“MUSIC LIST

0 This Periect Heart, Wet Wet Wet, Shaman, and The Strip Barrfield Theatre, Largs. This is a charity event to raise funds and publicity about the closure of Larg‘s Eastpark Home for disabled children. Tickets £4 from Barrfield Theatre. kick—off time 7.30pm.

; Edinburgh

0 Charge and Makossa Jailhouse. Calton Road. Free. Charge at about 2pm with their regular Saturday afternoon sessions with guests. reggae band Makossa at about 10.30pm.

o Tarzan’s Milkmen Preservation Hall. Victoria Street. 9pm. Free.

Duntermline 0 The Crows Warehouse, 23

Kirkgate.

; SUNDAY Edinburgh

0 Excaliburlailhouse. Calton Road. 9pm. Free.

0 Food For Alrica Assembly Rooms. George Street. 4pm. £5. All proceeds going to famine relief. the bill at the moment is Charge. Cairo. Merlin. Avail. Medusa Touch, Iron Fist and Dead On Arrival. Guests like Lemmy and Paul Young may be popping in. lfyou haven‘t donated anything since the Live Aid spectacular. get some ofthat Christmas spirit and reach into your i pockets.

0 Kalima Hoochie Coochie Club. West Tollcross. 10.30pm. Percussive melting pot ofdance music, from

15

Trying to make sense of what Spider Stacey and Pogue supremo Shane ' McGowan say is not unlike what I imagine listening to the Voice oi 3’ America in Russia must be. Still, the pair admit to having been surprised by the chart success at their second album ‘Rum, Sodomy and the Lash’ earlier this year. By the way, trivia fans, the title is a quote irom Winston Churchill who was apparently trying to describe ‘the way of lile in the Royal Navy'. As ior Shane (vocals), Spider (tin whistle), James Fearnley (accordion), Cait D’Riordan (bass), Andrew Ranken (drums) and latest addition Philip Chevron (a former Radiators irom ; Space on Guitar), their diet seems to be Guinness, energy and The Dubliners, whose songs they cover and to whom they’ve often been compared.

The hard live work is paying oil, and gigs all over the UK are selling out faster than you can write ‘The Wild Cats oi Kilkenny’ or ‘The Sick Bed of Cuchulainn’, Shane's favourite composition —though he iinds analysing his own songs ‘boring and dilllcult’. He’ll admit to ‘A Pair at Brown Eyes’ and ‘Sally MacLennane' (their finest effort to these ears) being ‘love songs with elements that don't usually appear in love songsthrown in. There's nothing to object to in the lyrics. I don’t know why they (he means

Radio One) don’t play them in the daytime.’ Methinks reierences to

Factory Records unless I‘m very much mistaken.

o Nils Loigren Usher Hall. Lothian Road. £6.50. £5.50. 7.30pm. One of rock music's most distinguished and long-serving sidemen. Nils got known in the late 60s as leader of his own band Grin. More recent years have seen him doing guitar chores for Neil Young and Bruce Springsteen, as well as a host ofsolo albums.

0 Paul Young Playhouse Theatre. Greenside Place. (SOLD OUT)

MONDAY 16

Glasgow

0 Lloyd Cole and the Commotions plus The Big Dish at the SECC. Two of Glasgow‘s finest exponents of country/rock/pop together in one of the SEC‘s smaller halls. This must be a celebration gig for the success that Lloyd is enjoying. Good for him!

Edinburgh

0 Blues Brothers Preservation Hall. Victoria Street. 9pm. Free.

0 The Pogues Playhouse Theatre. Greenside Place. 7.30pm. £4.50. £4. (See panel).

0 Hank Wangiord Queen‘s Hall, Clerk Street. Third or fourth time lucky, hopefully. Fake country lovingly and sincerely played by the country‘s hippest gynaecologist. Fingers crossed that this one won‘t be cancelled.

0 Watch with MotherJailhouse. Calton Road. 10.30pm. Free.

THE LASH?

boozing, always a Pogue pastime, as well as tour-letter words are at the root of this problem.

