GRAHAM PARKER AND THE RUMOUR High Times (Vertigo) A special Australia-only 'greatest hits' compilation to co-incide with the diminutive one's Australian tour. And a very solid, no nonsense affair it is. Every track a winner, but then the number of duff tracks on G.P. & The Rumour's four studio albums can be counted on one finger. If you -haven't got Howlin' Wind, Heat Treatment, Stick To M e or Squeezing Out Sparks then I advise you to get them! If you can't afford them all then get High Times. This is rock and roll at its grit tiest, 'cos when Parker sings 'Sometimes I feel like pouring it all out' that's exactly what he does. It would be very hard for me to put a best-of Parker compilation together, but whoever has done this one has done it pretty well. All non-converts investigate at first opportunity. — Donald Robertson BABBLE Kevin C oyne and Oagmar Krause (VIRGIN L37056)
resulting, no doubt, in many people's in troduction to the songwriter in an unrepresentative-of-his-talent disc. But redemption is at hand! BABBLE is up there with his previous triumphs, such as Blame it on the Night (not locally released), Marjory Bazorblade (a double, but released out here as a single album: They also cut a verse out of Eastbourne Ladies!), and in fact all the rest, except as I said before. Heartburn : of which he himself says "You can tell by the title it wasn't up to much". Babble's one of those 'concept albums' (though don't shudder, as here it works out well) that tells of a couple's love story — ’i.e. falling in love and out again. Put like this, the album sounds on a par with Mills and B oon, but let me assure you that it's handled a mite more passionately than the aforementioned works and doesn't rely on mawkish sentiment. Anyway, all the songs were written by Kevin, who sings them as he knows best. Alongside, he has a collaborator, DAGMAR KRAUSE, a lady whose voice adorns half of the tracks, and lest ye be wondering perfectly complements Mr. Coyne's, in other words, she leaves your Patti Smith's and such likes in the shade for guality of tone and depth of feeling. Now here's the controversial aspect. It was "inspired by Myra Hindley and Ian Brady, the two English moors murderers" — Kevin's own words. However, this point seems-to be rather inconseguential to the message, as no mention of it is made on the album, which is billed as 'Songs for lonely lovers'. So how do I end this review? Let me say that any of you who have experienced the heave- ’ ho or the wrong end of the stick in a relationship is bound to see- some part of themselves in Babble! Go and buy it. — Robert Tilley TELEX Looking Eor St. Tropez (RCA)
seems that the country that brought you plastic punk in the shape of Plastic Bertrand has now created plastic electronic disco music. B ock Around The Clock, Twist A Saint Tropez and their version of Cd Plane Pour Moi are worth a listen for a bit of fun, but otherwise, for robots only. — Goose SANTANA Marathon (CBS) Just recently, W oodstock was aired on television screens across Australia. Why, I'm not guite sure — perhaps it was to co-incide, and thus cash-in on the release of Hair: the movie, or even the staging of the new Woodstock; but that's getting away from the point. Never having seen it before, W oodstock was guite an education. Among the other acts appearing was Santana. Now I've never liked Santana much, but their p erform an ce on W ood stock suggested that they weren't all bad — certainly Carlos Santana himself playc<i with a fluid elegance, and the band never faltered. But by now — and I'm not really sure what's happened in the interim because I've never been interested — Santana have lost what spark they did possess at Woodstock and entered the same league as the ELO's and Chicago's of the world. Marathon — with it's incongruous com bination of Greek and Latin-American imagery — is yet another product of that Californian genre, 'product' being the operative word. It lacks commitment, vitality, imagination, and above all, personality. — Clinton Walker.
procured with great difficulty, and for not a cent under twenty dollars. On the cover, he grimaces .slightly, like a morose Confederate soldier. On record, he sings as a soulful Southern poet, with melancholy and homeless craving: songs like Yankee Lady, and Brand New Tennessee W altz. All this is very ironic because at the time, Winchester was in fact self-exiled in Montreal dodging the draft, and his longing for his American homeland was as factual as it was mythic. Eight years later, the legend, durable as it was, wears a little thin. Black D og and the aforementioned songs are, ahem, touching but there's really very little that lasts the distance. A deeply felt and genuine piece of vinyl for sure, and cheaper these days too, but I doubt I'll ever catch myself playing it again. — Richard McGregor QUASAR Nebular Trajectory (Australian Creative Recording) I saw Ouaf?ar onoc, m a y b e ^ven a few times, if my hazy memory serves me correctly. The band is almost an Institution in Queensland, where they still reside, and as such they're kind of hard to avoid. I w^s living in Queensland a few years ago, and my guest to relieve the boredom that's intrinsic there often found me in the most unlikely situations. That's how I stumbled ('stumbled' being the operative word — you've got to drink, or take drugs, just to survive in Queensland) across Quasar. Apart from knowing that I always hated them, my only vivid recollection of Quasar is of one of the goose-necked guitarists an nouncing a song called Entropy. Entropy\1 They've gotta be kidding', I thought. But no....
