Rumours

Rip It Up, Issue 80, 1 March 1984, Page 30

Rumours

Auckland . A star-studded ensemble under the name The Party Boys will tour . North Island centres in April. The lineup features DD Smash's Dave Dobbyn and Peter Warren, Graham Brazier, Dave McArtney, Mike Chunn and Jenny Morris. Dobbyn, Warren and Morris return from Australia for the tour ... drummer Paul Hewitt Has left Coconut Rough and has been replaced by Eddie Olsen, leaving Auckland Walk with an empty dr-umseat ... Dance Exponents ,ileave for Australia early April but before that will go into the studio .o record a four or five track EP .of older songs that missed"out on the album. Next single off the album is to be ‘l’ll Say Goodbye'.' Meanwhile Prayers Be Answered is only a whisker away from the 15,000 sales necessary for platinum status. . Milwaukee’s Violent Femmes play Auckland's Gluepot on April 10. The Femmes have a reputation as a cheeky, messy, highly enjoyable live band ... despite rumours to the contrary, Moving Targets ■ are still go and in fact sport new songs, a new sound and new members: Paul Gilbert (guitar, ex Visitors, Gorilla Biscuits), Brian O'Donnell (bass, ex Lip Service, Stark Naked), Will Earlie (drums, ex Low Profile) and Russell Baillie (tenor sax, keyboards) who join guitar/alto sax player John Addison, : the only survivor from last year's band ... Hamilton's mighty Ha Ha Ha mag may be undergoing a name change for nebulous reasons. The band of the mag may also be retitled ... the same city's 5.H.1.T.. have gone underground for some remodelling after violence spoiled a recent gig- "

' Katango go into the recording studio to make a single within a month ... the Aerial Railway is running courses in sound engineering at its Moehay studio, .Port Charles, Coromandel. The six-day courses give a technical background to all aspects of sound recording and will run during April. The 5250 fee includes food, accommodation, tuition and 24hour access to the studio. Contact 87 Vermont St, Ponsonby, ph 768-913. The Fat City Jumpers are John Malloy (piano), Wim van Bokhoven (vocals), Phil Parker (drums), Peter Future (bass), Phil

Oxenham (guitar).. They play Malloy songs, including some Top Scientists' material ... the Joes are Brett Power f\ad guitar), Kevin Riddell (rhythm guitar), Connal Cowan (bass) and Mark Cranswick (drums). They play blues rock with a few twists ... the reason for the Sons in Jeopardy national tour being blown ou,t was politicking at Otago University. ,Seems the student union went back on Orientation gig contracts that had been signed and sealed. The band,' having already shelled out for posters, etc, couldn't contemplate the tour without the Otago ranteenj^^HHHHHHMH

Auckland sound team the Sick Crew whose six members include, 'the Marsden brothers, Steve and Eric, and the burly Scruff, were banned from working at the Police gig here after doing Sweetwaters and-Elton John because production manager Nigel'Hawthorne thought they were "weird." Dem's de breaks ... and will we see an Androidss reunion? / Well, not right now, maybe, but keep an ear open in about five months': time. Russell Brown Christchurch The Triffids head for Auckland very soon to play live and record an EP. and accompanying video. If well received, the band will stay in AK for a while’after recording is finished and then take in a short North Island tour on the way home V.. the Gordons farewell tour reaches Wellington, March 22 and finishes in Auckland, April 18. From ‘hue it's- off :to Melbourne and, if all goes well, the rest of the world .. . ECF*have left for Wellington, Palmerston North and Auckland. They'll be back if "everything goes wrong." . At long last the Millions of Dead Cops cassette is available. Initial run is going only to ChCh record stores but copies can be obtained direct from the Alternative Entertainment Bureau, PO Box 13-407, ChCh for 55.50 ...

also in the pipeline are another series of Caledonian Hall gigs with lots of famous/WSmous bands. The first will be in early April and will probably feature Southern Front, Venetians (featuring new bass player Mike), Horizon and

Straight Out. Usual nominal door charge of 50 cents ..'. AEB.is also negotiating for a couple of hours a week oh Radio U with the intention of featuring NZ bands and explaining what the Unemployed Rights Centre can do to assist the jobless. Tapes are welcomed, send to above address. . '33SESBEH

New Bands: Southern Front has been drawn'from a long history of local bands "(Unauthorised, Desperate Measures, Clients, Evasive Action). Lineup is Harry (vocals), Eric (bass), Gibby (drums) and an unknown name on guitarjnffignninß^i

Sponsorship of the 84 Band War has switched from Coca-Cola to Izona and Benson Hair Stylists because of fluffing around at head office level. Entries close March 12.

