Sweetwaters reviewed

Press, 4 February 1982, Page 14

Sweetwaters reviewed

By

Mike Johansson

The Sweetwaters music festival, held just east of Pukekawa at the week-end, was musically a pot-pourri with the name acts being outplayed and left behind by lesser-known New Zealand' groups. The following is a personal view of the music at the festival. Friday, January 29. The band of the day was without doubt Australia’sThe Angels who stirred the early festival audience into a frenzy and left it exhausted after two hours of highenergy hard rock. Another group of Aussie rockers, INXS, and Ghetto, a former New Zealand band now based in Sydney, both had the crowd bopping. However, it was The Angels that stole the show this day and set an incredibly high music standard that bands found difficult to attain in the next two days. Saturday, January 30.

This was supposed to be one of the big days at the festival and it was, no thanks to the headliner act, Ultravox.

In the afternoon, the Auckland bands, Valentinos and Blind Date, had the crowd up

and dancing, and immediately after the dinner break the Screaming Meemees rocked and raunched the crowd back up into a frenzy.

The Meemees were followed by an Aussie group very few had seen, but all were impressed with —

Mondo Rock — formed from the remnants of the one-time name Australian group Daddy Cool, who proved to be another great act. Pop Mechanix followed and received only slightly less of an ovation and then everyone waited for Ultravox. And they waited, and they waited. They waited for an hour before Midge Ure and the boys came on stage.

After the wait and the build-up the crowd was definitely disappointed, only “Thin Wall” and “Vienna” the two top 40 hits, earned a roar of applause. This was definitely the wrong type of music, where at times all four members were playing keyboards, to have at a raging festival. Luckily for the organisers, DD Smash, with Dave Dobbyn out front, rocked the crowd back- into a more friendly mood. Sunday, January 31. The star of the afternoon

was without doubt the Auckland Ska/Reggae Band, The Instigators, who played an equal mixture of original and popular material and had the crowd swinging in the extreme afternoon heat.

Mental As Anything, the Australian group with a couple of pop hits to their name, were extremely popular, and set a standard that everyone expected the next act, Fellow Ocker Rockers, Cold Chisel, to follow. Cold Chisel were good, but just. It was only an outrageous cover of “Twist and Shout” at the end of a _twohour set that saved the group’s bacon. The lead singer, Jimmy Barnes, was in fine form, but the group’s song selection seemed to ignore the raging mood of the crowd. Blam Blam Blam had instrument problems, but The Knobz in the 1 a.m. graveyard “shift” had the remaining rockers up and jiving. Monday, February 1. An unlikely group, Daggy and the Dickheads, from an unlikely “hotbed” of N.Z. rock music, Taihape, were what a lot of people had been waiting for. These boys had.the early morning crowd on its feet and wanting more.

Unfortunately a time limit prevented this. Late in the afternoon the New Zealand group, Isis, impressed with their Genesis style of music. Monday evening’s &cts were a fitting climax to the festival. Australia’s Midnight Oil, were an ideal band'for the festival. They had 1 the crowd rocking and it teas disappointed when they were denied a second encore. However, Men At Work had the crowd just so worked up that when they announced they had one more number to play the crowd’s spirit noticeably dipped. The last cut was, however, a 15-min-ute jam that left most breathless. The highlights of the festival were Men At Work and The Angels, with Midnight Oil coming a close second. It . was unfortunate that these acts were on the Friday and Monday nights when the majority of the festival goers were unable to see them because they were travelling to or from the festival. Congratulations to Radio Hauraki who picked out Men At Work and The Angels for live broadcast. film or one with a story to go with music, he said. This compared with pre“Vienna” clips which cost between £l5OO and £2OOO, and featured stealing age-old ideas from the Beatles’ film “Help,” with members of a group leaping about in an open field. Formed as an electronics band in the heady days of punk rock in 1976-77, only in the last two years has Ultravox seen success, strangely enough after the departure of John Foxx and the arrival of Midge Ure. Ultravox had mixed reviews after its Sweetwaters Festival performance on Saturday evening, but Warren Cann said that some of the subtleties of the music failed to project well in the outdoors setting. There had also been equipment problems, but after a good show in Wellington on Monday evening “the band was getting into stride.” P.S. The race ended in a draw.

Dances from Benjamin Britten’s opera “Gloriana,” played by the classical guitarist, Julian Bream. "Walking in the Park with. Eloise,” a song written by McCartney's father James, a part-time pianist, and played by Paul, Chet Atkins, and Floyd Kramer.