Sounds 16th July 1983, price 40p

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Back to top	Front Cover   Features a large colour picture of Stuart by Eye And Eye.   Think Big - A Country fit for (guitar) heroes   ECHO AND THE BUNNYMEN · THE CURE CULTURE CLUB, GABRIEL, COSTELLO - dates ROMAN HOLLIDAY - fully booked X MAL DEUTSCHLAND - Qual-ity control IRON MAIDEN - super Troopers YELLOWMAN - turns blue FREEZ - no brass monkeys BAUHAUS LP!
Back to top	Page 2   Culture Club in living colour CULTURE CLUB (Boy George pictured right) return to Britain for a tour in late September, their second this year. The band, who are in the middle of a lengthy American Tour, that they interrupted briefly to fly back and appear on A Midsummer Night's Tube on Channel 4, will have a new single out to coincide with the tour and their second album should be released soon after. It will be called 'Colour By Numbers'. The dates begin at Brighton Centre on September 24 and continue at Birmingham Odeon 25, Oxford Apollo 26, Sheffield City Hall 27, Edinburgh Playhouse 28, Glasgow Apollo 29, Blackburn King Georges Hall 30, Hanley Victoria Hall October 1, Derby Assembley Rooms 2, Ipswich Gaumont 3. Tickets go on sale this week from the box office. There is no London date as yet, because the band haven't been able to find a 'suitable venue'. However they intend to play a London gig at Christmas.   Reading fest: new additions LITTLE STEPHEN And The Disciples Of Soul, Steve Harley and Stevie Ray Vaughan (pictured right) are among the additions to the Reading Festival bill confirmed this week. Little Stephen, alias Miami Steve Van Zandt, Bruce Springsteen's guitarist, played a short tour here a couple of months ago following the release of his album on EMI America 'Men Without Women'. Steve Harley is emerging from a 'low profile period' although he's been selling out London's Venue every time he decides to play there. Stevie Ray Vaughan is the guitarist featured on David Bowie's 'Let's Dance' album who was mysteriously dropped from Bowie's world tour only hours before it was due to start. But Vaughan already had a career of his own set up and releases his debut album on Epic Early in August called 'Texas Flood'. The other American band already confirmed to play Reading — Survivor - have a new album released by Epic in September called 'Caught In The Game'. Additional names for the festival also include Scottish progressive band Pallas, the Enid, Sad Cafe, the Opposition, Heavy Pettin' and Crazy Angel. And negotiations are continuing for the Belle Stars. So far, the festival line-up is breaking down into the Stranglers, Big Country, Steel Pulse and Hanoi Rocks on Friday 26, Black Sabbath, Suzi Quatro, Marillion, Survivor and Magnum on Saturday and Thin Lizzy, Little Stephen, Steve Harley, Climax Blues Band and the Enid on Sunday.
Back to top	Page 4   Foxton freaks out BRUCE FOXTON releases his first solo single since the demise of the Jam on Arista next weekend. It's called 'Freak' and was produced by Steve Lillywhite of Big Country and U2 note. Bruce is now preparing material for his album which will be released in the autumn. He recently recorded a Radio One session for John Peel which will be broadcast soon.   Freak - Bruce Foxton (Top of the Pops 1983), uploaded by Paul Lockhart
Back to top	Page 10   Pete's Ache Peter Townshend threw a press reception last week in London to celebrate his contract with Faber & Faber, who have just purchased his old company Eel Pie, and Townshend is now to produce and write six books in the next year connected with la musique.
