RECORDS

Rip It Up, Issue 33, 1 April 1980, Page 10

RECORDS

... .. „ i. More Ska Madness C/uc tour Booties

SEX PISTOLS FLOGGING A DEAD HORSE VIRGIN CHIC LES PLUS GRANDS SUCCES DE CHIC ATLANTIC 1 The Sex Pistols and Chic represent the times of the late seventies as much as do the oil crisis and unemployment. Better than most anyone else, they epitomise punk and disco. We'll leave it to sociologists to explore questions of lifestyle and attitude, and look at the music, which modified the mainstream and was itself modified in turn. The music is in the grooves, but before one gets to it one is struck again by how important image-making was to both phenomena. At a time of Callaghan greyness, Johnny Rotten may have been the best-known face in the land (the Queen’s excepted, of course). Chic are essentially faceless, but they wear clothes costing more than some of us will 6am this year. The 'upwardly-mobile' face of disco is in Chic's Gallic album title. "Greatest Hits" sounds so much less vulgar with a French accent. The back of the Pistols’ cover features a turd nestling in the golden grooves of Never Mind the Bollocks. Bollocks is summed up by side one of Flogging a Dead Horse (surely this is the last Pistols' showcase?), a cacophony of anarchic guitar and thrashed drums and the malignant vocals of J. Rotten. This side contains the three singles, "Anarchy in the U.K.”, "God Save the Queen", and "Pretty Vacant" (genuinely revolutionary), as well as "Did You No Wrong”, which I mention solely because I like it a lot. This is terrific stuff and doesn’t suffer from datedness as much as one might imagine. Side two is rather disposable Ronald Biggs sings (sort of), Sid Vicious sings (sort of), the Pistols cover Eddie Cochran and the Monkees although its stumblings chart the fall of the Sex Pistols just as side one landmarks their blaze of glory. Chic are as precise as the Sex Pistols are out of control. Disco has been criticised as a producer’s music with the artist merely the mouthpiece for the mind at the mixing board. Chic stand apart in that guiding lights Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards produce, write and play. Furthermore, the rhythm section of Rodgers (guitar) and Edwards (bass) is very hot indeed, lifting their best songs ("Le Freak”, "Chic Cheer”, and, especially, "Good Times”) above mere invitation to boogie down. Chic are as immaculate as their slick tailoring, with the good and bad that implies. It may strain the imagination to try to reconcile the yobbish rancour of the Sex Pistols with Chic's metronomic discipline, but both ‘greatest hits’ albums are bookends for an era. They characterise a time now passed. Ken Williams

MADNESS ONE STEP BEYOND

STIFF Ska has become the password to instant credibility and good reviews. The Specials, who were the first and look like being the best exponents of skapunk, have sparked : off a small 'rock steady boom that already includes Selector, Beat and Madness?Mßß»M3BßttßHß Madness are seven all white nutty.bleeders from London who cut their teeth as the Invaders and Morris and the Minors before becoming Madness proper near the end of 1978. Taking their name from Prince Buster’s (one of the bluebeat pioneers) song "Madness” they released their first single on the Specials’ Two .Tone label. Entitled ’’The Prince" its tribute was .obvious and the flip side, their version of Prince Buster’s "Madness", hollers. uncredited as the second last track on One Step Beyond'i^H^Wtttk Incorporating a healthy dose of irreverance and. spontaneous humour : Madness are the lighter side of ska. Keyboards’ player Mike Barson' has. the Jilted John eye .for mundane romanticism and common situation, and coupled with his ear for bluebeat melodies he chalks up a few gems, though' none better than “My Girl”: - ■.;.

