a titchy Dalston secret

Marcello’s bang on about Bob Stanley’s piece in The Times. So I won’t go on about it too much here because he’s nailed it, really.

Couple of extras (because sometimes, there is nothing wrong with kicking a man while he’s down). It’s pointless saying you prefer King Tubby to Bob Marley anyway – you might as well say you prefer Trevor Horn to Marc Almond, or something. Just because they happen to have something to do with reggae doesn’t mean they do the same thing, innit!

And there’s this:

“We would all do well to remember Johnny Rotten’s stance. With the Sex Pistols in their pomp, he appeared on Capital Radio’s Nicky Horne Show to play his favourite record. Iggy and the Stooges? New York Dolls? Nope, it was Peter Hammill’s The Institute of Mental Health is Burning.”

When Rotten’s session on Capital is most widely remembered for being one of the cornerstones of the “punky reggae party” by dint of him playing Dr Alimentado’s “Best Dressed Chicken in Town” and uber hipster stuff like Can, iirc.

Going further:

1) There’s mileage in NOT writing about stuff you liked when you were 12. I mean, who cares if you were a Tiswas or a Swapshop kid, really? The first music you thought was the best music in the world is probably not, on reflection, actually the best music in the world, is it?

2) The blogosphere destroys notions of cool anyway. One of the best things of the last few years is finding entries where people Stand Up and say “well actually I know you think this is shit, but I think it’s great and this is why” – and generally there is no handwringing or guilt attached, just passion.

3) Having said that, I now have a hankering to delve into the crates and come up with some of my early musical history biz, but we shall see…

I am (like Marcello) well into St Etienne, however, so no hard feelings Bob…

One Comment

  1. Eoghan http://oldrottenhat.typepad.com
    It’s anachronistic to describe Can as uber-hipster given the times – Can and Hammill both were off-shoots of the prog/hippy scene that punk was notionally so vehemently opposed to at the time, which is why it was such a poke in the eye for the man behind the curtain, McLaren.
    2004/07/22 @ 01:11 am

    dubversion http://www.ill-conceived.blogspot.com
    last time i thought about delving into the crates of my early childhood, i found Marillion.

    so i stopped 😉
    2004/07/22 @ 08:01 am

    Martin http://beyondtheimplode.blogspot.com/
    Luckily I had impeccable taste when I was a snot-nosed brat – Adam and the Ants, Chas and Dave and then, later, Sabrina and (class traitor) Sam Fox. You know when people get in a discussion about what’s the first record you bought, and someone says ‘White Light White Heat’, and you just fall about laughing?
    2004/07/22 @ 08:22 am

    dubversion http://www.ill-conceived.blogspot.com
    like james lavelle, who appears to have been breakin’ to DJ Kool Herc back in the day.

    in High Wycombe.

    when he was 7.
    2004/07/22 @ 08:40 am

    paul http://blog.grievousangel.net
    Given the above comments, I am ashamed to admit that the first record I got was Remain in Light by Talking Heads, swiftly followed by all the Clash albums, Killing Joke, and Cabaret Voltaire… all when I was 13. And the first group I paid to go and see whas The Clash.

    Yes I know — I peaked too early!
    2004/07/22 @ 10:57 am

    paul http://blog.grievousangel.net
    Oh, and didn’t we read in the Guardian that’s he’s a church-goer and god-botherer?

    Easy to hypothecate the sense of preening self-regard that would lead to glib dismissal of Ray Charles and Bob Marleyn — dissing the latter is… actually I think I’ll stop now!
    2004/07/22 @ 11:02 am

    dubversion http://www.ill-conceived.blogspot.com
    marley schmarley!

    first record i bought with my own cash – Thin Lizzy’s Blck Rose.

    first gig i paid for with my own money – Thin Lizzy, Poole Art Centre (although my nan did take me to see The Osmonds in Southampton in 1974 🙂 )
    2004/07/22 @ 12:39 pm

    Stelfox
    my 1st record (think i was bought a gary glitter record b4 as a wee nipper as i used to sing along to it) bought with me own money in a shop was my girl lollipop by bad manners. not especially cool, but good enough. thing was that 2Tone was the 1st music i can really remember and the 1st scene i really sort of basically understood (as in i could tell which bands were part of it and which weren’t) and it’s bled into a HUGE amount of the music i like. took me ages to realise that these were covers of old songs from jamaica, but once i did it introduced me to the tighten up comps and stuff at quite an early age, asid efrom being good in its own right. all in all i was lucky and i’m glad i grew up with this stuff on top of the pops. (also reggae was a really good thing to get into, i realised, coz the comps had half-naked women on them – still i’ve said enough about this b4 now and don’t need to further incriminate meself!)
    2004/07/22 @ 01:49 pm

    Martin http://beyondtheimplode.blogspot.com/
    “also reggae was a really good thing to get into, i realised, coz the comps had half-naked women on them”

    God yeah, have you seen Ragga Clash 3
    2004/07/22 @ 02:14 pm

    Alun ( / )
    I think the first 7″ i owned was Brown Girl in the Ring by Boney M… I have a horrible feeling my first album was The Crossing by Big Country (I had a thing for cutting the arms off my checky shirts when i was a nipper)
    2004/07/22 @ 03:02 pm

    Stelfox
    rooting through some old records at me dad’s i found an alphaville album, too. big in japan is still a great record.
    2004/07/22 @ 03:19 pm

    Jim http://www.evergreendaze.com
    Heavy Metal
    2004/07/22 @ 04:54 pm

    John https://www.uncarved.org )
    Eoghan – fair point about Can. busy busy busy today but more from me on first records soon. Dave – yeah Alphaville were alright, I was into them and people like Propaganda and all that.
    2004/07/23 @ 10:40 am

    ed http://83.216.135.129/blogistan/
    swapshop kid, me
    2004/07/23 @ 02:02 pm

    John https://www.uncarved.org
    I could probably have guessed that, ed. Martin and dubversion I reckon were more yer tiswas types…
    2004/07/23 @ 02:05 pm

    Martin http://beyondtheimplode.blogspot.com/
    Well, goes without saying! Though Swapshop did have good cartoons between all the naff bits.

    By the way, cheers for the stuff, turned up today. Maybe sees ya at the Coil bash (though I haven’t got round to getting a ticket yet, shouldn’t be a problem on the door)
    2004/07/23 @ 03:54 pm

    Danny
    Jey John

    My first record was Ozzy Osbourn’es Bark At the Moon! How’s that for uber-hipster?
    2004/07/23 @ 05:05 pm

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