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Too
rye ay
Dexy's Midnight Runners
St. Andrews Hall
431 E. Congress, Detroit
Tuesday, February 15
By Larry Dean
SOUL. YOU CAN philosophize about
it, debate about its existence - read
Nietzsche by the bedside and go to sleep
curiouser. Or you can pray for its
redemption down on scabbed knees,
hands aclasp, envisioninga shirt
marked SOUL being scrubbed on a
"washboard by hands that haven't ever
heard of Madge or Palmolive orv...
And then there's the other soul - best
described by these names: James
Brown, Aretha Franklin, Sly Stone,
Stevie Wonder. They got it, they got it
good. But are by no means alone in
their gotness.
Kevin Rowland is white. In that
respect, he resembled the washed shirt
from paragraph no. one above. I don't
know if he reads Nietzsche.
Kevin Rowland is the lead vocalist for
Dexy's Midnight Runners. They have
Roots
reggae
The Core
Rick's American Cafe
Wednesday, February 16
By Tom McDonald
DON'T SAY THAT Pittsburgh
hasn't given us any entertaining
groups. They've given us the Steelers
and the Pirates. Now, they bring us
The Core, a tight five-piece reggae
band which will ganga into Rick's Wed-
nesday night for an exciting evening of
powerful sound.
The Core embody the American
reggae sound by flavoring the
traditional Jamaican rhythm with bits
of R and B, jazz, and rock. The band
plays almost all original material, save
for a few Bob Marley tunes like
"Exodus" and "Jammin", which may
just be an honorary gesture to the
deceased master. The Core's stage
presence coupled with their ability to
excite their crowd into frenzied dance,
has 'made them very popular with
collegiates in the Tri-State area of Pen-
nsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia.
Recognizing their potential in Ann Ar-
bor, The Core will bring their "rockin
reggae" to Rick's, where other reggae
bands have recently been well-
received.
two albums out in the U.S., the latest of
which, Too-Rye-Ay, was just recently
released here after a year's release in
Europe. Their first, Searching for the
Young Soul Rebels, was a big hit in
England, but failed to make any waves
here. Of course, it was wonderful.
What Dexy's specialize in is Soul,
with an ever-present capital "S". Their
music is spunky and sincere and yes,
sometimes even political. Now that
isn't exactly the newest thing to be hap-
pening in these days of "greatest con-
cerns" groups sprouting up left and
right, but it is a nice and sincere touch.
Too-Rye-Ay is a marvelous follow-up
to Searching. .. , with its own pleasant
alterations and movees ahead from the
sound of the first LP. They've come a
long way from the switching-through-
the-radio-stations intro of "Burn It
Down" (A/K/A "Dance Stance") to
"Come On Eileen," which is quite
possibly the most orgasmic song of the
last year, if not for its verve, then for
daring to include a banjo! There have
only really been two other acceptable
uses of the banjo in modern music to
date - one being the Who's "Squeeze
Box," and the otehr being a Natalie
Cole song, the title of which is unknown
to me - hey, I heard it one mysterious
night on Don Kirschner's Rock Concert,
how can I be held totally accountable?
(For further reference, see Gabriel,
Peter: "Excuse Me").
Rowland's point with the intro to
"Burn It Down" was undoubtedly that
he didn't feel Dexy's fit into any of the
categories ofrmusiche switched past,
like Deep Purple, the Specials, the Sex
Pistols ... so, he shut the radio off.
Simple as 1-2-3: Dexy's Midnight Run-
ners are not to be clumped together
with anyone else.
Trouble is always a-brewin' in Dexy-
ville, however. Right after Sear-
ching ... came out, the group split in
half, with the basic rock band outfittees
(guitar, bass, drums) remaining with
Rowland, and the horn section bopping
off and becoming the Bureau, a group
with a similar sound to Dexy's, yet still
individualized enough to distinctify
their identity. To my knowledge, they
only released one single before heading
off to endless Englebert Humperdinck
sessions (consider this a true "loss-of-
Soul").