Back to top	Pages 18 & 19   SWELL MAPS Jack Barron surveys Big Country   OK, 'INWARDS'?   "Oh dear God," Stuart Adamson moans in his lilting tartan brogue. "It's very very close to me. I hope you realise this is the first time I've ever spoken about this. You're really going to force me to, aren't, you?"   Yep. I find the lyrics of the bit puzzling. 'Everything is inwards but everything is loose'. Is that right?   "Yes," confirms the tall guitarist from his flopped position the bed. "I suppose it is a bit puzzling. It was written on the day I left the Skids, which was the same day Spurs won the Cup Final replay against Man City.   "It was an exceedingly bad day for me all round. I was sat in a London hotel and Sandra, that's my wife, phoned up and told me my grandma, who I used to live with, had died as well. The song is about that situation. I just felt a real mess inside."   "I thought it was about having diarrhoea or something like that," chips in Mark Brzezicki in an attempt to defuse a suddenly uncomfortable moment.   "Thanks Mark, I really appreciate that," Stuart snaps back with a hurt glare. "Look Jack, I'll explain the song to you. Here I am in this London hotel room with all this misery going on.   "So the first lines go 'I wouldn't want to go out on a night like this, when I find out that some of the past has been missed. And the light in the window has burned its fuse'... You know how you leave a light in a window for somebody coming home?... 'I pull everything inwards but everything is loose'.   "The next verse, hell, this is going to be really dodgy, goes: 'I wouldn't want to stay out with news like this. All the engines too loud and all the pavements hiss'... You know that weird noise cars and rain pissing down make?...   "'By the scouts in the stairwell we meet again'... Uhmm, I don't want to talk about that bit... I pull everything inwards but everything is shame'... That last line speaks for itself.   "Santa Maria," Stuart groans in relief, the ordeal of dissecting his lyrics over. "I've just shared a very personal moment with all of you," he winces. The other four of us stare at the wallpaper, pick our fingernails. There's nothing we can say. And I'm beginning to regret making Stuart turn himself inside out. But the conclusion is there for to see. Big Country's music is an emotional hothouse, not an empty glass cage of guitars.   It had all begun lightheartedly enough. A train ride up to Nottingham to chat about Big Country's forthcoming debut album, 'The Crossing', from which 'Inwards' comes, and an opportunity to gauge the heat of band's live flame at Rock City.   The train journey had been made interesting by the effervescent presence of two Phonogram PRs including, ironically enough, Mariella, the spouse of a certain Richard Jobson.   "Richard and Stuart might bitch behind each other's backs sometimes, but when they meet they have a close love for other. In fact there's no point being in the same room when start talking," confided Mariella with the sure knowledge of an insider. "Ask Stuart about the break-up of the Skids. The full story has never come out. He and Richard used to have terrible rows."   In the event, our interview doesn't get underway until after one in the morning. And what with being terminally tired and still reeling from a scalding gig which had revitalised my interest in, for want of better words, 'Rock Music', Mariella's advice was completely forgotten.   Anyhow, perhaps the ghost of the Skids is best left un-exorcised. For that band, despite protestations to the contrary, only have a superficial resemblance to the expansiveness and cohesion of Big Country.   True the Celtic guitar inflections inevitably predominate, but this isn't suprising. Even Jobbo admitted to Mr Waller last week in this mag that "The Skids were Stuart Adamson, it was always his sound and band"     TO MAKE a race out of Big Country and Jobbo's Armoury Show's striving for popular success is to perpetrate all the music biz cliches which Big Country are actively striving to circumvent. That way lies the cul-de-sac of stupidity. Who cares which band is better in finite terms? Certainly not the crammed, sweaty, young audience at Rock City. Certainly not me, and probably not Big Country. All I know is BC are happening now, they feel right and they are going to be huge.   But being huge in sales terms is far from everybody's thoughts as the difficulty of getting hold of late night refreshment is being sorted out. Mark, the drummer, who with his shades on can look strikingly similar to a giant Nick Heyward, cracks jokes while bassist Tony Butler sits in dried sweat exhaustion and Stuart's Scottish guitar partner, Bruce Watson, looks bemused.   