MUSIC LIST/ROCK
I GLASWEGIAN SESSION DRUMMER, Geoll Dugmore, who has played with everyone and anyone who is anybody in his time has iinally got round to a solo release — appropriately enough a cover version oi Sandy Nelson’s Let There Be Drums—out now on Siren Records.
I AS THE FESTIVE ALBUM contenders come rolling in it is interesting to see the latest game being played — get the largest number ol guest stars on your album as humanly possible. Deserving points ior their ellorts are Chaka Khan who ropes in Prince, Miles Davis (on the one song!), Stevie Wonder, Bobby McFerrin, Cecil Womack and Brenda Russell, and Barbra Streisand whose collaborators include Don Johnson, Luther Vandross, Siedah Garret, James Ingram and Dionne Warwick.
I HARDLY SURPRISING that Pia Zadora has very little room tor guest stars on her album, it the rumours are true that her rather wealthy husband paid producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis a cool million dollars each tor their production work. Whether their eiiorts in turning what would have been an awtul album into an average one are worthwhile remain to be seen. Anyone wanting prool that Jam and Lewis are still the best dance producers by miles should instead seek out Cherrelle’s superb new album, Attair.
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I HDT little Glasgow band Origin Sins release their debut single this iortnight. Specially packaged in a de luxe gateiold sleeve can be lound live tavourites ‘Words For Tomorrow’ and ‘Aphrodisiac Stone', which should add lost to the ‘Are they Born Again Hippies’ debate. Long hair and enigmatic astrological symbols haven’t put ott several record companies, which are snitiing around with great interest.
I AT LAST, Edinburgh’s Music Box (the downstairs part, anyway) is being renovated to turn it Into a much more conducive environment ior viewing bands. The stage is being extended, and the island bar (which has been such a headache since the venue opened that one wonders why they ever put it there in the lirst place) is now
44'1‘thistZS Nm' — 8 Dec 1988
lirmly pushed against the back wall to provide maximum audience space. It now seems that the Music Box will tinally be equipped to compete as the serious venue it always hall-promised to be, but word is comingthrough that, alter a flurry oi bigger gigs in December lrom the likes ot Martin Stephenson and The Big Dish, the place ls going to change to a mainly disco lormat. Just what’s going on?
ALBUMS
I World Domination Enterprises: Love From Lead City (Product Inc). I was once blown away by WDE’s live whirlwind oi sound. On a good night they’re the Kings oi Rock- or at least the best at the white boy gestures. Their debut LP nailed them down and prised them open tor some closer examination, and made powertul listening but no substitute torthe live experience. The rationale behind this album, hall-live and hali-dub-mixed, is hard to work out. The remixed numbers on Side One would tind a better home on the B-sides oi 12in singles, and Side Two is one oi the worst live recordings I've heard in a long while. Live, the sight ol a lrenzied Keith Dobson crashing around the stage is an integral part ot WDE. Here, the microphone can barely pick up his mumblings, the tracks appear to have been thrown together by a hamtisted bootlegger, the band’s edge is severely blunt, and to make matters worse there’s another band playing - either in the same room, or leaking through lrom another track on the tape. Great group, waste at vinyl. (Mab) I Various: Distant Voices, Still Lives (Rough Trade). The record oi the lilm that The Times called ‘one ol the best British iilms in history' is not quite your average soundtrack album, let alone the sort oi thing that would appeal to the ‘Dirly Dancing’ crowd.
It's basically a collection ol songs at the Forties and Fillies, like ‘My Yiddishe Mamme’, ‘That Did Gang ot Mine’ and ‘I Want a Girl (Just Like The Girl that Married Dear Old Dad)’, sung
by members ol the cast, with snatches -
oi the tilm’s dialogue iloating through, and source music like Vaughan Williams’ ‘Pastoral Symphony (No. 3)’ and ‘There’s a Man Goin’ Round’ by Jessye Norman. Director Terence Davies has even made sure oi including an excerpt trom ‘The Glums' and the BBC Shipping Forecast to recreate the atmosphere ot radio lrom the period. It’s not always so cosy, though. Ella Fitzgerald’s version at ‘Taking a Chance on Love' is rent by the sobs and screams oi domestic strile.
