Glasgow’s Daddy Warbuck's on Sunday § 12 Oct.
NOTEBOOK
0 ‘Kings oi Celtic mayhem' and worthy i
successors to the Pogues, Edinburgh’s . We Free Kings embark on their lirst lull-scale tour alter nearly selling out ol their debut single, ‘Wlld Colonial Boy’, brought to you by their own Howl label. The lads (and lass) will be taking in a good part oi the Emerald Isle, recording their Dublin gig on the way, though they don’t say it ‘Live at the Baggot lnn’ will be their contender lor the album charts. Nor have any hometown dates been tixed, though i hear they’re allowed to play in the Potter How again. Don't expect them to be supporting The Shattered Family, though...
0 And apologies to those awtully nice Blood Uncles, most notably Big John, who was wrongly reported in this organ as having harangued the luscious pouting Muriel Grey on her Time Out Chat Show in the Festival. Interestingly, a national music paper described the same deed, equally wrongly, to have been perpetrated by The Exploited's angelic Wattle. Imagine! The real culprit has since been revealed. At least we think it's the real culprit. . .
o Listeners to Andy Kershaw’s Radio 1 Show will be iamlllarwith the name Ted Hawkins, a Blues man whose quiet intimate manner will be on display at
Theodore Hawkins Jr, was born in Biloxi, Mississippi, USA, on 28 Oct 1937. He spent a tough childhood made i bearable only by discovering the guitar 3 and listening to local country and blues 3 musicians.
24 The List 3 —- 16 October
MUSIC LIST
: living today lrom busking on Venice
Beach or playing private parties. The release oi ‘On the Boardwalk: The
Venice Beach Tapes' on American
Activities is the enthusiast’s chance to hear Hawkins' latest batch oi recordings. His visit to the UK is oi great interest to allclonados and novices alike, allording a rare opportunity to enjoy that most searching and restless lorm ol music,
the Blues. (Stuart Spence)
necono nevrews The Mighty Lemon Drops: ‘Happy
Head’ (Blue Guitar). The lasttime this band played up here i had them
, pegged, on the basis oi their debut t single ‘Like An Angel’, as
nee-psychedelic revivalists, citing the
seminal 603' band The Misunderstood
as a pointer. My mistake. A number oi the tracks on this pop album llnaily
. answerthe question that tans oi the : late 70s Liverpool scene have olten
pondered: What would The Crucial Three (Julian Cope, Pete Wylie and lan McCulloch oi Echo And The Bunnymen) really have sounded like it they’d gritted their teeth and lorrned a proper group? And when the slicing scythe ol guitars drops out, leaving the archetypal Les Pattlnson bassiine and clattering drums to propel those soaring Cope-like melodies, we know. Derivative? Yes, but the way these elements (amongst others stretching back decades) are distillled ls channlng, and the enthusiasm that tired the early Zoo singles is present and correct alongside the homages. The energy llags somewhat as the record spins towards its close, and
“Like An Angel’ crops up a bit much as g the Lemon Drops ideal bluep
rint, but ~ -:~::
it’s a snappy and ellectlve outing. (Mall)
The Mighty Lemon Drops can be seen live at Edinburgh's Hoochle Coochle Club on Fri 3 Oct. 0 Taiulah Gosh: Beatnik Boy (53rd B 3rd) 0 Soup Dragons: Hang-Ten (Haw TV) 0 BMX Bandits: The Cat From Outer Space Three degrees oi wimpdom, or variations on a theme, or the Emperor’s New Clothes. Taiulah Gosh are so precious you’d think they’d tall apart it they were scrutinized too closely. They’re so twee and sweet live — ii the Famous Five lormed a band it would be Taiulah Dosh -and with those breathy girly vocals i can lorgive them any llimsiness.
The Soup Dragons are a raunchler proposition, but still lly the pastel-hued anorak high. Yes, they do sound like Buzzcocks clones, but luckily they‘re young enough to still have a grasp oi the sheer pop thrill the Buzzcocks excelled in. The energy in “Slow Things Down’ is quite incredible, a wee belter ol a song. So why wasn’t it the A-side instead?
