6 The Daily Tar Heel Wednesday, October 25. 1978
Local band faces long hours, low pay
on rocky road of full-time performing
To 71
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By MARK PEEL
Staff Writer v
1 t's 2 p.m. and the bar is deserted except for a man who
mops the floor and pauses now and then to listen to six
musicians rehearsing for the night's show. They've been
working on "Smoke From A Distant Fire" since 10 a.m.,
and although they've got the chords and changes down
pretty well, the song still sounds tentative and labored.
The two guitarists and the keyboardist try out a riff,
go into a verse and are joined by the singer for the
chorus. Suddenly, it all grinds to a halt. Someone has
missed an entrance and it's thrown off the rhythm
section. But instead of breaking for lunch," they run
through the song again.
This time it goes smoothly. The singer reads the lyrics
from a scrap of paper which he then holds between his
knees while he blows a sax break. At the end of the song,
the drummer hums a pass line which is slightly different
from the one the bass player had been playing. The
bassist tries to follow once, and the whole band repeats
the last four or five bars to tie down the ending, then call
it quits. They probably wouldn't try the song that night.
Since the members of Nightshift,a local band that will
appear at 9:30 tonight at the Mad Hatter, decided to quit
their day-time jobs and devote their energies into
becoming a professional band, what once were weekly
rehearsals have become daily sessions where songs are
worked up, standards are polished and originals are
presented.
Very few people who will dance to Nightshift tonight
will appreciate the work that has gone into a song that
seems to flow from the band like water from a tap. All
they know is that either it grabs their attention or it
doesn't.
Nightshift is gambling that it will.
When a -band decides to gQ full time, it does so
recognizing several hard facts. It means giving up the
security of a regular job and subsisting on what people
are willing to pay you for playing music and traveling to
cities like Greenville, Winston-Salem, Jacksonville and
Rocky Mount. It means frequent long practices, egos
frayed by indifferent audiences, bills past due and
frustrated wives or girlfriends.
Nightshift plays roughly four jobs a week. More dates
mean more money; also more travel. Some weeks the
band nets $70 per man. Some weeks they don't even-
make that. Why, then, would anyone do it? Not
unsurprisingly there are no rational reasons.
Although the band members share an obvious interest
in making music professionally, each member seems to
derive something different from his participation in the
band. Tim Hildebrandt, who plays rhythm guitar, seems
to have the strongest sense of direction. He simply wants
to make a living as a songwriter and performer. A
prolific writer, he contributes most of Nightshirt's
original material.
Carter M inor, who sings lead vocals and plays sax and
harmonica, seems to get a more obvious ego satisfaction
from playing for an audience. Although he claims to be
terrified by a crowd, he seems to feed on an audience's
reaction the more involved and attentive an audience
is, the better he performs.
Like Minor, Eddie Ibarguen, the lead guitarist, is a
performer but unlike the effusive Minor, "Grateful
Ed's" emphasis is on virtuosity rather than
showmanship. Even if he sometimes seems a bit stiff on
stage, there is no question that he is among the most
accomplished guitarists in the area: he plays gracefully,
and yet with a righteous facility.
Keyboardist Bill Butler and bassist Joe DeLuca seem
to get a personal and professional satisfaction from
contributing to the Nightshift sound. 'And indeed, a
sound is definitely emerging from this peculiar gumbo of
country, soul, southern boogie and fusion-jazz.
Nightshift began its life as a band, culling its members
from local institutions like Heartwood, Gravyboat,
Southwing and Bro. T. Holla. Although Nightshift's
antecedents had little in common except perhaps a thinly
veiled disdain for one another's styles, expectations were
high for the Crosby, Stils, Nash and Youngs of the
Piedmont.
Unfortunately, Nightshift turned out to be exactly
what one might expect from six musicians of different
backgrounds, temperaments and tastes. After two
months of work the band still had a diffuse, somewhat
murky sound, looked a bit ill-at-ease, and lacked a
strong identity. What made things especially difficult for
the band, however, was the inevitable disappointment
that fans of one or more of the parent groups felt at the
rough mix.
The result was consumer resistance to the group. But
the emergence of a group identity, a Nightshift sound
has been marked since the band went full time. Not only
are the performances more polished, the material is
more challenging and the personalities more engaging.
Jim Mitchell,' who sings and plays drums, has
characterized funk as the binding quality that unites the
group's diffuse elements.
