Tony Wilson, RIP.

Haha! Oh okay Membranes, yeah I know them. Never took a liking to them, though. I fear this Goldblade, but of course I'll have to listen to it out of sheer curiosity, which is likely to kill my cat, methinks.

Also I just want to add...and this never before came to my attention for some reason...isn't it a PAPER CLIP in Johnny Rotten's ear on So It Goes? Tell me I'm wrong if you will but I thought that was brilliant. I've got The Filth & the Fury and all, but I never noticed anything in his ear like that before.

Wow, I had no idea he'd died until I saw this thread today! I guess I've been kind of busy...

john robb = dreadful talking head, worse writer, even worser musician. and an awful human being by all accounts.

The Membranes were good tho...

John Robb wrote for Sounds, mostly about noisy US indie stuff, but he also covered the Northwest music scene too. I was living in Manchester in the late 80s and he was one of those blokes that you saw at virtually every single gig you went to (but maybe I just always noticed him cos he did tend to stand out from the crowd). Anyhow, you'd say hello to him and he always seemed like a decent bloke, dunno what all the hostility is about here.

'Cos he's crap and shouldn't be on television? The Membranes were a pretty good band however. So doff of the cap to him there.

john robb used to be a guest on mary anne hobbs show years ago, and he would laugh after every comment he made, whether it was funny or not.

he's more than crap, the guy is a moron and shouldn't be a spokesman for the northwest. we lose morley and this cunt replaces him, is there no justice in the world ;_;

Another reason JRobb might have been on this show of course was that terrible programme, he, Tony Wilson and Terry Christian did which consisted of them sitting around bitching about "that London" like a trio of embittered old hasbeens (what do I mean like?!??!)

I stumbled upon XFM Manchester's tribute podcasts presented by Clint Boon with excerpts from AHW's Sunday afternoon programme and tributes from various Manc luminaries. It's actually pretty touching in places, especially Hooky's segment. It should be fairly easy to find on itunes.

the idea of gold blade still existing is fucking with my head.

lol, gold blade played at some alerna-club night in liverpool a couple of years ago and a crowd of about 150 people dwindled to about ten as most people drifted off to the bar after the first two songs.

o god clint boon too, it's almost unfair to dredge this thread into the mire by mentioning these fuckwits

what's wrong with booney? he's a top keys player

Enough about John Robb and Clint Booney.

Indeed. Back to Tony!

if you lived in manchester you'd know. cunt boon bills himself as 'man of the ppl' but truth is no one gave a flying fuck about the carpets, let alone him. he's done a john robb in that he's not very good but has somehow managed a virulent and damaging backwards-looking career that is slowly killing manchester. boon must wake up each and every day and thank the lord for lazy journalists.

someone recently said, going to clint boon's clubnight is the equivalent of someone at the height of acid house saying "hey, the drummer from mott the hoople has a clubnight round the corner, lets go there!"

"hey, the drummer from mott the hoople has a clubnight round the corner, lets go there!"

Sounds good to me! Clubbin' With Buffin!

or "Hey, we got an ex-Bassplayer of Sad Cafe to produce!"

perspectives.

yeah, but the kids now love old crap don't they? loads of people probably would go to a club run by the drummer from mott the hoople, if he played "eclectic freakbeat classics" or something.

I would. Freakbeat's great!

most dj's were in a shit indie band at some point weren't they?

exactly.

xxxxpost. pls put more research into 'the kids now'. (btw hoople man would be playing aor only in this mythical late 80s club)

xxpost. uh no and that's missing the point anyway. boon's carpets past runs through everything he does like mud through a worm

the kids now use all kinds of hip slang like "totally tubular" and "gnarly". their fave bands are london boys and big fun.

most dj's were in a shit indie band at some point weren't they?

Oh, c'mon Hook's band was pretty good.

(trying desperately to get thread back to Tony Wilson somehow)

early post-punk factory? love it

later baggy phase? not so great

thanks for that.

[ring ring]

"no ... no, mr morley, i don't think you need worry too much about max r."

lol

i jest. but really: have you heard "my rising star" by northside? the glorious factory arc might begin to make a little more sense ... i know northside had more moments of grating than greatness but really, that song ...

"palatine" really is essential listening, too: it's not too hard to find if you know where to look :)

sorry, i even hate the roses, so all that stuff is a turn-off really. except perhaps the vince clarke mix of "wrote for luck", that's cool.

the oakenfold/osbourne one (it was them, wasn't it?) is better.

tchah, though. kids these days. etc. seriously: check out "palatine" anyway.

the "face the future" mix? not really into, that it sounds dashed off. vince clarke's is like him having a go at acid house and not doing such a bad job of it at all.

