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Reversing into tomorrow
Ira Mayer and Barry Taylor
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If ever there was a record company run with a sense of humor as well as a sense of pride it is the Stiff label, started on a shoestring budget by burgeoning vinyl moguls Jake Riviera and Dave Robinson last year with a single by Nick Lowe ("So It Goes" / "Heart Of The City"). Approximately one year later, the label is now distributed by Island in the U.K. and Riviera and Robinson (who also manage Graham Parker and the Rumour) are opening an office in New York at 157 W. 57th St. Last week, Robinson and Riviera were in town to finalize plans to bring The Damned into C.B.G.B.'s over the Easter weekend (April 7-9) for its first and only U.S. appearance. The group has all the subtlety of a blast furnace, but its first Stiff album (yet to be picked up by a label in the U.S. as we go to press) shows it to be one of the very best of the new wave bands. The second album for Stiff will be released in the U.K. next week and is titled A Bunch Of Stiffs. It is a collection of songs by Stiff's artists including Nick Lowe doing his "I Love My Label" and one guest artist whose name was purposely left off the lp jacket and label. Meanwhile, Stiff's first eight singles have all been deleted because, as Riviera succinctly puts it, "They were released in 1976. This is 1977. We're running a record company, not a museum." Future Stiff activities include a single ("Less Than Zero") and album (My Aim Is True) from Elvis Costello and Nick Lowe touring as part of Dave Edmunds' Rockpile when the group opens for Bad Company on an extensive American tour beginning April 25. Everything else is just speculation at this point, but Robinson is hoping to get Dylan to cover the Damned's "Neat, Neat, Neat" with Rat Scabies and crew backing him up . . . And speaking of the Damned's upcoming New York engagement, we hope they'll be visiting the club before the Health Dept. pays its second visit. The club has been cited for "serious health code violations." We wonder what that could mean.
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Clipping.
Cover and page scan.
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