Shows/1979-03-23

March 23, 1979
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Sandpiper
City	Nottingham
Tour
Event
Billing	The Red Crayola Scritti Politti

Reviews

New Musical Express

Andy Gill (Gang of Four)

April 21, 1979

Both Red Crayola and Scritti Politti appear to approach their work with enthusiasm and investigative commitment, and are to be applauded as such.

Neither, I'd imagine, would be caught saying silly things like "And isn't that what rock'n'roll is supposed to be all about?"; and they've both got the product to prove their point, 'Wives in Orbit' and 'Skank Bloc Bologna' being a couple of last year's more successful—and listenable—attempts to shed new light on the shadowy assumptions of "good ol' rock'n'roll".

Theirs is a truly revolutionary impulse which, rather than using the medium merely to trundle out predetermined polemic, sees its obligation more in terms of giving the wheels a complete overhaul and, if necessary, replacing them.

Never mind the bathwater, let's get rid of the baby!

And ambitious task, yes; and this, the first date of a tour the very existence of which is something of an achievement, can best be viewed as an index of failure, a ratio of intention to actuality. Not surprisingly, both outfits have quite some way to go before getting close to that perfect, unattainable one-to-one.

But then, nothing's worth doing unless it's impossible, eh?

Scritti Politti were ragged and tentative, obviously unsure of themselves, but brave enough to ignore [...] 'Skank Bloc Bologna' [...] of more recent material [...] Red Crayola were [...] 'professional', [...] obviously better equipped to deal with the [...] technical side of things [...] the similarity of both bands' material was disappointing; as if they'd decided on their respective tools and forms and settled into a 'style', so reducing the horizons of their ambition: satisfaction breeding inaction.

Which is not to say [...] styles aren't (to a point [...] enjoyable and [...]

Scritti Politti's [...] reggae, for example [...] one of the few instances [...] that form being [...] rather than just applied [...] musicians.

And [...] percussive flurries [...] bass lines and [...] guitar syncopation [...] to produce a peculiar [...] jerkiness, a [...] tension between [...] and forcefulness. They were justifiably well-received by those who came to listen, despite the indecipherability of most of their lyrics.

Red Crayola's unusual line-up of guitar, drums and sax (organ replacing guitar for one song) is interesting to begin with, but eventually [...] too great a [...] and the textural possibilities are exhausted halfway through the set.

Nonetheless, the hollowness of their sound occasionally makes for fascinating listening and, like Scritti Politti, there's an odd tension to the music—the result of setting Jesse Chamberlain's frenetic drumming and Mayo Thompson's jarring, angular guitar against the dry, rather expressionless sax of Lora Logic.

The strengths of their approach were demonstrated on the almost unrecognisable version of 'Hurricane Fighter Plane' they included (the old in the new light, fresh and fearless); the weaknesses painfully evident on the diabolical reading of 'In The Midnight Hour' which surfaced messy, half-formed and unnecessary, as an encore.

Still, I may be rather hyper-critical about things: the tour is undoubtedly the most speculative enterprise of its kind in ages, and also the most enjoyable and thought-provoking I've seen so far in '79; one deserving more than merely open-handed praise.

If you missed it, kick yourself.

References

The Red Krayola Shows
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Live recordings