My girl's mad at me I didn't wanna see the film tonight I found it hard to say She thought I'd had enough of her Why can't she see she's lovely to me But I like to stay in and watch TV all alone every now and then. Vocalist Graham McPherson and guitarist Chris Foreman join forces on "In the Middle of the Night”, a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde story about a respectable newspaper agent who is "a knicker thief underwear taker" at night. Hilarious but with more than just a little impact in the home truth department. On the music side of things the album's emphasis swings towards the dance floor and here Lee Thompson’s burping sax turns the title track and "Night Boat to Cairo” into near riots, and Barson wallops the ivories on "Tarzan’s Nuts" and "Swan Lake”. With the exuberance of this album in mind, it is hard to believe that at the start of last year Madness briefly dropped their bluebeat numbers because of lack of reaction. Now with three hit singles behind them and this hot debut album on the floor Madness won’t be looking back. George Kay

THE SELECTER TOO MUCH PRESSURE

2-Tone So what does 2-Tone mean? "It means a hell of a lot. It means a nonseparation of things, like the way the whole world tries to separate everything away from everything else, things and ideals. For all of us, it means a bringing together and seeing everything as a whole in its entirety, seeing it in its context...” The speaker is Neol Davies, rhythm guitarist and sole white member of The Selecter, the latest prodigy of the wondrous 2-Tone label to emerge in this country. 2-Tone has an enviable track record to date, with every single and album issued making the British charts, indicating the popularity and vitality of the music. The Selecter are no exception. Those with the sense to tune into Radio B during its all-too-brief fling on the airwaves will have bent an ear around an unstoppable little bit of ska called "On My Radio". The band responsible for this is The Selecter. The Selecter started out around Coventry in 1978, playing heavy roots reggae, which they found boring (to each his own). The rhythm was what they wanted, and so they delved further back into the origins of the sound, and took up the banner of bluebeat and ska. Lyrically, The Selecter retain at least some of their reggae roots. If 2-Tone has a hard political wing, then this is it. The Specials make the occasional point in their context, but The Selecter go straight for the groin: Look beyond the people that tie your hands, You 're living in the time of shifting sands, I'm getting off my knees, I’m going to teach myself a new philosophy... (“They Make Me Mad”) The 2-Tone sound preaches not only liberation for black and white, but also for the sexes. Pauline Black dominates the vocals and makes significant contributions in the songwriting field. As Madness took "Swan Lake” into the rock steady vein, so do The Selecter make mincemeat of the James Bond theme. Traditional numbers like "My Collie” are also given the once over. That particular number was cleaned up and released under another name by Millie Small. Listen and you'll know why.

too Much Pressure is as danceable as anything else on 2-Tone; in other words, it’s too damn infectious to stand still to. But The Selector, all seven of them, pack a hidden punch.

Drawing from impeccable roots, the 2-Tone bands bring a new mode of dance music into this uncertain decade. The distinctive figure in pork pie hat and shades is called Walt Jabsco. Definitely the logo to watch for.

Duncan Campbell

THE BEAT CBS ■ 20120 PORTRAIT Those disappointed the Knack couldn’t build on the promise of their first album with the studiously frantic and overdone But The Little Girls Understand will find more than adequate compensation with this pair. Overseas claims that both 20/20 and the Beat , have been influenced by the Knack are surely false they’re much closer to pre-Knack bands like Dwight Twilley but what the Knack should be given credit for is opening the floodgates for these bands to pour through. And there will be many more like this before 1980 is over, advance reports suggesting the Plimsouls could top them all. Stripped down, there really isn’t a whole lot of difference between these two. Former Beach Boys engineer Earle Mankey (his "Mau Mau” single is worth importing) is allowed to encroach on 20/20 a little with his penchant for studio sound gimmickry, but they keep on top of him enough of the time to let their basic strengths shine through. Bruce Botnick did the Beat, and his producing filter is ultimately the better one.

Both bands diet unashamedly on the 60s, 20/20 even throwing in some needless whispering about Paul being dead on the fadeout to the otherwise thoroughly loveable “Tell Me Why”. There are, it seems, other ‘Beatle clues' on the album, but I haven’t bothered looking for them. 20/20 say they went for the textured harmonies of the Hollies, but it’s the Beat who actually sound more like them given the added maturation in guitar power from 1965 England to 1979 America. Both bands sing and harmonise well. The Beat rose out of San Francisco’s Nerves, who sold 10,000 copies of an EP in 1977 that included a version of “Hangin’ On The Telephone”. The record was given to Blondie in an attempt to get support work, but Blondie told them the song sucked. As did the band. Six months later Blondie had a hit with it.