Meanwhile, I'm wondering what the hell to ask the band. Two cursory listens a tape of the new elpee doesn't exactly make for informed interrogation. When in a tight situation I find it's best to resort to the lowest common denominator, Smash Hits (the mag), and act dumb. People take pity on your helplessness and the latter isn't too hard to achieve. So, a deep breath, and...   Why 'The Crossing'?   Stuart: "It was the title of an old song we used to do and I thought it was quite apt, quite adventurous sounding, a bit pioneering, it's like a journey to find out about other people and yourself, instead of being static. Movement, as it were... We are a collection of spirits, rather than four as one, pushing towards the same sort of thing."   How do you mean, spirits?   "There's a feeling that runs through the group that is very hard to define. It feels really special to each of us, I get a little bit embarrassed talking about it. But keep on pushing, this could be very important to us...   "I think basically what Big Country are about is we are trying to transmit feelings (a frequent Big Country phrase!) that we have through words and music to other people hoping that it makes a connection in some sort of way. Whether it be in dance music, a rush of energy, in a mental sense, or whatever, it can work at every level. It's up to people to interpret us in the way they want to."   (Mmmm, I've heard this line of mythical cop-out 100s of times before.) So how many songs come personal experiences?   Stuart: "All of them. And if not from personal experiences then from feelings we have about certain subjects or situations."   How about 'Lost Patrol', one of the songs off the new album? When you were recordinq the album I read in a magazine, I can't remember which one, that the song was 'A Foreign Legion story'?   Stuart: "Ah, that was with somebody I wasn't very impressed with, who tried to pin me down on each song (snap!). See, I don't really like to be pinned down because the songs aren't concrete in that sense. They are not saying 'This is the way I see things and you should see them like that as well'. 'Lost Patrol', although it's a long time since I wrote it, is just about people who are not part of the In Crowd".     RIGHT! I HAVE a few daft questions I'd like to toss at you and there's a Bible here so I can get you to swear you are telling the truth. What has been the most embarrassing moment in your lives which you are prepared to commit to public print?   Stuart: "The most embarrassing moment for me was when somebody from the Daily Mirror phoned me up and asked how I would be voting in the General Election. I said 'Well Scotland is in a mess, so it'll be SNP or Labour'. The paper quoted it as SDP. That was fucking exceedingly embarrassing."   Bruce: "For me, I think it was when we were playing Newcastle one night. We were on stage and I done this leap, hit the roof and fell flat on my arse."   Mark: "Mine was when my equipment let me down personally."   Tony: "Yes! But what about your drums?"   Mark: "Like if a foot-pedal breaks, that's it. I feel very silly."   Stuart: "Cos I shout at ye!"   Tony: "I can't think of my most embarrassing experience, but one was definitely in Dundee(?). I fell through the stage. It was just natural enthusiasm. I was leaping about playing the song and I created a hole and just disappeared."   Mark: "The strange things was, I thought Tony was just posing (Mark is not adverse to this ritual himself for reasons too complicated to explain!). All I could see was him lying down playing."   It sounds pretty funny actually. Which brings us on to the next question. What has been your most humorous moment?   Stuart: "I think, for me, it's when people get up on stage with us and instead of getting off at the side they just launch themselves back into the crowd. It looks like a dangerous occupation, aye. It's just like tonight, there was this guy in the front row with a bleeding nose. That's why I got my sweatband out of my pocket and gave it to him."   Mark: "I think the most funny and yet embarrassing thing that happened to me all in one go. When I had my first drum kit, I only had one tom which was mounted on the bass drum. I was longing for a proper floor tom. So I made one out of corrugated carboard and covered it with sticky-back tape to simulate the texture of the rest of the kit and used coathangers for legs.   "Anyway, I was playing a gig down at a working men's club and the scheduled cabaret artists were late. When they arrived, they opened the fire exit door and me simulated drum blew off-stage!"   