The Wimp-ol-the-Year antics oi BMX Bandits lrontman Douglas (a sort ol rock 'n’ roll Adrian Mole) still raise a laugh live, but they can’t completely cover the cracks, even then. Their brilliant and tunny debut made it look like the Bandits were going to squeeze Orange Juice until the pips squeaked, butthls pointless tune shows that their songwriting talents are definitely ropierthan previously suspected. A miss. (Mab)
o Motorhead, Zodiac Mindwarp and The Love Reaction
Edinburgh Playhouse, Wed 17 Oct Heavy Metal kids present an interesting conflict - they dress up in leather and denim, have slogans like ‘Hed Hot Loving’ or ‘Good Hard Loving’ emblazoned on their T-shirts, and adopt the most aggressive, menacing poses. Dnly until 10.30pm, ot course, by which time they have to be in bed tor technical college the next day, or their dad will check them.
Aware at this, the Zodiac Mindwarp
and The Love Heacton are amusingiy overthe top in a sell-parodying way. The guitarist is called Cobalt Starhammer but when his guitar breaks down Zodiac remarks “This is like Spinal Tap’.
Most Heavy Metal Bands it has to be said contain capable musicians, probably because they had little else to do during their acned adolescence. The best thing about Zodiac Mindwarp and The Love Reaction is that they can’t play their instruments to save their themselves. Because oi this, they
should be the last ever Heavy Metal Band.
Motorhead have only managed to avoid becoming Heavy Metal cabaret on account oi their singer, bass player and all round good guy, Lemmy. His band, whoeverthey are, all have thickening waists and thinning hair. in tact, they sound as nondescript as they look. But Lemmy, Heavy Metal’s only real hero (you can’t count Run DMC) has more than enough stage presence and olume to compensate. When Lemmy
5 ’mr’at‘.
, the noise doesn’tjust till your head, it slams you square in the chest.
All the hits were played-Overkill, Ace ot Spades, Iron Fist, Bomber- songs you heard when you were seventeen. It made you realise just how llaccid bands like The Damned really were.
Me, I'm getting my mum to sew ‘Lads in a Rock and Roll Hell’ on the back ol my jacket, and tonight l’m staying up past midnight to watch ‘I Spit on your Chalnsaw’ on the video. (Stuart Spence)
0 Jesse Baron and the Desperadoes: ‘Splashing Along’ (Harodnlk). Jangiy, but with an edge to it. By no means all
‘ that bad, but reliance on the chords oi the Velvets' ‘Bock ’n’ Boll’ doesn’t help. Sounds like they’ve got something there, the best being yetto come. (Mab)
o The Ligament Biub Brothers: ‘Blg Shoe Boy’ (Scrundleplatch). East Kilbride quartet with luzzy guitar. echoey vocals and tambourine. Where have we heard that one belore? Not as zany as the name, or the Doc Marten radiating yellow beams on the cover, suggest. And then it llnishes. And you ponder the ellect oi the Mary Chain on delinquent youth tor a minute. And then you reach torthe next single. (Mab)
o The Househunters: ‘Cuticles’ (53rd and 3rd). Us dattier members oi the listening public, ol course, go lorthis sort ol thing like the proverbial wolverine with a rat in its jaws, and long tor it to be a disco smash trom Aberdeen to Aberystwyth. This makes an ideal companion disc to Ege Bam Yasi’s trashing ol the phaliocentric dancetloor, ‘Circumstances', and has a lot ol what made Yello’s best work so appealing. Basically it’s a duet between Miss Mercedes and the dee-eep voiced Stelan on skin touching skin, dashing up any tangent it can find and coming together in one ol the dumbest and lunnlest relralns in popular music. The lllpslde - ‘Shopplng Clty’ - isn’t short ol Biscuitisms, as the inhabitant oi a department store ‘Lowers all the prices and changes all the sizes/The shopper ol tomorrow’s getting one ortwo
surprises.’ Batty but great. (Mab)