Original WFL : juggernaut
VC mix : compact, pulsing
Oakenfold : sprawling, stretched

All good.

Palatine - lovely, but should have had 'Smiling Monarchs' on it, and 'Presence' and a Swamp Children track.

grimly OTM about 'My Rising Star'

All good

all godlike, actually. but i'm a sucker for the propulsive bassline that kicks off the oakenfold one.

"palatine" doesn't have any crispy ambulance, either, does it? that's totally wrong. i listened to "the plateau phase" again the other week -- while raking up leaves very early in the morning -- and it sounds better, fresher and more intriguing than ever.

[as an aside: if anyone can tell me what time signature "the presence" is in, i'd be eternally grateful.]

oh, hang on. dur. you said presence, and i missed it. (at least, i assume that's what you mean.)

yes, that's what I mean. It's their best, I reckon. Plateau is pretty strange - I dunno what I think really, 'I'm glad it exists' probably sums it up.

Just had a listen to The Presence - 7/4 works for me - try counting along with drum machine/hi-hat/bass bit from about 0.30 and then keep going when the guitar and snare comes in.

Watching The Hydroplanes!

have you heard the longer demo version of hydroplanes, from the tunnelvision LTM CD? it is absolutely blinding: way more atmospheric than the (hannett?) production on FAC 39 (i'm guessing, but i think that's right).

hmm: given that the re-formed SXXV have bloke-from-tunnelvision on guitar, i wonder if there's any chance of them doing a cover? hmmm. hmmm!

try counting along with drum machine/hi-hat/bass bit from about 0.30 and then keep going when the guitar and snare comes in

heh, i have -- a couple of times -- and i end up getting confused somewhere. 7/4 sounds plausible. thank you!

Yes, I have heard it - very good IIRC, but I don't have the LTM CD myself. FAC39 was Hannett, wasn't it? Now you've got me wondering...

back o/t, did anyone see the photos of peter saville crying at the funeral? thought that was quite touching.

i didn't, but <suzy> my pal was out with saville's wife/partner in berlin </suzy> a week or so later and she was bemoaning the fact it became a bit of a media circus, and that his friends weren't necessarily given space to grieve. of course, that's probably true of every "celebrity" funeral -- and each individual deals with grief in their own way.

i mean, i was devastated and i didn't know the guy at all: met him once, spoke to him on the phone a couple of times. it's easy to forget that dudes like hooky, saville etc -- almost all the factory lot, plus many others -- would have forged genuine, deep, lengthy friendships with him; that, for them, he existed on a level the rest of us would never know, regardless of the aesthete-everyman image he put across.

i was listening to "interleukin 2" from the new durutti column album the other day, which is subtitled "for anthony", and became slightly choked up.

The new Durutti Column is really growing on me.

I only have one question. Where's Alan Erasmus? He was a key member of Factory, but never appears in programs and never does interviews. It's odd that he's so completely disappeared from public life. Is there some background story I've missed? Does anyone here know?

curious as to why Alan Erasmus remains such an elusive figure tho - not much info about him online even now from what i can tell

-- blueski, Monday, 24 September 2007 12:55 (1 week ago) Link

OTMFM. I was just commenting about this after watching 24PP with a friend. It's really weird isn't it? The Hannett book mentions him a little bit, though. Says he just quietly went about getting things done, was usually the one to give rides when people needed them, etc.

-- Bimble, Tuesday, 25 September 2007 04:14 (1 week ago) Link

Sorry, not trying to be an arse about it, I just don't know if you saw those posts, Leavethecapital. Hell, maybe requoting them again will lure someone who knows about Erasmus into the spotlight. You never know.

In the meantime, it's interesting Crispy Ambulance have come up on this thread. (one of those bands it's best not to get Bimble started about) I'll just say that the last time I tried to play Plateau Phase it really disappointed me, the sound of it and I became quite upset as it's long been one of my fave albums ever and they are one of my Top 3 fave bands ever. I was moved to forget the CD and pull it out on vinyl and see if I was any happier with the way it sounded but alas, I wasn't. It was very surprising and frankly, not a little upsetting. Perhaps I really have played it too many times. Maybe I just have to be in the right mood.

In the meantime, I'm filled with guilt that I don't yet have the new Durutti Column.

I'm sure this is the wrong place to say this, but hey.

The new "Voice of the Seven Woods" is my favourite guitar album since the first Durutti one.

Go see.

i'm a longtime fan of rick's stuff.. i'm yet to pick up the album but all the 45s/EPs so far have been great