MUSIC LIST
Three chords endlessly rearranged. receding hairlines. nasal vocals and lots ofsongs about girls: yes the Buzzcocks are back. ‘Ever Fallen In Love‘. ‘Love You More‘. ‘Harmony In My Head‘ etc are being pulled off the dusty ‘classie' shelves and kicked around on stage once more. And why?
The suspicion has to be that What Do I Get? is more ofa motivating factor than Ev'erybody‘s Happy Nowadays. The prospect of a lucrative American tour. playing to all those would-be hip college kids just getting into ‘punk rock‘ had to be more tempting than struggling on with flagging solo careers. After all. Pete Shelley's singles weren‘t exactly setting the charts alight. and do you know anyone who owns one of Diggle and Garvey‘s Flag Of Convenience records?
The Buzzcocks retread is part ofan expanding trend. Last year saw Stiff Little Fingers gather their members back from the office jobs for a short and very successful tour round some ofthe country‘s larger venues. This week the Damned are in Glasgow. featuring the ‘classic original line-up‘ ofSensible. Vanian. James and Scabies. So we have the spectacle of the lesser lights of the class of77 returning twelve years later to regale us with their old favourites. most of which were concerned with teenage rebellion and giving the fingers to boring old farts.
This year saw the Stones. the Who (‘Hope I die before I get old‘-me too Rog.) and Paul McCartney hitting the boards once more. This week Gary Glitter will no doubt be packing them in at the Livingston Forum. but the real grandaddies of the genre are at the SECC. Status Quo have been churning out the hits for 23 years and the frightening thing is that they don‘t look like stripping. The occasional gig in Sun City means they can afford a couple of flop singles before the formula strikes lUCky again. (Tom
ROCK 23 JAZZ 37 FOLK 39 CLASSICAL 40
Status Quo. SECC l 1 December; The Buzzemks. Barrowland 12
[MUSIBW LISTINGS
V ALBUMS
I Faster Pussycat: Wake Me When It's Over(EIektra) The sort of record that makes me wish the Washington Wives would get their act together. All the old genre cliches are in there: sexism. sadism. rebel imagery. ‘My woman done and gone left me' moanings. served up with a side order ofbasic early AC DC style raaak. dismaying in its lack of invention. and disturbing in the attitudes it reveals. No prizes for guessing what ‘Slip ()fThe Tongue' is about. and ‘Where There's A Whip There‘s A Way‘ takes the general level of tastelessness into the realmsof irresponsibility. lt‘s hardly surprising that a healthy proportion ofthe songs are about being deserted by their women. llaekneyed and humourless. this record serves only to point up the inadequacies of the people who made it. (Tom Lappin) I Melissa Etheridge: Brave And Crazy(|s|and) A serious songwriter takes on a big rock production job and ultimately loses. but puts tip a healthy struggle in the process. The smooth guitar workouts and the ‘wooargh wooargh baby' choruses reduce much of Iitheridgc's spiky writing to a banal level. but
' occasionally a genuine
emotional edge shines through the rock sheen. The lyrics are thankfully too awkward and wordy to be completely smothered. On ‘You Can Sleep While lDrive'. the simplicity of the sentiment is quite affecting.
Perhaps a rethink and return to more basic production values would allow Etheridge‘s undoubted talents. and gift for introspective musings to produce something rather deeper than Brave And ( 'razy. (Tom Lappin ).
I Fell: Me and 3 Monkey on the Moon (el) This. FcIt‘s- final album. marks the end of a 10-year mission. and while most bands have exhausted their creative batteries long before that stage. Felt seem to be only just getting into gear. Only with their 1985 single ‘Primitive Painters' did they show signs that their frequentlydrab and impenetrable musings might flower into something that would lift them out oftheir cult ghetto. Here. leader Lawrence sings and composes like he‘s only just realised there are listeners outside the studio; accessible tunes abound. occasionally garnished with a hint of pedal steel. An airof restraint coats the album. welcome amidst the thunder ofmost contemporary pop. though Lawrence shirks not from stretching out a guitar solo to Claptonian proportions on ‘New Day Dawning'. (Alastair Mabbott)
1 I The Colorblind James
. Experience: Why Should I 5 Stand Up? (Cooking Vinyl)
' .8
While denying comical intentions. (‘olorblind James will. in an unguarded moment. confess to leading an
wisely. as that‘s the immediate impression made by the band's combined albatross and
a Move to Memphis'. the standout track from their eponymous first album.
cut from identical cloth to its predecessor — creating a style which blends everything from jazz and early rock 'n' roll to jugband music is apparently enough of an achievement that they‘ve allowed that style to harden into formula. Lyrically. James still packs a dozen great one-liners a song. but the band pull no musical surprises out their bag. This is (’ulourhlirulJames
what you seek it‘ll do fine. (Alastair Mabbott)
I Duran Duran: Decade (EMI) Fourteen slices of a
encapsulation ofa is it Duranduran?) were
the original New l: Romantics.mutatingin
‘oddball' group — probably
masterpiece. ‘(‘onsidering
Why Should I Stand lip." is
[zlrperienee I I . and if t hat 's
pop band‘s virility. and an
Decade. Duran Duran (or
their latter daysto something approaching New Erotics. The basic chart pretentions of singles like Planet Earth and Rio. and the hard-hitting techno-funk of Notorious and A 11 She Wants ls are the polar extremes of Duran's markedly varied maturation.
