CATC C01 The Weekend Australian 2027 words C01a The Weekend Australian - 6-7 December 1986 ART Christopher Robin and Wind in the Willows Drawings by Ernest H. Shepard Ginger Meggs memorabilia and original artwork on loan from James Hardie Library Blaxland Gallery Grace Bros city store Sydney Watercolours by Rose McKinley Hogarth Gallery Paddington GAY RICHARDSON FOR anyone who grew up with the delights of A.A. Milne's Christopher Robin books, a visit to Sydney's Blaxland Gallery is a must. E.H. Shepard's enchanting il+lustrations of Milne's Pooh story, together with some of the artist's drawings for The Wind in the Willows, are being exhibited for the first time in Australia. Shepard's illustra+tions at the mid-city gallery are happy, bright watercolours or simply drawn with pencil or pen and ink. In the coloured pictures, Christopher Robin, Pooh, Eyeore, Tigger, Owl, Piglet, Rabbit, Kanga and Roo are in delightfully coloured settings - red carpet, a pink chair that looks "like a chair", yellow, blue and white wallpa+per with green pieces on the mantelpiece, and suchlike things are everywhere. Ernest Howard Shepard is remembered mostly as "the man who drew Pooh", but his collaboration with Pooh's creator, A.A. Milne, represents only a small part of his vast output as an artist and il+lustrator during a career that spanned almost 70 years. The qualities which distinguished Shepard's work as a draughts+man were a free imagination and a vivacity of line that marked out all his creatures as beings who lived and moved with grace and energy, whether they were animal, human or "feerie". Shepard was born in St John's Wood, London, on De+cember 10, 1879. His father was an architect and his mother was the daughter of the cele+brated watercolourist, William Lee. He was educated a St Paul's School, Heatherley's Art School and the Royal Academy Schools, where he studied until 1902. His first book illustrations were for an edition of Tom Brown's Schooldays in 1904. Shepard contributed his first cartoon to Punch in 1907. He became one of the most prolific contributors to the hu+morous magazine by doing cartoons and illustrations for it for 50 years. In 1968, She+pard's illustration of Chris+topher Robin's Pooh Bear was sold at Sotheby's for &Pound;1200. It is generally felt that as a result of this, the following year Shepard decided to give all his original sketches for the Pooh books to the British nation. To mark this gift, an exhibition was held at the Vic+toria and Albert Museum in London; and it is from that bequest that many of the drawings in this present ex+hibition have been chosen. Ernest Shepard was awarded the Order of the British Em+pire in 1972 for his contribu+tion to illustration. He died at the age of 96, shortly before the celebrations began to mark the 50th anniversary of the first publication of Win+nie-the-Pooh, which for half a century had delighted chil+dren all over the world. It was even translated into Latin. In the catalogue at the Blax+land Gallery, Sibley writes: "Milne pays a most gracious tribute to Shepard's skills when he wrote in the first American edition of Winnie-the-Pooh: "When I am gone, Let Shepard decorate my tomb, And put (if there is room) Two pictures on the stone. Piglet from page 111 And Pooh and Piglet walking (157) - And Peter, thinking that they are my own, Will welcome me to Heaven." Before starting the work on his illustrations for the Pooh books, Shepard visited Milne and his family in Hartfield, Sussex, where he met Chris+topher and the toys and was taken by Milne to various loca+tions in and around the Ash+down Forest where the Pooh adventures were set. Shepard made numerous studies of the environment which he used as backgrounds in his drawings, so giving con+vincing realism to Milne's fantasies. In 1982 a selection of She+pard's sketches and drawings were published as The Pooh Sketch Book by Methuen Chil+dren's Books Ltd (London). It was edited by Brian Sibley who also is responsible for the informative narrative in the il+lustrated catalogue accompa+nying the exhibition at the Blaxland Gallery. According to Sibley: "The success of Ernest Shepard's il+lustrations for the books of A.A. Milne led to his being commissioned in 1928 to pro+vide new illustrations for a cel+ebrated children's book, The Golden Age, by Kenneth Gra+hame (1859-1932). Two years later Shepard illustrated its sequel, Dream Days, and in 1931 produced his magnificent pictures for Grahame's mas+terpiece, The Wind in the Wil+lows. First published in 1908, Gra+hame's delightful tale of the riverbank and its inhabitants had been illustrated by var+ious artists, but the author was not happy with their work. In 1954 Shepard observed: "There are certain books that should never be illustrated and I had felt that The Wind in the Willows was one of these. Perhaps, if it had not al+ready been done, I should not have given way to the desire to do it myself, but it so hap+pened that when the opportu+nity was offered me, I seized upon it gladly." Shepard visited Grahame, then an old man, at his home in Berkshire. Grahame courte+ously listened as Shepard spoke of his plans for the book. Then, leaning forward, he said to the artist: "I love these little people, be kind to them." She+pard was kind to Toad and Ratty, Mole and Badger, faith+fully and sensitively capturing, in line, the fantasy and ro+mance of Grahame's river+bank idyll. Shepard was to meet Grahame only once more before the author's death. When he took the completed illustrations to show him. "Though critical," Shepard later said, "he seemed pleased and, chuckling, told me `I'm glad you've made them real'." These "real people" - a Rat and a Mole who go rowing and a Toad who drives a motor car, also feature in the E.H. She+pard Exhibition at the Blax+land Gallery, along with a Ginger Meggs exhibition. The artwork and memora+bilia from the James Hardie Library is being exhibited at the Blaxland Gallery to com+memorate the 65th birthday of that lovable Australian car+toon character, Ginger Meggs. Grace Bros are to be congra+tulated for using the Blaxland Gallery as a museum, rather than as a commercial venue for almost two months. Direc+tor Margaret Meagher, said: "We'll be keeping the loan ex+hibition on until January 23. I am very pleased, as our Beatrix Potter one, which only lasted two weeks, was far too short, but we are planning to have another Beatrix Potter show next year." To support Australian art, Grace Bros will sponsor for the next three years Australia's most prestigious and best known art awards - the Archibald, Wynne and Sulman Prizes. The sponsor+ships total $150,000. New Zealander Rose McKin+ley, who lives at Byron Bay in NSW, is having her first Syd+ney success at the Hogarth Gallery, in Paddington. She does competent, easy-to-live-with watercolours which have a personal touch, as she puts many things relating to her life in these works. Rose, who attended the Syd+ney College of the Arts in Bal+main when Guy Warren (last year's Archibald Prize winner) was the principal lecturer and the head of the painting de+partment, gives a great deal of credit to what she was taught at the college. McKinley had done only a little art at school in New Zea+land, where she first became interested*interest in sound objects which still appear in her pic+tures. She said: "John Leth+bridge, the sculpture teacher at the Sydney College of the Arts, used to tell me to concen+trate on my own conceptions and my own past. He told me to use myself and my everyday life as the source of my work." This is a feature in McKin+ley's present exhibition. There are pictures within pictures which personally relate to her life. Her achievements to date in+clude a sellout of her recent exhibition at the Cape Galler+ies in Byron Bay and winning the Ballina Art Prize, the Kyogle Art Prize and twice being awarded the Byron Bay Prize. Says McKinley: "I am always amazed when people really like what I do. At first I thought who would want to see my grandmother's table-cloth or a print that belonged to my aunt, of a tree-lined avenue in Europe in a picture or a postcard of the Madonna sent to me from Tuscany? But, people seem to like them." McKinley also says she is often governed by the seasons. "The works I started in spring and others I did in late au+tumn and winter, all have dif+ferent flowers in them. In a painting I did in wintertime in Byron Bay, I put chrysan+themums. I also put in man+goes and Jamaica limes be+cause we grow them where we live." This personal touch "comes across" in Rose McKinley's colourful watercolours. C01b The Weekend Australian - 6-7 December 1986 Mission not quite accomplished FILM THE MISSION (PG) Pitt Centre, Sydney, and Greater Union cinemas throughout Australia EVAN WILIAMS THE title is curiously flat - it conveys nothing in particular - and somehow this is true of the film. Directed by Roland Joffe from a screenplay by Robert Bolt, The Mission is sumptuous, im+pressive, intelligent, full of a som+bre spiritual idealism; and no doubt it cost a fortune to make. But in the end I found it unsatis+fying. The obvious comparison is with those big historical epics that David Lean used to make (with Robert Bolt's collaboration) in the 1960s, and indeed there are moments in The Mission when Robert De Niro - robed, bearded, Messiah-like - seems eerily remi+niscent of Lawrence of Arabia. But I was even more strongly reminded of Peter Shaffer's play, the Royal Hunt of the Sun - there's a title to fire the imagination - which was made into a sadly unsatisfactory film in 1969. It dealt with events in South America a couple of centuries be+fore those depicted here, but its central concerns - the power of faith, the conflict between West+ern colonialism and native inno+cence - were much the same. And so too were its faults; slug+gishness, pretentiousness, obscu+rity. The Mission is one of those films which proclaim themselves at the start to be a "true story", and as usual the assurance is dis+concerting. Are we meant to be more indulgent towards the film because the events actually hap+pened? Or did they? There is al+ways something funny about the reconstruction of historical dia+logue. Opening the paperback "noveli+sation" of Bolt's screenplay, I chanced on the following: " `The boat is yours,' Cesar went on, with a wave of his cigarillo." Even if it were certain that the cha+racters in The Mission actually existed and that one of them had waved his cigarillo, I am the sort of person who is immediately and irrationally prejudiced against taking such things too seriously. The background to the film is, of course, authentic - and fasci+nating. It is concerned with the political and ecclesiastical in+trigues within the European church in the mid 18th century, when the Jesuits were consolidat+ing their power. They were the New Right of their time - sinis+ter and idealistic, fired by holy zeal and the purity of their cause, distrusted by the secular powers and mainstream politicians. The beautiful missions which they built in South America, in what are now parts of Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina, were symbolic of their political might at home. In 1750 the Spanish and Portu+guese kingdoms, anxious to curb Jesuit influence, squabbled over the ownership of the mission ter+ritories, and the Papacy inter+vened to resolve the dispute. The Guarani Indians who inhabited these dense jungles and verdant plains were being simultaneously bartered by European slave trad+ers, plundered by Portuguese colonists and recruited to Christ's church by Spanish missionaries. The central figures in The Mis+sion are Europeans - Robert De Niro as Mendoza, a slave trader and mercenary, and Jeremy Irons, as the Jesuit Father Ga+briel, and the film is mainly about their friendship. But the true heroes are the Indians. En+lightened opinion today would insist that no one - missionaries included - had any right to in+trude on their territory, though Joffe's film portrays the Jesuits as true defenders of their culture as well as bringers of spiritual grace. By the standards of the time perhaps they were. Even the scheming papal emissary, Alta+mirano (Ray McAnally), reflects at one point that the Indians might have been better off left alone, and I would have to agree with him. C02 The Daily Mirror 2014 words C02a The Daily Mirror - 4 August 1986 GROWING PAINS The sad story of a falling out THAT WAS THEN ... THIS IS NOW (Roadshow Home Video) THIS is the fourth novel by S.E. Hin+ton to be turned into a movie. S.E. Hinton is one of the most perceptive writers about young people, their pro+blems and the traumas inherent in grow+ing up. The other three films of her books are Rum+blefish and The Out+siders (both directed by Francis Ford Coppola) and Tim Hunter's Tex, in which Matt Dillon starred. Emilio Estevez, son of actor Martin Sheen, was also in Tex. And so he became interested in the stories of S.E. Hinton. He wrote a screenplay for That Was Then ... This Is Now. The director was Christopher Cain. This is the sad story of two youths who have grown up together like brothers. They have survived some bad times in the downbeat neighborhood where they live. Now they are projected through various situa+tions and their respon+ses to them which has+ten their growing apart and the finish of a loving relationship. Emilio Estevez plays Mark Jennings. Craig Sheffer is his close friend, Bryon Douglas. Cinematographer Juan Ruiz Anchia has created striking images, particu+larly in the night scenes. My view: Recommended. C02b The Daily Mirror - 4 August 1986 By Marcus Casey Raging Compiled by Philip McLean SO DAVID IS AHEAD ECCENTRIC Talking Heads singer/guitarist David Byrne has made his debut in the world of film direction. The film is True Stories, which he helped write and is based on people Byrne read about in tab+loid newspapers. He also wrote a book to accompany the film, which contains a story+board, lyrics to songs, and photos. A new Talking Heads album will be released with the film and book later this year. True Stories is set in the fictional town of Virgil, Texas, during the State's 150th an+niversary. "The people in the film seem to have found some kind of ethical centre," Byrne says in the book. "They may be floun+dering but it's a noble kind of floundering. "They are setting a good example and I'm trying to appreciate them." Some of the charact+ers highlighted include a Miss Rollings, the world's laziest lady. She spends all her time lying in bed sur+rounded by gadgets which carry out almost all of things she wants to do without her lif+ting much more than her finger. Flying high! - SYDNEY-based rock outfit The Cuckoos - who showed lots of promise a couple of years ago with their EP On The Ghost Train - have released a debut mini album. Called Sticks And Stones, the album features the single Wheels Of Your Heart. - The band started off in Adelaide when three young English migrants got together to jam with guitars and keyboards. Then they moved to Melbourne where Merseysider Terry Burgan joined the band on bass. - A token Australian, Stephen Kane, stepped in to take up the position of drummer. The band immediately poured their limited savings into re+cording and distributing 500 copies of their first record, On The Ghost Train. The EP sold out and they were signed by a management company which re+released the record and its single Point Of No Return. C02c The Daily Mirror - 31 October 1986 Raging Gunning for a hit Pressure is on for Do Re Mi LOCAL band Do Re Mi, who last year had a big hit with the sparse-sounding Man Overboard, is back with a another single and a slightly new style. Guns And Butter marks a change in Do Re Mi's style. The song has a fuller, bigger production sound than anything they have done before. But, according to bassist Helen Carter, Guns And Butter is "more the exception rather than the rule" of material written for the band's second album, due to be re+leased in March. She said the band, led by singer Deborah Conway, was under a certain amount of pres+sure to come up with a charting album follow+ing the success of their debut LP Domestic Harmony. "There is pressure to do better, but I think that should be put to the side," she said. She said material on the new album would be more cohesive be+cause the band had less time to write. Do Re Mi, who has just finished supporting Simple Minds, is about to do some Sydney gigs. Dates are: Sweethearts, Novem+ber 5; Newcastle Worker's Club, November 6; Sydney Cove Tavern, Novem+ber 7 and 8; and at Avalon RSL on Novem+ber 9. C02d The Daily Mirror - 31 October 1986 No aid for the saint's solo single BOB CALLS THE TUNE By Phil McClean LIVE AID hero Bob Geldof has bounced back into the charts with his first single record since his work to save the starving. The former Boomtown Rats singer - dubbed saint after he helped raise millions of dollars for the African masses - saw his single This Is The World Calling reach No 34 on the British charts in less than a week. In Australia the single made the top 100. The crusader launched his solo career in Gibraltar last weekend on the flight-deck of Britain's biggest and deadliest warship, HMS Ark Royal. Big seller Gallup, who are responsible for the BBC music week national record charts, said Geldof's record had sold about 10,000 copies so far. One Gallup chart-watcher said: "The Boomtown Rats did not show any signs of improving either before, during or after the Band Aid concerts. "So in my opinion this record has got where it is because of the quality of the music, not only because of Geldof's name." Geldof, 34, who recently married Paula Yates, his long-time lover and mother of his two-year-old daughter Fifi Trixi+belle, has spent the past two years working for Band Aid. But he said he didn't get a sense of achievement or satis+faction out of organising fund+raising extravaganzas. "With Band Aid you just logi+cally say: `Well, this is the best way to beat this'." he said. "But I do get a feeling of achievement and satisfaction out of having written a good pop song. "With a song it's abstract, it's a risk. Every time you make a record it's like taking an exam." Bob said he was astonished a few days ago when a huge crowd of girls actually screamed at him at an airport. "It has been a long time since anyone has done that," he chuckled. "Usually people come up, slap me on the back and say: `Well done Bob'." Geldof's debut solo album, which has been produced by Eurythmics star Dave Stewart, is expected out in Australia before Christmas. C02e The Daily Mirror - 31 October 1986 Stars add power to Cyclone By ANDREW WEST AS the umpteenth and final Australian mini-series to be screened this year, it is appropriate that Cyclone Tracy recreates our worst natural disaster with a blend of compassion and adventure. Cyclone Tracy (Channel 9, Wednesday, 8.30pm) boasts one of the strongest Australian casts assembled for a contemporary drama. AFI award-winner Chris Haywood is again a natural as Steve Parry, the television reporter who strikes up a friendship, and ultimately a love affair, with Connie (Tracy Mann). Mann, another AFI winner, gives a spirited performance as a widowed publican trying to raise children and run a business. Gillmer excels Despite her talent, however, she seems over+awed by the wealth of experience around her. Caroline Gillmer excels as Little Caroline, Connie's mother, in a solid, understated por+trayal of a woman deserted by her husband. Tony Barry is equally powerful but, in contrast to Gillmer's reserve, is emphatic in his portrayal of Mick Brennen, Little Caroline's former hus+band and Connie's father. But there is some+thing disconcerting about American accents on Australian TV, and the series suffers in this regard. Nicholas Hammond, who found fame in The Sound of Music 20 years ago and recently appeared in The Challenge, is bur+dened with a role that is crucial to an irrele+vant sub-plot. He plays a drug-courier on the run from Billy Hong (Jo+hann Huang), a narcotics dealer. Distracting Because the mini-series spans three nights, the sub-plot is a necessary respite from the cyclone, but it interrupts the pro+gram at its most dra+matic moments. Cyclone Tracy is also saddled with a linger+ing first episode. It takes more than an hour to establish the characters, who amble from scene to scene etching out situations that could send many viewers to sleep. Because of Cyclone Tracy's place in histo+ry, however, this mini-series will survive. In fact, some of the special effects are so realistic, don't be sur+prised if they hold a telethon afterwards! C02f The Daily Mirror - 31 October 1986 Outback drama is already U.S. hit By JOHN WALSH OL' BLUE Eyes Frank Sinatra put his finger on fame in his song New York, New York when he crooned: "If you can make it there, you'll make it anywhere." So the future looks good for the new Aust+ralian mini-series The Last Frontier, which screened earlier this month in the US and was a hit not only in New York, New York but Omaha, Nebraska, Three Forks, Mon+tana and just about everywhere else. Now the four-hour Outback saga starring Dynasty's Linda Evans and our own Jack Thompson is coming to Sydney (Channel 10, Monday and Tuesday, 8.30pm). And producers McEl+roy and McElroy have good reason to expect it to repeat its American success here. While the idea of a city woman displaced in the bush and having to fend for herself isn't over-original, it is fleshed out with strong characters, great acting and the wonderful scenery of the Outback. The show is ofen dra+matic, but moves at a relaxed pace - just as life does in central Australia. Dynamic The strength of The Last Frontier comes in some dynamic face-to-face confrontations be+tween the characters. Besides Evans and Thompson the mini-series stars Judy Morris, Jason Robards and Tony Bonner. And director Simon Wincer and writer Mi+chael Laurence have shown off the considera+ble talents of this cast to advantage in some memorable one-on-one scenes. The performance which will surprise a lot of people is that of Linda Evans, who discards her Dynasty fineries to turn in acting that is defi+nitely not Krystle Does Alice Springs. Linda makes a believ+able job of playing widow Kate Hannon, the woman from Los An+geles who finds herself Down Under battling to prevent her late hus+band's cattle station being taken over by a ruthless rival. Tony Bonner plays Kate's short-lived hus+band Tom Hannon, while Jason Robards is the scheming cattle baron Ed Stenning. Kate's decision to fight Stenning embroils her in a bitter feud involving him and his daughter Meg (Judy Morris) - and leads to love with Stenn+ing's son Nick (Jack Thompson). Schmaltzy The Last Frontier's solid supporting cast in+cludes Toni Lamond, John Ewart, American teenagers Meredith Salenger and Peter Bil+lingsley and local young+sters Beth Buchanan and Asher Keddie. There is perhaps too much playing to the US market with some ex+planations of common Australian expressions, and two too-schmaltzy scenes using Waltzing Matilda and The Star Spangled Banner. But otherwise this is a first-class show. C02g The Daily Mirror - 25 May 1986 MISSION IS OUT OF THIS WORLD Earthlings to the rescue By PENNY TROON COSMIC fantasy is the main ingredient of a special school holiday production by the Marian St Children's Theatre. Adventure In The Stars, written by Jose+phine Blogg, was com+missioned by Audrey Blaxland as a contribu+tion to the Interna+tional Year Of Peace. Her play will capture the imagination of four to 10-year-olds with its storyline, costumes and setting. Dangerous The play's action cen+tres around Suzie and Jason, two space ca+dets from Earth, who embark on a danger+ous mission with their friendly robot Electro Kitty, to save the Peace Star. They must defeat the wicked Star Wizard and the Spindle Witch who control the uni+verse. Adventure In The Stars plays every Sat+urday at 1pm until June 14 and twice daily on weekdays during school holidays at 10.30am and 1pm. C02h The Daily Mirror - 27 June 1986 ONE YOU MUST VIEW THE JAMES BOND STORY A View To A Kill (Warner Home Video) THIS is the 14th and latest James Bond movie and has Roger Moore as the dapper secret agent for the seventh time. Along with Moore, A View To Kill stars Lois Maxwell as Miss Mo+neypenny (who is still secretly in love with 007), Desmond Llewe+lyn as Q and Robert Brown as M. C03 The Daily Telegraph 2017 words C03a The Daily Telegraph - 8 November 1986 Deadly Ernest summer duel The Dangerous Summer, by Ernest Hemingway. Published by Grafton Books. Paperback. $8.95. Reviewed by COL MACKAY ERNEST Hemingway had a fascination for those who lived danger+ously and death itself. His novel and short stories mirrored this fascination with in+numerable scenes of his heroes facing their final destinies, either bravely or in a desperate last-ditch attempt to expunge the taint of cowardice from their earth-bound souls. Hemingway referred to it as "the moment of truth". His own moment of truth, however, was not to be as glorious as the heroes he either wrote factually about or simply manufactured. In 1960 he ignominiously ended his own life by blasting out his brains with a shotgun. Whether his suicide was the result of a moment of insanity, as his friends claim, or whether it was through his frustration at not being able to physically emulate truly the deeds of his heroes - as has been claimed by his detrac+tors - remains open to question. Observations But there is no question as to Hemingway's ability to record on paper his observations of bravery, cowardice and even bewilderment of his characters facing their moment of truth. It was this that led him in 1959 to agree to travel back to Spain to write for Life magazine an ac+count of the rivalry between Spain's two greatest bullfighters, Luis Miguel Dominguin and Antonio Ordonez. He was convinced