I too jettisoned Queen from my increasingly paisley patterned playlists round about 1986, partly out of embarrassment, partly because I’d just gone off the sound. But now and again I walk home from work Spottipodding the joyously, raucously Edwardian “Brighton Rock”, which sounds like Bolan and the Kinks have turned up in a colourful van after picking up Dr Feelgood on the way.
In 1977, I was in my early teens and about to discover the music of the Glenn Miller Orchestra, so maybe not your hippest reader. I certainly remember thinking how feigned was our. enthusiasm for the Sex Pistols, and how driven by annoying adults we were. And then a friend told me that was the whole point. I obligingly bought "Never Mind the Sex Pistols", but it was a local performance of the Sid Lawrence Orchestra (a big band) that I remember most warmly -- I was, by my recollection, the youngest person there. At the time, I was embarrassed by my unusual tastes in music, add relieved that I could honestly say I enjoyed Bowie as well as Bing. Now, I'm rather proud, and saddened that I allowed myself to feel awkward. Bill Grundy was on the right track: Most of us didn't have much to complain of as youngsters in 1977, even though we complained. The "no future" stuff the Pistols pedalled was bound to appeal to our rebellious instincts, but music in the tuneful music hall tradition was what we really enjoyed. Now I wonder how much our poseurism affected politics. "No future", indeed.
I too jettisoned Queen from my increasingly paisley patterned playlists round about 1986, partly out of embarrassment, partly because I’d just gone off the sound. But now and again I walk home from work Spottipodding the joyously, raucously Edwardian “Brighton Rock”, which sounds like Bolan and the Kinks have turned up in a colourful van after picking up Dr Feelgood on the way.
In 1977, I was in my early teens and about to discover the music of the Glenn Miller Orchestra, so maybe not your hippest reader. I certainly remember thinking how feigned was our. enthusiasm for the Sex Pistols, and how driven by annoying adults we were. And then a friend told me that was the whole point. I obligingly bought "Never Mind the Sex Pistols", but it was a local performance of the Sid Lawrence Orchestra (a big band) that I remember most warmly -- I was, by my recollection, the youngest person there. At the time, I was embarrassed by my unusual tastes in music, add relieved that I could honestly say I enjoyed Bowie as well as Bing. Now, I'm rather proud, and saddened that I allowed myself to feel awkward. Bill Grundy was on the right track: Most of us didn't have much to complain of as youngsters in 1977, even though we complained. The "no future" stuff the Pistols pedalled was bound to appeal to our rebellious instincts, but music in the tuneful music hall tradition was what we really enjoyed. Now I wonder how much our poseurism affected politics. "No future", indeed.