Monday 11 October 2010

‘Levitate Me’ – Pixies (1987)


“Come on pilgrim,
You know he loves you.”

So it wasn’t bad enough having to share a school with rabid Bros fans. Oh no. I actually had to share a school with the Bros twins Matt and Luke themselves. That’s right. My poor, fey gothic heart was imprisoned in the temple of infantile pop by the ascending pharaohs of the culturally inane. What’s more, they lived at the end of my road. There was no escape.

The Goss boys were a couple of years above me and I can’t say I noticed them at all until they left. By then I was in the lower sixth and their first single had come out ('I Owe You Nothing'). And then they were back, playing the school gym at lunchtime. And then they were everywhere. Now, I can understand the kids in the first year thinking this was all very exciting. But I had classmates who were thrilled simply because they had finally discovered a band before the rest of the world. Oh dear. How to explain to these people that there were far better bands waiting to be be discovered out there. Just turn on the John Peel show. Go to a gig that isn’t being held either at lunchtime or in your school gym. Read a music paper. Please. But no, I was surrounded by people buying multiple signed copies of the first Bros single as an investment for when they hit the big time – yes, Spencer, I’m talking about you. Which is all very fair enough I suppose as those singles probably were worth a fair bit for two weeks in 1988 as Bros-mania swept Saturday morning telly.

Meanwhile, I was hunting down the first Pixies mini-album and wondering who would like to come see My Bloody Valentine with me. And people wondered why I felt so isolated at school. Funnily enough though, I can talk about those bands now and quickly find kindred spirits. Don’t see so many people bonding over Bros.

Spotify linky:

Sunday 3 October 2010

‘The Whole Of The Moon’ – The Waterboys (1985)


“I wondered, I guessed and I tried;
You just knew.”

Best sound effect in a song ever. Fact. “You came like a comet …” Pause and cue comet shooting across the sky. “Blazing your trail.” Do comets actually make a sound? Who cares. They do here and it’s quite perfect.

If you ever want to tempt me along to karaoke, this is the song that will get me there. A real belter of a vocal that’s simply a world of fun to perform. And the lyrics remind me of a girl from school. You’d speak about wings, while she just flew.

Spotify linky:

On this day … 1990 (aged 19)

Scribblings from my diary …

“Cousin Matt and I visit the Museum of the Moving Image on the South Bank. You can read all about the history of photography and filmmaking there. Or you can quickly pass all this by and go see Sooty and Sweep.”

Now playing: ‘Station To Station’ – David Bowie (1976)


“It's too late
to be grateful."

Ever buy an album by an artist you adore and it just doesn’t click? So you put it away and go back to listening to their other stuff. And then you take it out again one day and it sounds like the most marvellous discovery. That’s what happened to me this week with ‘Station To Station’.

I bought it back in 1991 when it was reissued on vinyl with the rest of Bowie’s back catalogue. At the time, my heart belonged to ‘Hunky Dory’ and ‘The Man Who Fell To Earth’ so this album suffered from little time on my record player and got quickly shelved. Until last Monday when it was reissued in a glorious CD box set. Here was vintage Thin White Duke Bowie with songs I’d simply neglected. I’m a fool. I’ve played it continuously all week to make amends. And the reissue comes with perhaps the best Bowie live recording I’ve heard – captured at the Nassau Coliseum in March 1976.

I wonder what other treats are buried in my collection?

Spotify linky:
David Bowie – Station To Station