that the fierce duel between Dominguin, who had emerged from retirement to re-establish himself as the world's greatest bullfighter in the face of the challenge from the younger and incredibly gifted Ordonez, would lead to one of them being killed. Neither was to die, but the suici+dal feats the two great matadors performed that summer against one another across the bullrings of Spain in their bid to win the ultimate acclamation*acclaimation from afi+cionados and the blood-hungry crowds, left them with serious wounds on several occasions. Hemingway became so obsessed with the duel and the behind the scenes action in the lives of Dom+inguin, Ordonez, and the the anx+iety of their families and friends as to the outcome, he eventually wrote 100,000 words about the drama. Of this, Life bought a selection of 50,000 words and finally in 1960 published 30,000 words in a three-part series. Hemingway and his friend, author A E Hotchner, who had also been present when most of the action between Dominguin and Ordonez took place, then trimmed the original manuscript down to 75,000 words. Almost 25 years after Heming+way had completed the manu+script, his American publishers, Charles Scribner's Sons, severely reduced it and published it under the title The Dangerous Summer. Hailed by publicists as Heming+way's "lost masterpiece", The Dangerous Summer falls well short of such an accolade. But the author's familiar prose in describ+ing his characters and the beauty and simplicity of the Spanish countryside are vintage Heming+way. Before his initial return to Spain in 1953, he had lived in self-im+posed exile from the country he described as "loving more than any other except my own", follow+ing his involvement in the Span+ish Civil War and his idealistic opposition to the victorious Franco regime - probably best framed in his novel For Whom The Bell Tolls. Hemingway buffs are aware that before "Papa" became a success+ful novelist and short story writer, he was one of America's foremost and innovative sports writers. And it is his gift as a highly talented and almost magically observant sports writer that shines through dominantly in his telling of The Dangerous Sum+mer. It is a style most modern-day sports writers would be well ad+vised to study. C03b The Daily Telegraph - 8 November 1986 Disastrous end to the nuclear dream The Worst Accident in the World - Chernobyl: The End of the Nuclear Dream. Pan Books. RRP $8.95. Reviewed by COL MACKAY. BEFORE going on night duty at Chernobyl's No.4 nuclear reactor on April 25 this year, Valeriy Hodiemchuk, later described simply as a "power sta+tion operator", told his wife he would take her and their small son to the next village for the weekend where they could help his mother plant potatoes. It was the last time the family saw him. In the early hours of Friday, April 26, Hodiemchuk became a bizarre victim of what is now termed "the worst acci+dent in the world". Hodiemchuk's wife and child did make the trip on a bus just as plan+ned, with the little boy believing his father was still on duty at the plant. But in the aftermath of the explo+sion that tore the reactor apart, rescuers who found Hodiemchuk's radiation-contaminated body had hastily covered it with wet cement and abandoned it where it lay inside what was left of the plant. The huge concrete sarcophagus now being built over the No.4 reac+tor will make an awesome tomb+stone for his son to visit: as it will too, for his own children and his chi+ldren's children in turn - on through the centuries it will take for Hodiemchuk's grave to become safe from radio-active contamination. Hodiemchuk was the first victim of the Chernobyl disaster. He was pin+ned beneath collapsing masonry at his work station by the explosion. Nearby his fellow worker and friend, Vladimir Sashionok, was also caught in the blast. Staggering from the wrecked block with 80 per cent burns to his body, Sashionok fell into the arms of hor+rified workmates and gasped only two words: "Valeriy. Inside." He then lost consciousness and later died in an ambulance on the way to hospital. Sashionok also did not have a funeral. Fearing radioactive con+tamination, the ambulance crew buried him in the cemetery of the first village they came to. Future in doubt In a new book outlining the events that led to the disaster and its after+math, Chernobyl: The End of the Nuclear Dream, a team of special writers from the London Observer strongly question the use and future of nuclear power stations in present and future civilisation. They say scientists now know what caused the Chernobyl fire, but how could it have been allowed to hap+pen? Why could the Russian scient+ists not have foreseen the disaster. And why did the safety systems that had been deliberately built into the reactor not function? In particular, why did the reactor's emergency cooling systems not immediately dampen down the blaze? But of the effects of the disaster, the authors say that even though Russian official information places the death toll from the Chernobyl disaster at just over 100, thousands more of the survivors will die of cancer over the next few decades, and many more of their children and children's children may suffer from genetic diseases. Tens of thousands may not be able to return to their contaminated homes in the Ukraine, where Cher+nobyl is situated, for years to come. But, say the authors, even these ap+palling consequences could have been infinitely worse. They point out that if it had not been for five simultaneously lucky factors, the Chernobyl accident could have been a holocaust. The death toll would have been very much higher; the contamination very much greater. The first of these factors was that the accident happened at night. This meant there were many fewer people at the site than there would have been during the day, a few hundred compared with the several thousand employed at the four ex+isting reactors and on the construc+tion of two others. More importantly, the people in the towns and countryside around the plant were indoors. In their homes, they got one-tenth the radia+tion dose they would have received outside. The second factor was the fierce+ness of the graphite fire. Its intense heat launched radioactive materials 1000m into the sky, as if they were sleeved in an invisible chimney. This caused most of the radioactivity to be widely dispersed on the winds, rather than falling on the surround+ing area. The longer it stayed in the air, the more the cloud's short-lived radion+uclides decayed and the less virulent they became. The weather was re+sponsible for the three other factors of good fortune. Crippling accidents The night was still enough to allow the radioactive plume to rise stead+ily far into the air. Also, what wind there was blew from the south, sending the deadly cloud over the relatively sparsely populated Pripet marshes and forest land. Most important of all, the weather at the time was dry: there was no rain to bring down the radioactive materials. The authors point out that in the wake of the Chernobyl disaster, the world's nuclear industry faces a crisis of confidence. As worried pop+ulations throughout both eastern and western Europe listened anx+iously to radio and television advice about how to avoid the worst effects of the cloud of radioactivity which swept over them from Chernobyl, it also brought anxiety to the world's nuclear salesmen. Ask the authors: "Can nuclear power survive? Does it deserve to? And if the world is to manage with+out nuclear power, what other sour+ces can provide the electricity to keep the lights burning into the 21st century?" Cynically, they point out that the nuclear industry and its powerful supporters in government would say such questions could only could only be asked by the technically*techically illiterate or those blinded by environmental+ism and hatred for high technology. Such technological arrogance, the authors say, has been bred by a gen+eration in which nuclear power has been isolated from real public pres+sure, and has developed in a close and unhealthy symbiosis with cen+tral government. They say for 40 years nuclear power has been shamelessly pam+pered by governments of every color in almost every developed country. It has been given the best brains and biggest budgets governments could provide. The laws of economics have been repealed in its favor, while its envi+ronmental hazards have been over+looked. Only the defence industries have enjoyed a longer or more luxu+rious ride. Yet at the end of this, the industry in most of the western world is unprofitable, depressed and demoralised. C03c The Daily Telegraph - 8 November 1986 Nimrod hopes all ends well All's Well That Ends Well. Nimrod production at the Seymour Centre. Shining. Sydney Dance Company production at the Sydney Opera House. Reviewed by DAVID COLVILLE CONNOISSEURS of Shakespeare will rejoice in the Nimrod's new production of the rarely performed All's Well That Ends Well, which opened on Tuesday night at the Seymour Centre. It is a stylish production, soundly acted by some of Australia's leading talents, but its memorable moments are situa+tional rather than born of any outstand+ing individual performance. It is unlikely to be the huge box office success which the Nimrod needs to fin+ish its ambitious 1986 season, and this could be a cause for concern in an arts environment dependent on the whims of sometimes short-sighted government bureaucrats. In this respect it is important to step back and to view the production for what it is: a brave experiment which allows us to enter the world of an author of genius in the making. We should thank the Nimrod for this opportunity. The play's story is simple. The or+phaned Helena (Celia de Burgh) is in love with Bertram (Simon Burke), son of the Countess of Rossillion (Ruth Crac+knell). When Bertram is sent to the court of the ailing King of France (Ron Graham), Helena follows and neatly manages to cure the king. Her reward is the man of her choice, and Bertram is not at all pleased to be chosen. Bertram rushes off to the Italian wars only to be followed by the persistent Helena, who tricks him into bed and suc+ceeds in becoming pregnant. (Radical feminists are warned against this play). All ends happily with the two young people reconciled to their wedded bliss. All this occupies nearly 2 1/2 hours of playing time which occasionally drags because of a sometimes unformed text. The efforts of designer Judith Hod+dinott to modernise the action by plac+ing the characters in costumes representing various periods of the 20th century do not succeed in diverting the audience from this fact. There is much to enjoy in Richard Cot+trell's production. Even though many of the characters are two-dimensional, consummate*consumate artists such as Ruth Crac+knell and Ron Graham always impress with their sheer professionalism. C04 The Sun 2021 words C04a The Sun - 22 June 1986 JUST TOO BAD TO BE TRUE B-GRADE FLICK LITTLE MORE THAN AN INSULT JUST a few weeks after a forgettable film called Wise Guys screened briefly in Sydney, comes Bad Guys. And wise guys would do well to give Bad Guys a miss. Why? Well, if you regularly read movie reviews you will almost certainly have come across that old cliche, "an insult to the intelligence". It's an expression used by stunned film critics when they come reeling out of yet another screen+ing of yet another B-grade bummer of a movie. But to describe Bad Guys as an insult to the intelligence doesn't even come close to describing the sheer awfulness of it. It's a film with a thor+oughly silly plot: two Los Angeles policemen (played by Mike Jolly and Adam Baldwin) become tandem wrestling stars under the name of the Boston Bad Guys, during a period of suspension. However, with leaden political overtones, they end up being the good guys in a climactic bout with some real bad guys from Russia who are known as the Kremlin Krushers. And just like the profes+sional wrestling on televi+sion, the wrestling in this film appears to be as carefully choreographed as a dance routine. You know the kind of thing I mean: One, two, three, and it's your turn to do a somersault! Wrestling? Yes, well, there is an audience for professional wrestling, American style, although it doesn't exactly win huge ratings for Channel 10. For me, there is abso+lutely no merit at all in the acting, the script, the direction. There is one good thing about Bad Guys ... the end credits. C04b The Sun - 2 December 1986 BROTHER TOM BACK AGAIN By KEVIN SADLIER ACTOR Tom Jennings, star of the Channel 10 mini-series My Brother Tom, will be back on the small screen next year. Tom will play Greg Hudson in episodes of Sons And Daughters to be seen on Channel 7 next year. Greg Hudson is described as "bright and smart" and the character will be an important link between the roles played by Rowena Wallace, in her return season with Sons And Daughters, and Belinda Gibson. Tom says he got the Sons And Daughters role almost immediately after he had finished working on a telemovie, a thriller called Watch The Shadows Dance, in which he co-starred with Nicole Kidman. And that role came after My Brother Tom. "There was a time when I used to work part-time as a waiter to help make ends meet," he said. "Now I'm in danger of becoming a full-time actor." Tom, still only 20, is the grandson of veteran English stage star Patricia Hayes and came to Australia with his family when he was 15. He had originally planned to be a journalist but a brief appearance in a TV commercial when he was still at school changed all that. The young actor's first major role was in Mad Max III in which he played Slake McThirst, a leader of the feral children. C04c The Sun - 2 December 1986 NOW NONI IS NANCY WAKE ACTRESS Noni Hazelhurst*Hazlehurst is in for a big week. In Melbourne, she begins work in the title role of the new Channel 7 mini-series, Nancy Wake. The four-hour series begins in France in 1939 where Wake(code name the White Mouse) lived with wealthy husband, Henri Fiocca (John Waters). A country girl from NSW and one of Australia's greatest wartime heroines, Nancy was one of the most highly decorated women of the war. In Sydney, viewers are being treated to a repeat screening of the Waterfront series in which Noni plays chorus girl, Maggie. Part two is on Channel 10 tonight at 8.30. The mini-series, Nancy Wake, has been sold to England's Thames Television and will screen on Channel 7 next year. CO4d The Sun - 2 December 1986 DON'T BE LATE FOR BREAKFAST -LISA HABERMANN THE Late Late Breakfast Show is pretty bizarre. This BBC production is also funny, entertaining and surprising. And lately, it has become controversial as well. Earlier this month a contestant, Mike Lush, 25, plummeted to his death when a safety bracket failed in a Houdini-style stunt. Host Noel Edmonds admits he feels a certain amount of guilt and says there are no more plans to continue the show on the BBC but admits Channel 10 in Australia are thinking about bringing him out here to compere a similar-style show. The show premieres tonight on Channel 10 at 7.30. C04e The Sun - 4 August 1986 IT'S ALL FUN FOR MOUCHE Movie Talk BY JOHN HANRAHAN THERE can't be many stars who could claim their break into show business was in Tahiti! But that's exactly where 14-year-old Mouche Phillips, one of the stars of TV's Butterfly Island and the new Aussie movie Playing Beatie Bow stepped into the spotlight. Mouche plays the title role in the film adaptation of Ruth Park's bestseller about a Sydney teenager who finds herself transported back to the Rocks area in the last century by a young girl (Mouche), and the adventures she encounters. "A big singer by the name of Carlos, from France, came over to Tahiti to do a commercial for an orange juice," Mouche, an enthusiastic, poised and unaffected young lady recounted. "They got all the Tahitian girls around my age but then said they were looking for someone different to be in it ...You! And I went, `oh, okay'. "That was my first film experience." She had been living in Tahiti for a year and half with her mother. On returning to Sydney, a friend suggested Mouche accompany her to join an agency. "I went along and wasn't actually going to join," Mouche explained. "But she got some photos done and I jumped into a couple of them and the agency asked me to join, too. "Television commer+cials and catwalk model+ing followed, but I was only 10 at the time and my idea of a career was either an air hostess or a balle+rina. Then came the chance of a lifetime. She was invited to join a number of boys and girls to take part in an exchange with chil+dren her age in China, with the exercise to be subject of a documentary. "It was called Children of Two Countries ... there were four boys and four girls with special talents, and it was to experience their kind of life. I went for painting," she recal+led. They spent three weeks there. Then came Butterfly Island. "I had long hair and a sun tan and they thought I looked right for an island setting," she said. "But they wanted to know if I could do all these sporty things like drive a boat and hang from a coconut tree ... I said, `oh sure, whatever you want'. And they wanted me to climb into a plane from a boat as it was flying off. I went off to Queensland for it and had great fun. "The role of Beatie Bow, a young candymak+er's daughter, was a cinch after that." Then came the worst news. She had to have her waist length hair cut off. "I thought they were joking, but they weren't. Mum asked for a wig and they said no. But now I like it this length! And I loved the role because it was a challenge." But as much fun as Mouche is having with her acting, she has other plans within the industry. "I really want to do make-up, special effects make-up, and then even+tually do some producing. And Mum is very support+ive of me," she enthused. C04f The Sun - 8 September 1986 RUDOLPH'S TROUBLE IN MIND MOVIE TALK BY JOHN HANRAHAN ALAN RUDOLPH wanted to update some of the old hard-boiled 40s and 50s detec+tive stories. But it took a certain disenchantment with Hollywood plus domination and interference from the big studios to push him into doing it. The result, from the maker of Welcome To L.A. and Choose Me, is Trouble In Mind which stars Kris Kristofferson, Keith Carradine, Lori Singer, Genevieve Bujold and Divine. And for Rudolph, a fruitful and important friendship with singer and songwriter Kristofferson. Trouble In Mind is an offbeat story about a cop who's served time for murder and the strange array of characters he becomes involved with when he returns to the fictional Rain City hangouts he once haunted. As a film-maker Rudolph had always been an outsider. But the success of his films drew attention and job offers. They taught him the pricelessness of independence: of almost total control over his films. "I wrote this story when I was editing another film," he said. "I wanted an original screenplay at the time because I was finishing Songwriter, with Kris Kristofferson, for somebody else," Rudolph explained diplomatically. "I would go and write `Trouble' just as a relief. "I knew I wanted to do an updating of those old, wonderfully hard-boiled movies that were made in the 40s and 50s ... "When I got into it I realised they had no real+ity other than their own and they really weren't like any elements in our own lives. "So I knew this was going to be a highly fictional film and that made me enjoy it more. "With Choose Me, I wasn't really writing out of any kind of personal experience, I was writing objectively and had fun with it." Rudolph's second film, Remember My Name, with Tony Perkins and Geral+dine Chaplin, also helped to inspire the making of Trouble In Mind. "It was about a woman who got out of prison who came back to find her ex-husband. And at the time I'd wanted to write the story of a guy getting out of prison, and I thought it was too dead-on." Rudolph explained. "So this is kind of my pass at the male anti-hero part." And, of course he had just worked with Kristoffer+son. "There is something so legendary about the guy that I started thinking about him before I wrote. "I knew that Hawke had to have certain larg+er-than-life qualities and persona." Hawke , he added, is "a guy who is separate from the pack and who goes through life being a stranger and having a very rich interior life, but is really separated from groups of people when he's around, and sort of uncomfortable with, peo+ple. "Kris is not all like that, but he has enough of that for the character to work." C04g The Sun - 8 September 1986 A CLASSIC RESTORED Lost Horizons `re-made' By MICHAEL HEALY, The Denver Post IT cost $5 million to film, a monstrous amount back in 1937. It ran for 132 minutes - until censors and dis+tributors alike cut, edited and truncated it. The film was Frank Capra's Lost Horizon. The distributors just wanted a shorter version, but the censors were alarmed by its political content and anti-war mes+sage, especially during WWII. And now, after 13 years of painstaking work by Robert Gitt of the Ameri+can Film Institute, the film has been restored almost to its original entirety. Early in the film, Rob+ert Conway (Ronald Col+man) makes a speech about pacifism and the evils of war and, as charm+ingly naive as it sounds today, it must have grated on the nerves of those who knew that Hitler's onslaught in Europe could only be met by force and not by passive resistance. When the film was shown to American troops fighting WWII, Conway's self-doubts were snipped, as were other overtly anti+war scenes. Still, the movie is a wonderful adventure story and among its other stars was Jane Wyatt. The restoration of the print is not complete. Some short scenes have been lost forever, it seems, although the sound-track is complete. Gitt covers the missing footage with still photos and freeze-frame shots. C04h The Sun - 8 September 1986 LIFE'S DOSE OF MEDICINE TV today IT'S 1957. Celia and Jessica are two pretty flatmates and their lives are just starting. Jessica wants a rich husband, Celia a career. And their story is told in Strong Medicine which premieres tonight on Channel 10 at 8.30, with Part Two shown tomor+row. Based on Arthur Hail+ey's best-seller, the two-part mini-series follows the girls' adventures from their apartment-sharing days to husbands, the hippy 60s and middle age. Pamela Sue Martin plays Celia Grey, an ambitious young woman who would rather stay up late studying than go on a date. C05 Sydney Morning Herald 2010 words C05a Sydney Morning Herald - 22 August 1986 Staging limits spirited return BALLET THE QUEENSLAND BALLET Scheherazade:Choreography by Jacqui Carroll, music by Rimsky-Korsakov, designed by Mike Bridges. Frankie and Johnny: Choreography by Andris Toppe, music by David Pyle and the players, design by Bill Haycock. Glen Street Theatre. Frenchs Forest. August 20-23 THE Queensland Ballet is a tight-knit ensemble with exciting vigour, con+siderable skill and a fighting spirit that gives it engaging appeal. It's nearly six years since the company has performed in Sydney, and those years have obviously been well spent in building a strong and flexible group of young dancers. In the process, it has developed a nuggetty character that melds together the variety of dancing styles it presents. Although it is firmly based in classicism, The Queensland Ballet is just as likely to tackle the kind of choreography that you might see in a contemporary musical. It appears to thrive on a diet of new work and contrasts. The double bill it has brought to Sydney sums up its stylistic approach, though the minuscule size of the stage (in dance terms) means that we're not seeing them at full stretch. Scheherazade, for example, looks far better in a bigger venue, as I saw it in Canberra a year ago. There, the ensemble sections could take off and provide a robust balance to the intimacy of the duets. Here they have nowhere to go. Nevertheless, it's good to have the chance to see the fine qualities of Rosetta Cook, whose performance in the title role was characterised by sinuous movement and poetic phrasing with a flowing finish to every move she made on stage. She was ably partnered by Dale Pengelly. The work itself is uneven. Its*It's main creative weakness is its predictability, both in terms of its literal response to the music and its use of the established neo-classical choreographic vocabulary. On the credit side, there are some challenging sequences for the dancers - notably in the duets for Scheherazade and the Traveller - and they accomplish them with practised ease. Frankie and Johnny also has its high and low points. Andris Toppe has created an exciting series of solos and duets, which were well executed in appropriately incisive style, but he hasn't achieved the same level of success with the ensemble side of the piece. I don't think he has been helped by what seemed to me a confusing scenario. A program note quotes thoughts about the contradictions of America, which are presumably meant to be encapsulated by this sordid little tale of deception and death from a seamy, male-dominated segment of society from yesteryear. Or were they? The whole piece was presented as a jolly romp, a good excuse for fun and frolic, when ironic comment seemed to be more apt. But I may be taking it all too seriously - encouraged, I must admit, by the jazz score, which built on the popular song of the title to develop areas of greater depth than anything that was offered on stage. JILL SYKES C05b Sydney Morning Herald - 22 August 1986 Putting a love into practice MUSIC THE SONG COMPANY Director: Charles Coleman Recital for Musica Viva Australia Music by British, French and Flemish composers. Art Gallery of NSW, August 19 NO OTHER vocal group in Sydney, large or small, is quite as successful in conveying enjoyment in its labours