RUMOURS

Rip It Up, Issue 38, 1 September 1980, Page 6

RUMOURS

CHRISTCHURCH The long awaited Vauxhalls EP is in the final stages of recording. The tracks (all Mark Brooks’ compositions) are "Movies”, "Heartbeat”, "B Girls”, and "Teenagers From Out of Space”. Great stuff watch for it. The No.l rock venue ,is no longer. Christchurch's Hillsborough, is now the Gladstone. A resident band starts at the Hillsborough on Sept 20 ... though Mark Morgan says Pop Mechanix are a band Christchurch can be proud of, we don’t hear their excellent 45, '"Now”, on 1323-ZM. Gutter Band are back after 12 months down the drain ... ex-Products bassist has joined Wolf City ... Mental Spexs are new and "exciting” (according to their press sheet) ... the Jets are to play Paparua Prison ... could the Androidss please phone Christchurch 66-224 urgently ... any other MOR bands interested in a residency, phone 34-197, same town. Knobz hit town soon for two weeks at the Aranui ... despite rumours Newz are not changing their name ... Hoovers have the honour of being the first band banned from Doodles. They were 10 minutes late starting. JW WELLINGTON The Steroids played free to the crowd who’d come to see them at the Terminus, as the lack of facilities prevented their performing to usual standards. Another night, there were.twice as many people as the doortake. Their single is being released through their independent label, White Light Records, and should be a real buzz ... infamous non-group Chuck Vomit and the Regurgitators (synth and guitar in cheek) have picked up on British trend of recording and releasing their own cassettes, cutting out all middlemen. Also watch for Live in the Fridge. You will all be delighted to hear that Dave the Rave, hailed by FIIU as Wellington’s answer to; Wayne County, is planning a summer tour of the beach resorts. Promoters are talking of hiring a marquee for this “variety” show. Dave is back with Janet and John, now a four-piece using tape-loop rhythm ... Cuba Mall has reopened to bands on Sundays. Opening attractions were • Wallsockets and Androidss, with Naked Spots. Dance debuting to the appreciative crowd. Life In The Fridge Exists played three songs. More recently these concerts have been dominated by the Rejects, in the way only a band stuck in 1977 with two chords and a ton of equipment knows how. If this is your cup of soup, watch too for the Brats. ■ What with the hiatus of Billy D’ Club, Willy’s changing to resident band only, Gordons and the remnants of Eat This Grenade heading for greener pastures, Wellington has little left to boast of besides our very, own ska band the Preservatives. Their excellent parties on the Terrace, where they ' have been . joined by various bands, are now as notorious as . their remake of "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?" (who else remembers the Howard Morrison, Quartet?) ... after playing the University Cafe with Mockers (“punk” bands are now barred there), and the Terminus with Protons, are Toy Love ready to storm the gates of The Club (ex-Uncle Alberts) with Backstreet? Will middle-of-the-disco ever reign there again, now. Knox has so convincingly screamed, “In this century guitar is King!”? • Is there life after death? CONNIE D. MARTIN (and flatmates)

