FAL MUSIC CHARTS Toe 15 Canadian Albums
The Caution Horses RCA/BMG
The Singles WEA
Big Ones Columbia/CBS Alannah Myles Atlantic/WEA Ray Lyell and the Storm Spy/A&M
Dirty Weapons Epic/CBS Courage Capitol Symphony in Effect © Attic/A&M Bodyrock Attic/A%-M Now and Again Capitol Reprise/WEA Capitol Netwerk/Capitol Risque Disque/WEA MCA
Top 15 Pia aational Albums Chrysalis/MCA Atlantic/ WEA Epic/CBS SBK/Capitol Geffen/WEA Columbia/CBS CBS Assoc./CBS Atlantic/WEA Roo—Art/Polygram Skyywalker/WEA Relativity/WEA Columbia/CBS WEA
WTG/CBS London/Polygram
. Cowboy Junkies . Sinead O’Connor Phil Collins
1 I Do Not Want 2
3. Alice Cooper
4
5
But Seriously...
Trash
Pump up the Jam the Album Pump
Blue Sky Mining
The Hit List
Skid Row
Shiver
As Clean as They Wanna Be Flying in a Blue Dream Storm Front
. Honeymoon Suite
. Loverboy
. Alannah Myles
Ray Lyell and the Storm . Killer Dwarfs
. National Velvet
. Maestor Fresh—Wes
. Lee Aaron
. The Grapes of Wrath . Neil Young
. Luba
. Skinny Puppy
. Crash Vegas
. The Tragically Hip
- Technotronic . Aerosmith 6. Midnight Oil 7. Joan Jett 8. Skid Row 9. Tall Tales and True 10. The 2 Live Crew 11. Joe Satriani 12. Billy Joel 13. Jesus and Mary Chain
14. Bonham 15. Shakespear’s Sister
SANA wWNY
Freedom
All or Nothing Rabies
Red Earth
Up to Here
Automatic Disregard for Timekeeping Sacred Heart
Gordon Lightfoot at
Confederation Centre — Inspiring Performance
Red Nineties Update: Britain In Revolt
most significant demonstration in
By Ronnie Job Swansea, the move, and once they’ve got
Wales, Great Britain.
Note: This article was written before the Anti-Poll Tax protests ° that took place on March 31, 1990 in London, England. The riots which resulted were among the: worst in Britain this century.
This week (March 26-30) is a decisive one in the direction of British politics and political mu- sic. Last Thursday (March 22nd) saw the biggest by-election swing since 1935, when Labour took the Mid-Staffordshire seat with a ma- jority of nearly 10,000. This was formerly once of the safest Tory seats in the country with a ma- jority of over 14,000.
Today (Monday, March 26) saw the founding press confer- ence of Artists Against the Poll Tax (A.A.P.T.). This could be a more important development for British music than the formation of Red Wedge (see previous arti- cle). Among the founding mem- bers of AAPT are many of the country’s top rap artists: Double Trouble & the Rebel MC, Wee Papa Girl Rappers, Beats In- ternational, Silver Bullet, Over- lord X and the X-Posse, Daddy Freddy and M.C. Duke, Cookie Crew. Pledges of support have also come from Jimi Somerville, the Proclaimers, Neneh Cherry, and the American singer Gil Scott-Heron, after he was vis- ited by comrades from the Youth Rights Campaign, (Y-R.C.)
On Friday, March 30th, many of these artists are taking part in an anti-poll tax benefit gig in Briston, on the eve of what may turn out to be the biggest,
(RE Annee ee eee
» British history. Rap is the perfect
‘vehicle for the expression of anger and frustration. The Poll Tax at last provides a message worthy of the vehicle.
‘All the latent anger and frus- tration of youth has come to the surface because of the poll tax; it’s the last straw that broke the camel’s back. Eleven years’ indignity of low wages, unem- ployment and low wages; eleven years’ despair at a lack of hous- ing which means 88,000 teenagers sleep rough on the streets of Britain each night; eleven years’ frustration as leisure facilities have raised their prices way be- yond the level of most youth; all these explain the preponderance of youth on the demo’s of thou- sands that have taken place out- side townhalls as poll tax rates have been set up and down the country.
Most of Britain’s rap artists know what it’s like to be young and skint in Thatcher’s Britain; they come from the same back-
grounds as their audiences, like the punks of the ’70s. “I remem- ber the times when I had noth- ing and I wouldn’t have been able to pay the poll tax. It is so un- 1air, the people are against it. We
all need to stick together and not
pay it.” - Sandra, from the Wee
Papa girl Rappers.
It’s a sign of the changing times when spray-can writing on the wall becomes political. Now, around town, I see less and less “Swansea City F.C.” or “Kev and Tracey”; it’s more likely to be
“Pay no poll tax” or “can’t pay, .
won’t pay!”. The youth are on
direction, nothing can stop them. The Youth Rights Campaign, which played a prominent part in the formation of AAPT, is in itself a significant development. Since its inception at the end of last year, it has been to the fore in the poll tax campaign. But unlike the Anti-Nazi League, this is no single issue movement - Y.R.C. is very similar to the American Youth Defence Campaign, and has been set up to fight for youth,
in all areas of their lives. As explained above, youth have had
the thin of the wedge over the last eleven years, but nowi it’s “this far and no further!” The twelve point charter of the YRC has been drawn up to address the spe- cific needs of youth, including the right to a job, free education, a home, and entertainment (cheap and accessible parties, clubs, con- certs and sports facilities).
At the height of punk in 1977, Tom Robinson penned the lines,
“Look out, listen, can you hear it? there’s panic in the county halls. Look out, listen, can you hear it? Whitehall’s up against the wall?”
Those days are back, and back with a vengence. The demo against the poll tax, called by the All Britain Federation of Anti Poll Tax Unions, for Saturday, March 31, will throughly shake Whitehall. But when ten mil- lion people, the following day be- gin non-payment of the poll tax, the government will be really up against the wall.
On Monday April 2, Gordon Lightfoot graced the mainstage of the Confederation Centre with a spectacular performance. Light- foot is currently touring the Mar- itimes on a number of one night
stands. The.sold—out crowd re- sponded enthusiastically to clas- sic Lightfoot songs as “Alberta
Bound”, Man” Trilogy”. mance reflected well on this en- tertainer’s brilliant career.
“Endless Wire”, “Pony
and “Canadian Railroad His sparkling perfor-
The good thing to see was that the whole band was into the show, still enjoying this ageless mu- sic as much as all the dedicated fans. At approximately 10 pm, after two hours of entertainment (less a 15 minute break), Light- foot thanked the crowd and bid them farewell. This prompted an immediate standing ovation and Lightfoot and band _ per- formed “Old Dan’s Records” in response. After the song the band left once more and once again they received another en- thusiastic standing ovation. So, Lightfoot and band willing ran back out and did a tremendous version of the clas- sic “The Auctioneer”. The crowd was thrilled and really got their money’s worth. An evening with Gordon Lightfoot turned out to be an evening with a great Cana- dian Storyteller, songwriter, mu- sician and performer.
A big thank you goes out to all who made this rare perfor- mance possible and of course to Gordon Lightfoot for an overall inspiring performance.
by Colin James Cheverie