Win Super -Colour Posters of sexyJermaine Jackson ExzrzE

RICO

A BILLBOARD PUBLICATION

!!!FEBRUARY 10.1973 STILL ONLY 6p

DavidCassidy:

In depth review ofhis Rock Me Babyalbum PAGE 11

StevieWonder:

How Superstitionhas made him asuperstar all overgain! PAGE 7

The Starmakers:Great newseriesspotlights thePhil Spector PAGE 12

LITTLE JIMMY OSMOND

RECORD MIRROR, FEBRUARY 10, 1973

album talkRECORD MIRROR

1 1 52 2 4

3 7 . 34 3 85 6 4

6 4 11

7 8 58 11 59 21 3

10 17 3

11 9

12 1213 514 1515 18

16 23

17 24

18 27

19 10

20 13

INGOBLOCKBUSTER Sweet RCA 2305 1

DO YOU WANNA TOUCH ME (OH YEAH!)Gary Glitter Bell BELL 1208 2PART OF THE UNION Strawbs A&M AMS7047YOU'RE SO VAIN Carly Simon Elektra 12077 3DANIEL Elton John DJM DJS 275 4

LONG HAIRED LOVER FROM LIVERPOOLLittleJimmy Osmond MGM 2006109WISHING WELL Free Island WIP 6146PAPER PLANE Status Quo Vetigo 6059071SYLVIA Focus Polydor2001422ROLL OVER BEETHOVENElectric Light Orchestra Harvest HAR 5063

5 IF YOU DON'T KNOW ME BY NOWHarold Melvin Et The Bluenotes CBS 8496

5 ME AND MRS. JONES Billy Paul Epic 10559 THE JEAN GENIE David Bowie RCA 23029 CAN'T KEEP IT IN Cat Stevens Island WIP 61525 PAPA WAS A ROLLIN' STONE

Temptations Tamla Motown TMG 8394 WHISKY IN THE JAR

Thin Lizzy Decca F133552 SUPERSTITION

Stevie Wonder Tamla Motown TMG 8415 TAKE ME HOME COUNTRY ROADS

Olivia Newton -John Pye 7N 255999 BALL PARK INCIDENT

Wizzard Harvest HAR 50629 HI HI HI/C. MOON Wings Apple R 5973

21 16 9

22 49 2

23 14 8

24 20 11

25 34 3

26 22 527 19 1328 32 4

29 39 2

30 33 4

31 26 5

32 28 933 25 11

34 42 2235 47 2

36 43 3

37 36 1338 29 1139 31 8

40 38 15

41 35 1142 - -43 -

44 -45 37

46 40

47 30

48 -

10

4

10

49 46 2

50 41 6

BIG SEVEN Judge Dread Big Shot B 1613LOOKING THRU' THE EYES OF LOVEPartridge Family Bell BELL 1278ALWAYS ON MY MINDElvis Presley RCA 2304HELP ME MAKE IT THROUGH THE NIGHTGladys Knight Et The PipsTamla Motown TMG

830TAKE ME GIRL I'M READY Jnr. Walker EtThe Allstars Tamla Motown TMG 840RELAY The Who Track 2094106CRAZY HORSES Osmonds MGM 2006142BABY I LOVE YOUDave EdMonds Rockfield ROC 1REELIN' AND ROCKIN'Chuck Berry Chess 6145020HOCUS POCUS Focus Polydor 2001211

BIG CITY/THINK ABOUT THATDandy Livingstone Horse HOSS 25SOLID GOLD EASY ACTION T. Rex EMI Marc 3Ben Michael Jackson

Tamla Motown TMG 834BIG SIX Judge Dread Big Shot BI 608IF IT WASN'T FOR THE REASON THATI LOVE YOU Miki Anth-Jny Bell BELL 1275THERE'S GONNA BE A SHOWDOWNArchie Bell Et The Drells Atlantic K 10263WHY Donny Osmond MGM 2006119SHOTGUN WEDDING Roy C. UK 19DESPERATE DANLieutenant Pigeon Decca F13365MY -DING -A -LING Chuck Berry Chess 6145019

GUDBUY T'JANE Slade Polydor 2058312FEEL THE NEED IN MEDetroit Emeralds Janus 6146020I'M JUST A SINGER (IN A ROCK AND ROLLBAND) Moody Blues Threshold TH 13

AIN I- DON'T SHOOT ME I'M ONLY THE

PIANO PLAYER Elton John DJM DJLPH 4275 4 THE STRAUSS FAMILY

Cyril Ornadel /L. S. 0.SLAYED? Slade

4 SIMON Et GARFUNKEL'SGREATEST cbs 69003

5 8 THE RISE AND FALL OF ZIGGY STARDUSTDavid Bowie RCA Victor SF 8287

6 2 BACK TO FRONTGilbert O'Sullivan

7 3 NO SECRETS Carly Simon8 7 8 TOO YOUNG Donny Osmond9 16 2 HEARTBREAKER Free

10 11 20 PORTRAIT OF DONNYDonny Osmond

11 13 4 MOVING WAVES Focus12 6 18 CATCH BULL AT FOUR

Cat Stevens13 15 10 SEVENTH SOJOURN

Moody Blues14 12 4 PILEDRIVER Status Quo15 9 8 CRAZY HORSES Osmonds16 23 4 FOCUS 3 Focus17 41 3 BREAD WINNERS

Jack Jones RCA Victor SF 828018 10 10 25 ROCKIN' AND ROLLIN' GREATS

Various K -TEL NE 49319 45 2 TALKING BOOK

Stevie Wonder20 30 4 SPACE ODDITY

David Bowie21 42 3 HUNKY DORY

David Bowie22 18 27 NEVER A DULL MOMENT

Rod Stewart Mercury 6499 15323 43 11 MOTOWN CHARTBUSTERS VOL. 7

Various Tamla Motown STML 11215- 1 IMAGINEJohn Lennon / Plastic Ono Band

Apple PAS 1000425 14 57 BRIDGE OVER TROUBLED WATER

Simon Et Garfunkel CBS 6369926 22 10 THE OSMONDS LIVE MGM 2315 11727 25 3 THE BEST OF BREAD Elektra K 4211528 19 4 ALL DIRECTIONS

Temptations Tamla Motown STML 1121829 31 4 GUTTER Gary Glitter Bell BELLS 21630 28 4 TEASER AND THE FIRECAT

Cat Stevens Island ILPS 915431 17 6 DEEP PURPLE (MADE IN JAPAN)

Deep Purple TPSP 35132 37 4 EVERY PICTURE TELLS A STORY

Rod Stewart Mercury 6338 06333 - 1 CARAVANSERAISantana CBS 6529934 29 4 SING ALONG WITH MAX

Max Bygraves Pye NSPL 1836122 DYNAMIC hits vol. 2

Various K -TEL TE 29136 21 18 20 ALL TIME HITS OF THE 50's

Various K -TEL NE 49037 35 5 BEN

Michael Jackson Tamla Motown STML 1122038 33 11 20 FANTASTIC HITS VOL. 2

Various Arcade 2891 00239 ALL-TIME GREATEST HITS

Roy Orbison Monument MNT 6729040 20 44 SLADE ALIVE Slade Polydor 238310141 1 TAPESTRY

Carole King42 39 4 SOUND OF MUSIC

Soundtrack RCA Victor SB/RB 661643 - 1 THE MAN WHO SOLD THE WORLD

David Bowie RCA Victor LSP 4816- 1 ANDY WILLIAMS GREATEST HITSVOL. II CBS 65151TRILOGYEmerson, Lake Et PalmerAMERICAN PIE is it not in the Top 50? WhereDon McLean United Artists UAS 29285 are the fans? So what about

47 50 3 MONTY PYTHON'S PREVIOUS ALBUM next week? The PartridgeMonty Python's Flying Circus Family should go higher. ICharisma CAS 1063 have a horrible feeling that

24

HELLO HURRAY 44Alice Cooper Warner Bros. K 16248COME SOFTLY TO ME 45 32 2New Seekers Polydor 2058315THE LOVE IN YOUR EYES 46 34 2Vicky Leandros Philips 6000081NIGHTS IN WHITE SATINMoody Blues Deram DM 161AVENUES AND ALLEYWAYSTony Christie MCA MKS 5101 48 -THE SHEPHERD'S SONG

Tony Osborne Sound Philips 6006266 49I'M ON MY WAY TO A BETTER PLACE

Polydor 2659 0141 9 Polydor 2383163

29

5

12

4

1

MAM 502Elektra K 42127MGM 2315 113

Island ILPS 9217

MGM 2315108Polydor 2931 002

Island ILPS 9206

Threshold THS 7Vertigo 6360 082

MGM 2315 123Polydor 2659 016

Tamla Motown STMA 8007

RCA Victor LSP 4813

RCA Victor SF 8244

A&M/Ode AMLS 2025

Island ILPS 9186

Soundtrack Warner Bros. K 46127 the 50.40 3 THE MUSIC OF JAMES LAST

chartchatterNO change in the Top Two.Sweet still hold the upperhand. The Strawbs are nowmoving up to present someworry to Messrs. Sweet andGlitter. Status Quo havemoved into the Top 10 as haveELO with their exciting ver-sion of Roll Over Beethoven.We expected big strides fromFocus and Sylvia goes up 12places to number 9.

Outside of the Top 10 wehave Top Twenty entries fromIrish group Thin Lizzy withtheir bang up-to-date versionof the folk song Whisky In TheJar, Stevie Wonder with hisdelightful Superstition movingfrom 24 (first time in lastweek) to 17, Judge Dread withhis brand of humour is there at16 with Big Seven and ourguest star of the week on pagethree, Olivia Newton -Johnmust be feeling happy forTake Me Home Country Roadsis now moving even faster witha nine place climb to 18. Thebig entry in the 20-30 sectiongoes to the Partridge Familywith an amazing, but perhapsnot too unexpected, leap of 27places. Mr. Cassidy is to thefore again.

Chuck Berry is the big clim-ber from last week's new en-tries, outside of Stevie Won-der, as he gets into the 30 at 29.That should certainly delighthis many fans and obviouslyhe has added many more whogot to know something aboutthe guy from his merry hit of1972.

Miki Anthony must be feel-ing delighted. It's one thing tocome in at 47 but another not todrop out again or languish fora few weeks around thedreaded 50. He has gone up to35 and with the many radio -plays and growing audiencefor easy listening music heshould be there next week inthe 30.

Disco fans must be helpingthe Detroit Emeralds into the50. This three man US grouphave had a succession of hitsin the States. Their past oneshave been If I Love Your Love,I Can'y See Myself DoingWithout You and Do Me Right.Philips took over the Januscatalogue last year and liketheir issuing of Chess are hav-ing considerable success.Talking of Phonogram, onenotices Tony Osborne having abattle to stay in the chart.

The Moody Blues are backonce more and just as wellwith Nights In White Satingiving the biggest drop for theweek. Their I'm J ust A Singer(In A Rock And Roll Band) isin at 43 but not so high assurely expected.

Alice Cooper, our breakingthrough tip, is once more inhitsville with Hello Hurray at44, and talking about breakingthrough El Doomo from Ellisand Bread's Sweet Surrenderare in the bubblers. Whatelse? Step Into A Dream fromWhite Plains, Colin Blunstonewith How Could We Dare ToBe Wrong, Neil Sedaka, That'sWhen The Music Takes Me,and yes, another version ofAmazing Grace. This one isfrom the Shepherd's BushComets. The Jackson Five arebubbling too but heavens why

1 CLOCKWORK ORANGE Amazing Grace will climb into

Polydor 2683 010 Will there be change at theChairmen Of The Board Invictus INV 527 50 26 16 GILBERT O'SULLIVAN HIMSELF MAM 501 top?

IT stares you in the face thisweek. For what else is there todo but make congratulatorynoises to Elton John. Straightto number one in the album50! ! As we've said in RM andChart Parade, Don't Shoot MeI'm Only The Piano Player isa first - rate album.Apart from Roy Orbison, in at39, it's a record re -union withyet again entries from JohnLennon / Plastic Ono Band,Carole King, David Bowie,Andy Williams and Santanaand their '72 hits.Free are still climbing, now at9, as is another '72 hit albumfrom Jack Jones which movesup 24 places to 17. Can't seeElton losing the top spot forsome weeks - what an entry!JASPERIAN JUMPERSSINGLES: Rick Springfield -What Would The ChildrenThink (Capitol) Joe Cocker -Pardon Me Sir, (Cube), TheBeach Boys - California(Reprise) Paul Williams -Life Goes On (A&M).

ALBUMS: Shawn Phillips -Faces (A&M), The BeachBoys - Holland (Reprise),Rick Wakeman - The SixWives Of Henry VIII (A&M)Duncan Browne - DuncanBrowne (RAK).

album forthe chartsRITA COOLIDGEThe Lady's Not For Sale(A&M)Wow! Listen to the openingtrack, My Crew. It gets rightunder your skin - the cool,clear voice of Miss Coolidge. Itsets the scene for a polished,restful album. When you'vefinished jumping and leapingup and down there isn't muchbetter than an album like this

Rita Coolidgeto get relaxed to and some ofthe backing is extremelygood. Some of the songs areFever, Bird On The Wire, I'llBe You're Baby Tonight andInside Of Me. Among the mu-sic people filling in and com-plimenting the Coolidge voiceare Booker T & Priscilla, JohnSebastian AND Al Kooper.

AUDIENCEAudience (Charisma)Here's a good bargain at £1.49- another release on B&C'sadmirable cheap label range.Audience came together in1969 and attracted a lot ofattention, as others like Strayand Quiver, but mysteriouslynever got chart successthough Indian Summer was anAmerican hit single. Last Sep-tember they split - HowardWerth, Trevor Williams, TonyConnor and Keith Gemmel.They recorded three albumsfor Charisma and here's avery good compilation of whatthey were about - listen par-ticularly to the driving sax ofKeith and some of the complexarrangements. It would berather sick if this retro-spective album landed the 50- it's good enough to, but thenAudience were up to it whenthey were together and whatuse is success when every-thing's disbanded? Then, Isuppose they could start upagain. Anyway! Give a goodlisten to this in your recordshop. You will probably endup buying it!

RECORD MIRROR, FEBRUARY 10,1973 3

facts andfiguresUp to February 2, 245 singleshad been issued, some 54 lessthan the corresponding figurefor 1972. EMI head the com-pany release list with 41 is-sues.At the moment there are 13albums in the Top 50 havingsold over 100,000 copies andtwo with million sales, TheSound of Music and DavidBowie's, Rise And Fall OfZigE'V Stardust.

Top selling Mid -Price albums(99p - £1.98) are 1. World ofJohann Strauss. 2. The Worldof Your 100 Best Tunes. 3.World of Mantovani; 4. Nice'N' Easy. 5. Burning Lovefrom Elvis Presley.

Current longest lasting singlein the Top 50 is Chuck Berry'sMy Ding -A -Ling, (14) and BigSix from Judge Dread (21), upto February 3 RM issue. Tothe same date there were 11singles with sales over a quar-ter of a million copies. Theartists in question are Sweet,Little Jimmy Osmond, DavidBowie, Osmonds, Roy C,Moody Blues, Slade, DonnyOsmond, Chuck Berry, JudgeDread. Elton John.Among the top producers ofsingle hits are Phil Wainman(Sweet), Mike Leander (GaryGlitter); Richard Perry (Car-ly Simon); Mike Curb/PerryBotkin (Little Jimmy Os-mond)

The most successful single la-bel (as opposed to record com-pany) at present is TamlaMotown with Stevie Wonder,Gladys Knight & The Pips,Temptations and Jnr Walker& The Allstars.

reviverSHANGRI-LASTrain From Kansas City(Philips)And so will the successfulrevival of Leader Of The Packbe followed by Train FromKansas City? No reason for itnot happening. The other sideby the way is Past, Presentand Future. Another great sobtrack - the A -side. The trainis coming in with the girl'sfiance but, but, but! she's metsomeone else and how is shegoing to break the news andthe train is getting closer allthe time. Buy the single andsome handkerchiefs at thesame time!

jasperianjumperssingles:RICK SPRINGFIELD -What Would The ChildrenThink (Capitol)JOE COCKER - pardon MeSir (Cube)THE BEACH BOYS - Califor-nia (Reprise)PAUL WILLIAMS - LifeGoes On (A&M)

albums:SHAWN PHILLIPS - Faces(A&M)THE BEACH BOYS - Hol-land (Reprise)RICK WAKEMAN - The SixWives Of Henry VIII (A&M)DUNCAN BROWNE - Dun-can Browne (RAK)

fastestrisersPARTRIDGE FAMILY -Looking Thru' The Eyes OfLove. NOW 22UP 27.FOCUS - Sylvia. NOW 9 UP12.MIKI ANTHONY - If ItWasn't For The Reason That ILove You. NOW 35 UP12CHUCK BERRY - Reelin'And Rockin'. NOW 29 UP10.

fastestdroppersCHAIRMEN OF THE BOARD- I'm On My Way To A BetterPlace. NOW 50 DOWN 9.ROY C - Shotgun Wedding.NOW 38 DOWN 9.ELVIS PAESLEY - AlwaysOn My Mind. NOW 23 DOWN9.MOODY BLUES - Nights InWhite Satin. NOW 47DOWN17.

star choice "I'm looking at the Top 50 andI've noticed Mike Anthony hasgone in. I love the record. Ihope it's a big hit for him," sospeaks the lovely girl calledOlivia Newton - John (left)who is herself enjoying a goodchart run with Take Me HomeCountry Roads.So what else Olivia? "Quitelike Stay With Me, ah . . .

Like the New Seeke s andCome Softly To Me, now HocusPocus I heard at Antibes andhave had their album for sev-eral years, like them. Samefor Baby I Love You but I don'tlike T-Rex's latest as much asthe others, love Ben by Mi-chael Jackson and would liketo record it. Great fun, ELOwith Roll Over Beethoven, Al-ways On My Mind makes mefeel very sad but I like it, enjoyCat Stevens, Carly Simons -albums, I like Bread, JackJones, Gilbert O'Sullivan.Trilogy, I haven't listened tobut would like to . . . . andwho should be in the charts,Thelma Houston and RitaCoolidge." Thanks a lot,Olivia. Good luck for yourseason at the Savoy!

PAKCompiled and edited by TONY JASPER

Elton John a millionhowever you look at it!

breaking throughMERRY CLAYTONThe Acid Queen (Olde)

Now if you read singles revie-wer Peter Jones last week youwill know he used words likebeautiful, magnificient, sensa-tional, fiery, inventive and,well, out of breath? The thingis he's right. It's already mak-ing an impact and could be abig hit. It may not be the usualstyle for Merry but what hasthat got to do with this record?It's good, very good - break-ing through.

GEORGIE FAME ANDALAN PRICEDon't Hit Me When I'm Down(Reprise)

Now, I'm a Fame fan fromKlook's Kleek Club days andthis doesn't make any impres-sion on me but so what - salesreturns point to a healthychart entry pretty soon forGeorgie back on anothersingle with Alan Price. Andthen must admit it has a goodcommercial feel to it. So take alook at the charts this week.Could well be there.

JOE COCKERPardon Me, Sir, (Cube)

COCKER HAPPY! was theheadline to last week's RMfeature by Robin Mackie. AndMr Cocker, it's good to see youback with some new tracks,particularly in view of thesurfeit of re-releases on allkinds of labels. What did Rob-in say at the end? Joe Cocker- "without whom rock musicwould be immeasurably poo-rer." Right. And this single ismoving, moving! So is thealbum. Watch the two charts.

ELTON John is away in sunny Jamaicarecording. Another kind of heat is being`generated in Britain and America. -RECORD HEAT.

Take these facts. His latest Americanalbum goes straight into the Top 100. Hissingle Crocodile Rock is number one inthe US charts. Daniel, the latest UKrelease is now at number five. Elton'slatest album, Don't Shoot Me I'm OnlyThe Piano Player, has shot straight tonumber one in our album charts.

Think back. At one time people saidElton was a one album star. His firstEmptySky received pretty lukewarmresponse. The second, Elton John, gotmassive praise. Things went quieterwith Tumbleweed Connection and17/11/70 plus Madman Across The Waterbut they were good records.

Honky Chateau brought the long de-served praise back once more. And nowthe superlatives are out of the latest andindeed very fine album. So, Elton John isriding high. They say he is asking for amillion pounds when he signs his nextmusic publishing contract. One thing issure at the moment. The guy must beearning a million pounds - that'sRECORD HEAT.

ALICE COO"ERHello Hurray (Warner)

Spent a great day last Fridaytalking and playing all kindsof pop at Rochdale YouthCentre. We had a run-throughand comment from the mem-bers on the new singles. Gen-eral reaction to this one? AHIT - though some felt itwasn't as strong as the lasttwo, School's Out and Elected.Obviously it's chart -bound.Interesting to see if it does goas high as the last two. Still,into the 50 for Alice.

