MUSIC LIVE REVIEWS
T In the Park, the Torment: leo Fostlval
rmv MONROE
La Belle Angele. Edinburgh. 13 April. The support band Passion Fruit And Holy Bread are running half an hour late by the time that they take to the stage to purvey their blend of anoraks and angst. Which is probably just as well. seeing that there are only fifteen punters in the venue and one of them is more intent on playing the pinball machine than anything else. They exit. to polite applause. with their final number ‘Losers‘ and the refrain ‘It's too late for you to love me '. That's certainly true for the other 25 members of the audience. who manage to straggle into the venue by the time Tiny Monroe have finished killing time in the dressing room by playing a Gameboy and assaulting a tailor‘s dummy wearing a wetsuit. Weird? You bet. Their first single. ‘VHF 855V'. is an ode to the virtues of the now defunct Ford Escort of NJ. the singer. Long. slow vocals are laid down over drawling guitar licks before moving on to the low-slung. backbeat intro of ‘Brittle Bones‘. By the third number. NJ is in full flow — she husks. she hisses. she screams and she is sassy with a capital S. Her voice moves from the plaintive to the menacing. You can look and listen but don’t get too close or she’ll screw up your head. NJ fronts and leads the band — she calls the tunes. but the other three march to their own rhythm. The drummer. John. batters the skins with a ferocity which matches his shaved pate; guitarist. Richard. seems strung out on a flailing rock riff whilst Alex on bass. resplendent in a mods-R-us tie. jerks and strangles his instrument in a display of auto-erotic asphyxiation. So top marks to the band for a magnificent display of stylish. spiky swagger and very few marks to the citizens of Edinburgh for failing to turn out in any significant numbers. The pinball wizard didn't even get the high score. (Jonathan Trew)
um- KELVINGBOVE FESTIVAL
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Kelvlngrove Bandstand, Glasgow, 11 Jun.
Less a celebration of what’s moving and shaking across the Central Belt and more an opportunity for mucho al fresco quaffing of alcoholic beverages, the Kelvingrove free festival rolls round again with all the combined atmosphere of the football terraces, the family picnic and the 1 youth club disco.
Yet again, the organisers Radio Clyde have squandered the possibilities inherent in such an event by nailing their colours to the pub rock mast and entertaining the egos of sundry musicians displaying that curiously Scottish fetish for waistcoats, ponytalls and overzealous attention to the fretboard, with a bill composed of has-beans, never-heard-ofs and hopefully-never-heanof-agains.
The afternoon starts punctually and
jauntily enough with The Diesel Kings, who use the occasion to showcase material from their forthcoming EP. At the time it sounds like flimsy, inconsequential folk rock with a helping of country to go, but in retrospect they were the saviours of
the day.
Next up are Who Cares?, named with playful irony or rank stupidity depending on your particular ' disposition towards Bryan Adams
soprock.
By this point, anyone entertaining hopes of, well, entertainment has to retire to the Art Gallery, a mere empty lager can’s throw away, where the first
of Sound City’s two music-in-the-
; museums ventures is taking place.
i There they discover The Johnny 7, a
sedentary combo who stake their
entire credibility on a repertoire of
1 other people’s songs (‘Girl From
i Iponema’, ‘Goldfinger’, etc.) reworked 1 in a cheesy musak stylee, such as you ' might hear pumping through the PA
; system of your friendly, neighbourhood ! DIY supercentre.
Their stylophonic workout is
1 succeeded by the jaufunk of leusion, 1 who would have effectively ‘vibed the ; ioint’ but for the Grand Canyon
! acoustics of the gallery’s main hall.
Back at the bandstand, Clyde and
1 The Answer grunt through truly dire cock-rock travesties with boundless enthusiasm and The Sensational Alex 1 Harvey Band continue to violate the Trades Descriptions Act and the
; sensibilities of music-lovers
L everywhere. Still, there’s always next 1 year. (Fiona Shepherd)
.NGM SHOWCASE '
' King Tut’s, Glasgow, 9 June.
