MUSIC REVIEW i The Ruby
Sui
5 V LIVE l l v BOOK NOW TRANSVISION VAMP ‘ » ~ 0K
Playhouse, Edinburgh, 18 June. h , Face it: Wendy James is Transvision i Vamp, so let's torget about her tour gelled-up, leather-clad backing johnnies and their three-chord, slow-motion Clash ritis right away. Actually, let's not. The TV musical armory ls, lrankly, a tedious, monotonous metallic dirge, sluggish and relentless and very LOUD, unenhanced by over-reliance upon iuzz-box and a stubborn avoidance oi melody or pace. it we're splitting hairs, the older material cranked up tonight ottered more imaginative sparkle than the new i P stuit: ‘Revolution Baby’ in particular ig-Z’" , ix i and ‘Halo Jones' irom ‘Pop Art’ f it 3 l
Moray House Student Union. Edinburgh. 21 June. Complacency is a dangerous god. Witness the complacent faces of ' Better Ways. 37 or so of 3 them cleverly and knowingly recounting passages of Scally rhythm and Happy Mondays
I I GLASGOW
i BARROWLANO (226 4679) Elvis Costello. 13Ju1: Deborah Harry. 181ul; All About Eve. 8 Scp; ' Level 42. 3 Oct; Billy Bragg. 18 Oct; StiffLittle Fingers. 190ct;James.6 Nov; Fish. 1() Nov; The
knocked spots oil everything else - always simultaneously). she’s a i only ‘Ain’t No Rules’ competed. And it cantankerous beauty, Ignoring the r you juggle the words ‘Want’, ‘Love', ‘I’ hecklers, having a sly iag, stamping
asides. Cumming , and ‘Baby', then you can summon torth herDMs and generally being aliery Farm~1D°° former components of l the gist 01 what we heard through the tease. Crap regurgitation ot ottensive, fifit’ti‘i‘m 59195?
Steel Chain and Savanah Lamar. BW are a drearily proficient.
middle-of-the-roadcrew. Onlytheirsecondgig.and their competence is as
! groaning PA system lor 90 long minutes. Presented with this general barrage ol characterless non-tunes, no wonderthe predominantly studenty, almost persistently static assembled Snfling as i, is impressive. , worshippers are iar more interested in Sad ,0 w... my ma, the i Ms James than in anything else going oftentimcs'magnmccm ! oil on the psychedelicalIy-lit stage. Ruby Suit — like the good And Wendy? She’s got a stronger bits from the Banglcsplm voice than you’d expect irom hervinyl the good bits from 10,000 outlngs’ and she's cedain'v a Mame-hm “Wed ; tasclnating, enigmatic lrontwoman. “"“g the" prayers ‘" 7 Tonight modelling sawn-oti denims,
sexist stereotypes, or is James cleverly i swam. 24 Oct; Deacon presenting us with a controntational . Blue. 2743. Dec
image ot our inadequate conceptions at l . cuscow 35cc (557 woman? Well, I'm damned ii I know: it i o9o9) INXS. 1o Jtti; Dire would be nice to think that, post-gig, Straits. 11-.14 Scp;
we all went home to ponder awhile and l Whitnch Houston. 17-19 reconsider our notions ol sexuality and , l SCP:St1ng, 23 rs'ov; Chris its ideological implications. i doubt it. . ‘. Scuff? aims? “is The bloke behind me shouted ‘Get 'em , .‘gom‘aug’gfl'm‘fyfigfisf 0", at '83“ “mes during "18 Show I (557 2590) Elvis Costello and. iudoino by hlsTVT-shirt and the 14Jul;Huc & Cry. 151th way he was merrily pogoing ; ' Kraftwerk. 171m; throughout, I don’t think he was talking Marillion. 22 Sep; James.
complacency. The plangent. sparkling guitar-pop is capable of great feats. all insistent basslines and gutsy vocal volleys. but tonight it simply doesn’t gel. Though far from disaster. this was not one ofthe Suit‘s better performances and. ifprogress towards an ever-elusive record deal is to be made. all their performances need to be their best ones. A few of their (best) songs may be as old as the hills. but Joe Punter fresh from hisTeaching Certificate
grandad shirt and a Playtex
cross-your-heart attair (though not
about the band, somehow. (Paul W. Hullah)
v LIVE
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Hf: I
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8 Nov: Deacon Blue. 29—30 Nov: Fish. 31 Dec. I EDINBURGH QUEEN'S HALL(668 2019) Martin Stephenson. 12—13 Aug.
l JAZZ & FOLK !
