The Agony Of A Pop Star

To be a successful pop star today the artist apparently needs a gimmick to make a hit with the youthful record-buying public. The gimmick, if effective enough, is also a convenient means of detracting from the fact that the artist has little or no talent.

Gisborne's teenagers had the opportunity of seeing in person one of Britain's "farther out" groups when the mop-topped "Pretty Things" starred with international artists Sandie Shaw and Eden Kane at the Opera House last month.

For many, the "Pretty Things" were the highlight of the evening, not because they were better performers than their fellow artists, but because of the crudeness of their act. Shambling around the stage, dressed in sloppy unmatching clothing, with cigarettes hanging from their lips, they hammered out their unusual music while their "vocalist" went through a routine similar to that of a person throwing an epileptic fit.

In the series of pictures on these two pages, singer Phil May is seen writhing through one of his numbers.

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1. Starting exultantly, May shoots his arm aloft.

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2. Clutching the microphone close to his mouth, he voices a torrent of indistinguishable words.

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5. Overcome by unknown inner forces, he sinks to the floor and reaches for the microphone

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3. As the song progresses his hair covers his face and his arms wave through the air

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4. Reaching a crescendo, he grips his hair in apparent agony.