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HISTORY OF ROCK IISSUE 19
UK £9.99 IUSA $16.99

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Welcome
to 183

D

AVID BOWIE HAS decided to stop experimenting. After adozen years of unpredictable musical strategy, his every

move giving rise to - as he has himself put it - "whole
schools of pretension", he has returned, effectively, to
Earth. Perhaps even gone back in time alittle.
That's the impression this month's cover star gives when heconvenes a press conference to announce his forthcoming live dates.
Fatherhood, listening to jazz, new experiences in Australia... it's all left him
with an urge to have his music connect with people in aless intellectual fashion,
to speak more from the heart. His new music now nods to soul and R&B.
It's anoble plan, and one in which Bowie, even if he is ahead of the curve, is notalone. This year, the likes of Paul Weller, U2, Black Flag, Fela Kuti, REM and The
Smiths -strange bedfellows otherwise -are all united by asense of mission,even manifesto, in their music. Or as Henry Rollins from Black Flag puts it:"putting your ass on the line for abunch of people you don't even know".
Their talk is of revelation, personal truth and winning converts, and both
Bowie and the enduring Curtis Mayfield, astar for the past 25 years, imply how
it all might be achieved with acertain grace. Not that life skating on the surface
is all bad. In their different ways, New Order, Duran Duran, Eurythmics andFrankie Goes To Hollywood all show how it might be done while having fun.
This is the world of The History OfRock, amonthly magazine that follows eachturn of the rock revolution. Whether in sleazy dive or huge arena, passionate
and increasingly stylish contemporary reporters were there to chronicle events.
This publication reaps the benefits of their understanding for the reader
decades later, one year at atime. Missed one? You can find out how to rectify
that on page 144.
In the pages of this 19th edition, dedicated to 1983, you will find verbatim
articles from frontline staffers, filed from the thick of the action, wherever thatmaybe.
It might mean visiting Nick Cave's sickbed. It may involve talking gangs with
Afrika Bambaataa, or drink with Shane MacGowan. Even sharing astately, oldworld joke with David Bowie.
"You're part Swiss?" he enquires °fan NMEwriter. "Which part?"

HISTORY OF ROCK 1983

3

Contents
6

Bowie's back! RIP Billy Fury
and Karen Carpenter. No moreroyalties for Paul McCartney.
Introducing anew band from
Scotland, the Cocteau Twins.

12

The Irish band evangelicallyposeur, pro-God, anti-synthpop,
the band are up for anything.
"People are disillusioned with
pap," says Bono.

The crazedAu-stralianband in their London squats.
Itinerant living they can stand;comparison to Bauhaus theycannot. No wonder Nick Cave ispining for his mum.

24
5hollow. Soft Cell present thetrouble understanding abandedgier side of synthpop.

that doesn't drink.

28

He loves LA. Honestly, hedoes!An obliquely revealing chatpreach the power of music. Anti-18

revolutionary mission. MMhaswith asongwriter who keeps
office hours and tries- not too
successfully-not to be mean.

32

in London to explain their

The StyleCouncil-page 88

RIP Muddy

Waters, father of the
Chicago blues. RIP
another former
member of thePretenders, thistime Pete Farndon.
Malcolm McLaren

Adebut from Marillion,

and the disastrous new album

turns artiste. The
Birthday Party split

from Pink Floyd. New Order'sup. Achat withAfrika"Blue Monday" doesn't impress

Bambaataa.

Marc Almond.

34

The Leeds band explain

their dark and satirical rock.
"The concerts are like slapstick,"says their guitarist.

°
The LA band touch down

40

38

46

Kecks on 'im!

Adrift from theTeardrops, Cope is
now aman plotting his
own eccentric course.
Selling out is not an
option, he explains.

Eurythmics are shiny but

50

At 36, the artist

looks back on his
career. Thoughts on cinema,
Japan and the challenges
that remain to him with4

his new, less experimental
but more emotionallydirect music.

58

TheFall, Rush and Bad

Brains are caught in concert.

71

The pick of readers'correspondence from the year

so far. Paul Weller looms large.
Avisit to the band's

rehearsal studio, to discuss theiralarmingly musical new album.
"I'm off for ashit," says Lemmy.

62

68

72

1
'
The Clash have sacked Mick

Jones. Testing coffee with Vaughn
Toulouse. Herbie Hancock's

Aclose look-at Bowie's

Let'sDanceandat the new one
from Rip Rig +Panic.

64

scratch record. Morrissey's
charmed possessions.

76

Why so serious, world? The

former members of Joy Division hit

The "Shipbuilding" singer

NewYork's club scene with theiropens up about politics, Paulnew dance sound. Includes:

Weller and Eurovision.

pranks, bad language.

The Smiths

The artists in the processof becoming The Pogues confess
all about drink, Dexys and thepower of traditional song.

86

Adebut from Billy Bragg

and PicturesAtEleven, anew one

from Robert Plant.

e

BLA
G1101
EASTERN FRONT '83

MEAT PUPPETSTHE
DICFCS

88

Paul Weller and former

Merton Parka Mick Talbot

18

SlaIttin the limelight
Introducing anew clubphenomenon... Madonna. John

introduce anew act that is very

Lennon's last recordings to bemuch not The Jam.

released. Black Flag are in jail.

94

consumables of Billy Bragg.
Astar since 1958, Curtis

The Impressions, Super Fly,
his mysterious retirement,

114

drawinspiration.

102

Australian band of talent can

The Smiths...

104

1.1 The persecuted Nigerian

11star arrives in London to explain

Q 'bums !Singles

something ofhis politics and to be

New ones from the Rolling

Stones and the Cocteau Twins.

The Cure have agreat new single,
With "The Walk" and"Let's Go To Bed", The Cure arein an experimental phase. What
will come next? "Another oddity,"says Robert Smith.

eisometimes find itself.

Duran Duran, JoBoxers,

31RD
IllANCROPTSam Shirts At N..«S8cM scene from which they

Grant McLennan explains theand an unimpressive sighting of

AQUATIC PARKBERKELEYband, who rave about the

infuriating position in which an"The Love Cats".

120

challenged on his view of women.

134

Heavy rock's Wildlife Enemy No I

"me". Now afilm star, John revels

am.«.-

138

nor:

wen

(911).1'79

Bearded Southern

three-piece ZZTop, the casually

proficient New Order andapassionate American band
called REM reviewed live.

140 The Smiths

The year's steadilybuilding phenomenon explain
themselves and the concept•
zy Osbourr,"What have Idone now?"

promotes his new album. DwarfPiL, Lydon says, is now

léri*lAre

Code of
Honor
tos_ouvirmoos _Saturday July 16

Ameeting with the Liverpool

and alot more.

;

conference.

124

Ameetingwith Sun Ra and theopens up on his career with

at aposh press

SuicidalTendencies

THE
STAINShanging or not, is he secretly thevoice of Everyman?

of "Smithdom". Miss them atyour peril...

‘._
U Weller, Cave and morefrom the autumnal mailbag.

dtfeliTime Inc. (UK) Ltd, 3rd Floor, Blue Fin Building, no Southwark St, London SE1 OSU IEDITOR John Mulvey, whose favourite song

PICTURE EDITOR Phil King Penelope Tree by Felt COVER PHOTO Tony McGee THANKS TO Helen Spivak, Johnny Sharp, Claudia Elliott
MARKETING Charlotte Treadaway SUBSCRIPTIONS Letitia Barry GENERAL MANAGER Jo Smalley GROUP MANAGING DIRECTOR Paul Cheal
COVERS AND TEXT PRINTED BY Wyndeham Group I
Www.0 NCUT.CO.UK

Time Inc.

Subscription rates: One year (12 issues) including p&p: UK £119.88; Europe E179.40: USA and Canada $203.88: Rest of World eiss.75. For
enquiries and orders please email help@magazinesdirect.com. Alternatively, from the UK call 0330 333 1113, or overseas +44 330 333 1113
(lines are open Monday-Friday GMT, 8.3oam-5.3opm ex. Bank Holidays). Back issues enquiries: Tel: 01233 688 964. www.mags-uk.com°recycle

HISTORY OF ROCK 1983 J5

TIM MOSENFELDER IGRITY

from 1983 is Walk Out To Winter by Aztec Camera DEPUTY EDITOR John Robinson Cattle & Cane by The Go-Betweens ART EDITOR
Lora Findlay Trees And Flowers by Strawberry Switchblade PRODUCTION EDITOR Mike Johnson The Crown by Gary Byrd & The
GB Experience ART DIRECTOR Marc Jones Blue Monday by New Order DESIGNERS Becky Redman Add It Up by Violent Femmes• • e••leJy27,198ata press conf e
the Carlyle hot
York City, whersign a$17rn deal"A 36-year-old man in a
23-year-old mentality"
MM MARCH 26

I:milieu, 01041e-rim« ana uesuiteé

uacu àurvie returns t.é 1.Tcoreng an live perforia_nG.;

A

FTER WEEKS OF speculation,
the details of David Bowie's firstinternational tour since 1978were revealed at apress conference
held at London's prestigious
Claridge's hotel. In asedate Georgian
lounge where muzak will neverusurp Vivaldi, agaggle of 70-odd
assorted hacks sipped nervously atchampagne and brandy cocktails
and waited to pay court to the world's
most famous Renaissance man.
Some 10 minutes behind schedule,
Bowie stepped jauntily into the room-blond, sun-tanned and obscenely
well-preserved-perched himself on
atable in order to reach themicrophones, rumpled his elegant
wide-lapelled beige suit, flashed us
asneak of ankle-sock suspiciously
reminiscent of Marks &Sparks, coolly
declared he'd be playing dates inGermany, France, Belgium, Holland,
Scandinavia, Britain, America,
Australia and Japan -90 cities in alland then invited us to fire away.
The room fell hush in anticipation.
Why, asked anewshound anxious to
get in the first question fielded to
Bowie in recent memory, wasn't heplaying Scotland?
Bowie looked stunned. Had heflown 25 hours fromAustralia to have
his intellect so severely tested? He
mumbled some platitude, recovered
composure and grinned.
Why, enquired aswarthy-looking
chap at his feet, wasn't he playing
Spain? Agroan rippled round theroom. One minute down, 29 or so to
go and hardly off to aflying start. But
rather than rush straight back into
retirement, Bowie encouraged us
with agenerous intimacy thatencouraged us to address him as"David". He was proud, David said,
to announce that his touring band
would comprise his old sidekick
Carlos Alomar on guitar, Stevie Ray

Vaughan on lead guitar ("He thinks
Jimmy Page is amodernist-I mean,
he stops at aboutAlbert King"), Chic's
TonyThompson on drums, Fred
Mandel on keyboards, Carmine Rojas
on bass, plus ahorn section, and heeven let slip that the stage showwouldbe "elaborately simple, tasteful yet
trashy", that it would cover somethingfrom every period he'd worked insince The Man Who Sold The Worldand that we shouldn't expect too
much in terms of acharacter show.
"This, by the way," he announced,
somewhat abashed, "is the first
concert tour I've done in five or six
years, so for me it's more than
exciting, it's kind of terrifying at thesame time and that, possibly, can help
the performance."
The assembled hacks grew
animated at this, eager to learnwhy
he'd quit and why he'd returned.
David said something about lost
enthusiasm regained and assured us
the results of his newly rediscovered
musical zeal were evident in his new
single "Let's Dance" ("a sort ofdesperate love song") and an albumof the same name to be released on
April 11. Both are co-produced by
Chic's Nile Rodgers, who David
informed us, he'd met in aNewYork
Club about ayear ago and struck up
afriendship with based on theirmutual affinity for rhythm 8/ blues.
Revisiting "Cat People (Putting OutFire)", which he co-wrote with
Giorgio Moroder for Paul Schrader'sfilm, and "China Girl", co-writtenwith Iggy Pop for the latter's album
The Idiot, David claims Let's Danceis "not so icily spacious, it's alot
more immediate contact. It deals
with things, hopefully, on amore
humanist level than I've dealt withstuff before. It's not as detached or
as falsely objective as my stuff seems
to have been." »HISTORY OF ROCK 1983 I7

When our man on the spot questioned thevalidity of returning to the white soul style of
his YoungAmericans period, David said thatover the last couple of years he'd found himself
listening to theAlan Freed Big Band, Elmore
James and Albert King and that he'd wanted totry and recapture the enthusiasm of theirmusic. "I hope it's not exactly areturn," hehedged diplomatically, "but Ithink it's just are-establishment of what I
was doing in termsof an easier, more accessible brand of music."
Some wag challenged him over his
inference that he equates electronic musicwith lack of emotion.
"No, it's not so," he countered, admirably
unflustered. "It's adisplaced kind of
emotionalism in synthetic music, but it doesn't
work in linear fashion- it touches recesses thatare unusual and Ididn't want to, again, touch
the unusual, because it's too obvious to do that.
"At the moment, the unusual's being touchedso prolifically that I
wanted to get back into
something that was more grass-roots, downto-earth. I'd like to do something positive withwhat I'm writing, if I'm gonna continue writing,and if it's not working after two or three albums,
I'll stop."
Some suave fellow from Fleet Street duly
remarked that David seemed more relaxedwith his music these days.
"Yes, lam," he replied, "because I
knowwhat I
want to do with it. I
want to make itworthwhile and something that helps people,
to use acliche."Aripple of shock ran through the mob. Surely
his old music had been worthwhile?
"I think it's been helpful in terms of
examiningwhat one can do with popular
music," grinned the blond one dismissively.
"But Itried to vacillate backwards and forwards
between exercise and emotional content and,at the moment, the emotional content's coming
out on top."

considers he leads "a traveller's life, but notwith the baggage of rock'n'roll", and that he felt
no nationalistic draw to return to Britain.
When some persistent inquisitor cornered
him with anine-year-old quote to the effect thatthe people of this country should prepare forcivil war and did he think Thatcher had broughtthat closer, David squirmed good-naturedly.
"Uh... working with Oshima was really quite
an experience..." He blatantly avoided theissue "...next question."
Noticeably more comfortable discussing his
acting career, David made light of his role in
The Elephant Man ("He was kind of an easyrole; I
mean, there was so much emotional
attachment to that man, John Merrick, that itwas very hard to screw up on that one unless
you were just acomplete idiot"), dismissed hispart in the forthcoming vampire movie The
Hunger, co-starring Catherine Deneuve andSusan Sarandon, as "sexy and bloody", but
expressed his pride over his part in Nagisa
Oshima's POWfilm Merry Christmas Mr
Lawrence, in which he co-stars with Tom Conti.
"I've never been offered arole as in Merry
Christmas... where I
had the chance to takeadvantage of my interest in interpreting thecharacter as much," he beamed. "I had alot of
freedom in that, and hopefully, I
feel that's thebest piece of work I've done yet."
He denied being offered arole as Frank
Sinatra, confirmed his part asAbraham Lincoln
Ma piece created by Robert Wilson and scoredby David Byrne and Philip Glass for the openingof the Olympic Games, admitted he, likeeveryone else, was up forworkingwithScorsese,
only he thought his Italian was probablytooropey, and expressed an active interest in
RobertAltman's The Easter EggHunt, should the
directorever raise the production money.
More interested in directing than acting-he
was responsible for the Aboriginal video for"Let's Dance" -David said he had plans to workon ahalf-hour TVvideo early next year starring
Iggy Pop and is currently painting aportrait ofWilliam Burroughs and exhibiting acollectionof woodcuts in Europe alongside Guillermo
Deisler. What gave him the most pleasure inlife, we wanted to know?
"Beingwith my son and waking up andfeeling as though I've got afuture as aperson
rather than justa
commodity," he replied.
Our man on the spot
gently scoffed at David's
implication that he'dsomehow recovered fromrock'n'roll and discovered
At this point anAmerican
his true self.
helpfully asked if David"Eh... maybe" came
would be playing
the reply.
Superbowls in the States.
"I feel a36-year-old man
Patiently placid, our hero
hiding in a23-year-old
endured acouple morementality... possibly."minutes of mundane
And now the question you've
nonsense explaining that he wasall been waiting for: He's been
based in Switzerland now, notcalled an innovator, a
New York, that he's "never
Art icaplagiarist and just bornbeen fitter or healthier thanlucky-which is it, our hacklam now", that he skis tokeep fit, that he's lost hisA
SIDE
demanded to know?
EA 152ASC A P
"Um... no... urn...
fascination for Japan,
Made In
Ireiandfrom the album
yes um... not really,"that he gets up at 6.30
1-et's Dance'
he answered...
every morning and goes
EA 152A
Steve Sutherland
LETS DANCE
to bed at 10, that heThis was obviouslytoomuch for one Scandinavian
chappywho'd beenscratching his beard inbemusement for several
minutes. "Er, do you
recognise yourself inAngie
Bowie's book Free Spirit?"
he enquired withadmirable tenacity.
"Uh... Anti-Whatti?"
asked David.
"Free Spirit' -yer ex-wife's
book- do you recognise
yourself in that one?""Oh... I
see..." David
sighed, agitatedly. "Well,listen, Igot divorced
seven years ago. Let's
not go into that!"
Brief placatory enquiries
were bounced aroundconcerning his opinionsof his imitators ("I used to
Bowie,who's
imitate Anthony Newley"neverbeenfitterand Syd Barrett- one does,
orhealthierthan
lamnow",on
doesn't one?") -his label
Madison Achange from RCA to EMI
NYC,Jan27,1983("I didn't like RCA because
they did n't like me. Ithink
Ireleased several very
interesting, intelligent and important albums
on RCA which they didn't seem to give muchtime for") and the usual nonsense about his
most embarrassingwork (- Laugh ing Gnome'-except that my son likes it so much that I'm
totally ambivalent about it now") before thepress gang settled back into asemblance ofinquisitive rhythm. What was David's favourite
aspect of his work?
"Oh, conferences like this!" he beamed.
"It's really gear! Uh...I du nno -changing,Isuppose. Now arriving at astate where I've
given myself that much freedom that Ican
easily move into any kind of music that I
wantto be involved in without feeling as though I'mletting anybody down."
His present challenge, he explained, was tocounter "a strange, nihilistic, albeit romantic
qualityto music that seems to be overshadowing
everything at the moment-style over contentand I
think it's being
accepted as the value ofmusic at the moment; more
so in Europe thatAmerica.
But Iwant to get more into
the guts of the lyrics."

I
wan ted toget ba ck into
something that wasmore grass-roots,
down-to-earth"

E

'

"

..

(Dash, Row's)

DAVID BOWIE
Y.:Weed by Deeld Bowie.Nole ROdla.

,

El IHISTORY OF ROCK 1983

Elwin«, Rob Elearmountain tor
Fast Forward Productions,(FL19113 David Bowie under license
to EMI Arborica Records. A Olvido.
Eabltel Records Inc.

OThentherewere
threeagain:(1-r)
PaulSimonon,
JoeStrummer
andMickJonesThe Clash issued astatement at theweekend -in response to rumours
circulating in London, they said confirming that they are to remain athreepiece unit, following the departure of Terry
Chimes, who has been their guest drummer
since last May. Chimes himself said: "I thought
they were mad when they phoned me up fivedays before an American tour, but it workedout really well -we all had agreat time. Now it's

time to get back to my own plans, which havebeen neglected for the last nine months."
Joe Strummer added: "Terry put up withalot of pressure on the British and American
tours, but I
only saw him throw atantrum once
-which is truly remarkable."
The band say they don't yet know who theirnext drummer will be, but intend to press
ahead with their plans to record anew single
in London in the near future.

Star of the late '50s
NME FEB 5

B

ILLY FURY, ONE of Britain's foremost rockstars of the late '50s and early '60s, died last
Friday after along history of heart trouble.
He had undergone three major heart
operations, including open heart surgery, but
he collapsed at his London flat and was foundto be dead on arrival at hospital. He was 41.
Although he had 19 Top 20 hits during theperiod 1959-65, he never quite made the No 1
spot, his most successful single being "Halfway
To Paradise" (No 2in 1961). He undertook many
top-of-the-bill tours, and was aregular on the
top TV shows of the era-including Oh Boy!,
Six-Five Special and ReadySteady Go!.
Ill-health caused his premature retirement,
and he bought asheep farm in Wales. He had
been making acomeback over the last two years-partly to pay off debts, but also because he felt
the urge to return-and recently completed analbum, which is scheduled forApril release.

14-year battle notmillgetI,additional
Paul McCartney willroyalties.

Fe

AUL McCARTNEY HAS lost his 14-year legal battle with music publishers
Northern Songs for additional royalties on such classic Beatles songs as "Let It Be"
and "Yesterday".
McCartney and John Lennon started their action in1969 and it was brought to an end
in the High Court last week when Northern Songs succeeded in their attempt to get theaction quashed. Northern Songs was sold to Lew Grade's Associated Communications
Corporation in1969 and McCartney recently failed to buy it back for £20 million.

"Burning passion"
NME MAR 5

GroupBest sleeve

Culture Club and
Fun Boy Three"Beat Surrender"/The JamBest new group

Event of the year

Wham!

Never happens

Male singer

Best-dressed male

Boy George andTerry Hall

Vaughn Toulouseand the Boy Wonder

Female singer

Best-dressed
femaleMiss Price

Tracey Thorn

Creep of the year

Haircut

Too many tomentionFrench men(over)

Most wonderfulhuman being

Electronics
Me

Stuart Adamson(for burning
passion)Bass
I
Level's bassist

Songwriter

Drums

Paul Barry/
John Robinson(The Questions),
Fun Boy Three

Zeke Manyika andJon Moss

Miscellaneous
Mick Talbot

Single"Do You Really
Want To Hurt Me"/
Culture ClubRadio show
Gary Crowley's
Tuesday Club

Long-player

Video

Friends/Sha la mar"Friend Or Foe"!
Adam AntLiVII act
Shalamar

TV show

Dancefloor

Only Fools And
Horses"Let It Whip"!
Dazz Band"In And Out"!
Willie Hutch

E.T.
The Plague Dogs

Film

HISTORY OF ROCK 1983 '9

GETTY. DAVID REDFERN /GETTY

NME FEB 19

TROBERTS /GETTY, STEVE RA"I thought they were mad"about the London record
companies. They told him
to contact 4AD, and bingo,
the unbelievable happened:
they not only liked thematerial, but offered torelease it as well!
Now, six months after
Garlands, they're poised tolaunch their third single"Peppermint Pig" (available
on seven- and12-inch), whichshows agrowing maturity, astronger confidence in theirmaterial and, curiously, Alan
Rankine at the production
controls. How did thatstrange partnership happen?
He was cheap," snorts
Will, rolling his eyes to theheavens, in acontemptuous
gesture of disgust. "And
that's about all he had goingfor him -he was about asmuch use to us as asandpit
in adesert.""He was totally apathetic,"
choruses Rob. "It was reallyobvious from the start that hedidnae care for our music, andessentially we had to produce
it ourselves. Och, he did help
with arrangements andthings," he concedes."But it was good that hewas there," reasons ragamuffin Liz, thepeacemaker, "even if he didn't do very much.""But what we really needed was someone
authoritative," persists Will, not to beappeased. "Someone who'd at least give us
their opinions on things -Alan was so vague
and disinterested."
Strong stuff from astill fledgling band,
but added proof that they're not content
to be fobbed off with anything less thanwholehearted enthusiasm -an attitude
that's helped to spread their almost
underground popularity.
With little press and purposely muted
promotion (apart from John Peel, who inarare moment of animation pronounced
them to be "probably my favourite band in theworld"), they've rapidly gained the respect
and admiration of their musical colleagues-OMD have just invited them onto theirnine-week European tour, but the Cocteau"We pinched the namefrom an earlySimple
Minds song": Robin
Guthrie and Elizabeth
Fraser of Falkirk band
the Cocteau Twins

MM !i1I1 9Introducing, with help fromThe Birth lay Party... the Cocteau Twins.

L

AST SEPTEMBER Avery strange thing
happened.Three unknown scruffy
Scottish urchins took the indie charts
by storm with adebut album called Garlands,
an unbelievably fluid chunk of sultry passion
and aspiralling frieze of images with alyrical,
haunting emotion that boldly and defiantly
insinuated its way into the mind and heart.
But who on earth were these Cocteau Twins
and where had they come from? Were they
the willing puppets of yet another conniving
industry hype? And howelse could they have sprungfrom nowhere to theforefront of our attention?
The curious enigma
that enveloped them wasfurther heightened and••propagated by an appallinglack of media coverage,
initiating even morerumours, speculationand distortion.
The three individuals at the centre ofthis maelstrom were, in fact, even more
bemused than the rest of us! Thoroughly
taken aback by their success and the sudden
spotlight of interest, and totally naive about
the machinations of the music biz, they
shrank gratefully into the wise and gently
cocooning arms of their record company,
4AD, where, as Liz jokingly comments,"We hid our head in the sand and hoped thehullabaloo would disappear!"
From Falkirk -anowhere town between
Glasgow and Edinburgh -our three
reluctant heroes, Liz Fraser, Will Heggie
and Robin Guthrie, are endearingly
bumbling characters, who in no way could
be pigeonholed with the new "hip" Scottish
scene -awkward, self-conscious and shy,

their impetus is forged from afar deeper
source than mere style.
Their curiously structured music, woven
magically from intricate guitar/bass/rhythmbox interaction, is injected with the stamp ofsomething extra special by the rich, twisting
empathy of Liz's rising and ebbing vocals,
creating aflawless mirage of colour, andproving that the ungainly nervousness they
display with strangers belies astronger, moredecisive core.
Their story began whenschoolchums Rob and Will
spotted Liz at alocal hotelbar "hop", and singled herout as the only girl in theroom who could dance!
"We sort of assumed that
if she could dance she'd beable to sing as well," recalls
Robin, "so she got roped
into it! She was really- shy at first, andwould only sing if we left the room!""We wanted something radicallydifferent from the dreary cabaret
acts that played the local pubs,"
adds Will. "We pinched the namefrom an early Simple Minds song wethought would be long forgotten we're abit cheesed off with it now,but I
guess it's too late to change.""Another reason we formed theband," volunteers Liz, "is that wejust didn't fit in with the people ofour age group. We used to take off
all round the country to see The
Birthday Party and blag our way
into every gig!"
It was at one of these gigs that
Rob asked the 'Party for advice

KERSTIN RODGERS /GETTY"We tried to breakinto the Glasgow/
Edinburgh gig
circuits when we
started off"

10 IHISTORY OF ROCK 1983

•

,./

Ye-

Anorexia
nervosa
NME FEB 12 RIP, Karen
Carpenter, aged 32.

T

he living-room-love lyrics
that sold over 60 million
LPs for '70s songstress
Karen Carpenter take on abitterly ironic twist in view of her death last week at 32.
Last Friday night saw Karen's name added to the growing list ofdeaths-by-heart-attack suffered by age-30-ish members of themusic biz, after her parents discovered her "barely breathing" on
the floor of her bedroom in the family's Downey, California, home.
Karen had recently moved to her own apartment in Los Angeles,
following the dissolution of her 1980 marriage to 42-year-old
businessman Tom Burris, but was staying with her folks. The reason
given by Mrs Carpenter was her daughter's inability to shed thespectre of anorexia nervosa, the "slimmer's disease". It had
accounted for the cancellation of aBritish tour by Karen and herbrother/partner Richard as far back as 1975. After that cancellation,
Karen was bedridden with the disease for almost two months. The
heart attack which killed her was described as "massive".

"Suspended animation"
MM MAR 19

H

AIRCUT ONE HUNDRED have been put into
"suspended animation" by aHigh Court
judge as aresult of arift between
former lead singer Nick Heyward and theother five members of the band.
Mr Justice Warner said that as they could
not agree what should bedone pending the hearing of theircontract dispute, he would impose
temporary injunctions to stopeither side entering into fresh
recording contract.
The judge said that if Graham
Jones and his four colleagues inHaircut One Hundred, plus theircompanies Griddleside Ltd andEssex-Brooks Ltd, could "produce
apackage" which would enable themto continue working until an effective
hearing, he would consider it.
The judge said that until the casewas heard the band would be in"suspended animation".
The dispute between Heyward andthe rest of the Haircuts concerns arecording contract last July between
the two Haircut One Hundredcompanies and Arista Records,
Graham Jones alleges that Arista
Records repudiated the contractand induced Nick Heyward to act
in breach of his duty to the Haircut
companies. Arista and Heyward
deny the allegations.
At press time there'd been no
development in the dispute, but assoon as there's any further news it
will be reported in the MM.

> Wilson Pickett
has blown out his
projected UK tour,
which was dueto
open on Tuesday
this week. All of
Pickett's previous
UK tour plans haveended in similar
fashion. Dingwalls
chiefs Harvey
Goldsmith andPeter Gross saythey are taking legal
action against him.
NMEJan29> Dollar vocalist
David Van Day was
all out of breath
when he was asked
to inflate abreathalyser bag.
After failing to dos°
he was found guilty
on adrink-drive
charge and fined
Voo by aLondon
Magistrates Court.
He was also banned
from driving fora
year. NMEJan22> Paul Wellerwill
share an unusual
supporting role with
Hazel O'Connor
when they help
CND chairwoman
Joan Ruddock
launch the appeal
for funds thatshould makepossible a"youth
musicfestival forpeace". The festival,scheduled for May7
in London'sBrockwell Park, isl
k expected to draw
thousandsof young
people.Weller has
committed himself
to playing,sayingthat "until weachieve nuclear
disarmament,weare living on
borrowed time".
NMEJan 22> Marchi3sees thefirst night of aclub
called ARevolving
Paint Dream. It'sbeing held in
London's Manor
House at The OtherClub and first band
onwill beTV
Personalities.
Anyone wishing toperform should
contact Creation
Cowboy,98
Beaconsfield Road,
Tottenham, London
N15, enclosing atape. frIMMar5
HISTORY OF ROCK 1982 111

HARRY IANGDON /GETTY. MIKE PRIOR /GETTY

Twins, with unfeigned coyness, are still
bewildered by it all.
"They just rang us out of the blue,"explains Will, arching his bushy eyebrowsin surprise. "I mean, we've never met themor anything, and there were dozens ofbands after that slot, and we didnae haveto buy onto it or anything."
They're stunned by the implication.
Entertainingly self-deprecating, theygenuinely believe their success has been
precipitated by some inexplicable quirk offate and will be snatched back from them
any moment. Trying to persuade them totalk about themselves simply induces
embarrassed blushes and nervous hilarity.
"We're dead lazy," Rob volunteers.
"Lazy and fat. We just sit around all day
and play with the Atari."
Do you associate with any other
Scottish bands or play much locally?
"Oh n000000," winces Will. "You see,
we're not sussed enough for all that." Hesays it with astrong hint of sarcasm.
"We tried to break into the Glasgow/
Edinburgh gig circuits when we started
off," says Liz, "but we weren't apart of any
clique, so they just wouldn't let us in."
So what have you been doing since"Lullabies" [the EP follow-up to Garlands]?
"Well, we did our second Peel session
recently," enthuses Liz. "We're reallypleased with it, and the new songs cameup better than they do on the EP -1
shouldn't really say that, should 1?" shechuckles. "But Gordon Sharp, afriend ofours who used to be in The Freeze, camealong and added some vocals, and it cameup really well. It's not that we're unhappy
with the record, it's just that we're quite
apprehensive of the reaction to it.
"1 mean, it's alot more beaty thananything else we've done, an' we've usedpiano, an' vibes and things," she explains,
waving her arms about in illustration.
"People will probably hate it," she adds
somewhat despondently, but I
reckon it's
amisplaced pessimism.
The Cocteau Twins have, to their total
disbelief, made it big in Holland -theJanuary issue of Amsterdam's Vinyl
magazine even attributes them with "cult"status, while harping on what they term
"Liz Frazer's romantic death obsession!",which she finds abit perturbing.
"Yeah, apparently in Holland we're
superstars," Will shakes his head inamazement. "We played there to packed
houses, and despite aseries of hilarious
mistakes (he grins pointedly at Liz), we
went down really well."It's apity that accolades like this haven't
rubbed off on this side of the Channel, but
the 'Twins aren't too disgruntled about it.
They've just signed to 4AD on afive-year
contract, so their future seems alot
brighter than it did earlier in the year ;andthey are, by their own admission, quite
happy to gradually pervade and enfold
public consciousness, rather than beherded into acategory, picked up on
some passing whim, and then discarded.
See, these people are wise as well as
clever. Helen Fitzgerald.hurdi, Iwo
1983

w

-.,/

A.

AIL
FA

U2

"We
went
to thebrink"
have just made astrong thirdalbum, War, and meet to talkabout their convictions. "I want
U2 to be aband that takes risks,"
says The Edge. "We don't dodrugs or smash up hotels or get
our willies out on stage. The rockrebel thing is very phoney."
NME

SIn Shinjuku Central Park,Tokyo,before the fmaldatesof the year-long War
Touratthe Nakano Sun
Plaza, Novembert983

OME WILL PROBABLY claim it was an
epitaph for the New Pop. Some will evenherald the start of arock revival, althought
he rockers' revenge seems more
appropriate. But whatever it signalled,something strange happened to the nation's
singles chart last month.
First came Wah's "The Story of The Blues"; next it was
Echo &The Bunnymen's "The Cutter"; then the haunting
hues of"New Year's Day" took their place in the Top Ten,and suddenly the singles charts was beginning toresemble an NMEReaders' Poll. The Class Of '79
were suddenly coming good commercially.
Bono Vox, the lyrical lead voice of U2, wisely refuses tobe drawn into any sweeping generalisations, but permits
himself awry smile at this slightly unlikely turn of the tide.
"It would be stupid to start drawing up battle lines, but
Ithink the fact that 'NewYear's Day' made the Top Ten
indicated adisillusionment among record buyers. I
don't »HISTORY OF ROCK 1983 I13

1983

JANUARY -ell

think 'NewYear's Day' was apop single,
certainly nor in the way that Mickie Most might
define apop single as something that lasts threeminutes and three weeks in the chart. Idon't
think we could have written that kind of song.
"People are growing disillusioned with pap,
with the wallpaper music and the gloss. It's as if
someone has eaten too many Smarties over thelast couple of years, and they're beginning tofeel ill as they look at all the wrapping paper
strewn around the room."
Distanced from the bustle of British pop by
the Irish Sea and by their own purity of purpose,U2 have just released their third album, War.
Produced, like the last two, by Steve Lillywhiteand recorded in the isolation ofWindmill Lane studios in their native
Dublin, the LP is avital watershed in their growth. Bono describes it as"a slap in the face", and regards it as the most important move they haveever made. The songs on their two previous albums, Boyand October,showed ayoung band coming to terms with themselves-with thejourney from adolescence to afragile manhood.
The new LP is different in that U2 are nowfacing out rather thaninwards; they are now coming to terms with the outside world, and thatmeans comi ng to terms with the horror of the Falklands, Beirut, Central
America, the nuclear threat and the strife of their own battle-tornbackyard in Ulster-coming to terms with war.
Not all the songs are directly aboutwar, but those that are rank amongthe
most powerful the band have yet
recorded. There is aplaintive scream forcompassion in Ulster ("Sunday Bloody
Sunday"), an acknowledgement ofthe
struggle of Solidarity ("NewYear'sDay") and the blackhumour of asong
about the bomb ("Seconds"), whichfeatures fragmented excerpts from last
year's chillingtelevision documentary
Soldier Girls. Even the love songs on War
are fierce and direct, largelyshunningthe more delicate lyricism of theearlier albums.
Just as the words have become moreincisive, so the music is now much
more robust. U2 are arock rarityaband who have actually become

tougher with maturity rather
than blanding out as most of
their contemporaries havedone. Waris the group attheir most rhythmic. Theirsound is rooted in drummer
Larry Mullen's shuddering
tub-thumping and bassist
Adam Clayton's bewildering
percussive patterns.
Guitarist The Edge is lessdominant than before, thetraditional solos of the axe
hero superseded by intuitive
excursions in tonality andharmonics that put an eerie
veneer over the rock solid
foundations.
The new material is notalways successful, the bandoccasionally tripping overtheir own blustery intensity,"Rockmusiccanbea
but one or two songs arevery powerful
medium":O2inTokyoj quite devastating in theirNovember1983
ferocity. The bittersweet"LikeA Song", for example,
is probably the finest
realisation of the thrash
ethic since Wah!'s epic "Seven Minutes toMidnight" single.
Another significant trait on Waris the mannerin which U2 have extended their musical base toinclude some outside assistance in the shape ofelectricviolinist Steve Wickham, Coconuts
Cheryl Pokier, Adriana Kaegi and Taryn Hagey,
and Kid Creole trumpet player KennyFradleyon
acouple of tracks. There are plans, too, to havethe entire album remixed by NewYorkstudiowhiz Francois Kevorldan, the man behind theconsole on the DTrain singles and the successful
American remixofYazoo's "Situation".
Further proof of U2's emergence from theircocoon will come later in the year when they
begin work on aballet score for aDublin theatre. For now, though, thespotlight is on U2 as one of the country's top live bands-they start aUK
tour shortly- and on the near-vocational passion of their new LP.
U2 have always been romantics. They are one of the few bands toretain the idealism of 1976, looking on rock music as agreat quest rather
than acareer. Bono's punk-inspired ideals might appear quaint in thecolder musical climate of 1983, but they remain essential to any
understanding of U2.
"People see us as fourguys who are uprooted from their cityof Dublin andthrown across the world," he says. "And we arewinning.We are beatingthe
businessmen at theirown game by conqueringthe USA on our own terms.
We might not be this week's thing,but that will never bother us."
The following interview took placeat various locations one Sunday
afternoon in Dublin. Bono -theaggressive pacifist-practically jumps
out of his skin when he talks, his spirit
and fire asharp contrast with thesofter approach of The Edge, thesuave assurance ofAdam and thewatchful demeanour of Larry.
Bono will talk of "credibility" and"commitment" and make it ring true,
his confidence never crossing over
into conceit-his belief in the U2 way
is total, but it doesn't denythe valueof some of the other options. Being
among the last of the rock idealists
sometimes seems agood place to be.

"Calling thealbum War,
we're giving
people aslap
in the face"

8

14 IHISTORY OF ROCK 1983

U2

U2

antunair1."..".LIV.
«
lanerV
all1111111111111

Why WallBono: War seemed to be the motif for 1982.
Everywhere you looked, from the Falklands to theMiddle East and SouthAfrica, there was war. By
calling the album Warwe're giving people aslap
in the face and at the same time getting awayfrom the cosy image alot of people have of U2.
Edge: It's aheavy title. It's blunt. It's not
something that's safe, so it could backfire. It's
the sort of subject matter that people can reallytake adislike to. But we wanted to take amore
dangerous course, fly abit closer to the wind, so
Ithink the title is appropriate. Octoberand Boy
both had akey to the songs in the title and thisone is no different. Not all the songs are aboutwar, but it's agood general heading.

BloodySunday" it was something that we ourselves
had been sweeping under the carpet.

"It is my beliefin God thatenables me to
get up in themorning"

It's the same dilemma that The Undertones had toface before theywrote songs like "Crisis Of Mind"and "It's Gonna Happen" —coming to termswith something onyour own doorstep.
But what about "NewYear's Day", which isabout Poland? What qualified 112 to makepronouncements about something like that?
Adam: It's not acomment on the situation,
more an acknowledgement of Solidarity. At thetime we wrote the song, we didn't know thatmartial law was going to be lifted on New
Year's Day. We were just saying that no matter
how much people try to change the situation,
things are always more or less the same at thestart of every new year.

The images conjured up by the songs area far
cry from what people might expect from U2.
On Boyand October, the imagery possessed analmost spiritual purity, whereas the songs on
Warseem far more gruesome and horrific.
Bono:A lot of the songs on our last album were quite abstract, but War
is intentionally more direct, more specific. But you can still take the title
on alot of different levels. We're not only interested in the physicalaspects of war. The emotional effects are just as important— "thetrenches dug within our hearts."
People have become numb to violence. Watching the television, it's
hard to tell the difference between fact and fiction. One minute you see
someone being shot on The Professionals, and the next you see someone
falling through awindow after being shot on the news. One is fiction and
one is real life, but we're becoming so used to the fiction that we become
numb to the real thing. War could be the story of abroken home, afamily
at war. Instead of putting tanks and guns on the cover, we've put achild'sface. War can also be amental thing, an emotional thing between loves.
It doesn't have to be aphysical thing.

Alot of the songs on Warare Inter-related. Are we witnessIngthereturnof the dreaded concept album?
Edge: No, definitely not. That would imply that every song on the album
is part of ajigsaw, which isn't the case. The title is akey to some of thesongs, but not all of them are about war: "Surrender" is inspired by New
York; "Two Hearts" is alove song; and "Drowning Man" is avery restful,peaceful song.

The most obvious context at the moment is the nuclear threat. You
deal with that on "Seconds", but you'd also touched on it before on last
year's "A Celebration" single: "I believe in the ThirdWorldWarllbelieve in the atomic bomb." Was that apointer of sorts to some of thesongs on the LP?
Bono: Ain was sayingwas that the realities of the bomb must be faced:"I believe in the powers that be/But they won't overpower me."Edge: People are starting to ask more questions about the bomb. In thepast, people have been more apathetic. Theyhave become so caught up
with their own lives that they haven't looked outside. Nowthey are asking
what the hell is going on.
Adam: Ithink people are ready to take amore militant stance to protect
their future, as the rise of the CND movement shows.
Bono: Before we can overcome these things we have to face them. Thereis aline in "Seconds" about afanatic assembling anuclear device in anapartment in Times Square, New York, but it could be anywhere. We arenow entering the age of nuclear terrorism where agroup of fanatics could
have the capabilities of bringing abomb into acity and holding millions
of people to ransom.

Considering the seriousness of some of its subject matter, Warcould
have been avery grim and pessimistic LP, butyou also hold out acertain
amount of hope.
Bono: You have to have hope. Rock music can be avery powerful medium
and if you use that to offer something positive then it can be very
uplifting. Ifyou use your songs to convey bitterness and hate, ablackness
seems to descend over everything. Idon't like music unless it has ahealing effect. Idon't like it when people leave concerts still feeling edgyIwant people to leave our concerts feeling positive, abit more free.
Things might look very gloomy, but there is always hope. Ithinkthere is
aneed to develop anew political language to get overwhat is happening.
Unemployment will not decrease. The new computer technologywill
eventuallywipe out the clerical classes, and office workers will be athingof the past. Millions of people are already on the dole with alot of leisuretime. They are going to have to be re-educated in order to make better useof that time.A lot of people can't handle these times and they are turning
to things like heavy drug use. In the area of Dublin where Ilive there are
15-year-old kids using heroin. They can buy little 10-packs for £10.A lotof people just can't handle this age.

"SundayBloody Sunday"—the obvious assumption is that it is about the
Troubles in Ulster.
Adam: It isn't so much about the Troubles in the physical sense, but about
the human carnage of families being wrecked.
Edge: We all had ahand in that song, because it's probably the heaviest
thingwe've ever done, lyrically. It's hard for us to justify atitle like
"Sunday Bloody Sunday", and we are aware of that. We realise thepotential for division in asonglike that, so all we can say is that we're
trying to confront the subject rather than sweep it under the carpet.
We thought alot about the song before we played it in Belfast and Bono
told the audience that if they didn't like it then we'd never play it again.
Out of the 3,000 people in the hall about three walked out. I
think thatsays alot about the audience's trust in us.
Adam: It's not acomment on the situation, but we've been questioned
about it alot, being based in Dublin, and we decided that it was morally
wrong that we weren't coming to terms with it ourselves. Before "Sunday

Areyou afraid?
Bono: I'm frightened, yes, but I'm not cynical or pessimistic about the
future and alot of that must come down to my beliefs. It is my belief in God
that enables me to get up in the morning and face the world. I
believe that
there is areason and alogic to everything. If Ididn't believe that andthought that everything was simply down to chance, then I'd be reallyafraid. Iwouldn't cross the road for fear of being run over.

Alot of people have grown tired of rock bands
wearing their social conscience on theirsleeve. Isn't it all abit self-righteous?
Edge:The position of any band talking about the topics of their dayis
always avery delicate one. The onlyjustification Ican give is that we areexpressing our convictions. I
can see how it can appear patronising, but
it depends on one's motivations. There are alot of things we could getpulled upon. If people don't like it, then that is understandable, butwe
will be standing bywhat we've done.

You sayyou are sustained byyourChristlanbellefs. What abouthumannature? Do you have any faith in that?
Bono: I
don't know. It's fine to think that everyone is nice, man, andpeople are really swell, but there is still this capacity in man for terrible
violence. I
see that aggression in myself sometimes, and I
see it in otherpeople. The secret is to come to terms with it. The century that we areliving in is the most barbaric ever. In the past men committed atrocities
without being fully aware of what they were doing. Now man has been »HISTORY OF ROCK 1983 I15

1983
JA

AR1

educated, but the atrocities are still going on. But Istill have my beliefs,
not so much in people, but in what lies behind people. That comes
across in the music.
"Waris not anegative LP. Imean, I'm in love and there is alot of love on
the album. Asonglike "NewYear's Day" might be aboutwar and struggle,
but it is also about love. It is about having the faith to breakthrough andsurvive against all odds. Love is avery powerful thing. There's nothing
more radical than two people loving each other.
When I
talk about love I'm thinking of an unselfish love. Emotions canbe bought and sold just like anything else, but Ithink real love is about
giving and not expecting anything in return.
So the album could just as easily have been called Love-love as aweapon against repression. You seem to be saying that one can't
appreciate the true value of love until it is set against the hatred andlunacyof the outsideworld.
Bono: I
think that love stands out when set against struggle. That's
probably the power of the record in anutshell. The album is about thestruggle for love, not about war in the negative sense. I
would be failing inthis interview if! made Warsound like agloomy album, because it's not.
Ihope it's an uplifting record. Some love songs devalue the meaning of
the word. Disco bands turn it into acliche by tearing it down until itmeans nothing. The power of love is always more strikingwhen set
against realism than when set against escapism.
There are thosewho will seize on the fact that U2, Wah! and the
Bunnymen were all in the Top 10 afewweeks ago as asignal that"rock" is back; worthyold rock as 1983's alternative to the disposable
pop trash that dominated the singles chart in '82. Do you see U2 as a"rock" group?
Adam: If you were to file us under anything in arecord shop, Isuppose it
would have to be under"Rock". But I
think it is avery false divide. "Rock"and "pop" cross over in so many places that Idon't thinkyou can startputting bands in neat little boxes like that. Look at agroup like the Doorsin the '60s: theywere very much arock group, but theywere also having
pop hits like "Light My Fire".
U2 exist with in atraditional rock format in that your sound Is
basically guitar, bass and drums. Howwou Id you counter thecurrently fashionable claims that the format is redundant after 25
years or so? There was aletter in Gasbag afortnight ago alleging that
U2 were no more than a"chugging" progressive rock band with theirhearts in the early '70s.
Edge: Ithink that anyone who can react in such asuperficial, instinctive
way would miss the point ofwhat we're doing anyway, even if they liked
it. They're the sort of people who base their taste on fashion and whim.
Idon't think the people who go to our concerts are particularly interested
in what is trendy. They appreciate us on afar more gut level. They're notbothered that we're just playing guitar, bass and drums."
Bono: "We've chosen to workwithin that format, eventhough alot of people threw
it out the window
acouple of years ago. It suits
what we want to do. We wantajoust. The guitar, bass anddrum setup is good forgiving people agood slap
in the face.

THE NEW SINGLENEW YEAR'S DAY
SPECIAL LIMITED EDITIONDOUBLE PACK

wrriii FREE SINGLEYour instruments are only
lumps ofwood anyway.
They're hardly the best
criteria to judge theworthof aband.
Bono: We believe that passion
is more important thantechnique. 1975 was all aboutstyle and technique. Herbie
Hancock and jazz-rock, and1982 was pretty much thesame with groups like Level
42. I
believewe need that slap

in the face once more. The sortof thing that we got in 1976.
The elitist thing has got to besmashed down again. It's like
Orwell'sAnimalFarm: the pigs
have all become farmers!
The bands that were ourcontemporaries, the garage
bands of 1976, are back on the big
star trip. They're playing the partof the people that they pulled
down. It's either intellectual crapor patronising gloss.
Adam: To be candid, Iwould
have liked to have been part of
the fashion scene that was goingon in London two years ago. It
would have been nice to dress up
and go to Club For Heroes. Being
the weakest member of the band
emotionally, Iwanted to do that,but Icouldn't. It was theforbidden fruit. In retrospect,
there's astrength throughhaving turned it all down. If I'dgone to London, it would havetrivialised what! was doing in
U2. At the time, though, there
was acertain conflict because
what was happening in London
did look exciting.
But it was exciting. There was
excitement in the way that
London clubs were confronting
the drabness of rock. What they
offered as an alternative might
have lacked substance, but that conflict in itself did produce
acertain tension.
Adam: There was nothing in it in retrospect, but at the time it did seem
exciting. Watching from the sidelines, Ifelt that I
wanted to be apart ofit, but somehow I
just couldn't.
Bono: We see London as outsiders and probably have more objectivity
through that. It's good to be able to go to London and then escape fromit, never letting it become atrap.
Come on, it's not that bad! You can't write off acitylike that.
Bono: No, I'm not saying that. I
love London, but that fact that weare based in Dublin, away from all the activity, does give us ourown perspective.
Prior to War, U2 grew up in almost total isolation, oblivious to outside
trends and influences. Nowyou seem to be broadening your scope,enlisting the likes of the Coconuts, Kenny Fradley and Francois
Kevorkian to embellish your sound. There's even a12-inch dance mixof"Two Hearts" due for single release!
Edge: Up to now, we've defined our own terms, and if we're branching out
into new areas it's because we need to. We're not pandering to any outside
demands. We are always aware of what is happening musically, butwe're
not prepared to let it dictate our style.
Is being on Island an advantage? They seem to be alabel who will
always allow aband to develop rather than expect some immediate
commercial return.
Edge: The criterion with Island is quality, whereas with other labels it
is purely sales. They always hang onto agood act, even if that act is notselling records. Sometimes they have shied away from signing an act thatwould have made them money simply because Chris Blackwell wants
alabel that he can be proud of, perhaps more than he wants the money.
Island is more or less an extension of his own musical taste, so he is always
keen to prolong the longevity of all his acts. Perhaps he would have liked
us to have ahit earlier on, but he must be happy now that we're having hits
without losing our dignity.

14
How did the liaison with Kevorkian
come about?
Bono: It came about through Chris Blackwell.
Kevorkian's biggest ambition is to remix Jimi
Hendrix, so Chris Blackwell gave him what heconsidered the next best thing-The Edge! The
good thing about Kevorkian is that he won't justdo the usual dance mix cliche. He just takes themaster tapes and plays around with the sounds
already on them. Kevorkian is Martin Hannett
part two. He's got the same Dr Who features andhe leads you into his garden of weeds in the same
way that Hannett does.

March16,1983:
U2 performingon The Tube TV
show, Newcastle

Have you ever got to the stage ofnot
wanting to go on?
Bono: Yeah, about once aweek!When wewere making Warwe went practically to thebrink of breaking the band. When we go into
the studio we draw totally on our deepest
resources and stretch them to the limit. If theband is going to be honest they've got to bringout everything, even the things that might
frighten them.
Edge: I
want U2 to be aband that takes risks.
Ihate this idea of U2 as anice safe band.
Maybe it's because we don't play the
rock'n'roll game. We don't do drugs or getarrested in America or smash up hotels or
get our willies out on stage. All that is just conforming to rock tradition.
The rock rebel thing is very phoney.
Adam: I
don't think it's very likely that we'll give in now. The longerwe
go on, the more interesting things become. Ican see us going through anawful lot of changes that! would never have imagined when we first got
going. At first it was just asimple case of playing for fun. Now it's very
different. Perhaps it's maturity, perhaps it's down to Bono getting
married last year and The Edge getting married this year, but as wemature, the frantic teenage issues that we were concerned with earlyon are changing into something else, something more complex.

"Love is morestriking when
set against
realism thanescapism"

Another direction in which you are extending
your interests is the forthcoming ballet soundtrack. Whatinspired that?
Edge: It originally came from the proprietor of the Royal Dublin Ballet.
He had this idea of using contemporary music with his company. He
got in touch with us and also with Arlene Phillips, who is the kind ofchoreographer who has an understanding of workingwith rock music.
Things are at an early stage at the moment, but we have done some stuff
for it, using synths and drum machines. We're not scared to broaden
our musical base. Maybe at one stage we'll get sick of guitars, but at the
moment they are the best vehicle forwhat we want to saywith U2.
They convey our emotions best.
Do you ever worry about appearing too earnest? Sometimes,
particularly onstage, you almost fall over you rown two feet in the rush
to project your own passion.
Bono: Sometimes we fail and I'll be the first to admit that. Sometimes wego over the top and miss the point altogether, but Iknow that our musicmeans ahell of alot to our audience from the letters that we receive;
not the fan letters, but letters that actually go into the music and takeit seriously. Ithink part of the fun of being aU2 fan is seeing us fall flaton our feet and then get back up again.

So, the quest goes on...
Bono: Yeah, and Ifeel that we're winning at the moment. In some ways,
U2 are only really being born now. Right now, it feels good. Ithink thereis acertain insight in this group, acertain ability to see human emotions
and expose them honestly. There are alot of cliched songs around in thechart. The fiction factory loves churning out superficial songs about thesame old subjects. That's just something we refuse to do. This mightsound egotistical, but I
think we'll always retain our honesty.
Adam: Basically, Ithink we're all nutters, but somehow it works. It always
comes out in the wash. Adrian Thrills •HISTORY OF ROCK 1983 I17

1983

JANUARY -en,

uite
disconcerting"
CC

Interviewed in their London
dosses,discuss prison,
highbrow reading and theiritinerant lifestyle. "It'sreally just Nick who's in lovewith feeling alienated," says
Rowland SHoward. "It justmakes me feel rotten."

NME
VOICEOVER: "In conclusion, The Birth Pare in essence aslug
nomadic, and theirjourney is slow and painful and always
forward and their trail ofslime is theirart and so on and they
are barely conscious ofits issue..." Nick Cave, u'ritingin the NME
Xmas issue

1

NDECENT, YET IRIDESCENT in its ugliness, The
Birthday Party's slime marks the one rewarding
trail through the muck that is rock.
Post-pun k's token standard bearers U2 and Echo
(more pallbearers in their solemnity) have converted
the same muck into brassy clean liturgies, pseudoI
iteral ydirges dredged up from high holy masses and Boy
Scout manuals; but The Birthday Party have continued tochurn emotions with sickeningly obsessive love notes andfabulously detailed travel tales allied to amusic at once
brilliant and lum inously flawed.
The violence of aBirthday Party song springs not so muchfrom the urge to hurt, as aboldness, ahankering after danger,
which leads them up dark alleys and sets them up in conflictwith the night. Unsurprisingly, their combat reports comeback spotted with shreds of that self-same night.
If these lurid purples and deep reds disturb you, Its because
your senses have been dulled by Pop Art, whose
flat canvasses of car smashes masquerade asaccurate reportage while putting you at one
remove from the subject. But when The Birthday
Party report "Dead ioe"s fatal accident on
Junkyard, they convey something of thecrunching reality of death, the shock of its
suddenness and the guilty excitement, the terrible
curiosity its appearance brings.
It's not all gloom and despondency, because theevents they describe are extraordinary- meaning
that, despite their occasionally grisly nature,
there's something of the carnival about them. Theybuzz with gossip, sneers and asides, brim over with
speculation, sly jokes and sick one-liners- "Tonight
we sleep in separate ditches!" -as would acrowd
gathered round afresh corpse.
Their new songs, as featured on "The Bad Seed"
12-inch and in their current live set, make the braveleap into the fantastic and the surreal. What withthe accusations of self-parody made against »011111•111111•111.

18 IHISTORY OF ROCK 1983

1983
JAHU

Junkyard, lesser souls would have retreated into something more ordered
and conventional.
Instead, The Birthday Party heaped more garish make-up onto thegrotesque mask they displayed to the world until, top-heavy, the makeup started falling off in lumps, leaving behind acorrespondinglylighter,fascinating, misshapen form.
Tracy Pew's bass is the one constant around which ex-multiinstrumenta list Mick JHarvey (taking over from Phill Calvert, who was
forcibly ejected from the drumset last June) places his bizarre drum
figures and at which Rowland SHoward's guitar nags or, alternatively,
teases with del iciously romantic come-ons...
Far be it from me, however, to rescue The Birthday Party from aphilosophy of dirt and unhappiness—or even propose one on their behalf—by explaining them away; for the longer they remain untouchable, themore potent and unassailable their position. Besides, the Birthday Party
never entered this game to be figured as the good guys.

DAVID CORIO /GETTYI

PICK UP THE trail of The Birthday Party slime in aSoho café,
follow it down to Brighton and eventually back to their homes—orat least the places they hang their hats. So what's in ahorne? Whatcan be read into the books on their shelves or the messes scatteredacross the floor?
"See? You're right in the home, there's nothing to hide!" despairs Mick
JHarvey with atrace of mockery as I
eye the French, German andSpanish dictionaries he's using in his spare-time study of languages,
acting as if I'd chanced upon some guilty secret. Such is Mick's modesty.
Such is Mick's application.
In contrast with the tidiness of Mick's flat, the room Rowland SHoward
occupies with his girlfriend Genevieve is strewn with the few possessions
allowed in an itinerant couple, arranged so as to make ahome of sorts outof adesperately impoverished situation.
This trip, Tracy has walked into the tidy South London house of fellow
Australians, The Go Betweens, only to have to walk out again afew days
later when the Go Betweens give it up to go on tour. Imeet Tracy and his
girlfriend aweek later, carrying three heavy suitcases into the room onloan to Nick Cave in the household ofYou've Got Foetus On Your Breath.
The first time I
visit, Ifind Nick sick in bed, fully clothed beneath coarse
blankets, the sheets— if any— ridden up somewhere deep beneath thecovers. Abottle of mellow brown liquor buoys up his spirit, ashes arestrewn across the pillow and the floor. He has reduced his necessities tothe bare necessities that will now fit into asolitary plastic bag. Materially,

this is as far as The Birthday Partyhave come since leaving Melbourne for
Britain three years ago.
Nick has been allocated the TV room in someone else's house. "They'll
probably pressure me to leave when they get avideo," he quips.
Aw, come on, Nick, surelyyou're the better entertainmentvalue.

Rowland's lament"I'm really not terribly fond of this nomadic existence because I
find it's
very hard to do things like writing songs when I
haven't got somewhereI
feel is my home, where I
feel fairly secure.
"For the last th ree yea rs our lives have had a
ted amount of security,
which Nick really thrives upon. I
find it quite disconcerting. Ifind it reallyhard to write on the road or on the move. But Nick can write anywhere. He
carries pieces of paper everywhere— in people's houses, on the tube, inpeople's rooms. He's quite lucky.
"I'd like to live somewhere, but then again Ican't think of anywhere I'dlike to live too long. I'd like to go home, but then I
think, 'where's home?'I
think Tracy and Mick both like to have somewhere fairly solid. It's reallyjust Nickwho's in love with going to new places all the time, continually
feeling alienated. It just makes me feel rotten."Tracy's wish
"It's been abit of apain in the ass sometimes, all this moving about, butwhen I
think of the last three years and how it would have been if I
was stillin Australia now I
would be bloody miserable too. All my mates who arestill there want to come over here because we make it sound so great in
our letters. And it's certainly been great seeing all of these different
places. It's not something I
want to do for the rest of my life, but for the
moment it's fine.
"We're touring alot this year, which I'm looking forward to.As far as I'mconcerned, I
want to stay on the road almost solidlythis year so I
don't
have to worry about getting aflat."Mick's front room
"I quite like being settled to some degree, but that's avery hard one
because Nick is obviouslyvery different in that respect. There's alot ofdesperation about his creation, which manifests itself in alot of fairly
obvious ways. He really pushes himself to the limits, if you like. Me, Idon't
really care if I
create anything or not. I'm quite happy to be comfortable
and relaxed for afew months. It's not abig thing if Ihaven't written
anything for awhile."
Nick Cave with The
Birthday Party at
Ace,Brixton,London

THE BIRTHDAY PARTY

Nick's wanderlust"I like nothaving ahome,
putting myself
in astate of
confusion""I personally don't think that any externalthings -whether it's the environment orwhether it's my situation -affect mywriting inparticular. I
have the same sort of ideas if I'm in
London, Berlin orAustralia. All it tends to do ismake my life more miserable, if I'm thrown into
aDickensian situation, which seemed to bewhat happened when we got to London.
"After afew short months here Istarted
feeling I
was becoming part of the city, that
London was sucking up my personality and it
was then! knew I
had to move out. It wasn't
until I
got to Berlin that !realised it's the movingthat is the important part of the stimulus, notliving in any particular place.
"I'm always really conscious of forming habits, and when I
find themforming Itry to break them, no matter what they are, whether they'reroutine or lifestyle or whatever. People who order their lives into acomplete routine seem to be making aclaim for security. Unless they're
really in control, they're not secure.
"For that reason, Iprefer my life to be totally insecure. I
like not living
anywhere, not having ahome, moving around, just putting myself into
states of confusion on aday to daybasis."

Rowland reminisces"Whenwefirst came to London, Nickwas living in asquat in MaidaVale.
I
can'treallyspeak accurately for him but at the time he was reading things
like Samuel Beckett- Watt, things like that, depressed, sort of dirty and that,I
think, influenced him into writing about this whole sort of squalor thing."

Nick's aside"Rowland told you that? Judas! Well, he was reading... Mervyn Peaker

Rowland's recall"Mostlywe were influenced against what all the English groups were
doing. We've said this often enough before, but anywaywe went to see
somebig thing at the Lyceum withTeardrop Explodes, Echo, ACertain
Ratio and The Psychedelic Furs-the cream of British rock. But it was just sobad, so unpowerful, so uninvolving that we instinctively reacted against it
For awhile we became moreAmericanised in aparodic sort ofway."
Fade...

1

1HE SOUND OF careening guitars and derailed rhythms swells

up from the distance. Party songs are collaged, the voice of aderanged evangelist preacher folds in adeath litany... "Pilgrim
gets on hacked daughter/All we get is 40 hack reporters... sweet hatchetswing low son I
I'm feeling pretty lonesome..." The noise degenerates
into the curdling screams of the lynch mob. The ugly accent of bigots
suited only to articulating jealousy and suspicion, the horror of
miscegenation and fear of strangers is expertly seized with perilous
glee... "HANDS UP WHO WANTS TO DIEM Have you heard how Sonny's
burning?1 Like some exotic starlHe lights up proceedings/Raise thetemp... Some day I'll cut him down!" The wagon rolls south, themockery doesn't relent... 'American heads will roll in Texas!"

