Back on Track

12 EVENT MUSIC LIFE is busy in the land of La Roux. Our first interview is postponed when frontwoman Elly Jackson is whisked away in a taxi to be fitted for an outfit to CD REVIEWS wear to the Brit Awards. The fitting is for a Gucci suit, no less, from this season’s POP menswear catalogue. When we finally speak, on the Soldier of phone a few days later, Jackson Love is flying down the motorway on Sade the way to a speech therapist. Last year, she cancelled shows Back (Sony Music) after becoming ill and losing her ★★★★★★★★ voice, largely due to fatigue. ‘‘I spoke to a few vocal coaches There’s a lesson to learn from and they said that a speech Sade’s music: enjoy the therapist might help,’’ the atmosphere. Do not listen to the 21-year-old says. ‘‘It just trains on lyrics. On her 1992 Love Deluxe you even when you’re not sing- album she described a starving ing, how to sit up straight when Somalian woman’s daily struggle you speak, which registers of as hurting like brand new shoes. your voice you should use so On Soldier of Love, her band’s first you’re not damaging your voice album in a decade, she uses even when you speak.’’ track consumer culture to demystify the And so the positive-thinking, concept of enduring paternal love, independent young woman, who explaining that daddy love comes is a No.1 star in the UK, is back with a lifetime guarantee. She on track – which should get her mixes metaphors (‘‘I am a broken down to Australia in time for the UK star La Roux house, I’m holding on a broken Bacardi Express tour at the end bough’’) and invents bizarre of this month. is heading to similes (‘‘The small step I take is a The tour, which will take mountain stretched out a like a bands such as La Roux, Art Vs Australia for the lazy dog’’). But Sade also knows Science, Yves Klein Blue, Miami train trip of her how to seduce. So bathe in the Horror and The Cassette Kids sublimely cool atmosphere rattling along in a vintage train life, writes Sally created by the woman who between places including Coffs practically invented the genre of Harbour and Newcastle, will Browne cafe music. Welcome back, Sade. start in Brisbane on March 25. You’re as welcome as double The bands will play shows at reward points on a credit card. I each stopover, arriving in Syd- think you know what I mean. ney on March 27. Graeme Hammond Tickets to the concerts are free, but if you want to get in you ROCK must register at www.bacardi express.com.au Valleys of It’s the third year of the Neptune travelling expedition, but the that included Eurythmics, David Busy girl: He started her off with his something she herself laughed Jimi Hendrix first time it hits Brisbane. Bowie or Flock of Seagulls. Elly earlier, folksy records Hunky off. ‘‘A DJ I actually still like said, While the Bacardi Express is But while it’s from acts such as Jackson Dory and The Man Who Sold the ‘I think this is only meant for (Sony) based on an old hippie idea from these that La Roux might take its has her World before easing her into his dogs’. You’ve just got laugh at it. ★★★★★★★★ 1970, when famous passengers cues, Jackson was actually raised musical more experimental electronic ‘‘Everyone texted in (to the such as Janis Joplin and the on a diet of Joni Mitchell and roots in work from the 1970s. radio station) and said how In the 40 years since his death, the Grateful Dead crossed Canada in Bob Dylan. the 1970s ‘‘Bowie was the first thing Ben much they hated it, but then it Hendrix vaults have been a train to play a series of festivals, It was co-writer and producer and ’80s ever played me,’’ she recalls. was No.2 for two months. You ruthlessly plundered, so fans have it’s the late ’70s and 1980s that Ben Langmaid – the other, less ‘‘I remember seeing him on can’t take this stuff too every reason to be wary about the influence La Roux. visible, half of the La Roux the cover (of The Man Who Sold seriously.’’ pre-release hype surrounding The band would not look or equation – who introduced her the Word) and thinking, ‘That is But with the occasional bad, Valleys of Neptune. Thankfully, sound out of place in a line-up to Bowie about five years ago. a woman; you can’t be telling me there is plenty of good. despite uneven material and that is a man’, when you see this ‘‘I think the nicest thing is sound quality, this is one of the long tunic-like dress on a chaise when people really get the re- better posthumous releases. The “THE FUNNIEST AND MOST UPLIFTING lounge or something. I remem- cord right. When they say, ‘You real gem is the title track, a ber thinking, ‘God, you’re mad’.’’ brought the emotion from folk beautiful, spacey ballad. None of SHOW IN LONDON” Daily Mail (UK) But Jackson now embraces music and that sort of fragile side the other three ‘‘new’’ songs come her own androgynous look, her of things to the ’80s electronic close. Ships Passing Through the red hair whipped up into a quiff sound that you were dancing and Night is still at rehearsal stage that girls in London streets are getting off to in your late teens’, and Lullaby For Summer and now copying. It’s something she and when people get things right Crying Blue are not much more says she was not brave enough to like that, that’s really nice.’’ than jams. The poppy Axis outtake experiment with in high school. Her favourite clip from the Mr Bad Luck is fun, but the ‘‘I think I would have been a ’70s-’80s period? She nominates versions of the over-familiar Stone bit too scared to try it out, really. David’s Bowie duet with Bing Free and Fire are redundant. It’s something that came later Crosby, where they sing Christ- Garry Williams with confidence, when I sort of mas song Little Drummer Boy Lorraine Rachel Rhonda Cornelia around a piano. BLUES BAYLY BERGER BURCHMORE FRANCES ‘‘I remember saying to my Jean Anna Amanda If I get time on my manager, ‘David Bowie never The Way of KITTSON LEE MUGGLETON own I usually use does anything shit’. And he said, the World n ‘That’s a load of bollocks. Watch Mose Allison this’.’’ it to sleep or just Despite her hectic schedule, (ANTI-/SHOCK) think about things Jackson says life hasn’t changed ★★★★★★★★★ too much and that’s the way she ast from original London productio C likes it. Friends and family have On the liner notes, producer Joe was like, ‘Actually I don’t want to warned her not to let the indus- Henry describes Allison as ‘‘a dress like everyone else’. It just try change her. great swaying bridge . linking took a bit more time for me to ‘‘The only thing that’s the ’50s to the present; the get the confidence to do it. And I changed is that there are more mystical country blues to the think this job helps. It gives you a people at my gigs and stuff like urbanity of jazz’’. How true. bit more of an excuse.’’ that,’’ she says. ‘‘But my personal Allison, at 82, is a still-witty But while it might be her look life hasn’t changed at all. If I get veteran Mississippi bluesman with 2 that gains her attention, she has time on my own I usually use it a lived-in voice and a style all his WEEKS the songs to back it up. to sleep or just think about own. Allison is playful on his first Tracks such as In for the Kill things because I don’t usually get studio album in 12 years, with the FROM 8 APRIL ONLY and Bulletproof were huge hits in time on my own. distinctive laconic singing, the the UK, charting at No.2 and ‘‘The rest of the time you’re biting wit and a piano style that is LYRIC THEATRE, QPAC No.1 respectively. They have trying to catch up with people at times delightfully imperfect but CALL 136 246 OR QPAC.COM.AU received global airplay, including you haven’t seen for a long time. always fluid. There’s a bit of Groups 8+ Save! Call 07 3840 7466 or [email protected] on TV show Cougar Town, You start to get the friends guilt gospel, shuffling swing and solid Premium, Dining & Hotel Packages showbiz.com.au or 1300 4 SOSHOWS S fulfilling the world’s craving for because you haven’t called so- bebop and some nice bluesy ’80s-inspired electronica. and-so.’’ ballads with backing from guitars, seecalendargirls.com.au But not everyone gets La La Roux performs at the Tivoli bass, drums and sinewy sax. Roux. Jackson’s voice has been as part of the Bacardi Express Bryan Patterson NEW SEATS JUST RELEASED! unkindly likened to a mosquito, tour on March 25. Page 12 THE SUNDAY MAIL, event March 7, 2010 thesundaymail.com.au.

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