MUSIC LIST/ROCK
only from the street cred position ofusing a bassist who's worked with Alex Chilton and Tav Falco (Rene Coman). but also employing Greg Elmore. who used to thump the skins for Quicksilver Messenger Service! Sadly. Jim Dickinson. who played keyboards on their new LP. ‘Hcre Come The Snakcs‘ (available on Red Rhino) can't make the tour because he's playing with Ry Cooder. and is replaced by Brent Newman. All in all. an interesting mixture of personnel fora band which were already one ofAmerica's strongest country-rock bands. Only Scottish date. and first since the Queen's Hall a yearago.
I Jaii Musa Jawara George Square Theatre. 7.30pm. £4 (£3). A master ofthe 21-string kora. a West African combination of harp and lute. accompanied by acoustic guitars and balafon.
I Tarn White Negociants. Lothian Street. 225 6313. 9pm. Free. Just back from his stint in Memphis. and before the gravelly-voiced one gets together with his new band of top London-based R8; B players in time for the Festival.
I Six Appeal Music Box. Victoria Street. 220 1708. 9.30pm. Free.
I The B-Movies Lord Darnley. West Port. 2294341. 10pm. Free.
I The Bootsie Tootsie Blues Trio Canny Man‘s. Morningside Road. 447 1484. 8.30pm. Free. Residency.
THURSDAY 30 Glasgow
I The Close Lobsters Fttry .‘vlurrys. 96 Maxwell Street. 10.30pm. One ofthe more frequent visitors to Fury Murrys— they do seem to generate a lot ofinterest locally. How long before some new ‘product'?
I Crazyhead Rooftops. 92 Sauchiehall Street. 332 5883. 10.30pm. l hadthe misfortune of seeing Crazyhcad when they supported Julian Cope last year. the most memorable/repulsive moment being when one of the overweight. leather clad guitarists decided to bare his bottom to the world. Sadly. their music is about as aesthetically pleasing as the guitarist's backside.
I Dream Coyotes Bar Luxembourg. 197 Pitt Street. 332 1111. 10pm. Free. Oncof the best live bands working locally at the moment — they certainly manage to capture an energy and feel live that is totally absent from the demos l have heard. it is hard. however. to overlook the influence of a certain brilliant band from Athens. Georgia.
I Rich Sub Club. 22 Jamaica Street. 248 4600. 10.30pm. Good band — as seen recently on the Hue and (‘ry Scottish tour. they have a publishing deal and it shouldn‘t be too long before the record companies take action.
I Cut The Ice The Mission. Battlefield Road. 10pm. Free. Major promotion in operation here — their posters are everywhere in the city at the moment.
I Loose Talk La Tanicre. Fox Street. 9pm. Free. At least there is a reasonable choice tonight. although I suspect Loose Talk is one of the least appetisingoptions.
Edinburgh
I Steve Marriott (TBC) Venue. Calton Road. 557 3073. Appearance ofthe former Small Faces and Humble Pie frontman (and pioneer of British rock generally) not yet confirmed. but hopefully will be. Reports of Marriott‘s back-to-basics club tours have been ecstatic.
I The Indian Givers Music Box. Victoria Street. 220 1708. 9.30pm. Free. See panel. I The Brothers Preservation Hall. Victoria Street. 226 3816. 9.30pm. Free. Residency.
I Texas Breakfast Cafe Biarritz. Frederick Street. 225 5244. 9pm. Free. See Mon 27. I The Peristaisis Brothers Négociants.
‘The Indian Givers started out as a set of songs which were all about love. An Indian
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gift after having given it when he falls out with you. Which seems to me like a perfect metaphor (or glib hookiine) for lovers.’
The Indian Givers, now a core of Simon Fraser, Avril Jamieson and founder member, singer and songwriter Nigel Slealord. have been performing regularly since their first live appearance In February, farming the spark caused by an excellent demo tape, featuring such soon-to-be- classics as ‘It Makes My Head Happy’ and ‘It’s a Wonderful Life'. The band perform as a trio, augmented by sequenced keyboards and drums, plus occasional additional members.
Their cool, jazz-inflected sets, shot through with a thread of melancholy, combined so well with the trendy Blitz-reader atmosphere of their debut gig at Edinburgh’s City Café that they might have appeared at first to be a product of a self-consciously stylish in-crowd. They’re not to be so easily dismissed, as the slight, bespectacled Siealord explains.
‘I would say the “ster people” have been conspicuous by their absence so far. We’ve been performing, I hope with as much energy as we can muster, to a mixed audience, but at the end of each gig it’s been the ordinary guys who’ve come up and said it was brilliant.’
Nigel is the only remaining member of the original Indian Givers’ line-up,
BAND PROFILE: THE INDIAN lVERS
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and the current band is the latest, and most concentrated, of innumerable projects he’s been involved with in Edinburgh since the early Eighties. From impromtu gigs at J.J.’s with friend James Lock (now of The Chimes), to touring in Paul Haig’s Rhythm of Life band and supporting the Human League on tour in a band called The McNairs, rejoining Haig in political rockabilly band The Juggernauts, to forming an early version of the Indian Givers playing straight acoustic jazz, Slealord has been on the fringes for years, making demos and playing unusual gigs, without actually breaking into anything big.
