Sunday, 30 June 2013


That's Entertainment : Pseudo Echo


Back in the day, much like now, Australian bands liked to ape what was happening overseas.

For instance, in the late 80's when hairbands like Poison dominated the charts, Australia had Roxus.  Then in the early 90's the world was gifted Nirvana and grunge, so we got Nirvana In Pyjamas, ahem, silverchair.  When Nu-Metal hit in the late 90's/early 2000's, there was Limp Bizkit, so we had 28 Days.   And so on.  It's no shameful thing that influential bands at their peak influence bands who like to mimic the sound, image, etc.

Anyway, in the early 1980's, when Futurist New Romance was at it's peak with bands like Duran Duran, Simple Minds and Ultravox, a little Aussie band sprung up copying the sound and image of these dandy pop stars.  Now, depending on who you listen to, they were either one of the worst Aussie bands ever or one of the best Aussie bands ever.  If the prevailing scene of pub rock is to be believed, this sinful, wicked band full of poofs and ponces that had no cred.  On the other hand, they were equally adored and had mass chart success, no doubt helped by numerous appearances on Countdown.

The band I refer to, is Pseudo Echo.

Now Pseudo Echo are a funny band.  Their first album was as I said, very Ultravox / Duran Duran with keytars, awash with synth squelches and electronic African/Asian drums.  By the time they released their second album, they'd moved in to the mid-80s prevailing pop sound and my 1989, they'd gone sort of hair-band pop-rock.  When they returned in 2000, Pseudo Echo had arrived at the future they had seen some 20 years earlier, but with edgier synth and technological leanings of cool electro.

That aside, they did record one of the biggest selling and best covers of all time in Funky Town.

For mine, A Beat For You is one of the greatest New Romantic tunes, and often finds it's way on to mix tapes of the era.      

I'm pretty sure the girls loved Pseudo Echo.  If they were around today, think Reece Mastin.   Pseudo Echo played their own instruments, wrote their own songs, performed live (though not on Countdown).  But like a Reece Mastin, Pseudo Echo were probably burdened by the teen girl image, bad posing, and even when they tried to move away from the poncey side of things in their early days, there was a lingering doubt that they were just a fad band.  Which is not fair for Pseudo Echo.  Reece is burdened by the fact he was a reality TV show winner.

And dredging through all the singles and video clips, I am quite surprised by just how many hit singles (Top 40) Pseudo Echo had.  And today, they're pretty much ignored in the pop history landscape.  (Another parallel to TV show winners, where is Lee Harding, Cosima or Paulini now?  Hell, where is Atilyan Childs?).  Pseudo Echo slip in to a period where Aussie men were still men, but there were Aussie blokes who were blokes who liked girls and therefore went to many of the gigs with their girlfriends and won't admit in public they ever tapped a toe to Pseudo Echo, let alone sang along, bought a 7" single or watched Countdown or Sweet & Sour.

And I think we can safely say Pseudo Echo fall in to that sad Aussie music trap of a massive first album, a decent follow up and the forgotten third album that came out just before the record company sat them down and gave them a chat about finding a job at Franklins...a la 1927 and Thirsty Merc.

So at the end of the day, I will freely admit to not minding Pseudo Echo.  And when it all boils down, at least Funky Town kicks some major ar$3.  

And now, while I pull some electric boogaloo moves in the privacy of my lounge room, I'm going to whack on some Pseudo Echo, and go ape with the kids.  Just hope DOCS don't come a knocking!

Listening


A Beat For You


Stranger In Me


Dancing Until Midnight


Don't Go


Love An Adventure


Living In A Dream


Try


Funky Town


Fooled Again


Take On The World


Over Tomorrow


Eye Of The Storm


Don't You Forget


2000

Lessons In Love # 1


2012

Suddenly Silently


Fighting The Tide

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That's Entertainment : John, Paul, George and Ringo


Friction is what keeps things interesting...  

I live in a split home.  You see, when Lee and my fathers were growing up, it was either The Beatles or The Rolling Stones.  Lee grew up in a Rolling Stones home; I grew up in a Beatles home.  

