1987: Nils and Myths

Rip It Up, Issue 126, 1 January 1988, Page 2

1987: Nils and Myths

CHRIS BOURKE • Albums An excellent year in which old hands reaffirmed their greatness. In order: Robbie Robertson; Prince Sign of the Times; John Hiatt Bring the Family; Los Lobos By the Light of the Moon; Bruce Springsteen Tunnel of Love; Elvis Costello Blood and Chocolate; Al Hunter Neon Cowboy; James Brown Gravity.

• Songs — Local Heroes. No 1: ‘A Place to Hang His Hat,’ Jim and Joe. Plus: ‘Time Makes a Wine,’ Ardijah; ‘You I Know,' Jenny Morris; 'That Look in Your Eyes,’ Al Hunter; 'Freeze City,’ Rhythm Cage; ‘Hands of My Heart,’ Warratahs; ‘Defrost Your Heart,’ Bill Lake & Living Daylights; 'Soviet Snow,’ Shona Laing; ‘Ain’t Gonna Stop,' Mana; 'Barlow’s House' Dead Famous People; 'She Speeds’ (in tune bits) Straitjacket Fits.

• Songs — Overseas Contenders. No 1: ‘Broken Arrow,' Robbie Robertson. Plus: 'What Have I Done To Deserve This?' Pet Shop Boys & Dusty Springfield; ‘The Way You Make Me Feel,' Michael Jackson; ‘I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man’ (remember the boogieing jam?), Prince; ‘Faith,’ George Michael, ‘Alex Chilton,' Replacements.

• Cover version: ‘Jealous Guy,’ Al Hunter (and thanks for Phases & Stages too).

• Comebacks: Dusty, Roy, Robbie, Tex.

• Reissues: Elvis Presley The Memphis Record; Aretha Franklin Amazing Grace; Patsy Cline Sweet Dreams soundtrack; Lonnie Mack The Wham of the Memphis Man, Roy Orbison In Dreams — the Greatest Hits; Dr John Gumbo; Percy Sledge Ultimate Collection; Jackie Wilson ‘Reet Petite.’

• Live Visitors: Paul Kelly & Coloured Girls, Billy Idol, John Hammond, Hunters and Collectors, Billy Bragg, Jason & Scorchers, Jimmy Buffett. Neighbours: Greenpeace Benefit, Warratahs, Al Hunter Band, Eklectic Club, Ardijah (all permutations), Herbs, Bill Lake & Rick Bryant & Living Daylights, Knightshade. • To Have Been There: Elvis Costello with Confederates live in the US, singing ‘I Want You,' digressing at the lines “and when I wake up ...” to “I put on my makeup, and say a little prayer for you.” No promoter bringing El across the Tasman was the major disappointment in a great year for music. RUSSELL BROWN ALBUMS • Eric B and Rakim Paid in Full: Yes, you can make truly great rap albums, even if it does mean putting all the singles on it. • Skin Blood, Women, Roses: The soft, soulful side of the Swans, but underneath it, even more creepycrawly. • Husker Du Warehouse: Songs & Stories: I thought it was boring at first, but now I find it dense, sprawling, thoughtful and thrilling. How ’bout that? • Lee Perry Time Boom De Devil Dread: A long overdue meet-up with Adrian Sherwood, and an album that makes 1987 look remarkably like Babylon. • The Verlaines Juvenilia: The records this compilation is drawn from can only be obtained at great expense from import shops. QED. BEATS AND TUNES ‘Rebel Without a Pause’ and ‘Bring the House,' Public Enemy; 'Birthday,'