Offscreen voice
The realm of The Birthday Party imagination isn't confined within
geographical or political borders. It is populated with freaks andfrightening dimwits, heroic and broken-backed lovers, all subjected to
hot sticky climates or- their exact negative -damp cold climates, eitherof which reduce people to astate of inertia.
Subjected to the humid heat of Faulknees deep South, the steamy
golden showers of Genet's southern European ports or Greene's
miserable, drizzling Brighton, BP characters react to the stiflingatmospheric pressures with violence or extreme acts of love, often
resulting in death sealed with hilarious kiss-off lines.
BP songs are pages torn from athief's journal written in flight from
Australia across Europe and America. They are -to put it in Tracy's
colourful vernacular- "a real hell's broth of all these quite diverse
influences, things that have just gotten into our mind, assimilated andeventually spewed forth."

Nick's southern discomfort"Amythical deep South?' know exactlywhat
you mean, though I
don't want it to be thatparticular. I
just find that area, that style ofintelligence and so forth, which maybe
Faulkner would have his characters steeped in,really fascinating. The way in which theywould talk, which is dumb, but is areallydescriptively dumb language. It's just that alotof things about the deep South interest me.
"The fanaticism, the blind belief in all sorts of
totally ridiculous sorts of things, their reallyquaint, mystical way ofjustifying the beliefs
they dedicate their lives to, these superstitious
people of the South. Living each day, throughevery hardship possible, with their hands, not their minds. Their lives are
lived entirely in terms of punishment and reward.
"And that type of thing is equally prevalent in our sophisticatedsociety.
It is just simplified and magnified with these hillbilly type people. The
same concepts of people denying the things theywant still apply,
denying their basic desires because they're afraid ofwhat might happen
if they express what theywant.
"You can sit around for hours and make analogies of various aspects ofthat kind of society and this one. The lynch mob, the crazed mob that has
no personality whatsoever, theylose their entire personalities for thesake of one crazed idea, is exactly the same as going to aconcert byAdam
And The Ants, where the focusing of attention is so much on one
particular figure that they're just trading in their personalities to become
apolyheaded blob...
"What makes us so different? Ireally do have quite astrong opinionof thewaypeople behave when they're with other people. With us,
Iconsiderwe're making an example of some kind of bid for individuality
and at our best, which we were the other night at the Lyceum, we remain
apart from the audience, we remained individuals with our own visions
and we weren't sucked into the mob.
"Sometimes !get scared into feeling I
should entertain these people,
so Iforce myself to fling my body round everywhere, because I
know it'sentertaining, so eventuallyI lose and theywin. Then Imight as well bedown there with them, basically..."Rowland's reasoning"When we went back to Australia lastyear, we were greeted with suchacclaim and adulation it made what we were doing pointless, because
the whole life of the group had been based on reacting against what
was around us and turning it into some kind of positive force. So once
everything was positive toward us it defeated the purpose. We loathedit, for the main part.
"For astart, most of it seemed unwarranted; people applauding wildly
when you come onstage, when you announce asong they've never heard
before; it was apparent theyweren't thinking very much about what wasgoing on and that we were well and truly absorbed into the whole
rock'n'roll schtick.
"We never had any illusions that we were alaw unto ourselves, but we've
always operated fairlywell outside the normal rock'n'roll context. I
mean,
we've never mixed with those sort of people socially. So it was frightening
and disappointing to see how people were reacting. After two and ahalfmonths inAustralia, Nick, Mick Harvey, Tracy and me, we were
determined to break up the band because there didn't seem to be any
point to continuing."

Tracy's dogs
"Nobody would like to think the audience is relating on such an arbitrarylevel. We like to get to our audiences abit more ofwhat we're trying tocommunicate rather than react to us on apurely mindless level. The
comparison with Pavlov's dogs dribbling when they hear abell ring...
sometimes I
think they're not listening at all. It's pretty bad when things
get to that.
"The split-up last June... well, we set ourselves these goals in the past,'cos it's really easy for us to lose our patience when you can't see
immediate achievements. It's been ourway to say, fuck it, ifwe can't dosuch and such by such atime. But by the time that date comes it's usuallyforgotten. We've been saying it as early as 1980, so Idon't thinkthere'll be
too much ofthat mutinous talk in the future." »HISTORY OF ROCK 1983 I21

1983
J4NUPill

Mick's best-laid plans

Nick's nightmare"Like last June I
was looking more and more forward to being completely
free, but when the designated break-up point came, there had been alotof odd things happening in the meantime, like Tracy being put in jail. And
we realised we hadn't done alot of the things we wanted to do. But weknew something had to happen. We didn't want Phill (old BP drummer)
around, so what we did was kick Phill out (Mick now plays drums fulltime, switching from his role as amulti-instrumentalist) and moved to
Berlin and decided to carryon as agroup.
"I found it very difficult at first to be positive about it, because by thattime Iwas looking forward to doing something else. But Icouldn't keep
on being negative about it, otherwise I
would drag everything else down,so I
went to the other extreme and became very positive. Sometimes,
though, Idon't know how much more the group can achieve, or what thegroup has achieved—I don't knowwhy the group should achieve
anything. Why should we put ourselves through this much agony?
"But what is quite different for our group is that it is agreat thing for us toplay an inspiring gig.""It often worries me that our group could be accused of deliberately
dwelling on the horrible things in life: death, murder and the like; that
we're totally skin-deep and nothing else. We did this interview in
Copenhagen and the interviewer read us this daily newspaper article
that said our music could best be described as the sort of thing that would
go with acheap B-grade horror movie, which Ifind really insulting."

Nick's shock"Breakup? We were going to break up? Nobody told me!"Tracy's bad break"Basically! got nicked for my third drunk driving offence, at least thethird one where I
was actuallycaught doing it, which was silly of me. Ialso
had warrants out for two minor theft cases. One was for shoplifting afew
sausages when I
was broke and hungry. The other time was when Inickedsomething from apartywhen I
was drunk. I
was as incompetent athief as
Iwas ashoplifter. The cops finally caught up to me when Iwent out anddid it again. I
didn't go into court with avery good lawyer, just one fromlegal aid, sol left the court with afour-month sentence, of whichI
served three. The jails in Victoria aren't that bad. They'reworse, Ishould imagine, in New South Wales. I
got sent to anicelittle prison farm.
"The band was due to leave forAmerica about aweek afterI
was locked up, which was alittle awkward. Ioften seem to be
doing things like this to inconvenience the rest of them. So they
got BarryAdamson in for the tour...
"It's difficult for jail to have apositive effect on your mind,
because the only thing on it is getting out. Your friends are on
the outside. My girlfriend came hundreds of miles to see meevery Sunday, but even then Icouldn't see enough of her.
Imissed her like hell.! was also thinking about what I
wasmissing with the band. That's the bad part.
"I don't know that it did that much for my mind at all. Ithink
you would have to spend alot longer in jail for that to happen,
but it certainly cleansed my body. I
was off the piss for threemonths, exercised alot, worked everyday pruning pine trees,
did weightlifting; that wayyou could sleep really well so time
went alot quicker."

Nick's way"That art has to benefit society in some practical way?
Anything but that!Art is what anybody wants it to be. I
will notbe pressured into harbouring asocial conscience to write
about issues that will be forgotten in ayear's time, giving my
opinion on something when it's not worth more than anyone
else's basically.
"My sense of aesthetic, my style of aesthetic, now that's
something worth making concrete for the world! My basic
creativeness is exceptional, but Idon't think my particularsocial or political opinions are worth apinch of shit. So why
should artistic sensibilities go to waste because I'm notopinionated?"

Rowland's wrath"I really find it amazing that people who review us havesometimes come to the grand conclusion that we're doingthe
exact same thing as Bauhaus! It's incredibly frustratingwhen
people conclude we're the same as them and their ilk. Even if
they may think the music is mindless, Ithink it's fairly clear the
lyrics are ahell of alot better than 99 per cent of people writingat the moment."

22 IHISTORY OF ROCK 1983

Mick's father"Moral responsibility? That's atough one, the eternal question. We would
make what we would construe as averyirresponsible joke, meant in aparticular way, maybe not seriously, and that leaves the question of us
knowingwhat we mean and the possibility of 99 per cent of the people
taking it the wrong way. So do we say, fuck the people, they don't
understand, they're stupid? Or do we just do it, because it's the waywe
think about it, so why shouldn't we?
"On the whole I'd say it's too bad if they're misinterpreted, if the cover of
TheBadSeed is taken the wrongway. Why the swastika? Well, Idunno,
hahaha. I
suppose if people went, Oh, how disgusting, that would be avery blinkered view. People would misunderstand the waywe use it...
That is, it's almost abit naughty. The joke almost becomes that people aregoing to go 'Argh!' at something that was used that innocently.
"It's not to shock them. People who would get upset are very far removed
from the group so most of them would never see it. That is what is so funny
about DrunkOnThePope'sBlood. Most of the people who would havebeen offended by the title would never come across it.
"You can't saywe set out to be deliberatelyshocking, because ifwe are it
doesn't work. We do those things... they're done to be ridiculous. They'remeant for ourselves, not asa public offence. I
find it really sillywhen people
accuse us of trying to be sensational, because ifwe are, we're terrible at it.
"I left courtwith
afour-monthsentence,of which
servedthree"THE BIRTHDAY PARTY"Except inAustralia, they made abig thing out ofDrunk On The Pope's Blood, which was so stupid,
because it made the people who would have been
offended by it aware of it. And I
don't think we everwanted to do that. Once that happened I
was really
upset about it. Well, my parents heard about it, and as
my father's apriest (C Of E) I
got abit of flak about it. "Nick unrepentant"Mick always used to say, 'I knowwhyyou write all this blasphemous stuff-it's to get back at me because of my father, isn't it?' But after three years
he realised the joke had been going on too long, so there must be someserious intent behind it."

Mides measured tone
"Me too reasonable for The Bi rthday Party? No, I
think I'm an element theothers require. For one we haven't got amanager, so it usually falls on me
to get things organised, as I
start worrying about them first. Ithink I
reallycreate abalance that is needed, otherwise I
wouldn't be here. They've
never complained about my being too reasonable or level-headed.
"Anyway, Ican be irresponsible, too. It was me who got drunk at the first
gig in NewYork and started yelling obscenities at the audience, which
was really out of character...
"I think Birthday Party represent elements of the individuals involvedthat otherwise wouldn't come to the fore. There are elements about methat come out in something so totallywild and untamed as The Birthday
Party, which otherwise would stay hidden.
"I completely approve of it, though sometimes Ithink it would be good if
people didn't get completely drunk out of their brains before going on
stage. Then Irealise that if they didn't, things wouldn't be the sane. Their
attitude would be different if they were responsible."

ANick caricature denied"I mean, I'm not the sort of person who sits around in bars crying into mybeer, trying to dwell on physical pain... I
would probably consider myself
to be adestructive person, at least destructive to myself, but I
enjoy it...
I
just don't write songs when I'm happy. That's partlybecause when I've
got some spirit I'm usually out some place destroying it.
"Not that I'm saying that when I
find myself depressed I
crawl over to thedesk, slide into the seat, dip the quill in the pot and start scratching thisreally painful prose. Even when I
was ahappy-go-luckylad inAustraliaI
wrote about depressing things."

Rowland's friends"Howl met Lydia Lunch, we were playing in NewYork and Imet her at the
Chaise Lounge. I'd been wanting to record 'Some Velvet Morning' for awhile, and it struck me as agood idea to do it with her. Not the least
because she would be good for selling the project to companies with!
And they jumped at the chance.
"After that, the German company asked Lydia to record an album, so
she got me, Mick, Genevieve (Rowland's girlfriend) and Tracy over toBerlin to help her do it... In the end the Germans couldn't pay the studiobill, so the tapes are gathering dust.
"Because 'Some Velvet Morning' sounded good-it had this dreamlike
quality and some depth- I
formed this group These Immortal Souls with
BarryAdamson and Genevieve. There were plans to release aseries of
12"s, each with adifferent theme, but no companyis terribly interested..."Rowland's sorrow...
"Alot of my favourite songwriters are people who write when they're
obviouslyclose to the edge and the songs betraythis quality ofweakness
and fragility... I
guess I'm primarily interested in people rather thanexpressing an idea. I'm interested in affecting people on an emotional level,
hit them reallyhard, so they feel the same emotionsyou were feeling when
you wrote the song. Anyone who can achieve that I
think is very great"If Ican make arecord as good as the things I
was listening to at 17
thinking theywere the best, then I'd be satisfied. I
think The Bad Seed isreally awork of art, strong, powerful and capable."...And his frustration"The songs I
used to write were really personal songs, and Nick said he
couldn't sing them because it was too embarrassing, like reading
someone else's diary. So for alongtime! was writing impersonal songs,

and it's taken me ayear to rediscover how to write
self-expressive songs. Now! have to decide which
ones are for The Birthday Party and the other onesI
keep for me, Genevieve and BarryAdamson."

Nick's rejoinder"To his disfavour, Rowland gives me lyrics that
obviously mean alot to him, and he has to release
his emotions by proxy, kind of, and at the same time
Ican't release my own. It's like driving someone else's car: you have to be
more careful. And that's the way it is with lyrics."!

Nick and Lydia"We wrote 50 One Page Plays together, 50 plays made up from fivecategories of things like the speedway and filth. Lydia suggested that one.
'Well, we had to start somewhere, so why not at the bottom?"Deutsch Australian freundschaft"Crawling in miserylnothing is here/sluggish crippled cellslyour spells
speaklhoer aufruhrlthirsty animallset unquenchablefireldemise after thefirelthe cellcores burst out/lava burst outlnew islands, thirsty animal"("Durstiges Tier" Words: Blixa Bargeld. Music: Einsturzende Neubauten)
Rowland: "Me and Nick are really interested in working with as many
people as possible. It can only improve what you're doing. It's fairly
limited working byyourself or with only one other person. I've written
songs with about 10 other people in the past two and ahalf years. It
teaches you something, inspires you alot more."
Nick: "We're not misanthropic towards other artists in whatever fieldI'm not so narrow-minded to reduce it to rock-who have ideas whichI
think are great.
"We don't have an attitude in which we don't want to have anything to
do with anybody else, that we think we're the fucking greatest, though
Ido admit it might sometimes come across like that. We look to otherpeople to playwith, express ourselves with, exchange ideas with.
"It only happens very rarely, but it did in Berlin with Einsturzende
Neubauten, and also with Lydia Lunch. Even so, our group is generally
totally alienated from the scheme of things."

Abedtime story to close: Nick's swampland narrative"What actually happens in this story is the death of this one central figure
who is sinking into quicksand, listening to the sound of alynch mob hot
on his trail. All the time he is reminiscing, falling into fits of vision, having
unearthlyvisitations, while he's gradually sinking deeper and deeper.
Finally, his executioners burst into the clearing; they surround him but
they can't get him, because he's too far away. Only his head is visible
above the quicksand.
"He's beset by more visions and eventually he's visited by an angel ofsome sort, who he thinks forgives him for the murder of some orphan girl,which is the final hoax of his life. Just before he dies he believes he isforgiven and that nothing further or worse could happen to him. And
somehow it's brought into the vision that the mob have poured gasoline
onto his head, so his head is now this little flame in the middle of the
middle of the mob...
"That's putting it into alogical format, which it won't be when it'sfinished. The way this would be written, the way I
want it to be read is likesomeone... waking up with ahangover, your mind totally blank but inpain and then one by one these grizzly memories come staggering backfrom the night before. Just half-conscious, totallyvague, conflicting sorts
of images drifting back...
"For example, this character has murdered the county's tiny orphan girlwho the community has taken into their hearts, and each time he relates
it to the reader it's slightly different, because he can't really remember
how he did it.
"To drawthis to the music... 'She's Hit' is done in the same sort of style.
Lines hint at acatastrophe of sorts, but not enough evidence is given to allow
aclear picture ofwhat exactlyhas happened. But the personwho hears itis
given to understand that some violentcatastrophe has happened..."Nick's longing"I often feel nostalgic forAustralia, but then !think there's nothing there
for me anymore except for afew friends and my family... but Ireallywould like to go and live with my mother for awhile, to tell you the truth."
ChrisBohn •HISTORY OF ROCK 1983 i
23punk ban( BLACK FLAGng their fun-contact live
wto Britain. "I like t
and that puts their
the line for abunch of people
ydidn't even know," .
gays
ger Henry Rollins.

BlACKFI.AG 1111
POLICESTOA yBlack Flag attheOporto
pubinHolborn,London,'1983(I-r):DezCadena,
Henry Rollins,Greg
Ginn,BillStevenson,
Chuck Dukowski

MELODY MAKER

1

TWAS EMBARRASSING. I'd never met them before. And they
didn't know London that well. So Ireckoned that the mostwelcoming, most comforting place for an interview would be
the pub (well.., any excuse).
What Ididn't reckon on was that LA band Black Flag might beless than enthusiastic about drinking. They did stay in the round,
mind you. But for every bottle of Guinness that passed mylips, they weresending out for fresh supplies of coffee! By the end of the interview I
wasfeeling like Edna the Inebriate Woman.
Black Flag certainly aren't predictable. Iknew it the minute I
walked inand found singer Henry Rollins sitting huddled by himself at the opposite
end of the pub to the others, staring dementedly at the number 13 orangestriped pool ball he was rolling around in his hand.
"I did that because I'm Henry and I
was doing the Henry trip," heexplained later. This probably made perfect sense to himself and the restof the group, but it certainly did worry the guvnor of the pub, who thought
he had an imminent hospital case on his hands.
Inever did discover the significance of the orange stripe. Meanwhile,
the Black Flag majoritywere maintaining an ominous silence at their28

HISTORY OF ROCK 1983

table, looking little like the over-the-top punk rockers of their musicalreputation. Dez (Cadena, rhythm guitarist) could've taken on the role ofNeil, The YoungOnes' hippy, quite successfully. Equally mild-mannered,
Chuck (Dukowski, bass), Greg (Ginn, guitar) and Bill (Stevenson, drums)
showed no immediate visible signs of the maniacs they become when
theywalk on stage.
Ihad asinking feeling that this conversation wasn't going to be as
easy as I'd imagined. For the price of abottle I'd have joined Harrigan
and his cronies at the bar. And then Black Flag got talkative.
Unpredictable. Itold you so.
Previously, I'd seen Black Flag twice, towards the end of 1981. They
remained in my memory for two reasons.
One was their overwhelming heaviness —like the weight ofACMC
multiplied by 100. The other was that they liad askinhead singer.
Askinhead from Los Angeles! Nowwhat's that all about?
"In my world, hair isn't such abig deal," responded Henry, now
apparently happy to sit with the rest of the group but still squeezing thepool ball, "Over here, it's like you join acertain army if you have yourhair acertain way. Ididn't have my hair cropped for any reason, like
'I'm askinhead'. Ihad it that way for the reason Ihave it this way now...
because Ifelt like it."

BLACK FLAGHe brushed his free hand through the dark
tufts to signify the end of that particular topic,
and talk turned to Black Flag and their mission
in life. Which is planting seeds, apparently?
"Our ideas are emotional and each one is aseed," explained Chuck, obligingly. "The degree
to which we're successful is the degree to which
we plant afertile seed in somebody's mind.""What we're trying to do with our music andour approach is to reach people," continued
Henry. "We're five people going 'I am Iam' andwe want to touch every emotion that ahumanbeing could possibly feel, from joy to hate orsadness or real disgust.
"I want to put myself, my mind, my heart andmy body on the line for that. I'm driven to do it.
It's my form of self-expression. I
like to see abandthat puts their asses on the line fora bunch ofpeople they didn't even know. I
know how hard
Itry, and if people don't like it, there's adoor.
They can go out and join the mass ofotherpeople who don't like Black Flag, and that's all.
"For me, alot of the songs we play Ineed toplay. That's what we write them for."This sounds abit obsessive to me.
"Well," said I
lenry, enjoying the drama ofhis
own language, "It's as much an obsession asbreathing is. Do you want to live tomorrow?
Ineed to live, and there's asong in my heart."
We return to the subject of emotion.
"Most people have everything they needinside them, and Black Flag jars the emotions
around and jiggles them out of people," said
Bill, the newest member of the band. "We canmake you see what's inside yourself.""We just went to abig museum," said Chuck
mysteriously. "Every topic in there dealt withseveral real simple
things; the themes
were people's
insecurity and how
they fit into thecosmos, religion andhow they relate to lifeand death... theirinsecurity about
death and feelingabout life. Then
there's love and all theramifications of that.
"There's alot ofviolent imagery
carried with thepictures. There's one picture, which was aknight and he's got ashield and the woman's
there. It was like 'The woman of death'. You can
see that all intellectual ideas such as we saw inthe museum are derived from more simple
ideas: people's emotions."
Iventure that while aBlack Flag gig could
certainly be described as an experience, IneverThe edgeof insanity
mm
_
i
_

felt any entire range of inner feelings tested
as aresult of being there. Do the band maybe
obscure their intentions by crushing people
into submission, or—to be blunt about it —don't
they feel that instead of regarding them as aunique emotional stimulant, people might
dismiss them asa lot of noise?
"It might be alot of noise," said Chuck testily.
"But then you could say that ifyou have adog
and it comes up and barks because it's happy
to see you, that's alot of noise too. Or if hewhimpers because he's just got hit by acar
you could say that's alot of noise. There may be
HERE ARE TIMES when you realise
noise, but the dog is still being communicative.
that the music business really does
That's the point."
protect its artists. Take Black Flag.
"It doesn't matter if people like us or not," said
Now if these five weren't in aband, they'dDes. "Any kind of reaction is areaction,
have been certified years ago, wrapped
whether it's good or bad."up in straitjackets and committed to the"There's awhole lot of things that aperson
nearest asylum to rant into the empty air
can't face," said Henry, giving the impression
for evermore.
that it was everyone's duty to face Black Flag
In daily life, they're peculiar enough.
at some time in their life.
On stage, they're right on the edge ofWhat about the people who don't wantinsanity, teetering dangerously while
to face them? What about the people
asoundtrack of screaming hell
who don't feel the emotionalshrieks and swoops round them.
message? What about the people
100 CLUB
Henry, the singer. He's the
LONDON
who don't particularlywant topsycho to end them all. His
have these so-called seeds
eyes are the weapons ofplanted in their heads?Are
apossessed epileptic. His
they deficient in some way?
muscles strain constantly,"Maybe there's adeficiency inpushing the convulsing body
FEBRUARY 1
0us," said Des wisely, eliciting aout to its shuddering physicalmutter of "You can say that again"
limit. His forehead bulges sofrom Harrigan at the bar, achucklingforcefully I
thought his brains werefrom his mates and ageneral ordering up of
about to come bursting out over thepints for their guilt-free drinking company.
pogoing punksters in front of him.
Personally, I'd agree that Black Flag do seem
And the rest of the band... an orgy ofslightly on the
flailing limbs and psychiatric disorder,
eccentric side. Maybe
physical chaos and mental havoc.
that's what enables
You can't say Black Flag don't put
them to perform witheverything they've got into their shows.
the intensity, theThis is punk rock gone mad.
strength and the fullMusically, the Flag go more forcommitment of theiratmosphere than actual song content.
gig at the 100 ClubI
couldn't tell you what they played;
two days later... andcouldn't even make out the lyrics. I
canequally can inspiretell you that they created an outrageously
them to pull out
powerful, compulsively unsettling
the horrifyingly
cacophony that aimed as much for gut
overbearing tactics ofreaction in the slower songs as in thetheir last British visit
more familiar, ferocious punk numbers.
in the bigger halls.
Black Flag seized control and kept it.
"I keep ajournal,"
They deserved the response they got.
said Henry brightly asthe topic of Britain
To be honest, I
wasn't much looking
presented itself. "I was writingin it last night thatforward to this gig. I'd seen Black Flag
Inever feel American until I'm over here. That's
before at the Lyceum and the Leeds
because the peoplearound me make it painfully
Queens Hall, and thought them possibly
clear that Iam American. I
would like people to
the worst band I'd ever encountered.
relate to meas aperson and ahuman being."
Their crushing volume, on those occasions,
He squeezed the number 13 ballseemed their only means of attack.
even tighter.
Maybe the band have improved since"And while we're here, we'dthen. Or maybe the smaller, more
like to mention Troublefunk
intimate, grounds of the 100 Club allowedfrom Washington, thethe personal assault of the music to assert
Descendants, Saint Vitus,
itself properly while also permitting thethe Meat Puppets from Arizona,
crowd to see the band at close range.
the Dicks from Austin, the Big
Whatever the reasons, and despite
Boys and Red Kross."
aless-than-packed-out attendance (dueWith that, Black Flag had topartly to aboycott by some punters after
leave for rehearsals. It was time
the appalling scenes of violence at I
nfafora proper drink. And when
Riot's recent gig there), it turned out to be
Ilooked up, Harrigan's mob had
an evening well spent. I
reckon I
was due
all gone. Ca rol Clerk •fora nice surprise anyway... Carol Clerk

FEB 19"Black Flag
jars theemotions andjiggles themout of people"

BLACK
FLAG MN
4481ERN FRONT '83

PEAT PUPPETS
THE
DICKS

SuicidalTendencies

THE
STAINS

Iri**Ure

Code of
Honor

HISTORY OF ROCK 1983 I27

RANDY NEWMAN"I try andnot be mean"
hits town to tell thepress nothing (andeverything) about
himself. Los Angeles,
talking woodblocks withSpringsteen, rewriting
Faust... all come into
his witty remit.
"I don't even have towrite the songs any
more," he jests.
"Have the maid do it."W

MELODY MAKER

EIGHING WORDS FOR aliving, Randy Newman at sometime in his life made the decision to speak in penny-plain.
Judging by his work, he is probably also amoralist and an
intellectual, but, like the subject of himself in his songs, hewould prefer all that good stuff to lie tacit. Back in 1978 when
Iwas the rapacious sort of interviewer who couldn't wait
to crowd Hitchcock into acorner and make him spill about Notorious and the
Sacraments, Igave Randy ahard time on these characteristics. He took the Fifth
Amendment. Quite right too.
This time around, we stuck with the text, and, as with The Shroud at Turin, got someidea of the absent figure. After all, this is his own method in his songs, which impersonate
viewpoints that he either despises, pities or merely records. Iused to think that his
personal nightmare was loss of identity- "You said, 'Honey, can you tell me what yourname is?'Ilsaid, 'You know what my name is" ("Last Night IHad ADream") -but Inow
think it's none of my damn business.
His latest album, Trouble In Paradise, is amarvellous piece of writing, and deservesaconducted tour by the writer. "Justas long as Idon't look as if I'm carried away by thedepth of it all," says Randy, worriedly tearing my ticket as Iboard his Greyhound, MIAMI-LA-CAPE TOWN-THE CHURCH OF BAD FAITH. Earlier buses at the depot have left
already for Louisiana, Dayton Ohio, Birmingham, Baltimore and Cleveland.
"Some of the best songs I've written about cities were about places I'd never been.
It's like when Brecht or Kafka wrote about America before coming; it was silly stuff,
inaccurate but there was something imaginative and good about it."Like the queue of blacks in "Christmas In Cape Town" all carrying lunch pails withpictures of Star Wars on the side?""Yeah, Iknow it's not true, but Ilike mixing it all up
with California. Icould see that so well, all of them likechildren going to school with their lunch pails, the guy
seeing it that way. He sees them like children. Ilike theidea of t
he ghetto listening to ABBA. Iknow it can't be so, ,§but !like the idea of getting things alittle wrong. It sheds
more light."
The English girl in the song who criticises apartheid
while just passing through represents Randy's
resentment of British sanctimony. »HISTORY OF ROCK 1983 I29

1983

JANUM -09

"They've been very unfair over anumber of years. Things Isaw on
TVhere in the '60s criticising the United States for racism. Thiscountry hasn't handled it any better. Nowyou've got riots. Now you've
gotta recognise your own problems, publicly. Hmm -I guess
Ishouldn't say this...
"There's more racism among surprising people in the States right now
than there's been for abit. In California you hear it from people who don't
like the fact that the state will be 50 per cent Mexican soon, Chicano. It's
similar to what you heard here about the Pakistanis, you know, thepopulation increases so fast, all that. That's new.
"I'm not sympathetic to the guy in the song's position, but Iam
sympathetic to his reaction to someone coming from somewhere else
and telling him howterrible it is. If they're upset about my criticism inSouthAfrica, they've got agood case. I've never been there. But Idid let
the guy make acase, the best case he can. Well, he can't make one forapartheid, but he can make acase for howtruly difficult it will be for thepeople down there to adjust should it ever change.
"It's too easy to say racism is horrible. There are songs tharve done it,
but it's not my way. I
think it's more interesting for me to let the guy try andmake his case. Ican't keep doing it or it becomes adevice-but this guy
is very different from the guy in 'Rednecks' or the
guyin 'Yellow Man'. It must be astrange, charged
atmosphere there in SouthAfrica. Well, that's what
you get when you read Nadine Gordimer."andT

HE GUYIN the bar in "Cape Town" is different from the guy at
Mikey's too, though there are superficial similarities. Bothblame the blacks for their own loss of youth, but the focus isvery different. The guy at the bar in Mikey's centres on the hostilityof the jukebox.
"It isn't like the old songs he'd like to hear in his friend's bar, but his
friend's gotta playwhat the patrons want to hear. The music's very
threatening to aguy in his forties who grew up in North Beach ("Mickey,
whatever happened to the fucking Duke of Earl?"). See, I
like the music.
The guy in there I
disagree with about the new stuff. The coldness ofsynthesizers and techno-pop, no humanity, no warmth- he's not quite
wrong about synthesizers being essentially cold. Iuse them and likethem for what I
have to do, but I
don't have adeep affection for them. I
love
an orchestra, but !can't use it very much on what I
do."
Both the sad ballads about girls are distorted by the lens of the narrator.
"Same Girl" is sung by ajunkie, responsible for the wreck of his subject,
and trying to pretend she's still the same: adenial of his responsibility.
"Real Emotional Girl" sung with treacherous indiscretion by her latest
disaster, has been aworry to the songwriter. He's painstaking about
spaces and the reverse, putting too much in, and he also has amoral andaesthetic contempt for textual ugliness. Sometimes,
inconsequence, the casual reader will miss themonitored drip-feed of character poisoning.
"He's abad guy! You're absolutely right. Yes! But
no-one got it! There you go, see. I'm glad. That's what
Imeant; he shouldn't be giving these confidencesaway, you bet. In my opinion, he shouldn't say anyof
it. Most people thought, real smart ones that know mywork very well, that he was just trying to figure the girlout, and that it was astraight love song."
He fiddledwiththe lines, refining"Everylitt/elieyou
tell her" to "Everylittle thing", and "She comes real quick"to "She turns on easy" -both distancing the villainyof
the narrator. "Yeah, I
altered things, I
got scared. It'dread nice; make it absolutelyclear, but too horrible.
You're right. It's happened to her again. Oh good."
He worried alot too about vulgarity in "There's
APartyAt My House". The song crouches into aheavy
breather after the halfway point, following acouplet about
nipples with the injunction, "Bobby, get the rope.""I didn't mean anything malignant about the rope there.
Itried to get rid of it. Itook it out because lthought I
had a
wayto fix it. I
was gonna say, 'Hey Bobby, get the goat', butthat was so much worse. Awful bestiality!"

RANDY NEWMAN
pAtm MOP
THE BLU ES

M

February 26,1983
performing on
SaturdayNightLive; -bikini 1

AYBE IF YOU are gifted with Randy Newman'seye, which will see through all lead obstacles,
pink panties and self-delusions, you do needto make aconscious effort to think positive. The
sneering circle of the very smart would not sustain thesolitary haul of the songwriter.
"I used to say, 'Oh great- so what, so what, so what? I've
learned as I've got older to try and enjoy the good things
that happen to me because it's tough. I
get criticised forbeing cruel, and I
watch it. Imean, I'm careful about amean streak, not showing it in awork. Sometimes you see
it in people's work and it makes you think bad people did it.
"I didn't watch it in 'The Blues', and its alittle rough. It's
just about the suffering songwriter thing, that sorta
stereotype. It's interesting that Paul Simon would do it,sorta make fun of himself, though he's waybeyond that.
His songs are genuinely personal. As dippy as it sounds
and as much as I've always hated the sensitive kind of
poet-songwriter stereotype-that kid in Fameyou know?I
shouldn't make fun of it because there are some people
legitimately that way."
It's not so much unkind as startling that Paul Simon
would agree to Randy's fit-up. He can hardly, in fact, getmore than ahandful of poignant lines on the track for thecomposer's mock-enthusiastic recommendations: "He's
got the blues, this boy I
He's got the blues." What it is is very
funny, and just belowthe stern moral resolve, it was
obvious that Randythought so too...

1111111‘
41

Every time you use vocal unisons to endorse
aline, Imistrust you double, I
confide.
"Well, you can't believe my narrators either,"
he replies, amused. "They're untrustworthy
in almost every case. Maybe when Iseek toreinforce something, it's abigger lie."
Iconfess that I
hadn't known what his attitude
was on"! Love LA". He lives there, and he had
told me in the past that he couldn't write about
it because it was too close, too familiar.
"I do love it. It's ignorant, sorta asimplisticpaean because the attacks I've heard on LA are
so simplistic. The streets Ichose ("Century
Boulevard, we love it! Victory Boulevard, we loveit/Santa Monica Boulevard, we love it/Sixth
Street, we love it, we love it") are undistinguished, to put it kindly.
An LA joke in away, but in asense it's abit of adefence."
And Miami?
"Very strange atmosphere. I've only been there once. The wind blows
from adifferent place, and it feels like any kind of nastiness is possible.
Lounge town. The character is just asponger and it's areal good town
for spongers."
Iwondered aloud whether this spongerwould have aword like 'impure'("And the women down herelAre so impure") in his vocabulary. Randy shot
across the desk to peruse my lyric sheet."I don't like to make mistakes like
that, but Ido. Maybe. It's close, I
agree. Ithink about that kinda thing,whether the guy in 'Rednecks' would've known all those ghettos. Hmm...
he's not that dumb, this guy. Hard to say."
The song reminded me of Nathanael West'sA Cool Million in its
reversal of the Horatio Alger myth. The composer looked far frompleased at that.
"Yeah, theywant to make amusical of that and they called me to do it.
It's too mean for me. Too nasty. So is Day OfThe Locust. Boy, that's somemean-spirited stuff, I'll tell ya. I
try and not be mean, Idon'twant to be.
Iturned it down for that reason."
Randy Newman's sad, small characters have at least self-justification
going for them. West's had none. Pessimism, emptiness, withoutcompensation of the possibility of redemption is the overall message ofWest's masterpiece, Miss Lonelyhearts. More to our subject's taste at the
moment is Goethe.
"Goethe was smart. 1
just readFaustrecently and I
loved it. I
love thosemovies about Heaven, you know, where they
have angels and the Devil in it, that sorta
anthropomorphising Heaven.
"Green Pastures- did you ever see that? It's
ablack kid's version and God smokes five-centcigars. This stuff can be adisaster! The idea of
doing Faustis almost acliche and ajoke, but
Ithink! can do it. Iwrote first draft and Ihave
maybe three songs. Isorta wrote 'I'm
Different' for that. I'm gonna have Faust be
this kid who goes to Notre Dame, and that's
what he'd be like."
So what would the Devil offer him?
"That's the thing, see. He's akid. His wishes
are so totally juvenile he'd want to see
somebody naked or something. His teacher. He's as tiresome to theDevil as Goethe's Faust. The Devil asks him, well what do you want? And
the kid says, ah... Idunno. Tough to corrupt. I
got a14-year-old boy, andthey can be pretty fuckin' infuriating, you know. Don't seem to wantanything. My musical will be atotal trashing of the story, but I'm afraid
to look at it again.""The narrator
in 'My Life Is
Good' is ahorribleversion of me"W

EREACH "MYLife Is Good" without me coming on incisive
about his personal life.
Married, kids, Hollywood antecedents (those Newmans),
works in an office with apiano, bench and table in abad industrial("I'm the only sissy in the neighbourhood") area of LA. He volunteers
alittle more.
"The narrator in that is ahorrible version of me. This guy is just trying to
browbeat this poor little teacherwith how magnificent he is. Offend her;impress her, everything, Me and Bruce Springsteen 'talking about somekind of woodblock or something?' It's to impress her. Me and The Bosstalk shop. That's what we talk about. Nothing you would evencomprehend. Oh, he's loathsome!1 like all that stuff the Mexican maid
does for him.
"She cleans the hallway, she cleans the stairs- she does everything.
Idon't even have to write the songs any more. Have the maid do it. Veryprivileged existence. It's like the old legend that Irving Berlin didn't write
his own songs. He had alittle black kid tied up to his piano who was doing
all the stuff."Hey, Juanita! Keep 'emcomin'. (Unison) Brian Case •HISTORY 01 ROCK 1983

31

RICHARD E. AARON /GEM

Newmaninhis
backyard,1983

Mini-dramas:
Fish of Marillion

ALBUMS
Marillion

PETE CRONIN /GETTYEMI

How easy it would be to wax
perverse over Marillion ;to takeup their cause just because they
get up so many hacks' noses.
But such astrategy would beincestuous, not to say pointless
so I'll simply state my case: theidea of Marillion is afantasy I've
long entertained, the idea of aband brave enough not to tell theplebs what they should want but
to steam right in there where
Cabaret Voltaire fear to tread,
give them what they want andthen do something.
To acertain extent, the realityof Marillion does just that.
Despite singer Fish's grease
paint and mime, they're less ofanovelty than most other new
bands I
can think of, pandering
less to the fickle one-upmanshipof the fashion-conscious thanplaying wie the rules of the
faceless mass of music lovers
that the media generally either
ignores or insults.
Marillion could be more ideal,
could warp more, subvert more,
could try harder to bring somesense, some reason, some reality
to an audience all too willing toescape into hero-worship. But myperception is patronising -I
saythey should be revolutionaries
first and foremost and musiciansby consequence, and Script For
AJester's Tear works the otherway round.
To judge it musically then,Script does no more, nor less thanhas been done before. Within
32 IHISTORY OF ROCK 1983

their world, orchestrated
crescendos easily assimilate
symbolic passion, and pseudoclassical passages act asconveniently accepted
substitutes for introversion.
The scope of any one number "Garden Party" for example should be applauded for its
attempts to accommodate
so many emotions, but
unfortunately the overall scope
within which the album works
hasn't progressed -or regressed-much since1974. Pomp rocksure.., but with pompous
intentions?
Here we have it -Script For
AJester's Tear is almost the wolfin sheep's clothing I'd hoped.
Wearing its influence, literally,on its sleeve, every song isamini-drama scripted in theflorid language expectedby its audience, but refusing
to say cosmic nothings.
They're dirt dressed up
as angel dust, and Fish is anaccomplished actor, almost
as precocious as the young
Gabriel but also almost as
vicious as vintage Alex Harvey.
Without him, Script would be
the bollocks you probably think
it is, but with him it's probably as
sharp as aform so often wrongly
assumed to bearchaic can be.
He Knows Your
Know" deals withdrugs, "Forgotten
Sons" with war,
"Garden Party"
with class... uh... therest, I'll admit, areanyone's guess.

So Script will
do nothing toconvince pop's
worthy theoriststhat "progressive" rock isn't deadbut-not-gone, though it may wellaffect thousands of faithful fansin away they might not otherwise
have been affected. It doesn't
need my excuses; it will sell not
for what it says but for the way itsounds. One can but hope that
some, at least, will wake up andlisten. Steve Sutherland, Isel Mar 19

The Final Cut is Waters feeble
attempt to come to terms withThe State Of The World, ahandwringing address to the nationthat arrogantly and laughably
tries to comment "meaningfully"
on the troubles and foibles of theentire human race in the latterstages of the 20th Century inthe space of amere 40 minutes
without the aid of anything
Pink Floyd
remotely resembling anEMIanalytical, poetic or probing
imagination. And oh boy, isIf there's anything morethat some disadvantage!
undignified than adrunkard
Even taking into account thepestering the pub's customers
witless torpor that Pink Floyd
for another gin, it's the grim
fell into more than adecade ago,spectacle of aname that haseven remembering the pointless
known fame in youth refusing toindolence and brain-numbing
grow old with good grace. Likecomplacency of the likes of
the withering, decrepit former"Welcome To The Machine", theglamour queen played by Gloria
scale of this record's failure isSwanson in Billy Wilder's Sunset
quite stupefying, its sense ofBoulevard, Roger Waters is asadpretension and self-satisfaction
example of one of those people
wholly nauseating. Compared
who cannot bring themselves toto this monstrous endeavour,
admit that their days of glory have
"Another Brick In The Wall"gone forever, who just can't resist
is an undiluted masterpiece.
the temptation to prop up theirSo, Roger Waters, you havepublic personas and personal
poked your head outside of yoursense of pride with ill-conceived
residence and decided you don't
and myopic acts of vanity.
uh, dig Earth1982-83.
Funnily enough, the restof us didn't realise things
weren't rosy in the
English country gardenpink
and should gain
floyd
enlightenment from thisrock operetta. I
mean,
the
this one sounds heavy:
final"Brezhnev tookcutAfghanistan, Begin took Beirut,
Galtieri took the Union Jack, andMaggie over lunch one day took
acruiser to make him give it
back." Like, words of genius.
Waters' views never rise above
this level, aseries of vacuous andsimplistic conceits, delivered asif he's doing us all one great big
favour. "Oh Maggie, what have
we done?" he asks to cringeinducing effect on the LP's
first track, as if to set the tone,
oblivious of the fact that anybody
who really despises the woman
calls her "Thatcher", "Maggie" ofcourse being the phrase belovedof the fawning press.
No-one's denying that it's
possible for artists to tackle "big"issues, but it takes both political
literacy and artistic sensibility
to be able to comment on suchvital issues as the Falklands andthe decline of Britain.
Waters possesses neither.
Robert Wyatt's delivery of
Costello's line "We could be
diving for pearls" or just one
minute of Alan Bleasdale's TV
drama Boys From The Blackstuff
say more about our current
predicament than any of thesoft-headed, intelligenceinsulting doggerel on show here.
And it's not as if it's possible
to ignore the lyrical content.
Waters' colourless voice is fixed
permanently at alevel that leaps
out of the mix, his enunciationand emphasis on certain words
indicating the presence of"significance". The adjective thatmost accurately describes his
mood throughout is concern —not the genuine article, but thekind of exaggerated bleedingheart concern you will hear from
SDP politicians.
"Wasters of life and limb,"
he barks, in afalse, accusing
manner. "The final cut", he spits,
so unconvincingly that it hasme in fits!
Musically, you know what toexpect, only it's worse. The"important" —or should that be
impotent, ho ho!— parts soundsuspiciously like outtakes froman Alan Price album, thesebeing broken up by crashing
thunderstorms of quasiorchestral melodrama at thistype of guitar playing thatis usually accompanied bycontorted facial gestures. Truly,
amilestone in the history ofawfulness. Expect the usual
sycophantic review in the pagesof Rolling Stone. Lynden Barber,
Mar79

Dexys Midnight Runners. EMI

Or, EMI's revenge. This is acollection of singles (A and B
sides) which Kevin Rowland andhis original Dexys boys released
through the Manchester Squaremonolith before the banddisintegrated and Kevin legged
it to Phonogram, looking for
new musicians and anew sound.
Acash-in job? Maybe, but
Geno is also afine guided tourof the raging soulful power which
the surly Rowland used to exude
consistently back then.
"Geno" itself is well enoughknown, of course, but there's
asatisfying assortment of othergems here too. For example,
there's "Dance Stance", which
later reappeared as the epic
"Burn It Down". It's alittle slower
than the later edition, with thelads belting out the list of Irish
authors behind the leader'sremarkably vocal aerobatics.
It's clear, listening to "Plan B"
again, that the tune was severely
underrated when it came out -it'safierce, driving assertion of thewill to move on up, and deserves
another hearing.
This collection also makes
it clear what the present-day
Dexys lack. The first incarnationof the band somehow felt much
more like agroup, not justacarefully-drilled context
in which Kevin could throw
any shapes he felt like.
Check the barely repressed
fury of "I'm Just Looking", or the
tingling rush of "There There My
Dear". This was aband with agreat deal to prove, and in doing
so they comprehensively trashed
any accusations of rip-off, cash-inor recycle with brutal exercises
in controlled power.
Which isn't to say that
instrumentals like "Soul Finger"
or "The Horse" were any morethan token gestures. For somereason they've been plonked at
the ends of sides one and two,and bring the album back to earth
with adull thud on each occasion.
But their version of "Breakin'
Down The Walls Of Heartache"demonstrates that they
understood enough about
their sources to invest themwith greatly increased strikecapability without losing sightof what made them worthwhilein the first place. In all, ausefulcollection even if you alreadyhave acopy of Searching For The
Young Soul Rebels. It contains
some great songs and showcases
one of the best horn sections inrecent memory at full tilt. Mostof all, it shows you what Kevin
Rowland was capable of when hehad aband which pushed him tohis limits. Adam Sweeting, MM Mar 79"Very, very
dated": Almondpulls no punches

SINGLES...reviewed by MARC ALMOND

David Bowie

EMI

After being up all nightwatching Batman videos, I
washoping to be wildly excited andlivened up, and everyone pricks
up their ears -if you'll excuse
the expression -at the thoughtof anew Bowie record. But thisreminds me of one of the many
faceless funk records that comeout and go nowhere. He did thison YoungAmericans and again
on Station To Station muchbetter, so why do it again?
I
think Bowie, like all goodlegends, should either
disappear or die or, at least,
become arecluse, give up
and be remembered for what
he was good at. It's beenalong time since I've been
enamoured of anything he's
done -I think he's slowly
slipped away into tedium andnow he's ruined his chances of
becoming agood legend or an
enigma. Ht.mari9

New Order
FACTORY

If it had Divine bellowing over the
top, you might be able to look at
it in adifferent light, but this is
aboring old standard electrodisco riff with afew standard

electronic
effects thrownin, put over awet, weary, soulless
vocal totally devoid of any
passion whatsoever andwrapped in asuitably annoying
Factory package.
They're doing something
new for them but it's very, very
dated. It would be preferable
to have your head run over by asteamroller- both give you aheadache but at least thesteamroller ends it quickly. This
just seems to go on and on andon. MM Mar 79

Duran DuranEMI

The thing about Duran Duranis that they always put out
really infectious pop records
and, whether you love 'ern orhate 'em, you end up goinground singing them all the time.
You just can't stop, they stickin your mind -Ithink they'revery clever at the crafted pop
record and I
really liked Rio,
but this is them at their mostunmemorable. Whether you
like or hate aDuran Duranrecord, you can always
recognise it as being them, but
this could have been anybodyit reminds me of the Beatles'
harmonies in the '60s.
If people are gonna make adeliberate effort to get awayfrom the sound they had
before -and I
don't actuallyknow if Duran are-theyshould go and do something
extremely different as
opposed to something likethis where people will say,"Well, maybe they're trying to
do something but maybe they
aren't." This has ended up
being abit nowhere. mt./ man9
HISTORY OF ROCK 1983 I38

1983
NUR

0

11

"It's avery,
very dryjoke"
From Leeds, anddisliking Bauhaus,come.
"We like aloudnoise, we like agood
tune," says ironic
linguist.
"We like
the relentlessness ofclassic rock music-heavy metal."

MELODY MAKER

KEVIN CUMMINS /GETTY"0UR PROBLEM IS thattalking usually ends up
as avery serious affair,which isn't atrue
reflection of the band asaphenomenon," saidAndy, singer with The Sisters of Mercy. "It's very
hard to convey the non-intellectual aspects ofany band through talking."
What the hell, we talked anyway. We talked inAndy's front room in Leeds, all four Sisters and me.
Then Italked to Andy and guitarist Gary Marx inaChinese restaurant. Then back to the front room.
Ivetoed the full all-nighter around 3.30am. Andy
probably spent the rest of the night talking tohimself, because he'd finallygot warmed up, thenight creature pacing in his lair.
Before he found himself in the spotlight withThe Sisters Of Mercy. Andy studied languages.
Where, I
queried? »THE DEVILSROORSHOW

The first four-piece
Sisters Of Mercy
lineup: (I-r)Gary
Marx, Craig Adams,
Andrew Eldritch and
Ben Gunn in19:32

1983

JANU ARV -**beer-drinker of the group. Guitarist Ben Gunn sits
quietly in an armchair, boyish and suspiciously
innocent, the classroom swot who goes home
at night and makes explosives in ashed in theback garden.
Then there's Andy, frontman, writer of all
the material so far, dominant theorist andmouthpiece. Andylikes logic, order,
Motórhead, cats, industrial design, The
Birthday Party, The Psychedelic Furs,
aeroplanes and TS Eliot. Andy hates Bauhaus,
Kid Creole, false spiritualism, numerous
groups from the Leeds/Bradford area, fashion,eating and alcohol.
The Sisters' use of adrum machine instead of
adrummer makes excellent sense -Andy can
growl and roar and the others can torment andpunish their instruments, but the beat will notslacken or surrender.
Andy, if you do all the writing, how importantis the rest of the group?
"It's vital. The personal chemistry is very important. Craig's response
is just to play the bass like he does, the sort ofawesome noise, and thatsays alot to me.
"Sometimes at soundchecks, maybe afterwe've been in thevan all day, he just plugs in and wham! It just knocks me out.
Mark provides the more lunatic side of things. And Ben's
got amuch more open mind on things. The balance of
all these four is what makes it work.
"Even minor decisions are ludicrously democratic.
That's one of the reasons whywe never got a
drummer, because drummers just don't fit into
anybody's personal chemistry."
You talk alot about the humour in your music, butdoes it communicate to the audience?
"Well, basically it involves the dialectics of cynicism,
which is something that takes alongtime to explain,"says Andy. "It's avery, very, very dry joke."
Gary: "I think the gigs are pure slapstick."
Because you make them that way or because of theplaces you have to play in?
"Floorshow" and of course the ribAndy: "It starts off OK but by the end of the gig Gary's
crushing "Body Electric". Already, thejust not in control anymore, he's just destroying things.
Sisters have coined some of the most
And it is very slapstick.
malevolent riffs known to man, galvanic"But every band's got that anyway. It's just that mostlacerations of noise driven firmly into
ofthem don't realise it.And of course the fact that you're
the stomach by merciless drum
being serious about it only makes it more ironic, and themachines. The appropriate physicalwhole thing about irony is that it compounds itself at
response to The Sisters Of Mercy isn't
every stage."adance exactly, more asort of horrible
Of course, ajoke's no longer ajoke once you've picked
writhing motion. Dig it!
it apart andWe wereexplained it. Ican
treated to an
only say that theairing of thefirst time! saw
next single,
them something"Anaconda", notclicked at once.
perhaps vintage
Perhaps it's a
Sisters but
little like that
serviceable
horrific thrill of
enough, plus thedriving fast on aslow, gruesome
motorway in theslitherings ofrain and the car"Valentine",suddenly starts
anasty piece
to aquaplane, orof work.
realising that
The Sisters Of
you've gone overMercy command
the line this time
ashrewd grasp of
but wasn't it worth
their objectives
it for the rush?
plus the ability
Gamesmanshipto project it.
par excellence.
This is arare gift,
Check, forso treasure it.

"Oh, all over the place," he said guardedly. "I neverfinished acourse because Ikept finding more
exciting things to do, like petty vandalism.
"I've done French and German and Italian and
Latin arid Chinese and asmattering of Russian
and asmattering of Dutch in my titne. Chinese
was the best. Latin helped me no end -I
don't
know whether it helped my brain any, but asalinguist it was certainly vital. And I
can docrosswords in azillionth of the time it takes
anybody else. I
can't do ordinary ones, but thecryptic ones are adoddle."
The day of our meeting found The Sisters Of
Mercy unaccountably quiet, possibly the resultof asore id and thinly attended gig in Bradford
the night before. Consider these men: guitarist
Gary Marx is tall, lanky, thick white socks ofthe
sort favoured by mountaineers pulled up overthe bottom of his jeans. He watches theproceedings wit happarent indifference,occasionally throwing in an oblique comment.
On stage, he wreaks violence on his guitar.
BassmanCraigAdams crimps himself into the corner of the sofa andreads an old Batman annual from covert° cover, pausing only to light
another cigarette. He only uses three strings on his bass because one of
the machine heads is broken. His cheerful exterior seems quite atodds with the grinding, warlike attack of his playing. Craig is the"You canfrightenpeople andamuse them atthe same time"

Hideous raw powerand black humour
MM MAR 12T

HE EVENING BEGAN withthe ghastly wailings of Ritual,agraceless quintet who tookhuge pride in their sheer unrelenting
awfulness. Next, something called
Baba Luma, who seem to think they're
The Doors. The Doors were usually
awful, but Baba Luma were worse.
Luckily The Sisters Of Mercy came
next, and I
cannot speak too highly ofthis excellent group. I
have alreadyspoken highly of them several times,
and will continue to do so until you
bastards (Steady on there Wah- Ed)start paying attention.
The Sisters' macabre fusionof hideous raw power with blackand twisted humour may well be
unmatched in the annals of rock.
Certainly, they tread this wicked razor's
edge with malicious deadpan glee,
and I
find the keen blade of their irony
asplendid thing.
Tonight, the only clues they offered
to arather witless audience were
guitarist Gary Marx's irrepressible
smirks. How the entire band managed
to keep astraight face while Andy
negotiated the higher registers of their
preposterous cover of "Jolene" willprobably have to go unexplained.
More easily assimilable for the bozo
in the street were such masterpieces as

Adam Sweeting

38 IHISTORY OF ROCK 1983-tTHE SISTERS OF MERCY

verification, available Sistersvinyl on their own Merciful
Release label: the fierce,teeth-clenching bobsleighruns of "Adrenochrome" and"Body Electric", therelentless "Alice".

Reading some of his lyrics
on paper, I
was surprised by
the formal attention to detailwhich has gone into them.
Generally the voice is used
as astrand in the groups's
overall sound.
"Our sound says alot
»mat guests
about me," Andy explained.
"People say things like,'What's your attitude tonuclearwar?' and I
say, 'Justlisten to the sound -what
the fuck do you think ourattitude to nuclear war is?'"The voice is much
more personal than the
instruments, so it's betterto mix it down, because
you're veryvulnerable.
Ithink with 'Anaconda' wemight include alyric sheet.
We'd never print the lyrics on
the sleeve, 'cos that would
spoil my artwork."
Andy does the Sisters'
artwork himself, andtypically it's cold and neat,
iced with sharp detail,using livid monochrome toindex the stark polarities
contained inside.
"Anaconda" is about the
hip games people playwith
heroin addiction, now worryingly back in vogue
at prices too many people can afford.
"There's far too many smack songs which areabit too callously irresponsible. Junkie chic is
notwhere it's at. We do 'Sister Ray' because it isjust an orgy of self-destruction everytime we doit. That's what it all about.
"All the lyrics are designed to be taken away
and used. It's not just purging myself. Icouldn't
go and perform it or make record of it if! didn't
think it was generally useful. Besides, the band
wouldn't let me, and why should they?"Is there anything you'd die for?
(Long pause) "I might die for someone. Not for mycause. Dyingwhen
you don't intend to is not my idea of an
intelligent act."
What would you be doing ifyou weren't in
The Sisters Of Mercy?
"I'd like to do all sorts of things-whether
anybody'd give me the chance is anotherthing. I
wouldn't mind beingyour regular
Renaissance Man, but who's gonna employ me
to do that? Not manyvacancies for them in the
Exchange &Mart."
How about you, Gary?
"Working Class Hero. It's true, that's what myname is, it's just sending it up. I'm just aborn
Working Class I
lero -deprived background,almost afootballer."
Andy: "You could say, 'Well look, four million
people can't be wrong and that's how many we've
sold,' and it wouldn't justify it. You could say,'Well, it stopped one person jumping off abridge,'
and that wouldn't justify it. Whatever justification
you had wouldn't prove the point; you can onlyoffer an opinion.
"That question not only asks 'What do you do?' but
also 'Do you regard it asworthwhile?', and obviously
one does or one wouldn't do it." Adam &meting •GUN CLUB

At the moment I'm fixatedby the suspended tormentof "Floorshow", aroaring
electric tarantella, thekill-or-cure dance of death.
It's hard rockwithout the
pomp (though Andy can
and will pose like agood 'un),heavy metal with keen
critical faculties.
What do you love
about rock?
Andy: "We like aloud noise,
we like agood tune. We likethe relentlessness of classicrock music-heavy metal."
What do the Sisters dothat's any more than aloudphysical noise?
"Well, our attitude towards
parody is designed to show
people how this loud noise isideally to be taken. You canfrighten people and amuse
them at the same time, andexcite them and inspirethem. Because that's what it
does to us, it does all those things."
Are you offeringyour audience some kind of faith?
"Yeah, Imean to us cynicism is very close linked tofaith or belief or holding something dear. It's the sortof cynicism that comes out of disappointment with
one's environment rather than despair of it, and that's
avery precious thing, its the only thing which separates
us from bozos."
Do you advocate self-destruction?
Andy: "Under certain circumstances, yes. Nietzsche
once said that aman's greatest power is the power todecide the time of his own death, and that seems perfectly reasonable.
I
wouldn't hold that suicide is necessarily asymptom of unsoundness ofmind, or being not in possession of all one's faculties."
Gary: "...which is one of the connotations of
the name of the group. It was picked because it
had several strong images, not just one.""The name's nice and ironic," saidAndy
with athin grin, "very corporate. Anice 50-50
balance between nuns and prostitution, which
seems like avery suitable metaphor for arockband. All this pseudo-faith business and highritual, and yet- prostitution."
And Merciful Release?
"Suitably pompous," chortled Gary.
"Vincent Price delivered the line very
well once," said Andy. "And it's anicely selfdeprecating way of releasing stuff. When you
make aMerciful Release it's like, 'Well, that's out—of the way, the agony is now over."

SISTERS
OF
ERCY

THURS
21ST.
APRIL

"Al 1thelyrics aredesigned to betaken away
and used"B

YANDY'S OWN admission, the Sisters are sti lI
embryonic, but plans have been laid for 1983.
Depending on trivial little factors like money,
they should have asingle called "Anaconda" out in
February, and an EP is also high on the agenda. An
LP is not envisaged before 1984. They're currently
entering a"slower and heavier" phase, which Andyfeels he has to work out of his system forthwith.

TI-IE SISTERS OF MERCYHISTORY OF ROCK 1983 I87

Eurythmies' Dave
Stewart and Annie
Lennox flaunt their"dumb nerve" inLondon, 983

MARC1113 —Pedantic normality
MM MAR 19

IAN DICKSON /GETTYSWEET SUCCESS IS made of this:Grace Jones' style, Ziggy's makeup, an
Ultravoxian name, Pink Floyd guitar,
The Specials' brass, aLou Reed cover, Hazel
O'Connor's mime, some Shakin' Stevens clapalong and apopular anthem nicked lock, stockand lyric from The Human League's "TheThings That Dreams Are Made Of".
More by accident than design -they don'tseem sharp enough to have deliberately
contrived the whole con -the painstakingly
proficient but exasperatingly likeable oldmusos who work as Eurythmics haveconnected with the public beyond thought
and fashion. They've plagiarised with such anhonest ignorance of hip etiquette that they're
immune from accusations of deceit, and one
doesn't know quite what to marvel at most the band's dumb nerve, or public gullibility.
Everyone loves an underdog andEurythmics are asynthesis so gauche, so
unsubtle that it makes you wonder what tookthem so long. Actually, it was probably us who
did some catching up -first we fell into buying
past hits rehashed, then videos which pulled
38 I-IISTORY OF ROCK 1983

the past up alongside the present
and confused any sense of visualcontemporaneity, and now we allow
Eurythmics to manufacture our future for us
from all our most obvious inherited images.
There's acliche somewhere that says
classic pop records all
sound alike you've heard
them before; Eurythmics
take the point to theprecipice -you have heard
all their stuff before. It'sno idle coincidence that
Lennox and Stewart
bowdlerised Dusty
Springfield in The Tourists(something every otheroutfit had more taste thanto do) before growing up and pretending togo underground.
They obviously learned one valuablelesson -that novelty has nothing to do withbeing new, but rather involves acomforting
semblance of freshness presented withpractised verve and based firmly in collective

nostalgia. It makes mesick -Eurythmics haven't
one original idea between
them, they never take risks andthey fit in so neatly. They're heroes forreasons hitherto unimagined; not because
they do great things that it wouldn't evencross our minds to do.
They work on alow denominator, or
afrigid joy, and their appeal is their pedantic
normality. How else would they pack the
Lyceum more full than I've ever seen it
before other than bystealing so much they now
know means something
to everyone?
Imean, what more proof
do you need that pop is
growing thin on top andcontented to pander to themoneyed, middle-aged"original" teenagers thanaTopio touring band in1983 comprising two
ex-Tourists, aBlockhead (Mickey Gallagher)
and aBlondie (Clem Burke) digitally
dissecting "Satellite Of Love"? They may
be showered in lights, but they offer noillumination -Eurythmics are apressing casefor compulsory career euthanasia. Sweet FA
is made of this. Steve Sutherland •Eurythmics haven't
one original idea
between them,never take risks
and fit in so neatlyCalcified
kookdom

Marc Almond:pouring out his
quirks, phobias
and obsessions

NME FEB12I

T'S ALREADY WELL known how thegreat Casting Director in the sky limited
women to afew suffocating roles in
American popular culture: the mother andthe whore, the hard-hearted and the hurt,
the soft-boiled and the soiled, the confessor
and the kook.
Given such alimited choice, the kook has
invariably served as the best disguise forthe most intelligent and fiery because, underthe beaten brim of atugged-down hat andinside shapeless raggedy clothes, they could
shelter all or none of these types.
But how quickly does kookdom calcify into
concrete personae under klieg lighting. List
all those lovable kooks who started off sostrong and unclassifiable only to end up so
dismally and dismissively stereotyped: LauraNyro, Laurie Anderson, Patti Smith, Joplin
and... Rickie Lee Jones?
Rickie Lee's entrance into kookdom
konkret is the saddest, partly because it's not
her own fault. That melting voice of her two
LPs is still intact, puzzling and negotiating its
way through the maze of hurts and hold-me'sof tenement roof affairs, which, if this movie
were any cornier, would end with abullet in
the back. Her group, blowing blowsy
soundtracks in place of the blues -that is, awhite, beery-eyed uptown bar version of thesame -are what destroys her live. Though
they still sound like they're auditioning forthat part in Altman's The Long Goodbye, theylook and behave like they want the support
spot to the Rolling Stones at Madison Square
Garden. No use closing your eyes either -youcan feel the ugly exertion. Where they ought
to suggest and nudge you towards Rickie Lee,they bludgeon you rudely, shoving you rightup against her.
Rickie Lee, correspondingly, has developedabrassier front to cope. That same hat istugged down over her eyes, the dress isclassier than expected, though notparticularly suited, and the voice... The voice
has melted into amilk'n'cookies yelp, anentirely inappropriate Peanuts caricature ofthe "I only wanted to be loved" confessor,
which is totally at odds with her scenarios.
There are few transcendentally quiet
moments, when an audience conditioned toshit itself at the leap of an octave, restrains
its enthusiasm long enough for
Rickie Lee to project yourimagination back into
the private sphere
HAMMERSMITH ODEON
where she has the—
LONDON —space to move.
In other words,
Rickie Lee Jones isbest heard and seenin the comfort of yourown dream. Chris Bohn

LIVE!
—

JANUARY 31 —./4
Resonant emotion

MM MAR 19

T

ONIGHT SOFT CELL are the finely
honed technicians of barely suppressed
hysteria, artful masters of split-second
suspense, the objects of amillion
anguished, unrequited dreams.
Flagrantly revelling in the waves oflongpent-up adulation that hits them in adeafening chorus as they descend thedimly lit stairs to the stage, they briefly
acknowledge the massed throngs of frontrow doe eyes who strain and scream for one
briefglance from their heroes. (I recall the
feeling well- the lump in the throat, theabsolute conviction that this was love! Those
were the days!)
And doesn't Marc thriveon it-giggling, mincing
and preening like amutant
Shirley Bassey on heat. No,
that's cruel, Marc's
everyone's darling, loved
because he's so accessible,
so chummy, so dear,sharing his secrets andexcitement ,pouring out
his quirks, phobias andobsessions for us to sympathise with andshare. Over the top in the grand tradition of
Bible Belt evangelical mass hypnosis, Marc's

applause for the celebratory anthem of"Youth" which marks the end of the first "act",
and gives me time to wobble off to the bar.
By now well stocked with Bacardis, thesecond stage adopts the distant features ofawild surreal movie, and gives me thecourage to wade through the hordes ofpimply adolescents, to the front.
Screaming and wavingwith the best ofthem, Ipress into the speakers to let thehaunting strains of "Torch" fold comfortably
around me and get deep inside the resonant
emotion that instils Marc's voice with apower and depth too frightening for one
small man.
And there he is,touching, letting himself
be fondled and cherishedby the writhing phantom
hands- not teasing
anymore, but almost
bashfully recognising
the welter of heartfelt
concern for this strangely
vulnerable figure.
Loath to leave us,
reluctant to end the joint expurgation ofpassion, he calls old friend Foetus to thestage. Foetus, acohort in worlds ofjaundiced
angles and things not being quite what they
seem, makes my night with agrazing,throaty cover of Su icide's "Ghost Rider".
The amassed teen element wouldn't know
Suicide from Bucks Fizz, but they appreciate
the superb interplay ofvoices- Marc loudand mellow, Foetus rasping, gravellyand
harsh-and it fills me with abursting
optimism for them.
There's hope yet! Helen Fitzgerald

Marc Almond lets
himself be fondled
and cherished by
the writhingphantom hands

the half-touched preacher man bearing his
tortured soul to the Hallelujah Chorus,
needing the rising hysteria to justify his
off-beat flirtations and self-flagellation.
Aquartet ofgyrating backing singers
and araunchy sax wail lift the spotlightfrom Dave Ball, who's desperately trying
to maintain his customary be-leathered
aloofness, but even old stone-face breaks
into involuntary grins to the rapturous

HISTORY OF ROCK 1983 I39

E
P.

