WHEN JOHNNY COMES MARCHING HOME...

Rip It Up, Issue 70, 1 May 1983, Page 19

WHEN JOHNNY COMES MARCHING HOME...

Return of the Marching Girls, reformed, regenerated poprockers in New Zealand for a tour package with Australia's enfants terribles the Birthday Party. So what's it like to be back? "The further south we go the more they hate us," deadpans drummer Des Hefner, recalling Timaru. They've had two good gigs in Christchurch and Wellington. "The dancing at Canterbury University put my faith back in live gigs. I haven't seen people dancing like that ... for yonks!" People whose expectations are five years out of date, who want to hear 'True Love.' or 'Mysterex'

are out of luck. "It's sort of like yesterday's newspapers," says bass player Bryan Colechin. The new Marching Girls sound different. With four people playing more instruments, all doing vocals, with masses of polish, a broader collaboration on songwriting, the music is a different formulation. "Our old songs were 1 2 3 4 go flatout until the end. The new songs are mixes of moods and feels," says Des. What do their audiences think of the new Marching Girls? "In Christchurch they called us trendy wankers and in Wellington a whole bunch of bloody homosexual hairdressers told us we were

old hat ... so 1 think we fit in somewhere between old hat and trendy wankers," Des concludes. 'They'll like us in a couple of years, just like 'True Love' and Mysterex','' adds John Cooke, guitarist and, with Des an original Marching Girl. Singer and percussionist Deb Schultze, ex Sydney's Blue Electric and Bryan from- the Newz joined

the Marching Girls on the same day. "We started working four months ago and we've never looked back," says John. They do three Blue Electric covers as well as some older Marching Girls' songs, 'The Man Who Knew Too Much' and 'Plain Jane'. Five minutes before the interview they'd heard that their four track EP (includes 'Plain Jane') had entered

the NZ charts at number 42. Their plans include napaiming the moon and recording an album, working on their Australian audiences; they've only played five gigs in Melbourne. "Then we're going overseas. We've got Big Plans," says Deb. "We're going to South America to get our own private army," says Des. It transpires that, like all great

plans, a UK trip was decided on one night when they were drunk. Exuberance and optimism are keynotes to these personalities. They're all loopy, natural entertainers. The band is based in Melbourne, where Des and John have lived the last four years. "We got stuck in Melbourne," Des says,,"which was a good thing because much better music comes out of Melbourne." • "All the best bands have got New Zealanders in them. Australians have got cloth ears," says John. . ; 'There seems to be a trend, the coming bands are sort of tribal plus lots of bass and drums," Deb says. There's a lot of funk bands, they all read their NMEs, there's electronic pop type bands, there's Duran Duran soundalikes. There's no distinctive New Zealand sound, they say. Then are New Zealanders different from the rest? "Yeah." says Des "Were better, much,' much better." The best Australian bands seem to have New Zealanders involved with them somewhere," . Bryan adds. 'The Fabulous Marquees, The Dead Can Dance and The Birthday Party, to name but a few," says Des) naming but a few involving Des. Des is drumming for the Birthday Party for their remaining live .gigs"l've got three days to learn all the songs and then play with them." Gravely: "It's frightening. I've been scared. I was worried enough about playing over here with us." Why? N "I just get nervous, when we play, I get more and more nervous as we play more and more instead of the other way around." Des says they didn't aim at having all Kiwis in the band. "All the Australians I've met who want to be in bands are very flamboyant sort, of egotistical people," remarks Deb. And you're not? "We're not big, flashy stars ... not yet," says Deb. "We're not trendy wankers either," says Des. Jewel Sanyo