Andrew Collins ‘loiters within tent’ – da dum – to review Glastonbury for the N.M.E. 1st July 1989.
Last week I posted an advertisement for 1989’s Glastonbury in reference to the upcoming 2008 event, so it only seems right to post a review of it this week.
So did you all enjoy Glastonbury 2008? At least it didn’t rain huh? Left the ads in because all the extra period detail is one of the nice things about these articles as scans.
The Sundays live at The Falcon, 3rd Sepember 1988
June 29, 2008
Chris Roberts reviews The Sunday’s live at The Falcon, London. Taken from Melody Maker, 3rd September 1988.
The Sundays on a Sunday for commentor moresundaysplease.
PJ Harvey live at Barrowlands, Glasgow 18th March 1995
June 28, 2008
Everett True reviews PJ Harvey / Tricky live at Barrowlands, Glasgow 18th March 1995.
This post in recognition of the PlanB magazine forum link. Cheers guys. There’s certainly no shortage of Everett True pieces to choose from – he was nothing if not prolific. Picked this one quickly and at random. Will definitely put up more interesting, earlier ET pieces and some Neil Kulkarni stuff too eventually. Neil – I would *love* to hear the drunk, or sober, rant about the demise of the Maker. Can I post it here….please?
Click on the tags at the bottom of each post or just use the search tool to find everything related to a particular writer or year etc. Better still subscribe to the feed.
While I’m at it…..to everyone visiting from Russia – hello – I can’t read Russian but I’m glad you seem to like the blog so much. Blissblogers – more Reynolds stuff coming. Brave Captain forumites – yes more Boo Radleys stuff eventually. And finally to moresundaysplease – you’ll like tomorrows post – it is going to be a Sunday afterall.
Caitlin Moran Celebrity Square, 16th April 1994
June 27, 2008
Preview section of Melody Maker featuring Caitlin Moran Celebrity Square, 16th April 1994.
God this is awful. Loaded “lad culture” instantly permeates into Melody Maker and society generally. Every part of this piece of fluff from the “She’s a Bird…” intro, to the questions, “Have you shagged anyone famous”, to the porn star pout photo is just terrible. Why did you let Simon Price & IPC do this to you Caitlin? Ah yes….you’d made it on to the telly by this time and the show had to be promoted because it was a crap.
For the curious compare and contrast Greg Dulli to this scene of domestic bliss at Mr. & Mrs. Paphides. Also note the quirky coincidence of the “Dora Dora Dora” title in the main piece on this page (one of Caitlin’s daughters is called Dora)
Few of us remained imune from being swept up into the whole Loaded “new lad” thing at the time though. I’ve just remembered a little anecdote from a Loaded Christmas party I went to. Can’t bring myself to confess publicly but I hang my head in shame at the memory of it.
Hello to all you PlanB forumites by the way. More ET coming over the weekend.
Push reviews De La Soul’s Three Feet High and Rising, 18th March 1989.
Easy to forget just how different this record was when it was released. And how big. De La Soul were massive! And then came PM Dawn with Spandau Ballet samples in place of the Otis Redding samples De La Soul had used and “hippy hop” was dead.
Glastonbury Advertisement, 27th May 1989
June 25, 2008
Glastonbury Advertisement – inside front cover of Melody Maker, 27th May 1989.
Scanning in some of the ads will probably be something I do more of in the future, for the moment here’s an interesting piece of topical nostalgia for you all. This happened way, way back.
Back before Jo Whiley et al sat in the BBC tent gushing about having just seen an incredible set by Kaiser Chiefs/Klaxons/insert bland T-Shirt rock band of your choice. Back before Kate Moss/Lily Allen/insert vacuous Heat friendly celeb of your choice, turned up to be papped in a pair of muddied Cath Kidson wellies. Even back before the Glastonbury weekend “lifestyle experience” cost the price of a half decent package holiday. But not quite before you could sit in a field for a weekend, taking drugs with complete impunity as this was the first year “police [were] invited by the organisers to patrol the whole site with a view to preventing crime and drug dealing”.
Aside from the £28 cost, the egalitarin billing and the single corporate sponsor, one can’t help but notice the acts on the Pyramid stage…Peel favourites The Bhundu Boys, Youssou N’Dour, Feli Kuti etc. and wonder what Noel Gallagher would have made of it.
The Chemical Brothers on the cover of Melody Maker, 20th January 1996. Photo by Tom Sheehan.
Shabby self-referential pun on Camden scene pub The Good Mixer for this cover. And Tom and Ed are good mixers…see what they did there? No wonder Melody Maker struggled from this point on. And how old was Lily Allen in 1996?
Whenever I think of The Good Mixer I think of this (now dormant) blog. The biog used to say “…..I drink in the Good Mixer and I live in hope” which has been updated to reflect his move to NYC. There’s some incredible writing on there if you’ve got time to explore it. I strongly recommend you do if you’ve not chanced across it before.
If you read the interview I linked to with Miki Berenyi back when I posted the Lush cover this is the “Back from the dead” cover she mentions with a good deal of indignation. Will eventually scan in the interview. Pretty sure this is the most recent copy of Melody Maker I own.
So MBV and Radiohead play London tonight. Wouldn’t it be great if they covered one of each others songs? Never gonna happen of course but would love to hear what Kevin and Belinda could conjure from Creep. Ditto Thom and Jonny with You Made Me Realise.
Radiohead live at Glasgow Garage, 8th October 1994
June 23, 2008
Paul Moody reviews Radiohead live at the Garage, Glasgow. Taken from NME, 8th October 1994.
Up to this point everyone sensible saw Radiohead as just another fourth rate, bandwagon chasing, grunge/shoegaze lite also-ran. Here previewing material from still to be released The Bends, it seems Radiohead start to show glimmers of what they will one day become.
Fast forward fourteen years to 2008 and you’ll be lucky to even see the stage let alone get the chance be that over-zealous fan who clambers onto the stage.
Damon Albarn of Blur. Cover of N.M.E. 8th October 1994
June 22, 2008
Damon Albarn of Blur on the cover of N.M.E. 8th October 1994. Photo by Kevin Cummins.
Blur do a short tour of America to promote Parklife. When did Albarn eventually stop wearing that necklace? Am I imagining it or was there some incident where it was ripped off him at a gig or something?
Blame the Suede flexidisc for the large tear on this cover. I wonder where that flexidisc is now….ah yes I know…the bin.
Melody Maker Staff Picks, 24th – 31st December, 1988 (part one)
It was 20 years ago today…well almost – time is indeed a cruel mistress.
One of the biggest impressions you’re left with looking back on these earlier issues, is just how much bloody copy they contain. I’m guessing wildly but I reckon there’s as many words in this single issue as 6 months worth of “copy” from the NME now. Not that I read the NME now but y’know…is this what’s called progress?
I’m going to put up some of the tracks mentioned in the coming part 2 and 3 posts. Interesting to speculate if Stubbs would still stand by that Joe le Taxi inclusion? As for Carol…what was she thinking?
Archived Music Press 