the Sugarcubes; ‘Sign of the Times,’ Prince; ‘And Other Kinds,’ Tall Dwarves; ‘Hit the North,’ the Fall; ‘Have a Nice Day,’ Roxanne Shante; ‘House With 100 Rooms' and ‘Dark Carnival,’ the Chills; ‘Reality,’ Tackhead; ‘Jaffa Boy,’ Bird Nest Roys; ‘Cotton Crown,’ Sonic Youth; ’Rock’n’Roll Dude,’ Chubb Rock & Domino; ‘The Bridge is Over,’ Scott La Rock; 'Travelling at the Speed of Thought,’ Ultra-Magnetic MCs; 'The Model,’ Big Black; 'Nine Million Rainy Days,’ Jesus & Mary Chain; 'Pump Up the Volume,’ M/A/R/R/S; Tm Bad,’ LL Cool J; ‘Funky Dunedin,’ Let’s Get Naked; ‘Bye Bye Pride,’ GoBetweens . . . and a very good year for singles in general. • Yo! The Fall, Tackhead live; Comics: Watchmen, Swamp Thing, Love and Rockets, Viz, Nexus, 2000 AD, Hellblazer, etc. • 7777... ‘Bad,’ the Madonna remix LP, the music press. • Evil: The British Government and segued hit-mix albums. KERRY BUCHANAN 1987: ON VINYL •LL Cool J Bigger and Defter, Public Enemy Yo’ Bum Rush the Show; Eric B and Rakim Paid in Full: LL needed love and found it down at the Bristol Hotel, the year’s most important cultural work. Public Enemy come on like professors of black history, B-Boys with a message. Eric B and Rakim have so many references to money it’s like reading the earlier chapters of Marx's Kapital.

• Roy Orbison In Dreams: the Greatest Hits; Tom Waits Frank's Wild Years: It’s that “candy covered clown they call the sandman” that leads Tom’s man Frank down that

dark street. Two dreams of melancholia and dashed hopes. • Ry Cooder Get Rhythm; John Hiatt Bring the Family, Robbie Robertson Robbie Robertson: Up above, that great disc jockey in the sky bestows the gift of genius upon this trinity. • Motley Crue Girls Girls Girls; Poison Look What the Cat Dragged In; the Cult Electric: Metal manifestos of a different kind. The Crue drop the glam, Poison pick it up, and the Cult plug the AC into the DC. NEW ZEALAND • The Warratahs ‘Hands of My Heart’: A perfect country song of such warmth that I can imagine Merle Haggard performing it. • Al Hunter Neon Cowboy: A few reservations about the backing, but Al's voice and songs win through. • Tex Pistol ‘Boot Hill Drag7‘Wll to Whangaroa Bay’: The flipside to the big hit. Great guitar sound and honky tonk piano belt this along. 1987: ON VIDEO • Class of Nuke ’em High; Street Trash; Toxic Avenger. Three films about nuclear fission and its dangers. Made by the same production house in the grand tradition of Roger Corman, the auteur theory lives on. Basically in the “melter" genre, so there’s plenty of bubbling flesh and severely stupid special effects. • Devil in Miss Jones, Part 3: the Final Outrage: The Dark Brothers pay homage to Fellini, with frightening intensity. It’s about going to Hell and having to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous sexual fortune. Sounds good. • Blue Velvet. My favourite film of all time. Dennis Hopper plays Frank as the world's greatest lover, deeply sentimental he cries over his lover's rendition of Bobby Vinton's ‘Blue Velvet,’ a believer in the sad world of Orbison’s ‘ln Dreams.’ A tale of obsessive love, like Shakespeare’s ‘Othello,’ a man trapped in his own dream world, violent and extreme it may well be, but still a reality. A film about alternative lifestyles. TIM BYRNE BEST OF ’B7 • Single: 'Elvisly Yours’ b/w ‘Black Bart,' the Johnnies. Two choice cuts from the beer tans themselves. Yeehah, go slay them Bart! • Bicentennial Song: Midnight Oil’s ‘Beds are Burning,' with its poignant message. When will it hit No 1 in Oz?

• Greatest Comeback Since Lazarus: Jimi Hendrix with Johnny B Goode, which outplays, outguns and outshines almost anything since 1970. Electric rain pours down from the sky and you wonder what might have been ...

• Best Road Song: It's Immaterial with their catchy 'Driving Away From Home (Jim’s Tune).’ The best British thing all year. • Man of the Moment Award: Paul

Kelly, who sung about being Australian and called it Gossip. Thanks Paul for ‘The Executioner,’ 'Maralinga' and ‘Randwick Bells’ —you make my heart sing. • Best Import: Nanci Griffith’s Last of the True Believers. Hey babe, come waltz down the aisle of the five and dime! The vocal delight of 'B7. • Best Live: The Holidaymakers at the Taranaki Wharf. A more soulful band you will not see. • A big thank you: to John Hiatt for Bring the Family. Whose wing has he been resting under for all his 34 years? Thanks for coming out of the shadows! • Another big thank you: to Robbie Robertson for saying farewell to Richard Manuel and blowing my mind with ‘Broken Arrow.’ Tears of rage, tears of pain.