as The Song Company. Here are eight singers and a conductor obviously in love with singing. There is no evidence that the periodic changes of personnel which The Song Company has undergone in its two years of existence have been detrimental. The cur+rent team is excellently balanced. Even in acoustic conditions of reverberation that can add an echo of more than two seconds to forte chords, the cross-fire of short syllables in pieces like Il Est Bel Et Bon by Passereau or the fifth of Britten's Flower Songs remained very effective, and the whiffs of tonal grapeshot in a battle piece by Jannequin scored nothing but bullseyes*bulleyes. Particularly reassuring was the fact that, except in one or two brief moments during Josquin's Lament for Ockeghem, there was no deterioration of tone quality when only a smaller section of the whole ensemble was singing, as in various items for four or five voices. FRED BLANKS C05c Sydney Morning Herald - 22 August 1986 The agony and the ecstasy BLUES JOHN HAMMOND The Basement, August 19 DAVID Byrne once observed that people in states of religious or sexual ecstasy usually looked utterly ridicu+lous. Blues singer/guitarist John Hammond didn't look ridiculous at The Basement, but he was clearly experiencing a form of ecstasy. The blues is usually about sex, something this American dynamo isn't in a hurry to let us forget. Hammond drips sensuality, so that when he sings, "She's a fine little pony, lord, likes to have her fun", you sure as hell don't think of a horse. Keeping his left foot stomping out a libidinous beat on the floor, he sends his fingers flying recklessly across the strings of his acoustic guitar while his lips, when they're not giving voice to a crafty double entendre, breathe fire and brimstone into a harmonica. Hammond doesn't so much perform songs as pour himself into them like liquor running into a glass. The price? A few broken strings and an audience exhausted by the sheer density of the performance. His repertoire is wide, drawing from established country and urban blues sources (for example Robert Johnson's Crossroads, Elmore James' It Hurts Me Too), though none of this gives off a sense that he's merely trying to prove his authenticity or pay homage to a tradition. Hammond's clever+ness lies in adapting the acoustic style of rural blues while interpreting the music with the jagged intensity of a city dweller. Since John Lee Hooker is arguably his nearest progenitor, it was appropriate that he should sing the Detroit legend's I'm in the Mood. What was he in the mood for? You really shouldn't have to ask. LYNDEN BARBER C05d Sydney Morning Herald - 22 August 1986 Morals in a meltdown THEATRE A FAULT-LINE By Luigi Pirandello, translated by Tim Fitzpatrick With Wenanty Nosul, Daniel Mitchell, Dasha Blahova, Tracey Callander, Brandon Burke. Director: Richard Lawton; set: Jacqui Brown; costumes: Melody Cooper Downstairs Theatre, Seymour Centre. August 20 THIS production is being presented by Sydney University's Theatre Studies Service Unit (all that remains of the useful Theatre Workshop) and the Depart+ment of Italian, to honour the 50th anniversary of Pirandello's death. The play was the last to be completed by Pirandello. It was written in 1934, just after his Nobel Prize. This is its first production, professional or otherwise, in Sydney. That should surprise nobody. Pirandello in Australia, as in England and America, is the most neglected of major 20th century playwrights. Here even his best-known masterpiece, Six Characters in Search Of An Author, awaits professional attention. For this occasion, Dr Fitzpatrick of the Italian Department, working with the director and cast, has produced a transla+tion that is grammatically fluent. Pirandel+lo's last conducted tour of his inimitable metaphysical maze comes across with the sparkle, clarity and wit that have always distinguished Mediterranean philosophy. In important ways, this last play is a departure for Pirandello. His subject, though lavishly adorned with metaphysical paradoxes as ever, displays a dance of life in which the compulsions of the newfangled Freudian subconscious dominate philo+sophical probing. The old games of identity, appearance and reality here employ the language of Freudian dream and guilt. We watch the melting down of traditional codes of morals and of honour in the heat, 50 years ago, of the Freudian revolution. Even so, it is Pirandello who is in charge, not Freud. The character who may be going mad in this adulterous vortex of unintended sins and imagined infidelities does so only because he feels guilty about having no sense of guilt. That situation is Pirandello as ever was; and so this is the way that emotional passion, not intellectual probing, spins the plot. Or so it seems to me. My argument with this poised, visually attractive, well-consid+ered production is that the director takes his cue too literally from the patterned advances; retreats and circlings of the argument. He matches these with choreogra+phy, balletic or acrobatic, that tends to play up the artificiality of the forms of action and to reduce the characters of two mixed-up marriages, with interlocked trian+gles, to puppet functions. Diagram takes over from drama. There are problems also with style (and with a medley of accents from the cast). The production misses the irony that makes this play a comedy. When laughter finally erupts, it comes from the acrobatics of farce. However, one must be grateful for spirited and elegant acting (especially from Brandon Burke, stylish in decadent, aristocratic egocentrism, and Dasha Bla+hova, who best suggests the irony). As well, there is Jacqui Brown's handsome, Roman marble, porticoed set. Above all, there is the rare opportunity to savour a fascinating play by this master dramatist. H.G. KIPPAX C05e Sydney Morning Herald - 22 August 1986 Voice of reason in a revival of past styles An aspect of the Debra Dawes installation .. contributes to the abstract art debate. GALLERIES By JOANNA MENDELSSHON IN A WEEK dominated by fragmented visions and incoherent polemics, Debra Dawes's installation at the Union Street Gallery adds a quiet voice of reason. In doing so she also makes a significant contribution to the never-ending debate on the nature of abstract art. The title of the piece, Three narratives: an autobiography, gives the viewer the clue as to her motives in producing this series of small square paintings based on Mondrian, Morandi and her own domesticity. The paintings proceed in sequences of three - a Morandi, a Mondrian, then a Dawes. The copies of the famous artists are carefully crafted. Dawes is careful to match both Morandi's tonality and the essential hand-made quality of Mondrian's work. The third piece in this sequence, the "original", is a blue, yellow and black variation of an electric jug, or occasionally a carefully planned figure group+ing. As the sequence progresses, the paintings become intertwined - Morandi meets Mondrian, meets Dawes. The exhibition is partly a response to the impact of seeing Mondrian for the first time and absorbing the difference between the sharp-edged photo+graphs of his work and the untidy reality of canvas and paint. Both Mondrian and Morandi were concerned with expressions of inner reality, classical proportions and the Golden Mean. Dawes uses this preoccupation to remind the viewer that careful placement of shapes and lines within a picture plane has no necessary connection with the supposed virtues of abstract art. The latest of many exhibitions on abstract painting is Pure Abstraction at The Painters Gallery. This is worth a visit simply for the chance to see one of Tony Tuckson's finest paintings, an Untitled of the late 1950s. It is both delicate and strong, with light scribbles of rust paint on a thick surface scratched in white. At the time it was painted, Tuckson was a totally private painter. His unusually strong sense of professional ethics meant that only friends and a few fellow artists knew the assistant director of the Art Gallery of New South Wales was an artist. There are other works of interest in Pure Abstraction - paintings by Ralph Balson and Robert Hunter, drawings and pastels by Robert Jacks and Leslie Dumbrell. There is also the awkward inclusion of a hard-edge masking tape and acrylic piece by Col Jordan. On the whole, the exhibition reflects the awkwardness of confusing style and content in the selection of a group exhibition. Perhaps it is a sign of the aesthetic rear-guard attitudes of the proponents of the "pure", but only one woman artist is included. Polly MacCallum's sculpture and drawings at the Coventry Gallery helps add to the overall impression of this week as a series of revivals of styles of the past. Her perspex sculptures and pencil lines evoke old school geometry sets with sharp angles and pointed edges. On a more elevated plane, they bring back memories of Margo Lewers's sculptures of the 1950s. As well as small pieces and maquettes for larger ones, the exhibition includes photographs of enlargements and earlier works, almost a mini-retrospective. C06 The Age 2002 words C06a The Age - 18 November 1986 The surprise is at the beginning FILMS NEIL JILLET PLEASE don't give away the surprise beginning! In the opening scenes of `Wetherby' (Rivoli, Camberwell Junction) Jean, a middle-aged English teacher, is having a dinner party for a few friends in her Yorkshire Cottage. It is an enjoyable, argu+mentative, boozy occasion. And one of the guests, Morgan, turns out to be a complete stranger to the hostess and everyone else. The next day Morgan returns to Jean's house and - this is where details should not be revealed - does something shockingly violent. What follows is a combination of an entertaining rerun of `Plen+ty' and a detective story (why did Morgan do what he did and why did he involve Jean?). `Plenty', a US film directed by Australian Fred Schepisi, was an adaptation by British writer David Hare of his own stage play. `Wetherby' is a British film with an original script by Hare. It also marks his debut as a feature film director. `Plenty' was very much a vehicle in which Meryl Streep dis+played her ability to imitate yet another accent (this time upper-crust English) and to be fascinat+ingly neurotic. It was also a whingeing piece about Britain's post-World War II failure to be+come the New Jerusalem of the socialist dreamtime. It made valid complaints in a tiresomely repeti+tive way. `Wetherby' is very much an ex+pression of Hare's hatred of post-Atlee Britain. At times this hatred is too directly expressed (as in the tirade to camera that one charac+ter launches against Mrs Thatch+er); but for the most part it is subtly expressed, notably in a scene where a restless pupil traps Jean into supporting political and social attitudes that she believed were contrary to her philosophy. The chief interest of `Weth+erby', though, is in its form rather than its content. Hare explores his themes of disenchantment, loneli+ness and betrayal by constantly taking us back - in weeks to Mor+gan's obsessive pursuit of a fellow-student and in years to Jean's adolescent affair with an airman conscripted for service in the Ma+layan emergency. The handling of these flashbacks is faultless in its intricacy and clarity and compen+sates for the slimness of the plot and the lack of novelty in the political analysis. Despite some arch staginess in the writing, the actors do a fine job as soloists and in ensemble. Vanessa Redgrave (Jean) is in top form as a woman gradually forced into an awareness of her loneliness and inadequacies. The young Jean is convincingly played by Redgrave's daughter, Joely Richardson: we are given simulta+neously a reminder of what Red+grave was like and an explanation of how Jean's character is shaped. My only serious reservation about this film is the soupy music - Hollywood mock-Rachmaninov from the 1940s - that kept mak+ing me feel Hare was making a joke I didn't get. LOOKING like a sick spaniel and sounding like a Carlton greengrocer, Tom Conti oozes through `Saving Grace' (Austra+lia) as the fictional Pope Leo XIV, who does a Haroun al Rashid and wanders out of Vatican City to see how the people are getting on. He ends up in a village in southern Italy and teaches its impoverished inhabitants the dignity of labor. This piece of sanctimonious drivel is so soggy that I suspect it has been sponsored, as is the pa+pal fashion these days, by a brew+ery. The vague credits suggest it is a US-UK-Italian coproduction. The film never touches on any of the issues that one assumes con+cern contemporary popes, but there is an unresolved scene where a violent act by Leo is fol+lowed by a murder. Apart from this brief excursion into action, `Saving Grace' is directed with re+morselessly slow solemnity by Robert M. Young from a grovel+ling script by David Ward. THE coldly beautiful Catherine Deneuve is the classiest gran+de dame of French cinema, and Christopher Lambert is ade+quate as a Gallic macho man, best-known for swinging on a vine (`Greystoke') or wielding a broad+sword (`Highlander'). Now the iceberg and Tarzan have been oddly coupled with non-combusti+ble results in `Paroles et Musique' (Russell). At the start of the film (English title `Love Songs') Margaux (Den+euve), who is a workaholic execu+tive in the music industry, and her two small children have been abandoned by her American hus+band. Finding Paris too distract+ing as a place in which to write his Great Book, he has fled to the calm of New York. Meanwhile, Jeremy (Lambert) and his mate Michel (Richard Anconina) are trying to turn themselves from waiters into rock singers. Mar+gaux and Jeremy begin an affair which threatens to foul up his ca+reer and his friendship with Mi+chel, and destroy any chance of saving her marriage. Writer-director Elie Chouraqui tried to make three films here and ended up with one bland bundle. As a musical, `Paroles et Musique' is clogged with big doses of unex+citing rock (not so much soft as mushy ). As a romance, it suffers from the lack of chemistry be+tween the lovers and from a fail+ure to explore their characters or their relationship. As a study of male friendship, the film does slightly better, thanks mainly to Anconina, who is loaded with charm and promise. If he had been paired with Deneuve, `Pa+roles et Musique' might have had some slight entertainment value. C06b The Age - 15 November 1986 Illusions and puffs of smoke BOOKS SECOND SIGHT, by Janine Burke (Greenhouse, $8.95). Ludmilla Forsyth JANINE BURKE'S first novel `Speak+ing', gave the reader five distinct speak+ing voices. Voices of women arguing, exploring, consolidating and disinte+grating*distinte+grating. Burke wrote powerfully of be+ing a woman, about woman as a psychologically complex being: a social, political, imaginative and family per+son, strong, vulnerable, tough, fragile. She wrote from a position which recog+nises historical pressures as well as opportunities. `Second Sight', Burke's second novel, continues this thorough gazing into be+ing a woman. The opening sentence - "My grandmother died with her mouth open." - concentrates the focus. Death and detail. Lucida, history teacher in a college, has chosen not to live with Jason, has become lover of Lethe and is writing a biography of Lydia O'Shea, suffragette. Burke sets her parameters: woman, teacher, writer. All worlds come into collision with the death of Lucida's grandmother. Time, place and characters emerge in keeping with their emotional signifi+cance for Lucida. Burke shifts her focus in much the same way as Lucida's pho+tographer lover moves his. However, while images of the physicality of life bombard the senses, and grandmother's death casts an emotional net over Luci+da's life, psychological holes leave gaps in the reader's understanding of why this should be so. The novel is in three sections. In the first, Burke skilfully presents someone on the verge of a nervous breakdown. The fragmentation in the narrative iso+lates incidents and reinforces disinte+gration. This is unsettling for the reader and is meant to be. But so are the imag+ist, Swiftian expressions of Lucida's chaos. Thrust into this state are the naif, photographic, old-fashioned pen sketch+es of characters. The reader nimbly dances through this collage. Janine Burke tells us that we can "see our symmetry. Our sad design". But, "This is the gift of second sight, the eyes granted later, when fear is gone". The reader (as the writer, as we do in life) sees the connections in retrospect. Sec+ond sight is not an insight; it is an affir+mation of a meaning. Burke uses photography as a meta+phor for one kind of vision of life. It is Lethe's eye view of the world - I am a camera. He deals in images, fragments of life, surface realities or what the be+holder beholds. "He was leaving it to the observer to make him up. It was not a game. He took the prospect of revela+tion too seriously." So does Burke. Luci+da needs connections - emotional and intellectual. Her previoius discipline, history, provided an umbilical interpre+tative method. Burke questions the se+curity embedded in this approach - the happy hooker synthesis of scholarly re+search. "The discipline of history was bondage and I was the whore with the whip." It is this fragmentary image of life which Burke is very good at. And her dialogue pursues an intellectual thought or careless comment with ease. How+ever, the heavy symbolism of nomencla+ture overworks in creating significance - Lucida, Lethe, Diana, Pico (Apolli+naire), the Dragons (false). From the pit of Lucida's despair, Diana and Pico appear and initiate her into life of the moment. Diana and Pico (Apollo), twin life forces, are sensual, sexually mag+netic, hedonistic and, more importantly, free. Romantic (as in Keats, Shelley) im+ages of flight dominate section two with the arrival of Zeus's headache. My own wings are clipped by reason and I have an imaginative unwillingness to fly with these mythological creatures. "She said, `Come to us'. The flying feeling re+turned, much stronger, and I floated up, staring into Diana's eyes. It was terrify+ing, exquisite and real. My body was shared with the air. It had a new sub+stance, other dimensions, fresh perimeters." I am happy to picnic with them on the banks of the Yarra - moon, but no men+tion of the mozzies - but on wings of Poesy ... with Diana and Apollo! Lucida, letting go Lethe and Austra+lia, flies to Italy. In section three she experiences rebirth, a sexual and cre+ative freeing. The image of the cave predominates. "We would speak as au+thor and character, no longer the disap+pointed detective and the missing clue. My dream came back and with it the steady breathing. I knew I could find the cave, snaking through the belly of the hills. I would travel light, making maps." Finally, her albatross, the biography of Lydia O'Shea, is laid to rest by (liter+ally) Lydia's ghost. I'm not sure what Janine Burke is up to here. Is this to be read as an allegorical ghost? Is this the culmination of a nervous breakdown, even if all the symptoms are ones of recovery? Is this an imaginative absorp+tion of the ghosts that haunt one? It is somewhat ironic that Lucida thinks at the end of the novel, "We began with illusions and ended up in puffs of smoke. Such is the fate of symbols." Janine Burke appears to be moving into an allegorical and self-conscious mode. She feels the need to tell us this is fiction, to provide a map. "Destiny is fierce and writing fiction shadows desti+ny. Alarmed at one point by the appar+ent collaborations between fiction and my life, I said to Lydia, `I shouldn't have written it in*it the first person. Dangerous correspondences keep occurring'." This is both a disclaimer and an apologia. There appears to be a proliferation of authors telling us not to believe that this is their life - well, not all of it. Burke is a strong writer with an eye for physical realities, a great deal of psychological and emotional texture and a great sense of historical truth. Keep the faith. We need novels which place people in society as well as relationships. C06c The Age - 15 November 1986 Insider's view of prison life MUD AND STARS, by Robert Spicer (Animo, $8.95). JOHN BROSNAN ROBERT SPICER is a man of many parts and an author of two books before he went to prison. Despite anticipated objections from friends, former prison+ers and prison officers, I found this third book interesting and useful. "He only served three months", they said. "He served in a restricted part of the prison". "Of course they treated him well, they knew as an author he would write another book on release." But didn't Henry Lawson serve short sentences in restricted confinement? Lawson's two famous prison poems are among the best assessments of prison life ever written and, outside the gos+pels, they were my greatest help on pris+on work. With these thoughts in mind, I read `Mud and Stars' and found it to be fair, objective and thought-provoking. While serving his sentence for cattle-rustling in the Metropolitan Gaol, Co+burg, Spicer had an opportunity to meet and observe all types of prisoners. Working in the officers' mess and living in "Two Dorm" he would have mixed with a good cross-section. C07 The Herald 2024 words C07a The Herald - 24 October 1986 This Brady beats the bunch RECORDS Clark Forbes PAUL Brady is an Irishman and accor+ding to Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, Bono (U2), and Mark (turbo) Knoffler the finest thing since Fen+ders. I came across Brady after a periodic cleanout of the review pile. There was an enigmatically jacketed album titled Back To The Centre. And after a close listen Back To The Centre (Poly+gram: LP: 826809-1. C: 826809-4, CD: 826809-2), would have to be shortlisted as one of the year's top 10 albums. Brady's been around for a de+cade or so and in that time his songs have been covered by Tina Turner and Santana and he's toured as support to Clapton and Dire Straits. The artist as young man laun+ched himself on the Irish R & B scene (yes, Maureen, there was such a beast), and later joined the Johnstone's, known only for their cover of Joni Mitchell's Both Sides Now. Brady's first album though would not have shamed the bog Irish Clancy Brothers. In the early 80s he turned to rock but failed to convince the Americans he was capable of doing anything but break them. His song Steel Claw was picked up by Tina Turner and included on Private Dancer and tours with Clapton and Straits followed. Now we have Back To The Centre. Praise be to Polygram for adding this LP to their cata+logues in the knowledge that airplay on EON or Fox would be as likely as peace in our time in Ulster. Brady's an interesting mix: there's a bit of Chris Rea, Austra+lia's own Kevin Johnstone, a dash of Dylan and a little bit of Ireland's own Christy Moore. Which means the Brady boy has a voice which can be clearly heard over the electric and acoustic guitars, piano, keyboards, and tin whistle he plays. Versatile fellow. And on this LP he's helped by Eric Clapton doing what comes naturally on electric guitar. The result is a touch of rock magic. Brady swings from elec+tric top 40 (well, top 80, anyway), on Wheel of Heartbreak to acous+tic ballads such as Follow On and the moving Homes of Donegal. Even some quiet and puzzled protest on The Island: "And I guess the young boys dying in the ditches, is just what being free is all about." Brady's rock lyricism is as Irish as falling in love. A COUPLE of weeks back I wondered whether Paul McCartney wasn't losing his grip, over the hill, just plain wrinkly. This week I wonder the same about John Fogarty. Long live Creedance Clearwa+ter Revival, but hasn't the time come to bury Fogarty? Eye of the Zombie (WEA 25449-1), contributes nothing but a pain in the rump to a burgeoning collection of rock that seems to have no purpose other than self-indulgence. Same old wailing voice over equally pained lyrics. Talk of bazookas, M16s, doom gloom and general psyche-shriek. Give it away John and let's remember you the way you were. SUZZANE Vega Live In Lon+don 1986 (L20054, C20054), is a bit of a puzzle, following so close to her last LP. It's an AM cheapie at $9.99 and for that you get six tracks of post-punk Suzzane singing in London. Not bad value for a looser version of the distinctive Vega style. C07b The Herald - 24 October 1986 Two Thai the knot in comedy VIDEO David Pougher TOM Hanks and John Candy made a good team in Splash and the partnership works well again in Volunteers, a lively story about a Peace Corps misfit in Thai+land during the early 1960s. Hank plays a playboy snob who escapes to Thailand just ahead of some very ugly creditors who want to separate him from his kneecaps. Appeals to his fabulously wealthy father for help from Bangkok only result in him being drafted into the Peace Corps, the cheery doers-of-good-deeds in Third World coun+tries. He and Candy, who plays a brain+washed and boring engineer, end up teaching the villagers a few things not on the Corps program but predictably, finding some humility along the way. Generally good fun, from Cannon. MORE comedy - but of a diffe+rent nature - comes from the excellent Spinal Tap, a satirical "documentary" of a British group on tour in the U.S. The boys, who have lost a couple of drummers through spontaneous combustion, are on the decline after reaching their peak in the days of flower power. Nowadays they hardly get any pleasure out of smashing up hotel rooms, even though they have gone "heavy metal". The "insights" into life on the road are hilarious because we've seen them all before from earnest rockers who "just want to reach the kids through my music, y'know?" Great entertainment, from CEL. WHOEVER came up with the idea for the comedy vampire film Once Bitten had a very close look at Love at First