MUSIC LIST/ROCK
GLASGOW
041-332 9657
EDINIUION
031-220 0133
DEACON
TEX
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SIMPLE Ml . . . Street Fighti g Years
GOODBYE MR 2 . . . Good Deeds an Dirty Rags
. The Big Area c I TY
SIM" LY RED . . . A New FIame
9‘ c U E EN . . . The Miracle
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IMPLY «£13
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MCP Presents
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Plus Special Guests
GLASGOW SECC HALL 4
SUNDAY 9 JANUARY 21st ’ 730pm Tickets: £14.00, £12.00
Available from Virgin Records Glasgow, Virgin Records Edinburgh and all other TOCTA agents. Credit Card Bookings on 031-557 6969.
Postal applications to: PO Box 180, H.P.O. Edinburgh.
(All subject to a booking fee)
Tickets go on sale: Friday 1 1th August
THURSDAY 24 Glasgow
I Gary Clail's On-U Sound System Rooftops. 92 Sauchiehall Street. 332 5883. 10pm. Tickets available in advance from Just A Ticket — although I suspect paying at the door will be equally possible. Also doing Edinburgh over the next two nights. I Cami Laula Halt Bar. 160 Woodlands Road. 332 1210. 9pm. Free. See Mon 21. I Capone and The Bullets Bruce llotel. Town Centre. East Kilbride. 10pm. Glasgow‘s and indeed Scotland‘s top ska act. a fact that seems lost on the major labels who have seemed less than enthusiastic about ska this time round. their sole contributions being some
exploitative re-issues.
Edinburgh
I Gong Venue. Calton Road. 557 3073. See Wed 23.
I Tam White and The Band Preservation Hall. Victoria Street. 226 3816. See Wed 23.
I Fjaere Nilssen St James Oyster Bar. Calton Road. 557 2925. 9pm. Free. Residency. Swedish-American folk singer. I Seven Eleven Trader Vic's. Victoria Street. 225 (1569. 8.30pm. Free. Residency. Blues and rock classics.
I The Sour Grape Bunch Pelican. Cowgate. 225 5413. Jazz-funk.
I The Famous Other Band Tron Tavern. Hunter Square. Midnight.
— senious wanes
The Average White Band, Glasgow Pavilion, Sunday 20.
Still revered in some quarters as one at the iinest bands ever to emerge irom Scotland, The Average White Band ground to a messy halt in 1983.
‘Without wanting to sound bitter, we ended up suing everybody,’ remembers Onnie McIntyre, lead guitarist oi the band, which is now touring again to promote their comeback album ‘Aitershock'. McIntyre attributes the split to a combination oi bad management and a less than satislactory recording deal with Arlsta (now owned by the giant RCA), a deal ior which there was no escape buttime.
Now McIntyre and lellow iounding members Alan Gorrie (lead vocals and bass) and Roger Ball (sax and keyboards) are together again, joined by new members Eliot Lewis (keyboards) and Tiger McNeil (drums). An unsuccessiul oiier was made a law years ago lorthe old group to get back together to write some songs tor a movie, and it planted the seeds tor a relormation. Only Hamish Stuart is missing.
In the time they've spent ‘discoverlng other aspects oi the music business’, lead singer, bassist and the band’s main writer, Alan Gorrie has maintained his position as a top songwriter, most notably with the Smokey Robinson-covered ‘Sleepless Nights’. McIntyre worked with a jingle writer and producer in New York, a dlilicult and competitive glg, but one he iound tightened up his work considerably. ‘Although I’m not what you’d call a prolliic wrlter, most oi my contributions came irom band writing
rather than sitting down and writing a song.’ And he had to get used to working outside the AWB’s groove-based term. ‘I learned how to severely edit songs and recording so that you could get it down to the absolute minimum.’
He’s resided in the States ior 15 years now, and is only dimly aware oi the musical tradition that continues in Scottish pop. He hasn’t heard Love and Money or Hue and Cry, but his nieces are mad on Wet Wet Wet, and irom what he’s heard Onnie thinks ‘they sound like a soul band’. It seems to me that a lot at Scottish bands are on the classy soul trail that AWB blazed in the Seventies, and McIntyre ilrmly believes that the Scots have an aiilnlty with soul music.
‘To me it makes periect sense. I think there’s nothing as stirring as a pipe band marching up and down, and the time is absolutely impeccable, there’s a lot at rhythm to it, and Scottish country dance music is certainly very lively, and it’s iour-to-the-bar. Somebody said there’s a pipe major who heard “Pick Up the Pieces” and loved it because there was some march he could bum in his head and itworked out exactly with the arrangement oi the song. And a lone piper is one oi the most souliul sounds you can get.’
Finally, isn’t he a little concerned that, when they play live again over here no one will remember who they are?
‘I think every artist tears that. Basically what we want to say is that the Average White Band has reiormed. And we’re not just back to do a tour and cash In. Hopeiully it'll be a long-term thing.’ (Alastair Mabbott)
82 The List 18 — 24 August 1989