The Leader-Post from Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada • 29

The Leader-Post Regina, Saskatchewan Saturday, November 28. 1981 Entertainment 11 Meat Loaf insists he now has the best band in the world LP Bad For Good, has been given a hard time in some circles. "Right now in America there's a campaign called hate Jim Steinman music. I mean, they (radio) won't touch it with a 10-foot pole. The single Read 'Em and Weep is a great song I'd punch anyone in the face that would ever say it wasn't a great song but they won't touch it.

Why? You tell me and we'll all know." Stabbing a finger at his publicist sitting nearby. Loaf declared: "I told her the other day I wasn't talkin' to press any and then I decided I would about two minutes later. It's not gonna stop my new band is the best in the world. "We've done 10 concerts to back out again." His piercing gaze made even more ominous by a heavy frown. Loaf said: "A lot of people think I'm some punk that came along in 1977 and sold 10 million records with Bat Out of Hell.

First band I had was in 1966 before most of these punks were born. They think I did this overnight. "I had years before Bat tryin' to play in rock bands, gettin' arrested for sleepin' in the back of cars, sleepin' in hotels where when you woke up in the mornin' there were leeches (roaches) climbin' up the door. Some think I haven't paid my dues!" He's particularly sensitive that his new Dead Ringer, a solid album in the same mould and tone as Bat Out of Hell and even Steinman's solo gether. You give us a year and there ain't nobody, ain't a band that walks, talks or anything else that'll be able to touch us." That led to a question about future recordings.

Not a songwriter himself "I barely read, much less he's been considering tunes by such songwriters Troy Seals, Michael Chapman and Moon Martin. Does that mean he plans on avoiding the drama typified by the Steinman works Bat, Bad For Good and Dead Ringer? The phrasing of that ques-tion was a mistake. "You stop right there," he thundered, chopping the air -with a massive open hand. "Why do you include Bad For Good with my records? Why add Steinman in the mddle of cals, they praised the theatrics that kept the 260-pound-plus performer in a state of almost perpetual motion. That's an integral part of a Meat Loaf concert, he maintains.

"People don't come out just to hear what they've got on record." Perhaps it even truer this time around, he has something to prove. "My image in the last four years, nobody knows who I am or what I am any more. I think a lotta people think I got rich four years ago and then went away and now I'm back to get rich again. Well, that ain't so 'cause I'm not rich. "I went away because I had a voice problem I a paralysed vocal cord) and a mental problem due to everything that went on before.

So we cleared that up and now we're "I didn't mean to get angry and I'm not upset with Jim. What I'm upset about is that they (the media) wan' to tie everybody who's ever done anything with me to me now, know what I'm sayin'? They won't let me be an artist on my own. "It's not gonna make any difference who writes the songs, the drama's still going to be there. If I don't do a Steinman ballad, I'm gonna find a ballad with the drama in it because that's me. "I'm theatrical but I'm not like Kiss.

I don't use lasers, don't use smokebombs. Y'know what I use? Nothin but people. That's true theatre. Maybe theatre critics should review my show instead of rock roll critics. Maybe they'd understand It better." me? Doesn't make a damn bit of difference that he wrote 'em.

Jim Steinman and I are two different people. "Bad For Good had nothing to do with Bat Out of Hell or Dead Ringer. I mean. Rolling Stone had the audacity to review Bad For Good and Dead Ringer in the same paragraph. I'm angry at this!" (Actually, Bad For Good, originally intended for Meat Loaf, was only recorded by Steinman himself after a long delay resulting from Loafs illness.

Significantly, portions of Bad For Good do appear in Loaf current show. BC-CP Reminded that the question concerned only the degree of drama in a Steinman work versus that of, say, Michael Chapman's, Loaf was placated. By Michael Lawson TORONTO i CP i It nothing personal, he insists, but Meat Loaf would rather his long association with composer Jim Steinman be con- sidered a thing of the past. Mention a flawed concert to him and he ll be a bit apologetic, even defensive. But mention his association with Steinman and the huge Texas-born rock singer begins to rant and rave; then be apologetic and defensive.

In a way, such an artistic outburst is justified. With almost four years between his classic Steinman-composed Bat Out of Hell recording and his new Steinman-composed Dead Ringer, Meat Loaf finds himself having to prove himself all over again to a short-memoried public. At the same time he must put up with certain rock media types "punks" he says who won't treat him as a bonafide solo rock performer. But he's determined to cast off the past and try something something totally di-' vorced from the stylized, epic-proportioned works of Stein man. Loafs new band, the Never-land Express, is more guitar oriented than the outfits that have performed behind him on his last few tours.

This band, in fact, has been a highlight of Loafs current tour hich, at a recent Toronto appearance, saw his voice reduced at times to a painfully raw croak, further hampered by a cranky sound system. "It took me awhile to get started there I was a little hoarse because we had just done two in a row, and my monitors were real bad," Loaf said in his typical punchy, stacatto "We usually have more time between sound check and show to get ready mentally, y'know, and we'd just done a show in New Jersey the night before an' it was hard gettin' across the border an' we didn't get much sleep an' it was a hard night." Loaf actually expressed surprise that Toronto critics were generally positive about his concert. While recognizing the shortcomings of his vo 2nd week PACIT1CU3PALLB1 IMftvl AHS B4C SCHftN MOV MtlMiti lit II Centre i tonrjwi presents "THE SOUND OF MUSIC Starring Julie Andrews SENIOR CITIZENS' DAY AT THE easswasi mmr nw 1 1 -l mm a a ms CORNWALL CENTRE TUESDAY DECEMBER 1st at 2:15 p.m. All Seats $1 .50 Doors Open 2.00 p.m. Free Coffee and Donuts Courtesy McGavin Foods rca ADULT ROT ivsan "v--.