Put on the Beatles Red or Blue best ofs, and I'm pretty sure I could sing most of them.  From the mop top I Wanna Hold Your Hand to the psychedllia of Sgt Pepper's...to the dsyfunctional disintegration of  Abbey Road.   They are a blue print of my musical life.  Alice Cooper says that modern bands forget to listen to the Beatles - for mine, respect to the DNA of pop music must be paid to the Beatles.  Anyway...we're not here to talk about The Beatles as a band. 

So aside from the Beatles / Stones divide, and not that I knew it at the time, there was an even greater divide: a McCartney home, or a Lennon home.

My home, was smack bang in the Lennon camp.  Don't know why.  It's not something I've ever asked.  Maybe I will sit my dad down on Sunday and ask him why he preferred Lennon.  It's not like we didn't listen to the Beatles...it's just he didn't have any McCartney tapes.  

I grew up with a cassette tape of his Lennon's greatest hits.  And there were quite a few of them.  Genuine, bona fide classics.

So here are my fave John Lennon solo tracks, each a breath of fresh air every time I listen.

Imagine  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLgYAHHkPFs   [ close to, if not, the greatest song of all time to many ]

Just Like Starting Over  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWWbu_RSh7Q



Nobody Loves You When You're Down And Out  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G82q8Yds0hA


Oh Yoko  





But then I rebelled, because in the 1980's, Paul McCartney was still alive, he was still a massive pop act and he had heaps of songs, which now are considered way naff.  I worked my way backwards too to his time as a solo artist and in his highly successful band Wings.  It's sad today because I think more people think of Paul McCartney being a pot head vegan whose 2nd wife went batty and unfairly say that John is the better artist because he died.   People in the music press like to get all misty eyed and revisionist, forgetting Paul McCartney was a massive, MASSIVE act in the 1980's and still in to the 1990's and probably still today in the markets outside of the US and UK.

Personally, I don't buy in to it.  Press is a silly pop song with silly lyrics but is a sugar hit I need from time to time, as is the unabashed cheesiness of No More Lonely Nights.  

So now, with so many people listening in, here's my fave Paul McCartney songs:


Band on the Run  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7D65IomNYY   [ quite possibly one of the greatest songs of all time ]


Silly Little Love Songs  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_9QooYDYtU




Say Say Say [with Michael Jackson]  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLEhh_XpJ-0






But you know what...there's a third house down the street.  

And in 1987/88, a man by the name of George Harrison released a solo album that was mucho mega big.  I didn't know until then he was also a Beatle.  These days, the revisionist set say he's better than both Paul and John.  Maybe.  I won't buy in to it.  I'm ignorant to much of his work, and I'm working on listening to more of his gear but I have read a lot about him and he seems like the wickedly dry, humourous kind of bloke I could have a laugh with.  





Shanghai Surprise [with Vicki Brown (George Harrison produced this Madonna and Sean Penn film of the same name ] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPU2eQ4AT4A



Handle Me With Care (with Travelling Wilburys)  [originally to be a B-side; the record company refused to throw it away as a B-side and the rest is history ]   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8s9dmuAKvU

And of course there is what some might disparagingly call 'the outhouse'... Ringo Starr.  I love him.  I think he is cool.  Most people think he's a crap drummer.  I just think he is cool.  And a good drummer.  He has a distinctive playing and singing sound, and he influenced the way drums are set up and played, including his grip.  Ringo Starr is not to be flippantly disregarded.  And he's released some pretty cool little pop tracks too.  So I'll go all revisionist and say that Ringo is actually the best solo Beatle of them all.  Choke on that NME and MOJO.  LOL.







It's All Down To Goodnight Vienna  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcv7_QCJzkw

 
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Plug It In:  The Occupants


If you haven't already, check out THE OCCUPANTS (features former members of COG).

Am really liking their track I'VE BEEN THINKING.  Has a hint of Genesis to it.

Album out soon.! 


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Plug It In:  Cold Mailman


If you haven't already, check out COLD MAILMAN.

Am really liking their track MY RECURRING DREAM.

Album HEAVY HEARTS out NOW! 



Official Website : http://www.coldmailman.com/

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Plug It In:  Group Love


If you haven't already, check out GROUP LOVE.

Am really liking their track WAYS TO GO.

Album out Sept 2013.



