MUSIC REVIEW
Ne‘fads I;
New Fast Automatic Dallodils Mayfair. Glasgow,
21 May.
Of all the various compounds of 60s and 905 pop culture that litter the market these days. Slow Bongo Floyd‘s is the most literal. but also the most strikingly unusual. Zeppelin rifferama and spacey bleep-bleep- twiddle are potentially curious bedfellows. but in the hands of Slow Bongo Floyd they make an unquestionably danceable proposition. They have. on one hand. a guitarist well versed in Clapton. Beck and Page searing. self-indulgent solos and. on the other. two mysterious bearers of glittering technology obscured behind their mountains of keyboards from whence they dispense wiggy World Of Twist soundseapes.
From Slow Bongos to fast ones — not content simply to boast a percussionist by the name of Icarus Wilson Wright. New Fast Automatic Daffodils base a good deal of their appeal around his flailing hands. The bulk of their sound is slanted towards his frenzied funk rhythms. It‘s the sheer manic danceability of their set that isolates them from other quirky left-fielders like The Wolfhounds and The
Keatons. Even in the atmosphere-free expanses ofThe Mayfair, a venue which has killed greater bands than them, the New FADS easily kickstart the audience into frantic bouts of leg-waggling, wig-flipping and other feats of anatomical contortion.
Singer Andy Spearpoint works harder than most, hopping frantically over the stage and barking out his spiked observations while a spinning multi-coloured light throws its rainbow carousel-like onto the ceiling and over the lurching bodies ofthe Daffy disciples. Tonight, New FADS demonstrate that they tagged the ‘dance‘ irretrievably onto ‘indie‘. and anyone who says different can funk off
V LIVE
THE WEDDING PRESENT
Queen‘s Hall, Edinburgh. 20 May.
Dry ice, eh? What with Curve and MC Hammeralready this week, I’ve breathed in enough dry ice to enshroud the summit ol Annapurna. Curve, ol course, laid on the most otherworldly spectacle with the stuff, but those old tags the Weddoes have it so unsellconsciously sussed that they can recreate the sleeve at ’No Sleep Til Hammersmith’ at will.
David Gedge, a man who has had words like ‘charming’, ‘reasonable' and ‘ailable' llung at him so often that he may one day actually BECOME John Peel, still looks awkward on stage, but his command over the adoring Weddoes tans is total. He knows it too, and seems to want to duck out ol that responsibility, to the point at exaggerating his ordinary bloke-ishness. The only time I’d seen the band previously was one ol the most good-natured gigs I could remember attending; perhaps it's the
The Wedding Present
band's sojourn in the studio with Steve Alblni, perhaps they want to break their own sell-imposed bonds, but there's a
lerocity uncurling.
It starts at the last breaks of ‘Don’t Talk, Just Kiss’, when the punters in the pit respond by losing it completely, tumbling over each other in a reckless mosh, and doesn’t iinish until there are almost as many teet waving around in lront oi the stage as heads. This is a band ol precious, sensitive indie
darlings?
As the set approaches hallway point,
I some oi the songs show too heavy a
reliance on standard Wedding Present lailbacks, but more often the iamiiiar elements are reshaped in a way that suggests they are trying to push lurther. At any rate, it’s a raging
perlormance.
The only T-shlrl that was actually worth buying read ‘The Wedding Present: Every Song Sounds The Same’. Up to a point that’s true. But past there . . . (Alastair Mabbott)
and die. (Fiona Shepherd)
V LIVE
COLIN LAURIE
BUDDHA GRASS HARBOUR
Cotton Club, 24 May. What Is the deal? Why do so many Scottish groups carry a burden to counterfeit their cousins across the Atlantic? We’ve got our Teenage Fanclubs replicating the grunge oi their mentors so successtully that they’re now playing alongside them; we’re never without our pseudo-soulboys, always singing the same, borrowed song; and now we have AOB rockers Buddha Grass Harbour making an early bld lorthe Guns N'Roses ‘acoustlc sincerity’ legacy.
Buddha Grass Harbour are big thinkers. They enlorce the notion that
the biggest posters draw the most substantial crowds, or at least ensure that your name is on everyone’s lips, even it your music isn’t ringing in their ears. Tonight, they mean to prove a point. Their expansive backdrop contends with a mountainous drumklt tor attention-grabbing monstrosity.
