‘Though not a sell-out crowd ticket sales were good for the second main event; The Tropics and Chalk Circle, Thursday, Sept. 18th.

Charlottetown’s own band “The Tropics’ started the evening off with high-spirited, energizing music. The crowd was overly enthused and showed their excitement early

A

as the dzaice floor quickly filled.

Ontario’s new band ‘‘Chalk Circle”? began their firs: of two sets with the ever-popular. “April Fool’, their first re- lease from the mini-L.P. ‘‘The Great Lake’’.

For those expecting the up- beat music to continue were surprised, as Chalk Circle played original music which was difficult to dance to.

Musically, the band played quite well with a good set, yet unfortunately was unable to maintain the audience’s elec- tricity at their maximum.

The long awaited second set began around 1; 00, yet, was more moving than their first, as the band played both covers as well as their own music.

Ending off the evening with the second release; ‘‘Me, My- self and 1”, Chalk Circle showed their liveliness as lead- _ Singer Chris Tait and bassist

nber 25, 1986

Brad Hopkins left the stage to join the crowd and play amongst them. “A

Overall, the event started out with a bang but as the familiarity of songs died, so did the crowd’s interest.

Upon interviewing the band when asked their opinion of

the crowd’s acceptance, Tait was impressed by the audiences

reactions as he watched the dance floor fill. ‘The crowds have been good out east ... well behaved and encouraging as no-one has heard much of their material.

After playing for the Cana- dian Organization of Campus Activities (COCA), many uni- versities have booked this band for dances, pubs and bars.

This conference, as well as winning the CASBY award for best non-recording artists, has opened many doors for them.

Not only have they played quite extensively out east, but also in Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, and Hamilton.

A relatively young band, being together as ‘‘Chalk Circle”’ for only three years, comes from Newcastle, Ont. near Toronto.

The band is:

Chris Tait, 20 — He’s the band’s lead singer who names Andy Summers as a favorite.

Brad Hopkins, 22 — Has played the bass since he was 14 and he names Lou Reed and Bowie as his favorites.

74 CIRCLE Se

Derrick Murphy, 23 — Is a self-taught drummer who wrote the words to the hit song “April Fool’’.

Tad Winklarz, 25 — is the newest member of the band who joined in the fall of 84 after leaving Poland. This addition of his keyboards and sax made Chalk Circle a tight group.

Though young, the band

has shown promises for the future and with “‘God-willing”, plans include a new album. They hope that this new album will enable their listening audience to recognize their sound, rather than comparing them to other bands like the Simple Minds, U2, Echo and the Bunnymen or even Rush.

When asked to reflect their reaction to this comparison Tait said “‘superficial’’, and used Jane Sibery as an Example:

“Sibery was always com- pared to Laurie Anderson but has now shaken that and is recognized for her own dis- tinct sound.””

The band Chalk Circle is geared towards a great vari- ance of listeners, as they’ve opened for bands like ‘‘The Waterboys”, “Aztec Camera” and even Canada’s own fa- vorite pouter ‘‘Corey Hart’’.

“Tt was a good experience and we thrived on the chal- lenge. We were obivious to the audience and liked the diversity of all the age groups which we were able to accom- modate.

Though Chalk — Circle’s popularity is growing each day

they don’t want instant star- dom; rather they’d like to gradually gain their popularity.

The name Chalk Circle is derived from a Bertroit Brecht play entitled ‘‘The Caucasian Chalk Circle*’ where the quote “that what there is shall be- long to those who are good for it’? gives special significance to band members:

“We got positiveness out of it. The name was good to re-

present the feel for our music and what we wanted to con- vey.”

When asked about their re- cording label and if they’d ever change it to an American company, the reply was simple;

“We have no thoughts of changing. They’ve got us for the world basically. Any other deal would have to be through our company, Duke Street Records.”

Tait describes Chalk Circle as ‘‘four individuals who really like each other and enjoy playing music together. It’s not a contrived thing with us — our style has emerged naturally, and we hope we come across this way.””

Chalk Circle certainly did come across this way ... not only did they emerge on our stage with a bit of a fumble by Hopkins, but Tait also gave us one hell of a good perform- ance with a nasty cold and sore throat ... How natural can you ask for?

Pizza On Time... Or Pizza On Us!.