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September 26, 1986 - Image 7

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Text
Publication:
The Michigan Daily, 1986-09-26

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ARTS
Friday, September 26, 1986

Page 7

The Michigan Daily

Fairport convent ion reunte t r
klI .1 C.

h. +' h ' c

JBY Joseph Kraus
,To say you've heard Fairport
Convention is like saying you've
'heard Jefferson Airplane.
The English folk-rock band,
like its west coast counterpart, has
gge through an astonishing
number of changes in personnel
a i style since it was first formed
in 1966. Unlike the various
incarnations of Jefferson
Airplane, Jefferson Starship, and
Starship, Fairport Convention has
usually had the sense to keep quiet
when it didn't have fresh ideas.
' The band's most notable period
of silence ended last year when it
released Gladys' Leap, its first
studio album in over seven years.
While the band members on that
album, Simon Nicol, Dave

Mattacks, and Dave Pegg, were
all long-time members of
Fairport, things were very
different.
Over the years, Fairport had
become as well known through the
work of its departed members as it
had through its work as a band.
Sandy Denny had gone on to
become Britain's leading female
vocalist, Richard Thompson was
(and still is) knocking critics
dead, and Dave Swarbrick, in
partnership with Martin Carthy,
was producing some of the finest
traditional recordings anywhere.
Nicol, Mattacks, and Pegg,
powerful musicians in their own
right, were nevertheless the
relative unknowns of the band.
On Gladys' Leap, each was forced
to carry a new share of the band's

duties. For the first time, Nicol
became the principal vocalist and
Nicol and Mattacks, with help
from the great Ralph McTell,
wrote the bulk of the original
material.
The album, while it featured a
few bits of vintage Fairport, is
most notable simply for its giving
the band a new lease on life.
In subsequent tours, the three
old-timers admitted Ric Sanders,
a violinist who had played
session for Gladys' Leap, and
multi-instrumentalist Martin
Allcock to full status within the
band.
And since then things have
really changed.
The new ensemble has just

released the band's first
completely instrumental album,
Expletive Delighted, and with its
whirling improvisations it
promises a whole new future for
Fairport. Just when folk-rock, a
hybrid itself, has become accepted
as a distinct genre, Fairport has a
new hybrid, jazz-folk-rock.
The driving force behind the
shift seems to be Sanders, who has
been trained both in jazz and
classical music and whose violin
swirls prominently in and out of
virtually every track.
Nicol, speaking Wednesday
night from Columbus, Ohio where
the group is opening its American
tour, explained the changes.
"(Sanders) is a musician who has

worked in the folk genre for some
time, but he actually casts his
musical net a lot wider than most
of the musicians who have been in
this band."
But he stressed that Sanders
was only a part of that change.
"Obviously, this band is still a
cooperative thing, it's not a one-
man outfit at all," he said. .
Even with the changes, though,
Fairport hasn't forgotten its roots.

Asked about plans for t e snow,
Nicol said, "We've got a lot of
material to draw on obviously.
We've got a whole back catalogue,
and. we'll try to put in the old
favorite here and there."
Fairport Convention plays
Sunday night at The Ark.
'Showtimes are 7:30 and 10 p.m.
Tickets are $9.50 and are
available at Schoolkid's, Herb
David's, the Union, and The Ark.
Exhibiton
Gme
'Detroit
R ed Wings
VS.
Toronto;
Maple Leafs
Sept. 28.7:30' p
YOST ARENA
TICKETS: $8.00 & $4.00
* Must Present U-M student ID Card

Legal Eagles:'
yuppies in love

GAMING
} -~PRIZES -.fY/c
-WORKSHOPS
PAITN 4 ccri
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CHLL 419535540ae Tgm O136/5
The Office of Major Events
presents
HOLLY NEAR
I

