The Blams will not go

Press, 26 November 1981, Page 14

The Blams will not go

By

David Swift

“(expletive deleted)!! We’re not going to Australia!!” Blam Blam Blam’s bass player and manager. Tim Mahon, calmly rejects any suggestion that. having toured around New Zealand four times, the band might be looking across the Tasman now.

Mahon. Don McGlashan (drums). Dick Driver (vocals) and Mark Bell (guitar) are in Christchurch this week to perform and promote—the last part referring to the band’s excellent new single, “Don’t fight It Marsha, It’s, Bigger Than Both Of Us.” It was finally released this,

week, although the official release date was something like two months ago. Tim groans—making a record appear on the right date is like pulling a rabbit out of a hat—how often does it happen? The recently televised clip of the single was made before Driver joined the band. He is fitting in well and giving the other members the chance to concetrate on their playing, although everyone takes the lead vocal in at least one song, says Tim.

This is Blam Blam Blam’s fourth visit to the South Island. Aren’t they getting sick of touring? “No,” said

Tim, and I presumed that his honest face remained so at the other end of the telephone. /“We don’t want to go to Australia. Mark’s been and hates .the place, we think the same.way,” he said. None of Blam Blam Blam considered the band to be a permanent fixture.

“At the end of this year, who knows, we might be dong something different,” said Tim. They’re keen to perform and think for the immediate future. Once again they will play at Sweetwaters, having secured a good spot, after Ultravox (yes, Ultravox) on the Sunday evening.

The debut album is being recorded in between tours. It will take a month or two yet, especially as January will be a very heavy month for Blam Blam Blam. New songs should -start to arrive again on tour, which is when the band, finds it easiest to write, but recently they’ve been too busy recording and rehearsing with Dick. Touring with Blam Blam Blam are the “Zombies of the Stratosphere” (alias Otis Mace and Rex Reason). All three will appear at the Hillsbouough Tavern this week, arid at Canterburry University on December 8, with Mainly Spaniards and a university big band.