Bite, the George Hamilton horror spoof. In Once Bitten, the roles are simply reversed. "Dracula" is a she, in the rather raddled form of Lauren Hutton, on the lookout for a male virgin to preserve her eternal youth. There are a few good lines but this is undemanding stuff, use+ful for whiling away a couple of hours. Out from Seven Keys. NOT so undemanding is Slaughterhouse 5 (CIC-Taft), adapted from Kurt Vonnegut's anti-war novel. The book was complicated enough - is its hero, Billy Pilgrim, insane or is he really time-jumping between the present, World War 2 and another planet? The film makes a brave effort to translate Vonnegut's ideas without any great success. As an adapta+tion it's confused, as a film in its own right, it's fairly tedious. C07c The Herald - 25 October 1986 An African success for Simon Paul Simon is tasting worldwide success again with his latest album, Graceland. Recorded with black South African musicians, it was a risky venture which has paid off handsomely, as DAVID WIGG reports. PAUL Simon of Simon and Garfunkel fame is back at the top as a solo star - 16 years after his greatest success. Graceland, his first album for three years and considered the finest of his solo albums, has rock+eted up the charts around the world. Such success must bring back memories of the halcyon days with Art Garfunkel. As Simon and Garfunkel, they sold more than 20 million albums - their most successful being Bridge Over Troubled Water. The studious looking small-framed Paul Simon and frizzy blond-haired, lanky Art Garfunkel both became extremely rich. But their success only led them into their own troubled waters. Simon, fed-up with doing most of the work but getting less of the acclaim, because Garfunkel usually sang lead vocal, wanted to pursue his own musical interests. Garfunk+el was drawn towards films. By the end of 1970, the partner+ship had fallen apart. They went separate ways, except for one final money-spinning tour in 1982, which ended in bitterness. These days, however, thanks to the success of Graceland, Paul Simon has no doubt got over the moods of his friend from Queens, New York. Politically, Simon made a daring move in breaking the cultural boycott to record with a variety of black South African musicians. He has been criticised as much for doing it as he has been praised. He only escaped official blacklis+ting because he visited the troubled country to bring the music of black musicians out - and not to perform there. Throughout his stay in South Africa kept an extremely low profile, avoiding the media and spending most of his time in recording studios getting to know some of the top black musicians. Simon believed black South Afri+can musicians were being victi+mised by a "double apartheid" - persecuted at home and yet unable to get their music out into the international community. So he went there and "exported" some of the most popular sounds and performers to the U.S.. Now 43, Simon lives in New York with his son Harper, 14, from his first marriage. Earlier this year Simon met up with Art Garfunkel for the first time since their last tour when he called to offer his condolences to Garfunk+el's recently widowed mother. "We got on well considering the circumstances were not the hap+piest," he said. "I've known Art since the age of 10 and I'm with him to the end. Real life puts those things in perspective." C07d The Herald - 5 November 1986 Personal triumph in Castlemaine for `diva' Drivala CONCERT JEREMY VINCENT CONCERT: Opera arias and duets sung by Jenny Drivala (soprano) and Keith Lewis (tenor). With the Rantos Col+legium conducted by Richard Divall. VENUE: Castlemaine Town Hall. It's a long way from the leading opera houses of the world to the Castlemaine Town Hall, but sin+gers Jenny Drivala and Keith Lewis took it all in their stride last Saturday to give an amazing display of vocal virtuosity which had farmers and city slickers alike screaming for more. The friendly town hall acoustics of country Victoria must have been a dream come true for the pair in their program of popular opera arias and duets. The Victoria State Opera publicity machine had promised much from Jenny Drivala and there is no doub+ting the ear-splitting power behind her top notes, as I'm sure every resident of Castlemaine heard - even if the hall wasn't filled to capacity. It should have been. What is even more amazing is her undeniable resemblance to Maria Callas. She dresses, walks, stands, acts and most definitely at times sounds like the great diva. Drivala's performance of Ah Fors'e Lui and its ensuing Sempre Libera from Verdi's La Traviata at this concert can only be called a personal triumph. Like Callas in the role, the young soprano created a moving character, deftly treading the vocal tightrope and stunning the audience with her brilliant interpretation. Throughout the night, Drivala sang with almost total disregard for the strain a heavy program such as this must impose on any singer. Elsewhere, Rossini's Bel Raggio exposed technical lapses in her young voice and was perhaps an unfortunate opener, but better balance and confidence developed - breathing settled and the harsh tone at the top was brought under con+trol. Keith Lewis has a stylish voice, richly produced for one so young, with a purity of tone that's a first-rate lesson in vocal control for any singer. For such a concert he does not display the acting element of his colleague, but his is the better voice by virtue of his technique. From among his selection came a superbly phrased performance of Lensky's aria from Eugene Onegin sung in Russian, showing just why he is one of the world's leading lyric tenors. Throughout the concert the Ran+tos Collegium was ever faithful to conductor Richard Divall, revelling also in the close confines of the small hall. As a starter, the overture to Mozart's The Abduction from the Seraglio was a sparkling, zestfully played piece, with particular refer+ence to the guidance Divall gave the wind instruments and the cracking pace he gleaned from the strings. This concert was part of the Castle+maine State Festival. Drivala, Lewis and Divall team up in the Victoria State Opera's produc+tion of Bellini's I Puritani at the State Theatre from Thursday. C07e The Herald - 5 November 1986 Snow White the post-punk CHILDREN'S TV Fiona McIntosh IN the bright blue bowels of the Open Channel studios in Fitzroy, a group of excited 10-year-olds were learning that show business wasn't all it's cracked up to be. You had to do a lot of standing around, you know, waiting for cues, repeating scenes when things went wrong, wearing weird clothes and heaps of make-up ... and on top of all that you had to remember your lines. But, you do get your face on TV. After six days of filming, and countless weeks of preparation, the result of all this effort will be a 15 minute film ... but a mighty fine 15 minute film which will be shown on the ABC next year in the Kaboodle children's television series. PRODUCED by the Children's Television Foundation, Kaboodle will be 13 half-hour programs, a melting pot of anima+tion, live action and puppetry from up-and-coming film makers working round Australia. Each mini-film within the half-hour segments runs from between two and 20 minutes, and all will feature experienced actors and actresses ... apart from one. C08 The Sun News-Pictorial 2012 words C08a The Sun News-Pictorial - 23 September 1986 Emmies dazzle but don't see the `light' TELEVISION JOHN FRASER ONLY Hollywood could put on something as flash as The 1986 Emmy Awards. And not only make them work, but do them well. Nine has got them at 8.30 tonight, and it's pretty en+tertaining stuff. It would have been superb if the judges had had the wit to give all the major awards to Moonlighting. Instead, Cagney and Lacey, and St Elsewhere just about hogged the lot. Nine would have every reason to holler; "we wuz robbed." Still and all, it was a slick presenta+tion, with a very funny opening by comic David Letterman, with the glamor provided by Shelley Long from Cheers. This is the 38th annual Emmy awards and it will be seen by maybe 150 million people around the world. After about the first three minutes I lost track of who'd won what, or who the bloke on the dais*dias in the penguin suit was talking about. You could not however, lose track of the display by apparently ageless women such as Diahann Carroll, Joan Collins, Cybill Shepherd and Angie Dickinson. For some reason unknown to mere mortals, Phylicia Rashad did not get a guernsey as Bill's wife in The Cosby Show, while Michael J. Fox got the nod for Family Ties as the best lead comedy actor. Haven't the judges ever heard of Ted Danson in Cheers, or Harry Anderson in Night Court? Obviously not. Some old-timers were dragged out of the woodwork, including Lucille Ball and Bea Arthur. These two husky-voiced old troup+ers once co-starred in a film turkey called Mame, which one New York critic, I think it was John Leonard, summed up in two of the saltiest paragraphs ever to grace a page. He said: "This is the worst film I have ever seen. They (Ball and Arthur) sound like Knute Rockne and Jimmy Breslin in drag." Red Skelton makes a delightful guest appearance, apologising for not being able to stay longer. "I would," he said, "but I've left my grand-daughter in a shopping trolley at the supermarket." Leave her there, Red, leave her there. THE trouble with the Emmy awards is that it's up against the opening of My Brother Tom on Ten. I have to resist the temptation, having watched that many mini-series lately, to call it The Great Baby Robbery, or My Brother Tom's Boookie. Whose Bookie? Well. One of the stars, of Tom, and a most unlikely one, is Chris Mayer who plays the Catholic punch-up merchant, Finn McCooil in a small country town where religious ten+sions are running high. He's the town bully, and loves it. "Everyone's always thinking `what will McCooil do next, what's McCooil thinking?" Mayer said yesterday. "He's a sort of catalyst for the town's mixed emotions." Mayer, 24, was born in Trinidad, and came to Australia in 1981. "There were only two sports in Trinidad, cricket and boxing, so I took up boxing," he said. "There wasn't a lot of science involved and after I got hurt a bit I gave it away. It's a mugs' game and basically too much like hard work. "But that basic training helped me in the part. In fact, when Tom Quayle (Tom Jennings) actually did knock me down in the fight scene, I saw red and had to take a few deep breaths and hold myself back. "But basically, at heart, I'm just a big softy; if someone said boo to me I'd run away. "When I was taking lessons in wood-chopping from Laurie O'Toole, it was pretty hairy. Those axes are heavy and bloody sharp, but he was a top teacher. "And Keith Michell, as the English lawyer, was just brilliant, and so was Gordon Jackson. Just lovely to work with; never tried to hog the show, and I learned a helluva lot from them. "Working on this has given me terrific confidence. "What's my ambition? Oh, one day I'd really like to play a nice, sensitive bloke who's not fighting people all the time." He's got enough talent to do that. C08b The Sun News-Pictorial - 23 September 1986 Bright books for children By JOANNE ANDERS JOHN and Betty wouldn't approve. Neither would Spot. Phillip Institute lecturer Diane Snowball and a team of children's literature experts have launched an assault on traditional school reading for primary school students. They have produced a range of bright and glossy books designed to make reading enjoyable, not a chore. The Bookshelf project be+gan two years ago, when Ms Snowball decided to do some+thing about adding to the type of reading material young children were getting in school. A former primary school teacher and teacher-librarian, she felt that much of the material available was too drab and stilted to encourage children to read. When children start school they tend to get books that aren't as rewarding as they've had. "Especially if they come from a home where parents have been reading to them, they're usually reading very attractive picture story books and they come to school and they get a very plain looking reader." Her response was to put together a reading program, made up of books that look like the sort of material children read for enjoyment at home, with all the same details such as information about authors and illustra+tors, pop-up and pull out sections. The first series of 18 Book+shelf books, aimed at five and six-year-olds, was released five months ago and a second series aimed at seven-year-olds is due out in November. Ms Snowball, spends most of her time on her publishing operation, but is also a sessional lecturer in language and reading at the Phillip Institute of Technology. She says children do not consider the standard school reader as being a "real book." "If you ask `Do you like reading?' they'll say to you `Do you mean real books or what we do at school?"' The content of the Book+shelf series has been designed to be as diverse as children would find anywhere else. The first series includes au+dio tapes containing music, poetry and readings of stories. It has been looked at by teachers in an estimated one quarter to one third of Austra+lian primary schools. Diane Snowball is the main force behind the project, but there is also a Bookshelf team made up of teachers, lecturers and other children's litera+ture experts, who assess manuscripts, rewrite them where necessary and also write some of the books. Books in the first series contain more sophisticated language than you might expect. "One of the misconceptions about young children is that they need easy words," Ms Snowball says. "But if you read (more sophisticated material) to them they are more likely to pick up on the more interest+ing and complex words. They usually know how to spell `elephant' before they can spell `come'. "The amount of their pre+school time spent watching television has also made them more worldly than they are often given credit for and this has to be taken into account when writing non-fiction material," Ms Snowball says. "You have to be very careful to not tell children something they already know, because they're so much more worldly from what they see on television." Ms Snowball and her col+leagues do not claim to be the only ones producing brighter books for young students, but she says many students are using books which are more sophisticated in form but not substance. "They look brighter, but in terms of the language content a lot of them are still very stilted in their language, limited vocabulary*vocabularly and so forth and they aren't a real story. "They don't have a sense of plot around real characters. They tend to be repetitive sentences and don't really go anywhere, but that's chan+ging greatly on the Australian scene." At this stage, the Bookshelf project looks like continuing until 1989 when the aim is to have books for all levels of primary schooling. Export markets such as the US, New Zealand and the UK are also being looked at. The books, published by Martin Educational in association with Ashton Scholastic, are available from educational booksellers. C08c The Sun News-Pictorial - 23 September 1986 No sex please, we're British and celibate by JILL ROWBOTHAM in London IT is a brave woman who takes on the world and says celibacy would do it good. But in the space of a fortnight, English journalist Liz Hodgkinson, herself a partner in a celibate marriage with husband Neville, has become Britain's best known celibate with the appearance of her book, Sex is Not Compulsory. It argues celibacy can be good for physical and mental health, creativity and relation+ships. Liz and Neville have been married 21 years, but their sex lives ended five years ago. The avalanche of publicity, including coverage in all the main daily newspapers, tele+vision and radio, seems to indicate the time is right to propose the case for celibacy, but why? One reason, according to Liz, is a wide range of medical arguments which militate against a sexual lifestyle. These include mounting medical evidence of the dan+ger of chemical and mechani+cal contraceptive devices, the increase in cervical cancer, the spread of hepatitis B and AIDS. Also she quotes new scien+tific evidence that a lot of sex produces a lot of arousal hor+mones floating around in the bloodstream; these affect the immune system. She says there is increasing evidence sex does not neces+sarily make people happy. "The statistics disprove that sex keeps people together. "More and more marriages are breaking up; this at a time when people are having more frequent sex than they have ever had in the history of the world. "There is also the inescap+able fact that the incidence of child abuse, violent sex crimes, rape, incest and porn+ography have gone up alar+mingly over the last 20 years. "A positive decision for celibacy would also alleviate some of the pangs of adolesc+ence, when teenagers feel they must be `getting it' or else they are failures. "They could concentrate on school work and other deve+lopment instead of worrying about being sexually active. "These things seem to sug+gest that far from making people happy, content, loving and giving, sex seems to be having the opposite effect in our society." But in the end, health was not the prime reason Liz and her husband decided to be+come celibate. "I was getting nothing from it. At that time I thought there was something wrong with me and that if I tried harder I could bring back the excite+ment. "But I found it had gone and it was nothing to do with Neville; it was that I simply didn't want it anymore, not with anybody." Her husband, also a journal+ist, came to understand her point of view when he came in contact with a meditation group which practised celibacy. The Hodgkinsons*Hodgkinson's decided to give celibacy a try. "It sounded very odd at first but we found there was only benefit. This is what I am anxious to pass on to people," Neville said. "I'm not saying everyone ought to be celibate, I have no authority to say that. But for many people it is an option they have never considered. "Everyone should realise they have the choice. If they do not want to exercise it that's up to them." In a sense, a commitment to celibacy would be a positive approach to a change that occurs anyway. Marriage surveys show the frequency of sexual inter+course declines gradually with every successive year of mar+riage. It is mildly ironic it was the proliferation of sex manuals which was one of the main catalysts for the book. "As a journalist myself over the last couple of years, I seem to have had an avalanche of sex manuals landing on the doormat, and all more or less saying the same thing, that human beings were incom+plete without a sexual partner, Liz said. "But my feeling was that this simply was not true; that they were misleading and perpetuating a lie. "So I felt a lot of people were being made very unhappy by thinking there was something wrong with them if they weren't bursting with sexual desire all the time." C09 The Courier Mail 2001 words C09a The Courier Mail - 18 November 1986 Catholic book set to spark controversy within the church On the eve of the visit to Brisbane by Pope John Paul II, TESS LIVINGSTONE reports that a new book has made Australia the focus of attention in Rome. JUST as he leaves for Australia, Pope John Paul II has been handed a book that is sending shockwaves through the Australian Catholic Church. Rome or the Bush by Ballarat Cath+olic academic Michael Gilchrist, with an introduction by Malcolm Mugger+idge, is a damning indictment of the performance of many of Australia's Catholic bishops and church leaders since the end of the Second Vatican Council 20 years ago. Gilchrist is a former Catholic sec+ondary school teacher now lecturing in a Catholic teachers' college. Despite lack of promotion, the book has just sold out its first run of 3000 in two weeks, and orders are pouring in. The book poses the issue: "The fruits of the new church speak for themselves. Not only are there emptying churches, confessionals and seminaries, but what remains of an active church continues to be drained of its Catholic flavor a generation after the Council. "Is this the church which Australia's Catholics want? The choice needs to be made before long: Rome or The Bush? Time is running out." In 280 pages, Gilchrist outlines what many Catholics see as the abuses and disobedience to church rules and teach+ings weakening the Australian church. It is all there - pink elephants on the altar at Mass; priests wearing pup+pet monkeys on their hands and chil+dren yelling out "bananas" during Mass; the use of processed sliced bread or a tea cake for Holy Communion; be+vies of nubile young ladies, clowns and puppets dancing during Mass; priests making up their own words to the Mass; nuns claiming that Jesus Christ mistreated his mother; young people and trainee priests being fed a "diet of mush"; with young people leaving school "knowing nothing, believing nothing, practising nothing". For instance: "The prize for liturgi+cal spontaneity must go to a young Melbourne priest at a parish barbecue on a Holy Day of Obligation who en+abled the faithful to combine both sacred and profane. "The bread rolls and cask of riesling were co-opted, and after a few prayers these were `consecrated' and the cosy little liturgy group partook of the sac+rament. "When someone questioned the pro+ceedings, she was greeted with scornful laughter, and her subsequent protest to the archbishop proved fruitless." Modernists have destroyed the church to such an extent, Gilchrist argues, that expressing a liking for pipe organs or beautiful church interiors leaves a person open to the charge of being a pre-Vatican II relic. Brisbane is described as Australia's "avant garde liturgy capital", and Banyo Seminary is singled out for "ac+ademic trendiness". Sex education has been abused in Catholic schools in epidemic propor+tions, the book contends, with second+ary students being invited to talk about "horniness" or confronted with ques+tions like: Do you masturbate? What kind of sex do you really get into? Are you a virgin? It relates how 13 and 15-year-old girls at two Brisbane Catholic colleges were shown a film and warned that "words like `screw' would be used and that those with `a weak stomach' or from a `refined home' might leave the room". One Marist Brothers College course for Year 12 is supposed to have posed questions like: What do poofters/lesbi+ans do when they have sex? How do you get a girl randy? What is cunnilingus? Is it danger+ous? What does semen taste like? Does it increase your weight? Teachers taking the course were advised: "No moralising." Extreme examples, perhaps, but they reinforce the book's theme - the unwillingness or inability of bishops and other church leaders to take action on such matters. The Left-wing political pronounce+ments of groups like the Catholic Com+mission for Justice and Peace, funded from Lenten collections for the needy, are also examined. In light of trends uncovered in the work, and recent events in the US, Aus+tralia's 3.7 million Catholics can won+der whether the Pope's visit will be fol+lowed up by disciplinary action against dissenters. Already this year, one American bishop has been stripped of most of his authority, and a dissenting theologian muzzled as part of Pope John Paul's push to reassert traditional Catholic practices and teaching. Australian Catholics who believe dissent and pluralism make for a lively, magnanimous church are alarmed at what one of the world's top Catholic magazines, the London Tablet, report+ed recently under a banner headline "Church besieged, Rome bears down on American Catholics". The magazine pointed out that what is basically an obedient, generous church has been singled out for correc+tion, with imprimaturs*impramaturs withdrawn from books, clergy investigated and disciplined almost weekly. The cause, it said, was partly cultur+al, because "for Pope John Paul, those who suffer like the Poles make the best Catholics. Those who enjoy the benefits of freedom and democracy (like Amer+icans and Australians) will always be tempted to accept secular values." On that basis, no wonder Ireland's Catholic population, described recently by their leading churchman as remote, rural and poor, count themselves among the Pope's "favorites". When the Pope visited Ireland in 1979, 1.25 million people out of a Cath+olic population of fewer than three mil+lion, attended his Dublin Mass, while almost everyone else attended one of several Masses in the country. Australian Catholics keen to see a shift on constrictions like celibacy, birth control, divorce, women priests and altar servers look set for a long wait. Most of these are "non-negotiable", as emphasised recently by Archbishop John Foley, the Vatican communica+tions chief in Rome. The introduction of an optional celi+bacy, however, could be a surprise re+form of the not-too-distant future. "Compulsory celibacy could go to+morrow," Archbishop Foley acknowl+edged. It probably will not, he stressed, as Pope John Paul II strongly supported it, but it is only a church discipline, not a divine law, and only introduced in the Middle Ages. After all, Christ himself cured Saint Peter's mother-in-law, and the majori+ty of present-day Catholics believe their priests should be given the chance to marry. While celibacy in theory allows priests to devote themselves fully to all their people, Archbishop Foley admit+ted that the church could benefit from the work and support of priests' wives, as do other churches. So far, Rome's view of Australia is best seen in a three-page pictorial spread in the Vatican newspaper: "Australia: Land of the Southern Cross." The piece covered Australia's histo+ry, landscape and people in