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That's Entertainment : Tears For Fears


1985 was a fairly significant year for me.  I got my first Sony Walkman and it liberated me from my parents stereo hi fi in the lounge room.  No more would I be told to 'turn it down' or 'turn it off' or 'don't rewind that again!'.  I could sit in my bedroom playing Donkey Kong Jr on a Game & Watch, practicing dumb magic tricks, surrounded by Rocky IV and Rambo II posters and listen to whatever I damn well pleased.  I was also blessed as a nine year old to be living a privileged life in a country that had $1 cassette tapes and a complete and utter disregard to piracy laws.  Yep, my youthful years were very unlike today's wasted youth who hole themselves up in their bedrooms playing Nintendo DX and listening to illegally downloaded MP3's on their Ipod.  

One band that were massive in 1985 were Tears For Fears.  They had TWO #1s in the US of A with Shout and Everybody Wants To Rule The World.  Come on...you have to know Shout.

Shout...Shout...write it all out...

Wait...write it all out???  Their 'shouting', so why would they write it all out?  Anyway...until the mid-2000's, I thought that was the lyric.  Seriously.  Don't ask me why.  Just another in a long line of Lady Mondegrem's that have littered my musical life.

Anyway, the album they came from was their 2nd LP, called Songs From The Big Chair.  You should buy it off I-tunes, or, rifle through LP bins at the market and buy it for a dollar.  From start to finish, it is a big, BIG album full of themes and fantastic pop music.  It's serious without being pretentious and something you should listen to at least once.  The other single that should have been a #1 hit is Head Over Heels.  It was used to great effect in the film Donnie Darko.  The movie also borrowed Mad World, which was covered, softened and in the race for the UK Xmas #1 single in 2002.   Not only that, check out The Big Chair, an instrumental-eqsue piece and the chugging urgency of Broken with it's obligatory 80's guitar sound.    

Back to the beginning, The Hurting, and you'll find their original synth pop debut littered with gems aplenty, the two best being Mad World and Change, as well as Pale Shelter.  Lead by dual vocalists and multi-instrumentalists Kurt Smith and Roland Orzabel, Tears For Fears wrote smart pop.  And they were very much marching to their own beat.  When pestered by Bob Geldof to perform at 1985's Live Aid (aka The Global Jukebox) and they politely declined, much to his chagrin.  They did, however, re-release Everybody Wants To Run The World as a charity single, on their own terms, making a motza for charity.  

However, by the time touring The Big Chair wound up, Roland Orzabel wanted to release an epic album and spent the next 3-4 years perfecting Beatlesque sounds and psychedelic ideals to pop, raising concerns Roland had gone mad.  The album The Seeds of Love delivered Sowing The Seeds of Love, an epic the vein of Bohemian Rhapsody, Stairway To Heaven and November Rain for sheer pop eccentricity.  Yet lead in song Woman In Chains has to be one of the grandest pro-women / anti-domestic violence songs ever produced.  Their is a degree of pompousness to this album, but the production is exquisite.  It is totally at odds with the prevailing trends and stands out like a sore thumb amongst your New Kids on the Block and Martika hits.

The album, having taken so long to produce, it debuted directly at #1 on the UK chart and was a huge hit around the world.  Key men Orzabel and Smith fell out in 1991 and so by the time 1993's Elemental arrived, Tears For Fears was basically a solo project for Roland Orzabel.  But since I think he's the ants pants, the better vocalist and a wonderful wordsmith, it didn't matter to me.  Elemental continued with the poptastic sounds of previous albums and contained the minor hit Break It Down Again, yet another smashing tune with a riveting beat and striking vocal delivery.  Alternately, check out the acoustic version - pure bliss.  By 1996, 99% of 80's bands had disappeared (except U2) and Raoul and the Kings of Spain caused barely a ripple.  However, this album is sumptuous, rich, divine.  It's full of hopes and regrets, of broken dreams and fractured heart and swirling tunes and driving thumps.  It's an album of contrasts.  Sorry is a slap in the face; I Choose You a sweet confection. 

Things went quiet then.  Roland was happy to be his own person.  He doesn't have email, a website, myspace, twitter, facebook.  He doesn't believe in any of the cult of personality around pop stars, or former pop stars.  Doesn't want to live in the past.  Then in 2004 word came out that Kurt Smith and Roland had buried the hatchet and settled their differences.  With the oh so ironic title Everybody Loves A Happy Ending, Tears For Fears took every great element of their back catalogue and fused it in to something fresh, new, exciting and rewarding.  Noting it was a sort of 'thank you' to the fans, an album of redemption and rediscovery, Everybody Loves A Happy Ending was criminally over-looked in Australia and a minor hit in Europe and the US where it was labelled an 80's comeback.  For me, Call Me Mellow is one of the GREATEST songs of the Noughties and should be compulsorily downloaded to every single I-pod in the world.  It's harmony and sugary pop is just brilliant.   I'm gushing and it's just one of the songs I can sing word for word and puts a smile on my face.

