PREVIEW MUSIC
Only with l9‘)l's Dogs In The Traffic I did he finally untie himself from the ' cold tracks left by the passing ‘Candybar Express‘ and began to make the music he wanted to. a process culminating in this year's Lin/ecleth on Scottish label lona Gold. an album of dark acoustic reflection. So why dissolve the group now. when he feels they‘re beginning to get it right?
‘Well. it‘s not really any big decision.‘ says Grant. ‘We‘re still all pretty good friends — it'sjust that i felt it was time for a change. Everybody‘s involved in doing different things. so as such it wasn‘t really a “group” thing — usually. I‘d come in with the songs and the guys would play them. Then. after working with lona Gold. we sort of decided we couldn't really go much lower than that.‘
Grant has recorded about half a solo album (to be released. hopefully. next year) on which the rest of Love And Money also play — so. in a sense. the RIP gig is the ceremonial burial ofa band name. Was it important to have a final. definitive gesture rather than simply to let things fizzle out?
‘lt was really to just try and have some fun.‘ he answers. ‘There’s a relatively small amount of people that've supported us throughout the years. and we wanted to do it for them and really have a gas. have a party. And maybe make some money for Christmas. l‘m really looking forward
to it. We‘ll be playing some more old
stuff. Before. we've consciously
' avoided playing stuff from the first two
records. and that's maybe been quite selfish — but we wanted to move in a different direction. so we felt we had to be. This time, it‘s different, because we're not being selfish. and trying to play songs from every record and, eh . .
it's for the kids, really.
‘lt’s quite funny playing some of the songs again. 'cause you feel as if you’re doing cover versions because we made such a titanic effort to divorce ourselves from a lot ofthe stuff.’
Although proud of his last two records, and eager for the forthcoming nostalgic party, Grant is more concerned with his future projects and. well, life. basically, than the past. But with an epitaph waiting to be written, after twelve years of being ‘Love And Money‘s James Grant'. how will the singer remember the band?
‘Perhaps. . . as a small piece of smegma‘i top of the giant prick of the record industry.‘
Fair enough, but how does he see his band being remembered by others?
‘I think the majority of people would give us a son of grudging respect. a minority will still listen to our records. And that‘ll do me.’
Love And Money play The Barrowland. Glasgow on Fri 23 Dec.
James Grant gets guilty with Dostoevsky in Under the Covers. See Books section.
[IEEIIII Festive swing
Jazz has not usually beenassociated much with the Christmas and New Year festivities, although there have been a fair number of attempts to cash in on the celebrations with seasonal records - even Wynton Marsalis got in on the act a couple of years back.
If the music is rarely the chosen soundtrack for either Santa’s arrival or seeing out the old year, there is a smattering of events to add swing to the seasonal cheer. Pre-Christmas, singer Craig McMurdo dredges up a Santa suit - designer, naturally - and some of the most bizarre Christmas songs you will ever hear, alongside lots of ‘chestnuts roasting by an open fire’-style favourites.
Actually, that particular song, Mel Torme’s ‘The Christmas Song’ - written, he swears, in the middle of summer in the baking San Fernando Valley - is one of the best examples of a generally sorry genre you are likely to find, especially when Mel himself gets his tonsils around it.
The festive programme then focuses on two Jazz Band Balls either side of Hogmanay, with an all-Scottish package at the Marlborough in Shawlands, Glasgow on Tue 27, followed by an Edinburgh bash at the Queen’s Hall on Sat 7 (those with more
3..
Craig McMurdo: playing Santa
modernist inclinations can catch an early fix at the City Art Centre on New Year’s Day, when Mike Travis’s EH15 and the vocal duo of Sophie Bancroft and Gina Bae share the afternoon).
Musically, the Edinburgh Ball is the one to go for, since it will feature the excellent mainstream trombonist Roy Williams (trombone fans should also note a couple of Chris Barber gigs before Christmas), with additional spice coming from the fact that he will be playing with pianist Brian Kellock. That is as good a way as any to welcome 1995. (Kenny Mathleson) See Jazz listings for details of all concerts.
mm- Hearfor
There wis a wee cooper wha cam frae . . . Yorkshire! One of only a dozen remaining in the UK, Alastair Simm, master barrel-maker, will be hosting a ‘Raise a Barrel’ roadshow as part of the first Theakston Folk Festival in Glasgow’s Dld Fruit Market. The mix of folk music and real ale has always proved potent and popular, and the organisers have laid on McEwan’s and Younger’s cask-conditioned ales as well as their own Best Bitter, XB, Mild, and famous Dld Peculiar. Tickets allow you entrance to the music stage and bars all day, noon through to midnight, with food and soft drinks also available.
Also up from the Brewery in Masham is Jim Eldon, a singer and fiddler in the Yorkshire tradition, who’ll be playing the first notes on Friday afternoon. Apart from the ubiquitous Danny Kyle, the main performers will be The Whistlebinkies, who reveal, in their slightly understated way, the full range of Scottish music, from Gaelic and Scots song to arrangements for clarsach, pipes, side drum, flute and
'3
Wolfstone
l fiddle of the marches, jigs,
strathspeys and reels celebrated down the centuries.
One would never accuse Highland folk-rockers Wolfstone of understatement, but the Inverness lads promise to play their Sunday evening set unplugged, or only slightly electrified. Listen especially to Duncan Chisholm’s eloquent fiddle.
The long connection between Glasgow and Donegal doesn’t refer just to the regular buses which ply the old route but the family relationships that extend across the short crossing of the Irish Sea, and Saturday’s main , concert should prove very popular, I featuring as it does a foursome from . Letterkenny. Donegal is rich in fiddle l music, and two fiddlers, Kevin Hyde and Stephen Campbell are here with guitarist Dermot Toland and, singing in her native Irish, Aoife ffi Fhearraigh. (Norman Chalmers) The Theakston Folk Festival is at The . Dld Fruit Market, Glasgow from Fri 16-Sun 18.
The List 16 December 1994—12 January 1995 47