Brian Eno is MORE DARK THAN SHARK

INTERVIEWS, REVIEWS & RELATED ARTICLES

Rolling Stone SEPTEMBER 12, 1974 - by Staff Writers

ENO & CO: ACNE

LONDON - The acronym that an inspired British fan suggested for Kevin Ayers, John Cale, Nico and Eno as they wended in and out of each others' acts earlier this year is the description your mother was reaching for all this time when she thought of rock & roll: ACNE.

The four were between projects - Eno just divorced from Roxy Music, Cale and Nico further each day from The Velvet Underground and their last brush with fortune, and Ayers nine-and-a-half years into a career that so far peaked five years ago as bassist with the original Soft Machine. All, quite coincidentally, were contracted to Island Records.

The label put them together at the Rainbow Theatre in June, basically to help out Ayers, and got from it a live recording and the kind of audience response that prompted a couple more shows in the backwaters - Manchester and Birmingham - and an announced free concert in London's Hyde Park, the first in three years.

Eno was ill though; Cale decided not to perform; and only Nico and Ayers eventually played. Later, Eno was to say of ACNE, "It was only a passing thing, I can't see anything permanent coming out of it."

Eno had his solo projects, an album, No Pussyfooting, with King Crimson's Robert Fripp and studio work to turn to, figuring to work with Cale and Ayers along the line.

Cale, now married to Cindy (formerly Miss Cinderella of The GTOs) and freshly back in London from a nomadic career as arranger, producer, singer/songwriter, quadrasonics expert and, finally, A&R man for Warner Bros, in Los Angeles, has his first Island release ready for September. And he has recorded Heartbreak Hotel, a knockout at the ACNE concerts - as a single aiming for a British chart hit. "Top Of The Pops I love," he said. "I don't care. I've got confidence."

Nico, rescued from wandering the south of France by Cale, who brought her to Island, has been in the studio with Cale handling production.

Ayers, riding a three-year contract (that so far has netted Island two singles and an album, The Confessions Of Doctor Dream, that cost more than £32,000 to produce), plans another album and a tour "Septemberish" with his backup band, The Soporifics.