45s

Rip It Up, Issue 43, 1 February 1981, Page 13

45s

Adam and the Ants, 'Antmusic' (CBS) A second excellent single culled from the Kings of the Wild Frontier album. Lovely picture sleeve, and ‘Fall In’ on the B-side isn't on the LP. Worth $2.50 of anybody's money. Pink Flamingos, 'Pink Flamingo' (Polydor) One of the best tracks from the debut album. Catchy, medium-paced rocker that deserves airplay. Flip is ‘Beat Goes On', an overused title if ever I've heard one. Shoes This High, EP (STH Music) Full credit to the elevated ones for getting this effort into the shops. ‘The Nose One' is good Shoes at their best a great, jangly off-beat piece. ‘Foot Dream’ has Brent doing his best John Lydon. The other half is 'A Mess', which lives up to its name. ‘Not Weighting' is too monotonous by far, despite being a reasonably good idea. Crocodiles, ‘ Teenarama' (Foolish) Strange that the audience this is aimed at wouldn’t even remember the Teenarama.

'Writer Tony Backhouse relieves Jenny Morris of vocal chores on this cut from Looking at Ourselves. Turn it over for ‘New Girl On The Beat’, a better effort from the same album. Knobz, ‘Liverpool To America' (WEA) Taking out the Bad Taste Award for this month, the Knobz pen a song about you-know-who. Malcolm McLaren talked about Cash from Chaos. This is Money from Misery. ÜB4O, ‘Earth Dies Screaming' (Graduate) Not quite up to ‘Food For Thought’ standard, this does surpass ‘I Think It’s Going to Rain’. It’s laid-back white reggae with a couple of nice sax breaks, not what the title would suggest. The flip is 'Dream A Lie’. John Lennon, 'Woman ’ (Geffen) Pleasant love song from the late legend’s final LP. The real interest is the B-side. According to the sleeve, it’s ‘Beautiful Boys' by Yoko Ono, but it is, in fact, ‘Beautiful Boy' by John Lennon, both of which are on Double Fantasy. A cock up. Wrecked Jets, 'Can / Go Home?'/‘The Howling Life' (Au Go Go) First and last single from a Melbourne band who broke up over a year ago. Well presented in a fold-out sleeve, ‘Can I Go Home?' is very straightforward pub rock. 'The Howling Life’ shows promise, but these tracks don’t justify a posthumous release when so many working combos are struggling to record Pelmel, 'No Word From China' (Primate) More Aussies, but this time far more interesting. Pelmel are part of an emerging Australian-underground scene, far removed from the staple diet of Angels and Cold Chisel. An invigorating release, with enough going on to fill but not clutter the sound. Polystyrene, 'Talk In Toytown' (Liberty) First single in the solo career of the X-Ray Spex leading lady. Nice keyboards help salvage a very ordinary, tinsely song. The other face is 'B-Tropical', a good one for the ZB playlist. Visage, 'Fade To Grey' (Polydor) Visage is the brainchild of Steve Strange. The band features various members of Ultravox and Magazine, and are at present just a studio outfit. High class electronics, that will be greatly enhanced by the film clips to come. The other side is 'The Steps’. Very Melodramatic. Mark Phillips