Bruce: "Did I tell you about my cardboard amp? It was me very first gig and we were playing a church hall. So I thought, right, we'll make it look impressive. So I had me Woolie's amplifer at the bottom and I got this fish crate and painted it black. Got a piece of wallpaper and used it as the mesh, and I got lemonade bottle tops as the controls. And there I am giving it a bit of the Pete Townsend, battering me guitar against the stack and it went flying across the hall!"   Aaaah! Don'tcha just love it. Silly questions will always elicit silly answers. But these reminisences say more about the sheer joy of the pop-music-go-round than any amount of intellectualisation can.   Speaking of Mr Townsend, his family connection with Mark and Tony is very strong. The BC rhythm section didn't just appear out of nowhere. Both sessioned on albums like 'Empty Glass', a highly overrated elpee in my view, and made up the band On The Air with Pete's brother, Simon. On The Air toured with the Skids, the rest is obvious...   So back with the un-state of the art questions... What about the most frightening moment you've had?   Stuart... "Because I'd been to New York before with the Skids, I was taking Mark(?) and showing him the Empire State Building, Central Park and things like that. Anyhow, we went to a bar and this big ex-Marine came and sat next to us and started talking. He was very drunk and at one point he stood up on his bar stool and pulled out this huge knife and said he could take on anybody in the bar.   "We just sort of talked to him till he calmed down. It's like Leicester last Friday night. There was this guy running around with a broken bottle. And like we just had to take him into the dressing room until he calmed down. I really hate things like that. It's silly."   Mark: "I was on my way to a rehearsal, right. I came outside and had the roadie's bag in my van. But when I looked it was gone, the van had been unlocked for a second. And I noticed these two guys sitting in a couple of cars nearby. I instantly knew they'd nicked it.   "So, nervously, I went up to one of them and asked if they'd seen a red bag. They said no. But, looking inside his car, I could see the bag. So I thought, well I'd have to force the car door open before they drive away, but I don't want a fight.   "Anyway, I opened the door and snatched the bag back. As I did so, his mate in the car behind came out at me with a huge axe. By now both were out of their cars... One was asking me if I was calling him a thief or if I was going to call the police. And I was just being silly to myself saying 'No mate, thanks very for looking after the bag'... In the end I just talked myself out of it..."   Like U2, I can foresee Big Country having a large following in America. Do you have your eyes set on that continent?   Stuart: "Uhm, well I think people have the same frailties and same feelings all over the world. It's just a matter of sharing those feelings and making the right connections. We go onstage to show people they are as important-as we are. As long as we can remain honest with ourselves and yet still be successful, that's fine."   But don't you think that the goal of being honest to yourselves is very naive? After all, you are in a business known for its corruption?   Stuart: "I know we are in a corrupt business. But it's a matter of being able to stand aside from that and share honestly with people who come to see you. I suppose it all depends on the strength of the characters in the band."   What could you foresee splitting up the band?   Stuart: "The only thing that I could see is if one of the band became a total shithead and started playing the game as other people say it should be played. To us music is not a game at all. Some people see it as a way of boosting their egos, their bank balances, or boosting themselves in the glamour stakes.   "We don't see it like that at all. If the feelings we express in our songs touch people, that's enough. I might sound naive bui think it's important, that's all.   "In fact of the reasons why I the Skids is because we started treating people with a lack of respect. If you stand on stage and ignore people you're being a complete hypocrite. Surely the idea of writing songs is to bring out something of yourself. It's a mode of expression, not a mode of monetarism."     FOR THE lack of a better phrase, Big Country have an 'epic' sound. Some critics view it as a form of musical conceit with no inner substance. How do you react to that?   Tony: "That's a new one. I haven't heard that before."   Stuart: "I don't think we do anything in a conceited manner at all. Yes, of course it's epic. The feeling that you get off good music is epic. It doesn't have to be loud or fast to give you that feeling. If people see us as conceited, then all I can say is that they are totally wrong.   "We don't set out with each song to make a movie soundtrack for Ben Hur. I think it is important to let your songs grow naturally and to play what feels right for you. It's stupid to say we'll take a little bit of this because it's hip, and a little bit of that, and come up with an instant hit single formula."   You've also been dubbed 'Heavy rock for the '80s'.   Stuart: "If people want to call us that they're wrong again. People just see guitars and think, oh it's a rock group, or it's the new heavy metal. I think what Bruce, Tony and I do with guitars is far removed from what anybody has done before.   "We're not doing the 891st version of 'Johnny B Goode' at all. We're trying to push ourselves, but we want it to grow naturally and not sound like it is calculated."   There was some talk earlier about the possibility of Big Country playing the Reading Festival. Don't you think you might just be fuelling...   Stuart: "The heavy rock for the '80s tag, yeah! I'm aware of   Continues page 46
Back to top	Page 42   Night Shift   By Susanne Garrett and Dee Pilgrim.   GOODBYE, GOODBYE, they're waving us goodbye - a sad day for all music fans this Sunday as The Undertones play their last ever gig as support to Dire Straights at Dublin, Punchestown Race Course. Other support will be the Chieftians. Straits leader Mark Knopfler is pictured on this page.   ON THE same day, but across the Irish sea, The Alexandra Palace in London is staging a celebration in aid of Nelson Mandela's Birthday. The show kicks off in the afternoon and goes well in to the night with Hugh Masekala, Osibisa, Jazz Afrika, Dudu Pukwana's Zila, Gonzalez, Kabbala and Highlife International providing the entertainment.   WEDNESDAY 13th *BATH, Pavilion, (25628), Big Country MANCHESTER, Hacienda, (061-236 5051), The Alarm   THURSDAY 14th COVENTRY, Dog and Trumpet, (88402), One The Juggler LEEDS, Warehouse, (468287), The Alarm *ST AUSTELL, Cornwall Coliseum, (4261), Big Country   FRIDAY 15th BATH, Moles CLub, (333273), One The Juggler *SALISBURY, City Hall, (27676), Big Country   SATURDAY 16th *DUNSTABLE, Queensway, (606626), Big Country RETFORD, Porterhouse, (704981), The Alarm   SUNDAY 17th *DARTFORD, Flicks, (704981), The Alarm/Under Two Flags *POOLE, Arts Centre, (70521), Big Country   TUESDAY 19th *GUERNSEY, Beausejeur Centre, (28555), Big Country
Back to top	Page 44   WORDS Barry Clarke Queensway Hall, Dunstable (0582) 603326 Saturday 16th July BIG COUNTRY Saturday 23rd July ROMAN HOLIDAY Friday 29th July KILLING JOKE   Page 45   One-third-of-a-Page advert for Reading Rock   The Last READING ROCK at the Thameside Arena, Richfield Avenue. August 26th, 27th, 28th   BLACK SABBATH The Stranglers, Big Country, Thin Lizzy Survivor, Marillion, Steel Purse Little Steven & The Disciples of Soul, Suzi Quatro, Steve Harley, Magnum Climax Blues Band The Enid, Hanoi Rocks, Mama's Boys, One The Juggler, Pallas, Sad Cafe, Wendy & The Rocketts Plus Opposition & Crazy Angel More to follow.   Big Country - "Fields of Fire" (Reading Rock 1983)   THE ALARM *14th LEEDS - Warehouse *16th RETFORD - Porterhouse *17th DARTFORD - Flicks *SUPPORT - UNDER TWO FLAGS
Back to top	Page 46   Big Country From page 19   that danger. But we've had so many people on the tour who've said they've enjoyed the gigs and would come and see us at Reading.   "Personally I don't enjoy outdoor gigs. It's all pretty squalid. The sound is invariably shitty and the people at the back can't see properly. And it always pisses with rain, especially in Britain, But I'd much rather us do Reading then some other bands I could mention."   Like who?   Stuart: "Nah, I don't want to name names cos the bands in question don't get the right of reply. I don't like slagging off other groups at interviews. I think it's cheap."   Ah! Bang goes my role as a shit-stirring journalist.   Stuart: "No, no. I appreciate it. It'd rather have these questions than what colour socks we wear."   One immediately affecting song on the new album is 'Chance' (with a very Bruce Sonngsteen-ish vocal). Tell me about it?   Stuart: "It's not so much personal, just a situation I've seen happen a lot of times. It's about them getting married then one of them blows it, the guy sods off and leaves the lady to look after the kids."   '1000 Stars' completely foxed me and passed me by.   Stuart: "Ah, yer joking, it's obvious. It's like, erm, about people who have to face a situation that's no part of their doing. It's basically about the holocaust, man. The last line is 'Some say protect and survive, I say it's over'."   Maybe I should have listened to the tape a more times, if I'd had the chance?   Tony: "I shouldn't worry about it. I still don't understand half the songs and I play them."   