Falling over the farnillar threshold,
’ paranoia creeps in. The piano player doesn’t exactly stop, but still the i . impression remains - everyone else in I this bar knows everyone else in this
bar. And they’re all at least six drinks ahead of me. Tonight is a l thingummygig by North Glasgow Music’s Class Of ’94, which explains the end-of-tenn disco vibe permeating events.
First up, and tonight’s winners, are : The Verlanes. Although looking like five strangers on stage together by
accident, by the third song they’ve ' fallen together in a pop-metal-punk
heap and are warming the sparsely ; populated venue nicely. Ignoring minor 5 quibbles like the keyboards being too 1 low in the mix, attention ls grabbed by g the bass player’s brilliant trick of i always looking like he’s on the verge of forgetting which song he’s playing, the excellent guitarist and his scrap- book axe hero posing, and a trontrnan who couldn’t give a toss it he was playing In front of two, 2000 or, indeed, St Peter and the assembled armies of heaven.
New Ment State bring up memories of hairy guys in pubs conspiring to keep ‘Dark Side Of The Moon’ playing perpetually on the CD jukebox, though claw some cool points back by having a female drummer, looking like she’d
I
Tonight’s winners: The Verlanes
rather be elsewhere. Obviously aiming
for some kind of musical grandness on songs like ‘Some Hideaway’, they
sound suspiciously Fish to me.
Body Electric, headlining tonight, are
a harder Simply lied, frequently saved
i from horrible 70s ‘jan-funk’ blandness only by a maniac fronbnan trugging
g away as though he was listening to
; records in his bedroom. A blistering
‘Crosstown Traffic’ gets people
moving, and is a kind of highlight - although it would’ve been even better
| with some kazoos.
5 There’s a genuine enthusiasm around 2 tonight, but the nagging feeling is that lthe bands would have benefited from,
and risen to, the challenge of a larger,
§ anonymous audience. Next time. .(Damlen love)
V BOOK NOW
Concerts listed are those at major venues, for which tickets are on public sale at time of going of press.
ROCK
I GLASGOW BARROWLAND (226 4679) Chaka Demus and Pliers. 10 Jul; Elvis Costello. 14 Jul; Kevin McDermott. 15 Jul; The Mission. 19 Oct; Stone Temple Pilots. 23
Oct.
I GLASGOW CONCERT HALL (227 5511) Sinitta and Jermaine Stewart. 2 Jul; BB. King. 4 Jul; Al Green. 7 Jul; Dwight Yoakam. 14 Jul; Judy Collins. 6 Sept; The Hollies. 21 Oct; Hank Marvin and Brian Bennett. 30 Oct; David Essex. 22 Nov.
I GLASGOW PLAZA (423 3077) Shane MacGowan. 5 Jul; Spirea X. 6 Jul.
I GLASGOW SECC (248 9999) Diana Ross. 6 Jul; Cliff Richard. 4—6 Dec; Gary Glitter. 8 Dec; Dina Carroll. 10 Dec; M People. 12 Dec.
I STRATHCLYDE COUNTRY PARK (031 557 6969) T in the Park Festival. 30—31 Jul.
I EDINBURGH FESTIVAL THEATRE (529 6000) Horse. 9 Aug; The Hollies. 23 ()ct; Penguin Cafe Orchestra. 6 Nov; Sixties Show. 13 Nov; Rocky Horror Show. 22—26 Nov.
I EDINBURGH OUEEN’S HALL (668 2019) Jools Holland Big Band. 19—28
Aug.
I STIRLING CASTLE ESPLANADE (031 557 6969) UB 40. 18 Aug; | Runrig. 20 Aug.
gJAzz
l I EDINBURGH FESTIVAL
‘ . l THEATRE (529 60(X)) Ted
Heath Orchestra. 8 Aug; George Shearing. 10 Aug. I EDINBURGH OUEEN’S HALL (668 2019) ElJF Opening Concert. 6 Aug; Andrew Speight. 7 Aug; Ella Fitzgerald Songbook. 9 Aug; EIJF Gala Concert. 11 Aug; Carol Kidd. 29 Aug; Phil Bancroft Octet. 30 Aug; Gary Thomas. 31 Aug; Georgie Fame. 1 Sept; Craig McMurdo. 2 Sept; Bheki Mseleku. 2 Sept; Mulgrew Miller. 3 Sept; Omar and Tony Remy Band. 3 Sept.
