MUSIC LIST
this will be the next direction the singer will explore.
The band‘s current album. A New Flame. released last year. re-united them with producer Stewart Levine. who has once again found the rich. warm. funky sound which helped make the first album such a classic. Sylvan has departed. but the band are still a formidable force. and original members McIntyre. Tim Kellet. Chris Joyce and Tony Bowes will be there again on this trip.
Despite all the hype about Hucknall. and stories about his arrogance, conceit and flagrant egoism. some ofwhich may well be true. what comes over in the music is a deeply committed. highly talented singer and writer who in spite of his humble origins and at best modest visual appearance. exudes charisma and appeal. Who knows what might come of a liaison with McCoy Tyner‘.’ Simply Red play the S E CC. Glasgow on Sunday 21.
Something Wild!
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film with the volcanic crater and the false ‘water’ that slides back to reveal the huge, secret space-base of Donald Pleasence’s plans for world domination. This is Erasure at the SECC last month. Fortunately for us, though, Vince and Andy seek not total
conquest. Rather, worldly peace and happiness, brother and sister.
The Wild! tour of Britain is Pop Culture becoming Life Culture, witnessed by a million screaming youths. Andy Bell is an icon to be revered. On stage, he skips around dressed in a spangly, translucent, clinging leotard, and girls and boys cavort in ecstasy.
The stage set created for this tour is gargantuan— ‘Fireball XL5‘ or ‘The Clangers' or ‘Stingray’ or anything you want it to be. It's candy-coloured daydreams, flanked by sinister robots and showered in a thousand different lights. Erasure live is a soap opera of success.
It's like ‘You Only Live Twice‘, the Bond
And as for the songs, they’re hit singles that just keep on coming. The electro-pulse of the keyboards has everyone in a kind of techno-phoria, completely wrapped in these seemingly gay little tunes, each with a message of its own. And the messages are: safe sex, come out of the closet, everybody love one another. Everybody does. Andy pouts and preens and mlnces, and every move is wept over by the audience. This isn’t homosexual or heterosexual or bisexual or asexual but EVERYSEXUAL. Aids, as Andy points out, affects everybody.
As do Erasure. They are the finest pop group around. In two hours of live stimulation, Erasure deliver an unprecedented set of anthems for a groomed youth. Their shows are escapism, but escapism with a nod to the realities of the day, and all the more potent forthat. (Craig McLean)
Erasure return to the SECC, Glasgow on Thursday 18.
V CLASSICAL
Those who saw Scottish Opera‘s Oedipus Rex last season will no doubt welcome the chance to see it again, and those who did not would be foolish to pass it up, particularly now that it’s back with a new partner. Bartok‘s Duke Bluebeard‘s Castle. The stunning success of Oedipus is due mainly to its designer and joint director. Stefanos Lazardis. who makes his solo directing debut in Bluebeard. ‘They‘re both very exciting productions‘ he says. ‘very dynamic. but different kinds of music. Stravinsky is neo-classical. whereas Bartok is almost romantic. with a tremendous amount of Mahler.‘ The
Batok’s eard
Oedipus legend, telling the story of the son who unwittingly killed his father and married his mother. works well for Lazardis with Bluebeard. a story also about marriage, this time ofa new wife who makes her husband unlock his secret doors. the final one leading to all his previous wives. a collection which she ends up joining. ‘The parallels are phenomenal’ says Lazardis. ‘In both pieces somebody is trying to find something out and it‘s very much like a detective story, a thriller. and at times the suspense is pure Hitchcock. Although both are based on legend and myth. they have great resonances for us today. Something of us is in them and something ofthem is in us.’ With Kathryn Harries as Judith and Monte Jaffe as Bluebeard. Bartok’s only opera promises to be another stunner. Don‘t miss it. (Carol Main) Oedipus Rex/ Duke Bluebeard '5 Castle, Theatre Royal, Glasgow. Wednesday 24 and Saturday 27 January, Wednesday 14 February, Thursday 1 March. See Classical listings.
V SINGLES
can actually hear them not breaking into a sweat. (iod. IRS have such awful taste. (AM)
I Grace River: Super
Heaven (Tennents Live) This single has been giy en away free with the first 4(l.tl(l(t copies of the new 'l‘l.n. btit that‘s no reason to ignore the band. And ignore them we shouldn‘t. ‘Super l leaven' and the flip. '(iraee Riyer'. are the kind of dreamy pop that people keep telling us Paul 1 laig spouts forth. and of the calibre that even New Order can only squeeze out on a good day. A few more like this and they’ll be huge. And. yes I do happen to be drinking a gratis can of 'I‘enncnts lager as I write this. but that‘s no reason to ignore the review. (AM)
I The Telescopes: To Kill a Slow Girl Walking (What Goes On) I honestly had to phone the record company to ensure that the scum led legend on the label didn‘t say "I o Kill a Slur (iirl Walking. a title which might spark oflan international incident in the wrong hands. The only international exchange this single might proy oke would be the great god lggy mouthing over the transcontinental blower that ‘I did it first. [.imey motherfuckers. and i did it best'. The 'l‘eleseopcs' heartsare clearly insome dive patronised by the Stooges 2U years ago. though they have acquiesced to modern ecological concerns by including several minutes of sampled w halcsong squealing tip and dow u the scale. It l was the whale. l'd sue. (AM)
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I The Right Stuff: The Girl's All GO (Arista) Not quite the identikit slieeof Seotrock I'd been expecting. ('hunky's the word. I suppose. with the singerseeming keen to join Bono up there in the stratosphere. (‘all this lot wimps and they'd . . .well. probably find the cobwebs on the lampshade suddenly very fascinating. but they 'd grunt and yearn and emote a fair bit while they were doing it. l'm maligningthem. It'sfun. with a bit of(iiorgio Moroder .synth warbhng stuck in for good measure. (AM)
The List 12 - 25 January 1990 31