Wednesday 9 April 2014

Fuck Your Parochial Backward Looking Shite!



I got really annoyed yesterday,  not only was I informed that the mint vintage Technics SU 7300 amp that I had purchased and was eagerly awaiting the arrival of had gone walk about. Apparently I had taken ownership of and signed for it the previous afternoon. When I informed the useless fucker on the other end of the phone I had done no such thing the reply I received was "well somebody's signed for it"! The upshot is that it is now under investigation. So who ever the thieving bastard is I hope he gets electrocuted and blows up his whole system when he connects the amp up and switches it on.

The thing that really vexed me and ensured that yesterday was not going to be one to record for posterity was an interview that Steve Lamacq did with Evan Davies. According to the dj that who do with a decent feed btw,  "grunge had been all encompassing for the previous few years". Fucking really!! Not the way I and the thousands and thousands of people who were out dancing every weekend  remember it. Bob Stanley was a bit more level headed about the whole thing but when he said that basically outside of the confines of the UK  nobody gave a shit Lamacq countered  that it was all about the "UK celebrating itself" what a load of pish. As for Evan Davis' insightful questioning well he should maybe stick to the economics because he gave the impression that knows hee haw about music, Saint Etienne were Europop, apparently! FFS!

Here's the thing I had very little time for this "little Englander" scene  fuelled by second hand dusted down riffs and lyrics about very big houses in the country or being a rock and roll star. I did like a bit of Pulp though,  but I never really grouped them in with "Brit Pap". I preferred the sounds that were being made by people in their bedrooms with the aid of synths and samplers and aimed predominately at the feet.

I think that the whole "Brit Pop" thing was the invention of those who couldn't dance or were unwilling to look like a twat on the dance floor combined with those who were too young for the late 80s dance and indie thing,  felt cheated and needed a "scene" of their own, so hyped up a load of mediocre bands and created a monster.

Anyway, enough of the rant but the way that the BBC have been going on about this you would be forgiven for thinking that there was nobody else making music in 1994 other than smart arsed ex students and gobshites from Manchester. Here is one of my favourites from that year and not a guitar in sight.

Sabres Of Paradise - Wilmot

Update - the amp has duly arrived. Apparently a problem with the labels. Not caring it looks great and has a deep warm sound. Still pissed off about all this Brit Pop stuff, of course.

8 comments:

Dirk said...

Just google-pictured the amplifier, what a shame indeed, mate! Hope it reappears soon, although I am not very confident, I must admit ...

Luca said...

F***ing good rant. Let's just hope that the thief gets what he deserves, ie a lifetime of pish music coming off the speakers.

Swiss Adam said...

Epic rant. Hope your amp turns up.

Luca said...

Update - Hurrah!

Echorich said...

So well said Drew! I basically ignored Britpop and Grunge with ease in NYC. Music was ALL about the dancefloor from 89 -97 for me. I doubled my vinyl numbers in those years just in 12" mixes, and although much of the techno and EBM (NOT EDM - a terrible musical term if ever there was one) has gone on to other pastures from my collection, I still really love the invention and heterogenous nature of dance music as the millennium ended. There were moments of rock and pop which filtered into my collection in those years, but they were few and far between and in the 20 odd yrs since I have added more of those to my collection than I ever did at the time.

george said...

There's some right fucking scumbags and lying bastards about (and in no way do I include the present UK government in that statement). Hope you win.

george said...

Looks like I didn't read the update. I wondered what Luca was on about.....

Scott said...

This is a proper rant. Glad it all ended well...