The Beat shouldn’t have to worry about such might-have-beens now. Their debut contains music Blondie and many others should trade limbs for. Only one ballad, and that doesn't work, but a fistful of sparkling poprockers with great gangling guitar middles and unavoidable hooks.

20/20 are about 3'A tracks short of being really nifty. They suffer more from the American pop-rock group malaise of racing hastily into the studio with only three-quarters of an album than the Beat (the ‘okay-We’ve-finished-the-album-where-are-the-girls’ syndrome) but they do have some real goodies on the first side. Neither the Beat nor 20/20 sound as desperate to be seen to actually belong to this new trend as the Knack. They both have the spirit of 1965 off pretty good, and if they add an inventiveness they currently only suggest they might manage, then the 1980 s could be a lot of fun. We might even get back to singles. Roy Colbert

PUBLIC IMAGE LTD SECOND EDITION VIRGIN Pre-conceptions are dangerous as they can lead to a set of narrow and unfair judgements of an artist’s next move. When Johnny Rotten turned his back on the Sex Pistols everybody expected him to initiate a Mk Two version of the prototype. Certainly, few were ready for PIL but both bands were similar in that they were fuelled by his desire to react against the accepted state of rock’n'roll. The Pistols were a jolt in 1977 and PIL are a jolt in 1980 and their real value lies in their ability to undermine the complacency and predictability that the music scene slumps into. Right from the outset Lydon, and co were savagely satirising the record industry's procedure and norms. Anti-image, anticommercial and deliberately esoteric in their outlook, PIL shrugged off any hopes of headbanging with their first album bare and sneering. It was hardly rock’n’roll said the ‘fans’ but the critics liked it because it seemed/sounded significant. The second album (available in Metal Box

form on import for forty bucks or as the Second Edition locally pressed for fifteen bucks) like the first will send the same people running for cover and the same critics delving even deeper into the superlatives. Suffice to say it is an impressive though difficult album to enjoy. Lydon is as caustic as ever but vocally he’s levelled his sneer to a more matter-of-fact phrasing especially on “Albatross”, where, lyrically, he seems to be referring to the McLaren and Sex Pistols’ schtick. And on “No Birds” he takes a well-aimed blow at suburban tranquility: Bland planned idle luxury A caviar of silent dignity. But ultimately the album’s emphasis lies in the music. Keith Levine's guitar scrapes and claws like chalk over blackboard, the only suitable backdrop for Lydon’s cynicism. Yet it is Wobble's persistent bass which provides the heart of the music particularly on “Albatross” and “The Suit”. On “Radio" the band arm themselves with synthesisers and create a lush expanse of muzak as a dig at the inoffensiveness of the medium in question. They can be humourous too. Second Edition is a marked improvement on their first album and it is, at least, an album to be respected as an attitude even though you may find the music uncomfortable. It’s meant to be, listen to it. George Kay

WARREN ZEVON BAD LUCK STREAK IN DANCING SCHOOL ASYLUM The image of a sub machine gun lying on a pair of pink ballet shoes catches the almostschizophrenic quality of Warren Zevon’s new album. How else can one describe an album that has a smattering of Stravinsky-like string interludes between songs which are firmly in a rock idiom? The album has the same duality of style that made itself felt in Zevon’s previous work. Some well-turned imagery distinguishes laments such as “Empty-Handed Heart”, whilst in songs like “Play It All Night Long” Zevon lets the rather black humour of the song speak for itself: Grandpa pissed his pants again He don't give a damn Brother Billy has both guns drawn He ain’t been right since Vietnam There is a strong humorous streak in the album songs like "Gorilla, You’re a Desperado” with modern man exchanging his LA apartment for a zoo cage and letting his simian friend try to cope with modern living. And then there are Jackson Browne and Rick Marotta with their laconic “What’s her name...Ahh...” chorusing in “A Certain Girl”. The cream of LA’s laid-back school are on hand, for once the material is worthy of their musical skills. A fine album. William Dart