By Brian Hall
'With so few new movies
available, the, movie studios have
decided to re-release some of the
more popular films of the
summer. Legal Eagles, at the
Ann Arbor Theater, is one such
example. Produced and directed
by Ivan Reitman(Stripes) and
starring Robert Redford, Debra
Winger,. and Daryl Hannah,
Legal Eagles is the story of mirth,
murder, and lawyers in love.
Redford plays Tom Logan, a
New York City assistant district
attorney with an impressive case
record. Debra Winger is Laura
Kelly, a young defense attorney
who will try anything to get her
clients off the hook, including
putting a dog on the witness
stand. She must defend Chelsea
Dearden (Hannah), a troubled
"performance artist" who is
framed for murder. When
evidence surfaces that may prove
Chelsea's innocence, Tom and
Laura enter into a possibly un-
ethical, but nonetheless romantic
relationship.
Redford is too uninspired for
his character to be believable, and
his lack of talent for physical
comedy makes Tom frequently
appear silly, rather than cute as
the director had intended.
Laura initially appears hard-
posed and unscrupulous,
typifying the ambulance-chasing
lawyer out to earn a buck. Yet
around Tom, she turns into a
wide-eyed girl who deifies Tom's
legal prowess and practically
everything else. Not the least bit
representative of female lawyers,
she is more reminiscent of a
giddy school girl who has fallen
for her teacher.
Chelsea is a young artist whose
life remains haunted by her
Record s
Randy Travis
STORMS OF LIFE
Warner Bros.
Country music is a genre of
losin', cheatin', hometowns, and
honky tonks-tales of heartbreak
and survival that symbolize the
American South. Randy Travis
touches on all of these traditional
themes on his debut LP Storms of'
Life, but fails to capture the
emotion that they require.
Instead, he makes a safe,
formulated country album, per -
fectly suited to the country Top 40.
Selected by the Academy of
Country Music as the top new
male vocalist of the year, Travis
is among Nashville's new wave
of young country singers. His
peers include such performers as
George Strait and Dwight
Y.Qakam. Unlike Yoakam,
S whose band plays fiery, straight

father's murder. Despite her title,
it seems her only true talent is that
of getting what she wants by
having sex with various men.
She wants sympathy, but it is hard
to feel that she deserves it.
With the plot revealed, the
movie turns to the budding
relationship between Tom and
Laura. Symbolic is a scene where
the two of them, in their respective
homes, fight insomnia as they
fret over the consequences of an
earlier meeting. Tom humor-
ously tap dances in the bathroom
while Laura eats everything she
can lay her hands on. Both tune
into the late movie and join Gene
Kelly in a chorus of Singin' in the
Rain. This is a cute, well-
directed scene, but the writer's
attitude towards Laura's bulimia
is insulting, which greatly
detracts from its comedic quality.
Quickly the viewer realizes
that Tom and Laura will wind up
living happily ever after. Thus
the film can shift focus onto the
murder mystery. With one life-
threatning episode after another,
Tom and Laura quickly become
skilled detectives and slick
crime-stoppers. When the actual
killer traps Laura and Chelsea,
it's up to Tom to solve the crime
and save the poor damsels.
Another happy ending.
With its starring cast and
Baby Boomer soundtrack, Legal
Eagles initially appears to be a
harmless, romantic Yuppie
comedy. However, this
seemingly simple comedy
presents unending sterotypes of
women, becoming little more
than the daydream of some
egomaniacal male. This is
certainly too bad because Legal
Eagles had a lot of potential, and
is even mildly entertaining. But
unfortunately, the insults get in
the way.

Tickets available at the
- _Yost Arena Box Office
- Call for Infornation
E L G(313) 764-0244
__ ___Great Seats Still Available!I

Saturday, September 27 8pm, Power Center
Ann Arbor
Tickets available at the Michigan Union Ticket Office, all Ticket World Outlets,
Schoolkid's Records & Tapes, Herb David Guitar Studio
Charge by phone 763-TKTS

stifles most of the emotional
impact
In the same vein, Travis'
singing seems to lack feeling.
He sings nearly every song in the
same careful voice, sounding
almost afraid to put in the in-
flections necessary to convey the
song's emotion. The result is a
dull album with only a few bright
spots.
One of these bright spots is the
album's opening song "On the
Other Hand," where Travis tells
the tale of a man deciding to leave
a woman because she is married
to another man. The song's title
is a clever play on words refering
to her wedding ring: On one hand
I could stay and be your lovin'
man, but the reason I must go is
on the other hand. His careful
singing fits the cautious tone of
the song, producing a very good
country single, but from this

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