SUE CAMDEN 1987 was a pretty mundane year musically for me. Not the memorable live gigs like the Residents in ’B6, and no new trends to get excited about. So some of my major events listed in chronological order below are fairly damn marginal. • A three band gig at Chippendale House in Dunedin in March is a drunken noisy affair, with Snapper putting out some great danceable tunes.

• Sonic Youth's most accessible LP yet, Sister, appears on the record shelves and deserves a listen at least five times a week.

• The Skeptics make it to Auckland’s City hotel and bring back happy, albeit deafening, memories of the Gordons in the forms of John Halvorsen and their ear-ringing volume.

• “Make Your Vote Count” hits home this election, when Wairarapa’s Reg Boorman retains his Labour seat on recount by one vote — my special vote! • Antipodean Wayne Gardner beats far richer and more experienced riders when he wins the World 500 cc motorcycle championship. (He may be an Aussie, but at least he’s from the right hemisphere).

• The Headless Chickens win the Rheineck Rock Award, surprise, surprise, which just goes to show you don’t have to play boring, unoriginal music to be successful in NZ (or are

they just the exception to the rule?). • Walking Monk Tapes release Monk 111 AD1987 Kiwi tape compilation, which includes new, talented and diverse numbers from the likes of the Prodigies, Not Really Anything, Paradox, Crunchy Something, Burning Jeep, etc ... MURRAY CAMMICK FAVE FUNKY 12” SINGLES (Released in New Zealand) 1 ’Fake,’ Alexander O'Neal 2 'Housequake7‘U Got the Look,’ Prince 3 ‘Fire’/'Ticket to Ride,’ Sly & Robbie 4 ‘Boops,’ Sly & Robbie 5 ‘Everyone’s a Winner’ (Go Go remix), Hot Chocolate 6 'Keep Your Eye on Me,’ Herb Alpert 7 ‘Everything's Gonna Be Alright,’ Al Green 8 ‘Roadblock,’ Scott Aitken Waterman 9 ‘Woman of Principle,’ Troublefunk 10 ‘System of Survival,’ Earth Wind & Fire DUNCAN CAMPBELL ALBUMS • Husker Du Warehouse: Songs & Stories: For those of use who have felt cheated by “rock” music in recent years; a cleansing experience. • Lee Perry Time Boom De Devil Dead: The Upsetter meets On-U dub Svengali Adrian Sherwood. Massive! • Tom Waits Frank’s Wild Years: Waits and wife Kathleen Brennan wield a Brecht-and-Weillish pen. Could this be the start of something? • Macka B We’ve Had Enough: Britain’s hottest MC asks many questions, including the uncomfortable one about whether racism is a whites-only sport. • U2 The Joshua Tree: While I wish they’d pursued the directions of their last outing, the best moments of this make up for the average ones. FIVE OTHER THINGS • You bastards: Those ad agency Philistines who desecrate the pop songs of my youth to sell everything from cheese to cars. • Golden trashcan: the Auckland Sun, Truth, Gloss. • Acceptable viewing: Garry Shandling, Fresno, The Monocled Mutineer, The Singing Detective. • Dupe of the year: David Lange, for trusting the French. • Whipping boy: Ruatoria Rastafarian Dickie Maxwell.” What if he'd been a Catholic, Presbyterian, Buddhist, Moslem or Jew? KERRY DOOLE TEN BEST ALBUMS (in no particular order) • Sinead O’Connor The Lion and the Cobra: Passionate Irish skinhead comes up with debut of the year. • INXS Kick: One of the few rock’n’roll bands to get older and better. ►

