30 - Friday, September 25, 1998 - North Shore News

Roy Forbes’ Crazy 0

ROY Forbes released his latest solo
CD quietly in August.

Tonight he’s going to make some noise to
celebrate the results ata live show with some old
friends at The Vancouver East Cultural Centre.

The North Vancouver singer-songwriter has
put out 1] dises so far.
‘That's counting the -
two releases with UHF
(Ulrich Henderson
Forbes) and the
Christmas album he
did with Connic
Kaldor.

The latest disc,
Crazy Old Moon, is
solo album number
eight and the fourth in
3 scrics of independent
Projects he’s brought
together.

Among the musicians appearing on the album
are Claire Lawrence, Robbie King, John
Reischman, Miles Hill, Salvador Ferreras, Doug
Edwards, Cindy Church, Jerry Adolphe, Calvin
Vollrath and Brad Turner.

Turner, a music instructor at Capilano and
meiber of the hot jazz group Metalwood, is a
first-timer working with Forbes.

Forbes connected with him through Claire
Lawrence. “I had written Katockin’ On Wood and
we'd finished the track. It could have stood
alone, but I like to put a little extra stuff on it.
As you noticed this album is very under-pro-
duced. There’s not a lot of goop on it.

“One day I started hearing muted trumpet —
my love for the Miles Davis Kind of Blue album.
I was talking to Chaire, I said, “Well you know if

Micuast Becker
NEWS EDITOR

, Photd James O'sara
ROY Forbes plays the Vancouver East Cultural Centre, 1895 Venables, tonight.

The new dise also features a stark bit of
folk on If] Were A Raven,
He doesn’t let the rock ‘n’ roll thing get
out of hand on this one, but he hints at it
with a remake of J’v: On The Edge, a
Forbes track that first surfaces on 1994’s
UHF IL.
Forbes will be touring the new release “a
little bit.”
He doesn't want to spend too much of his
life on the road anymore. “I’ve done that.
I love being on the stage, bur the trav cling
wears you down after 20-odd years.”
Some of the tracks on Crasy Old Moon
were rattling around in the background a
while.
> Asong called Green Emotions was originally
Written in 1983. If 7 Were A Raven was.
: written for his mother’s 75th birthday. It
. took a while for it to settle in to a song.
No One To Talk To But The Moon was kick- .
ing around for two or three years..
~. “DP get them out and work on them and if
they don’t connect F fet them be until
they’re ready.
“Essentially they’re like cats. If you try to"
hug a cat and hold it, i'll j just claw y
Conversely, if you ignore it, the thing just:
won’t leave you alone.
As an independent artist, Forbes doesn’ t
have a contract that requires him to put
out an album every year. He was able to let”
me new batch roam/a while. In the case
m On The Edge, i it was intended for. the.
a album, but it ended up in the DHE
‘repertoire. When the finances allow, Forbe:
tours with top-notch musicians. For

For tickets call 280-4444. Forbes is celebrating the release of a new CD.

T had a trumpet player, who would fg get?” He
d rt to work with.”

said Brad Turner. He was su
They took the time and

idn’t just knock it

off. Turner wanted to speak to the tune and make sure that Forbes was happy.
Forbes sees his new album as a compendium of all the influences he's had throughout his

lite.

The country feel is pretty strong. It’s the kind of music he grew up with. Go back to the
ry first Bim (Roy’s former stage monicker) and you'll hear So Lonesome I Could Cry. tor

ple.

Every now and then Forbes likes to swing.
“L love jazz singing, especially jazzy gals. I collect 78s. One of the things 1 collect is jazzy

gals on 78s. One is Billie Holiday, obviously.”

and 1940s.

Mast of the faves were active during the 1930s

He first heard Billie when he was 20 or 21. The voice hit him hard. On his second album
there js a song called The Slider. It was his first attempt at jazz vocalizing.
_ He gets into it again on Crazy Old Moon with the track J Adways Knew I Loved You.