MuddeWatersonstage
ForJaezAtTheMaltings
duringtheAldeburgh
Festive Suffolk,
October24,1968

The main inspiration

NME MAY 7

M

UDDY WATERS, THE godfather of the Chicago blues scene
and -along with Chuck Berry- the main inspiration of the
Rolling Stones (who took their name from one of his songs)
and all the white R&B bands who followed in their wake, diedthis week after aheart attack. He was 70.
Born McKinley Morganfield in Rolling Fork, Mississippi, on
April 4, 1913, Waters later joined the massive migration of rural
blacks to the great northern cities and settled in Chicago, where
his rumbustious, brooding electrification of Mississippi Delta
blues stylingvirtuallycreated the Chicago urban blues idiom.

sMV.111Mr

Ducking anddiving Malcolm
McLaren launches
own album"Magical instincts'
NME MAY 21.

M

ALCOLM MCLAREN HAS his debut
album Duck Rock released byCharisma on May 27, featuring
12 tracks inspired by musical culturesfrom around the world -places as diverPete Farndon:
bass player's
wifefound hi,,,dead in bath

"We're all really upset"
MM APR 23

T

HE PRETENDERS SUFFERED

asecond tragedy within ayear when
their former bass player Pete Farndon
was found dead from asuspected heroin
overdose at his London home last Thursday.
Less than ayear ago, Farndon was sacked
by the group on the same day their lead
guitarist, James Honeyman-Scott, died fromdrug-related causes.
Police from Notting Hill station rushed to
Farndon's home in Oxford Gardens, West
London, after an alert from Farndon's wife.
The couple had left home separately thatmorning and when she returned at around8pm, she found his body in the bath.
At the time of his death, Farndon, afounder
member of The Pretenders, was said tobe happy and optimistic about the band he
was in the process of forming with ex-Clashdrummer Topper Headon.
Recently, they had been rehearsing at
Hammersmith Studios with guitarist Henri
Padovani, former Blockheads keyboards

Aspokesman for Notting Hill police said
this week: "Peter Farndon was found in thebath, believed to have taken an overdose ofheroin. There will be an inquest, although we
don't have adate yet. We certified death bycalling our own doctor because the musician's
local doctor wasn't available. We believe noone had seen Peter Farndon all day."Neither Chrissie Hynde, who formed
The Pretenders with Farndon, nor
drummer Martin Chambers, now
the only surviving members of theoriginal lineup, was available forcomment at the time of going topress, but Mfrl did speak to thegroup's manager, Dave Hill.
"We're all really upset," he said."He
hadn't been with us form months, andI'd only seen him two or three times
since then, but we'd heard he was very
excited about his new band."Nick Pedgrift, solicitor for Farndon's
new group, said:"I can only confirm
rw found dead on

as Botswana, the Peruvian Andes, Cuba,
Tennessee and the South Bronx.
Charisma say the LP is distinctly nota
conventional collection ofsongs, but anattempt to get closer to the pop sensibility
by taking the listeners on an adventure toother cultures. And to complement thisaim, the album package contains danceroutines to follow, according to theappropriate track. All the material was
written by Mcl.aren and Trevor Horn, wit
the latter also producing.
As for the LP's title, McLaren issued astatement explaining (and the lack ofpunctuation is his): "A Duck Rocker is whmight be applied to someone who takes
their dancing seriously to the point ofreviving their magical instincts
customising their lifestyles that show
tradition never dies only the business do-if you see what he means.

"It's going
to be great"

Elvis Costello &The Attractions are
to play aseries of UK
dates next month,tied in with therelease of newmaterial by F-Beat
Records. Full details
are expected next
week, but it's
already known that
their London show
will be at theHammersmith
Palais on June 19.
Tickets are £5, plus
booking fee ifpurchased from anagency. NMEmay7

I

AN GILLAN HAS joined Black
Sabbath as their new lead singer.
The news was revealed last week atapress conference at Le Beat RouteClub in Soho, thus ending months of
speculation about the future of bothband and singer.
It was also revealed that original
drummer Bill Ward is rejoining theband, having spent the last two-and-ahalf years in semi-retirement following
musical and personal problems.
Gillan's move will no doubt be welcomed inheavymetal circles, but it's bound to cause
repercussions with his ex-colleagues from the
now-defunct band Gillan. That was split up a
few months ago, ostensibly because the singer
was reported to be suffering serious problems
with his voice. It was said then that he would
have to spend around ayear off the road andout of the recording studio.
However, at the press conference he told MM:"I'm feeling alot better nowthan Ihave for sometime. The only thing I'm concerned about isgetting back into action with Sabbath. We've
got an album to get down and we're finalisingplans for along American tour.
"It's going to be great working with Geezer
and Tony-they're old mates and so when theyfirst suggested that I
join the band, after Ronnie
Dio had left, Ididn't have anvsecond thoughts
at all. It was just aquestion of sorting out
various contractual things before being able toannounce that I
was going to join the band.""It has been
decided to end"
NME

T

HE BIRTHDAY PARTY have announced that they willdefinitely be breaking up in the near future. They are
currently in Australia, and will be returning to the UKvery shortly to finish recording an EP for Mute Records, after
which the group will split to pursue individual projects.
The group have issued their own statement which, insomewhat obscure terms, explains their decision: "In view of
events this year, it has become obvious that new challenges areneeded to sustain our creative vitality. Rather than continue
regardless of our better judgement (ie, for money or throughlack of daring)and diminishing the impact of our work to date, it
has been decided to end The Birthday Party. Individual plans
are not definite at this time, but we hope this decision will proveas productive as is its intent."

At odds

Man with power drill

MM

NME JUN 2F: Gig ditched as German "avowed
non-musician" Andrew UN Ruh is seriously ill.

K

EITH LEVENE, ONE of the founder
members of Public Image Limited,
has quit, reducing the group to two,
John Lydon and drummer Martin Atkins. PiL
will remain aworking unit, however. They're
nearing completion of their first album since
Flowers Of Romance, released two years ago.
The group have been playing concerts in
America recently and they're due to travel toJapan to fulfil live commitments there. It now
seems certain, however, that Levene will not
be on these date. Levene, Lydon and Atkins alllive in New York and sources
close to the group say that
Levene was increasingly atodds, musically and"corporately", with theothers and decided toleave before the next seriesof dates.

EINSTÜRZENDE NEUBAUTEN -THE leaders of Teutonic
noise -suffered asetback last Sunday eve when punterspulled up to London's Brixton Ace anticipating abill of So
Alone and The March Violets topped by the Bohn-endorsed
steel-bashers. They found the venue locked and anxious
spokesfolk hovering about to assure them that "money would
be refunded come Monday".
The reason for this abrupt cancellation occurred on Friday
whenAndrew UN Ruh (the band's most avowed non-musician)was rushed to hospital just before leaving Berlin. Andymemorable to London audiences as the man with moustacheand power drill-underwent emergencysurgery for aparticularly
unpleasant conditionwhich blocked his upper intestines,
preventing his body from dispersing its own waste.
Although UN Ruh is now recovering, the incident dealt anothersevere blow to the Neubauten plan for anAmerican assault; due
to depart the dayafter theirAce engagement, they had alreadyfallen prey to permit hassles.

COLLAPSING NEW DRUMMERS

Bruce Foxton,
clearly determined
not to be
overshadowed byhis ex-Jam
colleague Paul
Weller, is about tolaunch asolo careerof his own. NME
understands that
he is signing asolo
deal with Arista.
The label weren't
prepared to confirm
that officially thisweek, but it seems
the plan isfor
Foxton's debut
single to bereleased in thesummer, followedby an album later inthe year. NmEApr.50
The Residents,
the "anonymous"
American band with
acult following, arecoming to Britain
in June as part ofaEuropean tour.
Dates are expected
to include amajor
London show at
Hammersmith
Odeon. Despite thenovelty of their lackof identity, with themembers always
wearing masks,
their musical ability
has been widely
acclaimed. Part oftheir mystique isthat no one knows ifthey are well-known
musicians operating
under an alias -or
nonentities with agimmick. NMEMay7
Virgin Records
are releasing the
Sex Pistols single"Anarchy In The
Urnext week tocoincide with the
General Election.
mm,June 4
HISTORY OF ROCK 1983 I
43

DAVID CORIO /GETTY, CHRIS WALTER /GETTY

MM APR 16 iclb ifliáiljIiliS
u.hilateS " Black Sabbatl

illikka tie stje

MM 'Former gang member turned music pioneer
Afrika Bambaataa offers aguide round the Zulu Nation.

DAVID CORTO /GETTY (2). SILVER SCREEN COLLECTION /GETTY

I

recollections have the ring of authenticity.
fany DJ ever saved alife it was Afrika
They haven't been given the same outlandish
Bambaataa. The original turntable ace;
embellishment. His world seems altogether
founder of the self-styled Zulu Nation ;more real, and most importantly more human,
the man who took you to "Planet Rock" andthan the cartoon posturing favoured by funk's
then went "Looking For The Perfect Beat";musclebound young bloods.
Bambaataa is acornerstone"I was into the street gang scene back inof black street culture.
'69 through to '75," he says matter of factly.
ABronx hero, his emergence in the"But Igot out of it, and I
learnt from it. Istillcommunity dates back to the '60s, andassociate with some of those people now,"
through his various roles as gang leader,
he adds, "though things are more positive
disciple of roots culture, DJ and recordingthese days.
star, he's earned arespect that places him as"I used to be in the Black Spades -theakind of elder statesman of ghetto affairs.
largest black gang in New York City. There
People don't just listen to his records andwere divisions everywhere. My patch was thedance to his inspired cross-cut disco mixes,
south-east Bronx. It wasn't just about
they go for advice. Meeting him it's not hardfighting, though. We had chants and war cries
to see why. Agiant bear of aman, he ambles
which were taken from people like James
into the Tommy Boy offices and quietly issues
Brown and Sly Stone."his greetings in aslow, reassuring drawl that
Eventually the gangs died out, but kids
has the winning charisma of Muhammad Ali
came together again, this time as crews.
when he's humble.
"A crew is almost like agang," Bambaataa
Underlining the Ali connection (both are
explains, "but it's more neat, ya know? A crew
Muslims), Bambaataa homes in on the hard
has asymbol or the same sharp clothes -it'select ro-funk booming across the tinymuch more creative."basement crammed with desks and hi-fi gear,
As the Bronx crews turned to expressing
and starts moving his feet like they were
their collective identity through pop
walking an invisible conveyor. Treading air hereally does float like abutterfly, and though
1 mediums like dress style, graffiti anddancing, so Bambaataa moved further into
it's history now, he can sting like abee, too.
music, developing aunique backdrop for
While overblown characters like theabsurdly macho Prince Charles have madeI crew "performances".
Fed on ahealthy multicultural diet much mileage from their colourful
everything from early funk, to Caribbean andreminiscences of New York street life,
African music -by amother with the biggest
Bambaataa prefers to play down this part ofrecord collection on the block, he already had
his background.
ahead start over most DJs.
This reluctance to be seen as the archetypal
He got his first system together in '76.
pimp-hustler is refreshing at atime when
Billed as Afrika Bambaataa And His Zulu
every would-be punk funker is pushing his
Nation, he made his debut with atribute tostreet cred' persona down the throats of anJames Brown and Sly Stone. Since then theeager and easily awed white press. It's ironicalZulu Nation has gone from strength totoo, because you sense that Bambaataa's
44 I-IISTORY OF ROCK 1983

Afrika Bambaataa
performsat The Venue,
London, Nov 23,1982

strength, stretching right across the States.
Asymbol of black pride and dignity, thenotion of anew Zulu tribe was suggested notby aserious piece of roots literature, but a
Hollywood-style epic that made Michael
Caine astar.
"I thought Zulu was agreat movie,"
Bambaataa enthuses, "because for oncethe black man was portrayed as brave andsensitive. The Zulus fought like warriors,
but they also spared the British even though
they could have wiped them out.
"So I
decided to use the Zulu name in the
future. Once I
started as aDJ, I
formedadance group, The Zulu Kings And Queens.
And they became part of the whole Zulu
Nation, which really grew out of alot ofdifferent street gangs.
Then it started getting out of hand... somany people wanted to be involved. It spreadfrom one part of the Bronx to the next, thenManhattan, Queens, Brooklyn and upstate
New York. We even met some "Zulus" in
Cleveland, Ohio, when we toured there!"
Bambaataa sees the Zulu Nation as awayof elevating black consciousness and links
the phenomenon with the '60s radical
movement.
"See, we need to know who we are, where
we came from and where we are going. We
have to shape our own destiny. The black
Americans need this 'cos they've been blind,deaf and dumb for too long. I
guess it began
in the '60s. That's when we started to find
our culture.
"Then the '705 seemed to put everyone tosleep. People forgot what had happened andturned their backs on the problems. Whereas
in the '80s you see them reviving the '60s
again. Militant groups coming back again,
people marching in the streets. People

standing up and saying they don't want no
These wildly eclectic mixes weremore war! You have to believe in something
frequently laid down on what
that's gonna push you on!"amounted to demo discs to be played
Not surprisingly Afrika Bambaataa's
only at the clubs, so it was no big leap
for Bambaataa to go into the studio andfirst single was called "Zulu Nation", but it
was really "Planet Rock" that made him
come up with amass release. However,asteady feature in the dance charts on bothhe's quick to praise Baker's contribution
sides of the Atlantic.
and feels they work
Released on New York's
together well as ateam promising indie funk label,all 400 pounds of them!
Tommy Boy (throughThey've been accused
Polydor here), it broughtby some of simply turning
9
together the combinedout another line in boogie
talents of Bambaataa, synthmusic, but Bambaataa
wizard John Roble andfeels his lyrics have a
producer of the moment
universal appeal and
Arthur Baker.
agenuine message to
Its eerie blend ofcommunicate.
Kraftwerk electronics and—"Like the Koran, it helps
fierce, programmed funkommy
if you have atranslator torock represented achange
understand what the Soulin direction for Bambaataa.
Sonic Force means. 'Planet
Back in his old stomping
Rock' is saying it's time tore 8238
grounds, the Bronx River
Timm 389
chase your dream -let8881 13045 RPM
inaar time
Community Centre andour soul lead the way."
a* torM.« IneNeed Wm
It J Seemthe "T" Connection
And "The Perfect.gam abeetereeJeer.
Ileetneem
IN«
Discotheque, he alreadyBeat"?
INSTRUMENTAL
e %methhad areputation for"The beat could beplaying head-spinningdrugs, love, peace. All the/Unite bembeetets& themixes of all things funky,
SOUL SONIC FORCE
world is looking for that
PLANET ROCKbeat, but you could say that
but this was altogether
wee JCsaw Ser.
keuele besomething else.
Areflection of his move into the
P.INI
°re'
The Zulu Nation and Afrika
Bambaataa has found it."whiter new wave clubs in Manhattan"The Perfect Beat" as the firstsuch as The Peppermint Lounge, The Ritz andmetaphysical funk record? Whatever, it's
The Mud Club, "Planet Rock" embraced thepreferable, he says, to the ghetto cliches
cooler tones of European futurism and, just asthat have become the currency of thesignificantly, ahard-rock element; two strands
contemporary rap artists. Though he'sof influence that would subsequently makepleased to see outfits like Grandmaster Flasheven more impact on the new black music.
and The Furious Five enjoying commercial"I was the only DJ that would play rock withsuccess, he points to Gil Scott-Heron and The
funk," Bambaataa points out. "I would play
Last Poets as examples of more intelligent
slices from the Rolling Stones, Mountain,
black commentators.
Grand Funk Railroad and mix it up with all"When people think of the ghetto, theykind of things: rap, new wave, funk, sometimes
think of burned-out buildings, dirty streets
TV jingles!"and desperate people. You know, that's
such ajoke. Down in my area there's a
few bad places, but there's good ones
too ;housing development projects
Planet rocker:
and stuff. I
could show you places
Afrika Bambaataa
in London.1983
where white people are hanging out
with black and together they're
making all kinds of art.
"And movies like The Bronx
Warriors [recently released in theStates] don't help either. It just ain't all
gangs and vigilantes. I
tell you I
ain't
got no plans to move out of the Bronx Idon't care how much money I
make."
So, looking to the future, did hethink we'd all be around long enoughto find our perfect beat?
"Mmmm... that's hard to say. I
mean, is the Creator playing somekind of game here? The prophecies
say it will end, but I
don't know. Maybein the future they'll have wars overthe dimensions. Y'know I
am the kingof time! To me it's just one big ball ofconfusion. I
reckon the only way thewhole planet would pull together is
if somebody from outer space
threatened us. Then we really will
see star wars!" Ian Pye"We ne ed to know
who we arewhere we camefrom and where
we are going"
T

BoY

,

"-s

NME MAY 21

Books
ADance To The Music Of Time by
Anthony Powell
Agloomy book my mother has about
medieval medicine
Anything by JB Morton (Beachcomber)
Histories rather than fictions
The Pepys Diaries
Boy's Own annuals from the '50s

Records
Changes hourly
Mainly...
Teenage Kicks The Undertones
Live At The Counter Eurovision Misty
In Roots
Age Of Consent New Order
Zadok The Priest Handel

Faye places
Liverpool
NorwichBerlinArtists
Paul Klee

THE
UNDERTONE

Films
Anything with
Margaret
Rutherford inor Alastair Sim
Brief
Encounter
The Fatal
Glass Of Beer
Eraserhead
Gregory's GirlTEENAGEKICKS

Faye quotes"It ain't afit night out for man orbeast" WC Fields"A friend in power is afriend
lost" Henry Adams

esrit-)4

Faye drink
Primitive red wines

Least fave drink
Fennings' Fever Cure

ActorsGeorge CScott
Sebastian
Shaw

Actresses
Edith Massey

Faye monarch
George VI

Fave teams
The Champions
Meadowbank Thistle
HISTORY OF ROCK 1983 I4

Thai's not JULIAN COPE, though. PostTeardrop Explodes, he remains anenthusiast for great music —and a
waspish critic of his contemporaries. „.
"I really believe I
should slag Blancmange
off," he says, "because they h4,e noredeeming feat es."

"I

NME

AM WHITE, AND blond and male, and that's avery
safe position. That's why I've got no time for things
like Tears For Fears. You watch One Day In The Life Of
Ivan Denisovich and you realise your problems arevery petty, and very few."
He seems so much more philosophical when he's notwearing jodhpurs. The Teardrops-to adapt one of the more perennial
pop press headlines-finally Exploded for the last time towards the end oflast year, after an erratic but occasionally brilliant career. They left
behind two albums, Kilimanjaro and Wilder, and abrace of singles ofvarying quality.
And the rest was silence-apart from one exceptional blast of polemic,
which Cope wrote for our Christmas issue.
Phonogram have just released the last Teardrop record, an EP of
leftovers topped by "You Disappear From View". We can safely say it wasdone without the active encouragement of Cope, and leave it at that.
Julian has split from his long-time associates Bill Drummond andDave Balfe of Zoo -he's currently sharing management with Tears For
Fears, ironically enough. Balfe is looking after Scottish group
Strawberry Switchblade. But Gary Dwyer, drummer and stalwart
sidekick, remains with the singer, part of the line-up Cope is using as heembarks on anew solo career. Asolo John Peel session has already goneout, and adebut single, "Strasbourg", is due soon, to be followed by an
LP and some live work.
Despite his well-publicised loathing for much modern pop (you mightrecall some unseemly stories about him defacing aBlancmange record in
disgust) Julian Cope is still one of the biggest fans you'll ever find on thefar end of amicrophone.
During our talk, he throws admiring namechecks in the general direction of John Cale,
Television, MC5, Tim Buckley, Glenn Branca,
Honeybus' "I Can't Let Maggie Go", Captain
Beefheart, The Doors, Laughing Clowns, The
Beat, New Order (though not "Blue Monday"),
Manicured Noise and D.A.F. I've left those bitsout because what he has to say about Ian
McCulloch is probably funnier.
The earliest Cope I
ever knew was adiffident,
rather awkward frontman with aKen Barlow
haircut. The next Cope was afully-blown teenscream pin-up, occasionally pilloried for his
wide-eyed persona and Scott Walker fetish.
And the newest Julian Cope? Well, let'sfind out...

don't even see the need, either. There's no questioning anymore. It's allwatered down. It upset me because we were very much from that '77
thing. And clichéd as it is, Ireally believe in that, and that the music didn't
have to go the way that it did.
Everything's just 'nice' now. I've really slagged people off, and people
come up to me and say, "You've slagged so-and-so off, but he's areally
nice guy". Ha! The average person is a"really nice guy". lama really niceguy-but at the same time I'm not aboring dickhead!
The Blancmange stuff-why should I
slag them off? Well, Ireally believe
Ishould slag Blancmange off, because they have no redeeming features.
They offend me no end. I'm sure I've offended people, but I
don't believe
I've ever offended them like that.
One thing that Ithink put people offwas when you seemed so gushyln
your enthusiasms.
But I
find the only way for me to make apoint that I
want to make is tomake it like an expressionist version of that point....
Did you ever feelyou'd invented acharacter foryourself, taullan Cope'
In inverted commas?
Mm m, yes. That was another impromptu thing. Ithought I'd be sonatural, I
wouldn't think about anything and I'd saywhat was in myhead.
And that backfired on me. I'd do an interview and I'd miss out what I
didn't like for the next interview. Tommy Smothers, of the Smothers
Brothers, had agreat quote: You're on TVeveryweek, you watch yourself
on the playback, you iron out all the things you don't like, and in no time
you're an edited version of yourself.
There are times when I've been very unsure ofwhat I'm doing, and I've
thought, right, if I'm going to take it in any one direction, at least it's gonna
be powerful in that direction.
Imean, Bono-he's over the top in his
direction. Imean, I
think it's the crappest thing
in the world, but I
wouldn't knock the fact thatit's over the top in his own direction.
It's the one thing I've got against what the
Bunnymen are doing in away. They still set
great store by the fact that they're aware of U2
being crap. And once upon atime it was enoughto know that U2 are crap. But not anymore. Now
you've got to knowwhy they're crap.
I
was disappointed with the Bunnymen's new
album, because I
know that they really canwrite songs-unlike Orchestral Manoeuvres,
who are just crap. However much Mac and I
don't get on, Ireally believe he knows what's
good and what isn't. And to know, and still not
do it, is really bad...Things like ["My White Devil"
lyric] "The Duchess OfMalfl-a...", I
just couldn't
believe. I
was gonna have aT-shirt made with
"Malfia, Malfia, what for art thou Malfia?"
First time he said that, Ithought, oh. And thenhe repeats it, so Ithought, oh, so it's not someironic Liverpool way of saying it; he just doesn't
know. All someone needed to say was, Mac, it's
called The Duchess OfMalfi. It's bad. Literature isquite special; more special than pop music.

"I'm areally
nice guy, but at
the same time,
not aboring
dickhead!"

Teardrop's historywas littered with fallings out.
Areyou so hard to get along with?
It must be hard to feel you've got alot out ofworking
with me. Iknow Balfey found that alot. Often it was
myfault because my expectations were utterly
different to what the others were gonna put over.
Alllknewwhen we split up was that we reallyneeded to split up.

Sunshine Plasm
Jullers Cope

Did that feeling growon you, orwereyoustIllkeen
right up to the daybefore thetas«
It grew on me. We did Wilder and I'd written it all,and put so much into it. But by the next album,
Balfey felt that because he could write songs that heshould be allowed to. And I
couldn't really argue
with that, because of course it's reasonable, and he has got that ability.
But as asongwriter, I'm notvery good anymore at writing songs for otherpeople's music. They've become far more narrative and wordy.
I
tried to make the end of the Teardrops as clean and simple as possible.
It's pretty good, we haven't lingered around too long. And Wilderis the lastalbum, which is good.
Iwas surprised by the note of embittered idealism you struck in your
NMEXmas article- about the decayof punk and the rise of theWhat literature is most special to you?
Ilove metaphysical poetry. Andrew Marvell, John
Donne.And I
love T.S.Eliot. I
think I
love stuff that
isn't solely based in reality. There's like atwilightzone between reality and pure strangeness.
Iwent through aperiod of being pissed offwhen people said my lyrics
didn't mean anything any more. My lyrics always mean something.
Iwouldn't be so callous as to write alyric that didn't mean anything.
Just because it's pop music, doesn't mean you shouldn't take alittle
more time over it...
Inever wanted to put lyrics inwith our records, and Pete Wylie said
agood thing-one of t
he few things Pete Wylie ever said that was good namely, before Kilimanjaro came out I
was asking him, "D'you thinkit's
pretentious putting alyric sheet in?"

Pre-explosion:Copewithalatter-day
lineupofThe Teardrop
Explodes,USA,1982

Ialways loved doing B-sides, as well. I
like the fact that our biggest
single, "Reward", had "Strange House In The Snow" on the B-side, 'cos
you couldn't be prepared for that. It's areally repulsive song. Gary said
how the scallies used to put it on in pubs in places like Norris Green (anun-chic Liverpool suburb) and the old men'd be freaking out cos it's
so disgusting!
Do you listen towhat other people are doingnowadays? Imean from themainstream of pop music?
Imake an effort. But Idon't find it fascinating... I
mean, it even seems cool
to sell out nowadays, doesn't it?
Yes, ifyou can present it as aclever commercial strategy, saying, 'Well,
Iwas sittinground in Rough Trade two years ago and Ithought sod it,
let's go infiltrate Top OfThe Pops' -present it as agrand scheme.
The most annoying thing, Ifound, were those apostrophes around'Sweetest' in "The 'Sweetest' Girl" (by Scritti Politti). That's such acleverclever thing, that's one of the biggest cop-outs I've ever seen. Icouldn't
believe that.
Ithink he was sort of playing off one audience against the other, having
his cake and eating it.
Yeah, that was too smug, wasn't it? Ithink things should be laid quite bare.
That's why' still like "When IDream". I'm not singing "When Idream, I
dream aboutyou" with awrysmile on myface. I'm reallysinging it!
Wereyou at all calculating aboutyour image, visually?
No, I'll tell you the story of that. Bill [Drummond) and Dave (Balk] said
to me, "We'll have to dosomething about the way
you look, because Mac isgoing to be massive". They
always said this. I
just had
my hair abit short, and wasabit spaz- probably stillam, but I
was overt spaz at
the time. Iused to try
moving on stage, but it was
really crap.
Then Iwas in this tiny

town in South Wales where Iwas born, and 1was trying on these pantsin the Army 8,/ Navy shop, and in the stock room where you changed they
had all these old leather pants for 15 quid, so 1got some. Then Igot a
flying jacket in Liverpool, and immediately Ihad this outfit that nobody
had ever had! Bizarre!
And Iremember walking down Princes Road, past this girl with her
friend and she went, "Kecks on 'im..." -and I
thought, well, this is quite
weird actually. And Istarted growing my hair and dying it.
And it was so far out of the picture at that time, the idea of me making it
as aface, that Ihadn't even thought about it. Inever used to get comeons from anybody, never got girls looking at me onstage. And suddenly
it all happened. And Igot well into it-the total surprise of it. And Alan
Gill had been in the group, so my m ind was alittle distorted at the time.
It was avery joyous period. And Iwas really pleased cos Icould piss
Mac off as well, cos Mac was all ready to be this massive star. And it's
taken him 'til now!
So you've been through the pop idol bit now, and enjoyed it. Did you
learn anything from it?
I've learned that it was OK, and it was interesting, but !didn't need it. Verysoon after, "Colours FlyAway" as asingle didn't really do anything. And!thought, "Oh, that's it, it's all finished." And though this sounds likebravado, there was areal sense of relief. Ithought, I
can start getting onwith things again now. It was quite nice.
Ialways knew that the 14-year-old girls would move on at somepoint -very rapidly, as it happened-and it took the pressure off.
'Cos I'm quite aslob, really. There is that dickhead factor still there.
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1983

"The
grándfatherof new wave"
Its precisely what DAVIDBOWIE doesn't want to be.
Not presently interested
in experimentation, he has
made amore traditional
lbum, Let's Dance. He's
also —at 36 —more
mindful of his status asarole model. "It'sinteresting to look at
someone really fucked up
writing music," he says,"but it's not very helpful."I

50 1H TORY OF ROCK 1983

-NL APRIL16I: The Missing Years
DavidBowie'snewfilm, The Hunger, opensnotwith
thefocusfixedfirmlyonthestarbutwithacameo
sequenceofBauhausliveinHeaven.

T

HE SONG, ARCHLY enough, is"Bela Lugosi's Dead". The striking
face is Peter Murphy's. The
gestures are all David Bowie's.
Adecade's tics, contortions andconceits, culminating prematurely
with Thomas Newton's gun-toting passage fromThe Man Who Fell To Earth, are summarised in amatter of minutes. It's quite aperformance but,alas, we don't get to hear how David Bowie feels
about seeing his past flash before his eyes. His
attention is elsewhere.
,•
Playing John, a200-year-old English gentle
companion to ageless vampire Catherine
Deneuve, he's casing the heavenly audience, notthe group, for asuitable victim, ablood sacrifice
to his eternal bloom.
Though this is fiction, the opening might havebeen wittilycomposed with its star in mind.
David Bowie coming face to face with afragment of his legacy and looking right past
it at someone else. Or, alternatively, thevampirical Bowie prowling the clubs insearch of new talent, new ideas to playoff
against his own.
Bowie has always been the first to admit the
bloodflow has never been oneway. As is only »4Electricblue:David
Bowieonthe globestraddlingSerious
HoonlightTour,1983

proper in such an interdependent relationship, he has aright to take backwhat he has put in, even if this means withdrawing what amounts to his
original deposit. But where can he look these days without seeing Ziggy's
children mutated into resplendent or garish beings?
For every Bowie phase there is amovement in its wake. As he once
quipped, he has launched whole schools of pretension singlehandedly.
Even in his absence, then, David Bowie is somehow present.
It's been along strange trip from Scary
Monsters to Let's Dance, lasting two movies andthree years, plugged by three bizarre single
collaborations.
There was Bowie and Brecht on the excellent
five song BaalEP, featuring Bowie having aball
whooping through young Brecht at his
lebenslustful best. "Baal can spot the vultures inthe stormy sky/As they wait up there to see ifBaal
will dielSometimes Baal pretends he dead, thevultures swooplBaal in silence dines on vulture
soup!"; Bowie and Moroder on "Cat People", theoverblown melodrama that makes perfectsense when heard over the closing credits of thefilm, being both adescription and sensualsuggestion of Cat People's barely contained
sexuality; and finally, the oddest of them all. Bowie and Queen on"Under Pressure".
"Yes Ifound that quite odd," smiles Bowie. "I'm not quite sure how Igot
involved in that really. They turned up in Montreux, which is not far from
where Ilive in Switzerland. Needless to say, when groups come to record,
they find out where I
live.., so this is howl tend to see alot of bands, ha ha,under the influence of Switzerland.
"Sol just went down to the studio and we just started one of thoseinevitable jams, which lead to askeleton of asong. Ithought it was quite
anice tune, so we finished it off. It sort of half came off, but Ithink it could
have been alot better. It was arush thing, one of those things that took
place over 24 hours. I
think it stands up better as ademo."
Once the shock of Bowie working with Queen passes, it stands up
surprisinglywell, and Bowie's words -"They were not afinished lyric," heinsists, "it was done so quickly that some of it makes me cringe abit, but
the idea I
like"- are consistent with both the sentiments of Scary Monsters
and the positive Bowie to come-his new LP, Let's Dance.

"When I
saw David Bowie act in ElephantMan in NewYork I
knew
immediately that this was the perfect actor to play Celliers. He had animmense passion, something that superseded reason. If the character
Celliers had only his Western rationalism to counter Hara and Yonoi (histwo Japanese protagonists) he would have been destroyed very rapidly.
"But it is Celliers' spirituality, his personal nobility, his inner peace andindestructible charisma that the Japanese captors cannot come to terms
with. David Bowie has all these qualities."
After the BBC production of Baal, this ought
to be the first acting role to really test Bowie.
Unlike the alien of The Man Who Fell To Earth,the 200-year-old man of The Hungerand thehideously deformed Elephant Man, Celliers
has no "emotional limp" for Bowie to hidebehind. Maybe something of the character has
rubbed off, for Bowie's new positivism, as
testified by the clear-blue narrative of Let'sDance and his recent spate of publicappearances, suggests that he has dispensed
with the need for masks... "and it is necessary
onlyfor aman to askfor his seed to be chosen andto prayfor the sower within to sow it through thedeed and act ofhimself, and then the harvest will
be golden and great." (From The Seed And The Sower, by Laurens Van Der
Post, on which Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence is based.)
The David Bowie sitting opposite is charming and chatty; far morerelaxed than his TV self, smiling and laughing frequently to relieve thetension. Suffering terribly from nerves, however, Imiss his first tensionrelieving joke: "You're part Swiss? Which part? Ha ha."Now aged 36, he has never looked healthier. His sunbleached hair isanatural straw colour, his face tanned an ochre brown byhis recent
working sojourns in Australia and the South Seas. He is spritelydressedin an olive-green khaki blouse that emphasises his boyishness.
Within the confines of a50-minute interviewwith acomplete stranger
he is extraordinarily forthcoming about his work, revising opi nions of his
past in light of his present attitudes. Quite naturally, he only lets slip somuch of himself as is relevant to what he is doing. Dare we expect morefrom our public figures?

"I think I'mjust alittle
tired ofexperimenting
now"

D

ESPITE THE PERSISTENT line about Bowie's inconsistency,
he has always been remarkably constant in those matters hecares most about. His concern for the young dates right back to
Ziggy Stardust, when he was first alerted to the awesome responsibility
that goes with mass popularity. His"inconsistent" taking and sheddingof masks, his cultural leaps, are all
Bowie playing
vampire John
ways of keeping that responsibility
Blaylock infresh and his audience on their toes.
The Hunger
Imean, can't aman change his
mind without being hauled over hotcoals for doing so?
If rock critics have generally been
loath to acknowledge his integrity,
preferring instead to see only thechameleon figure intent onprotecting his privacy from public
scrutiny, the Japanese director
Nagisa Oshima chose Bowie to play
the godlike prisoner of war Jack
Celliers in his upcoming film Merry
Christmas Mr Lawrence precisely
because he saw in him such aquality.
"People ask me why Icast actors
from the world of rock," remarks
Oshima in the film's publicity notes.
"It is because they are sensitive towhat people want now; they are
performers; their antennas arescrewed on tight and they don't mind
getting right in there and having ago
at the truth.

II: The interview
BOWIE: I'm talking more in generalisations because Ithink they
probably serve abetter purpose than honing down to one direct point. It'seasier to make astronger statement with ageneralisation, to make such astrong impression with apopular song lyric.
NME: The strongest impression left
byyour press conference was yourconcern about theworthwhile natureof popular music.
For me, personally, my business is mybusiness and it just strikes me... er, I
don't really have the urge to continue
as asongwriter and aperformer interms of experimentation -at thismoment. Ifeel that at the moment I'mof an age-and age has an awful lot to
do with it-I'm just starting to enjoy
growing up. I'm enjoying being myage, 36, and what comes with it interms of the body. It actually physicallychanges. Mentally and emotionally
there are big changes, 'specially if you
have been thrust in the front of
popular and mass observation.
If you've been observed, as Ihave forthe last 12 years, well, you have tocontend with that one way or another.
You either care about it, or you don't
any more. You think, well, as Ihave
this platform, there's something I
cando with it.
And frankly Idon't think I
wouldwant to continue performing anymore if Ididn't think Icould dosomething hopeful and helpful withmy music, both for myself and myaudience.
How do you define music that is
hopeful and helpfu l? What evidence
we have from you at the moment is acelebratorydance record as opposed
to something that points anywhere.
Yes. Ithink it will have alot to do with(adoptinga mock preachy tone)
people shouldn't fight each other.
People shouldn't kill each other andpeople should try to live together.
Isn't that alittle simplistic?
Yes, it is simple.
Your positivism seems to parallelthat of lack Celliers, the character
you play in Nagisa Oshima's Merry
Christmas Mr Lawrence, leadingby action and deed.
Instead of intimating change, try and do something about it.
You identified prettycloselywith the character, then?
Yeah, Ithink! immediately identified with him because ofhis own
personal turmoils, his and mine stemmingfrom different sources. With
Celliers, he's ridden with guilt most of his life because of his relationshipwith his youngerbrother, which caused him to embrace that particularwartime situation, and gave him that kind of particular strength. That ispointed up alot more in Oshima's screenplay than it probably is in the book.
And for me, personally, I
guess it's the idea of through all myexperimentations I
have learned alot; and there must be something Ican
do with it on avery simplistic level now. I
don't have the urge to playaround with musical ideas. At the moment. Any more.
The present loss of urge to experiment... Is that an indictment of
the Lowl Heroesl Lodgerperiod? Can't humanityand technology
sit together?
It's just another way of using my songs.1 think I'm just alittle tired ofexperimentation now. But electronics are rewarding in terms of playing
around with atmosphere and trying to reach different parts of the mind,
funny corners of the mind...
But there is aproliferation of synthetic instruments being used in thatkind of, er, "Me generation", icy-cold vein.
It's such awide sweeping statement that at the moment Ifeel it's very hard
to use those instruments without akind of preconditioning alreadythere. That if you use the synthesizer it means this particular thing; that
I'm part of this angular society.
So that's why I've used avery organic, basic instrumentation on thisnew album. Such instrumentation doesn't say anything other than itcomes from ahybrid of white and black culture. That is the only
underlying subtext it has really...
As Isay, experimentation can be rewarding for finding awkward
stances musically. But it just isn't satisfying after awhile. And it's notsatisfying because it's not very useful, except- as Brian Eno would sayfor setting up anew kind of vocabulary. Now I've got thevocabulary, I'm
supposed to do something with it! Ha ha.
On the other hand, the subliminal aspect of electronics allows one tospeak more through the music than does rock'n'roll, where thevocabulary is so well-known it has lost its efficacy.
That's the premise, surely, yeah. It does speak in those terms, but Ithinkalso to reach alarge audience, they're not willing to listen to the music,
or play the records, if they're couched in terms they're not reallyfamiliar wit h.
Imean, they're not going to sit and listen to that kind of music and accept
it. It's likeAmerican television; the record-buying public ofAmerica is still
very much in the television format mentallyand it is impossible forthem tolisten to something that doesn't make its point in the first 30 or40 seconds.
And I'm starting to subscribe to that at the moment.

Bowie with Merry
Christmas Mr

Lawrence director
Nagisa Oshima at

Cannes, Mayle83

Previouslyyou've said you're not worried about your experiments
losing your old audience, that you were content to pick up new
audiences as you go along.
Hmm.
Are you effectlngareconcil iation with your old audience?
Idon't think so. Ithink the music I'm writing at the moment is probably
going to reach anewer audience for me. But if Iam going to reach anew
audience, then I'm going to try and reach it with something to say, which
is on avery obvious and simplistic level. I
don't want to be the grandfatherof newwave by any means... that's quite an easy one for me to slip into.
I
think I'll come on as the simple country boy, ha ha, and go completely
against that.
Laurie Anderson said she wanted to balance the tendency towards
horror imagery with imagery nice, humanistic and warm. But the
problem is making such imagery equally as compelling as horror.
Areyou presentlybeing confronted with asimilar problem?
That particular balance has had not asmallpart in alot of the material
I've written, but I
think! understand what she's saying. Idon't know
enough of herwork, but it's certainly the case in "0 Superman". That's
avery delicate balance, amarvellous piece of work. Did you see her inconcert? Ithought she was dynamic, reallywas impressed.
For me, I'm writing something that I've never really touched before,
which is aone-to-one situation. Imean an emotional situation between
two people... Such asituation seems to take up at least five tracks on thealbum. The love situation, the emotional situation between two people,
seems to have escaped me-or I've avoided it is probably nearer the truthsince Istarted writing. Usually, it's been the man in isolation and all that.
Whether I'm becom ing either, one, comfortable or, two, complacentwith myself-I dunno which it is-but it is something Ican feel I
can now
get involved with as awriter.
Isuppose the obvious questionto that Is: is it aresponse to yourpersonal situation?
Very much so. Are you married? So you don't have children? I
would never
have thought it possible, but for me the one most enjoyable and hopegiving quality of my life over the past four or five years is my son.
When the son gets to the age of nine, 10, 11 and 12 and starts asking
those really inquisitive, curious and unanswerable questions, well, my
response has been to consider how important life is, and how important
it is for him.
And as it became more important for him through me I
found it became
more important for me as well; and our future collectively started taking
precedence over everything else. It's amazingwhat ason or adaughter
does for achap. Ha ha ha.
That's had avery positive and strong bearing on whatever I
intend to doin the future. I
feel Ihave to make acommitment to something morealtruistic to that which I've been concerned with before.
If that sounds like aturnaround, then it's aturnaround, and it has to be
and I
would have to face that charge. But Idon't think it will quell my »HISTORY OF ROCK 1983 153

natural inclination to want to experiment with music, though Ithink it
will modify it greatly.

VIRGINIA TURBETT/ GETTY

Insofar as you wouldn't want anything you do to upset your son?
It would make me reflect on anything that would produce the kind of
nihilistic qualitywhich was so much part of my early music. Hopefully
Iwas falling out of that anyway. That period had alot to do with myproblems as ahuman being. To produce that kind of music, though it's
interesting to look at someone really fucked up writing music, it's notvery helpful.
Because it provides too much of arole model?
Exactly, yes, and I
would like to play down all that stuff abit and makethe subject matter, give that more relevance. It's such acomplicated,confused time, and my only reaction to that would be to make the subject
matter very simple.
The very simple problem is that we're on aterrifyingvoyage and theeffects that have been brought about by those causes are really quitetransparent and obvious: the need to belong to small tribal units when
there seems to be too many other people about; the mistrust of somebody
who is not from one's own origins. Those kinds of things are so obviousthat Iguess maybe it's quite agood idea to write about them in avery
obvious way. And I
want to utilise videos to the same extent.
It's easy enough to glamorise apop song. I've done that often enough inthe past!You know, give it asurreal quality and akind of detached...
That fine ifyou've got time to watch promos at that level, but thesevideos reach too many people and, anyway, there's too many of thosekinds of videos. Video has become apart of the packaging.

54 IFISTORY OF ROCK 1983

So it occurs to me that it would be avery good idea to utilise those four
minutes of space and try to make them say something simple and as
hard-hitting and as hard-selling as acommercial, but in terms of humanquality and human life as opposed to, this is the kind of outfit, this theway you wear it and this is the kind of cool you have to have to be able tocarry it off. As you said before, the whole idea of the role model.
So it's amatter of playing invisible man, moving behind thecamera,
projecting normality?
Yes!Aside from the fact this is amarvellous chance for me to practise
being adirector- one can't get away from that!- it's also achance toincorporate people other than myself as the fronts for the promos. I've
had enough of that side; and it's much more fun to use actors, or evennon-actors, if I'm going to deal with that kind of subject matter...
WhyAustralia for the "Let's Dance" promo?
Because it's such anew country, yet it's already got such awellestablished, progressive and technological aspect to its society. And
because the indigenous peoples of that country have well and trulybeen
put on the outside faster than in any other nation in the world.
It's reallyso polarised to the extent that it can be related to South Africaquite easily. Not so much in New South Wales, but in Queensland it might
as well be South Africa. Aborigines have to buy their drinks in the backs ofbars- they're forced to use what is called the dog hatch in the back of thebar. Then they mustn't drink them on the same side of the street, theymust go over to the other side and drink them on the grass verge.
The whole thing is ruled like that. There's absolutely no way they takepart in modern society. Their education programmes are almost

DAVID BOWIE

July1,1983:thefirstof three huge openairshows at Milton
Keynes Bowl

Did you chooseAustraliabecause it might have been too
inflammatoryto film asimilar situation in Britain?
No. If it was done in England it would have been too much about
the English situation. The other aspect I
liked about doing it inAustralia was that Ifound it intriguing to look at. Iliked theslightly surreal quality ofAustralia itself. I
purposely left out
kangaroos, wallabies and boomerangs and all that. There's
nothing strictly aboriginal. The city doesn't shriek Sydney.
They are just obviously some indigenous people in somemodern country. So it becomes an international situation.
People are not used to seeingAustralia on ageneral basis.
In ablack-and-white situation they are more used to seeing thestreets of London or New York. So already it's asituation they'reaware of, and then theydon't take quite so much notice of it.
They go, "Oh yeah, black-and-white situation, NewYork, fine,Iknow about that."
What's the next video?
But shooting the same situation in adifferent place, it doesn'tlook the same as anythingyou've seen before forthat situation: modern black people in amodern
white society. It's not quite anywhere you
recognise, so it points up the situation more, so it
could apply to any country-South America,
South Africa, England, America-without
identifying those obvious targets. It's goingback
to that old thing about juxtaposition.

non-existent. Since the beginningthey've been put in aghetto situation.
It's veryhard for them to fight backat the moment.
Also they're very wary-and quite rightly so -of being seen as the lastof the prehistoric tribes. They've done that bit, dressed up in warpaint,
spear and whatever for cameramen and it's kind of backfired on them.
It hasn't defined their culture as being incredibly interesting andimportant; in their eyes it has just made them specimens.
People want to see the aborigines only in that context (aloptingtouristy
toneofastonishment): "Aah, they're great the aborigines!They still eat
witchetty grubs!" That kind of thing.
And the boy and girl in "Let's Dance", Terry and Jolene, they've neverseen awitchetty grub in their lives. They have noneed to see one and they don't want to be
portrayed like that. What Ivery much wanted to
do was to portray them as modern people notbeing allowed to take part in modern society.
But Ifound out with the promo you have to do
everything in four minutes. So, obviously, you
quickly get into stereotypes.
Whatever, Terry and Jolene were great,absolutely marvellous. They've had noexperience in film, but they knew exactly howto
respond to the situation we talked about, so they
weren't at all worried when I
said, "Jolene, I
wantyou to scrub the streets of Sydney!" Ha ha. She
said, "Fine, yes, yes, that's how I
feel!"

You'rewilling to tackle such adifficult subject
visually, so people haven't got words they can
immediately turn into slogans, thereby
damaging the "message"?
Exactly, yeah. That's another thing. Aslogan
can kill acause far quicker than anything else,
because it's so easy to package it. Once you put
abox around anything it's over.
I'm trying to keep things simple withoutsloganising. It's easy to say "Give Peace A
Chance", but once said it's wrapped up in suchan insular little ball, it only applies to certain
people. To keep it free of that, Iguess it's down
to pure statement.
It's very hard to attempt such athing and I'mhaving alot of trouble. There's only acouple ofthings on the album that have the right feeling,
but that is definitely adirection that intrigues me
more and more.
Is it easier to deal with those complexities
through the medium of film than it iswithin asong?
That is the problem I'm having, dealing with it in song format. Sometimes
you can end up sounding neo -Dylan or something, and that is alreadystylish and part of aparticular cliquey kind of songwriting. I'm not very
good at it yet. I'm still working on the one-to-one relationship, and fromwithin that situation trying to create an overall humanist feeling.
It is hard. Ithink Jim- Iggy Pop's much better at it than me. If he could be
manoeuvred into that kind of situation he could produce some stunningsocial observations. I'd like to cover more of Jim's songs, because I
still haveapenchant for exposingtalents that I
think arevalid and important. Jim's songs are so good, his
lyrics so fine, he really is awonderfulAmerican
poet. He's absolutely great!
So it's great to be able to take advantage ofwhat Ican do and include some of his songs.

"I'm trying tokeep things
simplewithout
sloganising""China Girl" (by Pop and Bowie) is anothertrack on the album. That's acommitted pieceof writing. Whereas, for instance, the subject
matter of"Let's Dance" is nebulous. There isan undercurrent of commitment, but it's notquite so straightforward...
It's aone-to-one thing, yes, but the danger, theterrifying conclusion, is only intimated in the »HISTORY OF ROCK 1983 185

1983
4PRft -

piece. It is not apparent what exactly the fear is that they're running from.
There's an ominous quality about it, quite definitely. That was the dancesong that has all the trappings of old disco music, but it's almost like thelast dance.
The last dance?Aren't we in danger of comingback to the apocalypse?
We are indeed (laughs). That's what we are in danger of doing, indeed,
yes. Well, in terms of writing I've got abackground to shake off which isvery hard to get out of, because I
find it very easy to... (mimes striking
keyboards) weurgh! Ha ha, Ifind it very easy to hit the right chords andbring it all about... whoargh, that's great, that's really horrible! Ha ha.
And it's difficult for me to sort of say let's turn the corner here and make it
go somewhere else. It's anatural entrapment of my own that I
have to becareful afin future.
How doyou feel aboutyour legacy of songs in light of your present
positive attitudes? Canyou still sing them?
Oh, quite easily, yes. No problem at all. I've started listening to alot of myold stuff, gone back to find out what I
was writing then and why. Iguessthey kind of stand up in their own place intime. Not many of them carrythrough; Idon't think of them like "that's agreat old chestnut, sounding
good year after year", but they're all interesting.
It's apersonal bias, but with every song I've written Iidentify so muchwith the time and place it was written in. It's hard for me to shake off theparticular year or particular trauma I
was going through at the time.
It's much easier for the audience to do that. There's the Duchamp thing
about the point where the artist really has nothing more to do with thiswork. Ican only see mine in terms of, yeah, November 1975, and go,"Phew" (mimes shuddering). Ha ha.
But for me to be able to carryon interpreting them, it's enough that Ifindthem all very strong pieces of writing.
Doyou ever get the urge to followDuchamp into silence?
Frequently, yeah. It occurred to me over the past couple ofyears that
if Iwas going to continue writing it has to be something Ican do withconviction. Ican't just play about at it, pretend that I'm enjoying it, sortof continuing acareer, something like that. If I
was going to continue,
then why? Well, I
wanted to continue, because I
wanted to do something
positive with it and that's the only way I'll beable to continue today.
The recurring statement through your'70s
Interviews was about trying to shake off that
middle-class ball and chain.
I'm lumbered with that problem. Imean I'll
have it for the rest of my life. Ha ha.
Succumbing to it?
Ithink so, yeah. Ithink I've accepted thatsituation. There's no way Ican make myself
other than what lam (Bowie pauses and bursu
out laughing). Now that's afunny thing for me tosay, isn't it? (Laughter) What aludicrous thing tosay, David! But it is somewhere in there,
yes. One faces up to all these things.
I'm armed with all these things, myproblems with my own background,
my own personal problems orwhatever. I'm not so detached frommyself anymore. Ifeel in touch (mimes
peace sign, laughing). Hey, I
feel intouch with myself!
Iguess you can think of every clichein the book and that's probably how
Ifeel. Then again, acliche probably
develops life because it comes from
apoint of truth.
Howdo you thinkyour 17-year-old self
would feel if he were confronted withyour present 36-year-old self?
My 17-year-old self would think, er,
especially regarding the drift to where

50 IHSTORY OF ROCK 1983

I'm presumably going, that self would probably think, "Ah, what awasteof how to be exciting or radical," orwhatever. Iknow my 17-year-old self
would think, "Aw, what awaste, ha ha ha. It's going to be really boring!"
Ha ha. And I'd say, "You wait till you're 36!" Ha ha. You won't think it'squite so exciting just working in dark areas, ha ha.
Last year Lou Reed said he was quite prepared to write rock'n'rollsongs for adults. On Scary Monsters you seemed to be addressing
the young still.
Did it really feel like that? That's interesting. You could probably answer
that better yourself, but I
would imagine it seemed like that because theinstrumentation, the actual effects of the instruments and quality of
production... well, theywere incorporating all the sounds that areradically part of the youth-culture music. The epitome of the newwave sound at the time, from bubbling synthesizers to erratic andunconventional guitar playing, it had all those elements that are bydefinition the youngway of playing music.
Songs like "BecauseYou're Young" and "Teenage Wildlife" reminded
me of the Hagakure [Samurai ethics] author Jocho's dangerous advice
for the young: Human lifelasts but an instant. One should spend it
doing what one pleases.
Well, that would apply to Oshima as well as Mishima [who popularised
the code with his modern commentaries in On Hagakurel. The funny
thing was that before Mishima died, he and Oshima did an interviewon
television, separately, but as representatives of the radical right and left,
respectively. Oshima was furious with the thing afterwards, because
they agreed on just about everything! He said he was completely flooredby that and it was one of the reasons why he started to modifyhis own
political ideas, because he felt that kind of polarity just produced thesame end result.
He was very concerned about that, because he didn't like being thesame as Mishima at all! There again, Iqualify that by saying that theJapanese left and right are quite different from Western ideas of left andright, where it is estranged left and estranged right. In Japan both would
have probably have roots in the same source, more than they might haveover here. They both say, "Let's stay Japanese." And when you've got thatyou're almost cancelling out everything else!

"I've started
listening to
my old songs.
Xot many
carry through"Then it just becomes amatter ofhowyou
do inYeah, they do have that problem, the Japanese.
(Smiles) Oshima, of course, was very much partof that unrest in the '60s...
Oshima is primarily concerned with
exploring Japanese morality and the way it
hides itself, the real position of it. The etiquetteagainst the real life of the Japanese is very
important to him, the closest repressedthing they have about them, where there's
aturmoil of emotional conflict going on
hidden by this veneer of the perfect style, theperfect life, which is such afront. Which I
suppose, as an Englishman, is theperfect thing for me to write about.
Ha ha. Actually, his process ofworking is more interesting to me
than the subject matter.
There might have been pressure
on Oshima to moderate his views
because he just couldn't work any
more. There were five years when he
was almost completely ostracisedfrom the film community after In The
Realm Of The Senses. They really came
down on him like aton of bricks afterthat movie.
Idunno, this one's going to upset theapple cart again as far as Japan isconcerned, so it might be another five
years before he makes another one!
(Laughs) But he will say these things
about his own people! Ha ha.

But you avoid saying the like about yourown people? That's interesting- jumping
from culture to culture might beinterpreted as another set of masks.
Yeah, you know (thoughtfully) I
supposeit's [that] Idon't think Ihave enoughexperience of England to be able to write
objectively about it, which seems apretty
poor thing for an English chap to say!But
I
really don't. Not that Iknow more about
anywhere else, but at least I'm there. In theother places, because I've been just about
everywhere else other than England.
Imean, one gets left-behind news or
secondhand reports from whatnewspapers are worth trying to glean
anything from, anyway. I
pickup most of
my news from the Christian Science
Monitor. That's the only one Ican find thatreally doesn't have abias on it.
Ithink "China Girl" is the nearest thing,especially in the video I've made for it[again in Australia] ,well I
think theinterpretation of that puts abit of that right.
It's avery heavy song. Ithink I've dealt withimperialism in that video to acertain extent(pauses)... he says. Ha ha.
In afour-minute popvideo?
Exactly! "Right, that's got imperialism
done..." Ha ha.
It does start to get like that, butwell, OK, that's alright. I
work inpop songs, and that's what it will
have to be...
When you purged yourself of theVictoria incident !you'll recall
the time Bowie arrived back in
Britain at Victoria Station in a
Mercedes limo with atheatricalflourish of outriders, salutes andloaded statements] ,you weresaying it was some people ofBerlin's far left that swayed you.
How did theyapproach you on
the incident?
The most illuminating conversation about that was with acouple ofguys who really took me to task about the things Isaid about fascism in
1976, and they made me very aware of how much thought one should
put into what one does and says. Because what one does has alot to dowith what one says. They weren't responsible for making me finish withthat whole drug period or anything, but they set me up and caught me
on avery bad day, you know, ha ha. (In aheavy teutonic tone) "So you're
still aNazi, David?" Oh dear! Crumbs! They gave me areal ticking off
and that put me straight, Ithink.
It really sorted that out in my mind about not being quite so flippant orfragmented or stupid or stoned out of my gourd to let myself get involved
with those kinds ofjust hideous reflections.
Theway fascism entwines itselfwith aspects of nationality makes it very
difficult to refer back to nationality without appearing nationalistic.
Yes, that's avery hard balancing trick, it really is. At the time that wholething was very much in the air. I
just felt it happening, and I
wasn't evenin England. In 1976, the time when I
was spouting all that stuff, theNational Front still hadn't been publicly acclaimed to any great extent,
as far as Ican remember, because when Icame to England Igot all thesepamphlets and things (loud laugh) from Mosleyites, asking me if I
wasjoining up! Oh fuck, ha ha.
And it was that hideous thingwhere, as an artist, you kind of felt that
there's something in the air. I
can't even put it anotherway, but you canjust feel it, you can just sense asituation or an atmosphere and that can go
into yourwriting. Myproblem is that after I've written something, orMay17,1983:
SeriousMoonlight
warm-upgig,Forest
National,Brussels

when I've started writing something, I
then try to intellectualise what
I'm doing. And that's when the problems usually begin. Especiallywhen you try and intellectualise when you've just done agram ofcocaine, ha ha, and the offcoming statement is usually something that
one doesn't want to refer back to afewyears later.
Are drugs completelyout now?
Oh absolutely! Drugs are no part of mywriting or recording or
anything. It's impossible to consideryour life worthwhile, or the life of
those around you worthwhile, ifyou're just fractured like that. I
mean,
God knows whatwould have happened to my son if I
was continuallystoned over the last 10 years. I
probably wouldn't have him. He certainly
wouldn't have wanted me. Quite sure about that.
He seems quite asober character, from what youwere saying at thepress conference about his love for maths.
Yeah, but he likes Madness, though. Loves them. Ithought he was goingto start liking Flock Of Seagulls, which worried me alot. Ha ha. But he sawthem on television on In Concert and fortunately decided theyweren't forhim. Ha ha.

