Lock up your koalas; more Belew down-under content
Hoodoo
Noel Mengel
May 04, 2006
http://www.couriermail.news.com.au/story/0,20797,19012312-5003421,00.html
http://thecouriermail.com.au/common/imagedata/0,,5148346,00.jpg
Read the full transcript of the interview at Noel's Know Your Product
blog - http://thecouriermail.com.au/extras/blogs/mengel/index.html
FRANK Zappa famously plucked him from playing in a covers band in
Nashville. The first studio album he played on was David Bowie's more
Belew Lodger.
He toured the world with Bowie, and lobbed in Australia for the
extraordinary 1978 Lang Park show.
That was the night when the band was so loud that Adrian Belew's
guitar probably woke the koalas, not to mention the residents, halfway
to Ipswich.
And Belew has been playing with the music world's innovators ever
since, from Talking Heads to Nine Inch Nails, not to mention his
lengthy solo catalogue and as a member of King Crimson.
After years of trying ("I did the Sound and Vision tour with David
Bowie in 1990 and the entire tour we were promised we were coming to
Australia, the perk that never materialised!"), he's finally made it
back to these shores for a solo tour, playing with the Australian
rhythm section of Al Slavic and John Prior.
Belew has built his career on his reputation as a sonic adventurer,
someone who creates sounds that no one else does in quite the same
way.
"I've always been like that," Belew says. "Even as a little kid,
everyone would say, 'He's a little different!'. But there's nothing
wrong with specialisation in music. It's a little less crowded where I
live.
"In corporate life I suppose being different could be dangerous for
you but in music it's an attribute, especially when there is so much
music around that is similar."
Belew has been involved with dozens of classic recordings, but perhaps
none more memorable than Talking Heads' Remain In Light, another Eno
production. "What really happened on the day I was in the studio was
that I was trying things to make sure all my stuff was working
correctly, running through a lot of different sounds.
"Brian Eno and David Byrne were so excited by what they heard and they
said, 'Oh we want this, want a little bit of that,' sort of like
choosing your plate at the cafeteria." And you said, wait a minute,
I'm just warming up?
"I told them 'Hold it, I've got a lot more than this!' But I was given
complete freedom and I was so excited by the music that I had a lot of
ideas It was such a great band. For me there were two bands that
defined that experimental part of the '80s, and that was the Talking
Heads and King Crimson and I was lucky to be in both."
Adrian Belew plays The Sands Tavern, Plaza Parade, Maroochydore, on
Friday (bookings 5443 7944) and The Living Room, 2 Caxton St, Petrie
Terrace, Brisbane, on Saturday (3511 6868).
--
.... --- --- -.. --- ---