‘I don’t give a damn whether we get a hit or not,’ adds the singer, who insists that the group hasn’t changed much since the days at ‘Dark Streets oi London' and ‘Red Roses For Me’, their early vinyl oiterings, ortheir appearances as support to Elvis Costello 3 year ago. The bespectacled one went to act as producer (‘he was cheap’ they joke) and has even guested on some oi their live gigs which are ‘still chaotic’ according to Spider. (Pierre Perrone).

Famed as being awkward, contrary types, this year Echo and the Bunnymen showed the iirst signs oi bending to the wishes at their record company WEA. Crack producer Laurie ,3 Latham, who has supplied massive hits . tor the likes ol Alison Moyet and The Stranglers, was drafted in to produce theiriirst hit single at the year, ‘Bring On the Dancing Horses’ —and then, oi all things, a Greatest Hits Collection actually nudged into the Top Ten. A sell out? Perhaps; their music’s a tad iorrnularised, but not calculatineg aimed at any particular market at all, and in the past I’ve been astounded at what they’ve achieved within their limited framework. Live, and on a good I

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TUESDAY

Glasgow

0 Play Position Mayfair. Sauchiehall Street.

0 Marillion SECC. Yawn.

o The Incredible Blondes Fixx. Miller Street. Fixx is now the only remaining place to see brand new local acts ofany potential at all. Who are the Incredible Blondes? Who knows? Why not find out‘.’

Edinburgh

0 Déia Vu Preservation Hall. Victoria Street. 9pm. Free.

0 Blues ‘n’ Trouble and Block Brothers Rumours. Lothian Road. 10pm.

WEDNESDAY 18

Glasgow

0 Strange Location Fixx. Miller Street. Another new one on me!

Edinburgh

0 Plague of Fools Jailhouse, Calton Road. 10.30pm. Free. 19

THURSDAY Edinburgh

0 Makossa Preservation Hall. Victoria Street. 9pm. Free. Reggae. 0 The Viceroys Jailhouse. Calton Road. 10.30pm. Free.

0 Snake Pit Christmas Party Satellite Club, West Tollcross. £1. No bands booked yet, as far as I know. but should be fun, especially for fans of psychedelia and what used to be called ‘new wave‘ and ‘alternative‘.

night, they can put across a sheer power which eiiortlessly makes

mincemeat oi young pretenders to the 3 rock throne like the execrable Cult and

SpearolDeshny.

Paradoxically, at the peak at their commercial success, disillusionment has surfaced in the Bunnymen camp.‘ Bassist Les Pattinson longs to return to boat building and the irreplaceable Will Sergeant is beginning to ieei plain silly. I'd hate to think I was writing their obituary, but there's a chance that their show at the Barrowlands on 23 December may be the last chance for Scottish fans to see them. Hope not

3 though. (Malt).

Those were the days.

Duntermline

0 Sister No Warehouse. 23 Kirkgate. Trying to make a bigger splash than theydid under the name ‘Seven‘. Sister No include the keyboard player who played with The Jam in their final year. and the ex-bassist from Fiction Factory.

0 Block Brothers ()livers. 9pm.

FRIDAY Glasgow

0 Sting Rytes Strutz. above Barrowland. These guys work really hard don‘t they?

0 Fruits of Passion Rooftops. Sauchiehall Street. The Fruits have always been one of the more ‘likely to‘ bands from this city. Nice to see them back in the festive season. Watch out for a new single from them early next year.

0 Deal Heights Cajun Aces 'Ihe Mucky Duck. Shotts. Another hard working band.

Edinburgh

0 Close to the Bone J ailhouse. Calton Road. 10.30pm. Free.

0 Heart industry Clowns. High Street. 8pm. Free.

0 Go Ferrlt Preservation Hall. Victoria Street. 9pm. Free.

0 Block Brothers Watsonians Club. Myreside. 9.30pm.

SATURDAY Glasgow

0 Echo and the Bunnymen Barrowland. First of two nights at

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The List 13 Dec— 9 Jan 27