r
THE
D R U
The ‘Shake Some Action’ Song Competition
Before going off the airwaves for its summer recess, Radio 6NR’s new music programme ‘Shake Some Action’ threw its mailbox wide-open, inviting any in terested musical parties to submit demo tapes for a song competition with the winner receiving studio time at Andy Priest’s Shelter Studio. In the process, winners could be virtually assured of a single in the stores and backing to the hilt by Perth underground radio heavies Messrs. Purvis and Gee. With fourteen submissions received, the first show for the semester, to air in early February promfsed to'be interesting, and the high standard of entries received ensured keen competition.
YEAH HUP! News swept through Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide branches of the Radio Birdman Fan Clubs (hastily reconvened when the news of the imminent release of the legendary Rockfield Tapes recorded by the band in mid 1978 at Dave Edmunds’ fainous Rockfield studios in Monmouth, Wales, broke last month) early this month of an up and coming one-off tour by three of Birdman, Deniz Tek, Warwick Gilbert and Rob Younger with two members ot the legendary Stooges, Ron and Scott Asheton, guitarist and drummer respec tively on the three early Seventies Iggy Pop and the Stooges albums, ‘Stooges’, ‘Fun House’ and
,,y i f
m
\ ....
The revamped Saints’ debut album, ‘Monkey Puzzle Tree’ just released on their own Lost Record label, through E.M.I., sold 12,000 copies in France in its first two weeks of release. The band are at present residing and working in Paris and will be undertaking a British tour shortly. Another band who record for their own label. Midnight Oil, absolutely slayed an estimated audience of 5,000 at the open-air Adelaide University Orientation Ball. It was part of a brief series of dates which included the re-opening of Selina’s in Sydney, where the band handed out shirts to enable fans in T-shirts to beat the idiotic dress restrictions and gain entry. Although he couldn’t be specific while in Adelaide lead singer Peter Garrett hinted at the possibility of major developments for the band in the next couple of months, including recording their next album overseas. Next Split Enz tour is not being promoted by Michael Gudinskfs Premier Artists, but rather by Premier’s main Sydney and Melbourne rival. Nucleus. Interesting, as without prior exception, all bands signed to Gudinski’s Mushroom Records have gone through the Premier agency. The Enz tour, the first without drummer Malcolm Green, leads up to the release of their follow up to the wildly (‘beyond anyone’s dreams’) successful ‘True Colours’ and is to be called ‘Corroboree’ in this country, ‘Waiata’ in . New Zealand and the U.S.A., and ‘Jamboree’ in the U.K. and Europe. Initially the band wanted to have a different name for the album in each country, but eventually settled on the three. Cold Chisel double live ‘Swingshift’ released March 23rd. The now four times platinum, (over 200,000 copies sold) ‘East’ is released in the U.S.A. this month and it now looks as if the band will start their first U.S. tour sometime in June. And Dirty Pool stablemates, the Angels are drummerless after the amicable and long antici pated resignation of Graham ‘Buzz’ Bidstrup. Buzz
‘Raw Power’. The band will hit the road under the banner of ‘New Race’, the title of Birdman’s most anthematic song, and at present the tour is scheduled for mid April through 1o mid May, and covering Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Brisbane. There are no real details about which material the band will be playing but since the Stooges had a seminal influence on the Birdman sound it shouldn’t be hard for the band to put together a top quality repertoire. At this stage the proposed tour looks like being handled by the band themselves in association with Trafalgar Studios where Birdman recorded both their albums (‘Radio’s Appear’, Mkl and II) and on whose label both albums appear. Dirty Pool were interested in promoting the tour at one stage but have since dropped out of the bidding.
The judging panel was a mixture of people from record stores, recording engineers, the ‘Shake Some Action’ crew, and the occasional rock journalist. The six judges awarded each act a score out of ten, based on their own personal criterion of ‘quality’ which, considering the panel’s constituents, allowed all musical participants a fair analysis. Musical content ranged from ’76 punk to arty synthesiser meanderings to some sort of pop to pure pop to successful attempts at creativity. The event provided a few surprises with virtually unheard of popsters, Eddie Kapelis, Harlequin Tears, and Stray Tapes all polling well. However, the more established, slightly more polished, inventive Perth bands such as The Plants, The Triffids and The Scientists fared best. The one exception to this though was a new band. Confessions, who, despite being together for a mere three weeks, performed taut, sparse, inspired original material, and were clearly the band with the most promise.