Even though I missed them on the Spandau Ballet reunion tour, they still perform on and off.  Fact checking on Wikipedia tonight, apparently Orzabel and Smith are back writing for a new album.  This news alone excites me no end.  

So now, to escape the hurly-burly, I can hide in my bedroom with my I-pod on, playing Angry Birds or reading a book, and smile to my heart's content as the same band that I discovered almost 30 years ago can so thoroughly entertain me still today.  Tears For Fears back catalogue is like a box of magic...do yourself a favour and check it out.





Mad World

Pale Shelter

The Way You Are

Change

Shout

Everybody Wants To Rule The World

Head Over Heels

Sowing The Seeds Of Love

Woman In Chains

Break It Down Again


Raoul and the Kings of Spain

Sorry

Call Me Mellow
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That's Entertainment : Coldplay


Look at the stars...look how they shine for you...

Yep...you know it.  That nice little song called Yellow.  Back in late 2000, I remember being up on the Gold Coast and watching Channel V and Yellow was introduced and the VJ said this song was going to become a 'classic'.  Sure, I thought.  Whatever.  But it did make me sit up.  Yellow?  Oh come on, you know the one: Chris Martin strolling along a rainswept beach, pleading all doe-eyed to the camera.  Nice song.  Anyway.  It was by a band called Coldplay, that no one had heard of.  So when I got back to work at Borders, I furtively checked out Parachutes, the album off which it came.  Not a bad album for a debut.

Within a couple of weeks, I loathed Yellow.  Detested the sound of it.  Parachutes was dumped out of my collection and of the XXX million copies of the album sold in Australia, I bet I shifted half of those to customers.  Have you got that Yellow song?  Which album is it on?  What is that band who... blah blah blah blah blah.  JUST RACK OFF!!!  The song was over played and I was over it.  I began to despise customers who asked me to sell them a copy.  

A couple of years later I was in London and A Rush of Blood To The Head was coming out.  I kid thee not....every single billboard, bus side, tube station wall, thoroughfare, shop window was plastered in the album cover and 'coming soon' with the release date.  Great!  I thought they'd crawled up their own jacksie and disappeared.  Of course, Cold Feet was finishing up and they used one of the songs for the emotional death scene ending and it was played everywhere.  And a band I liked - Royksopp - remixed Clocks and I loved it and then had to have therapy.

Chris Martin went on to marry Gwyneth Paltrow, become the face of a 1001 charitable causes and lead the Band Aid 3 Do They Know It's Christmas? in 2004.   And it's not like he's not a nice bloke and all that...but he was everywhere.  Doing nice things.  Funny thing is, I could run into any of his three bandmates and (official 5th member - their manager) and not know it.  They don't do drugs, don't booze and split everything 5 ways.  They're nice guys.  

Come 2005, the music industry was in its final throes.  CDs were yesterdays fish and chip paper.  The whole music biz hinged on Coldplay's 3rd platter X&Y.  Of course they saved the world.  And I needed more therapy after very much liking Speed of Sound.  People like me don't go for 'nice' stuff like this.

Then of course, the sheer wankery of the title of their next album Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends gave me more opportunity to scoff...until I heard the song Viva La Vida.  Man...it was a great song.  Those strings, the tune and the rising vocal.  Then it was alleged they'd plagarised it.  HA!  I cried scornfully.  But they played innocent, saying they were influenced by Joe Satriani, [who in turn was probably influenced by Cat Stevens] and never set out to 'copy' anything.  It was just a case of listening to a song and sometime later playing the lick and thinking 'wow, what a cool lick...we are so on to something here!'.   I actually defended Coldplay; as someone who is constantly 'influenced' by film, music and TV, it's sometimes easy enough to do.  And they were so nice about it - contrite, apologetic, embarrassed.