S

econds to go. Panic! David Bowie is modifying his reappraisalof his legacy, rightly claiming his pastwork can be played as
photojournalist snaps of the mood and atmosphere of the time they
were written, when his publicist arrives to bring the interview to aclose.
BOWIE: Ifyou want to conjure up the atmosphere of any particularperiod, well, for me ¡can do it quite easily by putting on one of thosealbums. If you put on Station to Station it couldn't be from any otherperiod than when it was written.
So, Diamond Dogsis still avision of 1984 from 1974, not from one
year off?
Exactly, oh yeah. It doesn't carry through. Idon't know how the songs
feel on stage, not being an audience for my own work in that way. Idon't
know if people take them as reflections or if they can still treat them ascontemporary pieces... ChrisBohn •HISTORY OF ROCK 1983 I57

iMotiirbeadint983:(I-r)EddieClarke's
replacement Brian
Robertson,Lemmy
andPhilTaylor

"It's adifficult machine, that," Iassured him, rememberingwith
suppressed mirth the sight of suave John Barton cashing cheques overthe bar to pay for another couple of hundred trial runs.
0HOW COME Sounds get the VIP treatment? Imean, an
Lemmygave up. "This way," he said tersely, motioning t
he Maker fact ion
afternoon out with Motôrhead at asewage plant indown the corridorwith aflick of his leonine locks and abriefglimpseof
Rickmansworth- luxury. The Maker, however had to beteeth eroded by years of corrosive sound arid, well, "hard living."
satisfied with the deep-pile corridors of the Nomis rehearsal
We followed.
complex dahn in Olympia, where the handsome threesome
Marillion were hard at it next door, discernible by aseries of dull thuds
were supposed to be rehearsing for their forthcoming tour.
coming through the wall. Mottirhead, unwithered by age, had huddled
Rehearsing can mean manythings to different people. To themarkable Lemmy, the original renaissance man with aheart of purearound apile of flight cases and unfriendly plastic chairs near the door, a
far as possible from the forbiddingwalls ofamplification at the far end ofoise, it means astiffvodka always within easy reach, aheap of Marshallthe room. They meant work.
acks and apile of 10 pees to shovel down the greedy throat of the Nomis
These days, of course, Motiirhead are Lemmy, thenkey Kongmachine.
redoubtable Phil Taylor on drums, and relatively ne
Our story begins with His Lemship preoccupied with the latter pastime.
boy Brian "Robbo" Robertson on massed guitars.
"Christ!" said Lemmy, failing once again to rescue the digital Fay
I'm not sure why, but Ialways had this impressi
ray and watching the distressing earthward plunge ofthe
of Robertson as ademented Scotsman rarely ou
otagonist, "can you play this bloody thing?"
ALBUMS
of earshot of abottle of Scotch and the sort ofchap liable to greet one ofthese effete journali
types with acrisp right hook followed closely
alow-flying knee.
Ihad the first bit right, but in fact Robertson
1983 —
on this occasion turned out to be positively
garrulous, readyand willing to expound on all
mannerofstrange topics. The sorry plight of
Mottirhead
BRONZEthe South Moluccans who live in Holland, for
These tracks are all typical, vintage
example, or memoirsof aThin Lizzy guitarist (aMotarhead at their fearsome best without
ere's been some frantic speculation that
he was then) trying to reach an understanding
any evidence of the much-vaunted newnother Perfect Day would mark astartlingwith the druggygangsofAmsterdam.
melodic edge. But "Back At The Funnyhange in direction for the mighty ones.
Farm" does have asmattering of quirkiness"I grabbed this guy by the lapels, right,"
hat with Fast Eddie doing his runner andand an extremely odd sound interrupts
Robbo explained in swift Scottish, "then Igave
obbo (as his many chums at the Maker
him aslap round the mouth, stuck my hand inow him) reaching the climax of his
the debilitating progress of "Rock It".
his pocket and took all the money he had. Isaid
I'm reliably informed it's called apiano.
anderlust at the right hand of the great'this is mine, see?' His mates were just standi
mperson, I
was pretty agog myself.
The single, "I Got Mine", is also relatively
there dumbstruck.
tuneful, while "One Track Mind" easestheWell, you little mallet-heads, you can rest
"Then Isays to this guy with me-he was there
pace to amere 9omph. You can tell by thesy in your beds-the good news is thatto give me support, right?-I said, 'do somethin
otórhead are just as violent, vehement,
way Phil Taylor includes atoken cymbal in his
He went to hit this other guy and the geezerjust
regular route of the skins that this is the ballad.
'brant and vicious as they ever were. Yes
punched him and he hit the deck. Ithought, 'Oh
Itens, Motórhead still make you bleed from
They duly deliver it with their customary
that's fucking great, this guy'ssupposed to besensitivity, building to climax after climax
eears, they still beat you to the floor andprotecting meand he's just decked it... until you and presumably they are too
ve you aquivering wreck, they still take
As Robbo got deeper into the saga, Phil Taylo
exhausted to take any more. My favourite
naxe to your skull and don't hang aroundtrack, though, is "Shine".., blistering,
curled up on the small, uncomfortable sofa.
mop up the blood. Life's not sobad, eh?
"Ask Phil how he feels," Lemmy ordered.
The recent, very excellent interview with
exhilarating, and genuinely exciting. This is
Motórhead at their very finest, playing with"How do you feel, Phil?" Iasked.
eboys in these pages came up with thetotal command and authority, and blazing"Full of gale force winds and gases," saidvelation that Robbo is classically trained
Taylor, belching magnificently. Had theaway any reservations with the sheer singledusesi3 guitars on this album. He seems tointerview begun, Iwondered? Perhaps it
minded belief of it all. If HM was always
eplaying most of them at the same time too,
performed as consummately as this, thenwas already over. Better press on anyhow.
hile Lem stomps around, drifting in and out
Ithought I'd better ask Motórhead about the'I'd be queueing now for Castle Donington.
the action like amad rodeo rider, launching
new LP Another Perfect Day, due for release inMotarhead, of course, transcend HM theseimself from one rage to another. The finer
acouple ofweeks. It's the first one they've dodays. If, as has been claimed, HM is to rockints of his inspired rants area little tricky towith Robertson tackling guitar duties; Eddie
what country music is to MOR -fanaticallyecipher, but the gist is mostly self-evident.
followed in the provinces, reviled in the big
Clarke having deemed Lemmy's single with
"Marching Off To War", for example,
Wendy OWilliams to be the last straw andcity -then Lemmy is its Dolly Parton. He's now
rrives amid avolley of machine gun guitars
walking out to form Fastway.
fast approaching legend, and his exploits arend drums, and talks about things likenow moving his status from grudging respect
Another Perfect Day might corne as asurpriseslaughter", "hell" and "fighting for theto outright hero. The People's Champion is
to some. It's different- for Motiirhead, anyway.
ation". I
can think of no better backdrop for
Where records
also becoming
ehorrors of war than Motiirhead at full tilt.
like Ace OfSpad
PublicThat, however, is for wimps compared toor Iron Fist wereChampion.
efull, blinding fury of "Dancing On Your
abit like being
Give it ten
rave" and the epic, celebratory "Tales Of
struck by one oflory". Climaxing the whole thing, though,years and he'll
those things the .
be Prime
the charmingly titled "Die You Bastard!",use to knock
Minister. Thishici opens with an abrupt belch and swiftly
down buildings,
splendidly
orches into asort of fighting man's version
Day is sort ofbuoyant,
Dylan's "Positively Fourth Street". Voicespacier, kind of
exciting,
ke achainsaw. Lem preaches hate andwider-ranging.
intimidating
isgust from what sounds like the back ofMuch of this mustirade will donaircraft hangar. I've often wondered why
be attributed tothat march no
M albums always have the vocalist at theRobertson, aone
harm at all.
ack of the mix, but Lemmy's case it's

S

MELODY MAKER-

Lemmy entertains you
M28 MAY

robably done for reasons of compassion.
IHISTORY OF ROCK 1983

Colin Irwin

EVIEWNOTÚRHEAD

man guitar armywho loves nothing better than to hole up in astudio andpile on layer after layer of guitars.
"Before, our records were like being punched in the teeth," said Taylor,probably awakened by the sound of loud sniffing sounds from thedirection of his fellow musicians. "Now it's like being punched in theteeth with an apology afterwards." He lit aSilk Cut and rubbed hiseyes laboriously.

R

OBBO ASSURED ME that there was more to constructing the
Motürhead sound than met the ear. "I was classically trained
to start with," he said. "Even with this album. Istructured it as
Iwould do if! was structuring astring section. That's why you use all
the different guitars with the different sounds. You might use thisguitar because it sounds thinner and leaves agap, and it's down to lightand shade- that's the way Ilike to work." He says he used 13 guitars
on the album, though Lem my reckons it was only 12.
"The first and last songs on the album are like the old MotOrhead," said
Lemmywith relish, "then in the middle it's all gone curly. Alot of it's moreor less the same as we would have done, but the great thing with Brianis he can carry asolo ora slightly longer solo than Eddie could or did.
"He also plays rhythm alot different than Eddie did. Eddie was agood
rhythm guitarist, but he couldn't swap over at amoment's notice. Like
Brian will do acouple of chords in the riff, then stick abit oflead in andcome back to it." Phil burped sympathetically.
Could this be amore commercial record for Moen-head? Of course,
titles like "Die You Bastard!" or "Dancing On Your Grave" probably
won't make Peter Powell's 5.45 slot, but there can be no denying that
there's asort of terrible majesty about things like "I Got Mine" or"One Track Mind".
Iused to dismiss Moen-head as preposterous subhumans who'd thinkthemselves lucky if they found sawdust dribbling out of their ears ("hey,there is something in here after all!").
These days, Ihave asort of quaking admiration for their complete
absence of qualms and determination to see it through to the logical limit
or beyond. People who live like this and make this noise must know
something! don't.
Lemmy offered his Marlboros round. "Put that thing out," he said
scornfully, indicating my soggy roll-up. He flame-throwed his cigaretteand pondered. "We've had all this bitching for years, right, about being
Neanderthal fucking rock' n'rollers posing around with bullet belts andall this. Now thatwe've changed it abit and it is more melodic, let's justsee what they say now. They'll think of something."
So you expect the record to get akicking in thepapers, then?
"Oh, probably," said Lem.
"We expect to get akicking anyway-we'reused to them.
"They've lost all their fire', that's what it'll
be now."
Well, you never know, Isuggested-NMEeven
wrote quite asympathetic piece about Twisted
Sister this week (they're Lemmy's mates). "I
think they're finally seeing the signposts," hesaid. "I mean, the NMEhas become like acrossbetween The Financial Times and the Whole
Earth Catalog. It's all 'Do you know what they're
doing in Devon? They're poisoning sheep withchemicals!' Idon't wanna read about that in amusic paper!
The best thing about us is that we're laughing all thetime at it all. All these bands seem to lose their sense of
humour once they get above number seven in the charts.
They try to say relevant things and be cool. I'm not cool.
I'm really uncool, me. Ireally enjoy it. We're alittle slack,compared to most people.""Life would be alot easier ifyou didn't have to rehearse,"
groaned Taylor, lighting another Silk Cut.
Do you get sick of the Kerrang!approach to Motürhead,
Iqueried-y'know: where the band always get
approached from the same angle of attack?
"The Kerrang! boys have always been alright to us," said
Lemmyloyally. "But Iknow what you mean, the sameslant. You get bored with it. Butwhat can you do?A lot ofbands have got the same thing but with adifferent sort of slant- eachband has the slant in the way they're written about. I'm sure Marillion
are sick of being compared to Genesis. I've only seen three articles
about them and everyone talks about Genesis and the new waveof psychedelia."
There's alot of talk about "rock" being redundant these days, Isaid, but
Ireckon there's nothing wrong with rock, it's just the rock groups.
"Yeah," said Lemmy, adding alittle orange juice to aglass of vodka
purely for cosmetic purposes. "There's alot of tales about people getting
bland, but that's rubbish. The kids don't say that-when they write to thepapers they're always slagging off the writers for saying that. They go out
and have agood time at the gigs while the writer's there getting paid for it.
He goes in for the first number, goes to the bar, maybe staggers out for theencore and then writes abad review."
Lemmy rose with difficulty to his feet. "If you'll excuse me for a
moment I'm going for ashit." He picked up abiker magazine andtucked it under his arm.
"There is toilet paper in there, you know," Taylor pointed out.
"But it's not glossy, is it?" snapped Lemmy.

L

EMMYWAS GONE for some time. When he came back, it
seemed the time had arrived for the boys to do alittle work. Huge
roadies with beards and beer guts had begun to wander into theroom, fiddling with leads and switching on mixers. Lemmy picked up
abass and plugged it into the nearest phalanx of Marshalls, then let rip
on aterrible grinding riff.
Obviously he wasn't satisfied, since he soon put down the bass andpunched his amplifierwith aheavily ringed fist. "Seem to be losing abit of
top on this," he said to the nearest crewperson. "Better get it sorted out
before the tour."Meanwhile Robbo was making infinitesimal adjustments of the arrayof knobs on his guitar synthesizer. He scratched his copper-dyed hair,
walked over to his quadruple band of amps, turned acouple of knobs andplayed aresounding Emajor.
Lemmy sidled up to me, leering. "Silly bastard's changed all thesettings," he said. "That's what you get forworking with musicians."
Ile thumped acouple of violent bass chords. Meanwhile, Taylor read amagazine behind his drum kit.
Finally theywere ready. Robbo lashed into the intro of "Marching OffTo
War", and swiftly struck the first of many guitar hero poses, eyes glazed
and his mouth compressed into abloodless grin.
As Taylor's sticks made atour of his enormous kit, Lemmy advanced toanearby microphone, feet planted aggressively
astride the stand and his head craning up, likehe was about to take ahuge bite out ofsomethingwarm-blooded. In this absurdly
low-ceilinged room, it was impossible to hearanything except avast crushing roar, whichhammered sickeningly into your stomach likeagia nt piston.
Moen-head had awhole night of this aheadof them, so we decided to call it quits.
Robertson, seeing us about to depart,hurried over to shake hands, much more theprofessional rock celebrity than the other two
will ever be. To our surprise, it was still daylightoutside. AdamSweeting •"Hands lose
their sense of
humour once
they get in
the charts"

ANOTHER PERFECTALBUMSPANNYCHARRINGTON

Rip Rig +Panic

VIRGIN

Let's get to the point: Attitude ismarvellous -the sound of Rip Rig+Panic kicking up aruckus withtypically mercurial wit and speed,
yet never allowing their anarchic
spirit to tip over into the kind ofnagging self-indulgence thatmade "lAm So Co/d"sointermittently wearisome.
Whatever their occasional
failings, no matter how deep thecheek, Rip Rig stand out as aliving, breathing organism
among the dead sludge ofmodern pop, apiercing yell of
idiosyncrasy in awastelandof anonymous product.
Naturally there are those who
can't stand to see this happening,but thank God for that; themoment Rip Rig fail to mortally
offend across-section of critics
from the pop and jazz spheres
alike is the moment they cease to
carry any weight at all.
Not only do the group notconform, they don't conform
loud y, and in this sense there's
astrong feeling of 'punk' about
their stance. Rip Rig's 'attitude' isthe love of overturning applecarts, their refusal to approachmusic with the po-faced concern
and premeditated restraint of somany of their mediocre peers.
82

HISTORY OF ROCK 1983

More precisely, theirapproach is rooted in
the smearing of elementsfrom differing musicaltraditions -most notably pop,
soul and jazz -and doing it withsuch pep and energetic style thatthe question of comparison withthe original sources of inspiration
rarely reaches the agenda.
In avery real sense the groupare visionary -they've createdtheir own musical category thatowes little, if nothing, to thetrends and tendencies going onaround them. Rip Rig are a'pop
group' that stalk the popular
music marketplace, yet one
whose personality is bound up
with styles that exist bothoutside and within themainstream.
On Attitude, as on their debut,
God, it's the saline freshnessof their
juxtapositions
that surprises,
the willingness
to examine amusical ideafrom awildly
unusual angle,
then move on
to tackle thenext projectwith equally
determinedvigour. We

know there'll be
explosions, can becertain there'll becalm, but can never predict
from which direction the
splinters will be showering us, ortell when they'll stop.
One moment, Rip Rig can takeus back to the noise and hellish
excitement of early rock 'n' roll "Beat The Beast" (also thecurrent single) sounds like wild
animals tearing into the flesh of"Rock Around The Clock" andspitting the blood back in our
faces -and the next steam into
frenzied gallop that could be oneof the manic forays from Don
Cherry's Brown Rice LP cut up by
Mark Springer's tempestuously
hammering piano.
All cuts are comparatively
short; the statements are dense
yet succinct, aseries of taut,inspired conceptions performed
with affirmative dash, spittle andverve. There's much of theaccessible, colourful discipline of
their singles here; Neneh Cherryhas become one of the mostimportant beasts in their beargarden, her vocals providing acentral focus to the bouts ofromping and raging.
On "Do The Tightrope" andespecially "Viva XDreams" hervoice sounds remarkably close to
Annabella's, yet the ferocious
musical surrounds -snorting
sax and thundering, relentless
drums -make Bow Wow Wow
seem lame. Go wild in the
country indeed!
Other than acouple of weaker
tracks-Sunken Love" is alittle
pedestrian, and "Rip Open..."too close to stolid punk-jazz Attitude is arecord that begs
exploration, aclosely
worked and manically
executed array ofideas that proves Rip
Rig +Panic not
only have sublime
musical taste but theability to actually dosomething with it.
Though not as
immediately appealing
as God- we haveadjusted ourselves
to expect theLyndenBarber,MMApr9David Bowie
EMI AMERICA

Arecent late-night session withsome Bowie-loving friends
yielded some unexpectedconclusions about the Master's
past. Hunky Dory sounded likeaschool poetry magazine
hurriedly converted into
makeshift MOR, while it seemedinconceivable that anybody
could ever have taken theclumsy soap-operettas of Ziggy
Stardust seriously.
But history has already decided
that these were seminal records,
for whatever reasons. Perhaps it
was simple lack of opposition.
Perhaps it was mass hysteria.
There was no denying that Bowie
looked the business, but when
you got too close he was justanother card-sharper who
couldn't look you in the eye.
And so to Let's Dance, in which
this very clever bad actor enlists
the help of Nile Rodgers (a man
badly in need of some Bowiestyle sleight of hand) to whip up
athick, tactile funk-rock. This
album is frequently persuasive,at times has every appearance ofbeing threatening and would
make agood soundtrack forsome fairly expensive thrills.
Don't blame me if you feel bad in
the morning -it was agood time
while it lasted, no?
Most of the meat is on the firstside of the record. Giving no evenbreaks to suckers or smart-asses
alike, Bowie fixes the jugularsquarely in his sights with the
opening "Modern Love", arowdy
portion of acrid rock-gospel.
It's loaded with percussive
muscle, hung with blowzy brassand spearheaded by raucous
massed voices.
Suddenly you're swillingaround in the narcotic undertowof "China Girl", and even though
it's little more than athunderous
funkoid re-tread of "Moonage
Daydream" (and the song waspenned in '77 by Bowie and
Iggy Pop) it's hard to deny thepained (melo)drama of Bowie's
voice or the rabid catcalls of
Stevie Ray Vaughan's lead
guitar. You'll know about "Let'sDance" itself by now, then it's
onward! To the outdoors with
"Without You", aseductive cat's
cradle of chords, mammoth
drums and aglutinous, terrainhugging bassline.
Side Two is much lessimpressive, despite the Peter
Gabriel-like "Ricochet" with its
snappy horn arrangement andaguitar-overkill reworking of"Cat People".
"Shake It" is ahorrible, flimsy
morsel of synthi-funk, while"Criminal World" is the album's
solitary cover version and makes
astrong plea for bulk erasure.
For the record (for thoseof you who keep one)it's credited to Peter
Godwin, Duncan
Browne and Sean
Lyons (may they rot
in obscurity), andit's difficult tobelieve that thenormally sure-footed
master of disguise
could really have beendrawn to this laughable
minestrone of violence andsexual ambivalence.
"You've gota very heavy
reputation/But no one knows
about your low-life" -you may beable to get away with this sort ofthing as scriptwriter for CHiPs,
but not here.
Not that any of Bowie's own
songs tell you anything, but
years of deception have taught
him all about the potential
elegance of sheer vacuousness.
Let's Dance is aworkable
compromise -some inspiring
moments, some cleverly devised
camouflage and all papered overwith agambler's flair for thedramatic (empty) gesture.
Like most of David Bowie's
records, this one says absolutely
nothing while recognisingprecisely the time, date andcircumstances of its creation. It
saddens me slightly that it took
me so long to appreciate the full
extent of Bowie's unerring,
instinctive duplicity, but that's
why he gets the back page of
Smash Hits and I
just get cheekfrom John Barton.
The gentleman cat-burglar of
pop surfaces still has ausefultrick or twain hand to keep the
new generation of artful dodgers
at bay, and he can hardly
complain if the entire musicindustry has stolen his notion ofchanging styles once aweek.
And finally, even if David Bowie
is only anew paint job withaheart of puretrash, nobody's
3Anebeen able to callhis bluff. He
knows only too
well that the
only crime isbeing caught.

The Police: relying
on that well-wornsoft-pop throb
BARRY CRESCENT, HULME,MANCHESTER

M

Remember The
Police, do you?
Absence makes the heart
grow fondue, or perhaps this is
how the reasoning goes.
Unfortunately this is devoidof those sleights-of-hand thatused to make Miles' wonderboys so hypnotic, and instead
relies on awell-worn soft-pop
throb and some truly comicalcliches from the almighty Sting.
"Oh can't you see you belong tome?" queries the beautifully
proportioned hunk, before
delivering miracles of metre
like "Every smile you fake/Every claim you stake."
Probably bashed out during
abreak in rehearsals for King
Lear. MMMay27

Motehead
BRONZE

Suicidally reckless andmonumentally un-chic, thedisgustingly loud Motbrhead
come roaring out of the traps
with amission to cauterize.
Every cliche in the book, ofcourse -Robbo's massed
Marshall thunder, Lemuel's
last-gasp croak and Philthy'sskull-warping percussion. Allof which adds up to the only
single of the week which has
the bottle to proclaim its
independence and take on all
corners. Beyond good and evil
and eclipsing any tokenist'heavy metal' shrink-wrapping,these oddly civilised savages
stake it allana single throwof the dice and achieve an
improbablenobility.
MMMay27Jane
AVAILABLE
FROM OWAIN

AdamSweeting,

BARTON, 514

MMApria

CHARLES

Ifirst heard John Peel play thisacouple of weeks ago, andI
was very struck by it because
it's very different from mostrecords you hear on the radio.
It's not amillion miles from theMarine Girls and Tracey Thorn,though in this case you hear
Jane's voice -"standing naked
in the wind", as some Islamic
prophet once said, since shesings it unaccompanied.
Sandie Shaw, Annie
Nightingale andAlf from Yazoo
reviewed it on
Round Table
and greeted
it with great
cacklesof laughter.
I
wasdisappointed
because I
think it's avery
brave attempt.
It's one of thoserecords that could
turn into atotally
unexpected hit if someone like
Mike Read started playing it.
MMMay 74

David Bowie
EMI AMERICAFirst: "Let's Dance" was thesummer single of the spring.
Second: "China Girl" isn't.
Third: The original was oneof the less memorable tracks
on lggy Pop's The Idiot.
Fourth: It is constructed insuch away as to encourage
the worst melodramatictendencies of both singers.
Bowie sinks into adistressingly
overwrought routine here, andI
can't help thinking of Rod
Stewart on Python Lee
Jackson's "In ABroken Dream".
Fifth: Conclusion -Iggy Pop's
version was the more
acceptable of the two.
Sixth: But what do you caresince you've already bought
the Let's Dance album andplayed it to death? MMJun4
HISTORY OF ROCK 1983 I63

RICHARDYOUNG/REX

unexpected- it possesses amultilayered makeup that becomes
more and more exciting on eachsuccessive spin. Liberating stuff.

1983
AP

‘
k

Theoriginalranterand
enemyof papgroups:
Therall'sMarkESmith

More compelling than ever
MM APR 2Thank God we've got Lriegib. The FallO

NE HAND SLAPPED carelessly into
his pocket, the faintest trace ofasneer flickering across his face,
Mark ESmith slouches across the stage in that
peculiar gangling fashion of his and gingerly
approaches the microphone.
"Good evening...we're The Fall," he says
in hollow, unemotional tones. It's the only
time he speaks to the audience during theentire night.
Ablast of double drums, an insidious
menacing bass-line and Mark howls on -theoriginal ranter -subjecting his audience tothe relentless yet paradoxically exhilarating
barrage that makes The Fall like no bandon earth.
Is it arrogance? Masochism? Perversity? Or
is there calculation in the manic rush? Is there
genuine guile behind the fierce intimidation?
Yes, all of them.
The Fall are the direct antithesis of the
television generation. Mark clearly despises
society's obsession with luxury, softness and
08 IHISTORY OF ROCK 1983„ver forward. -easy-listening; asociety that brings you
remote control buttons so you don't evenhave to shift in your armchair to organise theevening entertainment. The musicalreflection of this is the current deluge ofpap bands who are dominating the chartsand getting all the press,
and they're driving Mark
ESmith even further into
his own manic world ofrandom thoughts andsnatched images.
Tonight The Fall are more
intense, more compellingthan ever. The recent
departure of Marc Riley,
generally reckoned to be Smith's chief
lieutenant (if dictators have lieutenants) andthe man who added nuance to madness,posed many theories and queries about the
band's future direction. They haven't
replaced him, they've gone headlong into a
yet darker, more deranged area that opens atfull tilt and gathers momentum from there on.
It figures. When everybody else is getting
drum machines, The Fall opt for two
drummers. When everybody else reckons
that touring is for circuses and R&B bands,
The Fall hit the road with avengeance. Wheneveryone knows that noband can afford to make itthrough agig without
playing at least something
recognisable, The Falldispense with old 'hits' like
"Elastic Man" and "HipPriest" and play almost
entirely new material.
They pull it off brilliantly.
Afew people walk out of course, like they
always do, but brace yourself, force yourself
into the ruck right in front of Mark's nose, andthe pounding percussive battalion and thehellish unruliness of Mark's wild outpourings
drag you in and take your head clean off.
Thank God we've got them. Colin Irwin

They've goneheadlong into
adarker, morederanged area

unexpected- it possesses amultilayered makeup that becomes
more and more exciting on eachsuccessive spin. Liberating stuff.
Lynden Barber, MIN Apr 9David Bowie
EMI AMERICA

Arecent late-night session withsome Bowie-loving friends
yielded some unexpectedconclusions about the Master's
past. Hunky Dory sounded likeaschool poetry magazine
hurriedly converted into
makeshift MOR, while it seemedinconceivable that anybody
could ever have taken theclumsy soap-operettas of Ziggy
Stardust seriously.
But history has already decided
that these were seminal records,
for whatever reasons. Perhaps it
was simple lack of opposition.
Perhaps it was mass hysteria.
There was no denying that Bowie
looked the business, but when
you got too close he was justanother card-sharper who
couldn't look you in the eye.
And so to Let's Dance, in which
this very clever bad actor enlists
the help of Nile Rodgers (a man
badly in need of some Bowiestyle sleight of hand) to whip up
athick, tactile funk-rock. This
album is frequently persuasive,at times has every appearance ofbeing threatening and would
make agood soundtrack forsome fairly expensive thrills.
Don't blame me if you feel bad in
the morning -it was agood time
while it lasted, no?
Most of the meat is on the firstside of the record. Giving no evenbreaks to suckers or smart-asses
alike, Bowie fixes the jugularsquarely in his sights with the
opening "Modern Love", arowdy
portion of acrid rock-gospel.
It's loaded with percussive
muscle, hung with blowzy brassand spearheaded by raucous
massed voices.
Suddenly you're swillingaround in the narcotic undertowof "China Girl", and even though
it's little more than athunderous
funkoid re-tread of "Moonage
Daydream" (and the song waspenned in
by Bowie and
Iggy Pop) it's hard to deny thepained (melo)drama of Bowie's
voice or the rabid catcalls of
Stevie Ray Vaughan's lead
guitar. You'll know about "Let'sDance" itself by now, then it's
onward! To the outdoors with
"Without You", aseductive cat's
cradle of chords, mammoth
drums and aglutinous, terrainhugging bassline.
Side Two is much lessimpressive, despite the Peter
Gabriel-like "Ricochet" with its
snappy horn arrangement andaguitar-overkill reworking of"Cat People".
"Shake It" is ahorrible, flimsy
morsel of synthi-funk, while"Criminal World" is the album's
solitary cover version and makes
astrong plea for bulk erasure.
For the record (for thoseof you who keep one)it's credited to Peter
Godwin, Duncan
Browne and Sean
Lyons (may they rot
in obscurity), andit's difficult tobelieve that thenormally sure-footed
master of disguise
could really have beendrawn to this laughable
minestrone of violence andsexual ambivalence.
"You've gota very heavy
reputation/But no one knows
about your low-life" -you may beable to get away with this sort ofthing as scriptwriter for CHiPs,
but not here.
Not that any of Bowie's own
songs tell you anything, but
years of deception have taught
him all about the potential
elegance of sheer vacuousness.
Let's Dance is aworkable
compromise -some inspiring
moments, some cleverly devised
camouflage and all papered overwith agambler's flair for thedramatic (empty) gesture.
Like most of David Bowie's
records, this one says absolutely
nothing while recognisingprecisely the time, date andcircumstances of its creation. It
saddens me slightly that it took
me so long to appreciate the full
extent of Bowie's unerring,
instinctive duplicity, but that's
why he gets the back page of
Smash Hits and I
just get cheekfrom John Barton.
The gentleman cat-burglar of
pop surfaces still has ausefultrick or two in hand to keep the
new generation of artful dodgers
at bay, and he can hardly
complain if the entire musicindustry has stolen his notion ofchanging styles once aweek.
And finally, even if David Bowie
is only anew paint job withaheart of puretrash, nobody's
3„,,,, ebeen able to callhis bluff. He
knows only too
well that the
only crime isbeing caught.

The Police: relying
on that well-wornsoft-pop throb

SINGLESThe Police
A&M

Remember The
Police, do you?
Absence makes the heart
grow fondue, or perhaps this is
how the reasoning goes.
Unfortunately this is devoidof those sleights-of-hand thatused to make Miles' wonderboys so hypnotic, and instead
relies on awell-worn soft-pop
throb and some truly comicalcliches from the almighty Sting.
"Oh can't you see you belong tome?" queries the beautifully
proportioned hunk, before
delivering miracles of metre
like "Every smile you fake/Every claim you stake."
Probably bashed out during
abreak in rehearsals for King
Lear. Hm Hay21

Motintead
BRONZE

Suicidally reckless andmonumentally un -chic, thedisgustingly loud Moblirhead
come roaring out of the traps
with amission to cauterize.
Every cliche in the book, ofcourse -Robbo's massed
Marshall thunder, Lemuel's
last-gasp croak and Philthy'sskull-warping percussion. Allof which adds up to the only
single of the week which has
the bottle to proclaim its
independence and take on allcomers. Beyond good and evil
and eclipsing any tokenist'heavy metal' shrink-wrapping,these oddly civilised savages
stake it all on asingle throwof the dice and achieve an
improbablenobility.
MMMay2iJane
AVAILABLE
FROM OWAIN

Adam Sweeting,

BARTON, 514

MIN Apr 76

CHARLESBARRY CRESCENT, HULME,MANCHESTERI
first heard John Peel play thisacouple of weeks ago, andI
was very struck by it because
it's very different from mostrecords you hear on the radio.
It's not amillion miles from theMarine Girls and Tracey Thorn,though in this case you hear
Jane's voice -"standing naked
in the wind", as some Islamic
prophet once said, since shesings it unaccompanied.
Sandie Shaw, Annie
Nightingale andAlf from Yazoo
reviewed it on
Round Table
and greeted
it with great
cacklesof laughter.
I
wasdisappointed
because I
think it's avery
brave attempt.
It's one of thoserecords that could
turn into atotally
unexpected hit if someone like
Mike Read started playing it.
MNIMay14

David Bowie
EMI AMERICAFirst: "Let's Dance" was thesummer single of the spring.
Second: "China Girl" isn't.
Third: The original was oneof the less memorable tracks
on Iggy Pop's The Idiot.
Fourth: It is constructed insuch away as to encourage
the worst melodramatictendencies of both singers.
Bowie sinks into adistressingly
overwrought routine here, andI
can't help thinking of Rod
Stewart on Python Lee
Jackson's "In ABroken Dream".
Fifth: Conclusion-Iggy Pop's
version was the more
acceptable of the two.
Sixth: But what do you caresince you've already bought
the Let's Dance album andplayed it to death? Hmiun4
HISTORY OF ROCK 1983 I03

g
;
c

183

APIflI — ele"I wouldn't
shy from
political
words"The re-release of"Shipbuilding" brings
withinan inch of Top Of The
Pops. In its place, heholds benignly forth on
everything from worldpolitics to pottery andPaul Weller. "WhyaEurovision SongContest?" he asks.

MELODY MAKER

JON BLACKMORES

TRANGETHINGS HAPPEN, and one's just happened
to Robert Wyatt. He'd been living in Spain for thelast six months, well away from the vertiginousroundabout of British music, British charts andBritish fashion, when, unknown to him, RoughTradere-released his haunting single "Shipbuilding".
Next thing you know, the record had begun to scale the singles
charts at ahealthy enough rate for Wyatt to be whisked back to
England to ready himself for apossible appearance on Top Of
The Pops. The single rose to 35 on the BBC's chart last week,
but with TOTP being shortened in favour of football, Wyatt's
services were not required. So now he's staying over here to
see what happens this week.
"Shipbuilding" would bean unlikely enough candidate forpop payability at any time, featuringas it does Elvis Costello's
mordant slant on the Falklands cataclysm, lit by the sort ofluminous ironies few other writers are capable of. Add Clive
Langer's sweet-and-sour melody and Wyatt's tragically crucified
vocal, and you're probably as close as you'll ever get to thesubversiveness "pop"music is supposedly
capable of.
We meet at his flat in
Twickenham. Wyatt
is friendly and quite
cheerful, but Ifeel »Elie FOR ME

"I thous ht,'Elmmm,
couldyoudoapop
song?"Wobert Wyatt. (note"Diving"hadge)photographedathomeinTwickenham, SouthWestlondon, May1983

1983
PR ft -

oppressedbythe desperation that all his thinking and reading andlistening seem to have led him to discover. Most people have too little
time. Isuspect Wyatt would gladly give them some of his.
Anyway, here are some edited highlights.

Shipbuilding"Clive Langer and Elvis Costello had asked me to do the song, and it wassort of tailor-made for me really. My only worry was whether Icould do
it as they hoped. That was really the beginning and the end of my worry.
I'm not going to go out and buy athousand copies or anything like that.
"I was really pleased and amazed when Elvis offered me the songI
was really surprised, because the last thing Isaw of him was the TV
programme about him in Nashville, whichwas very brave of him,chucking himself in at the deep end there. Whatamazes me is his eclectic range of interests,
because although my own is eclectic, it's very
bitty. Whereas talking to Elvis, he seems to havean encyclopaedic interest in pop music itself. I
was surprised he knew enough about me to ask
me to do the song.
"In this particular case, Clive Langer wrote
the tune and thought this was the sort of thing
Robert Wyatt could do, and Elvis put somewords on. They certainly realised I
wouldn't shy
awayfrom singing political words. Ifind thatthings that happen like this out of the blue work
better than me trying laboriously to constructprojects on my own, very often. So there's no
particular incentive for me to construct thingsof my own. Iput most of my energy into the sort of passive pursuit offollowing the things I'm interested in, culturally and musically, and I'mnever sure what's going to come out of them.
"A lot of very interesting things that have happened to me. I've foundabsolutely no way of expressing them or dealing with them at all, which isvery frustrating. A lot of the things that happen to you just don't translate
into songs, and I'm not really cut out to be ajournalist as far as Ican see.
I've done abit of writing occasionally, but nobody ever seems to pay you
for it, so Iknocked that on the head. The onlypeople who payyou seem tobe the ones on the verge of going bust."

would be uncomfortable that older ones would ike them, 'cos eachgeneration seems to need to feel it's got asort of tutonomous culture.
"There's always going to be agap, because the stuff! was interested inwhen I
was ateenager was stuff that was going cnbefore those people
were born, really. Iwouldn't have missed it for tle world. And the stuff
you get into as ateenager stays with you longer -han anything, Ithink.
So Irespect people like Weller, but it's from quit eadistance, because
I'm just not in that world.
"But there are times when you think, 'Christ I've got this voice, I've
got this constituency if you like, an informal c3nstituency of what Ido,
Imust feel responsible.' I
think it's perfectly rc asonable that Paul Weller
should think, 'I've got aresponsibility here, ti- erefore Ihave achoice
between whether Isay something useful or w tether Isay somethinguseless', so he gives .imself the responsibilityof saying something useful. He's not claiming
to have any power, he's just saying ,'If Ihave,and it seems as thou ;it Imay have some, I'dbetter use it as well zsIcan.' That's fair enough.
Because we don't re illy know what influence
we have, it hasn't be en worked out.""We're all
saying, 'This
is what Ido,
my act, Ihope
you like it"

Entertaining"I don't believe in this idea that music's 'just entertainment' -as if
there was any such thing as 'just entertainment'. Ithink people whoare apparently just singing something that's totally self-indulgent orapparently meaningless are making avery serious statement, andthat serious statement is: 'I exist; Iwant you all to like me.' That's avery
urgent message.
"If somebody tries to dress nicely, that's what they're saying, and for all
you knowtheir survival, psychologically, depends upon asympathetic
response to that. So it's terribly serious. Ithink everything that people
do is serious, whether it's dancing to attract somebody they like or justto have agood time, and Iget very impatientwith people who sayyou
shouldn't try to be serious in escapist culture. It's all pretty desperate
ifyou look at it.
"I think of flowers. People say, 'Oh, alovely relaxed flower garden there'-in fact it's not. Ifyou think about what aflower's doing, he's saying, 'Ifabee doesn't notice me within about 24 hours I'm not gonna be able tocarry on. Everything depends on abee thinking I'm areally sexy flower
and getting hold of my stamens,' orwhatever it is they do."Paul Weller"He knows more than Idid at his age. For the record, I'm 38. I'm very slow;
it's taken me alongtime to see things the way I
do now. I
saw an interview
with Paul Weller and he was talking about the people he was consciousof who were around. Not that they've been through more, but you sortof benefit from previous generations' experience. He's watched The Whoand he's seen this and that, and he's capable of avoiding the pitfalls thatsome of us older people may have fallen into. It's quite inspiring really.
"But on the other hand, I'm very conscious that there is an unspoken
ideology, which is much stronger than conscious politics in rock'n'roll,and that's age. There is an assumption there that the young standing on
the shoulders of the old is in fact alaw in rock'n'roll, and it fits everything,
it fits the marketing of it... so I'm very conscious that younger musicians

66 ,HISTORY OF ROCK 1983

Motivation"I suppose what set ne off is what keeps me
going, and what set ne off was not politics or
pop music, but being brought up as ateenager todeal with people wt ocalled themselves avantgarde at that time, iipainting and music and soon. Somethingvery strange happens to avantgarde, which is that the moment you've said it ordone it it's not avant-garde any more. And if, I
ar example, you call yourself
aperformance artist you're giving the game; may, and you're no longer a
performance artist. The person to watch for is somebodywho's not saying
who they are-things aren't just what they're called.
"I'd have to qualify that by saying that I'm very rarelyhappy with theresults. That's because Ithin kbeing broughi up not just with the avantgarde in general but with the ideas of the Dacia era in particular, there wasthis idea that manifested itself over and ovei again in rock music, that
there was no point in doing anything propel ly, because when you sketchout an idea it's the idea that's interesting, scr rou don't hang about and fill
it all in and dot all the 'i's. I'm not saying I
shc uld have tidied all my songs
up, but the fact is there isn't much I've done t
hat's quite finished in thesense that some people's work is finished."

Pop"The reason !did some sort of conventional pop songs was partlyto moveoutside the consensus of people I
was worki ng with at that time, which
would have said that pop music is adull anc dead-end medium. And
Ithought, 'Hmmm, could you do apop song?' So Ithought, 'Well, let's
have alook at asuccessful pop song, see how it works.'"If you talk to people who deal in long and really developed music,
they'll say that one of the reasons that pop isbound to be aminor form
is that you can't do much in two or three mi nutes. I
found an interesting
thing, that if you're trying to write agood tt ne it's very hard to make it last
longer than one minute, and in fact three ntinutes is an incredibly longtime. Almost without exception it's quite lc ng enough.
"By the time three minutes is up you've heard each idea in the record
probably at least three times, and far frorr being restricted, Ifoundit just as intimidating to try to create three interesting minutes asanything longer.
"I didn't try and write one myself, I
was just interested in taking
apart afew good or successful pop songs from the inside and thenreassembling them in the light of what Icould do, just to see what madethem work. And Iended up with what Isuspected! would have, whichis alot of respect for the craft. People say, Well, it's so limited', but so ismaking pots. Making pottery is not maki ng Rodin's sculpture, you're
looking for the wrong thing, but there is adifference between goodpottery and crummy pottery."

Africa"All this century, Africa has been supplying our culture with its
revitalising juices. Idon't think musicians should feel guilty about it;
Ithink musicians are relatively innocent and so are their audiences,
they're just looking for adifferent stimulus.

ROBERT WYATT"Within this century, Picasso's revolutionising of the world of painting
can be attributed in part to his discovery ofAfrican sculpture and woodcarving. He's celebrated as this innovative genius, while sculptors in
Mozambique and Tanzania are still struggling away to sell their work totourists. Picasso might have wanted to transfer the status of the world
he'd inherited, of Europe, onto the Africa ns who'd inspired him, butartists don't have that much power.
"I think what's sad for artists... ifwe live in acountrywhich has got richby crippling the potential of some other country, then even though
we ourselves are personally innocent of this economic, political andmilitaryfact, we can't help but participate in an unfair situation when we
continue to use others. In England, we still inherit asituation where we
can get more out of other people than they can get out of us. [don't expect
anybody else to take that on if they don't want to, but personally it worries
me to the point of not reallybeing sure that anything Ido is really any use
to anybodywhatsoever.
"But then Ifall back on my old standby of saying, 'Well, Inever tried to do
any good anyway, I'm just an avant-garde artist.' Because after all, we're
all selfish first-we're all saying, 'This is what Ido, this is my act; Ihope you
like it, because ifyou don't I'm done for.' That's what we're all doing and
I'm no different from anybody else in that, I'm not any more altruistic."

The EUITIViSi011 Song Contest"When it comes down to it, I'm more interested in politics underparticular situations. I
don't actually start off and end up with some sortof overview. Sometimes you get the politics in avery specific situation,
like the Eurovision Song Contest. Where you really think about it is where
nobody's overtly talking about politics at all. I
think Eurovision is justbristlingwith political implications, on all kinds of layers.
"First of all, why aEurovision Song Contest? It's slightly broader thanthat ridiculously tiny and unrepresentative group of countries called theEEC, which excludes Austria, Scandinavia, Spain, Portugal and all thecountries further east, but not much. Then why is there this tradition thateverybody sends rubbish that nobody in their own country of origin
knows anything about? Who are the selection committee? Who are
the juries? What's going on there?
"The reason Imention the Eurovision Song Contest is that Spain did
something this year that as far as Iknow nobody's ever done before-theysent agreat singer with agreat song. They sent agirl called Remedios
Amaya singing 'Quien Maneja Mi Barca'. Poor old naive Spain, trying
desperately to impress the Europeans and trying desperately to get into
the EEC, send agood singer and good song-a bit of electronic ska backing
and her gypsyvocals, and we're away. And of course it got no points
at all, none whatsoever. Very unusual thing to happen.
"There's avery touching naivety in Spain and they reallywere
hurt, they started blaming themselves, and you wouldn't believe
the debates that went on in the press about'we shouldn't have sent agypsy, all Spaniards
aren't gypsies', or 'she was barefoot, sheshould have worn good shoes' -oh, awful
stuff. They were blaming themselves insteadof saying, 'What acloth-eared bunch ofgherkins we've got here.'"But there were all kinds of other things goingon there. Countries gave spectacularly badmarking to the countries where theirimmigrant workers come from. This may
be coincidental, but it's amazing that West
Germany, who presumably 30 years ago, had
the opportunity arisen, would perhaps havegiven Israel no points at all, would now give
Turkey, Spain and anywhere with gypsies in it
no points at all-because the current xenophobia in
West Germany is about Spanish and Turkish
immigrant workers.
"Then you think, 'Well, maybe the Israelis willappreciate this song, because it's part of thesouthern Mediterranean tradition that Remedios
Amaya is coming from' -you could recognise
Middle Eastern folk influences in what she does.
But nothing from Israel, because Israel is trying
to be more northern European than the northern
Europeans. Theydon't want to know about

anything that sounds like gypsies, as far as I
can see.
"And then Yugoslavia got nothing from Austria, and Yugoslavia is where
Austria's guest workers come from. Not that it's all political, it's just that
that's an element in it that's totally ignored, because it's just 'fun, fun,fun'. Andas! say, it's not fun, fun, fun, it's Remedios Amaya crying on
behalf of Spain for help. There's no such thing as light entertainment,
it's all much more desperate."

Killing people for an ideology"I don't think killing's the worst thingyou can do to people. The usualslogan ofliberation movements goes something like 'Better to die on yourfeet than to live on your knees', and really what Ido is... I
will support
certain people who have come to that conclusion if I've read their history
and Iagree with them that they have no alternative.
"The second question is whether that's necessarily effective- it's amoot point. Means become ends in politics, and that's always adanger.
But really what's so unfair about the image given to various liberation
movements Isympathise with is that violence wasn't talked about
until they reacted to it-then they're called the violent ones. It's
extraordinary the amount of perhaps hopeless, perhaps hopeful
violence our Empire has caused as areaction, and it seems to me thatbasically we must look for the cause of that in what we were doing there
in the first place.
"To take some very obvious examples, if you remember that according
to some Namibian liberation fighters, when the English took over theconcentration camps from the Germans they got worse, then you begin
to see what we're up against. Idon't think anybody would seriously saythat the French Resistance were wrong to keep up the armed sabotage
against the Nazi occupation of France. In fact the people who get
despised tend to be the collaborators, people who said, 'Well, let's try
and make it work under aVichy government.' And Ithink certainlythat people living in Namibia and El Salvador find themselvesin that position."

The Bible or Marx?
Most of us, whether we admit it or not, are probablybrought up with the
New Testament drummed into us at one stage or another. There's alotof very clear moral advice in that, which I
find very few defenders ofChristianity taking any notice of, and one of those pieces of advice istaking the mote out of your own eye. And Ithink that our responsibility
is towards the casualties and deficiencies caused by howwe ourselves
operate, how our countries operate.
"To me, what seem to be the most unreasonable and totally unpalatableaspects of the so-called Socialist alternative that exist, the worst thing
about them iswhen they try to imitate Western imperialism-technically,
when they imitate the British Empire's global sort of spiderweb, or
ideologicallywhen you get people using
Marxism as asort of global idea... The
precedent for that is Christianity- the Pope
does exactly the same about what he believes.
The Pope is very compassionate about all the
Indians being slaughtered in South America at
the moment, but the fact is that the ideas that
he represents are ideologically totalitarian.
"It's the Mediterranean religions of Islam,
Judaism and Christianitywhich first suggested
this absolutely terrifyingly revolutionary idea ofasingle mono-God that was totally running thewhole show, to whom we must all be servile.
That's totalitarianism, that is. I
think thathaving set these precedents, the Bible in one
hand and the sword in the other, and becoming
so successful at it, it's incredibly hypocritical thewaywe sort ofwag our fingers at people who, in
trying to be successful, use elements of theseapproaches to get their place in the sun. If we reallythink those ideas are bad, then we must debunkthem here, because then we won't inspire otherpeople to emulate us."

"I'm not reallysure anything
Ido is really
any use to
anybody"

Parting shot
"Somebody once said to me that I'm very easy totalk to, but very hard to interview." AdamSweeting •HISTORY OF ROCK 1983 I67

The original ranter andenemy of pap groups:
The Fall's Mark ESmith

More compelling than ever
MM APR 2 Aank God we've got 'LAM. The FallO

NE HAND SLAPPED carelessly into
his pocket, the faintest trace ofasneer flickering across his face,
Mark ESmith slouches across the stage in that
peculiar gangling fashion of his and gingerly
approaches the microphone.
"Good evening.., we're The Fall," he says
in hollow, unemotional tones. It's the only
time he speaks to the audience during theentire night.
Ablast of double drums, an insidious
menacing bass-line and Mark howls on -theoriginal ranter -subjecting his audience tothe relentless yet paradoxically exhilarating
barrage that makes The Fall like no bandon earth.
Is it arrogance? Masochism? Perversity? Or
is there calculation in the manic rush? Is there
genuine guile behind the fierce intimidation?
Yes, all of them.
The Fall are the direct antithesis of the
television generation. Mark clearly despises
society's obsession with luxury, softness and88 IHISTORY OF ROCK 1983_ver forwarc

easy-listening; asociety that brings you
remote control buttons so you don't evenhave to shift in your armchair to organise theevening entertainment. The musicalreflection of this is the current deluge ofpap bands who are dominating the chartsand getting all the press,
and they're driving Mark
ESmith even further into
his own manic world ofrandom thoughts andsnatched images.
Tonight The Fall are more
intense, more compellingthan ever. The recent
departure of Marc Riley,
generally reckoned to be Smith's chief
lieutenant (if dictators have lieutenants) andthe man who added nuance to madness,posed many theories and queries about the
band's future direction. They haven't
replaced him, they've gone headlong into a
yet darker, more deranged area that opens atfull tilt and gathers momentum from there on.
It figures. When everybody else is getting
drum machines, The Fall opt for two
drummers. When everybody else reckons
that touring is for circuses and R&B bands,
The Fall hit the road with avengeance. Wheneveryone knows that noband can afford to make itthrough agig without
playing at least something
recognisable, The Falldispense with old 'hits' like
"Elastic Man" and "HipPriest" and play almost
entirely new material.
They pull it off brilliantly.
Afew people walk out of course, like they
always do, but brace yourself, force yourself
into the ruck right in front of Mark's nose, andthe pounding percussive battalion and thehellish unruliness of Mark's wild outpourings
drag you in and take your head clean off.
Thank God we've got them. Colin Irwin

They've goneheadlong into
adarker, morederanged area

LIVE

Speed, volume
and excess
MM MAY 21 ma-punks Bad
Brains support stalwart UK Subs.

you WOULDN'T MAKE much sense of

Rasta-punk band Bad Brains if you
happened to be listening to their set
through the toilet window, but watch aswell and it all falls into place.
This is an audio-visual
showthat depends
on outrageous
BRIXTON ACE
speed, volume—
LONDON —and excess.
And while
your head's
spinning withthe sheerintensity of thesound, you watch
the figures whirlinground the stage like
speedballs and you realise Bad Brainsaren't playing these songs as songs at all.
They're exorcising themselves of every
emotion, every ounce of energy, every
last strength in their bodies. Theirconcentration, commitment,
obsessiveness, is total.
And then, just when you think thatthe singer, areal star, is likely to work
himself into afit, or alternatively
pass out with the effort, thevisible strain of his movement,
the band will slow right down
for atouch of reggae, flute
winding carefully round therhythms as we catch breath intime for the next onslaught.
As an experience, if nothingelse, Bad Brains were excellent,leaving UK Subs with apretty
tough job on their hands.
This was not to be theSubs' greatest night. Sound
problems robbed them of
their customary rumbustious
vigour, although more
importantly, the new lineup
has yet to carve out an identityof its own.
It's okay going back in time
to favourites "Emotional
Blackmail", "Warhead" and"CID". Everybody loves tohear those. And Isuppose an
Urban Dogs number here
and there is acceptable if notadvisable. But what's needed
now is alot more newmaterial, astatement ofintent and asense of purpose
so that we can expect
something more in the
future than acollectionof greatest hits. Carol Clerk

Ahopeful vision of the future
MM MAY 21 Rush glory in high technology, and deliver the goods.

I

T'S COMPLETELYAPPROPRIATE that Rush
have secured film of the American Space
Shuttle programme as the centrepiece of
their massive 1983 stage show. Rush areaband who glory in high technology- theyuse it on stage and theycelebrate it in their songs-and as the Space Shuttle
Columbia shudderedskyward on the giant video
screen behind the band, themusic of"Countdown"
echoed its epic voyage andsent the 8,000 worshippers
into asimilar orbit.
It's around 18 months since
Rushwere last here andduring that time they've entirely restructured
their set, ditching most of their old stuff andconcentrating mainly on material from
Hemispheres onwards.
The change in choice of material reinforces
what strikes me as arethink in the band's
philosophy. Until this two-hour show
on Saturday it hadn't reallyoccurred to me just howdoomladen their message used to be.
I've formerly emerged from theconcert hall with the taped
voices of the priests of The
Temple OfSyrinx echoing in myhead and while it was aneffective way of closing ashow it wasn't
exactly whatyou would call an upper.
But now Rush's vision of the future isahopeful one, as illustrated bythe video clipof the Shuttle. Man, they appeared to be saying,
does have afuture andhe can use technologyto
his advantage.
As aresult of this new
feeling, even old classics"Xanadu" and "Closer
To The Heart" take on
afresh new meaning.
The only odd one out inthe set is "The Trees",
whose anti-socialist
nature still jars alittle.
"TheAnalogue Kid" showed guitarist
Alex Lifeson at his finest, demonstrating hisenormous range of skill, versatility and control.
Geddy Lee's vocals, particularlyon "Xanadu",
showed new depth and maturity, while
Neil Peart is showing great restraint as
apercussionist in the band.
Quite simply, I
haven't enjoyedashow as much for years-Rushproved theyhave the abilityto
move and to move gracefully
with the times and not get
stuck in any kind of musical rut.
Amagnificent performance.
Brian Harrigan

Rush proved they
have the ability tomove with thetimes and not get
stuck in arut

HIGH PRIESTS

Versalityand
depth: Alen
Lifesonand
Geddy Lee

The History Of Rock is amagazine series celebrating 50 yearsof the music that changed the world -starting in 1965.
Month by month, it builds up into an unprecedentedly detailed
chronicle of the music and musicians we love.

THE HISTORY OF

t9s3
A MONTHLY TRIP
THROUGH MUSIC'S
GOLDEN YEARSTHIS ISSUE; 983

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(Lines are open 7days aweek, Bam-9pm, UK time)Readers' letters

MM JAN—JUN

Left? It's not right

Leaving music aside for amoment(let's have more TraceyThorn!),
Iwonderwhetheryou're interested
in the fact that I
find yourleft-wingbias utterlyboring, too. You knowthat old adage Ifyou're not socialist
bythe timeyou're 20 you've got noheart and if you're not Conservative
bythe time you're 30 thenyou've got
no head'?It isn't true.The majority
ofmyfriends, including those on
myPolitics and Government
degree course at Polytechnic, arenot Labour supporters and many
are Conservative-not because
we're blind, selfish, bigoted or
stupid, simplybecausewe've
arrived at certain political
viewpoints through thought,
experience and instinct.
Why is it that nearly all the NME
journalists who ever express
apolitical preference take aunilateralist and socialist stance,
while any nationwide survey of'young people' would indicate
awide range of views? I
don't mind
reading things which Idisagreewith (I buy the Guardian and TheSun) but Imuch prefer to readaspread of opinion, and I'm suremost people do, too.
Ifyou're going to include party
politics among your (excellent)music coverage you've got to havesome spread of opinion, otherwise
you lose credibility.
Your coverage of the music scene
caters for arange of intell igent andinteresting tastes, just as the musicindustry as awhole does. The
political content of NMEis
concentrated in one area of thepolitical spectrum, and it's boring.
JEREMY HYE, London Eg
Boring?A doctor writes: "You aresufferingfrom terminal exposure toPartlySatirical Brocuicastsfrom the
CONservative Party."

Must have been on drugs...

Forthose ofyou who tried to readmy London Drugs Report (in NME)
lastweek and wound up with aheadache, don't blameyourself-or
me. The last third of the piece(starting "City Road is the only...",and ending "... Alot of them aregoing to need some serious help")
got transported into the middle
and made garbage of the totality.
Isuppose Ishould come up withaquip about "someone must havebeen on drugs or something" -but
I'm not in the mood.
ANDREW TYLER, London

War and peace

Ihave been enjoined byvarious
feckless boobies to dispatch an
epistle to your organ containing
remarks of aderisory nature
concerning acollective of
Hibernian upstarts who callthemselves U2. Ever since the sad
defection of Monty Smith to the
TVTimesyour organ has been
unable to unearth acinema writerof similar ilk. Were Monty still in
the land of the living he would havepointed out that "NewYear's Day"bears more than afaintresemblance to the theme music
Carpenter wrote forAssault On
Precinct 13. As it is that shower of1977 reprobates have escaped
unscathed from the sort ofcriticism that The Jam received
when they released "Start". I
hope
this willredress the balance.
WALLY TOMPKINS, Edinburgh(POE March 5)
Ican't imagine Monty bothering tolisten to U2 in thefirst place. But
worry notfeckless boobies, consider
the balance redressed.

I
like The Jam, Paul Weller and, yes,even The Style Council's single.
But ifyou print one more letterfrom either mod-bashing New
Barnet hipsters, or even outraged
and defensive members of the New
Breed, thenI'll stamp on my
Paul Weller doll (with accessories).
So there.
LOVE, TRACIEIs this the end ofa beautzful
friendship?And what's tlzis about'New Barnethipsters'? The only New
Barnetan we know isJohn Connolly,
and he's more gluteus maximus
than hip. (NME Apr 16)

Co Respond-ents course

Paul Weller and Respond Records
askyou to try Tracie and decide.
Half the nation's young stylists
converge on Basildon. Tracie'smother is horror-stricken. Tracie
is ambivalent: she welcomesthe experience and attention,
but wonders whether she has
the stamina.
MARCUS CRASH, Stockwell(NME Apr 16)

How come there has always been
someone or another from NME
accusing certain Factory groups of"flirting with fascism" when noone has even commented on the
cover of The Birthday Party's "TheBad Seed" EP, which is designed
around abloody swastika?
M.S. STODDART, Liverpool(NME March 12)
Okay, the sleeve sucics. Satisfied?

RIP IT UP-1
{NAAR

C. 88888

ÇÇÇvk
IIIIITIAL

WAY

1.1CLUO.
ASO A ARR.

AIWA.

LOVIIII1C1(

IVA)

A SAD

Earboxing

To the mateywho was slagging off
JoBoxers. For once we are on theside ofAdrian Thrills. We too
believe that the "Boxer Boys"deserve to make it big. Ifyou haveever seen them live, you would
realise that there is no fucking
pose about them, their clothes ortheir music. Can't people for once
stop being cynical and recognise agood thingwhen it happens? The
IoBoxers are friggin' A!
Max, Jax, Ver and Ger, Reading(N/HE Ham)

Flirting with disaster

Havingjust listened to U2's Warfor
the first time I
turned to Radio One
for some light relief. On tuning inI
was convinced that I
was hearing
the polished tones of Dollar's"Mirror Mirror". However, further
listening revealed it to be noneother than OMD's "Genetic
Engineering".
Is this important?
TREVOR, York (NME Mari2)

IOittle-Tecr-

AMIDST

0111D

DAllLE

SHIPS

YELL

ILOVE YOU

INAMAZING 3D
rtrIE.1375111"EE°.
111fflin;41

China churls

NMEEXCLUSIVE!Pop star in
naked sex romp. Outrageous pop
star David Bowie has filmed avideo which recreates the lurid sex
scene from the film From Here To
Eternity. Next week: NMEBINGO.
R. SHELDON (NMEJun 4)
Wrongagain -BINGO is on page 69
as we've told you before.
Just thought I'd drop you aline totell you that contrary to
expectations I'm all in favour ofDavid Bowie having it off on thebeach! Ifhe gets reallyadventurous he'll drown himself!
CHIP HAMER, Herne Bay, Kent
Just the kind ofsensationalist trivia
we need. Feelfree to write again.

J

HISTORY OF ROCK 1983 I
71

THIS MPz2;,,,1983
in,Y SP in

THE STYLE COUNCIL,
CURTIS MAYFIELD,NEW ORDER AND MORE

"There wasno discussion"
NME SEP 10 CI-4

51413aMEíJ151211

M

CLAS

1CK JONES HAS been sacked from The Clash.
In aterse statement released by The Clashoffice last week, the remaining members of
the band claimed: "Joe Strummer and Paul
Simonon have decided that Mick Jones should
leave the group. It is felt that Jones has driftedapart from the original idea of The Clash. In the
future, it will allow Joe and Paul to get on with thejob The Clash set out to do from the beginning."
Rumours had been circulating in recent weeks
that Jones and Strummer had reached apoint
where they could no longer work together, thoughasimilar dispute occurred in 1981, when Jones
headed for the States with Ellen Foley, while
Strummer talked about reaching the end of theline- the twosome resolving their differenceson that occasion after what Strummer termed"a simple common-or-garden punch-up."
Last year, Strummer disappeared for awhile,causing aUK tour to be cancelled. His reappearance
signalled the moment for drummer Topper Headon
to split from the ranks. Nowthe inevitable has
happened and Jones is out, though the exact
reason for his leaving is likelyto remain somethingof amystery.
"I would like to state that the official press
statement is untrue," Jones later stated. "I would liketo make it clear that there was no discussion with
Strummer and Simononprior to being sacked.
Icertainly do not feelthat I
have drifted apart
1111
from the original idea of
The Clash, and in future
111
I'll be carrying on in
the same direction as
in the beginning."
Meanwhile, The Clashoffice continues to ward
off all further queries withaseries of "No comment."

