PREVIEW MUSIC
their music as ‘folk‘.
With every night bar one featuring a very danceable band. and a full-blown eeilidh dance to end an extended Burns Night concert. the Tramway aims to reflect their heady Paris Africa season last year. where the space and the bar took on a relaxed club atmosphere.
The week starts with a Humpffing on Tue 21. The anarchic Glasgow rockabilly outfit thrash and wail with vocals. banjos. fiddle. mandolin and harmonica on top of the rock rhythm section. The Humpff Family are. of course. not a family. but are probably as threatening to mental stability.
Peter Nardini shares the Wednesday night with the Savourna Stevenson band. Nardini‘s bleak. black. sardonic and comic slices of life are accompanied by classic singer/songwriter acoustic guitar and harmonica. and sung in an uncompromising Lanarkshire accent. Songs about the Wall round Larkhall. sectarian strife and West End of Glasgow social nuances are grist to this art teacher’s mill.
[ The Savourna Stevenson group
i give another airing to Tweed
j Journey. and a first in Glasgow for
: Moorsong. her extended
5 instrumental pieces for small harp in ' ajazzjrock setting. This is
3 highly-skilled playing on the Scottish j clarsach. extending its musical range ; in a way that the 17th century
' harpers could scarcely have imagined, but with a fingering virtuosity they would have easily admired.
Thursday‘s concert and dance marries Michael Marra‘s piano hymns and humours with the sophisticated world music amalgam of London’s The Barely Works. You can have no understanding of contemporary Scottish popular music without hearing Marra's carefully wrought songs. He‘s just completed a major tour supporting Deacon Blue. and the general public are, belatedly. beginning to realise that Dundee has produced a major talent. Originality and adventurous combinations of instrumentation and harmony are also the trademark of the now well-established Barely
The Barely Works
Works. The individual experience of the seven musicians encompasses most branches of popular and unpopular music. leading to a joyful fusion ofsong and dance beat.
The remarkable voice and engaging personality ofveteran singer/songwriter and guitarist Rab Noakes shares Friday night with the Rasta Morris of Edward II.
Manchester‘s mixed band has a powerhouse combination of reggae l and accordion with guitar. sax. i driving bass and percussion that i filled the dance floor of the Club at l the recent Aberdeen Alternative Music Festival.
The week ends on Saturday with a Burns Night blow-out featuring Rod Paterson. a superb interpreter of the Bard's songs, and no mean songwriter himself. who will also join with the explosively indefinable Cauld Blast Orchestra in some of their set. Haggis and other fare is promised along with a Ceilidh Band to climax this week of New Lang Syne.
New Lang Syne is a! the Tram way. Glasgowfrpm Tue 21—Sat 25. j
V LISTEN!
Simple Minds and now saidflorence manager told Epic A&R man Mike Sault. ‘Why don‘t you come up?‘ Due to a bomb scare. he almost didn‘t make it. but saidflorence hung around and got their major label Xmas pressie. This hasn‘t left Bellshill bled dry oftalent; there are two or three more bands there that record companies are said to be checking out.
I Black Bottle Scotch Whisky. the latest drinks company to enter the live music sponsorship fray in Scotland. have announced details ofan admittedly rather tasty-looking show which will play the SECC on 11 March. For the first time anywhere. Jerry Lee Lewis and Fats Domino will be bashing the ivories on the same bill as Georgie Fame and Jools Holland. Each pianist. they say. will play an individual set. and the evening will climax with a ‘Battle OfThe Pianos'. Count us out. Jerry Lee's a pretty wild guy. and we wouldn‘t want to be in his way when he starts throwing one ofthose mothers around.
I The Lost Soul Band. after some deliberation. have tied the knot with Silvertone Records— former home to The Stone Roses. and current British record company for John Lee Hooker among others. The band will be sticking to the same schedule that they would ifthey were still working independently — gigging in February. recording in March— but the label's backing has come as a welcome bonus. Meanwhile. reports suggest that Nick Robertson and his new band The Cooler are being looked at with great interest by Capitol who. for a brieftimc. had that other Auld Reekie band Goodbye Mr Mackenzie on their books.
I Hue 8: Cry. however. seem to be having less luck. You‘ll remember that they parted company with Circa at the end of last year and went hunting for a new record label. Now. word is out that
Sony have given the duo‘s demos a decisive thumbs-down.
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