|  "We
just want to be popstars!"
Click here to read a review of 'Bring Real Freedom' by Nick Bollinger
Beat Rhythm Fashion by David
Maclennan
Having rashly promised Rob
I'd write some liner notes
for this CD, I then realised
I didn't have much to go on,
apart from hazy memories, a
few diary entries, and reviews
in In Touch (a Wellington music
mag from 1980-81).
So, random thoughts and impressions
it is, then!
For me, the BRF story began
during Queen's Birthday weekend
in June 1980, when a new venue
called Billy the Club (formerly
the Rock Theatre) held a "Rockfest" over
two nights, featuring about
a dozen bands, many making
their first appearance on stage
(my own band included).
One of these new bands was
the Westown Quintet - an odd
name, considering they were
actually a quartet. Fronted
by Dan and Nino Birch, who
shared vocal and guitar duties,
they were rather good, one
of the stand-outs of the weekend
for my money. I said as much
in a review of the weekend
for In Touch:
"They produced a
good sound and at least two
excellent
numbers. One to watch, I think."
I even let Nino play my precious
Rickenbacker guitar on the
second night (he made it sound
way better than I ever did!)
A week later they'd changed
their name to The Mixers, and
played a few more gigs here
and there.
Around August 1980 The Mixers
morphed into Beat Rhythm Fashion,
initially as a studio-only
project by Dan and Nino that
resulted in two tracks on the
**** [Four Stars]
album, released in November
1980, which also
featured The Wallsockets, Life
in the Fridge Exists, and Naked
Spots Dance. These bands comprised
the "Terrace Scene" -
so named because a number of
the band-members lived in a
couple of large houses on The
Terrace, near Victoria University.
The two BRF tracks, 'None
in the Universe' and 'Not Necessary'
were relatively conventional-sounding
compared to the other tracks
on what was a very diverse
album. Both are clipped, punchy
numbers in a similar vein to
some early Cure songs. (BRF
were often accused by critics
of being Cure copyists, an
accusation I always thought
unfair. There may have been
some similarity in the guitar
sound, especially on early
numbers like the Four Stars recordings, but many guitarists
copped that style in those
days -- just as many guitarists
played blues styles back in
the 60s, or grunge styles in
the 90s.)
Following Four Stars, the
Birch brothers set about putting
a proper BRF lineup together.
Good drummers were very hard
to come by in Wellington in
those days (a fact I can personally
attest to!), but they found
what they were looking for
in the person of Glen Stewart,
and began to put a proper set
together. The April 1981 issue
of In Touch carried the following
snippet:
"Beat Rhythm Fashion
look like being the NEXT BIG
THING round Wellington. They
made their concert debut recently
with a lineup of Dan And Eno
Birch!"
(Given the type of humour
that prevailed around the In
Touch office, that typo was
probably deliberate!)
The concert referred to was
'Wellingtonzone', held on 3
April 1981. A four-band gig
held at the Wellington Town
Hall's Concert Chamber, it
marked the debut of the new
BRF. The event was organised
by the headline band, The Steroids,
in response to the dearth of
venues and gigs in the capital
at that time. It was very well
attended, and about 100 punters
had to be turned away. Also
on the bill were The Digits
(about whom the least said
the better!) and The Mockers.
BRF were the second act on
that night, and for me, they
stole the show, as I reported
in the May issue of In
Touch:
"Relief came in the form
of Beat Rhythm Fashion, the
best of the four bands this
evening. Descended from the
Westown Quintet and the Mixers
(of Billy The Club days), BRF
are destined -- I hope -- to
be one of Wellington's top
two bands (Naked Spots Dance
being the other). This was
their first gig, and while
they were probably quite nervous
they carried it off well. Their
musical influences are a mixture,
including such obvious things
as the Cure and Gang of Four.
BRF's song are, for the most
part, quite memorable, with
some really pretty melodies.
The songs are all original,
too, and while some of it sounded
a bit samey as the set wore
on, most of it stood out and,
after all, it's early days
yet.
"May people I spoke to
afterwards accused BRF of lacking
soul or emotion. Personally
I've long felt that these terms
are rather nebulous and over-used:
BRF have soul and emotion,
it just manifests itself in
different ways. Definitely
a band to watch out for."
A live album of this event
was later released on Mike
Alexander's Bunk label, and
featured three numbers from
BRF's set: 'Song of the Hairless
Apes', 'No Great Oaks (In China)'
and 'Art and Duty', and can
be found on this CD. All three
songs would soon be re-recorded
for the trilogy of BRF singles
that appeared in the months
ahead.
