ROCK 'N' ROLL NEWS

ROCK 'N' ROLL NEWS

Kind Of A Drag Now That Buckingham's Gone

As has been generally expected, Lindsey Buckingham—singer; songwriter, guitarist and producer for the enormously successful Fleetwood Mac-—has left that group to pursue his own interests. Buckingham stopped work on his solo project to produce and participate in the making of Mac’s latest platinum album, Tango In The Night, the album his ex-bandmates continue to support on tour.

The remaining Macs—-Mick Fleetwood, John McVie, Stevie Nicks and Christine McVie—held a press conference in Los Angeles to announce Buckingham’s departure and introduce his replacements: Billy Burnette, a longtime member of Mick Fleetwood’s side group, the Zoo, and Rick Vito, who’s axed for Bob Seger, Jackson Browne and Bonnie Raltt, among others. Said Mick Fleetwood: “I think it was becoming apparent from recent interviews”—among them CREEM’s September cover story, we hasten to remind

you—“that Lindsey was going to leave the group.” Added Christine McVie: "Had Lindsey stayed in the band and toured, there was talk of adding another guitarist.” Back to Mick: “Now that he’s left, I know it will be for the benefit of everyone involved.”

Although Buckingham himself was characteristically absent from the newsfest, his manager, Michael Brokaw, released this prepared statement: “Back in 1985 I was working on my third solo album when the band came to me and asked me to produce the next Fleetwood Mac project. At that point I put aside my solo work, which was 50 percent finished, and committed myself for the next 17 months to produce Tango In The Night. It was always our understanding that on completion of the Tango album I would return to my solo work in progress. Of course, I wish them all the success in the world on the road.”

R.I.P.: Dave Martin, bass player for Sam The Sham & The Pharaohs, died of a heart attack at age 50. Martin co-wrote the band’s classic “Wooly Bully.”

R.I.P., Maybe: Spin magazine, which covered rock music is, as we go to press, in limbo. Having sustained heavy losses, Bob Guccione, Sr., the mogul behind Penthouse, evidently decided to pull the plug on Spin, the creation of his son, Jr. The younger Bob has vowed that Spin will continue independent of the Penthousian empire, though, and the

magazine may very well be back on the stands by the time you read this.

Grind Her, Grill Her, Dept: Epic Records is planning an “underground” label—reportedly called Grinder Records— which will release recordings of, uh... underground bands, we guess. The Slammin’ Watusis, of Chicago, are said to be the first act signed to the label.

Gosh Dept.: In other label news, I.R.S. Records is releasing what they call their No Speak series—records by

rock instrumentalists (including William Orbit, Stewart Copeland and Wishbone Ash) that will not only be sans lyrics, a la R.E.M., but sans vocals as well. And, having possibly looked at the charts, I.R.S. signed their first heavy metal act, Cleveland’s Shok Paris. According to a spokesman for the label, “It’s time we kicked some ass.” Yep.

Congrats to Liz Beckenbach of Pacific Palisades, CA, who won our “Hit The Road With The Cult” contest. Out of over 77,000 entries. Bully. MTV came to Europe in August, further homogenizing the planet in anticipation of the coming holocaust. According to our information, the vid channel is beamed via satellite from Amsterdam to the rest of the continent and that Elton John—and these are MTV’s words, not this Bureau’s—“had the prestigious honor of throwing the switch to turn on MTV Europe.” An entropic move, we fear.

Singular News: More than 1,000 stores throughout the U.S. are now carrying cassette singles, indicating a further decline in the 7” vinyl 45 rpm record of tradition. Arista

reports that consumers have bought one cassette single to every two or three vinyl copies of Whitney Houston’s “I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me).”

COVER CURSE STILL WORKING!

Having recently been on the cover of this magazine, guitarist Johnny Marr has left the Smiths. Said lead singer Morrissey: “We would like to confirm that other guitarists are being considered to replace him, and we are eager to play live dates when a new guitarist has been selected.” Sadly, no information is available on whether or not Lindsey Buckingham is reading this item.

Law Is Where You Buy It Dept.: The Beastie Boys have filed a lawsuit against the city of Jacksonville, Florida. It seems the city council there decided to mandate that all tickets and ads for the Beasties/Run-D.M.C. show be marked “for matfire audiences.” The rappin’ trio did manage to win a court order restraining the council’s mandate and played their show at Jacksonville’s Memorial Coliseum to about 40 percent capacity. They are currently seeking compensation for damage to ticket sales, and would also like the city to pick up their attorney fees.

dB Or Not dB: Gene Holder, the dB’s lead guitarist, has left the band, perhaps having read our Lindsey Buckingham and Johnny Marr items. An original member of the close-to-a-decade-old group, Holder moved from bass to guitar when Chris Stanley quit the band. Holder is currently working on the Wygals album (to be released on the Blanco y Negro label in the U.K.); replacing him in the dB’s is Eddie Munoz, ex of the Plimsouls. For more on dB doin’s, see the story in this issue of CREEM.

Since we’re not having enough fun this month, we’ll note that the American Academy of Pediatricians’ board of directors has unanimously approved a recommendation to “actively support the PMRC and PTA in their efforts to make parents aware of sexually explicit songs we feel have a detrimental effect on society.” This Bureau, being too busy paying its children’s doctor bills, has no comment.

UFO has called it a career after 18 years and 13 albums. . .W.A.S.P. is suing some organization called the PMRC for misquoting their lyrics and using their cover art for “Animal (F— Like A Beast)” without permission. . . Deep Purple plan on releasing a live album momentarily, and Purps Roger Glover and Ian Gillan are working on a studio album of their very own. . .the redoubtable Celtic Frost have become a four-piece with the addition of guitarist Ron Marks. .. and drummer Richie Reinhardt quit the Ramones without notice following a New York gig; Clem Burke (who’s worked with Blondie and the Eurythmics) has been named as his replacement.

BITCH!

Being the fairhanded Bureau we are, we’d like to advise readers that a PMRC-backed home vid is being marketed as a tool to help parents discern the irksome bad elements of rock and features such irksome bad elements as Ozzy Osbourne, Bitch and the Dead Kennedys.