MUSIC PREVIEW
V “STEM!-
I MIST (the Music In Scotland Trust) have announced their second demo tape competition. which last year attracted 600 entries and enabled twelve bands to record in some of Scotland’s top studios: CaVa East. Park Lane. Funny Farm. Apollo. Heaven and Seagate. The outright winner was Glass Onion from Glasgow. The Trust — which recently
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appointed Radio 1‘s Jakki Brambles as President — has helped launch more than 40 music-related businesses since it was established in 1989. Bands wishing to enter should send their tapes. with an SAE. to MIST Recording Sessions competition. PO Box 183. Glasgow G3 8DG by 27 August.
I Consumed by the need to 'nurture and actively promote' Scottish musicians. Craig Drummond of Performing Arts Ltd contacted us to say that he‘s looking for bands to manage (‘No folk bands. punks. airheads or advertisement singers’). He‘s looking for a good demo tape. short but well-crafted biography and a photograph — and talent. Anyone who wants to give it a try should send these items to him at Performing Arts Ltd. 5 James Square. Biggar. Lanarkshire Ml. 12 6DL.
I A Chocolate Morning. enterprising folks that they are. have set up a box number — A Chocolate Moming. PO Box l047. Rutherglen. Glasgow G73 4EF - for their fans to keep in touch with them. From mid-July. their new single ‘Uninspired' can be got from that address. Enclosing some money might help to secure a copy. but precisely how much they've still to tell
I A reshuffle in The Mission's ranks (loss of ex-Pretenders bassist. gain of ex-All About live bassist) has led to the postponement of the band's autumn dates. including their gig at The Arches. Glasgow. which will now take place on 26 September. Tickets for the original date are still valid.
I It you get your List the Thursday it comes out. there‘s time to nip down to MacSorley‘s in Glasgow to catch the first weekly Battle Of The
. Bands. Over the next
eight Thursdays. 24 bands will be slugging it out for the chance of £300 and a fortnightly weekend residency for four months. The grand final is on 23 September.
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34 The List 2—15 July 1993
Atlantic crossing
MARC MARNIE
Georgie Fame Georgie Fame has been heard with Carol Kidd, Van Morrison and the BBC Radio Big Band in Scotland in the past couple of years, but his current project is the most exciting yet. Fame will play only one gig here with a band made up of the crack llew York musicians who played on his two excellent Go Jazz albums, ‘Cool Cat Blues’ (1991) and ‘The Blues and Me’ (1992). Both were produced by pianist Ben Sidran, and represent one of the singer’s happier brushes with the record business.
‘The record business is a pain in the arse. Over the years I’ve learned to keep myself free to do whatever I want, and usually I’m working with people that I have developed relationships with over the years. I had never met Ben Sidran, but I knew a lot about him, and I knew he knew about me. We finally met up in Perth
in Australia, and we had a live minute talk in the hotel lobby, which was enough to set up the first album - no lawyers, no accountants, just him and me and the ideas we had about the music.
‘We did the recording in four evenings, with no fuss at all, which is how it should be. I didn’t really know the musicians before we went into the studio for the first one, but that didn’t matter. They are all really good players, and what happens then is that we have this area of common ground, be it jazz, blues, or whatever, and in you go and hang, it happens.’
There are a number of big name guests on each recording, but for the touring band, Fame has recruited the core of the studio musicians who did their stuff on both discs. It was to have centred on guitarist Robben Ford (whose own The Blue Line trio will open the gig), bassist Will Lee and keyboard wiz Richard Tee, but the Iatter’s illness has forced his withdrawal, and he is replaced by saxophonist Ronnie Cuber, who also played on both discs. The band is made-up by an old mate, the popular English saxman Dick Morrissey, and drummer James Powell, who did not figure on either record.
Fame has developed into a highly accomplished and hard-working jazz singer over the years, without losing touch with the raw R ’n’ B roots of his music. This band will provide the perfect setting in which to demonstrate his wide-ranging artistry. (Kenny Mathieson)
The Georgie Fame New York Band play the Queen’s Ilall, Edinburgh, on Thurs 8.
Heavenly pursuit
Despite their youth and the relatively giddy heights of their fame, it’s pleasing to hear that Scarborough’s little Angels still have their feet on the ground. With a lumber One album under their belt in ‘Jam’ and a slew of comfortably high positioned chart singles, Little Angels have just completed a ‘llll’ (i.e. English) tour with rock magnates Van llalen. In what had to be the shortest interview I have ever conducted, the band’s amiable bass player Mark Plunkett said he was impressed with Eddie and co’s behaviour.
‘They were really down-to-earth guys, we hung out with them and jammed with Eddie on “You Really Got Me”. I really rate them.’
The former Van llalen acolyte is no stranger to press hype and speculation himself - Little Angels began life as ‘Mr Thrud’ and as the apple of ‘Kerrang”s eye for many years, a real cross to bear, surely?
‘lt’s good and bad In some ways, starting young,’ says Mark. ‘lf you don’t like the hand, then we’re easy targets, daft kids, you know the thing. People talk down to you when you’re sixteen, tell you what to do and do as they say. We’re all in our twenties
P . “m.
that label still follows us around.’
Little Angels are content to have washed their hands of some aspects of their past, but it’s refreshing to know they’re still “punters” at heart. After a career of innovative gigs in schools, in-store acoustic sets and a very healthy fan base, Little Angels have not been diverted from their goal.
“Jam” is a platform for moving on,’ says Mark. ‘We have a lot left to do and there are things for us still to learn.’
Proves you can still teach an old dog new tricks, then? (Alan McGrorie)
Little Angels play the lIsher liall, Edinburgh on Tue 6.
mm- Three ring psychosis
No clowns, or tigers jumping through flaming hoops, but Midi Circus has just about everything else, as Philip Dorward discovers.
it is still morning. Any abnormal person who‘d been running their own club until four o‘clock that morning would still be safely tucked away in the land ofthe pixies. Not Lol Hammond. a fundamental 50 per cent of The Drum
Club along with DJ-esque partner Charlie Hall. As happy as a sandboy in