Out on the street (Space Waltz) (LP 3853 - 3854)

Space Waltz  Space Waltz by Alastair Riddell (Vinyl, EMI Records, 1975) *****  

Space Waltz  Victory (CD, Universal Music, 2023) ****  

Genre: NZ Music, pop, prog rock, glam rock 

Places I remember: George Courts, JB Hi Fi

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Out in the Street

Gear costume: Hypnotise Me (Victory)

They loom large in his legend (The Album Collection playlists): Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; Part 5; Part 6

Active compensatory factors: WATCH OUT YOUNG LOVE!!!!

Well well well- who would have thought that a look and a song that could be so subversive in 1975 could stand up to scrutiny in 2025.

The glam look was the shock value back then wasn't it - the androgynous Alastair Riddell. This was our Bowie moment - when Ziggy wasn't a starman from the other side of the planet (so - like Mars) but a Kiwi on our TV screens. Wow. An Auckland kid!! That was the shock for me.

We all watched him on New Faces (very appropriately named) transfixed, mouths open, giddy excitement welling up. I'm sure our dads were all either bemused (mine) or disgusted. But this was our time!

Recently, I enjoyed re-watching the episode - what a boring, terrible load of old codswallop was served up to us back then - no wonder SW and SE stood out so thoroughly.

Out In The Street was the song that launched me into a different way of appreciating NZ music. Sure it was hugely Bowie influenced but there was something else at play - a stretching of boundaries of what could be a successful pop song/ pop star in NZ. Phil Warren complains during the episode that Beautiful Boy is too similar to Out In The Street and yes and no, it is glam and Bowie/Ziggy derivative but it's also a different song! And so what! He was obviously after all-round entertainer-ship - a ballad, a folk song, some pop and disco. Bollocks to that! Something was happening Mr. Warren and you didn't know what it was!

I had to have the album when it came out. Unlike Mental Notes which seemed scary and weird and fascinating and not One Two Nine - this album backed up my initial impression of OITS brilliantly. I bought a copy from George Courts in K Rd one Friday afternoon on a record ramble with amigo Greg Knowles (we'd start at K Rd and wander down Queen Street ending at Marbecks Records in the Queen's Arcade).

Turns out OITS was no one hit wonder - Fraulein Love and Beautiful Boy continued the Bowie fixation.

Listening to it now, I notice how some of the other songs sound similar to Mental Notes' prog rock moves. Love The Way He Smiles and Seabird could be long lost Split Enz songs (easy imagining Phil or Tim doing the vocals). Plus, Alastair looks vaguely like Phil. No wonder the boys were interested in Alastair as an Enzer.

N.b. - the below relates to the vinyl original. For some reason Spotify flick the track order around crazily.

Side one is all great - four quality songs. Side two now sounds a little samey but Open Up has a nice hook and some lovely piano from Eddie although it's hidden a bit in the mix. Greg Clark and Alastair play their best glam guitar on songs like Scars Of Love and Brent Eccles looks the part and is solid throughout (and also a little buried in the mix). The Yandall Sisters (yes - the Yandall Sisters) add lovely harmony to Beautiful Boy and LTWHS; Eddie rescues Up To Now with some great proggy keyboard flourishes and stars on the final track - LTWHS, by going full goose bozzo.

Negatives? Well, the lyrics are something Alastair may now look back on and go - what was I thinking? Some jar, some make no sense. But then again - who cares because they sound great. I read an article recently about why the language of song lyrics doesn't really matter and he makes some good points - Pocket - Why We Listen to Music With Lyrics We Don’t Understand (getpocket.com) So - there is that.

So, an easy 5 stars for me - a NZ classic. Both of its time and timeless.

Alastair reconvened the band in 2023 to record their second album - Victory. It's a smart blend of new songs in the same glam/prog style together with re-recordings of selected tracks from their first album and Alastair's solo stuff. It works spectacularly well.

Where do they all belong? Always there for Space Waltz and A Riddell - a singular NZ talent.

Passion and love (Alastair Riddell) (LP 3639)

Alastair Riddell  Positive Action  Vinyl, WEA Records, 1982) ***  

Genre: NZ Music, pop 

Places I remember: This is a promo copy sent to Margie's brother who was a rep for Festival Records in the eighties.

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Zero (YouTube)

Gear costume: Do You Read Me (YouTube)

They loom large in his legend (The Album Collection playlists): Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; Part 5; Part 6

Active compensatory factors: Alastair is a hero for many New Zealand music fans, including me. His poptastic music has been threaded through my life*.

This one (his second solo album) escaped me at the time. Weird, because in 1982 I was studying at teachers' college in Auckland and very much a music collector.

Hearing these songs on Positive Action in a wash of synths and AI drums in 2025 makes more sense than it probably would have done in 1982 when I thought of him as a glam rocker. I'm glad I finally caught up with it.

Where do they all belong? Stupidly, I sold off his first album many years ago and now it'll cost megabucks to buy a replacement. *Space Waltz albums are yet to come in the countdown.

This foolish boy - his head is in a whirl (Alastair Riddell) #325 - 326

Alastair Riddell Wonder Ones/ Oh Ron (Mandrill, M 10005, 1977)

Alastair Riddell What Good Does It Do Me/ The Last Time (Mandrill, DRILL 3, 1978)

Space Waltz were iconclasts in the New Zealand music world. Everyone of my generation will still remember their wonderful/brave/shocking/exciting 1974 television performance on 'New Faces' - the NZ's Got Talent of its day.

Alastair Riddell was the principle writer and the lead singer of that band and after that great eponymous album he went solo. 

Both these A sides come from his 1978 album (called Alastair Riddell - his imagination went into the songs rather than his album titles!).

Wonder Ones and What Good Does It Do Me are terrific tunes, displaying varying aspects of his vast talent.

Hidden gems: Oh Ron is a great (Ron is his brother)  slab of glam Bowie style pop - definitely a gem!