Come 2011, Coldplay dropped Mylo Xyloto on the world.  This really rankled the Coldplay fans.  It sounded different, had a silly title and was a bit arty out there.  Just my cup of tea.  Rub against the grain and you become my friend.  And it still sold bucket loads but how many white-bread Coldplay fans are little WTF? with the title.  

Then one morning I'm watching rage and Hurts Like Heaven comes on.  It's all anime and anti-authoritarian and anti-fascism, celebrating the individual and liberation of expression and art and all that.  I found it to be intoxicating.  Here's a mega-selling band sticking two fingers up.  Well, I guess, finally I was won.  And they're such nice lads.  Listen to it.  It's got a chugging beat, a lovely key line, slightly altered/vocoder vocal and an ethereal, almost dreamy feel.

Use your heart as a weapon, and it hurts like heaven.

So now, I like Coldplay.  

One thing they taught me is sometimes it's good to be a nice person.  Personally, I find it very hard.  I'm too cynical but I try.  Coldplay is teaching me how to be nice because the world needs nice people.  You knows those people - and I know a lot of them:  the ones who make you smile or laugh.  The ones who take time out to say 'hello' or 'good morning' or ask if you want a coffee.  The ones who rub against the grain by doing their own thing and nobody really notices.  The ones who do go out of their way to help, to volunteer, to lend a hand to the less fortunate.  Those people touch you and sometimes, you don't even realise.  In the world we live in, sometimes I think it's the nice people who are the real revolutionaries - those little flickering lights lingering in those radiant smiles and gentle words - a light that can shine out like a beacon amid the dross and drab.  

Sadly, for some of us, one of those nice people - one of those little flickers of light - passed away last week.  Narelle McIntosh had been ill for some time and had worked for the bank and she was a friend to many.  I knew Narelle from my Burwood days.  She used to chat to me about Doctor Who, back when it was just coming back on TV, and Star Trek.  I remember her coming to work on casual Friday in her Star Trek outfit with Vulcan ears and being a genuinely lovely, warm and giving lady who was always happy to help.  Her illness probably made it inevitable.  Narelle fought the hard fight and is to be commended.  Now, she can rest in peace.  The insidiousness that took her might have won, but in the end, Narelle was a star, and she shines on.

So this weekend, be nice to your loved ones, your friends or a stranger.   Maybe just look at the stars...and see how they shine for you.




Yellow


Trouble


In My Place


Clocks


God Put A Smile On Your Face


The Scientist


Speed of Sound



The Hardest Part


Talk  


Lost!


Viva La Vida


Violet Hill


Every Teardrop Is A Waterfall


Paradise


Hurts Luke Heaven

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That's Entertainment : U2 (The Nineties)


Ever been stuck in a moment you can't get out of?  Well, here's a whole decade for you.

In 1989, I fell in a love with an epic song called All I Want Is You.  It was a soulful, mournful tale of love and despair and the video clip has to be one of the most amazing pieces of pop 'art' ever filmed.  At this time, I knew of U2 but this was 'my' song.  Anyway...that was the tail end of 1989...just as the Berlin Wall fell, Communism ended and McDonalds set up camp in Moscow.  At the time, U2 were probably close to being the biggest popular band in the world.  They seemed tired, jilted and this was the last hurrah before something had to change.  Luckily for U2, between Rattle and Hum and Achtung Baby, the whole world was about to change as well.

Decamping to Berlin...a city split in two and now reunified, trying to find it's way in this new world paradigm, U2 tucked themselves up in a recording studio, also trying to figure out themselves.  It seems amazing now, that U2 were at the crossroads.  While they were ensconced in the studio, metamorphasising, the world changed so much.  We take it for granted now.  I often say to Lee that that Cold War climate no longer exists - which was normal to me as my father was overseas in Eastern Europe at the time.  And in 1991 as the bright new world dawned, the 24-7 TV coverage in the Gulf War and the cult of personality creating instant celebrity for Stormin' Norman Schwartzkopf and Colin Powell begat the 24-7 instant world we now inhabit.  Grunge was coming, changing the cultural landscape of the USA and the shackles were being released throughout Europe, South Africa and Asia.  Late in the same year of 1991, U2 finally delivered.  I recall having read somewhere in OTS [On The Street - street press- long since defunct] - that U2's master tapes had been stolen and bootlegged and what not, but finally, U2 had a new song.  Back then, two years was an eternity (now it feels like a blink of the eye) and I distinctly remember watching telly in the common room with heaps of other people as they aired U2's new song The Fly.

