Alabama Journal from Montgomery, Alabama • 33

'Cheers' back for another season Midi Vanilli fans get partial refunds PAGE 3D PAGE 5D THE ALABAMA JOURNAL, FRIDAY, AUGUST 30, 1 991 The Fixx still on at Sandy Creek By Mlk Land Joufnal staff wtilw sJIr iji iff if contributed the hit "Secret Separation." Next came the 1987 collection of live cuts and studio cuts, "React," and the album "Calm Animals" featured the hit "Driven Out." Now the group is pushing "Ink" on Impact Records, a straight-shooting album The Fixx recorded in a studio Mr. Curnin, now a resident of New York City, built in Queens. So far, "How Much Is Enough" has reached the charts from the album, while the group is Coming Attractions 4 2 a. pushing the ballad "No One Has to Cry" as a second single. I 1 THEATER The Alabama Shakespeare Festival presents the musical "RomanceRomance" Saturday in ASF's Octagon theater.

Admission is $19, with $2 discounts available for students, senior citizens and military. Call 277-BARD. FILM Cy Curnin, lead singer of The Fixx, began to answer a question about the British group's art when a fish broke his train of thought. "God, they're jumping out there," he said, staring at a fish-breaking the surface of the lake behind his hotel room. "And now some cloud cover is rolling in, so we'll really have some luck." Some of the band's members had spent their Wednesday morning dropping their lines behind the Gadsden hotel, where Mr.

Curnin himself pulled in two bass with his collapsible rod and reel he takes on tour. His interest in fishing made one wonder if the group intended to belt out new songs and old hits tonight at Sandy Creek Music Park or if they just came to the creek to do some angling. "I like the way these bass fighC' said Mr. Curnin, who grew up on other prey. "And the bugs.

Us English boys grew up reading 'Tom Sawyer' and 'Huckleberry but we'd never seen bugs like this. And the heat down here. It's like the jungle." If it sounds like Mr. Curnin and The Fixx have learned not to miss the posher luxuries of stardom, it's an impression Mr. Curnin backs up in both his comments and his singing; the songs of "Ink" take one bash after another at materialism and greed, as well as wrestling with the role of the individual in a rapidly changing society.

Mr. Curnin knows about both, as evidenced by past success that is somewhat more than a mere fish story. In 1983, only three years after the quintet formed, the group's "Reach the Beach" sold platinum, with single "One Thing Leads to Another" attaining top five chart status. And 1984's "Phantoms" went gold while 1986's "Walkabout" The Capri Theatre at 1045 E. Fairview 0 Ave.

presents "Superstar: The Life and Times of Andy Warhol" at 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. jtoday through Sunday and at 8 p.m. Monday through Thursday. Madonna's "Truth or 'JDare" runs Sept.

6-12. The Sept. 6 showings at 8 p.m. and 10:15 p.m. are a benefit for Montgomery AIDS Outreach; admission Sept.

6 is $15, including the 7 p.m. reception. The film plays at 7 p.m. and 9:15 p.m. Sept.

7-' 8 and 8 p.m. Sept. 9-12. Admission is $3.50 for members, $5 for non-members. Call 262-4858.

Since the surreal days of 1983, the commercial success has faded with the youth of the band, which after 11 years features original members Adam Woods (drums), Rupert Greenall (keyboards), Jamie West-Oram (lead guitar) and Dan K. Brown (bass guitar). But while the Atlantic Ocean separates the lead singer from other members, there is a strength in the group's sense of life's cycles. "I came from nothin' and I'm going to leave with nothin', so what happens in between is just a blessin'," Mr. Curnin said.

"There is kind of a macabre pleasure in how things have gone lately, because it is a lot more like it was at the beginning. It makes us feel like we are closer to the beginning than the end. "I know that sounds kind of corny. But we enjoy things like goin' A couple of places (on this current 15-day mini-tour) we've been able to camp out on the river." In some ways, tthe sanity is welcome to Mr. Curnin, who said a "skin-flint" father and 18 years of Jesuit education made the band's one-time material leap seem uncomfortable.

