1992

Hair
Gerome Ragni, James Rado and Galt McDermott
Thebarton Theatre

Reviewed by Murray Bramwell

By the time Hair opened at the Biltmore Theatre in New York in April 1968 many of the major happenings of Hippie history had already happened. More than a year earlier in January 1967, twenty thousand turned up (and on) for the Human Be-In in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park. That was the year of the Summer of Love, photogenically documented with lots of groovy …

1992

Wilson Pickett
Thebarton Theatre

Reviewed by Murray Bramwell

It would have been interesting to know how many people who bought tickets for the Wilson Pickett show thought he was Irish. Certainly his fortunes have received some word-of-mouth resuscitation from Alan Parker’s 2-D movie about a Dublin pub band. Much mentioned but never seen, Mr Pickett served as a grail hero for the Commitments, a retro-soul tribute band playing note-for-note Stax and Atlantic hits from the mid sixties.

The fact …

1992

Paul Kelly
Old Lion, May 1992

Reviewed by Murray Bramwell

I arrived late for Paul Kelly’s solo spot at the Old Lion. At ten thirty I was still watching Malvina Major’s splendid account of the expiration, via madness and grief, of Lucia, late of the Lammermoors. Moving from the studied contrivances of  bel canto to the easy colloquialism of Paul Kelly calls for some rapid cultural gear changes but by no means a drop in expectation. Kelly’s music and …

1992

Angelique Kidjo
Old Lion

Reviewed by Murray Bramwell

Slipstreaming behind Womadelaide comes another world music star. More middle-of-the-road than Remmy Ongala or Youssou N’Dour, Angelique Kidjo, late of the West African state of Benin is now an exponent of Paris pop. Her music is selling well here, Logozo the current album has gone top forty, one of the first world music releases to do so.

The appeal is clear enough. Kidjo’s sound is a stylish mix of percussion, smoky …

1992

Bob Dylan
with Bonnie Raitt

Entertainment Centre
March, 1992

Reviewed by Murray Bramwell

Bob Dylan has toured Australia four times in his thirty year career- which to his many admirers seems like slightly less often than Halley’s Comet.  It is hardly surprising, then, if expectations run high. We have a complex and cumulative sense of his work. Many of us have grown up with Dylan and like few other performers his songs, attitude and  style remain with us. Dylan …

1991

Joe Jackson
Thebarton Theatre
Coppel/SA-FM

Elvis Costello and
the Rude Five
Entertainment Centre
MTV/SA-FM

Reviewed by Murray Bramwell

Someone once said that after the Beatles made it big the pigeon-chested weaklings got all the best girls. That’s not entirely true – Buddy Holly had already made it despite his nerdy horn rims and so did English rockers like Adam Faith even though he, clearly, never ate his vegetables. In fact, the ectomorphs have ruled the earth since the beginnings …

1991

Paul Kelly and the Messengers
with Archie Roach
Tivoli Hotel

Reviewed by Murray Bramwell

Paul Kelly has to be one of our most eclectic songwriters. The influences crowd in from all directions. Irish folk, American country, Dylan, Guthrie, Costello, even bands like UK Squeeze- they all seem to be in there somewhere. Not that there is anything derivative about Kelly, it’s just that he has such good antennae for all the sounds that sound good.

He has been making …

1991

The Highwaymen
Memorial Drive
May, 1991.

Reviewed by Murray Bramwell

This is the age of the conglomerate. After the takeovers, the buy-outs and the barracuda raids have come rationalisation, employee-led rescues and all the other attempts at damage control. No less so in rock and roll. Lately, there’s been a whole lot of corporate huddling going on. Take the Travelling Wilburys for example – bigger than you know-who and not even deterred when Roy Orbison collected his dividend. In …

1991

The Adelaide Symphony Orchestra

Celebrating Mozart

Two centuries on Mozart’s compositions continue to be music to our ears. Conductor Nicholas Braithwaite and Concertmaster Ladislav Jasek talk with Murray Bramwell about what Mozart means to them.

Unless you’ve been living in a cupboard for the past year you will know that 1991 marks the bicentenary of the death of Mozart. Throughout Europe and North America commemorative programs of his music will be performed to audiences whose love for his work …