MUSIG LIVE REVIEWS
CLERK STREET Emma “ ‘ TELEPHONE 031 I .
The Scottish ChambenOrchestra present a concert inlaid Of The Queen '3 Hall Malta Crescendo Appeal Tuesday 28 January=1992, 7.45pm . . The Clerk Street, Edinburgh
H Mo‘ia'rt Sinfonia Concertanate K364 Mozart Paris Symphony in D K29 7 a ‘ fl, ’ I. g Serenade for Strings I
. , .. gimreetor/Violin “an” ‘20-” (includil’ixdfcliwh smoked salmon at the interval) £10.00, £6.00 8: £4.00 (limited view). Concessions £4.00 in advance and
£2.50 on the night only. Available from The Queen's Hall Box Offia: Tel. 031 668 2019
The Concert Card
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Our new Concert Card will save you £1.00 every time you come to a concert.
’ For just £15.00 a year as a card holder you will receive £1.00 off the face value of a ticket to as many
concerts at The Queen's Hall as you wish to attend in a year, purchased at The Queen's Hall Box Office.
For further details contact The Queen's Hall Box Office, Clerk Street, Edinburgh EH9 1NW Telephone 031 668 2019
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V LIVE
ELECTRONIC/CABARET VOLTAIRE
Barrowland, Glasgow, 9 Dec.
For those of you in the room who thought you missed Cabaret Voltaire’s appearance - bet you didn't. Remember that bit near the beginning oi the night where the lights dimmed and the techno soundtrack took a turn tor the better? Notice how the vocals reached a premium oi eerie seduction around this point? It you’d scrutinised the stage closely, you might have realised that this was more than a test run tor the dry ice. Yeah, those two ligures drilling in and out oi the smokescreen were actually (I’m almost embarrassed to say it) perlorming. Cabaret Voltaire — dance pioneers for two decades (contemporaries ol Kraltwerk, for crying out loud!), and this is how they choose to explain themselves to the public. The naked go-go dancers were a nice touch, though.
And while you’re all playing spot the deliberate mistake in the previous paragraph, Electronic appear to have taken the stage. It must be them, the lights have pepped up again (dance acts need impressive lights to iustily being on a stage In the iirst place) and look, is that Barney there? So it is — a shimmylng, ungainly tub, occasionally prodding some contraption
centrestage. Oh, it’s a keyboard. Well, all this is very nice and interesting, isn’t it? And who’s the wee casual with the guitar on his right? Ah, Johnny Marr, contender for the greatest, most inventive, most inlluential guitarist oi the past ten years. Stripped now (perhaps deliberately) at his mystique, he could be any old guitarist. He certainly plays like he’s any old guitarist.
Sorry, but the tact that these two men held pivotal roles in shaping pop music in the 80s does not excuse this heap oi insipid bilge, and since we're casting aspersions with gleeiul abandon, might it be too cheeky to ask it Marr actually has any songwriting input here? Because the whole debacle reeks with a stench so loul it can only be . . . New Order’s leftovers! Well condolences to all concerned but, as John Travolta once said, sloppy seconds ain’t my style. (Fiona Shepherd)
V LIVE '
a 0; i. EUGENE CHADBOURNE
Subway, Edinburgh, 10 Dec. A banner bearing the main attraction’s name is stretched hopelully above the door, but this is a sadly underpopulated show. Still, most at those who have braved the chill to see this obscure American solo perlormer (‘singer-songwriter’ has too many inappropriate associations) know what to expect and harbour great attention lor him. Chadbourne, a grinning, bespectacled teddy bear with greying curls, is the man who took country music right to the edge and never brought it back. But country singers don't normally do songs hailing Bo Diddley as a communist (and it they do, they don’t mean it as a compliment) or urging us to ‘Keep The KKK In Line' between unrecognisable versions oi songs like ‘See Emily Play’ and John Coltrane pieces.
His style at guitar-playing is equally idiosyncratic. Voyaging into the unknown at every opportunity,
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Chadbourne rams his slide up the neck to make little exclamation marks and rubs a wet linger on the lront oi the guitar lor squeaky semi-colons, in gleeiul defiance at just about every accepted notion of soloing. It a crate oi beer iell down the stairs, Chadbourne would trade licks with it as it tumbled. The delighted laughter which greets the initial guitar abuse tades away as the small throng starts to accept that his madness is not without method, but a smile is never tar away from anyone’s lace.
The bar closes, and the lights go up while he's still playing some epic extemporisation or other, letting a iew jazz runs slip to show that he really could play conventionally it he wanted to. lie packs away his banjo and various guitars and slips oil. Oddball eccentric, or one at the most individual voices in America (and I'm not just reterring to his high, plaintive whine), Eugene Chadbourne has played another inspired set. (Alastair Mabbott)
42 The List 20 December 1991 - 16 January 1992