Live

Rip It Up, Issue 75, 1 October 1983, Page 36

Live

Shazam Battle of the Bands Final SKsn Auckland YMCA, Sept 9. So here it was, the culmination of months of heats. The crowd was only just over half the 2000 that had been hoped for but the big gymnasium still had a sense of occasion about it. I missed White Boys for business reasons, but RlU's Alister Cain was on hand: For reasons that would latei become painfully obvious tht White Bovs were never going to

win. Perhaps that's why they were chosen ahead of the Triffids to represent Christchurch. With their youthful arrogance the Triffids might have turned a few heads and caused a nigh-on impossible upset. Instead of turning heads the White Boys' intense and occasionally powerful music went over them. Despite some strong drumming by Stephen Birss they didn't really click until the last four songs which included the superb 'Another Late Night'. AC Wellington's Blue Rock were next up. Someone summed them up as "polite rock," which was probably pretty accurate. They weren't ever boring but they were never exciting either. To their

credit, they worked hard on visual appeal, Clare Grogan-lookalike keyboard player and all. Moving Targets were probably the only band who really set out •to enjoy themselves. And they did, even if it meant the music suffering a little sometimes. Singer Addo is the focus, leaping around, talking to the crowd. Apart from some rather fine guitar playing, - the music was nothing to shout about but Moving Targets were fun. They'd have coasted in if* there'd been a prize for drinking. Perhaps what did Marching Orders most credit was the fact that they escaped the boundaries of rock. In a contest aimed at teenagers, they were the act that could have worked outside a pub. Not startlingly original but different enough. Singer Jackie Clarke's breathless chat did a good job of ' filling in the long between-song gaps that plague electronic bands. There's room for improvement and her voice is often still too airy, but at their best they were truly bubbly. This was the only band that really made me stand up and tap my feet. In their wake, , Auckland Walk seemed especially ponderous. The happy atmosphere the previous . two bands had built up seemed to take a dive. They smiled and did all the right things but it didn't seem to have any warmth. They were tight and professional but the songs were more like dirges, there ' wasn't a single one I could latch on to. Stormbringer were on next in a blaze of smoke and fury. It was all a lot of fun but it would have been better maybe if the band themselves hadn't taken it all so seriously. I felt it best to simply ignore lyrics like "Real fine woman gonna get down on her knees." But has metal become so rigid a genre that it all has to happen exactly the same? Bring on Motorhead! So, the judges' decision. Jesus. Third, Moving Targets; second, Blue Rock and the winners... Auckland Walk.

It's a little odd, a group made of musicians who've been in pro bands for years winning a contest for new, fresh talent but that's maybe not the point. What does rankle is haying a judging panel made up substantially of people who normally have little to do with live music and only one with experience of regularly seeing and evaluating local bands. Including Rob Guest (who was a Battle winner in the early 70s) might have been a nice piece of sentimentality but does experience in Las Vegas casinos really relate to modern music? In such situations, \ these people can really only evaluate professionalism. Auckland Walk are very professional. But Marching Orders unplaced? It always seems to be this way with these contests. That doesn't mean its the way it should be. With the exclusion of promising bands like Netherworld Dancing Toys along the way, this final had already lost credibility. It lost more on the night. Russell Brown Gordons Gladstone, Sept 2 The Gordonian legend lives on. People have thronged, climbed over, pushed, to see one of NZ's best ever bands. Hell, we're talking seminal here. And I'd never even seen them. Sure, I'd heard the EP but this band's reputation has been founded through live work. It's the old adage: they came, they saw, they deafened. Simple really. What I wanted to know is, was there anything more to it than that? After this night, one could confidently argue that there is.

Bill Direen's Above Ground began the evening with a short, sprightly set, followed by funk darlings the Triffids. Excellent appetisers. A rather length delay and the Gordons were on. Visually workmanlike, they stood dwarfed by an overpowering PA system. But they began superbly. That old "wall of sound" description seems appropriate at first, but listen carefully and it's brutally textured an insistently obdurate noise. Cacophony this is not. Unlike Not Really Anything, who succumb to the temptation of extending a song ad infinitum, the Gordons' repetition is fittingly acceptable. Imagine aural speed for a moment and you began to realise the electricity and damned intensity of it all.

Ah yes, these boys encroach the death of the steamlined pop sound. It's still pop but it's cruder, simpler. None of your romanticised crap here. No doubt they will create a new and similar ilk of damaging spawn but these guys will always be the daddies. But wait, . don't : put the Gordons on some lofty pedestal, they will just as soon disappear. The Gordons are a triumvirate of the terse and rough-edged, that's all. LOOK. KNOW. S.J. Townshend Cor Blimey! Gluepot, Sept 23. Heartstarters De Bretts, Sept 24. Related by marriage, if you like, both these bands have a past that might just catch up with them. But first you've got two different situations to deal with. Cor Blimey had the easier task, supporting Hip Singles in front of a crowd that, as we saw later, was easy to please. When all you have to offer is lightweight pop songs, something special is required to create interest. Thankfully, Cor Blimey have Shelley. Pratt and Debbie Chin and, combined with

Rick Morris' natural exuberance, they entertain reasonably well. Some of the music is just a little over-calculated how can nearly every song be about a long-lost lover? Fun, and a little bit of that never hurt anybody. Now more of the same except different. Eh? De Bretts Bistro Bar resembles a converted hallway. It has a mysterious charm," a horrible green lampshade right above the stage, a select, discerning audience and, .tonight,, the Heartstarters. Once again we're listening to pop music but it's presented in a calmer, less ambitious way than that of Cor Blimey. That makes it that little bit warmer. Only one problem, folks. I'm still trying to remember one song that stood out. It all bounced along nicely enough but just lacked a bit in the hook department. Kim Willoughby deserves to be this country's own Clare Grogan (forget Blue Rock's keyboardist!) she has the voice and style to set her apart from the rest of the band. Even Otis Mace didn't seem to be enjoying himself much. But I've got a funny, feeling that this one is to be a hobby, not a career. Alister Cain