MICKGETS
THE Bnnirjou _011ABER
place was the music's possibilities.
"I heard alooseness and amixture ofdifferent sounds that contributed to therhythms. Some things only appeared
maybe once or twice, things that didn't haveareal obvious structure. There's structure
in general, and then there are other things
which are more like happenings of the
moment. And I
like that kind of freedom,that use of sound."
It sounds like anything could happen at
any minute on "Rockit".
"Yeah! As amatter of fact, because of thedance today that's actually what's going onin the clubs: improvisation. The DJs are
doing it, mixing and remixing, which isgreat. I
saw and heard some incredible stuff
at The Roxy in New York. Really exciting,great dancers, some wild stuff."
However, it seems strange that Hancock,muso tag surrounding him, should bechecking out New York's club scene. A
commercial move or true interest, Herbie?
"No I
felt it right away," he states. "In
obvious ways it's new to me because it's a
new kind of music, sort of. But in ways thataren't so obvious I
could relate to it. I
even
got asense of the avant-garde in jazz, not in
the sound of the music but the approach."
For purists who recall Hancock's jazz
NME AUG 6Why has Herbie Hancockplaying or dig his electronic
A357
doodlings, such an eclectic
made ascratch record?
approach is bad news,
1>2 /tantamount to asell-out.
J— _J
(:))
But Mr Hancock just goeswith the flow.
enthuses. "They didn't
LOTHES ARE SCATTERED
everywhere. Wet towels lie crumpledknow it at the time, but"I do what I
want to do.
\on the bed. Scraps of paper containing
soon as I
played that tape
I'm interested in people, I'm
phone numbers and quickly jotted down notesI
said, 'That's it, that'sinterested in music, I'm
are littered all over the room. The phone rings
the one."interested in learning about
constantly, breakfast was aweird mixture
So Herbie Hancockmusic and learning aboutIof orange juice and curry, and amid all the-aman who cut his jazz
myself. I
get that criticism
chaos Herbie Hancock has just managed tochops with Miles Davis
all the time, but primarilyten. ITHOUP-frIT WASP:XI
complete his daily Buddhist chant.
and Donald Byrd in thefrom publications. I
don't
Suitably refreshed spiritually, he now sits
'60s, penned the theme
get people walking up to
on achair rubbing his eyes and smoking
music for the classic Antonioni flick Blow Up,
me in the streets saying, 'Oh, I
think you're
Marlboros, talking about afriend of his who
virtually invented awhole area ofjazz funk inselling out.' It seems alittle strange that themade him atape of all the new records thatthe '70s with his solo work, has recently
people who the records are made for seem towere happening Stateswise.
maintained his jazz links with the muchhave more of an open mind than the people"I like his taste," explains Hancock, "and theacclaimed VSOP Quartet featuring
who are paid to have an open mind, thething that really caught my ear was 'Buffalo
wunderkid Wynton Marsalis -made an '80s
reviewers and the critics. I
think being apurist
Gals' by Malcolm McLaren. I
said, 'What is
scratch record called "Rockit", veering off
is limiting myself. I
may choose to be apurist
that??? I
want to do something like that!"again onto another musical path.
on acertain occasion or in acertain setting..."While Herbie's
Like the VSOP work?
Like jazz, scratching andimagination was runningrapping is about abreaking"Yeah, because that's what I
want to do, but
overtime, inspired bydown of conventional
it doesn't mean that I
myself have decided I'mgoing to totally limit myself to just doing that."
The Talcy One's excursion
limits, turning them on theirinto scratching, Material
head and emerging with
He rubs his eyes again -"I did the clubs last
-aflexible ensemble thataform and sound thatnight, Palace and the Embassy" -and reaches
revolves around Bill Laswellis challenging andfor the coffee.
and Michael Beinhorn
unpredictable. Scratching,
Outside, the car to whisk him off to the-were preparing, at thegood scratching (andvideo set has been waiting for half an hour.
request of Hancock's
believe me there are some
There's aplane to catch for Spain and an
associate producer andgrating efforts around),appearance with the VSOP that evening inmanager, atape containing
thrives on brash
San Sebastian. Then it's back to London ideas and tunes forarrangements and relies
or is it New York?- for more promotionalon the inventiveness ofwork and the room's still in amess and the
Herbie's new solo endeavour.
the man in charge. It's morebags aren't packed yet and did my visa
When they sent it overfrom New York, one ofabout sound than melody,come through? And the phone is ringing
45 R.P.M.
the songs featured
and "Rockit", while noand, "damn, I'm in abit of astate at
7.99041
aslice of scratching...
"Buffalo Gals", is a
the moment".
STEREOP D apr.
Con, eThen he laughs at the absurdity of his
Herbie flipped.
positive contribution.
It. 4311115P"It was exactly what
What attracted Herbieschedule and you just know that Herbie willI
was looking for," heto the genre in the firstride again. Paolo Hewitt
Herbie Hancock:veteranjarseris
u to scratch

c
"ouet

appen"eng

Cf

IIM BRITT /GEITY"I don't get people
walking up to me inthe streets saying,'Oh, I
think you're
selling out"

MORRISSEYNME SEPT 17

Records
Stop Before You
Start Sandie Shaw
The Right One Is
Left Cilla Black
Heart Rita
PavoneInsult To Injury
Timi Yuro
Paper Boy The
Marvelettes
How Does That
Grab You, Darlin'?
Nancy Sinatra
Be Young, Be Foolish, Be Happy
The Tams
Johnny Remember Me John Leyton
I'll Never Quite Get Over You Billy Fury
I
Want A Boy For My Birthday
The Cookies

Cappuccinokids:
Vaughn Toulouse(front)andPaolo
Hewitt(rear,inshop)"The cappuccino is up to standard"
NME JULY 9

Films
Barckyo Cafe, Beak Street
VAUGHN: "It's my favourite in summer 'cos
it's cool, there's never anyone in here and thecoffee is really nice. It's good not having alot of
people in here, because when you've only got
athree-hour lunch break and you have to spend
an hour waiting around for someone to finish
off their spaghetti bolognese, it becomes abitof abind; especiallywhen it's really hot and you
want to get acappuccino down you and get out.
Those are the most important things, plus
expense. As long as they're under30 pence,
that's alright. I'd come again."

The Pollo, Old Compton Street"When Ido drink cappuccino, what Itend
to do is slurp around the outside of the froth,which alot of people find disgusting. To behonest, Ididn't realise that there was suchan underground thing, such areligious
fantasy surrounding the cafe scene until
Iread the book [Absolute Beginners] which
one gets when one signs on the dotted line
for Respond, along with chewing gum andapair of white socks.
"I also like this cafe because you can sit
opposite the window and watch all the dodgy

old office workers come out of the Rambookshop with brown parcels, which is,
I'm sure you'll agree, rather novel..."Cafe Figaro, Lower Regent Street"No chocolate on the cappuccino and it's not
the sort of place to bring acrowd because it's
too small.
"The thing! like about it is you can sit on the
pavement, which makes it abit more European.
The trouble with nearly all London cappuccino
haunts is that you can't get into the sun so it
would be worth making the most of it.
"That's why Ilike Europe, because you can sit
outside at anytime.
"I think the cappuccino is up to standard
here. But at 50 pence ago it should be."Bar Italia, Frith Street"The first time I've been here. I
like the 'help
yourself to the chocolate' attitude they
propagate here. Yes, very friendly and unusual,plus they've got atelly here, which no one
seems to watch anyway. The coffee's good,it's strong, and the whole atmosphere reminds
me of abetting shop. I
wouldn't avoid this placeat all." PaoloHewitt

The Man Who Came To Dinner OW
ATaste Of Honey (1961)
Christmas In Connecticut (1945)
The Killing Of Sister George (1969)
AKind Of Loving (1962)
Hobson's Choice (1953)
Mr Skeffington (1944)
Bringing Up Baby (1938)
The Member Of The
Wedding (1953)
The World, The
Flesh And The
Devil (1959)

Symbolists
Oscar Wilde
Sandie Shaw
Hilaire Belloc
Shelagh Delaney
Beatrice Arthur
Pauline Kael
Clifton Webb
Dorothy
ParkerRonaldSearleSandieShaw.hand
Vivin glove with The
Smiths' singer
Nicholson

RICHARD ROSSER /REX FEATURES. P

Books
Complete Works Of Oscar Wilde
Popcorn Venus Marjorie Rosen
From Reverence To Rape Molly Haskell
Beyond Belief Emlyn Williams
The Lion In Love Shelagh Delaney
Against Our Will Susan Brownmiller
The Angel Inside Went Sour
Esther Rothman
Men's Liberation Jack Nichols
The Murderers Who's Who
Gaute &Odell
The Handbook Of Nonsexist Writing
Miller &SwiftdO AldOISIH I9LISAHAUN/GETTY

"Dumb, idiotic,
coarse andmeaningless"
On aUS tour, NEW ORDER ;o
out of their shell. Sensitive? Joy
Division or no Joy Division, the band
are like Brits on holiday: pranks,
fun, bad behaviour. "The othernight akid came backstage after
the gig and asked us to sign an LP,"says Bernard Sumner. "Hooky told
im to shove it up his arse."

erk

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atier

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lIK

l> 41101C. .*4/heIvor dikdr..41
me _fiemiopeeceerni,àrit

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HISTORY OF ROCK 1983 I
77

1983

JULY -OM ER

NMESome people try to pick up girls and get called assholes. This never happened
to Pablo Picasso. Not in New York.

V

ISITORS TO THE Funhouse, aPuerto Rican club on
26th Street between 10 and 11, would do well to heed
Jonathan Richman's advice.
Pablo's Spanish is the loving tongue here, but really it
is physique that talks big with the locals.
Bohn enters through the hideously mocking grin of
the giant Joker mask that forms one of its doorways, stumbles through the
carny bric-a-brac, feeling like the circus geek, and tries his strength on
the test-your-punch ball in club's amusement arcade.
He gives it the best he's got, yet it barely registers wimp. Fortunately
nobody's looking. So while his luck's holdinghe passes on the arm wrestlingmachine and slips back into the crowd. He is hardlyless conspicuousamong the Puerto Ricans, whose gleaming muscles bulge through T-shirts
cut off directly belowthe chest and shorts slashed at the groin.
"If you're English you don't stand achance," Simon Topping-ex ofACertain Ratio and presently in NYC studying timbales-has alreadyinformed his Mancunian colleagues in New Order, "ask agirl to dance,
they hear your accent, look you over and laugh in your face!"
Anyway, dancing in The Funhouse is largely asolitary pleasure. The
most company people ask for is their own reflection in one of the hall's
many mirrors. The sound system is more than enough to keep themoccupied. The DJ spins fabulously disjointed funk tracks. The nuttier the
breaks the better the dancers like them, responding to each echoedrlmshot with delighted jerks, throwing their heads back and squealing
their heels across the floor to stuttering sequencers.
It is amatter of pride to the dancers that they stayabreast of the mercurial
changes. The Funhouse is where Planet RockerArthur Baker comes to test
his latest mixes. "He reckons if he can get through to these meatheads hemust be onto awinner," goes the local logic. These early hours he's onto his
sixth version of New Order's "Confusion", which, when he's finally satisfied
with the audience response to it, will be their next Factory US 12".
Ash plays, the three boys and one girl of New Order mingle with thecrowd unnoticed, checking the reaction for themselves. It is enthusiastic,
as indeed it should be. "Confusion" is the result of an extraordinary
collaboration bringing together the opposing temperaments represented
by New Order's methodical pursuit of excellence and Baker's poltergeist
spirit. Though it began as an uneasy experiment, New Order rose to thechallenge ofworking at speeds and in conditions unknown to them.
"It's the onlytime we ever sat down to write," recalls bassist Peter Hookwith ashudder. "And God, was it hard!Arthur
Baker just stood there staring at us, sort ofgoing, go on, goon, write something, and wewere walking around in circles thinking,fucking hell, isn't it time to go home yet? We
don't normallywork well under pressure.""He'd start adrum machine off and send oneof us in saying, have ago on that synthesiser,"expands guitarist BernardAlbrecht, né Dicken(born Sumner]. "See what you can come up
with. So you're standing there thinking what
the fucking hell am Idoing? You'd do something
and he'd go, that's alright, turn off the drum
machine, start the tape rolling and say, right,
play it again. And even though there'd be aminute's worth of mistakes in it, he'd just say,fuck it. It's alright.
"The one thing he doesn't like about English records, he told us, isthey're too neat and clean. And! agree."
It is not out of vanity that New Order are listening to themselves in aNew
York club at 4.30am. Having just played the final date of agruelling
American tour in Trenton, New Jersey afew hours earlier, theywould
rather be back at their hotel celebrating the fact with some sleep.
But even at this hour, duty calls. They must film the video for"Confusion" before returning to Britain, particularly as Charles
Sturridge, whose previous credits include Brideshead Revisited, has been
flown out to make it. Don't let it be said that Factory don't do things instyle. (Stu rridge was brought in, incidentally, on the instigation of
Factory's Tony Wilson. They met at Granada TV, where Tony holds down a

day job and for whom Sturridge completed Brideshead.)At the point of filming, the group still weren't sure of the storyline
outside the fact that aPuerto Rican dancer fitted into it somewhere.
Echoes of Fame? Not unless it's at New Order's price...
HE ROCK OF America is riddled with bores. It has become suchcommonplace activity that talking music here is about as
exciting as discussing the weather.
Bohn would be the last person to bring it up, but at every stopping pointon his odyssey down Broadway to the Paradise Garage, where New Orderare playing their NY concert, he is earholed by aweevil wiv'an anecdote.
The hotel bellhop recalls every blow struck at aTalking Heads concert;asoda jerk gets frothy about all the new English bubblegum groups he's
had the pleasure of serving; acab driver hands him athesis on how
Ritchie Blackmore revolutionisedAmerica.
If in Britain forming agroup is-as Julien Temple has said-about asrebellious as joining the army, inAmerica beinginto rock is on apar withbeing in the civil service. Being into rock is being part ofa non-productive,
non-reactive glorified fan club there to service the needs of an idol elite.
Anyone tenuously linked with rock- and that can mean as little as
having the right haircut and an English accent-has the sort of credit
rating that will earn him afree cup of coffee at Bleecker Bob's Greenwich
Village record store, so long as he's prepared to put with the world's
loudest and oldest juvenile shooting off his latest Weltanschauung.
The clubs provide some sort of refuge from all this mundanity, partly
because the music is too loud to talk over, but mostly because the clubs
themselves are so gaudy and great, and the music they play so expertly
functional and supremely anonymous that people gratefully use themthe clubs and the music-and move on. Unlike those people who've
immersed themselves in the rockpool, they're not overcome with theneed to talk about it all the time.
Tonight, however, is not atypical one for the Paradise Garage. Normallyagay black disco, it has been leased at great expense to New Order for theconcert. Few of the regulars are evident in the audience, even though thesame group is responsible for astateside- indeed worldwide-club hit in"Blue Monday".
The slyest, most perfect, driest and most sexual of dance records, "BlueMonday" is amodel of anonymous functionalism, the work of agroup
who assert quality above novel identity.
And you can't believe howrefreshing that is until you've heard any oneof astream of British hits screaming, "love me, love me, love me!" fromeveryAnglophile store, radio station or club.
Nevertheless, despite themselves, New Order's concert draws an
audience in awe of the group's name and reputation, based on theimpressions theygot from reading the British
music press. They are at once given alot to live
up to and even more to live down...
"What people write about us is usuallyfive
miles wrong!" mutters Bernard ruefully.
"All these Americans know all the stuff, but
all they do is stare," says Peter Ilook, at once
flattered, frustrated and flabbergasted by their
American experience.
"It's reallywei rd. The first half-dozen gigs
before we got to NewYork, we went down pretty
well- abit too well. It waslike theywere just
waiting for us, we didn't have to win them overor anything. We'd alreadywon. All we had to do
was play. Theywere all shouting 'Dreams NeverEnd'!'Ceremony'!-just like they do in Britain.
At least we've had some lively, over-the-top audiences there, but here theonly lively audience we've had was in Austin, Texas. Otherwise we haven't
had to struggle, meaning there's no point to doing it really.
"Preaching to the converted isn't any fun is it?"That's as may be, but it doesn't take long before American audiences
become slightly unsettled bywhat they're seeing.
Brought up on the New Order mystique as fostered by the British musicpress, their reverence is duly shattered by the group's offhand andnonchalant stage manner, the long pauses between songs and maybe
even the summery sight of Bernard Albrecht in grey shorts, looking likenothing if not adevilish choirboy. Once the music starts sinking in, it
is obvious, too, that this isn't the same group that made the heavy
emotional demands of their first LP Movement and their early singles.

"I wanted the
lyrics Iwrote
to be good, butthey were notwonderful"

78 IHISTORY OF ROCK 1983

It is as if they've digested the darkness andrigour that informed those great, albeit
gloomy records and no longer feel the needto bludgeon people with their seriousness.
That period still informs the present New
Order, but in the interim they've become
lighter, freer and extraordinarily playful;which isn't to say they're any the lessaffecting, just that they now touch abroader
spectrum of feeling and experience.
NewOrder have become atruly fearlessgroup, one that refuses to be intimidated
eitherbytheir peers' trends or the desires of
the audience. Theywill take you- ifyou're
prepared to let yourself go- from the swollen
heartbleed of "InA Lonely Place", throughthe impishly turbulent "Temptation" andslamdance of "Confusion", and onto theentirelydifferent joyous plane of most ofPower, CorruptionAnd Lies.
Within the framework of one song- suchas "Your Silent Face -they'll couple the banaland comic with moments of true beauty. The
song is hooked into astunningly simple andsubliminal sequencer pattern that serves asboth rhythm and melody; it is topped with aridiculously insipid OMD-type synth tune,
which would have spoiled it, had it not been
rescued by Bernard's gently spiralling ocarina.
The words follow asimilar trajectory-one
moment reflective, the next hilarious. Could
you imagine the old New Order so carefully
drawing the listener into atissue-thin web ofsensitivity only to abruptly eject him with thekiss offlines: "Thesign that leads the way/The
path you cannot take/You caught me at abadtime... So why don'tyou piss off! "?
If any song marks the lucid New Order, it isthat one. Where the early records were written
under the shadow of Joy Division the songs
from "Temptation" onwards feel looser, morenatural.
"Well when we first started, Itried writing
serious lyrics and I
was just shit at it," remarks
Bernard candidly. "So for the second LP I
justwrote down whatever lfelt like. Ididn't reallycare whether the lyrics were good or bad on thesecond one so I
was more relaxed.
"On the first one I
felt so self-conscious
because I
was coming after Ian, who wassuch agreat writer. I
wanted the lyrics I
wrote
to be good. Theywere alright, but theywere
not wonderful. After I'd said fuck it, I
startedto enjoywritinga lot more. Ironically, thesongs on the second LP mean alot more tome. And because they're less self conscious,
they're more truthful to myself.
"With 'Your Silent Face', well, we wrotethat one in the studio. Because we wrote
this very beautiful emotional music, wethought to put abeautiful very emotional
vocal line over the top was abit obvious. So
we put down aquite nice vocal line andsome nice lyrics, but by the end we got stuck
for acouple of lines.
"Everyone was thinking of really
beautiful, poetic, meaningless lyrics. Then
Ithought, instead of having something
beautiful, poetic and meaningless, wemight as well have something dumb,
idiotic, coarse and meaningless. An
absolute contrast to the rest. Even roses
have thorns..." »HISTORY OF ROCK 1983 I70

1983

y SP UR

The foundations ofAmerica's Rock, based ana fake bonhomie, Boy
Howdy beer and cheesy McDonald's grins, are easily undermined.
The New Order way of doing things makes them quake alittle, notbecause it's calculated to, but because their genuinely casual approach,often at odds with the highly disciplined music they're playing,
constantly disrupts the mood of the night. Some interpret their laconic,
incommunicative stage demeanour as arrogance. Others think it's
funny. Aworldwide complaint seems to be that their sets- at around 45
minutes- are too short.
"Usuallywe're not contracted to playa specific time, so we come overhere and playa set which we think is long enough, but not so long that we
get bored," explains Peter Hook. "But everybody seems to think it is too
short-I don't knowwhether that's acompliment or not!
"We play45-50 minutes because it feels right to us. We almost caused a
not in Rotterdam once. The promoter gave out notices warning that thisband only plays 45 minutes, so if you don't like it
don't come in!
"That we don't play encores is another big beef
with people. Once, just as an experiment, we
played seven numbers, went off, came back on
and played three more. We played our usual ten
numbers, but because everyone thought we'ddone an encore theyweren't bothered!"Not everybody's so easily pleased, as Bernard
recalls with asmile.
"One kid in Sheffield acouple of years backsaid, you didn't play such and such asong
tonight and you only played for 45 minutes.
You've shattered all my dreams. Give me mymoney back! Fucking hell, Ialmost bottled thebastard! And he said, me three other mateswould like their money back as well!
"I dunno," he expands, "we shouldn't really categorise people Isuppose,but Iknow the type. We have the studious type with glasses and afringe
and we have the nasty-little-men-with-chips-on-their-shoulder typewho do that sort of thing. And the kind of people who have just read about

while Iwas jammed there he rammed the ears on me head and tookthephotograph!"
Another night the group's highly unconventional manager Rob Gretton
tempted the lighting man with 100 dollars to join New Order onstage andsing for one number.
"He stood there with the lyrics to 'CriesAnd Whispers', shivering likecrazy. You could hardly hear him!"
The best and cruellest prank, however, took place at London Brixton
and involved Joy Division biographer MarkJohnson, anAmericanwho
dogs New Order's every move. At their recent Ace concert, they got the
number of his 'bike announced over the PA, saying it was blocking anentry. When he rushed out to move it, he saw New Order's roadie vanhurtling up the road with his 'bike lashed to the top.
And there you were thinking that The Stranglers were the bad boys of
British pop.

p

ERHAPS BEFORE NEW Order depart
NYC for Washington DC, we should
brief the President about the group.
New Order are the phoenixwho rose from theashes of Joy Division, from Manchester, whowere the last popular group from Britain toprobe heart and soul with stark candour. Theynever attempted anything so conceited or
deceitful as writing anthems for doomed
youth, but the rigorous explorations of self, as
personified by vocalist Ian Curtis's words,
were uncannily right for the moment.
After Ian killed himself and Joy Division as
such no longer existed, popular music took
fright and for the large part regressed into its
present state of mercantile infantilism, as if nobodywanted to take therisk of running so deep again. Thus phun became the dictate of the day, apervasive cynicism gnawed away at any ideals that survived punk-to an
extent anecessary stage in pop's sweet growth- and business acumen
became the ruling aesthetic.
The greyly unimaginative post-punk indie boom wasn't particularly
encouraging to the independent cause; and because the media is only
capable of operating in terms of epic sweeps, they swept out theimaginative and inspired along with the rest.
The three surviving members ofJoyDivision, meanwhile, auditioned a
newsingerbut, finding no one suitable, brought in untutored musician
Gillian Gilbert-Steve Morris' friend-and renamed themselves New Order.
How about an introduction to yourself, Gillian? She is, incidentally, an
attractively down-to-earth and funny Mancunian who has the sort ofaccent that explains John Cooper Clarke's popularity.
"I vaguely knewJoy Division," she whispers. "I used to rehearse nextdoor to them in Manchester when I
was in apunk group, just before theirhit. I
used to go and see them and then I
got to know Stephen-I sat next to
his sister in geography, which is acoincidence really. Ha ha. I
think it was
one night at Liverpool Eric's and Ian had hurt his hand on abottle orsomething, so he couldn't playthe guitar for one
number. It wasn't averybig bit, so as I
could play
guitar abit, Iplayed that one number.
"Then, some months later the others called me. I
think they wanted someone without any knowledgeof guitarwhatsoever to remind them ofwhen they
started and couldn't play. I
think theywere also
looking for somebodywho didn't have any particular
style, so they could work them better into the band.""We didn't reallywant anybodywho could play,"
Stephen concurs. "If we got someone who could, hemight not fit inwith the waywe write songs and stuff,
so we decided the best thing to do was get someone in
fresh. Gillianwas the onlyperson
we knewwho couldn't play. We'dseen her playbefore and she
definitely couldn't!"
N 4•1
1%. 1
111MMISAM:
They spent ayear writing and
4 WIWI
grei:
Of>
rehearsing acompletely new set,
Iretaining only two unrecorded Joy
Division songs- "Ceremony" and"InA Lonely Place" -which they

"There's alotof nutcases
who buy ourrecords, Ican
tell ya"

you and expectyou to be exactlywhat they've read.""There's alot of nutcases who buy our records, Ican tell ya," says
drummer Stephen Morris, "who come backstage after agig. You know:
why didn't you play any Joy Division songs? VVhy did Ian Curtis killhimself? Some get reallyworked up about it.""Or they come in and tell you, you're abad of rubbish, you are," chips insynth operator and second guitarist Gillian Gilbert. "Imagine! It's like if
you were in apub and somebody said, you're aload of rubbishyou! You'dflippin' hit them round the ear'ole. But you're supposed to just sit there...""Or go, oh yeah, you're right," mocks Steve. "Soddin' hell. Fucking hell,
Ishould give it up now."
Later Bernard tells Bohn the biggest mistake people make about them:"Thinking we're serious. Because we're serious about the music they
thinkwe take everything seriously. Like, the other night akid camebackstage after the gig and asked us to sign an LP. Hooky told him to shove
it up his arse. We were onlyjoking, but because it's us
he took it serious and went away hurt.
"I dunno," he sighs. "They take everythingyou say
so seriously, as ifyou mean everything..."B

ERNARD BREEZES IN to the breakfast
room of the Holiday Inn, tired yet affable asalways. He takes along sigh, "fooKINell!" by
way of amorning greeting, and proceeds in his
quiet-spoken Lancashire burr of avoice and withagleam in his soft eyes to relate various anecdotes
and pranks that have occurred during the tour.
The most unlikely concerned a65-year-old stringer
for aGerman teen magazine
based in LA. He wanted the11group pictured in Mickey
NO UNDER 1/1's
NO REFUND:4
Mouse ears! Surprisingly, only
NO ADMISSION AFTER 10.30pm
Bernard refused.
•
I"Then I
made the mistake ofsitting in the pram we use topush around the video
equipment," he laughs, "andJ.,:

NEW ORDERSUPPORT

80 IHISTORY OF ROCK 1983

THE WAKE

1 SAT., 29th JANUARY, 1983 at 8.30 pm
Tickots

It'

NEV ORDER

released as their first single.
Anticipating the intense media
interest focused on their return,they sensibly avoided its glare. Withadmirable perseverance they stuck
to their own way. Being asensitive
collective beast, the media took New
Order's unwillingness to cooperate
personally and thus had them andFactory-the Mancunian
independent they'd allied
themselves to-figured as hostile,
sullen and incommunicative.
The lack of exposure hasn't
harmed them any. Through aseries
of infrequent international tours
and the odd date at home, they've
become the best-selling
independent group in the world,

will fit into the mould or not. Hip ismaking alot of people very narrowminded. Hip is like achain reaction.
Amusic paper gets very narrowminded in its approach, the people
who read it get that way andeventually it works its way intomusic. Then everything starts goingin one direction. The music scene inEngland now doesn't allow for any
kind of fringe to be successful."

r
•-i
-1

racking up club and radio hits inAustralia, NewZealand, Japan, Europe
andAmerica.
That they've done it their way-that is, with aminimum of fuss and theemphasis on quality, not personality- is something they quietly cherish.
Even if it has meant odd interpretations of the New Order silence.
"I just don't think the group should be at the forefront," asserts Peterwith some authority. "I don't think we're that important. If we've got
something to say, we say it. If we haven't got anything to say it doesn'tmean we're dumb. It just means we don't fancy shouting our mouths off,or something like that. But Iconsider the music very important because it
affects me, so Idon't see why it shouldn't affect other people as well. I
findit exhilarating, depressing, happy, sad or whatever. I
just don't think our
personalities need to be pushed."
The seeds of their mistrust of the mediawere sown when theywere still
Joy Division.
"In the very early days before Unknown Pleasures, the music press
detested us and that was akind of driving force
to go on," says Bernard. "When Unknown
Pleasures came out we were suddenly
wonderful. We went from being the most
unpopular group in the world to the mostpopular. Fucking ridiculous!
"I remember reading one live review of agig at
the Moonlight Club. We played three nights
there and got wonderful reviews from all ofthem, even though one night we were shit, reallybad. And the reviewfrom that night said, thisgroup was so good they made me want to piss inthe face of God!And we were fucking appalling!
When I
read that I
just thought the whole press
thing with Joy Division had gone completely
over the top."
Shyand conscious of their own privacy, they stopped doing interviews
three years ago. Most importantly they didn't want to get sucked into themusic industry mainstream.
Says Bernard: "We were worried in case once you started you would
begin to do things the way everybody else does and that would have been
boring. So to keep our noses clean ... It's been pretty enjoyable the waywe
got where we are today. It's been reallygood the waywe've done it because
we've not gone through the system and I, for one, feel better for it. Idon't
mean because I've done things honestly. I
mean, each to his own."
From the distance they've so admirably maintained from the pop
maelstrom, its absurd manifestations must appear ridiculous. From theother side, the constancy of New Order and its Factory allies might bemistaken as old-fashioned or slow-witted.
"I think this idea of being hip or not being hip is afucking load of shit,"
Bernard forcefully states. "It's atrap that music has got into. If you see theprogress of music as amaze, well now it has arrived at adead end. The
idea of hip has stopped people expressing themselves as much as theyshould do, because they're afraid of not being hip. Like, you can only be
hip ifyou've got this rhythm or these instruments, otherwise people willstop listening to you!
"I think it's terrible because it's stopped people producing music
unselfconsciously. They're too conscious of whether what they're doing

HE ONTARIO CINEMA,
located in one of
Washington's black
districts, specialises in lurid
Spanish pictures. But tonight
they're featuring New Order. Thatis, if they arrive.
Bohn and the photographer travelled down from NewYork in therelative splendour of an Amtrak train, passing through the Baltimore of
Diner, Philadephia and across the Delaware. Shortly before Wilmington
the train pulls up outside aplant called Destruction Of Confidential
Records. Bohn ponders whether he should throw in his notebook, but
decides that no guilty secrets are contained therein.
So much of what New Order says is good sense, and the waythey've
ploughed their money back into Manchester byway of The Haçienda clubis exemplary. Their attitude ought to serve as astrong example in thesetimes when popstars would sell their soul for aline- preferably on amirror but otherwise in ateenzine. Not to mention the nobility of theirart; he is pleased to publish it.
The group travel down by air shuttle, arriving at Dulles ("s Dullesfucic!"sneers Simon Topping, who is guesting with the opening act Quando
Quango) Airport. Half an hour before the show is due to begin, Steve
Morris, Peter Hook and manager Rob Gretton are still missing. Quando
Quango, also aFactory act, are sent out toappease the restless audience with theirstylishly aloof and bemused funk.
It works fine, but the four songs they've
brought with them don't last long. In themeantime the three have arrived "ratarsed
pissed" on melon ball cocktails. Hooky
immediately falls asleep under adressingroom
table and later melts into the night.
He's still playing hookeywhen the group,
already hours late, must go on. They start
without him and try to pass off Rob Gretton as
the Third Man, but even from the back it isobvious that this figure in drooping tracksuit_ vest and shorts flailing away at the cymbals,
often as not missing them, is not the right man.
Midway through the second song, Hooky shows. "Ah, the black sheep
returns," mutters Bernard, while shooting Hooky arueful glance.
Hooky straps on his bass, looks out into the audience and apologises:"Hi shitheads!"
Anew order: being pissed means never having to sayyou're sorry.

"We've notgone throughthe system
and Ifeelbetter for it"

T

0COMPENSATE, Anew, healthy Hooky arrives first in Trenton,
New Jersey. Hardly aprestigious finale to the tour, it is agodforsaken, rundown place, the equivalent of anorthernmilltown after the mills have closed down. The venue is once again in
the black quarter.
Next door, parents are holding acarnival to raise money for the baseball
Little League. It is here New Order go for aphoto session, gathering infront of something called The Hellhole.
What's on the other side?
"A vision of what's to come for them's that misbehave," pronounces theticket collector.
Dulywarned, New Order stop squabbling over who should wear the
funny glasses and line up for their portraits. Bergmanesque visions of thegrim reaper no longer hover behind the music of New Order. Cries andwhispers have transmuted into smiles on asummer night. New Order
have struggledwith the Meaning of Life and come out winning. Chris Bohn •HISTORY OF ROCK 1983 I81

'Always too
drunk"(trans: "kiss my hole"),featuring former Nip,
arerewiring Irish music forthe post-punk era. The
songs are timeless,says Shane. "They'reto do with things that
happen to everyone
whether they're
young or old."

D

NME

URINGTHE'76- '77 era of Pistols punk, young
Shane MacGowan was quite awell-known faceabout town, immortalised by the gossip columns
when he had the lobe wrenched from his sizeable
ear by Kate Modette.
He was also, as lead singer with awayward crew

called Ihe Nips, one of the most charmingsingerswashed up on the
punky wave. Best remembered for the cute "Gabrielle" single, The
Nips fell apart, partly trampled by the great recordingcontract
goldrush and mostly by personal disillusionment.
"Up to acertain age Ihad the mistaken belief that rock musicwas
worth the time of day and that there was money to be made in it,
though there certainly wasn't in The Nips. So Ithought, fuck it! Let'sdo
somethingcompletely different, somethingat least vaguely based on
Irish music, because Iknew alot of the songs from my mum and dad
and the parties theyused to have.
"Before, I'd never thought of playing it onstage, but it became
obvious that everything that could be done with astandard rockformat had been done, usually quite badly. We just wanted to shovemusic that had roots and is just generally stronger and has more realanger and emotion down the throats of acompletely pap-orientated
pop audience."
On the opening nights of Richard Strange's Cabaret Futura the plan »Mahone Ranger's
unndbook
GA VIN MARTIN meets the Dunks whoturned to Irish folk music and became
the Pogues with the brogue1983u
was put into action, though not too successfully.
"It ground to ahalt because we were always too drunk to getanything together," he candidly admits.
It was also around then that the new group got its namePogue Mahone, which is Gaelic for "kiss my hole", alast
minute handle coined when they were typically inebriatedbefore their second gig- and one that stuck.
"I think it's apretty stupid name," says Shane.
Now, following an influx of more "responsible members"Maestro Jimmy Fearnley (accordion, himself aformer Nip),
Andrew Ranken (drums), Caitlin O'Riordan (bass), andCountryJem Finer (banjo) -the wayward drive and spirit of
Shane and Spider Stacey (tin whistle and additional singing)has been anchored to astable and exciting musical base.
Although largely still unsung, they are one of the best
unrecorded groups on the London circuit.
Where alot of groups are starting to incorporate the odd
fiddle or accordion into their rocky format, Pogue Mahonehave torn the music up by the roots and replanted it in a
hothouse of twanging bluegrass banjo, the storming throb of
pagan 'billy beat', impressive harmonies and an accordion
that can go from wild jigs to lustrous melodies.
While benefitting from the obvious strengths and qualities
of aforgotten musical heritage the Pogues also bring a
refreshing attack by approaching it from their own
standpoint and intuition. As Jem points out, theyweren't
brought up in the traditional Irish environment and it would
be stupid to try and sound that 'authentic'.
Irish rover:Shane
Shane: "I can't stand The Chieftains and people like that
relaxes at aClash
who are completely technically brilliant, the sort of stuff that
gig in March 1977
is respected in this country that makes all the real money outof Irish music."
Spider: "They neuter it; they take all the feeling out of it."sing it. Ithink most of our stuff has
Precisely because of the staleness and uniformity that surrounds
that quality."
Irish folk music I'd never listened to much of it. But it's obvious listening
One of their traditional numbers, "Theto The Pogues, and their judicious choice of traditional music, thatBand Played Waltzing Matilda", not only
those old songs actually grow in poignancy and relevance as time
has one of the most moving vocals I've
passes, as well as having tunes that are guaranteed to brand themselves
heard all year- avoice truly sickened byon your brain plate.
the sorrowful waste of war-but it's also
Shane: "They're timeless. They're to do with things that happen toatelling indictment of atragedy thateveryone whether they're young or old. You don't have to be part of theexists today.
youth subculture to relate to it, it doesn't have teen angst or anything so
Shane: "People are still coming back fromfuckin' stupid. It's based on strong melodies, which to me is what asongwars in bits to acountry
is. It isn't some pathetic attempt at atune dressed up and synthesised bythat offers them nothing. Like The FalklandsTrevor Horn and all the rest of it. You ought to be able to just sit there andanother example ofyoung lives being thrown
down the drain because of some stupid fuckin'
DING WAILS
government's idea of territorial rights."—
LONDON
But it would be wrong to give the impressionthat the Pogues are simply living off the past.
At least half their set comprises originals. Was
it hard to write songs that could stand up—
JANUARY 4—
against the traditional material?
Shane: "I haven't aclue how our own songs
ekteiv gig siltiws sllaulbolic promisc
stand up. Obviously they are not as good as
HANE WAS THE lead singer with The
Pluses -Shane has afine
Irish folk songs, but we're not an Irish folk band
N% Nips, the bloke who had his earlobe cut
singing voice, one of the few people thisas such. Most of our songs are about London."L! by Kate of The Modettes at aClash gig,
side of 40 who can actually use his voice
They are also amix oflife, humour andapunk mini-legend. Pogue Mahone is theexpressively and draw you into the places
lyrical intrigue.
band he's been hatching over the past18
and feeling sketched out in the songs. The
There's "Streams Of Whiskey", asongmonths, using accordion, acoustic guitar,songs themselves are barbed and naked,
I
thought was actually traditional.
tin whistle, bass and (sometimes) drums,
painting ablunt, sometimes squalid picture
Shane: "It's atotally irresponsible andastyle pre-empted by phase three
but never forgetting the effectiveness of ablatant defence of heavy drinking-there's no
Dexys but Pogue Mahone's approach
good tune or amerry jug. Folk music? Allother way to describe it. I
like to think it is at
is different -more bar room b(r)awl
depends what sort of folk we're talking
least poetically written. It's about meeting
than showband revue.
about I
suppose.
Brendan Behan in adream and having him
They suffer from disorganisation,
F'rinstance, one song takes the life of a
expound his philosophy on life, which is
scrappiness and long periods of tuning up
navvy building the railroads in the1800s,
basically- fuck it!"between songs.
another deals with his descendants in postThe demon drink also features in theIronically the lifestyle that fuels the songs
punk boom London giving Arabs hand-jobs
instrumental "Repeal The Licensing Laws"
is also holding them back. Ashame because
and dropping mandies. But they are taking
which, played with agusto that suggests a
were they to tighten up they could be anthemselves seriously enough to make areal
topic very close to their hearts, proves that you
abrasive, honest and strong sideswipe at
go of it? Pogue Mahone is Irish Gaelic formaybe able to take an Irishman off his native
customary ways and expectations.
"kiss my hole". Gavin Martin, NNE Jan 15,1983

Bar-room bawl

NME JAN 15 u

S4 IHISTORY OF ROCK 1983

LIVE!

Sea shanties:
The Pog ces in
St Malo,France,
November 6,1983

beat, but you can't take the native beat off
an Irishman.
"Connemara Let's Go" is aghost story about aguy out roaming the fields, who comes across
one of the mass graves where plague victims
were buried.
Shane: "It's also about the way touristskrauts andAmericans -go over to Ireland andthink of it as anice little place full of donkeys
and carts, and they don't understand thetragedy of its history, or that they belong toaculture that has systematically destroyed it.
It's not something that I'm particularly bitter
about, but I'm just saying it's happened."
While it should be clear to anyone with halfabrain that what the Pogues are doing in their punchy, wholly revitalised
pub folk format is worlds apart from the lavish showband revue of Dens
Midnight Fiddlers, there will be afew dullards who'll see apicture andthink that they are treading familiar ground.
Shane was waiting for that suggestion.
"The difference between us and them is as big as you could imagine.
Iused to really like Dexys when theywere doing the soul stuff. Theywere
brilliant, absolutely great; one of the best groups I'd ever heard. But thispathetic attempt they've made to incorporate some kind of Celtic bit with the fake wearing of dungarees and berets and growing stubble andwalking round without any shoes and straw hanging out of their hair andall the rest of it-is such afuckin' insult to the whole thing.
"And they go and put asong from Tom Moore-who wrote songs thatwere accepted in Victorian England fer Christ's sake- on the back of thealbum. It's rubbish, what they've done is made abland type of soulmusic with afew fiddles thrown in and they
don't even play them like fiddles, they playthem like orchestral instruments. It's got no
relevance at all. It's pop -it's exactly what we're
not doing; it's completely cynical.
It's so obviously someone just looking foranew image.""As manypeople as
possible have7,
to be subjectedto this"ALL AND SKINNY, clad in baggy suitswith holes in the most awkward places
and aset of teeth that make Keith
Richards' seem like an enviable piece ofdentistry... Shane is agood advertisement forthe sort of abject poverty the Pogues claim istheir main problem.
I'd also suggest that acertain lack of discipline, probably attributable toasizeable alcohol intake, spoils them at times and they sound more
sloppy than energetic. Recently, however, they have been improving
significantly and seem to have reached the right balance between control
and the true heart and spirit of their music.
Their appearances are haphazard, and with no manager things tend to
be disorganised and, as yet, there's been no record company patronage.
(I dread to think howthey'd deal with them anyway.) But they're well past
the stage ofjust doing it for alaugh, and Shane has got his sights set high.
"I want to be on TOTPbecause I
want money basically, and also as many
people as possible have to be subjected to this. After that it's up to themwhether they like it or not.
There's no waywe're going to compromise the basic ideas for anybody.
Ithink we can get on TOTPwithout compromising.
"NI was sure we couldn't, then I'd compromise," he grins. Gavin Martin •HISTORY OF ROCK 1983 I85

Billy Bragg: "no frills"LPfrom theBard of Barking

ALBUMS
Billy Bragg

VIRGINIA TURBETT /GETTYUTILITY

Finally, one-man band Billy Bragg
makes an appearance on vinyl
following his steady progress as
ahit-and-run live attraction.
Clearly this is alow-budget job,wrapped in agenuinely
unpleasant white-and-orange
sleeve like an old Penguin.
The contents are simply Bragg
with guitar, recorded "in straightstereo". For the price of entry('no more than £2.99') you get
seven of Bragg's own bittersweetcompositions, ranging from the
sprightly "Richard" through thepunning "The Milkman Of
Human Kindness" to thehaunting and stately "Man In The
Iron Mask". Having heard someof Bragg's demos and witnessed
the wit and voltage he can put
into alive show, I
have to say thiscollection is disappointing. The
recording quality is stark, or
perhaps blunt is abetter word,with no frills whatsoever. It might
have been agood plan for Bragg
to have included "The Cloth"with adrum machine, to supply
alittle variety.
Still, there's no doubting thequality of his songs, and the boy's
86 IHISTORY OF ROCK 1983

potential has tobe considerable.
You may havenoticed me wafflingon about Bragg in the past,
but just let me repeat that hecreates deceptively robust
melodies out of almost nothing
and clothes them with lyrics byturns compassionate, bitter andperceptive. Most importantly,
Bragg possesses thatinestimable advantage of arazorsharp earthy wit which can get
him out of any number of tightcorners. Still recommended, butthere's better to come. Adam
Sweeting (MM Aug 6)

Virginia Astley

ROUGH TRADE

Aperpetualspring ofartistic
inspiration is
the fact that
we don't knowwhat we've got
until it's gone.
Ecstasy issomething we
experience (ifwe're lucky)
and the• é

desperate appreciationthat we should havecaught the moment,cherished it andfeverishly fought toprolong it is necessarily
an afterthought.
Innocence and purity(concepts not often
found in this paper) areretrospectives and to
be aware of them is, inessence, to be no longer
innocent or pure.
Our childhood days,
especially, are aparadise
lost, awonderment ofacquired impressions
free from theresponsible burden of
self-realisation. Once
our instincts awaken into
contemplation, it's toolate. That time is gone
and, try as we may, we
can never go back.
From Gardens WhereWe Feel Secure is arareand precious thing, anevocative elegy ;thebest we can hope for,amomentaryfragment ofcompleterecollection,
pregnant with all
the fleetingly
suggestedemotional traumasof an induced déjà
vu. How it works is
simplicity itselfrecreating one golden
moment, one summer's day fromits fidgeting dawn to its drowsy
dusk. It can be lying in the longgrass gazing at the sky while all
around sounds and smells fuse
to intoxicate and lull the senses
into timelessness.
It can be waltzing throughawater meadow, dispensing
clouds of pollen as, far off,
through the open window ofamusic room, agentle breeze
wafts the sounds of apiano
lesson. It can frolic through an
orchard as big as the world. It can

LIFE SA RIOTWITH SPY VS SPY
BILLY BRAGG

be, as one of its titles reflects,"A Summer Long Since Past".
I
don't want to waste time here
dwelling on the execrable idiocy
that frustrated the release of thisalbum for more than ayear, rd
rather just pray the weather
holds to complement its arrival.
But what's all this got to do withrock 'n' roll? Well, nothingactually, except that From
Gardens Where We Feel Secureis the first substantial work fromone of our most creative young
composers/musicians.
No term seems appropriate,
because Virginia Astley spurns
such regimented categorisationand that's what, almost
incidentally, this is all about;breaking down the walls of
prejudice and broadening thelistening tastes of ageneration
far too long discouraged frominvestigating vast areas of musicby the incomprehensible rituals
and ludicrous pageants ofcultural snobbery.
But, if you must have equations,
From Gardens probably wouldn't
exist without Eric Satie, Brian
Eno, or The Beatles. Basically it's
apiano piece occasionally,sparsely and tastefully tinted
with synthesizer, flute andacoustic guitar and laced with
taped effects -atwittering dawn
chorus, acarillon, acreaking
garden swing, achoir of children,
abraying donkey, ahooting owl-to trigger precise associations
for our imaginations to imbue
with personal recall.
Its beauty is its sensitivity ;its
purposeful if naively doomed
pursual of its intention without
ever resorting to gratuitous
embroidery. It is never thegimmick I
can hardly help making
it sound -in fact, I've lived withatape of this album for ninemonths or so now and, in its many
repeated plays, it has never once
palled, never once failed to set
off arich response of thoughts
and feelings.
I
suppose comparisons with
Tubular Bells are injudicial, but,certainly the potential
is here for Ms Astley todelight asimilarly large
audience. Essentiallythough, From
Gardens... is aprivate
piece, something
into which you invest
your own personal
experiences and allow
the tricks time plays
to imbue the past witharosy sentiment.
And, for all those
who'll allow some selfconscious hip bigotry

to persuade them From
Gardens... isn't cool enough fortheir taste -it just goes to show
that, for all their sloganeering,some people will never be able
to tell soul from shoe leather.
Steve Sutherland (MM Aug 6)

Robert Plant
ATLANTIC

Afan of Robert Plant
since I
first heard
Led Zeppelin II
I've come to expect
acertain standardof excitement,
invention andtechnique from asinger
who must be rated as oneof the best in the world.
The last thing I
bargained for
was Plant producing an album as
dreary as this. Plant's first solo
effort, Pictures At Eleven wasalittle gem; one of my favouritesof last year, in fact.
But all the drama, the styleand the sheer clout appears
to have gone AWOL as far as
The Principle Of Moments
is concerned. Plant sings
adequately, but he's let down
badly by his band, the production
and the quality of the songs.
There are eight newcompositions on the album,
written by Plant and membersof his band, but none of them areat all memorable. Plant scarcely
raises his tempo beyond amere
canter. For example, on "Thru'
With The Two Step", he lazily
wraps his vocal chords around adull and droning melody line
which, in terms of quality, could
easily be an out-take from the last
Men At Work album.
On drums, Plant has recruited
Phil Collins and Barriemore
Barlow and neither do much
more than ajourneyman's job.
Guitarist Robbie Blunt is scarcely
able to fight his way out of themaze of clichés while bassist PaulMartinez is merely adequate.
Keyboardist Jezz Woodroffe
might as well have taken the dayoff, for all the impression his
contributions make.
The production -credits areshared by Plant, Benji Lefevre
and Pat Moran -is basic andechoey. It does little to enhanceeither the vocal or instrumental
performances. Yes, it's
adisappointment all right. I
think
the main let down is that Principle
could have been recorded by any
one of awhole host of dreary
bands. It lacks class and it lacks
distinction -which is somethingI
never thought I'd find myself
writing about Plant. Brian Harrigan(MM, Juba)

Tooting their horn:
Andy McCoy andMichael Monroeof Hanoi Rocks

SINGLES

IUB40

DEP

Depeche Mode

INTERNATIONAL

REM

MUTE
IRS
Rather less glum than usual, but
UB40 still sound
Dependable as
In aweek largely unsullied
unaccountably dour;the postman,by decent records,
even when their
Depeche Mode
this is...
mood is asdeliver another little
reasonable.
dinnocuously
packet of impeccable pop
HighlySloewhich Iwas happily prepared tosentimental
traditionalhate, but couldn't. The contents
as it is here;
and guitar
are as expected ;awhacking
their musicorientatedseems
great thud of abeat withbut sung
crowded by
twiddly bits jumping all round it;
and playedcdoubt andanagging chorus; rich vocal
as thoughcontrasts; athoughtful
cloudythe group at
fltg ato°
production and an arrangement
premonitions.
least intend to
4,Eao,
Pe lathat guarantees the final
Adrab
get to the end.
sparkle. It's the lyric that got
re-working of anIwonder what it
old Neil Diamondme, though. Not that the Modewas like reviewing
are telling us anything we didn't
song, "Red Red Wine" limps
singles ini967? "Far out",know -"It's aalong, atouch off colourIshould imagine. (,1H,Aug6)
4s•pm
competitive world/in mostRock Steady Crew
Everything
departments and
VIRGINcounts in large
soundly asleep ,amounts" in the rest.
ir
Afeeble, watered down, jolly
ODE
but there's
hockey sticks version of theHardlynep
someparty-happy
ElectroBronx idiom. Robbed ofs‘NG CCiliteS
amusing
visceral impact; it fails to haveat the besttwordplayof times, thisany point to its existence at all.
is UB40t.Ger'e °"‘)
to be
Except to get on the radio. And
t
6I '
den
soundingr"ejee«mewl‘ndiscovered
sell lots of records. And make5
u"„,de teebriedroll and not a $round here.
lots of money.
•
podut
gam"
•
littlegormless,
\
etb
mode
Proceedingat
Oh yeah, that's what it's
ttste Gb,
trying awkwardly•44%.. 1.°"'""
afairly sedate
all about!
erepace, this is a
Oh God, it's awful, take it off,
to sound lightQP'!"
number you'd jiggle
TAKE IT OFF! (Nfrtsep24)
hearted and charming.
rather than dance to. 0,
o4 Julio
The final effect is like being
Hanoi Rocks
French-kissed by asloth: wet,
Billy JoelCBS
LICK
lingering and sloppy. (4N.Auso3)
Agood way to wind up
Black leather, cheap smack,
Stickboy le Sutherland is tolggy Pop, Keith Richards, these
insist that Billy Joel is one ofare afew of the favourite things
the finest songwriters andfor young rockers who should
performers of hisknow better. "Until I
Get You"is the sound of the '70s twisted
generation, which of course
into the present for what
he is. So I've heard. This
record is chubby and full of
purpose, one wonders? Is
this really what little girls like?
wind, which I
hope cannot be
said for its creator. (HHAu ge)(frIM Aug 27)

Cla

i
efeet

Air *gee,: 4stve

HISTORY OF ROCK 1983 I87

°Wu

JULY-0018"I'm not saying
Iain't amiserable ç'°‘bastard"
PAUL WELLER rums withanew band, THE STYLECOUNCIL. "We dondo any far-out shit withfuckin' synthesizers or
Swiss Alpine horns," hesays. "I'd sooner settle forbeing great than original."

.4
•

,:

ITÎ

•
4 e We.
of W -

U'•

.so eSharp-dressed
men:The Style
Council's Paul
WellerandMick
Tall3oto983

W

MELODY MAKER
HO THE HELL does Paul Weller think he is?
He's had afew labels flung at him in his time-miserable bastard, Spokesman For A
Generation, spearhead of the Bulldog Breed.
To some extent all these hats have fitted, but as
he points out with his tongue somewhere in his

cheek, he is aGemini.
"I hope you're not gonna make too much in the article about how
different ¡am and how I've changed and all that," Weller said to me as weapproached the end of this interview last week.
Hmmmm... it's tempting. But of course it's one of the peripherals of famethat everybody thinks theyknowyou. Paul Wellerwith The Jam was noted
for his dour pronouncements about big subjects like Youth and Society.
Paul Weller, Style Councillor, seems to be undergoingthe painful processof growing up in private, something he's never had the chance to do before.
But he admitted it was his own fault. "This probably sounds abit
mellow," he said apologetically, "but Ireally just wanna try and get on
with the job of enjoying my life now, as much as Ican, while trying not to
get too lazy and complacent about things. I
didn't really get achance toenjoy the last fewyears and that, for different reasons.
"I try and savour each..." -he chuckled to himself-"...each moment as
well, I'm not winding you up, Ireally do. 'Cos otherwise life just rushes
past you. That six or seven years or whatever with The Jam just went like
that, they flew past. Iwas 18, then the next thing I
knew I
came out and I
was 24. So now I
just savour it, y'lcnow- Itry to anyway. Because it's avery
precious thing to me."
So does Paul Weller really knowwho he is?
I'd interviewed him once before for the now
defunct Sound International after SoundAffects
came out, and he'd surprised me by admittingthat interviews made him more nervous astime went by. I
could tell by the way his hand
shook that he wasn't just saying it for effect. It
has also surprised me that aman whose public
pronouncements made him appear aggressive,
obsessive and dogmatic actually had aproblem
with sitting down face-to-face with scribe andtape recorder, and talking.
Long pauses would be interrupted by gabbled
bursts of sentences which collapsed untidily on
top of each other, like arugby scrum
squabbling in the mud while the ball
had already sped over the line 50
yards away. Weller had theunfortunate gift of communicating
nervousness to other people.
This time around, on ablazing
Thursday in the hottest July for 324
years, Paul Weller brought along alittle moral support in the shape of
fellow Stylist MickTalbot, whowatched the proceedings withamused detachment and failed torescue Weller from any awkward
questions. "Come on, Mick, saysomething," Weller pleaded after
five minutes.
"Alright, alright," groaned Talbot.
"I gotta wake up yet..."today 'cos you were coming." Cheers, then. This was, of course, asly dig at
the rockist way of life, which rarely begins before three in the afternoon.
You will appreciate that we're dealingwith the New Europeans here,
sharp young men who wash behind their ears and don't squander theirhard-earned cash on wasted studio time or morale-sapping stimulants.
We settled ourselves around the inevitable batch of cappucini and rolled
the tape.
!kicked off by suggestingthat the new Style Council record, "Long Hot
Summer" and its three accompanying tracks, recorded in Paris andpackaged accordingly, was somewhat arty-farty, not very Paul Weller.
"Whatcha mean?" demanded Weller. "What are you judging that on?"Well, on the things you used to talk about in the past, the hardline stuff.
What's all this with French lyrics and French sleeve notes?
"There's loads of things that go into an idea like that, the Paris thing,"
he explained. "We thought the music suited it, we fancied recording
somewhere else partly because it makes abit of abreak as well, alittle bitof aholiday, and mainly we just wanted to do something abit different
and get away from the conventional way that people work.
"Some reviews have said how pretentious it was, which is what theidea was- it was supposed to be quite funny. Alot of people missed that
because they think they've got me bagged, they tend to th ink they know
my mentality, but they don't know fuck all about me really. Most of the
public character I've got, if I've got any, has only been created by you lot
anyway." He laughed fleetingly, about semi-colon length.
Ah, you mean "Paul Weller the miserable bastard?""I'm not saying..." began Weller, but Talbot interrupted. "He's notsaying he ain't.""No I'm not sayingl ain't amiserable bastard,"
chuckled Weller. "No, Imean obviously it's nottotally created by the media, and I
must havehelped in some way towards it."Yeah, if you put yourself in the firing line
that's what happens. You haven't been doing
many interviews lately, but with The Jam there
was always the anti-rock attitude and the social
commitment stance. You're obviously nottalking about those things so much now.
"But Ican't talk about the same things inevery interview," Weller protested, "because
people would just get bored, you know. Idon't
wanna keep repeating meself but that doesn'tmean Idon't feel the same way about certain
things. [just don't want to keep
talking about it, because what does it
do? It doesn't further it. Ithink the
Style Council is more anti-rock in theway we work and what we've done in
the past. We just want to keep it as
exciting and interesting as possible,
that's the main thing."
The Style Council's three releases
so far have been markedly dissimilarfrom each other. First there was thesoftly soulful "Speak LikeA Child",
then the explosive militant funk of"Money Go Round", and now theParis collection, with its R&B
instrumental "Party Chambers",
the Gauloises-and-autumn-leaves
romanticism of "The Paris Match",the lonely "Le Depart" and thesomewhat tepidA-side.
The emphasis has shifted
significantly since Jam days fromexplicit statement towards alessempirical eclecticism, using the loose
umbrella ofThe Style Council tospeak in numerous tongues-a softer
range of dialects in place of The Jam's
strident barricade-storming. ThisPaul Weller hears voices in his head
where The Jam was sometimes justaringing in the ears.

"I regret alotof my actionsin the past, butthere's nothing
you can do"

A

TWELLER'S SUGGESTION,
we'd adjourned to the caff
next door to Polydor. The
sun was already well into its stride,
though it was only 10.30 in themorning. After the interview, Mickand Paul were due in the studios tocontinue work on their album.
"Bit early, innit?" Iprotested.
"We always start this early," breezed
Weller. "In fact we've had to delay itî

90 IHISTORY OF ROCK 1983

Weller: There's somany pretentious
bastardsabout,including me"édieueewe,
Aleweltebelw-meiN ,•-4111.«-••,Have you given up being aSpokesman For
AGeneration, Paul?
"I'm just part-time now," retorted Weller, "I only
do evenings."
Itold him that I'd often heard conversations along
the lines of "I hate Paul Weller because he says, 'Give
up all this jaded rock garbage and do what I
sayinstead - -in otherwords, people felt he just wanted to impose his own
rigid set of ideas on them in place of anythingwhich had gone before.
Weller looked contemptuous. "I couldn't really care less what people aresaying, quite honestly. Most of it Ifind really funny, 'cos they don't knowme anyway. But most of that 'Spokesman ForA Generation' stuffwas only
the papers anyway, Inever said Iwas one.
"I just find it abig cliche and I
can't really take it seriously. If there are thingsI
write in songs that people identifywith, Idon't thinkthat particularly
makes me aspokesman, just because alot of people feel the sameway."
But are there never times when you wish you weren't known for being'Paul Weller', with your name (metaphorically) in lights? Do you everresent your name becoming that well known?
"Not really, no," he said. "I do resent it sometimes, but then again eversince Iwas 14, Ireally, really wanted that, so Ican't blame anyone else
but meself for it. The only things that bother meare... well, like that

All whiteon thenight:•

Wellerperformson- The Tuhe,1983

thing you were saying before, that the new single
doesn't sound like me, y'know? Ican't make any
sense of things like that because... what do
Isound like?"
It's not necessarily the sound of the music; it's thefact that it's pretentious.
"It's supposed to be," he said tersely.
Yes, Ipersisted, but there's all this stuff in French, plus the blatherings of
the Cappuccino Kid...
"Don't you like those bits on the back?" asked Weller innocently. "Don't
you get anything from them?"
Um... no, Ithink I
could put it better myself. Weller seemed pensive.
"Hopefully some people get something from it. It's abit of amixture, it's
meant to be funny as well. I
think it's good to put something like that on
there, like ifyou've got arecord as heavy as 'Money Go Round' to havesomething else there, sort of human side. Idunno, Ilike it. It means alot tome, I
get alot from it."
But Paul, isn't it the kind of thingyou would have thrown out if it had
been suggested with The Jam, like "Ah, that's bullshit"?
"This isn't The lam, though; this is The Style Council," he pointed out.
"My ideas change all the time. Ican't remain the same on every
single subject." »HISTORY OF ROCK 1983 I91

1983
p

AUL WELLER STILL talks too fast and sometimes mumbles
answers to the pavement, but it seems safe to say that the weightof the world, or at least of the British Isles, no longer bears downon his shoulders so oppressively.
"It's less important for me to go out and prove myself to other people,
because I've had six years of people judging me, whether it be the press or
the public. So it's not important to me anymore, it's not important to me
to play Wembley or Bingley Hall or to have Number One records. It's only
important to make good music."
Regrets? He's had afew, but then again...
"I regret alot of my actions in the past, but there's nothingyou can doabout it, so I
just try and make sure Idon't do them again."
Like what, for instance? Standing up on asoapbox, perhaps?
"No, I
don't regret doing that. Ifelt it was necessary to do that. And if Ifelt
it necessary again I'd still do that, y'know. Like people said with 'Money
Go Round' it was aself-righteous lyric and all the rest of it, but I
don't give
ashit about that. To me it's an important thing to say, it's astatementIwanna make. Idon't care what people are going to think of me."Beneath the more cosmopolitan surface of the current Paul Weller
there's still abelligerent streak of defiance. Like the beast in the cellar, it's
kept under heavy lock and key, but it still goes on the rampage from time
to time when somebody forgets to feed it.
"There's this kind of humilitything around at the moment," spat Weller
scornfully. "You get all these crappy bands saying, 'It's just pop music,
we're not gonna write lyrics that make 'em think. We're just apop group'-y'know, this kind of humble shit. Idon't find anything exciting or brave
about that. People say, 'Well, you have to like their honesty,' and all that
crap, but Ithink it's just afucking excuse."
He cites Culture Club, Animal Nightlife, JoBoxers and Orange Juiceas contemporary artists whose work he admires, "but at the other end
you've just got that record company thing, that pre-packaged pop thing.
All those faceless groups you see just dressed up in their tarty clothes andslapped-on makeup, they're useless. There's nothing behind them."
This is true, of course, but Ifelt it was my duty to raise the issue of
Weller's Respond record label, home of Tracie and The Questions. There's
much talk of this being music for "young people", Ipointed out, but it's
young people playing an old style of music. It's basically old soul music,
isn't it, like Tracie's "The House That Jack Built" or The Questions' singles?
"I don't agree with that, Adam, I'm sorry. No. I'm not saying it's not
influenced by that because of course it is, but Ithink it sounds very
contemporary-to me it does anyway."
Well, the artists may be young and enthusiastic, but the form of music
isn't anything new.
"Well, what else can you do, you know?" demanded Weller. "What else
can you play music on? We don'twanna do anyfar-out shit with fuckin'synthesizers or Swiss Alpine horns or something; we just want to playnatural instruments. Idon't see how else we can do it really.
"We didn't try and claim that it was gonna be atotally original new
sound, although I
think that will emerge anyway, because how can you
be original anymore? Everything's been done in the last five or sixyears-every conceivable type of music has..."Iagreed with Weller-I'd just been hoping he'd have adifferent answer.
MickTalbot chipped in. "It's just aquestion of making good music, innit?""I'd sooner settle for being great than original," Weller continued.
"Originality's just what people hear in it anyway- if someone really likes
asong it'll sound original to them anyway. I'm not bothered about
originality, Idon't even think about it.
"I just see music as either good or bad; it's such apersonal thing anyway.
Itell you one thing, I'm really sick of all this intellectualising of music. I've
done it myself in the past, so I've been guilty of it, but the way the papers
and that do it is just pointless. They're just leading themselves up theirown arseholes."So do you think that's what has damaged music?
"It fucking has," insisted Weller, "cos there's somany pretentious bastards about... including me...
no, Ido it on purpose. But there's so much crap
talked about it, so many people who really believe
all that shit that's written about them. I
think that's
ruined it.
"For me, the reason why black music's always
remained so good is because it's always been
intuitive. They've never particularly tried tointellectualisewhat they're doing or 'why am
92 IHISTORY OF ROCK 1983

I
writingthis song?' They've just gone out
and done it and that's whyit always sounds
brilliant, to me anyway. It still does nowand it
always will, for that reason. In the white musicscene you just get that intellectual crap and it
ruins it. As I
say, I've been guilty of that in thepast but I've really been trying to avoid it."
In particular, groups like U2, the Bunnymen
and perhaps even the mighty Simple Minds,
get Paul Weller's goat. "Maybe I'm missingthe
point," he said. "Also it's just not my type ofmusic, so maybe I've got no right to talk about
it. But I
saw U2 on The Tube and I
just think itsounds old-fashioned. I
think U2 are aload ofwallies- if theyhad long hairand wore
headbands no one would look twice orwrite
about them. That thingyouwere saying about
Respond being old-fashioned-well that's
what Ithinkof those groups."
But there were plenty of those rock-type
elements about The Jam, Paul.
"Of course there were," he confessed.
"When we first started off, The Jam were arock band. Towards the end Istarted trying to
get away from that because I'd started hating
it. But we were, yeah.
"I just saw alot of elements of it that Idon't
think get people anywhere, which Idon't findparticularly positive at all.And alot of people
get confused with urgency and intensity andemotion, because the guitar's turned up fulland it's going through a200-watt amplifier.
They tend to get that confused with real
intensity and it's just aload ofshit, it's sheer volume."
Not aman to mince hiswords, our Paul. In his
restless flight from what hesees as pretension, he's moreor less given up writing
poetry in his spare time.
"I got abit fed up with it,"he revealed. "I wrote allkinds of wimpy things andreal introspective stuff,
which is good to get outof your system but it's
probablyboring for somepoor fucker to read. So I
didn'tbother anymore.
"I found there were alot of poetry fans, young kids, which was good, butalot of them were really introspective- 'my heart hung like ashadow on
the wall' and all this shit. Where's it gonna get ya? It's agood release and as
ajustification I
suppose that's OK, but that's enough; it's not particularly
good always to read that. I've still got some interest in poetry but I've
mainly gone back into songs."