► O Replacements Pleased to Meet Me: Hooks other guitar-bands would kill their mothers for. • Paul Kelly and the Messengers Gossip: Delayed North. American release, but better late than never for this gem. • Dwight Yoakam Hillbilly Deluxe: Real country stars shouldn’t ■ eat - sushi, but he makes cool records. ' • John Hiatt Bring the Family: His best band yet and maybe his best album. • Bryan Ferry Bete Noire: Effortlessly puts all the young pretenders in the shade. • Chris Isaak Chris Isaak: Most under-rated Yankee singersongwriter. Orbison for the 80s. • The Cruzados After Dark: Virile mainstream American rock. Deserved better reception. • Elvis Presley The Complete Sun Sessions: Still the King! • Honorable mentions: Marianne Faithfull, 10,000 Maniacs, Steve Earle, Dave Alvin, X. • Concert of year: Dwight Yoakam, the Ritz, New York. • Personal highlight: Following the King’s ghost 10 years after, Memphis, August 'B7. • Hope for '88: For New Zealand bands to drop their hip amateurism and get serious internationally (esp. in North America). GEOFF DUNN TEN BEST FOR ’B7 • Yes Big Generator. All-time freaky favourites return with their excellent new album of big sounds for the 80s. • Ozzy Osbourne/Randy Rhoads Tribute: The madman recorded live before the tragic loss of gifted guitarist Randy Rhoads. Mighty, powerful .stuff. • Whitesnake 1987: The ideal hard rock LP for the year. Great songs, hot guitaring and of course, the voice of David Coverdale. • Def Leppard Hysteria: It's been a long time coming but well worth the . wait. Exciting and a whole lotta fun. • Aerosmith Permanent Vacation: So why not take one? Aerosmith are back in the saddle again and doing what they do best. • Rush Hold Your Fire: Canadian techno trio maintain their high standard of music for the thinking man.

• Gary Moore Wild Frontier. Ireland also brought us U2’s Joshua

Tree, but Gary’s got the harder edge.

• Motley Crue Girls, Girls, Girls: Crue carry on the sex, drugs, rock and roll tradition and Tommy Lee fulfils his dream of playing drums upside down!

• MSG Perfect Timing: Michael Schenker's Gibson flies again with a new group and songs that rock on.

.•Concerts: 1. Bowie at Western Springs. Superb playing by Frampton, Alomar and the rest behind Bowie live doing his own things and Iggys, complete with' mime troupe on the Glass Spider set. Anyone not satisfied with that should've stayed in and done housework. 2. Billy Idol was also good (especially Steve Stevens). 3. Albert Collins had the Town Hall rockin' to the blues. PETERGRACE RAP’S NEW GENERATION • Public Enemy, Yo! Bum Rush the Show • Eric B and Rakim, Paid in Full • Nina Simone, ‘My Baby Just Cares for Me’ • Spoonie Gee, ‘The Godfather of Rap’ • Davy DMX, Davy's Ride ■ • George Michael, Faith • Thin Lizzy, ‘Johnny the Fox Meets Jimmy the Weed’ OTHER HIGHLIGHTS Robocop; Peter Urlich sings; Chad Taylor novelises. GEORGE KAY ALBUMS • Husker Du Warehouse: Songs and Stories: The undisputed kings of everything that makes great rock’n’roll. • That Petrol Emotion Babble: The O’Neill’s are getting the right mix of politics, pop and vitriol — the perfect cocktail. • Tom Verlaine Flashlight: An old bohemian never lets you down. His most electrifying album since Television. • Microdisney Crooked Mile: A frighteningly durable, cynical and incisive record from master craftsmen. • The Bats Daddy’s Highway. Rickety, fragile beauty reminiscent of vintage Cale.

SINGLES • 'Big Decision,’ That Petrol Emotion • ‘Weirdo Libido,’ Lime Spiders

• ‘April Sky,’ Jesus and Mary Chain • ‘Mary’s Prayer,' Meet Danny Wilson • ‘lt’s the End of the World as We Know It (and I Feel Fine),’ REM PAUL McKESSAR TOP TEN • Straitjacket Fits: More sheer class, live and on vinyl, than you’ll hear from any NZ group. The band of the year. • Husker Du Warehouse: Songs & Stories: Their second double album, in reality, a huge development of the ideas of last years Candy Apple Grey. • The Wailing Ultimate: A Homestead compilation thru Flying Nun that takes the US underground away from hardcore to run the gamut of industrial to surf pop. • Sonic Youth Sister. With attendant apologies to Evol fans, this matches that 1986 album for its intensity of purpose and lyricism. • Headless Chickens Headless Chickens: A debut mini-album that, skipping over its occasional contrivances, lays down a menacing setting for Chris Matthews’s lyrical vision. • That Petrol Emotion Babble: Is Big Decision truly the only worthwhile noise in the UK scene? They’re Irish with a token American, anyway. • Look Blue Go Purple: At the Savoy, Dunedin. Bowing out in style, this one really was the last. ‘‘Dress flash” said the invitations, so we did, and boogied till we were booted out. • Tall Dwarfs weekend, Dunedin: Prodigal sons return, running hot. Support acts Snapper and Steven (now Seed Cake) have gone on to impress many since June. • Blue Velvet: Sick and ugly, but probably ‘‘easier’’ than Eraserhead. It’s Lynch’s black humour that I like the best anyway, plus Frank and Roy Orbison, of course. • Nancy & Lee: Kitsch as kitsch, old as old, but that lovely big Lee Hazelwood production, the songs, the sex ... why the hell shouldn’t I play it every day? THE SECOND ELEVEN Bad; the Bats; the Flaming Carrot; Gloss; ‘The Irish Rover’; the Lime Spiders; The Prisoner, ‘Sign of the Times’; Sly, Robbie, Shinehead and Troublefunk; Son of Goblin Mix; the Terminals at Chippendale House. lAN MORRIS INTERNATIONAL EVENTS (in no particular order) • Elvis Costello Blood & Chocolate: a raw, emotionally draining album