IGGY POP SOLDIER ARISTA Yup, it's that time of year again. Iggy Pop has survived another twelve months and that means a new album but this time round he’s a soldier not a casualty or true confessor. This trip Iggy’s defences are up. Surrounded by a battery of new recruits including the legendary Glen Matlock and ex-XTC Barry Andrews, Mr. Pop is sounding pretty fiesty. Matlock co-writes three and weighs in with the solo goods on "Ambition", vintage Sex Pistols style with Andrews leading out on keyboards and on one of his collaborations with Iggy, "Take Care of Me", guitarist Steve New becomes Steve Jones for three minutes as the chords are slammed out with bravado to spare. The killer blow is “Mr. Dynamite”, more Matlock music as Iggy waxes tough about being betrayed and Steve New flicks around a chilling guitar line. Soldier hasn't the same personal investment of New Values and in that respect it’s not as rewarding, but if you're looking for rough and tumble rock’n’roll in the age old Pop tradition then Soldier is where Lust For Life left off.

George Kay

CHICK COREA & HERBIE HANCOCK AN EVENING WITH ... POLY DOR ROY BUCHANAN LIVE IN JAPAN POLYDOR FRANK ZAPPA JOE’S GARAGE ACTS II & 111 CBS TOM SCOTT STREET BEAT CBS Chick Corea and Herbie Hancock are absolute piano masters. Their monumental skills at the keyboard have been somewhat obscured by their recent infatuations with electronic instrumentation, and, in -Hancock’s case, dance music. This double album is the second set from a series of concerts Corea and Hancock made in 1978. The music is made by two men at two grand pianos (as they say today, acoustic pianos) and resounds with the sheer joy of making music. These are duets not duels and the playing is of the higest order, by turns stately and meditative, festive and fiery, notes cascading in waterfalls. One can only lament that the earlier album was not released here.

Roy Buchanan is a virtuoso of a different cut, an electric guitarist who at his best can make time stand still. In the past Buchanan has had difficulty finding a suitable context for his talents. This live album may be as close as he gets. It is mainly straight-ahead funky bluesrock with the emphasis where it should be, on Buchanan’s searing, soaring Telecaster lines. “Hey, Joe’’, a tribute to the moods of Jimi Hendrix, is breath-taking. Equally spellbinding is Frank Zappa’s guitar work on the double album that continues and concludes his cautionary tale of a near-future when music is outlawed. Perhaps Act I was stronger in songs, but Zappa’s simply superb guitar playing (especially on the 10-minute “Watermelon in Easter Hay") puts the seal on his most satisfactory extended work. With nice understatement, Zappa conceded his playing was “not bad, for a comedy record."

Rather less provocative is Tom Scott’s latest offering. Scott's ability as a horn player is never in doubt, but his albums tend to reflect his years of studio work, correct but a shade bloodless. Street Beat is relentlessly percussive, uptempo freeway music, perhaps a little too close in intention to the Crusaders’ similarly named Street Life. Ken Williams

MENTAL AS ANYTHING GET WET REGULAR RECORDS At last an Aussie band (since the Sports) worth crowing about. Mental As Anything started life as an East Sydney Art School band

playing pubs back in 1976. Since then they’ve graduated beyond the pub circuit but the basic feel of the band remains firmly rooted in their unpretentious beginnings. With two snappy writers in tow, guitarists Martin Plaza and Reg Mombassa and two more as a rearguard, keyboards' player Greedy Smith and bassist Peter O'Doherty, the band have a wealth of tight, disciplined and lively songs to draw on and fourteen of them appear on Get Wet, their debut album. Opening with their single, “The Nips Are Getting Bigger” a clean-as-you-please drinkers’ rocker written by Martin Plaza, the band quickly reveal Nick Lowe/Dave Edmunds’ influences. But that’s praise. Mombassa’s “Business and Pleasure” sports a cunning keyboard melody and again on “Can I Come Home" he shows he can write pertinent rock ditties. These guys are non-stop smack so they deserve their recently negotiated deal with Virgin records who will release this album in Britain. All that remains to be said is that Get Wet is the sort of start they need. Sprinklers anyone? George Kay

