DAD was formed in Copenhagen in 1984 by Jesper and Jacob Binzer, Peter Jensen and Stig Pederson, the full title being Disneyland After Dark, a name which the Disney organisation is preventing being used. Now on their third album, No Fuelfor the Pilgrims (WEA), they are, singer Jesper tells me, a solid rock band, but not into ‘the heavy metal part of it‘.
‘That‘s the genre with the very high hair and the party-hearty image of it. We liked the things that related to punk, actually, you can sing of different things than just love. and have some energy going, and still have some kind of. . .I would say, almost intellectual view.’
Intellectual? The songs are often hilarious, though whether intentionally it’s hard to say.
‘We take our lyrics very seriously, in a way. We like to make our lyrics about something different, maybe even something odd. But the whole rock thing isn‘t to be taken that seriously. We try to keep the cartoon element.
They‘ve succeeded in ‘Jihad‘, which can boast lines like ‘Yeah, I’m superplus furious/I‘ve done it again/I reach 50 when I count to 10‘. Whence came their interest in Middle Eastern affairs?
‘We recorded the album at the time when the Salman Rushdie thing was going on, and we decided that fanaticism is very sick, but still, we’ve all got our own holy war to carry on with, and that’s our holy war, that’s “Jihad“.’
DAD made their name around Denmark with their colourful live shows, but without corresponding record sales.
‘That was because, when we play live we had a lot of special effects and people came to see the circus, but they didn‘t want to come just for the music. We still have a lot of funny things, but the music is the first priority.‘ (Alastair Mabbott) DADpIay The Venue, Edinburgh on Saturday 30.
llSTINGS
[MUSIC PREVIEW
ROCK35 JAZZ41 F0lK42 CLASSICAL“
MUSIC LIST
um:- Fife Alive
Dunlermline’s Jazz Festival doubles in size tor this, its second year. In the lovely setting of the Pavilion in Pittencrielt Park, two lacing stages are set up so that when one band finishes, you turn to face the other way as the next group starts blowing. Over Saturday 30 and Sunday 1, 18 groups keep the stages busy lrom 2pm till way past midnight, and town centre pubs
. are laying on lree lunchtime music
each day. Big bands open and close both concerts, sandwiching a mixture of local bands, top Scottish artists and visiting "Stars’.
On Saturday, we can hope lor superlative periormances lrom high-prolile songstress Carol Kidd with her standard trio, and guitarist Martin Taylor in a quartet. More unusual and rewarding is the sonorous Chamber f Jazz led by clarinetist, recorder player and saxophonist Dick Lee, an award-winning amalgam oi fluent classical and jazz instrumentalists playing original compositions. And a group who recently had the Metropolitan critics enthusing, and who communicate their enjoyment with a youthful, easy energy and complex post-bop ideas, is Edinburgh’s John Rae Collective.
Sunday looks like being even better. The organisers have managed to pull back to his native soil the unique tenor saxophonist Bobby Wellins, partnered with Don Weller in a quintet, and another Scot returns in the shape at iusion guitarist Jim Mullen, with amazing young London tenor player Momington Locket in a quintet with drummer/festival organiser Bill Kyle. Then there’s the Bruce Adams/Roy Williams Ouintet and visiting Americans Spike Robinson on mainstream tenor sax, and guitarist extraordinary Tal Farlow. See Jazz Listings iorthe lull line up. (Norman Chalmers)
FEEL-- THE ANSWER’SA LEMON onoP
v.1
They came from
Wolverhampton in l985,
but you could be forgiven
for thinking it was
Liverpool some
half-a-dozen years earlier.
. When The Mighty Lemon Drops (Paul Marsh. David Newton, Marcus Williams and Keith Rowley) released their
9 first single. ‘Likc an
Angel‘.itwaslikchcaring an undiscovered Doors
song. unearthed and brushed off by Julian Cope and eventually
batted off in Echo and The
, Bunnymen‘sdirection.As
the Stephen Street-
produced debut LP Happy
3 I'ieadshowed. they weren‘t without a degree
Most palpably not burning up the charts and live circuit as he probably could it he were fully to exploit his past with The Clash, Joe Strummer has been gradually building up his thespian CV. And while a season at the RSC is unlikely everto materialise, he’s made his own quiet impact on the cinema screen. Leaving aside his appearance alongside The Clash in Jack Hazan’s ‘Bude Boy’ (a lilm they disowned when they saw the linished version), Strummer slid onto the screen as a gunman in Alex Cox‘s ‘Straight to Hell’, a by all accounts slapdash altair seemingly made with the intention of creating an instant cult classic. With major roles taken by The Pogues and Elvis Costello, the film’s initial lailure doesn't discount the possibility that it will start hauling’ them in at late night double-bills in years to come. Undeterred, Strummer put his cinematic career in Cox’s hands again in 1987 lora minor part in ‘Walker’ (see
Film section), growing a beard and
' oftalent in the
songwritingdepartment. ‘My Biggest Thrill’ and ‘The Other Side of You‘ in particular. boasted melodies that a few ofthe Lemon Drops' heroes would probably have been chuffed enough to write.
And ifprogress has been at a snail‘s-pace since then. few are , complaining. World Without find. their second album and the first 3 produced by Tim Palmer ; (who's twiddled the knobs ? for Robert Plant.Thc
Mission and Tin Machine)
knocked Talking Heads
offthe top ofthe ‘ American college radio
charts— no mean feat. The leather-clad Lemon Drops. with their abrasive. slicing guitars and fetish for the rawer Sixties pop. can look like a dream group on a good night — which is quite often in the 2(XXJ-seater venues they can comfortably fill in the States.
Their third LP. Laughter. was recorded at Peter Gabriel‘s sumptuous Real World studios in Bath by Mark
Wallis. whose work with
The Go-Betweens
impressed the Drops I enough to give him a try.
As a tribute to his abilities : andthe surroundings,
they claim it‘s the first time they‘ve worked in a
studio and enjoyed it. , The Mighty Lemon Drops p lay at (. 'oiLs'ters. Edinburgh on Sunday 8.
Joe Strummer, Barrowland, Glasgow, 5 Friday 6. [
playing a dishwasher— hardly the most auspicious of parts, but he made up for . it with his first foray into the world of soundtracks. The highly-acclaimed music for ‘Walker’, which put clearly on show Strummer's interest in the ethnic music of that part of the world, proved to be one of his finest post-Clash moments.
This year, he’s back on the big screen again in ‘Mystery Train‘, a picture by Jim Jarmusch who, perhaps emboldened by his earlier success in transplanting another charismatic vocalist (Tom Waits) on to celluloid in his excellent ‘Down by Law', has cast Strummer as a Limey roughneck in the American South. He’s also lound time to bring out a new LP, inevitably compared with Big Audio Dynamite’s current waxing. Forthe moment, Career Opportunities are knocking. (Alastair Mabbott)
The List 29 September — 12 October 1989 33