Guilford Life
BANDS GIVE HOT PERFORMNCE
by .It'll Schreiber
The steamy atmosphere
inside Sternberger
auditorium December 4th
provided a fitting stage for
one of the hottest young
bands on the pop scene,
the Connells. The Raleigh
based quintet was the
headliner of a three-band
bill set up by the Student
Union.
Two student bands
began the proceedings.
Diet Chicken Soda played
an inventive set of extend
ed jam instrumentals. IOU
followed with several
tasteful covers by the likes
of R E M., Jim Reed, and
Jimi Hendrix.
The pleasant folksiness
of 1.0.U.'s set seemed to
tranquilize the crowd, but
the Connell s got everyone
up and moving with songs
from their newly released
second album (Boylan
Heights). The album
recently moved into the
/Sr.iO spot nationwide in the
College Music Journal and
the group was fresh off a
short tour of the Midwest
in preparation for an up
coming nationwide tour.
The Con n e 11' s
trademark is jangly folk
hop pop. The group's live
performance couldn't fully
capture the rich, eleganl
studio effect of Boylan
Heights, but their
strengths shined through:
Peele Wimberley's per
cussion and David Con
neir. l >ass propelled the
twin 12-string harmonies
of guitarists Mike Connell
and George Huntley.
Democrats Sponsor Political Pollster
•>\ Jason I ndft uod
Harrison Hickman, a na
tionallv reknowned
political pollster and
Guillord graduate, was
here from November 9
through November 12.
Sponsored by the College
Democrats, Hickman
delivered four seminars
and one major speech in
Sternberger Auditorium
on Monday, November 9,
which was open to all.
Hickman spoke of his
career as a pollster,
which, he asserted, was
not always favorably look
ed upon. In his speech on
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Monday night, he said that
pollsters and other
political consultants col
late information from
voters for the candidates
with whom they are af
filiated.
Using the medium of
questionaires, they find
out what the voters would
consider their ideal can
didate. The pollsters and
consultants then try to fit
the gathered information
with their candidate, in
hopes to present a sellable
image to their consti
tuents.
Hickman asserted that
The Connells
Chris Jenkins and Tony U urri Photo: Eric Buck
the most prominent argu
ment against consultants
was that they "take the
issues out of political races
and turn them into per
sonality contests."
Hickman defended his
position by saying that
personality is actually
what the voters care most
about; if they trust a can
didate's ability and
character, they will tend
to pay more attention to
their views on the issues at
hand.
Hickman said that many
people have serious
ethical questions about the
job of the political consul
tant. For example, they
are often seen as under
mining the legitimacy of
voting, since they find out
what the voters want, and
then mold their candidates
to that.
Hickman argued that
consultants actually can
not do that; they cannot
change a candidate into
something they are not.
Also, he said that the
voters are smarter than
they are credited to be. If a
candidate comes across as
a phony, then they will not
trust them, and thus not
8
Huntley, also contributed
a frosty synthesizer and a
few vocal leads, like on
"Home Today," but the
group's lead singer, Doug
MacMillan, controlled the
show with his lilting
melodies delivered while
pounding a tambourine.
Most of the live material
came off the new album,
"Scotty's Lament," with
its Celtic jig introduction
and "Tray" seemed to be
popular dancing tunes
with the crowd.
The quintent featured
only three songs from
their first release Darker
Days closing their first set
with a rip-roaring version
of "Hats Off" from that
album.
Their set did not last
very long; the crowd
thought they were only
taking a short break when
actually it was encore
time. Soon enough,
though, the applause
mounted and the group
came back to tear through
covers of "Knockin" on
Heaven's Door" and Alice
Cooper's "18." MacMillan
did a pretty fair Jim Mor
rison on "Riders on the
Storm"and "Love Me Two
Times," while Mike
thrashed around on his
Rickenbacker. Their
finale was a chanted re
quest for one of their
earlier tunes, "Seven." As
the song came to a close,
MacMillan seemed to
speak for many newly-won
fans when he sang "I know
that someday/I would see
him again."
vote for them.
Hickman concluded that
political consultants help,
not hurt the system, since
consultants play a large
part in presenting infor
mation about the can
didates to the voters. Also,
candidates know more
about the voters than the
voters know about the can
didates.
In his other seminars.
Hickman discussed the
campaign of Senator
Terry Sanford, with whom
he was a pollster during
his campaign. He showed
many different commer
cials for the candidate,
(C oat, on j>.]4)