Stuart: "It says, 'Now we play our final hand, moving closer understand. This time, like never before, only the Black Queen scores'... The Black Queen is like a death symbol as I'm sure you know. I nicked the next line off Leonard Cohen, I like his words... 'A card so high and wild and we should burn it. The luck of a thousand stars can't get out of this. There are people I have left, hypnotised by lies in defensive disguise. Some say protect and survive, I say it's over'."   So you see Armageddon as inevitable?   Stuart: "I think it is, aye. And it's so stupid because it doesn't have to be that way, it doesn't have to be inevitable, though it looks that way at the moment. People aren't interested on the whole, yet we are being drawn towards this fucking ultimate when it's going to be the complete slaughter of everything...   "I'm not going to sit and preach like. But I think music can be possibly more than mere entertainment. And if by us talking about things like that it makes others think about the issues then I'm glad. We might have helped in a small way. And if we can cut down the bullshit about the star system at the same time, then maybe that helps as well."   "Do you think maybe your lyrics are too subtle (slightly arcane is perhaps a better description). Or am I just thick?   Stuart: "No, it's not that at all. The lyrics are there for interpretation. I only write songs in the way that ideas come to me. I don't sit down and say 'Oh I'll throw this idea in because that'll make them wonder' as in head music. But at the same time I don't want to write it out in black and white saying things like 'Kill the bastards'."     TELL ME, do you see yourself as an incurable romantic?   Stuart: "Ha-ha-ha-ha. No, I see myself as a depressed optimist. I have a great belief in people yet I see so many of them going astray in the way of accepting things. In this country, everyone just thinks of themselves and fuck everybody else."   How do you stand, politically speaking?   Stuart: "Like this (hopping on one leg). No, I see our music as being totally apolitical. But secretly we're all trendy leftists. Tony has to be, he has no choice."   Tony: "I never talk about that subject."   Mark: "Politics and religion cause too much unnecessary friction. Talking about it doesn't help. I always think it's a bad line to get into, the curse of the earth. That's why voting is done in a ballot box, and that's the way it should be."   Your first single 'Harvest Home' contained the line 'Just as you sow you shall reap'?   Stuart: "I think it's true. You only get out of something what you are willing to put into it. What I was talking about in that song was what see happening in Scotland. Shipbuilding is knackered, the oil boom is almost over, and it's not even worth talking about the coal mines."   Is it a good metaphor for the band? If there is one guiding principle behind Big Country which could be put into a sentence would 'Just as you sow you shall reap' fit the bill?   Stuart: "If it could be summed up in one line then it wouldn't really be worth being in a group. I'm really sorry about this, it's just hard for me to define it as well. It's just something that is there. It's pretty spiritual in one sense, but not in an organised religious way."   You once said that when you got a bit of money you would like to buy big motorbikes. Has it happened yet?   Stuart: "No. The thing is, Bruce and I want to set up a centre in Dunfermline if we got a lot of money. It would be a club for people to have nights out, plus it would have facilities like rehearsal rooms and a studio. Those facilities are totally lacking in our area. Yet there are so many groups in West Fyfe that just fade away because of lack of them...   "Thing is, Bruce and I have already done a bit, though I don't want you to put this in the interview. (Sorry!) We've bought this cheap dodgy van which we rent out to all the groups in Dunfermline for just the petrol costs. Cos that's really a bug-bear. If you're getting £30 for a gig, once you've hired a van and paid for petrol you're out of pocket."     SEEMS LIKE a good juncture to finish. Big Country have their hearts in the right place and they make mine beat a little faster. They are a wide landscape of emotions and, although one can gripe about the odd song or detail, the band seem pretty genuine to me. Arcane at times, definitely, but only the truely oafish would want to strip their gloss away completely.   And the point is, Big Country's music works well. I'm still wondering who Stuart met in the stairwell in the song 'Inwards'. Was it an apparition of his departed grandma, or simply some cladestine lover? And that's entertainment?