In between. all manner of life is here. from the roaring rawness of The Wild Boys to the sleek Americanised belter that is The Reflex. Duran Duran were the images and the sounds of the eighties. and Decade is theirs and the years' requiem. Perhaps. . . ((‘raig McLean)
I 808 State: Ninety(ZTT) The sound of young Manchester anyone? Since the delinquentsof the North of England discovered dance music we've been inundated with sounds for the "his. 808 State's ‘New Age
l louse' is probably the least interesting. (‘onfined to a single it's fine. but stretched over an album the spacey synthesisers and laid-back ‘groove' become something distressingly less than interesting. Ninety. more than anything else. provides positive proof that [i'd-out hippies shouldn‘t be allowed within mixing distance of a recording studio. (.lames llaliburton)
V BOOK NOW
I GLASGOW GEORGE SOUARE Glasgow 1990 Hogmanay Party with Run Rig. Hue & Cry. River Detectives. Tommy Smith. Aly Bain. Urban Sax. 31 Dec (7pm—3am). Ticket holders only. Tickets are Iree. but
are limited 1015.000. See page 92.
ROCK
I GLASGOW BARROWLAND (041 226 4679) Lloyd Cole. 19 Feb:
Curiosity Killed The Cat. 13 March. I GLASGOW SECC (041 248
3000) Status Duo, 11 Dec; Gary Glitter, 23-24 Dec; Erasure. 18 Jan; Simply Red. 21 Jan; Tanita Tikaram. 10 Feb; Chris Rea. 4 March; U840, 6 March.
I EDINBURGH PLAYHOUSE (031 557 2590) Stranglers. 5 March; Spandau Ballet. 6 March; Everything But The GM. 10 March; James Last, 9Aan
I EDINBURGH USHER HALL (031 2281155) Lloyd Cole. 17 Feb.
JAZZ & FOLK I cuscow PAVILION
(041 332 1846) Glenn Miller Orchestra. 11 Feb.
I GLASGOW THIRD EYE (041332 7521)) Xmas Party with Rachaka, 22 Dec.
CLASSICAL
I GLASGOW CITY HALL (041 227 5511) SNO/Carol Concert, 23 Dec; SRO/Viennese Night. 4. 6 Jan; SCO/American Night. 12 Jan; SNO/Thomson/ Rachmaninov. 13 Jan; SCO/Maxwell DavieSIMozart. 19 Jan;
I SNO/Thomson/Beethoven. 20Jan; SCO/Kraemer/Handel. 24
I. Jan;
1 SNO/Glover/Beethoven. 25.
i 27 Jan.
I I GLASGOW RSAMO (041
l 332 5057) Leon
j Spierer/Jack Kearney. 25
) Jan; Elly Ameling/Rudolph
; Jansen. 15 Feb; SEMC. 16
1; Feb;John Currie
Singerleeill. 26 Feb;
Ralph Kirshbaum/Roger
Vignoles. 15 March; John
Currie Singers/Charpentier.
2 April.
I GLASGOW SECC (041 248
3000) Luciano Pavarotti. 16
May.
I GLASGOW THEATRE
ROYAL (041 332 9000)
Scottish Opera/ Die
Fledermaus. 29. 31 Dec. 3.
4. 6 Jan, 21. 24 Feb;
Bluebeard's Castle/Oedipus
Rex. 24. 27 Jan, 14 Feb.1
March; La Forza del
Oestino. 13. 17. 20. 22 Feb,
3 March; Salome, 25. 28
April. 11. 24. 29 May; Cosi
Iantutte10.12.17.30 May;
Madame Butterfly. 23. 26,
31 May. 2. 5June.
, I GLASGOW TRAMWAY
I (041227 5511)Scottish
Early Music Consort. 22/23 May.
I EDINBURGH OUEEN'S HALL (031 668 2019) Gustav Fenyo/Beethoven Sonatas. 9 Jan. 6 Feb. 6. 27 March. 1.22 May.19June; Scottish Ensemble. 14Jan: SCO/Maxwell Davies/ Mozart. 20 Jan; SCO/Kraemer/Handel. 25 Jan; Duke Quartet. 5 Feb; Almeida Ensemble. 7 Feb; Scottish Ensemble. 11 Feb; SEMC. 15 Feb; Nanquidno Group, 12 March; Scottish Ensemble. 18 March; Alfred Brendel. 19 March; SEMC. 31 March; Scottish Ensemble, 8 April; Steven Isserlis/Peter Evans. 8 May: Scottish Ensemble/Tommy Smith. 13 May.
I EDINBURGH USHER HALL (031 2281155) SND/Carol Concert. 22 Dec; ERCU/Messiah. 2 Jan; SNO/Viennese Night. 5Jan; SCO/American Night. 11 Jan; SNO/Thompson/ Rachmaninov.12Jan; SNO/Thompson/Beethoven. 19Jan; SNO/Glover/ Beethoven. 26 Jan; ERCU/Mozart, 24 Feb; ERCU/Tippett. 5 May.
24 The List 8— 21 December 1989