HARRY SECOMBEFor My Love (Philips)

Amazing what telly exposurecan do. Harry sang this overChristmas and the letterscame pouring in. As PeterJones mentioned last weekHarry is touring the world atpresent promoting his movieSun Struck. "By the time hegets back, this should be in theFifty. " He gives a lot of plea-sure to many, many people -does Harry. They're busilybuying this single.

THE JACKSON FIVEDoctor My Eyes (Tamla)

Their records are breakingthrough to chart -land the mo-ment the first records hit theshops and get taken away byall those advance orderpeople. So what can one saybut the obvious? A hit for TheJackson Five. The question is- how high will this one go?No, don't write in Jackson 5people. I know - you say thetop. Let's see.

five to tenSomeone has said many a -time that the record worldmoves pretty fast and a look atthe Top Ten from 1963 provesthe point. We had for variousreasons to miss it out last weekand see what's happened -the Beatles are IN plus theSpringfields with of courseDusty soaring high on IslandOf DreamsPlease Please Me gave theBeatles their second single hitfollowing of course Love MeDo. This particular songstayed 11 weeks in the 20 andeventually reached number 2.The next entry came on the27th of April and of coursefrom that moment everyBeetle record for the next 10occasions went straight tonumber one.And five years ago, a welcometo the Tremeloes, plus BrentonWood. Unfortunately forBrenton little would go for himafter this somewhat catchynumber departed from the Top20. Next time Fire Brigadefrom Move and Brenda Leehits the Top 10 of 10 years ago.Keep reviving!

Feb 10,1968

1 Everlasting LoveLove Affair (CBS)

2 The Mighty Quinn -Manfred Mann (Fon-tana)

3 Judy In Disguise -John Fred And HisPlayboy Band (Pye)

4 Am I That Easy To For-get - Engelbert Him-perdinck (Decca)

5 Bend Me Shape Me -The Amen Corner (De -ram)

6 Suddenly You Love Me- Tremeloes (CBS)

7 Ballad Of Bonnie AndClyde - Georgie Fame(CBS)

8 Gimme Little Sign -Brenton Wood (Liberty)

9 She Wears My Ring -Solomon King (Colum-bia)

10 Everything I Am -Plastic Penny (PageOne)

Feb 10,1963

1 Diamonds - Jet Harrisand Tony Meehan (Dec -ca)2 The Next

Time/Bachelor Boy -Cliff Richard (Colum-bia)

3 Please Please Me - TheBeatles (Parlaphone)

4 Wayard Wind -Frank Ifield (Columbia)

5 Like I Do - MaureenEvans (Oriole)

6 Globe Trotter - Tor-nados(Decca)

7 Little Town Flirt - DelShannon (London)

8 Don't You Think It'sTime - Mike Berry(HMV)

9 Dance On - The Shad-ows (Columbia)

10 Island Of Dreams - TheSpringfields (Philips)

americanaElton John reigns supreme inthe singles chart with Wingsthe nearest British entry at 10.Outside the American 50 Brit-ish entries, David Bowie 53(up 7) with Space Oddity;ELP at 59 with Lucky Man(down 8); Engelbert Hum-perdinck's I Never SaidGoodbye at 69 (down 8); TheSweet only up three at 86 withLittle Willie. InterestingAmerican entries outside ofthe 50 Judy Collins, Cook WithHoney at 90; Shawn Phillips(article soon in RM) anothersingle Lost Horizon 83; ArethaFranklin 77 with Master OfEyes. Albums outside of the50, Traffic from 109 to 72.Hurricane Smith 102 to 90, theBee Gees Life In A Tin Can to91 from 154. Elton John firstweek in at 98. (statistics Feb-ruary 10. Billboard charts).

4 RECORD MIRROR, FEBRUARY 10, 1973

WHAT A BLOCKBUSTER!

SWEETSET FORRAINBOWRCA RECORDS presentedSweet with a silver disc lastweek for 250,000 UK sales ofBlockbuster and a gold discfor world wide sales of WigWarn Bam, their big hit of lastyear. Each member of theband also received a silverbracelet to mark the success ofBlockbuster. The group havebeen fixed to make a head-lining appearance at the Rain-bow Theatre in London at theend of next month.

On March 30 the group willmake their debut at the Rain-bow with Geordie, and willfeature songs from their forth-coming history of rock albumalongside their recent hits.

Other March dates for Sweetinclude Intercom Worksop(23), Intercom Nottingham(24), Market Hall, Carlisle(25) and Leeds Town Hall(26).

Double datefor EltonDUE to the closure of twoof the Sundown Theatresin London, Elton John willplay an extra date at theSundown Edmonton on hisforthcoming tour.

Elton was to have ap-peared at the Sundowns atBrixton and Mile End butas these venues have been

TrapezetourTRAPEZE are to undertakean extensive European tour inlate March, involving concertsin Holland, France, Belgium,Germany and Scandinavia.Latest British gigs for theband include Sheffield BlackSwan (February 18), OakenGate lbwn Hall (22) and Pen-zance Winter Gardens (23).The group start work on a newalbum in late February.

More tour gigsfor SteeleyeTHREE extra dates have beenadded to the Steeleye SpanBritish tour which opens at theDe Montfort Hall, Leicester,next Thursday.

The new dates are at theCongress Theatre, Eastbourne(24), Crucible Theatre,Sheffield (March 4), and theRoyal Court Theatre, Liver-pool (9) .

The other dates are Port-smouth Poly (16), Kingston

Poly (17), Colston Hall, Bristol(27), St. Andrew's Hall, Nor-wich (March 2), NewcastleCity Hall (3 ), Free Trade Hall,Manchester (10), WorcesterCollege of Education (12),Plymouth Guildhall (14), HullUniversity (16), Usher Hall,Edinburgh (19), and City Hall,Glasgow (20).

The group then depart ontheir second coast to coast UStour on March 31.

Blackfoot datesBLACKFOOT SUE, currentlycompleting work on their firstalbum for early March re-lease, begin a new series ofclub and college gigs atBromsgrove College on Febru-ary 9. Other dates includeScunthorpe Baths Hall (10),Bletchley Youth Ckntre (14),Heavy Steam Machine, Han-ley (15), Loughton College(16), The Maltings, Cam-

bridge (17), Doncaster TopRank (23), and the Royal Hol-loway College, Egham (24).

Following a trip to Europefor TV, radio and club dates inAmsterdam, Rotterdam andBrussels during late Febru-ary, the band resume Britishgigs at Blackburn Polytechnic(March 1) and MorecambeCollege (March 2).

closed he will now appearat the Edmonton venue ontwo consecutive nights,March 22 and 23.

He is opening the tour aday earlier than pre-viously announced with aconcert at the StarlightRoom, Boston in Lincoln-shire on February 24. Hereturns to Britain to pre-pare for the tour, nextweek, after completingwork on his next album atthe Dynamic Studios onKingston, Jamaica.

Among the London dateson the tour is one at Impe-rial College, on March 12,which was finalised thisweek, as was a tour ofItaly during April.

JR WALKER,TEMPS TO

TOUR HERETHE Temptations and Ju-nior Walker and the AllStars are to tour Britaintogether next month.

The Temptations, whoare currently high in theRM Top 50 with Papa Wasa Rolling Stone tour forthree weeks, and JuniorWalker and his band willsupport the group on all oftheir dates except forcabaret engagements.

Both groups arrive inBritain on March 6 andstart their concert andclub dates on March 9 atthe Hammersmith Odeon.The following night theshow goes on to the OdeonManchester and otherdates are at the De Mon-tfort Hall, Leicester (15),Odeon Lewisham (16), andBirmingham Odeon (17) .

The Temptations then

play a week of cabaret atSheffield Fiesta fromMarch 18 - 24, while JuniorWalker plays a series ofone nighters opening atthe Talk of The South,Southern (March 18).

The two acts join forcesagain for a concert at theLiverpool Empire onMarch 25 and at BrightonDome the following day,with the tour closing atNewcastle City Hall onMarch 27. There will betwo performances at eachof the concert dates.

Before arriving in Brit-ain the groups will appearon the continent and aredoing TV shows in Franceand Germany, and there isa possibilty of a TV specialbeing made of the Tempta-tions while they are in thiscountry.

Berry forHardrock

Slade, Chuck Berry andBeck, Bogert & Appice areamong the names set for Man-chester's Hardrock duringFebruary. Berry returnsthere on February 6, followedby the new Jeff Beck band onFebruary 11, whilst Slade topthe bill on February 27. OtherFebruary signings include theRoy Young Band (10), Fair-port Convention and BabyWhale (22) and a free concert(bands still to be announced)on the 26th.

Beck, Bogart & Appice alsoheadline at the BournemouthHardrock on February 15.

Fumblejoin BowieFUMBLE have been asked byDavid Bowie to join him on hisforthcoming tour of America.This news follows Fumble'ssuccess on Bowie's last Britishtour.

The band will record tracksfor a single which will berushed released in America tocoincide with the U.S. dates.The tour is scheduled to startin Philadelphia 16th, 17th &18th February. Then Nash-ville 23rd, Memphis 25th,March 1st Detroit 4th Chicago10th L. A.

BOOGIE WITH YOUR SPURS ON!

A FEW years ago Spurs were about to sign an aspiring football wizard by the name of RussBallard who later went on to claim fame as part of Argent.

Perhaps Russ will take up football now that the mighty Spurs are getting in on therecording act.

Released this week is a new single by the best (writes Charles Webster / most overrated(writes Peter Jones) team in the country entitled Hot Spurs Boogie. Yeah, boogie with yourboots on.

Best ofBeatlesalbumsoon?FOLLOWING Capitol's de-cision to release a four -album set by the Beatles inAmerica to combat the nu-merous bootleg albumsavailable, EMI is planninga similar issue in the UKwithin a few months.

Using the tentative title,The Best of the Beatles, theAmerican four -album setwill include materialrecorded by the Beatlesprior to 1972. EMI are un-likely to release the record-ings as a set in the UKalthough a different com-pilation is planned forApril/May.

It is understood that talksare stffl in progress regard-ing the possibility of PaulMcCartney signing a newrecording contract directwith EMI although thiscannot take place until theaction to dissolve the Beat-les partnership is decidedin the High Court.

LindaforStatesLINDA LEWIS leaves thisweek for her first major UStour. She will be playing five-day or six -day residences,starting at New York's BitterEnd, and playing Washington,Boston, Philadelphia, Los An-geles and San Francisco dur-ing a six -week stay.

Her album, Lark, has justbeen released there, andLinda will have a new Britishsingle out to coincide with herreturn in March, entitledRock-A-Doodle-Doo.

ELPlaunchown labelEMERSON, Lake and Palmerare to launch their own labelnext month. All future ELPreleases will be on their Manti-core label which they will ownjointly with Island Records,the company which handlestheir current recordings.

Two bands have alreadybeen signed to the label alongwith former King Crimsonman, Pete Sinfield, and thefirst release will be at the endof March.

RECORD MIRROR, FEBRUARY 10, 1973

Mr. Brownis comingback...JAMES Brown make his firstBritish appearance for threeyears when he performs at theRainbow Theatre London onMarch 1.

Brown, who is bringing anentourage of 40 people ineluding his J. B. Orchestraand singer Lyn Collins, ar-rives on the morning of theRainbow show.

He plays two houses, in Lon-don and then goes to Manches-ter for two shows at the Hard -rock the following night. OnMarch 3 Brown gives twomore shows at the Rainbowbefore returning home.

Next week Polydor release aJames Brown maxi single fea-turing Papa's Got a BrandNew Bag, It's a Man's, Man's,Man's World and Out Of Sightfor only 30p. The maxi is ataster for an album of Brownhits, Soul Classics to be re-leased on March 1 and in-cluding 14 tracks.

Also next week, Lyn Collinsreleases a new single, Think(About It) and an album of thesame name comes out onMarch 1. Both are on the Mojolabel.

Lyn joins Brown for yetanother single, this time onPolydor, What My Baby

Needs Now which is released

on February 23. Last of theBrown onslaught is a releaseby the leader of the Brownorchestra, trombonist FredWesley, who together with theJ. B. 's releases the J. B.Shout this week.

Strawbsadd datesto tour

THE STRAWBS, whose newalbum, Bursting At TheSeams, is released this weekafter a two week delay, haveadded a number of dates totheir forthcoming Britishtour.

On February 26 the groupappear at the Royal Hall, Har-rogate, and other new datesfixed are at Carlisle MarketHall (March 24), BirminghamTown Hall (26), Dublin Sta-dium (27), and the Floral Hall,Southport (29).

Two of the dates announcedearlier, at Leeds Town Halland the Sundown Brixton,have been cancelled and thegroup's appearance at the Vic-toria Hall, Stoke-on-Trent hasbeen brought forward toMarch 5.

Yes get backstolen gear

YES this week recovered theequipment stolen on BoxingDay from their Willesdenwarehouse - and an un-named man who supplied in-formation leading to the recov-ery collected a £500 reward!

The man initially telephonedYes' london office, then con-tacted the police who made the

recovery in London the follow-ing day. Police are still contin-uing with their enquiries and acharge is imminent. Theequipment, valued at over£2,500, included two mini-Moogs and the group's cus-tom-made lighting console.The only items not recoveredare a small amplifier and twoleads.

T. Rex decidealbum title

TANX will be the title of the new T. Rex album to be releasednext month. The album will feature 13 new tracks by the bandand a single will be taken from the LP for release later thismonth.

Marc Bolan returned fromLos Angeles this week wherehe has been promoting his filmBorn To Boogie which openedin America recently. Nextweek he takes the band toEurope for a tour which opensin Berlin on Monday.

The tour continues to Essen(16), Hamburg (17), Nurem-burg (18), Vienna (19) , Frank-

OSMOND FILM DELAYEDSWEDISH singer Lars Lon-ndahl took time out to renewacquaintances with the Os-monds recently when he wastouring America. Lars firstmet the group when he workedwith them in Sweden and themeeting pictured here came asthe brothers announced thatwork on their first full lengthfeature film has been putback.

Cabaret engagements in LasVegas and Lake Tahoe in theU. S. mean that there will nowbe a late start to the film, andthere could be a delay in theirnext European tour, but in themean time a new single andalbum by Donny are alreadywaiting to be released and lastmonth the entire group com-pleted work on their next al-bum and single.

Nicaraguabenefit

SUNDAY'S benefit for Nicara-guan Disaster Victims, at theRoundhouse from 3 p. m. to 11,features The Edgar Brough-ton Band, Kingdom Come,Capability Brown, KeithChristmas and Rusty Slug.The entrance price 60p.

The D. J. and compere willbe John Peel, and 'Hoppy' -John Hopkins - has put to-gether some sideshows, in-cluding Graham Stevens' In-flatables and The Schoolgirls'Revolution.

There will also be Cabotclowns (mime artists from theUSA) and films of Nicaragua,where 10,000 - 12,000 wereburied in the earthquakes,200,000 are homeless, and thecapital city, Managua, is 90per cent destroyed.

Montreuxjazz fest

THE resurgence of jazz in theUSA and Europe will be cele-brated simultaneously in NewYork and Montreux, Switzer-land this summer by the inter-national festivals of Montreuxand Newport.Claude Nobs, organiser of theMontreux Jazz Festival an-nounced at Midem that thisyear's festival would run fromJune 29 to July 15 - coincidentwith the Newport Jazz Festi-val in New York which isscheduled for June 30 - July 7.

ISAAC HAYES was the manwho galvanised the Midemgalas out of their usual pre-dictable paralysis of interestand entertainment this year.Isaac Hayes and his singers,dancers and and band.

The Shaft man is a sort ofmusical Sam Goldwyn -BusbyBerkeley. Every move andevery note of the Hayes stageact is calculated to obtain theutmost effect, and every darkgarment and pair of shades isperfectly posed. Hayes him-self heads the cast, of course,from the moment he appearsand a delectably dusky lady ofdelightful shape and shavenhead reverently relieves himof his long robe to reveal theshining black muscles andgold chains beneath.

His dancers are the best -drilled ever seen in Cannes,and do incredibly excitingthings with chairs as part oftheir vigorous routine. Hisband pack a potent in-strumental punch, and wereably assisted by Franck Pour-cel's Midem orchestra. Theonly weak spot of the Hayesact came when he sat on astool to solo in The First TimeEver I Saw Your Face, full ofsoulful sincerity but a merci-less revelation of his vocalshortcomings.

Other artists provided somenotable highlights during thecourse of the three Midemgalas. Esther Ofarim has avery attractive stage person-ality which compensates forher overlong songs and dodgynotes in the upper register;Tony Christie is a competent

fort (20), Saarbrucken (22),Munich (23) and Annaheim(25) with more dates still to beadded in France, Holland andScandinavia, keeping T. Rexaboard until mid March.

The band then return toBritain for a short holidaybefore touring the Far East inApril and May and embark ontheir second American tour inthe early summer.

Cockercancelsconcerts

JOE COCKER has cancelled both of his sell out concerts plannedfor London's Rainbow Theatre next month. Cocker was set toappear with the Chris Stainton Band, but Stainton haswithdrawn from the concerts, and from the Scandinavian tourwhich was planned for Cocker prior to the British dates.

A spokesman for Stainton tried to find a suitable replace -said this week that he had ment for Stainton, but timedecided to give up being "on was against him.the road" to concentrate on theformation and running of hisown studio.

Cocker's manager, NigelThomas said this week that itwas the first time that Joe hasever pulled out of a gig andthat both he and the band were All money will be refundedunset at not being able to from where tickets were pur-appear. Thomas said that he chased.

"Chris was such an impor-tant member of the band thateven had it been possible to getanybody to stand in, there justwasn't sufficient time to re-hearse."

SABBATH TO TOURBLACK Sabbath are to head-line a seven -venue British con-cert tour in March - their firstappearances here in over ayear.

The tour begins at Green'sPlayhouse, Glasgow, onMarch 9; other confirmedvenues include Liverpool Sta-dium (10), Manchester Hard -rock (11),. Birmingham May-fair Ballroom (13), CardiffSophia Gardens (14), RainbowTheatre, London (16) andNewcastle City Hall (18).

A second British tour,spread over three weeks, isplanned for September.

Prior to the March itinerary

here, Sabbath will tour Eu-rope, and through the series,the band will use the RollingStones' mobile unit to recordtheir first -ever 'live' album.Set for release in mid -April, itwill be Sabbath's fifth Vertigoalbum.

Sabbath, who recently re-turned from a tour of Australiaand New Zealand, begin theEuropean tour in Amsterdamon February 16. Others datesinclude Paris (17), Lyon (18),Bologna (19), Novara (21),Vicenza (22), Rome (23), Zur-ich (25), Munich (26), Frank-furt (27) and Stuttgart (28).

live!

Isaac Hayes gets Midemboppin'

professional with the ability ofasserting himself with au-diences in any part of theworld with material such asAvenues And Alleyway,Didn't We, What Becomes OfMy World, and Amarillo, andAustria's Udo Juergen hasthe same capacity in a differ-ent style.

The Nitty Gritty Dirt Banddid well, as did a Beatle-ishAmerican group calling them-selves the Raspberries, andRoberta Flack unwound hersongs with formidable skill

and personality. But the oldMidem problem of several dif-ferent worlds of entertainmentwith no common ground wasthere as before, and artistslike John Prine and to someextent Peter Skellern sufferedthrough no fault of their own,as did Hungary's Sarolta Za-latnay, Poland's Ursula Si-pinska, and Greece's DemisRoussos from the other end ofthe scale.

As tastes and styles vary somuch between continents andcountries, the Midem gala or-ganisers might well build theirbills with this important fact inmind.

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2094108

6 RECORD MIRROR, FEBRUARY 10,1973

THE FACES are cutting their next album this week, butwere not apparent on RUSSELL HARTY'S TV pro-gramme . . . . An interesting week for music on the tube- an excellent CHUCK BERRY film plus interview onLWT's Weekend World . . . . a disappointing perform-ance by THE WHO on the Whistle Test - the twonumbers weren't really up to standard, and they lookeda bit claustrophobic in that little studio . . . . thewinner though was Saturday afternoon, and The GirlCan't Help It, which is still marvellous all those years on- we thought FATS DOMINO won hands down, butEDMOND O'BRIEN's Rockpile was pretty good too. . . And tonight, there's THE MAHAVISHNU OR-CHESTRA, who should be well worth watching . . . .

