SINGLES

Rip It Up, Issue 26, 1 September 1979, Page 19

S INGLES

On their entry into recorded music, Toy Love map out a wonderful Kinks “Well Respected Man” scenario and tie it to a yearning rock melody line. A local masterpiece stealing from the British sixties with so much flair and one-stbp-back-two-steps-foward deja vu, “Rebel” deserves to be NZ forty-five of the seventies. Simply essential. Flip over and “Squeeze” nails you, sneering, snakey, each verse gradually builds up to a hand-clapping dhorus lead by Bathgate’s winding guitar riff. Staying local and Th’Dudes now have the singles knack down to a fine art (which it is) on "Walking in Light”. It exudes confidence but it doesn't rise to the status of their previous provincial classics. Think lay down a pleasantly dated boogie “Good Morning” and Marc Hunter begins his Dragonless career with a professionally aimed disco shot, “Island Nights”. lan Dury is never less than essential and “Reasons To Be Cheerful” is no exception as he dances his way through raison d’etre partnered by a superb production and the year’s best guitar solo so far. Both Toy Love and Dury know the value of pic sleeves an’ all. The Boomtown Rats are now an institution punk’s Rolling Stones, this time making out with orchestrated piano-laden balladeering and as Geldof improves his Jagger phrasing on “I Don’t Like Mondays”. Do you get the feeling

that we’ve been this way before, sure, but this song has classic written all over it despite its obvious origins. Downturn as Blackfoot earnestly holler "Love Me Tonight" and Journey sluggishly dabble with blues on “Lovin’, Touchin’, Squeezin’ Motown’s blue eyed boys The Commodores sound vaguely C&W influenced on yet another finely weighted ballad “Sail On”, and Quantum Jump have their very clever “Lone Ranger” re-issued from 1976. The Tubeway Army synthesiser armed are ominously impressive on “Are 'Friends' Electric” and Public Image prove that they have a sense of humour of sorts on the grating “Death Disco 1 /2 Mix”.

The Knack are snappy American English dressers and they’re shrewd. “My Sharona" is rock-by-numbers, you hear it once you don’t need to hear it again. Devo don't survive under fire as they needlessly update P.F. Sloan’s “Secret Agent Man”, and The Marshall Tucker Band blandly insist that they are the "Last of the Singing Cowboys”, I hope so. Randy Bachman’s Ironhorse is really BTO Part Two as he proves on “One and Only”, but stand aside as dancers Richard T. Bear (“Sunshine Hotel”) and French punk-parodist Plastic Bertrand (“Tout Petit La Planete”) move on disco ’79. Teddy Pendergrass seductively suggests in Philadelphia style that you “Turn Off the Lights”, don't bother, and Robert Palmer, rock’s best dressed man, just makes it on his attempt at R&B, “Bad Case of/Lovin’ You”. GEORGE KAY /

Plenty of unsigned New Zealand bands deserve to get themselves on record but few more so than Gary Havoc and The Hurricanes and Sheerlux. Here they are on vinyl now and it only goes to prove what everyone knew already. Simply that these bands are as good as anything else released on the average week of the year. v The Gary Havoc and the Hurricane’s EP is a good indication of the range of the band’s material. Opener “The Way I Am" is a mediumpaced rocker built around gorgeous melodic guitar lines with tough’n’tender crooning from Gary Havoc. Keeping it brief the song is a sure winner. Then there are "The Letter” and “Rich Kids”, two pieces of The Hurricanes' extremely danceable rock'n’boogie. Closing the EP is “Ponsonby” a slower rock strut featuring a fine twin lead break in the middle. The thing is, as anyone who has seen The Hurricanes live will say, the band could fill an album with tracks as good as these.

Sheerlux have wisely curtailed their early flirtation with new wave and established themselves as a formidable hard rock band. The A side of their single "Lonely Hearts” packs all the punch of the live Sheerlux behind a nicely mannered vocal by Paul Robinson. Their attack is direct and they are clever without being difficult. On the reverse is a more ambitious hard reggae number “Chinatown” which is a showcase for the art-pop side of the band. Now the trick is to keep writing more of the same. DOMINIC FREE