On the Edge of a Dream...
[mood| 
busy ]
[music|New Order "True Faith" ]
Alban Arthan is upon us. The Celtic cycle of 19 years will reset.
While seeking out another book suitable for lunchtime reading during work hours (I usually take history books, but I get tired of being prompted to take notes as I read AND eat), I rediscovered a book I bought when it first came out. I set it aside to show to another rabid Sisters of Mercy fan, and promptly forgot about having it at all.
THE DARK REIGN OF GOTHIC ROCK: In the Reptile House with The Sisters of Mercy, Bauhaus, and The Cure by Dave Thompson
Showing my age, since all these bands are my contemporaries (yes, we're all desperately approaching the age of 50, which is utterly unthinkable!), I had to have it--both for its subject matter, and because Dave Thompson was one of the writers I always made a point of reading throughout the Eighties. I was one of those people who actually paid to IMPORT New Musical Express, Sounds, Melody Maker, and Kerrang! every week so that I could suck down the wordy goodness while I prepped to go out and do similar things to bands I was assigned to shoot and interview. Nevermind Spiral Scratch, Flexi-Pop (a pop magazine worth it for the limited edition music put on those horrible acetate records by my beloved bands), The Face, New Sounds New Styles, and about ten other magazines I can't recollect the names thereof.
This book...every, single piece of vinyl I own is in this book! I still have a fairly decent record collection (pared down from the thousands I had by the beginning of the Nineties) that I'm labouriously transferring to CD via CD burner connected to my rack of electronics downstairs.
I know the histories, band members, singles, albums, photo shoots, videos, and probably hairstyle changes of all these bands...predominantly from the North, but not to exclude the bands who came later on down the line from all over Great Britain. Reading this is a wonderful trek through a landscape still alive with that music...most of which has not really 'aged' the way pop music or other genre band's music has. You cannot fail to place A Flock of Seagulls firmly into MTV's (and Yorkshire's Bill Nelson-inspired) early Eighties, but you can still listen to bands like New Order and they seem timeless.
I miss the excitement of a musical period where everything is new and brilliant and startling...but in our current period, with record companies owned by communications conglomerates that also own the venues and video programme cable/satellite channels, it's harder and harder to find that. The whole DIY thing from punk on could never survive now. (If you ever wondered how someone like Britny Spears or N'Sync could become huge overnight, this is how--the companies signing them are also the companies promoting them, giving them the venues to perform in, and are almost the sole beneficiaries of their output/input. Big Business killed the radio star.)
I'm always open for new music, and I'm glad I lived and worked in a period where things really WERE exciting and new ideas and music were released frequently. I challenge the real musicians, the real artists, the real performers to keep pushing your limits and barriers, because we need you.
We truly need you.
Love,
Nechtan :)
busy ]
[music|New Order "True Faith" ]
Alban Arthan is upon us. The Celtic cycle of 19 years will reset.
While seeking out another book suitable for lunchtime reading during work hours (I usually take history books, but I get tired of being prompted to take notes as I read AND eat), I rediscovered a book I bought when it first came out. I set it aside to show to another rabid Sisters of Mercy fan, and promptly forgot about having it at all.
THE DARK REIGN OF GOTHIC ROCK: In the Reptile House with The Sisters of Mercy, Bauhaus, and The Cure by Dave Thompson
Showing my age, since all these bands are my contemporaries (yes, we're all desperately approaching the age of 50, which is utterly unthinkable!), I had to have it--both for its subject matter, and because Dave Thompson was one of the writers I always made a point of reading throughout the Eighties. I was one of those people who actually paid to IMPORT New Musical Express, Sounds, Melody Maker, and Kerrang! every week so that I could suck down the wordy goodness while I prepped to go out and do similar things to bands I was assigned to shoot and interview. Nevermind Spiral Scratch, Flexi-Pop (a pop magazine worth it for the limited edition music put on those horrible acetate records by my beloved bands), The Face, New Sounds New Styles, and about ten other magazines I can't recollect the names thereof.
This book...every, single piece of vinyl I own is in this book! I still have a fairly decent record collection (pared down from the thousands I had by the beginning of the Nineties) that I'm labouriously transferring to CD via CD burner connected to my rack of electronics downstairs.
I know the histories, band members, singles, albums, photo shoots, videos, and probably hairstyle changes of all these bands...predominantly from the North, but not to exclude the bands who came later on down the line from all over Great Britain. Reading this is a wonderful trek through a landscape still alive with that music...most of which has not really 'aged' the way pop music or other genre band's music has. You cannot fail to place A Flock of Seagulls firmly into MTV's (and Yorkshire's Bill Nelson-inspired) early Eighties, but you can still listen to bands like New Order and they seem timeless.
I miss the excitement of a musical period where everything is new and brilliant and startling...but in our current period, with record companies owned by communications conglomerates that also own the venues and video programme cable/satellite channels, it's harder and harder to find that. The whole DIY thing from punk on could never survive now. (If you ever wondered how someone like Britny Spears or N'Sync could become huge overnight, this is how--the companies signing them are also the companies promoting them, giving them the venues to perform in, and are almost the sole beneficiaries of their output/input. Big Business killed the radio star.)
I'm always open for new music, and I'm glad I lived and worked in a period where things really WERE exciting and new ideas and music were released frequently. I challenge the real musicians, the real artists, the real performers to keep pushing your limits and barriers, because we need you.
We truly need you.
Love,
Nechtan :)