depth and its ecumenical nature. The high divorce rate, and the large number of "merely nominal Chris+tians" and "unchurched" people were mentioned. Next week will really show what Karol Wojtyla thinks of Australia and Australians. ROME TO THE BUSH, by Michael Gil+christ (published by John 23rd Co-op., PO Box 22 Ormond, Melbourne; rrp $13.95). C09b Courier Mail - 4 December 1986 Everything you never wanted to know about the left hand Television By RONNIE GIBSON A PROGRAM titled Mysteries of the Left Hand, on Channel 7 tonight at 8.30, sounded amusing enough. Would mollydookers finally get a fair go? Would there be jokes about buy+ing left-handed shovels? No such luck. This BBC first-release documen+tary is most informative, but proba+bly the driest hour of television you'll see for a long time. It is more about genetics, research into dyslexia, the connection be+tween left-handed people and that reading disease, inherited allergies and speech impediments. Neurologist Norman Geshwin, of Harvard University, is interviewed at great length about his investiga+tions and discoveries about left-handedness. He does have some ex+traordinary pieces of information to offer but unfortunately the program is presented in a rather flat manner. Did you know for example that someone with a trained eye could have spotted that Leonardo da Vinci was left-handed? Apparently you could pick it from the way he shaded his works with a paintbrush. According to Dr Geshwin, Thom+as Edison had awful trouble learn+ing to read and Albert Einstein was very slow learning to speak. Woodrow Wilson, who became President of the United States dur+ing World War I, didn't learn to read until he was nine. Rodin's bronze sculptures appar+ently inspired research into the art+ist's physical make-up. He was dys+lexic, which resulted in his endowing his nudes with abnormal testicle ar+rangements. If this confuses you, you will have to watch the show. All is explained by genetics and testos+terone. Other pieces of trivia to come to light are that King George VI, natu+rally left-handed and a stutterer, was prevented from writing with his left hand but allowed to wield a ten+nis racquet with it. And on the matter of tennis, Geshwin points to champions McEnroe, Navratilova, Borg and Connors - all left-handers. Apparently, mollydookers have more spacial skills and understand+ing of the three dimensions. Statistically, there are more than average lefthanders among archi+tects and mathematicians. There are more stutterers in West Africa than anywhere in the world, a genetic factor that has to do with twinning. Twins, left-handedness and stuttering are inter-connected. In Japan, however, twins are a rarity. More males than females are left-handed. Most of us have met an adult man who stutters badly but few of us know a woman with the same impediment, Geshwin says. Mysteries of the Left Hand is en+lightening TV but should you miss it, don't lose any sleep. Only an Ein+stein could remember the multitude of facts and figures that roll off Geshwin's tongue. And anyway, a lot of it is useless information - unless you happen to be a genetic engineer. C09c Courier-Mail - 18 October 1986 Pompous authority cops a battering in frantic comedy Television By MADONNA KING ESTABLISHMENTS just sit up there waiting to be shot at most of the time, adopting stiff-necked atti+tudes and getting all pompous over the most trivial things. Police Academy, on Channel 9 tomorrow night at 8.30, shows them up. Its tacky plot doesn't matter. It's funny, it's good and it's a parody, if a little blunt. The story revolves around mayor Mary Sue Beal's decision to aban+don all restrictions involving police applicants. There are no longer stringent restrictions on height, weight, age, race, sex, education or mental sta+bility. Everyone is invited. The tall and short accept, the fat and thin are welcome, and the timid and para+noid make friends. There's a disgraced parking attendant, a society girl, and the gun-happy Tackleberry. There's a florist who wants a more exciting life, and a jailbird who can imitate mechanical noises. The policy elicits contempt and disgust from the established force when the floodgates open, and they are inundated with criminals and prostitutes, comedians and mum+my's boys, peepers and psychotics. The conglomerate farce goes on to detail the training procedure at the Metropolitan Police Academy. Their exploits at the centre are bare+ly printable. It is definitely not a law and order film. Instead it's packed with frantic energy, a dash of sex, is rudely con+temptuous of authority and has all the ingredients of good fun. But there's a strangely ironic twist. The thugs get in and and good guys don't. The nice blokes don't want to become policemen, and the bad guys do. The weirdos come in to become weirder. The horrible become more horrible. The most unlikely to suc+ceed, succeed. The pseudo-good guys dismantle law and order. When a riot breaks out in the town, creating a life-threatening sit+uation, the cadets are given an unex+pected opportunity to test their met+tle, and the results are ironic. The supposedly-bad guys save the day. The irony continues and the acad+emy's fundamentals to serve and to protect, to cultivate integrity, in+crease knowledge, and show courage are mocked. The highest award of the police force is eventually granted to the artful dodger, Mahoney (Steve Gut+tenberg), and Moses Hightower, a gentle giant, both of whom were originally thrown out of the estab+lishment for incompetence. Police Academy is frantic and garbled, but effective. It becomes a riotous epic of counter-culture and its large cast never proves unwieldy. The result is a shrewd blend of slapstick and comedy as unpredicta+ble as it is disrespectful ... comedy that has made the cash registers ring with gleeful profits at the movie theatres. C10 The Daily Sun 2004 words C10a The Daily Sun - 28 October 1986 Tough Rambo runs for cover From MICHAEL O'REGAN in New York A million Vietnamese bullets couldn't pierce that tough hide. Nor could a thousand upper-cuts. But Sly Stallone, Hollywood's most successful, yet maligned superstar, admits he's hurt and be+wildered. He cannot understand why his films were met with such critical out+rage and anger. "It's as if it's open sea+son on me," he said while on the set of his latest film, Over The Top. "Maybe it's because of some of the things I said early on in my career. But Stallone said the backlash was a "very nat+ural process" because of his incredible success. Warned "I was warned about it by my first acting coach ... I remember her saying: `Don't stick your head above the crowd, because if you do, they're going to be lining up to take it off'. "At that time, of course, I had no idea what she meant. But 15 years later, I stuck my head up above the crowd and people lined up." Stallone also flexed his vocal muscles at those who took Rambo: First Blood Part 2, too seri+ously. "What about after the girl dies, and all of a sud+den there are eight crack Viet Cong seasoned ve+terans and I stand up and z-z-z-z-z-z and they stand there shooting. I mean, none of them, like, duck. "And I just take them all out in one second and then I shoot 300 yards with a bow and arrow and, boom, hit the guy. Thank you very much." Stallone said he'd love to do another Rocky film, but not one movie goers would like. What Stallone would really like to do with his oldest character is turn him into a club fighter again. "And it seems to me after all those fights, he'd have to have incurred some mental damage*damages. He'd be, you know, pun+chy," he said. "So I can envision him wanting to return to his old neighborhood. And I can see him asking his wife, `Adrian, where's my hat?', remember that old hat he had? "I have to think that, at the end, Rocky would be reduced to being a profes+sional greeter. And a sad case." But the fans, he said, just wouldn't allow such an ending for filmdom's favorite pug. C10b The Daily Sun - 28 October 1986 Book blasts royal family LONDON: The most controversial and critical book on the royal family yet published went on sale in Britain yesterday. The book Our Own Dear Queen blasts the Queen as being "po-faced" and Prince Philip as having "the brains of a polo pony". Republican author Piers Brendon also attacks Princess Margaret as an alcoholic and accuses Prince Charles of being a "cradle snatcher", accord+ing to a report in the Sun+day People newspaper. He claims Princess Mar+garet has done for royalty what John McEnroe has done for tennis. He refers to rumors of drunken squabbles, her compulsive infidelities and squalid post-marital escapades. Buckingham Palace has refused to comment. C10c The Daily Sun - 28 October 1986 Zany mob good for a laugh By SHERYL CHEN WICKETY Wak fans rejoice - there's another Waks Work special on tonight. It's the third in a series made by the Queensland band for Channel 7. Waks Works III is hour-long compilation of com+edy sketches, musical send-ups, impersonations and spoofs of well-known television commercials. Wickety Wak's Tony Jeffrey, Peter MacKay, Rob Rosenlund, Pani Gi+bert and Greg Doolan don dubious costumes*cotumes and out+rageous make-up for the variety program. The Brisbane-based group is renowned for its hilarious send-ups of ce+lebrities. Professor Sumner Miller, Cyndi Lauper, Freddie Fender, Tina Turner and the Leyland Brothers all feature. But the band does have a serious side. Its members are profes+sional musicians and have scored international suc+cess with Moonlight Mar+vel. Wickety Waks' lead vo+calist, Tony Jeffrey, was born in Ireland and has*hs started his singing career as a boy soprano in local eisteddfods. Reputation When he moved to Aus+tralia he began working the cabaret circuit and was selected to represent Australia in the Sopot Song Festival in Poland in 1970. The band's drummer, Peter Mackay, was born in Adelaide and has earned a fun reputation for his send-ups of Mick Jagger, Rod Stewart, Joe Cocker and Rolf Harris. Rob Rosenlund, who plays keyboards, is a Bris+bane-born sheet-metal worker who turned his professional life to music when he toured with the band Winston Country. He joined Wickety Wak in 1978. Bass guitarist Pani Gil+bert was born in New Zea+land and moved to Aus+tralia in 1962. This year he celebrates 10 years with the band Wickety Wak. Greg Doolan started playing guitar at the age of 15. He was a draughtsman with the public service for five years, playing the Brisbane circuit part-time. He joined Wickety Wak in 1975 and is the master-mind behind the comical send-ups. Waks Works III screens at 7.30. C10d The Daily Sun - 25 November 1986 Cagney sets her target By KATIE JOHNSTON CHRIS Cagney meets her match in former cop Michael Magruder on Cagney and Lacey on Channel 7 tonight. Magruder is a Michigan bounty hunter played by Brian Dennehy who is in New York after a guy who skipped bail back home. Among uniformed offic+ers he is held in awe and as one put it: "He has brought in over 100 bail skips, has a black belt in karate, and could probably blow away half the mid west with his arson". Cagney (Sharon Gless) and Mary Beth Lacey (Tyne Daly) are after the same fellow who, among other things, is wanted for shooting a cop. A reported sighting at a hotel puts Cagney and Lacey into action but a smug Magruder is all they find. He is arrogant, smart-mouthed, obnoxious and sexist describing Chris and Mary Beth as a couple of `gun molls' who blew his cover. He also stands to make $50,000 if he catches the wanted man and gets him back to Michigan. Gritting her teeth Chris tells him for the fifth time not to call her honey and determines to catch the crim first. But Magruder is always one step ahead paying off witnesses for information and gunning down others. Meanwhile Mary Beth is having troubles at home when she discovers her youngest son Michael can't read. She and husband Har+vey (John Karlen) face $4000 tutorial bills to take him out of the over+crowded public schools and into a private one. While she and Harvey argue over schooling Chris is insisting they stake out Magruder's mobile home, a '74 Ford and follow him. Mary Beth is worried Chris is becoming ob+sessed with beating Magruder and may suffer a breakdown. But their main problem seems to be their overco+ats: in almost every scene they walk in, take off their coats, take a phone call, and put their coats straight back on to walk out again. They don't even get to sit down, have a cup of coffee and read the pap+ers! And what sort of job is that? (This episode of Cagney and Lacey screens later on country stations). IN the second last episode of Filmstruck, on the ABC tonight at 10.30 John Baxter, playwright David Williamson, and com+poser Peter Sculthorpe reminisce about the old days of the Saturday mat+inee. Discussing the rise and fall of the great movie palaces Baxter watches a large suburban cinema go down under the bulldozer. He then visits Sydney's lavish State Theatre which has been listed by the National Trust. C10e The Daily Sun - 25 November 1986 Strange fads and fashions JACK Palance and his daughter, Holly, tell us more tales of the strange and unknown on Ripley's Believe It Or Not tonight on Channel 9 at 7.30. Holly takes a look at the many American fads over the years, including Kewpie dolls, hula hoops, silly putty and The Thing. Meanwhile, Jack is lapping it up in Greece while he investigates some Greek villagers who walk on fire to honor their saints, and a Javanese magician who turns a man into a horse through hypnosis and then makes him eat lightbulbs. Enlightening? He will also show us a human chess game and several animal oddities. But on a more educa+tional level is some amazing film of the stress athletes place on their bodies and the de+velopment of life inside the human body. Then at 8.30, super sleuth Jessica Fletcher, alias Angela Lansbury, finds herself in hot water yet again when she attends a tennis match. Heaven knows where this woman finds time to write her alleged books! Between being shot at, threatened, kidnapped and then going on to solve these intricate cri+mes, she is off visiting another relation in an+other town. Tonight she accepts honorary chairmanship of her favorite chil+dren's charity. Needless to say, some+one is murdered but luckily Jessica is there to solve the mystery. C10f The Daily Sun - 9 December 1986 Macbeth to music SHAKESPEARE'S play Macbeth has been transformed into a very funny musical by pupils of the Jamboree Heights Primary School. King Macbee and The Walking Tree was only supposed to be shown once, but it proved such a hit with audiences at the weekend that another performance could be just around the corner. The adaptation was written by Bruce Clark and produced by the chil+dren, with the help of five Year Seven teachers who also directed the play. "The children have had so much fun preparing for the production, mak+ing the props and the sce+nery. Mothers helped make the costumes," teacher Muriel Johnson said yesterday. C10g The Daily Sun - 9 December 1986 Chance to discover top books EDUCATIONAL BOOKS What's Your Job Like (Gloria Fryman): In this book 27 people talk about their jobs. They include a doctor, politician, artist, film producer, cleaner and goat breeder. Each provides information on personal lifestyle, attitudes, ex+periences and job-re+lated information. The format may discourage some students but many of the real-life experi+ences described give a realistic look at these oc+cupations. The Book Of Brisbane (Sue Gough): This is a quick guide to the histo+ry, geography, local gov+ernment, housing aspect and cultural and leisure activities of Brisbane with black-and-white and color photographs, watercolors and pen-an+d-ink drawings. The book is a useful starting point for late primary so+cial studies as well as year 8 and 9 geography, history and social sci+ence. All Color Children's Encyclopaedia (Michael Pollard): Covers all branches of general knowledge under the broad subjects of the story of the earth, the life of plants, how the body works, how things work. The information is given in well-written es+says one to two pages long, with photographs and diagrams. Care For Your Dog (Tine Hearne): This offi+cial RSPCA pet guide is one in a series which provides comprehensive advice for pet owners. Other titles are Care For Your Budgerigar, Care For Your Pony, Care For Your Guinea Pig and Care For Your Cat. The Grandma Poss Cook Book: This il+lustrated book provides a delicious selection of 22 Australian recipes for children. FICTION BOOKS The following fiction books are recent releases making excellent holiday reading or presents (price:$4 to $6). The House In Angel Lane (Enid Gibson): The ghost in the tower of a deserted house has a message to convey and the long-dead Adelaide eventually gets through to Paul, who is able to solve a half-century-old mystery. These frighten+ing supernatural events affecting Paul and his sister run parallel with the story of the family holiday in which a father seeks to force his son to overcome his fears. This is suitable for year 8, 9 and 10 students. The Adventures Of Alyx (Joanna Russ): This is one of the more readable science-fiction books which has a collec+tion of stories about an intelligent heroine called Alyx. She is plucked from the gutters of Car+thage and becomes a trans-temporal agent who swashbuckles her way around the galaxy. Recommended for years 10,11 and 12. A friend in Marcie Second Chance (Joan Short): This easy-read+ing high-interest story is designed for the less able reader. Returning to his old home town after an absence of four years, Jeff finds his es+capades as a frustrated 11-year-old are neither forgotten nor forgiven. However, he has a friend in Marcie, who is deter+mined he is to be accep+ted by her prejudiced mother and his old school mates at their club. The Rampage Of Rampo (John Bentley): C11 Telegraph 2005 words C11a Telegraph - 25 June 1986 WILL `RETURN BE SCRUBBED'? TV EXTRA Soap washh-up leaves fans high and dry -PAUL WICKS SUPERSOAP series "Return to Eden" may be scrubbed ... and that will have fans bristling! Channel O's Monday night drama bows out next week with an inconclusive ending, amid rumors that there will not be a second series. And the finale leaves the major storyline right up in the air. The ending has been tailor-made for a con+tinuing series, but indifferent ratings have put its future in doubt. Nevertheless, be prepared for a cliff-hanger on Monday. It's not a case of Who Shot JR? but one of Who Can Prove Who Really Shot Who? There's a fatality - or what looks like a fatality - among the major cast list. Will it be Jilly? Stephanie? Perhaps Jake? Suffice to say that the evil Jilly is up to her scheming tricks and is nasty to the end. And Jake isn't much better. There's a gala party in the final scenes cli+maxed by the dramatic shooting with a body tumbling down the stairs. Then the dramatic appearance of the other players in this shoot+ing scene. And there's even a Melbourne Cup scene in Monday's episode. Will Jilly and Jake's steed down Stephanie's entrant and bag the booty? Will anyone really want another series? I won't. C11b Telegraph - 25 June 1986 Grim topic tv telegraph By PAUL WICKS The ugly subject of rape appears in two of Channel 7's regular US police series in the next six nights. In tonight's episode of "Cagney and Lacey", Chris Cagney (Sharon Gless) is working unsuc+cessfully on a case of rape, but receives a lot of help from a temporary partner, played by Julie Fulton, who looks at times like a young Audrey Hepburn. Yes, she is that pretty. (Cagney's usual partner Mary Beth Lacey is off on maternity leave). However, the new part+ner becomes obsessed with the case, for a variety of reasons, causing Cagney to have some mixed feelings. It's another solid offer+ing from the show about two likeable, but frenetic New York cops. But the drama of this rape issue doesn't quite reach the impact heights of next Tuesday night's spe+cial length edition of "Hunter". There's much drama then, because the joint star of the show, Dee Dee (Stepfanie Kramer) is the victim. The scenes of the attack and, particularly, the soul-destroying aftermath are dramatically effective, and a quality highpoint - if there can be such a thing when dealing with the trauma of rape. Kramer shows that she is not just a good looker. She's a good actress, too. Predictably, her partner Hunter (Fred Dryer) is outraged by the rape and goes to extreme measures to nail the offender - who seems likely to gain diplo+matic immunity. Sadly, the second hour of the episode in which the pair head to a strangely-named foreign country (it was probably shot in neigh+boring Mexico) degen+erates into little more than a shoot'em out, run-and-chase sequence - some+thing you'd expect in a lesser show. It isn't a patch on the earlier scenes. The episode is not the first of movie-length in the "Hunter" series. Perhaps for the purposes of quality, this one should have been condensed into just the one hour. Best show tonight is the second episode in the "Clive James On Television" se+ries at 8.30 on Channel 2. Although not exactly new, it's still highly enter+taining. Mind you, it doesn't have much opposition. In spite of some union problems, Channel 9 claims it has enough episodes of its "Flying Doctors" series in its stockpile to ride out the storm so far. I believe there are about a dozen "in the can". How+ever, any problems will hit here first, because Channel 9 locally is a week ahead of the rest of the country having begun with a double-header. C11c Telegraph - 5 September 1986 Mature Garner knows how to win the ladies By DENNIS WATT VIDEO REVIEW A mature and stable James Garner emerges as the big winner in RCA Columbia Video's "Murphy's Romance". As mildly eccentric Murphy Jones, he wins the heart of newly divorced and fiercely independent Emma Moriarty (Sally Field). And that's not a bad feat consid+ering he's 60, she's 33 and her handsome but oh-so-young and im+mature former husband also is on the scene. The film opens with Emma mov+ing with her young son to Arizona, where she is determined to set up her own horse business on a run+down ranch. Absorbing Everything seems to be against her. The ranch looks like some+thing left after a cyclone and the local cowboys insist she is the wrong sex for the job. Battling financial difficulties and local opposition, she strikes up a cautious friendship with Murphy. Although the film will not go down as a romantic epic - espe+cially considering viewers are treated to only one quick peck be+tween the duo in the full 104 min+utes - it is nevertheless absorbing viewing as Emma tries to pick Mr Right. The film predictably has a happy ending and viewers are left with the distinct impression that love conquers all. Hopefully it also overcomes modern male's habit of dying, on the average, at an age five to seven years younger than their wives. On that basis, if Murphy lives to 80, poor old Emma will still have to soldier on for at least another 30 years all on her lonesome. Not to worry. No doubt with Murphy's experience of life to call on, they will live every day to the full in the 20 (maybe) years they have left together. For a revolutionary treat, lovers of zany humor would do well to get their hands on Warner Home Vi+deo's "Start The Revolution With+out Me". The film, which has achieved cult status among enthusiasts, takes the universal theme of mis+taken identity and creates an hilar+ious madcap comedy involving two sets of twins. The twins meet just before the French Revolution and go on to cause complete havoc in a France on the brink of turmoil. The cast is led by Donald Sutherland and Gene Wilder, who take every opportunity to go way over the top. Gene Wilder has never been fun+nier and his contrasting portrayal of the two characters borders on brilliant. One set of twins, masquerading successfully as illiterate and inept peasants, are mistaken for two of the greatest and most feared swordsmen in France. C11d Telegraph - 5 September 1986 `BROTHER TOM' MINI SERIES IS SPECIAL EVENT By TV WRITER PAUL WICKS The show which may well be Channel O's biggest "special event" of the year - the Australian mini series "My Brother Tom" - is still a few weeks away. But TV Telegraph gained an ex+clusive preview of the show and it shows great promise. While it was not a full-length preview the pro+duction quality looks impressive. So does the acting line-up - led by Gordon Jackson and Keith Mi+chell as rivals. Jackson plays a knockabout Catholic character in a small town in the 1930s. Michell is a strait+laced Protestant lawyer, who de+spises everything Jackson's charac+ter stands for. The plot thickens further when Michell's son and Jackson's daugh+ter fall in love. Jackson also starred in a previ+ous superb Australian mini series, "A Town Like Alice". The new series won't have it all on its own. Both rival commercial channels are soon to screen other major contenders for the Austra+lian Mini Series Of The Year award. Meanwhile, the ratings battle fires up on Sunday night with a big movie clash at 8.30. It should be a two-way fight be+tween Channel 7's "Splash" and Channel 9's "National Lampoon Vacation". Both are commercially appealing and basically fun viewing. Channel O has the best quality movie of the night - "Mrs Dela+field Wants To Marry" - in which Katharine Hepburn stars in a story of old love. However, it would be a big surprise if this telemovie outrated the other two theatrical releases. The battle continues on Monday night with Channel 7 running an+other potential big movie at 8.30, "Poltergeist". That night, Channel 9 stays with its usual fare, but Channel O begins US mini series "Strong Medicine" about a woman's rise to power in a pharmaceutical company. Pamela Sue Martin, Dick Van Dyke, Sam Neill and Ben Cross head the cast. It's