Gruppo Sportivo - 10 Mistakes (1977)

It would be a mistake indeed to regard Gruppo Sportivo's 1977 debut as a mere aural equivalent to television's Happy Days. Where Happy Days is retro-saccharine for the masses, 10 Mistakes is retro-kitsch for the intellectual elite. Where Happy Days expresses genuine nostalgia for a bygone era, 10 Mistakes embraces more the absurdity of the era than the era itself. Where Happy Days is Norman Rockwell, 10 Mistakes is Roy Lichtenstein. A main reason for this seeming aloofness is geographical. Gruppo Sportivo are Dutch, having experienced the glory days of post-war American pop culture not first hand, but filtered through TV shows and films as cheesy and overbearing as Peter Calicher's pervasive "96 Tears"-inflected farfisa. Yet what Gruppo lack in true feelings of nostalgia they more than compensate for in wit, musicianship, and their uncanny ability to satirize without the slightest trace of condescension. Indeed, frontman Hans Vandenburg (aka "Vandefruits") unashamedly cops familiar lyrical and musical motifs from pop's past, weaving them so overtly, yet so deftly into his B-movie love affairs, spy thrillers, and sci-fi tales, that only the stodgiest and most litigious listener would think to cry "Plagiarism!" instead of reveling in his obvious love for the genre.

The album opens with the maddeningly catchy "Beep Beep Love," one of only two GRUPPO tracks to garner any US airplay, in which Roger Corman and Tom Petty vie for most-favored-influence status as Vandenburg relates his tale of cartoon space-love. Side One continues with "Superman," a six-minute, four-color comic book love triangle complete with romance, deceit, intrigue, murder, jail time, and the keyboard riff from Del Shannon's "Runaway." Elsewhere, we find the rinky-dink "Girls Never Know," ("Girls never know/What they want to be/That's why they start a family") "I Shot My Manager," a parody of the music business set to BOB MARLEY, and "Mission A Paris," a dime-store spy novel of stolen NATO plans and secret rendezvouses at the Eiffel Tower.



Throughout, the vocal talents of "The Grupettes," Meike Touw and Josee Van Iersel provide an Abba-like sheen to this joyous noise, perhaps most effectively realized in "Dreamin'", a moody sex fantasy piece in which the Abba resemblance is uncanny: "I want a scene in my dream with a movie queen!" Finally, "Rubber Gun" takes a few good natured jabs at the shallowness of the gay bar scene ("Switch on the jukebox and let Louie sing/About his underwear and his rubber loving thing,"), which are ultimately more endearing than critical. While Vandenburg is the obvious conceptual brain of Gruppo, the band is hardly relegated to back-up status. Peter Calicher's inventive keyboards are pushed way up front for maximum cheese-whiz appeal, while the rhythm section of Max Mollinger and Eric Wehrmeyer is confident and aggressive. Still, it's Vandenburg's vision and talent that bring it all together. Indeed, on future releases, Gruppo eased up on the kitsch, Vandenburg's infectious personality playing a more central role in the proceedings with no loss of appeal.

read more:
http://seedyroad.com/seedyroad/gruppo/10mistakes.htm





Track Listing


Beep Beep Love (2:56)
Superman (6:23)
Lasting Forever (4:12)
Girls Never Know (3:20)
I Shot My Manager (2:46)
Mission a Paris (4:16)
Rock 'N' Roll (2:29)
Dreamin' (4:19)
Henri (4:22)
Armee Monica (4:44)
Rubber Gun (3:14)