As Soupy Sales always used to say,
"the proof is in the pudding," and here
the pudding happens to be Too-Rye-Ay.
Obviously, Rowland and Co. made it
through the split, bouncing back onto
their collective-feet with assurance: as
I said before, this is a wonderful album.
Buy it for your mom; tape it for your
dad to listen to at the office on your
brother's Walkmans; play it for Spot
and Kitty, who'll be waggin' their tails
to "Let's Make This Precioius" and will
never eat Purina products again.
Even the lowliest of beasts cannot
come away unchanged by Dexy's.
Which brings us in a not-so-quite-but-
adequate way back around to the
question of the Soul. Too-Rye-Ay has
got the horns, but lots more strings. OK,
so Englebert uses lots of strings, but
these are not wimpy ... However,
their use was incentive enough for the
Inew horn section to walk off and leave
Papa
"em: n interview
Performance Network
408 W. Washington
8 p.m. Friday-Saturday, February 11-12
2 p.m. Sunday, February 13
By Jeffrey W. Manning
THIS WEEKEND, Ernest Heming-
way will conduct interviews at the
Performance Network. No, of course
not the real one, he's dead. But his
character lives on in Hem: An Inter-
view, a one-man play conceived and
performed by Robert Beaupre. Though
the show was scheduled only for this.
weekend, there is a slight possibility it
will reopen next weekend, the 17-20,
since the Young People's Theatre
production of The Best-Laid Plans has
been canceled.
Hem is a hypothetical interview with
Ernest Hemingway presented in one
act. The play is structured in four sec-
tions, each corresponding to one of
Hemingway's passions: war, women,
writing, and the sea. Beaupre commen-
ted on the purpose of the play: "Most
importantly, I wanted to present an
overall view of Hemingway as a person
as seen through his works, but at the
same time show how his personal life
paralleled the content of these works."
Besides the emphasis on the four
passions .of Hemingway, the play also
involves his relationship with Ezra
Pound, who was one of his greatest in-
fluences.
One of the most difficult aspects of
this play will be whether Beaupre can
accurately portray Hemingway.
Everyone who has read his writings has
some sort of preconceived idea of what
Hemingway's personality is. Beaupre
prepared for the writing of the text by
reading all of Hemingway's works, his
letters, and journals, as well as half a
dozen biographies on the man.
The most difficult aspect of writing
the play was capturing Hemingway's
style of speech, especially his use of ad-
jectives and sentence structure. "It
demanded more from me as an actor,"
said Beaupre,'"because of the style in
which it was written, and the tran-
sitions that take place in the script."
Beaupre is a 1979 graduate of the fine
arts department of the University of
Detroit. In 1977, he co-founded the
Black Sheep Theatre in Manchester,
where he worked in a number of shows.
Just recently, he moved back to his
home town of Ann Arbor and appeared
in the Performance Network's produc-
tion of Endgame last fall. He and the
Performance Network are co-
producing this show, which has already
been performed nearly 25 times in the
past three years at various colleges and
high schools in the midwest.
Kevin Rowland: Soul
Kev and crew in the lurch. Swell, just
swell.
There is some incantation of Dexy's
Midnight Runners coming to Detroit.
That's what this is all about: see them.
"Come On Eileen" was a monster hit in
England, riding the top of the charts for
months - it deserves all the attention it
got. It's a great song. This is a great
group. Kevin Rowland cares to the
point of going out of his way to avoid
categories; Dexy's does it with aplomb
- earnest aplomb - there ain't much
of that around anymore.
And somewhere, a young man with
dreams of guitar-glory signs on the dot-
ted line for a certain Mr. Beelzebub ...
Hem: Stand-up performance
Beaupre did write the script alone,
however. "I was fascinated by the idea
of writing a one-man show," he said.