If ever there was a polarising shift then here it was...though after the brief initial flirtation with the song, it was discussed and accepted that this was the 'new' U2.  I loved it from the get go.  If a person could fall in love in a heartbeat, well with The Fly, I did it then and there.  Scoring the CD single, The Fly, backed with Alex Descends Into Hell For A Bottle of Milk/Korova 1 and The Lounge Fly (remix), this single, along with Nirvana's Nevermind, and Queen's Greatest Hits II, were my summer of 1991.  The Fly debuted at #1 on the ARIA Chart, a mean feat in the days before it became commonplace for 'event' singles.  And it was a statement of intent.  Superficially, it didn't sound like U2, but when you concentrate, it does.  It has all the U2 trademarks - Bono's voice, The Edge's jangling guitars, Adam Clayton's chugging bass and Larry Mullen's precise beat.  For mine, and it will always be, The Fly is one of the greatest rock songs ever.

Not long after, Achtung Baby came out and the 1990's were officially U2's.  Even now, the breadth and depth of Achtung Baby is startling.  The singles continued.  Mysterious Ways, with it's sexy swagger and  pulpit guilt; Even Better Than The Real Thing with it's bombast and pleas.  Of the singles, it is One that has the lasting legacy that could fit on any of their 1980's or 2000's output.  With that smoky bar-room, whiskey drenched feeling of longing, loneliness, emptiness and redemption of the soul...the song rises to an elegiac finale...and could possibly be one of Bono's finest vocal deliveries.  Then of course there's Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses which meshes the pomp rock with the finesse of the beautiful moments.

Scanning the album, you'd think they were crazy not to release Until The End of the World or Tryin' To Throw You Arms Around The World as singles.  Each holds its own against any other single, and taking the album as a whole, Achtung Baby's tracks are 12 gems in a jewellery box.

By 1993 and already owning the decade with the leering alt personality of The Fly and MacPhisto, the wrap around glasses and mega-event concert tours and wall to wall video airplay, U2 released Zooropa.  It is gleefully synthetic, instantly disposable yet possesses a classic durability.  The electro sparsity of lead-in single Numb proved a point, that they could release a piece of s#it and people would buy it.  This is my 2nd U2 moment after The Fly.  Disgusted to this day that this was a video single only (not released on cassette, CD or 7 inch), Numb is one of those songs that probably sounds like a novelty to the uninitiated and mostly forgotten by many.  Even at the time, many cocked an eyebrow and said WTF?  With The Edge providing stream of consciousness vocals, Numb encapsulated the whole Zoo TV era of throwaway consumerism and doublespeak dumbed down sound bytes which we take for granted 20 years later as it happens every 10 seconds.  Of course, the ship was righted with another slew of singles - Lemon and Stay (Faraway So Close) *****.  Thinking about it now, Zooropa is kind of the forgotten U2 album; even the band has mixed feelings about it.  Case in point: the 1990-2000 Best Of contains Numb (remixed and crap) and no other singles from this era.  Babyface and Daddy's Gonna Pay For Your Crashed Car and Some Days Are Better Than Others are all classic U2, worthy of your time

Then of course there was the Passengers album, which I discovered only quite recently was a U2 album in all but name.  It is something I am set to review and absorb in to the U2 canon, when I get a chance.

Of course, there was the diversion of Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me for the Batman Forever soundtrack.  Another #1 hit, the cool anime film clip depicted Bono a la his MacPhisto character as Batman's nemesis and remains one of the best soundtrack hit songs of many a year.  I don't even care for the film, the song is a corker and wickedly cool.  By now, U2 were dating supermodels, entertaining the Pope and Presidents, spruiking their ideals (something not forgotten from their 80's earnest years) and travelling, touring, filming, playing, gracing magazine covers non-stop.  Imagine if the internet age was fully with us back then.  The band members did their own things (the Mission: Impossible soundtrack for Larry and Adam).  

