From Colin Bruce Shanner:
Neat that you posted the Johnny Marr piece.
He is of my all time faves and I was lucky enough to see The Smiths live twice.
Nobody plays the guitar like Johnny.
I’ve played bass in bands and been a music nut for years. I’ve never heard a guitarist like him, he plays with two tunes going at the same time, with one on top of the other.
F*ckin’ lovely, brilliant, mad bastard, that chap is!
This fantastic, short interview clip of him relating a story about one his guitars, Pete Townshend and Noel Gallagher, will tell your readers all about what a cool cat he is:
Hey! I dig 60’s and 70’s rock as much as the next guy, but it got stale, you know that.
Like Johnny says in his book, “I had no interest in dragons and old guys in robes playing solos on and on and on…”
So, I must take exception to you dismissing 80’s music with a few throwaway sentences:
But I will never apologise for preferring Van Morrison to Elvis Costello (Mostly crap, other than a few tunes and his production work for other artists), Stevie Wonder to Steve Strange (Crap), Little Feat to Duran Duran (Crap).
Costello (Although I once had a nice chat with him in the mid 90’s with my Fender case in hand outside of the Rock, Cod and Soul chip shop in Covent Garden, off of St. Marten’s Lane), Visage and Duran Duran do not sum up 80’s music my old friend.
It was an era of ground breaking musical brilliance if you listened to my faves like the following, in no particular order:
The Smiths, Lloyd Cole and the Commotions, Prefab Sprout, Billy Bragg, The Cure, Everything but the Girl, New Order, Midnight Oil, Big Country, The English Beat, Love and Rockets, Big Audio Dynamite, The The, The Alarm, Joe Jackson, Social Distortion, The Replacements, Simple Minds, The Cult, The Edge, The Housemartins, Husker Du, Wire Train, Oingo Boingo, The Church, Translator, X, et al…
The list could go on and on…
Here Here!!! to your notes regarding the con artist charlatans who comprised New Labour.
More on Snatcher Thatcher:
Sinead O’Connor always perfectly summed up the terrible woman, and the crime and oppression she perpetrated on England with her beautiful and poignant “Black Boys on Mopeds”:
“Margaret Thatcher on TV
Shocked by the deaths that took place in Beijing
It seems strange that she should be offended
The same orders are given by her
I’ve said this before now
You said I was childish and you’ll say it now
Remember what I told you
If they hated me they will hate you
England’s not the mythical land of Madame George and roses
It’s the home of police who kill black boys on mopeds
And I love my boy and that’s why I’m leaving
I don’t want him to be aware that there’s
Any such thing as grieving
Young mother down at Smithfield
Five a.m., looking for food for her kids
In her arms she holds three cold babies
And the first word that they learned was please
These are dangerous days
To say what you feel is to dig your own grave”
Happy Holidays, Peace, Love and Prosperity to Hacienda Palmero, and all your readers…
Myles says:
Midnight Oil could play! The Beat also.
Dave Wakeling was standing next to me at the Lyceum when Prince made his British debut. We were right in the middle of the dancefloor about halfway back and I wasn’t getting off on Prince or his band. The sound they made was feeble and uninvolving.
I wanted to say to Dave, “I saw you at the Hammersmith Palais last night – and you were far better than this!”
Being spontaneous, and never in awe of stars, and rarely giving a damn what folks think, I always talk to people. But on that occasion I didn’t because I thought Dave might disagree with me.
When I spoke to Richard Williams, he disagreed.