If frantic guitar solos and tortured vocals were a special part of your punk and new-wave youth, you can revisit them - thankfully without the bin-liner fashion and nose-mounted safety pins - at the Fringe Club tonight (June 1). Bashing through the work of The Buzzcocks, Blondie, The Jam, The Stranglers, Squeeze and other stars of the 70s will be the aptly named Three-Minute Heroes.
'We started off about a year ago,' says bassist Neil Harris, 'doing this just for fun. We were a Jam covers band and did everything we could manage by them, then went from there. I've got quite a high voice too, so I can pass as Debbie Harry - at least if you give me a wig.'
Pressed on what convinced him the future for the four-piece band was in fact the past, Harris says, 'We're all in a perpetual state of arrested development.'
Also blowing into town is reggae star Clinton Fearon and his dynamic Boogie Brown Band. The gigs at La Placita tonight and tomorrow (June 1-2) promise to be huge. See Feature - Page 6.
And if this week's live attractions aren't eclectic enough for you so far, try Brown on Tuesday (June 5). There you'll find the Toby Mak Quartet, the latest in a series of top-drawer Australian acts to find their way here, playing straight-ahead jazz under the direction of trumpeter Mak (left), a protege of leading jazz-trumpet light Joe Magnereli.