I GLASGOW CONCERT HALLl3323123)Celia Cruz& Tito Puente Orchestra. 13 Jul; Richard Rodney Bennett. 23—25 ; Jul; Marion Montgomery. ‘ 6—8 Aug; (‘ricket Number. 13—15 Aug. I GLASGOW PAVILION
(332 1846) (‘ourtney Pine.
12 Aug; Branford
finals doesn‘t knowthat— f ’ ’ ‘ A: . I Marsalis.(iSep. ? unless.ofcourse.the ‘> ‘ numbersarctrottedout ‘ ‘ ' ‘ ' ‘ : I 2 likcthcvrchoringold THE KEVIN cDERMOTT ”°'°'"T"e 6'0""‘1- Mad 9mm“ IEOINBURGNPLAYHOUSE -
extraordinaire’ Marco Rossi adds some ORCHESTRA Keith Richards charisma without
King Tut's, Glasgow, 20 June. completely stealing the elder
‘Wahoo time’, as they say around these statesman's wardrobe. The whole parts. It's not often that these leet are shebang itseli is a tastetui balance oi
(557 259(1) Marti Webb& Mark Battray. 7 ()cl; Rebeeca Storm. 11 ()ct; John Denver. 2() ()ct; Engelbert Iiumperdinck.
cousins.
I Donna MacDougall now
knows (and she should) that she is a good singer
- and charminglyricist. In
:23; , riveted to the tloor and this body stands acoustic and electric throughout. . 3’ NW progresst from being all] still in rapt attention, but I can sater It pleases me that The Kevin 5 CLASSICAL archetypal ‘indie' outfit g say that this perlormance smacked oi McDermott Orchestra doesn tlit nicely I GLASGOW CONCERT
: into a moat)‘ majm genius. into one at the required ’Glasgow Band’
prospect. Tonight. I however. thoughts of the
post-gig lager-tap seemed » more prominent in the five-piece's vision than the
‘ shimmering power-pop ii that they are occasionally I
partner to. The Ruby Suit ‘
HALL (332 3123) Tokyo SO. 8 ()ct; Leningrad
It’s damned hard not to like niches. There are so many broken ; Phil. 21 Nov.
McDermott’s crew; ilthere’s ever been barriers through music like this, as the l a band oil the same sprue as The Fab diversity oi styles in the audience ; Four, i'd put my money on this bunch. testiiies. Humour is also a potent ; They have the potent mixture oi element, with sell-parody at a : ”" songwriting and personality to reduce premium - McDermott wailies a truly even the toughest house to a genial and awlul unaccompanied ‘My Way’ beiore beery holocaust. iinishing all his crowd with ’Mother
The animated McDermott leads the Nature's Kitchen’. charge, thrashing away on a guitar that i believe that there are a lot at people looks like an engraved Zippo lighter. losing laith in bands irom this city. 3??” “18M H . y 1 The magnet tor a torrent oi admittedly They would do themselves a lavour by l good-natured abuse, he sweats as watching what Kevin McDermott is up finish“ rig'h, now. Rum l protusely as his punters. ‘Tell itTill It’s to. There’sa lot oiheart pushingthis Suit would they Simph: g True’ is mood music to the powderkeg band lorward, I cannot really lault them ' ' that goes oil to songs like ‘Wheels 0i and I'd dely anyone else to try it.
believe it. have only just begun. (Paul w. Hullah) Wonder’ and the shoeshultle boogie oi Tremendous. (Alan McCrorie)
have enormous potential but they must act upon it quickly. or the media
sell-by date will overtake
42 The List 28June— 1 1 July 1991