OK. Channel 2 also makes moves that night by beginning a new batch of Max Gilies comedy-satire at 9.20 and then a new series of Clive James interviews recorded in Sydney. His first guests are an odd cou+ple - Ita Buttrose and the Queensland Premier, Sir Joh Bjelke Petersen. James conducts friendly little chats with both, although he did ask Sir Joh: "Are you a fascist dictator? But even that was handled with mirth. This was an easy question+ing session for Sir Joh. It makes moderately interesting viewing. C11e Telegraph - 1 October 1986 Alan Bond misses launch preview tv telegraph By PAUL WICKS Alan Bond missed the launch this week of the TV series about his successful bid in 1983 for the Ameri+ca's Cup. He was in New York. But his wife, Eileen, was at the Sydney Opera House for the launch of "The Challenge". It was a cold, wet, misty day with a solitary 12m yacht - like those in the real Cup - bobbing about in the harbor outside the preview room. The six-hour show, to screen in a fortnight on Channel 9, has Mrs Bond's approval. "It's pretty much spot on. I felt goose bumps watching it. "I think Alan will laugh a lot." But will he laugh at scenes in which his on+screen namesake (actor John Wood) has some terse exchanges with de+signer Ben Lexcen (actor John Clayton). "Alan and Ben have been best friends for 30 years," she said. Eileen describes herself as the world's best Ameri+ca's Cup spectator. "I've never missed a race in any of our challenges." She believes her hus+band will continue to com+pete in the Cup - regard+less of the outcome of January's defence. "I don't believe it will be his last. He never waits for anything." Mrs Bond spent some time in Perth with actress Lorraine Bayly, who makes a good go of por+traying her on screen. Brisbane actor, Ray Bar+rett was enjoying the launch preview as he hadn't previously seen any of the completed material. Barrett had reason to be in an excellent frame of mind. He had been driven to the preview in a white Rolls-Royce - just the style for a chief of the New York Yacht Club, his role in the show, complete with American accent. Barrett was particularly impressed by the authen+ticity of the scenes of the yacht races. He is a yachtie himself. Many of the cast of this Australian mini were pres+ent, but the people they portray were noticeably absent - obviously many are preparing for the new challenge off Fremantle*Freemantle. John Wood, who plays Alan Bond, gave a stand+out performance. The screen John Ber+trand, John Diedrich, wasn't there, but Nicholas Hammond, who plays arch rival Dennis Conner, was. Hammond, a likeable American, could well em+erge as one of the real stars of a show not short on name and quality performers. English actor Tim Pi+gott-Smith looks sensa+tional as the British syndi+cate chief Peter de Savary, while former Coorparoo lad, Richard Moir, has the pivotal role of Bond chief, Warren Jones. The $4.5 million show has obvious international appeal, with joint execu+tive producer, Greg Coote proudly announcing over+seas sales. The story begins with Bond's unsuccessful 1980 attempt, but ends on a high note with the success of his next bid. It is set to be one of the bigger series of the year. Channel 9 has to run it soon, as there remain only five more weeks of ratings this year, and surveys don't resume until after the start of the 1987 Cup clash. The show could be well and tru+ly out of date if left until then. C11f Telegraph - 3 December 1986 canvas for Carradine Starring role as Gauguin tv telegraph By PAUL WICKS David Carradine has proved a most versatile actor. His craggy features have been perfect for lean and hungry roles as bad+dies. Indeed, he has starred in more than the occasion+al Western. C12 Adelaide Advertiser 2027 words C12a Adelaide Advertiser - 1 August 1986 Music Moving harmonic experience Japanese Koto Musicians The Space Wednesday Stephen Whittington IF I had to find one word to describe this exquisite performance it would be harmony. Not harmony in the Western musical sense of chords and the like, but harmony as a balance of form and feeling, a perfect agreement of action and expression. Whether in the pure classical style or the Western-influenced modern style, or even in koto versions of Waltzing Matilda and Click Go The Shears, there was a refinement in the playing of these enchanting young women which per+mitted no wasted effort or histrionics. The art of koto playing appears to be that of economy, with every action perfectly matched to the production of the desired sound. At first it would seem that there is very little to look at. A group of young women in kimonos kneel beside their instruments, bow politely to the audi+ence, and begin to play. But before long you are under their spell. Their modes+ty and humility and the lack of display, only add to the pleasure of the perform+ance. It soon becomes clear that the koto, for all its apparent simplicity - 13 strings stretched aross a wooden soundboard - is an extremely subtle instrument. The actual plucking of the string is just the beginning of the process. The sound is then modified in a surprising variety of ways by applying pressure to the string to bend the pitch, produce vibrato and so on. After a while, one begins to realise that there is a lot to look at. There is also a lot to listen to. The music of the ensemble pieces moves from unison to several distinct parts and back again in ways which are quite different from European music. But it was the traditional style that really intrigued and delighted me. The gentle flow of the music, its delicate and expressive embellishment and sometimes piquant harmonies belong to an age far removed from the present and to a culture very different from our own. But its beauty, simplicity and refine+ment conspire to make a most moving musical experience. C12b Adelaide Advertiser - 1 August 1986 JAZZ Precision, power, and professionalism SA - Texas: The United States of Jazz Festival Theatre Wednesday THE North Texas State University One O'Clock Band is aptly named. "One O'Clock." The connotations are all there - and so correct. The "one" stands for a winner, and this big band fills that spot with polished power. The "clock" stands for time, the essence of which is an essential ingredient in any top jazz aggregation - and these 20 musicians had the mix just right. North Texas State University has nine big bands - from one o'clock to nine o'clock - and this one leads the way. Ironically, not one Texan is in the team: two Swedes, two Canadians and the rest from throughout the US. The program opened nicely enough with the SACAE Big Band, conducted by Hal Hall, taking us on a smooth musical ride from classic Ellingtonia through some Big Band Bop before finishing the journey with a ballad featuring Andrew Firth. They can hold their heads high when compared with other college outfits in this country. But the gold medal had to go to the One O'Clock Lab Band. In a performance which demon+strated precision, power and profes+sionalism, the Lab Band (directed by Neil Slater) amply demonstrated why it is so highly acclaimed by leading jazz performers throughout the world. Whether it was in the attack of Escape Velocity, the subtleties and sombre voicings of Nuance, the nicely paced ballad I'm Old Fashioned (build+ing into a crescendo of biting brass), or the brisk encore Machito - the band failed in only one respect. It failed to expose any weakness in either ensem+ble playing or solo performance. But if North Texas took gold, there were other medals, too. To senior lecturer, musician and composer Eric Bryce for his four-part suite Jazz Through The Looking Glass performed in the second half by the combined Lab Band, SACAE strings and Big Band, and to the featured artists: Andrew Firth (clarinet) and vocalist Angela Smith. Undoubtedly, this concert was one of the successes of the Jubilee 150 Youth Music Festival. Don Porter C12c Adelaide Advertiser - 1 August 1986 Exciting titles lead the charge VIDEO with David Sly AFTER a lean month in July, video distribution companies are set to release a big contin+gent of exciting new titles this month. Australian company Roadshow has taken the initia+tive to lead the charge with a movie which has not yet been released for a cinema version - The Clan Of The Cave Bear. Derived from the book Earth's Children by Jean M. Auel, the story looks at the conflict between the primitive Neanderthal man and the emerging Cro-Magnon human species at the dawn of modern man, about 35,000 years ago. Daryl Hannah (star of Splash) features in the lead as a young girl lost and isolated from her tribe, one of the first groups of Cro-Magnon*Cro-Mangon people. She is discovered by a nomadic Neanderthal tribe which reluctant+ly decides to take in the peculiar stranger and raise her. The clash between the two human species is emphasised by the struggles she has trying to be accepted into the primitive tribe and conforming with their customs. Although it is a very stark and testing movie - much of the dialogue is a series of grunts, making every gesture and move+ment important to the story - it is an intriguing and absorbing tale which should attract considerable interest from people who appreciate pensive drama. Roadshow will also release its first major package of sell-through videos to the public this month, having tested the water recently with the successful sale of the sex education video Where Did I Come From? The new package consists of 13 titles which have been released previously for rental on the Roadshow, Premiere and Disney video labels and will be segregated into three price category*catagories. Recent blockbuster titles Rambo: First Blood Part II, The Woman In Red and The Terminator will cost $24.95. The older collection of popular movies including An American Werewolf In London, Gallipoli, First Blood, Country, Lone Wolf McQuade, Class and Mad Max will be $19.95 each, and the Disney titles Swiss Family Robinson, 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea and Dumbo will be available for $29.95 each. The videos will be in local stores this month and will be promoted by an extensive radio and television advertising campaign. A notable new release which is sure to generate great controversy in the video marketplace is Hail Mary!, the bizarre modern interpretation of the birth of Christ by Jean-Luc Godard which has drawn a savage reaction from Christian groups. In a significant coup, the movie was secured for video release for the Video Excellence company by Walter Lehne (pre+viously with Video Classics) before screen+ing in cinemas around Australia. The R-rated title has been available to video stores for ordering during the past two weeks and should be appearing in some rental outlets soon. Because of the media storm which has surrounded this movie - attracting such labels as "blasphemous", "obscene" and "indecent" - it is certain this title will be in big demand. To coincide with the announcement of his third World Safari adventure and the release of his book, SA explorer and film-maker Alby Mangels has released his World Safari II movie on video through Vestron Video. The exciting movie, which contains foot+age Mangels shot around the world over six years, includes the trail of a massive Austra+lian Outback cattle muster, trekking through the highlands of Papua New Guinea and travels through the jungles of South America. Accompanying Mangels on part of his journey to complete World Safari II was Melbourne model Judy Green, who was seriously injured with Mangels in a road accident in South America. Although the tone of the expedition was soured by the accident, the movie was completed and classified a success by film patrons. It attracted large audiences when Mangels toured around the country two years ago, screening the movie in unorthodox venues including church and community halls. With a reputation for producing basic but exciting adventure films, Mangels should see World Safari II win wide acceptance on the video market. Video Views Toy Soldiers (Palace): This film is the grouping of current B-grade movie cliches - vigilante forces, partying US college kids and Central American terrorist groups - into a story which at least tries to present everything in a slightly different light. The tale involves a rich group of rather mature US college students who borrow a luxury yacht from one girl's father to cruise the Central American coastal waters under the watchful eye of an ex-Marine minder. After pulling a stunt which leaves the minder stranded in a dinghy, the kids enjoy a lengthy party until one falls on deck and hits his head. They anchor in an unfamiliar port and travel to a small village for medical help but are set upon a ruthless group of guerilla warriors and held for ransom. One girl escapes back to America, forms a vigilante force and plots to free her compan+ions from the rebel camp when government negotiations over the ransom become bog+ged down. As with a lot of small-budget movies released on video, the clever packaging and promotion of the title is much more attrac+tive than the movie itself. Moderately enter+taining but likely to disappoint some viewers. C12d Adelaide Advertiser - 1 August 1986 The sparkle spread broadly MOVIES TO WATCH with Stan James THE MIXTURE is a broad cross-section of styles with only a few sparkles, and except for some classy efforts from directors Alfred Hitchcock and Bill Wil+der, the weekend offers less than the rest of the week. Friday THE LOST COMMAND (1966, AO) 8.30 p.m. ADS 7. Big-budget, spectacular action drama set during the Algerian crisis, with an anti-war message shown through Alain Delon as a disillusioned Frenchman and the dilemma of George Segal as an Arab faced with a tough Choice. Anthony Quinn is dominant as a French officer. The action comes off better than the philosophy. BRITANNIA HOSPITAL (1983, AO) 8.30 p.m. NWS 9. A biting satire on the British National health scheme that is crude, ruthless, shocking and not very funny. The events are based around the 500th anniversary of a British hospital, its staff - including a mad doctor who trans+plants heads - a Royal visit and a TV reporter (Malcolm McDowell). Much of the film looks grotty and clumsy. THE BALLAD OF CABLE HOGUE (1970, AO) 8.30 p.m. SAS 10. There is much to enjoy in Jason Robard's warm perform+ance as Hogue, left to die in the desert by his prospecting partners, and the long revenge he plans. A very different approach from director Sam Peckinpah, as Hogue discov+ers water in the desert and love with Stella Stevens, with a few bitter-sweet touches. Saturday THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO (1975,G) 8.30 p.m. NWS9. The Dumas classic of wrongful imprisonment and re+venge was first filmed in 1933 with Robert Donat. Now it is Richard Chamberlain, in the fourth version, giving his all in a rattling good adventure. Louis Jourdan, Trevor Howard, Donald Pleasence, Tony Curtis and Kate Nelligan take it with a pinch of swash and a broad buckle. THE PRIVATE LIFE OF SHERLOCK HOLMES (1970, PGR) 8.30 p.m. SAS10. One of writer-director Billy Wilder's best and most intriguing films gives a new view of the Sherlock Holmes legend, using satire, humor and character, about Holmes's other life, involving women and drugs. Robert Stephens and Colin Blakely are splendid as Holmes and Watson. Gene+vieve Page is stylish as Wilder skilfully manipulates his characters to suit his clever story. PLUTONIUM 10.20 p.m. SBS. West German thriller about stolen plutonium and the potential disaster to ecology entwined with political drama. Charlotte Kerr plays an investigative reporter. Sunday NORTH BY NORTHWEST (1959, G) 2 p.m. ADS 7. Alfred Hitchcock's most entertaining adventure using Cary Grant (one of his best roles) as an advertising executive mistaken for a spy. Several bril+liant, original sequences and chases, and grand performances from Eva Marie Saint, James Mason and Jessie Royce Landis as Grant's mother (she was nine months youn+ger than Grant at the time). C13 The News 2004 words C13a The News - 7 July 1986 Top music and flash dancing ... Channel 10's Wednesday night movie at 8.40, Flashdance, is a modern day Cinderella. Jennifer Beals stars as Alex, an attractive, talented dancer, who finances her dreams of becoming a member of the Pittsburgh Ballet Company by working as a welder during the day. During the night she works at the local bar parading her talents in front of an intoxicated crowd. Alex falls in love with the owner of the con+struction company where she works. Their rela+tionship boosts Alex to+ward success. The highlight of the movie is the music and the spectacular dance scenes which are the eighties answer to Saturday*Eatur+day Night Fever, the hit of the seventies. Hit songs Maniac and What a Feeling! really add to the impact of the movie and played a big part in its success. A familiar storyline of a rags to riches attempt is carried off very well in Flashdance. It also stars Michael Nouri. THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN (Friday, 8.30, Channel 10) - While most of us thrive on pushing a pen or swing+ing a pick, James Bond is back thriving on ad+venture and always cheating death. Roger Moore is James Bond, 007, and someone has placed a high price on his head. It is the dreaded Scaramanga (Christopher Lee). Bond heads east to encounter his enemy in his usual action packed way. He is attacked by martial arts experts, sumo wrestlers and has a hair raising boat chase. And in typical Bond fashion, the quality of his female company is high. It is the ninth James Bond movie and is sure to please the many Bond die-hards. Stars Roger Moore, Christopher Lee and Britt Ekland. YOUNG DOCTORS IN LOVE (Tonight, 8.30, Channel 7) - Based on the same ideas as the Carry On medical satires, it will provide viewers who have a sense of the ridiculous with some very funny moments. A cast headed by old hand at the comedy game, Harry Dean Stan+ton, bungles its way through a series of out+rageous events which will leave you wondering what really does happen when you are under anaes+thetic. Produced by Garry Marshall, the man who gave us the Odd Couple and Happy Days, Young Doctors In Love will pro+vide light, humorous viewing. Stars Harry Dean Stanton. C13b The News - 7 July 1986 What's on SBS THE WEDDING AT SQUIRE MAENG'S (Thursday, 8.30 pm SBS) -A comedy set in Korea. Squire Maeng has an inflated opinion of his position in the commun+ity and arranges his daughter's marriage with the son of a wealthy fam+ily in a neighboring township. The Squire's devious plan backfires when he discovers his prospective son-in-law is a cripple. A light-hearted look at an interesting culture. Stars Chu Song-Ung and Yo-Sub. (Korean, English subtitles). SATISFIED OR NOT? (Monday, 9.30, SBS). - It is a political comedy depicting a waiter un+happy with his job. Yang Yu-Sheng be+lieves he has more to offer the work-force than as a waiter. He is rude and treats his customers poorly. Frustrated by his pre+dicament he leaves for greener pastures. While searching for work he lands up in hos+pital and falls in love with his nurse, who pro+vides some interesting philosophies on life. Stars Yang Tianxiao and Ding Yun (Mandarin, English subtitles). C13c The News - 25 June 1986 Triumph for the refugee When Phnom Penh fell to the Commu+nists, thousands of refugees streamed out of the Cambodia capital seeking safety on foreign shores. AMONG the desperate folk who were to be de+scribed generally as "boat people," there was a little girl named Liun Yann. The nine-year-old and her family of six sought refuge in America, stumb+ling bewildered into a land only a little less frightening at first than the war they had just es+caped. The story of Linn is told in the new release movie from a new label - THE GIRL WHO SPELLED FREEDOM, on the Disney Premier Cinema cassette. Linn slowly finds her way as a new American, but there are still shadows of war which haunt her. Helping to combat them in this film are Wayne Rogers (well known in M.A.S.H.) and Mary Kay Place as George and Prissy Thrash, the Cambodian family's sponsors. Well made and with a lot of compassion, The Girl Who Spelled Freedom is good family viewing. Interest at the end also, as Rogers becomes inter+viewer and talks to the real Linn (played in the film by Jade Chinn) and the Thrash family. -TOM HANKS, Lori Sin+ger and Jim Belushi com+bine talents for the CBS-Fox cassette THE MAN WITH ONE RED SHOE and succeed in entertain+ing us no end. A trifle slow to get mov+ing "shoe" is a comedy cum undercover tale about an innocent musician caught up in the middle of a crazy conspiracy. Lori Singer (The Falcon and The Snowman, Foot+loose) plays the beautiful spy who falls for Hanks and goes out on a limb to save him from the CIA. Some faces you'll recog+nise make up the rest of the cast, including Carrie Fisher, Dabney Coleman, Charles Durning and Ed Herrman. You'll enjoy this comedy of errors from CBS-Fox. -ATTITUDES to custody, access rights for men and the non-rights of defacto parents are addressed in the powerful film JENNY KISSED ME out on RCA/Columbia/Hoyts cassette. Starring Ivar Kants as Lindsay the defacto father, Deborra-Lee Furness as Carol the reluctant mother and Tamsin West as Jenny, Jenny Kissed Me is about a loving parent-child re+lationship between Jenny and Lindsay and their search for each other when Carol leaves Lindsay. The film also looks at other important contempo+rary relationship issues: managing as a single parent, the bloody minded+ness (for whatever reason) of parents when it comes to custody and access, lack of communication and be+ing a mother unable to cope with this responsi+bility. A well-made drama to tug the old heartstring. - JOHN MARR C13d The News - 25 June 1986 Sisters lead fifties party Break out the Brylcream and pull on your bobby socks ... Le Rox is throwing a party. And at the heart of festivities tonight will be a return to the fifties led by the Sydney outfit Sophisticated Boom Boom. The band has visited Adelaide only once before when it quickly picked up a big following. And since forming last Novem+ber it has won support across Aus+tralia, maintaining a tiring per+formance schedule. Fronted by the Boom Boom sis+ters (Jenny, Vika and Louise), the band concentrates on tunes from the fifties and sixties which centred around all-girl bands. As to why the sound should be successful in the eighties, Jenny has a few ideas. "We have been very lucky from the start really," she said. "But as well as that I think our success is because we put on a bit of a show with a few dance steps and laughs which seems to appeal to most people. "And, of course, the music itself is very interesting because of the intricate vocal harmonies. "The fifties and sixties was probably one of the greatest eras in music ever." The band has drawn its ma+terial from a wide range of artists of that time, but Jenny feels one of the biggest influences has been The Shangrilas, the group which originally recorded the song Sophisticated Boom Boom. A version recorded by the local girls climbed to number two on alternative charts. "There were so many good bands in that era," Jenny said. "But the Shangrilas really cap+tured the whole image of the Phil Spectre sound with all those sound effects and everything." Those hoping to catch Sophisti+cated Boom Boom will have sev+eral chances to see the group this week. The band will play at Le Rox tonight, Flinders Uni and Limbos tomorrow, Adelaide Uni on Friday, Limbos on Saturday and The Bay Disco on Sunday. C13e The News - 18 September 1986 Believably versatile By John Parker If you want to make people laugh in Aust+ralia these days, you have to be versatile. That's the case on the live circuit. Vince Sorrenti is a classic example of versatility - he knows, even down to the expressions he uses, he must be ready to adjust. "I can work clean or I can work dirty," the `unbeliev+able!' Vince said. "It doesn't worry me. "It's different courses for different places. "You can't get up in a pub full of screaming yobbos and recite poetry. "If you don't use a bit of colorful language in the first two words, they're not going to listen to you." But, as long as all bases are covered, it seems a good comedian can do alright. Sorrenti is making a de+cent living from his career which no doubt will be boosted by the release of his first album, aptly titled Un+believable! Even the album reflects versatility. Side one is taken from live gigs, complete with crowd responses and throw away lines. Side two is studio based, which Sorrenti believes adds a little more scope for the creative comedian. It includes such formi+dable epics as a rugby match between Wales and the PLO, which would be difficult to reproduce live. He even launches into song on the album. For those who have not yet caught Sorrenti in the act, he is playing at Adel+aide's Flying Trapeze to+night, tomorrow and Saturday. C13f The News - 18 September 1986 A town with malice By John Parker My Brother Tom: An explosive mini-series on Ten Somewhere in the course of My Brother Tom, the teasing, se+ductive eyes of a fresh-faced country girl turned cold and drained of happiness. If you watch the two part mini-series on Channel 10 next week, you will realise what a tragedy that is. Based on the novel by James Aldridge, it's a story of importance, challenging the bigotry of a small Aust+ralian country town. The victims of the social and religious injustice are an innocent young couple in love, a catholic girl and protestant boy. Initially, the pre-war series is lighthearted and almost predictable, with young Australians play+fully racing through bushland on horses. The catholic/protestant line is subtly drawn. But as yet there is no obvious malice. Not until protestant Tom Quayle (Tom Jennings), the young, enthusiastic pol+itical