THE GREAT SCORCH

Rip It Up, Issue 8, 1 February 1978, Page 8

THE GREAT SCORCH

Bruce Belsham

The sky cleared about ten thirty. Then commenced the great scorch. In prospect ten or eleven hours, sun, seven bands, more searing, midsummer sun. Shortly after eleven, more or less on time, Wellington’s Country Flyers opened. “Hello out there," announced a friendly Midge Marsden, swearing he’d never played at such an early hour. The Country Flyers offered what was in some ways the most enjoyable set of the day. Beaver singing and making eyes at her children in the front row helped enliven an already intriguing and electic repertoire. They covered material ranging from Ray Charles to Commander Cody, nursing the crowd into the spirit of things, enjoying themselves in the process.

"Good Morning Citizens”, the Chunn brothers burst into action next with their now familiar catchcry. Citizen Band entered in an unprecedented mood of vigour, treating the exercise like the frontal assault on Omaha Beach, Mike Chunn’s bass simulating the naval bombardment. Unhappily the band who are consistently impressive in a smaller setting adapted only moderately to the great outdoors. Apart from the fact that the bass overpowered everything, Geoff Chunn’s singing didn’t carry well and it was fortunate that the material and arrangements remained strong enough to keep the whole venture afloat.

Meanwhile the sun had reduced our lunch to a molten ooze and the St John's contingent were dealing with their first heat casualties.

I believe I spent the first quarter of the Rocking Horse set in a baked stupor. Perhaps it is some small tribute to their energy that they managed to rouse me. At any rate, Rocking Horse, a band to whom Aucklanders have never been very kind, played to their usual high standard, finishing with lively versions of “Dixie Chicken” and “Oh Atlanta". Beaver walked on for vocal backups on the latter two which also featured from Kevin Bayley, New Zealand’s most eccentric guitarist, solos which rate as minor classics in the comic grotesque. Next up: Alistair Riddell and his Wonder Ones. Although Riddell’s comeback is as yet limited to one good single he and the band have an album in the offing and all bar one song was prospective album issue. None of the material has the immediacy of “Wonder Ones” though it passed by inoffensively enough. We will really have to wait for release to see if its impact grows with familiarity. At this stage the recorded disco noise pollution that the P.A. pumped out between acts was conspiring with heat stroke to drive me bananas. When will promoters understand that, given a whole day’s rock and roll, people appreciate a little silence, that this incessant intervening throb bores and deafens and jades the pallet. Presently the portly IZM D.J. who had been doing the honours all day welcomed “My personal friends” (quick read of his clip board) "Ah, Graeme and ah Harry” (another glance at the list) “and Ricky and Lyle Hello Sailor ". Hello Sailor were probably the chief crowd pleasers of the whole function. They lost a little to Dragon in that Dragon were the headliners and exuded a professional gleam, but held a prior advantage because their material was more familiar. Hello Sailor’s image and approach has become unified over past months, a development which adds a stage presence to existent talents. Their adopted air of amused toughness is expressed in the winning little rhyme from newsong “Son of Sam” which runs Son of Sam I am, Son of Sam, bam bam bam bam bam. Altogether a humourous and punchy wee number. And so to Dragon. Three and a half years in Australia have suffused Dragon with confidence, given Marc Hunter greater singing competence and the ability to handle an audience. The younger Hunter has become very much a focal point, teasing the crowd with his drawled pseudotheatrical patter, dominating the hit singles with some fine and well defined vocal work, dancing with eye catching flexibility! Dragon’s performance was, one feels, well tempered to their Australian market, opening with the strongest and best known material from Sunshine and winding up with some hard and fast played boogie. There was evidence here that Dragon have the polish and do very nicely for themselves indeed. So staying just long enough to observe Living Force playing more crisply than is usual and with their habitual enthusiasm, we left, like most of the crowd, to nurse our ringing ears, our tired limbs and our sunburn.