I GLASGOW CONCERT HALL (227 5511) Herbie Hancock. 1 Jul; B.B.King. 4 Jul; Al Green. 7 Jul; Pasadena Roof Orchestra. 9 Sept; Glenn Miller Orch. 24 Nov.
I GLASGOW OLD FRUITMARNET (227 5511) Martin Taylor. 2 Jul; Bobby Watson. 2 Jul; Annie Ross. 2 Jul; Thomas Chapin. 3 Jul; Ahmad Jamal. 3 Jul;
Gateway. 3 Jul; Watson
and SYJO. 4 Jul; Carol Kidd. 5 Jul; Horace Silver. 6 Jul; Deuchar Tribute. 7 Jul; Joe Henderson. 8 Jul; Roy Ayers. 8 Jul; Nigel Clark. 9 Jul; Steve Grossman. 9 Jul; Max Roach. 9 Jul; Suzanne Bonnar. 10 Jul; Zawinul-Gurtu. lOJul; Robben Ford. 10 Jul.
LIGHT
I EDINBURGH FESTIVAL THEATRE (529 6000) Sydney Devine. 12 Nov. I GLASGOW CONCERT HALL (227 551 l ) Guy Mitchell. 18 Sept; Shirley Bassey. 19 Sept; Val Doonican. 18 Oct; Tom Jones. 15 Nov; Dominic Kirwan. 20 Nov.
I GLASGOW PAVILION (332 1846) Sydney Devine. 16—19 Nov.
f CLASSICAL
I GLASGOW CONCERT
I HALL (227 5511) Jessye
5 Norman. 6 Jul; Montserrat Caballe. 19 Aug; The Flying Dutchman. 26
' Aug; GIGS. 3—1] Sept;
i Galway and Robles. 12
1 Sept; Tokyo
Philharmonic. 19 Oct;
3 Gothenberg SO. 3 Nov;
Bernard D‘Ascoli. 14
i Nov; Borromeert. 18
Nov; Emma Johnson. 6
Dec; John Williams. 24
Jan; Novosibirsk
Philharmonic. 12 Feb;
1 1.eivae Andsnes. 22
Feb; Stuttgart
Philharmonic. 28 Mar;
I Joshua Bell. 2 Apr; Melos
E Ensemble. 4 May; lvo
v Pogorelich. 2 Jun; Cecilia
i Bartoli. 7 Jun; Jessye
' Norman. 6 Jul.
1 I EDINBURGH FESTIVAL
; THEATRE (529 6000) The Sixteen. 3 Jul; Amsterdam
' Baroque. 17 Jul; Evelyn Glennie. 19 Jul; English
Bach Festival Opera.
: 21—22 Jul; Kronos Quartet. 23 Jul; Labeque
Sisters. 27 Jul; Michael
; Nyman Band. 6 Aug;
i Norwegian Chamber
Orchestra. 7 Aug; Fidelio.
15. 17 Aug; Ute 1.emper.
, 22 Aug; Australian Opera.
‘ 25—27 Aug; British Youth
Opera. 7—10 Sept; Misa
Flamenca. 18 Sept; Kings
College Choir. 25 Sept;
lsrael in Egypt. 2 Oct;
Lithuanian NPO. 30 Oct;
Vienna Boys Choir. 27
Nov; Scottish Opera. 29
Nov—10 Dec; Messiah. 11
Dec.
I SUBSCRIPTION
SEASONS Programme
details and tickets for
RSNO. SCO. BBC SSO
and CGPO concerts are
available from
| Ticketcentre. Glasgow
“(227 5511); Usher Hall.
Edinburgh (228 1155);
Queen's Hall. Edinburgh
(668 2019). Tickets for
Scottish Opera from
Theatre Royal. Glasgow
(332 9000); Festival
Theatre. Edinburgh (529
6000).
T in the Park, July 30th and 31 at at Strathclyde Park
34 The List 17-30 June 1994