Ellen Foley

Rip It Up, Issue 33, 1 April 1980, Page 6

Ellen Foley

Murray Cammick

Several months after the outrageously colourful videos and the arty little posters, a quiet and very likeable Ellen Foley sneaked into town to promote her debut platter, Nightout. It's one of the wonders of modern technology that all that visual/image promotion can leave a recording artist faceless. Viewers, respond with "it was a great video" or "yeah I'd love to pin it up in the office." But, there is a real Ellen Foley, no, her hair

isn't canary yellow. Super enamel freaks, drop your jaws because this woman has a natural finish that does not need hyping. Before visiting Japan, Oz and here, Ms Foley did concerts in Europe, including two nights at the Venue in London. Besides guesting with the Hunter/Ronson band in the US and London, the three weeks in Europe are the only shows Foley has done since recording the album. The singer commenced the concert tour with an arm in a sling, after falling from a motorbike. Apparently, as she injured her arm she cried, "MY TOUR, MY TOUR.” (Foley is similarly keen to tour Australasia sometime.) Poley got started in music on the stage and that’s how she met Meatloaf. Commenting on her singing on Bat Out Of Hell (note: Foley is not the singer on the Meatloaf videos) Foley said, "it wasn’t just session work. I was with them from the beginning. The character was written for me.” And about Meatloaf she has no regrets: "It got me my record deal.” Thirty seconds into "We Belong to the Night", you know that either Phil Spector’s doing another Xmas album or that lan Hunter and Mick Ronson (the Nightout producers) should produce the next Ramones album. The produc-

tion is fun, gutsy and emotive. Bure it’s overdone, but at least nobody mixed out the magic.. Though next time it will be different. "The vocal will be more upfront and there will be more clarity to it,” says Foley. For the new album she has written three songs with Goodman, her co-writer of her biggest single success, and her only writing credit on the album, "We Belong to the Night”. Who will produce the follow-up album is undecided. Roy Thomas Baker owns the bike Foley fell off, but there is still talk of Hunter and Ronson. As is now patently obvious, Foley likes her rock’n’roll to be powerful. When she speaks of her session work it's not LA sweeties, but Blue Oyster Cult, lan Hunter's album and... "I’d like to sing on the Clash’s next album." Though Ms Foley has never seen the band, she listens to them and admires them a lot. When there’s talk of Foley, ‘drama’ is often mentioned, mellow never, melodrama sometimes. Foley talks of a "show-bizzy approach to rock'n'roll." Whatever the label you put on it, Nightout was a fun debut, and Foley is a promising new artist.