MUSIC PREVIEW
V LISTEN!
I Patron of the arts Peter Gabriel commissioned artists from twelve countries to produce artwork for the sleeve of his imminent LP Us, including two Scots. Ian Hughes and and the celebrated David Mach. Mach’s contribution, illustrating the song ‘Come Talk To Me’, is a fragmented portrait of Gabriel in a style that‘s instantly recognisable from his previous work with bundles of overlapping magazines. Ian Hughes, former Artist In Residence at the Gallery of Modern Art, produced a jungle landscape within a black box to illustrate a track called ‘Steam‘. Elliptical,
no?
I Carol Laula had better not get a swollen head during her Scottish tour which starts on Sat 3 and continues until November. For Jane Wiedlin, formerly of the chart-topping Go-Gos is second on the bill to the Glaswegian songstress and her band The Gypsies. It appears that the two met when Laula was busking her way across the States and got on so well that Wiedlin was only too happy to open the Scottish shows
for her. Is this the start of the ego-free 905? About
time. i 3 "
Trust have announced the winners of their demo competition: thirteen in total, with the outright champions being Glasgow’s Glass Onion, who get to record a Radio Scotland session. The others were: The Harmonics. The Thin Men. The Fugue, Fjaere. Rise, Neil McIlvanney. Everything, Clumsy Lovers, There There Pet, Monkeyshines. Bunky Freeks and Baby Doc. who all get recording time in Scotland‘s top studios. I With still-iresh memories of seeing our TV Editor greet each day with his James T-shirt (the one with the floaty letters on it which made the band a packet). we trembled at the news that these enterprising Mancunians have kicked their merchandising campaign into a new phase with the introduction of the ‘James Woolly Jumpcr‘. It‘s bright blue, it's got a flower on the front and it‘ll set you back 25 nicker. Still. a James fan and his £26.80 (inc P&P) can soon be parted, courtesy of
Billy‘s Shirts, PO Box
182, Manchester M60 4DU.
’éfi'i‘hc List 25 ‘sspic5534'fi35m1692‘ M ‘
..... .. .. M... 4. ._-.:t I The Music In Scotland
V CLASSICAL
Premiere attractions
John Casken
Just beiore all the main seasons at orchestral periormances by the BSD, SCO and BBC SSO begin in earnest, the BBC is taking the opportunity to slip in another, which opens in Glasgow on Friday 25. Entitled ‘Premiere—A Celebration Oi New Music’, this lascinating and innovative series runs overlour periormances, two in Glasgow and two in Edinburgh.
Each concert will ieature the world or Scottish premieres ol works by composers irom Scotland and abroad. Alongside these works, audiences can hear more established 20th century and earlier classics. Ol the truly exciting array at new music, two pieces
are BBC commissions receiving their iirst pertormances. The Queen’s Hall in Edinburgh is the venue ior Ian McOueen’s new piano concerto, ‘Pheadrus’, in a programme which also includes the Scottish premiere at Steve Reich’s ‘Variations For Wind, Strings and Keyboards’ and the iirst public periormance at ‘Death And Fire’ by the Chinese-born composer, Tan Dun (27 March).
On 17 April at the BSAMO in Glasgow, the second special commission, Geoltrey King’s as yet untitled score, is revealed in the context at an all British programme oi Benjamin Britten’s ‘Nocturne ForTenorAnd Chamber Orchestra’ (soloist Nell Mackie) and ‘Symphony No 2’ by Michael Tippett. Both lyrical and exotic, the ‘Violin Concerto’ by Indian-born (but Edinburgh resident) composer Naresh Sohal can be heard alongside Beethoven’s ‘Symphony No 7’ and Holst’s evocative ‘Egdon Heath' on 24 October in Edinburgh.
Back to this month, though, tor the iirst concert and the Scottish premieres at John Casken’s ‘Maharal Dreaming’ and Alexander Goehr’s ‘Symphony In One Movement’, which sit either side at Mahler’s ‘Kindertotenlieder’ with Fiona Kimm as soloist. (Carol Main)
Premiere —A Celebration at New Music opens Friday 25 at the BSAMO, Glasgow.
am- Main man
Following a sterile period in the 1960s and 1970s, mainstream jazz began
once again to attract new young players
into the told, with the consequent revitalisation which also, in a parallel development, breathed new lite into bop. The icons oi the new mainstream revival were players like Scott
: Hamilton, Warren Vache, Howard
Alden and Dan Barrett, and the Concord
label became their recognised home. Ken Peplowski belongs in that
company, as anyone who heard him on
his earlier visits to Scotland will
testify. Born in Cleveland, Ohio, but based in New York since 1980, Peplowski has several albums to his credit on Concord, and has played with most at the major names in the iield, as well as testing the water in more
i modern idioms, lrom lusion to
avant-garde. Just to prove he also has a sense at humour, though, Peplowski can also be heard on Leon Bedbone's albums ‘Sugar’ and ‘Up the Lazy River’.
A virtuoso instrumentalist with a sharp musical intelligence on saxophone and clarinet, Peplowski has demonstrated his empathy with the mainstream idiom, which translates the classic virtues oi Swing into a small group format, and emphasises swinging rhythms, lucid phrasing, harmonic invention and melodic beauty.
l
Ken Peplowski
His latest visit to Scotland takes him back to arguably the best established regular mainstream venue in the country, the Society oi Musicians in Glasgow, where he will play with the resident Sandy TaylorTrio, with Ricky Steele on bass and Murray Smith on drums. In a change to the Society’s published programme, incidentally, Don Lusher now replaces Bill Watrous on 19 October at the Mitchell Theatre. (Kenny Mathieson)
Ken Peplowski plays the Society at Musicians, Glasgow on Sun 27.
Blue skies ahead
Craig McLean talks to the Thunder ‘dome’, Gary ‘Harry’ James, backbone of the spectacularly successful British rock
group.
This is heavy rock as was: unconvoluted, blues-built, brawny, British, doggedly assertive, diligently thunderous. Thunder are heavy rock as was in the hoary, hairy 705, and as is in the re-rockified 905. Never mind the cynics, abuse the dance-dominated market illusion, and go on shake your money-maker — everything turns mental as everyone turns metal, and those in the know will be the ones laughing