CARL PALMER almost got lost in the crush atSaturday's BECK BOG ERT APPICE concert at Impe-rial College . . . . Golds well deserved for JONIMITCHELL's For The Roses and DUANE ALIMAN'sAnthology album . . . . Whatever happened to DONMcLEAN's DreideP Following the NEW SEEK-ERS, a group called PINBALL WIZARD has recordedSee Me Feel Me in the States . . . Ah, the power of TOP- TONY CHRISTIE suddenly makes the charts threemonths after the record came out . . . . Did A & Munload more buttons than albums for GROUCHOMARX? How about a follow-up An Evening WithHARPO MARX' . BILL WITHERS married TVstar DENISE NICHOLAS . . . . STONEGROUND haveshed a few, but MARK -ALMOND are now up to eightmembers . . . MIKE LOVE's wife TAMARA gave birthto a little girl, SUMMER DEZA LOVE, and according toour press release, "The Transcendental Meditationceremonies were conducted by friends, the father, andLove's two other children . . . Love, 31, said the baby'smiddle name, DEZA, is a sanskrit word meaning'Goddess' " - so who said 1967's dead? . . . Now thegeneration gap's down to a year - last year it wasSylvia's Mother in the top 10, now it's Sylvia. Rush torecord Sylvia Daughter in '74? . . . ELTON JOHNrumoured to be asking for a million for his musicpublishing rights. . . .

Chuck Berry

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NOWEr HEAR THE NEW SINGLE FROM

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2094108

stateside news eliot tiegelFrom thetubs tothe topsBETTE Midler may havethe distinction of becom-ing a pop singing starafter working before half -naked men in a bath housefrequented mostly by ho-mosexuals.

And there doesn't seemto be anything wrong withthis arrangement, espe-cially in the light of all thefreakiness which has goneon in rock music duringthe past year when therock 'n' rouge set hascamped and vamped itsway to popularity.

So here is a new namebeing entered into thebook of new superstars.She has a hit single DoYou Want To Dance whichhas gained national ex-posure in America and herLP titled, with no concernfor unobtrusiveness, is the"Divine Miss M."

Bette is characterizedas being a little of BarbraStreisand, Judy Garlandand Laura Nyro. She com-bines a dash of campinesswith a dash of vulgaritywith enough show busi-ness spice to keep an au-dience's eyes and ears at-tuned to her at all times.

On disks, it is the powerof her voice which comesthrough clearly and withimpact. And it is for thesecollective reasons that shemay just pull off the trickof emerging as the newest,hottest mama in pop music

in the early 1970's.She combines a sense of

raffishness with a sweet-ness which is ingratiatingin person, and word seemsto have gotten around thecountry quickly for shehas been presented on theJohnny Carson late nightTV show and in concert inmajor cities - all with thesame result: satisfied cus-tomers.

She has already beenapproached to play con-certs in England and onthe continent, but is a bithesitant about makingthat major move. Shelikes to sing current rocktunes, but has gained areputation f6r inter-preting tunes of the 40sand 50s - hits which pre-viously belonged to theAndrews Sisters, theShangri Las and DixieCups.

She works with threegirls she calls the Har-lettes and boogies around,shimming, vampingfrantically and thenchanging direction into anisolated stand still stancecomplete with tender sad-ness on other tunes.

Success has come so fastto her that she finds ithard to accept. But herLP has become a smashand her single is alsoheaded that way.

She gained her first realtouch of professionalismby singing in the chorus ofa Broadway play, "Fid-dler On The Roof" andafter three years of thatquit to pursue a career asa solo vocalist. A friendsuggested she contact theowner of a bath house whowas looking for someone toentertain his gay custom -

Bette Midler

ers. So Bette began sing-ing at "the tubs" as shecalls it.

Bette came out with friz-zy hair in platform shoestrying to look like RitaHayworth the actress.What she looked like didn'tinfluence the way she bel-ted out songs. She profes-ses love for black singerslike Aretha Franklin andBessie Smith, the grandold lady of blues musicand it comes through inthe depths of starknessshe can extract from hertunes. She has the abilityto switch moods withoutany warning but she saysshe tries to find lyricswhich call up images andcolours and textures ofconditions.

She grew up in Hawaii,wanted to be a movie ac-tress and landed an extraspart in the film "Hawaii"

in 1965 which sub-sequently took her to LosAngeles and from thereshe headed to New York tofind herself in GreenwichVillage which led to thepart in "Fiddler."

Last New Year's Eveshe played two concerts inNew York's PhilharmonicHall to standing room onlycrowds. One writer de-scribed the audience as"beautiful boys with longyellow hair out of Clairolbottles and girls in tur-bans and 1940s fox furs. "Her audience for herrecords is, of course, muchwider in scope. And forAtlantic Records, whichspent the money to recordher, it marks its entry intothe super white femalechanteuse field.

Everyone seems to havecome out all right.

around the country tony byworthONE always has certainpreconceived ideas. Forinstance, a confrontationbetween a long haired,country/rock group and anumber of Nashville'sleading traditionalists fora recording session con-jures up certain images.

Such was the case whenthe West Coast's NittyGritty Dirt Band - JohnMcEuen, Jeff Hanna, LesThompson, Jimmie Fad-den and Jim Ibbotson -met up with Roy Acuff,Mother Maybelle Carter,Jimmy Martin, EarlScruggs, Merle Travis andDoc Watson for those aus-picious sessions back inAugust 1971.

It was not, as Jeff Han-na happily recalls, theclash of conflicting forcesas one might have imag-ined. Rather it was aunique blending of highlyindividual skills which re-sulted in a memorabletriple album entitled WillThe Circle Be Be Unbro-ken.

"The Nashville musicscene has, for quite a fewyears now, been wide openfor rock 'n' roll musicians.Since Dylan first wentdown there to recordBlonde On Blonde it's real-ly loosened up. We record-ed some stuff with Earl

Scruggs for one of hisalbums at the same timethat we did the Circlealbum and all the peoplehad nothing but praise forhim. The guys that workin the studios aren't red-necks - that's what itreally all comes down to!

"The album came aboutwhen we did a concert atVanderbilt University inNashville and EarlScruggs and his familycame to see us. They real-ly enjoyed the show and -luckily - we did one of ourbetter performances.Earl mentioned that hewould like to do somerecording with us and wereally flipped at the idea.

"He was going to doSoldier's Joy with John onour next album - whichwould have been the AllThe Good Times album -but he and our producerBill McEuen got talking.Bill had had this conceptfor a long time about doinga tribute to a lot of peoplewe had grown up with -and their music!"

The final result is asplendid salute to tradi-tions which places theNGDB in fine stead asinterpreters of traditionalcountry sounds and mate-rial.

"One thing I regret,"

Hanna continues, "is thatpeople are referring to therelease as a Nitty GrittyDirt Band album. I thinkthat's a kind of a slight tous and to the other peopleon the album. It's more ofa session - I like to referto it as a special project.The whole idea was to getit together between thetwo musical gener-ations. "

Will The Circle Be Un-broken (United ArtistsUAS 9801) was launched inthe United States last Oc-tober. Around the sametime the NGDB playedbefore a 6,000 -strong,highly critical country au-dience at Nashville's an-

nual Disc Jockey Con-vention. There was neverany doubt of their musicalabilities as they workedtheir way through a reper-toire strong in traditionsand a seemingly in-exhaustible array of in-struments.

The sessions had beentalked about with suchwords as "legendary"being used in the samesentence. The NashvilleTennessean, a leadingnewspaper, commentedthat "it may well be one ofthe most- importantrecordings done in the 45years of the Nashville mu-sic business. "

in briefThe vast legions of Jim Reeves fans will have a lot to bepleased with in the arrival of a new publication entitledJim Reeves.And Friends. It's a very comprehensiveand intersting look at the career of this phenomenalsuccessful artist through his recordings, his associatesand his influences. Forty eight pages, handsomelyillustrated - at a price of 25p - makes it a bargain inthe process. It's now available (post free) from AlanCackett, 3 Mayfair Avenue, Postley Farm Estate,Maidstone, Kent ME15 6BX.

If you live in the London area and tonight (February 8)is free, then it's an ideal opportunity to associateyourself with some of Ireland's top country names inone package. It's an Irish Country Music Night at theAlbert Hall and topping the bill you'll find LarryCunningham, Margo, Dermot Hagerty and DermotO'Brian.

RECORD MIRROR, FEBRUARY 10, 1973 7

ROBIN MACKIE interviews Stevie Wonder and discovers that after his change of style it's still...STEVIE Wonder alwaysrealised it would take timefor people to adjust fromthe old Stevie, kid geniusand finger -snapping discofavourite, to the newStevie Wonder, a man witha free hand to experiment- to produce himself, tryout advanced instrumentslike the synthesiser, towrite his own songs, andsay what he feels, to usestudio techniques to thefull, whether or not theresult is going to get themup and frugging on thedance -floor.

And sure enough, therehas been quite a big gapsince the last hit -Heaven Help Us All - andthe last real smash -Signed Sealed Delivered.But Stevie took all theright steps: Where I'mComing From was anexcellent "bridge" albumakin to Bob Dylan'sBringing It All Back Homein the days when he wasswitching from acoustic toelectric - there wasenough simple, danceablematerial to keep thefaithful happy, andenough of the new style tointerest those who we-ren't: then came Music OfMy Mind, a truly excitingnew development whichwas followed by the newone, Talking Book.

At last Stevie is back ina big way, with Super-stition threatening to be anumber one single, Talk-ing Book is sellingpromisingly. People seemto be prepared to acceptStevie Wonder as he is.The Motown people haveaccepted his growth as aman, and now the publichere has come around.

Superstition has alreadybeen a number one in theStates and Stevie Wondermark II looks well on hisway to being recognisedas one of the veryforemost musical talentsanywhere. Stevie was inLondon for a day lastweek, after recording aBurt Bacharach TV showhere, and provided afascinating interview.

BogglingStevie is a mind -

boggling person. At 22,he's had about one hit for ayear of his life at least,and is currently involvedin producing The Su-premes, not to mentionSyreeta, his group Won-derlove, and SmokeyRobinson and the Mir-acles. He's just finishedtouring with the Stones,has just taped the TVshow, and is a week awayfrom a Carnegie Hallconcert. There's a singlealready set for later thisyear, plus an album thathe's considering puttingout at Easter. And if youmention that you heard he

might have been doingsessions with a few people- Eric Clapton, GrahamNash, Stephen StillsYes, he did do that aswell.

Stevie is of course blind.But other than actuallybeing able to see thingsoptically, it's difficult tothink of anything he'smissing. He's involved init all so much. On the wayto the interview, I made amental note not to slip intoasking about the currentwave of black films, forobvious reasons. Whathappened was that Steviebrought the subject up,suggested who he thoughtmight get Oscars, whichfilms were good and whichwere bad - just like anyother interested cinemafan. It must be thatStevie's other senses areso good, and hisdetermination not to missout so great, that he"sees" a lot more thanmost people with two goodeyes.

First, we cleared up acloud surrounding thesuccess of Superstition,and whether the song hadoriginally been promisedto Jeff Beck for his group,Beck Bogert Appice as areturn for a favour byJeff.

Stevie took great painsto give his side of thestory: "What happenedwas that I did a show inDetroit with Jeff. We gottogether and cut one thing,Thelonius. They wantedsome material, and hewanted something funky.I said, 'I'll write yousomething better. ' I wasbasically kidding at thetime. I said I'd do thetrack, and maybe put it onan album. Jeff was stillthere in the studio. He hada sore throat and wantedto go home. I said I'dfinish it the next day.

"I played on his versionof Superstition. I heardthe finished product. Hesaid, 'I don't want mySuperstition to sound likeyour track. ' This was thesame night I recordedPure Love, before he putthe guitar track on it. Andthere were two versions ofmine, which wasn'tfinished when his was. Hesaid he was going torelease it as a single.Motown wanted it out as asingle as well. I read thatI promised him that song,and that's not true. I'llwrite another tune forhim, but I don't believethere was ever anagreement on that one. "

Jeff and Stevie have hadnothing but mutual admi-ration in the past, andStevie seemed to be takinggreat pains to rememberexactly how it happened -he would come back to thesubject from time to time,

StevieWondersuperstar

as if it troubled him thathe might possibly bewrong. He sounded prettysure he wasn't.

There was one othersmall hang-up in what hasotherwise been abrilliantly successful re-cent past: the projectedalbum with Stevie jam-ming with The RollingStones on an album takenfrom their tour togetherdoesn't look like makingit. "That's the problemwith being an artist andhaving managers." hesaid rather sadly. "I didmy part on Satisfactionover again, but the qualitystill wasn't great. I'veheard better. "

There's much morepositive news on his ownrecords: "We're planningon releasing Sunshine OfMy Life as the next single,which will probably be thelast for this year. I didhave an idea for anotheralbum, which would havebeen called The Last DaysOf Easter . . . it wouldn'tnecessarily have been analbum about Easter, butthe last day for a lot ofthings. "

That Biblical sleeve forTalking Book? "Thealbum cover was shot onTableau Mountain in LA. "Was he upset at the braillemessage being left off theEnglish pressings of thecover? "Really. I didn'tknow that. " He jokinglypoints an imaginary gun

at Tamla's label manager,Phil Symes, and makes ashooting noise.

The productions? "I'mnot doing anyone outsideof Motown. That's in thecontract. I've done threefor The Supremes, writingand production. Onecalled Bad Weather isgoing to be their nextsingle. I listened to JeanTerrell's voice for a longwhile, and I always feltthat she was beinghandled wrongly. Basical-ly some of the writerswere doing tunes that theythought might be good forher, but I listened to theway she did certain riffs,and really she's somethinglike Al Green in style. Shereally sounds good. "

FavouritesHaving got on to the

subject of Al Green, herattles off a long list offavourites. "Al definitely. . . The Stylistics, EltonJohn, Roberta Flack andDonny Hathaway, TheBeach Boys, Jethro Tull. . . a lot of people. "

As you may have,noticed, not a singleMotown artist on the list,but he amended that bysaying, "I think maybeDiana Ross will win theOscar. " And on to blackmovies. "The only movieI've seen that's beendifferent from the usualconception, as opposed to

`Here is my music. It is all I have to tell youhow I feel. Know that your love keeps mylove strong.'

the dope thing, is a newone called Sounder. TajMahal did the music forthat one. It's the only onethat represents the blackpeople's culture ratherthan just being about ablack superman.

"Movies like Superflydon't necessarily makethe kids dig what'shappening. They'd justget the point that he beatthe man, when the realpoint is that he realised hehad to get out of it. "

The Bacharach TVshow? "I'll be doingSuperstition and Alfie. Ican still relate to Alfie -it's a very beautifultune. "Exploring

I wondered if there wasa chance of Syreetatouring with Stevie on hisnext visit. "I don't thinkso. I think maybe the firstalbum, which was sup-posed to be exploring hertalents, has rather toomuch of me on it. There'sa reggae tune on the nextone. It's called Your KissIs Sweet But Honey BeatsYour Kisses By A MillionMiles. I was in Jamaicatwo or three years ago andreally fell in love with themusic then. Syreeta willbe getting a grouptogether. "

How did those sessionshappen? "It just happens,you know. It's crazy tomake something happen.You just decide to tapesomething sometimes.I've played drums withEric Clapton, guitar withGraham Nash, did acouple of tracks forStephen Stills, too. He's acrazy man. " Would Steviecare to elaborate? "No, I

think I'll just leave it atthat. "

We got on to talkingabout a few of Stevie'ssongs, and I had thedispiriting experience ofdiscovering I had com-pletely the wrong ideaabout his I Wanna Talk ToYou. He says it isn't at alla message to the bosses atMotown, but is writtenabout a white Southerner.He did agree thatSuperwoman, with itsdisillusionment followedby a joyous second half,was a reversal of theusual. "Some people havesaid they don't see theconnection between thetwo halves - but if youfollow the song, it's sayingthe guy still needs her.Superstition is just about abelief in things that ain'treal. How people will usea crutch - drugs orwhatever - to escapefrom reality. "

Stevie enjoyed theStones tour a lot, "butMick and Keith said acouple of things inmagazines I was sur-prised about. They didn'tsay them to me. Like Mickwas quoted as saying, 'Idon't want to hear any ofthat ecology bullshit. 'He'd never say that to me,'cos I'd challenge him. "

If there's a messagethat Stevie would like toput over to people that likehis music, it's probablythe message that didn'tget across on the Britishalbum sleeve - themessage specially writtenfor the blind in the raiseddots of braille. It says:Here is my music, It is all Ihave to tell you how I feel.Know that your love keepsmy love strong.

44zi

Dr Hook & The Medicine Shownew single

`The Cover of Rolling Stone'on CBS 1037

the music people

8 RECORD MIRROR, FEBRUARY 10, 1973

Elvis Presley what agreat supersalesman!INTERESTING point cul-led from the Los AngelesTimes is that ElvisPresley really IS thesuper -salesman of alltimes. Reporter BobHilburn saw the Presleyshow on a Sundayafternoon in San Ber-nardino.

WHO'D

Out came ColonelParker associate AlDvorin to tell the packedaudience: "Despite all thegreat appreciative au-diences that have seenPresley, Elvis under-stands, honestly now, thatthe San Bernardinoaudiences are the best

have thought it? Who'd have thought the younggentlemen of Who, formerly the High Numbers and cult -figuresin the old mod scene, would have changed so much over theyears? That cherubic Keith Moon, the wide-eyed innocence ofRoger Daltrey, the slightly -shy smile of Pete Townshend and thecalm reserve and dignity of John Entwistle.

anywhere."And before the applause

for his sagacity had diedaway, Mr. Dvorin "begana rapid-fire sales pitchthat squeezed into 60 plugsfor (1) the new Elvis OnTour film, (2) the liveMadison Square Gardenalbum, (3) the BurningLove single and (4) thenew Separate Wayssingle. And before leav-ing, he also reminded theaudience that photos andbuttons were available atseven souvenir standsround the auditorium. "

As the reporter pointsout: "If someone tried asimilar sales pitch at theaverage rock concert, he'dbe hooted off stage.Indeed, the Rolling Stoneshad a guy tell the audienceabout posters at an earlystop on their recent tour,and there was such achorus of boos that theannouncement was dis-continued.

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Musicand allthat jazzJAZZ, jazz and ever more jazz. . . that's the prediction ofDoors -man Ray Manzarekwhen quizzed about whichway pop music will developover the next couple of years.He further expands histheory: "Certainly I'm sureour music will get more jazzy.More and more people will beled into jazz . . . it's onlylogical.

"Sure there will always bereal rock and roll for theyounger kids, but as the rockaudience gets older, theirmusic will surely evolve intosomething closer to jazz. "

What with Focus nowsharply in focus . . . well,could be a lot in what Raythinks.

Caperingabout

WHILE Elvis Presley wasdoing his now -famed concertin Honolulu, a beefy sportsreporter from a local papermanaged to grab El'ssparkling, diamante-studded,glittering cape. Nobodyargued when he decided tomake off with it.

But inevitably he wasfinally asked what he plannedto do with the garish souvenir.Said he, hesitatingly: "Dunno. . . I guess the best thing is toput it in a safety-deposit box!"

Anything rather than wearit . . .

GIRLS of The Week Dept: Third single from The Pearls is outnow - it's You Are Everything; out on the Bell label andproduced, as ever, by Philip Swern and Johnny Arthey. Achange of style from the previous two charters . . . You CameYou Saw You Conquered, and Third Finger Left Hand. A changefrom the boppy to the smoochy. The girls, Ann Simmons (left)and Lyn Cornell, became the Pearls when picked out from abatch of session singers . . . and now the telly dates and foreigngigs are fair pouring in.

Non -sporting Henrygets Olympic scoreCOMING around summertime is the official film of theTwentieth Olympiad in Munich. It's been directed by ninedifferent star movie -makers, including Britain's JohnSchlesinger and actress Mai Zetterling, representing Sweden.

And composing the music score for this production isobviously a tough job - the man selected has to match thefilming moods of different directors. So it doesn't surprise methat they've picked our Henry Mancini to tackle the job . . . he'salready got three Oscars and 13 Academy Award nominationsunder his belt.

I once asked him if he was interested in sport. His answer wasa firm "no".

The birdsand thebeardsTERRIBLE old rumpus goingon within the New World set-up. There's New Worlder JohnLee, who has grown a beardand intends keeping it.Manager Mel Collins intenselydislikes the beard and is to beheard muttering: "Either thatbeard goes, or I do. " The pro -beard argument of John Leeseems to me to beunanswerable and irrefu-table. "The birds," he says,"like the beard. "

Watch this space for the nextthrilling instalment.

* * *GARY Glitter is just backfrom Spain where he caughtOle De La Cancion . . . but itdidn't hurt! It's an award forthe best single of 1972, viaRock And Roll Parts 1 and 2 . .

. and just as a matter ofinterest and fact, there wereonly two other nominations -John Lennon and Elton John.

AMUSING juxtaposition ofdouble posters offers in theSun newspaper last week.There on the left was "theking of camp rock in action". . . David Bowie, anchorstuck firmly to hischeekbone, outrageous asever.

And, right next door, thesmiling, clean-cut, be -capped, Army -style face ofLieutenant Mark Phillips,who "has captured the heartof the nation. " Both posterson offer at 20p each!

What a double act thosetwo would make . . .

