Category Memoir with Music
HERE IS A SUNRISE. AIN’T THAT ENOUGH? [Power Pop!]
“JANGLY CHORD-RICH GUITAR ROCK WITH TIGHT HARMONIES OFF-BEAT LYRICS SING-ALONG CHORUSES AND A MIDDLE EIGHT TO DIE FOR (PERHAPS)” Sometimes you just happen to be in the right newsagent at the right time. So it was deep into the yuletide season of 1993. Hunting for a clutch of Christmas cards and hoping that there was […]
Lost and Found
Back in the late 70s and early 80s television stations were not the all-night amphetamine driven beasts of today. They went to bed each night at a reasonable hour. Some, like Australia’s national broadcaster the ABC, often said goodnight well before there was any danger of turning into a pumpkin. Usually a piece of music […]
THE WELSH CONNECTION
ONE Driving to lunch last week, the in-car entertainment was provided by Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci, the fabulously named Welsh band (b: 1991, d: 2006) recently featured by Mr 1537. It was the first album; a collection of EP material that – whilst not having the polish of later releases – shows their quirky creativity and […]
SING A SONG IN A SHAKEY VOICE
In the late 70s, I loaned a girl a record. It was never returned. And that, I confess with equal parts shame and defiance, was the last LP I ever loaned. Books? No problem. CDs? If you have references and are of good character. Vinyl? Forget it. In psychology it is called ‘one trial learning’. […]
SEA OF JOY
My friend over the back fence invited me to come and hear his latest LP. Greg was two days older than me and we’d been playmates since our Mums met on the maternity ward. But in terms of musical sophistication, Greg was years, worlds, away from me. Not in terms of understanding how music worked; […]
“TRUE COLOURS” – NO LOOSE ENZ
True Colours was the fifth album by New Zealand band Split Enz. It is a lively, tuneful, sometimes edgy, sometimes melancholy pop rock treat. The album’s first single ‘I Got You’, was supremely catchy, highly successful, and written by the latest addition to the band, twenty-one year old Neil Finn. First, an executive summary of the Split […]
ANOTHER COVER IN A DIFFERENT COUNTRY
Along the broad and crowded highway of record collecting there are some fascinating diversions. One I enjoy involves albums that appear with different sleeves in different parts of the world. It is not a particular obsession of mine; I have several, but we need to know each other better for them to be revealed in […]
TURNTABLE TRAVELS
As far as travelling was concerned, I was a late starter. Most of the people I knew had been somewhere outside of Australia, even if it was just a package trip to Bali (cue song, Redgum, 1984). Many had done the Europe thing and had come back somehow wiser, more knowing, more confident… more something. […]
Vinyl Hunter Gatherers
Just recently someone said that the city where I live has more record shops per capita than anywhere else. The claim may not be factual, of course; there are always hollow boastful claims being made about something or other. But I want it to be true because that is what I call a liveable city. […]
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