SPARKS TERMINAL JIVE VIRGIN This is real disco eleganza, this one. The Mael brothers have produced another stylish essay in this much-maligned genre. The sleek monochrome cover provides a clue to the aesthetic behind the disc. On the front side of the cover, the two Maels are seen on either side of the plate glass window of a supermarket. On the reverse, they are perched, in a “Toy Kingdom”. It is certainly a game of Odd Man Out, and this is the position the two musicians hold with respect to the disco set.

But disco is here to stay, and the Maels have utilised their superlative musicianship to make a disco album to end all disco albums as if last year's No 1 in Heaven wasn’t enough! The group seem to be in top form melodically songs like “When I’m With You" and "Just Because You Love Me” are eminently catchy little pieces. The strongly-hewn harmonic shifts of "Rock ’n' Roll People in a Disco World" still pack a punch for me, and the boys show how effectively they can mould a more poporientated styling in a song like “Young Girls”. In four syllables...superlative. William Dart

UK SUBS ANOTHER KIND OF BLUES GEM If you wanna think about it, the punk movement that reacted against the gauche sentiments of seventies rock was a kind of blues’ boom. Punks mourned and moaned about being bored, about the social set-up and about old rich businessmen peddling fatuous music, but instead of using the traditional twelve-bar format to communicate this dissatisfaction they used thunderstruck monotone rock’n’roll. In other words using raw, uncluttered music to drive home the message another kind of blues. The UK Subs (formerly the United Kingdom Subversives) look and sound like they have just stepped out of 1977, but like the late (and hardly lamented) Sham 69 they have a cult following that would die for them. Another Kind of Blues is their first album and it boasts seventeen songs that could have been one, most of them hounding one thing or another in that naive shouted sincerity that only punks can muster. Yet there’s no denying that the Subs are for real and are carrying the banner that many thought the. clash relinguished on Give . 'Em Enough Rope and the Jam were too mod to handle in the first place. Whatever your view Another Kind of Blues is not only alternative breakneck blues but a resurrection of the spirit of 1977. , I’ll pass but punks queue here. George Kay

MIDNIGHT OIL HEAD INJURIES POWDERWORKS What gives with these RiU guys? Cammick tells me that he couldn’t find anyone “remotely interested in these Ockers”. Chris Knox reckons "Kiwis need to be told how to react.” Right. But f * *k that../ don’t need NME to tell me what to praise. As it is, Head Injuries isn’t the hottest album around, but it does contain three instant gems “Cold Cold Change”, “Section 5” and “Back On The Borderline” and if you hang around for a few listens a couple more goodies will surface. On first hearing, Head Injuries appears directionless. In fact, Midnight Oil are one of those rare products of the late-70s whose compositions work along shifting moods, while the complementary lyrics (very Ocker, incidentally) are a series of vivid images or: We 're playing the music of the middle-aged queens Getting fatter and fatter and splitting their jeans It's all the same, we’re out in the cold The good ones died, the others just got 01d... Johnny Rotten would have been proud. Me, I’m still digging and coming up with the odd pearl which wasn’t originally apparent. Keep passing on the Oz Rock, Murray. Leave the other stuff to the experts. John Dix

