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4. 1985 - North Share News

Table to
table

PAGE 53

ocal band picks up tempo

This receptivity and growing

SINCERITY is a rare commodity in the spandex that have something to say.”
and joi-jelled world of modern music poseurs.

1AW

Barney Bentall is blessed
with the sincerity, but has
thus far been unable to corral
the notoriety. Along with his
band, The Legendary Hearts,
the 29-year-old North Shore
resident has been ploughing
steadily onward through the
studge of homegrown
musical waters aboard an
honest conviction in his own

THE NORTH SHORE'S latest entry in rock and roll's ruthless sweepstakes, Barney Bentall fronts his Legendary Hearts, The

talents and those of his
band’s.

Course of the Legendary
Hearts is set firmly in the
mainstream classic sound of
bands such as the Rolling
Stones and cruiserweight
music personalities such as
Bob Dylan and Bruce
Springsteen.

“We are fortunate in this
band that we all like music
that has some raw energy and
humor attached and_ lyrics

Bentall says.

The present incarnation of
the Legendary Hearts has
been together for six menths
with its latest addition being
keyboard player, Anne
Leader. a dissatisfied drop-
out from Top 40 droners,
Mr. Cairo.

The line-up has begun to
attract notice. With the bom-
bast and promotional blare
of Bruce Allen Talent now
shaking the band’s
managerial reins, the wheels
of success have begun turning

band, graduates of the Bruce Springsteen school of rock, headlines Whispers next week.

Flicka G

in favor of The Legendary
Hearts.

For the last year, Bentall
has been writing songs and
recording demo tapes with
production being handled by
Bob Rock of the PayolaS. A
new set of tapes should be
ready to shop around to
record labels by mid-
summer.

Bentall's ambitions run
well beyond the standard
regurgitation of power
chords, back beat, and rock
till, you expire mentality.
Original Legendary Hearts

pi ato submitted

Gym Club

Summer program ‘85

For ages 3 to 13

Programs run
July 8 to Aug, 2

To register call Ruth Pilla at
986-1897

or

Rusty Pierce at 985-7918

songs, which Bentall co-
writes with fellow composer
Robert Arrow, are the focal
point of the band, its reason
to be.

“*Lyrical content is vital to
what this band is about,”’
says Bentall, ‘‘we've got
something to say and we try
to say it without sacrificing
musical | integrity and
sincerity.’

Bentall says his songs are
channeled through a mob of
characters whose fives run
full-throttle down the pot-
holed and speed bump strewn
road of life. The band’s
sound, he says, is American

not out of distaste for
homegrown music, but
because the roar of

Americana is just too loud:
“Tl mean, what is Canadian?
Local music has never been
given much of a chance. Un-
fortunately, compared to the
support Australians give to
Australian music, Canadians
are just not that supportive
of their own music.”

Bentall adds that because
of our proximity to the
United States, any Canadian
music that does become
popular is bound to be heavi-
ly derivative of popular
Amercian music.

He admits, however, that

Vancouver's local club scene
has begun to turn away from
the bland hum of Top 40
towards focal original talent.

i

2 famous designer. We car::
tell you who, so you'll have to
come see for yourself

confidence in showcasing
local music, he says, runs
hand in hand with the grow-
ing quality of that music.

After slogging away for so
long as a club warm-up act,
The Legendary Hearts will be
headlining Whispers cabaret
next week.

The band is still far from a
fulltime proposition. Bentall,
who is distantly related to the
owners of the Bentall Centre,
works days in the construc-
tion trade to pay the day to
day expenses of life, says he
is thus far satisfied to play
parttime: ‘‘it gives me time to
write.””

Though he says that record
companies are not beating
down the doors to offer the
band a record contract and
the distance to the summit of
the rock and roll heap re-
mains enormous, Bentall
bubbles over with optimism.

He puts no time limit on
when his run for rock and
roll success will stop, but
‘“Shopefully one day
everything will work out and
we'll be there."* Then adds
with a laugh, ** but if I'm still
playing Whispers when {'m

40, | might have to
reconsider.”
Barney Bentall and his

Legendary Heurts will be fill-
ing Whispers with the en-
thusiastic breath of youthful
fire from July 1 to 6.

Designer Save
111i West ist, N. Van.
986-2498

3189 W. Broadway, Van.
open 7 days a week

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