Now The Indian Givers have grown from the original line-up, which was concerned with interpreting Nigel’s songs live, to a band which he feels has an identity of its own: a modern band, performing a set of modern songs. The influence of jazz, though still obvious,
is in the background now, serving the songs rather than dominating them.
‘I’m only interested in writing very simple music,’ he says. ‘you've heard the songs, and there’s nothing very clever about the arrangements’.
‘Every song I write,‘ he continues, ‘while they’re about more diverse things these days, and aren’t overtly political any more, is intended to put across some kind of message, even of the subtiest kind. If it’s only to do with the way 1 construct a song, there’s a message in that. It says something about me and I hope something about what a human being can be.‘
The curious can whet their appetites with the band’s appearances at Edinburgh’s Music box on Thursday 30 and Glasgow's Bar Luxembourg on Tuesday 5, before a large AIDS benefit later in the month. They should be touring to promote their debut single in August. (Mab)
Lothian Street. 225 6313. 9pm. Free. See Sat25.
I Los Supremos (fanny Man‘s. Morningside Road. 447 1484. 8.30pm. Free. Residency.
I Billy Jones Lord Darnley. West Port. 229 4341. 10pm. Free. See Sun 26.
FRIDAY 1 Glasgow
I Camper Van Beethoven Rooftops. 92 Sauchiehall Street. 332 5883. 10.30pm. Probably the gig ofthe fortnight. and it will be interesting to see how (‘amper van Beethoven adapt to their newly found major label status. The first Virgin album. ()ur Beloved Revolutionary Sweetheart. which by my reckoning is their fourth LP. is an impressive start. Added to that. they have just appeared in Rolling Stone magazine as this year's ‘hot band‘. Here's hoping that‘s not the death sentence it sounds like.
Edinburgh
I Crazyhead and Birdhouse Venue. (‘alton Road. 557 3073. New wave grebo archetypes. last seen round these parts supporting Julian Cope. Never mind Zode Mindwarp. Crazyhcad's singer has the potential to be a real rock ‘n' roll sexgod. resembling as he does a cross between those two great idols Joey Ramone and Jim Reid. Musically. they‘re pretty standard unsubtle fare.
I Very Very Music Box. Victoria Street. 2201708. One of Edinburgh‘s more promising pop/funk bands. Worth watching.
I Ali-Nighter Spanish Harlem. Wilkie House. Cowgate. 11pm—7am. £4 advance.
£4.50 at the door. Guest acts from New York: Audio-2. M.C. Lyle and Wrecks 'n‘ Effect. Two dancefloors and guest DJs.
I The Healers Preservation Hall. Victoria Street. 226 3816. £1 after9.30pm. Blues-rock.
I Black Market Negociants. Lothian Street. 2256313. 9pm. Free.
I Live band Lord Darnley. West l’ort.229 4341. 10pm. Free. Unconfirmed.
SATURDAY 2
Glasgow
I Barky Barky La Tanicre. Fox Street. 9pm. Free. Not a great selection today. . .
Edinburgh
I Trixx l lard Rock (are. Venue. Calton Road. 557 3073. Sleaze metal merchants. Are they still distributing free Trixx condoms at gigs'.’
I G-Spot Tornado Platform One. Rutland Street. See Fri 24.
I D.C. Ellis Music Box. Victoria Street. 2201708. 10pm. £1. Funk/gogo.
I Gerry and The Workhouse Preservation Hall. Victoria Street. 2263816. £1 after 9.30pm.
I The Heaters Lord [)arnley. West Port. 2294341. 10pm. Free. Blues-rock.
I The Peristaisis Brothers Cafe Biarritz. Frederick Street. 225 5244. 9pm. Free. See Sat 25.
I Live band Negociants. Lothian Street. 2256313. 9pm. Free. Unconfirmed.
Glasgow
I The Organisation Henry Afrika‘s. York Street. 10.30pm. Openingofa newclub.
with a good band for starters. The
Organisation play a relatively short set which combines rock and soul influences. with particularly strong vocals from lan Paton.
I Burden Blues Breakers La Tanicre. Fox Street. 10.30pm. Free.
Edinburgh
I Najma Ross Theatre. Princes Street (iardens. 3pm. £3 (£2). The first British-born singer to tackle successfully the lyrical art ofthe ghazal. Najma Akhtar_ won the Asian Song (‘ontest in 1984 and went on to make the hypnotically beautiful LP ‘tareeb‘. taking the ancient Urdu love poetry into popular realms with a fusion of Western and Eastern instruments. Spellbinding stuff. on no account to be missed.
I La Paz (TBC) Soundchcck Rock Club. Venue. (‘alton Road. 557 3073. Melodic hard rock from Lanarkshire area. Tipped to be massive sometime in the near future. I Billy Jones Lord Darnley. West Port. 2294341. 10pm. Free. See Sun 26.
I Peristalsis Brothers Preservation Hall. Victoria Street. 226 3816. £1 after9.30pm. I The Tex Fillet Five Negociants. Lothian Street. 2256313. 9pm. Free. See Sun 26. I Gave Shepard and Jean Mundell Music Box. Victoria Street. 221) 1708. Afternoon. Free.
I Bluellnger Music Box. Victoria Street. 220 1708. £1 after 9pm. Bluesy.
MONDAY 4
Glasgow
I Sandy Bar Luxembourg. 197 Pitt Street. 10pm. Free. One man show. . .
The List 24 June — 7 July 1988 41