"You go from sleeping five to a room to suddenly having a huge room all (Please see FIXX Page 2D) DANCE -f Alabama Dance Theatre presents Wes, Chapman's American Pallet ana 6 p.m. sept. at ine uavis neaice tor 'the Performing Arts. Admission ranges from tie hm U1 i4cm. i i MUSIC Sandv Creek in south Montgomery Coun Mr.

Curnin, center, surrounded by fellow veterans of The Fixx Two cures for cinematic summertime blues ty features The Fixx, Drivin' 'N Cryin and of the Hill in the Coors Light End of the Summer Jam at 7 p.m. today. Gates open at 6 Admission is $12. Call 1-800-277-1700. 1048 Jazz and Blues at 1048 E.

Fairview Ave. features Little Jimmy Reed and the Red Dog Blues Band at 9:30 p.m. today and Saturday. Admission is $4. Call 834-1048.

For more 'about jazz and blues in the region, call the Vij r-v 'True Identity' multi-joke film Movie puts the Hurt on medical system Alabama Jazz Federation hotline at 262-5314. Review Kat Harri's Nice Place at 1061 Woodley toad features Meet the Press at 9:30 p.m.! to Admission is $5." Kat HarriVwili be Closed Saturday through Monday. Call 834- I Review By Mike Land Journal staff writer By Mike Land Journal staff writer 1 Hillwood Cafe at 2838 Zelda Road presents Carnival at 9 D.m. today and Saturday fcnd Susan Thompson at 7 p.m. Thursday.

amission is free. Call 279-8500. T.P. Crockmier'S at 5620 Calmar Drive presents The Cooleys at 9 p.m. today and Saturday.

Admission is $3. Rob Thornhill plays at 8 p.m. Sunday. Free admission. Call 277-11840.

I Nashville Showcase at 3560 Atlanta lighway presents The Kandu Band at 9 p.m. oday and Saturday and Tuesday through Thursday. The Dixieland Dance Club pro "True Identity" tells the story of Miles Pope, a starving black actor who runs from the mob, impersonates a while man and is ultimately hired to assassinate, yes, himself. But this is not a one-joke film. Director of the silent film "Sidewalk Stories," Charles Lane's first major commercial effort is both clever and slapstick.

Written by Andy Breckman and brought off by comedianstar Lenny Henry, Mr. Lane's new film was witty on an entire range i of issues, making defi. fun of mob bosses and art patrons, hit men and Shakespeare and, in soft fashion appropriate to the film, race. (See IDENTITY' Page 2D) The protagonist of "The Doctor," Jack MacKee plays a hot-shot heart surgeon whose illness makes him stop acting like God. So what better actor to play him than William Hurt, who acts with the grace of a god throughout a splendid motion picture.

By director Randa Haines of a Lesser this film is a study in how one great actor and several good ones can lift a decent film to the realm of the near-great. Mr. Hurt shows all tools power, grace, energy, subtlety in unfolding the complexities of Jack, whose self-control keeps wife Anne (Christine Lahti) at a distance even when he learns he has throat cancer. The rest is the gradual humbling of a doctor at a sleekly sterile but inhumane San Francisco hospital. Jack is a charismatic surgeon with a deadly wit and a chronic disrespect for the dullness of being nice until he contracts cancer.

Then he must (Please see DOCTORS Page 2D) vides two-step and country swing dance les ions from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. every Tuesday. Admission free with $2 liletime membership iard. Call 279-8001.

I d'em Bonz at 4334 S. Court St. features Smoke from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m. Friday and 10 p.m.

to 2 a.m. Saturday. Admission is $3. Call 81-RIBS. Anne (Ms.

Lahti), jack (Mr. Hurt) face forms in hospital oia flags uvci ucuijioo ouuincin viai Carnival guitarist chooses listening pleasure over volume Ampmtneaire teaiures imj, iiu ai p.m. Sunday, Willie Nelson at 8 p.m. Sept. 7 and Barbara Mandrell at 8 p.m.

Sept. 21. All concerts are free with admission to the park. Call t-404-739-3440. I Open Mike Night features Henry Pugh, 'Wilbur Jackson.

