British Comedy Guide

The general pop/rock - music thread Page 85

Quote: Oldrocker @ 1st March 2015, 12:35 AM GMT

I've been Quoing for just under 40 years now.

A late comer then.

I heard a record on radio today that I probably have not heard for 40 years.

Solid State Brain by Christopher Rainbow. It sounded really good as an out and out pop song. I remember another one of his too which they played Give Me What I Cry for. I never knew he worked with Alan Parsons and Jon Anderson. Unfortunately he died last week.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55wL_0PutJs

Quote: Chappers @ 1st March 2015, 9:17 PM GMT

A late comer then.

I heard a record on radio today that I probably have not heard for 40 years.

Solid State Brain by Christopher Rainbow. It sounded really good as an out and out pop song. I remember another one of his too which they played Give Me What I Cry for. I never knew he worked with Alan Parsons and Jon Anderson. Unfortunately he died last week.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55wL_0PutJs

What a shame - and with him the summer of sunshine (1976) goes too.

No apologies for re-running this one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7i20_WdMnU0

Plus Bluebird: - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-ByA4zLS-4

Tracks....

You can sort of go from the mid 1970s stuff of, I dunno, Beach Boys-ELO-10CC-Chris Rainbow and then do a dramatic gear shift to the pre indie cool of Human League/Heaven 17/OMD/Numan(?). All the latter partially emanate from Kraftwerk and then they run into the poppy stuff of N Kershaw, Buggles, Frankie, T Horn etc.

The Chris Rainbow bit would at the changing point - 1979-1981- have gone into the Alan Parsons and Jon Anderson etc direction - the sophisticated end of older earlier 1970s artists some eight or nine years on. Witness also Roxy Music's "Avalon" and, I guess, even Stevie Wonder's "The Secret Life of Plants" (C.1980).

BUT this was the great missing POP album of the first years of the 1980s and it joins the two strands up.

New Musik - Anywhere

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLN69eaUA_g8ybrUZgL5TNr7_ec_1hqkLr

(In my humble opinion) :D

Other ramblings: I like the way "Churches" on that album name checks The Clash's "Four Horsemen". I don't know whether it was deliberate but there is just a year or so between the two tracks and their musical literacy was underestimated. I think XTC were also a "bridge" band between the old and the new, albeit in a rock indie and critically acclaimed sense, but check out this to have assumptions about them challenged:

XTC - The Somnambulist - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqLuO_cPjco

So where did it all lead apart from Cher's "Believe" and chronic wall to wall auto-tune I hear you ask. Well, the answer is pretty obvious. First, three works of true proper art in sound in the later 1980s where moody atmospherics knocked out the summery harmonies to exquisite effect and a moment in the 1990s when that summer returned in all its glory. Oh and inevitably to "Paranoid Android" if you are so minded (which I'm not):

The Blue Nile - Heatwave - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VeQhK79YkEo

Talk Talk - Life's What You Make it - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9G42rmPvbbU

Talk Talk - Eden - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FR45WPnM3qU

The High Llamas - Checking In Checking Out - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ats3sUKmkjw

What about "Living by numbers"? Oh and Straight Lines or This World of Water.

They were good.

How about City Boy?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RuPsb8-_hJc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6xTbbN5iVk

Quote: Chappers @ 2nd March 2015, 10:44 PM GMT

What about "Living by numbers"? Oh and Straight Lines or This World of Water.

They were good.

How about City Boy?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RuPsb8-_hJc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6xTbbN5iVk

All the New Musik singles are brilliant. As you may know, "This World of Water" is a different song to "This World of Walter" on the album. The latter is more ELO's "Horace Wimp" made into art. I remember City Boy's "5705" and it's fine but I'm not hearing any transition in it unless you can prove me wrong. It is to me latter day soft rock in an earlier 1970s vein - Sad Cafe were doing similar and also doing it very well; it was the time of Rainbow, Whitesnake and Styx too - but my knowledge of City Boy is limited. Always happy to learn.

(And in this very tenuous trail wot I started, we haven't even mentioned New Order yet) :D

Apart from the fact that New Order's Low Life is one of my favourite ever albums listen to those links above for City Boy from before 5705. It's the same sort of thing as 10cc really. I liked Every Day Hurts (the car rental advert) by Sad cafe but don't know much else.

Quote: Chappers @ 2nd March 2015, 11:48 PM GMT

Apart from the fact that New Order's Low Life is one of my favourite ever albums listen to those links above for City Boy from before 5705. It's the same sort of thing as 10cc really. I liked Every Day Hurts (the car rental advert) by Sad cafe but don't know much else.

Yes. I believe Sad Cafe had some links with 10CC (Manc/Strawberry Studios). I did see them live (higher educ) but it wasn't very memorable. "Every Day Hurts" is unquestionably a classic. The album from which it comes, "Facades", is ok but it's a bit too much like a standard rock album for me and not overly impressive beyond the singles. The other two straddle the old Stones thing and the new new wavy thing. How 1979!:

My Oh My - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JxxbxJgjrjk

(Sorry - poor audio quality)

Strange Little Girl - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-iKwmzXuQ5A

Bought these today, dirt cheap!

Image
Image

There's a band called The Spook School who play pop/punk music that I really love. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0eEVPHnHW7g

Looking forward to seeing some new bands that I've heard a lot about and some older performers whom I've never seen on stage. The lineup was just revealed last night.

Image

That looks/sounds great, enjoy, DaButt!

http://www.allmusic.com/album/matador-mw0002801484

Lovely Jubbly!

Quote: Gordon Bennett @ 5th March 2015, 11:04 AM GMT

http://www.allmusic.com/album/matador-mw0002801484

Lovely Jubbly!

I'd seen that had great reviews and I was tempted.

Who needs drummers anyway ?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbN-jO11vKg

Quote: Oldrocker @ 6th March 2015, 12:09 PM GMT

Who needs drummers anyway ?

They certainly do! http://youtu.be/3O-N8MZ9ilk

Share this page