‘The Avengers’ strike back via syndication
Courtesy of St. Martin's Press
Mrs. Emma Peel (Diana Rigg) joined John Steed (Patrick
Macnee) to form “The Avengers” from 1965-67.
The name John Steed not only
struck terror into the hearts of evil
doers galore, it also struck a welcome
chord with audiences throughout the
United Kingdom and the United States
during the 1960’s.
Now he’s back.
“The Avengers” has found new
fans again via the immortalizing
powers of syndication. The Arts and
Entertainment Network, CableVision
channel 34, broadcasts episodes at 10
a.m. and 5 p.m. weekdays.
The first incarnation of “The
Avengers” took shape in the fall of
1960. London’s Managing Head of
ABC, Howard Thomas, wanted a
program like Alfred Hitchcock Pres
ents or Ian Fleming’s James Bond
novels, with a pinch of humor.
Doctor/detective, Dr. David Keel,
played by Ian Hendry, was to be joined
by a shady British Secret Service
undercover-type named John Steed.
Newman remembered working with
Patrick Macnee in Canada and gave
him a call. Macnee had just finished a
television documentary, “The Val
iant Years,” chronicling the life of
Winston Churchill.
Macnee found that he couldn’t
refuse the offer. Armed with a bowler
and an umbrella, the stage was set.
Literally.
The first three seasons of “The
Avengers,” spanning from Jan. 1,1961,
to March 21,1964, were shot on vide
otape, and almost entirely on a stage.
“The Avengers” used outdoor film
footage only for car scenes or some
tricky bit of espionage.
There is some question whether
several of the 26 episodes from the
first season were taped at all.
“The Avengers” didn’t draw an
immediate audience. Hendry made
his exit to pursue a film career, and
producers decided to give John Steed
a female counterpart. That counter
part was to take “The Avengers” in a
new direction.
Honor Blackman was enlisted for
the role of Mrs. Catherine Gale, a
widowed academic anthropologist. The
straight, strong, leather-clad, femi
nist character of Mrs. Gale was to
offset the suave and cad-ish black
sheep Steed.
After two seasons of making “ I he
Avengers” a growing success, Black
man left the show for a film career,
being cast as Pussy Galore in the 1965
James Bond classic “Goldfinger.”
Steed took a new leading lady by
the name of Mrs. Emma Peel, played
by Diana Rigg. Audiences loved the
beautiful and dangerous new Avenger.
The United States’ ABC picked up
the show for the first time.
Americans loved it.
Before leaving the series for film,
Rigg’s character was featured in 56
episodes spanning two seasons, one
in black and white and one in color.
The final season of 1968-69 fea
tured Linda Thorson’s character, Tara
King.
But she was no Emma Peel.
Of the nearly 10 years that “The
Avengers” originally aired, the epi
sodes with Macnee and Rigg are the
best.
They’re the definitive Avengers.
Stock is a junior English major and a
Daily Nebraskan arts and entertainment
reporter and columnist.
Pulverizing pleasure
Last Crack releasing honest, fresh driller
By Michael Deeds
Senior Editor
Last Crack
“Burning Time”
Road Racer Records
The most appealing aspect of Last
Crack’s second LP, “Burning Time,”
is the obvious honesty involved.
Vocalist Buddo is, admittedly, one of
those artsy, Perry Farrell freakazoids.
But there is no bull here.
Instead, this eccentric leads a sear
ing hard rock onslaught filled with
imagery of absolutes — of love and
hate, life and death.
Hailing from the liberal haven of
Madison, Wis., Last Crack manages
to conjure a wispy wall of thought
and power, avoiding all the cliches
drifting rampant in the world of rock
and metaldom.
“Burning Time” attacks with a good
chunk of diversity, ranging from
whispering ballads to raging metal
and psycho-art rock. Knob whiz Dave
Jerden adds tinges of Alice in Chains
and Jane’s Addiction to the sound,
but it’s tough to decide whether it’s
his production or Last Crack’s talent
that rings similar.