stirrer falls in love with catholic Peggy MacGibbon, (Catherine McClements) do things start to get serious. A flirtatious tease, Peggy is rightly described as "a walking temptation to every protestant boy in town". But pretence falls shat+tered when she and Tom stand in romantic trance-like awe, contemplating the relationship which will tear the town and their own emotions apart. What a shame the series could not finish there. The events which follow are painful to watch. Not only is the couple forced to fight a town div+ided by religion, but prob+lems are compounded as their fathers indulge in a seemingly endless feud. Tom's father (Keith Michell) is a pompous English lawyer who is "stuck" in Australia. His attitude to life rubs hard against Tom and the rest of the town. Peggy's father, Lockie MacGibbon (Gordon Jackson) is a direct con+trast of character. The likable gambler, box+ing promoter lives by his wits and is quick to mock things protestant. But as stirring as the mini-series may be, it is still a program the whole family can enjoy. A viewing must, My Brother Tom screens on channel 10 next Monday and Tuesday at 8.30 pm. C13g The News - 18 September 1986 Vamp Grace plays for laughs -Vamp (M) Academy and Glenelg Cinema City from tomorrow. Preview by Megan Campbell. In her latest film, earthy-voiced singer Grace Jones plays out part of her real-life career. The raunchy "wild woman of rock" has been cast as a band leader in Vamp, which opens in Adel+aide tomorrow. But the slinky Grace is not all she appears to be. In Vamp - a "horror comedy of sex and the supernatural" - she is not only Katrina the band leader but (as the title suggests) a vampire and a stripper too! Working from the murky depths of the After Dark Club, Katrina and a bevy of bloodsuckers treat their nocturnal visitors to some amazing performances. One night a trio of ignor+ant college students (played by Chris Makepeace, Gedde Wattanabe and Robert Rusler) descend on the After Dark Club in search of a stripper to entertain at a fraternity party. C14 The West Australian 2214 words C14a The West Australian - 26 June 1986 Monteverdi chorus Music by Derek Moore Morgan HAMBURG'S famous Monteverdi Choir makes its first Australian tour next month, beginning with a single Perth concert on July 7 at the Concert Hall. Forty singers, together with their choir director, Jurgen Jurgens, will display their ta+lents in a wide-ranging pro+gramme of shorter choral items. The first part consists mainly of madrigals and chansons from the European Renaissance period, balanced by a second half representing the 19th and 20th centuries, and including some of the Brahms Gipsy songs as well as individual items by Dvorak and Tchaikovsky. Interesting sets of chansons by Debussy and Hindemith, as well as pieces by Kodaly and Ligeti bring the programme close to our own time. The Monteverdi Choir was founded by Jurgen Jurgens just over 30 years ago, originally as a small body concerning itself in the main with madrigal singing. The personnel soon consisted mainly of students and other young people, who were eager to learn, and ambitious to improve. In 1956, after only a year of existence, they went to the in+ternational choral competition in Arezzo, Italy, coming 24th. Each succeeding year they im+proved their rating, and in 1959 their goal was achieved, with a first prize in the main competi+tion for mixed choirs. Many other prizes in internatio+nal competitions followed and today the Monteverdi Choir is known as Europe's major prize+winning amateur choral body. Success in competitions attracted the attention of recor+ding companies, and records, many of which won internatio+nal awards, established the choir's reputation throughout the world. Flexible in size, the ensemble can consist of 20 to 90 singers, according to the needs of any+thing from folk-song pro+grammes to oratorio. Theirs is no specialised reper+toire, and within a single pro+gramme they move easily from the linear interplay of madrigals to the romantic richness of Brahms, or the dissonant clarity of contemporary choral works. Singing in seven languages is taken for granted by this en+semble. The music of Claudio Mon+teverdi, considered Italy's great+est 17th century composer, is a starting point for the ensemble. Described by an immediate successor as "the prophet of music" because of his innova+tory spirit, Monteverdi's con+tribution to musical history has been ranked even with that of Bach, Mozart and Beethoven. THE Eder Quartet visited Australia and New Zealand in 1980, though on that occasion I believe it gave Perth a miss. Founded in 1972 at Budapest's famous Franz Liszt Academy of Music, its principal teacher also coached the legendary Kodaly and Bartok Quartets. Major awards at Evian and Munich were followed by exten+sive European tours, in addition to impressive appearances at international festivals. The Eder Quartet performs regularly on radio and television in its native Hungary - in addit+ion to appearances on the con+cert platform. Its recordings include the complete Bartok quartets, the sixth and last of which, dating from 1939, it will play in its Musica Viva recital at the Con+cert Hall on Monday, together with works by Brahms and Haydn. C14b The West Australian - 26 June 1986 Slimmer Patty gets her pound of flesh POOR, put-upon Patty Duke Astin. Has ever a woman suffered so much, so long and so often for the pleasure of us at home? She has acted as a child basher, an alcoholic, the wife of an alcoholic and a rejected wife. Tonight she goes one further - a fat rejected wife. The movie is Channel Seven's "Before and Af+ter" and it is inspirat+ional indeed to those of us who carry the odd curve too many. However, for the situa+tion to be genuinely comparable you would need to have a piggish husband who leaves you when he turns 40, all because of those extra kilograms. So what does a rejected wife do? She goes on a diet, of course, loses 20-odd kilograms, finds that men like her again and that life without a husband is not such a bad thing at all. The creepy husband comes crawling back and what does she tell him? Watch it and see. It seems to me that there is a moral here. All husbands of fat wives beware: Your ugly duck+ling might turn into a swan and leave you to weather your mid-life crisis all by yourself. "Before and After", apart from having an awful title, isn't any+where near as bad as it sounds. Patty Duke Astin is nothing if not a polished actress and the movie has some very hu+man moments. After all, don't they say that inside every fat per+son, is a thin one trying to get out? C14c The West Australian - 26 June 1986 Rare flop for ABC series CHANNEL Two's "A Big Country" to+night is a rarity - an episode which doesn't really work. We have become so used to lovely, human television from "A Big Country" that this one is a real surprise. It is called "Two Women". The two in question are 21-year-old Melissa McCord, a Syd+ney photographer, and Lorna Blackwell, a 72-year-old goat farmer who lives 300km south+east of Carnarvon. Melissa McCord is making a trans-Austral+ian pilgrimage, photo+graphing and writing ab+out women who live in extreme isolation and often in considerable hardship. Melissa, who wears cute little scarves and outsized beads, is captivated by the idea. Lorna, whom she meets during her travels, doesn't seem to have much time for such non+sense although she goes along with Melissa's arty photographic posing. I got the feeling she thought Melissa was a bit of a twit, but was too inherently polite to say so. And anyway, her live-in friend didn't seem to offer much else in the way of conversation. Melissa McCord, whose book will be released next month, seems to have embraced the romantic notion that all such women are heroic. No doubt some are, but some have chosen that way of life for a good reason, preferring the hazards of isolation to the hazards of modern, city living. C14d The West Australian - 26 June 1986 Artists paint for peace THIRTY of WA's top artists are meeting this Saturday to arrange their planned exhibition for the 1986 Spring Peace Festival. The artists have previously attended a workshop on peace and are working on paintings to be displayed in the old court+house building in the cultural precinct, which now becomes part of the Art Gallery of WA. The art exhibition, which opens on September 1, will take up the top floor of the old courthouse while a special travelling exhibi+tion by three women artists from the Eastern States will occupy the ground floor with "Peace and Nuclear War in the Australian Landscape." Running concurrently in the Alexander Library will be the "Young People's Peace Show." Last year this attracted more than 1000 entries, from a giant quilt from a kindergarten to wall+hangings from Aboriginal stu+dents. The Spring Peace Festival has received an $18,000 grant from the Australia Council and this will be used to cover administra+tive costs of what has become one of Perth's longest running arts festivals. The festival also provides for groups such as "Sci+entists Against Nuclear Arms" which will hold a seminar on peace with international speak+ers in October, and the State film theatrette in the Alexander Lib+rary which will host a week-long festival of peace films. The Spring Peace Festival will be opened on September 1 in Trinity Church by the Minister for the Arts, Mr David Parker. - John Hyde. C14e The West Australian - 26 June 1986 Good old family entertainment WHEN an Eastern States critic described "Frog Dreaming" as "the kind of B-grade film we all remember from Saturday matinees," producer Barbi Taylor was not at all offended. "To be perfectly hon+est," she said in Perth this week, "that's the kind of entertainment we need. "The style of film-mak+ing has changed from making wholesome fam+ily films to films that are more violent. There's a huge gap in the market for this kind of `Satur+day matinee' film." Taylor should know ab+out markets. As a pro+ducer she's at the busin+ess end of film-making, though she likes to exer+cise strong control over the creative side as well. Post-production, when the raw elements of the film are turned into the finished movie, is her favourite part of the pro+cess: "I find it's a pleasurable experience; actual shooting can get a little harrowing." Taylor has been in+volved in more than 15 films since leaving Perth in 1970 to seek wider experience in the film industry. "Frog Dream+ing" is the latest. Her decision to cast Henry Thomas, the child star of "E.T.", rather than a local actor was criticised. But she de+fends it: "He was the star of the greatest money-making film of all time. He wanted to do `Frog Dreaming'. Am I going to stop him?" Thomas plays an irrepressible 14-year-old whose fascination with an unexplored water hole leads to some frightening discoveries. The film is described as a "rites of passage" for the young boy. - Mike van Niekerk C14f The West Australian - 22 May 1986 Sleuth lives on while actresses fade away THE Super Sleuth, Jane Marple, never seems to fail to find her villain, and an audience as well. Agatha Christie's classic creation weathers the years with a style most of us envy. True, she has had many personae over the decades, but the character remains fairly true to the one Agatha Christie, the writer who never went to school, dreamed up. Christie began writing at the end of the Great War, with the little Belgian, Hercule Poirot, her main character. Miss Marple appeared later, in 1930. Tonight Channel Seven has "Agatha Christie's A Murder is Announced" with Joan Hickson in the role of Miss Marple. She took the part for a series of four Agatha Christie telemovies, some of which have been seen here. Remember the one with Bette Davis as the potential victim? This one includes the very British talent of Ursula Howells, John Castle, Andrew Cruickshank, Sylvia Syms and Michael Culver. Agatha Christie dreamt up some ingenious ways of doing away with the victims. Part of the fascination for many readers are the settings for these crimes. With some exceptions, they take place in quaint English villages and seaside towns. The very unlikelihood of such places being centres of crimi+nal passion adds even more drama to the stories. Such settings also provide her with innumerable opportunities for her famous red herring. Tonight, the residents of Chipping Cleghorn are fascinated to read an advertisement for a murder in their local newspaper. The advertisement reads: "A murder is announ+ced and will take place on Friday, October 5 at Little Paddock, at 7pm. Friends please accept this, the only invitation." The residents are, quite understandably, most fascinated by this and many make it their business to be at Little Paddock at the appointed time. The residents of Little Paddock are just as mystified but with typical British calm, Letitia Blacklock and her companion Dora Panner, and sophisticated nephew and niece Patrick and Julia, have refreshments at hand. By this time, of course, several suspicious charac+ters have been established and when, at the appointed time, the murder does take place, the stage is set for some top-class sleuthing. But did the murderer get the right victim? Miss Marple just happens to be staying at the village's Spa Hotel and it is from there that the victim has come. Primed and ready for action, she sallies forth. Then there is another murder ... C14g The West Australian - 26 June 1986 British aglow with pride From PATRICIA MORGAN in London THE British film industry is aglow with pride this week after having won the top award at Cannes for the spectacular film "The Mission". The prize virtually means survival for the Goldcrest company which had a massive flop last year with its $28 million historical epic "Revolu+tion". Apart from its artistic merit, "The Mission" is expected to be a commercial blockbuster; all Goldcrest's remaining hopes of survival rested on its performance at Cannes. Remarkably, the film was not really finished before it was rushed before the jury and now it goes back for further editing and polishing. "The Mission," starring Robert de Niro and Jeremy Irons, is about Jesuits sent by the Pope to work among Indians in South America and the political and moral conflicts that arise between them. It was a double triumph for Britain. Bob Hoskins collected the best actor award for his part as a timid gangster in "Mona Lisa." It was the first time in 13 years that a British film had taken the coveted Golden Palm award and the first time in 20 years that a Briton had been named best actor. C14h The West Australian - 22 May 1986 Vibrations, yes; Good, no MY SHIRT cuffs vibrated and my ears rang throughout Jimmy Barnes's second concert at the Entertainment Centre last night. Excruciating guitar solos and the regressive, aggressive condition of Barnes's rock left me cold despite the deafening volume. Barnes's Heavy Metal voice was little more than a raucous yell on this occasion, too ragged to convey any clear emotion. His lyrics were unin+telligible, buried deep beneath four guitars. He and his six-piece band stormed forth in a peircing assembly of lights, relaying "Ride The Night Away", "Working Class Man" and other mono+tone dirges from Barnes's two LPs - yet if bouncing bodies are any indica+tion, mine is a minority opinion. Barnes wore a Streetbeat T-shirt in support of the "Don't drink and drive" campaign. But as he left the stage after his encore, he raised his (full) glass in salute to his fans and made a mockery of Streetbeat's message. Barnes has blasted ears and lasted years. C15 The Sun Herald 2013 words C15a The Sun Herald - 3 August 1986 North and South a feast for the east THIS week Channel 9 will test the staying power of those who like their chicken southern-fried and served with the works. For this is the week of North and South, the 12-hour lavishly packaged American drama, sorry, megadrama, which Nine will screen in two-hour episodes over an exhaust+ing six nights beginning tonight at 8.30 pm. The series is based on John Jakes' novel about two families, the Mains, plantation owners from South Carolina, and the Hazards, Pennsylvania industrialists, and set dur+ing the 20 years leading up to the Civil War. The two sons, Orry Main and George Hazard, meet at West Point Military academy. Despite opposing views on slavery, they develop a close friendship, uniting the two families. A warning - there is a sequel called North and South Book II based on Jakes' second novel, Love and War. This was screened in the US earlier this year but goodness knows when it will make it to the screen here. Not that this first series has a Return to Eden ending. There is, however, a niggling feeling of dissatis+faction at the end of things not quite resolved. A few scenes blatantly point to the second series. But North and South draws you in rather like The Wedding - no, no, I am not going to watch it, but yes, yes, okay, so I did right up until The Kiss on the balcony. It's a high class soap, with honourable goodies and perfectly horrid bad+dies, complicated and schmaltzy love stories, duels, southern drawls, heaving bosoms (and ripped bodices), slave whip+pings, lavish costumes, rich locations and a gaggle of guest stars who between them must have taken a quite a chunk of $US25 million budget. The most notable of these is Elizabeth Taylor but it also includes Johnny Cash, Olivia Cole, Morgan Fairchild, Robert Guil+laume, Robert Mitchum, Jean Simmons, David Ogden Stiers, Gene Kelly, Inga Swenson and Hal Holbrook. Some such as Taylor, who plays a whorehouse madame, appear very late in the series and then for only about five minutes. As Taylor said when asked what she thought of her character: "There's not really enough of her to think about, is there?" Most of the acting falls to relative newcomers Pat+rick Swayze and James Read, who play Orrie and George, and a team of new and familiar faces includ+ing Lesley-Anne Down, Kirstie Alley, Philip Cas+noff, David Carradine, Terri Garber and Temi Le Anne Epstein. They are an attractive hardworking ensemble, easy on the eye and adept at handling the plot tangents and convolutions of this long, long series. So, what the heck. If you have 12 hours to spare, put your feet up and over-in+dulge. War and Peace it is not but then again, in these grim times, maybe that's a blessing. C15b The Sun Herald - 3 August 1986 LEGEND MAKES A COMEBACK IN THE TRUE NELLIE MELBA TRADITION By GEORGE WILSON SHE was Australia's greatest superstar. In the public imagination she ranks with Ned Kelly, Don Bradman and Phar Lap. And as the bi-centenary nears, the story of Dame Nellie Melba, who died 55 years ago, will be told more times than she had farewells. The Seven television net+work is making a multi-mil+lion dollar mini series on her life; a highway near Mel+bourne has been named after her, and a new book about the opera singer refers to her as the most famous woman Aus+tralia has yet produced. Dame Nellie Melba, who began her international sing+ing career in Brussels, Bel+gium, 100 years ago, flaunted her Australianism before the crowned heads of Europe when a majority of people did not know where Australia was. Yet Melba's latest biogra+pher, Dr Therese Radic, records on the first page of her book*: "Melba was variously called a vexatious daughter, a runaway wife, a bad mother and a loose woman; she was a divorcee and mistress of the pretender to the French throne. "She was a fat soprano, vain, vulgar, imperious and a snob. She had a taste for second-class music and she swore, but she was not a drunkard as rumor had it. "She was racist and, men said, sexist. She was also a shrewd, self-made woman whose miraculous voice helped her amass a fortune and win her international acclaim; Australians wor+shipped at the shrine of her success." Melba was born Helen Porter Mitchell in 1861, the daughter of a builder who became a millionaire in "mar+vellous Melbourne", as it was known in the 1880s, she lived on the outskirts of the city, at Lilydale, where her former home is now a tourist attrac+tion and where the newly named, 62 km long Melba highway runs from Cold+stream to Yea at the foot of Victoria's snowfields. Melba had learned to sing Comin' Through the Rye when she was aged only six, she played Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata on the piano by the time she was eight and learned the organ when she was 12. Dr Radic's book claims that false legends were wildly attributed to the famous Melba. One of her early music teachers, Otto Vogt, started a story that after her organ lessons, Nellie would gallop down to the Yarra River, strip off and swim nude with local boys. Others said she used lan+guage unsuitable for ladies, she threw milk, her breakfast, even scissors at people who offended her and at one stage she supposedly attempted to seduce the local clergyman. Nellie took the name Melba at the start of her career from her love for her home city. Her only marriage (in Mackay, Queensland) to Charles Armstrong, a seaman, horse trader and son of a baronet, failed, but their son, George, after long separations from his mother, was reunited with her late in her life. Despite her musical back+ground, Melba did not sing professionally until she was 23. International recognition came only after her father took up a diplomatic appoint+ment in London in the mid-1880s and after coaching by Paris teacher Madame Matilda Marchesi. AFTER Nellie Melba's debut in October 1887, critics wrote of her: "She is the sensation of the day", "her voice is a revelation", and called her "the young Antipodean with the profile of an empress". The range of Dame Nellie's voice was described by one authority as from B flat below middle C to the F sharp above high C. Critics called it a unique, silvery voice, pure and seamless with the power to sweep the listener to emo+tional heights and near reli+gious ecstasy. For almost 40 years, Dame Nellie Melba sang at every major European and Ameri+can opera house and, on return visits to Australia, in the small bush halls which she always made part of her tours. Gossip about an affair with Louis Philippe, Duc d'Orleans, the great grandson of the last French king, pretender to the throne of France and nine years her junior, almost wrecked Dame Nellie's career after they met when she was 29. On her early homecomings to Australia in 1902, 1907 and 1909, Dame Nellie suffered from allegations of drunken+ness from a Sydney news+paper editor, John Norton, but, as Dr Radic writes: "It was useless to protest that no singer who was drunk could perform to schedule as Melba did. Even now, when the idiocy of such an accusa+tion has long since been established, the rest of the mud splashed by Norton is still visible on Nellie's tarnished career.' A phrase that entered the English language, "more fare+wells than Nellie Melba", is defended by Radic. The author says that tradi+tion in the early 20th century permitted great performers to declare final farewells in the places where their reputations were made. Dr Radic, a playwright and associate of the faculty of music at the University of Melbourne, says that Melba was the fulfilment and the symbol of the Australian dream, she showed how Aust+ralians could be proud of their cultural origins and that they need no longer cringe to the English. It is ironic that Dr Radic should liken Melba to Ned Kelly, Bradman and Phar Lap in the public imagination and raise the mystery of her death. Like Phar Lap, there are still theories that Melba was suffering from a mystery dis+ease when she died in Sydney, in 1931. Dr Radic writes that Melba had surgery for a facelift in Europe and suffered an infec+tion on the sea voyage to Australia. Dame Nellie had requested that after her death she was to be embalmed and that a beautician should make up her face before anyone was permitted to see her. * Melba, the Voice of Australia, by Theresa Radic (Macmillan, $29.95). C15c The Sun Herald - 3 August 1986 PATRIOTISM, THE CULT OF THE WINNER, AND PLAIN DEJA VU TOP GUN (PG) Directed by Tony Scott. Starring Tom Cruise and Kelly McGillis. Lyceum ** THERE'S been a lot of hullabaloo surrounding this film, about its politics and box office success. But Top Gun is really a familiar movie formula with some expensive props - a squadron of $30 million planes. Lieutenant Pete Mitchell (Tom Cruise) is a navy pilot selected for the elite fighter training course, known as Top Gun. The idea is to cream off the best pilots and train them up to a wartime standard of dogfighting. They've all got snappy call signs like Maverick (Cruise), Goose, Ice+man and Viper. In the absence of a real enemy, the pilots turn on each other - in fierce competition to see who will be the best of the best, the top Top Gun. And Maverick is the most aggressive and cocky of them all, flying against the ghost of his dead father's reputation. People spend a lot of time muttering about how dangerous and talented he is - "a wild card". Cruise's love interest is a Pentagon astro-physicist, played by Kelly McGillis. At first, she's more interested in his plane than his body. But Maverick does a few quick manoeuvres, like the plucky little dog-fighter he is, and the girl is his. Amid the roaring jets and the steamy love scenes, Top Gun is actually a bit dull. The movie is entirely predictable, with a con+stant, vague sense of deja vu, reminders of a dozen war and flying movies you've seen before. The plot consists of a few hiccups in a single-note story, with little character or story development. Director Tony Scott captures some of the magic of flying as the planes prepare to take off, in stylish, atmospheric sequences. But the dog-fights themselves confused me, with jets zooming in all directions and the pilots barking incomprehensible tech+no-babble and slang into their radios. Top Gun is really a hymn to the