NEWS ENTERTAINMENT & STYLE GUIDE beach at | iverse’s end | Avant-garde pioneer Al Neil defines his void Michael Becker News Editor michacl@nsnews.com DIG this: you don’t need no homogenized yackety yack to keep your scene going. If you're bebop pianist, collage artist and author Al Neil you find a chunk of beach at the edge of nowhere and you get away. Man, you don’t need no map to get to the junk yard at the end of the universe. In Dollarton there is a ramshackle spot where the detritus of Neil’s lifetime has been sifted, smashed and reassembled. It is the last vestige of what once was a community of pco- ple who had no place in the machine. Malcolm Lowry was there long ago, living among the squatter shacks on stilts that dotted the inlet out to Deep Cove. Today there’s a set of wooden stairs leading to Lowry’s beach. Sidestep the dog poop, stip under 2 couple of trees reaching their way to the ocean and you'll find a boulder with a small metal plaque commemorating the spot where Lowry lived for a while and wrote his life’s mas- terwork, Under The Volcano. Lowry and the village of misfits are long gone. Yet Neil is still with us and is regarded, by the many who should know such things, as an important Canadian avant-garde pioneer. He has attained this status by virtue of inner necessity and found time. Knocking at the door of his 75th year, Neit celebrates an unexpected durability next week. Doctors had written him off decades ago, his Mortal endurance has played a role in bring- ing about that most tenuous of creative condi- tions many strive for yet few attain: Neil isa fully realized artist in a position to reap the financial rewards of a rich body of work. On March 25 (6 p.m. to 8 p.m.), Neil joins friends and fans at an opening reception for an exhibition at Atelier Gallery in Vancouver. Al Neil New and Selected will focus on Neil's labour as a collage artist. Atelier Gallery director Hana Atoni said the show features 20 picces from Neil’s private col- lection dating through the 1980s and some new work produced over the past year. Prices range trom $500 to $3,000. He has created hundreds of them since the carly 1980s. Neil began making collage portraits of artists and mystics during the mid- 1980s. Subjects have included the artist himseit, Samuel Beckett, Emily Carr, Gertrude Stein, Madame Blavatsky (the founder of Theosophy), Ezra Pound, Chairman Mao, surrealists Antonin Artaud and Rene Daumal. In an interview with Judith Sandiford for Work Seen in 1992 Neil had this to say on col- lage as a form of expression: “With myself, for the latter years, I’ve been doing collages mainly because of a loss of energy and motivation, because of how difficult it is to gather a group of like-minded musicians around when you have some bright ideas.” Yet the impulse to yield meaning by force of juxtaposition in abstract constructions has roots more deeply embedded in a personal past. As a young man Neil worked as a surveyor at the Kwakiutl village of Fort Rupert. He defined his space in the bunkhouse with lines of clothing. . ALNEIL ~~ biological system trashed by years of drug and ONE of Al Neil's recent collage works: Rene Dumai, 1992, mixed media, 41%"x29%". alcohol abuse. See Neil pane Alternative hands power through debut recordings Bob Mackin “They will come out and see bands, hang with Not until high school did Scallions want to be a singer. Contributing Writer cee you and be loyal.” Added singer/guitarist Brett Thar’s when he discovered Cult frontman Ian Astbury. . Scallions: “It’s a weird place to go and break it as “1 loved his vocals,” he said. “He just had a lot of power TENNESSEE is no place for a rock a band, but if you rake what's there and look at and aggression in his vocal style, some great songs there too.” and roll band to make it big these what's available, it makes a lot of sense actually.” Power, aggression and great songs are what Bell and Scailions days, according to members of Fuel. Harrisburg is on the banks of the Susquehanna want Fuel to be known for. Though it’s not a concept album, ver, a few hours east of Philadelphia. many of Sunburn’s tracks are united by the motif of the sun. The quartet moved from the cradle of rock Pittsburgh, New York City, Washington, D.C., “We've always based ourselves on energy, aggression and and roll to get radio airplay and a record deal. and Baltimore aren’t far away cither. trying to have as much power and depth in what we do,” Harrisburg, Penn. was chosen as the band’s new Bell and bassist Jeff Abercrombie grew up in the — Scallions said. “The sun is such a huge, powerful energy base and so far is working. Shimmer, the lead- western Tennessee rown of Kenton. Scallions, source, yet it’s such a beautiful and delicate thing — and dan- off single from the debut Sunburn album, was meanwhile, grew up in Brownsville, 45 minutes gerous at the same time.” the most-played song on American alternative MAYFIELD Four out of Memphis. Added Bell: “The album deals with struggle, trying to rack radio in 1998. singer/guitarist When he was four, Scallions was taken to see overcome obstacles and answering some of life’s tough ques- “I don’t know what it is about the people in Myles Kennedy. Elvis Presley, but didn’t stay awake through the tions, It comes from a fecling of desiring to be free.” (Harrisburg), but they really will support King’s revue Fuel is glad to be out of Tennessee, but the band’s current music,” said Fuel guitarist/songwriter Carl Beil before a “T made it "til about two or three songs and passed out tour mates are proud Washingtonians. March 31 concert at the Starfish Room with the Mayfield and fell asleep. | remember him running out and giving the Four. claw, I can say I actually saw him,” Scallions said. See Soul page 3