BRIEFS

Rip It Up, Issue 41, 1 December 1980, Page 20

BRIEFS

Velvet Underground, 1969 (Mercury) As the title suggests, this double album was recorded in 1969. It features the Velvets performing in clubs in San Francisco and Texas just prior to the recording of Loaded. Released overseas in 1974, it has taken six years and a chronic deterioration in sleeve quality for it to surface here. The sound is poor, but the songs are nothing short of superb. The material spans from the first Velvet Underground album to Lou Reed's solo debut, and includes many numbers otherwise unavailable here. To call this a classic live album would be an understatement. Now, how about releasing the rest of the band’s unavailable catalogue? mp David Hollis, ‘En Zed Musical Animals and Things (It's kidstuff) Background: Hollis used to be on television in Stu's show. Hollis plays guitar and sings. Test marketing: one weekend on a nine-year-old. She now knows all the words to a song called ‘Wottenwood Weka’ and can keep up with the fast bits in 'The Rugger'. The verdict: The most popular kids’ record at our place since Spike Milligan’s Badjelly The Witch. PG The Ruts, Grin and Bear It (Virgin) In July this year Malcolm Owen, vocalist and lyricist with the Ruts, died of a heroin overdose. This signalled the end of the first phase of the band, a phase epitaphed by an album of odds’n'ends, Grin and Bear it. It contains a few strong-arm, partisan punk, boot boy dramas, namely ‘Staring At the Rude Boys', ‘West One' and ‘Love In Vain', that rise above their rough but solid ordinariness. And as a vocalist Owen was certainly distinctive in the Joe Strummer angst and rasp mould, but it’s a pity that the band couldn’t, in their brief period with Owen, have produced a more accomplished repertoire. Their songs were always too self-consciously revolutionary, too honed to the brainless boot boy market. Who’s grinning? GK The Roches, Hurds (WEA) The McGarrigle Sisters of New England, the Roches’ folkie feel has slipped back on this second album as Roy Halee throws a bit more into the backings the very English-folk of ‘Factory Girl’ standing as an intriguing exception. Sharp, vocally nifty razzmatazz with the expected lyric hilarity (‘The Death Of Suzy Roche’, 'The Boat Family’ and ‘This Feminine Position'). The Roches’ peak remains the excellent Side One on album one, but Nurds still has some lovable moments. 'Louis' and ‘One Season’ are nice, and the cover’s great, but two albums might just be enough from these ladies. RC

Gruppo Sportivo, Copy Copy (Ariola) Translated means Sports Group, a Dutch band who have been plugging away these last few years with an infectious brand of throwaway satirical pop. Catchy and clever with a humourous lyrical bent, their music en bloc however, is far too pleased with itself without reason. A slight, flippant and insubstantial album. GK Huey Lewis & The News (Chrysalis) San Franciscan rockers with tenuous Angloid links Huey has worked with Dave Edmunds and Nick Lowe, writing for the former, and Sean Hopper played keyboards on the first Costello album. They play bouncy effective pop-riff-rock, occasionally recalling a younger Nils Lofgren (before people started telling Lofgren he was a guitar hero). The first side hardly misses, and 'Hearts’ on Side Two is real good. But Huey and the boys are working in a densely populated area, where 'reasonably good' means 'forgettable'. The surfboard pic on the back won't help them either. RC Jethro Tull, A (Chrysalis) lan Anderson’s album for the 80s really falls a little flat on its face. Songs about the Iranian Embassy siege and imminent nuclear holocausts don’t really come off, and the most effective track for me is the folkie-flavoured ‘Pine Marten’s Jig’, although even this is really just a trek back into Fairport Convention country. WD The Blues Band, Ready (Arista) The second Blues Band album is, as you would expect, very competent, lovingly-played blues, both standards (’Hallelujah, I Love Her So’, ‘l'm Ready’) and originals ('Noah Lewis Blues’, 'SUS Blues’, 'Can’t Hold On'). The playing is faultless, but hardly very striking, with singer Paul Jones, who has an excellent voice, continually imitating black styles, instead of using a little of his own distinctive phrasing. I imagine they'd be a great band live, though. DMcL Japan, Gentlemen Take Polaroids (Virgin) There was a time when Japan played semiheavy metal and did New York Dolls’ impressions. The make-up is still just as thick, but on their fourth album they venture into the fashionable world of electronics. Vocalist David Sylvain croons his Ferryderived voice over a sometimes dreary, bassheavy beat. The result is not far removed from Eno-period Roxy Music, without the wit. The album does rise to a few highlights, notably the title track and the disco-driven ‘Ain’t that Peculiar’. MP Alan Parsons Project, The Turn of a Friendly Card (Arista) The hands of the clock are turned back to the late sixties and the American studio group, Neon Philharmonic. Alan Parsons’ new concept album is fairly predictable and polished on its own terms, but ultimately lifeless and trite in its lyrics and music. No, Virginia the song ‘Games People Play’ is not by Joe South ... would that it had been. WD