Back to top	Page 48   LETTERS   BONO OF CONTENTION U2's BONO: with God on our side   TO WHOM it may concern (mainly Dave McCullough). After reading your excuse for a review of U2's performance on The Tube, I had to go and have stiff drink to stop my blood boiling in anger.   The thing which really irritated me was the fact that you don't seem to be able to make up your mind about U2. Do you love them or hate them?   After all, you've written some pretty good reviews of them in the past, so what happened? The only difference is that U2 have released another brilliant album 'War' and have begun to gain some of the success which they deserve and have worked so hard for.   But I forgot, it's just not trendy and hip to like bands who are fairly successful, especially bands who have strong beliefs in God. I mean, God is just not 'in' at the moment is he? I am totally sick and tired of various so-called critics slagging off U2's Christian beliefs — I feel one ought to respect them for having the courage of their convictions.   I used to think that Sounds was a good magazine (most of it is), but I feel Mr McCullough's powers of criticism are disappearing fast.   Have you ever heard the lyrics to a song by the Alarm called 'Blaze of Glory'?   It's funny how they shoot you down/When your hands are held up high/And you open up your heart and soul/But that's not enough for most'. Think about it — Catherine Povey, Harrow Weald, Middlesex.     WHAT DICKHEADS! I refer of course to Messrs Bushell and McCullough. I was surprised to discover U2 were 'awful pubescent bible bashers' full of 'moral majority fanaticism'. I thought they were one of the most powerful, moving and talented rock bands of our time. I am an atheist but I don't let that blind me as to the quality of the U2's music as the above appear to have done.   I thought after McCullough's recent ravings over the Smiths that there was some hope for his musical taste. I now realise that there is none. — A disillusioned Sounds reader from Birmingham.     Page 49   Magic Moments THE FESTERING twat in your music paper that summed up Steve Harley's gig at the Venue as being broing (sic) and full of a strong of old hits, most likely didn't realise in his peanut-sized brain that the people attending the concert wanted to hear exactly what Harley played on the night.   I for one was there and the Venue was packed with people eager to see the Harley magic, see the man putting over his material in a way that can't be equalled.   The atmosphere that Steve harley created was fantastic - so tell your reporter to go stuff himself. - John Noble, Wooton, Northampton.
Back to top	Pages 50 & 51   CHART ATTACK   U.S. ROCK 3 5 LET'S DANCE, David Bowie, RCA 10 11 WAR, U2, ISLAND The most played rock albums on American radio as compiled by Billboard magazine     INDIE SINGLES 50 37 SCREAMING, Gene Loves Jezebel, Situation 2 SIT 20 Compiled by MRIB     METAL SINGLES 2 1 GARDEN PARTY, Marillion, EMI   ALBUMS 5 8 SCRIPT FOR A JESTER'S TEAR, Marillion, EMI Compiled by MRIB

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