MUSIC PREVIEW
I Texas play the only Scottish date oftheir current European tour in St Andrews University on 14 April to celebrate Nicky Campbell‘s installation as rector. the gig to be broadcast live on Radio One. Influential chap this Campbell. or what? In this area. tickets are available from Virgin in both Edinburgh and Glasgow (£6 plus 70p maximum booking fee). and special coaches are being run from George Square. Glasgow (6pm. £9 with ticket) and outside the Playhouse. Edinburgh (7pm. £8 with ticket).
I The supergroup ain't dead. Reports are filtering through that Paul Quinn is working on material with James Kirk (ex-Orange Juice) on guitar. Campbell Owens (ex-Aztec Camera) on bass and the legendary Bobby Bluebell writing songs. No doubt. this lat:er-day Million Dollar Quartet will be making plans to record soon.
I The Wild RiverApples have parted company with their singer Gwen Stewart. but the remaining members want to carry on under a new name and consider it a completely different project. They're looking for a new singer. preferably female and someone who wouldn‘t mind making ‘loads of demos‘ with them. lfyou think you could fill the bill. or know someone who could. call David Fagan on 0236 747216or Stuart MacLeod on 0236 754760.
I Catherine Wheel (don't ever put a ‘the' in front of their name. if you value your life) will be promoting their newly-released debut LP Ferment by playing live at HMV. Argyle Street. Glasgow on Fri 3 at4pm. I We mentioned the new business venture lloncy Records/Music Industry Services last issue. but left out their address. Any queries should be addressed to Honey Records. PO Box 318. Edinburgh EH9 1PT.
write a classic
James Haliburton
compares egos with The Soup Dragons’ leading light Sean Dickson, as the band prepare to follow up their half-million-selling Love God.
It would appear that the buzzword in The Soup Dragons camp is ‘attitude‘. Certainly. Sean Dickson — the band's lyricist. singer and public voice —— oozes it from every pore. There may well be a fine line between confidence and arrogance. but it‘s a division Dickson chooses to ignore. His expletive-peppered rants do nothing to hide the disdain he feels towards his musical peers. and each record his band releases is seen. by him at least. as a spanner to be hurled into the machinations of the music industry. To make matters worse. the attitude is working — not content with placing ‘I‘m Free‘ firmly in the collective consciousness in 1990. the band have gone on to sell close to 500.000 copies of their Love God album (many of those in the States. where bootleg copies ofthe new album are already on sale). Cynics might point to subsequently less lofty single success and label the band one-hit wonders. but Dickson is more than ready to counter that particular allegation.
‘That’s the problem in this country. people look at numbers too much. One of the worst areas in music is the independent/alternative side of music — it‘s like all these bands are in some sort of stupid competition. We‘ve been making records now for six. seven years and we’ve seen so many fucking trends come and go. I mean. I remember the time Gaye Bikers On Acid just had to fart in a paper bag and they were on the front cover of NME. It just shows you how stupid the attitude in this country is. Like the times with the fucking Darling Buds or fucking Talulah Gosh. they were shit. but people in this country went down on their knees and kissed their arses. I was listening to the radio last night and the records just sounded like Goth records and. supposedly. they‘re the new wave of bands — it was all Sisters OfMercy with different vocals.‘
This may seem like self-delusion on a grand scale. but surely Dickson should be cherished for his convictions. After all. what point is there in claiming. Housemartins- like. to be third or fourth-rate? Such
false modesty could not have sustained a musical career that stretches back to 1985. For those with cloth ears and short memories. The Soup Dragons hitched a ride on the indie-dance bandwagon. but to the rest of us it was a very natural progression from ‘Backwards Dog‘. with its drum pattern lifted from Salt ‘n‘ Pepa‘s ‘Push It‘. to the anthemic pop glory of ‘l‘m Free'. The Soup Dragons may well pillage rock's rich history. but they do it with reverence rather than wanton careerism.
‘You can tell records that are made by people who have a genuine love of music and like going out and buying records.‘ Dickson expounds. ‘You can tell records made by people who are just in it for the pose. the haircut factor. and there‘s too many of them just now. People are. I suppose. trying to react against the attitude of two or three years ago. when people
were going out and having a party. just having a good time. People are trying to react to that by dressing in black and hanging their heads in shame and feeling sorry for themselves. We‘re the complete opposite to that whole shoe-gazing crap. That is just the most negative and disgusting attitude I have ever known. We're fucking star-gazers. not shoc-gazers.‘
And reaching for the stars is what Dickson will be doing with the release of llonvired. the band‘s third album. Although no great departure from Love (Ind (in fact. this may well be the album's strength). it certainly affirms Dickson‘s intention to use everything the band had learned during the recording of Love God and to finely hone that sound. whittling down the 22 songs recorded to a collection of twelve potential singles. By and large. the album
24 The List 27 March - 9 April 1992