I think its time I paid attention to the nosense that masqueraded as nonsense back then when I was wearing my Articulated Van hat. Self praise is no praise indeed, but do I care? I do like the review I gave and I got onto you tube and found a German gig which was loaded on by someone called mgvintage, I think, and I played the whole gig twice. Its now that I cast my mind back to the nosense that I wrote. The last paragraph in particular where I gush about how well they use silence. Many try but few have succeeded the way Lloyd Cole and the Commotions, Echo & the Bunnymen, and a few others have, they just knew how to ride that emotional wave without surfing into sleep, superb.
As LPs go Rattlesnakes and Ocean Rain were released 30 years ago and they are complete albums. I love songs on Highland Hard Rain on many different albums from the era, but rarely do I get out of my seat (every 40 minutes you'll find) to click an album on from the start again, ahh, the benefits of Alztheimers, every time is like the first.
the funniest thing when you read a review like that you wonder what was going on in your life, another good day, another bad day, well you'd think I'd lost my virginity the day I heard Rattlesnakes!
I cant wait for the mad March hare now, to remind what was going down in March 83, 84,85 & 86. This therapy is superb. I cant tell you what I was doing last week but I've got hard evidence for what I was doing in the early 80's.
Well, actually that's a lie. I once reviewed Tony Benn at the Caird Hall in Dundee and I put the review in a week before his 'gig'. I called it a 'Song for Europe' which was loosely based on one of my favourite tracks by Roxy Music at the time, the other being 'Chance Meeting' which shouldn't be confused with Josef K's 'Chance Meeting' which is the same name, but a different song, although when we covered one of them I'm sure most of the adoring public weren't sure which song we were covering, (but Mark was a shit guitarist, he was certainly no Malcolm Ross, who funnily enough was interviewed in March1984, his issue sold out and is still considered the must have by the collectors, oops, typo, collector!)
I digress, so back to the Song for Europe. I wrote the review because I was taking my half of Deadbeat down to Edinburgh and in the Dundee half was this and that but we were wan page short of a picnic. From memory - I draw a blank - but that doesnt stop me making something up, which is exactly what I did on the bus to Edinburgh that famous February night. I thought it would be quite cool to have the new issue of Deadbeat out with a review of our Anthony Wedgie Benn, so I wrote it on the bus, got a kerry oot, typed it at the folks and gave the copies over to Keith watched his masterly use of the glue pen and we wandered down to the printers.
I dont know if it did bear any resemblance to the events of that night and I must get someone from Dundee, ooops, fi Dundee, to have a quick look and correct me. Either way it was a great wheeze as we had Deadbeat in Groucho's and the Tayside Bar the day after the 'gig' and we thought we were Lou Grant, I'm certainly as fat as Lou Grant, but that's enough of 80's American tv, I'm also as fat as Danny Devito but I carry it better than he did in Taxi, another reason Deadbeat rarely hit the shelves on the days it meant.
It was when the Tube hit the screens and suddenly our world was changed. The pop videos grew during the early 80's into mini movies and everyone had a part to play. I remember when the Scars were doing a video for "All about you" which involved Rab Scar singing, 'It was a cold day, outside today....' so of course, the video was shot, yes you've guessed it, in Freezing February up the top of Arthurs Seat, in Auld reekie where the wind blows and even the women wear pants under thier kilts. But from one big budget blockbuster to the You Tube and other mediums of today, is quite frankly mesmirising. I mean, when I was only 5 there was all this stuff about Walking on the Moon, and then 15 years later, The Police have got a song and a video, and then another 30 years later, still we wait. Its all a myth. Nobody, is Walking on the Moon.
"I hope my legs dont break, Walking on the Moon..." HELLO HELLO is there anyone out there, nobody is Walking on the Moon. I've walked to Spain, albeit, I started in France, it was certainly a lot quicker, but nobody is Walking on the Moon. Walking to Spain is great. I remember that too as I did a blog. When I walked it in 2007, me and Si the bassist, walked the 500 miles to Sanitago de Compostela, and can I tell you , right here, right now, its a lot better than Walking on the Moon. 'I hope my legs dont hurt, Walking on the Moon' HELLO HELLO, it all depends how far you walk. If you play golf you'll walk a long long way as the golf ball once hit will travel miles, or if you are walking to the pub and haven't been informed that the Moon doesnt have one yet, you'll walk a long long way, so yes your legs may hurt, but not as much as walknig the Camino to Santiago nd I'll tell you why. Its because you have a pack on your back that weighs something. When you are walking on the moon, even fat boys like me will feel like they are walking on air, I could run faster than Bolt, well that's not true, as we would probably not be able to fit in the same space craft, him needing the height and me needing the width, I suspect I'd need to book two seats, but I off on one again. The second time I did the work across Spain, Europe's premiere pub crawl as I sold it to my mate Harry, I was fit enough to be able to eat and drink even more at the end of each day, so the 500 mile walk took us a few days more in 2011, but all that nonsense is on the other blogs www.500m.wordpress.com and www.fatal-bananas.blogspot.com - that's Fat Al and Bananas for those who havent gathered that Vinny is now so Fat he's using his old name again, it also looks good on golf balls when you mark them fatal.
So you wont hear me digging out the Police album then, but you will be delighted to know that I'm getting the band back together for a 2020 gig. Not sure how many of us will still be breathing by then, but it was never about the music was it?
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