Playstation reinvents role playing genre

Fuaystation: Parasite Eve

(Squaresoft) _
With titles like this they had
to. invent a new genre type:
inematic RPG. That

theatre calibre, Full Motion
Vidco cutscenes and segues,
lout to gameplay itself: You
take a polygon character tule in
a movie-like, CG environment.
Hopefully, this is the furure
of Role Playing Games. Like
_ Panser Dragoon Saga on the
Saturn and Quest 64 on the
N64, this Psx title nicely blends
~ the phlegmatic intrigue of the
seek & search ‘and linear plot
“development of RPGs with the
sprawling grandeur of 3rd-per-
son action/adventures making,
it a thoroughly involved, thor-

~gpmughly absorbing game.

Parasite Eve.still relies on
agonisingly-slow printed dia-
logue, still loads each screen
page by page and still utilises a

From page 22

Standouts for me included

_. » Jenifer Aubry’s ditzy Maureen,

whose hilaridus sendup of
“performance art” should be
required viewing for all
Canada Council grant givers;
Saskia Garel’s Mimi whose S
& M dance number is a show
stopper; Chad Richardson’s

ae Roger who carries big ¢ chunks

of the show" 's energy while
never dropping the nerdish
edge of his character; and Jai
Rodriguez who finds just the

distracting sub menu to organ-
ise the truckload of tools,
weapons, spells, armour ctc.,
but the real-time interactive
battle sequences allow for
some gritty action as you
(policewoman Aya Brea- move
over Lara Croft!) wait for
attack-power to charge up (a
turn-based attack while
remaining in motion) or

. “Parasite Energy” (synony-

mous with “Psychic Energy,”
which evolves as the game pro-

" gresses) to peak before unload-
ing a seriously nasty barrage of
bullets, magic might or combi-
nation thereof upon thine
opponent(s).

: I the while you can run,
deck and evade the enemy
and/or enemy fire. Easily
likened to a cross between

-~ -Many standouts in cast

right blend of sass and sweet-
ness as Angel.

If | have one minor disap-
pointment it’s that the relagon-
ship that develops between
Angel and Tom Collins
(Danny Blanco) never q
fulfilled the intense possibilities.

Meeting the cast after the
opening I was amazed at how
young they all were to be so
talented.

Then again, Rent was
meant to be performed by and
for the new generation.

Send your kids.

Resident Evil and Final
Fantasy, Eve cases my con-
tempt for the RPG with this
new-age approach... That and
the fact that the FMV cut
scenes are beautifull, intense
and downright gruesome,

making this masterpiece as fun

to watch as it is to play. I’m
not totally sold, hows The
boredom factor does kick in

eventually, but mainly because,

as a career game geck, I have
the attention span of a gnat.

tonight's show he will be joined by. an.ol
friend from way back, Chris Nordquist

drums. Nordquist played on the Forbes release, The Human Kind and toured with the Bim

Band in the late ’70s.

On bass will be West Vancouver's, Doug Edwards, who played on Forbes’ first album. ac
in 1976. On guitar will be: Bill (Chilliw ack, UHF) Henderson.

On the recording business side of things Roy Forbes has been through the mill. In the é
days, in 1975, he signed with Casino. He had relatively good success with the. first couple o}
Bim albums. Forbes’ debut album, released at the tender age of 22, got hima Juno nor
tion. It sold 20,000, which at that time was a lor of records, Thar’s still a lot of records for. hi

to move.

By the time he was 24%, Forbes had experienced it all business-wise. He had Passed thr
the minefield of threats of lawsuits from old managers, the comfortable thing wi

Good rental. Great purchase.
Top Rentals:
1, Parasite Eve (PSX)
2. Spyro the Dragon (PSX)
3. Commandos (PC)
4. Heart of Darkness
(PC/PSX)
5. Elemental Gearbolt (PSX)
Sponsored by: InterAction
Computer Entertainment
120 E 3rd St. N Van (604)
987 3472.
www, gameaction. com

— Shaun Conlin

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