The first of these singles,
'Beings Rest Finally' b/w 'Brings
Real Freedom' (B-R-F, geddit?)
appeared around mid-1981 on
the Bunk label. In an interview
in the July 1981 issue of In
Touch (which, whether by coincidence
or design, was on the same
page as an interview I did
with the Cure's Robert Smith,
thereby furthering the unfair
BRF/Cure associations), Dan
Birch described 'Beings Rest
Finally' as a song about the
death of millions:
"It's not a sad song
musically, it's meant to be
a happy sort of lullaby. We
wanted something like that
Lou Reed song where a guy jumps
out of a window and it's not
sad or terrible but quite a
wonderful, purifying thing."
 While BRF were seen by punters
and critics alike as being
very much a part of the Wellington
post-punk underground, the
Birch brothers themselves felt
somewhat detached from that
scene. Coming from what could
be considered a cosmopolitan
background (they spent most
of their youth in Hong Kong),
New Zealand in 1981 seemed
something of a cultural wasteland
by comparison, and they felt
little in common with the other
bands. "We're a solar
system band" quipped Nino
in the In Touch article. Even
Kiwi-born drummer Glen Stewart
chimed in with the comment, "I
hate New Zealand bands".
And they made no bones about
being purists, a trait I admired
in them: "You gotta
set yourself an absolute standard.
You can't say 'That's okay
for a New Zealand band'."
Following their Wellingtonzone
debut and the first single's
release, BRF played here and
there in the months that followed,
and even ventured out of town
(I caught up with them at Mainstreet
in Auckland in late October).
The Birch brothers were also
part of an event that has subsequently
assumed legendary status: a
jam session with The Cure in
the basement of a Wellington
school during their second
NZ tour in early August 1981.
Some friends and I had gone
up to Palmerston North on the
Sunday night to see them play,
and I invited them all to a
party at my house in Wellington
the following night (the Wellington
gig was not until Tuesday).
Organised at very short notice,
I called up a fairly select
group of friends from other
bands and the In Touch
team,
and The Cure themselves duly
arrived along with a couple
of their road crew. A good
time was had, of course, and
late in the evening the idea
of a jam session came up, so
we all trooped off to Clyde
Quay School in Mt Victoria,
where one of the bands present,
the Neoteric Tribesmen, has
a basement practice room.
It was all very loose, with
combinations of Cure members
and local band members jamming
on each others songs. It sounded
chaotic and shambolic, but
we were all far too gone by
that stage of the evening to
even care!
(In 1993 I was working in
a record shop and a young Goth
came up to the counter with
a Cure album, and as we were
making the transaction he talked
about this legendary jam session
wioth The Cure that he'd heard
about. I just smiled and sold
him the record!)
The second single, the sublime
'Turn of the Century' b/w 'Song
of the Hairless Apes', followed
a month or so after the first.
I'd been listening to an advance
tape of the latter for some
time, and had no hesitation
in declaring it Joint Single
of the Month in the Sept/Oct
issue of In Touch:
"ANOTHER SINGLE OF THE
MONTH
"BEAT RHYTHM FASHION
- Turn of the Century (Bunk)
- The second (and finest)
of the BRF singles trilogy.
This is a slow, smooth number
with a really lovely tune,
wrapped around some political
(sort of) words: 'There are
no dissidents/In the homeland/There
is no dissidence/At home/It's
a long project/With no prospects/But
I'd still like to see/The end
of the century.'
The sound is rich and
seductive -- a beautiful
song, period.
The B-side is 'Song of the
Hairless Apes': a harder sound
with dissonant, atonal guitar
and controversial lyrics."
(In case you're wondering,
the other Single of the Month
was 'A Song for the World'
by Smelly Feet, a.k.a. Brent
Hayward, former singer with
Wellington's finest band, Shoes
This High.)
The third and final single's
release was delayed as Bunk
Records folded. It eventually
appeared in 1982 on CBS's Epic
label (CBS had distributed
Bunk releases). 'Art and Duty'
b/w 'No Great Oaks (In China)'
rounded out a memorable trilogy
of singles that sound as fresh
today as when I first heard
them back in those heady days
of 1981. From their strikingly-designed
red and black matching sleeves
to the last superbly-produced
note, these three singles were
a landmark in New Zealand post-punk
music. Sadly, the original
tapes got dumped years ago,
so the versions you hear on
this CD have had to be remastered
from vinyl copies - but at
least they are available again,
and for that we can be very
thankful indeed.
I saw BRF for the last time
in August 1982 at a really
good, laid-back Saturday afternoon
gig at the Clyde Quay Tavern
in Wellington. It was packed
out, and if you weren't there
early enough to get a seat
you had to either sit on the
floor or stand at the back.
I still rate them as one of
my all-time favourite Wellington
(or solar system!) bands, and
this CD and the other two in
the BRF series sure bring back
some good memories!
(David Maclennan is currently
writing a book chronicling
the early Wellington punk and
underground scene from 1978
to 1981.)
| BEAT
RHYTHM FASHION RECORDINGS |
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|
"Beings
Rest Finally" album
- rarities (coming
soon) |
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