"Glorious. It is unlikely that any other American film this year will exceed 'The French Lieutenant's (Today) -am a different set of jaws. food- Today Sun. at 9:30 P.M. dinner theatre upstairs at the YU AM I HC1CC IfSN 4177 Albert ttreet lentrw Tickets: so oO 1 Fri Sat, $10 5(7 Reserve Now 586-3443 Dinner I 6 p.m.

1 I Show I 8:30 p.m. US' 12th. AVE. AT SCAHTH ST. 522 6363 Monday at 9:30 P.M.

THANK YOU REGINA FOR 52 YEARS OF PATRON AGE-CRAZY CAT TRIO! Those Risque Rascals and That 'Heavy Traffic' Gang in a 3-Hit Show! 1 I ihpThnrli lieutenants, toman THIS SAT. SUN. at 1 :45 Meat Loaf Umtttf Artists BP L1KO ADULT CHEW A change of careers SATURDAY AND SUNDAY 2:00, 6:45 9:05 OPEN AT 1:30 and 6:30 jn miLKtvwini. let. WILD! MO.

THStJIHE MM i W-V (WES of INILkNAIONAl concise and things are generally more focused. But it can get a lot better. There can be even more interesting sounds than we got here." Bennett feels an intelligent person can survive the banalities associated with the entertainment scene. "You try to summon as much optimism as you can muster. Because we cover so many of the bases, (Bennett and manager Sam Feldman own Ritdong Records, which leases Slugs albums to RCA and generates most of the publicity) we can't blame other companies and make mistakes on our own, which is good in a sense.

"Every time I begin to worry about cutting through the B.S. I remind myself that if I didn't like it I wouldn't be doing it." loji WHAT A TRIPtT TfCi a a L1l I'fsalTsa li lt ioz, -JJ i in ii uriiiiiriiiriiiKg Frown GENERAL I SPECIAL (Language Scenes Warnings) (jSHnSSl SAT- SUN- at 7: I DOORS OPEN 6:30 SHOWTIME 1:45 DOORS OPEN 1:30 11th. AVE. AT tftOAO ST. S22-77H 11th.

AVE. AT BROAD ST. 522 77SS CopyngMJ0Mpn Levme PieanU ktc 19W K3SEPH E. LEVINE Presents miCBDznrj maudadams TATTOO" Associate Producer ROBERT f. COLESBERRY Director of Photography ARTHUR ORNITZ Screenplay by JOYCE BUNUEL Based on a story by BOB BROOKS Produced by JOSEPH E.

LEVINE and RICHARD P. LEVINE Directed by BOB BROOKS Music by BARRY De VORZON r. Read The PINNACLE Book 1lTWCNTlETMCNTURV FOR nesincieu SATURDAY SUNDAY 9:00 P.M. Open at 1 :30 and 6:30 EDMONTON (CP) Doug and the Slugs, Doug Bennett's Vancouver-based musical project, has achieved an Impressive level of success in three years. Too Bad, the band's first album, sold more than 80,000 copies and earned a Juno award.

A follow-up, Wrap It, went gold 50.000 in sales within weeks of its release. The group, which was playing warehouse dances a couple of years ago, has been featured in an article in Rolling Stone magazine and is exploring film offers. Bennett, 30, left a secure working-class lifestyle in Toronto to enter the uncertain waters of the Canadian music business. He has experience as a graphic artist and cartoonist and worked briefly as an advertising agency art director. "My father wanted me to be a plumber, to have a good trade," he said in an interview.

"Getting involved in arts was flaky enough, and he could never fully understand me getting paid for drawing pictures in advertising. On the other hand, he can easily appreciate singing for a living. Now, art has become a hobby and I've got the world's best client me." Bennett changed careers because, he said, "I didn't want to end up 50 and bitter, thinking I could have been somebody if I had only taken the chance." "There's more than enough happening for a mid-life crisis, why should I arm myself with more ammunition." Bennett's stage presence includes baggy suits, wide ties and slicked-back hair. "The stage thing is blown up, a little bit of myself blown to stage proportions. I don't really go in for rock posturing and try not to imitate, so what we end up with is my own qualities exaggerated." The Slugs' first album, Bennett said, "was a nervous piece of work, a result of trying to create the same excitement on record as we did on stage, a difficult undertaking." "On Wrap It the band hadn't heard seven of the 11 songs before we went into the studio.

There's something different about arranging the songs on the spot that allows for some excitement and the ability to attack the pieces with high spirits. "I think the songs are more 111 un mi "D0NT MISS 'ARTHUR' LAUGH-OUT-LOUD COMEDY" U.S. Magazine Hear Christopher's Cross's Smash Single "Theme From Arthur" if viiMiuiiiirMTiwiFi "HILARIOUS! A TERRIFICALLY ENGAGING HIGH-SPIRITED SCREWBALL COMEDY." Vincent Canby, NY. Times 9vn jjbI aVrtti if nCIUSIBfMI tm OfUOM MCTIMf Mm RESTRICTED VZZ (Language Warning) SAT. AND 1:45.

7:20 9:15 ADULT (Not tuHabto for chHdreri) (Violence Warning) SATURDAY SUNDAY p.m. Open 1:30 and 6:30 OPEN 1:30 and 6:30 12rh. AVE. AT SCARTH ST. 422 1361 MONDAY St P.M..