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 …
Continue Reading Back to top1992
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 …
Continue Reading Back to topFunerals and Circuses
by Roger Bennett
Music by Paul Kelly
Magpie Theatre, South Australia
Director: Steve Gration
Assistant Director: Kaarin Fairfax
Designer: Kathryn Sproul
Choreographer: Debra Batton
Lighting: Laraine Wheeler
Cast: Wayne Anthoney, Roger Bennett, Robert Crompton, Fille Dusseljee, Francis Greenslade, Michael Harris, Nick Hope, Paul Kelly, Kate Roberts, Mandi Sandilands, Lillian Sansbury, Simone Tur.
Rarely does a theatrical work speak to its audience as directly and potently as Funerals and Circuses. In the midst of the Adelaide Festival, …
Continue Reading Back to top1992
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 …
Continue Reading Back to top1991
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 …
Continue Reading Back to top1991
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 …
Continue Reading Back to top1991
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 …
Continue Reading Back to top1991
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 …
Continue Reading Back to top1991
The Black Sorrows
Tivoli Hotel, December, 1990.
Reviewed by Murray Bramwell
The crowd at the Tiv waited a long time for the Black Sorrows to arrive but not as long as Joe Camilleri has. He’s made a lot of music in his forty two years. From the King Bees to Adderley Smith, from Lipp to the Pelaco Brothers he started on the ground floor of Australian music and has now elevated himself to the top of the heap. After …
Continue Reading Back to top1990
Eric Clapton
Festival Theatre
November, 1990.
Reviewed by Murray Bramwell
Eric Clapton has always set the standard. After the music papers announced that Clapton used a banjo string on his guitar, the shops sold out of banjo strings. Curiously, he has followed traditional American music and become an innovator in the process. Starting in the Yardbirds in 1964, Clapton has always been a purist. Just when the band was starting to get a bit fab he was off to …
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