Mr. and the Open Mike ByMlkLand Journal itaff writer JBand performing at 8 p.m. Monday at Top light Disco at 954 High St. Admission is all 264-9756 or 264-2975, 1 Atlanta Coca-Cola Lakewood Amphitheatre features Hall Oates at 7:30 p.m. Monday.

Admission is $5.94 plus service charges. Call 1-404-249-6400. Birmingham's Oak Mountain Amphi- theatre features Bad Company and Damn Yankees at 8 p.m. Sept. 10.

Admission is $18.50. Call 1-800-277-1700. Birmingham's 5 Oak Mountain Amphitheatre features Huey Lewis The News at 8 p.m. Sept. 11.

Admission is $21.75. Call 1-800-277-1700. Atlanta's Lakewood Amphitheatre features Huey Lewis and the News at 8 p.m. EST trepidations and assembled an all new group under guidance with a whole new attitude. "I think when people in general reach their 30s, they change their attitudes," Mr.

Powell said. "I think before then you think you know everything and then you reach your 30s and you realize you don't know that much." That frees Mr. Powell, now 45, to have fun on his second time around with Carnival. On a slow night, he may return to the first group's old "floor show days," doing a 10-minute pantomime to the tape of the first Lone Ranger episode, interchanging hats in the process. "I have com- mitted theatrical suicide many times," he said.

Mr. Powell's group, however, has a new life. Keyboardist Chris Miller works at Mr. Powell's studio (Southern Sound Productions) and shares songwriting duties. Bass guitarist Dennis McKay and drummer Jimmy In the mid-1970s he spent two years as a songwriter for country's Tree Publishing and, about the same time released two of his own songs Paper Bag" and "Flash Tur-nipseed, World's Greatest Guitar during a one-year contract with Epic Records.

The irony being that, when Mr. Powell's song-writing skills landed him the contract, he was the "weakest singer" in a group called Carnival, which spent seven years playing up to "six nights a week" in hotels from Mobile to Myrtle Beach, S.C. "The thing about playing six nights a week is that you get real tight that is, until you burn out, which is of course what happened," Mr. Powell said. The group broke up In-1979, Mr.

Powell focusing on running his studio full-time for the next 10 years. But when a Florida beach hotel asked him to pull together another version of the group, Mr. Powell set aside his Roebuck round out the group. All can sing, something Mr. Powell sees as a vital part of '50s and '60s music.

They have recorded one album at Mr. Powell's studio (Carnival) and are working on a second, which the group will seek to peddle to the major cording labels. They are styling the album contemporary pop country, said Mr. Powell, but they hardly con-'' sider themselves a country act in their average performance. Country, said Mr.

Powell, is becoming more "pop music" these days. No matter the genre, however, there's always room for a sense of hu-mor. Take the novelty song "Bodine Brown, She's Fun to Be When Mr. Powell recorded the song and submitted it for Dr. DeMento, he felt his own name too plain.

His pseu- donym. "It was by Purvis Pickett and I the Punkabillies," he said. Carnival plays at 9 p.m. today and I Saturday at the Hillwood Cafe at 2838 Zelda Road. There is no cover 1 charge.

A To guitarist Jerry Powell, Carnival's strength may lie in its subtlety. For instance, when the Mobile-based group plays the Hillwood Cafe, bar owners Gail and Bob Snider have told the band "we don't play so loud that they have to yell to each other to hear what they're saying," Mr. Powell said. "There's a lot to be said for music being felt," said the musician, who plays the Hillwood again this weekend. "But when it gets to be painfUl, then I'd rather be home watching TV." Mr.

Powell speaks from experience. He played his first professional music job in 1963 "I was paid $7." He beat about 1,300 entries in a national Dr. DeMento songwriting contest, landing "Bodine Brown, She's Fun to Be Around" on a Dr. DeMento album. 'Sept.

13. Admission ranges $15 to $21. Call 1- 404-249-6400. Birmingham's Oak Mountain Amphi theatre features Gordon Lightfoot at 8 p.m. (Please see ATTRACTIONS Page 2D).