UPFRONT

Rip It Up, Issue 179, 1 June 1992, Page 6

UPFRONT

Prince has a new 16-track double album ready for release, possibly titled Whispers & Echoes or My Name Is Prince. The planned September release of his bootlegged Black Album has been cancelled once again... Rick Rubin may produce the next Mick Jagger album... early May, the Cure cut short a concert and missed a Britain's Top of the Pops TV show when Robert Smith took ill with severe stomach pains... founding Cult drummer Nigel Preston died in Brixton early May. He also drummed with Theatre of Hate, Sex Gang Children, Gun Club and Baby Snakes ... dance diva Sharon Redd who recently sung on DNA hit 'Can You Handle It', died of pneumonia April 30 after suffering respiratory problems for sometime... Cindy Wilson has left the 8525. Their new album is Good Stuff 'and producers were Nile Rodgers and Don Was... three top rock acts are touring the USA together Guns N Roses, Metallica and Faith No More. Metallica and Guns N'Roses are both issuing tracks recorded at the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert. The former do 'Enter Sandman', 'Sad But True' & 'Nothing Else Matters' and Guns N'Roses have released 'Knocking On Heaven's Door'... although KLF have disbanded, the duo will continue to work together... Flea of Red Hot Chili Peppers plays an oddball busboy in movie Motorama... look out for the Red Hot & Dance AIDS benefit album on Sony with three original tracks by George Michael and his remix of Crystal Water's 'Gypsy Woman' plus Sly & Robbie's remix of Madonna's 'Supernatural'... Stone Roses are now completely free from their former label Sil vertone after a two year court battle. The label dropped their high court appeal, but will release an album of Roses' B-sides and out-takes... the Cleveland Orchestra are suing Michael Jackson for seven million dollars for his unauthorised sampling of their Beethoven's Ninth, on his recent album Dangerous ... the Black Crowes played the Atlanta Pot Festival to support marijuana law reform... Doors drummer John Densmore is playing on Bob Dylan's USA tour... Paula Abdul married actor Emilio Estevez on April 29.... Public Enemy have cancelled their South African tour due to Flavour Flav's motorbike / neck injury... release of the Ice-T and Ice Cube movie The Looters has been delayed until after the USA summer... Brian Wilson will receive a $lO million settlement from Irving Music, who will continue to publish his songs after courts decided Wilson was "mentally incompetent" when he sold the publishing of his songs to Irving Music in 1969... new Poison guitarist is Richie Kotzen who has recorded there solo albums for Shrapnel Records. .. Sonic Youth album Dirty is produced by Butch Vig (Nirvana). lan Mac Kaye of Fugazi appears on 'Youth Against Fascism'... Ice-T guests on the dance remix of Black Uhuru's 'Tip of the

Iceberg'... kinky covers: Erasure have recorded an EP of four Abba songs ('Voulez Vous', 'Take A Chance On Me' with rapper MC Kinky, 'Lay Your Love On Me' & 'S.O.S.'); the Pogues do Rolling Stones' 'Honky Tonk Woman'; Was Not Was do INXS's 'Listen Like Thieves'; Iron Maiden cover Montrose's 'Space Station'.

NEW CHILLS LINE-UP The new Chills line-up will tour NZ from July 9, starting in Whangarei. The band is Martin Phillipps, Terry Moore (bass) plus Americans Steve Schayer (guitar), Lisa Mednick (keyboards) and Earl Robertson (drums). All of the musicians except Robertson played on the new Chills album Soft Bomb, recorded at Master Control Studios in Burbank, California. The producer Gavin Mackillop also did Straitjacket Fits' Melt. Since they <?; arrived in Auckland early June, the Chills have filmed a video for the single The Male Monster From the Id'. Where do the new bandmembers come from? Schayer comes from the LA. cult band Clay Idols and Robertson's played in San Francisco's A Subtle Plague. According to Phillipps, a major bonus is that all five Chills can sing. DAVE DOBBYN HITS

A collection of Dave Dobbyn's most popular recordings will be released by Mushroom Records. The recordings date from Th'Dudes' 'Be Mine Tonight' and recordings by DD Smash, through to solo tracks such as 'Slice of Heaven'.