Clothes don'tmake stars!QUOTE from the quiet, butvery talented, Peter Skellern:"I'm only too aware that Idon't look like a pop singerand that, even underprovocation, I don't behavelike one. But the fact is that IAM a pop musician and as faras I'm concerned it's themusic that counts, not the wayyou dress or live. "

He added: "If you have tolook like a freak to add to theexcitement of the music, thenit becomes a joke. "

Subversion from Strawbs!MAYBE you missed the protest, delivered dead -pan and withearth -quaking solemnity about the Strawbs' send-up single PartOf The Union. 'Twas Tory MP Mr. Harold Soref who protestedto the BBC top brass: "This record is obviously a serenade to thetroublemakers . . . typical of subversive propaganda put out. "And there were so many of us just thinking it was just a catchylittle toon, folks, just like the Strawbs said it was.

LOTS of people have said itbefore: "Cherish your country- keep Britain Tidy. " Butwhen David Cassidy has itplastered all across his 38 -inchchest, be sure a few millionfans will really take notice.That T-shirt is of exotic orangehue . . . and David has writtento the Keep Britain TidyGroup telling them that he'lldo whatever he can to help thecampaign.

He says: "Litter pollution isa really bad problem in partsof America. I'd hate it to reachthe same state in Britain.You've gotta realise you havea beautiful country - and I'llstress that fact on televisionand radio interviews, too.Listen folks . . . litter is ugly,dirty and illegal. That's mymessage. "

RECORD MIRROR, FEBRUARY 10, 1973 9

A J5 PA GEYou can win aJermaine poster!

Dear J5 People,Wow! Amid this week's

mail was a thank -you let-ter from Jermaine Jack-son. And I quote to you:"Reggie received your let-ter a while ago saying thatI was getting 'some birth-day mail from my Britishfans,' but I never expectedall of that. Please send onmy love to all your read-ers, and thank them fortheir wonderful cards andletters. I am still readingthem and opening them,but I did want to drop youa line to let you know thateverything arrived in-tact."

In addition Jermainehas agreed to help us giveaway 50 colour posters ofhimself (see right) to RMreaders. The contest issimple. Tell us in 25 wordsor less why you'd like tomeet Jermaine. Send youranswers to Jermaine Post-er contest c/o me here atRM.

PRINT your name andaddress somewhere on theletter so we know where tosend the poster if you win.ALSO, you may send meyour Valentine's daycards for the J5. Pleaseaddress the card to me,okay? and then along the

J5 MAILBAGDear Robin,

Are the Jacksons reallyhaving their own TVshow? What's happeningwith Jackie's solo album?Jackie, Yvonne and Mau-

reen MarriottPhoenix Ave,

Gedling, Notts.

Yep. There are 13 shows.Ironically the first wasaired in America when theboys were over here. Thefirst show, which is calledthe "pilot," contained thegroup singing, dancing,acting out some fantasysequences, and in-troducing a new song.They plan to include a newsong every week. TheShow is being offered toBritish television, but asyet it is too early to knowany more details. As ofright now the Jacksonsare being viewed on twocompeting American sta-tions. Their series is onCBS (Columbia Broad-casting System) and theircartoon show is on ABC( American BroadcastingCompany). The only otherperson to swing that wasDavid Frost two yearsago.

As for Jackie's album,we've heard that it's al-most ready for releases inAmerica, but as yet haveno details on songs, etc.Will keep trying.

Dear Robin,The reason I'm writing

is to say thanks for findingme two great J5 pen palsSince we started writingwe've all become goodfriends. Keep up the goodwork with the column.

Roy CraggsForris Ave,

Hayes, Middlesex.Thanks, Roy, but I can'ttake all the credit. I onlypoint what I get. You penpals spotted your pie inRM, and started writing.It's good to know the penpal section is working out.

Dear Robin,I have read your column

for a long time and I thinkit's really funny. But don'tPhil and Gordon at Mo-town get mad if you getcheeky?

Betsey HawleyGreygoose Park,Harlow, Essex.

Yes, and I've been toldunless I behave myself,they are going to pack mein with Marlon's birthdaymail in March and mail meback to America. All kid-ding aside, they're almostas lovable as the Jack -sons; they just accept meas a crazy, loud Americanand they pray every weekthat I don't get too cheekyin this column as they bothlike their jobs, and wouldlike to keep them!

Drawing of Jermaine by"Celes"

bottom of the envelopePRINT clearly Valen-tine's day card and thename of which brother it'sfor. Hold those presentsfor Marlon, please, we'lltake care of him in plentyof time for his birthday, Ipromise you.

A note to J5 fan clubmembers, please bepatient about your news-letters. Complicationshave arisen in their mail-ing, but they should be outsoon. See you next week.

love,Robin

P. S. many of you haveasked for a few wordsfrom Tito and Randy,since the other brothersall took turns writing acolumn. Many apologies,I've been having troublewith their tapes (namelymy tape recorder insistedon eating the tapes insteadof playing them). How-ever, my tape recorderhas now given up its can-nabalism and I'll havethat column ready soon.Thanks for your patienceTito and Randy fans.

The Jermaine poster you can win. But the real one is in colour!

PENPA LS

Lorraine Ann Boyes9 Tennyson PIWalton -Le -DaleNr PrestonLanesage: 13favourite brother:MichaelPrefers anyone interestedmusic and animals.

Joyce Lemon

124 Bridge Road SouthMeadow -Well Farm EstateNorth ShieldsNorthumberlandage: 14

favourite brother:Michael

Elvela Thomas151 John RdOld TraffordManchester 16age: 15

favourite brothers:Jermaine and Marlonwould like, to write to a male

in who likes sports, and over 5ft.tall.

An album from the sensational chart group

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10 RECORD MIRROR, FEBRUARY 10, 1973

PETER JONES looks at a new band and gives RM's approval. So,

JUST LISTEN!"WHAT kind of music dowe play? That's a goodquestion," said Paul Abra-hams, who formed thegroup Listen and whosefirst single Astral Boogieis out on the Parlophonelabel.

Paul pondered the queryin the Bell Time Organ-isation office, talking toPhilip Nathan and Mau-rice Murray Brown of thatagency. Paul had an-swered a sort of musicalSOS placed in a tradepaper., The band hadplayed fair gigs at me-dium -weight venues, atouch of the Old GreyWhistle Tests, but not a lothappening . . and theyneeded an agent.

And Paul said: "We'renot a rave-up band, nor dowe go for the rock scene,but you could say we lay iton when the mood takesus. We write our own ma-terial and a lot of it has ajazz -blues influence. Per-formance is very impor-tant to us. If you'll justsake us on, you could saywe're a concert band.

"Not that we haven'thad other offers, but we'refed up waiting around. EdDurbrow, the lead guitar-ist who writes as well, andLinda Sukenic, the singer,are Americans and wor-

ried about their work per-mits. "

So the band was audi-tioned. What impressedwas the wizardry of key-board man Paul Abra-hams . . . a qualifiedmusician, piano teacher.He's played with manyoutfits, including a longishstint with Joe Brown and aspell with P J Proby. Thatway, you gain experiencefast.

And Linda generatesstar quality. A scrap of agirl with swinging longhair, plus elfin face, shereally feels the music andmoves with it. She con-tributes some great duoswith Roger Cairns, and hetoo can grab audiences.And the backing from EdDubrow, drummer MikeAnscombe and bassistDave Worth is all that itshould be.

Stand -outSome stand -out num-

bers . . . Feathers In YourHatband, with a lot ofcomplex rhythms; AllYour Rock And Roll IsDead, the 'B' side of thesingle; and Linda's musi-cal -instrument vocal workon Linda's Blues.

So the Bell Time Organ-isation signed them to an

agency agreement, andthe officials got down to amake - 'em - known sched-ule. The name Listen waswell-known long before therecord was issued. Thatrecord created band hang-ups: the band wanted per-fection but the sessionswere harrowing when theband was tired from longhours on the road.

Often what's heard inideal studio conditionswith super -plus ster-eophonic sound is a far cryfrom what a producer willhear on a tape, demo discor acetate played back ona dicey record deck ortape machine.

So they listen and lay itdown again and again andthey go off to play theirseparate instrumentaltracks, and Lindaemerges sleepily from un-der a pile of jackets andcoats to do the vocal bityet again, and Roger joinsher and producer WallyAllen coaxes that little ex-tra from them all.

And they hear the firstrough mix, and don't likeit, and Paul throws hishands in the air, and Edmutters about the fuzzbox. Another session witharranger Zack Laurence,another mix, and timegoes by and everybody

looks a bit worried . . .

There are the one-nightstands and the travelling .. . and the bloody vanbreaks down, and theymiss a gig with FairportConvention, and there areroadie hassles, and theysuddenly need new equip-ment and there's the"where the hell's the mon-ey coming from?" rou-tines.

TerrificSays Paul: "We've been

going for two years, andmost of us were working inthe business long beforethat. There's a terrificstrain of keeping it alltogether and now we seemso close, with the recordout, there's a kind of anti-climax. It's so easy to loseenthusiasm. But now wemust look to an album.We've got the numbersworked out and to be fairwe've always said we'renot a singles band. "

And Philip Nathan andMaurice Murray Brown,wondering whether theywere agents or a cateringdepartment, smiled con-fident smiles.

Because Listen have alot going for them. RecordMirror has heard them . .

. and approved!

EVERY SUNDAYat 11 pm till 12 midnight

KID JENSEN

ROCK PRESENTTONY PRINCE

ROLL PASTRADIO LUXEMBOURG

"THE LANGUAGE OF EUROPE"

RECORD MIRROR, FEBRUARY 10, 1973 11

Cassidyas hewants tobe heard

ROCK Me Baby for DavidCassidy has marked aperiod of uncertainty."It wasn't that David feltat all unsure about thevalidity of either thesingle or album of thattitle, but both signified adefinite move away frompure pop styled ballads,to, as the title wouldsuggest, more up -temporock.

nr some time Davidhas been feeling unhappywith his situation, and asfriend Elton John recallshe was very excited at theemergence of the Rock MeBaby single. Davidconsidered it a step in theright direction -a step toprove that he can standalongside the rest, of therecording fraternity, out-side of the context of thePartridge Family.

David haS been fightingto prove that he can singfor a long time. As the oldstory tells us, when he wasfirst auditioned for thePartridge Family thecasting directors wereonly interested in hisvisual and acting talents- his singing voice was tobe dubbed in by anothervocalist! That was untilDavid pleaded for thechance to use his ownvoice, and proved in factthat he could.

His voice at that timewas fair, but not as strongas it has since become.

"I think I'm singingpretty well now," saysDavid. "But early on myvoice sounded too high,and I did sound a bityoung. I think I'm singingdeeper now, and I'velearnt how to use myvoice. I think it's aquestion of practice andthe fact that I've watcheda lot of good vocalistswork. "

In the Partridge FamilyDavid is generally cast ina fairly mundane role -charming and kind ofsugar coated. It's a rolethat doesn't allow for toomuch stretching outvocally. So with Rock MeBaby comes the firstopportunity for his publicto hear David singingmore of the kind of musicthat he enjoys singing.

Strangely enough, boththe Rock Me Baby albumand single didn't reach theheights, in the Americancharts, that PartridgeFamily recordings usuallyachieve. But since thePartridge Family receivegold discs - and someplatignum - for all their

records, that's hardly anindication that recordbuyers dislike David'sown work. In fact thealbum reached the Top 20.

The front cover picturesDavid relaxing in arocking chair, his facelooking petulant. He'swearing denim jeans,coupled with silver boots,and there's a red glowaround him. On thereverse of the sleeveDavid is posing with aphallically shaped objectheld between his legs! Iwonder why all the fussabout his Rolling Stonemagazine interview, whenhe so obviously loves themore risque suggestions inlife?

During his Rock MeBaby track David croonsrock me, and roll me, in atone which doesn't suggesthe's thinking solely aboutmusic.

On Lonely Too Long, thefollowing track, it be-comes obvious that Da-vid's voice has matured,and the number hassubstance. There's an-other smooth talkiepassage included here -which seems to be aconcession to the youngfans, giving them some-thing to "swoon" over!

Two Time Loser isDavid's own compositionand it's a big balladproduction, which wouldindicate that David isn'tentirely divorcing himselffrom these numbers. It'sdressed up with stringsand piano from MikeMelvoin, and the storytells of a romantic letdown.

Warm My Soul isinstantly more full of life,getting closer to a rockpresentation, though it'snot penned by Cassidy.There's electric guitar,percussion, keyboards,creating a more funkyfeel. Just at times David'svocal here doesn't seem toto integrate enough. . . . which is perhapssymptomatic of David'slack of experience in agroup format, or as aninstrumentalist.

Some Kind Of A Summeris one of the nicest trackshere. It's not got a realrock feel, but just thesame is the kind of numberthat really does suitCassidy. The vocaltracking is good, and theliberal use of flute givesthis the feel of sum-mer . . . . particularlywith the references tohitch -hiking. It could in

VALMABBSreviewsDavid's

newalbum

fact make a goodspringtime single.

( Oh No) No Way hasDavid sounding muchmore arrogant; and he'sbacked up by girlvocalists. Somehow thisset me off thinking howdifficult it sometimes is toshowcase solo artists -and particularly purelyvocal artists. At timesDavid is given the fulldressing of strings, andmore and occa-sionally set into a morebasic structure. Which isfair enough - but he doeshave much further to go torealise that ambition ofsetting down an albumwith the roots in rock.

Song For A Rainy Day isco -written by David and isanother story of lost love,talking of the castles in thesky that fell.

Soft As A SummerShower has an acousticopening and lavish stringsand flute. At this pointsome credit should also begiven to Jim Gordon andHal Blaine who keep somegood drumming goingthroughout this entirecollection.

Go Now, the classicMoody Blues recording, isgiven a slightly differentarrangement, with morebrass than I rememberbeing on the original( which unfortunately Idon't have here to checkwith! ). The classic pianoframework is the same,and the number suitsCassidy's voice - it's goodfor people who don'tremember the original tohave the chance toappreciate this.

How Can I Be Sure,opens with the familiaraccordian strain, withpiano and strings. As achart topper it needs nointroduction. A FelixCavaliere - Eddie Brigaticomposition, as is theearlier mentioned LonelyToo Long.

Song Of Love. "I cannever seem to achieve allthat the world tells me Ineed," says this song, andadds the very aptsentiment. "Life is a songthe theme is love, give memy share and I'll get by. "

So that's David as hewants to be heard - or atleast closer to that pointthan he has been in thepast. In general Rock MeBaby works well for him,and he does have a fairvoice. Index number forthis package, which isreleased, of course, onBell, is Bells 218.

12

Will Arthur'sKingdom

ever Come?

WHILE the Arthur Brownof days gone by - CrazyWorld, flaming head-dress, cranes and all, isgenerally accepted asbeing a forerunner of theperesent-day Alice Coopervisual act, it isn't general-ly known that Alice's bandused to back the CrazyWorld on US tours.

"Alice used to supportus quite a bit," quoth Ar-thur, "In those days theywere just an ordinary rockband, in terms of presen-tation, so obviously theywatched us a bit. Now, weboth dig what the otherdoes - he's reflectingwhat's going around -violence and revolution-ary things. "

Arthur meanwhile, hasmoved on from such mun-dane matters as violence,through a series of King-dom Comes, and a greatvariety of styles. "We'vechanged personnel a lot,and been through a lot ofheavy head trips, and wewere bad for a period fromabout eight to 15 monthsago. It was a big strain togo through, but I supposeany band that changes hasthose periods. "

Now, the music's gettinga great deal simpler sincethe last album, which baf-fled a lot of people.("There just wasn't timeto correct the last albumbefore it came out," saysKingdom's Andy Dalby."You really had to be in alistening mood for that one- this one's a lot more likewe are on stage.") Andmuch to Arthur's delight,there's been "an amazingleap in the number ofpeople coming to see us inthe last few weeks - theywere actually in a longqueue at St. Albans, andthat hasn't happened for along time. "

The music may be get-ting simpler, but ArthurBrown is still himself, andthe aims behind it all stillhave a lot of thought be-hind them, and aren't thateasy to understand. Manyhours of chat with the veryaffable Arthur produced14 pages of notes full offascinating fragmentsthat aren't that easy to putover without writing asmall book on the subject.

In the same way as Ar-thur believes in "explor-ing the inner parts of yournature" through yoga,

and through encountergames and group therapywithin the band, he be-lieves in using advancedmeans to extend thebounds of the music.

Visually, there's less ofArthur's leaping aboutthan went on in days ofyore, but the group isexploring computerisedlight images and a newtechnique of using a frontprojection screen. Andmusically, extending out-wards means using theproperties of quadrophon-ic sound, and building"sound shapes" ratherthan making music in theconventional way. Ulti-mately, Kingdom Come istrying to use all the tech-nological advances avail-able to modern musicians- synthesisers,quadsound, light shows,etc, to make music whichis not necessarily com-plicated.

"Simplicity is the thingyou have to find," saysArthur. "People who don'tunderstand say 'That'svery complicated, it mustbe good., But ultimatelythe music should be simple- you need an enormousmachine to produce achip. When music was anopen air thing it was verysimple. Move it into aclub, and you need all thecomplicated equipment toget it across - compareManitas de Plata withJames Brown, for in-stance."

Arthur has a great be-lief in the properties ofsound, which aren't reallybeing used yet in pop:"Most pop sounds likediarrhoea. Certain shapesof sound can produce aneffect on your mind with-out the listener even beingaware of it Witch doctorscan kill trees with sound,or plants can be made togrow faster - there havebeen experiments on thatin America."

Kingdom Come haveplayed to a few "captive"audiences too. They'vebeen at some mentalhomes and various kindsof schools around Surrey.Kingdom Come as an edu-cation? "I think knowingwhat's in your own mind ismore important thanknowing how many peoplelive in New Delhi. "

ROB MACKIE

Record Mirror's great new series the Starmakers continues itsinvestigation of the men behind the scenes, the men who create popstars. This week ROBIN MACKIE looks at perhaps the greatest ofthem all, Phil Spector.

IF ANYONE deserves thetitle Starmaker, in thewhole of the last decade ofrock music, it ought to bePhil Spector.

Spector is a starmakerthree times over. Firstly,he did the job directly, forthe groups on his own label- most notably The Crys-tals and The Ronettes, butalso Bob B Soxx and theBlue Jeans, and DarleneLove and later Ike and TinaTurner and the RighteousBrothers. Secondly, to adegree no other producerhad achieved before him,or has done since, he madea star of himself. Thirdly,Spector's studio tech-niques were the initialtraining ground for sessionmen who later becamestars in their own right:people like Leon Russell,Sonny Bono, Nino Tempoand Harold Battiste, who isnow recognised as the bestarrangerin his field.

His gigantic achieve-ments were achieved inonly a few short years -between late 1961, when heformed his own company,Philles Records, and his1966 recording of RiverDeep - Mountain High byIke and Tina, whose failureled to a long retirement byPhil.

Spector has of coursedone plenty of good worksince then, but it was thosefive short years thatstamped him as a geniusand a man synonymouswith an entirely new andinstantly recognisablesound. How? Spector didit by imagining an entirelynew person in the recordbusiness - a sort of one-man record company -and then becoming it.

He was label owner, tal-ent scout, arranger, musicteacher, businessman, hus-tler, conductor, arranger,innovator, session mu si-cian , songwriter. Everynote or hiccough on arecord was there becausePhil Spector wanted it tobe there. Really the onlyadequate term to describehis role in a record releasedon Philles in the States inthe early sixties was "Di-rector."

"I ran the company bymyself," he explained sim-ply. And it was no idleboast.

And probably the onlyapt comparison with any-one else around at the timewould be Alfred Hitch-cock. Hitchcock was morefamous than his stars andhis films; his name wassynonymous with sus-pense; his films not onlyhad the stamp of his tech-niques on them, but alsohad the man himself, mak-ing an appearance.

The Righteous Brothers.

Spector, too, was morefamous than his stars -people would buy the newSpector re cord as sure asthey'd go and see the newHitchcock film, withoutnecessarily knowing whoeither the actors or thesingers were. Spector, too,meant something in termsof a consistent theme. His"actors" were rockers onthe wrong side of thetracks, who as well asbeing anti -society, some-how had incredibly idea-lised and straight conceptsof love.

His production tech-niques too were impec-cable, and like Hitchcock,he would make appear-ances, playing instrumentson the records, even goingso far as to report a person-al monologue on hisChristmasalbum. (Significantly theoriginal issue featured thestars on the cover, but there -issue has only a SantaClaus Spector). Hitchcockhad his suspense; Spectorhas his wall of sound.

The famous "wall"might be better describedas layers of sound as denseand enveloping as the lay-ers of an onion. One of

John LennonSpector's proteges, SonnyBono, subsequently usedmuch the same techniquewhen he sprang to suddenfame as one half of Sonnyand Cher with I Got YouBabe. The Rolling Stones,when they began to writetheir songs, leaned heavilyon his style. The Byrds'Mr. Tambourine Man isanother smash singlehailed as a great new in-novation, but which had

much more than a hint ofSpector techniques with agentle, folky voice in placeof the Spector lead voiceswhich generally had to bebold and strident to cutthrough what was goingon behind them.

