REVIEW MUSIC
The Electric Daisies
Irn Bru Ros. Third liye (‘entre.(i|asgovv. 3July. Dance. it seemed. was the salvation of the nation. and rock looked set to become the Qt Is dirty word. Then some bright sparks decided to put all their eggs in one basket. scramble them. and turn out the resulting mess for mass consumption. And it worked ~— funk metal became the acceptable face of heavy rock. Faith No More made Iolsol money and everyone \s as very happy.
Enough of scepticism. bring on the dancing horses. .\'o. I mean bring on the Izlectric Daisies. F.as_v mistake to make though v- from the word go the band clump around graeelessly tossing their manes periodically. However. it's immediately apparent vs hy bands like this have reached 21 vs idcr audience. Something this primal can only be rock'n'roll. but it‘s so downright infectious that it could tease the most reluctant raver out of the cupboard.
Tonight the Daisies take the perplexineg sparse crowd in their stride and regale them with beefy metal anthems and a barrage of enthusiasm. Singer (‘hris I Iendrie charges imliscriminately about the stage like an elephant on a beetle—squashing crusade. Stephen Donnelly. drowning in a pair of trainers the size of Lake Superior. finds his way around his bass strings
-with alarmingly deft
precision. By the time ‘Plastic Shotgun‘ rears its funky head the longhairs around me are jerking madly; when the groove of ‘Pray to Anyone' rolls over the monitors it's almost impossible to see the stage for flailing locks.
Marsha Fresea may have the sentimentsand the hairstyles. but Iilectrie Daisies has e the tunes and the charisma. They may look like a sloppy shambles but they're tighter than Manic Street Preachers' trousers. Here come the bop boys. (Fiona Shepherd)
ruminatory as the title suggests.
Q ‘My Love Lives In A Dead House', Grant ? admitting that they didn‘t want to wreck
. paperto offer multiple possibilities:
V LIVE LOVE AND MONEY
City Hall, Glasgow, 4July. 1 Guitar held high, quiff gelled tight, cardi pressed neat, James Granton t stage isaman reeking of ' sophistication, the lounge-bar lizard with the cultured Glasgow breeding. Tonight, Joe Smooth and his band are back treading the hometown boards aftera lengthy absence, here to showcase the muted tones of their imminentthird album, ‘Dogs In The Traffic'.
‘Greattitle, great rock and roll,’ lies t Grant before launching the sobriety. Just like his own presence, the new I tracks are neatly-cut, sombre affairs; we get a lair inkling of where we‘re
t
Pearls’ and its leap-out line of ‘Must’ve' killed 100 Germans, butthey left a piece of shell in my brain‘. As will transpire, James Grant is a troubled soul.
The hard-assed chunkiness of those i late-80s soul grooves lie in the distant . domain of two (relatively) poorly received albums. Now. the lyrical angles are limbless, other-worldly creations. ‘You’re Not The Only One Tonight‘ is a wistful rebuke to the source of the singer‘s broken heart, while ‘Papa Death‘ is as lonesomer
They launch into the current single,
McLean) heading with the opening ‘Cheap 1
heir non-hit tradition by scaling the
charts this time around. They‘re going
he right way about it. That the single‘s
Southern-fried sweaty nerviness is
otally a-contemporary and assuredly lop-bound goes without saying. Then
again, if ‘Dogs In The Traffic"s bedsit blues miserabilism had been penned by a Mr Morrissey instead of a
Mr Grant, his band's last-gasp fortunes wouldn't be nearly so precarious.
Which is a shame, as tonight‘s show
was a stirring elegv, subtly and wistful ly executed. After live years and
hree albums, Love And Money seem a
band finally in tune with their own
onesome, low-key character. (Craig
Love and Money
,.~.;~:»,‘.ztmm'ua,,
were"
V LIVE
HANCOCK, SHORTER, CLARKE, HAKIM
Concert Hall, Glasgow. 1 July.
Of all the projects assembled for the Glasgow International Jazz Festival, this one was the hardest to call. Billed as a superstar quartet, it seemed on
would it be an acoustic jazz quartet or a fusion outfit, an exciting combination of diverse talents, or a rather bland aggregation of famous names, with no controlling force to bind the whole thing together?
In retrospect, it would have been better to listen to the siren voices. Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter have done great things in jazz, but neither has produced much that was either original or distinctive in recent times. Their improvisations on this occasion were disappointingly rigid
I and repetitive, with little hint of the bountiful flow of ideas (Hancock) or the
A
devious idiosyncracy (Shorter) of their distant best work.
The rhythm section, meanwhile, bludgeoned theirway through the set, with Stanley Clarke typically sacrificing musicality forvirtuosity (although his many fans clearly lapped it up, undismayed by the self-indulgence of it all), while Omar Hakim thrashed away regardless.