> DUNEDIN Heavenly Bodies have been offered five hours free studio time in new 4XO studios in return for their support gig with Toy Love. But it's not known if the Bodies will take advantage of the offer as Bevan Hudson and Mick Dawson leave for Perth mid September. The Drones have problems. Vocalist Alan Blackman was kicked out, drummer Brent Alexander wants to leave and guitarist Lee Wood yearns to play Black Sabbath. They supported Toy Love for two nights at the Cook ... the Clean, Bored Games, the Same (who played four songs) and Heavenly Bodies opened for Knox and Co at the Concert Chamber. Craig Scott was seen near the premises. New bands: Strictly Blues have formed from the ashes of After Dark ... the Intruders are made up of ex-Hampton and ex-P’zazz members ... the Suspects are five young gents from Mosgiel who are gradually finding their feet in the pub scene ... the Nerve are in the throes of stabilising their initial line-up. Sue Brown who sang with Shuffle is now grabbing the mike with Axis and Gerard Fitzgerald is helping out on mouth harp ... at the Mornington Tavern Talent Guest, first prize went to female singer Riki Carter. GEORGE KAY AUCKLAND Street Talk did their final gig at the Gluepot, Sept 6. Hammond Gamble will now solely work on his own album he is recording for November release. He will then form a band to promote the album. Jim Lawrie is drumming with Pink Flamingos (Dave McArtney, Paul Hewson etc). Back in Citizen Band is model citizen, Greg Clark. The four-piece CB will tour NZ for six weeks from mid October ... new drummer in Coup D’Etat is Paul Dunningham ... new guitarist in Furys is Rob Galley. First single for Coup D’Etat is in stores. "No Music On My Radio” is A side and flip is "We Want More" .. the Crocodiles are currently recording Crocodiles II at Mandrill 11. Glynn Tucker is producing the album ... the Lip Service album has been selected for release in Australia. A promo tour is possible. First NZ single is "1.D.” ... Pop Mechanix will do a live-to-air at XS, on Radio Hauraki, Sept 19. The Features EP, The Perfect Features Exposed, has “Victim” on Side One and "The Party”, "Here We Come" and "Mirror” on the other side. It’s a limited edition (750 only), LP sized (12 inch) and out late September ... also out late Sept on Propeller is Techtones 45, "That Girl”. Flip is instrumental, "The Silencer” ... yet to be recorded is next Spelling Mistakes hit, “Another Girl” (Another Platinum), with “No Contact” and “Stingy” on the B side. Meanwhile in Ripper country, the Marilyn Waring 45 is in stores and there is talk of Respectables and Reel to Real 45s and AK’BO ... also compilating this Xmas is K-Tel, Solid Gold and Propeller. The latter company wants new NZ bands to send decent demos to Propeller, PO Box 37-371, Parnell, Auckland (see Small Ads). Triple billing at Rip It Up's typesetters, are Steamhack, the Swiggers and the Slobs ... the rehearsal rooms Shoes This High were sharing with Feet This Big is now too small. They are looking for a new room THAT high and about THIS big ... new and modern are Penknife Glides Cliff (Skeats) Gravelle (post-Primmer) on guitar, brother Steven on vocals, Jules Maloney (ex-Electrabeat) on bass and Stefan Morris on drums. They have recorded eight tracks at Mascot ... also new is Newmatics Mark Clare (vocals), Brent Pasley (guitar), Dick Reed (drums), Jeff Smith (bass) and Simon Clark (sax) ... in the studio in Hastings are the Most.

Toy Love drew a capacity crowd to their Sunday afternoon underage concert at Mainstreet. Great to see 23,000 bucks of sound-proofing in use, (A good investment in NZ rock’n'roll.) The Toy Love album peaked at 4 on the NZ LP Sales charts. Great stuff... Dave McArtney has completed work on his late November release album. Bruce Lynch produced the album at Mandrill II ... Reel to Real (advertised as Real Treat in a Whangarei paper) recorded "Time To Leave” and "Can You Ever Be Right" at Harlequin for a Ripper single ... the Furys are playing Mondays and Tuesdays in September, at the Rumba Bar. The Pop Shot Show of rock’n'roll photos is now on at Closet Artists Gallery, 520 Queen Street. The remarkable Pop Shot Show poster by Philip Peacocke features individual studio shots of 73 NZ musicians. A must for any rock’n'roll fans at $1.50 from Taste Records, Record Warehouse and Record Exchange ... Sunday at Jilly’s is the Al Hunter Band doing blues, R&B etc. Line-up is Al Hunter (guitar and vocals), Dave Maybee (guitar), Andrew Kimber (sax), Brendan Power (harmonica), John Dodd (bass) and Bruno Behrens (drums) ... also attracting attention, are Ray-A-Band, with Rob Sinclair (vocals, guitar), David Bowater (sax, synth, percussion) and Jeff Bowdler (drums) from Schtung and John Berklay (bass)... Nancy Keil will replace Ruth Genet in Comics late October. News from Oz is that Marching Girls have a likely new singer, their 45 has sold over 1000 copies and a UK independent label is interested in distributing the 45 in Great Britain ... the Swingers were not dumped from the Sports 1 tour as rumoured early August. But the band did take two days off to record “Counting the Beat" and "One Good Reason” with Enz producer, David Tickle. Tickle will remix "Counting The Beat” at Electric Ladyland Studios, New York, so expect the single out in October. The band loved working with Tickle and they hope to record an album with him late December. Swingers expect to be back in NZ for Sweetwaters. Jo Jo Zep & the Falcons also likely for same gig. Mascot Studios are looking for bands to record for their proposed studio based record label ... Progressive Music Studios will offer 4 track demo equipment by Xmas ... ‘new rock’ band, Warning are Chris McCarthy (guitar), Neville McCarthy (bass), Smartie (Drums) and Zak Harper (vocals). THE CORPORATION