Hard News: You've got to listen to the music
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@Simon,
certainly those videos make me still wish i'd been old enough to see N.O. at Mainstreet at the end of '82. thanks!
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NYC. Ah yes, the Fun House club. Guess I was thinking of Arthur Baker's Chicago House lineage. That concert footage is effen fantastic. Stephen, also missed 1982, but the 1985 N.O. concert was notoriously short (45mins?), and if I'm not dreaming, we went to Quay Street for Car Crash Set afterwards. Simon will correct me if I'm wrong ;-) That was not a dig, it's just there's genuine train spotters, and plain old musical enthusiasts like me who suffer from memory lapses.
Here's some more funked up stuff.
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So the sum total of my knowledge of '80's Chicago house comes from about three tracks and watching a UK Channel 4 series called 'Pump up the volume: a history of house'.
Which, thanks to the wonders of the internet, appears to be available here.
Ah yes. I have a slightly ropey copy of that (and so does Simon, now) -- it's essential stuff. I might have to look at ripping the YouTubes if they're better.
But I had to laugh at the comments for that post. For as long as there is dance music, there will be dance music genre fights ...
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Back to the BDO, yeah while I'm a hard core fan of all that is the day in the park, where's the quintessential act?
New Order, Iggy Pop, Neil Young aaaand... Lily Allen. Meh!
Still Dimmer in the Boiler room, Minuit, Kora on the main stage, Mars Volta screaming maniacally with some Groove Armada to round it off. I'll buy that for $139.50. Shit, did I pay that much for the tickets?
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and if I'm not dreaming, we went to Quay Street for Car Crash Set afterwards. Simon will correct me if I'm wrong ;-)
I went to the '82 gig (and got to spend a fair bit of time with Rob Gretton, who asked if I wanted to distribute Factory..I had no money so declined..the next record was Blue Monday), and the party the day before at the little club underneath Mainstreet, where an Auckland journalist got asked to leave for making inappropriate comments about Ian Curtis not wanting to be seen dead hanging around there (urrgghh). However I was in London so missed the '85 one, where I did see them at, I think, the Royal Festival Hall, in '84. The gulf between the '82 and the '84 band was enormous.
The next time in Auckland was '86 or '87 at the Galaxy, where they famously pulled out Ceremony to a huge response, which meant they could do no wrong after that, and finished with a cover of Sister Ray. I've got a tape of that show somewhere.
Here's a review of the '85 gig from Andrew Niccol who was still a decade from making Gattaca when he wrote it.
I might have to look at ripping the YouTubes if they're better.
They're missing part 8 which is the rather crucial Shoom bit.
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i'd been old enough to see N.O. at Mainstreet at the end of '82
The eighties were a fairly rich time to be seeing edgy live music in Auckland (and much of NZ, although not all toured south), thanks to a new breed to adventurous promoters both in NZ (Terry Condon and Doug Hood) and in Australia (Lees & West, who still do BDO).
Between 1980 and 1987 I can count (and some made it several times): The Knack (playing their one hit for what seemed like forever), The Members, Wreckless Eric, The Cure (to about 30 people at Mainstreet first time), Clash, XTC, Graham Parker, Banshees, Echo & Bunnymen, Magazine (brilliant), Fall, Crammps, Shreikback, New Order, Teardrop Explodes, Run DMC, Residents, Costello (4 times I think), Birthday Party, Ramones, John Cooper Clarke & Nico, John Cale, Billy Bragg, Madness, Blondie, The Police, Talking Heads and I guess many who I've forgotten.
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The next time in Auckland was '86 or '87 at the Galaxy, where they famously pulled out Ceremony to a huge response, which meant they could do no wrong after that, and finished with a cover of Sister Ray. I've got a tape of that show somewhere.
Actually, I think it was this gig, because it was at the Galaxy. Memory lapse city, here we come...
Other gigs in that period that my memory is dredging up; Go Betweens, Tackhead (in my top 5) & Jesus and the Mary Chain. Is this getting a bit Facebook-ish? Oh well. We yearn for those musical life-altering moments like Kieth Le blanc and Doug Wimbush doing No Sell Out, or Shriekback's All lined up.
I've got NO doing Atmosphere at the 2002 BDO, and there is an eerie silence before and after the song, because all the kids went home early, not knowing what we were on about.
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Tackhead (in my top 5) & Jesus and the Mary Chain. Is this getting a bit Facebook-ish?
Of course it is, but who cares...yes Tackhead, of course. Huge.
I've got NO doing Atmosphere at the 2002 BDO, and there is an eerie silence before and after the song,
There is an odd disconnect between NO and JD..as if people haven't worked out they are the same band.
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Shreikback. First band I saw in NZ, at the Galaxy.I had been here for only a few days and had just realised that Mt. Eden was not the nightspot I had been led to believe but it had the Galaxy within walking distance, they used to put the buses back in the toybox around 9 pm and the guy I was staying with thought drinking and driving was like a bad thing so wouldn't lend me his rather smelly gib-stoppers van (he used to use milk-powder to slow down the chemical reaction in the plaster back then). I was surprised to find out that they were an English band 'cos I had been living there for years and had never heard of them.
One of my new year's resolutions, that I haven't already broken, is to go to the Powerstation (nee Galaxy) more often. -
Back to the BDO, yeah while I'm a hard core fan of all that is the day in the park, where's the quintessential act?
New Order, Iggy Pop, Neil Young aaaand... Lily Allen. Meh!
