MUSIC LIST

V CLASSICAL

Bustin’

As classical violinists go. Nigel Kennedy is something of a maverick. and not simply in his choice of clothes and haircut. As well as picking up awards for his interpretation ofworks like the Elgar Violin Concerto. Kennedy has recorded his arrangement of Duke Ellington‘s ‘Black. Brown and Beige Suite‘, and performs with his own jazz and rock bands. as on the Le! Loose album.

Kennedy now spends half the year in New York. where the natives are more accustomed to the kind of eclecticism which marks him out as something ofan oddity in the rather straight-laced classical music establishment on this side of the Atlantic. although he insists that mainland Europe is worse than Britain in that regard. Playing across three such different forms brings its own rewards. as well as problems.

‘In the classical field. you tend to be working with something which you know to a large degree. whereas with jazz you are much more in a situation of discovery. 1 have had conductors accuse me of not playing a piece the way I did on the record. as if it were some crime. [don‘t like the idea that you have to repeat the past. rather than bring your own creativity to re-creating the piece.

‘I find I have to make a major adjustment between jazz and rock. Rock is really about the idea itself. while jazz is more about the development of an idea. If you have been playing a lot ofjazz. you can find yourselfgetting up in a rock context and being a bit too busy. In jazz, you are relating to the mentality of the other musicians all the time. and the whole intellectual process is different.‘

As ifto underline that determination to break free of musical boundaries. Kennedy‘s

recording of Vivaldi‘s perennial The Four Seasons currently sits in the UK album charts. an almost unheard of breakthrough for a classical release. The violinist performs the Beethoven Violin (‘oncert with the SCO in Edinburgh. (Joe Alexander) Nigel Kennedy/3C0. Usher Hall. Edinburgh. 22 Feb.

[MUSIC

Dublin’s The Coletranes and Ayr’s Blam Blam YC team up forthree weeks at the end of February in a band exchange project of the kind that should really be more common. With

; the help of Soundcheck Promotions and Tennents, the bands will play tour

dates together in the West of Scotland and four in Southern Ireland.

Blam Blam YC, together since 1987, have behind them a West Sound Radio session, a single from last year, ‘Bollercoaster Barbie and the Dumb

V Angels‘, and a respectable live track

l

record. lmpressing Joe Strummer’s

promoters with their support slot on a ‘Rock Against the Rich’ gig at the Barrowland, they were fixed up with some dates in London, which led to further gigs in Manchester, Birmingham and Sheffield. They have already played in Southern Ireland twice, more recently for a fortnight, and summed-up by one waggish London music paper ‘a pissed-off Primitives’. Their attack is gentlerthan that, though, with prominent acoustic guitars. Judging from tracks on their upcoming album, they’re not as pissed off as all that.

They risk being drowned out by The Coletranes, a harder-hitting outfit who have had to duck a few flying REM comparisons in theirtime. To that, you could probably add The Byrds, whose influence lingers on the 12-string

guitarwork, and a host of heat groups from the mid Sixties. Their mini-epics could easily catch on, so the mini-tour has more than a little ‘I saw them first’ value.

Blam Blam YC and The Coletranes begintheirtourat Napoleon’s, Glasgow on Thurs 22.

_ Few people who witnessed The

Saying Sick

\‘.\. .wNstsi‘M as. \~ \‘C .\s\“ :. "\g‘\--s‘\.\\\

"7

Cramps’ fast British tour four years ago will have forgotten the sight of lead singer, Lux Interior, barely clothed, sniffling and blubbering his way through their cover of ‘Lonesome Town’. Well, the band that put the sex and drugs back into rock and roll have returned with a new label, a new album

; and a rare appearance in Scotland.

Fourteen years ago, the Cramps

made their live debut in New York’s

infamous CBGB’s, and have since then been preaching sporadically their

gospel of innuendo-riddled rock and

i roll. Earlytours, including one in 1978 a with The Police, quickly established

them as the patron saints of psycho/rockabilly, but the failure of various record company dealings meant record releases were far from regular. All that, perhaps, is about to

i

change.

Lux, guitarist Poison Ivy, drummer Nick Knox and bassist Candy Del Mar signed lastyearto EMl’s newly-acquired Enigma Records.

they are, the ceremony took place on Halloween over the grave of Bela

Lugosi in their hometown of

| Hollywood. The follow-up to 1986’s ‘A Date With Efvis’, ‘Stay Sick’ is the first fruit of the deal and, while if neither surprises nor breaks new ground for

The Cramps, it re-establishes them as

the sole exponents of truly trashy,

cheap and tasteless music. Basically,

a B-movie soundtrack of obscure rock

and roll and lyrics Buss Meyer might

l use as a screenplay. Staying sick and having fun. (James Haliburton)

1 The Cramps play Glasgow Barrowlands

| on Wed 21.

Typically, for the devotees of trash that

i l l

WAH-WAH PEDLARS

KIM} 1m WM! WM! “UT

For years. (ilasgow has been lacking a good. small. specialist venue to fill the gap between the pub circuit and nightclubs. The recent addition of the Shelter has gone some way to restoring the balance. but the opening of King 'l'ut's Wah Walt

l lut should do the trick.

Situated in the pub which used to be Saints 6; Sinners in St Vincent Street. it is the result of a three-year search for their own venue by concert promoters Dance Factory. and director Stuart (‘lumpas is pleased. ‘Wc‘ll now be able to do what we want. instead of having club owners saying you can‘t do this or you can‘t do that.‘

The Hut will be divided into two areas: the bar. King'l‘ut's. which will be open day and night and the 35ll-capacity Walt Wah llut. upstairs. Stuart secs obvious benefits from being a pub instead of a nightclub: ‘1 don't have to open at llprn and have the band come on at lam on a Wednesday night. Who wantsto stay uptill lamto see a band'.’ The bands will goon at lllpm duringthe wcckf

At first. only bands with a proven ability to attract a crowd will play. but Stuart hopes to be doing five or six gigs a week eventually. They‘re not looking to be tied toonc type of music either. so you can expect gigs from Martin Stephenson. l’ale Saints. Yargo and lb 'l‘ambourincs. as well as lots of well-known local bands in the near future. The name. incidentally is derived from a bar in New York.

‘lt’s not an ligyptian pub. there’ll be no palm trees or other ligypttan references apart from our logo. Mind you if 1 could get a gig from the Blue Nile I'd be over the

moonl' ((‘olin Steven)

The List 9 33 February 199029