Stick to Me

Graham Parker & The Rumour Vertigo

Rough Mix

Pete Townsend - Ronnie Lane Polydor

The Rumour is a real rock and roll band. Don't let anybody persuade you to the opposite. Graham Parker is possessed of a real rock and roll larynx, too. About the one de rigeur test they haven't faced to settle their credentials is the type of red tape being disentangled from Bruce Springsteen. New wave. Punk. I do care what label you attach to what. That's one fuck of a combo.

Astute design features on Stick to Me: to force it to stand up in the shops, you know. GP emblazoned in transluscent celluloid on a transparent roomy plastic sleeve. GP? Does that ring a bell? If not, my friend, you need your head analysed. And a stream of miniature portraits inside the cardboard for your plynth, satchel, whatever. Phonogram have lavished a lot of time and attention on this one.

The music inside? Does it stand up to Howlin' Wind? Heat Treatment? I demurred as the bass vibrated between the passage walls. So many ceilings, doors, bannisters fitting in a new record is an experience to cherish, even if it meant you couldn't enter the room for the first few times. Such is not a frequent occurence. When it does it's profitable to hang on to it. That totality. That feeling. Even if Stick to Me doesn't approach the near classic definition of loss adapted by Rod Stewart on the "fast" side of Atlantic Crossing, Parker and his band are old enough to realise what they want, and that experience means they're walking metal doors attaining it. Shots of Parker live burst with a manic energy stemming from a feeling about the world situation in general.

Rough Mix, its title notwithstanding, is tightly packaged and presented. It's also depressing and sad, yet it holds out the light at the end of that tunnel. What Peter Townsend doesn't know about rock and roll is not known to many. Add Ronnie Lane - two-time Face (once small, once flatulent) healthier now and, really, you have the finest and most neglected album of '78.

"Street in the City" shows it. It is the sort of thing you feel before you hear it, if you get my meaning. Alright. Charlie Watts sits in on drums on a couple of the tracks: help from Gallagher and Lyle, Ian Stewart, Julian Diggle, Bijou drains and John Entwistle (who else) mean a veritable feast. The music is, for the most part, soft and acoustic - in keeping with both Peter and Ronnie's belief in Indian mystic, Meher Baba. That doesn't detract from the music, however. In fact, after multiple listenings, anyone who can provide inspiration for this music on Rough Mix, had something going for him.

Patrick O'Dea