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keith a 9570 posts |
Dec 13, 2007, 16:25
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I know I'll never be able to hold my head up in public again, but I liked Secret Affair - all the 'spokesman for a generation' stuff was bollocks, but I thought they made some decent pop singles (Time For Action, My World). And there was a really good track on the LP - I'm Not Free (But I'm Cheap) that even Peel raved about. Saw The Purple Hearts live once. They were pretty good live as I remember it, though other than Millions Like Us (Oh no, they didn't!!) I can't remember their records. Disagree what you say re mods/fighting though, Ian. Worst gig violence I ever saw was at Jam gigs. Fighting whilst the band was on. Throwing bottles at each other in the queues outside the gig. Pretty scary stuff.
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IanB 6761 posts |
Dec 13, 2007, 16:31
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I am no expert. I'll definitely take your word for it! I only saw the Jam twice first at The Marquee and then at the Lyceum (just before the release of the first Banshees album which dates it) and it was really tame in the crowd both nights. They may very well have picked up a nastier element when they crossed-over into being a regular chart act. Or maybe it's just that their London fans were a bunch of softies! All I remember is a load of 14 year olds in harringtons and home made 'mod' jumpers a la the cover of the seocnd album.
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keith a 9570 posts |
Dec 13, 2007, 17:28
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IanB wrote: They may very well have picked up a nastier element when they crossed-over into being a regular chart act. Yeah, following the mod revival. Think it was the time I saw them end of '79 when it was at its worst.
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machineryelf 3681 posts |
Dec 13, 2007, 18:51
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I was chased by 4 parka clad youths whilst on my way to Southampton Gaumont to see Motorhead, seeing a lone longhair they decided on the grounds of musical taste to give me a good kicking. Good sense taking the better part of valour i legged it off to the Gaumont and was most pleased to see the expression on the teeny mods faces as they ran round the corner and slapbang into a large and surly member of the Winchester Hell Angels and a collection of his larger and surlier mates.
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paradox 1576 posts |
Dec 13, 2007, 18:52
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Please believe me when i say that the mods who hung in and around Derby between 79-80 were complete wankers! It got to the point were older rockers/grebs from my town were going into Derby tooled up and looking to do serious damage! As i stated before,it was a time when image/uniform/music meant so much more to the man in the street than it does today! Thats my own feeling anyway and obviously cant speak for everyone! Very scary times that i can look back fondly on now! Gigs had atmosphere!!!
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Shelby Mustang 605 posts |
Dec 13, 2007, 20:32
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i just think they're crap. i'm not saying it for affect so please don't think that this is purely sensationalism but i just don't get it, and you must agree that there is a degree of snobbery/elitism that surrounds them, just - in fact - like morrissey fans. with their sycophantic adoration of Dylan and the Clash i walked out on Uncut magazine. i cancelled my subscription after years of it dropping through my letter box. i figured that we'd grown apart and that i've made it this far in life without having to brown nose so why read such pupp
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Eduardo 375 posts |
Dec 14, 2007, 09:50
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Absolutely agree with you about uncut magazine, add beatles to the list of articles we get to read for the 100th time. (Used to like the crossword though!) I'm not slavish and adoring about bands or artists any more, it's all just music for pleasure. We'd be boring buggers if we all liked the same stuff. The clash weren't worthy of adolation, turns out neither were any of their peers. Most rock stars as people seem to be vain & egomaniacal - probably why they became roc stars. Joe Strummer never seemed TO ME to be like that. Chances are he was as vain & bigheaded as everyone else, he managed to keep up a staunch pretence about his background to lend authority to his political stance after all. I remember a comic strip in Sounds - what rock stars really mean. The first pic was Mick Jagger going "I was born in a crossfire hurricane", translated into something like "I was born in affluent suburb of expensive part of London". Then was Joe Strummer going "Daddy was a bankrobber", which translated as "Daddy was a weathy merchant banker". Last pic was Art Garfunkel going "Like a bridge over troubled water", whose translation I forget but was something deep & powerful! Sorry I'm rambling..
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IanB 6761 posts |
Edited Dec 14, 2007, 10:20
Dec 14, 2007, 10:08
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Can mainstream rock and roll - the music of teenage rebellion, drug induced exploration of inner space and sexual excess - ever really be "4 Real"? I've pretty well found over the years that it doesn't do too well to look too far beyond the smoke and mirrors of most mainstream rock and roll artists. And I deffo class The Clash as mainstream. As mainstream as Springsteen for sure. Suspension of disbelief is part of the game whether it is Gene Simmons flying through the air with blood pouring out of his mouth or the heart-on-sleeve politics of artists whose personal histories, mores and business practices don't always tally with their big message. This is what got Lester Bangs all hot and bothered over The Clash. Lets face it most major artists are generating enough cash to be classed as mini media conglomerates in their own right. The chances of there being absolute consistency from top to bottom are pretty slender. Someone is going to get fucked up or fucked over somewhere along the line and I think we would all agree that the artist should be the first to be paid and last to get screwed. Keeping things that way when there is so much latitude for skimming is probably going to involve some people and practices most fans would rather not know about. A quick read of Robert Greenfield's "Journey Through America With The Rolling Stones" is more or less the ultimate guide book for this kind of thing. The bigger the act the more fans should thnk twice before crossing the fourth wall. In some ways the WWF-like mercenary approach of American metal acts might be the most honest off all. "We're coming to town to take as much of your money as possible and in return we're going to blow some stuff up, play all the tunes you want to hear, fly through the air and tell you you're the best we''ve ever had." Anyway I like the Lenny Kaye approach which says that there are a zillion artists who maybe only have one three minute burst of creativity to offer the world but those three minutes are as worth preserving and celebrating as the storied careers of the Mojo-autenticated career rockers. And the whole Krautrocksampler thing is something of a hymn to that kind of thinking. The best rock and roll is often being made off the radar and in the nooks and crevices the media never get to and by peopel who simply don't have the stomach for the grand illusion. PS can I add Brian Wilson, Neil Young, Brooooce and Bob Marley to the list of the habitually over-rated?
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zphage 3378 posts |
Dec 16, 2007, 18:45
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Richard Linklater's "Dazed And Confused" is exactly where I grew up. Guys with long hair and heavy boots were called greasers. Usually they were into muscle cars. These were your Southern rock, Zep, and Floyd fans. There were also jocks, who were always Springsteen fans. Drop punk into this and the reaction was usually bad.Violent. Construction workers rainining debris from above. Being asked to leave supermarkets and dept stores. Fights in parking lots. Being cornered in the glass vestibule of a Burger King, not being let in or out, smashing through the glass. Police arrive, you escape, police chase, shut down your back lights so they can't read license plates. All boys school, when Lennon dies, some one puts up a picture with his face crossed out in red. Writing " 1 down, three to go, then the Stones" Lots of tension. clash, Pistols, Damned, Jam, etc all seen as pretty alien, threatening. Television, Patti Smith, Blondie, talking Heads were all pretty acceptible. Black Flag, Suicide,X, Circle Jerks, Angry Samoans were not. Zep Heads and Sprinsteen fans were both uncool about punk. Sabbath fans were usually good allies, cause they were usually open to NWOBHM, and La's Metal scene.
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Shelby Mustang 605 posts |
Dec 18, 2007, 22:24
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do you know what? that's damned right man. the three minutes are so worth equal rights. those three minutes sometimes get nearer to finding the answer than entire decade spanning careers of soul baring banner waving self harming mutilating martyrdom... innit! Thomas Dolby...Windpower!!!!
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