, "Funk is where the holes are. It's a way of playing and
a way of not playing it's music with an almost palpable
feel to it. And it thrives on response," Mitchell says.
It's no surprise that musicians who are tuned into a
crowd's response are bitterly disappointed when they fail
to reach an audience. Nightshift, like any dance band,
plays a certain amount of commercial music in order to
get people to pay attention to their original material.
And very often, the crowd only responds to the pop
material.
At one job in the eastern part of the state, for instance,
the band couldn't get any kind of reaction from an
audience. In desperation, Ibarguen announced one of
Nightshift's original tunes as an Aerosmith number: it
was the only song they did that night that drew applause,
but it was a smash. (That job was on the coast, at an
outdoor site that was so ridden with mosquitos that the
audience listened from inside their cars!)
v
Asheville had been bad. The date had sapped their
energy and the band collectively felt beaten.
If the people took enough time from trying to score to
,get into the music and if the band could feel some kind of
collective response, Asheville would be forgotten and
Chapel Hill would set Nightshift's mood at least for a
while. .
Maybe tomorrow the phone would be cut off. but
tonight there was a guy down in front of the stage who
danced like he was wired with 20,000 volts. Smiling over
at Minor, Ibarguen-peels off a smooth, funky lead line,
and the guy dancing gives up whatever sanity he still had
and screams' in affirmation of the music.
For Nightshift, it can't be the money it's strictly
from the love of moments like this. -
. Tonight is Ladies Night at the Mad Hatter. Gals will
be admitted for free and guys for $2. Call 929-8276 for
information. .
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ihakespeareaii rep
;roup takes stage
for UNC workshops
By CHUCK BURNS
Staff W riter
With lights blazing down, four actors of the Royal
Shakespeare Company took their places on the Playmakers
Theatre stage. They were not there for a play, but to
exchange ideas and share their experiences with one of
Carolina's Drama 15 classes.
Sheila Allen, Charles Keating, Ben Kingsley. and John
Kane participated in a question and answer session, for as
Keating said, "As actors we're not qualified to give long,
Stimulating lectures."
.. Questions, ranged oyer:a myriad, of .topics in drama, and
the actors answered the questions as well as possible. At
times, two or three would answer a question jointly, causing a
lively banter between the actors.
All agreed on one point, however that they were not
there to dictate to the students, but rather, to try to show
some of the ways in which they had interpreted Shakespeare
and other playwrights through acting.
"We don't know everything," Allen told the students. "We
just want an exchange of ideas and attitudes. We want to
explore Shakespeare together with you."
Allen has been acting with the RSC since 1962. She
graduated from drama school in 1951 and said the school,
helped her learn how to bring together all aspects of acting.
Since then she has done some stagework, some work in films
and some technical work.
Even for the casual observer it is easy to see why Allen is an
actress. Eaeh-of her-speeches was augmented hy grappful,
flowing movements of her body, mesmerizing her audience
with dignity and refinement.
Although Keating did some acting in Minneapolis for Sir
William Tyrone Guthrie, he has been with the RSC off and
on since 1970. Keating also has done work in the television
and film industries.
Keating transmitted an impression of forceful character,
with a voice that sounded as if it could bring the roof down.
His hands moved constantly in majestic sweeps as he spoke,
as if he considered the entire audience his domain.
Lounging in his chair and obviously relaxed. Kingsley has
been with the RSC for about 1 1 years as an associate artist.
Starting as an apprentice English actor, joining the RSC gave
him his first major job in large scale productions, and he said
he still loves it.
A playwright as well as an actor, Kane attended drama
school in Glasgow, Scotland. He worked as an RSC actor for
about two yeafs and then switched to writing for three years.
Since 1974 he has combined both writing and acting.
Kane received a hearty round of applause for his double
rendition recital of Shaespeare's sonnet 1 30. H is first version
was romantically soft, but the second was a realistic and
honest; and that, he says, is what audiences want now -realism.
ip
-Skis
Actor Sebastian Shaw
DTHWill Owens
Although the RSC usually performs Shakespeare's plays,
it also has done plays by 59 other playwrights. "We have a
varied mixture," Keating said. "We do contemporary'
authors as well as Shakespeare."
The RSC will be giving workshops, performances and
informal lectures in classes this week. Formal lectures will be
at 8 p.m. today in 100 Hamilton Hall. Performances are at 8
p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday in Memorial Hall.
