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"The List 4- 17 December 1992
Out go the wigs and in come the politics, as the B-52’s suddenly find the world is ready for them. Alastair Mabbott talks to hippy chick KATE PIERSON.
amn The B-52’s. Damn their charm. Damn their durability. After ploughing the same hummable trash-pop furrow for fifteen years, with minimal modifications other than those forced on them by necessity, they should really be staring out of the bargain bins for neglecting to update their act. But they haven’t needed to. The opening chords of any song on their latest LP, Good Stuff, set the foot pumping and the head bobbing just as much as did the immortal ‘Rock Lobster’ all those years ago. What’s more, the world seems to have caught up with them.
Since Cosmic Thing and its attendant hit ‘Love Shack’ a couple of years ago, the band have been playing the ‘summer shed’ (ie outdoor arena) circuit, which their vividly-attired singer Kate Pierson finds weird. ‘You’re playing to a more suburban audience,’ she says. ‘Only people with cars can usually get to these places. The venues are sited in between cities, so they try to draw from several metropolitan areas. It’s quite a differentaudience. When you play in the city ceptres, say the Fillmore in San