POP Dubstar
Glasgow: Barrowland, Tue 25 Nov.
Those of you searching for the next rock 'n' roll rebel shouldn't look to Sarah Blackwood for encouragement. 'I've always fancied being a rebel, but I’ve never quite had the courage to do it,’ Dubstar's be-eyelashed frontperson confesses. ’The most rebellious thing I've ever done was probably stealing a marzipan fruit from a cake decoration. I was about five and I was shaking and crying all day and my mum didn’t know why. I just thought the lemon looked so tasty, but I put in my mouth and didn’t even like it.’
Having discovered at such a ripe age that crime rarely pays, Blackwood chose a life of singing. Thus, Dubstar’s second album release Goodbye carries on where Disgracefu/ left off with more than an ear for a catchy tune and a depressing lyric. ’We don't strive to achieve anything like world domination, just to write a good pop tune,’ insists Blackwood. 'The only way
Dubstar: they know it's only rock 'n' roll
you can inject any sincerity is to write from experience — if you’ve really felt it.’
Her experience of youthful grand larceny may have left her with feelings of shame, but the touring circuit merely leaves her with a bad taste in her mouth. ’I hate the travelling and going to bed late and getting up late and sitting on your backside all day and generally feeling yacky,’ gabbles Blackwood before continuing, ’and being hungover and not eating properly. And at the mercy of the venues and I hate it.’
That said, Blackwood can console herself with those precious moments of joy, such as meeting June Whitfield on The Jack Docherty Show. ’She was reeeeaaaaally lovely,’ emphasises Blackwood. 'I took her a cup of tea and went "here you are, here's your tea,” and she went, “ooh, thank you very much dear. I'll just sit here and have this tea that this nice lady has brought me."' It may not be rock ’n’ roll but Sarah likes it.
(Brian Donaldson)
DRUM 'N' BASS Adam F Glasgow: King Tut's, Thu 4 Dec.
Flashback: The Jazz Cafe, London, late summer: drum 'n’ bass producer Adam F is about to run through his live show.
As he takes to the stage — looking nothing like his father Alvin Stardust — he is followed by at least eight musicians. From my (disad)vantage point at the back of the room, I clock a drummer, a guitarist, a bass player, a saxophonist, a trumpeter, a bloke on Fender Rhodes and — I think - someone on flute. Adam himself takes control of a keyboard — and later even sings, albeit through a vocoder.
Playing live is the latest weapon in the drum ’n' bass armoury to be used in the battle for commercial success — one that has already been employed with considerable success by Adam F's contemporaries Goldie and Roni Size.
Fast forward to November: Adam F's single 'Circles' (a former underground anthem) has crashed the Top Twenty and now he is the latest drum 'n' bass artist to release an album on a major label. His debut long player Colours comes Via EMI's dance subsidary Positiva.
Since he started making music in 1994, 25-year-old Adam F has emerged as the next drum ’n’ bass artist to be labelled with the Most Likely To Crossover tag. The album’s depth and accessibility is proof: for every underground club c'ut like the Goldie-style cruncher ’lvletropolis',
there is a more commercial vocal option like 'The Tree Knows Everything’ (featuring Tracy Thorn from Everything But The Girl).
’I’m not a pure junglist,’ stresses Adam regarding the diversity Within his music, 'l’m not a commercial artist either, I just make music. My sound is freestyle 90s music.’
Elsewhere on the album, the fusion continues; fierce, futuristic electronic sounds compete with live instrumentation — compare the clattering, computerized patterns on 'Jaxx' with the live drumming, bass, flute and trumpet on ’F-Jam’.
'The good thing about the drum ’n' bass scene at the moment, is its diversity,’ he muses. ’People like me, Goldie, Roni (Size) have all got such different styles that anything could happen. Anything.’ (Jim Byers)
V,- l ‘
Adam F: live freestyle
preview MUSIC
} i ‘f ‘f .
Tainspotting #2 The Album
More music from and inspired by the cult movie
Including tracks by David Bowie, Iggy Pop,
Primal Scream, Sleeper, Underworld and
the current top 10 hit from PF Project
“Have known the evenings, mornings, afternoons
I have measured out my life with coffee spoons.”
TSEIIi'ot
t e e lham: use
The gourmet tea and cofl'ee house
in the heart of the Old Town
21 George IV Bridge, Edinburgh 0131 220 5355
21 Nov—4 Dec 1997 "IE HST"