MIXED MEDIA, MIXED EMOTIONS

MIXED MEDIA, MIXED EMOTIONS

LETTER FROM BRITAIN

Cynthia Rose

Autumn is always that time when issues both new and old begin to surface, and Britain's been staggering under a surfeit of repeats. There are always at least two people (currently David Sylvian and Bauhaus) playing at being Bowie again, and there's also Edsel, F-Beat's new indie label for re-issues. It's 'Demonic Sound' is meant as a sidebar to F-Beat's modern Demon subsidiary: so far it's given us The Escorts From The Blue Angel, The Merseybeats, Little Richard's Get Down With It! and Let's Stomp—compilation / of Liverpool Beat combos like Rory Storm & the Hurricanes, Derry White and the Pressmen, Mark Peters and the Silhouettes, Sonny Webb and the Cascades, and Faron's Flamingos.

The newest hot issue is this week's debut of Channel 4—the first new channel on British TV in 18 years! It's slightly anti-climatic to discover that its schedules already contain a depressingly high number of repeats (the fourth channel is financed through subscriptions set by Britain's Independent Broadcasting Company; with London Weekend TV set to supply Channel 4 with 130 hours of showtime and Thames TV 80 hours)

So far, Channel 4 has demonstrated a strong preference for cheap, studio-based programming—which means it's unlikely you'll see much of its viewing through overseas sales. But the Choices of its commissioning editor for music, Andy Park (a longtime jazz buff) , may fill in les Anglos a bit further on American musical tastes—since, in addition to a six-part series on reggae history, scheduled shows include 'TexMex,' 'Chase The Devil' (on religion and Appalachian music), and 'Piano Players Rarely Play Together' (featuring the late Professor Longhair). Appearances have been promised from a roster which stretches from the Art Ensemble of Chicago and Gil Scott-Heron to Robert Ashley videos and Meredith Monk. If successful, these could serve as compensation for the horrific pop magazine-for-morons format Channel 4's more downmarket The Tube has copied from the BBC's dreaded Old Grey Whistle Test.

One film we're certain not to see on Channel 4, however, is John Maybury's The Court Of Miracles. A melange of a semi-Kenneth Anger (i.e.,'highly colorful banality), : 'Miracles' flopped during its short London run, but is notable for two points.. One is that it contains Siouxsie Sioux's celluloid debut, gazing moodily into space for a few minutes—and at another point scraping some gold sequins from her face.

The other factor is that the film's earsplitting 'tribal' sound-track was composed by musicienne Virginia Astley, sister-in-law of Pete Townshend and keyboardist on part of his last solo outing. At the moment, Astley is what the English popular press like to hail as a 'Top Girl'.

One of twins, Virginia was raised in rural Oxfordshire. Her recent press and her Guildhall School of Music pedigree make her out to be the perfect English rose: a Hayley Mills part she looks and plays both in the flesh and on the sleeve of 'A Bao A Qu,' her arty EP. (This EP employs Pete Townshend's daughters on backing vocals and young Simon Townshend's ex-bass player, Tony Butler; at the time of James Honeyman-Scott's death, Butler was Pretending in place of the departed Pete Farndon).

Astley first attracted national attention with her trio the Ravishing Beauties, who toured with the Teardrop Explodes. The other two Beauties were model Kate St. John and Nicola Holland, now 'musical Directress' of the Fun Boy Three. While Virginia was recording an LP of 'summer sounds' entitled From Gardens Where We Feel Secure, the original team disbanded but a new pair (Ginny Huwes and Anne Stephenson, formerly busking buddies in Humoresque) were quickly recruited.

To American ears, Virginia Astley's breathy voice and posh pronunciations probably sound more like childishness than 'charm,' and her songs resemble classy nursery rhymes more than pop. Certainly their sweet sweep and the public school chorale arrangements used are as embedded in a mythical, pastoral English childhood as Brideshead Revisited ('From Gardens' might be the soundtrack to The Go-Between). But musically they are accomplished enough to put away 90% of the male lucky-streak-in-dancing-school competition. 'When I'm cheerful I get drunk and when. I'm depressed I write songs,' Ms. Astley told the press—therefore establishing that even her modus operandi equates with that of the male composing competition.

From Gardens Where We Feel Secure— originally recorded for Liverpool label Zoo—remains unreleased as yet. But it looks like Astley will have another single soon: the perversely fetching 'Love Is A Lonely Place To Be' should be out on Why-Fi and can be recommended to any BBC period drama addict.

Period drama in a more robust vein is packing out London's tiny Lyric Studio Theatre, where Lene Lovich has successfully made her acting debut in the self-penned Mata Hari. Hardly the average Rodgers and Hammerstein, Lene and Les Chappell (who, along with Chris Judge Smith, scored the show) interrupted rehearsals for a week when they flew to New York and mixed Lene's new LP No Man's Land at the Power Station.

Deplaning once more in London, Lene said she faced 'rehearsing at 10:30 that night and then finishing 14 songs.' All of which led to a cast:wide dose of virulent flu that almost cancelled the snow's press night and left the Lovich lungs less than full-strength. Backstage honey and lemon notwithstanding, however, Mata Hari pro-, ved a treat—experimental but not indulgent, clever without being tricksy, imaginative and amusing. Lene says she is 'satisfied' with the experience and hopes she gave 'a picture of a woman with a lot of spirit who got caught up in the most extraordinary circumstances—just a cameo of how she reacted as a wohnan.'

Certainly the musical reactions the team orchestrated—and Lene enacted—were fluid and informative, often as delicate as the Javanese shadow puppets which depicted Mata's travels on a scrim at the back of the stage.

Mata Hari also displayed some cunning costumes, half designed by its star, anaa clever doubling-up of roles. (Ms. Lovich not only portrayed the heroine, but also did a brief turn as one of those fatalistic torch singers whose rise at the time of WWI won Mata Hari's audiences away.)

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With the opening of modem underground biker film The Loveless, the London scene has witnessed yet another media departure from a rocker. This time it's musical preservationist Robert Gordon who acquits himself quite creditably as Davis, a gang member, and also provides the film's musical themes. A change from his typical rockabilly, they're really the best thing about this jaded arthouse version of 1959 as small-town leather 'n' sweat.

John Lurie of the Lounge Lizards contributed incidental music to The Loveless. His sax parodies its personalities, and offers aural interpretations of its late-night neons and overspills of light as moody and impressive as his previous scoring work for Amos Poe's Subway Riders.

And, ah! Musn't forget that Dionne Warwick flew into town for a most timely show at the Apollo Victoria...One whose magnificence usefully exposed the flat singing and soulless 'Toni-Sound' of Compact's cult queen Mari Wilson (with her much-hyped Wilsations, Marines, Marionettes and Prawn Cocktails) for the pseudo-'60s sham she is. Shame on Mari, but all this healthy competition should mean that Channel 4 will have to perform like mad to keep anyone indoors. At least until the first snowflake falls.