The 14 tracks featured are 'Be Mine Tonighf, 'Lipstick Power', 'Devil You Know', 'Solo', 'Repetition', 'Outlook for Thursday', 'Magic (What She Do)', Whaling', 'Guilty', 'Slice of Heaven', 'Oughta Be In Love', 'Loyal', 'Love You Like I Should' and 'Stay'. RECORDING GRANTS Five grants of $5,000 each for a recording and first release have been announced. The lucky bands are the Tin Soldiers from Dunedin who will release en EP under Pagan; Love's Ugly Children from Christchurch, releasing an EP through Flat City Records; Gifted and Brown, a five piece rap group from Wellington; Feast of Stevens, a three-piece from Palmerston North, releasing an EP through Failsafe Records; and One, from Auckland, releasing an EP in July through Failsafe Records. The next closing date for the New Recording Artists Scheme is 30 September. For further information contact the Programme Administrator, Arts Development Unit, QEII Arts Council, PO Box 3806, Wellington, Phone (04) 4730880, fax (04) 4712865.

NZ IN NEW YORK 3Ds and David Kilgour will both appear in New York during the Annual New Music Seminar Convention. Both will tour independently in the USA Northeast and join together for one gig at the legendary New York venue CBGBs. Attending the Seminar will be representatives of indie labels Flying Nun, Pagan, Deep Grooves, Southside /Wildside and Tangata and some independent muscians. The indie labels will have a stand at the NMS Exhibition area, jointedly . funded by music industry action group Music New Zealand and the Trade Development Board. Material being distributed at the stand will include the 1992 NZ Music Directory, a NZ Music Flyer profiling the participating labels, a New York Only over-run of the June RipltUp and i a special cassette version of the Kiwi music radio programme Crash Hot. VIRGIN TO EMI Early May, it was announced that following the sale of the Virgin Music group to Thom EMI, Virgin Records NZ Ltd would be down-sized at the end of May. Some staff are still working from Virgin's Auckland office in June to promote the Virgin label awaiting the transition to be finalised. EMI are expected to soon announce the new Virgin structure for New Zealand. The local Virgin Records Company, evolved from the Record & Tape Company, a company founded in 1977, by Brian Pitts and John McCready to distribute independent foreign labels, including Virgin. McCready moved on to found CBS New Zealand, while Brian Pitts build RTC up to the point where shareholding was sold to Virgin UK, thus founding Virgin New Zealand in October, 1983. POLYGRAM CHANGES The new General Manager for Polygram New Zealand is Victor Stent. Prior to his appointment, Stent has been the Marketing Director of Virgin Retail Asia/Pacific region and before that, a Marketing Manager at Festival Australia and Festival in New Zealand, where he started in the record business.

Grenville Turner resigned his position as Polygram General Manager to move his family back to

Australia and commence his own wholesale business in Brisbane, a one-stop operation supplying smaller retailers. Turner worked for Polygram Australia for more than 10 years before his NZ appointment. In his time as MD, Turner achieved a major feat, in being one of the few MDs to finance the recording of a New Zealand album, and take that record to No.l on the charts, as he did with the Exponents album Something Beginning With C.. NZ DIRECTORY .. A new bsne of a very handy handbook listing names, phone numbers and addresses of music biz i personnel and facilities. Sections include: Production (managers, crew, catering, accomodation); Promotion (photographers, writers, music press, radio, TV, films and video info); Recording (studios, producers, labels); Support (awards events, libraries, tuition) and Equipment (wholesalers and manufacturers, repair and hire services). A fairly exhaustive source book of practical information which could save you fruitless hours chasing telephone numbers, names and addresses. Copies of the directory are available from Stellar Night Productions, Box 10081, Balmoral, Auckland. Free, plus $5 post and packaging! New These Wilding Ways single is 'Set Love A Sail'. The CD also features 'Carousel' and 'Precious Thing'... first single from the Chills album Soft Bomb is 'Male Monster from the ID'... new Flying Nun Bailter Space EP, The Aim features four track The Aim', We Know 1 , 'Shine', 'Unseen'... following their national tour with the Headless Chickens, MC OJ & Rhythm Slave will soon release a 12" vinyl four tracker with a "Sons of Thunder" remake of 'Joined at the Hip-Hop' and a new track 'Bumtime' ... Tommy Adderley has recorded an album of 16 standards for release via Festival ... Warratahs singer Barry Saunders has completed a solo album for August release... next Ngaire single is 'Attitude' with remixes of 'l'm Naming Names' and a new dance track 'So Divine' on the CD single.