Cult of the Best, a glorification of competition. Winning is all - "there are no points for second place". It's like finding yourself in a meathead self-improvement lecture. The unquestioning patriotism is really incidental - fighting the Commies just happens to be the way these guys are going to prove they're the best. The contrived "incident" with enemy planes is certainly offen+sive and disturbing, but it's also pretty absurd, with faceless Soviet pilots in black helmets. Top Gun is also a hymn to maleness. It inadvertently shows up how ridiculous male courtship behaviour is, with lots of locker room strutting and posing. The movie takes any excuse to take off the actors' shirts, undo their jeans and show off a bit of meaty pectoral or rock-hard abdomen. Cruise doesn't have much to do other than ripple his jaw muscles and grin cockily. It's hard to care much about Maver+ick. Kelly McGillis has even less to do. What a shame to see the sultry, compelling actress from Witness wasted as mere decora+tion. She spends most of the movie bending her knees so that she's not taller than Cruise. C15d The Sun Herald - 3 August 1986 CHAUFFEUR GOES DOWN ZANY, RAUCOUS ROAD OF BAD TASTE AND SCHMALTZ MY CHAUFFEUR (M) Directed by David Beaird. Starring Deborah Foreman, Sam Jones, Sean McClory. Hoyts WHAT A mess this rau+cous little movie turned out to be. My Chauffeur introduces us to Casey Meadows - a supposedly zany and bubbly girl - who lands an unlikely job as a chauffeur with snooty Brentwood Limousines. C16 The Sunday Sun 2017 words C16a The Sunday Sun - 24 August 1986 Movie classic's a winner Channel O is quickly earning the reputa+tion as Brisbane's number one movie channel. It leads the way again this week with some first-class movies. Perhaps the best is the fifties classic Picnic (Sat+urday, 8.30pm) which caused a sensation when it was released. William Holden, Kim Novak, Rosalind Russell and Cliff Robertson star in this interesting movie about high passion in small town America. It's a little melodramatic for eighties audiences, but is still a fine example of a top-class director getting the most out of a strong script. The story is centred on a quiet Kansas town pre+paring for its annual Labor Day picnic. Into this setting wanders Hal Carter (Holden) who manages to have an effect on virtually the entire town before he is finally through with it. Channel O also screens a remake of the Marlon Brando classic, A Street+car Named Desire (Mon+day, 8.30 pm). For once, the remake is nearly as good as the orig+inal, with Treat Williams playing the brutal Stanley Kowalski (Brando's role in the 1951 original) and stunning Ann-Margret as Blanche Dubois. Ann-Margret shows she is a far better actress than many people ever gave her credit for, and her fine performance makes this one of the better movies of the week. Channel O's Sunday night movie, The Cold Room, isn't for those who like light entertainment. George Segal and Amanda Pays star in this movie set in East Berlin. It's complicated, so don't get up for a cup of tea or you'll be hopelessly lost. Channel 9 has an inter+esting movie in the End Of August (Friday, 8.30pm). It is surprising to find an American film made along the lines of a European mood movie. Priest Sally Sharp stars as Edna Pontellier, a New Orleans woman trying to find herself in the early 1900s. Channel 7 also kicks in with a better-than-aver+age movie in The Scarlet And The Black (Monday, 8.30pm). Gregory Peck stars in the true story of Monsi+gnor Hugh O'Flaherty, a Vatican priest who ran an underground escape route during World War II. Christopher Plummer and Sir John Geilgud add a touch of quality to the production. C16b The Sunday Sun - 24 August 1986 Tragic Tony makes us laugh again The tragic Tony Hancock still rates as a comic genius among 30 years of television's great funnymen. Englishman Hancock, who took his own life in Sydney more than a dec+ade ago, was one of the early heroes of radio. So popular was his Hancock's Half Hour it was made into an even more successful TV series. He developed a pompous, cowardly, but lovable character, adored by mil+lions around the world. The ABC brings back the best of Hancock with 16 black and white shows on Wednesday nights at 8.30. The first in the series is the hilarious The Blood Donor which sees Hancock teamed up with another great, the late Sid James. In this episode Hancock finds if you aren't careful, what you give can very quickly be returned. Some of the other Hancock classics include The Missing Page, Twelve Angry Men, The Radio Ham and The Bedsitter. It's a nice trip back to the sixties for those who remember Hancock at his best. C16c The Sunday Sun - 24 August 1986 Full marks to British crime The differing attitudes of the British and the Americans to+wards TV crime series is shown to good effect in two new shows premiering on Channel 9 this week. Bulman (Monday, 10.35pm) and Hollywood Beat (Saturday, 8.30pm) are both entertaining. But they are miles apart when it comes to original+ity and production. Bulman is made by Gra+nada Television and is up to the excellent standard we have come to expect from British crime shows. Don Henderson stars as retired police inspector George Bulman, who has taken to a life of mending clocks in a South London antique shop. But his days away from the rough and tumble of the underworld and espio+nage are short-numbered. He soon gets mixed up with Lucy McGinty (Sio+bhan Redmond), the daughter of an old col+league. Lucy is a univer+sity dropout with an ob+session for criminology. She soon has Bulman back in harness - but this time as her partner in a private detective agency. The first episode sees Bulman hot on the trail of a suspicious road accident which turns out to be murder. Froth Bulman is a spin-off from the highly-successful British series Strangers, and its 13 episodes feature some big name stars. On the other hand, Hol+lywood Beat is a typical American froth and bubble piece about two undercover police officers working in Hollywood. The two colorful cha+racters battle with their straight-laced superior but always win through in the last reel. It's all so familiar you could virtually exchange the title with any of a dozen or so American shows. Jack Scalia stars as Nick McCarren who fights crime with his partner Jack Rado (Jay Acovone). Scalia, who played Rock Hudson's son in The Devlin Connection, is a former all-American base+ball star. But he isn't the only big sports name in the show. Hulking former Los An+geles Raiders linebacker John Matuszak plays, of all things, a gay bar owner. Give me Bulman any day, but it's highly prob+able Hollywood Beat will prove more popular. C16d The Sunday Sun - 24 August 1986 Hunter role for an Aussie star Australian actor Vernon Wells of Mad Max fame makes a guest appearance*apperance in the popular Hunter series on Tuesday night. Hunter has been one of the success stories of the year for Channel Seven in its 8.30pm timeslot and fans won't be disappointed*disppointed by this week's episode. Hunter (Fred Dryer) and his trusty offsider Dee Dee McCall (Stepfanie*Stephanie Kramer) set off on the trail of a prostitute's killer. Sixties The killer is named Zajak (Wells), and before the next 60 minutes is over the trio have smashed, bashed and crashed their way through half of Los Angeles. There is a cross plot with drugs and mercenaries, but that is not really the point in Hunter. There is another good reason to watch Hunter tonight - the music. When Dee Dee goes undercover in a couple of bars, the background music is original sixties with greats by The Rolling Stones, The Kinks, and Cream. It's enough to make a sixties boy go all misty-eyed - or maybe it was just the sight of Dee Dee in that little mini skirt. Channel 7's other top-class crime show, Berger+ac, is back for a fourth se+ries in the 9.45pm timeslot on Saturday. It's a fine British pro+duction based around a detective sergeant in Bureau de Etrangers on Jersey. The bureau deals with crimes relating to island visitors and there is al+ways plenty of action for Det Sgt Jim Bergerac (John Nettles). In this week's episode Bergerac is assigned as the official guide-cum-bodyguard to a visiting British MP. A hired killer comes to the island to stop the MP signing an important trade agreement. Bergerac also has a new romantic interest played by Louise Jameson. C16e The Sunday Sun - 24 August 1986 25 years as top ABC show Australia's best tele+vision current affairs show celebrates its 25th birthday tomor+row night. Four Corners has been around since the infant days of television and it has always set the highest standard for current af+fairs reporting. It may not have had a Sixty Minutes budget but it has always been more than competitive in the thing that counts - get+ting the right story. A 90-minute tribute to this Australian institution goes to air on the ABC at 8.30pm. Producers Andrew Olle and Bruce Belsham have compiled this special, using 75 sequences from the best Four Corners programs. There's Who's Who of reporting staff with Mi+chael Charlton, John Pen+lington, Mike Willesee, Caroline Jones, Chris Masters and John Temple. There are interviews with Australian reporters. Willesee and cameraman David Brill recall covering a story in Vietnam when troops stopped fighting so Brill could fix his camera. Mirror Here is a sample of some of the stories which fea+ture - a Tupperware con+vention. Bankstown boys involved in gang bangs, the RSL, sexual life in a country town, Asian im+migration. Queensland politics, and even electro+magnetic radiation. Four Corners has been the mirror of Australian life for so long it is fasci+nating to see how our attitudes*ati+tudes have changed over the years. Or have they? There are some quotable quotes from such differing personalities as Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen, Ger+maine Greer, a young John Laws, wrestler Killer Kowoski, and even actress Vivien Leigh. Perhaps the best way to describe Four Corners is to steal a quote from one of the show's originators, Bob Raymond: "What Four Corners did was to introduce Australians to themselves." Happy Birthday, Four Corners. May you have many more. C16f The Sunday Sun - 24 August 1986 Denim-clad Kelly hits the charts at last ALBUM'S MESSAGE Paul Kelly And The Coloured Girls - a little bit of Bob Dylan, a small piece of Lou Reed and a whole lot of inner-city living. Softly-spoken and re+served, the denim-clad Kelly at last receives com+mercial recognition for the music he has played for nearly a decade. Born in Adelaide, Kelly first picked up an acoustic guitar at 18, enduring a semester of university be+fore moving to Melbourne. He spent seven years in the Victorian capital among St Kilda prostitutes, drug addicts and unemployed. And it shows in his music. The skilfully crafted lyrics are backed by a basic sound and sung by a voice with sandpaper resonance. Paul Kelly wrote a song called From St Kilda To Kings Cross. The distance takes 13 hours on a bus and Kelly made that trip two years ago and found Surry Hills. More inner-city; prostitutes, drug addicts and squats full of the un+employed. "St Kilda? It's a good place, St Kilda, but it's getting - it's changing now, it's becoming, well, they're try+ing to clean it up," Kelly said. "Closing down all the old boarding houses and trying to make it go upmar+ket - they did the same thing to Bondi. "Surry Hills - that's a mixture too, one end is in+dustrial. There's a lot of old migrant groups there, a fair few Greeks and a lot of people in bands." Kelly appeared in Bris+bane over the weekend and will now town-hop up the Queensland coast to Townsville. Before Too Long, now resting in the music charts, is his first commer+cially successful work. He has always had respect, but respect does not pay the rent. "It's great, great, to be hearing it on the radio everywhere - it's excit+ing," Kelly said. Release Tomorrow, a double stu+dio album recorded by Kelly And The Coloured Girls - named after the line from the Lou Reed song - will be released. The album will be a volume of old and new songs, inspired by social conscience, or as a mem+ber of the band says, social realism. C16g The Sunday Sun - 24 August 1986 It's good, clean family violence The Karate Kid returns Biff! Bam! Whack! Is it Rambo? Is it Chuck Norris? No. It's the Karate Kid himself, Ralph Macchio, kicking his way into another round of sanitised violence. Will homespun Ralph prevail over the forces of evil? Will his Master re+solve the unresolved con+flict which has kept in him exile for 40 years? Will the box office run hot. For answers to these and other questions, roll up to Hoyts - where Karate Kid II, the sequel to that first martial arts blockbuster is kicking across the screen. Tough but not vicious, emotional but not soppy, powerful but not obscene - Karate Kid II occupies middle ground between the stupidity of Rambo and the slop of Spielberg. Appeal Heck, you could take your grandmother to see it. Or your teenage son. As they say in the trade, here's a flick with wide appeal. Indeed, the conflict situ+ation has been ingeniously set up - built around the old and new generations in Japan, the narrowing cultural differences be+tween the United States and Japan and the notion of compassion versus honor. The Kid's teacher Miyagi (Noriyuki Morita) receives a letter calling him to the deathbed of his father in Okinawa. In going there, he must also deal with his teenage rival-in-love, now a wealthy businessman, who has never forgiven him for stealing the heart of the village siren. C17 The Sunday Times (WA) 2002 words C17a The Sunday Times (WA) - 10 August 1986 `Brumby' gives a kick to WA's disc State orchestras in major record series THE ABC has undertaken an exciting project to produce discs featuring each of Australia's six State orchestras. They're already available in black vinyl and compact discs are to follow. Importantly, they are to gain world-wide audi+ences through a distri+bution arrangement with the UK, as well as with Festival Records, in Australia. The first two releases were the Sydney Sym+phony Orchestra - with a performance of Beethoven's Choral Ninth, conducted by Wilfred Lehmann and including the Sydney Philharmonic Choir - and the WA Symphony Orchestra. I find the WASO pre+sentation more appeal+ing because it includes two works by Australian composers. In view of plans to give the recordings wide coverage, this had to be a great opportunity to sneak in compositions from our own talented people. Richard Mills took over the orchestra on the last two tracks to conduct the Festival Overture on Australian Themes by Colin Brumby and Mills' own Overture with Fanfare. The Overture and Fanfare is an exciting work with the element of Queensland clearly interpolated - it was written for the Queens+land Youth Orchestra. You can hear the tune Moreton Bay in its central section after the energetic opening fol+lowing the percussive fanfare, with WASO's excellent brass section in fine form. In the Brumby work there is a nostalgic feel+ing of country with the inclusion of some of our most notable and easily distinguishable folk tunes. Bullroarer There's also the boom of the bullroarer for good measure. David Measham is the conductor of British composer Malcolm Ar+nold's Little Suite No 1 and Little Suite No 2. The former chief con+ductor of the WASO, who did so much to lift its public image, knew Arnold and produces all the charm and sparkle of these lovely cameos for orchestra. Dobbs Franks was understandably the conductor of Don Gil+lis's fascinating Por+trait of a Frontier Town, for he was able to bring his homeland knowledge to this clever portrayal of what can best be described as an American tone poem. The Melbourne Sym+phony Orchestra has played somewhat safe with Tchaikovsky's Symphony No 5 in E minor, with Dutch con+ductor Hubert Soudant. Nevertheless it was performed with style. I was more attracted to the Queensland Symphony Orchestra's performances of Respighi's Suite in G for Organ and Strings and Elgar's most beau+tiful Sea Pictures, in which Margreta Elkins is the mezzo soloist. The Tasmanian Sym+phony Orchestra has chosen Respighi's suite for small orchestra, The Birds, with Francaix's The Floral Clock and Richard Strauss's Cap+riccio: Prelude. Adelaide has an all-Mozart offering - the Concerto in C for flute, harp and orchestra, and Piano Concerto No 19 in F. C17b The Sunday Times (WA) - 10 August 1986 Expert care for inspired music `Creation' according to Haydn THE performance of Haydn's greatest, most inspired sacred work, his oratorio, The Creation, at Winthrop Hall on Wednesday, August 20, is likely to be an exceptional event. For one thing, the conductor is the noted Sydney choral expert, Peter Seymour, and for another, the University of WA Choral Society will be joined by the WA Symphony Orches+tra. The ABC's new policy on its orchestras is to allow them to be invol+ved with local commu+nity groups. The society's perma+nent conductor, John Winstanley, has en+gaged three fine soloists - Elisa Wilson, Thomas Edmonds and Gregory Yurisich. Miss Wilson, who has been appearing in Falstaff, is a permanent member of the WA Opera Company and recently was awarded third place in the Shell aria contest in Canber+ra, a signal honor for the young soprano. Mr Edmonds is com+ing from Adelaide to take the tenor role and Mr Yurisich, who is a principal with the Aus+tralian Opera and re+cently sang with Dame Joan Sutherland, will be coming back to his home city for the bass part. Mr Seymour has been musical director of the Sydney Philharmonia Society since 1968. Its choir is, in effect, the chorus for the Syd+ney Symphony Orches+tra and is of a very high standard, thanks to Mr Seymour's work. He was a founder-member of the Austra+lian Youth Orchestra and is chairman and musical director of the National Music Camp Association. During his time as music master at Sydney Grammar, the school developed a fine musi+cal tradition. Mr Seymour founded the Sydney Youth Or+chestra Association in 1974 to train young players. He also spent some years as resident conductor with the Aus+tralian Opera. His untiring work for the benefit of music earned him an OBE. Haydn wrote the Creation in 1798-99 and it reaches heights of el+oquence rarely surpass+ed. Of particular note is the lyrical beauty sus+tained in the arias as well as the power of the choruses. - PETER WOMBWELL C17c The Sunday Times - 10 August 1986 G and S at HM THE Gilbert and Sullivan Society of WA has chosen Iolanthe as its presentation this year. The brilliant satire of Gilbert's libretto and Sullivan's lively and tuneful music, will open at His Majesty's Theatre on Thursday, August 21. It should provide a bright entertainment. It was the first of the pair's operas to be presented at the Savoy Theatre, built especially by Richard D'Oyly Carte to stage their works when they were growing in popularity. Pamela Turner will be in the title role. The Lord Chancellor will be Ross Bryant; the Earl of Ararat, John Harrison; Earl Tolloller, Frank Lazzari; Constable Willis, Owen McClements; Strethon the shepherd, John Kessey; Queen of the Fairies, Lorraine Kirwan-Doesburg; and Phyllis the shepherdess, Allison Fyfe. C17d The Sunday Times WA - 10 August 1986 Robot pals and other monsters you'll face in the future The Modern Frankenstein, by Ray Hammond, Blandford Press, $22.95. When Mary Shelley published Frank+enstein: Or The Modern Prometheus in 1818, she struck an amazing chord with her gothic horror tale about a scientist who created life. Author Hammond cleverly uses the story of Frankenstein and the circums+tances under which it was written to explore the coming reality of life being created by modern scientists. Hammond is controversial when he suggests that men in future may come to rely on robot companions - even to the exclusion of human friends. War in the Shadows, Bougainville 1944-45, by Peter Medcalf, William Collins, $19.95. The author says very little has been written by or about the efforts of half a million Australians who served in the Pa+cific Islands in World War II. This short book was written in response to questions from Medcalf's daughter about what the war was really like. Medcalf was a 19-year-old infantryman on Bougainville in 1944-45 and the book vividly tells of the horrors of the jungle war against the Japanese. Fine Cotton and Me, the confessions of Hayden Haitana as told to Graham Bauer, Angus and Robertson, $9.95. Much has been written about the Fine Cotton ring-in and now comes the story almost from the horse's mouth. Hayden Haitana is the New Zealand trainer who was one of the key men in the substitution of the open-class sprinter, Bold Personality, for the out-of-form Fine Cotton in a restricted event at Bris+bane's Eagle Farm racecourse in August 1984. But this book goes further than telling Haitana's version of the ring-in. It is an account of Haitana's life - the life of a self-confessed con artist who has been involved in everything from theft and fraud on the wharves to horse doping. Choosing A School - Questions Parents Should Ask. by Judith Laird, Kerril Maloney and Lorraine Moody, Allen and Unwin, $8.95. The authors of the latest more-paren+tal-involvement-in-education book say it is a good idea to know what a school offers in the way of academic subjects, personal development, programs for gifted or remedial students, its position on homework, religious education, sport, its educational philosophy and contact between parents and teachers. Other questions should concern facili+ties, fees, uniforms, transport and staff. This is a paperback compendium of questions which cover every aspect of education. Working Out With Weights, published by William Collins, $15.95. Historians may look at the 1980s as the decade of fitness mania. Getting fit and staying fit is now attracting mil+lions of people of both sexes and all ages. This book is packed with diagrams and photographs of exercises and equipment, and there is a comprehensive nutrition guide to help weight-workers achieve their goals. C17e The Sunday Times WA - 10 August 1986 Dwight, 29, moseys on as a fresh country breeze Round-up time for the Jack Daniels, folks THOUGH cowpunk has been around for a while - Australia's own Johnnys are entertaining exponents of the art - country's image has been in tatters for some time. In the public eye it degenerated into glitz and parody, a fringed and rhinestone pantomime which let city folk pretend they were tough loners, and Nashville became the country version of Hollywood. Lately, respected musicians such as Elvis Costello, T-bone Burnett and the Triffids have been paying homage to the real roots of country music and weaving it back into their work. A mountain breeze has been slic+ing through the fug of Nashville, fresh air in the form of Dwight Yoa+kam (pictured), a young Kentuckian who plays what he calls "hard coun+try" and who's been attracting fans of all musical tastes. Knock-back His debut album, Guitars, Cadil+lacs Etc, Etc, has been a surprise seller in recent weeks and repeats success it had when it came out as two separate EPs in the US. Ironically, he had to move to new wave clubs in California where bands such as Los Lobos and The Blasters had begun to educate a young audience in genuine roots music because Nashville turned him down. "When I played my demos to the executives+executive in Nashville, the reception was not lukewarm - it was like a stone cold block of ice, they just sat there and stared at me," said Yoa+kam, 29. "I was able to do pure hard country in LA, but the record companies wouldn't touch it - that was Nashvil+le's territory and Nashville was unin+terested, almost embarrassed by it - hysterical obligation to the form." Yoakam found success opening for bands such as Los Lobos and The Blasters and found his audience growing way past the cowpunks. "At first glance it would appear to be a great irony, but not far below the surface it started to hit home that this was whence their music came," he said. "They've all been exposed to hill+billy music in their own preference or cowpunk or whatever you want to call it. It was the ostracised form of music that attracted the kids - societies' leaders have never accepted country music as*and anything short of uncouth and crass." Cowpunk is not a term that fits Yoakam - he's deadly serious about not bastardising his country music. "I play hillbilly music, pure coun+try, that's what we are, just American honky tonk band," he said. Given that country is as broad a term as you can get, Yoakam's been noted for combining eastern hillbil+ly, western honky tonk and for being one of the few new artists incorpo+rating blue grass. His band, whom he met while try+ing to find his seat in LA after leav+ing the Kentucky coalmining area where he was born, are Peter Ander+son (guitars and six string bass), J.D. Foster (bass, vocals), Brantley Kearns (fiddles, vocals) and Jeff Donavan (drums). Yoakam plays guitar and a versa+tile larynx. Brought up on gospel and hillbilly, Yoakam has taken traditional scenes for himself and managed to give them freshness and dignity without losing the humor and sense of fun underlying much country music. There is also a great stepped-up version of Ring Of Fire and a duet with Lone Justice singer, Maria McKee. Yoakam can break his heart and voice together, set a cracking pace, or whine down to a reflective tale - even if country to you only means putting on a string tie and taking to the Jack Daniels. This album is a lovely little gem. C17f The Sunday Times WA - 10 August 1986 Kev strikes gold in the big city PERTH'S original yobbo, Kevin Bloody Wilson, has struck gold. The Kalgoorlie-born comedian has sold more than 35,000 copies of his album, Kev's Back (The Return of the Yobbo), and in the music industry that's pay dirt.