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InSpiration , _,fl__
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'I‘he wonders ofour times: who‘d have thought that the Berlin Wall would crumble in our lifetime. that the kids would be up to their eyeballs in hallucinogenics again. and that an emergent British dance culture would coalesce in Manchester and spread through the rest of the country on the shoulders of its rock groups?
Inevitably. Inspiral Carpets play second fiddle to The Stone Roses and Happy Mondays. but it was equally inevitable that they would be sucked along as those bands rushed to fill up the vacuum. Perhaps it just makes them easier to pigeonhole. but the sound the lnspirals make harks back more than the two above-named groups to the time when a band would trip during practices and find their Booker '1‘ lines turning into ‘1000 Light Years From IIome‘. The band‘s reliance on a seemingly obsolete keyboard sound is so strong that you'd think they’d teethed on copies of ‘Pebbles‘ in the pram.
Ifthey did. then it‘s done them no harm. Record companies were falling over each other to sign the group in the closing months of last year. leading to some ungentlemanly scenes. In January. the independent Mute Records announced they had beaten CBS. RCA. Chrysalis. London and Jive to the Inspirals’ signatures.
Considering the band‘s canny financial control up till now— their ‘Cool as Fuck‘ 'I'-shirts were bringing more funds into their account than the records— the greater financial input from the Erasure and Depeche Mode label should ensure the Inspirals a heightened profile. Considering also that their first. self-produced EI’ sold out its 1000 copies in a fortnight and the current single ‘Moye' has already knocked up sales of 25.000. you wonder how
much more help they need. (Alastair Mabbott) 'I‘he Inspiral Carpets play the Network. Edinburgh on Wed 21.
32 The List I) -- 22 February 1990
MUSIC LIST
V CLASSICAL
Old Gold in Glasgow
Given the widespread popularity and
enthusiasm generated by recordings of a
music on period instruments, it is surprising that London remains very much the centre of live performances from the authentic brigade in Britain. Scotland really doesn’t fare at all well, with the SCO having it more or less all their own-modern—way as farasthe baroque and classical orchestral repertoire is concerned. A visit from the Academy of Ancient Music to Mayfest last year has been the sum total recently.
This will change in February, with a foray north by London’s four-year-old Orchestra of the Age of the Enlightenment, which appears at the RSAMD on Tue 27 with a programme of Vivaldi, Corelli and Bach, and Elizabeth Wallfisch and Alison Bury as soloists in the Double Violin Concerto. Given the music’s appeal, it is a pity that they cannot follow the example of the Scottish Early Music Consort and play in Edinburgh too. Their programmes usually tend to locus on early vocal music, but on Thurs 15 and Fri 16, the SEMC present The Virtuoso Cello, with the internationally acclaimed Dutch ’cellist Anner Bylsma as guest director of the Consort's 18th century Orchestra.
‘The good thing about old instruments,‘ says Bylsma, ‘is that they give you an idea of how the composer would have wanted it. They have a clearness of sound, which modern ones are lacking, and which can be really surprising in the unobstructed harmonic and polyphonic vision. It's very invigorating.’
The music may not, of course, sound exactly as it might have when first performed, which Bylsma admits. But this is not the point. ‘These great composers are so great,’ he says, ‘and their music is so rich, with so many different sides that you would not want to always make exactly the same sound. Think of it this way. Just imagine it might be possible to do pieces of Bach exactly as Bach would have liked it to sound. It would kill the pieces for future generations forthem
r‘
always to be played exactly the same.’
So how does the period instrument performer decide the sort of sound to aim for? ‘I think,‘ says Bylsma, ‘that with authenticity you have the feeling “this must be right". It’s instinctive. And it’s surprising how it suddenly falls into place.’