From the cast, Angela Walsh‘s interpretations most movingly transmit the desperate optimism ol the songs at the period, and though the bits and
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distracting, theycast'a'he’e‘rle
tly-on-the- wall spell. It, «the reviews suggest, “Distant Voices. Still lees' Is llkelooklng through Terence Davies’ tamlly album, this record Is the pertect counterpart. (Mab) ;_;.. -. ~ I Various: Hardcore Holocaust (ST-SB sessions) (Strange Fruit). Hats oil
- again to John Peel, trom whose show
these sessions are taken -can you see Radio Dne's new cropol careerlst leeches giving a plattorm to hardcon/thrashlwhatever? That said, this album, which concentrates on the more ‘brutal’ side at hardcore is- unlikely to appeal to many ‘rock ians’; The Stupids are the only group here with much crossover potential. However, part ol the appeal oi the primitive Napalm Death, the truly animalistic Extreme Noise Terror and the grinding rlltlng ol Doom is their total contempt lor any commercial consideration. It you seek an ~ introduction to British hardcore this Is a reasonable place to start, and even it you don’t a listen to ‘Carry on Screaming’ by Extreme Noise Terror ls essential -these people, thanklully, cannot control themselves. (Andy Crabb) '-
I Wet Wet Wet: The Memphis Sessions (Precious Drganisatlon/ Phonogram). The release oithls album, which consists ol eight tracks recorded by the band in Memphis with
' veteran soul producer Willie Mitchell
has been sighted in many quarters as a rip oil, and perhaps an attempt to cover up a lack oi new material.
While I would argue that this is not the case, it does serve to cast doubt on the validity oi their debutalbum, Popped In Souled Out. What The Memphis Sessions proves beyond doubt is that Wet Wet Wet were seriously underselllng themselves in the release oi such a blatantly commercial debut album. The huge success oi Popped In Souled Dut ‘ perhaps iustilies its existence, but this is a tar more worthy object altogether.
The ballads work best, these being the Mitchell penned This Time and For You Are, a WWW song which blows
PLAYLIST
Alastair Mabbott with the LISTEN! tortnightly Hit List. »
1. THE FALL I am Kurious Oran) (Beggars Banquet LP)
2. CDLDRBLIND JAMES EXPERIENCE Considering a Move to Memphis (Fundamental LP track)
. 3. IN Mind The Gravy (Virgin. _.
pro-release tape) '
4. ELEPHANT NDISE Cacky Talk (live tape)
5. E PRAYERS Sister Goodbye (Egg 45)
B. PALE FIRE Sweet Adelaide (demo) 7. THE PRDCLAIMERS Sunshine on Lelth (Chrysalis 45) . , ‘ H _
S. LE MYSTERE DE VDIK BULGARES A Cathedral Concert (Jaro/Fuego LP)
9. RICK ASTLEY Never Gonna Give You Up (PWL in better days)
it). MICHELLE SHOCKED Anchorage (Cooking Vinyl 45, still hanging In
there) r
away most ol the content oi the aiorementloned debut album. Heaven Help Us All Is a beautltul reworking oi a gospel standard, and the contributions ot Anne Pebbles, Carla Thomas and a gospel choir make the £3.99 admisslo money well worthwhile. '~
The album also highlights a superb vocal pertormance lrom Marti Pellow which was not really done justice on the ‘proper album.’ It has to be said that the versions oi East ot the River and I Remember Included are less convincing, yet overall this is a very good record, and you have to wonder what would have happened had it been given the chance it deserved in the lirst place. Wet Wet Wet may have tound it much easier to bridge the gull between success (which they have) and credibility and respect (which they still seek). (John Williamson).
SINGLES
I Win: What’ll You Do Till Sunday (Virgin). The lirst iruit ol Win’s new association with Virgin is a sign oi a deluge ol great bubbling pop to come. A typically hummable slice oi the album waiting in the wings, and one that should be clogging up the airwaves tor months to come. The one to wait tor, though, is the wickedly warped ‘Mlnd the Gravy’. (Mab) I David Bellamy: Some Things Must Change (Sealadelic). Dne senses anti-Green agents at work when this single becomes the only one this year to have been mauled to a pulp by the Post Dttice (did I evertell you about the mysterious disappearance oi our ‘Spycatcher‘ single?), but the surviving press release iniorms us that it’s a collaboration between those sharp Scots tunesmiths Jesse Rae and Jo Callis, with Saint Bellamy himseli providing the crucial rap. And it I dared play this beaten and abused piece oi plastic I’d hear it tor myselt. But it's not just an ego trip ior TV’s hairiest ecologist: all prolits go towards helping the North Sea’s dying seals, and other conservation projects. You don’t have to hear it to know what to do. (Mab) I Acid Angels: Speed Speed Ecstasy (Product lnc). Don't believe the hype, unless you're totally convinced that old Donna Summer basslines with a lew samples thrown in constitutes some great cultural breakthrough. (Mab) I Howard Hughes and The Western Approaches: Say Western (EG). Deliciously camp chunk oi shameless disco todder. Had Howard released this ten years ago he’d have had a monster hit on his hands. As it is, this still deserves to be played to death. (Mab)