, dealing with extremely heavyweight philosophical concepts, but in a really stupid way, in the framework of a light little pop song. I think the Zen masters would approve of it actually, not being too significant about the whole business ...” The future?

“That’s one of the exciting things about it,” he says. “Before we go to make a record, we might have a few pointers about where it’s going to go, but ultimately that remains to be discovered when we write the songs. I dunno what the next album’s going to be at all. I’m in the dark about it, but I can’t wait to find

And what about fame for Shriekback — they have a reputation for first-class records and stunning live energy, 50...? “Yes. That’s what I say — What about fame for Shriekback?... Yes please, much more famous. At one point I didn’t think it was possible to do the kind of music I wanted to do and be commercially successful or famous, but I don’t think that’s true any more at all.

“I like the idea of making really succulent digestible pop music and I think that’s what Big Night Music is, I don’t see why 13-year-old girls or old age pensioners or young professionals, as well as all the drugged squatters who’ve composed our audience before, .shouldn’t get into buying that sort of thing. “But anyway, I’m already more famous than anyone in my family has ever been, and that makes me very happy indeed...” Ah, that ol’ commercial ethos Barry, it jes’ keep rollin’ on ... But Shriekback are a band who’ve never lost their credibility, and more importantly, they’ve just kept getting better. So if you haven’t already checked them out — do so, their whole thing has a rather Zen-like beauty. Experience it. Paul McKessar