T/ROCK
I THE GOOD NEWS tor Hearts and Minds is that the band are linally lree lrom what turned out to be a restrictive deal with CBS and open tor otters again, with some strong new demos to put lorward their case. The good news tor Hearts and Minds lens is that mainman Davey Scott is in the process ‘ oi putting together a live band lor work belore the end ol the year (hopelully). I THE DEBUT ALBUM by the Kevin McDermott Orchestra, recorded at Park Lane Studios in Glasgow, is set ior simultaneous worldwide release in February ol next year. .
I NOT A BAD WEEK lor Deacon Blue - the week ending 30 October that is. Not content with tinishing a sell out tour, they also notched up their lirst top twenty single, recieved an award tor double gold sales oi their Raintown album and made their Top ol the Pops debut
I Former Nazareth singer, Billy Rankine, has now joined LA PAZ as vocalist and a part oi the songwriting partnership.
I WHEN PRINCE CHARLES lirst plighted his truth to Oi, he must hardly have thought that his name would become synonymous with the most decadent depravities oi rock ’n’ roll.
DOORS OPEN 9PM. lst BAND ON STAGE 10PM. PRICE AT DOOR £2.50. WITH TICKET £2.
MUSIC LIS
We'll, lthasn’t, not yet, but his Prince‘s Trust Involvement has made it necessary tor his Royal eardrums to take a bit oi a battering on occasion.
Fair enough, but it all starts to get a little weird when It's announced that a street party, hosted by Steve Wright, is
r to be televised lrom a returbished tram
shed in the centre oi Birmingham to celebrate HRH‘s 40th birthday. What’s this got to do with Listenl? Not a lot, other than it marks the television and
' radio debut ot Edinburgh reggae and rock band Magic Dog. Led by guitarist and singer Ash Gupta, who also runs his own advertising agency in the Capital, Magic Dog is made up entirely oi session players and has played at charitable events throughout the country. They iniorrn us that they plan to play a new soca number composed in Antigua, and a song especially
ALBUMS
I Ultra Vivid Scene: Ultra Vivid Scene (4A0). Behind that great moniker lurks
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a sole New Yorker, llurt Ralske, who played every instrument heard on the
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composed torHRH’s birthday. Pass the I I Setters...
album and contributes whispered vocals on songs which owe much to the streetwise, untlappable attitude oi Lou Reed. One track, ‘This Isn’t Real', is actually a charming interpretation oi how the velvet Underground might have sounded had John Cale’s viola been replaced by Robert Fripp on overdriven guitar, and the spirit ol Fripp and Eno is to be lound in other grooves. Other than this, Ralske all too oiteh talls prey to the danger oi sell-parody inherent in the idea at being yet another in a great line at New York groups. For all that, attractive, sugar-coated listening and a beautitul sleeve. (Mab)
I Bryan Ferry: The Ultimate Collection (EG). So, you want to know, what makes this expensively-packaged compilation diiierent irom just another Roxy Music paste ’n' scissors job? Even previous Bryan-heavy compilations sound like group albums compared with ‘The Ultimate Collection’ which derives its unity lrom the separate Ferry specialities oi Roxy-style art rock, crooned cover versions and gliding, seamless pieces like ‘Avalon’, all ot which in their diiterent ways evoke his last-living,
airbrushed dreamworld. Every dreamhome may hide heartache, but Perry’s have never convinced, and his painstaking crattsmanship must be at least partly to blame tor the teeling that ‘Jealous Guy' and ‘Help Me’ (previously released only in the US) only ache on the lyric sheet.
Make no mistake, around two-thirds oi this album is prime stutl. But the only two early Roxy tracks to sneak in (‘Love is the Drug’ and ‘All I Want is You’) positively crackle with the energy and adventure oi going places pop music had never been beiore. The rest is iabulous anticlimax. (Mab)
I Sandie Shaw: Hello Angel (Rough Trade). One can imagine Morrissey‘s countenance as he looks approvineg down on this album, Shaw's lirst tor 20 years, and, like the music at the man who inspired her to make a comeback, sounding as it those two decades never happened, or it they did that very little is worth learning trom them.
“Hello Angel' is, as they say, a “complex, personal work', made up ol songs oi awakened, broken and worn hearts, running tree or committed - but never chained —taklng in a reading ol Waterboy Mike Scott‘s Ian letter to Patti Smith, ‘A Girl Called Johnny', and the unconvincing Motown pastiche (la, the sound has been squeezed into a space the size oi a matchbox) ‘Please Help the Cause Against Loneliness’.
Perhaps strangely tor an album which
aims to assert the lormer pop starlet’s independence, all the songs are co-written or penned by others. The highlight is ‘Cool About You’, written tor her by The Jesus and Mary Chain's Reid brothers, which while bearing all the Mary Chain hallmarks survives the transition to big production number intact. it proves that as scholars oi Sixties pop they know their stull, and that Shaw has lound collaborators that could prove more valuable to her than the idiosyncratic Morrlssey. (Mab)
_Ta'§
I Ruby Blue ‘Bloomsbury Blue' (Red Flame): It is well over a year since Ruby Blue released their debut album, Glances Askances, and this new single shows a progression lrom their acoustic roots to a more integrated band sound. The song is one oi their best to date, and Rebecca Pidgeon’s vocals are immaculate as ever. The indie world’s best kept secret.
I Neneh Cherry ‘Buiialo Stance' (Circa): Originally surlacing two years ago as a Morgan McVey b-side, this part rapped/part sung arrangement was obviously then way ahead at its time given the subsequent rise ol Salt'n'Pepa and the Wee Papa Girl Rappers. This is harder, more sussed, and simply better. A hit— maybe.
I The La’s: There She Goes (Go!Discs). Reluctantly disinterring a iustiliably dead label, I pronounce this EP the tinest in Eighties’ Merseybeat. Hear all lour tracks, then buy. (Mab)
I The Prayers: Sister Goodbye (Egg). The lirst tew bars bode well, and yes, it’s great! Slightly similar in leel to Sonic Youth‘s newly-released ‘Teenage Riol’. Through no tault oi their own, this new Glasgow guitar band have brought out a single that I’ll be playing until they bring out their second one. (Mab)
I Yeah Jazz: Morning D'Grady (Cherry Red). An improvement overtheir ‘Sharon’ 45, but very quaintly English, with violin, whistling and a wimp tactor that sends the needles into the red. (Mab)
PLAYLIST
1. THE HUMAN LEAGUE Greatest Hits (Virgin, album)
2. NANCl GRIFFITH One Fair Summer Evening (MCA, live acoustic album)
3. THE BANGLES In My Room (CBS, 7‘) 4. REM. Don’t Go Back To Rockville (lrom Eponymous lp)
5. SANDIE SHAW Nothing Less Than Brilliant (Rough Trade, In track)
6. ISLEY BROTHERS Harvest For the World/Summer Breeze (CBS, re-release)
7. HUE AND CRY Violently (lrom lorthcoming Circa LP)
8. SUZANNE VEGA Stay Awake (ABM, compilation track)
9. FAIRGRDUND ATTRACTION Trying Times (RCA, 12in B-side) ‘ 10. THE RIVER DETECTIVES Saturday Night, Sunday Morning (demo)
40 The List 11— 24 November 1988