| New Zealand Music Month - Day 2 |
[May. 2nd, 2009|06:19 pm]
Daveosaurus
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As today is the first day of duckshooting season I thought it would be appropriate to put up something by Blam Blam Blam. This group were Mark Bell (guitar, vocals); Tim Mahon (bass, vocals); and Don McGlashan (drums, vocals, euphonium). If the band could be said to have had a leader, Don McGlashan would have been it; and he, often in conjunction with Richard von Sturmer, was also their most prolific songwriter. Mind you, Mark Bell could also write a decent song; one of their rarest tracks, Agency - only ever available on a live half-album back in the days of black vinyl - was one of his, and a notably good song as well. The band almost made it to the big time, until Mahon was injured in a van crash in 1982 and the band called it a day for the time being.
Back in the early 1980s there seemed to be a bit of a mini-trend of creepy stalkerish songs, most famous of which would be Every Breath You Take. The Blams' contribution to the genre was this song, Don't Fight It, Marsha, It's Bigger Than Both Of Us. Don't try listening for the song title among the words - it isn't there. The studio recording of this song is available on their "best of" compilation, "The Complete Blam Blam Blam", about which the only real criticism I have is the absence of the aforementioned Agency.
I haven't managed to find the song's actual video on You Tube, but I have managed to find a live performance of the song. I'm not sure when this would have been - during the band's active career, or a live performance from a couple of years later (the source of the recording of Agency, mentioned above). I'm leaning towards the latter answer, mainly because they seem to have managed to borrow someone's brass section for the performance (and also borrowed another drummer, letting McGlashan - and his euphonium - take centre stage).
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