My heart sank when they opened the set with an insensitive murdering of Mingus's elegaic ‘Goodbye Pork Pie Hat‘ and followed it with a lousy reading of Shorter's classic ‘Footprints’ which all but erased the tune‘s quirky charm. From there, it got worse; this wasn‘t a band at all, just a collection of names pulling down a fat fee without too much sweat, and constituted a sad blemish on an otherwise good Festival. I left, mildly depressed, long before they did. (Kenny Mathieson)
V BOOK NOW
Concerts listed are those at majorvenues, forwhich tickets are on public sale at time of going of press.
ROCK
I GLASGOW BARROWLAND (33b 4(17‘)) De La Soul. illAug;A1| About live. 8 Sep; Level 43. 3 ()ct: Billy Bragg. 18 ()ct; Stiff Little Fingers. 1‘) ()ct; (‘arter The Unstoppable Sex Machine. 3 Nov; James. b Nov; The Farm. 1 Dec.
I GLASGOW CONCERT HALL (333 3133)
Morrissey. 3SJul:
‘ (‘hes’ney I Iawkcs. 33 ()ct;
Neil Sedaka. 34(1ct; Tammy Wynette. 13 \'ov: Deacon Blue. 37—381)ec.
IGLASGOW SECC(557 (>969) Dire Straits. 1 1—1-1 Sep; Whitney Ilouston. 17- 1‘)Sep: Sting. 33 Nov: ('hris Rea. 3‘) Nov; New Kids ()n The Block. 8 Dec: (iary (ilitter. 33—34 I)ec.
l EDINBURGH CASTLE ESPLANADE (557 6969) Van Morrison, 29 Aug.
I EDINBURGH PLAYHOUSE (557 359(1) Marillion. 33 Sep: Lloyd Cole. lSOct: (‘hesney I Iawkes. 31 ()ct'. James. 8 .\'ov; Deacon Blue. 39-30 Nov; Fish. 31 I)ec.
I EDINBURGH OUEEN'S HALL ((va 3(11‘)) Martin Stephenson. 13-13 Aug; Billy Bragg. 3(l()et.
JAZZ & FOLK
I GLASGOW CONCERT HALL (333 3 I 33) ('eIia (‘ruz & Tito Puente ()rchestra. 13 Jul: Richard Rodney Bennett. 33—35 Jul; Marion Montgomery. (v-S‘Aug: (‘ricket Number. l3—15Aug.
I GLASGOW PAVILION (333 18-16) (‘ourtney Pine. 13 Aug; Branford Marsalis. bSep.
I EDINBURGH OUEEN'S HALLjnns‘ 2019) Eric Bogle. 14 Aug: Dick (iaughan. 15 Aug; Battlefield Band. If» lb‘ Aug; (irand L'nion Band. lb- 17 Aug; Joe Pass, It) Aug; Barney Kessell ()liverlones.3(1Aug: Boysof the Lough. 33—35 Aug: (‘arol Kidd 6';
()rehestra. 3f) Auy
..
Tommy Smith. 37 Aug: (.‘arol Kidd «S; Georgie Fame. 37—38 Aug; Egberto Gismonti. 38 Aug; (‘lusone Trio. 39 Aug: Bley Swallow! Sheppard. 3t) Aug1Tam White Band. 3llAug; (‘apercaillie. 31 Aug.
I EDINBURGH INTERNATIONAL JAZZ FESTIVAL 17—35 Aug. Programme details and tickets are available from the IilJF. 116(‘anongate. Iidinburgh.El188DD (0315571643).
LIGHT
I EDINBURGH PLAYHOUSE (557 359(1) Marti Webb & Mark Battray. 7 Oct: Rebecca Storm. 1 1 Oct: John Denver. 3()Oct: Iilkie Brooks. 3 Nov; Engelbert llumperdinck. 31 Nov.
CLASSICAL
I GLASGOW CONCERT HALL(333 3133) Nigel Kennedy. 38 Aug: (‘ity of (ilasgow Phil. 3(1Aug. 1.6 Sep: James Galway. 31 Aug; Mozart Festival Orchestra. 3—3 Sep; SCO. 4 Sep; llalle Orchestra. 5 Sep; BBCSSO. IllSep: Scottiin Opera ()rch & Chorus. 11 Sep: (.‘zech Philharmonic. 13-14 Sep'. Scottish Fantasia. 15 Sep‘. Georgian State ()rehestra. 33 Sep; Tokyo 80. 8 ()ct; Leningrad Phil. 31 Nov.
I EDINBURGH INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL AND FRINGE ltlAug—l Sep. Programme details and tickets are available from the Festival Box ()ffice. 3l MarketStreet. Edinburgh EIII lBW ((131335 5756). The Fringe Box Office is at 181) High Street. Edinburgh Iiill lOS((13l 3365138). (‘oncerts at the Queen’s Hall can also be booked at the venue ((1683019).
I EDINBURGH USHER HALL (338 I 155) Georgian State ()rchestra. 35 Sep.
I SUBSCRIPTION SEASONS Subscription booking only is now open for the Winter Seasons featuring the Royal Scottish ()rchestra. the Scottish (‘hamber ()rchestra. and Scottish Opera. Leafletsare available from the organisations concerned. or from major venues.
i'ITiei-LisT—D — 25 July 199141