The McGill Tribune Published bv the Students’ Society of McGill University.
r i nie Spoons
Volume 3, Issue 4, Tuesday, September 27, 1983 r
by Ralph Quirino Tribune Features Editor
Things are looking up for Toronto new-music group The Spoons. Within the next few days, the band will be releasing a new record and appearing at McGill in the Union Ballroom on October 1. After the Canadian success of Arias a n d S ym phon ies, their previous release, the group embarked on an American tour with the Culture Club. Guitarist and vocalist Gordon Deppe admitted they enjoyed the experience and got along extremely well with the Club’s members and crew. The release of T alkback (on Ready
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Records) marks a departure in style for the band. Along with producer Nile Rogers, The Spoons are aiming for a tighter, hard-edged sound. Recorded at Toronto’s new Sounds Interchange studios and mixed at New York’s Power Station, this new sound focuses less on rhythm machines and spacey symphonies, more on natural drums, piano, guitars and vocals. Rogers, who has produced albums for Chic, Debbie Harry and David Bowie, is the perfect ange, f producer to carry-off the change “ He’s very good at what he does, ” adxpos- I mined Gordon, “ I had not been expos
ed to his work until only recently. He treated us as equals in the studio.” With Rogers, the group is trying to avoid categorization, attempting to capture the best of North American and European music styles. “ The Europeans work to create aural land scapes of lush and smooth sound while the North American tradition is distinct, very hard and gets back to basics.” Gordon cited Thomas Dolby
MUM
by Brian Todd
The arrival of a new publication, the M cGill University M agazine (MUM), on campus last week has sparked a controversy based not only on the magazine’s contents but the title as well. The M cGill University Magazine, written and produced by Linda Frum, daughter of CBC-TV journalist Bar bara Frum, with help from her brother David Frum, a student o f Yale Univer sity, professes what Linda herself ad mits to be right-wing views. The magazine was produced with the help o f private donations o f alumni and various corporate groups, apparently including the Bank of Montreal. The
magazine lists the University Centre as its mailing address. However, it has no office or mailbox there and is in no way connected with the Students’ Society. (Groups using space in the Student Union must be recognized by the Students’ Society.) One controversy surrounding the magazine is the title. The words McGill University are copyright. The permis sion to use these words must be granted by the Board of Governors of the University. The Board has granted the
McGillFEST
bv Brian Todd
Jean Chrttiet: will participate in McGHIFest’s opening ceremonies. Final preprarations have reached a fever pitch this week as all the par ticipants in McGillFEST, McGill’s Open House ’83, prepare their displays and presentations for the expected 100,000 people who will flood the cam pus this weekend. Entries for the 10km Road Race closed last Thursday but a final count on the number of participants was not available at press time. However, the organizers of the event expect it to be the largest in the McGillFEST Celebra tion with more than 1000 runners star ting off on a 10km course through
■N Mont-Royal, from the starting-line at the Roddick Gates to the finish-line back on the lower campus. The race will begin at 11:30 a.m. on Saturday morning with Principal Johnston, his family and Doctor Roger Hand, the Director of the McGill Cancer Centre, leading the pack. The McGill Cancer Centre will receive the benefits of the $5 entrance fee. Both Loto Quebec and Labatt have joined he race as major sponsors. They will provide courtesy vans, starting and finishing banners as well as timing devices and all the-other necessities of a race as large as this. Almost any interest that you have will be catered to at McGillFEST. There will be demonstrations in Chinese cooking and calligraphy, com puter games and technology, music (both jazz and classical) and science. The “ Magic of Chemistry” , a 45 minute multi-media show with slides, magic and chemistry demonstrations is being presented by the Chemistry Department on Saturday and Sunday. A little bit of the old magic of alchemy will return when the Chemistry Depart ment wizards puts on this show com plete with explosions, volcanoes, burn ing money, traffic lights and rockets. The show is based on the history of chemistry but has a special emphasis continued on page 2...
Students’ Society the right to use the word McGill. It, in turn, grants this name to groups it officially recognizes. Miss Frum has requested permission to use the name McGill University but was turned down by both groups. The University is currently discussing the matter with Miss Frum and at the time o f writing both parties appeared to be near a compromise. The other controversy involves the cover of the M cG ill University Magazine, which features a reproduc tion of the M cGill Daily's Lesbian and Gay Special Issue o f February 14, 1983, overlaid with words “What Are You Going To Do About It?” This technically violates copyright laws which prohibit reproduction of the en tire contents of the Daily without per mission. While the Daily is considering legal action involving the cover, a staff meeting, held Friday, September 23, was more concerned with how the Dai ly would respond to what Albert Nerenberg, Senior News Editor o f the D a ily , calls “ hate litera tu re” , “ hearkening back to the good old days when some groups would not have been permitted into the university.” The Daily staff all agreed that certain impressions about the Daily created by the M cGill University M agazine through incorrect or misleading facts would have to be corrected. The controversy surrounding both the magazine and its creator has gone far beyond the campus o f old McGill. The stress the magazine puts on its “ New Right” philosophy, as well as its views on publicly-funded education has struck many who think ot universi ty as the breeding grounds for left leaning idealists. The M on treal Gazette, C JA D , CBC Channel 6 and C BC R ad io’s Morningside are all in terested in this story for one reason or another. The M cG ill U niversity Magazine controversy is not over yet. While the M cGill University Magazine certainly offers a “ New Voice on Cam pus” , it is unclear whether this is “ A Magazine for the Rest of Us” as the subtitle proudly proclaims.
as an artist who had managed to syn thesize the best of both worlds. Other members in the band are San dy Horne on bass and vocals, Derrick Ross on drums and keyboardist Rob Preuss. The band cites some of its’ favorite music as coming from Van couver’s Images In Vogue, Ireland’s U 2, and the U .K.’s The Passion and Natural Sound. Their music has been very well received in Italy, France and Sweden but did not fare as well in England. In major American cities, au diences reacted favorably; cities like New York, Los Angeles and Dallas have strong suport for the band. “ There’s a curiosity building up about Canadian bands. American audiences look up to us as a mini-Europe sometimes. “ There are a few good Canadian cities supporting us. The big centres are really exciting: Montreal, Vancouver, Toronto and Calgary. There’s quite an interesting scene in Calgary. It’s emerging as a new-music centre.” Montrealers will get a first-hand listen to the new songs at the Ballroom concert. They focus on the clash bet ween the everyday world and the fan tastic. In My Favorite Page, a man steps into the world o f a book he has read and reread many times, in Time Stands Still a woman protects a man from any and all harm. “ I can walk in to traffic/’Cause I know you’ll hold back the cars,” he sings. Old fans of the group will not be disappointed by the new direction, new fans will enjoy the harder, more driving beat. “ There’s still enough there so that peo ple know it’s still The Spoons,” Gor don told me. The group heads out for a mini-tour of the Maritimes after the McGill date and will begin planning a series of videos to help promote the new album which may see American release in the New Year. “ Videos are really necessary for new bands, they’re almost a calling card. Sending a video tape ahead o f you gets people to know you before you get there. It’s a form of exposure, the way cassettes were a few years ago. Our videos will have some humor and a distinctly human element.” These will be co-produced by the band and video-director,Rob Quartley. “ Our new sound is very close to the way we are on stage. We’re trying to come back down to Earth. We’re look ing forward to being in Montreal again. Montrealers are a great crowd.” The band has been in Montreal previously, once as the opening act for Martha & The Muffins.
Tickets for the event are going for $6.00 to McGill students with I.D. and $8.00 for the general public. The event is being sponsored by the Program Board in conjunction with Radio McGill and McGillFEST.