By 1997, U2 were big and bloated.  The post Communist, consumer heyday, Clinton years were in full swing.  Blair was coming to power in the UK and the Spice Girls were tearing up the charts.  So what does U2 do...they say fug it and release the most self-indulgent album of their careers.   Discotheque - all camp Village People aesthetics and in your face guitars - it kickstarted the Pop album era and this time, there was a backlash.  Your snooty muso types lambasted the band for taking advantage of their global image and audience.  The rebukes were strong and loud, but I don't think U2 cared to much.  The 1990's party was waning and this was the comedown album, because life, even as popstars has repercussions.  There's an emptiness to Pop.  Whilst the cover is all shiny (of it's era of pop music), slick and full of eye candy, scratch the surface, dig deep and you find apologetic gems in Staring At The Sun or Last Night On Earth.  

And yet, there is something almost more tangible to this last hurrah album Pop compared to what was delivered on 2000's All That You Can't Leave Behind.  By 2000, Clinton was out, the Republicans were in.  The Wall Street vultures who had feasted on the consumers were about to get their comeuppance.  Sept 11 was around the corner.  Perhaps, for the 1990's, U2 had adapted to their audience and led them on a hedonistic march.  Perhaps realising a new conservatism was upon them, U2 returned with a more Joshua Tree sounding album full of hope and grace.  In the months after Sept 11, many needed to clutch to something and U2 provided something warm to embrace, a light in the darkness, something familiar.  For U2 were also burnt by management embezzlement and lost finances, leaving them financially stricken - hence the 2 best ofs 1980-1990 and 1990-2000.  Not saying U2 are sell outs or cookie cutter, paint by numbers but they are in the business of selling you music, and they do it well.  They also had to recoup their losses.  And since the mid 2000's, it's almost as if the music doesn't quite matter like it used to and perhaps they've conceded they are now my generation's Rolling Stones...the endless carnivale where they give the plebs exactly what they want.  In this age of back catalogue and content, I'm sure U2 are content to mine their back catalogue.  For me, I'm a bit "I like your old stuff better than your new stuff".  And whilst I liked U2's 2000's output, they are now a 'safe' global brand with a global audience that gets what it pays for.  And why not, that audience sustained them through the lower sales of the last album in 2009 and it is without doubt  that U2 are one of the biggest touring acts out there at the moment.

Anyway, as a child of the 80's and a boy-man of the 90's, U2's output in their second decade may not has as much 'meaning' to their first decade.  But it will never be this exciting again for U2.  That moment when one door permanently shuts, where you can't go back and when you think about it, you can smell it, taste it, breathe it, re-live it...U2 1990's is me stuck in a moment that I can't get out of.  


The Fly


Mysterious Ways


One


Even Better Than The Real Thing


Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses


Numb


Lemon


Stay (Faraway So Close)


Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me


Discotheque


Staring At The Sun



***** The film clip for Stay (Faraway, So Close) was directed by Wim Wenders, who directed Wings of Desire and it's sequel Faraway, So Close.  Both films inspired me with it's contemporary angels and black & white look.  If one day I pull my finger out, the fruits of my labour inspired by this era might be read-worthy,  LOL!  Sadly, Wings of Desire was re-made in 1998 as City of Angels and is to be avoided at all costs.
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That's Entertainment : Oasis


Sometimes, when I listen to tunes, I feel like I go in to a time vortex.  Music, to me, is like my own personal time machine.  So I am sat at Moorebank Public Library with the boys in the back, parking the car.  We're listening to SWR FM 99.9 and on comes Oasis' Roll With It.  I automatically raise the volume and start singing along.  You know how it goes...

You got roll with it...you gotta take your time...you gotta say what you say...don't let anybody get in your way...'cause it's all too much for me to take.
Don't ever stand aside...don't ever be denied...you ought to be who you be...if you're coming with me...

It was only when I craned my neck to reverse park, I noticed both Alex and Zach sitting, eyes wide open, with the biggest WTF? looks on their faces.  So I started singing to them and then they smiled.  So here we are, sat in a car park in the middle of suburbia, with only the blue rinse set shuffling in to the community centre and I'm belting out an Oasis classic AND teaching my boys something very important.

Yes...Oasis are thieving magpies...but geez, they can write a tune and sing a song.  Inside, I was on a little personal high, humming along to Roll With It, mentally going through the album (What's The Story) Morning Glory and recalling all the fantastic songs off the album.  We borrowed our books, got back in the car, and lo and behold, they're playing another Oasis song and I'm singing along telling myself this is a sign.