W

ELLER'S POLITICS, FREQUENTLY derided as half-bakedin the past, have also come under the glare of this new
realistic approach. Predictably, he sounded off about his
disgust with Thatcher's re-election, but this sense of disillusion istempered by abelief in people as opposed to
creaky old systems.
Had he had more faith in this country and its
future in the Jam days? "Not really, no. Well probably
in the early days, yeah, it's only like with events of
the last fewyears... like the Falklands war, things
like when I
see people out on the quaysides waving
flags at the soldiers, waving the soldiers and sailors
off. Ican't have alot of faith in anation that does that.
"But there's still people that Imeet... it's enoughfor me to retain some kind of faith, anyway. And
quite honestly, the more I
think about it, the more

Weller and Talbot
in Paris in May1983,
amonth bef ore
recording thethird Style Council
single,"Long Hot
Summer -,inthecity

Ithink that's how music works. Music's never gonna hit awhole nation's
conscience, it's impossible to.
"But I
don't see that as some kind of defeat anymore, which I
would haveat some point in the past. Now I
think even if it affects afew individuals it's
worth it, and hopefully those individuals will add up to quite anumber ofpeople. Idon't know. It's abit pretentious of me to start talking about how
it's gonna change people's ideas."

S

0 FAR, THE Style Council's major live appearances have been
restricted to acouple of brief sets for good causes, at Brockwell
Park and at aRight To Work benefit in Liverpool. Weller andTalbot had both been annoyed by the MM's coverage of the Liverpool
event, which seemed to them to be using their 20-minute set as an
excuse to print pictures of Weller and to sell more copies of the paper,thus ignoring the true significance of the event.
"The reviewwas OK. It wasn't that that bothered me, because Ithought
she made some good points," said Weller. "It was more the editorial stuff
that went with it. Whoever did that was just
exploiting us in that situation."
But isn't that the problem of living down theimage of Paul Weller? You can't change who you
are and the reason whyyou got that sort ofcoverage, I
argued.
"But it's not my problem," fumed Weller, "it's
MM's problem -what theywere saying was it's
my responsibility and I've got to work this thingout. They were building all that crap up by
putting'Style Council Live' on the cover. That
doesn't help me at all.
"Do they thinkwe travelled up to Liverpool
to play for 20 minutes for our egos? To makeourselves and our egos feel better? Ican do thathaving awank in front of the mirror at home or something. We wanted to
do that thing for aspecial reason."After afew moments he felt calmer. "I would say the level ofcommitment in the Style Council is higher, actually... in the six months
we've been goingwe've done in the past. The writing royalties from'Money Go Round' are going to Youth CND, but Idon't wanna come overas being the punk generation's Cliff Richard either- ado-gooder-I hatethat stuff. I'm not doing it for that, Idon't care what other people think
about that, I'm doing it for my reasons. So anyway, I
think thecommitment is still there."
Do you reckon the Paul Weller of 1979 would recognise you today.
Iasked?
"He'd probably have been drunk," saidWellerwith atight-lipped grin.
"I'd probably have told him to fuck off 'cos he'd have been foaming at themouth or something. We probably would have agreed on some things.
I
have changed in some ways but Idon't think... it's not particularly any
kind of exclusive...
"I think politically I'm alot sharper now
because I
think I
know more where Istand thanI
did in '79 orwhenever. Ididn't really have afucking clue. As far as I'm concerned IthinkI've
improved alot."
So you were naive before in some respects?
"Yeah," said Weller doubtfully. "Well, !don't
think! was naive, I
was just abit thick really.
I
just think I've got abit sharper, and I
think also
Iwas into things which! now see as bullshit,
you know, and Itry and avoid them."
If God created all men equal, perhaps Paul
Weller is just more equal than he used to be. At
any rate, he's no longer an absolute beginner.

"The Paul
Weller of 1979
would havetold me tofuck off"

Adam Sweedng •HISTORY OF ROCK 1983 I93

1983,„„_SIMMIRR"Pride.
Independence.
RespectJJLegd
endad
ry
ucer
so ngwriterA

NME

HOT SUMMER SATURDAY in London. Curtis Mayfield,
ashort stocky man dressed in agreen safari suit and anorange T-shirt, is sitting on asofa in his hotel room talking
about The Impressions.
"I wrote most of the things, if not all of the things, for
The Impressions, so once we found out what we were reallyabout, it was always our way to write inspiration messages ora good love song.
"Even throughout my way of writi ng alove song or an uptempo thing, the lyrics
always tended to be alittle more to the point where you could think about it. It
would give you food for thought. That was just our way, our style, and so belt."
His head peppered with white tufts of hair, his voice quiet and gracious, hismanner one of dignity, Curtis Mayfield has usually been about great music andmessages of inspiration.
Born in Chicago in 1942, by the time he was 12 he was singingwith
The Impressions. When he was 16 they had
their first major breakthrough with "ForYour
Precious Love", and, with the gifted Curtis
writing their material, went on to be—throughsuch songs as "This Is My Country", "Wherever
You Leadeth Me", "It'sAlright", "Meeting Over
Yonder", and the monumental "People Get
Ready" expressing the hopes, fears, injustices
and optimism of ageneration—one of the mostinfluential soul groups of all time.
They lasted until 1970 with Curtis, who inthe meantime wrote prolifically not only for
The Impressions, but northern soul favourites
Major Lance and Billy Butler on the Okeh label.
He also wrote for Jerry Butler.
At the beginning of the '70s Curtis left thegroup to pursue his own career and took soul »DAVID COMO IGEM

AY;4-?«
z-

94 IHISTORY OF ROCK 1983

gives amajor
retrospective interview.
From his early career toSuper Fly, God and drugs,
nothing is off the table.
Even his failed disco
album. "I don't think I
wasthe greatest at what
disco is about," he says.

ê1983JUL,
astep furtherwith his groundbreaking solo albums. In the first five years
When he did return, his popularityhad subsided and his subsequentof his solo direction he was untouchable. Albums such as Curtis, Roots,
LPs completelylacked the inspiration and spirit of his earlier work. He
Back To The World, Super Fly and There's No Place Like America Todaysaw
even dabbled in disco for Do ItAll Night.
Mayfield adopting his sweet falsetto voice to atense, dramatic music
It's now ironic that his last LP, Honesty, which is abrilliant return to hisamillion miles away from the cool harmonies of The Impressions.
former strengths, aquiet reaffirmation of his special talents, has largely
Like The Impressions, his music reflected the times he lived in but
been ignored and Curtis Mayfield is nowwithout arecording contract.
offered no single answer to the problems he saw. Instead, Curtis
Actually, it's more than ironic; it's abiting comment on the music
succinctly depicted the chaos around him-Vietnam, unemployment,
industry.And as he has no label backing for his English tour, he is without
poverty, drug abuse-with unflinching nerve.
an essential horn section.
Throughout his work, he publicly displayed his belief in God and,"I couldn't afford it," he states simply.
mainly through his classic Super Fly LP (the tautness of Back To The WorldOur conversation lasted about two hours and was somewhat akin to
Ifind more appealing), established himself as the soul man.
meeting awise sage who has seen it all and come through with his
After the success of There's No Place Like America Today, Curtis quietly
strength and pride intact.
"retired" to concentrate on his home and family. He has 11 children by
It's no surprise that his last LP should be entitled Honesty.
different women ("Hey, I
wouldn't put all that on one woman"), and felt
acooling-out period was required. He'd been on the road since 1958.
You've Just completed atour ofAmerica with The Impressions.
"It was aconstant will of my own to succeed," he says. "Every
That's right. We called it the SilverAnniversary Tour and we weresuccess element was adiploma for me. I
didn't earn it at school,out for some six to seven weeks. We actually did about 31 days,I
had to earn it among people. And whatever my gift was,working the weekends only. It was really an ideal thing tothat allowed me that development.
do because it gave us achance to come back together"But while I
was doing all that, I
also wanted to do
and sing alot of good songs that we hadn't done for«be Alee"karate, play basketball and, of course, the need ofalong time.
every man to want his own family. Money isn't
enough. You need the human contact. After Super Fly
How did it go? Because Irecentlyread aMarvin
we were in the air two or three times aday and all ofGaye interview where he was saying that Americanthat it was appreciated and loved. However, you can't
audiences tend only to listen to material that is newraise family and raise children like that. You want toand are contemptuous of older material.
see them grow up and you don't wantyour children to
Well, that's not totally true. The American audiences
THIS IS MY COUNTRY
have to walk in your shadow."
are somewhat spoilt because they have avariety of
THE IMPRESSIONSMITIIS 10•1111

The Impressions in thestudio M1965: (1-r)Sarn
Go oder, Fred Ca sh
and Cur t, Mayf ield

04.
88 IHISTORY OF ROCK 19

CURTIS MAYFIELD

everything to choose from and things are always
being replenished. Here's the new!And here's thenewer!And sometimes you get caught up in that.
After awhile you kind of get fed up and you tend towant to comeback, especially as you get older, to thethings that you grew up with, with emotions andfeelings and sensitivities in it. We had quite abit ofaudience response to us all over the country, doing
things from the past as well as the present.
Ithink it all intermingled, and of course musicin America tends to be somewhat directed to theyounger set of people-which leaves the guy
round 32, 35, 40; he has nothing to relate toanymore. And I
think it's important that you
keep those people that are around your own age,and have grown up with you, as well as to secure
new fans.

(Laughs) So Iguess I
picked up alot of her ways
unconsciously. Just sitting in achurch as achild,seeing her as minister, read, preach and speak ofinspiration from different texts in the Bible.

"Money isn't
enough. You
need thehuman
contact"

Well, The Impressions seemed quite unique tome in that you seemed to be one of the first soulgroups to tackle social matters in your songs.
Were there any others?
Not so much back during our time. Things werevery much off into rock'n'roll during those earlier years, the '50s. I
like tothink of us in terms of us coming in on the cuffs, where there were the
LaVern Bakers and the Fats Dominos and The Drifters, the Clyde
McPhatters, you name them. And we were ayoung group of people who
were coming in, but still there were the old-timers who helped us.
However, our coming out in the late '50s sort of put me right into the areaof the black movement, the struggles, all the things that were happening
in the 60s with Martin Luther King and minority people trying to own
more of themselves through their civil rights.
I
was very conscious of those things and it has always been myway towrite messages of inspiration, even about current events, no matter how
controversial. It seems to draw me as long as Ican see some truth or somehonest realism about how Isense people want to be.
Did the other two Impressions, Sam and Fred, feel the sameway?
They seemed to appreciate it because our response from people wasalways very real, simply because the songs- This Is My Country","Choice Of Colors", "We'reA Winner" or "Amen" -seemed to hit upon
the realities of what everybody was all about. While we didn't havethe fantastic success of The Temptations, or some of the bigger groups...
that were selling many, many records, there seemed to be aplace
for The Impressions because it always seemed to relate to theconsciousness of people.
It made us individual in an era of rock'n'roll where no one else wasreally doing it. Then, of course, others would begin to turn around andyou would hear James Brown-"Now say it loud! I'm black and I'm
proud!" -when those kinds of things were never said or related on such
alevel. It made us feel very good.
The other two fellas' backgrounds were of the church and gospel music,
so we always had our harmonies and we always related pretty good.

Yes I
agree, because tied in with that social consciencewasastrong
religious feel.
I
would say so: "People Get Ready", and things of that nature. I've always
had my own sensitive feelings, but as ayoungster they probablywere
more of curiosity and relating them to my own personal emotions.
However, mybreeding was between my mother-who was avery creative
person herself who used to recite alot of poetry-and my grandma, who
during those earlier years was out to earn her degree as aminister.
She had alittle storefront church in Chicago and while Ilived withmy mother, Ispent alot of time with my grandmother during thesummertime. We would travel across the country and she'd go todifferent conventions and take us. The upbringingwas of avery spiritualand religious background, especially on her side of the family. We evenstarted alittle group. I
met Jerry Butlerwhen I
was veryyoung because hejoined our group. Myself, Jerry and three of my cousins were known as
The Northern Jubilees out of Chicago.
We'd travel with our grandmother and we'd sing, and that's howwe
picked up the music. She called her chu rch The Travelling Soul
Spiritualist Church, which was ideal because we moved around alot.

Didyou enjoy childhood?
Oh yeah, Ithink so. As much as anybody else.
As ayoungster you don't play on how poor you areor where you are as long as mother andsurroundings are somewhat content. You
don't understand, or you don't see the levelsof struggle or racial slurs and all of that stuff. If
you're bred fairly well andyou have acertain
amount of protection, and hopefully you havesome modicum of common sense, you come up
pretty balanced.

When did you first become awareof theimbalance in society?
I
guess my first noticing of it wasn't even on
ablack and white level; it was probably between
the two families.
Like my grandmother seemed to have more.
She had the church and she helped my mother alot with her children,
buy the clothes and stuff like that. Then the comparison of us living in
one room with my mother, that would help show the difference. However,
my mother always seemed to have the knack as to how to bring aboutother things to make you not play on the fact that you didn't have as muchas another.
Iguess, subconsciously, especially during the earlyyears in America,
just from hearing the old people talkyou'd pick up lots of things of what
the past has been, what the present is and the relationship of different
races out in the streets, even before you've been introduced to them.
You come into the world innocent and emotionally sensitive. You cry,you laugh, you play, even you fight, but it's of innocence. Colour has
nothing to do with it. You onlylearn that from those in seniority.
So it never hits all at once. You grow into whatever it is and then it's how
you are balanced out byyour peers as to howyou are then able to relate,
think and even sense towards others.
After you joinedThe Impressions, in the early '60syou also wrote
material for the Okeh label, for people like Major Lance and BillyButler.
Didyou have to adopt adifferent approach when writing for them?
Inever tried to go as in depth as I
would for myself because it wasn't my
way to put someone else into acategory that they weren't about. But being
acreative person and being competitive, Icould write agood "TheMonkey Time".
There was atune Major did which would make you think ifyou listened
to its lyrical content —"Um Urn Urn Um Um Um". It's about walking
through this crowd and there's this man sitting on abench, he justmoaned and it made no sense, all he said was 'urn urn urn urn' and the
lyric was: "I couldn't help myself, Imust have been born with acurious
mind, Iasked this man just what did he mean when he moaned, ifhe'd be sokind, and he'd stilljust go, um urn urn urn." You knowwhat Imean? It was
something to think about despite the rhythm.
How about outsideAmerica.WereyouawareofThelmpressions'
Impact, say, here in the UK?
No, I
never reallywas. As amatter of fact, it was along time coming for us
to come to England because we were afraid to get on aeroplanes.
Really?
(Laughing) Yes. Back during the earlier yearswe would not fly. We were
deathly afraid of flying, and Ican recall several times agents would tell usthat we had quite afollowing here. They would even tell us that there wasagroup over here performing as The Impressions. (Smiles). But we nevergotten round to coming to Europe, and I'm really sorry that we didn't.
However, we finally began to get on aeroplanes and fly abit, and that wasan experience in itself. Now they're like taxis.
The Impressionswere also Influential in Jamaica. Ibelieve Bob Marley
and the early Wailerswere modelled somewhat onyou.
Yes, we found that they loved the lyrics of "I've Been Trying". "Minstrel »HISTORY OF ROCK 1983 I97

1983JUL)' -OMERAnd Queen" was avery big record out there, and they just seemed to likeour style. Iguess Bob Marleywas probably akid coming up and theinfluence of The Impressions and our civil consciousness as to people,
and howwe were the first about expressing those thoughts, probably
motivated him as to his own independence with his own people, and his
own need to be of value and say something of value.
We went there once and played for the prime minister, alongwith
Johnny Nash, and we found that we had agreat big fan club there. We
didn't even knowit!We were met out at the airport; so many people. Madeus feel very good.
Yet throughout that success, you always seemed to have kept
level-headed.
Well, Isuppose it was my grown-up way, even as akid. That was all I
had,
was my mind to think and to try and keep it level and not to space out.
(Laughs). Ifound that what Ihad, I
knew it was agift.
In my opinion, one comes into the world andwhat does he do? He's confused about this, he's
confused about that and you learn enough toknow that you don't know nothing! (Laughs).
Then all of asudden you find that you've been
blessed with something, avehicle that you
had no intention of using. But somebody lays itout, ayellow brick road, and shows you that you
have an ability to do something that is so natural
to you, you bypass it and try to do everythingelse but that.
I
was capable of finding that out at an early age,
and with the help of other people, guidelines
like The Impressions who were older than me,
they had awill. We are going to make it, we aregoing to do this and here's Little Curtis, wow!

Give him alittle respect and hey! We'll guide him and with him we can goon and make it.
Probably because of the respect they allowed to come down on suchayoungster, Icouldn't let them down by being such asillyyoung dude.
You begin to want to think intellectually at the level of your peers, andthem allowing you to do it you go on and grow up.
The '60swere such an influential and turbulent time inAmerica, how
do you now view thoseyears?
Well, it was definitely that, but it was very much necessary, and thank
God the turbulence was just of enough value to make those of conscience
understand that there was true turbulence and that those of conscience
were making it. So it was, let's change it alittle bit, let's start relating, let's
give alittle, so all people can come up alittle bit prouder about what we as
peers were supposed to be claiming to the world.
But events like Martin Luther King's
assassination must have been abig setback?
Yeah, of course. It hurt me very deeply; it hurt
alot of people deeply.
For many people the rebel was in many, many
ways probably the easiest target for those who
did create the turbulence, because they at least
allowed an outlet where some kept it inside.
If you keep it inside, it can only harm the bodyand destroy the mind.
But many people, both black and white,were very, verypainfully hurt by his death not
to mention the loss of the real things aboutacountry.
There can be no money put to the value of theloss of aMartin Luther King. What is acountry's
riches and what is acountry's real power as to what they are allabout? It's certainly not money. It's the minds of men and women
to raise acountryand give off the right vibes and to have therespect of aworld; not to mention maybe another world that's
looking on. (Laughs)"Super 1+7y

looked to me
more like anadvertisement
for cocaine"
Curtisperformssolo
on USTVin1973. His
Back To The World
albumthatyeardealt
with the Vietnam war

Alot of people still talk about the '60s as an optimistic era.
Well, always remember that everything right can eventually, giveit enough time, become wrong. And everythingwrong, give it
enough time, can become right. It's the balance overall and Ithinkthat what is most important is if you listen there's nothing totally
either way. You can listen to adebate, an hour of what you know isrighteousness, and if they talk long enough you'll be able to seesome wrongs about it. And you can listen to something that is
supposed to be totally wrong but if they talk long enough there
maybe certain points that could be possibly right.
It's like the scale of balance and it takes all people to makeabeautiful world.
At the start of the '70syou left The Impressions, but amicably.
Well, The Impressions were part of Cu rtom, my own record label.
Of course. When did you start that and why?
Oh wow, I
think it was right after we recorded "We're AWinner"in 1966 or '67. Our contract with ABC Records had expired
and Idecided to form Curtom Records. I've always been about
wanting to own as much of myself as possible, and after findingthat we were basically doing all the promoting out on the roadand we were doing all the running, Iwas ready to get into therecord business. We formed Curtom Records and The Impressions
signed up with me.
So come 1970, while we still came out with things like "Check Out
Your Mind", and we were still seeing certain amounts of success,being the lead singer kept me out on the road 11 months ayear.
How can you run arecord company on one end and you're out on
the road at the other end? It didn't make sense. Ifelt that! should
involve myself more with company and business and make it ofsome value for agroup that was so strong.
However, I
didn't want to retire myself as an artist. Even bybringing in Leroy Hutson as the new lead singer, Ifound myself
writing abit deeper and getting off into other things as to my own
TORY OF ROCK 1983

creativity, which brought out about the album
Curtis. So maybe it was ablessing in disguise, andnow Curtom had two artists.
What other things wereyou getting into creatively?
Well, I
guess my lyrics. Say, for instance, theCurtis album. Ihad always been writing songsof inspiration that for the era seemed to becontroversial. During the time "Choice Of Colors"
came out, it was adifferent kind of song thatrock'n'roll groups were doing. But here comethe 70s and Ifound myself not only speaking
inspirationally, Ifound myself also want ing torelate to my own, but in adifferent fashion.
Like, "We People Who Are Darker Than Blue" or"IfThere'sA Hell Below", then, of course "Miss Black
America"... this is where Ifound myself lyrically andcreatively going, as well as the pretty things and theuptempo things. I've always been able to write moreclearlywhen either my emotions were aroused orI
could see into others' emotions and sensitivities
and real values.
In your solo workyou're both optimistic andpessimistic about affairs. Which one's the strongest
trait inyour character?
Well, they say that under the sign of Gemini he'smore pessimistic than optimistic. Iam optimistic or
Iprobably couldn't have succeeded as far as Ihave inthis world.
However, Iuse my pessimism. I
will test the waters
before I
jump in. I
will see how deep the hole is beforeI
allow myself to fall in. I'll never jump off without
using the pessimistic imbalance. They both can beof value. You can be over-confident,
oryou can be under-confident, but if
you use both you realise that they canboth be of value and that they can work
CURTIS MAYFIELD
foryou.
You also created anew sound withinsoul musicwith your earlier worlcs.
Oh yeah, I
would think so. Lyrically andinstrumentally. Songs like "Other SideOf Town". (Points at my notes) Inotice
you have some lyrics there from "Jesus"...

4

lpe
ee
t,

That's from your LP There's No Place
Like America Today...
Which was one of myfavourite albums.
I
liked the way it come off for me. It's funny, it took acertain mood tocome up and come out with There's No Place Like America Today, because
Ididn't know how people would view it.
Ifound that in Africa people really appreciated that album, that I
waswriting songs that in context, for many, seemed to be more depressed but
it seemed like the times. The economics were down, people were out ofwork and it just came off with "Blue Monday People", "When Seasons
Change" and "Billy Jack", which was about adude who was shot.
Ifound that for me it gave alot of truth because many times that lam
writing, I'm writing for me. It's almost like giving myself asermon. Just
allowingyour mind to come out and then come back, read it and put it all
in some kind of sensible manner. You can even listen to it and correct it if
it's not totallywhat your head is about.
Howdid you approach Super neWell, it was probably one of the best eras because there were the clothes,
there was the movie and there was an artist that laid out alyric in depththat allowed them to accept the movie. Then there were the fads andthere was even the introduction of what has been here along time withpeople, getting off into cocaine. Theywere having alot of fun.
Howdidyou react to the drug scene, especiallywithln the blackcirdesi
There was no great reaction because all my life I've seen people dealing in

Who'syourdaddy?: theSuperFlyguy
flauntshisstyle

drugs and using drugs, or smoking reefers, drinking liquor or
taking aspirin! (Laughs) We're all, on both sides of the continent,
drug orientated. Nothing allows you to use your head and let the
body heal itself. They say, how do you feel? Here, take this whether
it be on the legit side or the illegit side.
Ihad no great reaction about that except that Imight note thatwhile thescript read one way, when it came to the screen the priest who was Super
Fly... it looked to me as though it was more an advertisement for cocaine
because it was just overly done.
And so be it because it put me on the fence enough to go alittle deeper
and make what I
was about with the film, which was anti-drugs, whereI
could go to depths and speak alittle deeper about what was really goingon, while Iknew that the media would look at the surface and the glitter,the big Cadillac and the clothes. But if it could be balanced out, that you
could appreciate and enjoy the glitter but know in your head the facts ofreality, then it's OK.
Itake it you've never been seriously involvedwith drugs?
Well, I
take the FifthAmendment on that! (Laughing) However, I'm not
strung out or hung up. I
don't smoke, I
don't drink and at the moment I'm
free and clear of conscience as to any drugs.
Your solo work during the '70s also coincided with the Marvin Gayes,
Stevie Wonders and Last Poets of the world, who were exploring similar
topics to you. Didyou feel an empathywith any of them?
Yeah, anytime they said the real things you had to join forces and feelapart of it. And you'd like to thinkthat some of your earlier sayings
were influences. »HISTORY OF ROCK 1983 I99

E
I

1983

-OEMBER"Iguess...disco

you look at that and you say, well, Ican
understand that. So it is in our social
structure. Someone has to pay whether
it be fair or not. Usually, it's unfair forsomebody else.
Or you look at it on alarger structure.
It's abeautiful day, everybody's doing
OK and I'll be damned, there's anearthquake and 20,000 people justgone! Is that fair! You look at it on TVand
you can accept it, but if you're in thatpredicament how are you going tothink? You look up to your God and you
say, I'll be damned! What's happening?
Ichanged ten years ago! I
got everythingright, now everything is wrong.
Such is life. We all accept it. God gave
us all minds to be curious, controversial
and whateverwe've got to saywe cansay it, and that helps alot because ifyou
couldn't you'd probably blow up.
It serves its purpose, because how else
could I
take on the role and want to be
optimistic, to say, hey! everythi ng isgoing to be alright when Ihaven't
experienced what is the worst?

=Los
Angelesinietli

Ne 11 ISS 7(Ne II

STEREO,,SIDE 1HONES? V'.
"

To me, that was all beautiful during those times because there were
things that related from one group to another, and you could feel masses
really taking it in and understanding what theywere all about and reallyusing their heads. I'm abeliever in (starts alittle dancing movement)
shake your shaggy, shaggy, buthave some food for thought, too. Whynot
enjoy both?
But what effect has that music upon people?
(Firmly) Pride, independence, more value in relationships in family,
more value on giving respect so you can earn respect, whether it be whiteand black or people of different continents. Social gatherings that don't
explode in your face because people are in harmony and the music is ofavalue that helps keep them there.
I
think there's nothi nglike you going somewhere socially and the music
is of avalue.., it's not apreaching thing, you're still enjoying people, but
the music is of alevel where it's not divertingyour head. You can dance,
you can layback and listen to real lyrics, and it brings you about sociallywhere you can relate with others. You can give
debate, listen to debate and that's what thatkind of music is all about.
Whereas some musics, you don't realise it, but
it's going against your grain or it's too loud or it's
not saying nothing, or it's monotony.

3"

HEY BABY (Give It All To M
e)
c,fis

CURTIS MAYFIELD.-19112 BOtreleoè
Records. •n<•••••... •`'

.

54

l e

It should be understood that
nothing is fair. We just have themind and the mental ability to try
and make it as fair and as sweet,
based upon our principles and oursociety, as we possibly can. But westill kill up all the cows and eat them.
We bring up chickens and eat them. We
take some land over here and those people

got to suffer...
Does that refer to the balance scale you sing about on Honesty?
Oh yeah, Ithink I
was speaking on (begins to hum) "Third World say..."Ah!) forget my lyrics... Ihave to hear those songs for them to come back,but it probablywas. Then I
end up saying, "There's no answer, what are
you going to do?" No one individual can change anything.
Whichyou also say on "Jesus" from America Today.
Yeah: "Don't call mea saint because there's nothing! can do. All Iask ofyou is that you do as I
gonad° myselfand look into my inner self only you
know hotv to befree."
You live and you grasp all of life that you can, but who is to say thatlife is to be anything but to survive? And the masterplan is to survive
and replenish. That's all.

"Who is to saythat life is tobe anything
but tosurvive?"

Given that then, is it hard for you to reconcile
your religious beliefs with all the injustices
around in the world?
Sometimes it is because He made avery unfair
world. However, that's just howl sometimes see
it. It may take more knowledge, or more
understanding, or maybe I
ought to get deeper
off to bring it all together. But whatever it is, itworks for the world. I
have to understand thatthe world and all the elements here work for it.
But for anyone individual species in the world it can be terribly unfair.
Look at the animals and howthey have to survive and how they have to
die and how sometimes, when they've got theirthing together,, anelement from somewhere else comes and destroys it.
It's not because of them livingwrong or not being righteous. It's becausefrom somewhere something else come down on it and it's gone. It's unfair
for one but then it proves that these over here had to feed their babies, so

WO IHISTORY OF ROCK 1983

What happened to Curtis Mayfield in thelatter part of the '70s?
During the latter part of the '70s I
went off. I
had
my children and Iraised them. Ilived anotherpart of my life which was just as fulfilling andprobablymore successful for my own head than
the success you're speaking about through myrecords and making money and seeing myname in headlights. Sometimes that conflicts
against home life and just beingwhat an earthly
person is all about.
Can you imagine havingyour children andyou're such afigure in the world that people run
into you and your children are dispersed? They
want autographs, you belong to them and you're not thinking that you're
just aperson with afamily, trying to give them alittle now. You must put
all things in perspective.
Even so, you've been arespected 'name' since 1958.
Which has been abeautiful fulfilment for me and which only makes youneed other things for yourself. For abody to be totally fulfilled it musthave many things, and when you go to anyone excess and you ignore theCURTIS MAYFIELD

other needs you are not afulfilled person. Matter of fact, you can go
haywire if they all don't come in balance. So the question you ask isalmost like, why aren't you aQuincy Jones? Or why aren'tyou successful
like these people over here?
Everybody has their own individual success, hopefully they are capableof putting it all into perspective where they can still be ahappy person
and lead aclear life as to what they are all about. If not, the success andthe moneywas only for the media, to be totally exploited out of theindividual's context because making money and being aperson, abig
person, all it is, is exploitation to earn bucks.
Hopefully, there is some value in it as to where we can respectively still
say, well you've earned bucks from all the media, butwas there anything
said that people can use?
I'd like to thinkthat my lyrics, orwhatever I've done, have at least beenof some value to the consumer. However, when the consumer moves onto other things, I
shouldn't be so hung up about my own success that
Ican't learn to come back down in the balance of just being people.
As amatter of fact, success for aperson, woman or man, is probably of
more value as to, how does the man lose? How does the man fail? Can heor she get up again? How do they take on just being after having rode up in
the air? How do they take on having to crawl on the ground? Onlywhen
you can accept both in the cycle do I
see aperson as successful. Then it's
about his survival, his wit and his ability to still carry on and not be so
influenced as to either end that he can't be anormal person.
Well, those latter-dayalbums, Heartbeat,
Do ItAll Night...
Heartbeat I
enjoyed. Do ItAll Night, Ithink
everyone was locked up into disco and really,
Iguess... disco wasn't me. Or, there wasn't
enough time for me to adapt to disco creatively.
I
don't think Iwas the greatest producer or
performer at what great disco is about. So Itriedand failed, in my opinion.
Through those yearsyou alsowent throughquite afewrecord labels.
We started off with Buddah, then we went toWarner Brothers, from Warner Brothers wewent to RSO, and RSO was probably the shortest
and last of the distributions. It was
pending on the business and ofcourse our ability to make money.
They are all investments inacreative person and, in orderfor you to be creative, you've got
to earn money somewhere, just to
be out there.
It must have been difficult
adapting to impersonal big
companies after running the
showyourself with Curtom.
Yeah, it sure was (laughing)because all my life has been, evenon the up and coming... Ihad somekind of little label. In the end
Idecided to go with Neil Bogart ofBoardwalk Records, and it was
something that you adjusted
yourself to. I
was sorryto see Neilleave because he was, in myopinion, the key to whatever wewere trying to do as far as
Boardwalkwas concerned. Whenhe left it was like the last of theparents to leave.

Because Ifelt Honestywas areal return to form...
Yeah, Ifelt so too. But in my opinion I
had no strength or believers in thecompany, and that's very important for an artist.
Areyou still contentwith yourlife and the way it's going?
Yeah, I'm still doing the things Ilike to do, that Ilove. It's not necessarythat it earns as big abuck that it sometimes did. I
just believe in myself
enough to think I'll always get by.
How do you feel about living inAmerica?
The album?
No, actually living in the States.
Oh, it's my home. I
feel good in it.
Any thoughts on Reagan?
Hey, he's accepted just like I
accepted many other presidents. Remember
it isn't the president, it's the people. They're the ones that hit the news, butremember they're the ones the people brought in whether it be amistakeor not. Who's to say that acountry and its masses can't make mistakes?
We all do. However, that's home and how I
feel about it is like asking me
howl feel about my family and my children and where I
live. Iaccept his
poor qualities just as much as I
accept his good qualities.
But you are anti-nuclear missiles.
Well, those things sometimes come about. That doesn't mean everyone
isn't anti-nuclear. Either waywe're going to go.
(Laughs) We're probably far too gone to giveand take. The only good thing about it is that it
won't harm the actual world. It will justreplenish itself and it's got all the time in theworld. (Laughs) It's just those who don't havethat time, sometimes panic.

"I'd like tothink that my
lyrics havebeen of somevalue"

Looking over it, it would seem that you place
your faith more in actual human relations
than any kind of mass political answer.
It's probably because Iknow that best. Masspolitical things, to me, are manipulators.
That's like 'Ifthere's hell below we are all
going to go'. The first thing, as Isaid earlier,is to gain enough knowledge
to find that you are awfully
Reunited withunknowledgeable about
The Impressions,
everything. It can all become
Beacon Theatre,
New York,1983
so confusing, and that's just life.
However, that's not to say that we
don't enjoy life. So be it.
It just seems illogical that yourbest LP in ages, Honesty,
shouldn't have succeeded.
Oh, Ienjoyed Honesty. It was mywill to put together somethingthat Ithought would be verystrong, competitive and maybe
something appreciated. However,with all of that, it seemed in myopinion that it was done in vain
simply because I
had no real
outlet for it. So be it. It's happened
before many times.
It's probably just at the stepof what could be my best. Who
knows? You try and not let thatbreak you down, where you
can't respond back, because
that's what the whole gameis. You throw things up andhopefully one or two may stickout of 20 or 30.
What else can you do? You knowwhat Imean? PaoloHewitt •‘%%t e4l'
e

.•
'

r•
sz, •
—

Areyou still with Boardwalk?
No, I'm not. I'm afree agent.
Does that worryyou?
No.

4

HISTORY OF ROCK 1983 I101
—s

U"S

1

1983

JoBoxers:
rubbing people
up the wrong way

JULY -enEgiER

Depressingly
earthbound
MM AUG 13

W

Five working as one
MNi JUL 2

THE TROUBLE JOBOXERS are
having to persuade people that theirroughneck image has nothing to
do with their songs, but just the way theypresent them, should be terminated by live
performance. That it isn't is simply because
the people put off by the caps and baggies,
boots and macho ID are staying away. This tiny
Phoenix Theatre should be packed, but it's
not. So what's to be done?
Lord knows but listen ;let's cut the crap.
The only mystery about JoBoxers isn't "Why
won't she?" or, if she will, "Why does she do itwith everyone else?" Their aims aren't thatprovocatively sexist. Yet.
They may look like agang
but they play like ateam,and beneath tonight's
bruising efficiency andcorny bravado lurk someof the keenest and leastappreciated personal
examinations currently
operating in pop. The
Boxers' team is fiveindividuals working as one.
Theirs aren't the gratuitous gangbangsof Slade, but songs of desperate
disappointment and rampant lust, bitter
jealousy and healing hatred.
Theirs are honest, individualist statement
songs that swagger -not as idle boasts but
because they've either got something toswagger about or because the alternative isto break down.
Theirs are good-time songs of personal
pride that say "hold your head up", songs
that won't have any truck with the miserable,
useless self-pitying negativity of the likes
of New Order.
But tonight, hampered by apiano that
refuses to acknowledge atune and aguitarthat refuses to participate, JoBoxers seem
more intent to do battle with their detractors
than to play to their strengths and loosen thesolidifying setbacks inherent in their image.
Their best song tonight is new and it's
brilliant and it's called"She's Got Sex". It's asharp,
witty, sassy, pretty accurate
expression of the way many
(most?) males feel when
the sap's rising. It will, ofcourse, be called oiksome
by many and offensive by
more. And, of course, it isand it isn't.
I
suspect there's nosolution. I
suspect the'Boxers will continue to write songs of rare
intimacy and intricacy and then spoil them byusing them to deliberately rub people up thewrong way. Oh, there will be hits in the charts,
but the crowds still won't come and justice
won't be done through fear and disgust.

of acouple of weeks back. Of his new songs,
only "Rainy Season" came close tocompeting with thebalding guru's pastmasterpieces, andeven this was
LYCEUMscarcely show—
LONDON —stopping.
Dave
FormulaLIVE!
exhibited
no little
AUGUST 7
subtlety at his
keyboards, while
Alan St Clair showed
his guitar no quarter, but
Howard seemed unable
to do more than skate through the motions.
Casual to the point of absent-mindedness,
Devoto simply didn't
seem to care, and by the end of theproceedings, nor did I.
The tide's gone out, Howard.

Steve Sutherland

Adam Sweet ing

IAN DICKSON/ GETTY

Beneath tonight's
corny bravado
lurk some of thekeenest personal
examinations in pop

102 IHISTORY OF ROCK 1983

ELL, YOU CAN always
hope, can't yer? Fat lotof good that'll do you onanight like this.
The Smiths were in flight as Iarrived;
warbling into the gloom as though theindifferent crowd somehow owed themsomething. Thrumming and strumming
like The Farmer's Boys, with cow dung
spilling into their waders, 'I'he Smiths
remained obstinately and depressingly
earthbound. Iheaded for the swarm
at the bar.
An A&R man of my acquaintance
tried to convince me that SPK were part ofsome sort of new movement which
allegedly also includes Test Department.
However, it will take more than his
generous offer of women and drugs
to convince me that aman beating on
packing cases with lengths ofcar bumpers
anda female singer who
blends the worst of Siouxsie with out-takes
from Lohengrin will ever be more than an
excruciating racket.
Finally, Mr Devoto and his group took thestage. Howard strove to project an offhandbonhomie but failed miserably, leading his
team into arendition of "Way Out Of
Shape" which sounded like ajaded country&western band plugging in for the fifth setof the night.
Despite loose-limbed versions of"You Never Knew Me" and "A Song
From Under The Floorboards", Howard
delivered little to make me disagreewith Professor Worrall's hostile review

Somethingalmostunheard of
MM JUL 30 Ittram DIrrn mikeI—

VILLA PARKBlRMIHGH , --LIVE--- JULY 23 ---TInhnnt hrmrienminp.

FYOU STRAIN your eyes and peer back,way back into the sea of hands stretchedabove the heads keeping the beat of"Careless Memories" alive long after the song
itself has ceased in athunderous crescendoand the band has quit the stage, you can justmake out the message on the sheet-andbamboo banner tottering precariously above
the cheering throng:"WELCOME HOME DURAN DURAN, WE
LOVE YOU!"
Duran Duran at Villa Park was not only an
event that everybody present -band, fans andofficials alike -will remember for the rest of
their lives. It was asignificant experience,adream dawning into reality, the emergenceof amajor talent and astandard set for live
performance so high that many are destinedto try and match it and, I
fear, most aredestined to fail.
Or, as you've probably gathered by now, if
you were daft or unfortunate enough not tobe there you missed out on something very
special because this was probably Duran
Duran's best gig ever. Irrespective of how theband performed, the return to Brum wasbound to be ahighly charged, emotional
reunion between Duran and their fans, but
the orchestration and sheer magnitude of
their triumph was stunning evidence of how
far Duran have superseded
all competition, how firmly
they've become beloved of
the fickle affections of thisnation's young ladies, andhow surely they've mappedout and followed throughthe manoeuvres of success.
They're doing somethingalmost unheard of; they're
peaking on aturning point,
hitting mass popularity justas they're improving,
expanding and exploring. Just as they're
growing sure enough to trust their own
judgement and realise the essence of Duran
Duran lies not in the synthesis of aping their
heroes (they've long outgrown that!) but inthe unique chemistry of five individuals.
They're setting sail on avoyage of discovery
and, the marvellous thing is, they're taking
afair percentage of the world's youth alongwith them.
Framed against amonumental backdropof classical pillars of pulsing light, Duran's
Villa show was an emotional farewell, astep
back into the future, characteristic enoughto be accessibly familiar but so extraordinary
in some senses that even the band wereforced, later that night, to reassess their own
idea of themselves.

Some songs played atVilla Park will, almost
certainly, never be
performed again -Duranhave progressed past theenthusiastic but onedimensional "Planet Earth"and sound uncomfortablestruggling with the excess
burden of ideas never fully
integrated into "Nightboat".
"Friends Of Mine"and "My Own Way"
were considered prime
candidates for the chop,
but the former suddenly
stretched into aflexible
vehicle for le Bon's increasingly dramatic
vocal ambitions. The latter, pounding to
an exhilarating and impromptu staccato
halt, shocked the band into contemplating
its reprieve.
Other confirmed favourites also behaved
as if they couldn't afford complacency under
the threat of the sprightly opener "Is There
Something I
Should Know" (never performed
live before this week, remember), theraucous, taut and deceptively ramshackle
encore of Iggy Pop's "Funtime" and the as-yet
underdeveloped but rhythmically colossal"Union Of The Snake".
Just as Duran proved
at Villa Park that they're
not content to let theirreputation do their talking
for them, so their songs
responded to newchallenges. "Girls On Film",
for instance, sounded
uncannily as if it was written
three years ago with thepresent "big band" lineup
in mind, so easily did it
accommodate and luxuriate in the twists andthrusts of sax, percussion and backing vocals.
Much has been made of Duran's
dependence on tried, true, and allegedly
dubious methods to achieve success, andcertainly, within their stage presentation,
there's astute showbiz calculation. Simon le
Bon -not the world's greatest dancer -hasbeen ridiculed as abar-room Elvis mimic,
Andy Taylor's storming gallops around thestage have been traced back to AC/DC's
Angus Young and John Taylor's screaminducing hip swivels on the lip of the stage
have encouraged accusations of arrogance.
In away, these criticism are just but,
typically, Duran turn them all to theiradvantage. What the casual observer sees asle Bon's poorly studied panoply or rock poses,

No one —from Thinlizzy followers to
Jam devotees —need feel ashamed
to enjoy themJohn Taylor:screaminducing
hip swivels

communicates in its very inexpertness as
sincere, expressive gestures to the fans.
JT's cockiness contains enough of the star
to encourage adulation but also enough of thenod and wink to be alaugh, and Andy's guitar
heroics add yet another dimension to Duran'salready multi-faceted appeal. They can beeverything to anybody, and thus no one -fromThin Lizzy followers to Jam devotees-needfeel ashamed to enjoy them. This is not to saythat they lack identity; on the contrary, it's atestament to their individuality that they
pscorn categorisation.
One need only compare their instant andgenuinely won rapport with even the furthest
corners of Villa Park to the comparative
failures of support acts Prince Charles andRobert Palmer to appreciate Duran's intuitive
pand acquired expertise.
Prince Charles is, of course, the coarse
street-funkster in chief; aman with amassiveego, acouple of songs almost fit to flatter it
and the most turgid and cliched live show
imaginable. His rabble-rousing antics andpatent insincerity cause no more than minor
ripples around the immediate rim of the stage
while his band of butchers bludgeoned evenhis most memorable numbers like "CashMoney" into hollow, heavy metal theatrics.
Robert Palmer was equally disappointing,the intimacy and subtlety of his songs lost in
the cavernous arena and his unwillingness tomeet the crowd half way resulting in his set
never achieving astatus beyond that ofsluggish background music. Segueing minor
hit into minor hit with barely an introduction,
Palmer sank into his songs rather than trying
to sell them and, great soul voice or not, heleft us looking for clues as to why he couldn't
enhance emotion with alittle motion.
p
And so, unsurprisingly, the day belonged toDuran. Of the 20,000-or-so at Villa Park last
Saturday, I'll bet no one, but no one, went
phome less than elated. Steve Sutherland
HISTORY OF ROCK 1983 I103

More and more successful in spiteof themselves, THE CURE remain I'
mysterious. Members come and t
go, ROBERT SMITH aerts.
"I suppose I
must be hárd towork with," he says. "I think it's
because I
have aclear idea of how
things should be approached."

FIN COSTELLO /GETTY

1983
duty

sEP \
EMBER

"I

MELODY MAKER

WORK ON MY own and other people work with me...
that's The Cure."
Oh God, here we go again.1 mean, are The Cure or
aren't they?
Pale as death, draped round the door frame, shirt
undone, eyes focusing vaguely, Robert Smith picks out
afew faces. He lurches forward and teeters precariously. He has just eaten
fish, the first solid morsel, so hesays, to have passed his lips foralmost aweek.
He feels sick. He's on adiet. He
sips lemonade shakily, passes
his hand absently through hishair and explains why he must
go to bed.
"I've been hallucinating," hewhispers, to himself as much as toanyone else. "I just kept seeing
faces... faces... everywhere..."Hunger, habit and the nervous
exhaustion of two impromptu
gigs have sapped his energy anddulled his spirit. He apologises,
sways and retires. So we still don't know: do
The Cure really exist, if not why not, and if
so, who are they?
"As it 'appens, guys 'n' gals... the sons ofDracula..."The Cure on Top OfThe Pops was an event
almost as absurd as Jimmy Savile's inanity.
They looked and acted bored but, all acrossthe nation, Cure fans, Cure converts andfolks who can't tell The Cure from Culture
Club, and couldn't care less, interpreted
Smith's stifled yawns as enigmatic
arrogance. Such is the power of reputation.
Such is the impact of dressing in black.
Last Christmas Irecited the "Alas poor
Yorick" epitaph over the corpse of The
Cure, cradled Smith's skull in my lap andpronounced this Prince Hamlet poisonedby acrippling sycophantic popularity.
Unwittingly I
was wrong. I'd arranged apremature burial: either an imperceptible
pulse was beating through that cold
corpse, or this creature miming the
motions on Top OfThe Pops is the king's
ghost come back to demand revenge on thetraitorous and cowardly charts.
Whatever, people are taking "The Walk"
to heart and Idon't even know why it was
made, let alone from whence sprang theunprecedented surge of san ity t
hatgalvanised the public into spending their
cash on such adeserving record. Imean,
why display taste, why change the habit ofalifetime?

R

OBERT SMITH IS now sprawled
on adirty white towel on agrey
shingle beach, refreshed by alongnight's sleep and still dripping from adip
off the Cornish coast. Raising himself on
one elbow, he ponders the priorities andplans, the faults and finesse of The Curenow and never. In four hours' time he will
rise, leave the side of his deathly palegirlfriend Mary and coolly enthral
thousands who have undertaken thepilgrimage to the Elephant Fayre to pay
homage to his tortured muse.

108 IHISTORY OF ROCK 1983

Right now, though, he just stares out to sea and says: "One of thereasons you thought what you did, that we sort of stopped after the lastalbum, Pornography, was because things had become too structured
and we were obligated to do too much.
"One of the ways out of that- even though it wasn't considered at thetime, Ithink it was always hovering-was that if it became not agroupthen we would be under no obligation to do anything. Now no one reallyknows what's going on, except forme... and even Idon't know what's
going on some of the time."
He's neither stoned nor revelling in some acquired vagueness.
Robert Smith means it.
"I don't feel ready to have aformal Cure again, it seems unnecessary
at the moment."
Today, in the south-west of England, next week in America, and in
10 days' time, cutting anew single in Paris, The Cure will be Robert
Smith, Lol Tolhurst (the original drummer turned keyboard player),
AndyAnderson (the brilliant ex-Brilliant drummer) and Phil
"If it became notagroup, then wewould be under
noobligationto
do anything":
London,1983

THE CURE

Thornalley, the co-producer of Pornography, on bass.
After that it's back to scratch. Loi stumps up the beach
to explain.
"After five or sixyears we've had alot of people
through, but in the end it worked out that only me andRobert really got on with each other permanently, foralong time. Ithink it's because we've known eachother since we were five and we don't take eachother that seriously.
"I never thought The Cure would pack up
because there's too much of abond between me
and Robert to ever let it fade away. There's loadsof times when we've said, 'we don't want to seeeach other for this length of time' or 'we can't
do this, we can't do that,' but in the end there's
always something that brings us back. It's like ashared history, the fact that we remember all
the things we've done together before and it
triggers off something. Maybe it's like arecallof people's emotions...
"I mean, the thing that keeps it moving ischange more than anything else, just the needto change. Like, why Ichanged to keyboards
was because I'd gone as far as I
wanted with drums and, when we
started, we never specifically decided on the idea of aband as such. It
was just agroup of people all interested in the same kind of thing andwe'd work things out from that..."Smith shuffles on the shingle but shows no sign of remorse.
"I suppose Imust be hard to workwith over aperiod of time," headmits, "I think it's mainly because Ihave aclear idea of how things
should be approached, how they should be worked out and how theyshould end up, and Isuppose that people just get fed up with that singlemindedness. That's understandable- Idon't hold any grudges or beefs
about people coming and going, but anyone that's been in the band has
always known that compromises only go up to acertain line, and afterthat Imake the decisions.
"The Cure's evolution just follows what I'm like and Ican't really plan it.
Imean, Ican see the different phases in retrospect; like Three ImaginaryBoys is very naïve; we were reallyyoungwhen those songs were written,
and then 17 Seconds and Faith are really uncertain records, andPornographyis quite violent.
"Things are only done like that after acertain amount of experience
and, when that phase is coming to an end, then it is catalogued, which
is how it's been done in the past and why there hasn't been anything
forthcoming in the recent past since Pornography-because there's
nothing there that's motivated me enough to think, 'Oh!You ought to dosomething about that!"
That "nothing forthcoming in the recent past" conveniently
circumvents two singles: "Let's Go To Bed", afailed disco excursion, and"The Walk", The Cure's recent top 10 hit. Smith draws his knees to his chinand explains.
"I
just wanted to see if I
could write areally dumb pop song that would
get played on the radio, because I
hadn't written anyth ing like that forages and ages. 'Let's Go To Bed' was aconscious effort to write something
very pop, but it wasn't supposed to be aCure single, it was supposed to beasolo single so that I
just took the blame for it. I
didn't want the name of
The Cure to be tainted with asingle like that, but there was alot of rows
and bad feeling around that time and so it got released as The Cure."He grimaces, an uncharacteristic gesture that expresses his disgust.
"It wasn't commercial anyway. Irealised when I
did it-which is why I
lost interest in it-that it wasn't horrible enough, it just wasn't quite dumbenough to be commercial. It didn't get anywhere, it didn't ever get playedon the radio."Lol attempts to ease the depression. "I think it was successful, though.
We're always trying to change people's ideas of us, especially people
who think of us as abit po-faced, y'know, the kings of doom. Alot of
people think we don't have alighter side to ourselves, so it was like afunny experiment.
"The Walk' was another experiment because we'd been very orthodox
in the way that we'd used things before so we decided to do something allelectronic. That's whywe had Steve Nye to produce it, because we heard
the stuff he'd done with Japan on Tin Drum and, although that's allelectronic, it sounds acoustic."CCrl

i HE NEXT SINGLE," says Robert, "willagain be just an oddity. Imean, like
'The Walk' is not really apart of The
Cure's evolution, in asense the idea of The Curestopped with Pornography and won't be carriedon again until we do another album or until Isit
down and seriously do something.
These singles exist purely because I'm writing
songs and if I
write one that I
think's goodenough to be released on arecord Iput it out,but I
see them as entertainment, whereas
somethinglike PornographyI thought of asmuch more than that.
Pornographywas about things that have far
more far-reaching effect, it was far moreconsidered about...1 dunno... some of thehorrors that people go through just in everyday
living I
suppose. 'The Walk' is really just about
an isolated incident- it's just like adream
sequence. I
just didn't want to restrict myself todoing something which necessarily had to bevery... passionate, I
suppose."So The Cure, as often accused, are contrived?
"No. All the records reflected how I
felt at the time theywere made. I
waspretty doomy and gloomy when I
did Faith, immensely doomy andgloomy in fact. Otherwise it would just be like aTears For Fears sort ofband -you'd be doing things that are transparent. Everythingwe've done
has been... it's an awfu I
word but, honest, our songs have actually
represented life as it's seen by members in the band.
"People used to criticise me for wandering off into unreality, but that's
one of the most ridiculous criticisms we've ever faced in that there's
absolutely no such thing as unreality. I
mean, how! perceive reality isprobably totally different from how you perceive it. Ihope so, anyway,some of the things you come up with!"Thanks Robert. So what's the big deal with The Cure's perception? Whatis it that people find in Smith's private terror to titillate them?
"A bit of insanity? Idunno... It's like askingwhat Iget out of listeningto
New Order or Joy Division. Imean, when I
heard Closer, it didn't make mewant to go and throw myself in the sea, but it reflected alot of things that
Ithought and there's afair few people that do things, not just in music
but in the arts in general, that reflect parts of what Iconsider my own
character and do it far better than me alot of the time. I
mean, I'm
probably more critical of what we've done than anybody!""I try not to analyse it," says Lo!, paddling. "It's abit of fatalism maybe...
an unsettling thing... it's not angst... what it is, is ifyou feel upset thenmaybe, with us, there's an exorcism. That's the nearest thing Ican thinkof. Idunno... I've tried for ages to think up aphrase or some word that
could describe it but Ican't. It's probably agood thing because once you
get to the stage where you can describe it, then the problem or the need torelive it isn't there."
These words, openly uttered ankle-deep in cold water, are tantamountto an admission that The Cure are content to wallow and survive. It's theact of exorcism... no, the exorcism itself that fuels their creativity and themore you get to wondering why, the more you get to think that, yes, maybe
this is one big miserable pose.
Have The Cure never gagged at the stench in avandalised phone box?
Have they ever witnessed an incontinent drunk split his head on thefloor? Have they ever come home to find the walls smeared with shit andthe cat's head kicked in? Do The Curelive in the real world at all or does
Smith's argument that individual perception is all justify The Cure's
egocentric existence?
And so you spend 24 or so hours on and off with The Cure and Lol talks ofbeing bottled in abarwhile Smith sleeps off his exhaustion. He talks ofbeing run down by buses while Smith dreams of drowning, he discusses
cannibalism while Smith struggles with slumber, he admits he couldn't
cosh arabbit out of its misery even if he could perhaps eat acorpse if his
plane crashed in theAlps.
And you realiseThe Cure are not playingwith fire for the thrill of it. Even
relaxed and joking on the beach, theycan't help but notice the frail skin that
divides securityfrom disaster. They can't help but be fascinated byfear.
The Cure aren't acure, but they're no complaint either. Lookaround at the ills infecting the charts and be thankful for thatfact alone. SteveSutherland •"If you feel
upset thenmaybe, withus, there's an
exorcism"

HISTORY OF ROCK 1983 I
107

_THE GO-BETWEENS,FRANKIE, THE SMITHS,JOHN LYDON AND MORE

"Needy&lithe
newmusicliikeis
British": Madonna
photographedon
Octobert4,1983"I like to be at thecentre of things"
MM NOV 5yOU HAVE TO see Madonna on stage to really

understand. Here is aspecial kind of spell; afantasy
both innocent and seductive. She dances with aclassical grace and aprofessional's poise, but that's notall. For her to pull the microphone down between her
legs, to open her red mouth and tilt back this child's faceis somehow asex cliche made fresh. How she can makesuch aheavy metal stance seem vital is amystery thatmakes her fascinating. The way she moves with her teamof dancers is nothing like you've seen before. Light years
away from facile disco prancing and the fierce
pump'n'grind of funk, they describe moods almost too
noble for the music itself; motions rudely spiked with thefrank images of sexual voyeurism.
Her appearance is strangely disconcerting too: adevil
angel's face straight out of the monochrome pages of
Kenneth Anger's Hollywood Babylon, and asmall, tight
bodywhose soft curves are more friendly than enticing.
Between these two extremes, the knowing temptress andthe little girl, exists atension that is the essence of thewhole exercise.
Of course, it's nothing new, and Madonna would be thefirst to admit that, pointing to the obvious spectres ofMarilyn Monroe and Frances Farmer. But this isn't agame for amateurs; played badly it seems tawdry andcrass. That she makes it work suggests that this isn't somuch apart as agenuine projection. Maybe Madonna
gets awaywith it all because it's as real as real gets.
Raised in the charged atmosphere of an Italian Catholicfamily in Detroit, she made apoint of learning howto
win exclusive attention in acompetitive environment.
Aiming to be adancer, she started training in her
pre-school days before enrolling at the University of »E3REATHLES

1983
Michigan to study ballet and modern dance.
Moving to NewYork, she worked with acoupleof dance troupes, dabbled in movies and thendecided that music was her true calling. It allsounds like some sickly re-run of Fame, but she
wastes no time in denouncing this new gilded
version of the American dream in leotards. "Letme tell you," she says acidly, "my experiencehas nothing at all to do with that particularbrand of escapism-I mean only asucker would
believe that stuff!"
After grubbing around Manhattanwith
various uncommitted punk groups she decided
to get back to her roots in dance music and start
writing for herself. Armed with ademo tape andher own compelling personality, she toutedround the major labels, finally meeting up withSire boss Seymour Stein, the man who signed
Talking Heads and then made millions out of
property and antiques.
"Seymour actually signed me up in hospital,"
she recalls fondly. "He was having his heart
cleaned out! It was such astrange situation. I
mean, here lam going into ahospital to meet thisman 1've never met before who's sitting there in
his jockey shorts and drip feed in his arm! He
was like drugged out of his mind as well, y'know.
"But he loved my tape- he was the only one
who said 1
could go straight into the studio.
Epic, Geffen, Atlantic, they all wanted moredemos. So Ithought, 'Well he seems like aniceman,' and Sire had this reputation as alabelthat took chances. What did I
have to lose?"
Her debut album ¡sa slick amalgam of rock,funk and disco, the various strands ofinfluence forged finely together by producer
Reggie Lucas, aname usually associated with

H

0

L

A

Y

3

o
black vocalists like
Stephanie Mills andPhyllis Hyman.
Madonna's singing brings
to mind another blackartist as well, the Michael
Walden protégée Stacy
Lattisaw, but unlike Stacy,
Madonna's fire-and-desire
lyrics conjure up astronger and altogether
more saleable image.
Despite her bedroom-wall potential, successhas so far largely been supported bythe blackand hispanic communities, but the release of"Burning Up" and the accompanying video
could rapidly change all that. Madonna pouts,
pants and beats the ground in afrenzy ofcontrived frustration. Hands desperately
pushing up her hair, she pleads, "Do you wannasee me down on my knees... 1Unlike the others I'ddo anything' I'm not the same, ¡have no shame!
I'm on fire, you know you got me burning up,
baby/Burning upforyour love."¡na way it's preposterous and then again
there's this undeniable attraction in watchingsomeone who just doesn't care about the rulesof good taste and who cansay and do the mostoutrageous things and stillseem charming.
Considering her
performance, with moreheavy breathing than amarathon she comments:"Weill am passionate!That's
the Latin in me. I'm also very
manipulative, Ilike to be at

the centre of things. But
as well as this outward
aggressive side there's apart of me that's very shy.
"You see I
think it's really
important to make yourself
vulnerable to people in a
performance. On the other
hand it's nice to keep yourdistance, too. I've always thought the mostcharismatic people have those dual opposites."
Here she recalls the seminal figures of the old
Hollywood, stars that came out aperiod that
now appears touchingly naive when comparedto the '80s. "But I
still think it's possible to stay
open and childlike. There are basic humanelements there no matter what the time is-theytranscend eras and fashion. Ithink it is very
important to maintain the child in yourself. I
think the people who aren't afraid to staylikethat are the people who always come up withthe freshest ideas."
In fact Madonna's "ideas" aren't the mostoriginal under the sun, but the enthusiasm andverve with which she presents them give themanew lease of life, aspark that let's you believe
she could have dreamt up
the whole sweet-bad girlscam herself. Her recent
show at the Camden Palace
proved she had plenty ofresources to cope with theunexpected (the complete
collapse of the soundsystem) and the typicallyicy
London crowd (something
she'd already experienced
earlier this year).
While she's anxious to attract "the kind ofpeople who might like Grace Jones", hercurrent ambitions don't stretch beyond thecelebration of teenage passion. "The world is insuch abad shape at the moment-who wants tohear about it in songs," she opines. "Theywant
songs about falling in love and being lonely."
The incredible success of Grandmasterflesh's "The Message" argues that things aren't
quite that black-and-white, but Madonna
eagerly dismisses their "voice of the people"
stance. "I know Grandmaster Flash &The
Furious Five verywell and they are so full ofshit! Those guys are well off, believe me, andvery sure of themselves.
"I'm tired of hearing records about howwe
live on the street, y'know; it's ajoke at this point.
They don't live on the street; that's their image.
Ifyouwanna make ahit recordyou're not livingon the street, I'm sorry!And now they're
singing about the evils of cocaine-what!"
For someone who lives and works in New
York, Madonna has refreshingly balanced
attitude about the city every other British
dance group is busting to record in. "Actually,
Iget more of abuzz coming to London," shesays, adding that the scramble in search ofthat Midas touch from Manhattan nameproducers is just another empty fashion.
"In fact nearly all the new music Ilike is
British," she asserts. And to showher faith thenext album will probablybe recorded in
London. "With all your bands in NewYork
I
shouldn't have any problem finding afree
studio, don'tyou think?" Ian Pye"Sire had thisreputation as alabel that tookchances. What didIhave to loser

Madonna on
Canal Street in
New York City,
December1982

-> Wham! have thisweek lost the firstleg of their legal
battle against theirrecord company,
Innervision. A
High Court judge
has granted a
temporary
injunction
preventing the
duo from signingup with any
record company.

