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Salient. Official Newspaper of Victoria University of Wellington Students Association. Vol 40 No. 26. October 3 1977
More Rock
More Rock
Moving Along: Renee Gayer
Renee Gayer is a fine singer in the soul shrieking tradition, a blue-eyed Aussie Aretha. She can churn out the manic emotion demanded by this sort of music, and is probably dynamite on stage. However, on this record something is sadly missing—the songs are insipid, the emotionalism seems forced and things are generally boring.
At this point I must confess to having no great love for this kind of music, so if you're into disco-funk don't take my word for it but check it out yourself. Premsumably there are people who love track after track of relentless wah-wah guitar, pounding drums, belching synthesisers, massed choirs of screeching backing vocalists and all the other paraphenalia. Renee sometimes gets lost in all the excitement, and one wonders why the producer didn't throw in the Red Army Ensemble while he was about it. He did get in some rather overpowering boings, beeps and blats, and generally didn't give poor old Renee a fair go,
She's probably quite a decent singer really and deserving better than the treatment she is given on this record. The overwhelming Question is: why bother churning out records like this at all? Soap opera sentiments and production line music, are hardly worth the vinyl it's pressed into.
—Andrew Delahunty
Tina Turner In Concert
Tina Turner's Revue, recently performed before packed houses in Wellington, was unashamedly aimed at the audiences basest instincts. Tina Turner's and her supporting dancers, gave those mere plebians a never-ending eyeful of thighs/legs/and thrusting movements, that were unashemedly intended to turn you on. After all if you didn't like that sort of thing you could have stayed at home and listened to better quality sound on your Stereo!
Probably the most spectacular part of Tina's act was her continuously changing costumes. Each soctume revealing just that little bit extra. The effect was to produce one of the better (visual) concerts, with people sufficiently moved, to cast aside unabitions and dance in front of the stage, while others merely contented themselves with standing in their seats clapping. The interesting thing was of all those in the dancing were almost young enough to be Tina's/her own children (three teenage sons, oldest 20 yrs).
As a show Tina's art was quite spectacular with the crowd loving every minute especially when 'Acid Queen and 'Proud Mary' were sung. Critically the coreography of Tina's star cancers, two Black and two white, was at best amateurish, but what they lacked in co-ordination made up for with individual expression Overall a visual experience, that appealed a little the closet voyeur in all of us.
—Kevin Swann.
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