BUGGLES THE AGE OF PLASTIC ISLAND BRUCE WOOLEY AND THE CAMERA CLUB ENGLISH GARDEN EPIC The connection, although not obvious, is simple. Clever-young-man-from-the-Midlands-with-the-Elton-John-glasses, Bruce Wooley collaborated with Horn and Downes (Buggies) on a few songs. Wooley has since formed his own band, the Camera Club, and has recorded his own version of the song he co-wrote, "Video Killed the Radio Star”. That's a song people love to say they hate coz it’s twee and tacky, yet, admit it, it’s catchy and cleverly produced and put-together. Anyway, on the strength of that, Buggies, then only a studio concept, became known in every home, and they threaten to repeat that success with their debut album The Age of Plastic. The album reveals Buggies to be a studio contrivance repeatedly capable of conjuring up instantly memorable hooks dressed up in juvenile lyrics about the increasing role of technology. The music would like to be tomorrow’s MOR but it doesn't have the vision. By comparison Bruce Wooley is on the ball. Borrowing new wave trappings (short songs, drainpipe trousers and short hair) he’s managed to concoct an effective mixture of commercialism and energy. His songs are sleek and literate, perhaps a little over descriptive, but he has spark and even a little inspiration as he proves on "You’re the Circus I’m the Clown”. And anyone who can revamp the Dave Clark Five’s “Glad All Over” under the title of “Flying Man” AND get away with it deserves credit for nerve alone. Wooley is OK. George Kay

THE FLYING LIZARDS VIRGIN On the strength of their first single, “Money” a lot of people have taken up the Flying Lizards as this year’s 8525. There is a similar appeal. The mastermind behind the Lizards, David Cunningham, is an ‘art school’ musician who recorded the original “Money” in an old slaughterhouse converted into a studio. Now he has called upon the services of 16 other musicians to produce this album. But the Flying Lizards do not show the same depth of talent as the 8525, and the temptation is to dismiss them as one-hit wonders. “Money”, undeniably a clever single, is the high point of the album. For those interested, that distinctive drum beat is produced by hitting the snare drum with a drum stick and a tambourine. There are a couple of other interesting moments. “Summertime Blues" is one simply because it is hard to totally destroy the Eddie Cochran/Who classic. The new single, “TV”, is an effective novelty, featuring the same vocalist as "Money” and a nice tremelo guitar. But really its a case of one good single does not an album make. Dominic Free

EDDY GRANT WALKING ON SUNSHINE ICE If the name Eddy Grant means nothing to you, think back to the mid-60's, and a band called The Equals, who drove us all mad with moronic tunes like “Baby Come Back”, “Viva Bobby Joe” and "Rub A Dub Dub.” The voice was that of Eddy Grant, who since then has embraced the Rasta faith, formed his own Ice label, and built his own Coach House studios. His Marco Music business is a thriving industry, giving recording opportunities to many struggling musicians, especially those from Third World countries. He now has his first solo album out, and it’s a credit to him. Not only has he written and produced all the tracks, but he does all vocals and plays all the instruments, with a little help occasionally from such worthies as Conrad Isedore and ex-Osibisa members Kofi Ayivor and Roy (Spartacus) Bedeau. Roots reggae dominates the album, with Grant making extensive use of synthesiser. The instrument adapts surprisingly well to the idiom, being used not only as embellishment but also as rhythm. Grant makes very heady noises in "Living On The Frontline", which dovetails into a meaty, extended synthesiser workout called “The Frontline Symphony.” Side Two is uptown, knees-up party music, with Grant’s voice far more reminiscent of his old days. You can take the man away from the pop music... A record full of unexpected pleasures from a man who obviously knows where he’s going.

Duncan Campbell

808 SEGER AND THE SILVER BULLET BAND AGAINST THE WIND CAPITOL The long overdue recognition accorded Bob Seger with the 1976 release of Night Moves smacked of rock and roll romance. After years of struggle, Detroit's hard-gigging rocker was finally received into the hall of heavyweights. Success. But what to do now? Seger has met the challenge of Night Moves’ platinum peak by offering more of the same. He has done it twice now, and it is time to cry enough. Night Moves captured the essence of Seger’s style, storming hard rock juxtaposed with ballads of adolescent memories. The tough and the tender. The elements fused powerfully on Night Moves; by the time of the next album, Stranger in Town, they had become formula. Against the Wind is a re-run. As usual, Seger divides playing chores between the Silver Bullet Band and the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section, with the addition of a few name guests (Frey, Henley and Schmit of the Eagles, Little Featers Payne and Clayton). Seger himself takes a few guitar solos, and there is the usual balance of rockers and ballads. There is nothing unusual. Once, Bob Seger's refusal to give lip service to rock music trends spelled brave defiance. Now it seems reactionary, as lifeless as the hotel-room painting chosen for the album cover. Ken Williams

