THE PUDDLE

Rip It Up, Issue 173, 1 December 1991, Page 8

THE PUDDLE

The Puddle have been Dunedin’s best kept secret for years, but at last Flying Nun is releasing Live At The Teddy Bear Club, recorded at the Oriental Hotel in 1987, as a belated introduction to the band, with an album and EP to follow next year. -

George Henderson is the originator of the Puddle, the constant in a fluctuating line-up of musicians which has included David Kilgour, Peter Gutteridge and Lesley (Look Blue Go Purple) Paris. He believes the present Puddle line-up, with Norman Duffy (drums), Vikki Wilkinson (bass) and Richard Cotton (keyboards) is the best yet and he's itching to get his records out, here and overseas. A George fell in love with rock and roll some time in the mid-70s after seeing a Ziggy Stardust covers band and being hit by the glamour of it all,

the realisation that here was the way fo lead an interesting life: sex and drugs and rock n'roll. Fifteen years later, he still feels the same way. His music has elements of acid and punk, jazz and pop, he writes songs about everyday things like love, - hate, jealousy, drugs, spaceships and, more recently, psychiatry, a profession which George calls “the modern equivalent of the Spanish Inquisition”, (he suggests you goto a church confessional instead). He calls the Puddle a Christian band, in the sense that they don't do

defeatist songs, the Puddle say that life is worth living. .

“We don't let our music reflect anything else because that's self-indulgent. Ifs pretentious to make a record saying life isn't worth living when, if you've gone to the trouble of making a record, it obviously is," says George. Words are important. George makes sure people can hear the lyrics and he’s not ashamed of people hearing what he's singing about. He reckons if's taken him until this year to learn how to write songs because he used to write a song and not change a thing, now he knows nothing is fixed until ifs been : recorded. Solid songwriting enables him to do an improvisational four de force in some live performances, notably on Live At The Teddy Bear Club.

Recently, George received some critical flak for including “bimbo” backing singers in his live shows but he's unrepentent. Some of his songs are written from a female point of view so he feels more honest having women sing them, and if they’re on stage why shouldn't they look good? If he could afford it, he’d add horn and string sections as well, and another guitarist so he could do a bit of dancing on stage. - To George, the sax is a “brilliantly expressive” instrument and he can’t understand why more contemporary bands don’t augment the standard bass/guitar/drums line-up with more exotic . instrumentation.

“| went to a lot of Dunedin Battle of the Bands shows to check out the competition and | came away

thinking there was none. Only one band had keyboards, there was no sax, and very few women on stage. In comparison, our band’s coloured in, the others are only skefching.”

Look forward to the album Info The Moon and the EP Suspiria: The Power of Love next year, but in the meantime, try and hear Live Af The Teddy Bear Club for some uniquely fashioned rock and roll from

“Dunedin’s forgotten pop genius.”

DONNA YUZWALK