1

Yokomewjoint
album with herlate husband

NME DEC 10
OHN LENNON AND Yoko Ono are to befeatured on several albums "of major
musical and historical significance",
according to astatement issued by
Polygram Records of New York this week,coinciding with the third anniversary of
Lennon's assassination. They will all be
released simultaneously worldwide, theUK outlet being via the Polydor label.
The last six songs recorded by Lennon,
and never before released, are included on
the album Milk And Honey, which comesout on 23 January—and it also features six
previously unissued Yoko Ono tracks. It will
also be available in cassette form, with a
12-page lyric and photo booklet, and it willappear at the same time as aCompact Disc.
Prior to this, tomorrow (Friday) sees therelease of t
he LP Heartplay: UnfinishedDialogue, comprising 42 minutes of
conversation with the Lennons. It's takenfrom the original 22-hour tape of one of thelast interviews they gave, and it's been
separated byYoko into seven different
sections, each covering adifferent subject.
Sandwiched between these two albums
comes anew single on 9January. TheA-sidefeatures the classic Lennon song "Nobody
Told Me", and it's coupled with anew Yokosong called "0 Sanity".

June 30,1983: David
Bowie on stage at
Hammersmith
Odeon, London"We're delighted"
MM OCT 29àfie Grimed beirgi its àrixtüll

D

AVID BOWIE HAS raised more than £90,000 for aLondon
community group, following his benefit gig at the Hammersmith
Odeon in June. And Bowie himself has had some say in how the£.93,500 will be spent by the Brixton Neighbourhood Community
Association. The success of the Bowie benefit is in stark contrast to the
Duran Duran fiasco at Aston Villa football ground, when their charity
show for Mencap, an organisation for the mentally handicapped, failed
to raise any money at all.
Back in Brixton, the community association are intending to spend£10,000 on asenior citizens programme, and alarger amount will go
towards the establishment of anew community centre. The existingpremises in Mayall Road have to be vacated by the end of this year to
make way for new building. Courtney Laws, association director, says
the new centre will be named after David Bowie.
"We're delighted that the Hammersmith Concert was such agreat
success," he commented this week. We do believe that the newcommunity centre will be greatly welcomed by the Brixton
community and provide well-needed recreational facilities. We
have told Mr Bowie that we would like to show our appreciationof his efforts by naming the centre after him.""Extra time"
MM NOV 26 iat rldg Ody;earlhehaviorre

L

OS ANGELES PUNK band Black Flag are in Los Angeles County
Jail. They were locked up for contempt of court, but their original
sentence was extended due to their reported "continuing bad
behaviour". The group were sentenced to seven days in prison for
releasing records when they were under court orders not to.
Aspokesman said: "There was an injunction to stop them releasing

any more material as they had adispute with MCA Records in America.
They weren't supposed to release anything until it was sorted out.
"They then released Everything Went Black, an album of previously
unobtainable recordings, and they continued to put out records ontheir own label, SST. I
suppose they said 'sod it' and thought they could
get away with it, despite the injunction. They got locked up acouple ofweeks ago, but since then they've been pissing the jail authorities
around, so they got extra time. We expect them out next week."> Moteirhead have
had to cancel all
work for the next
several weeks
following thecollapse of guitarist
Brian Robertson atagig in Hanover.
Robertson was
examined by aGerman medical
specialist, who
diagnosed
exhaustion andacute depression
as well as
respiratory sinus
problems. Theband have now
returned to Britain,
and an English
specialist hasordered Robertson
to go into arest
home for treatment
and to take athreeweek break fromwork. NNE Nov 79> The Birthday
Party releaseaposthumous
12-inch EP on
Mute Records
this Monday.
Entitled "Mutinyr,
it features four
tracks -"Jennifer's
Veil", "Mutiny
In Heaven","Swampland"and "Say ASpell",and was recorded
in Berlin earlier
this year before
the band split.
NNE Nov 19

HISTORY OF ROCK 1983 1111

PETER STILL /GETTY. BRIAN RASIC"Historicalsignificance"

NNE Nov 19

1983
oc oe R

July27,1982:
Sun Raonstage at The
Venue, London

MM I}\‘' An audience with Sun Ra: unnamed reader of1
4
unknown books, teacher of unattended college courses.
-1:'"I'm the black sheep of the white race," he explains.

I

NAMEMORABLE moment in AJoyful
Noise, awinsomely illuminating thoughtechnically rancid flick about Sun Ra, themighty figure is seen turning to the camera
straight-faced to declare: "They say history
repeats itself. They say history repeats itself.
They say history repeats itself. But history is
his story. Now you gonna hear MY story."
Abarely perceptible humour appeared to
crystallise for asecond and then fade; whether
it was awicked glint in his eyes or the faintest
trace of asmile at the corner of his lips, there
was an unmistakable feeling that what had justoccurred was aRa-rified equivalent of awink.
Just how serious is this Sphinx-like oldsage, the curious, the interested and thecommitted must all have asked themselves
at one time or another? To sing about theplanets so consistently, to adapt the attire of
an intergalactic Pharaoh and inform people
you come from Saturn...just what the hell isthis all about?
In person Sun Ra proves most serious
indeed, despite the air of incongruity as hesits in an upstairs lobby of the Grosvenor
112 IHISTORY OF ROCK 1983

Hotel, Victoria, knitted Nile-hat perched uponpate as if in imitation of atea-cosy, folded
copies of the Telegraph and Mirror on knees.
Behind all the mythology and apparent
madness, the sci-fi spectacle and manifestosof the mystic, Sun Ra seems like nothing soshocking as an eccentric grandfather, arather
kindly figure dressed, below headgear, inplain brown trousers and mouldy blue pulloverthat might have beenbought in Marks and gently
allowed to deteriorate
around the rotundity.
Serious indeed. How
did he feel about lastnight's performances at
The Venue, inquires thejournalist, opting fora
conventional opening
gambit of polite,
meaningless nibbles
before delving into the interview's meat andveg? But forgetting, stupidly, that the man at
his side is hardly -understatement ahead -theconventional subject.

"People are listening to what I'm
sayin', which is more than just asocial
thing, it's somethin' about survival,"
replies Ra, before further explication of
his theory of the cosmos. Some of this isoccasionally hard to follow, though thegist is usually clear.
It's difficult to follow because Ra -72
years of age, according to members of his
wondrous band, the Arkestra -tends tomumble some.
But before starting on the interview-you read scores of those every week,right? -you probably want to know why
you should be listening to how some old
guy you've only vaguely heard of thinks
the universe is all based on equations.
The regular ploy of plugging anew
single seems like agood place to begin.
Out now is the marvellous Nuclear War
on Dick O'Dell's "Y" label, proclaimed
to be the first ever Sun Ra 12-inch
single. Performed loosely in the styleof the Last Poets yet unmistakably
stamped with the inimitable characterof Ra-dom, it's awittily observed rap
that shows up virtually everything you
will have heard on the radio this monthand deserves to be at No 1for at least 10
weeks, but won't.
Despite the gravity of its content -a
warning of impending apocalypse-there
was asense of joyous, almost vaudevillian
bonhomie flying around The Venue when
the piece was performed there. The sightof the glitteringly, dazzlingly bedecked
Arkestra circling stage and clapping
hands to the sweet refrain "When they
push that button, your ass gotta go!" wasenough to have even the most pessimistic
members of the nuclear family grinning as
if pencils had been forced sideways into
mouths. Our asses went, rhythm
powered, not fission showered.
Yet this song represents but the merest
slither of the Sun Ra experience ;in its
entirety the most daring and masterly
exploration and evocation of styles,
moods and periods.
The music is akaleidoscope ofgeographical locations and temporalvisitations; on one level this is an immaculate
swing big band (Ra's apprenticeship wasserved as apianist with Fletcher Hendersonin the '40s), on others an African percussion
ensemble, asoul outfit, arap crew or avantgarde orchestra.
The Arkestra's reputation was made as
the latter, yet live they
are an easily assimilable
experience for theuninitiated, underscoredby adynamic, astute senseof pacing; an eclectic's
proverbial dream.
"I'm really playing all
types of music," confirms
Ra. "A lot of people think I
just play avant-garde, butI
can play anything."
Talking of misconceptions, he denies
rumours that "Sun Ra" is just some casuallyadapted pseudonym. "People say my nameis Sonny Blount, but that's not my name.

"Society's movin'out into space.
People will have to,whether they wantto or not"le Planetary Premiere...

books. I'm talking about equations, andI
was talking about equations that theworld had bypassed."
But why does he think not many blacks
had turned up, either?
"Well, because they wasn't interested in
the cosmos." He pronounces the word cozmose. "They was interested in some money;
you know, America's money mad."Does he feel like an outcast in America,then?
"Well, I
made myself like that, because
I
didn't wanna be part of what they dom'.
It's gonna go the way the rest of the
kingdoms went. Ancient Egypt was alright,
Persia was alright and Greece was alrightas far as I'm concerned. I
found somefascinating things about those countries.
And Ancient Rome was alright, butsomethin' happened."
So why does he still live in America, I
ventured, noticing the needle stare of oneof the Arkestra members just afew feetaway. One or two seem to follow Sun Ra
around, like bodyguards, referring to theirmaster by his full title.
Ra chews this one over for afew seconds
before replying: "I exist there. I
don't really
live there, because, as you say, I
might be an
outcast. I'm the black sheep of the whiterace and the black sheep of the black race...
which makes me the blackest of all!" Rabeams, his face lit with mirth; the man may
be serious, but he knows how to crack agag.
Obviously he has used amultitude ofideas and influences from Africa, but has hevisited countries in Asia or Latin America
and heard music there?
"Well actually, it has been dubbed thatway, but I'm not actually really representing
Africa," muses Ra. "I would say the closest
to it would be Ancient Egypt. Not Egypt
today; they dom' some other things; alot ofplaces they ban music. If music's auniversal
language that means they're not universal,
they're limited on Earth plane. That means
they're missin' alot; they're just lookin' atthis planet. They're holdin' onto somethin'that has not proved to be good in
the past, is not good now.
"It won't work, you know,
because society's movin' out into
space. People will have to, whether
they want to or not; they should getthemselves together in every
country to draw attention to thespace programme, otherwise you'll
have an exodus of leaders from thisplanet. Leaders are gonna have tolead you, but they gonna beattacked, like recently where in oneof the countries they bombed thepresidential advisors.
"People need leaders. There's
two billion people on this planet;they can't function very wellwithout leaders."
On that point we disagree; but
argue over every statement in
Friday, October 24
aRa interview and you could be
7:30 &9:30 pm
detained for aeons.
$2.00
International
But who cares? If you fail toHouse,
adore this man you've flipped.
3701 Chestnut St.
LyndenBarber

UN RA: A JOYFUL NOISE
eNew Film by Robert Muggeene.
eve•get ••••••1 •••••••1.,...•..ied.... ewer. *la M. I.ellt•W., el (111 tIell der. en Fe
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La La Means I
Love YouThe Delfonics
The Tatler Ry Cooder
The Tracks Of My Tears&RUM"
Smokey Robinson &The Miracles",;V:
Groovy Times The ClashEnd Of The Party The Beat
Jeane The Smiths
LA•LA NIANS ILOVIIet,
THE DeL11.47141C111
Sexual Healing Marvin Gayebe "=T°.e=aleEverything I
Need Sam &Davebe,Song For The Siren This Mortal CoilBroken Doll Wreckless Eric
011Mrele

ea. gm«. el. le cram• On ...On. ye. 1.01••••••••••Coloel.

C
, law

l

N

Books
Zippy stories Bill Griffith
Homage To Catalonia George Orwell
Barrack Room Ballads Rudyard Kipling
Slaughterhouse 5Kurt Vonnegut
The Day It Rained Forever Ray Bradbury
Shaka Zulu EA Ritter
The Book Of Lists, I&II Wallechinsky,
Wallace, Wallace
The Oxford Dictionary Of Quotations
2000AD (weekly)
Warrior (intermittently)

Films/TV
Badlands, Bloody Kids, Animal House, The
Tin Drum, Whistle Down The Wind, Teenage
Command Performance (The Tami Show),Blue Remembered Hills, AKid For Two
Farthings, Goal!, C4's First Love series

Likes
Tea, Ribena (in cartons), trash guitars, the
NHS, Marmite, taking showers, 75% of all
TV programmes (especially the adverts),
photocopiers, playing football, playing gigs

Dislikes
Beer, chocolate, solo performers
who use tapes, dentists, elites
of any kind, breaking strings,
bad technology

HeroesFrans Masereel, Yuri
Gagarin, Pete Johnson andAlbert Ammons, Eddie
Cochran, Dennis Potter,
William Blake, Holland/
Dozier/Holland, The 966
England team

Heroines
The Shangri-Las, Nina
Simone (right), Arethaee.."Franklin, Pauline
Murray, Nastassia
Kinski, Sarah Greene, )those Greenham
Common girls

4.0.1.11 I. let* te le••••••••

4.4
na I•., .44 O. • le•lan en ....mi.... • lee

Music

MIST

MARK SHARRATT /REX FEATURES. EVERETT/ REX FEATURES"At this point," he continues, "I'mpractically close to getting involved in theaffairs of this planet on an international
scale... 'cos I
couldn't do anything on anational scale. They got somebody forthat. But they don't have nobody on aninternational scale to really speak or help
other nations without falling to politics
or religion or race. Just like the sun shines
on everybody ;that's what they need on
this planet.
"What I
was thinking about, I
knew it was
totally impossible to get musicians on thisplanet to co-operate and on aworld front topresent to people what's really happening.
But this letter here makes me see there's
somethin' else that's backin me up that's
not of this planet."
He hands me aletter from anorganisation called "World In Concert"concerning aplan to hold simultaneousconcerts in adozen nations for world peace.
In the movie Space Is The Place he's
depicted giving aworld concert, he says.
'And here it's comin' up. For 24 hours, eachcountry will present two hours.
"I think that's one of the most wonderfulthings that's ever happened on this planet;the musicians would be playin' not formoney, not for fame, but because they're
tryin' to do somethin' for humanity's survival.
"If alot of musicians get together simply
for survival of this planet, whoever owns
this planet will be compelled to say, 'There's
somethin' of worth on this planet, I'm notgonna destroy it?"
Apedagogue, Ra did once teach at the
University of California, which obviously
had fellow academics' brains boggling.
"They didn't like what I
was sayin'. They
didn't even pay me for two months, theysaid I
was in Egypt. I
didn't have too many
students. The title of the course wassomethin' like 'The Black Man And The
Cosmos'. Of course, no white people
showed up, well, maybe five or six.
"I always gave them books to refer themto see that side of the truth. Unknown

"New andTHE GO-BETWEENS and their literate, compellingsongsjust don't seem to fit in. Might it be because
they're Australian? "We're experimenting," says •Grant McLennan. "I do think we're right at the centre..
Eventually all the other dreck will be washed away."

I
;

'

•""-

k
,

1983

ocroBER-0-""
MELODY MAKERT

HE LEGACY LEFT to this country
by The Beatles dies hard...
It's not the fact that there's nohome music scene of any greatvitality or energy that's sofrustrating as much as the feelingthat there ought to be, simply because that's the way it's always workedC..)

in the past.
In Britain, we're used to having the spotlight of international attention
on our music; we take it for granted that whatever's happening in thiscountry is 'important'. We suffer from the most absurd, inflated
superiority complex as aresult.
But that's being British for you: Britannia Rules The Waves and all thatpatriotic, worthless, but frighteningly powerful nonsense. The firstindustrial nation runs down the plughole to the sound of avacuously
jolly dance of death: the sound of Top OfThe Pops these days is the soundof acorpse kidding itself that it's full of beans.
Of course, music that provokes surprises and evokes is still produced
here, it's just that we no longer expect it as amatter of course. For alessblinkeredversion we have to keep ears and attitudes tilted towards any
number of sources traditionally either dismissed, patronised or only
recognised begrudgingly (remember the phrase "Krautrock"?). There areanumber of world centres for popular music. That's the way it's always
been, it's just that our vanity is less easy to stomach these days.
Probably the most important thing our country has retained is its musicindustry infrastructure, and though even that's looking sickly and pale atpresent, it's more than exists in most other places. It's atelling fact that the
only essential rock group of the '80s -The Birthday Party-came from
Australia. Equally it speaks volumes that they had to come here before
their importance was recognised in their home country.
It also says alot that one of the most gracefully haunting singles of1983 is by anotherAustralian group; The Go-Betweens' "Cattle And

admirable idealism-an uncompromising belief in their music anddistaste for the manipulative moguls operating inside the major record
corporations. They don't like Britain much; they're here briefly because
their record company is Rough Trade. It has faults, but they feel it's been
about the best option on offer.
"A lot of it comes from our backgrounds." The Go-Betweens' drummer
Lindy Morrison launches into her explanations without asingle pause.
"In '77 and '78 and '79 we were constantlybeing challenged by the reallyconservative system we lived in, where hardly anyone had any faith inwhat we were doing.
"Then we came over here and it was the same thing, we were seen as
quirky and strange because we were Australian. Because everyone saw us
as 'weird' or something, it just means we're not happy to join forces withpeople who have always treated us as if we were 'the other side'. Why givein to them, just because it's now fashionable to join forces with people you
know don't think the wayyou think? I'm still angrywith those people who
were in positions of power to put our music out but never did, and always
treated us as asilly group of amateurs."

rr HE MISTS OF independence hang heavily about The

Go-Betweens -they seem less of a'rock 'n' roll group' thanasmall itinerant artistic community, aclose-knit group offriends who define themselves in terms of their separation from themusic around them.
The title Before Hollywood, the front cover
shot of Morrison, Grant McLennan andRobert Forster (a fourth member, Robert
Vickers, has since joined) in an antiqueshop, their unfashionable American
influences and their spectral, evocative
lyrics add to the feeling of distance andstark individuality.
Here is agroup who have detachedthemselves from their home country, whoflaunt imagery associated with the past,
whose songs are redolent of travel andastrong sense of place, of childhood and"Up The Ladder To The
remembered thoughts and feeling.
Roof"; Velvet Underground"We would have been happy in the 18th
"Oh Sweet Nothing";
century: I
would have been anyway, Icould
Nancy & Lee "How Does
quite forget about the 20th," says Grant
That Grab You?"
when I
suggest The Go-Betweens are
RF: Yoko Ono "Walking
agroup out-of-place and out-of-time.
On Thin Ice"; Ray Charles
Lindy immediately leaps in: "Ifyou look
"I Can't Stop Loving You";at our histories we're not out of time, out of
Buddy Holly, Talking Heads
place, we are exactly right at this moment.
as athree-piece; The
And that goes right from the time when
Stooges Funhousepunk hit me, when I
was playing drums inan acoustic band and it was very easyto go
onto electric instruments, and at that time
GWM: Masculin Féminin
girls were being given the big push. And(Godard), Beat The Devil
Iran into these two, brought up on(Huston), The Mother And
American films and Dylan and mid-' 70s
The Whore (Eustache), Lovepunk from America. And we all meet
In The Afternoon (Wilder),up -we're the only people in this town
Vampyr (Dreyer)(Brisbane) who are ambitious musically,
RV: Notorious (Hitchcock),and we wanna get out of that town. And
Treasure Of The Sierra
we did it all in the right time, and Istill
Madre (Huston), Strangers
thinkwe represent the right exact moment
On A Train (Hitchcock),in time.
Chinatown (Polanski)
When Geoff (Travis) called us into his
RF: The Apartment
office on Saturday to give us alecture on(Wilder), Fury (Lang),
howwe were losing Rough Trade money
The Late Show (Benton),because we hadn't had ahit he said, 'We
Jackson County Jail

Amost unusual pop group
NME JUN 11
Likes

Music

GWM: Carole Lombard,
Jimmy Stewart, Cognac,
Piero Della Francesca,
jeans, Christmas
RV: Monet, Degas, Renoir,
Bonnard, Gramercy Park,
Sir gapore, CBGBs
RF: Girls who wear glasses,
Widows, Katharine
Hepburn, history

GWM: Creedence
Clearwater Revival, The
Birthday Party, The Mamas&The Papas, Blue Orchids,
Velvet Underground
LM: (drum tracks) Jet Blackon The Stranglers' "Golden
Brown"; Ringo Starr on The
Beatles' "Come Together";
Budgie on The Slits' "TypicalGirls"; Martin Hughes on
Robert Wyatt's"Shipbuilding"; TonyThompson on Diana Ross's"Upside Down".
RV: Van Morrison "Brown
Eyed Girl"; Bob Dylan"I Want You"; Supremes

Reuling
GWM: Rilke Duino Elegies,
Kztherine Mansfield
CollectedShort Stories,
Charles Dickens Great
E>pectations, JM Synge
The Playboy Of The WesternWorld, William Fairfield,
Modigliani
RV: Joseph Conrad,
K ngsley Amis, Graham
Greene, Hemingway
RF: John Kennedy Toole
A Confederacy Of
Dunces, Lillian Ross
Picture, Nick Kent,
newspapers

116 IHISTORY OF ROCK 1983

(Miller)"UP THE LADDER TO THE ROOF'(Vlbc.

THE SUPREAURS

Cane", atrack from their softlytextured andsometimes beautifully ethereal second album
Before Hollywood.
Not that this is part of some crass attempt to build
up some myth ical Antipodean wave; it's more that
The Go-Betweens' country of origin has been of
crucial importance in forging their identity. Unlike
many groups in this country, they still maintain anknowthat fashion and historyturns about andit's justa matter of waiting font'. Well perhaps
that's the case."
Adds Grant: "We're doing something new
and something very emotional, and we're
experimenting. It's just amatter of the focus.
Ido think we're right at the centre, andeventually all the other dreck that's washedaround will be just washed away."
One of the group's two writers—he and Robert
Forster work separately— Grant McLennan
exudes asense of purpose and firmness of tonethat isn't in anyway diminished by thequietness of his voice.
When asked if theyconsider themselves to
be a'pop group', McLennan replies: "I think
we are apop group, but we're the most unusual
pop group there's ever been. Although wework with melody, we sometimes work against
it, and that's like one of the cardinal sins of
pop music."
He lists some of the characteristics thatexemplify their strangeness—their unusual
rhythms ("CattleAnd Cane" boasts atrickybut
effective 11-beat time signature), theirsparseness and lack of decoration, their words
and subject material, their relative ages, thewaythey play, the way theylook, the fact they're
fromAustralia.
Another of their special qualities is theirsubtlety and consequently lack of immediacy—many of their songs fail to make an initial
impact, but germinate and slowly flourish withthe movement of plants.
"People often mistake subtlety or reticencefor naivety and wimpiness," says Grant. "Ifpeople do that then it's quite pathetic. You just
can't have those two qualities ifyou want to bein the charts, so that's our dilemma..."iHE GO-BETWEENS EXHIBIT

riagentleness of touch and sensitivityof approach that is unforced andquite natural.
There's afemininity about the band,
something Lindy takes as agreat compliment.
"I think that's true, I
think the boys in theband have allowed the feminine side of theirnature to show and probably reacted strongly
against the macho elements inherent in theAustralian male.
Also, most men born post-'53 have been
allowed to be more feminine, Ithink, if they'reconscious of the world. Ialways say Idon't trust
anyone born before 1953 anyway!"L

Reacting against
Aussie macho:
Go-Betweens
Robert Vickers andLindy Morrison

joined the band, mainly because theyshoved
Modern Lovers and Tom Verlaine and Bob
Dylan down my neck. For the first year I
was inthe band that was all I
was allowed to listen to.
"I see them as adirect reaction against beingfrom Australia, so that makes them Australianartists. There are writers like them, like Patrick
White and David Ireland, they're the same
people who fought against everything that ismale and aggressive and arrogant in theAustralian white person. To talk about
influences from America is irrelevant for me."As the interview draws to aclose Lindy reveals
they're thinking of askingJohn Cale to produce
their next album; that is, if theyever get it
recorded, since Rough Trade haven't enough money to pay for it.
The Go-Betweens may end up signing with amajor companybecause
the only other option will be no more records at all. Somehow I
can't seethem compromising their attitudes or music one iota if theydo sign. And
I
think we should drink to that. Lynden Barber •"I always say
Idon't trust
anyone born
before 1953
anyway!"IKE AMERICA, AUSTRALIA is acountry of immigrants, where themythology of the pioneers is deeply
ingrained in the national consciousness.
Perhaps it's this that sometimes gives thegroup astrangely individual American
resonance. While "Cattle And Cane" isexclusivelyAustralian, containing references
to the fields of cane and timber houses ofQueensland, asong like "Two Step's Step Out"is more ambiguously located, with lines like"the steamer's left" and "sold my horse".
Certainly part of their Americanness is due to their fascination for
American literature, films and music. Lindy can't quite see it though.
"Because !know these two so well, whenever anyone makes out
American influences, whatever theywrite, their music seems so uniquely
their own that I
can't see that influence anymore. I
might have when Ifirst

HISTORY OF ROCK 1983 I117

Diction is always
aproblem with Waits,
and it's frustrating not
to have the words on thesleeve. I
never found out
what the title track was
about in detail, exceptthat it concerns somepoor doughboy who"came home from thewar with aparty in hishead". "Trouble Braids"
is another, like
"Underground", where
the furry ball of vocal
sound triumphs overmeaning. Pity theurgency in the band
makes you wish youwere keeping pace.
Agood album, full of
good lines and clever,original musical ideas.
Brian Case, MMOct8

Cocteau Twins
4AD

Tom Waits:
single snapshotsof emotion

ALBUMS
Tom Waits
Sworiifishtrombouel; ISLAND

I

With 15 tracks, this is sketchbook
Waits and indicates the range of
his writing gifts. Maybe it's theinfluence of writing music formovies, but there's no doubt ofanew concision about his work
here. Where he used to stack
image on image in every number,he can now feel confident about
getting the emotion across inasingle snapshot.
The longest piece, "Shore
Leave", is the old Waits,
featuring asailor "in aHong
Kong drizzle on Cuban heels
rolling down the gutter to the
Blood Band". He alternates twomanners of delivery, narrationand song, allocating them to thedescription of neon clip-joints
or to the homesick letter to hiswife and it's very effective.
"Soldier's Things", however, isbrief, moving and unforgettable.
Over regretful piano, he lists theitems left behind in adead
solder's home, twisting the list
into pity with the line: "This one's
for bravery, and this one's for me,
and everything's adollar in thisbox." It's asale of effects, and it
doesn't waste aword.
There's the usual forlorn
118

HISTORY OF ROCK 1983

reminiscenceson "Johnsburg
Illinois" and "Town
With No Cheer", anda"Waltzing Matilda"type bar-room lilt to "In The
Neighbourhood". "Dave The
Butcher" and "Just Another
Sucker" are all-instrumental
numbers, the latter so beautifully
orchestrated in its tentativeadvance that it sounds as if eventhe horns are bumping underthe bow. "Frank's Wild Years"
certainly were, judging by thisbaleful narrative. "Doused
everything in the house, torchedit, parked across the street andwatched it, laughing."
At his best, Waits can customise
any item at the Uncle Sam
Trading Post, from shaving
cream to chewing
tobacco. The riffing
rocker, "16 Shells
From AThirtyOught Six", drives
that inspired
phrase right into
the mind. He
sounds like Howling
Wolf on "Gin
Soaked Boy" androcks "Down Down
Down" along on
what sounds
like gabble.

111M

The Cocteau Twins are
unique. Meandering but
never dull, their songs
are imbued with
acomplexity thatwinds around andthrough thecomplementing
lyricism of Robin
Guthrie's
instrumental
flexibility andElizabeth Frazer's
compellingly
attractive voice. HeadOver Heels is abig step
forward from their inconclusive
debut album Garlands.
Now that bassist Will has left
the band, Rob and Liz haveintroduced anew variety into
their songs. "In The Gold Dust
Rush" is almost apop song, forgoodness sake! With lullaby
lyrics still only vaguely
decipherable, you find yourself
substituting jellybaby words tosongs that lilt and leap through asecret garden of pastel imagery,though perhaps it's time they
printed the lyrics instead ofleaving it to guesswork. "Sugar

Hiccup" is another vocal rollercoaster with abright, bouncy
chorus and awhimsically
evocative vocal. "Multifoiled",
however, is areal shocker fromthe Cocteaus, pugnacious bass,
drums and piano adding fire to
Liz's newly hardened voice.
Never aband to inspire halfmeasures, you either love theircomplicated sound-weaving
structures or hate them -theycertainly offer avaried packageon this LP. "My Love Paramour"and "Glass Candle Grenades"(don't the titles themselves carryalyrical passion?) explore thepossibilities of the Frazer vocal
range, bending and twisting her
voice to impossible extremes.
The folky tinge she displayed on
Garlands has been replaced byadepth and breadth of logic,
wisdom and variety that bodes
well for the Cocteaus' future.
"Five, Ten, Fiftyfold" is agyratory but soothing elegy thatbroods gently, with asimmering
beauty -there's no doubt about
it, the Cocteau Twins havecome home. Their unguarded
vulnerability is their strength ;their magic is afluid elementthat won't ever be explained.
HelenFitzgerald,MM Oct 22

The Rolling Stones

EMI

Fortified by Phyllosan or who
knows what manner of useful
tonics, the Stones aren't having
much trouble being over 40.
Not for them the convolutedsoul-searching of aTownshend or
the holy-roller gloom of aDylan.
Undercover sticks close to what
they do best, and spits out afew
bones while doing it.
Quite undismayed by theever-glossier march of studioprogr,
ess the Stones havecheerfully made Undercoversound as rude and shambolic as
possible. Thousands have tried toimitate their ramshackle raunchover the years, and none havesucceeded. Indeed, there areseveral points where theirdangerous looseness topples
into blundering incompetence-"Wanna Hold
You" is the token
Keef vocal, andapretty pathetic
one at that. They
could have got
better resultsfrom aWalkman.
But it is theseglaring errors
which give theStones theirmalingering
charm. Richer
than most third-

4

Quirkybuthomely:
JohnnyMarr(left)
andMorrisseyof,
TheSmiths

The CurerH E SMITHSThe Smiths
7 i:ntre

FICTION

As if some macabre folly castVincent Price instead of Jeremy
Irons in Brideshead Revisited orsome sinister senility chose
Tobe Hooper to direct aseriesof Jeeves."Love Cats" isapostmodernist's dream ofanightmare, apurrrfectly
corny example of the past
purrrceived impurrrfectly, theflaw maliciously irritated andthen put to use.
In this purposeful madness,the last of The Cure's "fun"single trilogy, Robert Smith's
imagination is squirming proof
that through TV, radio andvideo, the past now plays as
active apart in the present as
the present itself, revitalised
through easily available images,
ravaged out of its rituals
and roles and reinterpreted
as amalleable source of
fractured associations.
"The Love Cats" is Smith's
masterpiece of disorientation,amental collage of history
unhinged. Herman Munster
takes spiked tea with Jean
Cocteau while ataxidermist
twitches the net curtains in
anticipation of acannibal feast.
But how to praise something sozany? How to approach its
kaleidoscopic approaches?
Well, at apinch its psychedelic
cocktail jazz, astrychnine
nursery rhyme where every
allusion (illusion!) triggers off
atunnel of flashbacks, but it's
so much sillier than that.
Sing the slapdash
chorus, swoon tothat devil-maycare decadentswing. Singleof theeweek?
Single ofthe year(s)!
/.4t4 OCt 29

RT 138ROUGH TRADE

Well, what a'tTiffs co/4pm
perfectly 1984.44,„,
band this bunch\bof Sun styled
pervos turned out tobe. Aslightly alternative,
terribly literate Haircut One
Hundred playing Beatles tunes
ever so tasteful and up-and-off
tempo. Swinging students, lessharmful than Joyce, more
modern than Maclnnes, quirky
but homely, suggestively homo
-maybe that's what all the fuss
was about? Whatever, worth atleast two minutes of what's leftof the rest of your life. mmoct29

Madonna

SIRE

This sex-kitten's not just content
to manicure Shalamar until thatchipper groove claws its way
into your nervous system withnails of steel, she's preened
Randy Crawford's thrilling
twitter into acutesy proposition
that promises ecstasy andsecretes danger.
Psychopathically astrological,"Lucky Star" should be the song
requested by Clint's obsessive
lover-cum-pursuer in theremake of Play Misty For Me.
I
mean, who'd succumb toacome-on like: "Shine yourheavenly body tonight?" Butthen again, who'd dare resist?
mm OCt 29

Julian Cope--sag

PHONOGRAM

Latent hippies
unite! The oldcoot has
finally
flipped hislid, flown
the coop,

lost hismarbles.
But in theprocess
made one,1of the finest
MAN,and most
Oem'sublimely-•"
distinctive
records of his career.
An intriguing construction
indeed, deep and resonantclassical strings broken by amanic psychedelic adventure
beat and slinky horns. Dark
dreamy vocals lend acrackedlooking-glass effect to an
already disorientating
atmosphere and the chorus has
an eerie chill to its insistentpromise. Not to be
missed. tot Nov12

Frankie Goes To
Hollywood
ZTTFrankie
Goes....
seem towallow andfinally getswallowed
up by theirown silly
schoolboy beliefs
that sexual
innuendoes and words like"suck" and "come" are not only
going to titillate what they see
as our equally immature senseof fun, but will elevate thisblatantly untalented band (still
living in '76 with their pseudofunk disco crap) to astatus ofcredibility that surpasses theevidence of their wares. If
they're so preoccupied withrisqué sex I
suggest they look toeither Ian Dury for humorous
vulgarity or Divine for upfront
filth and stop sniggering likeadolescents who've just
glimpsed their neighbour'sknickers. frimNov72
HISTORY OF ROCK 1983 I119

CLARE MULLER /GETTY

world countries andprobably better off
than the Treasury,
come to that, theStones may be oafish
and arrogant, but
they're never pompous.
They live outside the law
and I'm sure they're notaltogether honest, but do they
cringe and pretend to be
humble? No. They flaunt it("Our toilets are nicer thanmost people's homes").
The best thing about
Undercover is Jagger's singing,which is almost completely freeof the absurd camperies and daftaccents he often likes to affect.
In "Too Much Blood", especially,
he sounds tougher and funnierthan he has in decades. It's
agrotesque ditty about abloke inParis who eats his girlfriend andthen buries the bones in the Bois
De Boulogne. "Did you see The
Texas Chainsaw Massacre?" asks
Jagger. "Orrible, wasn't it?" As
the band hustle through asteamy
funk/rock backing track, he raps
mockingly: "When I
go to themovies! like to see something
more romantic, like An Officer
And AGentleman. Something
you can take the wife to, ya know
worrimean?"Side Two is full of classic
Keefery. "Too Tough" is acompact rocker driven by Sir
Keith's slashing riff, while "It
Must Be Hell" is ablatant repeatof "Soul Survivor" from Exile On
Main St."All The Way Down" isaragged, boozy singalong withadash of C&W, and "Pretty Beat
Up" prowls threateningly among
Charlie Watts' piston beat andDavid Sanborn's underfed
saxophone. Everywhere there is
the rusty clank of guitars.
There's nothing startlingly
new on Undercover, though there
are signs that the Stones haveassimilated their black influencesmore thoroughly than hitherto.
"Undercover Of The Night", "Tie
You Up" and "Too Much Blood"acknowledge new bearings in
American funk but gleefully
discolour them with the Stones'
dubious patent medicines. "Feel
On Baby" is tacky fake-reggae
with funny whoops and cries
popping unexpectedly out of theundergrowth. Odd.
Still, if Undercover is frequently
sloppy, it never sounds jaded.
"She Was Hot", for instance, ispositively exuberant, afanciful
tale of sex in 70 cities. There's asense of aband playing for thehell of it and sod the overdubs.
The sleeve is ghastly, by theway. AdamSweeting,MMNov 72

1983

ocroBER 0-"ER"You'restroking
my ego an
Ilove it"
Having learned athine or two abu
playing the media, JOHN LYDON'
to the UK for apress,
agenda: pubs, movies, Pit and Make
McLaren's plan to re-form the Se,
Pistols. Or not. "How.", Lydon'you going to re-form S'
IdYel

1983ocroBER-Og ui
MELODY MAKER 'tP/f.Mfibi â

ISA story of Lydon, né Rotten, recently absent but notforgotten... so one might conclude from the teeming
millions of Grub Street hacks, pop mag pundits, gossip
columnists, rank sensationalists, snappers galore andassorted scribbling objects who turned up to witness themar..
scrawny carrot make agrand appearance at the Royal
Lancaster Hotel near Bayswater last Wednesday.
Looking at the board in the foyer, it seemed that Rotten had lost none of
his old sense of humour— "McLaren, Dick" was supposedly booked into
one of the adjoining suites, and if hardly hilarious, it at least added to thehope that these proceedings would be as stripped of pomposity as it's
possible to get.
What awag. Holding court like some cheeky princelingbrat landed
bum-wise on the throne due to some untimely death amongst the royals.
The suite was, of course, expansive and, no doubt, expensive.
Hacks dutifully nibbled at the cocktail snacks and guzzled whateverbooze could be tempted out of the bottles of the servants and slaves onhand, the paparazzi bristled with lenses and aluminium flight cases,
while Rotten looked like he was about to greatly enjoy whatever it was
he had in mind for us. Which turned out to be nothing especiallyastonishing, but, of course, often splendidly entertaining.
The conference was to serve adual function: to announce the returnof Public Image Ltd ("Me", as he put it), and the British release of thefilm Order OfDeath, in which Rotten makes his acting debut opposite
Harvey Keitel.
Directed by Roberto Faenza, an Italian little known in this country, thefilm concerns the intrigue that develops between apolice lieutenant andRotten's Leo Smith, described in the synopsis as a"pale asexual freak",
who is "devoured by an overwhelming guilt complex". The cop is keeping
aswish apartment that he bought secretlywith crooked drug money.
Smith's arrival on the scene adds to the man's paranoia, and from there
apparently things start to happen. I
say apparently, because no one
seemed to have seen the film, including yours truly, which probably
accounted for the absence of any kind of critical comments concerning
Rotten's performance from the assorted globules of hackdom
coagulating in the seats.
Or maybe they were just too afraid of pushing their luck too far in frontof aman (well, just—Rotten still physicallylooks like he's barely out ofadolescence) who still displays atongue that can make amonkey out ofanyone it pleases in the space that it takes most people to clasp theirhands together for mercy.
Interestingly, even when playing the punk role on Wednesday, which
he can only reallyever eschew at the price of public apathy and press
indifference, Rotten was never outrageously rude or crudely insulting.
Perhaps it's this that gives him his mantle of charisma. It's possible towalk away from an event such as this feeling that he's put every single
person in their place (and that's
down, that's really down!), yet onreflection it's difficult to figure out
how he actually did it.
Of course he snarled, he
performed, and like businessmen
in bondage, most of us inwardly
moaned with pleasure at thehumiliation of it all. As long as thiswas kept within the bounds of agame then it was acceptable, but
nobody seemed to like the prospectof areal horsewhipping.
I'd planned to ask him why the PiL
Live In Tokyo album was so pathetic,
but sort of crumbled into biscuitmix instead.
Rotten's cleverness is inunderstanding the power ofunderstatement and silence— anironic strength for aman whose
pennant of acidity is usually thoughtof as nailed to the mast of rage. The
man is atrue star and doesn't have to
do alot to prove it.
122 IHISTORY OF ROCK 1983

Every answer Rotten fields, flings back or broods upon brings forward
into the mind the imagined response of some lesser interviewee. How
theywould squirm and bullshit, ummm and urrr through the massed
onslaught of interrogative projectiles, shuffling posteriors and grunting
like pigs scuffling for space.
Ithought I'd got him when I
asked, in ever-so-clever manner, whatever
had happened to his much-trumpeted plans to get into video.., as if thiswould make him really embarrassed.
"It was aload of mouth," he deadpanned. "Sorry."
And smiled smugly. What more was there to say? At other times the manveered distressingly close to sincerity, his demeanour almost assuming
the contours of anormal human being. But thankfully eventually broken
up bywisecracks.
The proceedings had been started by agrubby little hackfrom atit mag,
who wanted to know why he'd come back to the UK.
"Well, why not? You lot want me here. I
don't mind, believe me," offered
Rotten helpfully, before telling the multitude that after three years of New
York he'd had enough. But he was 'never gonna live here anymore. I
think
this country's finished. Ithinkwe all know that." Indeed.
He was to record in England around Christmas, he informed us.
Did he have any new material, queried aforeign journalist, possibly
Japanese, who was to make most of the running for at least 10 minutes.
"Of course!" snapped Rotten, his impatience at the dull-wittedness ofthe entire journalistic "profession" resounding like astruck bell.
"What do you mean, of course?" ventured the foreign gent—a brave andtenacious man indeed. He seemed to object to the live album consistingof old material.
"Well, what do you expect on alive album?" whined Rotten, raising his
voice to the level of insolence. "I mean, that ain't no big deal, that's just alive album. You can't expect, like, an entirely new set of songs that aren't
released officially, that's just like cutting your own throat!"
And then, like atetchy parent scolding anaughty and stupid child:"You've waited this long, afew more years won't do no harm."
All hacks present slightly sniggered.
The foreign hack said that PiL had played "AnarchyIn the UK" on theirlast tour.
"Yeah, we did it in Japan. It went down really well, but then again,
I've never ever, like, played Japan in my life, so it's quite relevant that
Idid it there."
Various minor questions yielded little, until adreadfully professional
freelance insisted on asking why he'd been away from England for solong, which gave our man on the podium achance to pass the hat roundfor sympathy as he recounted the tales of police harrassment we'd heard
countless times before. The freelance had obviously been fast asleep up
until this point, for he insisted on boring us with the same question thatsome other sod had asked several minutes ago. Rotten was surprisingly
patient with the fool.
It was this that gave the signal for the Fleet Street smooth crew to startoiling silver tongues. "John," theywould invariably start, as if theywere
old pals who'd known Rotten sinceschooldays. They'd then follow it
up with some hopelessly banalquestion, which, if it didn't elicit thecorrect response, could easily bechanged before it went into print, thediscrepancy to be blamed, if
challenged, on the sub-editors.
"John," quoth one unctuously, as
if there were just the two of them inconversation, reclining onto leather
padded seats in acocktail lounge insome distant tax haven, "John, isthere nothing you've missed
about England?""Nothing at all, except the pubs."
Whaddya like about NewYork
so much?
"It's amuch more healthy
atmosphere," plus further droning.
How did you land the acting role?
"Through sheer talent."
Have you got asteady girlfriend?

JOHN LYDON"Probably."
Are you going to tell me her name?
"No. My favourite colour is blue."
And soon... One woman had theutter audacity to ask if it was true that
the Sex Pistols were going to play atCarnegie Hall. One felt sorry for her.
Her news editor had probably madethe rumour up only the previous day
because the entertainment pages
were abit short.
"It's news to me," mumbled Rotten.
It was at this point that the woman
made an even worse mistake. "Well,
Malcolm McLaren said..." she began.
"Oh, come on now, please!"interrupted Rotten, the disgustalmost visibly rolling down the side of
his mouth in rivulets. "Alright -let's drag it down
to the level of silliness. Whatever Malcolm says
is bound to be alie. Imean, the man is apathological liar. Do me afavour, it goes without
saying, almost!"
Had McLaren been in contact with him?
"No, his manager Bernie Rhodes has, about
re-forming the Sex Pistols. But that's ajoke, isn't
it really? Howyou gonna re-form Sid?"
Grins, cackles and other eructations of mirthoccurred across the room, as if John had justcracked areal funny.
AScottish hack demanded to knowwhy he wasplanning to do aBritish tour when only afew
years ago he'd been critical of bands like theStones and The Who playing night after night on extensive tours.
"I'd hardly call what I'm doing extensive," replied Rotten. "There areintervals. What Ido is aholidaywith musical interludes.""It's still atour," observed the Scot, atruculent fellow.

chance to swap lives, adore theattention Rotten was getting, yet most
could never bring themselves topublically admit it. How many stars
do? And how many of those who place
their narcissism in the market square
do it with such asense of panache andambiguous humour?
Of course, in pop terms he isvirtually an old goat, is duplicating
the industry measures of the mid'70s brontosauri (entry into films andlive double album, indeed!), and has
just had ahit single ("This Is NotA
Love Song") with asong of almost
cretinous banality.
See him orchestrating the hacks
at an event like this, though, andit's temptingto forget all that. It's not
so much what he says as the way he says it,
emphatic delivery alternating with walls ofblankness on which the hacks can scribble
their own graffiti. AJohn Lydon/Rotten press
conference is probably more entertaining thanalive performance by the current PiL will everbe. He should drawthe correct conclusions, set
atable up on stage at everyvenue he's due to play,and invite the audience along to fire questions.
And he'd be advised to cease aworrying habitof lapsing into arid areas of discourse,
something that threatened occasionallylast
Wednesday to turn him into yet anotherghastly media bore.
Mistake One was rambling on interminably about how the US video
channel MTVwas opening up the States. Was this supposed to be telling
us something new?
Mistake Two consisted in telling us that radio stations in NewYork
actually did their own remixes of records. Did he thinkwe'd been livingin caves for the last couple of years?
Mistake Three-well, the first, but who's listening?-was muchtravelogue about NewYork, how safe it is if you don't go into the wrong
areas. Was he trying to send us all off to sleep?
Mistake Four was acting like aclassic paranoid on the subject ofJohn
Lennon (another English NewYorker initialled JL, but let's not get
mystical). "There's an oddity about his death, isn't there?" said Rotten
quite seriously. "Why did he get out of the car to walk in? Usually the car
went into the building. You know, very strange..." Was he trying toconvince us that he was turning into some kind complete nut?
Mistake Five was telling us that the Japanese "imitate the West so
blatantly", as if this was ablindingly inspired insight. Wow!
But the worst mistake of all was reserved for his opinion of Culture Club.
He didn't really like them, but "Boy George has got avoice, you can't
deny that".

"Whatever
Malcolm saysis alie. He is
apathological
liar""You can call it whatyou like, mate. It doesn't bother me, I
knowI'm right."
And with that the issue was over. It's pointless attempting to hurlaccusations of hypocrisy at Rotten, as if he were some Judas of punkwho
has betrayed the believing masses. His revelation that the current lineup
of PiL consists, apart from drummer Martin Atkins, ofAmericanmusicians picked from Holiday Inn-type cabaret bands, is typical.
Ostensibly they were chosen because "I wanted to get as far away fromtrendy hairdos (the phrase rolled around the mouthfor maximum effect) as
Ipossibly could. The music counts, if you can call it music."
He appeared to be serious, but as always with Rotten there was atouchof ambiguity. It's not that he's always ironic, more that it's impossible toknowwhether he is being ironic or not, and it's this knowledge that no one
can figure out away to pin him down that adds to his inflated sense ofconfidence and endearingly humorous arrogance.
Whether he's being serious about PiL at the moment is difficult to say,but it's asafe bet that he must treasure the irony of agroup of cabaretmusicians performing "Anarchy In The UK" and "Death Disco". His is themost un-English of personalities and it's not difficult to see why he took to
New York. Even when he's being quiet, Rotten is loud. He even used thephrase "upfront" at one point.
Was it much fun being acelebrity, someone asked?
"Well, yurrr, of course. This is agiggle, innit? You're stroking my ego andIlove it very much. My favourite song is 'It's Hard To Be Humble When You
KnowYou Don't Mean It'."Had he ever thought of giving any of his time or money to people lessfortunate than himself, asked adoubtless overpaid hackwho probably
spent most of his time heaping slander and monstrous invective on thoseless fortunate than himself?
"I don't know anyone less fortunate than myself," deadpanned Rotten
to honks of hilarity. "Why are you laughing?"
What did he want to go on to in the future?
"My millionaire mansion in the country, Isuppose."
No, in ageneral sense...
"My general millionaire mansion in the country."
People laughed. The man's cheek and bravado seemed almost
astonishingly outlandish. Virtually every hack present would, if given the

The phrase "Cliche! Cliche!" immediately sprang up in the mind's eyewith the devastating impact of avolcanic eruption. Accompanied, ofcourse, by alarm bells and flashing lights. It was at that point that !started
to suspect that, despite his youthful appearance, Rotten was beginningto show his age... Could this be the first signs of amellowing out?
The suspicion was lent further weight by his rather conservative
disdain for the ubiquitous coxcomb quiffs of Britain.
"God, it's like afashion catwalk out there, innit?" he complained, like
adisgusted aunt tutting disapprovingly. "Wacky hairdos, that's the firstthingyou meet at the airport. Even the baggage attendants."
But so much negativity on the critic's side must eventually amount to
nitpicking. Perhaps we should end on apositive note. Asked forviews on
the current punks (a term he hates) about town, his answerwas as
refreshingly dismissive as you would expect.
"Oh yeah, that's sad. I
must admit, the leather jacket brigadewith thestuds, it's abit au fait !sic); it's as embarrassing as rockabilly or any of that
digressive kind of trend. The idea should be to move on, not go backwards."
Suddenlyhe looked bored.
"Well, that'll do. I've yacked for quite abit, ha ha. Goodnight-go home."
The hacks dutifully dispersed. Ichuckled quite alot. Lynden Barber •HISTORY OF ROCK 1983 I123

1983
OC OB

"

"I'd almost
given uphope"
In troubled times,
"" K
plays
London. He opens up
on politics, therecent raid on his
home, his many
wives, and on
African culture. But
aren't some of his
attitudes sexist?
"I was just trying to
make the educatedwomen realise theirposition," he says.
11 1

MELODY MAKERI

NITIALLY, ENTERING THE fogged
dishevelment of the hotel room, I'dthought him naked. He was sitting on
the rim of the bed smoking abulbous
cigarette. He looked pensive, incommand of his surroundings. His
limbs-lean, poised, sleek-were the colour ofamild roast cup of coffee and his underpants,
athin strip of material hidden in the crease
formed by his upright position, of virtually
identical hue.
Fela Kuti had awary, feline look about him.
Smooth and small-boned, he seemed the kind of
person who could inflict alot of damage with theminimum of forward planning. His aura was thatof apanther.
Two nights previously he'd been standing on astage in Brixton dressed in pink.
Exchanging greetings, I
took up aposition on
apadded leather couch directly opposite. The
room was full of the sort of people you
would expect to see hanging aroundaguy like Fela Kuti- cronies, hangerson, musicians, wives, friends, Ididn't
knowwho theywere. All I
knew wasthat their eyes were boring into theside of my head like lasers. I
didn't likethe feeling of eyes boring into the side Eof my head like lasers.
i.
At some point I
was going to have to gtell Fela that I
hadn't been knockedeinto Kingdom Come by his concert; » X

THE REPUBLIC OF

r

124 IHISTORY 01

1983
OCTOBER_,..
that it was too slow-moving, too long, too laidback, too casual. Itwas
something my reflexes decided was going to have to come later. My
conscience wasn't about to wrestle the point.
The people kept on staring like lasers. Iopened with athrowawayquestion, just to get things rolling. The first thing that hit me was how
slow his rate of speech was. Words came out solo and in couples. He wasthinking about the reply, measuring his response, handing it out like rope
going over the side of aship to help asailor gone overboard. Ithought
about what I'd imagined Fela to be like and relaxed alittle. It was as if
someone had just stamped on ascorpion crawling across the carpet.
Encouraged, I
wondered aloud why aNigerian like Fela should call his
group Egypt 80.1 got areplythat lasted five minutes.
Africa needed to learn about its culture so that it could develop, Felasaid. He knew alot about this. He'd read historybooks. But most Africans
didn't.African history had traditionally been passed down via music andculture, but for the past 300 years that hadn't been happening too well.
"Now, our culture is very spiritual in Africa," he said. "Egypt is aspiritualplace -was aspiritual place. Those pyramids today, nobody can everknow how those stones were carried. But these things were carried byspiritual power, you see? It belongs to Africa, soAfrica must organise on aEîspirit ual level in time.
Historyrnan:Fela
KutiinLondon,
Novernber1983

unle4\--afte..re—
•4

11111

OF ROCK 1983 % " .. —"Now right now, theArabs are occupying Egypt. AllAfricans think that
the Arabs own the place, they've even forgotten that theArabs fought a
war to get the occupation of that place- do you understand?" He said, "Do
you understand?" alot. It was afigure of speech.
He told me he wasn't talking about the current situation in Egypt. He
just wanted Africans to realise that Egypt was the black man's property.
That was why he had called his group Egypt 80.
Iworried about this alittle. It had troublesome implications. Iasked if
he thought blackAfricans should take over Egypt and drive the Arabs outof the country. He produced an utterance that sounded like "Ho, oh!" andshook his head, as if to say "nowwait aminute, kid".
"You see, I
am not saying drive people away from Africa. All I'm saying isthat if allAfricans are going to get united then the Arabs have to do exactly
what theAfricans want, to remain there, you understand? If they remain
there and Africa is united, there are so few that they cannot do anything.
Theywill soon be very much alienated, their presence there will makethem leave by themselves. IfAfrica wants to organise itself culturally,
spiritually, the Arabs will either have to accept it or leave peacefully.
Idon't think anybody will driveArabs out of there."
We were talking about politics. When you interview Fela Kuti, you don't
sit around talking about what brand of microphone he uses.At his
concert at the Brixton Academy-the old Fair
Deal -Fela had two banners draped across theback of the stage. "Pan Africanism Will Save The
World" and "Blackism -A Force Of the Mind".
With Fela Kuti, politics and music are one.
I
guess it must have been two years ago that I
discovered this. Some sleazy bandit from one of
the recording corporations had sent me acopyof
arecord; BlackPresident, it had been called. I'dliked it alot. I'd liked it as much as good curry, as
much as Sunday mornings in bed.
But besides the effervescent mixture of funk,jazz and Nigerian elements that Fela had called"Afrobeat", I'd been intrigued bythe man's
lyrics, by his history.
Fela Kuti sang one long song called "ITT"that attacked the role the vastAmerican
conglomeration played in the Nigerian
economy, I
learnt that he had his own politicalparty, the Movement Of The People, andplanned to stand in the Nigerian generalelection. That his political activities had
incurred the wrath of the Nigerian authorities
to such all extent that in 1977 several hundred
troops surrounded his home-a barbed-wirefortress dubbed The Kalakuta Republicsavagely beat everyone insight, raped andmolested most of his 27 wives and threw his
mother out of afirst floorwindow; she diedshortly afterwards.
To draw an analogy, it was as if several
hundred riot police had sealed off Joe
Strummer's road in 1977 (when The Clashseemed kind of threatening) and attacked withcanisters of tear-gas.
Most of Fela's lyrics are political. His wholebeing is political. Every show he plays is political.
So that was why I
was sitting in ahotel room
talking to Fela Kuti about politics.
I'd wanted to knowwhy Pan-Africanism wasgoingto change theworld and not justAfrica. Fela
was telling me. "IfAfricawas allowed to organise
itself, the spiritual life ofAfricawill develop, then
we'll have bettermedicine, we'll have new things
to contribute to theworld.And everybodywould
start to hear about it andwant to participate init.
Youknow, like we participate in the white
medicine, they maynowsee it is more importantto participate inAfrican medicine.
"Cos I
see that nature is goingto rule theworid in
future, and theAfrican culture will mostly
depend on nature and spiritual powers. If the/4/1114.1

Afve7

FEU KUTI

Alpo Kim

Egyptians didn'tuse machines to carrystones, that meansAfricans maystart toteach theworld howto use the same things."
Iwondered if he blamed Western science
for many of the world's problems. He did.
"I read in books that if you ride in cars too
much, vibrations inside the car shortens
life. And Ialso read in athesis that theEgyptians first of all built alocomotiveengine, and they abandoned the idea
because it was bad for the human beings."
Ididn't agree with all of this. Iagreed
with Fela's paleolithic viewofwomen evenless. One of his Nigerian hits was called"Mattress". It stated that woman'sfunction in life was to serve as amattressfor man, who lies on top for rest. In Carlos
Moore's bigraphyFe/a: This Bitch OfA Life, Kuti is quoted as saying: "It'spart of the natural order for women to be submissive to man." And: "Tomake the husband happy, that's the woman's job." Ithink you get thegeneral picture.
What's difficult to understand is why Fela, of all people, should adapt
such ahideous philosophy, when his views on colonialism areprogressive, his mother founded the Nigerian Women's Union and was
the first African woman to visit Eastern Europe and China, and theperson who politicised him was awoman —Sandra Smith, amilitant
involved in the blackliberation movement who he met when he was inAmerica. But then Fela is also quoted as saying that he used to be afraid of
women. Behind every sexist is asimpering wimp overcompensating likebilly-o, you might say. I
would.
So, how manywives have you now. I
queried?
"Now! have 111eft. The others left—they got tired of me, one way
or another."Why have you got so many wives?
"Oh, please! These are not many, for me. The reason why I'm sticking to
11 is because... we have some staying at myhouse now, my friends, andit's so small for me and everybody's sleeping so roughly. I'm going tocomplete the house I'm building. Since five years they've dislocated myeconomy. So 11 wives is not enough for me at all. I'm just relaxing, to haveabreak. When Iget myself together, I'm going to have many more wives
than this. It's very important for me, Ilike my women around me."Do you think itwould be legitimate for awoman to have manyhusbands?
"Say it again?"I
said it again.
"I don't want to discuss the legitimacy of it. ForAfrican culture it isillegitimate for awoman to have more than one husband, but aman canhave many wives. Why it is legitimate, I've never ever bothered to think
about it. I
just leave it as culture."
From Fela's answeryou couldbe forgiven for thinking that every man in
Nigeria has two wives. This iswhat Fela's lawyer, Tunji Braithwaite, said at
his first attempt at amasswedding: "This marriage cannot take place. Ids
against public morals.And me, as Fela's lawyer, I
am going to advise himthat it's against the law of this country and thathemaybe prosecuted for bigamy." The priest later
ran away.
Ipressed ahead. You've been quoted as sayingthat woman's function is to be on the mattress,
Isaid. Do you still agree with that?
"You see... woman..." He paused. There wasaslight cough that might have been achuckle,
Icouldn't tell. "Once you agree to be with aman,
you are supposed to serve the man, and do allwhat the man likes. BecauseAfricans believe ahusband will never do what is bad for his wife. So
that is why the leadership of the husband in thehouse is always the final matter in theAfrican
cultural concept, because it is quite legitimate
for awoman to leave aman anytime she wants
to. Ifyou feel your husband is doing somethingwrong to you, just leave.
There's no need to disobey him, there's no need to do things he doesn'tlike in the house. So basicallythe woman must remain under the man."Why?
"Because that'swhat nature says."

You see where I
find acontradiction insome of your political views, Istarted tosay, before being interrupted.
"Well, you're talking about politics now."
We wrestled like this for afew seconds.
I
wanted to know how come he wasagainst oppression of the black man, but
not the women?
"No, you see, Ididn't saywoman can't
participate in the society."
But she has to do what the husband
tells her.
"Yes. You see in Africa today many
women, because they go to school, theywant to turn their homes into white
homes and things like that. That waswhere Iwas coming from really, you see.
Iwas only singing on that concept, Iwas not political at all on that record.
I
was just trying to make the so-called educated women realise theirposition as women, not as bosses or partners."
He started talking about sex, deflecting the discussion onto somethingelse. He must have thought I
was as soft as yolk.
The point I'm trying to make, Isaid, getting exasperated by this point,is that there's an analogy between racism—which says there is one
superior race, which others are supposed to be subservient to —andsexism, which says that males are the dominant gender and that womenshould serve the man.
"So what's the question?"I
was beginning to feel that he really had no concept ofwhat I
wastalking about at all; that he really couldn't see the contradiction.
"Racism is not sexualism."Iknow. I'm saying you can be oppressed by race and you can be oppressedbygender. That's what Isaid. I
was getting wearyof repeating myself.
"For me sex is between the individual. Racism is more of anew thing in
the world, it's caused by slavery, colonialism. Racism has no place at all inthis world for me..."BLACK. PRESIDENT

1,HE PHONE RANG, aconvenient semicolon. Iconsidered thisline that sexism was okay because it was part of black culture.
Iconsidered that racism was part of white culture too. Did thismake it okay? I
wondered for amoment.
I
didn't wonder much longer. Fela was off the 'phone. While we'd beentalking the room had largely emptied of people. Sitting beside me was aman in ceremonial robes. This, said Fela, was KwakuAddei, his spiritualbrother, who now took part in his stage act. The man was silent.
"At acertain point in mylife I'd almost given up hope of helping to change
my society; everything seemed to be going against me—everything. All myfriendswere leaving to join what theywere saying they didn't like—I'm notblaming them, because everybodymust have honesty, andwhentheycan
not carrythe struggle...
"For me, I
just couldn't compromise my ideas and philosophy. Then I
met him. And since Imet him I've seen so much spiritual light. I
just felt hecould perform in public so people could know
the essence of his greatness."
We talked about other things. His party was
dormant, because he didn't have the cash toback it up. The authorities had raided his club,
The Shrine, and people were afraid to go there
now. The last Nigerian election —inwhich hedidn't stand— had been rigged by the ruling
National Party. He said music was aweaponand he wanted to preach his idea to thewhole world.
Itold him I'd been disappointed by theconcert. It was too slow-moving. Iliked therecords alot better.
"Oh, Isee. Anyway, that's cool... because
Europeans think thatAfrican music must be
fast. My music is very spiritual, and Idon't write music to please audience.
Imust first of all enjoy what I'm playing."
We talked some more. Awhole lot more, but newspapers, they don't
have alot of space these days. We said goodbye. Iturned mycollar up andwalked out into the howling Novemberwind. Lynden Barber •"I have 11
wives left.
The others
left -they got
tired of me"

HISTORY OF ROCK 1983 1127

Decerr her 16,1983, Holly
Johnson.drommer"Ped"and awarm Leatherpettefilm FC TH's version of"FerryCross The Mersey"
for Channe14's The Tube

"We're justhaving a
party"FRANKIE GOES TOHOLLYWOOD are apop
u swing It loads
sex". Ascepticalriter enters theirand emerges...
ptical. "It's suchnderful imagery,"ysay. "Though if
you haven't beenin an Amsterdam
leather bar you
won't understand."So.

