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Gil Evans Tribute Edinburgh, Fri 23 Oct, Queen's Hall 0131 667 7776 Glasgow, Sat 24 Oct, RSAMD ()1
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asgow, Sun 25 Oct, Cottit'r Theatre, 0141 287 5511 .
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55. - ._. rted Territory GlaEsgow, Thur 29 Oct, Cottit'r Theatre. 0141 287 5511
inburgh, Fri 30 Oct. Queen's Hall 0131 667 7777
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- " A. ' MICk Taylor S All Star Blues Band taintiuigh. in i3 Nov, 0 en's Hall 0131 667 7776 '
Martin TBYIOI' Celebrates Grappelli
(ilasgow, Wed 18 ‘Nov, City Hall 0131 667 7776
Edinbur h, Fri 20 Nov, Queen's Hall 0131 667 7776 Glasgow, un 22 Nov. Cottier Theat 0141 287 5511
Glasgow. Sun 15 Nov, Cotticr Theatre,0141 287 5511
Maceo Parker -'Funkoverload
Glasgow, Thurs 26 Nov, The Arches, 014i 221 4001 Edinburgh, Fri 27 Nov Lit uid Rooms 013] 467 5200
Tam Whi
l' sgow, S n 29 Nov. C ‘
Edinburgh. Fri ll Dec, Queen's Hall 0131 667 7776 Glasgow, Sat 12 Dee. Moir Hall 0141 287 55”
Assembly Direct presents
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Prepare to be flanked
42 THE “ST 24 Sep—8 Oct 1998
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Rising son
Time to dig out the old 'like father like son' sayings as RUFUS 'son of Loudon' WAINWRIGHT unveils his eponymous debut album. Words: Damien Love
Although he’s only Just released his rather fine debut album, 24-year-old Rufus Wainwright has been domg the music thing for over a decade now. The son of singer/songwnters Kate McGarrigle and Loudon Wainwright Ill, Rufus was touring the States With his mother’s outfit, the McGarrigle Sisters, by the time he was thirteen, a fact
'My mother started us young. Although it's possible she just couldn’t get us off her back.’
Rufus Wainwright
which — particularly when coupled to the faintly cabaret/carnival undertone to some of his music - evokes the vague image of a family of travelling acrobats
'There was a bit of that,’ Wainwright laughs. 'i think we probably fancied Ourselves more as a family of circus performers than we perhaps were We weren't out on the road constantly or anything My sister and I showed a lot of musical promise at a young age, and my mother picked up on that and she felt it necessary -- if we wanted to go in that direction a that we know all about it So she started us young. My parents had a hard time in music, and they wanted to impart as much knowledge as possible Although,’ he adds, ’it's possible she JUSI couldn’t get us off her back.’
Wainwright appears at a time when a whole raft of Sons Of have materialised - Adam Cohen, Sean Lennon, Chris Stills, Teddy Thompson, not to mention Jakob Dylan from last time and Julian Lennon from the time before — making it easy fer the media
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Rufus Wainwright: best bar nun
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to lump the whole lot together in little Isn’t This Interesting features, rather like we just have. Wainwright pornts out that, with him ~ and also Teddy Thompson, son of Richard and Linda — the difference is that although both his parents are hugely respected, neither was ever a fully-fledged star. One wonders, though, if he tires of questions about his lineage,
’Well, I’m actually domg a TV show With my mother and father in Montreal,’ Wainwright confesses. ’I get a bit fed up With it, but I'm extremely indebted to both of them. And I’m pretty confident in the record as being individual enough: it's not a rip-off of them.’
Individual enough the record certainly is, ranging With a rinky-dink theatrical stride from stripped down voice and piano to a huge, multi- layered mu5ic; the full kitchen-sink orchestral monty, With battalions of strings arranged by the semi-legendary Van Dyke Parks (a friend of Wainwright pere). The aXlS around which the whole thing revolves, though, is the simple combination of Wainwright's happily lugubrious mice and chiming piano.
’Piano is what I work on hardest,’ he agrees. ’Though only because I’m a terrible player, It’s like an instilled fear of the piano l probably overcompensate a little because of my fear of the French Canadian nuns who used to teach me as a kid, with their bad breath and crucifixes'
It'll be this spare \Vaimvright/piano tOflTbllhlilOlT on display at his forthcoming solo shows Live, he admits to wanting to emulate the showmanship and easy banter of his father's performances along With the heart-shredding qualities of his mother's; a fusion which, when his own forceful persona is thrown into the mix, he describes as, ’maybe a bit like Noel Coward meets uh, Nick Cave Hopefully’
Here's also hoping no nuns turn up to spook the party
Rufus Wainwright plays Edinburgh's Belle Angele, Tue 6 Oct.