from the edge of darkness. • Steve Earle ExitO: A tight blend of music and message.

• Beach Boys, ‘Long Promised Road’: From Surf’s Up — so that’s where Todd Rundgren copped his chops.

• The Other Ones, ‘Holiday’: A perfect piece of British 70s trash pop.

• The Rolling Stones: Even those later albums prove they’re still the greatest rock and .. . what was that again? • Dave Dobbyn, ‘Saved’: Another example of Dave's increasingly finely-honed writing skills, and as for the voice, apart from Ray Charles, who can come close?

• Trini Lopez, ‘La Bamba’: Live at PJ’s is one of the great live albums. • Country Music • Wish for ’88: a 10 percent local content quota for all multi-national record companies. • And a big hello to: Los Lobos; 'Who’s That Girl?' Madonna; Walter/ Wendy Carlos; the Four Tops' ‘Bernadette’; Archie Bell and the Drells’ 'Tighten Up'; U2; Mel & Kim ‘Respectable.’ LOCAL HEROES • Al Hunter Neon Cowboy. Great singing, fine playing, and almost universally ignored by record buyers and radio alike. • When the Cat’s Away: How refreshing, how entertaining, to go to a pub and not be assaulted by a band of miserable bastards in black jerseys whining on about how depressing it all is. • 80 in the Shade, ‘Heatwave’: So it might be hard to stuff up a song this good, but Murray Grindlay pulls a vocal from Erana Clarke that's so hot it blisters. • The Warratahs: Joyous artisans from NZ’s senior metropolis. • Tex Pistol, ‘The Game of Love’: Of course you can do it. Ev'rybody’s talkin' 'bout — pop music. FIONA RAE LOCAL • Jean-Paul Sartre Experience Love Songs: Love those love songs. Soppy, silly, sexy, and they make good videos too. • Dead Famous People Lost Person’s Area: The recording might have been wimpy, but those perfect pop songs shone through. Great lyrics, and a promise of things to come.

• Headless Chickens Headless Chickens EP: There’s nothing else that touches this band, and they’re already miles ahead of this debut

• Able Tasmans Cuppa Tea and a Lie Down: Warm, witty and intelligent, and the album title of the year too.

• Ardijah Ardijah: Ardijah sniff around someone else’s territory too much it seems — hence the inconsistency in this album. Individually though songs like ‘Time Makes a Wine' and ‘When the Feeling is Gone' are a knockout. NOT LOCAL • Skin Blood, Women, Roses: Brings new meaning to Gershwin’s ‘The Man I Love.' Devilish rhythms beneath Jarboe’s stunning voice, brilliant. • REM Document REM taking a critical look at their homeland, as always they sidle forward, rather than leap. • Prince Sign O’ the Times: A good one-and-a-half albums, this clever, sexy little ham gives the world wonderful songs like 'Starfish & Coffee,’ 'lf I Was Your Girlfriend’ and ‘Sign O’ the Times.’ ‘Kiss’ is still a classic whatever year it is, as is the Age of Chance version. • Danielle Dax Inky Bloaters: Technology being used in all the right ways, Dax is clever, political (see ‘Bad Miss M’) and has a wonderful voice. • Billy Bragg Talking With the Taxman About Poetry. Bragg wears his heart on his sleeve, his politics in his mouth, and puts a smile on my face. It doesn’t always come off, but there’s still the glorious ‘Greetings .. .’ and ‘Levi Stubbs' Tears.’ LIVE Headless Chickens & Jean-Paul Sartre Experience; Dead Famous People & Cassandra's Ears; Straitjacket Fits; Billy Bragg; The Happy Accident; Jesus on a Stick No 4 launch; Mangawhai Women’s Festival. CHAD TAYLOR • Five records I listened to a lot The better-with-age bleariness of Bryan Ferry’s Bete Noire, nine songs of good pop and growing eccentricity ... the dizzy heights of Prince's talent scaled again and again for Sign of the Times; accessible, colourful and fun, it’s everything double albums aren't meant to be .. . the soundtrack to Blue Velvet, easily the Film of the Year, brings together gorgeous C&W ballads (and I hateC&W), blues instrumentals and a great love song, 'Mysteries of Love,’ written by director David Lynch ... the romantic in-