LENE LOVICH FLEX STIFF RACHEL SWEET PROTECT THE INNOCENT STIFF Dave Robinson, the head of Stiff Records, is the original scruffy Pom, with slept-in hair, and a T-shirt that once saw him through a weeklong New Zealand tour without a change. He’s also a highly original thinker, reflected in the variety of artists signed to his label. Two years ago, when the brilliant Live Stiffs acted as a sampler for Lowe, Costello, Dury, Wreckless Eric and Larry Wallis, there was a certain style summed up in the finale of the album “Sex, Drugs, Rock and Roll and Chaos.” But the Sweet and Lovich albums, the 18th and 19th LPs in the Stiff catalogue, tread very different ground. Lovich is the hot item, with "Lucky Number”, an out-of-nowhere hit that reminded some of us a little uncomfortably of Kate Bush, and an image and sound that balances Dr Zhivago against rock and roll. Flex is her second album, and again she writes the bulk of the material in a way that will surprise no-one. There are lots of vocal tricks, some strange lyrics (try “You Can’t Kill Me” on the end of side one), and a nagging feeling that she may

just have had her 15 minutes of Warholian glory. Sweet, a 17-year-old from Akron, Ohio, is, by the sound of her vibrato-laden voice, a natural born country singer whose first love is rock. She writes some of her own songs, but on Protect The Innocent they’re not as convincing as her covers, in particular a country version of Graham Parker’s “Fools Gold”. Sweet needs the freak hit to break her, but in the meantime anybody who doted on Carlene Carter's first album, the one produced by Nick Lowe, should find time to investigate Rachel Sweet. Phil Gifford

ROGER CHAPMAN AND THE SHORTLIST LIVE IN HAMBURG

ACROBAT Roger Chapman’s excellent solo debut of last year, Chappo, saw a return to his soulR&B roots and showed there are a few finer exponents of the genre. He’s now ploughing similar fields to Joe Cocker, the essential difference being that Chapman is well capable of writing material worthy of his voice. A live album was inevitable, if not essential, on the strength of the rave reviews of his performances. Soaked in booze and sweat, Chappo personifies a good time. The Shortlist, as its name implies, is a shifting nucleus of backing musicians, including Tim Hinkley, Geoff Whitehorn and Mel Collins, who deserves special mention for his sizzling sax work. The first side is largely taken up with titles from Chappo, which the band blows to hell and back again, retaining that essential looseness without being sloppy. Side Two includes workouts of “Hoochie Coochie Man” and “Can’t Get In” and finishes with a dodgy but

entertaining version of “Let’s Spend The Night Together”. When music appears in danger of disappearing up its own fundamental orifice through selfindulgence and pretension,thank heaven there are artists like Roger Chapman to pull it back to earth. Duncan Campbell UTOPIA ADVENTURES IN UTOPIA BEARSVILLE Utopia has always been Rundgren's blind spot. Throwing taste and self-control to the wind, gale force, he picks up his guitar, looks up to the endless cosmos and proceeds to unleash fickle anthems all in the name of Utopia. With the band he is satisfied to become just one of the boys, it’s a democracy after all, but this time out democracy doesn’t take a beating. Yeh, there are songs here, credited to the band, that wouldn’t disgrace Rundgren the soloist. “Second Nature” and "The Very Last Time” can stand with his past love songs and even the focal tracks, “Caravan" and "Rock Love”, are more down-to-earth and melodic than usual. In fact at last with Utopia he’s found an album’s worth of toons that strikes that precarious balance between the band's flashy instrumental predilections and his own more palatable solo ambitions. At the moment Rundgren is unfashionable but this cannot detract from the sturdiness of much of Adventures in Utopia. George Kay