I spoke to someone who knows yesterday: sales are ahead of where the BDO was at at the same time last year. Sad as it may seem, Muse are a bigger draw than Neil Young.
Also, as I'd heard, The Pogues were pencilled in to close the alternative stages right up until the first announcement -- but they wanted too much money. Various substitutes couldn't be swung, so we ended up with Fear bloody Factory.
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There is an odd disconnect between NO and JD..as if people haven't worked out they are the same band.
I heard Bad Lieutenant on bFm a while back, and I rang up and said, 'Wow, that's Bernard Sumner', and the DJ at the time said 'Who?'
I felt old. And also a little disappointed.
so we ended up with Fear bloody Factory.
Who? ;-)
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I was surprised to find out that they were an English band 'cos I had been living there for years and had never heard of them.
They were much bigger in NZ than anywhere else. My Spine Is The Bassline was a huge club tune in the early 1980s and charted, as did the next few singles, thanks to Festival Records who prioritized them (mostly because their marketing guy loved them).
Of course their repeated visits to NZ spawned another whole generation of NZ tinged music.
Bad Lieutenant
That album has some great moments, but I feel like such an old fart listening to it.
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That album has some great moments, but I feel like such an old fart listening to it.
I liked some of the Electronic stuff also, possibly more so the third album Twisted Tenderness, but that passed a lot of people by completely I think. Maybe it's a bit 'Breakfast Club', but it's still got all those bits that make up the whole. Johnny Who? Neil Who?
So who's going to admit they went to Pet Shop Boys? Danced myself silly ;-)
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Getting Away With It: tune!
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Sad as it may seem, Muse are a bigger draw than Neil Young.
That may be because the target audience for BDO wasn't born when Neil Young was in his prime.
Although I don't do BDO (I've been twice, and the queues and fencing around the bars reminded me of what gigs must have been like in pre-89 Eastern Europe), I'm glad it isn't all codger rock.
Otherwise, we'll have a centenarian Paul McCartney and a 102 year old Ringo Starr headlining in 2042.
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[The Pogues] wanted too much money
Sure it wasn't the rider? Also, does the rule in NZ about not serving "intoxicated" people apply to performers, or is there an exemption for international drunkards of noted talent..
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@recordari
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@Simon
Thanks. That's a bit of a gem. Although that's one of the first times I've seen Bernard looking his age. Maybe he'll do the next 'Seven World's' tour.Sure it wasn't the rider? Also, does the rule in NZ about not serving "intoxicated" people apply to performers, or is there an exemption for international drunkards of noted talent..
Saw them in Wellington where he actually fell over and pretty much didn't make it past the first few songs. As much as it was rock'n'roll, I still felt short changed.
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I always liked the techno remix of 'confusion' more than the original.
And I've always thought 'blue monday' was highly overrated. But 'crystal' is a tune...
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And I've always thought 'blue monday' was highly overrated. But 'crystal' is a tune...
Gordon flippin' Bennett, those orginals changed the face of popular music. Without them, most of the stuff on that You Tube doco simply wouldn't exist. In a way, New Order were far more important than Joy Division, despite the reputation.
After Blue Monday everything changed.
I like Crystal too, and indeed the whole album it came from, but it was just a good listen, unlike the game changing stuff from the early-late 1980s.
Once you've heard Bizarre Love Triangle blistering out of a huge club PA in NYC, in the midst of a house set, nothing sounds the same.
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And I've always thought 'blue monday' was highly overrated.
This shall not stand!
(Oh, Simon already said it. Carry on, then.)
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Gordon flippin' Bennett.
That was rather restrained. Several NO tracks changed the course of modern music, IMNSHO.
Ceremony. Check.
Confusion. Check.
Blue Monday. Check.
Perfect Kiss. Check.
Bizarre Love Triangle. Check.
Should I go on? Ok, so I'm clearly biased, but they are legends. Frankly I think this stuff should be taught in schools, or at least part of a musical theory paper for would be train spotters.
As for the third party remixes, that's like putting a $50 spoiler on a Ferrari. You could, but why would ya?
And I didn't even mention Movement, PC&L and the other singles like Temptation, Everything's gone green, Thieves Like Us. Oh, shut up already! ;-) -
In the scheme of things dance music/hip-hop electronica does little for me. I'm more of a singer-songwriter roots music kinda guy but New Order are the exception. Apart from the awesome power in their music it's the fact that their songs are songs-they have a tune, lyrics and hooks that make them great pop music and can be played by anybody on an acoustic guitar and still sound good.
Witness Frente with Bizarre love Triangle. -
I'd guess perhaps I'm a bit too young to 'get' the relevant context.
Blue Monday is one of those tracks that seems to have been part of the aural landscape since forever. A re-release with a couple of new remixes seems to come around every few years with depressing regularity, probably around the times the bank manager calls about the mortgage on the 3rd mansion (reckon we're probably about due for one, actually).
So, yeah, intellectually, great. Thanks for changing the musical landscape, chaps. But I'm not feeling it deep down inside. Most of your stuff does nothing for me. You should write more poppy tunes with decent hooks, like 'crystal'. They're a good listen.
(runs and hides).
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Love the Frente too. That's a decent interpretive cover, rather than a cash-in Remix.
Anyhoo, I'm gonna stop because I have clearly reached the point of crusty old musical snob. Rich, the good thing about Musical opinion is that it is, well an opinion. The fact is if I didn't love New Order, I'd be excommunicated, which perhaps Simon will understand better than most ;-)
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