The Spector sound in itsown right has been a Star -maker so many times thata list of those who haveborrowed from himwouldn't be far short of arock 'n' roll Who's Who.

The one who came clos-est was Shadow Morton,whose production of TheShangri-Las are currentlyenjoying a well -deservedresurrection of popularity.He used one of Spector'sfavourite writing teams,Jeff Barry and Ellie Green-wich, for some superbslices from a teenage Har-ley Davidson-ised PeytonPlace world. But in thecategory of people whohave built on Spector'sideas I would have to in-clude The Beach Boys, TheRolling Stones, David Bow-ie, The Who, mid -periodDylan, maybe even FlankZappa.

The weird mixture of re-bellion and sentimentalitythat came over in Spector's

records was a part of him-self as much as of hiswriting teams, Goffin-King; Mann -Weill and Bar-ry -Greenwich. Being asmall Jewish kid in theBronx isn't the easiest wayto start life. You can be sixfoot two and still feel smallin New York. Spector was,to use Nik Cohn's none -too -flattering phrase,"small, runtish with badhair and unhealthy skin. "

If he was stomped on inNew York, it was probablyeven worse when his fatherdied and mother movedout to California, home ofthe real, clean-cut crew-cutall-American blond,bronzed beach Adonises.

Phil was the originalCharles Atlas nine -stoneweakling. He must havehad the whole Santa Mo-nica Bay kicked in his face,and Two Girls Fbr EveryGuy didn't apply if youwere five seven and acned.He lived, eventually, out-side the laws of the recordindustry, made his ownlaws and succeeded.

Even now, Spector isdesperately unsure of him-self. He's only describableas a flamboyant introvert.Interviewers at a LondonPress conference in Lon-don last November foundthe man looking as natty asa freshly -painted pillar -boxin his red suit and dapperwhite boots. But, ofcourse, he was hiding be-hind shades: protection,his guard always up.

It's significant that dur-ing our conversation, heconstantly drifted awayverbally, to talk about hisfriend Muhammad Ali, andhow he was robbed of theWorld Championship bythe Man.

RECORD MIRROR, FEBRUARY 10,1973 13

The Roulettes: the original 'wall of sound.'

Now, there's a man witha good enough guard not toneed dark glasses. Philobviously identifiesstrongly: himself as Ali,fighting for intelligence,beauty, hipness and hon-esty against the hacks ofthe show biz ring. Ali

George Harrisonseemed invincible until theboxer, a little slowed bylack of active combat, gotdumped rudely on hispants.

That happened to Spec-tor, too, at first it was alltoo easy - the recordscame out in a steady suc-cession of Spectorisedhits. Each one was themoment. They weregrabbed by an eager pub-lic. The process repeateditself and looked as if it

bered for an act of treasonto the American side in theWar of Independence. Hejoined the Colonial forces,but in 1780, he plotted tobetray strategic positionsat West Point to a Britishmajor. He was caught asa spy, but escaped to Brit-ain, who gave him a postin the army. Phil Spectordidn't emigrate to Britain,his Hooray was at once akick in the teeth to hishome country and a thank -you to Britain for recogni-sing Ike and Tina's recordfor the masterpiece itwas.

That was it, really.Spector retired back to hisexpensive and comfort-able shell. No more Wag-nerian three -minute epicsof rebellion and true love.Spector has had little to dowith the media. Londonwas a rarity, and actuallywalking into a room andseeing all those taperecorders whirring andbiros scribbling broughton a great wave of para-ndta.

He talked at twice hisusual speed, he madejokes, he made fun of theinterviews, anything toprevent any real question-ing and get it over with.What happened to all thegroups that had hits, he

No 2. Phil Spector

Phil Spector.

coda go on doing so for-ever. But as always, oncethe heat's off, once you'veproved what you set out toprove, once you've gottime to sit back and thinkabout how you did it, itsuddenly ain't that easy.

The Spector productionsslowed down - he tookmore care on less records,became ever more am-bitious. It only takes oneflop to set invincibility onits arse. River Deep -Mountain High was theone. Result: number 88 onthe US charts and oneembittered betrayedrecord pi-oducer.

Even now, he can ad-mit: "It does hurt whenyou fail. We became art inAmerica, but it is alsosupposed to be com-mercial, and if it isn't, ithurts. It's like adhesive -some people take it offvery, very slowly and it'svery painful. Some justrip it off. One suffers con-siderably less than theother. " Phil seems to havespent years ripping it off.Unlike Muhammad Ali, hejust abdicated, as if fail-ure had negated all he'ddone.

But of course, he did itwith style and wit, placinghuge ads in Billboard say-ing "Hooray For BenedictArnold.'

Benedict Arnold (1741-1801) was an Americansoldier, chiefly remem-

Tina Turner: Britain recognised the masterpiece.sons for the erosion of theSpector empire, and therest of the more firmlyestablished American mu-sic business with it, wasthe onslaught of The Beat-les, and the Englishsound. Suddenly beingAmerican and pop wasn'tquite enough. The Beatleshad the top five singlessimultaneously, andpaved the way for far lesstalented groups to make it,provided they were Eng-lish.

So it's ironic and satis-fying that only with JohnLennon and George Harri-son has Spector againfound a niche, and some-thing worthy of his gianttalents.

The only previous at-tempt to really get backinto the music businesswas an 18 -month stint un-der contract with A & M.A gig which ended "notamicably" in 1970. A fewnew records were releasedand were nothing startling- a fact made more evi-dent by A & M's re-releaseunder the deal of the Ike &Tina/Spector album.

With "the boys" or "theex -Fab Four" as he jok-ingly refers to them, he'sfound kindred spirits,great talents who have setpop music on it's ear assurely as Phil did. Maybefor the first time, he'sfound people he can ac-knowledge as being as im-portant as himself: maybefor the first time, he has aworking relationship in-stead of being The Boss.

Happy Christmas (WarIs Over) is a John andYoko record AND a Spec-tor record (it's even gotthe Spector parentheses).And if My Sweet Lord isn'tart and commercial, Idon't know what is. He'shis own man again, andsuddenly it's all worth-while.

by robin mackieasked. "Ah, they probablywent back to the car -wash", he replied, as if theartists meant no morethan a good carcass to abutcher. "No, no, I don'tknow really," .he cor-rected himself, seeing thequote suddenly looming inlarge black letters on awhite page.

No-one was sure wheth-er he was joking, living upto the image, or simplytelling the truth. Retire-ment? "I reached the epi-tome of what I wanted todo."

He played his Christmasalbum with great en-thusiasm, all those oleXmas faves suddenlyturned into Ronettes sin-gles or Drifters arrange-ments - ah, well. He wason all the Drifters hitsanyway. When the Phil

The Crystals.

Spector Christmas mes-sage came up, he wassufficiently embarrassedto retire to the bathroom.Going over those recordsfrom nearly a decade ear-lier brought him back tolife, frenetically beatingimaginary gongs or drumswhen they came up, con-ducting a choir, relivingthe making of the record.

When the tape recordersand notebooks had goneaway, he relaxed, becamefriendly Phil the perfecthost. The wine flowed. Hehoped his remainingguests didn't have to gojust yet.

It seems as if life's be-ginning to flow a bit, too.Maybe he's learned the oldlesson "If you can't beat'em join 'em. "

One of the primary rea-

IN NEXT

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RECORD MIRROR, FEBRUARY 10,1973 15

Los Angeles, USA, 2 pm.The weather is good.Here in swinging Eng-land it's 10 pm. Outside,the rain is pouring down,but then it has for most ofthe day.

Jim Messina is on theline from LA. Funnyreally to hear his voice.The mind begins to strayback to several yearsspent living on the Amer-ican West Coast. Groupnames like Love, Air-plane, The QuicksilverMessenger Service, TheCharlatans and PinkChablis seem to get sus-pended before my eyes.

Come on, I say to my-self, Messina is talking,listen baby. And Mes-sina? Ah, there's magicin the name, associationswith legendary BuffaloSpringfield, later Pocoand now havingenormous success inpartnership with KennyLoggins.

Messina sounds re-laxed. At last he is get-ting his music across to awide public, after all wewere daft enough to ig-nore the talent and soundof Buffalo Springfield.His happy tones justabout make it over thetransatlantic phonehook-up. The line is bad."Do you know, today, oursecond gold album is afact." I tell him the al-bum Loggins And Mes-sina is making steady in-roads here. He ex-presses pleasure.

He has happy memo-ries of England. We re-call the summer concertat Crystal Palace."Really enjoyed it. Lon-don is one of those niceplaces. I would like tospend a couple of monthsthere, do some albumwork but then gigs don'tpay too well and I wouldwant the money to coverexpenses. "

The American Hot 100carries at the moment aTop 10 hit by Loggins andMessina, from their al-bum in fact and releasedhere as well, called YourMama Don't Dance."We've had three singlesout before. They had adance contest to outchart maker down inSacramento. A motherwon it. Well, she wasabout 25, good looking,too." Messina moves onto the album, "We spenttwo weeks in rehearsal,then two weeks record-ing. I don't believe inwasting time at our ex-

pense. We work thingsout before. I do the pro-duction.

"You know I've beenthrough the whole thing,musician, engineer, pro-ducer. Some peoplemight say you can't do

the whole thing on yourrecords. For me, itworks out OK. "

Jim Messina's use of"we" stirred suddenthoughts in my head! I'min danger, I thought, offorgetting Ken Loggins.

NearlyPerfectMessinaby tony jasper

Jim fills me in. "I metKen two years ago, itwas November, 1970. Wereally enjoyed each oth-er's company." Jim atfirst was interested inKenny Loggins as a soloartist but a sudden pool-ing of combined talentsand hey presto there wasa duo making Billboard,the American music pa-per, write, "very nearlyperfect if such a thing asperfection is musicallypossible," in describingtheir first album.

I remark to Jim, "Thetrack to really get acrossto me on the album isGolden Ribbons." Itseems the right choice ofremark for Jim com-ments, "Yea, that onegave me real satisfac-tion. Long tracks giveyou the chance to get intothings. You know we putour thought into music.We try and be objective.The thing for instanceabout the hit single isthat our music reacheskids who would other-wise be unaware of ourmusic. Now they can getinto it."

I ask whether he findsall kind of people want-ing him and Ken to saycertain things about lifeand society. "No one istrying to force us intoanything. You know asmuch as anything wewant to get people smil-ing and enjoying them-selves."

Turning over the al-bum, I notice his musicpublishing company callthemselves Jasperilla.Hey, I yell into the phone,where did you get theJasper bit. Jimchuckles, "Funny aboutyour name. I'll tell you. Igot it from the story of adrunk called Jasper. Hewas so drunk one nightthat he had to pay a boyto keep throwing stonesat his dog until the doggot him home. "

Time has gone, flownby. We talk together fora bit about the Americanpolitical scene and per-haps the ending of majorconflict in Vietnam. Iguess it's time to say arainy goodnight fromEngland, Jim, I mutter."Yeah, good to talk toyou. Send me a copy ofthe article. "

Put on the album, Jas-per. So there it goes at 33rpm. Loggins and Mes-sina. Hmm. Good. Havea listen.

How to bringMr. Presleyto London

AND still Record Mirrorreaders show their con-cern - and their plan-ning ability - over thenon-appearance of ElvisPresley in this country.Fan club members wereencouraged to think, byColonel Tom Parker, El'smanager -mentor, that ifthey could come up withthe right sort of finan-cially -acceptable tourplan, then El couldcome.

Maria Davis, of Liver-pool, writes: "I've beenthree times to see Elvisin Las Vegas - August1969, February 1970, Au-gust 1971. On the middlevisit, we hit it off with theColonel and spent sometime talking to him eachday . . . and what anincredible man.

"My view is that wedon't have a promoterbig enough in this coun-try to set up an Elvistour. I believe anypromoter must put down50 per cent of the feebefore any talking canstart. An if Elvis reliedon the British Press andthe BBC, he would beforgiven for thinking hedidn't have any fans inBritain.

"So my suggestionwould be for him to in-clude London as part ofthe loop which he makeson his American tours.After all, it's no furtherto fly him from the EastCoast of the States toLondon than to fly fromLA to New York. He hashis own private jet, forhimself, his father andColonel. Another takesthe band and the in-struments, and anothertakes the security.

"A series of five con-certs could be arrangedat the Albert Hall for aFriday evening, Satur-day afternoon and eve-ning and Sunday after-noon and evening. I be-lieve 8,0 0 0 can besquashed into the AlbertHall, and tickets couldrange from £6 for thefirst 10 rows to £4 for theback, so the averagewould work out at a fi-ver. Seats by postal ap-plication to give fans out-side London a chance

"Elvis could be flownin overnight on a Thurs-day, taken to the HiltonPark Lane - and aGreyhound bus used totake him to the shows.No plans for TV inter-views and so on . . . just

come in, do the shows,leave Monday and con-tinue the United Statestour.

"Of course if Elvis wasagreeable it would benice to have a properwelcome for him at theairport, but he doesn't dothings like that usually. Ican't see the customspeople treating him herelike a VIP, though in theStates they do. Nor do Isee the Chief of ScotlandYard or the MetropolitanPolice making it his dutyto guard him day andnight while he's here. . . as they did in Hous-ton.

"Presumably becauseof his connections withthe Hilton, the board and

Elvis could fly in overnight

lodging would be pro-vided by that organ-isation. I think also theMusicians' Union wouldinsist on playing with theorchestra. But even inthe States, local bandsare used under the direc-tion of Joe Guercio. Andthe promoter would haveto be satisfied with about10 per cent profit.

"There was a timewhen I thought the fanclub could organise a tripon a break-even basis,with all fans who wantedseats putting up a bondof £2, which would gotowards the depositneeded by the Colonel asan act of good faith.

"I was going to men-tion this to the Elvisoffice last time I wasover, but once in theatmosphere of 'Big busi-ness' I didn't have thecourage! I'm just sureElvis wants to come . .

as his family say: `Ifsomeone can set ut up ithim'."

PETER JONES

NICan you imagine this scene in the Albert Hall?

16 RECORD MIRROR, FEBRUARY 10, 1973

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BARCLAYTHE next 12 months are tobe the most importantones in the life of BarclayJames Harvest, a bandwhose progress during thepast four years has beenunhurried, yet fruitful.

Having seen the releaseof several albums amidgreat critical acclaim,they feel that the time hascome for an all-out boost totheir careers which willenable them to carry outmany of the plans andprojects that have been ontheir minds.

To this end they haveconsolidated a workingteam who are determinedto present their talents toa worldwide public, ateam consisting of IMAManagement, EMIRecords, MAM Agencyand Rak Music. Plans al-ready confirmed include afilm, a major Europeantour, an American tourand a forthcoming albumand single.

John Lees, Les Holroyd,Mel Pritchard and WoollyWolstenholme were. bornnear Oldham, Lancs,where they all live today.With the music scene socentralised around Lon-don, their isolation could,in some cases, be a draw-back to their career. How-ever, they staunchly re-fuse to leave an areawhich they feel comfort-able in, in order to movedown to the Smoke.

IdentityMel comments: "It's

good to come down to Lon-don, but it's even better toleave," and, like the oth-ers, believes that therewould be a chance of Lon-don changing their identi-ty if they lived there."When a group makes itoutside London they makeit on solid musicalgrounds. Living outsideLondon you are less likelyto be influenced by otherpeople. "

Before returning to Old-ham, the band lived in theYorkshire village ofDiggle for two years, hap-pily ensconced in a 16thcentury farmhouse in thedays before Traffic left forthe country to "get it to-gether" and started amass exodus of groupsfrom the cities.

There, in splendid isola-tion, high up in the moors,they developed their mu-sic, emerging now and

JAMES HARVEST

A TASTEFOR THECLASSICALagain for gigs and record-ing sessions. Living al-most in recluse, they nev-ertheless built a reputa-tion that resulted in full -house audiences wheneverthey took to the road.

Despite the high regardcritics have for their al-bums, Barclay have yet tomake a strong impact onthe charts, although a re-cent budget album oftheirs reached numbertwo in the budget labelchart. All told, they'vesold about 80,000 albumsand have hit the Top Fivein several European coun-tries.

Barclay are noted fortheir contribution to thefusion of pop and classicalmusic, having appearedon nearly two -dozen occa-sions with their SymphonyOrchestra. Obviously,economics dictate the fre-quency with which Bar-clay James can appearwith the Orchestra which,at times, can consist of 50musicians.

Says John Lees: "Some-times we break even withthe Orchestra and some-times we don't. We are theonly group who has takenan orchestra actually onthe road. It's not a one-offthing for us like it waswith other groups becausewe have actually written anumber of songs speciallyfor an orchestra."

Wooly adds: "A lot ofthings went wrong andwere wrong when we firststarted playing with anOrchestra. We find thatthe further we play awayfrom London the smallerthe orchestra gets becauseof the expense involved inhiring so many musi-cians."

Barclay, because oftheir dedication, haveironed out so many of theproblems that have besetother groups who at-temted the combination ofgroup and orchestra. As aresult they are taken ex-tremely seriously in clas-sical circles and were in-vited to appear with theHalle Orchestra, The Roy-

al Philharmonic Orches-tra and to record an albumin America with The Bos-ton Pops. Says Mel:"Deep Purple, for in-stance, have done the op-posite to us, their orches-tral thing was completelysegregated from thegroup, whereas we playwith the orchestra."

SuccessPundits have been pre-

dicting chart success forBarclay James for thepast few years. The bandhasn't been too worriedover the fact that successhas been a long time incoming, although they aredetermined to make theirmark during '73. SaysWooly: "When our firstalbum came out a lot ofpeople started saying thatwe'd be the next you -know -who's. Of course wenever made it and we'reglad we didn't. Now themore we play, the longerwe keep going and thestronger we are as aunit. "

Having released four al-Dums, the band are natu-^ally classed as an albumoand. However, they arenot averse to having a shotit the Top 20 with singlesInd will be recording anumber for release as asingle when they spendtwo weeks at Abbey Roadduring February. Pre-viously they releasedMockingbird as a single,but this has been a trackfrom one of their LP's.

"We released Mockingb-ird because it was repre-sentative of our sound andwould show people whatwe were without themhaving to listen to thewhole album," says Wool-ly.

But Barclay's strengthis not solely confined tofine albums. Their stageperformances,particularly with their or-chestra, have resulted inthem being rated as one ofBritain's finest units.

James Craig

RECORD MIRROR, FEBRUARY 10, 1973 17

For Mort Shuman : `Life is just one long dirtyweekencr

`I wrote 20 hits for Elvisand I never met the guy'IT WAS in Cannes, wherethe music industry washaving its annual madorgy of wheeling anddealing, that this ben-evolent figure loomed up- an island of massivetranquillity in a sea oflunacy.

Mort Shuman. Lookingas benign and contentedas a man who has finallyfound the place he alwayswanted to be. Which hehas. He's been living for ayear now in France andhe's crazy about it.

"New York," he says,"is like a woman you lovebut can't live with. "

Like a lot of big men,Mort Shuman is gentle,sensitive and generous ofmind. He stands just over6ft in his size 12 shoes,weighs 16 stone and sayshe's really happy living inFrance because, "I loveFrench wine, French food,French cigarettes andFrench ladies. " He alsohas more than a passingregard for Scottish whiskysince whenever I saw himaround the Palais desFestivals in Cannes healways seemed to behugging a tumblerfull tohis expansive waistline.

"My first visit toParis," he recalled, "waswhen I came to London todo TV shows for Granadaaround 1959 or 1960. I flewover to Paris for a dirtyweekend and fell in lovewith the place. I've beencoming back regularlysince - and what finallyconvinced me to settle inFrance was feeling thatI'd really done it in theStates. I'd had a lot of hitsand a very successfulshow - "Jacques Brel isAlive and Well and Livingin Paris" - and . . . .

well, it was just time toleave.

Alcoholic"I thought at first of

settling in London. Butnow I've decided to livepermanently in Franceand die a happy oldalcoholic. "

Mort Shuman is asongwriting name toconjure with. Twenty hitsfor Elvis Presley, andother songs for Dion,Fabian, Ray Charles,Andy Williams, the Drif-ters, the Searchers, CillaBlack, the Small Faces,Marty Wilde - most ofthem written in partner-ship with Jerome "Doc"Pomus.

What of Pomus?"That's all long gone.