tellectualising of pianist Harold Budd and Brian Eno peaked on The Pearl, 12 exotic instrumentals ...

Swing Out Sister said It’s Better to Travel and put out a pop album that held not just one good song (the usual UK quota) but nine. Corinne is an ideologically sound pin-up girl for 'BB, it’s official... • Other things that made ’B7 liveable (barely): Songs like ‘When Smokey Sings’ by ABC, ‘Planet Ride’ by Julian Cope, ‘Roadblock’ by Stock, Aitken, Waterman and 'Paid in Full’ by Eric B & Rakim. Also things like a halfway . decent James Bond, the programme at Charley Gray’s Pictures, Isabella Rossellini, TV like The Prisoner, magazines like Har-. pers & Queen; Tatler and Arena, oh and Jesus on a Stick of course, the NZ Actors production of Bouncers, Robert Hughes' book The Fatal Shore, and Kevin the Hat, Le Bom barman supreme. RIP • Andy Warhol and John Huston: two less heroes in the world from now on. . * PETER THOMSON I’VE BEEN LISTENING TO: • John Adams The Chairman Dances and Other Works: Some have called him “minimalist,” I find Adams the most exciting orchestral composer now working. . • Solomon Burke A Change is Gonna Come: With a few standards and a clutch of new songs, Burke demonstrates that the soul mainstream remains as vital as ever. - • Natalie Cole Everlasting: A long overdue comback and in a wide variety of styles. 'Jump Start' ismyfavest dance track from ’B7. • Marianne Faithfull Strange Weather. Inspired song selection and. arrangements , enhance vocals of hypnotic fragility. - • John Hiatt Bring the Family: With a world-beating trio behind him, Hiatt finally delivers at full potential for a full album. • Wynton Marsalis J Mood: I ’m still pissed that he fired brother Branford and Kenny Kirkland, ’ but Wynton more than justifies the arrogance. Possibly his best soloing yet. • Alexander O’Neal Hearsay. If Luther Vandross has championed sharp soul singing for the 80s, then O’Neal may be weighing in as his main contender. • Sting Nothing Like the Sun: Although at times it's a tussle be- <: . tween talent and pretensions, for ►

► three-quarters of this set the former is triumphant — and still growing! • Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris, Linda Ronstadt Trio: I admit to being no purist, but Emmylou, Dolly and Linda take me about as close to country heaven as I'll ever get. • Jennifer Warnes Famous Blue Raincoat: Gorgeous voice and (with one exception) superb interpretations. The best Leonard Cohen yet. I’VE BEEN REFLECTING: • Upon the way Samantha Fox, Kylie Minogue, Tiffany, Mandy Smith, Mel & Kim et al almost rendered 'B7 the year of the bimbo. • That Annie Crummer, Debbie Harwood, Dianne Swann, Margaret

• Upon the sad state of affairs preventing Paul Simon's Graceland entourage and the Elvis Costello conglomerate from touring New Zealand. • That it seems more and better 60s soul compilations have been released in the last couple of years than ever before — including the 60s. • That Kiri Sings Gershwin must be the worst album I've heard in years. • That the two clips for Bad are the only case I can recall of videos repulsing me from an album I otherwise would have brought.

TOP NZ SONG, 1987 RIU writers were asked to vote for their five fave Kiwi songs this year. The results were: 1 Bats, ‘North by North’ 2 Warratahs, 'Hands of My Heart’ 3 Ardijah, ‘Time Makes a Wine’ 4 Jean-Paul Sartre Experience, 'I Like Rain’ 5 Al Hunter, 'Neon Cowboy’ Runners Up: Straitjacket Fits, ‘She Speeds’; Chills ’Rain’; Headless Chickens Headless Chickens EP; Shona Laing ‘Soviet Snow.’