“Burning Time” is a truly exciting
work from the very first notes of
“Wicked Sandbox” to the fading paean
to love, “Oooh.” Guitarists Pablo
Schluter and Don Bakken have an
obvious progressive metal background
but carve out a stinging masterpiece
of innovative angst. Chuck the fret
masturbation — the speed monger
leads are few and far between. In
stead, the duo prefers to twist each
solo into a torrid wave of passion
picking, bending notes in a visionary
exercise in harmonic dissonance.
Metalheads and college radio fans
alike should be pulverized with pleas
ure by “Burning Time,” because there’s
a lot of both in this band. Buddo is
similar to Bono in more than one
way. His vocals stretch the imagina
tion, and his moans do resemble those
of U2’s frontman at several times.
But it’s the Jane’s Addiction sort of
fan that will swallow Last Crack
immediately.
Tunes like “Blue Fly Fish Sky”
and Mini Toboggan epitomize Last
Crack’s theme of rich guitar and day
by-day lyrics. Love doesn’t have to
be sappy, so Last Crack doesn’t Sing .
about “Cherry Pie.” Neither does
philosophy, so Buddo tackles it from
a personal point of view, rather than
the omniscient yet pretentious “pro
fessor hypocrisy” angle.
But the ingeniousness of “Burning
Time” doesn’t lie in the intelligent
lyrics. It lies in the band’s sound.
Every song is a driller, and the fresh
ness can’t be denied. This is perhaps
the best independent hard rock alter
native to hit the shelves so far this
year. Watch for it in mid-June.
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Last Crack Courtesy of Road Racer Records
Singer: Band only plays own tunes
By Robert Richardson
Senior Reporter
After finally getting fed up with the alterna
tive music scene in Texas, Buddo went home to
Madison, Wis., and almost back to college to
finish up his philosophy major. But he decided
he had too much left to say to the world.
That’s when the lead singer of Last Crack
left his name on a billboard at a music store —
because he “just wanted to jam.’*
“It’s really pretty wild the way that this band
has come to be, it really is,” Buddo said. “It's
just like a bunch of either coincidental things or
the hand of fate.”
Currently promoting the band’s latest re
lease, “Burning Time,” the newest member of
Last Crack explained that when the band first
formed in March, 1987, the group kind of got
lucky.
s A woman who believed in the band gave the
members $500 to make a demo tape and after a
year, the tape fell into the right hands. Last
Crack wound up signing a contract with Road
Racer Records.
But the road to success and a complete band
hasn’t always been smooth for Last Crack.
Band members had trouble deciding if they
wanted to play covers or perform their own
music.
“Actually we had quite a few fights about
that,” Buddo said, “because I think the rest of
the guys came from like a traditional type of
commercial hard rock background. In Wiscon
sin, you have to play covers if you want to play
the clubs, really.”
But the decision was made for the band
while performing at a club. Buddo was singing
a Robert Plant cover, and his voice cracked.
‘‘I go, ‘We are Last Crack and we’re going
to play our own shit from now on.’ That was
pretty funny,” Buddo said.
But now Last Crack seems to be more estab
lished, more professional, more productive and
much more focused. Buddo explained that there
really isn’t any leader in the band and that
works out just fine.
“It’s more alive, it’s human,” Buddo said.
“It’s not mechanized. There’s a lot of room for
error, but then there’s a lot of room forfreedom
and expression."
Buddo said a nice generic term for Last
Crack’s music is “progressive hard rock.” But
for a band influenced by hard rock of the ’70s
Last Crack’s biggest influences lie closest to
home.
I d have to say the biggest influences for
the band right now are each member, the way
we influence each other,” he said “I think
we’ve just grown so diversely that the chal
lenge now is having all five of us writing this
tndwhai wc have to agree on comes
from five different worlds."