Because back in 1995-97, I absolutely adored Oasis.  Not really for the brash up yours they gave the press and their detractors.  Or the stupid CHAV comments or the snot nose attitudes.

No, for me it was the music.

I fell in love with Whatever and before too long, they were dominating the charts and morning video shows with hit after hit after hit.  Whack on (What's The Story) Morning Glory and it's a veritable best of.  Work back to their debut effort Definitely Maybe and you'll find exactly the same.  And I'm probably one of the very few people in the world who still reckon 1997's third album effort Be Here Now is a true classic.   To help you prioritise, I've cut a line between the first two records and the rest.

And a funny anecdote I once saw from Noel Gallagher was that he written all THREE albums before they'd released anything, and just picked the best songs for album 1.  Then for album 2, he picked the next best bunch.  Come album 3, he used what was left over.  He maintains, and scoffs, that the 3rd album is sheeeee...ite in any way...though he does agree that when they recorded the songs they were quaffing champagne and snorting coke like it was going out of style...meeting PM Tony Blair and blazing away the last days of Britpop.

And like my friends, Oasis come in and out of my life.  

Come the new millennium, they released their 4th album, but I didn't dig it.  Loved Go Let It Out but after that...meh.  

I kind of felt sad then because I loved Oasis and here was thinking it was a bit....well...sheeeee...ite.  As a sad completist, I still ended up buying import CD singles from HMV for the princely sums of $20 each, but I don't think I ever opened them.

Then in 2002, Lee and I were living in the UK and Oasis were releasing a new album.  Every Underground station, every bus stop and every billboard that had been utilised for Abs (of 5ive) first solo album was suddenly plastered with Oasis adverts for Heathen Chemistry.  Now the British have a thing for adoring their British bands, so I kind of took it with a grain of salt.  But no.  Oasis were back.  The Hindu Times rocketed to #1 and it was everywhere.  MASSIVE.  And it was a true belter.  Just an abso-fugging-lutely huge riff and gem of a song.  They followed it up with Stop Crying Your Heart Out, and suddenly there was the 1-2 punch.  They had another #2 hit with Little By Little / She Is Love double A-side and Songbird hit #3.

Anyway...it was my turn to take a break and I didn't really listen to much Oasis until 2008 when The Shock of the Lightning was released.  O...M...G...  Another blitz... a belter of magnificent proportions.  There's a magic when Noel Gallagher riffs and brother Liam bastardises nasally vowels.  Listening to the bombast now, my body just wants to move.  

And of course, if you know anything about Oasis, the tempestuous fraternal relationship that spoiled a thousand promos, tours, gigs and band appearances finally fractured.  In 2009, the Gallagher brothers went their separate ways.  Oasis was done.  And I reckon Noel will never go back.

It's been said that Oasis, especially Noel, stands accused of plagiarising the best of British music - the Beatles, The Kinks, Pink Floyd, The Jam, T-Rex, Slade, the Sex Pistols, David Bowie, the Small Faces, The Who, The Rolling Stones etc.   I reckon he's influenced by them, like I am.   And there is nothing wrong with that.  He's taken the building blocks of British popular music and moulded them in his own fashion.  No one gets in a fizzy tizz that Blur copied the Kinks, basically.  And in a couple of decades, Oasis will be heralded as one of the GREATS.  And I'm serious.  The other thing is, when the other bands listed were at their peak, I wasn't alive to enjoy it.  With Oasis, I was.  For a brief period there...for many fans, there was this talented, exciting band that wowed the world with a swagger and a pretty song.  Forget the gobfuls, the infighting, the petty media crap.

And that's why now, today, I can sit in my car, with my kids and hear the intro guitars, instinctively reach for the volume and whirl it high and sing along.  Where ever great rock n roll is played and discussed, Oasis have to be on that list, warts and all.  There are great bands, and then there are fooking brilliant bands, aye!  That old tingle returns and it's like no time ever passed.




Rock N Roll Star

Supersonic

Shakermaker

Live Forever

Cigarettes & Alochol

Slide Away

Whatever

Some Might Say

She's Electric

Roll With It

Morning Glory

Wonderwall

Don't Look Back In Anger

Champagne Supernova

==========================================

D'You Know What I Mean?

Go Let It Out

Who Feels Love

The Hindu Times

Stop Crying Your Heart Out

Lyla

The Shock of the Lightning
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