Music in the SEMC’s programmes is by only two composers, Boccherini — himself a brilliant ’cellist—and Haydn,
following Bylsma’s policy of the fewer composers in a programme, the better. . The latter, he explains ‘is one of the composers who disappeared with modern instruments, but a really great composer in his time.’ (Carol Main) The Virtuoso Cello/Scottish Early Music ' Consort: Thurs 15, Gueen’s Hall, Edinburgh and Fri 16, Stevenson Hall, RSAMD, Glasgow. See Classical Hshngs.
um:- As smooth as you’ll get’em
‘3
In case you haven’t noticed, we’ve been kind of distraught lately that The Kevin McDermott Orchestra hasn’t
been getting its share of the hysterical
acclaim that other bands from Glasgow
have been able to command]. The Island album, ‘Mother Nature’s Kitchen’ and its attendant singles, especially the highly commercial ‘Healing at the Harbour’ seemed to get overlooked by the world at large, so it’s with some relief we see that Kev & Co’s stint at the Mayfair has been extended to three nights, which will probably all have sold out by now. All being well, this could be the last time to see them in a venue of similar size. (Alastair Mabbott)
The Kevin McDermott Orchestra play The Mayfair, Glasgow from Sat 17—Mon 19 and The Network,
Edinburgh on Tue 20.
v BOOK NOW ROCK
I GLASGOW BARROWLAND(041226 4679) A Guy Called Gerald, 26 Feb; The Mission. 9 March; Motorhead. 11 March; Curiosity Killed The Cat. 13 March; The Fall, 17 March; The House of Love. 18 March; Public Enemy, 27 March.
I GLASGOW HENRY WOOD HALL (031 557 6969) Martin
Stephenson G The Daintees. 24—25 March.
I GLASGOW PAVILION (041 332 1846) Del Amitri, 24 Feb; 60s Golden Greats. 4 March; Joe Longthome, 15—17 March; Sydney Devine. 21—24 March; Cowboy Junkies. 28 March; Mark Knopfler's Notting Hillbillies. 25 April.
I GLASGOW SECC(041248 3000) Chris Rea. 4—5 March; U840, 6 March;Wet WetWet, 20 March.
I EDINBURGH GEORGE
I SOUARETHEATHE (031 557
6969) Martin Stephenson 8 The Daintees. 23 March.
I EDINBURGH PLAYHOUSE (031557 2590) Barry Manilow, 27-28 Feb; Stranglers. 5 March; Spandau Ballet, 6 March; Everything But The Girl, 10 March; Brother Beyond, 26 March; Fish. 27 March; James Last. 9—10April; Five Star. 14 April; Yngwie Malmsteen, 19April; New Kids On The Block, 25 April; Mark Knopfler’s Notting Hillbillies, 26 April; Roy ‘Chubby’ Brown, 27 April; Suzanne Vega, 5 May; Magnum, 28 May.
I EDINBURGH USHER HALL (031 228 1155) Bobby VeefThe Searchers.1 March.
JAZZ 8: FOLK
I CUMBERNAULD
' THEATRE (0236 732887)
The Acoustic River Detectives. 6 March; Michael Marra. 27 March;
I Aly Bain & Phil
Cunningham,17April; Tommy Smith. 21 May.
I EDINBURGH ASSEMBLY ROOMS (031 668 2019) Danish Radio Big Band, 25 Feb.
I EDINBURGH PLAYHOUSE (031557 2590) Daniel O’Donnell. 25 March; James Galway & The Chieftains, 7 June.
I EDINBURGH OUEEN’S HALL(031 6682019) Eberhard Weber, 23 Feb; Steve Lacy Sextet, 2 March; Gil Scott Heron. 9 March; PeterKing Quartet, 16 March; Carol Kidd. 23 March; John Scolield Group. 30 March.
I EDINBURGH USHER HALL (031 2281155) Edinburgh Highland Reel & Strathspey Society. 10 March; Nana Mouskouri, 18 March; Foster and Allen, 22 April; Ted Heath Band. 18 May.
CLASSICAL
I GLASGOW CATHEDRAL (041 552 0220) Cappella