The Go-Betweens - what's it all about?

take it to the gay thread, sailor

imagine being the comfortable beneficiary of such cultural exceptionalism that you bought a region-locked DVD player :)

ok

Release date here for the documentary is late November. Trailer

https://vimeo.com/251353828

(Though a second check -- this may be a UK release date only, but hopefully US too.)

There are showings of it on in Edinburgh this week: https://www.filmhousecinema.com/showing/go-betweens-right-here
If things pan out I'll be seeing it on Wednesday.

I'm really hoping crustaceanrebelisback is still around to give us a detailed analysis of the new volume of "G Stands For Go-Betweens"!

The double live LP in the 2nd box is soooooo goooooood. Really annoyed i missed the 1st box as this one is wonderful and a really high quality PHYSICAL PRODUCT.

also I got one of Grant's books included - Sackville-West's St Joan Of Arc which his inscription inside says he bought in 82 and it smells of every second hand book store in history

FYI, if you missed out on the 1st box set, they're considering a re-press, but they're trying to gauge how many people will buy before they commit:

https://www.facebook.com/gobetweens/photos/a.215887108489598/3563926360352306/

"Happy New Year everyone... good afternoon and good morning, depending on your geo-location. 😏

"We hope everyone has had a happy and safe holiday season. While we're hard at work on Volume 3 of "G Stands For Go-Betweens," we wanted revisit the possibility of a final repressing of Volume 1.

"While making no guarantees, we are entertaining the notion of doing a final re-press of the first volume. We know there's some demand out there but it would be good to get a picture of just how much. Unfortunately, these box sets are not inexpensive to make and between things like Brexit and COVID-19 getting increasingly so.

"We don't want to go down the whole road of Kickstarter/Pledge type thing, but there's a bare minimum we would need to sell to comfortably reach to make it a worthwhile endeavor. So, we're taking an informal poll here to see just how much more demand there might be. So, simply reply below if you would be 𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘰𝘯𝘨𝘭𝘺 interested in a future purchase if we were to proceed"

Listening to Mirror II , Goon Sax 2021 album with Robert Forster's son Louis. It's ok

some of it is quite bad -- the singing, the chord changes

i definitely didn't like their second one as much as the first, but it has its moments. feels like they probably have a great album on the horizon? I almost respect the insanely out of tune singing on a few tracks, haha.

I think it's great...like you, I find the out of tuneness on some of the tracks endearing and an interesting contrast to the more conventional tracks on it.

If you've listened to GBV, Sebadoh, Flying Nun etc it's not hard to wrap to wrap your head around.

I do get "In the Stone" stuck in my head once a week.

i like "the chance" a lot

Don’t think I noticed this before:

https://www.facebook.com/othermusicdoc/videos/the-go-betweens-bachelor-kisses-live-at-other-music-6799/1505476926304698/

Also, where did Spring Hill Fair go in the streaming world?

xp - i saw them right around this time in NYC (not sure why i didn't go to this in-store) and it's still one of the best shows I've ever seen.

Did Robert Vickers join for a few numbers?

I saw them in NYC too but my feeling is that it was a year or so earlier.

good band imo

First time I’ve heard you say that

j/k

Vickers played with them for “head full of steam” — maybe something else? It was at the Fez, definitely summer of 99.

Sounds about right.

I seem to remember some amusing banter of Robert’s referring to “another string in his bow,” can’t remember who or what he was talking about, maybe it was “my bow.” Song selection was really good, couldn’t tell you what it was though.

That video link says something about a Mercury Lounge show.

The one I saw, was it the Fez? It was downstairs, but feels like maybe it was at Acme.

Also, where did Spring Hill Fair go in the streaming world?

It's the only Go-Betweens record on hoopla, under Rhino/Warner Brothers.

Founds some reviews but they are only of the show at The Mercury Lounge.

https://www.nytimes.com/1999/06/11/movies/pop-review-challenges-and-magic-in-a-reunion-of-a-duo.html

http://www.robertchristgau.com/u/cd/music/scgobet-99.php

Okay, The Fez was Saturday, June 26th, 1999. Will Rigby joined them for a few times too, it seems.

The musicians that just came to watch were all at the earlier Mercury Lounge show.

If it hasn’t been mentioned already, Tracey Thorn has a book about about her friendship with Go-Betweens drummer Lindsey Morris. Guardian review here.

^ Thanks for reminding me. Finally reserved a local library's copy!

I hope it's not hyperbole to claim there isn't another memoir like it.

You're talking about the Tracey Thorn memoir, and not the Robert Forster one again?

The Thorn memoir.

Cool. Looks good,. Thanks, everybody.

I've finally got around to reading "Grant and I", and this was just too much:

"A sideways glance at our competition, those spotted near us at the starting line sharing a broad set of influences and of similar talent and age, had Echo and the Bunnymen on Warners, The Smiths on Rough Trade, REM with IRS, and U2 on Island -- all were locked into long-term deals, guaranteeing successive recording and promotional budgets."

Now, I love me some Go-Betweens, and obviously you need a pretty big ego to believe you should be a rock star, but is he actually telling me that with a bigger promotional budget he could've been Bono? Of that list, the Bunnymen are the only ones I'd consider "of similar talent".

Great read though, and I respect the way he tells the story of Grant's unraveling without mentioning heroin.

Or (iirc) his own dabbling, for that matter!

I think it's reasonable enough of Robert to assume that with a bit more industry support, the Go-Betweens could have been much bigger than they were. It's easy enough to imagine an alternate 80s where Bye Bye Pride and Streets of Your Town were huge hits...

I was under the impression they had spotty distribution in the U.S. (Spring Hill Fair wasn't even released here even though Sire was the distributor, though to be fair it's arguably the least of their LP's.) I don't think they would've been platinum sellers, but had they gotten better and consistent promotion and distribution with one reliable major during the early-to-mid '80s, I think they could've had more substantial success, maybe even gold albums which was pretty great for an indie or "college rock" band.

Bono is more successful therefore he is more talented? I see.

Anyway, pretty sure at the time Robert Forster thought he was more talented than Bono and has mellowed with age.

I actually like U2 quite a bit, but I generally prefer the Go-Betweens - to me, they were a greater, more consistent and more interesting band.

(consistent in quality that is, not musical character, though I guess that applies as well since they haven't had a reinvention as radical as Achtung Baby)

Bono is more successful therefore he is more talented? I see.

― Renaissance of the Celtic Trumpet (Tom D.)

Well, i was trying to make the opposite point actually.

Even if you like the Go-Betweens more than U2 (i do), REM (i don't), and the Smiths (tie), it's hard to argue that they have as much star potential of any of those groups. I'd put them more in the same tier with Sloan or Teenage Fanclub -- great songwriting, but also nondescript in a way that puts a natural cap on the record sales.

Don’t think they would ever have been selling out the arenas but do think they could have had a more brilliant career with a little more assistance from the suits.

Their career thrived on failure -- that's the story. They needed cultdom to release such tense, uneven albums.