TODD RUNDGREN Back To The Bars The least I expected of Quasar was that they (Bearsville) might gracefully retire from the public eye FOGHAT and, say, become session musicians (which "Fantastic, unbelievable, an outstanding After that great clip on Countdown and then N ightshiit they'd competently do, considering the artistic success": terms that would have hearing their truly bizarre rendition of Bill (Bearsville) nature of the Queensland recording in cropped up more than once in this review, Haley's B ock Around The C lock I expected dustry...) But no, again. JESSE WINCHESTER had I not tempered my gushing PRAISE with great things from this album. A slightly Quasar have made an album, and it's called A BIT of semi-literate ability. poppier version of Kraftwerk? Unfortunately Jesse W inchester Nebular Trajectory. (Bearsville) B abble follows close on the heels of Kevin not! The opening trackM oskowDiskow sets a So what can I say? The album's music Coyne's previous album Millionaires and pace that is maintained throughout the Long ago, on Albert Grossman's Bearsville matches the hollow pretension of it's title, and Teddy B ears, a work I thought (along with album. It's a pity because the humour of this label, Todd Rundgren produced the first half it's individual song titles, like Entropy (yes, Heartburn, just locally re-released), to be album is overshadowed by the boring, of the first Foghat album. He also engineered it's there). Images Erom The Abyssal Plain, Kevin's worst effort so far. Unfortunately it repetitive and melody-lacking music. Isolate and M ysteries o f Elevsis. had the distinction of coming out when Kevin one or two tracks and they're great but it's Jesse Winchester's recording debut. All 3 have re-releases through Festival this month, It's missing everything that the sleeve notes was finally getting the attention he deserved, impossible to play a whole side through. It and I'm pleased to preside over their in- claim it possesses — 'feel, passion, reflection . significant reunion in a record review. and that essential ingredient: madness'. You can forget Foghat straightaway. They Quasar's music is purely a calculated are just another dumb rock group with ab technical exercise, and even then it's solutely nothing 'to say. No doubt they've inadeguate. PTY. LTD. worked hard and given a lot of pleasure to a The afore-mentioned sleeve notes make it lot of people, but our world would be just the obvious that Quasar are out to out-do their same if they never existed. idols, which is shallow enough in itself, but One of the largest Hire Services for Amplifiers, A c e -p ro d u ce r and carrot-head, Todd then, who wants to out-do redundant P.A.’s, M icro^ones, Guitars, Drums, Electric Rundgren should command a lot more technicians? Admittedly, the band do cite Pianos, Echo-Units. respect. On Back to the Bars, he comes alive some real stars, like drummers like Max Sales of Fender, Gibson, Ibanez Guitars Altec, Etone Speakers. Fender, Acoustic, for the duration of 4 sides of music, but Roach, Elvin Jones and Art Blakey, as in Peavey Amps. unfortunately, the listener isn't inspired to do fluences, but the all-important element — the the same. A few moments of musical majesty spirit — with which these people played is WE’RE BIG IN FENDER (see Black & White, Beal Man, Love in absent within Quasar. SPECIALISTS IN A ction ) do not compensate for the lack of pop Another note on the sleeve states that, 'THE sensibility he's capable of. . REPAIR WORK PRODUCTION OF THIS ALBUM HAS BEEN Compared with his best. Back to the Bars is ASSISTED BY THE MUSIC BOARD OF THE tedious, bloated and overblown. In short, it's AUSTRALIA COUNCIL': Haven't they got a bad album. Diehard fans will allow Todd anything better to spend their efforts on? this indulgence, and they probably did so by RANGE OF T/SHIRTS & JACKETS In Queensland alone (while we're in the buying it on import many months ago. HIGH QUALITY INSTRUiWENTS area) there's bands like the G o Betweens, Jesse W inchester is an older and more who are making what is the truly vital music TERMS & CONDITIONS AVAILABLE AGENTS FOR OVEREEM worthy Bearsville re-release. Produced by (if of another genre, which is irrelevant EQUIPMENT Robbie Robertson in 1971, it marked Win anyway). But of course they can't play like OTHER b r a n d s AVAILABLE chester's recording debut. Sadly for him, it Quasar, can they? FREE INFORMATION & QUOTES was relegated to the bargain bins on release. After Hours No, but they feel what they play, and they 263 3773 or 47 5952 or 46 2338 Then it disappeared altogether. And when know what they're playing, and they know 231 WAYMOUTH ST., ADELAIDE the word spread, and Winchester became a what they're not playing. cult hero (yawn), the record could only be — Clinton Walker.
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