We worked togetherbetween 1959 and 1964 and

RecordMirror

exclusiveby

MikeHennessey

we did it for fun - and itwas lovely. But I don'treally want to beremembered for that. I'drather be remembered asthe crazy Mort Shumanwho never gave a damn. "

Although he's moved towhat he regards as farmore congenial surround-ings, Shuman has no timefor the idea thatsongwriters are inspiredby their environment. "Itcomes from within, almostdespite yourself. Mozartwrote some of his happiestmusic at the saddest timeof his life. Not that I'mcomparing myself toMozart, but the principle'sthe same. So," he grinned,"on that basis I'm set towrite some very mediocremusic. "

DifficultThose old rock 'n' roll

hits seem so long ago thatit is difficult to accept thatShuman is only 34. Butthen he was just 22 whenhe had his big break as acomposer with A teenagerin Love, recorded by Dion.Then came Turn Me Looseby Fabian - and then thePresley songs, Viva LasVagas, Kiss Me Quick,Surrender, Little Sister,His Latest Flame.

It's an impressiverecord, but Shuman ispretty shoulder -shruggingabout it all. "It's not thatI'd prefer to forget thosesongs, but I'd rather theyweren't the only thingspeople remembered mefor. What I did when I was21, 22 and 23 means verylittle now when I'm 34. Iwrote all those hits - but Ialso wrote the second -longest -running off-Broad-way show for JacquesBrel. " And he seems quiteproud of that. He met Brelin Paris and asked him ifhe could translate hislyrics into English. Brelsaid yes and a show wasborn.

Born in Brooklyn, theson of a Polish Jewishimmigrant, ( "I was like awhite Negro") Shumandeveloped a natural earfor music and had basicpiano lessons as a child.He used to doodle aroundon the instrument and hewrote his first com-positions at the age of 15.In the next 19 years he wasto write more than 800,some of which wereclassics.

He is remarkablydiffident, however, abouthis songwriting success."I can't say that any of mysongs really stands out inmy mind. I rememberPaul McCartney sayingthat he thought Save TheLast Dance For Me wasone of the great rock 'n'roll classics. But Ipersonally really have noparticular favourite. Ithink the influence of rock'n' roll on later pop musicwas out of proportion to itsvalue. The nostalgia forthat period has been builtup to a greater degreethan it really deserves.

"Today's music is sosuperior . . . . ProcolHarum, Bowie, the Band,Jethro Tull . . . . but I'mstill writing inferiormusic. My album is reallyold-fashioned. "

The inferior, old-fash-ioned album has sold120,000 copies in threemonths in France - and asingle taken from it, LeLac Majeur, has sold332,000. Shuman, in fact,is building a whole newcareer as a sing-er/ songwriter ,

collaborating with Frenchlyricist Etienne Roda Gill,( who also writes for a verytalented French singer,Julien Clerc. ) He hasappeared at the ParisOlympia Theatre and isnow hopeful of achievingsuccess in the theatre andcinema.

"I want to develop as anartist in my own right. Idon't want to go on writingrock songs. But, in anycase, even when I waswriting those songs Inever really realised whatthe rock period was; Iwrote by instinct - Ialways operate by in-stinct. "

ArrangerHe is very happy about

his collaboration withRoda Gill because theyboth like the same kind ofmusic - British rock andLatin American. And hehas a first class arrangerin Jean-Claude Vannier.The combination has gonedown extremely well inFrance and an Englishversion of the album willbe released here thisspring on Philips.

Perhaps the mostastonishing fact aboutShuman is that he hasnever met Presley, noteven talked to him on thetelephone. Shuman sayswith characteristic humil-ity: "There's no reasonwhy he should have metme or talked to me. He hasnothing to thank me for.He's a phenomenon andmy songs have had very

little 'to do with hissuccess. But his singingthem had a helluva lot todo with mine. "

I asked him if he'd evergo back to the States andhe said, "I'll go back there

on a visit if the recordhappens. But I refuse togive up living foranything. The old songsbring me in enough moneyto buy some cigarettes anda few bottles of wine. Forme now life is one longdirty weekend. "

ErrorsDoes he really not have

a favourite song amongthe 800? "I certainly havesome unfavourite ones andI'm sure as hell glad that alot of those 800 never sawthe light of day. But Ireally don't know. Icouldn't even tell youwhich was the mostsuccessful - although Iguess it must have beenone of those that Presleydid. Fact is, I only.scrutinize my royaltycheque for errors! Isuppose the best song forme is always the one I'mjust about to write - and Istill have a lot more to getout of my system. "

And with that hesauntered away, scotch inhand, to catch a planeback to Paris and hishome in Neuilly. Wait tillhe tries to find a rhyme forthat.

041/4'

Dr Hook & The Medicine Shownew single

`The Cover of Rolling Stone'on CBS 1037

the music people

CBS

18 RECORD MIRROR, FEBRUARY 10, 1973

Erratic butenergeticJAMES BROWNGet On The Good Foot.( Polydor Super Double2659 018). The lengthytitle track seems to go onfor ever, but even so thebuild-up is compelling -a chattering backgroundto James and one of hisown productions in whichrepetition is the mainsource of inspiration.This double -album set isreally for addicts . . .

much of it is over -contrived, sometimes er-ratically balanced, andsome of the pieces, self -penned mostly, barelyextend the imagination.But James Brown is al-ways energetic. Alwaysin there pitching. P. J.

KRIS KRISTOFFERSONJESUS Was A Capricorn(Monument MNT6 5391 ):Help Me Make It ThroughThe Night helped to give Kristhe wider recognition he hasdeserved for a long time.Perhaps more people willgive him credit for being afine performer as well as anoutstanding song writer.Good American albums alw-ays tend to have a better feelthan British productions andthis album is a fine exampleof the down home U. S. coun-try feel. The inclusion of wifeRita Coolidge on a number oftracks leads to interestingvocal arrangements whichare worked around Kris'stypically poignant lyrics, es-pecially on Give It Time ToBe Tender. On the title trackKris goes stargazing and thenumber would appear to be asuitable single. There aresome good people on thealbum and their efforts havecombined to make K. K. 'sfourth musical milestonesomething to remember. Thestandout track is Why Me.Take a listen and you'll findout something about life aswell as the meaning of thelyrics.SAM NEELY(Capitol E -ST 11097): Howmany more singer song-writers are we going to best.qected to? Not that theyare all bad artists - far fromit - but when there are somany people doing the samesort of thing the good onesget lost in the rush. Thepublic say, Oh no not anotherone and turn off without evenlistening and I think thiscould be the fate of Sam

Mike Hennessey, Mitch Howard, Peter Jones, Val Mabbs, Rob Mackie, Charles Webster.

Happy-go-lucky stufffrom Lt. Pigeon

Mouldy Old Music ( Decca SKL 5154). This'll do well. Despite the awesomethreats that it was all a one -hit wonder gimmick and destined for an early grave,the gallant Lieutenant's music has gone on to do well in the charts. NigelFletcher, Rob Woodward, Steve and "ma" open here with Mouldy Old Dough,then into a fairground sound on Jumping Jack - and, on side two, Desperate Danmakes a predictable appearance. They plunge into a martial beat on Opus 300,and it's organ -grinding stuff on The Monkey Song. There's the odd break forpiano, and the odd extra -curricular bit of vocalising - in short, don't expect nomusical miracles and you'll enjoy the exercise. It's happy-go-lucky, enthusiasticstuff, and the group has done well to get so many variations of style and sound,specially considering the smallness of the personnel. On the sleeve note, MurielYoung opines: it's a fun dimension to the sound which to me is still different, freshand loaded with KEPOW! Perhaps that's the word for which we've all beensearching . . . "different"! P. J.

Neely. He sings well and is agood writer but he has noth-ing that takes him above therun of the mill mass pro-duced "I wanna be a countryboy" types. Nothing to shoutabout.TRAFFICShoot Out At The FantasyFactory (Island ILPS.9224): A nice big hunk ofBritish funk recorded out inJamaica. Actually Trafficwent of their own accord andcame back with a parcel fullof musical gems wrapped ina strange package, where allthe details are condensedinto a space of about 3inches. Anyway, who caresabout the sleeve when thealbum gets on by itself. RollRight Stone is very Angli-cised while the title trackowes a lot to the atmosphereit was recorded in. It's allvery relaxing and my fa-vourite of the five tracks isEvening Blue which I for onewould love to hear live inTHIS country. Come backTraffic -the lights havechanged.THE DUBLINERSDouble Dubliners. - (Co-lumbia SCX 6513). Recordedin Dublin, and with someinteresting new songs in-volved - mostly in a hu-morous wild Irish sort offrame of mind. Titles includeLouse -House In Kilkenny,Champion At Keeping ThemRolling, Drops of Brandy .. It's a rare Dubliner scenein which some kind of boozeisn't mentioned. Traditionalairs, mostly.SHAWN PHILLIPSFaces - (A & M AMLS64363). Highlight here is a

long, but interesting, trackParisien Plight II, whichruns for thirteen minutes andfeatures Stevie Winwood,Glen Campbell, Henry Low-ther and other notables in anexcitingly built backingteam. But in more con-ventional moods, Shawn is asinger and guitarist whokeeps things moving on al-bums . . . There's a contin-uity, a flowing exuberanceabout his performances. It'sa tribute to him that he sowell captures the mood of hisonstage shows. This albumis an anthology of his writ-ing -recording work since1969.RICHARDROUNDTREETHE The from Shaft. -(MGM 2315 121). He's beencalled the Young and BlackSean Connery, or just theblack Steve McQueen - butwhatever his work in Shafthas made him a super -herofigure. The vocal scene suitshim in a lightly swingingstyle, but even so the realsuper -heroes are packed intothe orchestra used on thismovie score . . . names likeRay Brown, Thad Jones,Garnett Brown . . . packedin and really moving whengiven a breakthrough intothe more vibrant com-positions. And a real -swing-ing vocal team behind.THE MOTHERSThe Grand Wazoo. (K44209).Mr. F. Zappa and a cast ofthousands bring us the newMothers album about theGrand Wazoo. Who or whatthe Grand Wazoo is cannotbe readily defined from thestory on the sleeve, or bylistening to the record. In

fact there's very little voca-lising on the LP with theaccent being on a jazz basedformat with some great hornplaying and some hot licksfrom Uncle Frank himself onguitar, especially where heuses wah wah. Each Zappaor Mothers album takes adifferent tack from the last,and the major difference be-tween Grand Wazoo andtheir previous set, Just An-other Band From LA, is thenon-appearance of MarkVolman and Howard Kay-lan, whose vocal dexterity

Not the best of Freebut still pretty goodHeartbreaker ( Island ILPS 9217). Wishing Well isthe one track on this album which really indicates orrather, more than indicates - shows, just what anexciting unit Free can be. And that's despite all theirline-up changes over the past months. The rest of thealbum is less up -tempo but showcases the interestingvoice of Paul Rodgers welL Generally it's not theirbest work to date, but is a good indication that theirstrength is growing again. John Bundrick's com-position Common Mortal Man also shows the impor-tant contribution he makes on keyboards, as well aswith his songwriting. A strong and powerful track.

V. M.

gether . . . several of themelectronically reprocessedfor stereo. Williams domi-nated the country musicfield. He lived only thirtyyears, died in 1953, and hewas one of the first to beimmortalised in the countrymusic hall of fame. Thoughof a specialist nature, thiscollection shows his urgentlyemotional way of singing hisown lyrics.VARIOUS ARTISTSReggae Steady Go - (RhinoSRNN 7001). Artists in-volved here are Bruce Ruf-fin, The Upsetters, The Aces,Winston Francis, and theexciting Ethiopians, but oneof the best tracks is Shacka-tac by Dave Collins, releasedfirst last year. A fair pan-oramic view of Reggae De-velopment over the pastthree years.THE CONGREGATIONThe Congregation. - (Co-lumbia SCX 6517). SoftlyWhispering I Love You wasthe out -of -the -blue hit whichestablished the team. LoversOf The World Unite is anoth-er strong item on this care-fully -produced set - somebig orchestral and choralarrangements from AndrewPryce Jackman, and BrianKeith's lead voice well to thefore. The secret here isample. Familiar and melod-

ic items; tastefully proj-ected.BILLY PRESTONv1usic Is My Life. - (A andM Amls 63516). Thing AboutBilly is that he surroundshimself with some top -classmusicians. He's strong oninstrumental imaginationhimself, but using GeorgeJohnson on guitar, drummerPaul Hubinon, and some finestring and horn arrange-ments . . the whole thingcomes together well. It's nothis best album. Maybesameness of material has

RITA COOLIDGEThe Lady's Not For Sale. -(A and M AMLH 64370 ). TomShent's song Whiskey Whis-key is a good choice to showthe clarity and purity ofRita's voice, specially priorto the somewhat samey chor-al backing. EverybodyLoves A Winner, by WilliamBell and Booker T. , is anoth-er good song, well-construc-ed and with a sort of philo-sophic shoulder -shruggingfeel to it. Add in some out-standing back-up musiciansand singers and you have afair enough album . . . butsome of the songs just don'thave that lasting qualityabout them. Dylan's I'll BeYour Baby Tonight is anunqualified success.

PAUL WILLIAMSLife Goes On. - (A and MAMLS 64367). Some of ushave waited a long while forthis one. Paul, a bespec-tacled gnome -like figure, hasa style all his own. He writesevocative, simple, humanesongs - and his voice iscapable of gentleness butalso moments of determinedfire. Still ludicrously under-rated, but coming along nice-ly . . . that's a careersumming-up. This albummust do him a lot of good.His songs are of sentimental-ity - as Rose - and they areof a sort of questing, ques-tioning loneliness - as onWhere Do I Go From Here.He finds his solace Out InThe Country, and sings thistrack to a big -building,shuffling, cymbalic backing.He writes well, sings prettywell, has 'a good back-uppianist in Craig Doerge.BILLY PAUL360 degrees. - (Epic 65351).This includes the now highly -noted Me and Mrs. Jones,but there is a lot more, brass -backed high-octane solidsoul. Billy Paul has been

accounted for much of thefun aboard the LA album. Tomany people, Wazoo may bea little difficult to under-stand, but it's simply a caseof where Frank doth lead, weshall follow. Try and keep upwith him - there's a lot to beenjoyed.HANK WILLIAMSMemorial Album. - (MGM2683 016). A two -record set -and Record Mirror's TonyByworth, along with BryanChalker, got the tracks to -

Breaking all the rulesPainted Head ( CBS 65209). I love every sprawlingword that Tim Hardin utters, because he is one artistwho doesn't have to strive to get a feeling into hisvoice. His Bird On A Wire album is deeply in-troverted - and depressively real - this set isgenerally Hardin in a brighter mood . . . though hisvoice always captures a whelm of experience.Hardin can break all the rules in phrasing, even dropwords here and there, but he's a master. Trycontrasting the raving opener, You Can't Judge ABook By The Cover, with Sweet Lady, which isheavily laced with strings. And then there's Do TheDo, with the Cissy Houston Singers, and Tim alongwith Don Brooks harmonica, really creating aspontaneous feeling. Don't expect perfection fromHardin - I love him best in fact on his live album 3,which really shows his true worth. VM.

something to do with that,but his We're Gonna Make Itand Make The Devil Mad(Turn On To Jesus) are ex-celle nt samples of his writingskill, and there's nothing atall wrong with his Blackbird,a revamped and almost inge-nious version of theMcCartney -Lennon item.The old sheer exuberancecomes through well. Some-times with too strong a flurryof note -shattering.

highly rated in the specialistfield for a while now, and theraves have not been in vain.Am I Black Enough has himat a chattering, top -speedmood of urgency, but heshows his versatility by in-stantly switching to a slow -burner, Let's Stay Together,in any case a first-rate song.The bespectacled, beardedall-rounder is up there in thestar bracket -a very talent-ed soul -seller.

RECORD MIRROR, FEBRUARY 10, 1973 19

CASS ELLIOTThe Road Is No Place For A Lady. ( RCA Victor SF8306). So, sure enough, there's a picture of MamaCass relaxing in an armchair right in the middle of arailroad track. For a girl who keeps telling the worldthat she's not all that keen on singing, she sure whipsup an aura of enthusiasm and energy. On sometracks her voice is hidden away a bit by an overfullbacking team . . . British, by the way, for this wasrecorded in London. On other tracks, say onSaturday Suit, she gets into a merely routine ballad -selling kick . . . but on the rest that vibrant, big,king-sized personality comes hustling through.Mama Cass is a real character, that's for sure. Thisis a good album without ever becoming a great one; afew less predictable items would have lifted it that bithigher. PJ.MOSE ALLISONMose In Your Ear. - (Atlan-tic K 40460). Actually thiswas recorded live in a placecalled In Your Ear, withMose using voice and key-board technique against justbassist Clyde Flowers anddrummer Eddie Charlton.He includes a bluesy SeventhSon, Ellington's I Ain't GotNothin' But The Blues, andseveral of his own . . .

notably the explosive Pow-erhouse. What emerges moststrongly is his split-second,spot-on vocal timing. No-body sells an off -beat phrasequite like Mose Allison.HAROLD MELVIN ANDTHE BLUE NOTESHarold Melvin. - (CBS65350). Another vocal team,highly -touted, but not ex-actly fast on the chart break-through round the world.The break came through IfYou Don't Know Me By Now,and I Miss You was anotherbiggie . . . both are on thisset, and it's to the album'scredit that they don't notablystand out. There's a strongair of consistency about itall, with Melvin's own some-times brusque, occasionallyover -simpering voice doingsome splendid soul acrobat-ics. The backing sounds arecompetent rather than ex-citing . . . the spotlight isfirmly on Melvin himself.VARIOUS ARTISTSNewport In New York '72(Atlantic 40445, 40446, 40447,40448, 40449). Five albums,best kept together but soldseparately, commemoratingan all-out jazz scene at theRadio City Music -Hall inJuly last yeaL Ira Gitler'ssleeve notes conjure up thescene very well indeed, andthere are pen -portraits of thegalaxy of jazzmen involvedon the various sessions.

Just a few tastes: volumeone: Cat Anderson, MiltBuckner, Mingus and BuddyTate; volume two: IllinoisJackquet, Elvin Jones, Ger-ry Mulligan and Nat Adder -ley.

Volume three: Dizzy Gil-lespie, Milt Jackson, Mary

Lou Williams and Stan Getz;volume four; Art Blakey,Roland Kirk, Clark Terryand Sonny Stitt; volumefive: Jimmy Smith, KennyBurrell, B.B. King andClark Terry.

