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Satunlav, 6^ l*77Colorailo Springs Gazelle Tele^rapliPage 39'DNOTES AND NAMESEagles On The Wingr* Young Makes Splash With DucksBy CHARLES M YOUNG The Eagles, probably the most popular American band in the world, seem destined for somepersonnel changes in the near future Randy Meisner and Glenn Frey got into an altercation at a recent Houston concert, reportedly over Meisner's desire to leave the band No damage was done, and the two made a big show of friendliness at a softball game two weeks later, but the fact remains that the August and September legs of the Eagles’ tour were postponed ”Sources close to the band report that Timothy Schmit of Poco (he’s the high-voiced one) is a likely prospect as a replacement for Meisner. Rumors are also flying about Joe Walsh-whether hewants to remain with the Eaglesor resume his solo career.LRB!Ouality l*opEarns AussiesBeatle l agBy CAMERON CROWEThis is not a snow job,” insists David Briggs, one of three Little River Band singer-songwriter-guitarists, but its been a dream come true for all of us. . .just working in America. It’s such a hard thing to do from an outside position.”It's hit us hardest finan-iicially,” adds guitarist Beeb Bir-tles Every time we come here we have to pay something like two grand just to get in the country. Every time. It’s not easy for a new band . but we’ll keep slogging at it til we make it.”Don't let the earnestness deceive - the members of the Little River Band are not the success-starved amateurs they seem. They are, more accurately, polite and happy veterans. Polite because the tiny music scene in their home country Australia has taught them to be grateful. Happy because, after years of trying in one form or another, these six musicians are achieving the precious impossible. . an American following. “Diamantina Cocktail,” their recently released second U.S. album, is a surprise wor-d of-mouth hit.The scene in Australia,” explains rhythm guitarist Graham Coble, “is very teenybopper. The biggest bands, Skyhooks and Sherbet, are there because oftheir appeal to the kids We chosenot to take the angle. So we’ve shied away from making supercommercial songs. . .we want to play for people our own age We figure that could never happen inour country. . .”Back home, the LRB’s image is, ironically, that of a Little Featthat finallv exnioded into lon£-‘‘As far as I know, there’s no truth to those rumors at all,” said a spokesman for Eagle managerIrving Azoff. But I only work inthe office.”While his ex partners Crosby, Stills and Nash have regrouped to recapture the national limelight, Neil Young has gone off in the opposite direction to join the Ducks. Though notorious for hischanges of heart in such matters, Young is serious enough about the new band to have rented a beaching local bars and promise a cover charge of no more than $2 50. “Everytime Neil opens his mouth during a song.” said Craviotto, “everybody on the beach turns his head in disbelief.”The Ducks have a set of about 15songs, mostly by Blackburn and Mosely, with just a handful by Young; “Mr Soul,” “Ready for the Country ’ and ’Long May YouLive.”house in Santa Cruz, about 70 miles north of San Francisco, to rehearse. Consisting of Young s old friend Jeff Blackburn (once of“This band isn’t just me and some other guys who back me up,” said Young “I just play my part. It kind of reminds me of when 1 was with the BuffaloBlackburn and Snow) on rhythm guitar, Bob Mosely (once of Moby Grape) on bass, and Johnny Craviotto (who has toured withSpringfield. It feels good to be part of this group, like being a band for the first time.”Cooder and Arlo Guthrie) or ms, the Ducks have been playArid where is it all going? “We don’t want to plan ahead,” he said adamantly. “I think we’ve all been planning ahead too much alQuolity pop finally paidGear aerockdeserved mass acceptance. With melodic lead guitarists and four sophisticated singer-songwriters,LRB has mastered an effortlessgether again under the old banner of Mississippi. “But, says Pellic-ci, “since we were criticized forcommerciality. Their legacy includes the country’s most important bands Glenn Shorrock, the group's lead singer, made his name fronting the Twilights, which some pop historians regard as the greatest Australian band of the '50s. Beeb Birtles, beforebeing an Australian band with an American name, we changed it ” Little River, a town 30 miles outside of Melbourne that holds fiveswitching over to guitar, was bassist in the Zoot, a popular Aussie band that broke up when lead guitarist Rick Springfield left fora solo career.houses and a hotel, served their purpose, and the addition of bassist Rodger McLaughlan and guitarist Rick Formosa (later replaced by George McArdle and Briggs) completed the Little River Band.After a short stint at a talent agency, Birtles joined Goble in aband called Mississippi, which had just released an album here on Fantasy. “It was a good learning experience,” says Birtles, “but we made the classic mistakeof going to England to tour. Britain has always been the place where Australian bands go tobreak up.”True to form, Mississippi didjust that. Broke and desperate in I,ondon, the band’s nucleus (Birtles, Goble and drummer Derek Pellicci) ran into Glenn Shorrock and his manager, Glenn Wheat ley. Both were nearing the end ofthe line with Axiom, a similarlyTheir first album, “The Little River Band,” included the single, “It’s a Long Way There,” which entered the U.S. charts last year. On their first visit to America they found their unabashed emphasis on harmony and melodies wildly embraced. “The very first night we played here,” remembers Shorrock, was at a college with the Average White Band. It was incredible to see the faces.. .digging us. 1 kept wondering, Who walked on behind me?’ ”Manager Glenn Wheatley met in Los Angeles with producer John Boylan (Boston, Linda Rondstad, Commander Cody) and made arrangements for him Id work on the second LRB albumfated Australian supergroup.” Everyone commiserated andmade plans to meet up in Australia in six months to joinforces.Half a vear later, they were to-in Australia.LRB titled the new album“Diamantina Cocktail” after an Australian drink made with rum, milk and an emu’s whipped egg “poured briskly over bald ice.” “It’s a strong album for us,” continues Shorrock. “Every otherready. We’ll just give it a chance and see what happens.”Steven Tyler has been putting the last vocals on Aerosmith’sperformance . . Representatives of TV for East Germany were in the audience for Neil Diamond’sfifth album, tentatively titled Draw the Line,” in New York. The band is hoping for a late August release . CBS is doing a special on Elvis Presley, set for airing in late fall. They filmed two concerts in Omaha and Rapid City and interviewed many of his fans and associates. . .Grace Slick hasWest Berlin concerts. Diamond will probably be doing some Irop Curtain shows next spring.Bella Abzug hustled into her 57th year at a birthday celebration cum fund-raiser at Newsigned with Doubleday to write her autobiography with Barbara (“Rock Talk”) Rowes, a Ph D. in Renaissance literature. . .MartinYork’s Studio 54 All 6,000 guests (in two shifts) seemed to be dancing as the politicos got a case of disco fever. The highlight of the evening occurred when the dance floor cleared and Bella wobbledScorsese’s documentary of the Band’s last concert, “The Last Waltz,” is to premiere in Manhattan Nov. 4. It is set to open in a dozen more cities by Thanksgiving - the first anniversary of theonto the raised platform with hei rhinestone and satin clad partner Don DcNatele (leader of the Hoilywood Hustlers) and demonstrated the Bella Boogie. The couple danced to an original com-»♦position, “Bella’s Back in Town written by Larry Coryell and sung by Vicki Sue Robinson.TheNewSoundsBy DAVE MARSHNILSSON,“Knsillssonn”RCAHarry Nilsson has it in him to be one of the era’s best interpretive pop singers; from time to time, on previous albums, he has been just that, ranking right up there with Rod Stewart and Linda Ronstadt. But Nilsson’s heart seems to liesimilar effects. He’s not totallyunsuccessful, but the nature of his w_ ambition ranks with the greatest silliness in the history of pop music. Which is pretty silly.THE DINGOES Five Times the Sun”A Mwith goofy, not to say foolish, projects like this one in which the overt elements of crooner parody are belied by the totality of commitment. I mean, you can call your publishing company Golden Syrup Music, if you want to, but after a while the joke isn’t funny, and everyone catches on: Given a choice between being Elvis Presley and becoming Bing Crosby, Nilsson would pick Crosby every time. Now, if he could only stop acting embarrassed about it, maybe it would be easier to know if he’s wasting his talent or just never had much imagination to begin with.People have been trying to find a first-rate Australian rock bandfor years, it being the only English speaking country without one. This is it, or will be soon: tough, metallic guitar chords mesh with raw, Steve-Marriott-like vocals and thudding drums. There’s also a touch of Lynyrd Skynyrd, or what Skynyrd might sound like if they knew from kangaroos.THE PHILADELPHIA INTER NATIONAL ALL-STARS“Let’s Clean Up The Ghetto Philadelphia Internationa).The profits from this collection of producers Kenny Gamble’s and Leon Huff’s finest talent are ear-NICK GILDER “You Know Who You Are”ChrysalisDespite the title, Gilder himself is only guessing. Most of the time he seems to be under the illusionthat he is the Swedish group, ABBA, and he attempts to achieveventure we’ve had in this business has fallen apart after a couple of albums or a couple of years. This is just going up and up. We’re almost carried along with it. . .” “Please don’t say we’re like Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young or the Eagles,” pleads David Briggs as I leave. “Just ’cause we useharmonies.marked for “future Community Development Programs.” Just what and where those might be is left wide open, but the fact is that this is the most exciting LP to come out of Philly International in a while, mostly because the array of talent is so impressive - it includes Lou Rawls, the O’Jays, Teddy Pendergrass, Dee Dee Sharp, Gamble, Archie Bell, the Three Degrees, the Intruders and Harold Melvin the Blue Notes -and because none of them are saddled with the producers’ fuzzy lyrical cosmologies. The title track is one of the greatest assemblages of talent since Atlantic’s late ‘60s “Soul Clan,” and the Blue Notes’An argument surfaces No such comparison is really in order. In fact, as comparisons go, LRB’s quality-pop approach is closer in spirit to, well, the Beatles...“Everybody’s Talkin’,” “The BigGangster” by the O’Jays and the Intruders’ “Save the Children”Goodmusic for a good cause is a ran thing, and worth checking out. •
Newspaper Details
Colorado Springs Gazette
Colorado Springs, Colorado, US
Sat, Aug 06, 1977
Page 85
Full Page
Clipped by
Olav S.
NO 29 Jul 2019
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