Thursday's production will be "Lovers and Madmen: A
Shakespearean Frenzy," a gallery of the bard's lunatics and
lovers. Friday's production will be a program of poetry,
prose and songs from writers as varied as John Donne and
Bob Dylan, called "Groupings." "Sigh No More Ladies" will
be presented Saturday and is -a comprehensive study of
Shakespeare's literary lovers.
Lectures are free. Tickets for performances are available at
the Carolina Union and Ledbetter-Pickard for $3 a
performance, or all three shows for $6.
... DTHKim SnooM
Carter Minor, saxophonist and vocalist for Nightshift
Olivier Mates in Pinter drama
5
The Associated Press
Take an early play by that master of
menace Harold Pinter, add performances
by Sir Laurence Olivier and Alan Bates,
and you have a recipe for an hour of
engrossing television.
That's just what the Public
Braodcasting Service is dishing up
Wednesday evening when it presents The
Collection as part of its Great
Performance series. The show will be seen
6Yackr to sponsor bike giveaway
k The, JcApe.r.-.MrA.iCarpJina's
yearbook,. ? will give ayvay. a; J 0-speed
bicycle, concert tickets ahdbther prizes in
a drawing scheduled for Friday, Nov. 15.
Anyone who purchases a 1978-79 Yack
by Nov. 15 or who has a Yack portrait
made by Nov, 3 automatically is eligible
for the drawing.
Sign up for portraits, which are free, is
being held at the Yack table in the Pit
between 9 a.m.-5 p.m. and at a table in the
Y court between 9 a.m.-l p.m. Monday
through Friday. Portraits this year are
being made in Rooms 205 and 217,
Carolina Union. Students may purchase
Yacks when they have their portraits
made.
confronts Bill and gets him to admit that
he slept with Stella. But is Bill simply
pretending he is guilty to goad James on?
Is- James suffering from paranoid
delusions, as Stella tells Harry? Did Stella
make the whole thing up, as Harry tells
James? Or did the two merely talk of
having an affair?
James is played with marvelously
understated passion by Bates, known to
American audiences as the artist in An
Unmarried Women and as the title
character in Masterpiece Theatre's
Mayor of Casterbridge.
Olivier, who also served as co
producer, has the smaller role of Harry,
and he is perhaps too old for the character
Grand prize for the drawing is a silve 4escrjbe4bPJer;a?inhis40s. Malcoln
locally at 9 p.m. tonight on Channel 4.
Engrossing, yet frustrating, because'
like all Pinter's works. The Collection
deliberately raises far more questions
than it answers. The plot revolves around
a sordid sexual encounter that either did
or did not take place during a dress
designers' convention in a hotel in Leeds,
England, between Stella, who is married
to James, and Bill, who lives with Harry.
At first it seems a simple case of
jealousy on the part of James, who
Windsor International 1 0-speed bicycle.
donated by Tumbleweed Cyclery, which
will be displayed in the Carolina Union
prior to the drawing.
Other prizes include two tickets to the
December concert of the Doobie
Brothers at Chapel Hill, donated by the
Carolrna Union, and food, beer and
movie passes donated by area merchants.
McDoweJLwho starred in If... and A
Clockwork Orange plays Bill, and Helerf
Mirreh, little known in this country, is
Stella.
The Collection was first performed on
British television in 1961 and later was
presented on stage. The current
production was taped for British
television in 1977.
EARN $50
IN 10 TO 15 HOURS!
View video tapes and
make judgements about
behavior for a
social-psychological study.
APPLY AT:
222 Hamilton Hall
between 10-12 a.m. or
1-4 p.m. on
Mon., Oct. 23, Tues., Oct. 24,
Wed., Oct. 25
JEWISH STUDIES?
JEWESS CAREERS?
Discover possibilities at JTS.
Rabbi Donald D. Price, assistant dean at
The Jewish Theological Seminary of America,
will be at the Hillel House on Thursday,
October 26 from 10 a.m to 12 noon to discuss:
undergraduate and graduate programs in Judaica
visiting student programs and summer programs on undergraduate
and graduate levels '
alternatives for study in Israel
Rabbinical School
Cantors Institute, and academic programs in ethnomusicology and
liturgical music
a joint program in Jewish communal service with Columbia University
School of Social Work
For an individual appointment with Rabbi Price, contact UNC Hillel, 942-4057
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LAY-A-WAY NOW
FOR CHRISTMAS
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