HERBIE MANNThe Evolution Of Mann. -(ATL 60020). Brooklyn -bornHerbie on a two -album setwhich outlines the way hiscareer has gone. He was aforerunner in the efforts toget the flute accepted as ajazz instrument . . . "If aman can play jazz, he canplay jazz on a flute," saysHerbie. Recordings taken atvarious times through the1960's, and some magnificentback-up musicians on show.BARBRA STREISANDLive At The Forum. - (CBS66210). There's been a lot ofchat about Bette Midlerbeing "the new" Streisand.Which is fair enough, in

Mike Hennessey, Mitch Howard, Peter Jones, Val Mabbs, Rob Mackie, Charles Webster

Elton John providessomething for us allDon't Shoot Me I'm OnlyThe Piano Player ( DJMDJLPH 427). To mymind Daniel is one of thenicest songs to comefrom Elton John - andCrocodile Rock on everylevel - production, pre-sentation, concept, thelot - was an excellentsingle. As both are in-cluded in this albumpackage it indicates thequality to expect. Thesleeve packaging isbeautifully done, withtinted pictures, lyrics re-produced ( and when Ber-nie Taupin pens themthey're worth reading)and Elton's own versionof a teen mag front coverreproduced inside.That's to accompany thesong I'm Going To Be ATeenage Idol, which isdedicated to Marc Bolanand has that Kaylan andVolman feel about thebacking vocals coupledwith some lovely brasswork, and Elton's honkypiano style at its best. Areally nice one. And for areal contrast there's theurgent power of HaveMercy On The Criminal,given a blues feel. In factthere's that rocky feel ofHonky Cat captured onceagain with Elderberry

Wine, some real old stylerock lines, blues feel; infact something, surely,for everyone. That'swithout making com-promises - maintainingElton's own feel through-out . . . and it wouldhardly be fair not to

mention the capabilitiesof Davey Johnstone onguitars, who really hasintegrated well into thetight unit of Nigel Olssonand bassist Dee Murray.Elton's convinced me ofhis talent with this, moreso than ever before. VM.

terms of style and attack . . .

except obviously the "old"Barbra is in no dire need of areplacement. This was apro -McGovern political rallyconcert . . . 18,000 fans whocheered every note and ev-ery gesture from the lady.There's the Don't Rain OnMy Parade, a touch ofPeople, a not -so -good mono-logue and a magnificent OnA Clear Day.LYNN ANDERSONListen To A Country Song. -(CBS 65164). Title song bythe Loggins-Messina team,

and Tim Hardin's Reason ToBelieve is another trackwhich comes off extremelywell. Lynn, surely the mostall-round popular of thecountry girls, is variouslyaccompanied by the Nash-ville Edition and the Jorda-naires. A nice, peaceful, un-demanding set.JIMMY DEANThese Hands - (RCA VictorLSA 3120). Way back, wayway back, Jimmy had agiant single hit with Big BadJohn. He's continued alonghis country ways ever since,

Chuck Berry's Golden Decade ( Volume Two) Chess 6641058) Chuck is currentlythe most popular of all rock and roll artists of what ever era you wish to think of.His magic rests in the fact that he never changes. He still drives into town the daybefore a gig and picks up a few guys to back him and he likes to see the colour ofthe money when he's asked to work. That's the life he loves - the only life heknows. This is the second volume of golden Berry sounds that should take a lot ofpeople back a few years or more, compiled by Nigel Grainge. Most of the betterBerry tracks were used on the first album, but there's still a lot of good ones left tochoose from, and 24 of them are here. Carol, Little Queenie Down the RoadApiece, Come On and Sweet Little Rock And Roller are probably the best knownof the songs included, but it's a fair bet that when you hear the rest a memory cellwill open up and and you will recognise these old hits. Good informative sleevenote by RM's James Hamilton and a fine record to put in any collection. CW.

working around with a tight-ly laid down backing group,and still working up stacks ofsentimentality . . . but lacedwith some real old good-timehumour.JAMES LASTNon-stop Dancing 14. -(Polydor 2 371 31 9). Theamazingly popular sounds ofthe Last orchestra and sing-ers, and as ever a long list ofpopular themes to contributefor a party atmosphere. Infact, there are nearly thirtytitles herein, leading easilyone to the other, and there's akind of disciplined exuber-ance about the arrange-ments that come over crisplyclear. That this is thefourteenth in the series sug-gests sales haven't been ex-actly slow.HENRY MANCINIThe Mancini Generation. -(RCA Victor SF 8307). Mate-rial culled from twenty yearshectic endeavour in the mu-sic scene . . . Mancini justhas to be one of the mostcreative orchestra leader -composers in the business.Benny Golson's Killer Joe ishere, Amazing Grace too -and the old Swingin' Shep-herd Blues. Plenty of roomleft for solo work in theseMancini original arrange-ments . . . notably by altoistTed Nash and, on EagerBeaver, the vibes artistry ofVictor Feldman. Yet anoth-er Mancini special . . . andthere have been many, allconsistently strong.STANLEY KINGAll You Need To Do Is PiayThe Hammond. - (Ad -

Rhythm ADOR 3). Seems tobe a lot of album work on theHammond organ these days.

of Henrywives

Electricheights

7

RICK WAKEMANThe Six Wives Of HenryVIII ( A & M AMLH614361). It's very hard toreview an album thatpresents someone's con-cept of the six historicalwives of Henry, particu-larly knowing that this isa project that RickWakeman has been nur-turing for many months- and deals with a sub-ject that he has studied.History being my wea-kest subject at school, Icouldn't contradict hisconception of the wives'characters presentedthrough music . . . but itdoesn't seem to me thatAnn of Cleaves wouldhave been at home listen-ing to some of the raceyelectrical passages in-cluded in her piece. Butthen perhaps she was abit of a racey characterand that's what Rick istrying to convey! This allwears a bit thin though,I'm afraid, and thoughRick suggested this al-bum would present awhole new facet of himability to the public, it isbasically an extension ofhis keyboard work aspresented in Yes - with Ifear a little too muchemphasis placed on theelectronic heights he canreach, rather than thelistening pleasure to becreated. Which allsounds a bit hard - infact some of the passagesare interesting, one I findparticularly interestingbeing the representationof Katherine Howard( assuming I've workedout the right top sidefrom my unmarked whitelabel copy!) The basictheme to Anne Boleyn isalso nicely presented,and well produced. VM.

Stanley King believes in us-ing the full range of theinstrument, and there areeven sleeve -note details onwhich buttons, pedals andpullers he's used.PERRY COMOThe Shadow Of Your Smile.- (RCA Victor 1411). Areissue of previous Como big-gies - all for 99p. As ever, arelaxed set yet no matterhow casual Como soundsthere's still that unmista-kable touch of class whichhas put him in the world's topballad -singing league. Titlesong, of course, stems fromThe Sandpiper movie.PORTER WAGONERWhat Ain't To Be, Just MightHappen. - (RCA VictorLSA3130). Country star of longstanding, with the usual elec-ric guitar and banjo soundsfilled out with steel guitar.The songs are occasionallyoff -beat and narrative inform - Waldo The Weirdo,The Rubber Room, and thetitle track reflects the lang-uid, sensitive Wagoner style.MIKE MORTON SOUNDSNon Stop Hits. - (RCA Int.1421). Fourth in the seriesand including up-to-datechart reconstructions - TheJean Genie, Long HairedLover, Ball Park Incident . .

. twctte tracks and the rightsort: record to keep anand nding party goingwith ng.

20 RECORD MIRROR, FEBRUARY 10, 1973

RTATESILMby James Hamilton

American SinglesALICE COOPER: Hello Hur-ray; Generation Landslide(Warner Bros K 16248 ). Whichway will his fans jump onhearing this slow, studied andsomewhat theatrical change ofapproach? Decidely odd in-itially, but second or thirdtime around the insidiousmelody catches on, so strong.Jerky flip about Million DollarBabies has spunky punk pro-test lyrics.THE BEACH BOYS: Califor-nia Saga / California; Sail OnSailor (Reprise K 14232).Flom "Holland", where thechange of air must've done'em good: Al Jardine's home-sick harmony -filled topsidefinds the boys back on classicmiddle period form - withsunny California subject mat-ter, rolling "Tomblin' Tumble-weeds" rhythm, and all thevocal bits we love to hear -while the flipside wistful slow-ie is a bluesy beaut, too.THE O'JAYS: I'll Be SweeterTomorrow; I Dig Your Act(Mojo 2092052). This hesitantsuper -soulful slowie from fiveyears ago is one of the superbGeorge Kerr productionswhich elevated the O'Jays tothe position of "Number OneSoul Vocal Group In MyHeart", where they stay today- more in memory of Kerrthan due to Gamble & Huff.Hear it to see what I've beengoing on about all these years,please. Anyway, the faster"Act" side is the still -com-mercial plug side, and couldsell well this, the nth, timearound.ROY "C": The Wedding IsOver; High School Dropout(UK 27). Despite being "Shot-gun Wedding" 's backing -track with additions, the addi-tions (car hooters, wife, bluesguitar, mother-in-law, girliegroup, crying baby) are sogood, so humorous, and buildup so well that this old BlackFalcon -recorded follow-up isalmost better than the origi-nal. Lotsa fun, and mostworthwhile.HOLLAND & DOZIER featur-ing BRIAN HOLLAND: Don'tLeave Me Starvin' For YourLove, Pts 1/2 (Invictus INV528). Whhoo-h000, mmm-hmmm, but it's so nice thatthese cleffers supreme onlygot around to recording them-selves in the Sweet Soul era -instead of being bang bangbang we get the silky soulful-ness of this meandering two-part slowie. 5:36 in all ofloveliness, which may unfortu-nately fo the Al Green routehere.ANN PEEBLES: I'm GonnaTear Your Playhouse Down(London HLU 10405). TheWillie Mitchell Sound is qt itsmellowest on this smooth easy -beater, one of Miss Peebles'very best. Dig the jazzy gui-tar, the unexpected tinklingchimes, the gentleness. Andbuy it.BETTYE SWANN: Make MeYours (Mojo 2092059). "Thenumber one sound in Soul

THE SPINNERS: Could It BeI'm Falling In Love (Atlan-tic). I've heard a disturbingstory that Philadelphia pro-ducers such as Thom Bell andGamble & Huff tend to use the

same singers on their sessions,and that the groups whosenames are put to the results

town", as all the R&B jockswere saying of this delightful-ly bouncy medium -paced lilterwhen I was last in the States,July 1967, so it's no surprisethat it has special memoriesfor me. Bettye had scant sub-sequent success until her re-cent "Victim Of A FoolishHeart"(Atlantic K10174 ), aninterestingly -arrangedMuscle Shoals slowie. Rightnow, she's Hot 100 (with abullet), singing a worryingly"fashionable" treatment ofMerle Haggard's Countryslowie (the definitive versionof which was by Joe "I'm AFool To Care" Barry in 1968),"Today I Started Loving YouAgain" (Atlantic K 10273):however, flipside she's"Rather Go Blind" in the EttaJames fashion, which is allright.THE PEOPLES CHOICE: LetMe Do My Thing (London HL10404). They likes to do it, andthey do it to a great repetitiveheavy bass riff, UHH! Much ofthe slower flip reminds me ofKip Anderson's fascinating1964 B-side, "I Done YouWrong".MAJOR LANCE: The RightTrack; Urn Um Urn Urn UrnUrn (Comtepo C 1). "Blues &Soul" have done a "Soul City"and started their own label(thru Decca) which really istheir own, unlike Mojo. Firstoff is Mr. Monkey Time's CarlDavis -produced version of Bil-ly Butler's ever -popularNorthern Disco stomper. It'ssimilar, unlike Major's self -produced London -recorded re-vival of "Urn 6". Fine forfans.JACKIE LEE: African Boo -Ga - Loo (Jay Boy BOY 76).The combination of Mr. DoThe Duck, the Jerry -0 type oftitle, and the typical FredSmith production is a guaran-tee of boffo biz Up North forthis 1967 dancer. It's also agood record, anywhere, withsome expert rhythm work.BEAVER & KRAUSE: A RealSlow Drag; Bluebird CanyonStomp (Warner Bros K 16237).Written by the black master ofRagtime piano, Scott Joplin,for an ill-fated 1907 Pop -Operacalled "Treemonisha" (yes,Pop -Opera was right - rag-time was to the popular musicof the 1890s - 1910s whatRhythm & Blues has been toour music since the 1950s, andit was black too), this jauntilysyncopated slightly martialgirlie group -sung and arch-aically - orchestrated oddity isas lovingly created as is IanWhitcomb's similar "UnderThe Ragtime Moon" album onUnited Artists (UAS 29403).Hear this, and read Ian's fas-cinating "After The Ball" tounderstand the importance ofRagtime to the history I Pop.Anyway, flipside Paul & Ber-nie wield their synthesizerswhile Jim Kellner thumps qui-etly, to produce the sort ofbeauty which made their"Gandharva" album one ofmy 1972 faves. Try a littlestrangeness today.

Irom.Billboard

singly1 1 CROCODILE ROCK Elton John MCA2 2 YOU'RE SO VAIN Carly Simon Elektra3 4 WHY CAN'T WE LIVE TOGETHER

Timmy Thomas Glades4 6 OH BABE, WHAT WOULD YOU SAY

Hurricane Smith Capitol5 3 SUPERSTITION Stevie Wonder Tamla6 9 DO IT AGAIN Steely Dan ABC7 8 THE WORLD IS A GHETTO

War United Artists8 7 TROUBLE MAN Marvin Gaye Tamla9 12 DON'T EXPECT ME TO BE YOUR FRIEND

Lobo Big Tree10 13 COULD IT BE I'M FALLING IN LOVE

Spinners Atlantic11 18 DUELLING BANJOS Deliverance Warner Bros12 14 ROCKY MOUNTAIN HIGH John Denver RCA13 5 YOUR MAMA DON'T DANCE

Ken Loggins &Jim Messina Columbia14 15 DANCING IN THE MOONLIGHT

King Harvest Perception15 34 KILLING ME SOFTLY WITH HIS SONG

Roberta Flack Atlantic16 16 LOVE JONES

Brighter Side of Darkness 20th Century17 10 HI HI HI Wings Apple18 21 DADDY'S HOME Jermaine Jackson Motown19 24 LAST SONG Edward Bear Capitol20 11 ME AND MRS. JONES

Billy Paul Phil Internat21 22 JAMBALAYA (On the Bayou)

Blue Ridge Rangers Fantasy22 28 LOVE TRAIN O'Jays Phil Internat23 17 SUPERFLY Curtis Mayfield Curtom24 20 SEPARATE WAYS Elvis Presley RCA25 25 YOU TURN ME ON, I'M A RADIO

Joni Mitchell Asylum26 29 DO YOU WANT TO DANCE Bette Midler

Atlantic27 27 DREIDEL Don McLean United Artists28 23 CLAIR Gilbert O'Sullivan MAM29 32 REELIN' AND ROCKIN' Chuck Berry Chess30 36 THE COVER OF THE ROLLING STONE

Dr. Hook Et the Medicine Show Columbia31 33 HARRY HIPPIE

Bobby Womack Et Peace United Artists32 19 ROCKING PNEUMONIA -BOOGIE WOOGIE

FLUJohnny Rivers United Artists

33 38 PEACEFUL EASY FEELING Eagles Asylum34 44 LIVING TOGETHER GROWING TOGETHER

5th Dimension Bell35 26 DON'T LET ME BE LONELY TONIGHT

James Taylor Warner Bros36 46 I GOT ANTS IN MY PANTS

James Brown Polydor37 40 I'M NEVER GONNA BE ALONE ANYMORE

Cornelius Brothers Er Sister RoseUnited Artists

38 42 BIG CITY MISS RUTH ANN Gallery Sussex39 30 FUNNY FACE Donna Fargo Dot40 49 DANNY'S SONG Anne Murray Capitol41 43 JESUS IS JUST ALRIGHT

Doobie Brothers Warner Bros42 58 I'M JUST A SINGER (Ina Rock and Roll Band)

Moody Blues Threshold43 37 PIECES OF APRIL

Three Dog Night Dunhill44 50 HUMMINGBIRD Seals Et Crofts Warner Bros45 52 GIVE ME YOUR LOVE Barbara Mason Buddah46 48 YOU'VE GOT TO TAKE IT (If You Want It)

Main Ingredient RCA47 35 SMOKE GETS IN YOUR EYES Blue Haze A Et M48 57 DON'T CROSS THE RIVER AmericaWarner

Bros49 53 GOOD MORNING HEARTACHE Diana Ross

Motown7450 ALSO SPRACH ZARATHUSTRA (2001)

Deodata CTI

Straight fromare merely saleried faces wnogo out on the road. It's the sortof story that has always gonethe rounds, and in the case of,say, the Stylistics it is obvious-ly not true . . . BUT, it didcome from a respectable andknowledgeable source.

Listening now to the Spin-ners' latest Thom Bell - pro-

duced US Chart - climbingeasy - beat semi - slowie I havecause to pause for thought: theSpinners were always a prettyanonymous group vocally -exemplified by the fact that itwas they who did the infamousMotortown Revue impersona-tions in their old stage act, andmimic - in - chief SanimyDavis Jr. could hardly be said

album1 1 CARLY SIMON No Secrets Elektra2 2 WAR The World Is a Ghetto United Artists3 3 STEVIE WONDER Talking Book Tamla4 4 CAROLE KING Rhymes Et Reasons Ode5 5 LONDON SYMPHONY ORCH. AND

CHAMBRE CHOIR w/GUEST SOLOISTSTommy Ode

6 6 NEIL DIAMOND Hot August Night MCA7 7 JETHRO TULL

Living in the Past Chrysalis8 9 MOODY BLUES

Seventh Sojourn Threshold9 10 DIANA ROSS /SOUNDTRACK

Lady Sings the Blues Motown10 13 ROLLING STONES

More Hot Rocks (Big Hits Et FazedCookies) London

11 11 JONI MITCHELLFor the Roses Asylum

12 8 JAMES TAYLOROne Man Dog Warner Bros.

13 12 CAT STEVENSCatch Bull at Four A Et M

14 15 AMERICA Homecoming Warner Bros.15 18 HELEN REDDY

I Am Woman Capitol16 19 CREEDENCE CLEARWATER REVIVAL

Creedence Gold Fantasy17 21 JOHN DENVER

Rocky Mountain High RCA18 16 LOGGINS Et MESSINA Columbia19 25 BETTE MIDLER

The Divine Miss M Atlantic20 20 MARVIN GAYE /SOUNDTRACK

Trouble Man Tamla21 14 AL GREEN

I'm Still in Love With You Hi22 17 BILLY PAUL

360 Degrees of Billy Paul Phil Intl23 23 CURTIS MAYFIELD/ SOUNDTRACK

Superfly Curtom24 37 AL GREEN Green Is Blues Hi25 22 SEALS Et CROFTS

Sumrrier Breeze Warner Bros.26 24 SANTANA Caravanserai Columbia27 41 DEEP PURPLE

Who Do You Think We Are Warner Bros.28 27 BREAD Guitar Man Elektra29 26 GRATEFUL DEAD Europe '72 Warner Bros.30 39 DON McLEAN United Artists31 29 DONNY OSMOND

My Best to You MGM32 34 RICK NELSON Et THE STONE CANYON BAND

Garden Party Decca33 50 STEELY DAN Can't Buy a Thrill ABC34 28 DUANE ALLMAN An Anthology Capricorn35 31 URIAH HEEP

The Magician's Birthday Mercury36 36 RASPBERRIES Fresh Capitol37 40 STYLISTICS Round 2 Avco38 33 TEMPTATIONS All Directions Gordy39 35 JOE COCKER A Et M40 43 LOBO Of a Simple Man Big Tree41 93 DELIVERANCE Soundtrack Warner Bros.42 38 MOODY BLUES Days of Future Passed Deram43 30 BARBRA STREISAND

Live in Concert at the Forum Columbia44 44 BLACK SABBATH

Black Sabbath, Vol. 4 Warner Bros.45 42 PARTRIDGE FAMILY Notebook Bell46 45 NEIL YOUNG/SOUNDTRACK

Journey Through the Past Reprise47 32 ELVIS PRESLEY

Burning Love Et Hits From His Movies RCA48 52 JIMI HENDRIX War Heroes Reprise49 67 NEIL DIAMOND Double Gold Bang50 51 GEORGE CARLIN Class Clown Little David

the Statesto have a distinctive voicewhen singing straight.

Now, I've always rated theSpinners higher then most. . . . uh oh, I've just remem-bered I should be calling themthe DETROIT SPINNERS,sorry Liverpool Spinners. . . . ever since their "That'sWhat Girls Are Made For",and I'm not prepared to have

my dreams shattered just likethat. The lead singer here isdefinitely the same as on "I'llBe Around", but he does hap-pen to be backed up stronglyby some chicks. Could it bethat some of the backgroundsinging is not necessarily al-ways by the named membersof the groups? That would bereasonable, and to be ex-,.

pected. I hope that's whatdoes go on.

Oh, the record has a grow -on - you appeal, an Al Greentype of tempo, and a subduedThom Bell - arranged / con-ducted backing. Of course it'sgood, no matter who's sing-ing. Oh dear, I wish he'dnever told me, mutter mutter,mumble mumble groan. . . .

RECORD MIRROR, FEBRUARY 10, 1973 21

New addition to thevocal group stakes

BLACKWATER JUNCTION: Bring All The YoungMen Back Home ( MCA 1179). The way I hear it, thisJohn Goodison-formed group are all out to emulatethe undoubted classiness of the 5th. Dimension. Let'ssay this, for a start: The use of mixed voices, with athroaty and soulful male interjecting fiercely upfront, is very well handled. Girl lead emerges later,in more soothing style. There's a persistent almost -marching tempo, which also scores heavily. A highlypromising new addition to the vocal -group stakes.CHART CHANCE.

LEE SHERIDAN: SweetestTasting Candy Sugar (De -ram) . Self -penned, and arather twee sort of vocalapproach. The arrangementis good, but the song surelyisn't going to make it.BACK ALLEY CHOIR: TheNursery Rhyme Song(York). Mixed voice on nur-sery chants dressed up in amodern rhythmic approach .. . So catchy that it couldprove very commercial in-daed. May hit the chart.

PROVIDENCE: FantasyFugue (Threshold). Pro-duced by Moody man TonyClarke, this is a fine piece ofmusicianship . . . Moodyvoices hauntingly presented,the odd touch really lifted itout of the norm. Imaginativepop.THE THEMEWEAVERS:Theme From Emmerdale(York). The Yorkshire TVseries, and a piece of skilfulwriting by Tony Hatch, whoalso produced the single.

No monkey business . . .

Must take this carefully. The new single is Orang-Utang, byJo'Burg Hawk . . . NOT Fo'Burg Hawk, Jo'Burg BY Orang-Utang. Right? Now Jo'Burg Hawk is a South African band ofnine, with four singers/percussionists, a bassist, guitarist,lead guitarist, drummer, and out -front percussionist BrahamMalberbe. The single Orang-Utang (Charisma) has beenspecially re -mixed for the multi -racial band, who soon arrivein Britain to take their mixture of tribal rhythm and hard-core rock on tour. I found this single very exciting, nomonkeying around.

VAUGHAN THOMAS: Giant(Jam). Almost a gospel feelin the sound here, though thesong itself isn't in that field.An ambitious productionwhich Mike Batt has handledwith his usual skill.MANDY MORE: San Fran-cisco Sam (Philips). Mandywrote this one, and it curlsitself round her small butpoignant voice. An off -beattalent, Mandy . . . Must hearmore of her.DEREK SCOTT ORCH: GirlIn The White Dress (Pye).The theme from the TVseries General Hospital, aslow -burner in operatingtheatre atmosphere.