- NW NOVEMBER 5-T

HIS BIG PLASTIC igloo with its shiny red
surfaces and its gaudy yellow lights is
the ideal place to fill up with junk food.
You sink into the gooey, unwholesome
surrounds the same way as you lap up
the relish-covered, cheese-slobberedburgers in the soft doughy buns.
But Frankie never knows where to stop, his password inlife is "give it loads", and he rejoices in excess. "Haveyou
ever had aTastee-Freez? They're really... It's sort of likeavery soft, really creamy, sweet ice cream. It just slides
down inside—ooh-ooh, really divine."Frankie scoops the spoon into the aeriated nipple ofcocoa- coloured whip-stuff and stretches it out towards
his other half, Mmmmm!"Try it, try it you'll love,
you'll love." The globule of ice, full-fat milk solids,
preservatives and colour slithers down the throat likeacool healing balm onto the chili, French fries andcheeseburger already in therevying for space. Frankieleans back, rolls his eyes, temporarily sated, paralysedwith satisfaction.
But soon he'll be up and off again out into the night,
seeing what other ways he can find to amuse andstimulate himself. He's at it already. Earl's Court isFrankie's kind of town afterall. Overat the salad bar »

19

B,,

abronzed, bearded Middle Eastern type catches their attention.
Ilook up from my grub and they smile knowingly at each other. "Yes
he is quite cute, isn't he?"Frankie is getting ready for the evening, the cruising and thecowboys (he loves to see aguydressed in uniform), the scribbled
indiscretions on the toilet wall and, his favourite bit, at Il'o'clock
when they all leave the pub and line up around the block, taking itin turns to go cruising. There's all sorts oflittle games and codesthat lie ahead, and when he gets onto the tube and sees aguy
carrying amotorcycle helmet (a motorcycle helmet on the tube!)Frankie feels at home.
"It was really great last night-we had to go out and give out 20
invitations to act as extras in our video. Rums like going out andbeing told to pickup 20 men," smiles Paul.

Alittle history
What are you doing here? Someone who just stopped reading The
Picture OfDorian Gray, who'd rather listen to half an hour of MaryWhitehouse than two minutes of Quentin Crisp. Who's never heardof homophobia, just "good sense". Well, how about: finding out thewhys and wherefores behind Liverpool post-punk S&M gay cabaret
act Frankie Goes To Hollywood, the latest release from Paul Morley
and the sparkling Zang Tumb Tuum conglomerate. And also fillingin afew details, sinking into the environment theyfeel at home in,trying to keep an open mind.
Frankie Goes To Hollywood was formed just over ayear ago by
Holly Johnson, one-time guitarist with Big In Japan and solo artist
on Liverpool independent label Eric's. Fuelled on anything from
Bowie to Burroughs, Jean Genet to Lindsay Kemp, The Velvet
Underground to TRex, Johnson set about presenting ascorching
leather-bound version of the lifestyle he and soon-to-be-recruitedpal Paul Rutherford led.
They built up asteady love reputation, female duo The
Leatherpettes providing attraction for the heteros, and wereapproached by asuccession of A&R men whose stock reaction
was: "I loved it, but I
don't knowwhat my boss would think." Anappearance on The lUbe, however, brought response from the thenemerging Morley/ Horn ZTT partnership, and the group took theopportunity to work with the famous producer immediately.

Blessed are the pop stars —they will get paid to indulge
their fantasies"We used to know Paul Morleywhen he was in Manchester and he
was working for the NME. We used to hate him, to be quite honest;
he was like this div from Manchester. He made people like Howard
Devoto, created their whole standing as far as the press wasconcerned. Made them out to be much bigger than theircapabilities, which was ashame because Howard Devoto was quitetalented. Maybe now he's doing the same thingwith us in away. I
guess we fitted into his little fantasy, and he fitted into ours" -Holly.
FGTH didn't receive an advance from ZTT ("When you're
working with someone like Trevor Horn you don't mind making
sacrifices") and they're down in London staying in the Columbia
Hotel on £5-a-day expenses. Still, they seem to have enough to getsome of that smoking stuff, and both Paul and Holly are quite relaxed,interspersing conversation with slow, stoned giggles. They start to tell me
about the video they are ostensibly here to make with Bernard Rose (whodirected UB40's "Red Red Wine").
Holly: "The basic idea is that there's this virginal character Frankie andhis girlfriend's just left him. He's never had sex and he's walking down thestreet and gets lured into an orgy scene by this character in black. It'sgoing to be aclub scene, the sort of clubs we like to go to.
"It's interesting drawing acomparison with the Soft Cell thing. Where
they pantomimed it, we're going to do it for real. OK? So it's going to beEmperor Nero in this club, ahuge man who gets his whole body shavedfor sexual kicks and feeds people to tigers and lions. We're using theactual Esso tiger...""Really strong images, like aFellini film," chips in Paul, inexplicably.
"For us it is just like getting someone else to play out our fantasies.
That's the whole idea. We're just having aparty.
"It's such wonderful imageryto use, though if you haven't been in
an Amsterdam leather bar you won't quite understand. There's lots ofideas behind the name, we twist it loads. It changes all the time. If you

130 IHISTORY OF ROCK 1983

imagine it as this Hollywood Babylon on the other side of the planet thatFrankie wants to get to.
"He's lived his whole life hearing about it, seeing images of it filteredthrough movies and television -it's where we've got all our information
about living and howto communicate with people."
But they seem intent on warping the golden sense data ofthe dream
factory. Compelled to asort of homoerotic outrage...
"We really had to hit hard to get off the street, child. To create areaction,
especially in Liverpool because there's so manybands. To stand out we
had to give it loads, loads of sex, because that was the easiest and quickest
shocker to get attention."
But all that ancient Roman, Nero imagery, isn't itvery decadent,
very stupid?
"It's totally decadent, but then that's totally glamorous as well. Things
haven't really changed. The way people used to go and watch gladiatorfights and much blood and gore-they just go to the movies now, is it asign of society about to tumble?
"Well, it's been tumbling for along time. It grows really quickly again;
Idon't think it will ever die- it'll just reach alimbo."

Frankie in earlyva83:(1-r)
Paul Rutherford,Mark
O'Toole,BrianNash,Peter
GillandHollyJohnson

Another lump of sugar in adifferent orifice
The track the video is promoting is "Relax", the first ever FGTH release.
Amonster jam disco-sexworkout. It's Frankie as you'd expect him toemerge, all squelching and sucking, kept on course by athunderingpelvic thrust metronome beat. Its roots are in the disco of summer,
Sylvester and mid-'70s [Norman] Whitfield, its head twisted and turnedby McLaren's plundering escapades, but its heart is in asleazy bordello,
pining for the sweat and spunk in the backroom.
Holly: "It's like these untamed creatures meet Trevor Horn and his
stamp is all over it. Because it was our first single, and there's no readymade market, we just had to have as much fun as we could when we weremaking it. We just thought-buzz- and then we'll knowwhen it's right.
"I always loved the sounds that Trevor got on his records, but it seemed
like something far beyond our reach because it was so sexy andcommercian always thought the content and people he did it withwas
ratherweak until McLaren. But Istill died when he phoned us up.
"I mean on 'Relax', Trevor interpreted the sound, of course. Imean, he's
areally strong guy, OK? It's hard to really talk about this. We're aware of
the situation, we're aband produced by Trevor Horn and it's shoved down

our throats abit. We were wary of being his puppets at first, but as soon as
we met him that all went out the window. He's just ahuman being; he'sthat little guywho used to be in Buggles."I
think of the shallow, squirming sexuality presented by current pop the vanity and preening ofWham!, Spandau, 'googoo and Heyward, andwonder if maybe the sleazy pantomime of FGTH will knock things up
abit, get someone to buckle down with it. Are they out on their own?
"I think it's becoming abit trendy, actually: after our Tube showyou got
quite afew like Fashion and even that Tracie girl giving it much more sex
and whip. Ithink it's catching on.
"But with those people it's in avery superficial way, because they
haven't got the bollocks to go for it really. They onlyknow it as an image,
not areality. You get studs and leather in every magazine now, but it
doesn't really count for much. Like that whole punk thingwas borrowed
from agay S&M attitude, but it wasn't given any attention at the time.
"Our main purpose is pleasure, to communicate agood feeling. Sex ispart of it, sex is enjoyable, isn't it? It's about not being hung up or feeling
guilty about anyparticular so-called deviation you'd like to get into. It'squite normal. The gay/ S&M angle is regarded as taboo, but it's just »HISTORY OF ROCK 1983 I131

Troyer Horn,
Franki producer
and co-founder ofthe ZTT label, ta lks
to Muriel Gray on
The Tube,1983

people getting down, getting into enjoyment because it's not longthat we are here.
"I met this Irish guy in apub once and he asked mewas Iinto
M&S; it was reallylovely. So sweet."

Into the lion's deneHolly: "Child, the first time we turned up for agig in Londonwas in ChaChas and we were put ¡na cage, afuckin' cage, and suspended over thedancefloor. They put amirror opposite us so people could see us fromthe bar. The support act was aguy in aleopardskin toga who put skewers
right through his face and through his arms-lots of blood and stuff. We
had to follow that."
Sounds like you were in your element.
"To adegree, yes. But you knowwhat most of the kids down there arelike. It's all World's End clothing, hipper-than-thou attitudes, and we werelike these screaming animals in acage. The reaction was really cool."
Paul: "They're such acool audience to handle. Idon't knowwhat's
wrong with them. Spoilt, I
suppose. They think that they're it, but weknowwe are. I'd like to have seen them in the cage, that's for sure."
Sometimes they've been able to turn the tables and use the limelight totheir advantage.
Holly: "The time we played The Tube, bols Holland was sitting aroundmoping all day. Ithink he's sort of bitter because he's areal muso andhe's on the other side of the camera. Very sad. He needed cheering up,
so we bound the Leatherpettes in pink ribbon and gave them to him.
He brought them to his hotel and showered them with champagne,
real champagne."

And alittle more history
Holly didn't attend school too much after thethird year. He started to hang around town, andaround parks. He met people there, people who
had agreat influence on him. This is probably
mirrored in the roles he and Paul (the tall dark
stranger) take in the video. It's Hollywho sings
and writes the songs with either the bass player
and/or the drummer; Paul is the image
co-ordinator, having spent ayear in London
before the group formed, on the dole but still"giving it loads on the gay scene". Apart from hise back-up vocals he is in the band mainly becauseof his "stunning" looks, and he obviously exerts
some influence on Holly.

e

132 IHISTORY OF ROCK 1983

Holly: "Back in '77 itwas reallyexciting
because there's always been really odd, arty
people in Liverpool and suddenly you were
findingyourself in there. Itwas great becauseIfound school pretty hard to handle. Iwas wellshy, always the weirdo."
Paul: "One week ifyou wore makeup you wereaqueer, the next you were apunk. It was great,achance to do things. This sounds reallyheavy,
but it was achance to be honest with yourself,
to be yourself. Ithink it's abit more jaded now.
It's still areally good place to have arest. We
didn't realise that when we felt we were stuck
there, but now, in the past year, we have."
Holly: "There's some great people inLiverpool-Jayne Casey of Pink Industry, avery
big influence on us both. The early gigs weregreat- girls in leather, boys in leather knickers,
0000-ooh. As far as having agood time, people
in Liverpool aren't shy at all.
"Smack? That's the dark side of it; it'strue there's still alot of it on the streets.
We have alot of younger friends into it
and there's nothingyou can do to pullthem out of it. It's really sad; you have tokeep awayfrom those children or they'll
try to dragyou into it. It does my head ineven thinking about it."Back-to-backwith "Relax" is the FGTH
version of "Ferry Cross The Mersey", thefederal republic of Liverpool's national
anthem these past 20 years. It is ahitherto unexplored, unexpected side
to the group and shows that Hollyhas adepth and emotive base to his voice thatwould shame many. At first I
thought of
Ultravox doing "No Regrets", but then Ithought of something far morestirring, agenuine overhaul and upheaval. It is the spirit of swinging '60s
Liverpool pulled through to the bleakness and uncertainty of the presentday. Camp, grandiose but oddly affecting.
Holly: "That was Trevor's idea; Ithought, 'What?' and just laughed it off.
Then !thought, 'Don't be so negative; just try it and if we don't like it thenthrow it out.' Well he came up with this beautiful, amazing backing trackthat gave me achance to sing rather than just shout.
"It's areally sad song now and I
think it's really important. It's just likean extension of the documentaries we've had over the past year. Ithink
now Liverpool things are starting to breakthrough because everyone isworking their bollocks off up there."

The future
Paul: "We've been thrown in at the deep end now, what we always
wanted, but when it happens you realise you're in deep water. It's funnyto
catch yourself in it, you just crack up. Fame sounds fun but Idon't thinkanyone is ever prepared for it. It's the sort of thing Idream about,everyone recognising you, going, 'It's them, it's them."
Holly: "Ultimately it would be great to do aFrankie Goes To Hollywood
movie, with music an essential part of Hollywood, obviously. We wereamazed how much everyone picked up on the sex attitude, actually. It
was just something we were exploring. We've
got an idea to do aDisneyland video, areal
glamour video, for instance. We just want tohave fun.
"I think the media will absorb what we're
doing eventually, the way it absorbs everything.
Then we can just change the theme of ourmovie. It doesn't have to be sex-we can shockthem that it isn't that kind of thing."
FGTH have stopped playing live for awhile.
They say it's because oflack of finances; Morleysays he wants to ban all live performances for
two years at least. But their campaign isplanned-two more singles, "Welcome To The
Pleasure Dome" and "Two Tribes", are already"The earlygigs weregreat -girls inleather, boys
in knickers"

FRANKIE GOES TO HOLLYWOOD

scheduled. The latter theydescribe as theirmasterpiece, an allegorybetween inter-global
and personal relations.

Definitions: 1. Sleaze

place in such unhygienic, graphically
crude surrounds?
"It adds awhole new kind of theatre andperformance to it. You almost have to beprepared to fuck in front of 10 people. It's
fierce. Sex is aperformance, especiallywhen it's with someone that means alot
to you, but even then you are patronisingand entertaining their existence. Any
performance-on stage or in bed-has got
to be from the heart ont doesn't make it,doesn't cut it."
Of course the harder and more often theycome, the harder they fall. Holly admits that the promiscuity that the gay
scene thrives on leads to the possibility of all sorts of horrible diseases.
"Aids, yeah, there's that danger. Children, don't catch Aids! May
theyfind acure, that's all I've got to say about it. You can look at it asretribution, Armageddon's round the corner.
"The second coming. Hey! The second coming, that sounds fun. There's
lots of theories, people say it's the CIA and germ warfare. It depends onthe most entertaining one at the time."
As aforce in the world of pop and populist entertainment, I'm not
putting too much faith in Frankie Goes To Hollywood just yet. I
like theirrecord, but it's hard to tell whether they've made it as puppets or real
talents, as threats or comic cuts.
I'm suspicious ofthe arthouse influences they draw from- amixtureof the tart, the tawdry and the hard to trust, and whether they're goingto use their sexuality preciously, as an excuse for all sorts of tediousoverblown imagery (jackboots and inflatable peni). Maybe they'll tryto
do something really skilful, really daring. It's early days yet, but for two
23-year-olds they sometimes seem very easily impressed.
"I want big business, I
get off on it. Like when we were recording oursingle, the studio was like this huge Greek dome and Chris Blackwell
walked in. He was like the emperor with abeautiful white girl and abeautiful Jamaican girl at either side. Ikept thinking, 'This is Chris
Blackwell of Crosse at Blackwell.
This guy can actually go andwatch Grace Jones record.' Igot
Relaxed: Holly
areal buzz off that," says Holly.
Johnson on the•brink of fame,1983"An Irish guy
asked me if I
was into M&S.
It was so sweet"

Holly "When we do play live, our sound is going
to be alot rougher than on record. Over the
past few months we've come to the stage where
we believe we are avaluable musical force
again, whereas before we thought we were aside-show sexthing. Our music has got alotsmoother, smoother with sleaze and class.
What's sleaze? Go to Amsterdam, child, andyou'll find out. Divine sleaze- it's either somethingyou are oryou aren't."
Paul: "Sleaze is kind of like sex that is classy. Not crude, not ugly.
Holly: "A good image of sleaze for me would be a1930s drinking bar withjazz musicians hanging round and black and white prostitutes at the bar,that kind of scene."

2. Normal sex
Holly: "I don't knowwhat normal sex is. Ithink all sex is normal,
because it comes from people and people are normal. There's not muchthat is socially acceptable if the bastions of society, the judges and
MaryWhitehouse, are deciding. They're just people with extremely
closed attitudes."Paul: "Being that closed is perverse. Not being able to face up to thathonesty with yourself is perverse. She must have seen so much porn,must have ahuge guilt complex! Maybe she's never had an orgasm.
Has Mary Whitehouse ever had the big 0?"

3. Decadence
But how far can you go; don't you have aconcept of decadence?
Holly: "Decadence is adead weird word, OK? It's someone who is off
the party rather than on it. Ilooked it up in the dictionary and it said
adecaying era. I
heard it in connection with people who were wild andoff-the-wall, supposedly. Idon't
really understand it as aconcept,
4•
it's areal voyeurs' concept."

4. Morals
Don't you have anymorals, then?
Holly: "Morals? Things like the 10
Commandments and all that. Oh
yeah, but that's just anatural humanweakness, isn't it? Maybe it's not a
weakness, maybe its strength. I'mtrying not to give anyone ahard time-aren'tyou? That's about the only
moral I've got."
Don't worry about the taste
barrier, Holly, just go right onthrough?
"Amsterdam was fab, Iwas totallyknocked out. Whereas in Englandthe leather bars are quite tame,
there they are totally overboard.
Like Tom Of Finland, who is ahomo erotic illustrator he paints brilliant
images of guys in leather, uniforms,
sailors and stuff. His pictures are on
the wall, the bar area is caged off andthere's slings and jackboots hanging
from the ceiling and agiant cock inalight rope from one side of theceiling to the other and it's comingat the knob. Then you go to thebackroom and there's an orgy
going on. I
was really impressedby it, the freedomof attitude."
Where is themagic and thrill
in sextaking

The exit

11,

What am Idoing here? The
Coleherne isn't very busy early inthe evening and Paul and Holly are
obviously alittle disappointed. I'dcome to see them at work in theirnatural habitat, but there wasn't
much work to be done. Gradually
the place started to fill up and
Hollywas enthusiastically tellingme how they'd contrived to havevarious, um, slogans inscribed on
the run-out groove of their record.
The place was getting abit
clammy, all leering brutes andyoung prancing gigolos.
I
felt like telling Holly about
alittle bar in his beloved
Hollywood. There they haveproper barstools, aselection of
the world's finest beers and asingle woman can always be
assured of being harassed. At thebottom of their menu they have amotto: "ABSOLUTELY NO GAYSADMITTED". It was just an idea,
but it seemed much easier to get up
and leave. Gavin Martin •PERKY!

111

1983
OCTOBER-"What have
Idone now?"
MELODY MAKERA

SDOWN TO earth as acrap in thewoods, Ozzy Osbourne, father ofthree, strikes the newcomer as theindex of contemporary Britain.
He reads The Sun, the nation's mostpopular rag, has an absence ofpretensions about stardom, and likes Boy George
because, among other reasons, he gives he and his
workmates something to talk about in the tea-break.
Hearing Ozzy talk like this it's possible to temporarily
forget his reputation for the ingesting of avifauna. He
complains about being known as the demon bat-chewer
though the image is here to stay, come what may. Ozzyseems less ola devil than an assembly lineworker on his
way to the nine o'clock shift at Longbridge.
His arms are pale, flabby and bear the remains of old
tattoos-the legend OZZYbeing the most memorable.
He still laughs atAllan Jones' one-time description of
ex-colleague Tony lommi as "Jason Kingwith builders'arms", heartily concurring that the Black Sabbath
guitarist did indeed model himself on the droopily
moustachioed TV character. And he is magnanimousenough to allow for the onslaught of critical jibes in thepress; it's just people's personal opinions, he says.
Onstage, the man-of-the-people image stays well to
the fore. No fancy stage movements for Ozzy, nor on thiscurrent British tour any stunts such as dwarf-extirpationor similar sensation. Ozzy Osbourne has two basic
movements on stage-stalking, shoulders hunched, fromleft to right and back again, and the sudden thrusting of
the arms into the air, two digits held aloft in eachhand. The crowd respond to this with afrighteningly
intense devotional fervour, pumping the peace signs
back at the stage with the insistence of pistons gone
apeshit. The kids must identifywith Ozzy.
He doesn't wear satin trousers, therefore mirrors
their essential ordinariness.
"If I
was to wear tight satin everybodywould be able
to see how fat Ireallyam!" jokes Ozzy, his manager/
wife Sharon hooting at the very thought. Ozzy jokesquite alot. Are there large elements of self-parody inwhat he does?
"No, not really," he says, momentarily as serious asaBible. "The kids that come and see me, there's alittle
bit of Ozzy Osbourne in those kids. You see 'em lastnight? They all got on stage and had alittle headbang »MARK WEISS /GETTY

partially reformed
madman, has anew album
out. At home, he talks
horror movies, Greenham
Common, even music.
"I don't worship the Devil,
I'm not aSatanist at all...
In fact I'd like to think
I'm agood person."

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HISTORY OF ROCK 1983 I135
M.
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1983

— ALBUMSUCTOBER-

Apile of tosh-

REVIEW—

1983 —MM DEC 10
Ozzy Osbourne
EPIC

Chap of chaps as heundoubtedly is, Ozzy Osbourne
makes criticism, acclaim andeven normal fan reaction totallysuperfluous. Like Lemmy, heoverruns overkill to apoint way
beyond parody, and his legend
has long overshadowed his music.
Ozzy is much like the elderlyfamily Alsatian. He still likes tobare his fangs simply because
he can and he still manages toscare the shit out of thepostman, but everybody elseknows he doesn't really mean
it and they
watch himclawing thekennel withaffectionate
amusement.
Even
records
seem like aninessential
appendage inOzzy's selfmade role as
the unthinking man's favourite
loony. His gigs are good for
alaugh and amigraine, hisinterviews are ariot and one
feels, in consequence, morally
obliged to buy his records.
So here we have Oz whacking
it out with his customarily subtle
blend of sledgehammer vocals
and chainsaw arrangements,
and you just know he had more
fun pretending to be awerewolf
on the cover than he did laying
down the vocals.
Last week in Sounds,
somebody described Oz as the"Liberace of HM", which is
pushing it abit,
though it does
effectively
illustrate theextent to which
Osbourne relies
on gaudy muck forhis glory. Because
the record itself isapile of tosh.
It's basicallyaseries ofmundane,unimaginative
standard riffs,
badly recorded,
tamely produced,
barely doing

justice to the horrors of titles
like "Rock'n'Roll Rebel" (neverheard that one before, Oz), thewerewolf title track "Bark At
The Moon" and "Spiders"("Creepy crawly things filling up
your bed/Soon you'll feel him
crawling through your brain").
They are interspersed withacouple of token ballads, "So
Tired" (which sounds like ELO)
and "You're No Different" (alaughably clumsy attempt at
sensitivity). An eerie organ intro
gives "Forever" initial promise,but this rare shock of inspirationis quickly trampled beneathexceedingly
fierce metal
footwear, andeven on thebest track,"Waiting For
Darkness", theintimidation
still seems halfhearted.
Alyric sheet
is, however,thoughtfully
provided to ensure we missnone of the grotesque sexual
innuendo of "Now You See It
Now You Don't", or theheartfelt protestation of"Rock'n'Roll Rebel"... "Godonly
knows why they couldn't see theobvious/Is it because they
manifest the incubus..."Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant.
Still, you've got to buy it,
haven't you? I
mean, if
nobody buys his records thenthere won't be any point ininterviewing him any more,
and then where would we be?

It's basically aseries of mundane
standard riffs,
badly recorded,
tamely produced

130 IHISTORY OF ROCK 19E

Colin Irwin

with me. It's good fun. Ifeel like the conductor of amad orchestra, youknow, like ateacher of rock. You know, Ican't put it into words without
coming over to be atwat. Idon't ever think, 'Aren't] the greatest, look at
my turquoise rings and all the rest of the hunk that goeswith it.' Iused towalk around with so much turquoise that if I'd have fallen over theywould have to have had acrane to pick me up again, and I
just said tomyself, 'What the fuck am Iwalkingaround like aChristmas tree for?"Ozzy0sbourne's basic philosophy seems based around the simple
phrase 'fun', and is the hardest point ofviewin the world to argue against.
Voice asuspicion that there might be more to life than this and you areautomatically placed in the camp of the cantankerous.

T

HE SHOW PUT on by Ozzy's group at the Bristol Colston I
Jailstruck the writer as nothing less than an excuse for an outbreakof mass cretinism, the predictable in chase of the predictable,
yet when faced with the instantly likeable Brummie you know that
nothing you could possibly say could make any difference to his basic
response... the kids get off on it and what's wrong with that?
"Face it, eventually it's gonna wind down for me and I'll be able to sit
down and lookat me old scrapbookand say, 'Yeah, it was good fun...'Which it was."Ozzy mentions Black Sabbath, and immediatelygrimaceswith disgust.
"I mean, Black Sabbath, forget it, you know, that was such afucking bore
for so many years it was untrue. That band made me feel old, made me
feel over-the-hill. I
vowed when I
left Sabbath I'd never hein the situation
where I'd do it just for the name. You could have four mongoloids up there
called Black Sabbath and they'd pull acrowd. The name Black Sabbath islike alegend, it's like Robin Flood, it's like apantomime now. I
wish them
all the luck in the world, I'm just glad I'm out of it now."
Talking of pantomime, some might suggest that singingabout beinga"Rock'n'Roll Rebel" in 1983 smacks of the same, but not Ozzy.
"I think people like arebel, people like someone who's anti-this andanti-whatever the systems says, and that'swhat Ialways try to be. The
reason t
wrote the song 'Rock'n'Roll Rebel' was because in America,
especially, I
was branded as TheAnti-Christ,The Devil Worshipper, The
Son Of Satan and all this crap. I
wouldn't even know the first thing aboutthat st uff anyway, so I
wrote down, 'Whatever you wanna call me, go
ahead, but all Iknow lam is arock'n'roll rebel."Ile says all this with asurprising lack of self-consciousness, and won't
accept that the dangerous edge of the 30-year-old musical institution ofrock is deceased.
"It disappeared because you yourself can't recognise it, 'cos you've goneon to something else. It's like folk... folk's been around for hundreds ofyears, and there's still abig audience for that. Country &western's thesame... jazz... it's now become an established form of music."
This sounds suspiciously to melike an unconscious admission ofthesalient points of myargument, but I
pressahead: in what sense is hea rebel?
"All I'm trying to sayabout being arebel is that I
will not conform to whatthese people want me to do. Ionce did an interview on the radio about
ayear ago in the States and thiswoman said, 'I won't let my son come andsee your show.' I
asked if she'd seen any of my concerts and she said, 'No.'
So how can you judge it, say it's awful? And that's what I'm saying in thatsong. Peoplewill believewhat they'll believe in, the MinistryOf Peace,
whatever, and people will hide behind titles... kill thousands of people
but it's OK because it's the Ministry Of Death, y'know?"
Ozzy says that all he's trying to do is make kids awarethat the world's acruel place.
"When I
was in BlackSabbath, in thevery earlydays
when we did things like 'Paranoid' and Mar Pigs', wenever realised that we affected so many people in
America, because we didn't really know what America
was about, it was like going to Mars at the time. 'War Pigs'
reallygot to them because ofVietnam.
"Groups like Black Sabbath were the original punks, if
you like. The message is still the same, the approach togiving 'em the message has changed, that's all -leave us
to be our own tribe', .
,Iciu know? 'Why should we conformto your messed up situation?"I

NMANYWAYS afamily man, with a15th-century
cottage in the Staffordshire countryside, Ozzy
Osbourne seems the unlikeliest of rebels. His sixacre estate includes alake; in his spare time he likes toOZZY OSBOURNE

January 24,1983.
Ozzy on stagein Düsseldorf,
Germany

go fishing and shooting. He's in no way
amillionaire but admits to being"comfortable". Sharon accompanies him
when his group is on the road.
Somehow it's difficult to square this joker
sitting opposite with the image of aman
ensconced in the worst ravages of tastelessheavy metal excess (besides dining on abat, healso once bit the head off apigeon at arecord
company meeting and used to hurl chunks ofliver at the audience as part of his stage act).
Doesn't he get pissed off in interviews when all
people want to talk about is "Ozzy Osbourne,
the man who chews live bats"?
"If I
was an ordinary guy like yourself or any
man on this train and picked up adead cat and chewed on its head,somebody'd say, 'Fuck me, I
got on the train this morning and I
saw thisguy chew afucking dead cat's 'ead.' And then that would be forgotten."
Delivering in thick Brum, Ozzy manages to make the idea of dead cat
digestion as everyday as the brushing of teeth.
"But every day after that ridiculous thing happened, before theytalk
about me, my past, my present, my future, it's always 'Hey, Ozzy—what dobats taste like?' or 'Ozzy, is it true you blew agoat up?' or 'Ozzy, did you
really saw the legs off aDoberman?' Imean, it's incredible. They think
Imust get up in the morning, go, 'Mmm... today's menu's going to be
three cow's eyes, four cats' bollocks...'"I always seem to get into asituation when Ihit the bottle, like we all do,
you have adrink to get smashed and you wake up and think, 'Oh fucking
hell, what have Idone now?' TheAlamo incident happened on booze.""Groups like
Black Sabbath
were theoriginal punks,
if you like"(The time when he was arrested in Texas
urinating on the door of theAlamo —captured
on film byMM.)"It always happens that whenever I'm there
getting drunk there's somebody there withacamera. But it did the trick and I'm notcomplaining," he admits. Notoriety has its uses,
especially if you've left apopular heavy metal
band and are in danger of beingwritten off as
an old fart. Yet he still maintains an air of hurt
innocence when the subject of devilry crops up.
"There was asong on my first album, 'Mr
Crowley', and the reason that came about wasthat in rock'n'roll with the likes of RitchieBlackmore and Jimmy Page, the name Crowley
kept popping up as if it was ahip thing to talkabout. I
didn't know anything about him. I
wrote this song that went, 'Mr Crowley, whatwent on in your head1Who were you and what
were you about?' And that's all it was, aquestion,'cos I
didn't know anything about him.
"So from it stemmed [the perception) that I'maCrowleyite. People hear one word and theyjudge everything by the one phrase, you know?
Is it getting to the waythat people can't mention
the words 'Devil', 'Satan', 'Evil' and 'Death'?
Idon't worship the Devil, I'm not aSatanist atall... in fact I'd like to think I'm agood person."Naturally, heavymetal is acomic-strip music,
thus the forces of Good and Evil are necessarily
oversimplified, placed into positions of conflict
fortheir symbolic and entertainmentvalue. In
much the same way that horror movies work...
"The first film that ever really changed myhead around was The Exorcist," says Ozzy,seemingly unaware of the joke, "the first filmthat I
thought, 'This is real, y'know."
He rejects the modern filmic nasties such as
The Evil Dead, preferring somethingwith abit ofastoryline to it. "I saw The Return OfThe Zombie
Flesh Eaters. As soon as it started it was blood,snot, blood, snot, eyeballs falling on the floor,arms ripped off, torsos all over the place, and it's
just like horrendous, y'know?
"The best comedy film I've ever seen was
Psycho II—I laughed myarse off in that film. It
was so pathetic. The last shot, when his mothercomes in and he asks if he can have some coffee
and he smacks her around the head with ashovel, Bob Daisley, the bass player, who waswith me, shouts, 'One lump ortwo?!' I
collapsed."S

0, OZZY OSBOURNE, fur-coated manof metal... if born into adifferent age,what would you be?
"I think I'd like to be an astronaut." And then acorrection: "I'd like to have been born in atime
before the nuclear age. It frightens me to death."
Greenham?
"I think it's good, but they should go and find some husbands; I
thinkmost of'em are just lesbians who've got nothing better to do withthemselves. I
mean, we all know about it, and they're doing agood thing
in one respect, but... I
dunno. Are they gonna achieve anything?
"All I
know is that it's aterrible thingthat theyhave these things.As I
saidtothis guyinAmerica, 'Do you thinkthey'lleverdrop the bomb?' and he said,'There's neverbeen agun made that hasn't been fired in anger.' Whoever
loses aconventional warwill push the button. What'she got left to do? If any
nation's crazyenough to push the button it's the French. They've alreadybeen overrun once in the last war, so theydon'twant to let it happen again."
British to the core, even down to the French-hating and radical-baiting.
Ihave this theory that whatever party Ozzy Osbourne votes for at the next
general election will be the party that forms the next government. Maybe
he doesn't read The Sun everyday. Iforgot to check. Lyntien Barber •HISTORY OF ROCK 1983 I137

E
à

1983
UCTOBER—

Steeped in blues
MM DEC10AFEW DAYS PREVIOUSLY BBC 2
had scored acentury with theirbrilliantly presented tribute to the"Sc undies", the jukebox visual clips of the'40s featuring Slim Gaillard- bagels dunked
dangerously -and Fats Waller and his amazing
dancing eyebrow.
Imention this because ZZ Top at Wembley
gave similar sensations of pleasure. Like theold jazz joke-boxers, ZZ Top paint smiles andsnap ankles in asingle entertaining motion
and still keep the integrity intact.
While most rock'n'roll groups display
adepressing sense of ironic distance andthose that do have it handle it with boxing
gloves, lop realise that it helps to haveaclose relationship to the object of theironic commentary.
''This part here is gonna make you sick,"commented Billy Gibbons in Deputy Dawg

138

HISTORY OF ROCK 1983

WEMBLEY ARENALONDON --LIVE!

Moan, raunchy
rhythms:ZZ Top's
Dusty Hill (left)
and Billy Gibbons(Ramone-like, about the heels) andon
one songs come so close to the— NOVEMBER 30 —great John Lee Hooker that had Ia
hat I
would be hurling it towards theceiling for joy. An anachronism, maybe...
but what agreat anachronism!
drawl introducing asong called "TV Dinners".
Now how can you fail to warm to agroupI
hooted and twitched trouser simultaneously.
who give their songs titles like "Cheap
The greatest misconception about lop is
Sunglasses" and "Wouldn't Touch It With
that they're some kind of
ATen Foot Pole", play
grotesque heavy metalsome of the tastiest andmorons soaked in denim
most tasteful blues solos
and dim wits. Someone
you heard in arock band asked me if they sounded
Billy Gibbons, Official
like Lynyrd Skynyrd ;it was
Hero -have abassist andlike asking if Modern
guitarist who move inRomance sounded likesynch and wear beards toKing Sunny Ade.
the navel and have anonThe fact is that ZZ Top
hirsute drummer called
are steeped seriously in the
Frank Beard? How could
blues, delivering their
you resist agroup that playroots in adeep Southern funk. Variously, theyrock how it should be played -short andare Ry Cooder through afuzzbox or Creamsweet, minus excess baggage, with someminus chrome strip and fins, look like they'veof the meanest, raunchy rhythms you've
just wandered in from aLouisiana swamp,
stomped aslipper to in yonks? I
know I
hold guitars the way they should be held
couldn't. Surprise of the year. Lynden Barber

How can you fail towarm to agroup
who give their songs
titles like "Cheap
Sunglasses"?

Parallel
all the way
MM DEC 10 ¡dew Orner celebremur.Pstill year.

Rfter afw

T

HE ACADEMY, FORMERLY the Fair

Deal, is abig cold barn of aplace, but
New Order probably didn't notice. Big
and bright, cold and distant, they've refinedan iron-and-steel modern dance from which
the heart has been systematically squeezed
by mobile hi-tech safety nets.
Agroup presumably gets the audience it
deserves, and this crowd were attentive,
reverent and for di know bored to death.
Upstairs between acts, they sat aroundcross-legged, skinning up absentmindedly
and talking about the SWP. But New Ordercouldn't have noticed.
The band's super-realist funk is capableof becoming acelebration of delirious
proportions -witness the mighty"Temptation"- but they don't seem to go infor that sort of thing. Post-Arthur Baker, they
took the stage to the accompaniment of a
massively tactile taped rhythm track whichsoon revealed itself as "Confusion". Here wasapromise of power and hypnosis, aided by theclean streamlining of the mix.
The following "Temptation" was pretty finetoo, surging over Peter Hook's high singing
bass. Bernard Albrecht (newly blond) can'tsing, of course, but then he doesn't reallyclaim to. The voice provides alittle bit ofmuch-needed human error.
But from here it was.., parallel all the way.
New Order are perfectly designed, down tothe elegant probing fingers of light whichmeshed crisply overhead as the groupstrolled easily through their paces. Unmoved
and consequently unmoving, everything
stayed firmly in its place -rich, ringing guitar
chords, pulsing synth and sequencers, anddazzlingly accurate drum treatments (bothlive and mechanised).
The crowd absorbed all this as if it was theirdue and nothing more. "Age Of Consent"
was theoretically thrilling ;acrisp 3D matrix
in cool blue, and "Your Silent Face" wasprofessionally precision-tooled.
Apart from asmattering of whoops for"Blue Monday", the audience generally
stayed rooted to the spot, possibly searchingfor subtitles. The disinterment of rarely seen
Buñuel flicks was never greeted with such
pontifical obeisance. I
was disappointed elevation had seemed imminent, but gravity
pulled everybody down.
New Order sauntered off
into the wings; everybody
clapped for afew
seconds and then wenthome. New Order"don't do encores",y'see. I'd like to careabout New Order, but
why should Ibother?
Adam Sweeting

DINGWALLS/MARQUEE—LONDON

Akinetic exhibition— NOVEMBER 19, 22 —MM DEC 3

R

EM'S MURMUR IS the mostbeguiling album of 1983, arecord
whose mysterious atmosphere andelegant musical designs infiltrate theimagination with an emotional resonancethat very little else released this year has
even begun to match.
More than afew heads, then, will havebeen twisted off their necks when the groupsimply exploded onto the stage at Dingwalls
in aferocious howl of feedback and stormy
drumming that reached atempestuous peak withaversion of "Moral Kiosk"
that took atorch to theoriginal and threatened
to burn down the night.
This was seriously
frenzied stuff, definitely
not for the fainthearted;
miraculously, though,nothing ofthe album's
subtlety was lost, it was
merely intensified, toughened up, therecord's restraint replaced by awhirling
physical assault that brought to mind
unusual visions ofthe Ramones pistolwhipping the repertoire ofThe Byrds.
Hair straggling wildly, falling
uncombed over aface that was a
twitching landscape of nervous tics,
vocalist Michael Stipe looked like anasylum inmate, arms wrapped aroundhis body as iftrapped in astraitjacket
out of whose confines he would
occasionally escape, his arms flapping,then, like exclamatory semaphore signals.
Sounding hazardously like athreshingmachine let loose on aRickenbacker,
guitarist Peter Buckwas similarly possessed.
Treating the stages of both Dingwalls andthe Marquee like theywere trampolines,
Buck was akinetic exhibition, his playing
raging from the strafing runs of "Sitting Still"(no chance!) to the gang-busting chords of"West OfThe Fields", "Carnival Of Sorts" and"9-9". Melodically precise, he was cooler on
the reflective, beautifully
composed "Talk About
The Passion" and"Pilgrimage", but cut
wild and loose on
virtually everything
insight, turning asixstring flamethroweron "GardeningAt Night",
whose whimsical title
disguises the song's
fierce nocturnal tensions,and reducing the strident "Catapult" toflaming rubble.
Perhaps the most devastating moments of
two sensational outings were reserved for theencores of the Marquee, when adiscreetly
scored version of The Velvet Underground's"Femme Fatale" was used as alaunching pad
for an overwhelming "Radio Free Europe"
whose dramatic momentum threatenedcomplete hysteria, with the mighty Buckcoming on like atank attack over thecontinental shift of Bill Berry's drumming.
Aquick return is amust. Allanlones

This was frenzied
stuff; miraculously,
though, nothingof Murmur's
subtlety was lost

HISTORY OF ROCK 1983 I139

-"Peorddedicated to us
says Morritisey, singer of arem
THE SMITHS. "We don't have to be corecenfpost-punk. "That is the basic—•

The mithsinManchester,ma 5,1983 (1.-r)AndyMo

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isseyandMikeJoyce

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1983
OC OB R

MELODY MAKERW

HEN MORRISSEY SPEAKS, he nurses the sideof his head with asensitive hand as if he were
trying to soothe some nagging pain or ease out
the words by the soft persuasion of his gentle
fingers. He frequently creases his brow andlooks worried, yet rarely have Imet aman so
confident, so convinced by the worth of his own demanding mission.
Looking out across acruel landscape, he sees himself ushering in a
new form of beauty; adefiant but sensual challenge to everything that iswasted and ugly. He recalls his teenage years as aperiod of misery andemptiness and, now that he has finally conquered adepression that
seemed never-ending, he wants us to share in his triumph, be inspiredby his example.
This complete dismaywith the past means he refuses to even talk aboutit. Morrissey lives only for the present and the future, about which heenthuses with awarming optimism, reeling off long, consideredsentences spoken quietly but always with awinning air of authority.
These days everything in his life appears to be falling into place. There's
hardly time for anything beyond work and sleep. When we meet he's tired
and pale, recovering from the previous night in the recording stud io, andbefore longwe find ourselves in ataxi battling through the London traffic
towards astation, another journey, another destination.
The medium for Morrissey's genesiswas The Smiths, agroupunassuming byname but magnificent by nature. This newbeginningcame about when he crossed pathswith guitarist Johnny Man and the two
discovered they shared acommon vision that simplyhad to be realised.
With bass playerAndy Rourke and drummer Mike Joyce, The Smiths
surfaced in the autumn of last year, quickly attracting adedicatedfollowing in their home city of Manchester and then later in London as
well. Their quintessential line-up was adeliberately classic arrangement,
representing the group's return to the pure fundamentals of pop: melody,rhythm and most of all, emotion.
So far theyhave released two excellent singles on Rough Trade thatboldly express the group's intentions; "Hand in Glove"/ "Handsome
Devil", and "This Charming Man"/ "Jeane", the 12-inch of the latterfeaturing two different versions of "Charming Man" and two new songs,"Wonderful Woman" and "Accept Yourselr, possiblytheir finest yet.
While admitting their debt to '60s pop, especially the Byrds and Buffalo
Springfield (Johnny actually uses Roger McGuinn's old 12-string
Rickenbacker), The Smiths have nothing to do with nostalgia, setting
their sights firmly on fresh horizons. If their music is filled with light andspace, as it so often is, that's merely areflection of themselves rather thansome slavish attempt to capture the magic of another time.
Johnny Marr is in love with the sound and scope of guitars, and howit
shows; his arrangements and playing glisten and sparkle, forming aluscious undercurrent that's impossible not to get swept alongwith. And
Morrissey's dreamyvoice, satiated with romance and idealism; is alreadycompetent enough to translate his high-flying aspirations.
Had he perhaps surprised himself?
"Not really, no," he replies, unassuming as ever. "You see I
went throughalong, strange period of self-development with words and singing, so I
really felt ready when the time came. Ididn't feel, 'good grief can Ido it,
can t
Ido it?' I
was just really so desperate to do it that I
just did it. When
you're really desperate it's surprisingwhatyou can do!"His former unhappiness hinted at, he's reluctant to expand any further,
denying that there's any conscious attempt to mystifyhis background.
Beyond confirming that The Smiths are his first venture into music andpublic performance, he's unwilling to say more.
"I really don't believe that there's anything in my past that could
possibly interest anybody," he states matter-offact ly. "I don't reallywant to bore people with
unnecessary paraphernalia. Actually I
wish there
was something mysterious in my past, but I'm afraid
it was just dramatically dull!"When The Smiths play live they go out of their way
to make the occasion areal event. Morrisseyemphasises the group's appeal for areturn to honest
emotion and anew hope for the future by his onstage
conceits, the most well-known of all being the way hethrows flowers at the audience. There's no irony
intended, he says, and reveals his endearing
142 IHISTORY OF ROCK 1983

modesty once more when considering the group's fervent disciples.
"People are dedicated to us because we deserve it. We try. Our reception
hasn't surprised me at all, in fact !think it will snowball even more
dramatically over the immediate months-it really has to. I
feel very
comfortable about it, and I'm very pleased. It's all quite natural because
I
really thinkwe merit agreat deal of attention.
"You see they understand that Ireally do mean it when Ishower people
in flowers. They appreciate the honesty in that act. It was something Ifelt
compelled to do because the whole popular music scene had become sogrey and black, so dull! Ithought someth ing had to be injected andflowers were just avery sensible injection."
Those colours, greyand black, crop up alot in Morrissey's conversation.
To him, they're synonymous with the way modern culture is flattening out
into anightmare ofvideo games and synthesized muzak. Which makes it
paradoxical that The Smiths should adopt such apointedly drab name andcome from acity always associatedwith long macs and grim faces.
"At the time we formed," Morrissey recalls, "the northern bleaknesswas
flirting with this kind of Parisian surrealism-all these inverted groups
from Salford with terribly profound names! The most surreal, overtly
artistic names were being pinned to the most pathetically dull groups, so
we thought we'd latch ourselves onto the most simplistic name we could
possibly think of and still produce inspiring music.All these othermordant individuals were just hiding behind this cloak of pseudosurrealism and otherworldliness. It was aliso fabricated and at the endof the day it amounted to an enormous nonsense.
"Simply by having areally straightforward name we were saying thatyou don't have to hide behind anyveil of artistry to produce somethingworthwhile. I
think these groups thought they really had to confuse
people, that they really had to be misunderstood, otherwise they'd haveno value. That kind of mentality looked down on simple music that could
be comprehended, it tried to trivialise it. So The Smiths are away tosquash that. You really have to be yourself and be very down-to- earthand saywhat you want to say- do what you want to do. We don't have to becool anymore; that is really the most basic thing about Smithdom."
Factory Records still casts adark shadow over Manchester, andMorrisseywelcomes its receding significance. From the start, he says, hewanted nothing to do with the steely el itism that organisation had
purposefully fostered. "They reallydid make atremendous contribution
to the cool attitude," he complains.
"They encouraged people by example to be hipper-than-thou. Itwas all
so closed and aloofwhich is completely opposed to thewhole notion ofSmithdom. Ialways thought the original idea of Factory-a Northern inclie
label-was much more appealing than anything theyproduced. They
really became veryconservative and boring-I suppose it was easy making
everything grey, it probablysaved them alot of thought and materials!
"We realised it was aspent force straight away when it came toconsidering record companies. At the time we arrived they didn't seemvery interested in new groups anyway- Ithink they had financial
problems or something. They'd become like an independentversion of
Warner Brothers. Although they felt very sure of their grip on the musicscene theywere reallyvery deluded inside this overblown organisation."
BypassingFactory, then, the group eventuallysettled for adeal with
Rough Trade-a typicallyunfashionable choice but one theyfelt their hearts
were in. In fact itwasn't an intended move, and theywent the usual roundsof the majors after several invitations byinterestedA&R departments before
settlingonGeoffTravis' still uncompromised indie label.
"We went to see various people from the majors but we felt out of placeat every meeting. Our aims weren't really in line with theirs, whereas
with Rough Trade we thought there was an immediate empathy
between us. Experiencing the majors first hand was actually apretty
horrendous experience- they couldn't really see beyond what was, popular, what had already sold."•
Ifyou haven't gathered by now, The Smiths aren't
just agroup, they're acrusade. Through their music
and the ideals it embodies, The Smiths are
determined to rekindle optimism theyfear is nearly
extinguished. For Morrissey, the decadent kick ofIivinglife on the edge of the apocalypse is one moredead-end drug.
His dreams are massive-and why not? To hear
him speak is like listening to some sort of crazyevangelist, only Morrissey isn't mad, and the more
he says the more he amazes.

The
Smiths"Popular music seems to affect almost everyone,"he opines calmly, "and I
think something very
substantial can come from it. Its potential is so great!
It can virtually change the entire universe," he adds,
totally deadpan.
And yes, there's more: "I hope people will hear the
HAND IN I
music ofThe Smiths and realise it's played with real
GLOW
heart and soul. I
hope they also realise that weare playing this music because we have to. The
Smiths is acomplete open book and it's there foranybodywho wants to gaze upon it, and believeme, everythingwill spring forth. You don't needmasses of literary knowledge to understandwhat we're doing. Yet simply because we areeasyto enjoy doesn't mean that we're dealing insomething inconsequential.
"The difficulty in music right now is to bestraightforward. People refuse to be open andaccessible— it's acraft that's disappeared. The
only thing people can do now is befog the public
and be obscure—which is of no value. The wholething is about communication and what
communication is therewhen your words are
absurdlyoblique?"
The lyrics to all The Smiths' songs arewrittenbyMorrissey, though healso evolves melodic ideas with Johnny, the group's musical mainstay.
Deliciously atmospheric, the songs swirl around your senses, beckoning
the listener into aworld built on promise and achildlike honesty. It could
all end up sounding terriblytwee and affected, but Morrissey has thenativewit to avoid pop's worn clichés. The new Julian Cope he isn't.
His lyrical vocabulary has revived awhole host ofwords and phrase
more associated with the '30s than the '60s; "charming" and "handsome"among the most favoured. "I use such words," he explains, "becauseIthink they're verypositive words and much needed at the moment. It's
better for people to think of themselves as charming and handsome thanunemployed and miserable."
Surely an autobiographical reflection that harks back to the missing
years before The Smiths, especially when he reveals that the motivation
to write in the first place, "came through my own general depression,
my disgust, my horror! But the reasons for writing aren't something I
think about much really," he adds. "I've done it for such along time now
that to question it really seems quite ludicrous. It's like saying, 'why do
you breathe?"Another explanation for Morrissey's chosen imagery is that he is at
pains to write about beautyin an entirelyasexual manner; his wayof
undermining "the unnatural and artificial barriers placed between thetwo sexes." It would be nice to thinkthat such sentiments might betolerated in 1983. After all, the charts must feature more gay artists at the
moment than ever before. But sadlya national music paper took it uponthemselves to slur the name of The Smithswith ridiculously
irresponsible accusations hurled in their direction.
Worse still, this vicious innuendo was picked up bythe gutter press andfed to millions. Of course, it was all lies, for some the grist of good copy,
and the music paper concerned has since bent over backwards to buy off
The Smiths with column inches, probably through the realisation thatthey could ill-afford to miss out on that dream of editors everywhere, thesemi-mythical "next big thing".
The charming man that he is, Morrisseydismisses the whole dismal
episode with ashrug and alittle bitterness. "That's all history now," hesays as if that very statement could erase the past. "It hasn't recurred inanydangerousway and ironicallyit subsequently won us more coveragein that paper than we'd ever got before."
Trying to set The Smiths in the recent context of pop is almost
impossible, simplybecause they really have no peers, and no personal
history to speak of either. Morrissey admits his great respect for fellow
Mancunian Mark Smith (no name connection here) but that's as far as itgoes beyond akind of common indignation for the creeping apathythat
makes our post-industrial country so rank.
"I understand what grieves MarkSmith completely, and the angerhefeels for the people around him who see themselves powerless to do
anything about their position in the scheme of things. But what is also soappealing about Mark Smith is that he shows compassion, which is ararething right now."

THE SMITHS

Other groups who have dabbled in the legacyof the '60s— Orange Juice andAztec Camera forexample, both Rough Trade deserters—appear to
be almost foreign bodies as far as Morrissey's
concerned. Pointing out that his inspiration islargelyliterary and cinematic anyway, he relishes
amonologue on modern pop music.
"It got to the stage when I
was so angrywith
music, Ifelt Ireally had to interfere in some way.
Break up all the squalor, which we're still trying
to do. Abig challenge to undertake? Well yes,
but you know it's quite simple when you reallythink of it. And whenyou get within close
proximityyou realise it can be done. So manyof
the people involved in popular music are reallysuch light individuals— they only seemthreatening seen from adistance."
It's not unusual to find Morrissey wearing
beads and an open-necked smock onstage, andwhile this signifies ahealthy distaste for styleworship, and the land of athousand haircuts, toparaphrase John Lydon, he's not trying to bury
his head in the sand of dreams.
"I think style is somethingyou have to pay attention to," he argues,"because of the social climate we live in. People, let's face it, are obsessedwith style—you can't get away from it. But I
thinkyou can be in there andgiving aseparate message. Tryand suggest to people that maybe it's notthat important after all. People in this countryfall back on style because
they don't have agreat deal else. They need something to do with theirmoney and something to help them feel interesting. Which is fine, inmany ways, it's an art form, but it can get to be alittle over obsessiveIthink, and override other things which are much more important."
Which clearly begs aquestion. What do politics mean to him?
"You have to be interested in politics these days," he asserts firmly. "If
you're not, you're acompletely lost individual. Whereas, years ago,
politics seemed to be this thing that was secluded for aminority ofintellectuals, these days you can't get away with that argument—you haveto be attuned to what's happening, there's so much at stake. There's
absolutely no excuse for peoplewho aren't politically aware.
"I really believe that complacency is bred. It's arecurring theme
promoted by agovernment that says, 'look, do not worry about nuclear
weapons— we will look after you.' Governmental issues aren'ttranslated in away understandable to most people. Issues aredeliberately veiled to prevent people from grasping the point at hand
and then forming their own opinion.
"This government runs on abedrock of naivety They won't give things
away, obviously, it's not in their interests. Ultimately people feel that it's
all beyond them—wewant to change that. The Smiths will push people tothink for themselves, to believe they can really do something."
This is the right stuff! I
vote for The Smiths immediately and drawyour
attention to the fact that they will soon be playing the Electric Ballroom
for Peace Year and putting their money, as usual, where their charming
mouths are.
As the station looms into viewl ask if he'd ever thought of moving down
to London, and what do they do when back in Manchester? "We play
bridge," he tells me, charmingly of course. "No, we don't have time to domuch right any more, which is nice, you lcnowto be losing astone aday
and never sleeping.
"London? Yes we did toy with the idea awhile ago—but only for asecond!
Actuallythere's just no question of it! It's such an impersonal place, which
is verydifficult to say when alot of our popularity is based here and so
manypeople have welcomed us.
"There's something frighteningly artificial about everything here; thewhole place is geared up for tourism now. London's akind of massive
souvenir shop, afaçade of how London used to be. It just isn't English
any more —it seems veryAmericanised, which is something to dwellupon with horror."But to honour the spirit of Smithdom, itwould onlybe appropriate to end
with something more encouraging. SoonThe Smithswill release their debut
album on RoughTrade. Perfectionists, they've re-recordedtheir songs andbrought in anewproducer, John Porter, who, according to Morrisseyin his
inimitablyreserved style, "hasworkedwith lots ofinteresting people andis continuing to do so!" Prepare to be charmed. lanPye •"The Smiths
will push
people tothink forthemselves"

HISTORY OF ROCK 1983 I143

Missed any of our previous issues?
Get them at www.uncut.co.uk/store
THE HISTORY OF

Readers' letters

MM JUL—DEC
Shane on you

Why does Shane MacGowan of
The Pogues think he holds themonopoly on hishness? Ishould
think that with names like
O'Hara, Kilkenny and Brennan,
Dexys have some right tointroduce an Irish element into
their looks. So what if theywear
dungarees, no shoes and growstubble? Maybe they really
are tinkers.
SIERSE O'DONOVAN,Southampton (NME, Sept 3)

Lords of misrule

Acouple of days ago I
went to see
Lords Of The New Church, whoplayed in anewly occupied
building. Ican't remember to haveseen agroup as bad as the Lords.
They played so loud that it just was
one big mess, shouted out reallysick jokes about sex diseases andDanish girls and about how stupid
the audience was.
Me and some other people threw
some bottles after them. Ithinkthat Ihit the drummer. The group
walked off stage. That was the best
part of the concert. Theycame
back again and played some more
shit with the result that acouple
from the audience smashed theelectric system so they couldn't
play anymore. Then theywent off
stage agai n. What alaugh.
After that, we went down to their
air-conditioned lux-bus andsmashed all the windows withbricks. I
just hate self-satisfied
groups who think they own theworld, like the Lords. Some
English groups who visit Denmark
really think that they are so great
and fantastic that they can shit on
the audience without response.
But watch out.
PETER NIELSEN, Copenhagen,Denmark (NME, Oct 29)
Letter ofthe week -Paolo Hewitt

Roger and out

Meet Roger. Roger is your typical
NMEreader, he probably likes
New Order and pretends toremember the days of Joy Division("Oh yeah, course I
was there
then..."). He believes swearing
mindlesslywill mysteriously give
him some status compatible withmaturity (re: the absurd overusage of swearwords in your rag-esp the ludicrous and aptly
titled Gasbag). He also thinks
chart music is for kids (re: yourperpetual elitist commentswith

regard to the unpretentious
Smash Hits).
In short, Rog buys an elitist,"TRENDY", "hip" studentorientated rag that says nothingfor people without at least an
inkling of amiddle-classbackground (they're the ones with
aculture compatible with its
style). And he buys it BECAUSE it's
very clever to knowwhat no one
else knows, even if the charts
represent the majority of people's
tastes. Remember, if the NME's
heard it- you probably haven't...
Rog tells me he's going to see Test
Department next month, not thatI
blame him of course
MIKE, Bookham (NME,Sept 3)

Punk satire's not deadOne was wonderful! TWO were
terrific! But not even super-goth
CHRIS BOHN could get THREE"seven years have passed sincethat first bleak winter of punk"sinto one issue!Ah well, there's
always next week.
LUCIANA F, Harpenden(NME, Oct 29)

To coincidewith the tour Virgin
Records are releasing amedleyof Rotten's hits, while avideo
directed by Julian Tenpole will
fol low shortly.
DAVID X, Keighley, West Yorkshire(NME,Nov 19)

Mod is deadOh dear, who can this person be?
What is the meaning of shirtless,rug-squirming, chest-caressing,greasy-haired, toe-popping
activity by Old Father Time chap
name of Paul Weller? Maybe too
many "Long Hot Summer" makehim have heat stroke. This floating
along river on barge behaviour is
so demanding!! think song is
attempt at sensuality of kind sungby Marvin Gaye person, but Mr
Weller tan no good enough andhim chest too scrawny. Him speak
like apseud that watch the rupee
go round. No matter what he do,
he just end up making money.
Please to explain this nonsense!
LAUREL, she uncomprehending
one (NME, Novio)Isaid "Snap!" when Isaw that all
the tracks on The Jam's new album
were identical to those already in
my collection.
JUDY WILSON (NME,Novi2)

Re: PiL appearance on The Tube.
Ex Sex-Pistol John Rotten
announced today that he hasturned his back on the pop world
for the cabaret circuit. Rotten,
who claims the "chicken in abasket" scene is "where it's reallyat, maan", will be performingwith his new group PiL who herecruited from awell-known night
spot in Batley, West Yorkshire.
Johnny promised his fans that hewill be featuring new routines ofold favourites such as aChas 'n'Dave-influenced "Pretty Vacant"and aduet with female
impressionist Janet Brown on"God Save The Queen".
Aspokesman for the Mecca
Organisation assured fans thatdress restrictions would berelaxed at all their venues to allow
for amore intimate atmosphere.

"Soulful" Weller's ugly plagiarism
is glaringly obvious- hisutilisation of brittle, leadenrock structures and mannerism
circa Who '67, plus his courtshipwith mod-that clean-cut,complacent and tribalistic narrowmindedness akin to heavy metalor ska -regressive and squarecompared to punk and its
offspring. As Mark ESmithpointed out, The Jam's marriage
to mod was just acase of moreyouth masturbation.
After shedding The Jam, Weller
cultivates more nonsense in theguise of The Style Council, aided
by such dullards as an ex-Merton
Parka and the epitome of blank,bald youth- Tracie. Their limp
songs sure fit besides Freeez andPaul Young.
As for Weller's "politicalmessage", maybe he did conjure
up "insights" for his sheep-likefans, but this achievement ischecked by the aforementioned
attitude and mentality, which is asradical as Spandau or The Clash.
PAVLOV'S DOG, Huddersfield(NME, Sep 3)

DESTINATION
1- ZULU LAND .1

TheSmithsTHISCHARMINGMAN
bw JEANE

0. I--Eb,w ACCEPT YOURSELF
And WONDERFUL WOMANTHE BEST OF
BILLYJOEL j•run gm&
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do«.11111S1111111

HISTORY OF ROCK 1983

145

1983

MAIO OM IINME:

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THOMAS DOLBYKAJAGOOGOO
TROMPSON TWINSSIMPLE MINOSJOHN CALE
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Coming next...
in 1984!

SO THAT WAS 1983. We knewwhen to go out. We knewwhen
to stay in.
Certainly, that's not it from our reporters on the beat. The
staffers of NMEand Melody Makerenjoyed unrivalled accessto the biggest stars of the time, and cultivated afeel for therhythms of adiversifying scene; as the times changed, so did
they. While in pursuit of the truth, they unearthed stories that have cometo assume mythical status.
That's very much the territory of this monthly magazine. Each month,
The History OfRockwill be bringing you verbatim reports from the pivotal
events in pop culture, one year amonth, one year at atime. Next up, 1984!

THE SMITHSINTERVIEWED SEPARATELY, MORRISSEY and Johnny Marr reveal
what powers the nation's newest musical phenomenon. Morrissey, forone, is keen to dispel notions of a tragic adolescence. "I wasn't
handicapped in atraditional way. Ididn't have any severe physicaldisability, therefore the whole thing sounds like pompous twaddle.
I
just about survived it, let's just say that."

VAN HALENA MEETING WITH the virtuoso rock phenomenon. "The posture on
stage is hyper-macho without any sense of humour attached or without
casting awayward eye at any of the proceedings," says David Lee Rothof pre-Van Halen hard rock. "Y'know, it all becomes one big Marlboro
cigarette commercial. It's all muscle and grip and men's magazines."

THE STYLE COUNCIL
ON THE ROAD with amore playful Paul Weller, and up close with his
buddy The Cappuccino Kid. Weller explains The Style Council: somejazz, some soul... sometimes he'll be playing bass. "The music the guys
are doing now, they not being precious, it's saying, 'This is just music, so
listen to it.' We don't want to be categorised, like, 'This is jazz' —youknow what Imean?"

PLUS...
REM!
NINA SIMONE!
NICK CAVE!

146 IHISTORY OF ROCK 1983

FROM THE MAKERS OF UNCUTTHE HISTORY OF

Every month, we revisit long-lost NME and Melody Maker interviews
and piece together The History OfRock. This month: 1983.
"It's notreallywork/It'sjustthepower to charm..."DAVID BOWIE RETURNED AN OLDER, WISER AND(SLIGHTLY) MORE TRADITIONAL MAN
THE SMITHS INTRODUCED "HANDSOME"TO THE ROCK LEXICONNEW ORDER WENT GLOBALWITH "BLUE MONDAY"...and NICK CAVE, LEMMY, THE POGUES, THE CURE, MADONNA,
FRANKIE GOES TO HOLLYWOOD and many more sharedeverything with NME and MELODYMAKER

More from UNCUT...
Pi HARVEY
PlileIrnr.

.1..1

tUCCOMPlatlr

KILO.1111.1ff,

..«M`

•
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