The bands which fared worst with the judges were the synthesiser and ‘dirge’ bands. ‘No Actresses’ and ‘SX 1’ polled lowly and while The Plants could be said to fit into the synth category, the latter band appeared more inspired and let sufficient humanity through to make the judges think that the musicians were, in fact, playing the machines, not vice versa. In a nail-biting finish. The Triffids were victorious by a half note from dark horse outsiders Confes sions who were half a point again in front of the magnificent Scientists. Here are the final scores: Triffids 54 Confessions 5316 Scientists 53 Plants 45 Stray Tapes 4316 Harlequin Tears 43 Helicopters 43 Eddie Kapelis 42 Audio Damage '40 Nobodies 3716 Accident 3616 Ground Zero 3116 SX-1 24 No Actresses 22 Apart from allowing fresh talent to surface, ‘Shake Some Action’s’ competition demonstrated that there is still vitality in a Perth scene which has been under the dupe of another radio station’s competition for commercial, slick, safe bands who get off on Beatles and Joe Jackson cover versions. Justice was done and The Triffids were victori ous, however the evening was tinged with melancholy because it was announced that The Scientists are calling it quits. Yet The Triffids won’t be the only band committed to vinyl in the near future for The Scientists will be releasing an L.P. consisting of 12 to 15 songs. Backing tracks have b6en completed and as you read this, the band should be involved with finishing touches. The L.P. should be avail able in April or May.
KIM WILLIAMS
-V.;
had apparently informed the band of his decision before they started their U.S./Europe tour, but waited until the completion of the AC/DC tour before making the news public. When asked about a possible replacement a spokesman for Dirty Pool said, “ I never knew there were so many drummers in Sydney. They haven’t stopped coming in the door all week. But we haven’t even started rehearsing with anyone yet.” Official reason given for Buzz’s departure was ‘tour fatigue’ and it is expected that he will concentrate on songwriting, which is in a totally different vein to that of the Angels, and production. An exodus of Adelaide bands in an easterly direction starts this month with the Units heading for Sydney, with a two week stopover in Mel bourne, and both the Bad Poets and Beat Detectives going to Melbourne. Soon to follow perhaps are the new three piece (two synth’s and guitar) Nuvo Bloc, who debuted at Adelaide’s Warehouse on the 1st March. The single recorded by the old six piece Bloc’s is currently receiving strong airplay on 3RRR-FM.
RR reviewer Dirk Warhol gets into the act with Slim
(pic Steve Keough)
THE ROADRUNNER CASSETTE! FAME AND FORTUNE COULD BE YOURS! Having been heavily influenced by Adam Ant recently, and particularly by his attitude that if an idea is good then it’s worth nicking and making some use of it, we brazenly bring you, the young (and not so young) unrecorded bands of Australia, the chance of a lifetime. Well, probably this week anyway, if you’re not doing much else. Y’see, top selling U.K. weekly music bible, N.M.E. in association with the ultimately street credible Rough Trade label, recently offered for sale through the magazine a cassette featuring 81 minutes of music from 20 British groups at the iolly
decent price of A$3.10. The cassette featured previously unavailable cuts from the likes of Ian Dury, the Buzzcocks, the Specials, the Beat, Pere Ubu plus offerings from the less well known Josef K, Orange Juice, Wahl, Heat, Cabaret Voltaire etc etc. This cassette will be available in this country' through Rolling Stone’s Gap Records later in the year. Now it seemed rather a good idea to do an Australian version of this cassette. Many bands have ‘demo tap es’ played on local non commercial FM radio stations, and many more make recordings but can’t really find any outlet for them. What we intend to do is audition tapes from any band interested enough to participate, choose a certain number and offer a cassette compilation
to our readers (that’s you) at a ridiculously low price. Any profit made frorh the exercise will be distributed among the participating bands. If you have a demo tape and do find the idea interesting just send your tape to ROADRUNNER, Box 90, Eastwood, S.A. 5063. If you wish the tape (preferably reel to reel) to be returned please include return postage. Line-up and brief history of band or artist would also be appreciated. Well? What are you waiting for? P.S. Due recognition should also go to Mel bourne’s ‘Fast Forward’ cassette magazine, edited by Bruce Milne and Andrew Maine, for pioneering work in this area. The third issue of ‘F.F.’ is now available in the more discerning record outlets.
ROADRUNNER 3
i;