PAUL MAURIAT ORCH:Black Is Black (Philips).Seems there's a kind ofblack-market interest in thisone for some reason it's atypically lavish Paul per-formance on the one-timechart -topper (By LosBravos).

LISTEN: Astral Boogie(Parlophone). A very prom-ising team, this - could be inat the start of somethingimportant here. A strong,flexible vocal sound, and apowerful number whichstretches the voices. Nicebig -band backing. Com-mended, highly.

reggae cornerNice production touches on Tumblin' Dice, by OWEN GRAY(Blue Mountain) - little jerky vocal incisions, a businesslikebasic rhythm in which the instruments come over good andclean. Classy reggae, this.

From DENNIS ALCAPONE: Rasta Dub (Grape), whichhas a kind of fairground roundabout feel to the rhythm, andsome staccato -rapped vocal comments. More Dub, by LittleJOHNNY JONES (Pressure Beat), turns out to be a ratherlanguid bit of vocalising, but fetching words.

TRAMMY, on Horns Of Paradise (Technique): a horn -yinstrumental with guitar, brass, tenor sax all involved over ashuffling back -beat. And Hurt, by REID'S ALL STARS(Duke Reid), has a good dance rhythn, with the voices hiddenaway in a sort of minor -key projection.

U -ROY on King Tubby's Special (Green Door): somewhatgimmicky on instrumental touches, almost whining, and thevoice just patters on and on . . . and on. BIG YOUTH workover Dock Of The Bay (Down Town) in a scat -styled scene, abit disjointed, but clever for all that.

Headquarters by DELLINGER (Duke) opens with a bit ofdialogue, then a sharp drum -burst and another novelty songis under way - fair but patchy.

1J JJPETERJONESon thenew

singles

Vintage Engelbertcomesback!ENGELBERTHUMPERDINCK: OnlyYour Love; My SummerSong ( Decca F 13378).Some very fast actionwas needed to completethis well -sung single -it's the theme from thenew movie The ValachiPapers. Seems that Eng-el and producer-bossmanGordon Mills heard thesingle for the first timeonly a week before it wascompleted in the studios- replete with a LaurieHolloway arrangement.It precedes the arrival ofEngel's new album thismonth. Engel himself isoff for a six-month tour ofAmerica. The song isromantically soft -slanted, with backingchorus and waltz tempopushing lightly but per-sistently. Vintage Engel,I'd say. CHART CERT.

Twinkle big star!

Back in 1964, so the referencebooks tell me, there was agirl named Twinkle, a blondelady, who had a hit recordwith a song called Terry, anda pretty mournful piece oflyric -writing it was, too!That Twinkle is apparentlyin the throes of a comeback,but now there's anotherTwinkle.

This one is 16, comes fromHammersmith, and has beensinging with her sisters sinceshe was only six. TheJohnson girls debut with arevived version of PhilSpector's great To KnowHim Is To Love Him (Pye),and way out front, wailingwell, is Twinkle. The voice isunusual, it phrases nicely,and it's a good, big voice.Her real name is Lorenza, bythe way. When she soars up'there on the high notes,there's a distinct star qualityabout her. Stars shouldTwinkle.

SPONTANEOUSCOMBUSTION: SabreDance (Harvest). Every sooften someone turns up witha sprint -paced version of thisshow-off Khacaturian scene.It's tailor-made, I suppose,for the fast -fingered ex-trovert. . . And this is prettyexciting.

RICKI STORM AND THECLOUDS: Endless Sleep(York). Old-style rocked -up,souped -up job on a revivalsong, but surely there's sometongue-in-cheek work goingon here.

THE SKIFFLES: TeacherCan't Get Me (Parlophone).Surely not skiffle backagain? This is more a boogie-ish rocker, girl -led, andproduced by ex -Beatles manGeorge Martin. Hard todefine.

STRANGE FOX: Rock andRoll Band (Parlophone).Opening with a persistentrhythm of foot -tapping style,'tis the saga of a touringband with some pretty wildvocal touches.

SPIROGYRA: I Hear You'reGoing Somewhere (Pol-ydor). Duo comprising Mar-tin Cockerham and BarbaraGaskin. Gentle and off -beatrecord - with a neat in-jection of both flute andstring section. Nice.

CANDY FLOSS: DeltaQueen (Polydor). Somethingabout this continental chantthat is in the Mamy Bluecategory, though I guessthat's fair enough. It soundspretty good, basically.

Very nicesoundbut . . .PARCHMENT: WhereCan I Find You ( Pye45214). Sue McClellan,John Pac and Keith Ry-croft - they are thethree who make upParchment - whose firstsingle, Light Up TheFire, hit the charts. JohnPantry, a versatile chap -about -mu sic , producedthis follow-up with asympathetic touch, but Ididn't find the song asinstantly commercial asthe last ( and actually Ifailed to tip that one,too!) But that's not todetract from the harmo-nic skill and the fillingout of organ in the back-ing. Nice sounds.CHART CHANCE.

WILD ANGLES: RunningBear (Decca). The rockersdo a good job on this revivedsituation song - it workswell, but there's not quiteenough to suggest an instanthit. Maybe a slow -burningone . . .

KEITH DE GROOT: Make ItWithout You (Dec ca) . An-swering chorus with a grind-ing bass touch to it, andKeith singing out urgentlyover it all. But not notably ofhit quality.

CAMEL: Never Let Go(MCA). Rippling slice ofthoughtful pop, with longinstrumental opening andsome well -constructed vocallines laid on later. Could bethe start of something, for Igot not the hump.

WOODEN HORSE: WoodenHorses (York). Flute, word-less chorus, almost an east-ern sound, delay vocal in-troduction on a narrative sto-ry. Two boys and a girl,smoothly blended.

MICHAEL REDWAY: GoodMorning (Philips). Self -pen-ned opus by one of the mostexperienced singers in thegame - oft in the backinggroup, Mike deserves a spellin the spotlight.

An uncommon breakthrough?Hailed as Denmark's new Golden Boys, the Olsen Brothershave done well in a short time; I mean really well in a veryshort time. They packed the Tivoli, in Copenhagen, recently- in front of 30,000 fans and an orchestra backed by our PeterKnight. He conducted for their single Jimmy Loves Me(Philips). I've heard an advance copy of their chart -toppingDanish album and can confirm they're consistent as well asmusicianly. Niels and Jorgen work well on this single - nicesteel -y guitar sounds behind a couple of soft -edged voices.Could be an uncommon Common Market break -through.

22 RECORD MIRROR, FEBRUARY 10,1973

a

Vil RIWrite to: Val, Record Mirror, 7 Carnaby Street, London 111/1V1PG

Mary justbuy whatyou like!

RE MARY'S letter (January25) in which she said that shedoes not like the music oftoday, I must say that Iagree with her.

The only records that I buyand listen to are re-released1950s LPs and original 1950s45s and 78s (when I can findany).

Rock 'n' roll is where it'sat. Every party or dance I goto comes to life as soon as therock 'n' roll starts, as it isdanceable, lively and plain'good fun. Songs like GreatBalls Of Fire, Breathless, 20Flight Rock and nearly anyother rock standard cannotbe matched by any one songof today - and no "star" oftoday -- and no "star" oftoday can compare to thegreats of the 1950s - JerryLee, Eddie Cochran, Bill Ha-ley, Gene Vincent . . .

Rock 'n' roll is still whereit's at. By the way, I'm 18.

Maurice Stutely, 143Broomfield Road, Chelms-ford, Essex.... what is wrong with Maryadmitting to her parents that

Blues overMoodies

IN Charles Webster's inter-view with Justin Hayward(January 13), he was quotedas saying that the Moodiesare more popular in Americathan Britain.

Well, I would like to re-fresh his memory. Remem-ber the Wembley gig inApril, during the rail strike?Many fans came from milesoutside of London, with noidea how they could gethome, to fill the Pool tocapacity. OK, so Britaindoesn't possess a venue thesize of Madison Square Gar-dens, but that's hardly ourfault.

If Britain saw half as muchof the Moodies as Americadoes, the group woud soonfind out how popular theyare. What the hell do wehave to do to prove how muchwe like them?

VAL: Apologies to this read-er, I've mislaid the separatesheet with name and addresson included in this letter. Butas you seem to have a pointto make here I've printedYour comments anyway!

she likes 78s and Jim Reeves'records? Surely everybodyhas the right to listen to anysinger or music. I cannot seewhat age has to do withstarting a collection.

Kenneth Tyler, SouthLodge, Goodrich, Ross -on -Wye, Herefordshire.

... Mary is right about popmusic. It is nothing but rub-bish. She should not be sosilly, and go out and buy asmany Jim Reeves records asshe likes. I did.

George Markham, 170 Lon-don Road, Woodston,Peterborough.

... it's time Mary started tobelieve in herself. I boughtMatchstick Men and Stonesrecords as a teenager, and Istill get pleasure from listen.ing to them now I'm 26. I stillfollow the Stones and Statusand if they're still doing gigswhen I'm 40, I'll be there!

J. Grant, Flat 2, 92/94Uppper St Giles Street, Nor-wich, Norfolk.

. . . Mary must have moremoney than sense. Wastingher money on records shesays are "absolute rub-bish." As for preferring herparents' records, fairenough, but does she havethe guts to admit her tastesand buy this type of recordherself? No.

If she likes her parents'records now, what will hertastes be at their age? Pre-sumably she won't revert toliking pop - so I think she'smissing out on a lot of the funof being 17.

Lyn Cremetti (18), 8a & bHigh Street, Alcester,Warks.

... if only people wouldn'tfollow like sheep, buting buy-ing they think are in fashion,half the trash that gets in thecharts wouldn't be there. Iheard a track from Slade'sLP the other day and honest-ly all they were doing wasshouting and screamingtheir heads off.

S Cornelius, Northwood,Nr. Cowes, Isle of Wight.

Mr Palin replies...Dear Editor (or his friends), I would like to point out acouple of small Inaccuracies in my Interview with thatnice Charles Webster (but what a drinking problem!).Firstly, John Peel's name when I first knew him was JohnRavenscroft, and not the mysterious John Raymond Scott,who is an entirely phonetic character.

Also, one never really becomes "firm friends" withanyone at public school. (But he did have a great LonnieDonnegan collection). And, secondly, the Python recordwhich has sold over 35,000 copies is our previous record,and not the Previous record, which is our latest record. Icannot see how this misconception should have risen.

Good luck with VAT.Michael Palin- Python Productions Ltd, Pall Mall,

London, SW1.

VAL: Incidentally Michael, there seems to be some smallinaccuracy here - the character we know of is LonnieDonegan!

Is the IBA ruiningcommercial radio?

HAVING just heard that theIBA are using Radio Vero-nica's wave length to do theirtesting on, I must say itseems unbelievable that theycan find the nerve to eventhink of taking away fromthe people of Holland theright to listen to the stationthey want to hear. The 12

ALLAN Clarke certainlypromises to be one of the bigstars in 1973. Things havebeen very quiet for him sincehis first solo album My RealName Is 'Arold, which I feelwas sadly underrated. ButAllan has a new album re-leased soon, and I would justlike all his fans to supporthim and buy this albumwhen it comes out. Let usbring this very talented art-ist to the top again, where hedeserves to be, of course.

Aage Nymoen, 3350, Pre-stfoss, Norway.

years of its existence provesthe point.

If this country seriouslywants to have successfulcommercial radio then theyshould abandon the completeidea of an IBA and simplyallow the two ships from theDutch coast to position them-selves off England. Thiswould provide England withvery popular commercial ra-dio - far better than the IBAcan ever hope to provide.

Trevor Legg, 8 Ham Lane,Lenham, Kent.

HERE'S one person who -won't be listening to anyprogrammes or stations con-trolled by the IndependentBroadcasting Authority.What a mean lot they are. Itseems the British Govern-ment can force us to join theCommon Market, but theywon't allow us to listen to aCommon Market (albeit, pi-rate) radio station.

Doris Kilford, Ashdown,Hookwood, Horley, Surrey.

WOULD you please help me (and a hell of a lot of others!). Ihave started a petition that eventually I will send up to a TVnetwork. It is to get a programme on TV aboutJimi Hendrix.It is over two years since his death and hardly anything hasbeen done!

OK, every praise has been given to him, but as for films,etc, hardly anything besides a few minutes in Woodstock andMonterey has been devoted to him. Nobody seems to knowwhere Rainbow Bridge has gone!

So I would like to ask people to send me as many signaturesas they can and I will be more than pleased.

Rod Gilliard, 110 Gonville Road, Bootle, Lancs, L20 9LR.

Chuck the greatest!HAVING seen Chuck Berryat Bournemouth recently Ican only express what agreat performer he is! With2,000 people present at theHardrock and most of themwishing to shelve the actsprior to Chuck's finale, theclimax proved to be a mostworthwhile one.

For almost an hour and ahalf Chuck whooped and

Clean Little Jimmy beatsall those 'filthy groups'

I READ what you said aboutthe new Jimmy Osmond LP.I haven't heard the LP but Iwas annoyed. You put Jim-my low down on the ground.Yes, well just you rmemberthat Jimmy Osmond wasnumber one for five or sixweeks. Can any of your dirtygroups do that?

You know what's the mat-ter with you, don't you?You're jealous of the Os-monds. You haven't a good

thing to say for them in R. M.we noticed you lot go for thefilthy groups, "no names,"that look -like they've neverhad a bath or seen water forsix months - their hairhanging over their face,probably running with lice.

Please keep your nastyremarks to yourself.

Pantie Parish, 22 Glads-tone Street, Shieldfield, New-castle.

reeled with his familiarsounding guitar and demon-strated his enormous person-ality and professionalismthroughout.

There was much holleringfor more at the end, butChuck was no longer to beseen. Come back soon, man,because you're one of thebest musicians on the scenetoday, and we really dig you.

"Depth -charge" Deke,The White Cottage, 397 Wood-lands Road, Woodlands, Nr.Southampton.

I, and I'm sure a great manyother people, were terriblyannoyed that the Elvis livefrom Honolulu special wasnot broadcast on television,as it was in other parts of theworld. I hope other peoplewill also respond to the can-cellation, so that either ITVor BBC buy up the recordedprogramme for screening.

K D Mello, 47 LonghillRise, Ducknall, Notts.

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EDITOR Peter Jones P)CARDFONT PUBLISHERS LTD. 1972 Other magazines in the Billboard GroupPRODUCTION EDITOR George Bickerstaff Published by Cardfont Publishers Ltd 7 CarnabyNEWS EDITOR Charles Webster St W1V 1PG. Distributed by the National Magazine Billboard USASTAFF WRITERS Valerie Mabbs Distributors Ltd., 22 Armoury Way, London, SW18.

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RECORD MIRROR, FEBRUARY 10, 1973 23

While Paper Plane isflying high in thecharts Status Quoare on tour in Aus-tralia. Undeterred,CHARLES WEB-STER conducted anearly morning inter-view by phone withFRANCE ROSSI.

ALL OF a sudden, it's digStatus Quo time. For solong, kept out in the coldby pretentious, narrow-minded musical snobs,Status Quo have brokendown a barrier whichseemed impenetrable.

Anybody can climb afence. knock down abrick wall or defeat otherphysical divisions, butworking on through whatalmost amounted to asmear campaign haspaid off with justrewards for the bandwith two impressivechart entries; theirsingle, Paper Plane, andthe album from which itcame, Piledriver.

Nobody wanted toknow Quo in thebusiness. The only replyto "have you heardStatus Quo lately?" wasusually a laugh, andbecause they've nevergone in for the big hypetrip of telling everybodyhow much they'vechanged and all that, itwas very rare forPressmen, or anybodyelse who doesn't have topay to get in for thatmatter, to see the bandlive.

The transformation -although the band lookupon it as a naturalprogression - frombeing cheeky chartchappies to rockin' at theRainbow took two years,and it was during thattime that I first saw theband. My admiration fortheir work, not as theChopins of popular musicbut as hard drivin'rockers, has remainedever since.

It's good to see themwhere they belong - inthe limelight - and it'snice to stand alongsidetheir fans of old and lookat the trippers hoppingon to Paper Plane,initially just for the rideand who will only stay ifQuo are given the nod bythe high and mightyestablishment of pop.

HistoryIn their long history,

knocking on 10 years,Status Quo have neverenjoyed the success thatsurrounds them now, andmore's the pity that theyare not around to enjoyit. As most of you willknow by now, the bandare in Kangarooville,cobber, Oistraalya, blue.

After a few cables hadbeen exchanged, it wasfixed up that FranceRossi and I were to gabon the blower to see howthey're getting on downunder. All was fixed for

a midnight call and Iwaited by the phone inmy Walt Disney pyjamasand Noddy slippers withbells on the toes.

The waiting minutesturned into hours, untilat three am after playingReg's new album abouteight times, I decided toretire to my bedroom,recently decorated toresemble a wild westcabin. About 90 minuteslater my dream of havingto share a telephone boxwith Raquel Welch andDana Gillespie is termi-nated with a Ding -a -lingfrom below.

"Elio, Mr. Web -Foot?Will you take a call fromOrsetralia?"

"Who is it, NedKelly?"

"No, it's some geezercalled Rossi or Dropsyor something," repliedthe irate telephonist.

"Put him throughplease. "

Unfortunately Mr.Rossi didn't fit into thetelephone but he didmanage to squeeze hisvoice over the waves. Itwas a Tuesday overthere. I couldn't tell youwhat day it was here,and I still can't - and theband were relaxing inPerth after their firstfew gigs in New Zealandand Australia.

"We've only justarrived in Perth," saidFrancis. "We came

straight to the hotel andgot changed and camedown to the pool. It'sabout 110 here today. "

"Before we got toNew Zealand they knewall about us and thefestivals we did out therewent really well, but thenagain when you'reworking with Slade it'sgotta be good.

Killer"It took us 27 hours to

get to New Zealand andthat's a killer of ajourney, especiallycrossing the old timezone. We're all over theplace. We only know it'sdaytime because thesun's out. It wasn't whenwe first got here - wehad three days of rainjust like home. " Cheekydevil.

"The first gig we didthere was very odd. Wehadn't played a gig like itand the New Zealandersdidn't know what to do.It was all well out of handbecause there were26,000 kids separatedfrom the bands by fencesand moats and all thesesecurity guards. Wellout of order. Becausethey'd never had any-thing like that, theguards didn't know howto handle the situation."

"The trouble is thatthey don't like the kids todance out here," saidFrance. "I think it must

be something to do withthe weather, what withthis being the tail end ofthe summer. They getright narked with therain because it takesthem totally by sur-prise. "

From what Francissaid it seemed that theQuo had done their shareof surprising out in theoutback. So far we'veonly done a few gigsactually in Australia butthey've all gone verywell, especially in Syd-ney when we went onafter it had been rainingall day. It was a bitdifferent yesterday. Weall went on stage withjust our jeans on."

To Quo fans, that mustconjure up an unfamiliarsight of F R minus hisbutton up black vest, notto mention his tartanwaistcoat. "We all 'ad togo out and get somewhite T-shirts, but youdon't mind being forcedto do that when you'vegot weather like this.The weather makes itnice to get away for awhile, but you have towatch that sun. If youjust stand on stage you'llburn up, you've gottamove around."

I must explain that thetour, which features Quo,Slade, Lindisfarne and

'If this one getsto number onewe're going tohave problems'Caravan, takes in openair festivals, so it's notthe central heating in thehalls that's causing thetrouble.

Francis asked aboutPaper Plane's chartposition and I told him itwas at 8, 15 places higherthan when the band left.He shouted tothe rest of the bandgathered around theswimming pool andspread the news. Iwondered if Paper Planehad been the reason forAustralian interest in theband before their arriv-al.

Flip"Not really. They only

got into it because of thealbum - that's whatmatters anyway, but weowe a lot to Paper Plane.A lot of people havebought that for the flipside, which I reckon isjust as good. When werecorded the album,Plane was my favouritetrack. But I like 'em allnow. Plane has helpedthe album sell and viceversa. "

One number thecolonials aren't going tohear from Quo is Is ItReally Me, their 40 -minute stage spectacularwhich usually takes up

the middle portion oftheir British act. "We'reonly allowed to do anhour out here," saidFrance. "If we did thatwe wouldn't have time todo anything else. Evenwith an hour we only justget going when it's timeto stop."

After Australia?"Well when we get

home we start thinkingabout the next album andpossibly a single, but wedon't want to rush intothe follow up thing. It's arat race to keep onmaking singles. If thisone gets to number onewe're going to have a fewproblems. So much willbe expected of us andpeople will probably tryto push us out of ourstride. We've taken ourtime so far and donethings our way and wedon't intend to changenow. Future singles willprobably only be albumcuts released to promotethe album. "

"We miss home," saidFrance. "Australia's notas good as Britain, butthe weather's great. Wehave spoken to a lot ofBritish people who havecome here to live andthey wouldn't go back forthe world. I suppose it alldepends on what you likereally. "

QUO DOWN UNDER,

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