"But once I began reading him
(Hemingway) I found he was an in-
credible author, much greater than I
had ever known, mainly due to the con-
tent. I realized that this was ideal
materia
nobody
The p
Saturda
afternoo
Tickets
formanc
Theatre
Prince
of Tyre
Pericles
Professional Theater Program
Power Center
8 p.m. Tuesday, February 15
By Chris Lauer
T IS NOT often that one finds a
decent production of a Shakespeare
play. Everyone does Shakespeare, even
the 12th grade drama class. To really
experience Shakespeare, one has to
seek out the productions done right - in
a style consistent with the greatness of
the author. Theatre doesn't get any bet-
ter than a well done Shakespeare play;
to suggest otherwise is blasphemous.
Last year Twelfth Night was in the
not-to-miss category, and this year
John Houseman's Acting Company is
back with Pericles, not as well known
as Romeo and Juliet, but who cares -
it's still Shakespeare. The one night
only performance will be at the Power
Center on Feb. 15 at 8 p.m.
The Acting Company, which is the of-
ficial touring arm of the Kennedy Cen-
ter, was formed by Houseman and
other Julliard School colleagues as a
way of keeping the school's most out-
standing graduates together. Since its
inception in 1972 the company has been
dedicated to the development of young
actors and boasts of many past
The Core: Gang of four
Unlike their Jamaican counterparts,
The Core does not have a strong
political message to convey. Said
drummer Ken Crisafio in a telephone
interview from the Steel Ctiy, "We
don't want to get into the realm of being
a heavy political band with some big
message to communicate, like to save
the world." He added, "However, we
do put out a positive message. We
definitely are a positive band with
something to say. We want people to
feel good." The philosophy of the band
thus seems to be the let's-play-reggae-
and-have-a-good-time approach, rather
than the let-our-music-be-the-vehicle-
to-convey-our-spiritual-beliefs attitude.
While The Core is not heavily into the
Rastafarian cultural traditions, they
certainly don't ignore them. "We draw
on Rastafarian beliefs as well as
Christian beliefs in our music," says
Crisafio. The band does not want to
restrict themselves to one image, but
would like to encompass a number of
different philosophies to capture their
own reggae-style sound. They combine
the versatilitynof their own musical
backgrounds into the framework of the
Jamaican reggae tradition to produce a
potent and fresh approach to the genre.
Drummer Crisafio and bassist
Brooks provide a solid rhythmic foun-
dation for the rest of the band to
expand on. Their driving, upbeat
rhythms quickly turn their listeners in-
to dancers.
With an excellent voice and all the
stage moves to go with it, lead singer
Tony Miles is the focal point of the
band. His wild stage activity alwlays
keeps the attention of the audience.
Miles is a dynamic performer with
alluring charisma and the ability to
siphon many different sounds out of his
voice. He pools together a wide variety
of influences ranging from the Otis
Redding sound to a sensual Marley-ish
tone. Miles goes beyond his influences
to a vocal style all his own, giving him
the potential to surface as one of the
dominant figures on the American
reggae scene.
Expect an unshackled evening of
rockin reggae from the quintet from
Pittsburgh. This aggressive band will
be out to make a killing.
Pericles: Light show
memebers now thriving in show
business on their own. The company
does both classical and modern plays
and has performed a repertory of 45 to
date.
Pericles, the title character, is a
gallant and likeable guy. Like a
peaceful pasture animal, all he wants
out of life is a shady place to relax, but
he cannot even seem to approach this
modest ideal. He looks for a niche of
peaceful existence but is prodded and
pushed, tossed and turned by forces
beyond his control.
Which welcome we'll accept; feast
here awhile,
Until stars that frown lend us a
smile.
It is the way Pericles gets kicked
around that is so impressive - he loses
with style. No one with such patience
could lose in the end - and Pericles
doesn't.
Peric
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12 Weekend/February 11, 1983
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