. The - Hard Rock Cafe (ex Swingles Night Club, Lichfield St) has had a change of entertainment policy and will be featuring bands like Art Union, Roca Coca and Louie and the Hot Sticks. Geraldine Gerrard Wellington M- , The Victoria Uni radio station Radio-Active (89 FM) is back on air and will continue all year, a haven from the AM muddle ... Body Electric have moved to Auckland for several months so as to better cover the north of the North Island ... pgpi|igH| When the Flying Nun tour passed through town in February

the Chills saw their next single, 'Pink Frost', cut. Also cut recently was Sneaky Feelings' superb debut album. Expect a North Island tour by Sneaky Feelings around April.

Tin Syndrome and Circus Block 4 are about to record new material for release by Jayrem ... the Naked Spots Dance LP has finally been released - and Banana Dominion, the. follow-up to Barking Up The Right Tree, will be released soon ... Hammond Gamble's recent album is to be released in Australia, and Sam Hunt's album also seems likely to: be released in Oz to coincide with the bard's waltz David Taylor Dunedin The Rip with Jeff Harford on drums briefly changed their name to . the Malismas but wisely reverted back to the. Rip. .They're also headlining at the Empire earjy this month. Richard Wallis is back and he's been hanging around with the Wake but there are rumours that he'll reform Gamauche. Armchair Thrillers lost their drummer, Nick Neill, to Crystal Zoom who've been offending people with a poster featuring a battered old man. 1

Netherworld Dancing Toys received an ecstatic reception during the recent varsity hops. They have an EP imminent, as do Pretty Idles, titled 'Agroculture'. John Dodd is playing with the Blind Venetians.

Up-Tight: The Velvet. Underground. Story Victor Bockris and Gerard Malanga (Omnibus, 520.95) Every musical unit should have a book as good as this written about it. Very few in the past have. 1 can unreservedly recommend it to any of you, whether you like or have heard the Velvet Underground or not. It should be required reading for all those with an artist bent who feel like leaping headlong into, the marketplace. Why is this such a favourable review? .

Because rare items ought to be not only preserved but shared.

I dunno who V. Bockris is but Gerard Malanga was a part of the Exploding Plastic Inevitable that helped form and nurture the first album version Velvet Underground. He was there and as principal dancer of the Warwhole thing was an integral part of the Up-Tight story. It's a good story, constructed with infinite care by very judicious use of source material: interviews spanning two decades; previously unpublished photographs (several by Malanga) and unobtrusive, nicely balanced commentary supplying the necessary chronology4AllHHß|

The first half details (details!!) the formation of the EPI/VU and its weird life between late 1965 and May 1967, the second spans the recording years and slow disinte-

gration of the original band. It's a sorta sad story, but heartening in that it actually happened and lasted four years. Those of you who do not know of the VU may not think there's a lot to be said for a band merely surviving for four years but these people would have little chance of doing as much in the 80s and no chance of having the extraordinary longterm, effect they have had since 1969, their last year. If that sounds like exaggeration consider that nobody has done. all the things that Reed, Cale, Morrison, Tucker and Nico did in those years. Some have experimented with white noise, some have written tender, intelligent love songs, some have single-handedly distorted the evolution of our music but have any done all these things? Psychic TV are probably about the closest thing we have today and I'm sure they'd be the first to admit that they're slug shit by comparison. So, search out this great book, buy it if you've got the money, borrow it off a friend if you haven't, but DONT STEAL IT! The people who put this together and the publisher who has faith in it deserve every cent they get. .■

'With this and The Velvet Underground and Lou Reed, with its 24-page discography (Babylon Books, Sll.50) I doubt if you'd ever need anything more on the subject. . CK