They’ve done a good couple oi hundred
tickets pre-gig - not hard to believe
they filled the Maytair earlier this year.
Buddha Grass Harbour are currently about as ambitious a proposition you're going to get betore ‘locai hopeluls’ transmute into ‘national
property’.
They have the looks — llowing locks, llashes ol bare torso, even a pale imitation oi the larger-than-liie Slash. They have the egotistical stance — girlies just better surrenderto those hormones now. And, unlortunately,
they have the songs -the kind that rawk
bands play when they want to show
their sensitive side. They release their lirst single soon, a cover at Bulian Springlield’s ‘For What
It’s Worth’, tonight interrupting the easy liow oi the original with some heavy-handed stops and starts. Perhaps it will do well torthem. Perhaps they’ll move to their spiritual destination, Los Angeles. But that would be too much to hope tor. (Fiona
Shepherd)
ROCK
I GLASGOW BARROWLAND (226 4679) Buzzcocks. 14Jun'. Theatre of Hate. 21 Jun; Sepultura. 26Jun;The Almighty, 2Jul: l-lawkwind. 5Jul; Kraftwerk, l 1 Jul; Elvis Costello, 13 Jul; Deborah Harry. 18Jul; All About Eve. SSept; Level 42.3 Oct; Billy Bragg. 18 Oct: Stiff Little Fingers, 19 OctzJamcs. 5-6Nov.
I GLASGOW BALLOCH CASTLE PARK (227 551 1) Runrig, 22 Jun.
I GLASGOW CONCERT HALL (332 3123) Hue& Cry. 11—12Jul.
I GLASGOW SECC (557 6969) lnspiral Carpets. 14
I JunzThe Beach Boys. 18
Jun; Pixies. 21 Jun: Wonderstuff. 26Jun; INXS. 15—16Jul; Simple Minds. 12 Aug; Whitney Houston. l7—19Sep: Sting, 23 Nov; Chris Rea. 29 Nov.
I EDINBURGH PLAYHDUSE I
(557 2590)Transvision Vamp. 18Jun; Charlatans, I9Jun; Vanilla Ice, 30Jun; OMD, 5Jul; Elvis Costello. 14 Jul; Hue & Cry. 15Jul; Kraftwerk, 17 Jul; Marillion. 22 Sept: John Denver. 200ct; James. 8Nov.
I INGLISTDN EXHIBITION CENTRE (557 6969) Roxette. 18 Oct.
JAZZ & FOLK
I GLASGOW INTERNATIONAL JAZZ FESTIVAL (227 5511/332 3123) BB. King. Oscar
"$311 5. l 5n ‘ . Shingle-langl Shore enough, Marillion reach the heady heights ot Gourock beach.
The Pixies
Peterson. Herbie Hancock & Wayne Shorter. Carol Kidd. David Sanborn. Cleo Laine & John Dankworth. John Scofield. Andy Sheppard, Betty Carter. Michel Petrucciani. Carlos Ward. Arturo Sandoval. Bob Berg& Mike Stern. 28Jun—7Jul. I GLASGOW CONCERT HALL (332 3123) Mel Torme & George Shearing. 30Jun; Celia Cruz. 13 Jul.
I GLASGOW PAVILION (332 1846) Courtney Pine. 12 Aug; Branford Marsalis. 6 Sep.
LIGHT
I GLASGOW CONCERT HALL (332 3123) Solid Silver 605. 17 Jun; Home and Away — The Musical. 16-27 Jul.
I GLASGOW PAVILION (332 1846) Glen Campbell. 15 Jun.
I EDINBURGH PLAYHOUSE (557 2590) John Denver. 20 Oct.
CLASSICAL
I GLASGOW CONCERT HALL (332 3123) R50 Scottish Proms. 14—29 Jun; Rostropovitch. 29
f Jul;NYOS.30Jul;Tokyo I SO. 8 Oct; Leningrad ' Phil.21Nov.
I EDINBURGH PLAYHOUSE (557 2590) Scottish Opera: The Barber of Seville. 26, 28 Jun; FaLstaff. 27, 29 Jun.
I EDINBURGH OUEEN'S HALL(668 2019) Elijah. 15 Jun; Sinfonia, l6Jun;
5 Joshua Bell. 28 Jun.
38 The List 31 May— 13June 1991